I could be charitable to David and say that he misspoke when he said that Izzy was a father figure to Ed. It's possible that he meant that Izzy reminds Ed of his father, and he was comfortable with Izzy because he was used to such a toxic relationship, but i'm not quite sure even that is right.
Even if it was the case, being a reminder of his father is still very different from saying that Izzy was a "father figure" to Ed. We all know what a father figure entails, its usually a phrase used to describe someone you respect, who's opinion you value, that teaches you lessons, and skills, and even someone that can be there for your emotional needs, now that's not to say that Izzy doesn't fit into any of these categories, I definitely think that Izzy tries to be there for Ed in his own way, and he tries to guide him, but the key word there is tries, more often than not Ed disregards Izzy's opinion, his advice, his worries, and his attempts at soothing Ed's moods have absolutely no affect on Ed. So how is it exactly, that Ed views him as a father figure when he isn't interacting with him in the manner you'd expect a son to engage with his father?
I say its possible that if Izzy has to represent anyone, it might be Ed's mother, but in that same vein, Ed would represent his father. Izzy and Ed fight and injure each other like his mom and dad did, and yet they stayed together, like his mom and dad did, they have that same toxic codependency, and their communication skills are about as good as his mom and dads ever were. Its more like their dynamic was mirroring his mom and dad's toxic and abusive relationship, he was raised to think that this is what love looked like, and he was following in their footsteps, Izzy isn't his father figure at all, if anything, Ed is his own father, and with Izzy as his mother its as if they were playing mommy and daddy together... If you've ever heard the phrase "oh god, I've married my mother/father" you know that this is a common enough occurrence, its not a weird incesty thing, rather its just a matter of growing up around a certain type of love and accidentally emulating it when you grow older, its a cycle that is often repeated, and is hard to break.
All of this wasn't some attempt to say that i think Ed had romantic or sexual feelings in return for Izzy, more than likely that's not the case, but they definitely were in a marriage of sorts, it's just a shame that both of them probably grew up with fucked up ideas on what it means to love someone, so a lot of their partnership ended up being unstable. So yeah, i veto "father figure" entirely, and posit "wife" instead.
Random prompt idea. Desmond/Kadar soulmate au, where Kadar is instantly gone on Desmond, and Desmond and Malik both think it's because of Kadar's admiration of Altair and Desmond looks suspiciously like him. So Kadar has to defend his feelings from his brother and prove to Desmond that's his feelings for him aren't based around Altair. (And Altair has to watch this mess going on around him as he's trying to live his life. And Malik tries to blame him for this for some reason.)
So, for this Soulmate AU, I was trying to think on why Desmond would assume Kadar likes him because of his admiration for Altaïr and I thought… what if, in this soulmate AU, people only know they’re soulmates after they fall in love? Like a mark/name would appear on their body after they realize that they love their soulmate. It’s not the most optimal way to have soulmates, that’s for damn sure, but maybe it was an ongoing genetic modification project of the Isu Inanna that got pushed aside because of the war then the solar flare.
In this case, the mark is a confirmation that ‘yes, you found them’ rather than a ping of ‘yeah, you’re meant to fall in love with that one’.
And not everyone has a soulmate.
In this scenario, regardless if it’s set in a ‘verse where Desmond time-traveled or a full-blown Modern AU, we’ll get the following:
Kadar has a crush on Altaïr and he doesn’t really understand why until he met Desmond. That’s when he realized that the parts that made him like Altaïr (his skills, the kindness he tries to hide, his dry humor) are the parts he shared or are heavily similar to Desmond’s own.
Kadar believes that having a crush on Altaïr had been his ‘soulmark’ trying to give him a clue.
Malik would think that Kadar is trying to find a reason to why he’s suddenly crushing hard on Desmond after carrying a torch for Altaïr for so long. Malik would think that Kadar just transferred his crush to Desmond because Desmond is a better choice (as far as Malik is concerned) and Kadar is trying to find an excuse so he doesn’t feel like a dick for throwing his feelings for Altaïr out (which he shouldn’t since Altaïr never reciprocated it anyway)
Altaïr tries his very best to ignore Kadar’s obvious infatuation with Desmond but it becomes hard when Kadar flat out tells Desmond that he’s falling in love with him and Desmond runs to Altaïr to tell him everything. Altaïr has no idea why Desmond is telling him all of this. At this point in their life, Desmond would have a better chance of getting support from that damn female Templar he insists on befriending than him.
Of course, Kadar tells Malik everything and Malik has to suffer through listening to his brother recount the entire thing and getting a migraine just trying to help his brother court Desmond which, really, is just Malik telling Kadar to slow down and to edit his most outlandish plans to a more… nicer (won't get you arrested) ones.
Of course, this ends up with Malik needing to vent with someone about all of these and Altaïr is the perfect target. He looks a lot like Desmond and Kadar’s more than worrying plans spawned from the fact that Kadar’s subtle flirting with Altaïr had no effect so he believes being clear about his intentions means being obnoxious in his gestures of affection would win Desmond over.
Altaïr does not approve of this and he tells Malik that Kadar never flirted with him which, in turn, made Malik realize that Altaïr was absolutely oblivious to Kadar’s infatuation the entire time. This only served to make Malik mock his observation skills.
Altaïr doesn’t even get a respite because running away from Malik only meant he had to deal with Desmond having complicated feelings over Kadar’s courtship and Altaïr. Is. Just. So. Done.
Desmond, on the other hand, does think Kadar is cute and he does like him but Kadar has his work cut out for him because Desmond is comparing himself to Altaïr who, in his eyes, will always be better than him so, for Desmond, he believes Kadar is simply settling for him.
But Kadar is nothing but stubborn and persistent.
Malik and Altaïr would have to suffer through it all.
While Maria just watches from the sideline, sipping tea while listening to Desmond, and wondering “These people are the ones giving us such a hard time???”
One of the small mercies of having Christmas to myself is not having to sit and watch every woman in the family feed every man and child a plate of food, and watching those men and children chow down, before the women who cooked the food so much as sit down with a plate and fork.
"All of the mercs would be homophobic and racist" NO THEY WOULDN'T!! You mean to tell me that nine mentally ill hired killers, all of which coming from a game that's hellbent on taking old and tired tropes and cliches and subverting them in new and funny ways, would just be generic bigoted people because of the time period??? My guy WHAT!?
doing my remedial tf hw [rewatching the ep i feel asleep during]
anyway u can really increase u understanding and appreciation for what goes in to Making A Show Good. by watching bw, arm and en.ergon. which maybe thats not what u want from watching a show. maybe u just want a show that IS good. well too bad.
like okay. bw, late 90s cgi cartoon [an expensive one tho, or so the wiki keeps telling me]. arm, 02 anime but first unified producted between the 2 toys companies. En, 04 cgi anime. same voice cast for all em [as dubbers in the 2nd two]. En being the sequel to arm so they really ought to be the same characters even, tho in pratice its like... ehhhhhh.
like just constantly thinking about, okay what conditions are the VAs performing under, script writers/translators. how that all affects performance
and ofc animation, well does it need fidelity? verisimilitude?? what makes something look cool? or funny? or emotive, or affecting.
and like. these all kinda can just lead u to shitting on en for looking like ass and being made on the fast (and possibly cheap?? idk.)
BUT THEN u also get to think about the designs themselves, which, toy companies. not really remotely the show makers faults [probably?] and in terms of what could have been done to best SERVE the show being made OR the toys in production like. and ill tell u what it wasnt. of making the most bulky greebly design ethos so far and trying o directly translate that as accurately as possible.
cause its just. these 'cell shaded' black outlines behemouths with maybe very little rigging? they cant emote at all. the lip flaps are some kinda 2d thing, and if they need to move their eyes or jaws u know, facial expressiony things, they can add 2d DRAWN shots [not like. more than 3 an ep] for that...
also they dont seem to be doing cgi in the way id think of it like. 3d models in a space with a camera? i think its all or mostly composit? [so they dont get the befits of say, size consistency]
like its kinda notable bw, is the cgi show, and also the era where, there not fucking CARS! theres a lot more... i mean a guy who has two cheetah legs sticking off his back is... weird... but at least his shoulders arent like shot compostionally impedingly wide cause they are the tires and suspension for a truck? u feel? the one character model who IS a vehicle is infact, the stand out for just kinda. weirder, interactable challenges. his sheer Biggness at least IS absolutely reflected as. not a plot point but. story point. he cant inhabite the same spaces as the other characters. they really block out those interactions in a way to show that instead of fudging it.
BUT ALSO like. i dont like the pure like. DESIGNS of arm that much, they DO have a lot, big... hmm i wanna say maximalism [which. lol. not be confused with maximals... which is what u call auto.bots when they are. yes. animals] but its 2d animated with such swag and style [mostly. it was ALSO a rushed production(>_> yikes)] like. the design of what im looking at is SUPERCEEDED by HOW it is presented? ig? or that also they CAN just fudge things. THATS WHAT ANIMATION IS FORRRRR. ohhh who cares what poses this guy could actually make, or how that would effect the camera shot. just kinda. u know. make it cool. make it LOOK GOOD.
and anyway ironies of ironies. a cool picture that is NOT what the toy looks like, but like, at least has its spirit, its probably more likely to make u want the toy, or have. fond appreciation for it lets say. not even getting into like. interesting story and character work that makes/manipulates u into wanting the thing cause like ohhhhhh thats my guy. u know. toyetic media things. bloribofication under capitalism.
i was thinking about something one of my ex's dad said about me while i was 15
he had pointed at an unhappy, obese gamestop employee and said that would be me one day. he had been saying it to make fun of me because i was "fat" (i was 5'7" and 170 pounds) and he hated the fact that i was dating his son
ive lost some weight and become more active as ive gotten older. i became really depressed for a few years bc of circumstances, but honestly? im nore happy now than ive ever been in my whole life
i decided to look up my ex, since its been so many years and... let's just say his dad predicted the wrong person's future lol
(this is incredibly petty btw bc his dad harassed me so much)
cass is inspired by the greek myth, cassandra. and their entire life kinda got ruined by cy (the sun god), who’s not really the best! (basically: “oh there’s a fire that’s about to burn down their city?? they got it handled uwu” “we’re dying???”) eventually cass’ mother gets upset at how he refuses to help them, even when the entire village is praying for the slightest bit of intervention. so she screams to the heavens about how unfair it all is, how idiotic.
cy takes this as well as any god would—not very! so he curses the child she’s bearing to foretell any future events; if he’s doing such a bad job, then why don’t you prevent them? let’s see your attempts. watch your child be helpless to the fates. thing is, only cass’ mother believes them—everyone else is wary and cautious, or malicious 😔.
then their mom kinda passes away and they have no one to rely on for that kind of thing. except for,, cy—who keeps hanging it over their head (via periodically descending in all his glory to check in on them + vanishing when it’s all fine and dandy.)
now cass is just. generally trying their best to get through life! (+ possibly prevent anything really awful from happening.)
thinking about my tiefling cleric of kelemvor uuuhh tempest domain tav...... thinking about how he secretly thinks its a little funny that his god is kelemvor and his Thing is Electricity. If frankenstein exists in faerun..... he's absolutely read that as a child and was like.... c o o l... but reverse frankenstein....
thinking about my lolth sworn drow tav and how he is technically evil, but not a monster. he's deeply devout to lolth in maybe a like... simultaneously deeper yet Calmer(tm) way than most, and how before he finds out about The Truth (AHEM..) he instantly hates Minthara and thinks of her as a traitor for essentially being a heretic and betraying Lolth (but then feeling a little bad about it later when AHEM AHEM yknow. truths. if only because he's an absolute dummy and despite being evil Lite he also found her very pretty and ambitious and dominant jufydFGD)
also thinking about my half-orc draconic bloodline sorcerer, Roselyn, raised in baldurs gate in a very healthy happy family but ended up very self-conscious and sweet and sincere despite being Very Large and Scary and Strong. thinking about how shes very pretty and soft hearted and stuff but people see a half orc and. Stare. yk. and growing up, she ended up very self conscious about the scales on her face and used to try to cover them up <:' ) ended up anxious because of her magic. the whole ''learn to wield it or literally die'' thing iujghdgdf THINKING about how the big ol amazonian ass woman will literally melt into a puddle if you call her Rosie or compliment her bc she doesnt know how to take it, so she just ends up giggling and blushing like an idiot and then gets internally frustrated with herself jusdhfjdgfdGD 'GODS ROSIE you're sO EASY UGH' yk ykyk gfdgfdhd
thinking foREVER about my dragonborn durge bard, Fel (happy accident, that name).... because...... good route.... lots of praise and ''proud of you'''s. no spoilers jgjfgjfg but my favourite playthru handsdown.... oog