#equivalent of flesh that puppets have.

[darewolfcreates]

More of mob AU Nightlight

I like to think of OG Nightlight as a domesticated but Mob au Nightlight as feral hehe

Welcome home Mob au is by @clownsuu

Mob au Freddie is by @eldritchparasol

Nightlight is a basically a rat so I couldn't help but make a lil funny with the play on words .w.

#og nightlight was borderline on being a wild animal but i like to think that spending time with the neighbors kept them domesticated #Mob AU nightlight however spends most of their time out in the 'field' and has ended up going basically feral. #Welcome home Mob au #wh #wh au #welcome home au #welcome home #welcome home oc #welcome home mob au oc #my oc #my art #artists on tumblr #comic #also yes i forgot to draw the rest of barnaby arm in the comic ._. #og nightlight is already a very good climber. so i decided to lean into that and make it the base for their job in this au. going around an #crawling and climbing into places they shouldent be to keep an eye on other gangs and activity in the area #it helps that nightlights cheeks will glow and illuminate the vents and small spaces that they crawl though #in the bits of time their back at the base their favorite way to spend their time is sitting in front of the crematory's oven while its #running. its like a nice warm fire place. perfect place to take a nap :] it helps that they dont have a nose so they cant smell the burning #equivalent of flesh that puppets have. #nightlight also likes to stop by the bar and get a mug of chocolate milk when their at home base. #og nightlights favorite drink is warm milk since their whole thing is helping people fall asleep... so i altered that a bit since their #'thing' is no longer helping people sleep. .w. #nightlight is small and quick making them hard to catch. but watch out if you do manage to catch them! they keep several small knifes on #their person. im toying with the idea of also giving them some kind of spiked brass knuckles since they have gone a bit feral and they dont #have claws naturally... hm... #mob nightlight also doesn't talk much due to them going feral. they write down all their reports when in the field and bring those back #for review. #nightlight was originally a mix of a rat/ wolf/ and a bird... so i the inclusion of 2.5 of those animals is a lil Easter egg .w.

[mxmollusca]

 A critique I've heard of season two is that we’ve lost a lot of our symbolic objects, archetypes, and motifs. Season one gave us the lighthouse, the kraken, the red silk and the unicorn, the seagull, the auxiliary closet, Gnossienne no. 5, Pinocchio…

And then I think back to Samba sharing a quote from writer Alex Sherman during the ECCC panel:

“Season one is Stede going from a puppet to a real boy, and season two is Stede becomes a man.”

And that’s it, isn’t it? The transformation from object to subject, from something that has things done to it versus someone with agency. We see that transformation throughout season two. Almost every significant object is discarded, every symbol realized in flesh. 

The process starts at the end of season one with the throwing away of all of Stede’s things. So much has been written about Stede’s potential response to that act, and so many folks (myself included) held on to the idea that perhaps Ed kept a little bit, maybe the auxiliary closet. Stede literally no longer cares about those things. He originally brought all the things he loved with him to sea because he didn’t have significant personal relationships. That’s why we hear Gnossienne no. 5 as he goes through the empty cabin pulling out all of the knives. The discordant love motif shows how his priorities have changed, how his love has transformed.

The red silk is gone as well, but instead we have Stede, real and in the flesh wearing the exact same color, clutched in Ed’s hand in the moonlight.

The kraken, a giant monster capable of rending a ship in two? Ed becomes that, literally, disassembling the Revenge to sail her into a storm and destroy her. 

The lighthouse? A warning, Ned Low in his silver suit, a beacon in the dark warning Stede of what he will become if he continues on his course.

The unicorn, the destroyed masthead, literally becomes Izzy, a man taken apart and rebuilt piece by piece out of the parts of Stede Bonnet to become a beloved and respected member of the crew, and perhaps one of the strongest examples of self-actualization so far.

The attempts at reversing the process are demonstrated to be ineffective. The catalyst is when Buttons becomes a seagull, which shows Ed that the process of change is possible—that someone can become something or someone else. And he tries, he throws away his leathers, dons Button’s old jacket, tries to become an archetype. Stede tries to become a “real pirate”, despite the warning from Low. Even in Ed’s vision of Stede as a merman, Stede is being reduced to the role of symbol—a mythical being rather than a very real, very flawed man. They are both still trying to be the object when they need to be the subject. They need to take action, to realize themselves. And it’s a gruesome process. Jim’s version of Pinocchio is about the horrific transmogrification from wood into flesh and the horrors that need to be faced in order to make that transition.

We, the audience, are experiencing discomfort in this process. We are being held right up against the lighthouse lamp, and it burns. This is the emotional equivalent of body horror. It feels like all of our beloved belongings are being thrown overboard, but I promise they aren’t.

They are becoming.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd meta #our flag means death

[cakesandfail]

Do you have any headcanons about how Vetinari ended up taking power?

Actually yes I do!

I wrote a fic about his first day in power that vaguely referenced this and while I don't have like, a fully fleshed out story, there are a few bits and pieces that I sort of bodged together from things in the books and what I personally find entertaining about him as a character:

There's a bit in Soul Music which says that there was a rat plague in Ankh-Morpork shortly before Vetinari came to power, and that his solution was "tax the rat farms". It's unclear in context whether this means he suggested it at the end of Snapcase's time in power or if it was one of the first things he did after he became Patrician. I've just gone ahead and assumed that the rat plague was the last straw for Snapcase and that actually having a good suggestion was one of the reasons Vetinari was in people's minds as a replacement

That then leads us to ask, well, what on earth was he doing there? He's been in power a fair while even by Guards Guards but chronologically must still only be in his early 40s by then, to have been in his late teens in the 30-years-ago bits of Night Watch (and he can't be older than that, because it's made fairly clear that he's in the Guild equivalent of secondary school at that time, and Vimes knows that the two of them are approximately the same age). Given his canonically hilariously long list of postgrad qualifications, he probably went straight from Assassins Guild grad school to the Oblong Office, more or less. Conclusion: he was the fucking INTERN. (or possibly working as a clerk, but calling him the intern is at least 500% funnier)

Given the running joke about him being this weird posh dude who doesn't seem like a threat until you remember where he was educated, I would imagine that his whole "ah capital jolly good here I go getting slang wrong again" bullshit started here. We know that among the Ankh-Morpork elite, pretending to be stupider than you really are is something that can both keep you safe and help you get away with a lot, because we see Vetinari and Vimes and Sybil do it. So this is where he got his practice. Bertie Wooster the FUCK out of your working day, quietly get on with the things that need to be done while nobody's looking, and nobody will realise because they just think you're Madam's weird nephew with the shit beard and the puppy

So, bearing all that in mind, picture this:

Snapcase is dead. The important people (at least, the people who think themselves important) converge on the palace. In a small room off the Oblong Office is a young man steadily working through a large pile of paperwork. Oh, yes, that's Madam's nephew, you know... Havelock, isn't it? They ask if he knows what's happened, and he says no, he has no idea, he's just been working his way through all these regulations, and gosh, they really are very dull. And... well... nobody else is here. And nobody else seems to understand the filing system, or the rest of the staff, or anything really. But he does.

This guy's had a few good ideas when he's been doing the minutes at various meetings, that makes him a plausible candidate surely? And he's so young, so he's going to need a lot of guidance from helpful, experienced folks, right? How useful. He's just smart enough not to be an obvious puppet. Very handy indeed.

And the cream of Ankh-Morpork society being what they are (truly the cream- rich and thick) they don't realise until it's far too late that this lanky goth weirdo they'd thought would do their bidding knows everything about everyone and he's been quietly furious about the result of the Glorious 25th for over a decade. And, whoops, they'd somehow forgotten that he didn't spend all of that time on Guild postgraduate courses doing resits. Oh dear. And now he's their boss.

#patricianblogging #i have wanted to go into detail about this for AGES thank you for giving me an excuse

[kid-az]

All Tomorrows: Vanga-Vangog’s Puppeteer headcanons

Conceptually, the Temptor’s were one of the most interesting of the posthumans, with the males being worker drones and the woman immobile flesh trees with much greater intellect and the ability to control these men. They were however killed off by a comet in canon, unable to become sapient like many other extinct posthumans.

Vanga-Vangog would however explore their potential in the form of their descendants, the Puppeteers. These sapient people would further exaggerate the features of their ancestors, the males being what are effectively mindless meat robots controlled by the pheromones of the much larger, sapient, yet now completely immobile females.

I wish to go on a tangent about the possible culture, values, and the state of their world like I did for his other fanmade species, the Clicker’s

-Due to the male drones being mindless and viewed more as extensions of their body than independent, the act of sexual love is foreign in the Puppeteer’s culture, with romantic love being exclusive to unions between woman. These individuals would act as pen lovers, sending eachother messages, specially made robots/designer drones, and the occasional meetup via their equivalent of Zoom.

-Occasional, these romantic pairs would decide to move into their partner’s tower, living alongside them inside the same atrium room. This was a more recent tradition, as their post scarcity society and technology allowed themselves to be moved easier.

-Because of how individuals couldn’t meet up physically due to the obvious, the Puppeteer's never developed any actual table manner’s, often messily devouring meat, vegetables, and many other types of food via overhang conveyer belts. By the end of their meal sessions, they would be covered in chunks of their food and juices, having to be sprayed by their drones via hoses filled with soapy, scented water.

-Inspite of their seemingly draconian biology, (Often by people mistaking the male drones as sapient, which they are not) their post-scarcity government was one of the most democratic among the Second Empire, with every civilian having equal say and rights in politics. These debates were set up in their zoom equivalents.

-Puppeteers, surprisingly enough, do have fashion. During their ancient history, they would often need to wear thick blankets wrapped around them every winter so as to not freeze to death, and this tradition of having drones make blankets carried onto their modern day, even though they live in temperature-regulated towers. These blankets would be made out of fur and wool of non-sapient cousins, their cotton plant equivalent, or silk, and be very thick yet also soft and secure.

-The male drones would also be decorated, early on by dyeing and tattoos, but later more conventional clothing after it was introduced by their posthuman cousins. And no, their fashion wasn’t gender-based, male drones would be given either female, male, or gender neutral clothing by the queens.

-Baby Puppeteer’s would live right beside their mothers early on, being tended to and cared for by her drones while they would converse. For most of their history, this was the only time female puppeteers would physically meet eye-to-eye. These children, once of age, would often have a tower built by their mothers and her friends, and would move into them to spend the rest of their lives.

-Infertile Puppeteer females, due to their inability to birth males to use as extensions of their bodies, had to be well-cared for by the drones of their friends and/or family, and would traditionally be given the task of being soothsayers or recorders of oral tradition, since their was not much else they could do. The development of robotics allowed these infertile individuals more independence and personal freedom.

-They we’re huge, avid consumers of TV media and literature, with them spending much of their times either reading or watching screens, eating food, talking to friends and neighbors on their screen, or watching their drones and robots perform and do silly antics for their enjoyment. (They’d often recreate other posthuman memes with their drones.)

#all tomorrows #all tomorrows temptor #temptor #nemo ramjet #cm kosemen #posthuman #puppeteer #fanmade species #headcanons #worldbuilding

[corvus-ace]

Okumura Haru, aka Noir: an analysis

so, my friend Keeper wanted me to help them get a sense of Haru's character because they missed her introduction and a fair amount of her confidant, and the result was this analysis. fast forward like a month and I realized "hey, this would be fun to post online actually" and here I am lol. fair warning, it's long and also in bullet point paragraphs cause I was trying to write quickly at the time and have since fleshed a few of them out a bit more (I have a lot of feelings about Haru lmao)

without further ado, here we go!

Haru's past

-first and foremost, Haru is the heir to a fuck off huge corporation. her father basically owns the equivalent of mcdonalds. though she doesn't always act like it, she is fundamentally a rich kid

-now in my original analysis, it had been a while since I'd actually gone through Haru's confidant, and I had mistakenly believed that Haru had at least to some extent been raised to take over the business. pretty sure I thought that cause I can't tell the difference between actual canon and stuff I've read in fics lol. but after playing through her confidant again and realizing she actually had zero business experience whatsoever actually makes her even more impressive in my eyes, because she more or less had to teach herself how to run an entire corporation, and by the end of her confidant she has a pretty solid handle on things already (doubly impressive because her confidant starts so late game, so depending on how fast you play through it... she's learning all this in like, two months max if you're getting through it before 3rd sem)

-in addition to that: rather than her father retiring and placing her in charge, she is literally thrust into it by her father's death. so she's learning all this business management, getting used to phantom thievery, and grieving her father all at the same time???? I could never

-presumably Haru inherited everything after her father's death, putting her in full control of his wealth? (I don't really know how businesses and shareholders work.) Haru's mother doesn't appear to have been in the picture, although to be fair that could mean she's either dead, has left, or is just never shown on-screen. I don't remember any distinct mentions of her

-her father's view of her: the conspiracy has obviously been in action for at least around two years (based on the timeline of the mental shutdowns and psychotic breaks inflicted by Akechi after he joined the conspiracy). Okumura Kunikazu's view of his daughter would presumably have become distorted during this time; obviously we don't necessarily know the timeline of any Palace formations except Futaba's and Sae's, since one was shown on-screen and the other discussed more than once. by the time we begin Okumura's Palace, he views Haru as nothing more than a tool for him to use in his financial and political ambitions ("subservient puppet" and her cognitive form's appearance as an obedient and extremely weak robot). he also is ignorant of her wants and needs, evident by him arranging to marry her off to Sugimura for his own political gain

-now, because Okumura becomes so distant from Haru as his Palace develops, whether intentionally or not, Haru is kept fairly far away from her father's unethical business practices. obviously she has her own suspicions as indicated in game, but seeing as her father doesn't really tell her anything, she presumably still had at least a decent opinion of him up until his Palace

Haru's character/personality

-Haru is very kind by nature. her childhood initially encouraged this (the cafe her grandfather used to run) but because of her father's distortion and changed parenting style she has mostly retreated into becoming a "seen but not heard" people pleaser. this results in a very reserved persona, but she isn't exactly shy - she is willing to reach out to help people, is generally friendly when approached (if you go up to her in the Shujin hallways before you even start the Palace, she's very polite, even if not explicitly cheerful), and as proved not long after we formally meet her:

-if a core belief of hers is challenged, she will stand up for it. one of our first interactions with her in game, she isn't afraid to tell us that after listening to our flimsy explanation of our motives as the Thieves, she cannot work with us. she calls us out immediately on not helping our own teammate, and tells us she cannot work with people who aren't certain of their motives/goals (I don't remember her exact wording but I remember it was definitely something along those lines). in short, she cannot trust us to truly want to help her father

-first proper meeting: other than the seconds immediately after her entrance alongside Morgana in her father's palace, she is very flustered and constantly getting things confused. based on my understanding of her as a person, I believe this is because although she already considers Morgana a friend, he's clearly established a role for her to play as well (replacing the Phantom Thieves with her, taking the spotlight for future changes of heart, etc) and she knows, deep down, that she is still being used, even if Morgana does have good intentions and wants to teach her to help people. deep down she knows this isn't the real her either. her full Persona awakening showcases this pretty clearly with all the fucking guns and rocket launchers hidden in Milady's skirt that are finally revealed (aka Haru's full, true strength simmering for a long time, hidden beneath the surface, because who in her life would have ever wanted her to be anything but obedient and weak?)

-she's also the one to push Morgana to be honest both with himself and the other Thieves, to admit he doesn't really want to leave and that he feels like this is the only place he belongs. she's struggled with being honest with herself in the past, accepting her true self and especially displaying it, and the Thieves helped her finally do that; given her kind nature I'm not surprised she wanted to be able to return the favor

-as we get to know her, we learn Haru is still very naturally kind and genuinely friendly. the thing is, she doesn't have a lot of friends. we don't see her interact with anyone (other than her father and fiance) beyond basic pleasantries until her formal introduction, including at Shujin. I'm fairly reasonably certain this is because almost everyone she's ever met has only seen her as "Okumura's daughter" rather than just Haru, her own person

Noir

-Haru is one of the strongest physical damage dealers, alongside Ryuji and Yusuke (both in terms of normal melee attacks and her powerful gun-type skills). she's also the only Thief other than Akechi who has gun-type skills on her Persona - and it's important to note that Akechi can only use gun-type skills in the third semester, with Loki and eventually Hereward, so Haru having gun-type skills significantly earlier in game than Akechi (especially with high crit chances) is quite useful. also her weapons are a grenade launcher and a large battle axe so that says a lot about her

-her Persona uses psy magic and ailment skills in addition to the gun-type skills. psy is particularly important since it triggers many kinds of technical hits, extra useful if you have a wide variety of ailments you can inflict via Joker's Personas. this also makes sense given the identity of her first tier Persona, Milady de Winter, the uncommonly beautiful and extraordinarily cunning female spy featured in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Milady is also described as ruthless, which I feel is a good representation of how Haru acts as a Phantom Thief. now in addition to the other skills, she does have the ability to cure certain ailments and also recover more quickly from ailments, and can use heat riser to give significant buffs to a party member and makarakarn/tetrakarn to protect a party member from a magic or physical attack respectively. obviously the specific skills she has available to her depends on how you choose to build her in game (I personally tend to lean towards emphasizing her gun-type and support skills over her ailment usage/curing, since I have no shortage of ailments in Joker's Persona stock and prefer to use Haru as a damage dealer, but that's not really relevant lmao)

-also, Haru is a sadist who loves killing/destroying Shadows. probably all that repressed anger and unresolved trauma. as rich as her father is, I seriously doubt he paid for a therapist for her. rich and emotionally distant fathers are just like that

The Empress

-I have some issues with her confidant that I think are about to become very evident

-Haru is the Empress Arcana (number III) and it shows. she is a girl in a position of power (head of a corporation) and as mentioned before, she is very kind by nature, and quite nurturing as shown by her love and skill for taking care of plants. the people in charge of assigning cards did a particularly good job with her

-her confidant is less based on personal relationships like Ryuji's or Makoto's; instead it focuses on professional development and relationships with subordinates and corporate associates and shareholders. she spends a lot of time throughout her confidant events figuring out who to trust and how to shift Okumura Foods into something she can truly be proud of, with a strong focus on undoing all the unethical practices her father put in place. though she of course wasn't expecting to be put in charge so soon, she does a very good job managing the sudden responsibilities. we also have no reason to believe her grades were slipping during this time, so she appears to be able to manage her schoolwork (from a prestigious high school, no less) right alongside her new responsibilities

Miscellaneous

-Haru has no qualms about spending large amounts of money on her friends - we literally went to the equivalent of fucking disneyland after her father's Palace and she thought it was no big deal, although to be fair to her, that was technically a special situation as the park had already been rented out by her father for a company event that ended up being cancelled due to his change of heart, so she really just took over the reservation. it's worth noting that this point is heavily represented in fanfics (based on what I've seen across ao3), as fanon Haru is, for example, often willing to give Yusuke in particular plenty of money for food, train fares, etc. I have seen at least two fics (though I don't remember the authors or the titles) where she happily spends lots of money on the other Thieves

-out of the Thieves, Haru is one of the most vocal about her hatred and mistrust of the police. this is very, very evident in Strikers, and remains consistent throughout that story (and, side note, it's fucking hilarious seeing how offput Zenkichi is about it every single time)

-she also later embraces her brief stint as the "Beauty Thief" and it's something of an inside joke amongst the Thieves (not sure that's the right term but idk how else to describe it). there aren't any hard feelings; the Thieves are already pretty chill about it the moment she joins the group anyways. the other Thieves affectionately call her the Beauty Thief in Strikers, particularly Futaba and Morgana, and Haru is happy to really lean into it sometimes (Zenkichi does not understand this either and I think she enjoys that)

Final notes - based on my impressions of her; not really analysis

-Haru is one of the most willing to fight god, and one of the most likely to win

-mixture of cottagecore lesbian and warrior princess

-her association with purple is partially rooted in her psy abilities, of course, but it's also a color associated with royalty and elegance, particularly fitting for the Empress Arcana

-Haru is not allowed to drive and should never be allowed behind a steering wheel (Keeper, if you're reading this, you'll understand this much later)

-kinda already mentioned this but she's very good at gardening (can grow hp and sp restoratives for the Metaverse)

-she took ballet for years and was good at it, which makes sense since she's quite flexible, as well as having natural grace

Conclusion

well, if you made it this far, I hope you liked this self-indulgent analysis! I relate to Haru a lot, so I like to think I have a good sense of her, and hopefully I've done a good job of representing her in this post. there are a few other Thieves I have enough thoughts on to write analyses similar to this one, so I'll probably be making those pretty soon. and again, although this is very personally motivated, I do still hope someone out there will like reading them!

(and Keeper - I know you already read the first version of this and still wanted to read this version too, so a big thanks for enabling my brainrot lmao)

#haru okumura #okumura haru #persona 5 #p5r #persona 5 royal #persona 5 strikers #i have not played p5 tactica so i can't analyze her there #character analysis #self indulgent

[tammyhybrid21]

ALRIGHT!

Who wants some random/dumb headcanon thoughts on iterators?!

Also yes I do view the generations a bit in opposite solution to what MOST of what I’ve seen others do. Instead of each gen been dedicated more to the problem it got less central... which then leads to gen 3 iterators been the generation that took the loss of the ancients the worst.

“None of us miss them” the loss of half of their original purpose. Any wonder they have bad copes.

To be honest most of this is just going to be me noting stuff down for self-reference, but hey-- you folks can take this information for your own use as well. Also notice, this isn’t the specific order I drew things in and you can get the vibes as it goes how I got more solid view over the course of doodling.

But the generations and their purpose, no. These are pretty set in my head.

Bunching these thoughts together, mostly because they’re all on the same/similar topics. Time to talk about the puppets. Because they are what we see the most in the game. Also yes, I am outing myself as an “Off the String is Possible” believer. But I also will thoroughly admit I am a lover of the Iterators are hiveminds headcanon as well... although I view it more like it’s a whole symbiotic ecosystem...

Anycase, notes that didn’t quite make it into any of these pictures because I didn’t know how to draw/explain like that-- the synthetic “skin” of an iterator is either very, very short grass or a kind of moss/lichen covering. The colour variation is kind of random as a result and yes this does mean theoretically an iterator could change colours if ever they felt the need to.

The internal “flesh” parts of an iterator are I imagine similar in consistency to mushroom fibre/flesh. Squishy... Yet still firm enough to keep its shape beneath the jelly like membrane that carries coolant/blood throughout.

I have more thoughts on puppets and eating but drew it more like as a joke page.

These are all possible because an iterator puppet’s moss/grass skin is basically able to absorb what’s around it at any time. Well, as long as it’s willed. So iterators got options from the traditional “smoosh” food into your face to just having the “soup backpack”...

Sunshine is also “yummy”... but I do sidenote that it’s not as effective as a source of power/energy and more like a quick pick me up, the equivalent of eating a single banana and calling it your entire meal for the day.

Also an iterators stomach/filtration system internally is actually biological as well, but that didn’t exactly get drawn here. Mostly because how does that translate to pictures, I’m not good at this stuff.

Side note, don’t know if you folks looked at the page, but with the intake pipe, imagine if that were a map in Rain World... you just saw this pipe sucking in water and hey that’s curious-- only whoops it’s your death, you are food.

Not pictured how the processing strata is the iterator structure equivalent of a mycorrhizal network. Seriously though how would you even draw that?

Anycase this is where the symbiotic hive mind side of things come into play. Without the puppet it’s not like the structure would just-- stop. It would just be a lot more mindless. Working away continuing to go about the same processes just without purpose. It’s an extension, extras on top. Neuron flies been one of the few exceptions but even they can be worked around it’s just... very much a loss.

Also yes this is my headcanon reason why Pebbles is still barely conscious in Saint’s timeline. He’s just also half frozen and plants do not cold well. Or actually they do incredibly well in cold it’s just, he’s half in dormancy.

I should have spoken more about the mechanics of the structure and all, but honestly... It’s all the signals sent out.

Also void stuff... I don’t know if I’ll return on any of these things but eyo...

#Rain World #Rain World Iterators #THybrid Iterates #Headcanons #Iterators are plants pass it on #If you can't read my scribble sorry #I'm not sure I could transcribe it this hour

[queen0fm0nsterz]

I had a brain surge while re-listening to The Lonely Way and came up with this:

What if all the doll-like beings (minus the shadow kids) are made by the Mannequin. The way Noone describes her feature doesn't sound like a partly flesh object like the Craftsman's dolls, it's more in line with the Bullies and Baby, not to mention the noted similarity between the Puppet she's making in the episode and the Ventriloquist's Dummy.

Hell, maybe Rascal learned how to make/manifest shadow children from observing or reading about the Mannequin woman.

I really think I'm onto something with this one, Queen.

WAIT. YOU'RE KINDA COOKING PROF...

It could explain some things. The Shadow Children seem to be kind if a mix between the shadow equivalent of a Glitching Remain is - the manifestation of someone's death, a soul - and the Lady's dolls see as their masks are variations of the masks the Lady herself owns.

(They have three variations, it's kind of cute... they're like little groups... I wonder if the masks being different means there is like, "generations". Like the Lady made a group first, then the second group some time later, so on and so forth. But let's not stray)

Perhaps this is her way to adapt the magic that makes dolls come to life to her own?

Also - fun fact for those who don't know: the Shadow Kids are referred to as "The Masked Remains" in the game's soundtrack.

#little nightmares #ln meta #tson meta #the sounds of nightmares #the lady #the shadow kids

[the-nosy-neighbor]

The Wally/Home Connection

This is going to be some far out theorizing, but I think it might not be for everyone.  The post is about Home/Wally’s relationship.  Please don’t read if you think that might spoil your enjoyment of the project at all.  

Wally and Home

The relationship between Home and Wally is something heavily debated.  The really cool thing about this project is that you can see most of them being a possibility.  I think the one thing that is commonly expressed is that they are working together somehow.  

You know what I think?  Wally is a part of Home’s body.  Home made Wally to attract people/neighbors.

The more I spent time thinking about the relationship between Home and Wally, the idea of them being connected entities has always appealed to me more than other theories.  

Wally is such an attractive character!  He is cute and disarming and a bit slow.  He loves everyone.

In the world of the show, where Wally and his friends are real, you could make the argument that Wally is this way because of the needs of the show.  The kids need a focal point, something to relate to as their replacement in the world.  Wally doesn’t know things, he doesn’t need to.  We all learn together.

BUT, while we haven’t seen Wally of the show, we have heard him.  He is cute and funny, and everyone enjoys having him around.  He participates and asks questions and tells stories.  So, he is an active character.  In the secret videos, we have Wally as a part of every scene, and we appear to be seeing through his eyes, and he really doesn’t have any reaction while the video goes.  He appears to be disassociating, or just turned off.  

What if Wally is the representative of home, but in the same way an anglerfish has a lure?

Puppeteer Parasite IRL and in D&D

Puppeteer Parasite.  One of the bugs reminded tumblrina of something that is a real bug that is a Puppeteer Parasite, or related anyway.  

It is a fungus that makes ants do their bidding, which is a less understood way to describe the fungus affecting the nervous system.  In the end, the ants climb to the top of a bush (the night time rattling in the bushes?), bite down and die.  Scientists say that the fungus has worked around the jaw muscles at this point.

In DnD, the puppeteer parasite is a brain slug type thing (also on tv tropes)

Can’t see past 60 ft

Telepathy within 30 ft

Doesn’t require air or sleep

Spells are cling/consume life

Has a suggestion bonus action

Rubber amoeba the size of a dinner plate, glossy on top, bone hooks on the bottom

Attaches to wall or ceiling and jumps/falls on victim

Drains energy or uses them for a ride

Likes humanoid thralls as victims

Thralls:  people fear, consumes human flesh to reveal lost secrets, doesn’t breathe, has superior vision in the dark, has 2 languages

Using my own illustration here, explaining the concept, plus it was just fun.  

It explains the secret videos, if the angler fish isn’t actively using Wally, then he just doesn’t do anything.  Home doesn’t have to do anything in these moments, so Wally is off, until the use of Wally’s name shakes the Anglerfish out of passivity into participating.

Wally doesn’t know anything maybe because Home doesn’t know these things either.  If he is the equivalent of an anglerfish to a human, then basic information and ways of living would be completely foreign on both parts.  

Wally can’t eat.

Wally is attractive and draws people to him.  He makes for a pretty good lure.  He isn’t challenging in most ways, especially since he can’t even remember small things.

Wally attempts to include Home in all of their activities.  Home can’t move around in this universe, so it makes sense that he sees all this happening through Wally.  Maybe those moments are Home’s attempt to get people closer to him.

Barnaby is close with Home (and from my Look, I made a dog post, most likely dead) and look what happened to him? As someone who spends a lot of time with Home, and has been the only character portrayed as being inside Home and capable of understanding him.  What if this is our puppeteering?  Once Barnaby has been incorporated into Home/Wally, then he could also be used to lure unsuspecting people into Home’s trap.

Wally being out of it during Barnaby’s conversation with Home could be Home's attention being divided?

There are a lot of missing people in this neighborhood.  We have mentions of Barnaby’s mom, Julie’s siblings, and Eddie’s mom.  These all came through descriptive text, and if I remember correctly, none of those characters are mentioned by the characters they are supposed to be related to.  Maybe Barnaby mentioned his mom, but then again, he could be absorbed.  What if absorbed means you have access to Home’s inner workings?

Axed character Sunny.  Maybe Sunny was devoured by Home.  

On a related note, all the black stuff /under Home could be part of the entrapment.  Black tendrils reaching out.  

Someone speculated that Wally’s I see you/I can’t see being on black backgrounds could be a zoom in of wally’s pupil (my eyes are black).  But it could be the deep sea like background.

Edit: There is no heart between Wally and Home on the pixel banner with all the neighbors.

Let’s go to an actual fish:

This guy definitely has tendrils reaching out.  A lot of this kind of fish also have mouths that almost resemble doors. 

Maybe Home just has to get someone in the door, and once Wally gets close enough to ask someone to come in, gotcha.

The puppeteer parasite: The first is the ant, obviously, infected by the parasite.  The ant has a protuberance from the head, which also puts me in mind of the black stuff.

The DnD guy is pretty funny.  More of a flat slug-like thing that takes people unawares.  Replace all those teeth with eyes, and it would be a pretty close analog to several things we see.  

Finally, there is a very telling picture from Clown’s ko-fi.  Not going to share that, as I haven’t seen it anywhere else, but Clown’s work is often taking something happy and celebratory, and turning it into a monster, or at least as something threatening.  This sculpture is not that, specifically, but the sculpture was photographed next to Home, which is very telling indeed.  

Home the devouring entity has Wally to speak for them, and now Wally is speaking to us, trying to draw us into his world or trying to break through to ours.  

"Hold my gaze and follow me."

#welcome home #welcome home theories #wally darling #welcome home arg #welcome home wally

[taviokapudding]

GESHIN 3.2 & 3.3 SPOILERS AHEAD

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I’ve been thinking about how we learn in the 3.3 archon quest that Scaramouche was supposed to be permanently fused with the mecha body had the Sages and Dottore succeeded. But after you defeat him and Nahida takes the electro gnosis in 3.2, Scaramouche literally detaches himself by ripping the pipes connecting to his body via his own strength and desperation to reach forward.

I rewatched that clip recently and realized the tubes severed at the middle rather than the connections/needles stabbed into his back that keep him fused with the mecha coming out. So tldr the main reason why Scaramouche had a coma was not from falling out of the machine and getting head trauma; he not only forced himself out of a system with limited mobility that had direct contact with his nerve endings, but whatever robot equivalent Scara has for a spinal cord got stabbed with huge connection ports (knowing Dottore they probably were needles the size of Scaramouche’s hands) that would’ve caused severe pain if suddenly the cables got cut.

And the worst part? We know the purple fluid in the tubes are electro in nature because of the distinct purple color - what happens in real life when you cut a cable when something is on and there’s water or fluids involved? You risk getting shocked or starting an oil based fire depending on the voltage and size. We see Scaramouche’s eyes jolt into a bright purple from the loss of the remaining electro energy before fading out as he falls to the ground- he had his nerve ends fried with the equivalent of an internal taser. The remaining liquid from the tube-cables would have short circuited right as the nerve pain induced shock kicked in

So when Scaramouche falls out, the shock kicks in & that’s why he doesn’t make an effort to save himself. If his nerves are fried as he slips out, he wouldn’t be able to move his limbs in a way to catch or brace himself for impact & that’s why it appears he turns off mid fall. Then it’s assumed he lands head first and not matter if he lands on his back or front, the needles inside would’ve pressed and warped inside of him upon impact. And we have no idea if the purple liquid is the equivalent of his blood or more of an iv drip fluid to connect to mecha but he probably bled out the remaining liquid and his own fluids from said needles.

A coma was the best case scenario for Scaramouche to experience and I suspect Nahida even made sure he’d fall into one during the process of removing the gnosis. You can see her face get filled with worry right before she uses her dream powers to assist in grabbing the gnosis too. I am speculating but Nahida might have even been able to see or sense the agony via memory connections as she took the gnosis.

All that aside, we do know for a fact that Scaramouche should’ve died because by design Dottore was ready to dispose of Scaramouche if they were to attempt to leave without his help and/or back out at any time after getting connected. If the fried nerve endings didn’t kill him, the pain of the connection ports (which I suspect are huge needles) making whatever blood or puppet fluid pour out of him like a de-corking multiple shaken champagne bottles, would; whether Scaramouche would rip or cut the cable tubes or he attempted to pull out the connections, leaving huge flesh wounds exposed. And that’s not counting the issue of, without maintenance from the Sages and Dottore, the connection ports would deteriorate with time, poisoning Scaramouche from the inside.

#mun post #genshin impact spoilers #so yeah fuck Dottore #it makes sense he would know how to k word Scaramouche after years of testing

[seafoamcrest]

((would rhea ever think about having a child? or is flayn (or sitri) the closest equivalent to that?))

ON RHEA AND HAVING CHILDREN:

TLDR: not right now, but she wants to if she ever gets to retire

Right now, Rhea cannot even think about having a child. She is the mother hen for all of Fodlan and must safeguard its future, she doesn't have the time to devote herself emotionally to anyone. That being said, she has adopted children, in a sense. Most of her "children", the ones she gave her Crest and Crest Stone fragments to, are merely mentees that she has no real emotional connection to.

Sitri and Flayn are different. Sitri was the only one of her homunculi that she loved because despite the circumstances in which she came to be, Sitri still looked at Rhea as a loving mother, and that just made Rhea BSOD. Flayn is her baby niece, probably the only person aside from very small children she will allow herself to be somewhat affectionate to in public.

But what does Rhea want in the future? She wants to retire from her Archbishop position and start a little family of her own. And by little, I only mean little in comparison to the Church's size. She would adopt Cyril if he lets her*. And thanks to the same magic that brought you Homunculi Flesh Puppets ™️, Rhea can conceive biological children with her s/o regardless of their sex. She will have as big of a horde of baby Nabateans running around as her s/o is comfortable with.

This is a huge part of why she wants to resurrect the Goddess, actually: Rhea feels that with peace and order restored by the Goddess in Fodlan, she can finally retire from her 1000+ years of Church leadership and begin a sweet, new domestic chapter in her life as a mom.

#ooc #headcanons #ask reply #* - in my verse with hecvenwept where seteth adopts my OCs Rhea cant adopt Cyril #because i ship cyril with Sylvestre and this would make the ship yikes #so i hc that catherine shamir and or alois adopt him there instead #and thanks for the ask!!!

[chasingmemoriesofficial]

So apparently this is gonna be a thing now

My characters have taken control of the story again. I had a dream about the aftermath of the FSM's death, and I just... so it goes like this:

The year is 1955 AC. So the FSM attacks Garmadon during an argument, Ray and Maya show up, Ray burns the FSM (who's just a flesh puppet for a pair of malevolent dragon spirits) to death, and that was what I already had written down.

BUUUUT the dream I had added more context to WHY the fight started as well as what happened after.

So when Wu was younger, he had a very emo/goth/punk/dark style. Ear piercings, dyed hair, dark clothing with band t-shirts and ripped jeans, stuff like that. Well, one day he and FSM (or more accurately the dragons controlling his dead body) got into a fight and it resulted in Wu's piercings getting violently ripped out of his ears courtesy of the Elemental Power of Metal.

This is when Garmadon steps in. He sends Wu inside, and then he blows up at his "father". Long story short, when Garmadon walks away, the dragons don't take too kindly to that and send a wave of ice his way, impaling him and nearly killing him.

Cue Ray and Maya coming over to pick the brothers up, as they'd made plans to do something. Of course, they walk in and see what happened to Garmadon and Ray, the reckless man he is, attacks Ninjago's equivalent of God... and turns him to ash.

Ok, you still with me? Coz this is where the dream picks up again.

So Garmadon's in the hospital after all this, and it's been a couple days since everything went down. Wu is sitting in a chair next to his brother's hospital bed, and he is very much not happy. I mean, it had been a wild couple days. His ears are mutilated, Garmadon's comatose and missing a lung, and their father is dead... and the Monastery ended up catching fire during the fight (thanks Ray).

So Ray and Maya come to visit them and end up taking Wu home with them.

Now, Wu's asleep on their couch (after crying himself to sleep because he is NOT okay) and Maya kneels next to him and brushes his hair out of his face while Ray tosses a blanket over him.

And this is where the dream starts taking a slightly unexpected turn. So it fast forwards a tiny bit and shows different scenes of Wu and the Smiths... except for the oddest reason they're less "friend" moments and more "ship" moments.

It was really cute, too. The Smiths have Wu move in with them so he's not alone, and over time they become more than just friends.

Still baffles me, though. CM!Ray and Maya have been married since the 1920s and after about 30-some years they decided that "Hey, let's involve this traumatized emo demigod in our marriage!"

It works somehow. Kai and Nya (who are born in the 1990s) still refer to Wu as their "uncle" but that's because they aren't old enough to fully remember his relationship with their parents.

Fun fact: the siblings also don't know Garmadon and Wu as Garmadon and Wu at first. They know the two brothers as Donnie and Alex (the latter since Wu's middle name is Alexei and he goes by that when not on official business) and don't learn otherwise until after the Skulkin attack.

BONUS: I should also note that both Ray and Maya are taller than Wu

#ninjago #chasing memories au #fanfic #alternate universe #dreaming #my dreams are weird

[tacticalvalor]

«────── « HEADCANON » ──────»

Thinking of giving Toni a fleshed out Metal Gear AU solely based on the fact the Ghosts are like... The Tom Clancy equivalent to FOX/FOXHOUND.

CIA-backed group of elite soldiers sent to do the government's dirty work? People who associate themselves with the actual name are considered "odd", because these units are practically non-existent to the public? Members end up betraying themselves and their mission for personal gain and a greater, worldwide agenda (mostly referring to Walker & Hill here, but a lot of Ghosts went willingly)?

Oh yeah. I can see it in my mind.

Antonia being sent in on covert ops as the government's puppet, only to eventually come to the realization that she truly can't trust anybody (re: how the Patriots end up being in control of a lot of things behind the scenes)... Her being the one to go rogue as opposed to her comrades, because unlike them she genuinely does want to put an end to things?

🤔🤔🤔 thinking. When I have some free time I'll have to draft out a proper name and details for the verse.

#(headcanon) #(v; crossover) #(v; metal gear) #(m: nomad)

[wcrpbubble]

arcadia's brief bio under the cut.

arcadia is a character i'm still fleshing out.

she is a gallifreyan and is the daughter of koschei oakdown (verse depending, she can also be a child of the doctor, if you ship that way, i'm very open to her other parent). she is a time lord by time loomed dna, however rassilon and the other high council of gallifrey have taken away her regenerations as punishment. she was raised outside of the care of her parents, instead brought up to be the perfect un-emotional war puppet. meant to be an asset to the time lords during the time war, she holds a high rank in gallifrey's military (or what serves as their military) and is a highly skilled soldier as the lord president intended her to be.

after the war, she is imprisoned and then later placed on the equivalent of house arrest on gallifrey, but eventually breaks out to find out precisely where her parent, now going by 'the master', has gone.

#( muse && arcadia ) #i mean very brief because i'm still building her

[creechurfoundincheckerboardvoid]

Hola, i am the headcanon anon, May i have some dhmis or salad finger headcanons? (if not its fine)

hola!!!!!! buenos dias!!!!!!! or noches!!!!!! although that has entirely the wrong connotations if you translate it directly!!!!! i will GLADLY bestow some headcanons upon thee!!!!!!!!! i was gonna apologize for it being so long but no. suffer <3

ok we'll start with sal because there's only one of him

salad fingers

he doesn't have any concept of death. not for others, and not for himself, either. thus the lack of any sort of self-preservation instincts. there's only "going away" and "falling asleep." none of it is permanent.

he has died before, though. several times. several ways. he doesn't have a word for it in his head. it's just something that happens. it never lasts.

at least a hundred years old. i'm unsure what the human equivalent would be. with the way glass mother treats him, it's not entirely impossible for him to still be a kid. i mostly think of him as an adult, though, or ambiguous at best.

not a human, never was. some unspecified monster thing. an alien guy on an alien planet living his best life!! or worst life. depends how you look at it

an aquatic species. he has gills instead of a nose. his fingers are highly sensitive (and long) to navigate in dark water. breathes in both air and water equally fine. he's like a fucked up frog or something

the mirrorland (where glass mother and brother are) is his original home. he was cursed to live alone in the parallel reflection world as a particularly brutal punishment. it has been this way for decades. he doesn't think about it so much anymore. the desert wasteland is just his home now. he likes it that way.

as a sub-note of that, him destroying the mirrors at the end of 11 was him deciding to stay in the parallel land, and never return to where he came from. the desert wasteland has become more of a home to him than the mirrorland ever was.

his finger puppets are not sentient, but he pretends they are. he made them as friends for himself back when he was first sent to the other end of the mirror. it's been long enough for them to have developed personalities and tastes of their own.

hubert the flesh-boy was actually alive, somehow. it's possible that his outer casing died at the end of 11, and it had to be taken off of him so that he could keep living (in market and 12). either way, he's becoming increasingly sentient and i do not know what it means but it's cool as hell

completely unaware of his own peculiarity. it doesn't matter to him, really.

comic-salad specifically though. has been made aware of that. it's messed him up a bit more than he lets on

raptor hands king

i have absolutely no idea how tall he is!!!! i draw him to be just a bit smaller than red guy, which would put him at around six feet tall? 1.8 meters? except i've since noticed that he's only as tall as the shoulders of all those horses, and if they're average horses, that would make him like. my height. 5'4". small

the corpses that just show up in the desert wasteland are reflections of living things in the mirrorland

he and glass brother are not separate people. either glass brother is a reflection of salad's insecurities (or who he could have been, if he'd stayed behind), or salad and everything he does is a coping mechanism of glass brother's to deal with that living situation. i don't theorise as much as i used to but i still think about this one sometimes. yes i have a lot of contradictory headcanons lmao

his organs are all black, and so is his blood in the center of his body. everywhere else it's red.

i've liked salad fingers a lot longer than dhmis, and it was about the same time i was figuring out i'm neurodivergent (autistic specifically, years ago lol) and yeah that's why salad fingers is both the first and most cursed neurodivergent headcanon i have. tbh i was hesitant because "what if people say he's bad representation" but then i realised that i'm bad representation. like me the human person. so

oh yeah last one he is trans <3 lol

and now!! the puppets!!!! yay

yellow guy

okay so i know this is not exactly a popular opinion (and i'd thought the contrary for a while before), but yellow guy is an adult! i could ramble very extensively about the different possibilities for this but boy is this post getting laggy. unspecified exact age, though. he's autistic.

tbh is his imaginary friend he beamed the image into the minds of internet users and that's how it exists

this dude is aromantic that headcanon means so much to me :]

he has a very limited range of clothing that he likes to wear. he found one sweater that he liked and now almost exclusively wears different color variations of it with his overalls

very artistic-leaning. not so good with mathematics or remembering facts, but he's very imaginative and good with art. colors especially.

wants to be a clown someday. probably could

hard of hearing after time happened

mostly sensory-seeking. also when he happy stims he shakes his head really fast because!!! because

wouldn't it be fucked up if his blood was oil lol. wouldn't it be fucked up if roy's blood was oil

he's the most emotionally aware of the trio. unexpectedly good at reading people. he has all those strange fears (horses, eggs, sky, moon, that stuff), but he's never scared of the unusual. the unsettling, uncanny, unnatural. it does not bother him. he is attracted to the dark and macabre with the idea that they are something kind. and he's right about it, too. that's why he's friends with salad. he knows there's nothing to be afraid of.

^ that's my favorite yellow guy headcanon ever actually. if i think about it for too long i might cry

generally averse to touch. really not okay with unprompted physical contact. on the rare occasion where he does want to be touched, he'll initiate.

yellow has changed to be a lot more confrontational than he was in the webseries. he has a tendency towards physical violence and outbursts of that sort. he's a lot more rebellious than he was before. i suppose you could call it "growing up a little"?

i think of clayhill (the show) as taking place after the webseries as a sort of disconnected sequel. a Feltlands 2.0. like they made it out of the original simulation (into the forest), but couldn't make it far enough to escape for real. they've been reset to the awareness they had before, but the events of the webseries have affected their personalities in ways they don't understand the reason for. thus the new confrontational aspect to yellow's personality.

and for comic-yellow specifically, he has got quite the complex around abandonment. kind of easy to see where that came from.

i think that. the whole thing about yellow, beneath it all, is that he craves acceptance. he needs to belong to something, anything. he doesn't have a sense of his identity. he has no idea who he even is, really. mostly because of that is his need for near constant attention and validation, and his standards for where to find that love are very, very low. it's not so much that he can't tell when someone means bad news (he's actually unexpectedly good at reading people), but that he's more than willing to shove that feeling down and ignore it for the sake of someone's attention.

duck

[cups hands around mouth] FREAK (affectionate)

that is the most important thing about them ever

it's probably a little obvious from the way i write them in the comic lol

basically what happened is the mix of neurodivergence and non-binary swag and hubris and also the undying curiosity of a toddler have made them Like That

they're smart. genuinely. somewhere in there. it's hidden under about twenty-seven layers of stupidity but trust me it's there

and yeah it's only intellectual smarts too. there is Nothing up there for other types. social, emotional. absolutely no practical intelligence

also it has absolutely gotten to their head. arrogant as fuck and for what

has got a tendency to get overly attached to objects. most recently it's been that blue notebook. he takes it with him everywhere he goes, along with a couple pencils. just in case he has anything to write down

oh yeah and he always has something to write down. "science," he calls it, but it's really just following people around and making notes of the "interesting" stuff he observes.

everyone in clayhill is very well aware of duck's tendency to do this. everyone has also been a subject at least once. they... tolerate it

regular committer of casual crime. mostly breaking and entering on various levels of criminality. shoplifting and piracy and arson one time but we don't talk about that. it has yet to be confirmed whether they do this on purpose or just. don't know it's illegal

even before entering the feltlands for the first time, duck had never exactly been the best at the whole emotional regulation thing. they feel everything very strongly, and are prone to all sorts of outbursts.

mostly anger. patience is a virtue and there is not a drop of it in their entire body. thus a lot of the conflict with yellow. duck lives on a pace faster than everyone else, yellow is slow. yellow's sensitive and duck's snappish. so conflict is common.

there's no real malice behind it. i imagine them to be sort of like... brothers? yeah, that. being siblings is my favorite relationship in the entire world and especially if it's imaginary siblings that makes it even better. there's a constant, somewhat-friendly competition between them.

yellow can absolutely push back too don't worry he is just as capable of being a troll

non-binary swag lol. has absolutely no clue what gender they are. doesn't really want to find out either. i use they and he pronouns for them :]

pan obviously "everyone who loves me back" i mean

also the fact they said "everyone" instead of "anyone" is special i think

overdramatic as hell. for literally everything

the whole nervous-wreck thing is a new aspect to their personality. it's really obvious (and very easily manipulable) in the pilot, and it doesn't look like that was present in the webseries. it's the unseen affect of everything that's happened to them.

i do think they genuinely died, in five. oh god i could ramble about five so much (my favorite episode) but that would be too much for right now lol

duck is about as gullible as yellow, although not for the same reasons. yellow is desperate. duck just really sucks at reading people.

loves being the center of attention, they love crowds, love being around people. extroverted and overeager. also they're like. the opposite of charismatic.

i mean. they try, at least. they're just. terrible at it.

talks in a sort of oddly polite manner. phrasing of sentences gets mixed up, so listening to them talk requires taking a couple seconds to rearrange their words in your head to figure out the intended meaning. loves to use idioms they don't know the meaning of.

literally incapable of shutting up. not just talking. they are always, always making some sort of noise. mostly humming. various bird noises (squawking, chirping), constantly.

their voice gets increasingly autotuned/scratchy as they become more upset.

unlike salad, they are entirely aware of their off-putting nature, and have been for a long time. in their adulthood, they've shifted from agonizing about it to just. embracing it. be evil on purpose

red guy

literally the most transgender ever

genderless also. that's the word it likes to use. i like to use he it and she pronouns for it, not so much in an alternating way but more like... whichever you feel like using.

the entire town of clayhill has two braincells and they both belong to red guy. he stole them. he's the braincell hoarder

secretly a memelord. farquaad pointing meme Reddit User

blankface i really should draw it less expressive lol

EX GIFTED KID SWAG honestly

she really was one of those kids that. just latched onto the whole need to be smart need to be special need to save the entire world

naturally by the time middle school happened it was just like. Ah. okay then. i suppose i am Stupid

she's not stupid. just very average. lol

the most important thing about red i think is that he is just Some Guy. like he's the embodiment of just a Dude

the oldest of the trio, not by much.

has sort of assumed a leadership role. not exactly the leaderly type, but yeah sometimes that just happens when you are the only one with any scrap of practical intelligence within a fifty mile radius.

it really doesn't like being that.

there are two things that red guy wants, most of all. the first is this indescribable need to not be... boring, if you will. similar to yellow, it doesn't have a strong sense of its own identity. it knows what it is, sure, but not what it wants to be. the second is for its life to stop being so goddamn weird what the fuck

it would like. to live a normal domestic life. in a house, maybe. have a fancy mug or two. go out on walks sometimes. maybe have a pet cat. or a family. that would be nice.

put most simply, red is the embodiment of "the one normal dude in a weird world," and wishes that would be swapped.

not like he'll ever actually do anything to make that possible. he is suspended in a perpetual state of inactivity

has got a "this might as well happen" outlook to just about everything at this point. maybe more like "well i know bad stuff is gonna happen but can the bad stuff that happens at least be funny"

for some inexplicable reason, he is the closest to reality out of everyone in clayhill. he is also fully aware of this. it's this very specific brand of main character syndrome that's like "hm. okay. i might be the most important person in the entire world. sure wish i wasn't."

i think yellow guy is the actual main character though and if red guy were to realize this it would just be like "oh okay. nice" and be a little more surprised than it lets on.

over-prepared for very intensely thought-out nearly impossible scenarios. like being caught in a time loop, or finding a wormhole. she has very complex plans for any of these world-ending scenarios so that, if they were ever to occur, she would be entirely prepared and would not panic in the slightest.

that type of cryptid where, if it was told everyone thinks its a freak of nature, would go, "okay. sick." and never think about it again

this one is more about the trio as a whole, but i think it can stay in red's section because red is the one who thinks about this the most. he has no idea what he and duck and yellow are, collectively. before any of the feltlands stuff happened, they were just friends. ordinary friends that would go out on holiday sometimes, talk about shared interests, get along easily. but after, well, everything, the dynamics have changed. specifically at the beginning of their new clayhill life (where the comic is, timeline-wise) is when its most obvious that they are not what they were before. thus red taking a sort of leaderly role he definitely did not used to have, and does not want to have. what he has left to realize is kind of simple, actually, and he's gonna feel pretty dumb once it hits him. they're a family. a really weird unusual kind-of-messed-up one. and none of them fit neatly into any traditional role, not in the slightest. and red would realize its best that way. he's not a caretaker, he's not a leader, and no one expects that of him. the three of them are friends who went through a collective trauma, and now that each other is all they have left, they are a family.

i just think they're neat.

#oh i did not know i wanted rambling permission until now #''he's like a fucked up frog or something'' best line to come out of this by far #dhmis #salad fingers #headcanons #THIS TOOK A WHILE SORRY ANON i got into an overthinking loop :[ #i was gonna have a bunch for the teachers too (because i do like the teachers!! i like them a lot!!! i just. never mention them) except i #kinda. had to just. end it here lol #and stuff for the other residents of salad's desert wasteland too!!!! #let's just put that in the Someday list #UGHH AND ROY TOO #boy do i have some WORDS to say about that guy #but i think it might be. a little bit more fun. if i would just let my comic say those words for me :] #lol a lot of this stuff is pulled directly from the part of my brain responsible for the overanalysis of gore puppets and masochistic #lettuce creatures that led to the existence of the comic in the first place. there is. So Much left for that thing #glad you're all on the ride with me

[thefirstknife]

SIGH

Myelin released a video today arguing that Osiris is already dead. I disagree with most of his arguments and also am not a fan of some of them in particular and I want to address this in case people watch and are confused. And I assume people will ask questions about it. I think Myelin himself is also confused about certain things he mentioned and isn't interpreting them properly.

Disclaimer: obviously I am biased when it comes to this. I want Osiris to not die. This isn't an attempt to entirely disprove the theory that he may be dead already. Ultimately I don't know if he's dead. I'll do my best to look at it objectively and also address Myelin's points objectively.

I'll try to summarise Myelin's points and address them but you can always watch his video yourself to make sure I didn't interpret him wrong.

Now, Myelin's main point is that Osiris was possessed by Savathun instead of Savathun making a meat puppet/clone in his image or simply shapeshifting into him. His first proof is the Wolftone Draw bow lore. We've all read the lore and Myelin also reads the lore.

First, he wonders how Osiris is seeing what Savathun is doing. Obviously, we have no answer for this yet. Myelin's position is that this is proof of him being possessed and him trying to break through the possession. He also says that some of it seems like "Osiris views his own body in a third perspective." Which I agree with!

What I disagree with is Myelin saying this could mean Osiris' "physical body was destroyed" and that he may be floating around in some form similar to Toland. I'm not sure why complicate the matter in this way when the most obvious answer to this is simply that Savathun has created a clone or shapeshifted into a form of Osiris and the real Osiris is trapped somewhere. The lore seems to indicate this pretty clearly to me:

I cannot speak, cannot breathe, I reach for Sagira but then I remember… I form a fist but feel nothing, I am bound, and as I thrash the images cut fissures through my mind—

And:

She has stolen my form, my voice, but someone will see my failure and cast her out… they MUST—

These seem to me like he is somewhere and he is seeing through his clone's eyes at certain points. It would fit Savathun's MO to torture him in this way. She assumed his form and the real him is bound elsewhere, somewhere safe. I've said so before, and it turned out to be true: Savathun is using Osiris as a bargaining chip so possessing him would be much riskier to her plan than simply keeping him imprisoned somewhere where we can't get to him and where he can't break free from possession. It would make no sense for her to kill him.

As for how he's seeing things if he's not possessed: Savathun is THE Witch Queen. She has exhibited a wide array of magical and paracausal abilities, including the ability to shapeshift and watch others through objects and living beings. Osiris specifically says that he is "bound" and that the images of what she's doing "cut fissures through his mind" and that he's "thrashing," as well as asserting that Savathun "has stolen his form." If he's bound somewhere in her throne world, she may very well be using some sort of Hive magic to inflict images she wants him to see upon him. Just enough to allow him to know that he is a prisoner.

I'm not sure why Myelin only makes two positions: either he's in third perspective without a body like Toland OR he's possessed. The third option is right there: Savathun assumed his likeness.

That brings both Myelin and me to his next point which he positions as the "real turning point" for him. It's from the Chrysura Melo autorifle:

Savathûn, physical form a twisting instar, emerges from the shadows and crawls over the shattered pieces of the Ghost. She reaches toward the ruined man.

Myelin focuses on the bold part, a specific word: "instar." This is a nice catch btw, something I haven't noticed before. He describes what an "instar" is. Tw bugs for that link, but an instar is "a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (ecdysis), until sexual maturity is reached." Savathun's physical form is described as a twisting instar at this point and Myelin says that she is in the stage of changing herself into a new form. He also says that in this form she "needs a new skin" and therefore steals the skin of Osiris aka possesses him.

But from all the googling and research I've done, I can't seem to find any examples of insect instars needing to acquire a new outside source to change their forms. They simply exist in one larval form (instar) and then change into another as they outgrow the previous one. They don't have to find another body or a host to inhabit.

Seeing as Myelin bases most of his theory on this specific word, I have to challenge that because this is simply not what that word means. Savathun, in the process of changing from one instar to another, doesn't have to possess Osiris. She simply has to change her form from one instar into another. It's still her and it's more likely that she looks to the real Osiris to use him as a model for what new form she will take.

This is why the Chrysura Melo lore page is describing "Osiris" as being uncertain on his legs and confused by human behaviours and slowly falling apart over months and months of existence: this is Savathun's instar in the shape of Osiris which is reaching the end of its lifespan and at the end of that lifespan, Savathun has to shed that instar and turn into another. Generally, moths have a few instar forms before turning into a cocoon and then later emerging out as moths. This is a nice page with pictures, but again, tw for bugs. She has clearly reached the end of her Osiris-instar and shed it away when Mara trapped her in a chrysalis cocoon where Savathun is continuing to grow, like a moth, to eventually assume the form we see in The Witch Queen. Some examples that, to me, allude to Savathun existing in a Osiris-instar and how that shape is unfamiliar to her:

Osiris takes a shaky step forward.

...

He passes the bottle, and Osiris, hands numb, puzzles at it. His mouth hangs in a half-smile before he takes a long drink, slaking a bone-deep thirst.

...

When Saint places a hand on his forearm, Osiris holds impossibly still just to see what the other man will do.

...

Osiris stumbles as he walks through the Last City.

Savathun is describing her life as Osiris and it's clear, from this and other huge amount of lore, that she was very unfamiliar with the human form and that, at the end, it started falling apart on its own. Which is what would happen to a instar of an insect, forcing it to switch into a new stage. In Ripe, she also specifically states "I am ready earlier than anticipated." In the same lore page, she also mentions a lot of really weird descriptions of how her "form" is dissolving essentially and "I clench the gangling black mass that threatens to unspool recklessly from within this shell of flesh. My new arms are too thin, too weak. My new shell still bound with thick mucus." She's barely holding it together. I'm not sure why Osiris' real human body would've been doing this.

There's another aspect from Ripe and that is that she mentions her worm inside of her:

I feel this form splitting beneath its wrappings, held together weakly by wet strands of sinew. And from deep inside, stirred by that latest scrap of deception, I hear the oily growl of the Worm.

This is how we know that her Osiris-form is her. Otherwise, Osiris' real body would've been possessed by Savathun who also holds her worm and that's more than convoluted. What we're looking at, presumably, is Savathun's instar which always has a worm at the center and evolves into other forms around the worm itself.

I'm sorry if this is rambly, but I just really can't see how possession would be possible, especially when based on insect morphology. As a last addition to the whole "instar" business which seems to be the center of Myelin's theory, I want to take a look at the word itself. It's a Latin word, and well... :

īnstar n sg (indeclinable, no genitive)

image, likeness, resemblance

counterpart

worth, value

an equal form (of)

of equal weight/size/form (to)

By the Traveler this can't be happening. Once again I am caught in the euphoria of analysing Latin words being used in Destiny. By all definitions, except maybe number 3, this alludes to a clone. An image of something. Resembling something. A likeness. Counterpart. An equal form of...

Savathun's insect-instar form fashioned in the likeness of Osiris. Not Savathun infecting Osiris: Savathun morphing herself into a counterpart of his form.

With that whole thing done, Myelin focuses on the infamous sidearm Spoiler Alert. It has a description which is just: "Someone is going to die." Myelin uses this as proof that, well, someone is going to die because the last time this gun was issued, Cayde died.

The problem here, even if we're taking this as a serious lore hint, is the timeline. Originally, Spoiler Alert was issued in Warmind. Cayde-6 died in the expansion after Warmind.

Spoiler Alert being issued in Season of the Lost would then be an equivalent of telling us someone is going to die in The Witch Queen expansion.

What does that have to do with Osiris? The position Myelin takes in this whole video is that Osiris is already dead. Not that he will die in The Witch Queen: that he has already died, perhaps at the start of this season when Savathun transformed off-screen OR even further back, at the end of Immolant, when she possessed him. This makes no sense with his other position, that Osiris is observing what Savathun is doing: how, if he's dead and why would we even get this lore if he's dead?

Most of all, Spoiler Alert, if it's alluding to a future death of a major character, cannot allude to Osiris having died before the gun was re-issued OR to him dying literally on the day the gun was re-issued. What kind of a warning is that? If they really wanted to allude to Osiris dying with this gun, the gun would've had to have been re-issued in Season of the Splicer as the final possible season to "warn us."

If Spoiler Alert is telling us some important character will really die, it's telling us this will happen in The Witch Queen. I can't imagine a situation where we save Osiris in this season and then he dies in the next expansion. Kinda pointless plotline. And it also does not fit with the rest of the video which is telling us that Osiris is already dead and Savathun is bluffing about having him as a bargaining chip. I am also not in favour of the theory that we will not find the real Osiris this season and that this plotline will stretch into The Witch Queen because that would be almost a year of grappling with the same plot of "we have to find Osiris." So whatever happens to Osiris, we will know this season. Which means the Spoiler Alert gun is of no relevance to the outcome of the Osiris plot.

The next point Myelin makes is the cutscene from week 1 of Savathun talking to us. He focuses on the image of Osiris looking kinda dead, with moths flying around him and one moth coming out of his mouth. This image is a better argument than any of the above because the imagery here is very clear. No room to misinterpret this really, we literally see Osiris being half-skeletal with a moth coming from his mouth.

However, if we take the position that Savathun made a clone, then the "dead" Osiris in this image is just that clone being dead after it fell apart and Savathun had to transform. The moth coming out of his mouth is probably what this is supposed to symbolise: Savathun outgrowing her Osiris-instar and assuming a new form, currently cocooned in Mara's chambers.

Not to mention that she literally says she "assumed his shape." Not "took his body." She "assumed his shape" to be "more pleasing to our eyes" so she could "guide our victory" against Xivu Arath. Obviously she couldn't guide us if she looked like the Hive. Instead, she morphed into a shape that looks like Osiris and kept him to herself, possibly for information as well as a bargaining chip.

The next part is something I heavily dislike as a point from Myelin.

He starts by saying how there's a trope in movies where you get attached to a character and you just have a feeling that something bad is going to happen to them because the narrative is making you form a bond with that character. And at first I thought he'll say that the narrative has been doing this with Osiris, which is WEIRD, due to how generally disliked he is in the fandom, mostly due to people misunderstanding him, but also due to other reasons which have resurfaced ever since he's been officially confirmed as a gay man in a relationship with Saint.

And of course, Myelin is not talking about Osiris at all. He's talking about Saint. He's saying that the narrative made us attached to Saint and that "they are setting up Saint-14 to lose Osiris." This is aggravating in several ways.

One, that trope about being attached to a character is generally about the character that is going to die. Bungie didn't make us get attached to Cayde so they can kill off Ikora. They made us attached to Cayde and then killed off Cayde. Making us attached to Saint-14 to kill off Osiris is completely disregarding Osiris as a character in his own right and Osiris is by far THE most powerful and important Guardian that has ever lived. To boil him down to an accessory of Saint's story is not just disrespectful to Osiris, it's just utterly wrong.

And second, essentially fridging Osiris for Saint's manpain is just homophobia. As far as I know, Myelin is not a gay man so him making this point is simply homophobic. We do not need Osiris to die to see Saint's pain and drive for vengeance against Savathun. Bungie has made that clear. It's actually never been clearer just how much Saint suffers right now, in how much pain he is and how angry he is.

It's been shown in the voice lines in the main quest, in the cutscene at the start of the season, in the week 2 radio transmission, in voice lines during various activities, in voice lines from other people talking about him (most notably Ikora saying he's "tearing up the system to find real Osiris") and in various lore tabs. We truly do NOT need more affirmation to how much Saint is suffering. We surely don't need to ramp up the angst by killing Osiris off in order to send Saint into a more of a frenzy. His frenzy is already known and already underway. The man has tried breaking into Savathun's chamber to kick her ass already. He is "tearing the system apart." He is broadcasting live. He went on a mission with Mithrax to find Sagira's remains and the most likely place where Osiris went missing. The man is already on a crusade.

I don't think he needs to learn that Osiris has died somewhere, alone, months ago in order for us to see his pain. Or to cause more pain to us, the players. It's simply a completely insensitive way of looking at a story of two gay men who have been through enough suffering already.

I know people dislike and misunderstand Osiris. I know people absolutely adore Saint. I know people would get a kick out of seeing Saint going feral instead of him behaving in a very trope-shattering way by plugging holes in the Wall and feeding pigeons and singing songs to the children of the City.

I think those people don't understand Saint nor do they appreciate him as he is. They certainly have no respect for the man he loves or for their relationship that transcends time, space and reality. And if Saint knew that, he would definitely go feral on their ass first and foremost.

I'd like to think that Season of the Lost is a direct mirror of Season of Dawn. Two very important turning points in Destiny's story that are led by an undying love between Osiris and Saint-14. Just as Osiris risked it all and we all supported him in getting Saint back, right now we are all supporting Saint and risking it all to get Osiris back.

And as an important note, the story so far has been very clear to explain to us that we're looking for "the real Osiris." This is what this whole season is based on. We want real Osiris back. This alone disproves the theory of possession, but it also highlights that this season is about saving someone we've lost. Ending the season that's based on trying to find Osiris by telling us "oh he's dead" seems to be very much narratively senseless.

Speaking of narratively senseless, Osiris' death would not make sense yet. His arc isn't over. His questions and plotlines aren't over (and he has raised many of them in Immolant, which hasn't been followed up on because he got kidnapped). And speaking of Immolant, there is the following, from Sagira:

"Shut up! Listen to my words!" Her iris is bright with Light. "There are great things still left for you; don't lose hope in the darkness." She is luminant.

Osiris breathes the word, as if he could hold it back: "No." He would understand in time. She had seen it.

This seems like a pretty strong implication that his story is far from over. It would be quite a bummer if this was completely ignored and we're delivered Osiris' dead body at some point during this season.

Of course, I'm not discouting the possibility that Osiris will never be the same after this. It's likely that there will be lasting consequences if he's alive.

I am also not discounting the possibility that Osiris may as well be dead. I want to make that clear. It's possible. But I did my best to make a somewhat coherent analysis of why that is probably not the case and why Myelin's position in particular is flawed. And as I said at the start, I definitely am biased in a way that makes me hope that Osiris is not dead. I fully understand that and would not be opposed to people pointing out flaws in my argument if there are any. I am, genuinely, trying to be as objective as possible with this though, but as always, I could end up being wrong in the end.

And that is my TED talk.

#destiny 2 #osiris #savathun #saint-14 #o14 #lore vibing #long post #i am burdened with writing essays when lore youtubers make a video

[nocek]

Don't spare us the long rant! We want to hear your thoughts!

Oh you are going to regret this ;P

So here goes my loooooooong angry rant about Taskmaster and also the Black Widow movie in general.

Let's start with my point of comparison. Captain America the Winter Soldier was a good movie. It's still in my top 3 Marvel movies as I'm sure is for many people. And statistically speaking everybody likes Bucky. He is like the most beloved side character right after Loki. I guess.

Anyway. My point is that Taskmaster and Winter Soldier have bit for bit the exact same building blocks: hypercompetent antagonist that is a serious threat to our hero who just can't win with in one on one combat. But then plot twist: our antagonist was just a victim and puppet without free will in hands of actual villain who is bland bureaucrat.

So why did Winter Soldier worked really really well and Taskmaster was just ehh.. ok?

Well the short answer is that catws was a much tighter movie that had clearer goal (and also that goal/theme was singular: good things get corrupted with time and sometimes you get to start over) compared to black widow which had to jump through too many hoops and still somehow managed it but it wasn't as graceful as it would be if they (as in executives) resigned from one or two hoops and flips and explosions.

And I'm omitting a BIG disadvantage of making a prequel movie about a character that they killed off in shitty way. Though that created one of extra hoops for them to jump through: quickly build up Yelena as a character.

And character build they did. Because srsly Yelena is awesome and I love her. BUT. That came at a price.

Lets compare to catws. The new character there is Sam (and kiiiiiiiinda also Natasha a bit but that's a topic for a different rant) who is nowhere near as well build as Yelena. At the beginning. Because he had time to be fleshed out and naturally grow in few different movies and then we got a deep dive in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But Marvel can't give Yelena few movies because she will appear in Hawkguy an Hawkeye series and also Marvel is generally dividing their assets into: outer spaaaace, down to earth heros and magic stuff (aliens, androids and wizards ;P). But also they can only create so many things in a year.

So yeah. Yelena offtopic can be summarized that I love that we have her as we have her but it came at a cost of air time of the movie.

So comparing the movies again:

Catws had the theme of good things being corrupted with time. And the theme was underlined 3 times through Peggy, Bucky and then Shield/Hydra. Which are interconnected and also make nice scale from inner conflict of the main character to the outer conflict of the movie.

In Black Widow there is the topic of the past evil that never went away and is still taking away free will from people. And again we have it shown through 3 outlets: Yelena, Taskmaster and Black Widows. But there is also whole family subplot attached to Yelena and there is Red Room attached to Black Widows. So as you can see things are getting crowded. Which in turn make the theme a bit blurry.

I mean, sure, the Red Room should be the Shield equivalent. Even it could take smaller space because good Shield turns out to be evil Hydra is generally more time consuming to explain than Red Room bad. But still combining Red Room and Black Widows make things a bit crowded.

(There is a reason why the surprise subplot of there is more Winter Soldiers was in separate movie and was kinda handwaved and cut to minimum. But they couldn't do that here).

But it's time to stop my ranting about whole Black Widow movie and focus on comparing Taskmaster and Winter Soldier.

Because to be honest both are bare bones of character and more of an carte blanche in the movie. Both have barely any screen time yet there are colossal difference which stems out of:

first introduction: as I mentioned they are hypercompetent and unstoppable threat that you can't win with, you can only hope to run away (both done equally well)

programmable killing machine:

For Taskmaster we just get a scene with her watching other heroes fighting at the screen. For the sake of building up the mystery of character we think that "he" is just watching. Maybe learning or more likely just being creepy. The information about the chip and literal programming is given to us much later in the movie which makes this scene lose the power. idk how it will work on rewatch? Maybe better? Hopefully. right now there is too many new movies in cinemas to go for a rewatch and disney+ still isn't available here -.-

For Bucky we have literal torture scene. You just can't be more blunt than that. It also hammered the next point in.

there is human behind the mask:

Winter Soldier is introduced with full face mask which he gradually loses and then we have the big reveal of not only: that's a human but also that's a human our main hero cares about deeply.

With Taskmaster they fucked up it for chap plot twist. We are learning quite late that oh snap that's Antonia (that we don't really care about) and our main hero kinda feels guilty about her.

I think the big difference is what kind of character Steve and Nat are and also the way they reveal this secret. Steve actively recognizes Bucky by himself and is very openly shocked. Nat is passively told and shown that hey, this is Antonia. And there is no time in the movie for Nat (and for us) to be shocked because that's the 3rd act and we need time for explosions and stuff.

Besides, the problem is that all the big plot twist reveals are boring on rewatch (stil big props for Pacific Rim and giving us the monster reveal in like second minute of the movie, I will never not appreciate that).

Also on related shitty note. We the audience. Bucky is handsome and vulnerable and we can drool all over him (and oh man, we the fandom did a fair share of drooling). Antonia is disfigured and not sexualized in any way. Which I'm actually grateful for but there is no pretending that doesn't make a hell lot of difference. But that's a whole different, ugly and big topic I'm not remotely qualified to write about. I'm just angry ranting here.

they don't have free will:

For Winter Soldier we have amnesia + torture tropes which to be honest have been done over and over again and it shouldn't have worked as well as it worked. Bit it did. In context of Black Widow movie it worked because it was just one guy that actively broke through brainwashing with active help of the hero.

In Black Widow there is a lot of characters that are pasively "woken up" out of mind control over and over again by active protagonist. Unfortunately the repetition kinda cheapens it. Especially in comparison to main gut punch right in the feels scene in the other movie. Which is why it's not fair to compare the two.

So lets talk about lack of free will aspect itself. To be honest the mind control aspect in Black Widow was done really great from story perspective. Evil scientists perfected it to the point it being (bit handwavey but) completely impersonal but also completely dehumanizing to the subject. So I'm buying that it can be completely switched off in equally efficient and impersonal way. Even the way they explained it with Alexei the pig was great and terrifying... to a point. Because then kicked the main problem with this movie. Clearly some execs came and saw it and went whoa... that's too dark for pg13 blockbuster. Let's put some cheap jokes here. And it happens over and over again in this movie :S

humanizing flashback scene that ties them to main hero:

For Bucky, sure we had Captain America First Avenger but a movie needs to stand on it's own legs. That's why we have the flashback scene which shows us that Bucky cared about Steve. Leaving it at the narration in Smithsonian of "best friends since childhood" would be just telling us. And we needed to be shown and we needed a space for the "till the end of line" so it could come back and stab us right in the feels.

Also because we are ignoring previous movie Russos cleverly made us care about Winter Soldier because Steve cares about Winter Soldier. And we already know and like Steve so building up our main character gives us more mileage out of new bare bones character (because let's be honest, Winter Soldier is just that). Two birds one stone thing.

In Black Widow there is no such thing which IMHO is the main reason Taskmaster doesn't work. We just get information about cardboard cutout: insert cute little girl here (only told, not even shown actual cardboard) and all of the emotional connection to Natasha is: I know that my boss that I hate has a daughter, she got in the crossfire. Which means nobody cares.

All it would take is adding a short flashback scene. idk Dreykov is an asshole and doesn't care about Antonia but she is she cutest and most adorable little girl. She treats the Black Widows as older sisters. Hell if you want to make it more horrorish copy of the idea of Thor wanting to be a Valkyrie when he grows up or T'challa wanting to be a Dora Milaje. Little Antonia wants to be Black Widow when she grows up because they are badass and they are nice to her (and are also slightly confused by her) because she is nice to them and is only person that treats them as humans. Hell we could have short interaction between her and Nat. Just a smile between them would be enough.

You could get a lot of character buildup mileage out of such a short scene.

But it couldn't happen partially because the movie didn't have time for that but we didn't get that mostly because it would show us instead of telling that Nat killed a cute little innocent girl for her own personal gain. (well she thought she was destroying Red Room but mostly wanted to get away - vide she didn't check on Yelena or other widows. But I wouldn't hold that against her. It was put your oxygen mask first kind of situation. But still it would make her look bad)

Besides, that would take guts to actually show.

And technically they could have afforded to have that guts. That was last movie with Nat anyway. It would actually make this plotline about her feeling guilty about Dreykov's daughter and red in her ledger work. But well... It was last movie so they wanted to leave us with the most goodest and bleeding hartest and heartwarming mary sue version of Nat with just telling us without showing hey, she got dark past.

On the other hand if we had the rumored Endgame plotline of Nat running an orphanage. Damn that would tie to this plotline so well. We could tie the loose widows also. Dam we were robbed here I tell ya >.<

Ok I'm overdoing offtopic about Nat. Sorry

design

So yeah. Design wise Winter Soldier is like great. For Taskmaster, she sure looks cool but also kinda generic? If in 10 years you'd show me her and say it's antagonist from GI Joe or something I'll believe you :S (not touching the debate that in comics something something because unfortunately I don't know Taskmaster from comics. Although I hear that few recent ones were quite good so I'll check them out sooner or later)

snapping out of mind control

I mentioned before. It would be unfair and there is no point comparing main emotional scene of the movie versus means to an end that were repeated several times through a movie.

Natasha freeing Antonia even if she thought that Antonia will kill her because that would fair was great. What I'm annoyed is a cheap fakeout that went with that. It was just after the bombastic finale with explosions and all the cgi shit. Even without looking at the movie runtime it was obvious there will be no extra fight scene.

In catws it worked because the cgi pew pew extravaganza was a background noise and was part of a continuous fight. In BW helicarriers fell already, there was a second of dust settling and then Nat throws away the shield (uses that capsule). Tension just fell from highest place in a movie (quite literally lol), trying to rise it again for such a short moment just doesn't work.

But that's the general problem with Marvel movies. Bombastic CGI fest as grand finale that probably is "outsourced" and then actual director comes back and needs to end movie super quickly.

disappearing act at the end

So in catws there is mystery of what will Bucky do. We are given some hope since he dragged Steve out of river and visited the museum but thats all. I mean there is this annoying Marvel thing of skipping over the interesting ending of last movie and starting with next plot point. We were hoping for the grand roadtrip/hunt for Bucky but nope. We must run ahead with all the plotlines (same way I'm sure that the Spiderman is Peter Parker and he killed a guy thing will be already dealt with in the beginning of the next movie -.-) But that's bonus mini rant.

In BW they needed to wrap up to many plot lines too quickly so Antonia wakes up and that's all. We don't get a suggestion what she may do. The problem of the chip she still has installed is omitted. There is nothing. She just fucks off to lalaland with other Black Widows the end. Because we needed ending for Nat's actual family which was ok but also kinda rushed.

As I mentioned waaaay before (god, this rant is pretty long) too many hoops to jump through.

Which really sucks because if they added that one flashback scene just for Antonia and spared few more minutes for the overall ending it would work so much more better.

And I even know where they could have saved few minutes (besides the explosions thingies). The supply guy. One extra character in a movie with too many characters. In catws the supply problem (with wings) was solved with nbd shrug. If you wanted to show that Nat has her own web of contacts it should be more than one guy. IDK in Budapest there could be 10 second scene with neighbor saying hi nice to see you again we reinforced the walls after last time. In Norway we could see her visiting some special secret supply stash run by some rando before getting to the mobile home.

But oh she was on the run so that would be too many people. Then cut the people entirely. The shitty helicopter can be worked around with joke that I'm not on speaking terms with Stark rn and that's the best we can have on short notice.

Eh.. side rant again. Sorry.

So to wrap it up. I actually really would love to see what will happen with the loose Black Widows and Antonia because here they were really underdeveloped. And while widows were more of a group hero and we have Yelena as a representative so in a way it balances out but Taskmaster needed so little extra care to make her character so much better and I'm a tiiiiiiny bit salty about it.

#text post #long post #very long rant #black widow #black widow spoilers #black widow movie #black widow 2021 #taskmaster #antonia dreykov #i kinda doubt we will see her again #but one can hope #if anyone actually read through all of this congratz! #and thank you #let me hug you #(and I'm sorry it's so long)