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violet-moonstone · 2 months

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highlights from "searching for oswald...and chicken"

wow I loved this episode...I feel like I say that every time but I REALLY REALLY enjoyed this one

first of all its a Dagur episode, which automatically makes it great...most of the screenshots I took are of him. Honestly all of his dialogue is very quotable, especially since so many of the jokes they give him are thinly veiled adult humour

also the B plot with chicken was certainly something (and makes me think the writers were thinking about the end of the hidden world while writing it?)

ok so the beginning of the episode was already tugging at my heartstrings. I love seeing Dagur and Heather's sibling relationship, whether hey're arguing or getting along.

Well that's deeply upsetting! and the fact that he said "most of his life" makes me wonder how much of the confidence Dagur displayed as a teenager was a cover for whatever he was dealing with internally.

The part where Dagur hugs Heather and she looks happy but almost surprised was very bittersweet. It seems like she's still getting used to having a family, and affection catches her off guard.

Excuse me while I go cry

Call me deranged but I think Dagur slamming Snotlout against a cage was hot

As always, Hiccup is adorable. Literally looks like a cat

This is funny but also very upsetting! Snotlout and Dagur really make a habit of using humourous line delivery to cope with being deeply unwell:

*clears throat* uh yeah Dagur, I'm sure you do love a good "fruit bath," from time to time if you know what I mean...

Come on, the writers, animators and voice actor HAVE to have known that line came across as suggestive. Like the way he sounds? His facial expression? They may not have intended it to specifically imply he was talking about getting in a sauna with some twinks, but it certainly sounded like something sensual was going on.

Also I didn't get a shot of this but when Dagur starts listing adjectives to describe Heather's reckless behaviour, Hiccup says "Sentinel" while looking at Oswald's journal. Dagur says something like "that's not quite the word I'd use," which makes me think Dagur was going to call her a not so PG word...

Snotlout staring directly at the camera while narrating Tuffnut's emotional breakdown in the style of a pun-loving mystery novelist:

What an asshole (I love him). there's something really funny about Tuff leaning against the tree with a hand on his hip. Poor guy. Astrid and Stormfly were clearly less amused than I was.

Ok let's talk about Hiccup motivating Dagur to open the door to Oswald's shelter. My little Dagcup heart was really soaring here. And look at the lighting!

LOOK AT HIM! LOOK AT HIS FACE!

Oooohh man, Dagur expressing guilt about his past and Hiccup trying to help him through it also really got to me.

Dagur: I was a villain!

Hiccup: No, you were a kid

Me: *crying*

Because yeah, Dagur in Riders of Berk/Defenders of Berk did horrible things, but he was also enabled by all the adults in his life who could have stepped up after Oswald left. I've already written (both in posts and in one of my Dagcup fics) about how being thrown into a dungeon as a kid only made Dagur a worse person (no one in the show talks about the scars on his face that weren't there before...). And There is clearly an opportunity for restorative justice when it comes to characters like Alvin and Eret that wasn't extended to Dagur despite the fact that they had already overpowered him and could have at least given him a choice between punishment and trying to make up for his actions. Anyway...let me not rant about that anymore.

Ok what's next...oh yeah! Astrid doing this:

Hilarious.

Um...ok so...I needed to screenshot this for uh...reasons. It's the um...the composition and the...the lighting and...yeah. All that stuff.

THE DRAWING OSWALD DID OF DAGUR AND HEATHER AS KIDS

oooooohhh my heart!

Look. At. My. Boy. He looks so happy and at peace after reading his father's letter.

Ok so again...the writers making very interesting decisions for Dagur's lines.

Dagur being funny and a little concerning again

I liked the colour scheme for this Gronckle

More Dagur appreciation.

Before the episode where Fishlegs helps Dagur fly Shattermaster, I would have assumed Dagur would make fun of Fishlegs for being a nerd -- but instead he appreciates it. I think their friendship is super adorable, and I wish we got to see more of it.

Fishie! He calls him Fishie! (I ship them a little sometimes tbh) I can see Dagur having a thing for nerds.

hehehe

and uh, let's close off with hiccup being hot and windswept

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unfortunately-obsessed · 2 months

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I'll love you like a dog (you'll betray me like a man)

A/N: Not proofread. Rushed this before the gym tbh. Hope y'all guys enjoy. AO3 link

"Why do you need to punish yourself this much?"

Most houses and apartments on Earth-42 rest in darkness, so you glance down the street, eyes straining at the neon of rooftops. It's pouring. Miguel didn't had the chance to put up a fight when you are being this cruel.

The pressure is unbearable, his shoulders tense. You watched him send Gwen back her universe despite the probability of her having to confront homelessness there. You watched Miguel try to hurt a kid, and now you're watching as he sets teams to hunt Miles.

"I need to fix this," he tells you, staring and fists clenched. His voice's flat. It's the same answer everytime. You're used to it.

And you know why, of course. It's the reason why every Spider-Man must suffer.

It's the tenderness of grief. Tender like a bruise.

Miguel suffers and weeps. It's sickening to watch how much pain can make you aggressive.

You're more than aware you're a bad person. Never a hero, never sure why you were accepted among them.

(The truth about the multiverse is that they don't know it enough. The canon theory could be right. It could be wrong. They will never know in their lifetime.

It's cruel and merciless and they will never understand it fully.

You're never fast enough to save a person. You are fast enough to watch them die.

Grief comes in waves. Miguel will never see his daughter grow up.)

"Years dedicated to this job," you lament, voice clear through rain, "It all comes down to letting people die."

In another life, we bump on each other at the grocery store. There, we are meant to a happy ending.

Never this one. Here, Miguel looks at you with dread despite all else.

He stiffens further. And you're on his side, he knows it, because you will always be, loyalty outweighting what you know is wrong.

"I don't need your approval," he says. Miguel looks at you strange, eyes fiery red as if glowing with contained rage.

You inch closer to him. Miguel keeps dooming himself. It always going to end up like this.

"I'm just saying," you start, and there's something horrible inside you, "there's no coming back after this."

It's the awareness that you will let Miguel ruin you. Besides that, you would dissect him to know what's happening in his brain, gut him like a fish.

Grief comes in waves. It outweights reason, born from love. Gabriella's laughter is so loud in his head, right now. Not one day passed that he didn't want to take the his heart out of the chest.

You enable the worst in each other. It's true, you had watched him bite off the neck of a person, blood dripping from his fangs. He had watched you punch someone until your own knuckles scratched open.

"I know," Miguel snarls. Life brimming with sorrow. "But you will be on my side."

Jeff Davis has been dead since the beginning. This can go only one way.

Yet, what were Miles supposed to do? Stay still and watch his father die?

And what were you supposed to do? You'd chose Miguel over anybody else. You were never a good person.

Miguel is, though. Despite everything else, he is trying to do what he finds right. Despite the bitterness, the grief.

Somewhere else, I try harder to stop you. Here, I don't try at all. Here, I will meet you halfway.

It rains. It had been raining. The truth is that you are better a weapon than a person. Never letting go of violence like a mother's hand.

"Always," you say.

"And you understand why," he croaks out, solemnly. Taking a shuddering breath.

You purse your lips. "I do."

Loving Miguel had made you worse. "You will regret this," he waves, leaning closer.

You cannot save. You can only try. In another universe, we grew up together. The grief doesn't end but so does the love.

"Maybe." You smile to him, it's not a happy sight. He doesn't falter. "But you can do anything and I won't leave you."

Miguel is making the wrong decision. It's okay, good people also make bad things.

You stand in front of Miguel, and he loves you too. That's why he allows you to be here. "Just don't go where I can't follow."

Everything's sacrificial– you'll make Miguel's massacre holy until there's nothing else to sacrifice.

A/N: If you like what I do, please consider supporting me and buying a coffee!

#miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o’hara x reader #miguel o'hara #miguel o’hara #atsv #arwrites #me!spiderman2o99

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bird-inacage · 7 months

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Only Friends: Episode 8 Preview (Ray & Mew's Villain Uprising?)

So I think we can all safely say that last week was Mew's villain origin story and he makes it pretty crystal clear this episode that he intends to embrace this new era.

Now I've also heard (as may some of you) in interviews with the cast that Ray is supposedly the worst. That's quite the claim based on what has happened thus far. But I did get a sense of foreboding at the end of this episode, along with next week's preview that this may be where Ray's character begins to cause some fallout.

I guess Boston and Top have 'had their turn' being the leading villains, and now it's time for those roles to shift.

Ray's 'Bad Influence' & Mew's Enabling

Top comments on the fact that Mew is allowing Ray's bad habits to lead him astray. This isn't really surprising as Mew is hell bent on a self-destructive rebrand at the moment. Due to the betrayal of both his friend and boyfriend, he's sick of being the innocent, pure, and sensible one. It's his 'virginity' that he believes made him the target of this sick joke. So now he's taking a page from Ray's book and embracing his wild child.

The problem is Mew used to be the defacto caretaker for Ray in their group, (and was doing a half-committal job but at least someone was). Now that we have Mew going off the rails too, Ray is far from the right person to keep Mew in check (as well as himself). One, because he's worse at controlling himself, and second, he's willing to do anything that he thinks will make Mew happy. Ray just doesn't have it in him to do what's right or best for Mew if that requires being a voice of tough love.

So now these two are seemingly dating, they're going to exacerbate each other's worst qualities. This is why some couplings just don't work. Friendship fine, but romantically this sounds like a mess.

Ray's Desire for Ownership

Ray finally has what he wants - something he's wanted for so long, and it seems to have all gone to his head. The thrill of it.

After witnessing Ray and Mew getting very close and personal at the end of Episode 7, Sand is understandably tired of being 'used'. He made it very clear previously that he wants Ray to consider his feelings by not treating him as expendable and throwing him aside whenever a shinier toy takes his fancy.

So at the beginning of the preview, Sand behaves coldly towards Ray, perhaps in an attempt to start establishing distance. 'This is the end of whatever 'will-we-won't-we' nonsense we were skirting around with. You're now taken. There's no need for us to continue as we were'.

But lo and behold, when Sand tries to hook up with someone else, Ray's not having it. This is just a tame version of Ray's jealousy response. Even though Ray doesn't want Sand right now, he doesn't want anyone else to have him either. Which is ridiculously selfish and unreasonable.

This is why I'm even more keen on the idea of Sand's ex returning now. Ray needs a very healthy dose of reality when it comes to taking Sand for granted. He's not going to realise that until it comes into serious threat. The following line from this episode alluded that for me. Ray's going to regret this later on.

#only friends #only friends the series #ofts #ray x sand #sand x ray #raysan #sanray #raymew #mewray #khaofirst #firstkhao #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #book kasidet #who knew ray + mew = unchecked car crash?#i love ray but i need him to feel desperately awful for hurting sand #it's been one too many times sweetheart #sand deserves better

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bonefall · 8 months

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do you have a quick link to information about Brokenstar, Runningnose, and Skypelt? I'm curious about the story behind Runny's acorn necklace and I want to read about Brokenstar becoming SkyClan's guardian, and how he was able to follow Firestar/help him restore SkyClan. i've been having a hard time finding it

I need to finish (or at least *reasonably complete*) the SE where Fire and Broken go to resurrect SkyClan. That is called Firestar's Quietus. Brokenstar's origin, which completely replaces Yellowfang's Secret, is called Brokenstar's Cataclysm and that's another one I need to complete.

The exact story has undergone a lot of revision SO I'm gonna take a quick break to try and compile some Best Hits of BB!Runningnose's and BB!Brokenstar's dynamic to get you up to speed, and make a definitive list of what's currently canon to Better Bones

And, because this is DEFINITELY the change that raises the most eyebrows and it's a good opportunity to make an intro,

"Elder Bones, what's all this I hear about your Not-Totally-Evil Brokenstar?"

He's still evil lmao, but he's not BORN evil in BB. NO ONE is.

BB is a story about culture. It's about a lot of things, family, anti-authoritarianism, xenophobia... but at its core, Better Bones is about how people impact culture, and how it acts on people.

Something I realized early in this process is that Canon Brokenstar, who is a born-evil punishment for SkyClan's exile (this is CANON, go re-read Yellowfang's Secret if you don't remember!), only made worse by abuse and enabling, does not effectively tell a story about culture.

Depending on your reading, Canon!Brokenstar is either a cosmic horror story or one about abuse. Could Yellowfang have saved him (and ShadowClan) with love? The book implies no, it was his destiny, just the medcat den was hers.

But looking at Canon!Lizardfang who let him get bullied*, and Canon!Raggedpelt who enabled him every step of the way as Sagewhisker held Yellowfang back, you could also read it as someone who was treated so horribly that he did horrible things to others. That he wanted respect and this is how he got it

So, okay, you could read that it's the fault of this bad woman, bullying, and this overly permissive dad that he became a baby killer. Problem solved?

HOWEVER... the Erins also refuse to actually write about people who unironically love his philosophy, because they don't want Brokenstar to be systemic. Blackfoot, the posterboy for a Broken-supporter, gets to reckon with how sad his childhood was and how he was only ever a mislead kitty who Truly Loved His Clan, as opposed to Brokenstar, who was Born Evil And Did Not Truly Love His Clan.

Blackstar's greatest flaw wasn't xenophobia, or hatred. He wasn't groomed by a society that glorifies violence and pushes a might-makes-right mentality. He just followed The Bad Person. With the death of The Bad People, society is fine :)

This is a recurring dichotomy. Leopardstar was good all along, Tigerstar was bad all along, Needletail was good all along, Darktail was bad all along. The Erins are not telling a story about how Clan Culture produces villains, or how it makes good people do terrible things, they tell stories about treacherous Evil People who always had a seed of badness inside of them.

-Onestar's Confession, Page 704

This is their guiding philosophy, and it's what Better Bones sets out to reject.

So, Brokenstar.

I realized while drawing him this one time that I was making him look too much like Tigerstar. Charismatic and puffed up, ready to twist the code to fit his own ends. Then it hit me-- why am I telling the same story twice?

BB!Tigerstar is the inheritor of Thistle Law, apprentice of Thistleclaw, with a backstory where he was a lonely, abused child and seeks respect to fill that hole. He's getting all sorts of reduxes to explore him, and the way that violent ideologies recruit (and prey on) angry and lonely people. Why should I just... have two Tigerstars, but one of them is explored less?

AND, I would waste the fascinating idea that Brokenstar is a manifested curse. Why remove something so cool, when instead, I could lean into that...? Then I started to realize...

Why didn't they ever connect Brokenstar to the resurrection of SkyClan, if he is this manifested curse?

So, enough preamble. Come below the cut and I'll tell you about the story in Better Bones so far...

BB!Brokenstar is not born evil. He is born angry.

He was ALWAYS going to happen. His birth, his ambition, and his fury were inevitable.

This is a curse that was laid generations ago, at the end of Ripplestar's Rot.

The last-ditch attempt to save SkyClan was literally crushed by StarClan itself, blasting the base of the blighted 5th Tree of Fivetrees and sending it toppling down to smite Ripplestar.

That tree was the symbol of SkyClan and their place in the forest. All the love, comfort, and memories that they had ever put into that oak had a power of their own-- and they took form on that night.

Brokenstar is not the only "entity" of this type. Star Flower, eons ago, was another. BB contains many new types of entities beyond, and even adjacent to StarClan. Gods, curses, guardians, other religions of equal standing...

But he needed to be born to someone. In return for Dawnstar's kindness, taking in Cloudstar's young children (Re: Ripplestar's Rot), ShadowClan would be the eye of the storm.

And it would be a Cleric who bore him, just like Larkstripe, who had been cruelly separated from her only kitten.

Yellowfang, Shroompelt at the time, this was before her Dishonor Title, saw when he was born that he was furious. She'd never seen a newborn look so angry.

In Brokenstar's Cataclysm, she only gets the opening chapter. It's enough to establish how Sagewhisker pressured her into the role, the lengths she went to in order to keep this secret, the reason for his name despite it not matching his tail.

NOTE: Brokentail's name, Kanochswash, means Broken-in-half-tail. He has two breaks in his tail, making three segments. It matches the way the oak was broken, once at the base, again against the rock, but it is actually obvious in Clanmew that his name does not refer to his tail.

Or, it's obvious to Lizardstripe at least... who is VERY different in BB. Old followers will know, she is a very loyal friend of Bluestar herself, and a member of her inter-Clan friendgroup, the Forget-Me-Nots.

She really doesn't want to be in this situation, doesn't LIKE being a mother, and Mudfoot is unhelpful... but she's the most perceptive of the Forget-Me-Nots. She hears that name, sees Shroompelt's distant eyes, and it clicks. She sometimes looks for things to complain about so Shroompelt has an excuse to stay in the den for a while.

But Lizardstripe is not raising Brokenkit. Raggedstar is. Raggedstar is Brokenkit's Mi, and Raggedstar alone. He's pointedly adamant about that, and as soon as Brokenkit doesn't need round-the-clock suckling, he started sleeping in the Leader's Den with dad.

Unfortunately, being the golden child of the leader did not pair nicely with Brokenkit's short fuse.

And he made a little friend.

What first drew Runningkit to Brokenkit was that he was very large. Runningkit LOVED pissing off one of his siblings, and then hiding behind his bestie who was younger than them but already as big as a stump.

When Lizardstripe tried to do anything about this, Raggedstar would get pissed off at her, insisting that his son needed to be with his friends.

Together, the two of them learned they could do whatever they wanted, as long as they stuck together. With Runny's brain and Broken's brawn, they weren't even a year old and already unstoppable.

And their idea of "unstoppable" was... mostly getting seconds when they'd already eaten and pushing against the horrors of bedtime. Sneaking out and collecting acorns. Being allowed to practice with the warriors.

Even better, since being the leader's kitten meant everyone tended to be extra nice to Broken to butter up to Ragged.

If they got what they wanted, they were sweet to adults. But from watching her son, and from being friends with Lizardstripe, Shroompelt knew that they could be vicious when they wanted to be.

And from a young age, Brokenkit knew that he needed to become Brokenstar... and Runningkit promised he'd get him there.

You might be noticing something.

Brokenstar was always loved, very, very much.

Spoiled? Absolutely. A little bully? You bet.

Not yet more than the sort of things angry, spoiled kids get up to.

The point I'm meticulously building here is that BB!Brokenstar WAS LOVED, and he loved in turn.

It won't stop what is about to happen.

Brokenkit was only a few months old when his father became leader, after Cedarstar was killed in the war with WindClan. Heatherstar wanted the Mothermouth Moorland; a floodplain just beyond the Carrionplace, which grows flax and many other medicinal flowers.

It was something the two clans had fought over before, that IS the code's Right of Challenge, but Heatherstar wanted all of it. She'd even killed the practice of tunneling to dedicate all of her forces to take it.

If you are not strong enough to keep something, you do not deserve to have it. This is what the Code says.

And strength is what Brokenkit quickly learned.

Taking extra bowls of food means nothing in the fall when the prey grows fat, but ShadowClan's marsh freezes fast.

You can't whine up a second bowl when not everyone even got a first.

Do you defend your territory? Or focus on survival? When the challenges are frequent, you have to go without eating to defend them.

And yes, you're hungry, but it's for a reason.

Brokenkit wasn't out of kithood when he saw his first death, because people were already dying before he was born.

In skirmishes, in hunting accidents, to infection because they didn't have enough herbs. Starvation in winter.

From a very young age, he was taught this is the way of Clans, and this is because of WindClan.

And his ambition to become deputy only became stronger. Runningpaw hatched a plan to get into the Cleric den, against Shroompelt's will.

Brokenpaw got into fights at Gatherings over ShadowClan's honor, enthusiastically bowled into battle against WindClan raids, became Raggedstar's best little rat hunter.

And he saw clanmates he loved dying.

Over many years, through his warriorhood, into his deputyship.

Cloudpelt, Foxheart, Toadskip, Nutwhisker. Lizardstripe was killed during an event called Heatherstar's Last Stand, her neck snapped by the WindClan warrior Flytail.

Heatherstar died, and her much more reasonable and peaceful deputy, Tallstar... continued to keep the Moorland she won.

ShadowClan went through that last winter, again trying to win their land back, but beaten so hard they couldn't mount a resistance. More cats collapsed in the snow, Mudfoot was one of them.

WindClan won. The land was theirs now. Out of his magnanimity, Tallstar reached out to Raggedstar and made him an unprecedented offer. He would give him a tax of rabbits, for peace. ShadowClan would stop attacking, and formally acknowledge that WindClan was the victor of the war.

A peace deal, a surrender.

Tallstar didn't have to do that. If his Clan won, it was his land in the eyes of StarClan. He had no obligation to reach out in this way, and Raggedstar acknowledged that.

But it made Brokentail SICK.

He couldn't believe that Raggedstar was going to buy this, let WindClan keep THEIR LAND and just send them back some of their own rabbits. What happens next?? What if WindClan decides to come further south, what then? What will Tallstar ask for next? What price will his warriors pay for the blood they spilled?

And this is the moment that Brokentail kills his father. On his last life, frail and weak after an entire life of fighting, he decided that the last kindness he could give him was a quick death, preventing him from taking that deal.

Runningnose sprang into action as soon as he'd been told about it; helping him to cover up the murder.

And together, they turned to TOTAL war.

Once, as an apprentice, Brokenstar recalled the words of a warrior at a Gathering. A parable of thistles-- how they don't care what attacks them. They don't hold back. How they will choke out the whole field who they can thrive.

Is that not the conclusion of Might Makes Right? If you can, you must, before they do it to you.

An apprentice becomes a warrior-- stop that from happening.

Don't let your enemies escape to fight again-- kill them when you have the chance.

Their herb stores are just as limited as yours-- dwindle them with infection and poison.

WindClan Must Pay, every single one of them. All the Clans are tomorrow's rivals, they have to go too.

Everything is for ShadowClan, and he was LOVED for it.

well.... by many.

This is about Brokenstar and Runningnose, but I must mention that there's also a lot of people who oppose him. Who realize this as evil. Nightpelt, Cinderfur, Deerfoot, Dawncloud and Stumptail are some of them.

And, importantly, Shroompelt was one of them. Whenever she learned of some code-breaking thing they'd done, she would make waves about it.

The word of a Cleric has an immense amount of weight, and it prevented Brokenstar from ending this war once and for all.

So Runningnose, as always, constructed a plan. Brokenstar decided it was a sacrifice that must be made.

Marigoldkit and Mintkit (kits of Rowanberry and Clawface) were in the Cleric's den for an infection.

Marigoldkit was a blind girl, and very fussy about taking her medicine.

Shroompelt would serve it to her in a berry capsule, either knout or rasp, a naturally red berry one.

Runningnose simply swapped her medicine with yew, and made sure that Mintkit was able to witness his sister being fed red berries over many days.

When Marigoldkit died, Mintkit was a distraught child who could only communicate that Shroompelt fed her "Red Berries," like the ones he'd been taught to stay away from.

Shroompelt IMMEDIATELY turned on Runningnose, accusing him of killing a blind kitten.

And he turned it on her. She'd fallen right into his trap. "You did this! You've been wanting us to stop fighting WindClan, and now you've stooped so low that you're trying to get rid of StarClan's only other messenger! You've killed your own nespring!"

Many cats of ShadowClan had completely lost patience with her before this, and were now shocked to see that she'd do such a thing. While some suspected the truth, in the end, Brokenstar's word is law.

And his law was that he would show mercy on an ex-Clanmate. But from here on, her name was Yellowfang, so that the world may be forewarned that StarClan rotted her teeth from so many lies as she walked in exile.

Brokenstar's Cataclysm ends on the WindClan Massacre. A bloody event where well over a dozen cats are slaughtered, and Brokenstar resurrects an ancient practice at the bellowing request of his warriors-- Kitten Stealing.

(The only time BB!Brokenstar uses a child soldier is during this battle, apprenticing Badgerpaw early so that he can participate in the all-out assault.)

With WindClan gone, he turned his sight on the other two. The Clans were cursed to die as they lived-- overpowered by a stronger, more bloodthirsty tyrant, violently driven out just as SkyClan had once been.

From there, the rest is very close to canon. Brokenstar is deposed by a coup, one that NEVER would have succeeded if it wasn't for Bluestar and her apprentice, Firepaw. The Curse is thwarted by change. Cats of different Clans working together in the name of righteousness.

Bluestar could have gone, grabbed the kits, and come back, but she knew that WindClan would never be able to return if Brokenstar was still in power.

This time around, ShadowClan's plague was intentional. Runningnose infected Nightstar on purpose.

He wanted to eliminate a weak leader... and a treacherous rogue who had defied his own.

Collateral damage was acceptable, if it eliminated as many of Nightstar's supporters as possible.

And yet, his brother Deerfoot survived. Sentimentality? Just luck? Who knows.

If Runningnose has any regrets for anything he's done, it's only this. That he cleared out ShadowClan for Tigerstar's rule.

He approved of him at first, interpreted signs to benefit him, even killed for this old ally of Brokenstar...

but Tigerstar's goal was to abolish ShadowClan, and make a TigerClan of his own. Brokenstar never wanted this, and neither did Runningnose.

What Runny really wants, more than anything, is what Brokenstar wants. Destroying WindClan is a bonus, eliminating all of their enemies is anger that they were able to obstruct him. Runningnose thinks he loves power, but what he REALLY loves is his ability to get Brokenstar what he wants.

Everything he's ever done has been in pursuit of that goal. He doesn't care that he'll be going to the Dark Forest in the end, that's where Brokenstar is going to be. Hell is wherever he isn't.

In life, neither one of them knew anything about the curse, or destiny. Brokenstar reconnects with memories in his death.

And he started having dreams of SkyClan, which he communicated to Runningnose through channeling.

I'm working on the full outline of Firestar's Quietus right now so I'm going to be a bit more brief;

Runningnose got Firestar involved on this quest because he's a little goody two shoes. Of COURSE he would agree to help... that's who Firestar is.

He brings him to the moonstone, where a scene similar to canon plays out where StarClan tries to encourage him to go back to his Clan and ignore what he now knows.

And, of course, he tells them to shove it.

Firestar's Quietus is a book about righting wrongs. Brokenstar as a curse means that what he needs, in the end, is peace.

The peace he needs is the knowledge that SkyClan will be saved, and that it will survive.

Runningnose is willing to let him go, in order to get what he needs. He passes off an acorn necklace to Firestar, so that he can channel him with ease on his journey

In this gesture, it becomes real that he will go to an afterlife without him. After all he'd ever done and been through.

So, he hesitates before handing it off, but makes Firestar promise to take good care of it.

On this journey, Brokenstar and Firestar do a lot of bickering about how SkyClan should come back. The sort of values they should have, who should lead it...

But in the end, Brokenstar realizes, they will be something new. They'll choose their own path in life, because that's what it means to be alive.

And his final action is to face The Rats, now supernatural creatures of their own, finally dispelling the threat that faced SkyClan.

Having done his job as a Guardian, he can finally rest. His necklace is buried overlooking the Gorge, returning SkyClan's guardian to them.

Eventually he falls during AVoS, in Darktail's attack, killing several of the kin and their rebels and allowing Leafstar and co a chance to escape.

For more on Skypelt, see this little guide I made on the afterlife locations. Hopefully one day I can clean this up into its own entry.

More stuff to check out (that I found while searching for other posts but are cool and I'm re-sharing);

Jaggedtooth isn't a villain anymore

"What's your favorite ShadowClan-adjacent change?"

First post I made on Tigerstar's Paws

Brokenstar's two honor-kits, Littlecloud and Rowanclaw

On curses and anger

"What does Runningnose think of the other TPB Clerics?" Hates em!

A rundown on all ShadowClan leaders post-Ripplestar

Cedarstar sketch

First post on StarClan Technicality Brokenstar lmao

IN-DEPTH QUESTIONS ABOUT SKYPELT

Some specifics on the religion/entity/magic mechanics in BB

#better bones au #Brokenstar's Cataclysm #BB!Brokenstar #BB!Runningnose #Firestar's Quietus

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thousandyearphantombunker · 5 months

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An overly passionate post about Hank Pym and Jan Van Dyne

I’d like to preface this by saying Hank Pym is my favorite Ant-man and that I don’t think he deserves all the hate and controversy he gets, however I’ve noticed a lot of his fans tend to villainize Jan Van Dyne for reasons that I think are personally sort of stupid. A lot of Hank’s fans try to defend him by painting Wasp as a creep who took advantage of him during a psychotic break/the time when he was in that fugue state as Yellowjacket by marrying him during that time- but that’s not how it went down! She married him out during that time out of fear of what he’d do to her (he tried to force harsh kisses on her and sexually harassed her etc) and out of genuine concern! Jan clearly loved Hank and would constantly try and build up his nonexistent self-esteem but didn’t know how- She would try and prop up his ego but kept accidentally feeding into Hank’s weird complexes instead. I will say that Jan flirted with other men a lot but that wasn’t her being unloyal so much as her natural personality- but when you cross that with her being more successful and younger than him and he took that as a sign she wasn’t loyal/thinking she only liked him out of pity or to make herself look better.

She wasn’t manipulating him for her own ends, she wanted to help and have a healthy relationship with him. Still, she didn’t know how to handle the situation properly- Hank needed a therapist, not a girlfriend who thought maybe if she complimented him enough, maybe if she propped him up enough they could be good together- she comes off as a person who had no prior experience with mental illness like this- no frame of reference, no idea what to do, and she didn’t seem to understand what was going on- so she accidentally enabled him and made things worse but she didn’t manipulate him. It’s pretty relatable- If you’ve ever had a mentally ill friend or whatever but had no prior knowledge of mental illness, you tend to mishandle things- you become insensitive/mean without meaning to, or you end up enabling bad behavior- it’s scary and Jan’s case she was in actual physical danger!

I’d also like to say that Hank while not at all stable had some lucidity when he hit Jan, and prior to him hitting Jan he was already displaying emotionally abusive behaviors (Destroying her costume, practically interrogating her) so no you can’t blame it his mental illness- he still had enough awareness of what he was doing (That being said who in there right mind let Hank rejoin the Avengers after he had a severe disassociative episode-I would have demanded he’d go to therapy or be institutionalized if he refused)

I do like Hank, he’s a complex/interesting character. He has an inferiority complex so deep he’s tried to kill himself, he’s made preemptive strikes to prove his worth to others, he gave himself health issues from becoming Giant-man and it’s again tied to his insecurities. Outside of his suicidal tendencies, he’s got anger management issues, suffers paranoid delusions, disassociates, etc. He’s also incredibly self-sacrificing and is a strong believer in second chances- redemption is what he wanted for himself- what he tries to convince others he can have- so he hopes he can give to others too. Also, he’s a badass mad scientist (Literally that’s what sold me on him as a character) but the point still stands he was a domestic abuser, he refused to get help for a long time until it reached a breaking point and his reputation both in-universe and out can’t ever make a full recovery- like I said he’s complicated, so you can’t just paint him as a wife-beater or say absolved of his misdeeds because of his insanity or someone else egging him on, Jan was a victim plain and simple even if you point out some of her enabling behaviors

But my ultimate hot take? EMH’s Hank and Jan are the most annoying couple- separately I loved them but whenever I saw Janet whine or Hank moan about the other all I could think was- “Please, the love of God just break up!”- I was like kid preteen btw and still found that drama annoying

#hank pym #janet van dyne #earths mightiest heroes #avengers academy #the avengers #marvel comics #Wow I practically wrote an essay #Sorry about that #Oh well #Also no grammar #Also sorry about that #If you want a less prettied up depiction of mental illness I do recommend Hank he's a good character #If you can stomach some potentially triggering stuff

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swaps55 · 8 months

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I was asked for the “director’s cut” dissertation I have on this snippet, and I am easily enabled. So here we go. This is wildly self-indulgent writing thinky thoughts, so putting most of it under a cut. Spoilers for ME3-era Opus thoughts, but if you read the snippet you’ve already got some spoilers, and given I haven’t even started posting Mezzo yet, I challenge anyone to remember any of this by the time I get to it anyway. XD

Tagging @fyeahmshepkaidan @scribblesandknots and @flightofthefaeriedragon , who specifically asked for this and are about to have Regrets, sorry (not sorry).

Fugue completely rewired my way of thinking about Sam and Kaidan’s reconciliation in ME3. The game, by necessity, makes resuming the romance Shepard’s call – Kaidan says he is willing, and Shepard can choose whether or not to accept.

But grief changes people. And Sam and Kaidan have a long history and soulmate level connection to each other at the time of Alchera. Can you even imagine going through losing someone like that, clawing your way back to your life for two years, transforming yourself into something new against your will because grief didn’t give you a choice, only to have the person you’ve been grieving walk back into your life with open arms, because for him, none of it happened?

At first you might think the gut reaction is, “oh thank god.” They’re back! Everything can be okay again! But I don’t think so. You spent all that time fighting a war that…in the end didn’t need to be fought. You are bruised and bloody, bent into a new shape for better or for worse, and it turns out you didn’t have to do any of it.

You did it all for nothing. For nothing.

Where do you put that frustration? That anger? It wasn’t Sam’s fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, really. But that anger has to go somewhere. Walking back into that relationship with open arms isn’t possible. You’ve changed too much. To make it more complicated, nothing has changed about who Sam is or what he does. The stakes are even higher now, and the odds of him getting out of it alive are so slim.

Going back to him means setting yourself up to lose him again, only now you know what that feels like.

All this to say because Kaidan hurt so much for so long, when he finally gets there and gives in to the inevitable, he needs a moment of catharsis. A big one. He’s earned it.

But this is a surprisingly difficult thing to achieve, because ME3 is all about the weight on Shepard’s shoulders. The fate of the galaxy rests on him. There is no room to be the strong one, to be the comfort Kaidan needs, because he needs the same thing.

One of the really difficult parts of a relationship is handling the times when you are both on the downswing. It’s one thing when one person is hurting and the other is comforting, but when you’re both down the hole, there is no one to throw the rope and help you out. You now have to work together to do it, when neither of you are in a place to be the person your partner needs. That’s hard. It’s hard in real life, and complex to navigate in fiction.

This made it really difficult to come up with a way for the two of them to reconcile that respected their emotional needs. Fugue biased me so much towards Kaidan that I kept envisioning that reconciliation being centered on Sam comforting Kaidan in ways that weren’t addressing how broken and fragile Sam is in those moments.

But whatever the solution was, that catharsis for Kaidan was non-negotiable. He needed it, and I needed it for writing Fugue in the first place, lol.

One of the repeating narrative threads throughout Fugue was Kaidan dreaming about Sam being alive, only to wake up to the absence of him in the form of a still gravity well and a neatly made bed, two things that are impossible to have when sharing a bed with that man. So I have always, always, envisioned that moment where Kaidan wakes up for the first time and the dream…doesn’t end. Sam is there. The bedding is a mess. The gravity well is doing somersaults again. And then he rolls over, trying to figure out if he’s going insane or not, and gets hit with the first “Hey, you,” since Sam died.

But in all my daydreaming, that’s where the scene ended. ‘Hey, you,’ was such a significant moment in Sonata, that I was really enamored with the notion that ending on the ‘hey, you,’ would be a full-circle mic drop on the reader, and the narrative signal that everything was going to be okay. The problem with this is that it leaves Kaidan’s reaction to it up to the reader, and that’s ultimately unfair to Kaidan. He needs his moment of catharsis, and it needs to be in present action.

So in this snippet, I let the scene continue, because once I had the nature of their reconciliation figured out, this became the right moment for Kaidan to get that catharsis. The reconciliation will be driven by Sam’s vulnerability because it more or less has to be, and it forces Kaidan to play the part of the strong one when he isn’t. So when Kaidan gets that reality check – waking up and realizing the dream didn’t end – he gets to be the one who falls apart, and Sam, who got the emotional strength he needed the night before, is in a position to give Kaidan what he needs. It’s closure to the events of Fugue. The emotional breakdown calls back to the panic attack in Sonata when Sam was there, and the one in Fugue where he wasn’t. And letting it happen AFTER the reconciliation itself allows Kaidan to get what he needs while still being true to himself: He has always been Shepard’s guardian, the person who protects Shepard so he can protect everyone else, and he still got to do that when Sam needed it most.

Also, Sam gets to call him baby, something that he will deny if you ask him about it, and he will believe himself.

It was the, “Oh, baby. I have you. I’m here,” that drove me to actually write the scene. It popped into my head out of nowhere from someone whose only term of endearment is “Hey, you” and felt like the kind of out-of-character but perfectly in-character thing that only gets to happen once, so it happens when it counts.

#how writing is written #opus!verse

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 2 months

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Hey Sea, I hope you're doing all right! Because of some personal family issues I haven't caught up to many things fandom & pop culture wise until now. Style's "transformation", in terms of both personality and career choices, becoming even worse after FL was predictable in my honest opinion. I think someone that empty simply does not deserve many words to describe him so I will not even bother. I must say though there is one thing that I simply cannot not help but mention and that is the Danny

2/3 Zuko Halloween makeover. I do not think Harry needs larries anymore for a sustainable career, and if he does, he has way easier techniques and less impersonal ones to do that. This one was definitely personal towards louis. Now we don’t know what really happened between them, they're just two strangers for us, at the end of the day. However it’s very clear they meant something for each other, even if just on friendly terms.

3/3 For him to what? Taunt Louis? Or make him pay attention to him? Desperate. Pathetic. Desperate! Quite creepy. Ridiculous. And yes, hilarious too. Except that I am not laughing with Harry, I am laughing at him. It gives me pleasure that Louis seems, at least from our perspective, to not give him any attention. Is that petty? Oh well! Anyways that's all I wanted to say, stay safe everyone!

Hi anon!

I agree with your interpretation and general read. I think that Larries trying to make this into a romantic gesture, and Harries trying to play this off as just Harry dressing up as a popular musical theater character, really underestimate One Direction’s, and specifically Louis Tomlinson’s, effect on Harry Styles’ psychology.

I’m not going to pretend to understand it, either. But the fact is that whatever impact Louis had on Harry is profoundly lasting, and it drives him to do some absolutely insane things.

The curious thing is that Harry has been surrounded by grown men trying to shape him into a rock ‘n roll messiah for more than 12 years. They’ve isolated him, sheltered him from all sorts of criticism, enabled him to get massively wealthy and sell out stadiums, given him Vogue covers and Met galas and allowed him to share the stage with legends. They’ve given Harry the opportunity to meet the wealthy and famous and to have experiences he (and the rest of 1D) couldn’t possibly imagine when they were starting out.

They’ve isolated Harry from peers for years, made him live the life of a 40-year-old businessman before he even turned 30. His closest friends are people with contacts, connections, companies, power— middle-aged or old men. There are no organic friendships in sight.

Yet Harry remembers about Danny Zuko! And wore the Harryween cosplay out of some kind of psychological compulsion!

Usually Harry cosplays for clout, so this was different— cosplaying in lieu of actual communication. He wanted attention, and specifically, attention from Louis.

But why? Was Harry bragging about his playground, Madison Square Garden?

It’s a very Kanye-Kim-Taylor spat-for-PR thing to do. Very on brand for Hardashian Styles. But also completely, pathetically unhinged.

The other thing I’ll add is that — my personal observation only — Harry might be business savvy, but he does not know how to cultivate longterm personal relationships. It’s always about quarterly earnings reports and not trust, compassion, empathy, and really, human love. Nothing is ever done without strings attached— Harry Styles is only about strings. There aren’t any romantic relationships longer than 2 years, ones without a professional agenda.

It’s a very empty emotional life. Harry’s face looks empty. His Instagram page feels frigid, isolating, posed, lonely. Whatever this means with regards to Danny Zuko— almost turning a fun high school moment into a garish pop culture caricature— is also incredibly sad.

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laugtherhyena · 2 months

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@thehybridgryph I'm putting this in its own post since it got too long to fit in a single reply.

You see Akane is a character i find funny to think back on because when i was younger and had first gotten into the another series i had a really weird relationship with her character; i hated her for being the mastermind and dismissed her entire other self as a nothing but a lie/trick, but at the same time her Ch6 self was the one i liked the most out of the two akanes, sort to speak.

This was partially my fault since when I don't like or care much for a character i tend to not look much into them and partially the fact that Dra didn't had a full translation back in the day.

So what I'm trying to say here is that i didn't understand her character at all and it's only now that I'm looking back into this game as an older person that i see just how fascinating she is, this girl went through hell in that orphanage at such a young age that it makes perfect sense why she would cling to the guy who saved her that badly, especially after all the trauma she had gone through at that point.

Utsuro became her savior and she made it pretty much her life goal to devote he entire self to him regardless of what this path would require he to do, if Utsuro asks, she'll do it because that's what a good servant does. Their toxic relationship where they enable eachother and get worse spreading despair around is insane and i really don't think I'm the right person to talk about it because even now I don't think i fully understand it.

And i just feel stupid for dismissing her nice self when i was younger and even just trying to separate mastermind Akane from maid Akane because they're both parts of who she is and both of them are very real! Akane genuinely liked her classmates and even had a close bond with Ayame, but ultimately couldn't bring herself to go agaisnt her master's orders and try to save them instead of betraying their class and using them in the proto killing game.

That's really fucking sad and heart wrenching to me, makes me wonder if given the opportunity to do things differently would she have changed anything? Would she have obeyed Utsuro's orders all over again? Who knows, I'm honestly not really sure myself.

Another thing about Akane that i absolutely love is in relation to the ending of Dra, because i really don't think i would like it as much if Akane had left with the survivors because to me that would feel out of character not only for the trio to save her (Tsurugi is there after all) but most importantly for Akane herself. I really don't think she would have allowed herself to escape the island and leave Utsuro to die, even after protecting the survivors effectively betrayed him in a way, if her master is going down she's gonna go down with him. It's beautiful and tragic at the same time.

#as for character headcanons sorry but i really don't have anything on Akane #the few headcanons i have for any character are usually some random specific thing #or are of a character i really like #and about Kizuna I'm not really sure? i find it hard I imagine they'd become friends in a non despair setting #since Kizuna has all those problems n shit. you'd need something to happen to make her start moving away from that #an then yeah i could see her and Akane growing closer #i could also see that happening if Kizuna was being serious about wanting to be a part of their group in ch2 #and if she had survived the knife would and actually was trying to be nicer i think Akane would give her another chance #obviously not forgiving her right away. but if she can see that Kizuna is genuinely trying to improve herself #i feel like Akane would be on her side #(this is pretty much how I've been writing them in my fic. i do have fun writing those two ngl)#dra #danganronpa another #akane taira #hyena ramblings

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archivalofsins · 2 months

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It will forever be wild to me that everyone else in Milgram had to stand on their own merit, but Kazui and Amane just teamed up for a fucking bit voting wise. Kazui was over there suffering until Purge March came out. Then Amane was just suffering in general. They're both the lowest innocent percentage.

They're just in here, "Yeah, that's good, I guess." We both got fucked over by a majority of the audience just wanting us to get worse at the end of the day so it's whatever. I hope they're both petty enough to go, "Oh, you wanted worse huh let me give you that real quick."

Both of their trials were like objectively the funniest in hindsight. Because it boiled down to a bunch of people for Kazui going what's worse, causing direct and purposeful harm to someone or telling a person the truth. Telling the person the truth, he should've kept lying if he started off that way.

Which is literally what he said when he fucking got here-

Q.18 Do you regret your “murder”?

Kazui: I regret it. I wish I could’ve just kept lying.

Then, he reiterated that throughout his second voice drama. So, anyone who was using that logic to find him guilty was just agreeing with a mindset he already had. Which wouldn't have made him worse it more than likely would have made him go,

"So you've finally saw through all the nonsense. I guess I didn't overestimate Milgram after all."

Since he's paired with Amane because, in contrast to her, he wants a guilty verdict while Amane wants to be found innocent. They both admit to being disappointed with Es and Milgram in their second voice dramas. Because they can't see how a system like this isn't coming to what they believe is the right conclusion.

But Kazui is unlike the other prisoners in the fact that he's not really committed to either verdict. He's literally half in half out. If he's innocent, he's just as willing to sit back and enjoy the ride rather than complain like Yuno does.

Then, with Amane it's literally like okay she's gonna get worse regardless. Milgram isn't going to become a safer environment because this one person is guilty. Definitely didn't make it safer last intermission. So, what do individuals personally want their impact to be?

Is it about the crime like with Kazui? He just did something bad, so it suddenly doesn't matter that he's guarding people in the prison. Or is it about the impact the character can have presently? Amane may attack Shidou, which would not only negatively impact Shidou but Mahiru and anyone else who happens to get injured later as well.

The double standards in reasoning when it came to both of their trials really emphasizes what Yuno, Futa, and Mu implied in their second trial songs. That the audience actually doesn't have any morals, and most people are just doing this for fun because they're bored. When really they should be minding their own business if they don't want to think about it that deeply.

It takes absolutely zero energy to not engage in something that one does not want to engage with. All of trial two can be summed up as either mind your business or keep enabling me. Kazui and Amane's second trials highlight this the most, in my opinion.

Something that won't stop being funny to me.

#gunsli rambles

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brookiidookiii · 3 months

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what are your favorite and least favorite ships? 👀

Oh boy do I have a lot of opinions

- tbh I like a lot of Jo ships. Jock joeather jomaria,, ngl lately I’ve been in a joeather mood. Her x any girl is always a classic. The only guy I can ship her with is brick really 😭 I think they have really good chemistry. And I am a sucker for rivalries + it’s been a childhood OTP. I low key thought they were gonna end up together when I first watched s4.

Now I could write essays on joeather forever. Their rivalry could’ve been something great but the writers were awful. I think Jo should kiss her enemies

- yeah sorry I’m a duncney enjoyer and I do not care how toxic they were. Adds flavor. Heathney is excellent too. Courtney just needs someone who will enable her bad behavior (also sorry I prefer heathney over gwourtney). The TikTok fandom is really annoying about duncney tho because I’ll see videos about how “why does no one ever talk about how toxic duncney is :(“ while all the tumblr fandom does is talk about how they can make them worse lmaooo

- samkota is my favorite canon couple

- MKulia duhhhh I’ve been a shipper since I watched the reboot, which I started watching probably a month before s2 got released. Toxic yuri

- Chemma in the sense that it’s ironic and I can just make memes about them I don’t actually like them

- gwoey ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

- Trent x Lindsay is a secret rarepair of mine. They can be cute

- SKYELLLAA as much as I love toxic yuri I love wholesome stuff too. I think they are neat

- sanders x MacArthur. Idek how to explain what kind of relationship they’d have but I think they are both butch lesbians. MacArthur you are my lord and savior

Okay least favorites let’s go. Also heads up I don’t really care for any of the m/m ships 😭 mostly because I don’t care for many of the male characters lol

- zoke. They didn’t even do anything wrong like I LIKE them but they’re just so boring and unentertaining that what’s even the point yk. And when Zoey got superpowers after Mike left. Stop. Secondhand embarrassment. Like in s4 they were obnoxious at best but in all stars that made me truly pray on their downfall. I like fanon zoke.

In my mind they had a sweet romance that lasted a few years until they got a bigger divorce and left on good terms

- any and all Noah ships sorryyyy he’s overrated and I don’t like Noah at all. I don’t get the hype around alenoah it’s not that good. Everytime someone calls MKulia yuri alenoah an evil politician gets another year added to their life. I don’t like you. Like I get why people like noco. Just pure fluff, which isn’t for me, and they did have that ear kiss which was something, but I still hate it

I saw someone say alenoah was basically just aleheather without heather and yeah. Everytime I see someone list out the reasons Alejandro would be into Noah it’s just the same reasons Alejandro’s into heather.

Also MKulia is more like joeather anyway but whateva,,

- I don’t even make that many sexuality headcanons bc I guess I just don’t think about it but I can tell you who’s straight. Damien is straight. He is the most heterosexual person the series has ever made. I don’t think he should be shipped to with men. Also Wayne is straight

- sugella because as much as I love toxic yuri, that doesn’t even sound like fun toxicity just misery. It’s not for me 😭 I still stan sugar tho

- ripaxel. I tried to like it SORRRYYYY ripper is annoying and he needs the death penalty. Everytime they’re compared to jock I lose a year off my life. Ripaxel is what jock haters think jock shippers like. You are all wrong.

Axel is my queen and lord and savior. It’s okay babygirl we can ride off into the sunset together

- prileb. Why did it exist. I hate this. But seeing priya in love was pretty cute I gotta admit

- gwuncan. Self explanatory

- Scottney cause wtf 😭😭😭 once again I like them in the sense that I can make memes about it but bro SCOTT???? Courtney you can do better than that thing. Scott has skidmarks

- fanon brott 💀💀💀 I don’t like fanon brick in general. Y’all do him dirty. Ong Scott would not let brick use him as his Barbie doll for clothes. Scott would make fun of brick for liking fashion. Do you know nothing about Scott? Saw someone once say that they would watch legally blonde together HELL NO.

Also I really really hate that when I go out looking for jomaria fanfics, they’re only ever tagged as side couples in brott fics. Are you kidding me.

- bro the malejandro fanfics 😭 who is writing these things. Some of those titles make me lose it. I think we all should stop acknowledging mal and all stars existences

- gwody. Once again that big ass chin motherfucker doesn’t deserve Gwen.

- Jo x any other guy. Sorry. She doesn’t deserve any of those fuckers. Jock is the exception because at least he’d treat her right but even then he’s just a guy

- I don’t like Scott x anyone in general. Even Dott I’m hesitant because it would never work out and that’s what makes it soooo fun to explore because in the end she always ends up killing him

bruh most of these yaoi ships piss me off idk I don’t get the appeal for any of them. But I draw whatever people ask from me idrc it’s not a big deal LOLLL

Also this fandom is so goddamn cringe for calling straight couples yuri/yaoi. YOU LOOK EMBARRASSING OKAY

There’s a lot more couples I dislike than like tbh. I don’t think this fandom or its opinions sorry guys

#ask #I am a hater sorry #I have a lot more platonic dynamics in my head

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transfenris-truther · 6 months

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Broward probably just didn't renw the contract on October 1st the end of the fiscal year. Just how it is for contractor businesses unfortunately. I don't think they were layoffs but a common motion in big business. Still sucks for the contractors though but once it's expired, it's done with.

Respectfully, who cares? Bioware (it's autocorrecting to Broward for me too, lol) has been bleeding long-time team members, alienating its employees and engaging in generally crap employment practices for AGES. And it's only gotten worse over the last few years.

Bioware absolutely could've saved these jobs. They could've saved the jobs of other employees that they definitively have laid off in the past. They could've made the lives of their employees good enough that their veteran writers and game designers didn't feel compelled to quit. Bioware doesn't have to hire contractors either. I personally know out of work game designers who are desperate to escape a contractor model where they have no rights and no job security. Bioware could hire these people as employees, pay them good money and benefits, and not treat them like crap.

But they don't do that. Because the "Bioware" we have now is just EA wearing its corpse.

Bioware may not be the worst games company out there, but they're a part of an industry that is extremely committed to burning out employees, churning out trend-chasing, souless garbage, and enabling incredibly toxic business practices which harm their consumers and employees. The crunch is very real at Bioware and, while they've shown more restraint than the average AAA game company, we've seen them choose to engage in business practices which are anti-employee, and some that are anti-consumer as well.

We lost Bioware a long time ago, and I don't think the video game industry is ever going to give it back.

#i love DA2 #but you will never convince me to love a company #and im under no illusions that bioware is going to start treating its employees better #thanks for the ask anon #i know youre coming from a good place #I'm always going to be critical of this company ESPECIALLY after reading about Darrah's experiences with crunch #bioware critical

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icebrooding · 7 months

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I keep thinking about how Mordremoth would have been actually invincible if he simply hadn't corrupted solely Trahearne of all people.

I always found it like, so oddly strange how he chose Trahearne and only Trahearne to corrupt in such a way that he could continue living through him if he was killed; why not use more of his literally endless army? Or was it it had to be Trahearne because of something about him?

For Mordremoth, I personally believe he left part of himself with the seed that would become the Pale Tree; he was determined to push his limits further, and he uniquely creates things; the sylvari were ultimately meant to be him creating life as the peak of his ability. He wanted to create an entire race of beings that could speak and think and were alive, and in order to do so he needed to use something of himself to actually enable the Pale Tree to flourish to begin with.*

So he used his own mind, which ended up becoming the Dream via his pre-madness mental condition, and the Nightmare via his current descent into madness.

It explains how he can use both to interact with the sylvari, how he is able to breach it, how the only way to kill him is through the Dream to begin with; his mind is literally inside it.

Anyway, it's been noted that Mordremoth's facet being changed from Mind to Madness was not done 'by accident'.

Some of his Legendary Text implies that at some point, Mordremoth cared about the things he was creating, which would make sense that the Dream is his; he made it to be a cushion and to protect his creations while they blossomed.

But some of the dialogue sounds like it's also somewhat current? Which doesn't fit with his completely narcissistic view towards the sylvari.

Which makes me think maybe his situation is like Kralkatorrik; the madness is the prevalent part of him while there is the other part of him under it that is what he used to be.

Which brings me back to 'why just Trahearne'.

It could have been that Mordremoth wanted to die as strongly as Kralk did, and since his facet is supposedly Madness, it makes me feel like he probably suffered the effects of deteriorating mental state worse.

So we have corrupted Trahearne, who is somehow still lucid enough to be able to talk to the Commander and (seemingly through becoming one with Mordremoth) can allow others access to the Dream in a corporeal state, which as far back as A Light in the Darkness was said to be particularly difficult for even the Pale Tree to manage.

The commander is one of the most resilient when it comes to withstanding the mental assault from Mordremoth, but even they almost instantly buckle when faced with him directly, but Trahearne by the time you find him has already become inseparable from Mordremoth, yet is still clearly in control of himself up until after Mordremoth dies and tries to possess him.

Mordremoth would have known everything Trahearne knows; he would have known what the commander is willing to do for the sake of Tyria, and he knew the commander was coming to rescue Trahearne... so why would he leave Trahearne so unguarded that deep into the Heart of Thorns? Why would he leave Trahearne alone knowing that he would have access to the only thing able to kill him, and knowing that Trahearne would gladly give that access to the commander?

Mordremoth knew he was at risk of dying, else he would never have bothered to corrupt Trahearne the way he did; it was something he did as a failsafe. So why would he leave his one failsafe so vulnerable, so open and able to give others the chance to kill him?

Unless whatever little part of the original Mordremoth remained and somehow, in some way, set all of this up that the opportunity for himself to be killed was there.

It probably isn't really the case and I am reading extremely hard into things, but, hey, where is the fun of reading everything in its most face value? I love looking deeper whenever I can, and seeing what I can come up with from so little.

*While this doesn't explain the other seeds that sprouted, as evidenced by Malyck's existence, it could be that the seeds themselves simply wouldn't sprout by Mordremoth's methods alone without him implanting (heh) himself into them and needed a different sort of nurturing that came about via whoever planted the other seeds. Mordremoth using his mind to enable the Pale Tree specifically to flourish would be used here as an explanation to why the Dream and Nightmare are exclusive to the Pale Tree's sylvari and not the sylvari of Malyck's tree, etc.

#text #mordremoth #im going to make a series called The Woobification of Elder Dragons (jkjk)#i just have a lot of thoughts and i think Mordy is a very complex situation all around #i want to write up my thoughts too abt how mordy and zhaia are as much opposed forces as jorms and primo are

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csmeanerr · 6 months

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For the love of god don’t post if anon fails but with regards to the creative red stuff I see where they’re coming from with pronouns. As a trans person myself I get verbal abuse daily from my immediate family who use it/its pronouns to degrade me because they think being transgender is “bullshit made up by people online” and just a phase I’m going through. I’ve had psychiatric appointments, medical counseling and therapy, and even had a psychiatric report diagnosing me with gender dysphoria among other mental illnesses to prove this is actually affecting my daily life.

When my psychiatrist talked to my parents about family counseling to help them understand my trans identity, my parents took me away from the psychiatrist for “enabling my delusions”. They throw out my opposite gendered clothing, they constantly raid my room looking for anything I’m hiding, and they make it a point to antagonize me by using the wrong pronouns because “if you’re not going to accept you’re born a girl and are a girl then you don’t deserve to be called anything.” Being referred to as it/its is incredibly dehumanizing and degrading and I don’t care if someone wants to be referred to that way, I don’t have it in me to strip a person of their status as a living being and demean them by addressing them like an inanimate object. It’s so uncomfortable and stressful and it feels awful.

I struggle heavily with nounself/emoji/neopronouns too because of my mental illnesses and learning disabilities since they break sentence structure and don’t flow properly or they have varying pronunciations/uses and it’s difficult to remember how things work. I wouldn’t interact with people either if I can’t address them in a way I can understand because if I mess up it’s going to be the end of my social life since me messing up is going to get me labeled as a bigot or a LGBTphobic jerk when I’m not. There is truth to them being rehashed “attack helicopter” memes too which ARE harmful to the trans community.

You might think your pronouns are easy to understand and not hurting anyone but that’s not true. They are. They’re not guaranteed to be easily understandable to every other person. You’re actually just complicating things more and giving other neurodivergent people an even harder time than they might already be having, which makes the situation and stress worse.

I’m sorry to add to this topic mod but this is a matter that personally affects me every day and it hurts a lot. I have a mental wellness clinic appointment in the new year to find a therapist and my family has already said they’ll call the cops and report my car as stolen if they believe I’m going to the appointment to discuss my trans identity issues or seeking aid with transitioning. The reason they think it’s all fake bullshit is because people claim being trans is a choice and they’ve seen the emoji/nounself/neopronouns and they don’t believe in it. My psychiatric report that I brought home was even shredded and thrown out because it used my preferred name and pronouns and thus was “filled with bullshit”. I know that I’m not the only one negatively affected by these things either.

post related

nope fuck off your issues does not allow you to invalidate other people and misgender them in turn. it/it may be dehumanizing to you but to someone else might be exactly what they want to be called, same as you want your own pronouns acknowledged.

the fact you go on an entire spiel of how much your family thinks you're full of bullshit and then turn around and say other's pronouns are "attack helicopter" memes is a bigoted take. in short it basically reads: my gender identity is valid but yours aren't

and you sure did type out that the only reason you hide these insanely awful takes is solely to keep your social standing and not that you actually give a fuck about changing your perspective because clearly you don't think other neurodivergents might experience themselves differently or deserve to be respected for those choices

every reason you brought up has been an issue for YOU that YOU are then making OTHERS put above their own validation for YOURSELF.

just fuck off. use people's fucking pronouns it's not that fucking hard to not be a complete shithead. the LGTBQA+ umbrella is larger than you think and you don't get to draw a line of what is or isn't under that umbrella. it's for all of us. stop being selfish.

#creativered #succubuns

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nahalism · 6 months

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Do you agree with cutting people out of your life completely or is that avoidance?

bsnsnxjjs so many layers to this but to keep it simple

i do agree with cutting people off/out. i dont think its necessarily avoidance however it can be.

speaking personally, ive come to realise that there really is this invisible, indelible string between us all, and so i do feel that once you know someone or something its impossible to cut it off or untether yourself from it completely because the essence of that person or thing rubs off on you and changes you whether for better or for worse. you can make the choice to change back, but you cant unknow or unfeel whats been known/felt. HOWEVER there are definitely times where certain people, certain things, no longer have any business sharing my personal or physical space. in which case ✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️✂️

now, for how to differentiate that being an act of self respect/preservation from an act of avoidance? i think that comes down to the individual involved. cause of that i can only speak for me, & what i know is that before making a decision to cut someone out of my life i consider the situation thoroughly, i see if theres something i can do to resolve the issue, i question if im the problem or if its my perspective or attitude that needs adjusting, & as a last resort i try to consider that if the situation were never to change would there be any good that could come from it or anything the situation is showing me that i can grow from & in turn will enable me to deal with/approach the situation differently. if all of those are dead ends, i start having my 'last conversation' which lays out 'this is my issue. this is what ive tried to do to resolve it. i either acknowledge their efforts to help make that change too, or point out where i dont think there was enough effort made, & that if it cant be resolved in a way where i leave a sense of confidence in resolution being made w either the person or situation, then its time to end things. likewise if that conversation is had and progress is only spoken about & not enacted its also the end of the road.

to me thats not avoidant, because attempts have been made to confront and resolve the issue at hand. avoidance would be leaving in place of having a conversation. & sometimes ghosting is necessary or not that deep, however like above, its situational.

hope that answered your questionnnn

#ask

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 2 years

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Long time reader, first time asker (I’m new to tumblr so sorry if this is formatted wrong or anything)

Have you read/do you have opinions on Meyer’s ‘The Host’? I read it recently and thought you and vinelle might have opinions on e.g

1. the (probably unstable?) four-person relationship between Wanda, Ian, Melanie and Jared at the end, or

2. how Melanie and Wanda would relate to each other after the novel ends (since we see so little of that).

Your and vinelle’s blogs were what got me hooked on tumblr btw, thanks for that :p

I have read it actually, @therealvinelle has as well but it's been longer for her. Here's some previous thoughts in general, thoughts on the fire eaters, and thoughts on the next generation of humans.

There's a lot of interesting shit in The Host along with a lot of the 'fucking weird' Meyer never fails to deliver. I, personally, quite enjoy it.

What's the Future of the Four-Person Relationship?

As you note, I think it's very unstable, and Wanda herself even notes as much both at the end and throughout the course of the novel. The signs are not looking good.

Wanda, of course, points out the obvious at first. She is not the body. To humans, our bodies, for better or worse, are extremely hard to separate from who we are as a person. We think of ourselves in terms of hands, feet, mouths, etc. We change our appearances, or the bodies we're stuck in, to try to suit us better but this causes much strife and hardship.

For Wanda, it's just a body, and there's a very real question of "If I did not look the way I currently look, would you still think of me the way you do?" Ian blusters and tries to argue his way out of it even when Wanda points out she very easily could have been in the body of a human man or even simply a woman he finds unattractive. She came in the body of a young, athletic, good looking woman. That makes a difference.

Later Ian tells Wanda that he purposefully put in no judgement at all with pride, letting the others pick her body. And there's a thought I have there that Ian... is trying a little too hard to be able to tell Wanda that it makes no difference to him. Especially as Wanda ends up in the body of another young, attractive, white woman who Jared picked specifically to pull on an observer's heartstrings.

The issue of "you sure you want to tap that, Ian?" is never really addressed or resolved for all that Wanda lets it go at the end of the novel.

We also have the plotline that Jared... seems to fall in love with Wanda. It becomes difficult to differentiate Melanie and Wanda when they're the same person and as the story goes along he seems to have more and more respect for Wanda and at the end even chooses to save her life despite it going a) against his beliefs and everything he's been fighting for b) puts Melanie back in the hot seat. By saving Wanda and putting her in storage, keeping her on Earth, he is condemning a human to death. Now, they sort of wriggle out of that by choosing a braindead human who will never come back, but the point remains that this goes against their principles. They are enabling their own takeover in this manner, and relying upon the horrific things the souls have done to their species to keep Wanda with them. Not to mention, if they hadn't found anyone... Melanie would have volunteered to take Wanda back. Something that Jared should never ever want and should have made entirely impossible.

Then of course we get Jared's hungry eyes in the last chapter, when Wanda's in a new body, where she wonders, "What the fuck is he confused about? I'm the only one who's an entirely different person now!"

Adding to this, of course, that Melanie was 17 and a refugee when she and Jared started their... "not sexual because he's a gentleman" relationship. They weren't together very long, stakes and passion was high, and Melanie loved him primarily because he made her feel secure. So long as she's with him, she and her brother will never be caught.

That's great and all, but do they really know each other all that much or value each other much beyond being two people they could rely on? Then, of course for Jared, a symbol of what the souls had personally taken from him then butchered in the form of Wanda coming crawling back with Melanie's body.

Then, of course, there's "How attracted was Ian to Melanie anyway?" And he puts on a good show, but again, he seems to be trying very very hard to show Wanda that he's not into that at all. Ian is a Soul Man, that squishy human exterior is nothing to him. He'd totally bang Wanda if she was in a dude. Totally.

None of that spells good things for anybody.

I suspect disaster will strike.

Jared and Melanie will probably fall apart first as Melanie realizes that Jared has feelings for Wanda. Not helping, of course, that he specifically picked out Wanderer's new digs because he liked the way they looked.

Ian and Wanda might limp along further, but Wanda will likely always know that their physical relationship is contingent on the body she happens to be in and whatever her body's hormones decides "me like" today. I imagine she'd mostly feel bad for Ian, and not want to bring up that this is something of a farce.

With added drama as Melanie and Jared fall apart.

How Do Melanie and Wanda Relate to Each Other After the End

I have more hope in that one.

These two went through hell together and both have nearly died for the other's sake. For all Wanda took, she gave Melanie back her family, gave her people a future at great cost to herself and her people, and gave Melanie the love of her life back.

Melanie would be horrified at Jared's affection for her, and is very upset about it throughout the book, but she can't rationally blame Wanda for it and knows it. By the end of the book, she seems to be pretty even keeled about that whole thing when it comes to Wanda's end of the equation.

I imagine the pair remain very close.

Your Delightful Praise

Thank you! Look @therealvinelle praise!

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