#in fact it was probably really good for one of the main characters who recently watched her home get destroyed

[chittychittyyangyang]

No one is talking about the only true critique of the last few chapters: no birds. 😔

#ccyy talks #100% a joke because seeing so many bad faith takes is rough #but also where are my birds #if I had time I would love to address what I think is the problem #but it boils down to we (the audience) have more information than the characters #the characters can only make judgements and react based on the information they know #yes time and budget constraints play a role in this #but they all also needed to see things can be rebuilt and made better #in fact it was probably really good for one of the main characters who recently watched her home get destroyed #maybe seeing something rebuilt can give them hope they can take with them when they leave #something something people need more than survival and just making it through things #ANYWAY will be disappointed if no more shoebills

[ascendedastarionapologist]

The Rite of Profane Ascention and Projected Shame: A Meta Analysis of Authorial Intent and Bias in Interpretation

If you are an Astarion enjoyer you are probably familiar with the following sentiments:

The crew member we can attribute this reading to would be Baudelair Welch, and they are not Astarion's main writer, rather the Senior Narrative Designer for Baldur's Gate 3. Astarion's creator and lead writer was Stephen Rooney, Rooney does attribute great assistance from Welch, however.

Welch was not initially part of the team, only being hired after the release of Early Access. As Welch as recounted the story, they saw Astarion during EA, wanting to become a part of the BG3 writing staff to enforce a particular narrative. The one that we are familiar with.

To better understand Welch's perspective on the concept of "Objectifying Fictional Characters" we must take a look at the indie game they developed during their time at Larian.

Don't Wake Me Up is a text based adventure game that puts you in the shoes of a game developer who is making a vampire dating sim. The twist being that the vampire character you created resents you for having romantic feelings for it.

While discussing the fact they wouldn't be adding "Good Endings" to their game, Welch describes their experience of having romantic feelings for fictional characters, often over real life people. A trend that, to their apparent frustraition, continued into their adulthood. I get this sense of shame, this desire to experience a more normative relationship with romantic feelings.

In a way, I feel kind of bad for Welch. I am a selfshipper, I think fictosexuality and genuine romantic interest towards fictional characters is morally neutral. However, my sympathy stops when Welch uses this to guilt their readers into feeling a certain way over narratives they don't have total authority over. Only very recently have people started to be cool about selfshipping, and phrases like "parasocial sexualization of fictional characters" does nothing to aliviate that stigma.

Hearing how the other staff talk about the endings, they do not share Welch's perspective more focused on player choice and the evolution of Astarion's Character through the player's eyes rather than a meta commentary on the relationship between player and character. As a roleplaying game, this is very much purposeful. Larian gives you the tools to tell the story you desire. To quote Neil Newbon,

"You might find him scary, and you should [...] but other people might really like that ending [...] going, actually I always saw Astarion going that route."

This a lot of meta context. Context that is not as blatant within the text as many who ascribe to this interpretation would want you to believe.

As a roleplaying game, BG3 gives you the option to depict your player character in a multitude of ways.

Is your player character a reluctant accomplace, determined to stay by Ascended Astarion's side no matter the cost? The game gives you that ability.

Do you see your character as an unwitting victim, a damsel to Ascended Astarion, a prisoner in a gilded cage? The game rewards this perspective in kind, the "freedom" lines coming to mind.

Or, perhaps your player character is mutually obsessed, a willing and enthusiastic participant in Ascended Astarion's villainous shenanagins. The game has options and responses that reflect this role as well. He is giddy, and gushes over how much fun you two will have if you lean into it.

A companion to this post, the poll I made measuring people's ending preference and weather not they were spoiled, is loosely tied to this. My methodology was, admitedly, a bit off. I neglected to add a neutral option, and of course my sample size is limited.

However, my theory was that among people that preferred keeping Astarion as a Spawn over Ascending him were exposed to spoilers, and my follow up question was meant to measure weather or not Welch's commentary had an effect on that.

Taking a look at the poll, the overall preference is for the Spawn ending, however, amongst Spawn enjoyers, they were often spoiled for his ending. I didn't get much feedback though, so weather or not this perception of Ascention had an effect on their choice remains conjecture.

What is interesting, however, is that through the polling process, (and the poll is still in progress at the time of posting this, so keep that in mind), the spilt between the other options were relatively even.

Make of that what you will.

Looking at all of this together, and from my perspective, I cannot see ascention as the "bad ending" , sense much of the argument for that perspective uses Welch's words as if they were gospel. To me, a bad ending is zombie astarion, or blowing up Gale in act 2, or letting Lae'zel perish at the Creché. I will however call it the EVIL ending. Ascended Astarion IS a villain, but I think the distinction between "bad" and "evil" is an important one to make. I cant see it the way Welch does, because I simply have an idiological opposition to their veiwpoint, a sentiment I feel is shared by many AA enjoyers.

I want to end this by stating very directly: this is not an attack on Welch as a person, rather a cirtique of of the bias inherent to the way they write and interpret fiction. A bias, I feel, people should be aware of.

#astarion ancunin #ascended astarion #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #my posts

[0kayblue]

Domestic Cravings

Domestic Cravings

Leon comes home early from a mission and stays determined not to wake you by going to his apartment instead of yours. When greeted with a more than pleasant surprise he’s unable to stop himself from asking the big question. 

Main Character Relations: Leon Kennedy x reader (romantic) 

Word Count: 2k (a little over) 

Fluff, fluff, fluff !!! 

A/N: Sometimes I don’t write angst. Sometimes. Anyway, I guess you could consider this a Valentine's Day present. Personally, I hate the holiday, but I do love to treat others. Enjoy! 

Leon sighed, the weight of his most recent mission weighing heavily on his shoulders. All things considered things went smoothly and everything wrapped up into a nice little bow earlier than expected. He was scheduled to be there for the next two days, but he ran into one of those rare circumstances where he made it back early. 

As he looked at the door handle to his front door he seriously debated his most recent plan to retreat to the solitude of his own apartment. This isn’t where he wanted to be. He wanted to experience the warmth of your doorway. He wanted to crawl into your bed and find comfort in your embrace. But it was so late and the sun basically just set and you had to have been asleep. Not to mention he’d probably be throwing a wrench in your plans for the next day and the last thing he wanted was to be seen as a burden. 

So, selflessly Leon opened the front door. The apartment was cold as he disregarded his heavy duffel bag to the side. He shut and locked the door behind him as he kicked off his boots, too tired to be bothered to put them away just then. He ran his hand down his face as he sauntered into the kitchen. Exhaustion felt like an understatement, as his limbs felt heavy as he headed towards the fridge. The bright light caused him to squint as he was greeted to the sight of a fully stocked fridge. He smiled knowing that you had already started taking care of the little things for him. He grabbed the carton of orange juice before shutting the door. 

It really only made things harder as he set the carton on the kitchen island as he grabbed a glass. He had a key and he was always more than welcome, he lived there just as much as he lived here, if not more so. You have been dating for a year and had gotten the big three words out and expressed your love whenever and wherever it came about. Rather it be just an exchange of the sentiment via words or actions, he knew you loved him. He knew that you truly, deeply, genuinely loved him. You saw the good and the bad and still adored him. He couldn’t make any sense of it, but humans are creatures who are always harsher on themselves than on others. 

Your apartment always felt so homey and inviting, granted that could have just been because it was considerably smaller, but he digresses. He spent more time there than he did in the luxury suite that was located on the finer side of town. Big tall windows that allowed natural light in easily, a view of the city that ‘justified’ the rent prices. In all honesty he only chose to live here due to the fact that it was so close to the office. Even though he wondered why he even bothered being close to the office when he woke up in your bed most days anyway. 

Pouring his drink he started to really consider why you still remained in two separate housing units. Truth be told he never asked you to move in. He supposed you could’ve asked, but it wasn’t in your nature. You weren’t one to ask someone to pack up their life and throw everything away to be with you. He would in a heartbeat, there wouldn’t be a second thought about it; but it all goes back to people being harsher on themselves than other people. That and the fact that his work played a big factor in everything that Leon does. He was constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Finishing his drink with huge gulps he was unsure if you were even willing to give your place up. It was your first apartment and the rent wasn’t too bad- all things considered- your landlord was tolerable and neighbors were friendly enough. The walls were paper thin and the unit needed a multitude of repairs. Long story short, the place was old, Leon has had a number of things redone there; in fact the first thing he did was replace the locks. He was trying to talk you into a whole security system, but you shut him down. Having to deal with your landlord over the locks was a hassle on its own, you didn’t want to bother trying to reason with him over a high tech military grade security system. 

Your safety and wellbeing was on the top of Leon’s list and he used it in his arguments. But you just rolled your eyes and pointed out that he doesn’t even use his own security system. The thing did nothing but collect dust by the front door. It was your main argument and it stood firm, you told him that once he started using his own you would think about going toe to toe with your landlord over it, but until then his argument was null and void. 

He countered though with the fact that his apartment didn’t hold anything valuable. Sure, it had monetary value out the ass; but anything he had that was worth anything could be perceived as trash to the naked eye. A box full of movie tickets, cards, postcards, and blurry photos was not worth a dime. The memories that the items held were priceless, but they wouldn’t do a thing for anyone else. 

As he went to turn on the sink he noticed the dishwasher light was on, signaling that the dishwasher had finished its job. A crooked little smirk pulled on his face, not only did you go grocery shopping but you took care of the dishes. How lucky could he possibly be? A sense of a domestic life that he craved washing over him. It was time, he wanted you here, or he could stay there, it really didn’t matter. Either place would be home as long you were there. 

Turning off the sink he heard the floor creek. He set the glass in the sink slowly as he reached for Matilda that rested in his waistband. He was careful, he was sure he wasn’t followed, whoever was here had been here. His brain immediately went to you; second guessing having you move in. He moved quickly facing the hall, his arms outstretched and his finger on the trigger, “You’ve got three seconds.” He threatened and as he heard your deep sigh of relief he softened, setting the gun on the counter. You stepped into his line of vision as he flicked on the kitchen light, “(Y/N)?” He called out your name as he watched you shake slightly. The gap between the two of you was closed quickly as he pulled you to his chest with relief.

“You scared the shit out of me.” You said setting the gun you had down on the nearby couch end table. Wrapping your arms around him you scolded him, “You got off early and you didn’t call me?” 

“I scared you? You scared me.” He defended light heartly, “I didn’t want to wake you. It’s nearly three in the morning, baby.” He pulled away from you as he tucked your hair behind your ear. His lips found yours in a gentle kiss that he deepened as you hummed against him. 

“Did a great job at letting me sleep then, dear.” You teased him as you pulled away from him. You brushed his hair out of his eyes, examining the bags and purple hue underneath them.

“How was I supposed to know you were here?” He defended as your thumb ghosted over his cheekbone and you turned bright red. A sense of victory on his face as a wide smile found his features. 

“I just started the dishes and I didn’t want to fight traffic home-…” you peered into an ocean of blue before sighing, “I missed you. I sleep here when I miss you. I sleep here a lot.” You confessed before looking away from him, it was slightly embarrassing for you to admit. You had difficulty expressing that you craved a person. It didn’t make any sense with how open you were about him, but you just chalked it up to your miss independent complex. He just hummed in satisfaction as he buried his face into the crook of your neck. His body relaxed as he kissed your neck with a sense of glee. He went from missing you, to worrying about you, to the joy of knowing that you were within arms reach in a matter of seconds. 

“I missed you more.” He cooed as he kissed your neck, “Glad you’re here.” 

“I love you.” The words fell from your lips so gently and lovingly that his grip on you tightened and you giggled slightly. He made you feel like a teenage girl that was too head over heels for her own good.  “Let’s get you to bed. Shower?” 

“Please.” Your hands found his hands and gently pulled him down the hall and into his room. He noted his side of the bed was the one that you were just resting on; a sense of warmth washing over him. He squeezed your hand gently as you led him into the bathroom. As you let go of him you turned on the shower. He couldn’t help the smile on his face as he looked around and noticed your shampoo and conditioner, toothbrush, lotions, and other toiletries littered in his bathroom. 

You approached him and helped him pull off his shirt, you looked him over. A deep sigh falling from your lips as your heart ached at the sight of bruises and cuts. It hurt to see and you could only imagine the pain he felt. 

“It’s okay, I’m fine. Promise.” 

“This the best they could do to patch you up?”  

“Down, tiger.” He teased as he soaked up your possessive tone.

 You rolled your eyes and turned back to the shower, pulling off your shirt before putting your palm under the running water. You pulled your pajama shorts off and as you turned to face him a sense of nervousness shot up your spine. You usually would tease him about a staring problem, but you were unsure of where his emotions were. Physically he looked exhausted- his movements told you he was exhausted- but mentally you had no idea where he stood. 

Not to mention that you had no clue how he felt about you staying here when he wasn’t here. Sure, he said he was glad you were here, but he never asked you to be here.

“The water is going to get cold if you just keep staring. C’mon.” You nodded to the shower as you undid his pants. His hands found yours, stopping you, as he took care of the rest and disregarded them in the hamper. You tried to place what he was thinking as you climbed into the shower, him not far behind you. 

As the warm water hit his back he let out a sigh of relief. The sound music to your ears as you started messing with his shampoo. You went to work the shampoo in his hair and through half lidded eyes he watched you. A little smile on your face while your tired eyes focused on what you were doing. 

He could get used to this, he was getting used to it. 

He loved you. He loved seeing your things in his space, he loved that you were taking care of him, he loved that you were here. 

You tilted his head gently and started rinsing the shampoo out. A protest never fell from his lips as you scratched his scalp and he moaned softly. You reached for his conditioner and did the same thing, just letting the conditioner sit while scrubbing him down with his signature fresh pine scented shower gel. 

You worshiped him as you bathed him, kissing the cuts and bruises softly as you rinsed him off. He deserved to be taken care of like this and you didn’t mind being the one to do it. It was slightly embarrassing, but he trusted you with his life and you knew his body just as he knew yours. “Relax.” You cooed as you went to get out of the shower, “Stay in here as long as you’d like. I’m going to get you-.” You stopped as he grabbed your wrist and his other hand found your hip. You gave him a concerned look as you scanned his face, you stepped closer to him as he pulled you to his chest. Your fingers tangled themselves into his hair as you tried to soothe him. “Want to talk about it?” 

“No, not really.” He rested his head against your shoulder, “Just want you.” He’s wanted you since he got back, he’s wanted you since he left. You nodded as you held him against you. 

You both stood there until the water started to run cold. It took some convincing but eventually you got him out and in pajamas. You were in bed wearing one of his t-shirts that he practically had to fight you over wearing. Your eyes shut as you listened to his movements in the bathroom, refusing sleep. Waiting for him. 

As Leon turned off the faucet he took a good look in the mirror. A face that had a smile plastered on it as he thought about the woman in his bed. The woman who just doted on him like he was made of glass. The woman who held him so close and made him feel so loved that it all felt worth it. The woman that he wanted to take his last name. 

He left the bathroom and stood in the doorway as the bathroom light illuminated you just enough to where he could watch your chest rise and fall. As your eyes opened he was held captive as you smiled. 

“What?” You asked through a yawn as you pulled the covers up to your shoulders while you stretched. 

“I love you.” He beamed as he turned off the bathroom light and climbed into his side of the bed. Your scent flying off of the fabric of his sheets as the radiant warmth of your presence drew him in. Wrapping his arm around your torso he pulled you to him. 

“I love you more.” Your voice heavy with sleep as you cuddled against his chest. He adored these moments where you didn’t fight with your words and just said what you were feeling. 

He chuckled, “Not a chance in hell, sweetheart.” He kissed your forehead as you yawned. “Go to sleep.” He cooed as he rubbed a hand firmly up and down your back. 

“Leon…?” You muttered against his chest. 

“Yes, baby?” 

“I’m sorry if you didn’t want me here while you’re not here. I won’t do it again.” He raised an eyebrow at the apologetic sorrow in your tone. He knew your past, he knew your uncertainty, but he could’ve sworn that he told you he was glad you were here. “I just missed you and if I crossed a line-.” 

“Hey, hey.” He shushed you, “I’m glad you're here, remember? I want you here. Forever and always. Okay?” You nodded and tried not to sniffle. 

“Okay.” You fisted the hem of his shirt as you tried to keep yourself calm against him. He kissed your forehead before petting your hair. Your eyes were shut and your breathing was starting to slow to the pace that it does when you sleep. 

He knew he should wait, but he was too excited. 

“Baby?” He looked down at you as you hummed in response telling him to go ahead with his question. That you were still listening and ready to talk about whatever he needed. His thumb brushed against your cheek as he admired you, “Will you marry me?” 

Your tired eyes opened, “What?” You were in a state of disbelief. 

He asked again, “Marry me?” Silence fell over the room as the cold chill of uncertainty worked its way through his blood stream. What was he thinking? Was he thinking? You didn’t even live with him and you’d been together for only a year. Wasn’t the next step just to ask you to move in? That was the logical question. Was it too late to rephrase the question? Could he save this somehow? 

“Yes.” You answered honestly, “Yes, I’ll marry you.” He let out a deep breath of relief before his lips found yours. His kiss was deep and passionate as he adjusted himself to be level with you. You welcomed him as you melted against him. Exchanging passion and overwhelming love within each kiss. Each parting one leaves a lasting imprint against your souls. 

He regretfully parted from you to get a good look at you. To judge based on what he knew if this was truly something you wanted. Your bright smile causes him to let out a chuckle of relief before leaning his forehead against yours. You laughed alongside him as your hand intertwined with his, “I love you, Mrs. Kennedy.” He said he ran his hand through your hair. It fell so naturally from his lips that you could’ve sworn that it had always been your last name. 

“I haven’t signed any papers yet.” You joked before peppering a couple kisses on his cheek, “Don’t even have a ring yet.” 

He rolled his eyes before his lips captured yours, “It’s in the closet.” He mumbled as he held your face against his. 

“Mhm.” You moaned against his lips, even though you didn’t believe him. He was telling you the truth, hidden in his safe was a little black velvet box that held the engagement ring he picked out six months ago.  

#leon kennedy #leon kennedy x you #leon kennedy x y/n #leon kennedy x reader #resident evil #resident evil fanfic #Resident evil fan fiction #Romance #writing romance #fluff #No real reason #No real plot #Leon just loves you a lot #hayley writes a bit #I am still considering the what if thing #I guess I really need to make a master list #Maybe later #happy Valentine’s Day #enjoy!

[wxnheart]

𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐳𝐚, 𝟏𝟒𝟏 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐒𝐨𝐚𝐩

note: Soap is so ruggedly adorable. I couldn't help but pick this gif. He looks so awestruck. Imagine him looking at you the same way. The sequel is here, guys!

Unconventional seemed to be the story of your life. Or that's what others thought. For you, it was as normal as eating and sleeping.

But of course, nothing was normal when it came to Ghost and Soap. Mm. You wouldn't call it unconventional. You'd call it exciting. Yeah... they're exciting. They keep you on your toes and you on theirs. And damn if you didn't enjoy everyday life with them.

Of course, you two can be (lovable) pains in Ghost's ass. But to be fair, everyone is a pain in Ghost's ass so you're doing something right if all he does is stare glare in longsuffering Ghost. And stare glare in longsuffering Ghost he does...

But yeah, it's the little things that make this relationship worth it.

Like the fact that Ghost has to be in the middle of everything. Literally. He sits in the middle of the couch, he's in the middle when you sleep. He's the neutral to your chaotic and Soap's... somewhat-but-not-really chaotic nature. He's, uh... he's in the middle of everything. ("...But I'm bigger than you both." "All the more reason to keep you in the middle, Lt." "What the fu—")

He also may or may not be the little spoon no matter what. Spoiler alert: he is. If it isn't Soap with an arm around his waist in the bed, it's you with your... everything pressed against him. You're probably copping a feel, too, and Ghost just sighs. You better not be touching anyone else's body but his and Soap's.

But hell, you love to cop a feel of Soap's beautiful body too, and he'll wink at you. Sometimes, he'll flex those big arms of his, and holy shit, you're swooning. Simon rolls his eyes.

And let's not forget the most recent argument about who snores. You say Johnny, he says it's you, and Simon says it's the both of you because you've ruined his 'beauty sleep' more than once. ("...Beauty sleep?" "Can't let these good genes go to waste." "....") You decided to record yourselves one night and come find out, all three of you snored. Ghost will call bullshit.

Fun fact: Simon does snore but it's really noticeable when he's REALLY fucking tired and Soap has a tendency to sleep like the dead and be alert at the same time. You bore witness to this a couple times. What the fuck?

Oh yeah, back to the little things: watching television together is a hoot and a half, too, if only because you're usually in control of the remote. You're really the only one who watches tv. Or so you think. Soap usually doesn't care what you watch unless it's clichè (and he will talk shit about how cliché the show is) and Ghost would rather the telly watch you three fuck. He already knows what's going to happen to the main character anyway because he and Soap binge-watched and trash-talked the show when you were out running errands.

When they're gone on assignment, they're confident you'll hold the fort down but that doesn't stop them from worrying about you. It always makes your day when they call to check on you.

You also tend to flood the group chat with memes or just start random conversations. Simon has banned you from posting risqué photos because all he'll think about is coming home and fucking you into the mattress. Soap is in agreement.

And when they do come home, the first order of business is holding you. Group hugs and cuddles are a must, especially for Ghost. And yeah, you can't deny how good it feels to be in between two muscular and handsome men.

And it's such a sight to see when you're the first one awake and you watch your boys sleeping so peacefully.

Let's not forget when they huddle closer together when you get out of bed. You took a picture of one such instance. Simon rolled his eyes and Soap was tickled by it.

Yeah, it's the little things that make this relationship worth it...

#call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #call of duty x reader #task force 141 #simon 'ghost' riley #simon riley x reader #soap mactavish x reader #john 'soap' mactavish #ghost x reader x soap #poly palooza. #nsfw. #just 141 things. #just ghostly things.

[utilitycaster]

Part of why it’s tough to talk about the most recent episodes is that I feel a lot of people treat party dynamics, culpability vs. victimhood, and overall character focus on the show, based on an idea of a zero sum game, and I find that fallacious.

It’s really valid for everyone to be furious at Ashton, and I don’t think anyone has behaved wildly inappropriately towards them. I don’t think Bells Hells behaved in a therapy-approved manner either, but as is frequently discussed this is fiction and not real life and therapy-approved discussions are so boring and unnatural in, to be honest, either fiction or real life, that this is not a metric anyone whose opinion I respect would use.

It’s also extremely understandable how Ashton got here. As Taliesin said on 4SD, and now in-game and in-character, the fact that nothing good had ever really happened to Ashton means that they jumped at the first sign that they might be special and ran with it. The Ashton and FCG parallels continue; the past week has been a bunch of important people telling him how unique and cool he is. Jumping into the lava even worked out well for them! And so, riding high on that hubris, and with the knowledge that the rest of the party would probably stop them, they deliberately deceived everyone but Fearne. He even admits that the fact that “very smart people” (Evontra’vir, Allura, arguably Percy) advised against it was part of why he made the decision he did. It was perfectly in character, it did come from their trauma, and it still was a choice that was harmful to them, to the rest of the party, and to a vitally important mission. Ashton covers the situation well: they wanted someone else to blame, but in the end it was their fault.

Ashton is both deeply traumatized and also responsible for a number of their own problems. To be honest, I think this can be said to an extent about everyone in the party, but that’s beside the point. Within the fandom, swinging entirely to one side (They are a horrible selfish monster who ruined everything and are lucky the party is still talking to them) or the other (He has had a very hard life and exploding hurt a lot and everyone should be nice to him as a result) is an incomplete picture at best and a realization of the post author’s unexamined bias at worst.

It’s much easier to cover the other kind of zero sum: that of the show’s, and the fandom’s focus. The show is telling a story. In a good story, everyone will get their time in the sun, but if you’re counting how many minutes each person talks you have quite literally lost the plot. If your favorite isn’t getting the time you wish they did, it’s worth considering what sort of actions they take. Rarely do I find a main PC to actually be sidelined; more frequently, they just have a more subtle plot and the actor playing them realizes this. And in the case of the fandom’s focus; I’d be a hypocrite if I said complaining wasn’t valid, but you’ll achieve far more by making good posts about an underrated character than whining that other characters exist. People can enjoy multiple things at once, and frequently do.

#i've been trying to write something else like this re: mean-spiritedness #which is an EVEN BIGGER turnoff #but honestly that one either requires very specific examples or just being like. hey. learn the difference. #learn how to be a hater and an asshole without being mean-spirited. it's not hard. #cr spoilers

[nika-vincent]

Some of our reflections on the development of Halsin's personality in Bg3. Long post warning.

I can say that this post is something like a continuation of my previous one, which was devoted mainly to romance with Halsin. This time I gathered some more thoughts from my recent discussions with the guys who love this wonderful character, but this time the main topic will be the development of Halsin's personality in the game. Some things about romance will also be mentioned here a little, the moments we found in the game files, and a few more facts from the datamine. So if you haven't completed the game and don't want to get spoilers, then I suggest skipping this article for now. We will be very happy if this review can also help Larian to see some points that could be supplemented or repaired with patches and also look at how the players perceive our beloved bear and what they would like to see with him in the future.

I would like to start by saying that if we compare Minthara and Halsin in terms of the degree of personality development throughout the game, Minthara is prescribed better and even has her own different ways: to change herself for the better or to remain a bad girl. And I'm not gonna say that she doesn't deserve this because most players choose the path of good and there is no point in investing in the development of her character. Not at all. On the contrary, it shows that it is important for developers to take into account every detail in the game, and if players want to play the game differently for a change, they will discover a lot of new things and say: "Oh, dude! Minthara turns out to be not as bad as she seemed at first glance!". And this is really a wonderful move by Larian, which doesn't allow players to get bored and makes them look at situations and the characters themselves differently. (And by the way, if some character is in the minority according to the preferences of the players, this does not mean that it deserves to receive poor development.)

As for Halsin in this case, at the moment not only his romantic content is missing, but also his very development as a character and a full-fledged companion. This can be explained by the fact that he was probably recently added as a companion, and there simply wasn't time for him to prescribe more things that would reveal his character and potential to the fullest. Considering Sven Winke's recent post on Twitter, where he announced that Larian will again involve voice actors to record new content, there is a chance that these flaws will be fixed in patches and Halsin will get more interactive scenes than those he has now. (As far as I know, Minthara is also suffers from a lack of romantic content, as does Halsin, so I suggest waiting for now and following the official news from Larian …)

It's sad to see that new players who don't experience early access called Halsin a rather boring companion compared to others. However, players from early access spoke about him much higher and more positively, otherwise he wouldn't have become one of the popular characters of the community. So, why did this happen? I can explain this by saying that at that time Halsin was just something like an episodic character that we just had to rescue from the goblin camp and he would tell us everything he knows about our parasite and where we should go for further answers then. (And for an episodic character, that would be enough.) After that, we witness how he scolds Kagha because of the rite of thorns. And I think a particularly strong point was that in the case of Arabella's death, Halsin says in raised tones: "As for the Idol? It's nothing compared to life! A mere object, next to one nature's creations! You showed no pity, no remorse. I cannot absolve you!" I've seen people write admiring comments like: "Until that moment, I thought I couldn't love him even more!". The way he expresses his thoughts, shows concern, compassion, or regret and disappointment mixed with anger (because of the death of a little girl that Kagha allowed) - all this showed us the traits of Halsin's character and caused emotions among the players. Someone thought he was too soft, and someone admired his kindness. And that's how it should work, so that the character evokes different or even contradictory emotions in people, anything but boredom or the feeling that something is missing. This is what makes the character interesting, we want to learn more about him, see how he will behave in other situations and especially how he will react to the Baldur Gate City itself. And I can also note that we were particularly interested in his story with Ketheric Thorm, which he tells us about after the Tiefling party, as well as what he feels guilty about and what unfinished business he mentioned.

Unfortunately, much of what concerned Halsin's personal growth in the release version of the game remained not fully disclosed and seemed unfinished, especially in act 3. His quest during act 2 was challenging from a gameplay point of view, but from a story one it was quite touching and helped us learn a little more about Halsin's past and that the spirit of the land named Thaniel was his only childhood friend. We also learned a little about his parents, as well as the reason why he became the archdruid.

But the story of the shadow curse still remained as if unsaid, and also we didn't see any of his interactions with Ketheriс Thorm, which I think deserved to be realized, and were not limited to Halsin's stories only about Ketheric if we ask him. An interesting fact is that for a long time there were hints in the datamine that Ketheric's daughter Isobel died because of Halsin (correct me if I made a mistake somewhere, please). And I remember, I saw there that Isobel was killed by the spear 'Sorrow', the same spear that we can get in the secret vault in the emerald grove. Not to mention that in Halsin's room we can even find his diaries, in which Isobel was mentioned several times. This would have added a lot of intrigue and special opportunities for Halsin's interactions in the plot of Act 2 itself, but for some reason it remained behind the scenes and even if we ask Isobel about how she died, she cannot remember her killer. Although there are some special dialogues between Halsin and Isobel in the game files themselves at the moment, but there are none of them during the gameplay. I dunno why it was necessary to cut or change these things, and it is not for me to decide what to do here after all. But in my humble opinion, it would have added fire to Halsin's plot in act 2. I would regard this as a fact that even such a good and kind character as Halsin can make mistakes, has his own shortcomings and even dark sides. Therefore, before the release of the game, I had high expectations that Halsin would play a much bigger plot role in Act 2 because of these intrigues between him, Ketheric and Isobel than what we have in the game at the moment. The feeling of the whole story being left unsaid is still present in Act 2, but who knows, maybe it can be improved in patches?

When Halsin became our full-fledged companion in the game, we got new options for the dialogues, but very few of his interactions in the future. It's as if the development of his personality in the second act ended along with his quest. Remember what wonderful scenes with companions in Act 1 we watched over and over again when we stayed overnight in the camp. It helped us to get to know them better, to love someone or hate someone. Halsin definitely should not be deprived of this, we still want to get to know him so that later we can draw conclusions about him in Act 3 and help him find his own path, as it was with the other companions. We got to know our companions during acts 1 and 2 to see the end result of what we experienced together in act 3.

What confuses me is that the developers seem to have paid more attention to his sexuality than the development of his personality instead (not to mention that scandalous story of his sexual slavery to drows in his past, and he only tells us about it after we sleep with the drow twins in a brothel in his company). This looks especially sad for romance, because it looks like Tav fell in love with Halsin more for his sexy muscular body, and not for what kind of person he is. After all, even in real life, we fall in love with someone not for having a fine big booty, but for how a person presents themself to the world and how they treats us. I want to add here one quote that I just remembered: 'Personality is much more important, because the external beauty of a person is taken away by old age, but the beauty of the soul will remain forever.'

In act 3, at the moment, Halsin reveals much less, but we can still see some hints. After he appoints a successor to the Emerald grove in his place, and after we help heal the lands from the shadow curse, Halsin apparently has a conflict with himself about finding a new goal. He notes that he does not like the city of Baldur's Gate, he is saddened by the fate of orphans here, he would also like people to see a friend in nature. And there are also curious moments in his reasoning about shadow druids and their methods. But all this remains so far only at the level of discussions and comments that pop up sometimes. And we can only find out at the very end that he decided to find a new goal in helping people and orphans from the city in Thaniel's world. And you know, it's a really great idea, but I have this feeling again that in act 3 we missed a lot before he came to find this goal in his ending. The idea of his personal path still remained unfinished to the end. I also heard that he was supposed to have some kind of quest with a druid circle in the city, well, let's see if we'll have a chance to see it in patches.

Сomparing Halsin with the rest of the party, he still looks pretty unfinished in terms of development by the end of the game. Because each companion has their own personal options for the path of development, which we are able to influence, and we can notice the difference in the change in the character of a certain companion comparing with what they were in act 1 and what they became by the end of act 3. We can see what Shadowheart can be like if she rejects Shar, or what she will be like in the future if she becomes a dark justiciar. Astarion can remain as a spawn, but at the same time preserving himself as a person and not turn into the likeness of Cazador, whom he hated so much. Or we can help him become a Vampire Lord and the power will intoxicate him so much that he will even begin to dream of taking the city itself in the end. Even Minthara, the companion opposite to Halsin, also has her own personal path of development. But with Halsin himself, unfortunately, this is happening pretty weakly at the moment...

We have been discussing a lot lately what would help for the development of Halsin's personality, so that he could be on a par with the rest of the companions. And I'll start with an excellent thought from my dear friend @merrinla, which would give an excellent opportunity for the development of his personal path, which at the moment in the game looks somewhat unfinished (but I still believe in the power of patches, official writers and the love of fans!❤).

Considering that his background is labeled 'outlander', this makes him a person who grew up in a wild environment, wandering a lot, living in harmony with nature, free as the wind. And even his best friend is the spirit of the land, not from the ordinary people. In his youth, he lived this life, unencumbered by responsibilities, exactly before the crisis moment happened, which was a shadow curse that abruptly changed his usual life. And for 100 years, his goal was to heal the lands from this curse. Plus, his duties as an archdruid piled up here and he didn't have time for his own desires at all. "I was forgetting who I was," as he once told us. After the events in Act 2, he does not seem to be eager to return to the emerald grove, but keeps in touch with Francesca to find out news from there. He speaks quite critically about the city of Baldur's Gate, but he has a desire to help people here and make life in the city better. And I think it would be appropriate here to let Tav tell him something like: 'You know, Halsin, it's not for nothing that people say that everything can be found in Baldur's Gate. Maybe you can find yourself here too?' and also try to change his views on the civilized world, because at the moment he is not familiar with this world too well, and we could help him adapt, convince him that the city itself is not so bad, and find himself here. Even the romance with him will look great with this option.

So it would be a suitable solution if Halsin also had his own development paths: 1 - if he trusts our advice and assistance in adapting to the city, which will allow him to become more civilized. 2 - we agree that he is right in his critical views on the city and civilization, and ultimately he decides to remain an outlander.

I think that even his ending with the orphans could also look different depending on the choice of his personal path, as well as in the case of the romance with him. This is a really great idea, and thank you @merrinla so much for sharing it with me!🙏❤

I would also like to give my comment about Halsin's role in our party. Considering that we have often witnessed conflicts between our companions, in Halsin I see something like scales holding the balance. Someone like the 'father' of our party, an adult wise mentor with whom we could consult about our experiences and ask for his advice. And I would also be very happy to see how he will try to calm our companions in case of any conflict.😂 His wisdom and mentoring experience just have to play a role in our party. If we go on a romance path with him, I would really like him to let us know that he will always listen to us at any moment and support us. Maybe we could even unobtrusively take his hand in return for a while to show how much it means to us. It would also be nice if Thaniel could communicate more with Halsin in the camp, and, in the case of romance, in a dialogue with us, he would notice that Halsin cares about us. These cute moments and his modesty suit Halsin much more than excessive sexual innuendos.

I dunno if Larian will do something about the fact that in the game files Halsin should have received more interactions with Isobel. But I think it would be great and intriguing. And interactions with Ketheric would also be perfect here (Girls, don't start a fight until I find my popcorn😅). And it also seemed strange to me that Halsin had no reaction to Zevlor's betrayal. Maybe it's a bug or just another flaw, who knows. But it would also be good to get this scene, even if he was at our party at the time of the showdown with Zevlor. Maybe it would be nice to organize some kind of his reaction to Nightsong, too, given that Halsin learned about her from Aradin, but he thought she was an artifact, not a living angel. Some interactions with our pets in the camp, I think they should be for Halsin too. (Let him stroke Scratch's belly, haha) And also… the arm wrestling scene of Minsc and Halsin when? Just imagine how funny it might look, 'cause even the dialogue with Minsc about it was hilarious.😁

That's all for today! Thank you guys for reading this review to the end, and also join us in discussions in the feedback about Halsin of the official Larian's discord club! I wish great success to Larian and I thank them for creating this wonderful game for us, which unites people and allows us to discuss many things. We love you and hope that you will also succeed in your future projects, and I also wish you good luck and inspiration in working on new content for BG3!❤🙏

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate #bg3 #bg #larian studios #halsin #halsin romance #halsin x tav #ps5 games #pc games #bg3 spoilers #bg3 halsin

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card Trivia 2 ~ Alice in Clockland and its meaning inside Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

"But in the end...what the heck was that 'Clockland' ?"

Raise your hand if you have thought so at least once! If you did, then welcome to one of the posts of my Clear Card trivia series, an unexpected one I have to say, because I had scheduled to write other posts before tackling this one, but today I suddenly realized, thanks to a conversation in a community, that probably this aspect of the series takes precedence over other things.

I've seen countless of people confused over this matter ever since the play started in the plot, and everybody knows that usually when things get unexpectedly complex, they are quick to be labeled as "useless" and "nonsense".

No, Alice in Clockland isn't just a flex on CLAMP's outstanding drawing skills, it isn't useless, it is very much connected to the plot and DOES have a meaning.

Now that the main story is over, I would like to tackle this issue. I don't presume to have the Big Truth in my pocket, especially cause Ohkawa-sensei was quite eloquent in her recent public speeches: a motto she's going by is "If you think so, then it's surely true....for you", but I feel like the way I understood and reconnected the whole play and the consequent events inside Momo's book do work out pretty well, so I'll just do what I usually do: I'll write my own interpretation out here, hoping that people reading it will find it useful, will find the right angle to look at all this part of the story, and have some of their frustrations with this arc sedated. And maybe share it around to help other people too.

I just want to get my voice out there so that no one can say "no one understood it".

Of course the text below is full of spoilers if you haven't read the chapters from 64-ish / volume 13, also I will talk assuming you know what is Kaito's plan and what feelings moved him to think such plan.

Then, if you're ready, let's proceed to see in details what this is all about, starting from the play.

The Alice In Clockland Play

Let's start from the fact that the play is based on Alice Through The Looking Glass, and that is because….well, Alice in Wonderland is Ohkawa's most beloved book, so she really feels connected to it (and as you might know, this isn't CLAMP's first title inspired in Alice in Wonderland). It's just a preference, but for example many other books are referenced in this arc (as you might know from my other post in the Clear Card Trivia series) particularly "Momo" by Michael Ende (yeah, Akiho chose Momo's name from that book!).

The play (first called "The Two Alice" and then at last minute "Alice in Clockland") is undoubtedly the focal point of the second half of Clear Card. It's during the play that Kaito starts the final stage of his plan (and succeeds). But not only that, the plot of the play itself offers a good foreshadowing to what's going to happen to a certain someone later on. CLAMP used the "parallels" structure a lot in this arc, because it enhances the feeling of interconnection between the characters. "I understand what you're going through because the same happened to me". Sakura is an extremely empathetic character so that fits her and her world perfectly.

So the plot of the play Naoko wrote is quite simple: there are these two twin sisters who get separated by supernatural reasons and one of them ends up lost in another world, becoming Queen of it and forgetting completely about her family of origin. In the play they're both called Alice because of the imagery that twins are initially one same being that gets divided in two… Even the family of origin forgets about the lost daughter, but somehow their feelings for her never get erased, and they keep a chair (which stays empty) at their table. It's like they're feeling that someone is missing and are waiting for her to return, even if they don't really know it. One day, a magical black cat gets to meet the Alice who stayed in her world and ends up guiding her to a magical land: his goal is to lead her to meet her lost sister and reunite them. After wandering for a while. Alice finds her sister/Queen of that land, and touching her hands she suddenly remembers who she is, and what she herself came here for, which is to bring her back home. The two go back home together and we reach the happy ending of the play (which we could only see in the rewritten world, but surely followed the scenario Naoko had written). The most important message of the play is that even if we forget about someone, feelings cannot be erased and those will lead us back to the person we forgot and to remember about them. (Does this ring a bell..?)

The Actual Clockland

It might be useful to remind you that we're currently dealing with two major magical tools shaped like books, at this point of the story: one is the Book of Time Momo is guarding (to which Akiho gave the title "Alice in Clockland" and which will inspire the title of the play), a magical book capable of recording someone's life and, activating the so-called "Forbidden Magic", rewrite it completely. Another one is the magical artifact, shaped like a book, that was engraved into Akiho's body by her Clan and the Association of Magicians, where any magical book that Akiho reads gets "written down" , to store its magical power for use and consumption of those criminals. There's just one "tiny" problem: the more magic gets written on it, the more the book consumes and suffocates Akiho's soul, till the point of no return where the soul will get destroyed. The Clan and Association prefer this outcome as it would be easier for them to manipulate Akiho as an artifact, devoid of any conscience.

In the middle of the school play, Kaito brings Sakura and Akiho to Clockland, which is a "dimension" existing inside Momo's book, to prepare them for the rewriting of the world that he's going to perform afterwards. This world is built using Sakura, Akiho and Kaito's memories (you can see many elements that appeared in past chapters and that come from their memories, like the botanical garden where they had a double date, or the rose garden where Kaito met Akiho the first time). Another thing to be noted is that Hitsuzen (the force of inevitability that rules CLAMP's manga) facilitated Kaito enormously, so much that many things went exactly as he wished and how it was convenient for him (which isn't a good thing, since this led to a big big mess). So following the school play's roles, here Akiho is the Queen of this land, she's the most important character and it makes sense seeing who Kaito is doing all of this for. Sakura keeps being Alice, just like in the play.

In Clockland, Kaito removes Sakura and Akiho's memories and stores them in the botanical garden. He needs to do that for two reasons:

‐ just like the play, he hopes that Sakura and Akiho will follow along their roles and recognize eachother as sisters ‐ as such, this Clockland works as some kind of "primer" for their brain; ‐ he needs to change and rewrite those memories to make them become sisters later on, so he needs to have them collected in one place.

It is to be noted that Syaoran here is an intruder, Kaito didn't initially account for him to join in, and wanted to take on the role of the cat himself. In the play the cat is the one who leads one of the Alices to find the other one and make them recognize eachother as sisters, so this is the one thing Kaito wants to do and the role he wants to take on for himself. Kaito also knows that Sakura trusts Syaoran, even at a subconscious level, so he keeps his appearance to ease her in, believing that she'll follow along without making questions (ha, so much for that, Kaito). Not wanting to be hindered in his plan, he uses the Mirror Sakura Card as a red herring for Syaoran. Syaoran, in that regard, even as an intruder ends up achieving a result very in line with his "cat role", which is to make someone remember (Sakura remembers her identity when he shouts her name). The Clear Cards are inside Clockland because Kaito soon will need to use them to power the forbidden spell. As we know from later events, not all of them are there, and some follow his orders (like Shade), some don't (like all the Cards with appearances of Sakura's loved ones, which are trying to give her hints along the way to wake her subconscious up ‐ this is exactly their role and it worked well because Sakura starts to free herself from the spell Kaito casted to keep her subconscious dormant and to keep her in her "in role", symbolized in the manga by a change of fonts used in the dialogues, a thing that those who have read it in English couldn't recognize because they didn't respect that aspect in the translation).

Another thing that Kaito hopes for, while the two girls interact in this "fairytale" (it is very much considered a fairytale by Kaito, since he calls all of them "characters"), is that Sakura will end up creating the Card he needs to operate the exchange of artifacts between him and Akiho (exchanging his pocket watch for the artifact book inside of her). As we said above, Hitsuzen shamelessly favors him and Sakura does end up creating Exchange at the last minute. Once that is done, Kaito doesn't need to keep them in this Clockland anymore, and by the contract they have, Momo starts to activate the forbidden spell on his request, rewriting everyone's memories to satisfy Kaito's wish to turn Akiho into Sakura's sister after he removed the artifact from her with Exchange.

Now, we know what happened after Kaito activated the forbidden spell. Everyone's memories were rewritten following his wish, and he was turned into a dragon and imprisoned by effect of the Seal of D., which was imposed on him by the Association like some sort of "trap", should he ever mess with Akiho's artifact.

But it's here that the play from above comes back in from the "backdoor", to bring the unexpected parallel: Kaito ends up being the character who's lost in another world and whose existence is totally forgotten by a loved one.

But that loved one got a "memento" of him (the pocket watch, which parallels the role of the chair in the play) and that object causes Akiho to feel strange, to feel like she has to fix it, she's extremely attracted to this pocket watch even if she doesn't know why. In the end, just like in the play, Akiho and Kaito reunite and despite not remembering anything about him, and not even having his true appearance in front of her (cause she meets him as a dragon first), Akiho knows perfectly well that that is the person she loves the most, because her feelings weren't erased (just like in the play).

Sakura's role in the finale ends up being similar to the one of the black cat, making everyone remember who they really are and their connections.

So this is roughly the "significance" of both the play and Clockland in this story. It is to be noted that what happens in Clockland is extremely abstract and full of riddles because Alice in Wonderland + Through The Looking Glass are exactly like that. Have you tried to read the originals by Lewis Carrol? It's quite difficult to follow along and nothing seems to make sense….when actually, with a different reading key, it does. I've had to pause my reading of Through The Looking Glass (that I had started in hope to understand the Clear Card story better) multiple times because it's quite difficult for me to stay focused and understand what's going on. I guess Ohkawa‐sensei wanted to go all out on the references to this story, and give the same narrative vibe. The references of course don't stop at the narrative structure, you can read the others in my post about the literary references that I had linked at the beginning of this post, in the section about Alice in Wonderland.

Kaito's True Feelings

Another thing to be noted about Clockland is that since it's playing a lot with the subconscious of the characters, Kaito's true feelings end up appearing here and there. The Queen's Castle, the most important place, is built on crystals, a reference to his true name (something that Sakura points out immediately and Kaito doesn't reply to, while showing a pensive face). Their memories together are protected and stored inside the botanical garden, once again made of crystals. Sakura hits the bull's eye particularly when she says that the rose garden (where Kaito met Akiho for the first time) feels extremely important to someone (that someone is Kaito, of course), and Kaito (disguised as Syaoran) looks away and urges her to move forward. The "someone" could be interpreted as Akiho too, of course, but the Cat/Kaito's reaction and the fact that the Cards told Sakura that this place is strictly interconnected with someone's "wish", makes me lean more toward Kaito. The garden pavillion appearing with the Repair card is another important place because it's where Lilie told him "you'll find something/someone you'll like, one day". It's quite telling that Sakura, despite not even remembering who she is, is guided by her infinite empathy and recognizes immediately those parts of this land that reveal Kaito's true heart and the core of this whole matter, through the continuous questions she keeps posing to everyone, in a desperate attempt to make sense of what's happening and subconsciously fight the spell that's keeping her in her "role" (she'll do that with Akiho too, later).

It's interesting to note also just how much Hitsuzen played on Kaito's side, guiding Tomoyo's instinct to re-do the outfits for the two Alices and ending up giving to Akiho a serious, dark outfit with a black veil. I remember how me and some friends commented that more than a queen, she looked like a mourning bride. Considering what happened afterwards, the imagery CLAMP chose was pretty spot on. Not only that, but the black veil also served as a metaphor for Kaito keeping Akiho's subconscious dormant, making her act like the role of the play required her to. Needless to say, Akiho was able to slip away from the grasp of that spell basically on her own, without even needing magic, only relying on her strong feelings for Kaito (she didn't even remember her name, but lifting the veil up - a very powerful imagery - she remembered that she had someone she loved, and also Sakura's name. This gets once again conveyed in the Japanese version by the change of fonts in the script). The rose headpiece is also another quite interesting part of the outfit, as Sakura asks to the Cat/Kaito why the roses in the garden are all white, despite being this the Red Queen's land... For sure, that place was referencing the real rose garden where Kaito and Akiho met the first time, where the roses were all white, but that also means that the only Red Rose in that land is....Akiho. I also remind you that the rose headpiece was featured in the color page of chapter 69, with Kaito cradling it in his arms with a sweet smile, as if he were holding something very precious....we could read the color illustration as "that's the only thing he got left of Akiho".

This is the reason why Momo, in a moment where the Alices are on their own, tells Kaito that no matter how much he tries to hide himself behind the Syaoran disguise, his true nature shows up anyway. The whole place is full of elements making reference to very important things in his heart, and his true wish. That is only normal because the whole place is made up of their memories. This is also why Momo says that Kaito gave "all of himself" for the activation of the spell.

Another very interesting part is when Sakura, before meeting the Cat/Kaito, meets her friends Rika, Chiharu, Yamazaki and Naoko in the shape of the corresponding Cards (Appear, Synchronize and True & False). The Cards tell her that what appears in this world depends on what Sakura wishes, but her reply is "This is the Red Queen's land. Shouldn't she be the one to decide what appears here in this world?" which works wonderfully on a metaphorical level to point at how Akiho should be the one deciding what happens from now on, since this place is hers and was built for her alone. Seeing how mad Akiho got at Kaito afterwards for deciding her happiness on her behalf, yes, Sakura's question was pretty legit.

In Clockland we have also lots of meaningful interactions between Sakura and Akiho and words said in conversation that will become absolutely essential to help Sakura reaching the truth in the rewritten world (especially the whole discussion about "memories" and "records"), since they stayed in her heart even with the activation of the forbidden spell.

And I believe this is everything regarding these two parts of the Clear Card plot, a way for CLAMP to undoubtedly experiment with a different kind of storytelling, and to ask their readers to dedicate a little bit more of attention to the story, trying to get out of the logical approach to things, and thinking on a more abstract and metaphorical level.

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #clear card arc #ccsakura #ccs spoilers #clear card trivia #clockland #sakura card captor #clamp

[project-sekai-facts]

idk if I can ask u this but what is ur opinion on arata and kotaro

hello first off SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG FOR ME TO ANSWER but no i don't mind giving my opinions on the side characters

Arata and Kotaro are actually two of my favorite side characters! I didn't like them that much at first to be honest but they've definitely grown on me a lot recently.

I think Kotaro is really overlooked actually. Like I still see people bring up his actions in the main story when he’s moved on a lot past that, and then just write him off because of it. And I mean, it’s probably because he never got too much screentime between then and Power of Unity, but since he’s been making more regular appearances I think they’ve taken his character in a really interesting direction. He initially became a singer because he wanted to be a cool older brother for his baby brother and just happened to see RW at that time, which pushed him into street music. He just did it as a passtime because he was sort of good at it. However, RW did have a big impact on him, just like it had on An and Akito, even if he was only sorta casual in the street music scene. He admits in POU that the reason he never went further was because he was afraid, and seeing VBS putting their all into it inspired him.

It’s sort of subtle up until Light Up the Fire, but Kotaro doesn't have a lot of self-esteem or confidence in his singing. I think the first time it's ever brought up is in Power of Unity as far as I remember, where he asks once or twice if he's holding everyone back. LUTF makes it really clear that he has a lot of insecurities: he believes he's holding everyone back and he believes that he has no talent compared to the others. And that's what sticks out to me, because 3/4 of VBS have felt the same way. Kohane, Akito, and Toya all at some point or another believed they were holding everyone back, be it because they were a rookie, lacking talent, or had no resolve. Kotaro has been all of those and it’s obvious that he is written the way he is to serve as a mirror character to those three. He's had the same insecurities but the way he goes about dealing with them is totally different. While VBS had each other to rely on, Kotaro doesn't have a singing partner or group. He's a solo artist. And while he works with VBS, Arata, and EVER, he isn't part of any of their groups. Even Arata who also works alone still has Souma, but more on that in a minute.

(Also just an aside, I think he’s a mirror to Kohane slightly more than the others, and that slightly being the fact that VBS is what got him inspired to take this seriously, because that’s how Kohane got inspired she saw the others and wanted to be just like them, she wanted something to throw herself into and give her all to. The fact that she’s the main one who tries to call out to him when he breaks down in LUTF I think also plays into this, like it seems to hint that she’s able to relate to him.)

I really think Kotaro is much more than how he was presented in the main story and could definitely become a pretty strong side character if he ever got an event with a bit more focus (like how Vivid Old Tale gave Nagi a lot of screentime or POU had a lot of focus on Arata). Also clpl have you ever considered giving Kotaro a partner please give him a partner. Considering you rubbed in how important singing partners are before now why haven't you even tried to give him one?

Arata has definitely been given more development than Kotaro and I genuinely think he has one of the best arcs of any side character. Like he starts out as a rival for Akito, a foil to Akito. He's basically everything Akito wants to be, and also kind of a dick. Him getting beat by Taiga though, even though it was a small moment, was definitely an important turning point for him because it put him on the same level as everyone else. Because even he has someone better than him.

Oh and his development in POU was so good I'm probably gonna go on a little tangent about his relationship with Souma now because it's so important to his character. Arata's doing all of this for Souma. Souma was the one who wanted to do street music, Souma was the one who took Arata to RW, everything was Souma's dream, but it was still important to Arata. They were partners after all. But that's what it is. Were. Even if Arata wasn't the one who was in that car accident, it still took a toll on him. Souma has been forced into a position where he isn't going to be able to achieve his dreams, so Arata has to carry all that weight on his back. Surpassing RW suddenly has become so much more important to Arata because he wants, needs, Souma's dream to become a reality. The thing is, with how caught up he was in doing everything for Souma, he approached everything on his own. Surpassing RW isn't something he can do alone; the original was a collaboration between several groups, there's no way Arata could do it alone. He needed to work with people again, which he finally realised in POU.

Actually I think one of my favorite moments in his arc has to be his showdown with Taiga in LUTF. Because he's been able to overcome what was holding him back, he's actually able to get closer to Taiga's level. That is, until Taiga drops the "we're not so different" bomb. Because that moment is so powerful. Because at that point we see Arata as less of a foil to Akito and more of a parallel to Taiga. Both of them went through a similar loss of a partner, and Taiga uses that to get under Arata's skin and he goes for a deep cut. Souma is incredibly important to Arata, and Taiga knows that and had a similar experience of losing someone important to him, and is able to see exactly what’s still holding Arata back from reaching his full potential. Arata is doing all of this for Souma. For Souma. Taiga points out that Arata isn’t carrying Souma’s dream, he’s clinging onto the idea to cope with his grief. The thing is, Souma can’t surpass RW anymore. Arata’s loaded that responsibility onto himself, without even considering his own feelings on the matter. As Taiga says, Arata is good, great even, but he can’t be the best unless he asks himself if he wants this. Arata can’t even say that he is carrying Souma’s dream, that he does want to do this and he isn’t just clinging onto the idea to cope, and it crushes him to the point of leaving Shibuya.

Honestly I think leaving was what was best for Arata in that moment. Because he does need to take a step back and just let himself actually process his grief. Because even if Souma is still alive, that partnership was still lost and Arata had dedicated everything to that partnership and to Souma, and really he still does. And honestly I think this is what he wants even if you take Souma’s dreams out of the equation, but he needs time to himself to think about what he wants. I don’t know when we’ll next see him again honestly it might be a while but I’m interested to see how that goes. Arata is surprisingly developed and nuanced for a side character and the fact the devs managed to do this across 3 events, two of which he only appears in for a couple chapters is insane. Oh yeah also I like him a bit more than Kotaro if the wall of text wasn’t obvious.

#it's actually impossible for me to give my opinion on a character without writing a character analysis instead #asks #mod talks #apologies again for taking literally 2 months to answer this #arata tono #kotaro mita

[saccharinescorpion]

oh christ i typed up way too many thoughts about the Teal Mask story

spoilers of course

TO BEGIN WITH literally everything here has a big ol’ asterisk with “subject to change” attached to it, i was surprised at how much of a “to be continued” ending the main story had and i’m trying not to get my hopes too high for Indigo Disk, but wowzers

Carmine’s line about tourism… i have a lot of feelings, but the one looming over my head like a fucking sword of Damocles is “did the writers not intend this to have as much weight as i am ascribing to it lmao” because it’s only the one line and GOD i don’t want to be the “reading too much into stories for babies” person all the time but!! But!!!!

(recalls the scene where Nemona talks to you about feeling isolated because of her talent and recalls my feeling of “why was this only in one scene where she flatout looks at the camera and says this”)

well even if it’s not supposed to be “that” important-

1) sure makes the TCG Tournament in Hawaii feel even more bitterly ironic lmao (obligatory yes i know the game writers are not responsible for most stuff that happens in the wider franchise i’m just SAYING it’s ironic)

2) GOSH it sure does make those ugly jokes people kept making about Carmine even grosser than they already were (if you don’t know what i’m talking about, Don’t Worry About It)

As someone on twitter said it feels weird to have this sort of plot point after not exploring it at all in the game with the Hawaii analogue. at the same time i do have to wonder if it was a response to working on those games and doing some thinking. Who can say

God ALL of that was for one line

KIERAN!! Okay, i know i’ve been giving Kieran a lot of shit but his plot progression is genuinely very compelling. recent games have been exploring the “rival who feels inadequate” type of character but this is the first time one has gone off the deep end like this, and i really hope they push it into interesting places

Cutesy shy “oh gosh oh wowzers” pre-development Kieran… in the end i did feel a bit charmed by how sincere he is for the record!

but also i’m genuinely so glad he ended up having Inner Darkness lol

Sorry Kieran i just don’t like it when it feels like the writer is trying way too hard to make me say “i want to protect you”

By extension sorry Wally lmao because he really was the ancestor of this type in the Pokemon franchise

I tried not to take the fact that i really didn’t want the damn Ogerpon too personally lol, this is one of those moments where i really had to force myself to step back and remember that these games are not for me, they are for tiny children who often really do buy into the Gotta Catch Em All thing and probably felt some genuine inner turmoil at this

But god like, please. I have my giant puppy lizard who makes vroom vroom noises. Ogerpon you are so cute but we can never have the bond i have with my bike

Kieran falling to his knees after the last battle genuinely got me, so did him punching the shrine even with the dumb “owie ><” gag afterwards

OKAY talking about the battles damn Kieran and Carmine were tough opponents i had to try Kieran’s last fight like three times (admittedly because i was using my weaker Kitakami team but STILL)

Kieran feeling bad for the ogre was projecting “THIS CHARACTER FEELS LIKE AN OUTCAST” and i picked that up loud and clear, and that was good, but i wish they actually… made him seem like an outcast?

Don’t get me wrong, Kieran definitely has self-confidence issues, issues with talking to others, anxiety issues (possibly), and that can easily make someone feel like an outcast

But i feel like there’s a big difference between that and someone (Ogerpon and her trainer) who is actively shunned and mistreated by the people around them, and i was really hoping for that from Kieran

It’s just the Pokemon thing of finding it hard to depict people really being actively malicious (see Penny and Team Star’s bullies and their enablers all doing their thing off-screen and then leaving off-screen)

But it’s doubly weird because they didn’t have much issue with showing characters in this story being terrible (Carmine)

Carmine!!! Her terribleness was genuinely so entertaining, a lot of the time i was simultaneously laughing and thinking “oh people are going to be SO mad”

But real talk for all my love of Girls Who Suck i do actually kind of get where some people are coming from, she is genuinely very abrasive and unpleasant at times, and though i don’t agree at least i can tell where the character hate is stemming from (unlike some of the absolute batshit stuff i saw about Geeta and Nemona, don’t get me staaaarted)

And speaking of… okay i feel like i’m pushing it even talking about this but i feel it would be dishonest to pretend that i’m not thinking about it

SOOOO the “it’s not like i hit him” line… another case of “did the writers intend this to be as big as it is in my mind,” combined with uhhh writers from a different generation than me, let’s say

For now i will interpret that at face value, but like… damn, i don’t think that reads as you want it to especially in a Pokemon game

Carmine pleaseeeeeee say you’re sorry to Kieran in Indigo Disk please please please i know she apologized for leaving him in the dark but my dearest dream is for her to apologize for being so mean to him all the time. she needs to just treat him better in general. please i will forgive Kieran having to apologize for taking the mask if we can do this please

I know i know cultural differences but we already had Clavell apologize for the failures of the school system, this isn’t THAT big of  a stretch

I am genuinely curious if Indigo Disk will pull a reverse plot twist and reveal Ogerpon’s trainer to be a bad person or reveal that he was the one to attack the Loyal Three first because if not DAMN we’re just going to have some flat out evil Pokemon? that we can potentially put on a team with Ogerpon?????

Ogerpon is a silly lil girl :)

I still haven’t done Perrin’s plot lol

#pokemon scarlet and violet #teal mask #carmine pokemon #kieran pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet spoilers #teal mask spoilers #pokemon dlc #ogerpon #kieran #carmine

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: many worlds, portal fantasy edition

A typical portal fantasy follows a human from our world who steps through a portal into a magical land (think of narnia). But there are many fun variations of this trope! Sometimes it's the magical people who come to our world; sometimes we get to follow people who have returned from their adventures and are seeking for new meaning; sometimes our world isn't involved at all. As might be assumed, most portal fantasies are fantasy stories, but some lean more toward magical realism, others toward sci-fi. It's a fun spectrum!

I'm separating portal fantasies from alternate timelines/parallel worlds type stories (which will get their own rec post soon-ish). I also generally do not include stories where the character travels to fairyland/land of the dead/etc as those feel like a genre of their own to me, but the lines between them sometimes blur and this is, obviously, a subjective list.

(Titles marked with * are my personal favorites)

Other book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books

For more detailed info on the books, continue under the cut.

The Magicians (Magicians trilogy) by Lev Grossman*

You may not have heard of this book, but you have probably heard of the scyfy series of the same name that crashed and burned a few years ago. This is the book it’s based on (pros: it doesn’t end in the same way; cons: it doesn’t feature the juggernaut ship of the show in any major way). For the uninitiated: features what is essentially a (secret) magic university for tormented geniuses. When he finds magic isn't enough to grant him happiness, main character Quentin goes digging into the truth surrounding his favorite childhood books searching for meaning, and finds out that the magical other world they describe might not be so fictional after all.

Stray (Touchstone trilogy) by Andrea K. Höst*

Young adult told through diary entries. Including this as a portal fantasy is a bit of a stretch, but essentially: Cassandra unkowingly walks through a wormhole and lands herself on another planet, where she has to survive on her own until she is rescued. Soon she finds herself embroiled in a war between creatures from dreamlike other dimensions and the people who saved her. Skirts the line between scifi and fantasy (it has psychic space ninjas!), but generally feels mostly like sci-fi. Absolutely fantastic worldbuilding.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan*

Young adult. Kids who can walk between our world and a magical one get recruited into a magical school that trains them either to be fighters or sort-of diplomats. Our lead decides that fighting is stupid and that he’s going to peacefully solve every conflict ever, all while being the most delightfully obnoxious little brat possible and getting incolved in the most bisexual love triangle imaginable. Very good, funny, and heart-felt coming of age story.

NPCs (Spells, Swords, & Stealth series) by Drew Hayes*

This one only counts as a portal fantasy on a technicality and on the fact that I love it and this is my list. Follows a group of DnD players whose characters immediately die, forcing them to make new characters, and, parallel to their adventures, a group of NPCs from the fantasy world who find themselves forced to take the place of a party of recently deceased adventurers. The two parties do cross path on occasion, but there aren't actually any portals involved as all characters (mostly) stay in their respective world. A fun and light-hearted adventure that turns a lot of the expected tropes of the genre and of character archetypes on their heads.

The Time of the Dark (The Darwath series) by Barbara Hambly

1982 classic. Medieval history student Gil and biker Rudy are complete strangers, but when they get mixed up with a wizard from another world the two must work together to survive and get back home. Fairly traditional fantasy with its fair share of issues, but! It has cool swordswomen, creepy lovecraftian monsters and also mammoths!

The Twelve Kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono*

Young adult, light novel. Yoko Nakajima is a regular high school student, or at least she was one until a strange man showed up in her school, swore allegiance to her and whisked her away to another world. As the two get separated, Yoko is stuck on her own in a strange world, hunted by humans and demons alike as she travels in search of a way home. Absolute high point of isekai literature, with an incredible main character and really cool and unique worldbuilding (also available as an anime, however I have yet to watch it and can't speak to its quality just yet).

Peter Darling by Austin Chant*

Novella. An older Peter Pan returns to Neverland after years spent in our world, only to find that everything is different. Before he knows it, he finds himself working with his lifelong enemy, Captain Hook. Very gay and very trans, with interesting takes on toxic masculinity. Made my heart ache in the best of ways.

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

Young adult. A retelling of beauty and the beast, where 'beauty' is a girl brought in from our world to a fantastical one and the narrative focuses a lot on what actually happens to the kingdom when the royal family suddenly disappears, and whether it’s even possible to fall in love with someone you know is deliberately trying to seduce you to break a curse. This is part one of a trilogy, however I'm only really recommending the first book as the second did not work for me at all.

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials trilogy) by Philip Pullman

Young adult/middle grade, fantasy but has a lot of sci-fi aspects as well. Already well-known and for good reason, the His Dark Materials trilogy starts as what seems a pretty typical fantasy with some cool unique aspects (everyone has a soul-bound animal only they can speak to as their best friend!), and soon veers into a truly one of a kind story. It has magical portals, it has strange worlds with equally strange inhuman creatures, it has physics, it has god murder, it has gay angels, it has tragedy, and it’s very much worth your time.

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children series) by Seanan McGuire*

A tumblr favorite, the Wayward Children novellas feature a school open to children who have returned from adventures in other realms and now have trouble adapting back to regular life. Some installments are set in our world, others follow children as they have their otherworldly adventures. The main characters vary between books, but are generally pretty diverse with among others asexual, trans, intersexual and sapphic leads. Both funny and dark, it takes a closer look at the trauma many endure growing up different.

Otherside Picnic (Otherside Picnic series) by Iori Miyazawa

Sapphic light novel with a surreal and episodic horror vibe. Following the directions of an urban legend, university student Sorawo finds her way to a reality populated by horrifying creatures from ghost stories and modern urban legends (of which I'm sure you'll recognize many). Here she teams up with fellow explorer Toriko, both to both find out more about this strange world and to help Toriko find a missing loved one. Also available as a manga and (one season of) an anime.

Last Bus to Everland by Sophie Cameron

Young adult. Brody is dealing with a lot, but it all gets a little easier when he meets Nico, who shows him how to access Everland, a magical land where he feels less out of place. But when the doors to Everland start disappearing, Brody must choose which world is really home. I'd categorize this less as fantasy and more as coming of age with a fantasy slant. It's also very gay.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Surreal and fairy tale-esque, The Starless Sea is stories within a story, following graduate student Zachary as he finds a strange book which, in-between other tales, tells a story from his own childhood. Trying to find out how this came to be, Zachary gets involved with a pink-haired woman and a handsome man who are doing their utmost to protect a strange, otherworldly library available only through magical doors. It's a book hard to put in words, but which I once described as "romantic without being a romance while stile having a love story at it's core", and which can be summed up only as "an Experience". It's also quite gay!

The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck

Listen, there’s a whole bunch of Swedish portal fantasies I read growing up that I'm dying to include here, but I'm not because they’re not available in English. The Memory Theater however is available, and is very good. Two children who were stolen into an otherworldly realm that wants them dead fight return to earth, and are followed by one of their captors across universes. The story has the feel of a dark fairy tale, and their captors, while not fey, are very reminiscent of them.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow*

Historical young adult, more magical realism than fantasy. In the early 20th century, January is living under the care of her father's employer while he travels the world searching for valuables and secrets. But both her father and her caretaker are keeping something from her, something about her own family's history. When she one day stumbles upon a strange book, one that speaks of other worlds, she finally sets out to find the truth. However, there are those seeking to stop her and destroy the doors between worlds, no matter what.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher*

Horror rather than fantasy. After having divorced, Kara moves to stay with her uncle and help him run his museum of curiosities, until one day she discovers a hole in the wall of his house. The hole leads to a strange bunker, and beyond that, a dark and dangerous world beyond her understanding. In the company of a friend, she goes to explore this world, but quickly comes to regret her decision to do so.

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood*

The sort of portal fantasy you get when all the worlds connected by portals are fantasy worlds, and none of them are ours. The portals themselves become simply a part of the worldbuilding that the characters use to travel between fascinating places, and it's all really cool. It follows Csorwe (lesbian orc assassin whom I love), who grew up in a cult, indoctrinated as a child sacrifice to a god. But on the day she was meant to die, she instead chose to follow a powerful wizard and train to become his loyal servant and sword. Aside from being an excellent fantasy, it's also a close look at the hard path of unlearning indoctrination and the search for love and validation where you'll never find it, and learning to live for yourself.

Odin's Child (the Raven Rings trilogy) by Siri Pettersen

Norwegian (vaguely Norse mythology inspired) young adult. Fifteen-year-old Hirka grew up thinking she simply lost her tail to a wolf attack, but one day she finds out she never had one: she's an Odin's child, a human, sent from another world and rumored to spread rot and ruin wherever she goes. To keep her secret safe, she goes on the run, but there are forces hunting for her, wanting to use her in their war. This reads mostly as a fairly typical epic fantasy, with the portal aspect not playing a major role until the second book.

The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones

1997 classic. Tessa is a young woman with little going for her, until she stumbles upon a strange ring that transports her to a magical and dangerous other land. Here she meets Ravis, a mercenary who takes it upon himself to protect her, and discover her own special abilities, which she must use against an evil king whose mind has been corrupted and taken over by his crown, the Barbed Coil.

Skeen's Leap (Skeen trilogy) by Jo Clayton

1986 classic. While most portal stories are fantasy, this one has a distinct sci-fi flavour. Skeen is master thief wanted in a myriad solar systems, until her spaceship gets stolen and she's stranded on a backwater planet. Here she hears rumors of ruins leading to a strange other land. Hoping for treasure enough to get her off-planet, Skeen goes in search of this place, but finds herself stuck and unable to get back. This one has a unique, almost stream of consciousness prose that takes a while getting used to, but rewards you with a one of a kind experience.

Inkheart (Inkworld trilogy) by Cornelia Funke

German middle grade/young adult, in which the fantastical other worlds are those told of in books. Young Meggie's father has the ability to, when he reads, bring things and people out of the books, or put other people into said books. However, once having done so, he knows of no way to put anyone back where they belong. Now, years after he accidentally brought the terrible villain Capricorn and his henchmen out of their book, he and his daughter must evade them at all costs or be forced to bring further horrors out of the page and into the world.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

A teenage girl accidentally follows a worldwalker from her world to a magical realm on the brink of civil war. I believe this on has both a major polyamorous relationship and ace/aro characters?

The Sleeping Dragon (Guardians of the Flame series) by Joel Rosenberg

1983 classic. A group of college dnd players find themselves transported to the magical realm they previously thought just a game.

The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba

Webnovel. After having been transported to a magical world, Erin decides to, rather than become a warrior or a mage, start running an inn.

Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele, The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay, Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica, Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster, The Shattered Gates by Ginn Hale, The Awakening by Nora Roberts, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

#extra bonus rec if you like critical role: #go read Things That Gods Despise by dawl_and_dapple #(and also maybe my fic The World's Between us) #i didnt includ neil gaimans coraline her bc i assumed most people know if it already #(and also i ran out of space) #but if you haven't heard of it consider this another rec lmao #anyway. i may be slightly obsessed with this genre #please recommend me more books (or fics!) if you know of any!! #nella talks books #book recs

[bramble-scramble]

Post-DLC Phantom Lore and Theories!!

Hello everyone! I've put together a post that I hope will be fairly comprehensive, condensing what we've learned about our dear titular character of Rayman in the Phantom Show. No, not Rayman. Phantom!

There will also be a few theories of my own to fill in the blanks, although I will clearly mark what's a theory and what is confirmed.

I wanted to include tidbits about other characters, but this got really long, so I'll save that for another post.

Showtime!

Phantom's History with the Space Opera Network

First of all, Phantom did not create the network/studio!! This was a surprise to me, and I assume others... I think we all had guessed that it was his baby. No, it's existed for decades, and was in financial trouble BEFORE he came along. In fact, they paid him for a huge comeback concert, but when they didn't get a good return on investment, they owed Phantom a lot of money. I assume this is when he was able to take it over. Then, he held a telethon where people paid him to stop singing so the network would air other things again, lmao. And he got pretty rich off of it.

Source: The Space Opera Network memory. "After decades of poor ratings, the Space Opera Network bet everything on a live comeback concert by the Phantom. It wound up in bankruptcy with the opera singer as its largest creditor. Rumor has it that afterwords, the Phantom held a live telethon where viewers paid GOBS of money to have him stop singing so the network would return to its original programming, making him a small fortune."

(I also like that the telethon has been reduced to "rumor", implying that all footage of it was erased to spare anyone else from seeing it, LOL)

It appears this was all fairly recent instead of being something Phantom has been working on gradually since we last saw him. The studio is still in dire shape and doesn't appear to have had much time to put any financial improvements into effect. This is also backed up by "The Phantom" memory, where Beep-0 says that "most recently" he has become "Director of the Space Opera Network", AFTER his relationship with Bea and the Galactovision song contest incident. I also imagine the sets for the final battle are recycled from the concert and/or telethon, but that's just a theory.

So the timeline appears to be: Phantom dates Bea, Phantom dumps her for the dancer, Bea and Phantom co-host the Galactovision contest as bitter exes and blow out their voices in their rivalry, Phantom regains his voice sometime later through unknown means, hosts a comeback concert that bombed, takes over the network, has a telethon, gets rich(er), at some point during this realizes he can use the network for sweet revenge, then sends three golden tickets to the Heroes. The main adventure of Sparks of Hope takes place sometime after he ruined his voice, and sometime before he sends the tickets.

THEORY: Phantom probably figured AT LEAST Mario would come because he's the main hero, and he's always leading the adventure, right? He also surely guessed Rabbid Peach would come as she's an influencer. Both were people he was desperate to get revenge on. And he didn't care who the third was. Summoning only three was a way to prevent them from overwhelming him, and it would also be easier to keep them distracted so they wouldn't snoop around and figure out what was going on behind the scenes. He also figured the more savvy ones like Edge and Rabbid Rosalina wouldn't come because this just wasn't their thing, and Peach would be kind enough to give her ticket to someone else, not to mention her being busy - he would have loved to see her, but didn't want to have to FIGHT her.

I think his reasons for summoning Rayman as well, were because he thought it would make for an epic roast. But also, he knew of his traumatic history with rabbids and thought it would be destabilizing, and if he ended up in a hero group with Mario, there could be a rivalry (even if friendly) that would keep them distracted. Basically he just thought Rayman would never work with Mario and the Rabbids smoothly, and they would all end up interrupting and tripping over each other's heroism.

Needless to say things didn't go as he planned. Little did he know Beep-0, Rabbid Peach and Rabbid Mario would just intercept the tickets and run without telling anyone. And that Rayman would end up getting along better with his new friends than even the limbless hero himself could have foreseen.

Assorted Stuff

On various shows, Phantom has played the role of "Cyprien Fairclough, a young swashbuckling prince with a voice like a nightingale and throngs of female admirers", presumably a pirate named Captain Opera-Beard (although the memory log doesn't specify it was him, we can make a confident guess lol), and possibly the cowboy Plungerhands McMurdy, if we are to presume Phantom himself tries to star in as many of the shows he produces as possible.

The Space Opera Network wanted to make a movie version of the heroes' adventures but replace Beep-0 with a wise-cracking parrot. I'd like to imagine this was Phantom's idea just to piss our favorite roomba off.

Phantom GAINS STRENGTH FROM ADORATION AND ATTENTION, which..... is this something we knew before? It feels really natural but this is the first time something like that was established as far as I can tell.

"The Phantom lured Rayman, Rabbid Mario, Rabbid Peach and myself [Beep-0] to the Space Opera Network under false pretenses, so we might boost the viewership from which he draws his power. Should his spotlight have grown any larger, he would have become invincible." - excerpt from The Phantom 2 memory

And finally, there is a gramophone in storage in Phantom's control room. We can make a guess that this might be his old gramophone, and that he got his voice back by replacing it somehow. Thanks to @randomrabbidramblings for pointing this out, for the screenshot and theory! (I wanted to go look for myself but I don't think there is a way to get back into the control room after you beat the DLC? Without playing it again of course.)

Feel free to add anything I might have missed, and your own theories!

Fun facts about other characters coming soon!

#mario plus rabbids #mario + rabbids #rayman in the phantom show #the phantom of the bwahpera #fan analysis

[lil-lost-mind]

(This is a bit of a along post about my general experience in the qsmp fandom, both good and bad, and it does mention xenophobia but not direct experiences)

I'm happy to see people here being so nice and reminding that we(Brazilians) are welcome here

I was really hesitant about interacting with fandom at first, I actually was there the Brazilians arrived because suddenly tazercraft live appeared for me on YouTube, I joined for a moment but didn't stay long, but I did look about it later. Because Brazilians youtubers/streamers are on a server with a bunch of people from other countries? I was curious about what this would lead to

Didn't regret it, but since then, I was a bit scared of interacting on fandom. Some comments on clips were fine. But then I started using tumblr because of a friend's recommendation, I kept a look on what was happening on lore on general but didn't really interact on fandom. Hence why I created this blog, and also why it took me so long to link this blog to my main one

Because, well, if I got hate for any reason, it would only be a sideblog that I only posted about qsmp. I could just delete it or just ignore them

I am by nature a person who is very shy to talk about my interests, it might have nothing wrong about it but I'm shy, I'm the type of person who goes on asks box on anon because is too shy, even if I'm not doing anything wrong there's this fear of judgemeent.

In the light of the recent events, I am once again reminded that's why I don't use or plan to use Twitter, but still I couldn't avoid but feel... scared in a way, I don't think anyone would like to be treated that way. And even a bit ashamed of saying that I'm brazilian. Ashamed might not be the right word, but there's this feeling wich is similar, and while I'm proud of being a brazilian, I just... maybe invalidate is a more fitting word, it's just feels like my culture is unimportant compared to others.

And this is what it seems, in my understanding, what looks like suffering from xenophobia is, but I imagine it's worse suffering it directly ofc, and ironically, I don't think I ever felt like that for those reasons before. And while I can't talk about how it feels when suffering from it directly, I feel bad for the people who had to go through it(not only Brazilians). Nobody should feel ashamed of their culture or ethnicity

Ofc tumblr isn't free of people like that. After all, no social media will be free from intolerance. But it feels like it's harder to see it. But I can't emphasize enough how it makes me happy to see so many people saying their blog is a safe place for us. After seeing this stuff, it makes things better, for me, at least. It reminds me that my culture isn't less important than any other

And qsmp brought something beautiful, the unity of communities. Because even with those bad things happening, it's not the only thing in fandom, it happens, and any fandom has this, unfortunately. But I love to see every time someone talks about their culture, facts about their languages, to see people motivated in learning new languages. It's beautiful and makes me happy each time

I don't regret making myself part of the fandom, the opposite, really, I've met creators that I would have never without the qsmp. I've met amazing people there, I've found incredible artists and writers. I've had fun

I've found the motivation to learn new languages again, more passion to draw

And I'm thankful to everyone there who is incredibly nice and so made me more comfortable interacting here, even if they will probably never know

So despite everything, I think it was worth it

Was worth reading character analysis and theories, enjoying stories, seeing fanart and animatics, learning new language facts and about other cultures. Was worth seeing people being happy

Again, I'm very thankful for all the people who made me, and I'm going to assume a lot of other people who needed to hear that, comfortable and validate here, I can't express how much this made me happy, I hope everyone coming from twitter have a good time here<3

And a very big and sincere "VAI TOMAR NO CU" to any xenophobic and racist person

I know very few people will see this, or even read everything, but I had to say this somewhere, so yeah, I'm rambling on tumblr again:D

#qsmp #qsmp fandom #I have no idea of what to put in the tags #why are those so hard??? #lil's rambling #also it's flipping 3:40 am for me #my schedule is so screwed

[mdhwrites]

Five Reasons Why The Owl House Isn't Inclusive

Someone on Twitter asked me to elaborate on the concept of TOH not being inclusive beyond LGBTQIA+ labels, which I'm still happy it has, and I accidentally just made a five part list of them that helped bring together a lot of the points I've tackled not only recently but also in the past so... Why not? Let's actually make a kind of master post for this. These are five reasons why The Owl House isn't inclusive.

The demons

I don't entirely have an order for this, this isn't a top five thing, but we'll start with probably the thing that's the easiest to never even think about: It's treatment of the demons of the Isles of the DEMON REALM.

Every demon in the show is either a gag, a villain... Or the ones who get to have nuance or be good are the ones who pass the most for being 'human', much like how the witches are just humans with pointy ears. The first point is pretty obvious. A lot of random demons show up just to be made fun of for looking strange and then move on.

The villain accusation though is because like 90% of one off villains in this show, with no nuance or real personality and are obviously evil just because they're evil are demons. They also aren't allowed to be amongst the good guys for the most part. In the main cast, the only demon is Hooty who... Boy his treatment is AWFUL. It actually says TERRIBLE things about Luz that she treats him just as poorly as everyone else, especially when someone else manages to befriend him... Which the show uses as signaling to treat Lilith as lesser than the rest because now she's comic relief.

Finally the passing part. This is actually big for the fact that it's actually kind of racist in general. The only demons who are allowed actual nuance are the ones who look the most like witches or humans. Boscha and Steve are both theoretically demons as far as we know and they get kind of redemption arcs but much lesser ones than any more human character and both start as villains. Then there's Vee who is the only unequivocally 'good' demon and her whole thing is that she can pass for a witch or human. In fact, she's better at being human than LUZ is.

So point one and we've already got a weird undercurrent of an entire race being lesser than the conventional ones or... that'd be it if not for

1.5: Take a lot of what I said about demons and apply it to the guys of TOH because they're also treated like shit by the writers. They are either villains or jokes when they first appear and the only exceptions are either still pretty questionable for fitting one those roles... Or dead. You know, like Manny. I think Dell is literally the only ALIVE male character who isn't a joke or villain at one point.

2. Everyone's really fucking pretty. Like... period. Every character in the main cast is ready for the runway. The only main character who really comes close to being transgressive in their looks is Willow and like... Overwatch came out 7 years ago with Mei and that she wasn't a daring design choice then and Willow wasn't four years later. They're the definition of 'more to love'.

Admittedly, I'm normally fine with things just having pretty people. Yokotaro is based for giving an android a big ass because he likes pretty women. I don't think people should feel ashamed for that. It's just a problem when a lot of your contemporary competitors, or even old school competitors like Recess back in the NINETIES, who aren't even trying to preach inclusivity, have better body representation than the show that does.

And yes, that does tie back into the demon thing too as you might notice that all the demons who are accepted by the main cast or given more nuance are the ones who look the most conventionally attractive. Good job show.

3. Nothing here is actually transgressive.

So now we're getting away from looks and the like and actually getting into how well the show sells its theming and representation of those society rejects. The embodiment of this should be Luz if the show wishes to say that it accepts those with weird interests or behave oddly. The only problem is that Luz doesn't. At all. When she is, the things she's transgressive about are things like the safety of others and common human decency.

Luz never really defines herself by her interests after all. Azura exists sure but it gets like... A handful of forced references in S1 and then maybe a couple in S2, often not even by Luz eventually but Amity, which is literally what happens in S3 as she abandons the series effectively. This isn't technically bad. She has a healthy relationship to it for the most part. She doesn't hyperfixate or try to interject it into every part of her life. She's just a nerd... Which wasn't even a brave thing back when I was in High School a decade ago.

Straight up: I was a part of JROTC, the American school fast track into the military and people the first guy I ever heard squeal about how the Avengers were gonna happen, he swears, was a really dude in that ecosystem. He was more of a nerd than any of the drama kids I eventually hung out with and no one cared.

And Luz is less extreme than THAT. The only time she actually is is during her character introduction where she, you know, releases spiders on a classroom and also snakes that attack people. Or how about those fireworks? What was her plan with those? Set them off inside and kill burn down the whole building in the BEST CASE scenario? Because if she's been bullied so much, why would she expect her class to come outside for that? Regardless of the fact that you'd get expelled just for bringing that much gunpowder into school, let alone the other reasons she should have been expelled.

The worst part of all of this though is Lilith. Lilith actually hyperfixates. She cares a LOT about her interests and gets giddy about them... And it's almost always framed as mocking. Everything to do with her interest in history is almost always setup for a joke of some sort or to make her look smaller. She is also more genuinely interested in learning and excited about the Isles and its potential than Luz commonly but when she becomes that character, she isn't taken seriously anymore. She's a joke, just like her best friend Hooty.

So now we've rejected nerds. Can we really go deeper? Well, how about the oppressed themselves?

4: The oppressed are inconvenient to the show so they don't show up.

Because the Isles is meant to be bigotry free except for Belos (an ENTIRELY different topic that has bunches of problems of it own) the only people actually oppressed in the show, who are ever actually forced to conform and mind that conforming, are wild witches. But not only is their plight poorly shown but it's also inconsistent.

Eda is our ONLY representation of it and the show ever struggles to decide how genuinely illegal her presence is. She's allowed to just stroll into an Emperor's Coven funded school and enroll her student there. All it takes for her to be free for a day is burning some posters. But also on the other side, she is literally threatened with death ONLY for the crime of being a wild witch and not the rest of her rap sheet.

And why shouldn't it be? Systemic oppression isn't actually that bad by what the show depicts. Dana herself wrote Reaching Out where the coven system is treated like not going to college instead of a crime so severe as to have the death penalty. She also was one of two writers for The First Day where they treat the coven system as just tradition and not like multi-tracking is going to get these kids literally killed, if Bump himself isn't removed by Belos for enabling people to break the law in an episode where he SPECIFICALLY NEEDS GOVERNMENT FUNDING.

And as the coven system is the only form of oppression, no one has to actually deal with the social and sometimes legal pressures that makes one hide who they are. It can't say anything about those actually struggling because it's inconvenient. You can't just have Luz be accepted by all if her dream makes her illegal to most. You can't have her easily fall in love because that relationship is illegal. You can't have members of the government who have done literal witch hunts just turn around and be good guys because they are active participants in bigotry.

So the oppressed, the people actually other'd by the story that's being told, are pushed out of frame for the sake of the escapist fantasy of Luz getting to runaway to a magical world and save it. They exist solely to claim there IS a reason to fight but actually showing their struggle is one step too far apparently.

5. It leans into extremely harmful stereotypes of people with mental disorders and disabilities. Content warning for those topics until the BUT at the end.

This is the last one because not only do I think it's actually the most dangerous but it's also the most personal as someone who is literally disabled due to their depression. Who had to be really careful when writing about characters in crises not to peddle the same narratives most stories do. Extremely hazardous, painful narratives.

Hunter and Eda are both disabled by the logic of the world they live in. Both are incapable of magic in a world that expects it from them and it causes real difficulty in their lives, forcing them to require equipment and/or meds to aid them in dealing with the struggles these cause, doubly so for Eda because of the curse. It actually is good representation... Until you start thinking about and people start getting 'cured'.

Eda's is definitely more of a mental health disability with how much it's connected to emotions, stress, etc. like that than her physically being incapable of doing more. She suffers from not having enough spoons on any given day to do things with some being worse than others. Again, face value, this looks kind of nice.

Here's the insidious part: When she isn't medicated, when she isn't able to hold back her symptoms... she's literally a monster. Anytime she shows her pain, she is actively dangerous to those around her. Full stop. And there is no way to stop this except her murder. She will ALWAYS be a threat for the rest of her life, even after making peace with her diagnosis. After all, in the final episode she literally has to warn someone to get away because she's going to lose control. Worse yet, part of her getting a reprieve from it is to ruin another life. Lilith is made disabled because Eda's illness is so out of control that only through other people's sacrifices can she find help.

If none of this raises red flags, GOOD FOR YOU! You haven't ever had to be told you might lose your apartment just because they don't want to one day find you having done something terrible because they assume that will eventually happen, SOMETHING THAT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME. You've never been told to hide and lie about your condition, to pass as just a normal person, so you could get a job or just so you didn't appear wrong to others. So you don't seem like a ticking time bomb that will explode.

Hunter is a mixed bag comparatively. He's better because his disability, not having magic, isn't inherently dangerous. He's not going to kill anyone someday because of it. The problem is that he is still mostly framed as lesser because of his lack of magic and that he is helpless due to it minus one time he gets to show off his skills while without his staff... To no avail. Otherwise, everytime he doesn't have a staff, he is completely at the mercy of anyone around him. His heart to hear with Willow is even about feeling like less of a person due to it and how they've both struggled with the problem, which, you know, feels disingenuous when at the end the plant goddess forces him through the ground against his will because she has her own magic and is one of the strongest witches on the Isles. It's like telling someone missing an arm that yeah, when you were young you broke your arm too but you got better while the other person is still MISSING AN ARM.

And then he is cured... By the death of his best friend. At which point, he is whole, a complete person with his own magic... at the cost of a life. You know, just like how Eda only got the curse to back off by hurting someone she cared about too.

What the fuck?

And finally, for a bit more mental health rep: Luz. People like to claim that Luz is suffering from trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. in the second half of show and especially S3. The problem with this is that after S2A, Luz is just categorically is a worse person. This culminates in what most consider to be her lowest point, Thanks to Them when she has a speech in class that potentially hints at suicidal ideation. However, in the episode she decides that instead of taking responsibility and trying to fix her mistakes like she used to, she is going to just stay home and let an entire world die. Yes, she frames it as self sacrifice and having learned from her mistakes... but it's not. It's self preservation if anything.

Anyone on the Isles should be presumed dead or something akin to it with what she experienced during King's Tide. Anyone who goes back is going to fight a GOD to try to reclaim it. To have to beat someone who is leagues more powerful than any entity they've even fathomed before. Her friends have been trying to get home and planning for this all with the expectation that Luz would be by their side. But despite the fact that she explicitly blames herself for the situation, she's staying. There's no talk about how this means dooming her found family, how it means breaking up with Amity or anything like that. Her focus is entirely on herself and the mistake she made. They can all go rot while she gets to stay home with her mom.

This doesn't even go into Luz's lower empathy or her CONSTANT LYING that was more prevalent in the second half of the show. It all says one clear thing though in this context: Because she is damaged due to trauma and depression, she is a generally worse person. She cares less about others than a functional person would, as she was a better person before all of this, and loses her morality as she is willing to let people die instead of fix her mistakes.

All of this just makes it bluntly better if Luz isn't actually depressed during this time period and more is just being a bad person because things have gotten tough. Otherwise this feeds into a LOT of bad stereotypes for those who are mentally ill.

BUT.

I do not think any of this is done with malice. Any of the five points. It's just careless. I pointed out the narrative problems for properly including a couple of them and I could easily tell you why others regurgitate issues without blinking for many of the others. It's easy to make these sorts of mistakes if you're not thinking about it. If you're just taking tropes you like instead of trying to craft towards a genuinely coherent theme. It's made worse when you know you're in a landscape that is hungry for representation so being praised for it won't be hard so you don't need to fully commit.

As I said earlier though, this is kind of a problem for a show that wants to be about inclusivity. Who's main themes, at best, are about self actualization and self acceptance. About being who you are and finding the spaces that allow you to do that. And yet... So many are left to the wayside. Abandoned because the show has a very narrow definition of a 'correct' identity and if you don't fill those definitions, it will leave you behind.

If you want a show that actually accepts everyone, that allows for all parts of identity, I've seen only one season of Craig of the Creek and it is EXCEPTIONAL at it. All are welcome in the creek. No exceptions. If someone is alone, it's because of circumstance or self selection and even they are given chances to be a part of the community.

I wish TOH had believed in something even close to similar.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house

[utilitycaster]

i feel like for the critical role trauma thing i HAVE to ask about caleb even if that’s a subject that’s been talked to death. i’m also super interested in your thoughts on Yasha in this conversation

The thing about Caleb is he is very visibly not okay from the get-go. He has a mechanical penalty to killing humanoids with fire which we see very early on. Then his backstory came out pretty much in full quite early as well. And before I continue, I want to stress: I really love Caleb as a character. I think his story is fantastic. He is hands down my favorite Liam character. He is complicated and difficult and sympathetic and heartbreaking.

He also garnered some of the most unbelievably toxic type 2 (ie, "um he is traumatized and can do no wrong?") fans I've seen in my LIFE, and many of them were also mixed with the "there's only room for one traumatized person in this d&d party and therefore whoever fits my idea of What Trauma Looks Like and/or whoever I personally project onto the most is the winner." I'm talking people actually getting on my posts and saying "why haven't the Nein stopped all the pesky adventuring and world-saving they're doing and taken him to Duasad Keef (an NPC only mentioned in the EGTW at the time, ie, post hiatus when the plot pretty quickly went to Eiselcross and stayed there, whose methods of therapy would actually probably be triggering for Caleb and who was probably well out of their paygrade and frankly unlikely of anyone else in the party to have heard of)." Those people have largely left because they hated that Caleb decided the best revenge was doing what he could to heal and living well and ensuring no one in the future would suffer as he had, rather than murdering the entire assembly and presumably dying in the process, but man, they left a mark.

There's definitely his detractors too, and I have no patience for the "ewwww sadboy attention hog" people, many of whom were either of the "I am feeling uncomfortable when we are not about Beau?" variety or that bizarre cohort of people who just fucking hate Liam for reasons I have never been able to fathom, but I'm not going to lie, as someone who likes Caleb a lot, the fandom response was rough because there was definitely a noticeable faction who really just did not accept the idea that basically everyone in the Nein had some degree of trauma. The High Richter Heist is a great example. Fjord holds Caleb at swordpoint for deviating from the plan. We later learn that while Caleb is acting from his trauma (trying to collect as many books as possible to achieve the purpose that is frankly his main reason for living at that time), Fjord is just as much acting from his (was very recently betrayed by Sabian deviating from the plan in an all hands on deck situation, stabbing him, and blowing up the ship leaving everyone, Fjord included, to drown). The infamous Bowlgate, not long after, is also a similar case of Beau and Caleb's respective traumas clashing. It's why Campaign 2 is so good, but man, it really is a litmus test if someone's like "actually Caleb is objectively 100% right in either of these situations;" you know you're dealing with either an idiot or someone who can't conceive of the possibility that trauma isn't a competition that Caleb has obviously won.

So, with that, Yasha: I think Yasha is tough for a few reasons. The first is that she wasn't around a lot early on, so while we learned the basics of her backstory in episode 46 we simply didn't see how she reacted in all situations. The second is that the fandom is specifically really fucking bonkers about people whose romantic partners die young; see again how people were like "see? Orym would be happier dead with Will!" like that isn't the kind of statement anyone with a brain would be MORTIFIED to say. So there was some of that with Yasha. I think the extent of what happened with Obann came up in a pretty dense arc and only got unpacked after the fact (and once Ashley was at the table regularly). And finally, Yasha got a lot of hate from shippers that was not strictly related to her trauma but did sometimes include it. So she's an interesting case of "trauma not so much ignored as frequently misconstrued or taken in bad faith to support interpretations barely related to Yasha herself, compounded by the fact that you had to read between the lines to understand her trauma in the first place."

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag #caleb widogast #yasha nydoorin

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi! Hope I wasn't bothering you. I have a question for you that might seem odd(?):

How do you think the boys who don't really mention their families relationships with their relatives are like? For example: Does Cater have a good relationship with his sisters and vice versa or nah?

We actually know quite a bit about the TWST boys’ relationships with their family members (with a few exceptions, and with varying degrees of detail). It’s one of the benefits of being ahead in the JP version and having read up on a lot of the characters’ lore, I guess 🤣 So I’m not sure which characters you mean by those who “don’t really mention [what] their family relationships are like”?

I feel bad leaving the question unanswered though, so here’s a rundown of each main TWST boy and their various familial relationships (most of the things here can be easily deduced or is outright confirmed canon across the main story, vignettes, character lines, events, and/or other official TWST media):

***PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.***

Riddle

Riddle’s mother is a well-known medical healer in their hometown. However, she is also a very strict parent and controlled Riddle’s diet and day-to-day schedule down to the minute, losing her temper at those that would question her rules and parenting. Young Riddle saw his mother as an example to follow, even if her decisions made him unhappy. Modern day Riddle (particularly following the events of episode 1) has recognized how toxic his mother’s parenting methods were. In episode 4, he resolves to confront her about this, but we never get to hear about the outcome. It is to be noted that his demeanor changes when he speaks about his mother--he appears much less sure of himself and adopts a different expression than usual. We can deduce that his present relationship with her is very strained.

Riddle has a father who is also a magical healer, but Riddle’s relationship with his him is largely unknown.

Riddle implies that his parents may have a poor relationship with one another, as he says in one of his Groom-for-a-Day lines that he wishes the Queen of Hearts would share the secret to having a happy marriage with his parents.

Trey

Trey’s a normal guy coming from a normal family that runs a normal bakery. His mother and father run Patisserie Clover, and he helps them with its operation when he’s not busy. (In fact, Trey started playing soccer because his parents thought it would help him be fit for the heavy-lifting duties at the bakery.) 

He has one younger sister and a younger brother that he helps his parents look after. It’s said by some of Trey’s underclassmen that he probably got into the habit of taking care of others because he already has the experience caring for his own siblings. Trey confirms that he has to tell his little brother to brush his teeth before bed.

The Clover siblings often bug Trey to make sweets fr them.

Cater

Cater doesn’t mention his mom; it’s not clear if she’s gone or if she’s still around and he just doesn’t talk about her.

His father is a banker. Because the bank he works at has branches all over Twisted Wonderland, the Diamond family moves every 1-2 years to accommodate for his job. Cater’s relationship with his father is never further elaborated on in canon.

Cater has two older sisters who are very into the idea of everything they do or own being "cute". From the way he speaks about them, it seems that he thinks they’re annoying to deal with, as they are said to boss Cater around and force him to do things he doesn’t care for (such as eating sweets and dressing up in clothes that they prefer) in their youth.

Cater does mention that his sisters have gotten a little nicer to him over time. He says they don’t have bad intentions and more, recently, have been asking him ahead of time what he would like to do rather than deciding for him.

Ace

The only family member we’ve heard Ace mention significantly is his older brother, who is a graduate of NRC and has told Ace how to kill time on campus (they seem to both be slackers). Trappola-nii is 7 years older than Ace and is employed in the field of entertainment (he also interned for the same company during his fourth year).

The Trappola bros are close with each other, with the older brother pulling pranks on Ace (such as buying a fancy watch with his first paycheck, posing it like a birthday present to Ace, but then going, “oh, it’s actually for myself”, blowing out the candles on Ace's birthday cake, or giving Ace an empty box as a gift and then filling it with candy). They are also on the phone at night with one another often.

It was his older brother that showed Ace how to do magic tricks (Ace learned by watching him) and how to lie effectively. He also loves movies.

Ace's brother appears to be a skilled Magift player (which is, perhaps, in part why Ace was so eager to play the sport in episode 2); Trappola-nii led Heartslabyul for the Magift opening ceremony during his school years, and there is a picture of this near a staff room.

Trappola-nii was happier than even their parents when he learned Ace got into NRC.

Even though they fight sometimes, Ace describes his brother as being light-hearted and easy to get along with. He thinks there are advantages to having an older brother, as he can rely on them for help and for advice. Ace sometimes has long phone calls into the night with his brother.

Ace has mentioned that though his father is not a mage, he is able to do simple card tricks.

His mother has yet to be mentioned in any kind of prominent manner.

His grandmother read the story of The Little Mermaid to him when he was younger. She's also the one who told Ace about the Ghost Camera.

Deuce

Deuce comes from a single parent household in Clock Town (a town in the southern are of the Queendom of Roses). It is not known what happened to his dad, or what Deuce’s relationship with his father was like.

He has a grandma, but we don’t have many details about her or Deuce’s relationship with her.

His mom often takes him to limited time grocery store sales. She tends to buy a lot, so Deuce, as the only man of the household, helps her with the bags and other hard labor.

His mother, Dylla, works as a truck driver for the famous White Rabbit Deliveries, a delivery company in the Queendom of Roses. She and Deuce share a love for vehicles.

Deuce often talks with her over the phone about school and his friends Yuu, Ace, and Grim.

Dylla and Deuce used to not get along during his delinquent phase. Deuce would spend time in public parks to be out of the house and away from confronting her.

Like her son, Dylla can be strong-willed, earnest, and stubborn. When she is pressured by a group of delinquents to pay for their laundry bill, she refuses and says it’s their own carelessness that got cream on their clothes.

He is amicable with his mother and appears to care deeply for her, even when he was still in his delinquent phase. It was in overhearing his mother blame herself for him going down a bad path that drove Deuce to change and set his sights on pursuing the goal of becoming an honors student. Everything he does is really driven by trying to improve himself to make his mother proud, even as early as the main story’s prologue, to events like Wish Upon a Star (in which he cries when his mom calls let Deuce know she’s proud of him).

Mrs. Spade openly talks about the cute clothes Deuce wore as a kid. She mentions that their family doesn’t have much money, so she asked coworkers for hand-me-down bc clothes, which she worked on to provide Deuce with a fancy outfit to wear for a holiday.

She cherishes spending time with her son; the White Rabbit Fest started the year Deuce was born and she’s been going with him every year (until he “grew up”). She misses those times and wishes he would come home more.

Dylla sometimes also took little Deuce into her work office; this was before his delinquent phase in middle school. Her coworkers recognize Deuce because of this (and are also aware of his middle school self and how different he is now, remarking that he has “really become a good boy”).

Deuce’s mom is not that good with operating electronics. This is perhaps part of why Deuce developed the talent of machine maintenance and tinkering (from helping his mom out).

Deuce is infamous in his hometown for causing a lot of trouble to others, including his neighbor. Dylla would constantly apologize for her son, and, in present day, often tells others about Deuce’s achievements and how he has turned over a new leaf. Unfortunately, some townspeople still refuse to believe her.

Of course, Dylla is very proud of how Deuce has earnestly turned over a new leaf.

Because Deuce loves eggs, Dylla has become good at preparing egg dishes. She says she is not as good at cooking anything else.

It's implied that Deuce and his mom have little in terms of free spending money, as he talks about taking advantage of supermarket sales, how little his allowance is, how his mom started gardening to help save on food costs, and how the money he wins in book 5 can really help out his family.

Leona

Farena/Falena is Leona’s older brother by 10 years. Leona’s father is ill, so Farena/Falena, is temporarily assuming the duties of king in his place. We don’t know about Leona’s mother, nor about his relationship with his parents.

Farena/Falena is shown to be supportive of Leona despite Leona’s dour and pessimistic behavior. He sends Leona expensive gifts and insists that Leona can do great things for their country, even if he is not crowned king. In spite of this, Leona does not return Farena/Falena’s love, instead thinking of his elder brother as carefree and not thinking of the Sunset Savanna’s future.

Leona is also annoyed by his nephew and brother’s son, 5-year-old Cheka, who is very eager to play with and learn from him. Cheka sends letters, calls, and even sneaks out to see his uncle, which irritates Leona to no end. He seems to try and avoid Cheka as much as possible, but has no choice but to return home or to take his calls from time to time.

Farena/Falena has a wife, making her Leona’s sister-in-law. Though she is not often mentioned, Leona usually does obey her requests (even if he doesn’t necessarily want to) as he “respects women”, as per the culture of the Sunset Savanna.

Ruggie

Ruggie’s father left “for work” one day and never came back, and it is not certain whether he is alive or not. Meanwhile, his mother “became a star” (she died after giving birth to him).

Ruggie’s legal guardian is his grandmother; they reside together in the slums of the Sunset Savanna. They don’t have a lot in terms of money or belongings, but they get along just fine with one another and do what they can to scrape together money and food to survive. Granny Bucchi is described by Ruggie to be “kind but tough”, scolding the neighborhood kids for misbehaving but also putting forth the effort to save ingredients so she can provide homemade donuts for her grandson on his birthday every year.

Granny Bucchi is great at cooking and taught Ruggie how to do it.

Ruggie sends pictures home to her.

Though Ruggie doesn’t have any siblings, it can be said that he treats the neighborhood kids as his brothers and sisters (even if he refers to them as “brats”). They are all struggling to get by, so he consciously gets leftovers and other tidbits from the cafeteria ghosts to bring home with him on winter break to share with everyone.

Jack

Jack mentions having a mother and father; it is assumed that they get along okay, as he doesn’t mention having any particular qualms with them. He also mentions grandparents.

Wolf beastmen only have one partner for life, and Jack says he suspects he will have a relationship like that similar to his parents and grandparents.

He also has a younger brother and a younger sister. His brother is 11, and his sister is 7. Jack says that he often does winter sports with them, particularly his brother, such as skiing.

When his brother was younger, he’d always used to follow Jack around the house like a puppy. However, now that he’s older, he “started to get really rude” to Jack, though Jack says that the attitude means he can have a healthy sibling rivalry with his brother. It is notable that Jack’s brother is a non-mage.

As for his sister, she is said to always nag her brothers to include her in their outings. Jack appears to worry for her safety, as he wants to include her and to experience the thrill of gliding down a mountain with her too, but that she doesn’t have the endurance yet at her age. Overall, both of Jack’s younger siblings really look up to him!

Azul

Azul’s mother runs a successful restaurant (which the Tweels visited in middle school). She provided Azul with many of his favorite foods and encouraged him to clean his plate. Azul extols her business acumen and culinary abilities, as now her restaurant is considered the “hottest” in the Coral Sea. He is delighted that they have shared vocations and interests.

His mom spoils him. One example is through food; she provides a lot for him.

We don’t know a lot about Azul’s biological father, only that Mama Ashengrotto met her current husband and Azul’s stepfather over the course of her divorce proceedings. Stepfather Ashengrotto is a lawyer, and Azul describes him as “soft hearted and sincere”, but a master at his craft. Azul picked up some knowledge about laws and contracts from him, and he is someone that Azul greatly admires. Additionally, Azul presents him as someone that his mother is quite happy with.

Another important figure in Azul’s family is his grandmother. He notes that everyone in is family is capable of using magic, with his grandmother being a particularly gifted mage. Like the Sea Witch, Grandma Ashengrotto uses her powers to help their neighbors. From his wording, it seems that Azul is also pleased that his grandma is just as benevolent as he is.

His grandma is strict and scary when she is angry. She wants Azul to grow up to be someone who is strong, independent, and willing to help others. Azul says that he loves his grandma a lot and has a strong bond with her. He attributes who he is today and his stance on compensation to his grandma.

Both of Azul’s (biological) parents are mages.

Azul says his mom got busy with the restaurant after her divorce, so his grandma often looked after him. Grandma Ashengrotto spoiled young Azul with lots of snacks every time he came home from school. He describes her as being too kind (though he learned of her strictness when she started instructing him on magic). Azul used to run away from lessons because of this, but once he started to find success in his magic, he enjoyed the compliments his grandma offered. He ultimately credits his being good at magic to his grandmother.

Jade and Floyd

Jade and Floyd are twins, with “neither being the older one or the younger one”. They have also said that they “chose” each other. This speaks to a popular fan theory which states that Jade and Floyd were the lone survivors (because they worked together) in a large group of Leech siblings that were not able to survive in the harsh environment of the Coral Sea. Jade often enables Floyd to act out (as it brings him a lot of entertainment), and, of the two, Floyd is the one that is concerned about not being treated as though he is “the same” as Jade. They know when to not get in each other’s way, but they do quarrel at times (which doesn’t necessarily mean they hate each other, they generally do, in fact, get long).

... Actually, you know what? I’d recommend just reading this long ass post I wrote about Jade and Floyd’s sibling dynamic, otherwise I’ll ramble here forever and ever.

Jade tells us that their mother contacts them nearly every day and seems to be a worrier. Mama Leech was also said to have taught Jade self-defense as a child, so she appears to be a protective parent as well. Floyd calls their mom “mama”, so some have taken this to mean that he in particular is a mama’s boy.

Papa Leech also taught the twins useful skills like lock picking and how to break out of binds.

Their father is influential in the Coral Sea and puts a strong emphasis on dressing well and how one presents themselves (which is why Floyd seems to take an interest in fashion, particularly shoes). Jade insists that their family business is very “normal”, but it seems very suspicious that their father’s business associates try to give gifts to curry favor with him. 

More recently, we learned that Jade and Floyd also live with their grandmother, though not much else is known about her.

Kalim

Kalim’s father is a wealthy merchant. He made his money through innovation and by making use of the waterways in Silk City. Papa Asim always seems to be busy, but he also seems to be a jolly guy. He donated a lot of money to NRC to get Kalim in, as well as to build entirely new parts of the Scarabia dorm (including a storage room to keep the mountains of gold and jewels he sends Kalim), so it’s clear that Papa Asim wants to financially support his family and invest in its future.

Kalim often goes on business trips with his father; additionally, their home(s) is often used to host important guests. He likes seeing people happy at these functions!

Kalim describes his mother as a sweet lady that says nice things about him and rarely gets mad. Before him, his mom was the only one in his family capable of using magic.

Most notably, Kalim says he has roughly about 30-40 younger siblings (he has lost track of how many exactly; it's not clear if they are all from one mother or not), and he is the eldest. He says his siblings are very cute and he likes playing with them. Apparently, they can all play instruments and sometimes put on performances for their parents. Kalim says that he has a soft spot for those younger than him, perhaps because he has so many younger siblings.

Kalim has relatives that are royalty.

One of his cousins owns a tiger.

The previous dorm leader of Scarabia was also an Asim and recommended Kalim to be next in line.

Whenever the family gets together, they throw big, lavish parties and enjoy one another’s company. Kalim believes that it is very important to spend time with one's family.

Kalim's entire family plays a big role in the economy and the politics of Silk City. In fact, they developed a network of canals and first used those to do trade, which allowed the city to flourish. Kalim hopes that he can be as influential and helpful as his ancestors were.

Jamil

Jamil has a mother and a father which we learn about via his episode 4 post-OB flashback. The Viper family has been in servitude to the Asim family for several generations, and it seems that Mama and Papa Viper are very adamant in maintaining this relationship, and keeping Jamil in a place of subservience to Kalim (often reminding Jamil to never surpass or perform better than the young master). Because of this, Jamil is sometimes shown to be frustrated not only with his situation, but with his parents for not being willing to “understand” him.

He also has a 14-year old younger sister named Najma, whom we meet face-to-face in an event where we visit Silk City in the Scalding Sands. Previously, Jamil had mentioned Najma in a few lines, such as saying that his younger sister makes fun of the dishes he cooks and complains they look boring. They bicker with one another a fair bit, with Najma sharing embarrassing stories of Jamil in his youth to his classmates and cheekily eating Jamil’s food, and Jamil being annoyed at her for it and retaliating in reserved, sarcastic way. Still, it does appear that they care for one another, but just don’t act overt about it. For example, Jamil decides to give a VDC ticket to Najma when he could have chosen to not invite her at all, and Najma is happy and curious to learn about her big brother’s NRC friends.

Vil

We don’t know much about Vil’s family other than his father, who is a magicless and a famous actor that goes by the stage name “Eric Venue”. Eric is a very supportive father and encouraged young Vil in his acting endeavors (even when Vil kept being typecasted in exclusively villain roles), calling his son cute and talented.

They are not open with the public about being related, as Vil wants to be known for his own merits rather than for his connection with an already well-established figure in the entertainment industry.

Vil traveled around with his dad for work and he maintains a strong relationship with his father to this day; it seems that Eric keeps up with Vil’s gigs and often dotes on him. For example, his dad makes an active effort to try and make time in his schedule to hang out with his son (eating lunch, shopping, and seeing movies together).

Eric took Vil with him to his shoots since before Vil started elementary school. It was here that Vil's career started, as he was asked by the staff to participate.

Eric is okay with frankness + informalities and can be down-to-earth when he’s not working. He’s eager to meet Vil’s friends!! Eric gives off a very mature and charming aura.

Though they don’t make their status as father and son public, they do sometimes work together in productions. Vil can be stern with Eric, being blunt about his flaws and stubborn when it comes to negotiating professionally (like his father)

They laugh similarly and share a love for fashion, beauty, and health.

Eric does mostly of his own stunts rather than relying on a body double. Vil seems to really admire his father and his work, and someday wishes to join Eric among the ranks of the elites of the entertainment industry. For example, his father’s handprints are in the Legend Plaza and Vil aims for the same. Vil also dreams of being able to play a middle aged father character like Eric has before.

Eric worried about Vil's social life, as Vil was a child actor often absent from school for his work. Because of this, Vil did not have many friends in his childhood and usually spent time home alone with the family maid.

Eric had a period of time in which he was given only minor roles (thanks to a magazine declaring he was "third-rate" and was only successful because of his looks), but he continued to be so successful that he eventually returned to playing the star. He started his own production company and now stands at the top of the entertainment industry.

Eric is humble and declares that he has many faults. One of these faults is he is bad at housework, both cooking and cleaning. They have a maid that often scolds him for this.

Vil and Eric are often so busy they don't spend time living together. However, the little time they do spend in their home is described to be happy. They would take it easy and stay put, as going outside would just attract attention.

Vil and Eric made beauty treatments and supplements together at home for fun. Eric is apparently very knowledgeable about beauty products.

Eric works very hard, doing jobs that should be left to lower ranked staff members of his production company such as presentations. Vil has to remind him to rest and to take breaks sometimes.

Although Eric is a very kind and supportive father, Vil says that he is a "show biz demon" who will accept nothing less than perfection. Vil describes his father as someone with lofty goals and will not accept compromise during negotiations. Furthermore, he is willing to do anything to achieve his goals. If someone makes a mistake, they are taken off the set and told to leave on the spot. Looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

It appears that Vil inherited magic from his mother's side. However, he does not know who his mom is or where she came from, and he does not express any interest in investigating or learning these details.

Rook

Rook has a mother, a father, and five siblings (two older than him, and three younger than him). He says he used to have pajama parties with his siblings, but presumably they don’t anymore because they’re so busy.

Their family must be significantly influential, as the Hunts own villas all over Twisted Wonderland which are equipped with warp pads (which require special governmental clearance from various countries in order to build and use).

Rook states that it’s difficult to get his family together at the same time and in the same place. These usually occur only once a year, and they can get very lively. From this, we can infer that the Hunt family gets along pretty well.

Epel

Epel has a VERY large family. Neither of his parents are magicians, but his grandma and great grandma are.

He lives in a single house with his parents, grandparents, great grandma, uncle, aunt, and cousin. They all work together and pitch in to raise apples on the family farm.

When his grandma and grandpa fight, they make up with each other by baking an apple pie.

Epel's cousin is younger than him; he gifted his cousin his plushies. It's sometimes hard to relate with his cousin due to the large age gap.

Epel seems to really cherish his family, as he has developed apple carving skills to make blemished apples good to sell again, and worries in the main story about tourism going down and affecting the family business. He also mentions wanting to make a potion to strengthen apple trees, as this would make his grandpa happy.

We meet Epel’s grandma, Marja, when we visit Harveston for a sledding race. She can be very kind and caring, but is also tough, rough around the edges, and competitive. Through Marja, we can get a better sense of why Epel is the way that he is, and how he lovingly engages with those in his family and his hometown.

Epel has relatives that live near Clock Town.

Idia

Idia describes his parents as “[putting] results over the feelings of their son” when they pull him out of school to do blot research. He recalls being raised since he was a child to assume the position of STYX director following his father, granting him very little freedom of his own.

Idia’s grandmother, Aidne, was the previous director of STYX. His father currently occupies that position.

His mother is the current head of technical operations/engineering at STYX. She appears to be very loving and worried for her children. Mrs. Shroud has the ability to hack into her son’s files and devices. She refers to her husband as “papa”, and her presence seems to warm him up.

He gets his moments of hyperfixation and desire to prove others wrong from his mother.

Idia describes both his dad and his grandmother as negative/pessimistic and depressing people to be around. Indeed, his father seems to be stoic and formal.

His father describes Idia, Ortho, and his wife as geniuses, but implies that he himself is a normal person.

The Shrouds are said to be a branch of the even larger and more affluent Jupiter family. However, Idia appears to feel very alienated from the Jupiters, often saying things like he’s “not welcome” and that he “doesn’t belong” with them.

Idia was very close with Ortho, often playing video games with him and talking about all the adventures they’d go on someday. Because of this, his accidental involvement in Ortho’s death weighed particularly heavy on him, and to cope, Idia built an artificial intelligence and installed it in a humanoid robot to simulate “Ortho”. he views Robo!Ortho as nothing more than an AI until episode 6, where he is finally able to confront his trauma, accept Ortho’s death, and recognize Robo!Ortho as his own person and as his “little brother”.

Idia has a very positive view of Ortho, often doing things for his sake or going along with what Ortho asks of him. He is also protective of his little brother, usually encouraging Ortho to stay out of bad situations or worrying for his safety.

Book 7 implies that Idia also acknowledges Phantom!Ortho (ie the now dead Ortho) as his brother as well. Phantom!Ortho seems to care about his brother and wants him to be happy.

(Robo!)Ortho

Being modelled after the original Ortho and programmed to behave as such, Robo!Ortho’s initial personality very much revolved around his older brother and creator, Idia. He looks up to him and thinks that Idia is just the coolest guy around! In fact, he’ll go so far as to threaten to fire a laser at NRC if the other students don’t rescue Idia from a ghost bride for him! Robo!Ortho is also quick to intervene whenever he overhears people talk badly of Idia. It’s very clear that he loves and cares for his older brother a lot!

In episode 6, Robo!Ortho meets with OG!Ortho and they seem to merge into one being. I’m not sure if this counts as a sibling meeting a sibling, or if it’s someone just staring at their own reflection, but it’s something to note. Both Orthos care about Idia and want to help “free” him of the Shroud family’s “curse”, and of the burden of being chained to the Underworld--and they’re willing to go so far as to turn against the whole world to achieve that. If that isn’t a true, brotherly love, then I don’t know what is.

After Idia finally acknowledges Robo!Ortho as his own person, Ortho still maintains his respect and love for his brother, but also insists on developing himself and acting on his own without his brother or his assistance. It’s not that Ortho now “dislikes” Idia more, but that Ortho wants to now focus on creating his own identity. He’s maturing into something defined by his own volition, not someone else’s.

Ortho is accepted as a son by the Shroud parents, most notably the mother (who refers to him as “Or-kun”. Mrs. Shroud is described as “the strongest person” in the family by Ortho.

The original Ortho (for whom robo!Ortho’s memories derive) used to go out a lot to parks, mountains, and rivers with Idia and their parents. When Idia started to shut himself up in his room (following Ortho’s death), they stopped going out as a group—but more recently, he’s been going out with them again.

Malleus

His only living relative is his grandmother (Maleficia), who currently rules the Briar Valley. It seems that they are close, as his grandmother often sends him cards for special occasions, such as his birthday, and tried to make time in her busy schedule as queen to sit down and eat with her then young grandson. She is also said to be very strict in matters of invitation etiquette.

Lilia, though not blood related, is responsible for mentoring Malleus. His comments also seem to be ones that Malleus often takes to heart, as Malleus gets upset when scolded by Lilia.

The queen and Lilia are described as being the ones who taught Malleus that humans feared them, creatures of the night. Malleus also really enjoys being praised and receiving head pats from those two.

Book 7 implies that his mother died fighting invading Silver Owls while his father went missing on a diplomatic mission.

Lilia describes both Malleus's grandmother and mother (the Draconias in general, really) as extremely stubborn people who always have to do things their own way. They never listen to advice, even when it comes from Lilia.

Malleus’s mom, Meleanor, is the princess of Briar Valley and Lilia describes her as tomboyish and “spitfire”, always wishing to do her own thing. He had to accompany her on trips outside the palace. Lilia also says she is strong, yet reckless, selfish, argumentative, and easily angered. She had a lot of the powers Malleus does, such as fire breathing and control over lightning. He has known his princess since they were kids several hundreds of years ago.

According to a voice line from Lilia, Malleus’s father is someone that he regards as his close friend. His name is Revan/Levan, and it seems he is missing but basically considered deceased.

Levan is kind and careful, seeming to be more of a diplomat than his wife or Lilia.

We don’t see Meleanor or Levan interact with each other, but Meleanor says her husband is handsome. It’s funny to think about her being absolutely smitten with Levan while she’s raging at everyone else… similar to how she is caring and gentle to her unborn baby while she’s simultaneously shooting lightning at Lilia…

Lilia

He doesn’t have any blood-related relatives that we know of.

Lilia himself is an orphan. He was taken in by Queen Maleficia, Malleus's grandmother, to be a ward.

He trained Silver, Sebek, and Malleus in both combat and survival.

Lilia asked Sebek’s dad for help raising a human child.

Lilia gave up a significant amount of his magic to help Malleus hatch from his egg. Malleus says that since he hatched, Lilia has always been by his side, typically serving as a mentor figure.

Lilia found Silver in the abandoned and thorn-covered Wild Rose castle. The day he found Silver became his birthday, and Lilia granted him a blessing which made Silver’s hair go from blonde to silver.

Silver is his adopted son. There are notable times when Lilia and Silver have butted heads (usually because Lilia acted in an insensitive way). For example, Lilia neglected to tell Silver about his and Malleus’s prank in Endless Halloween Night, which made Silver upset with him, as it put lives on both sides in danger. Lilia also informed Silver that he was adopted in a rather callous way (something like, ”you didn’t notice our ears were different until now?”), which resulted in Silver running away in the middle of a storm. Despite this, their relationship in the present is generally amicable, and it seems that Lilia cares a lot for Silver (especially given that he ran after him in the aforementioned storm to retrieve him, and even nursed him back to health when Silver came down with a fever).

Silver

Silver’s father is the Dawn Knight and his mother is princess Leah, meaning Silver is a prince of “the enemy”. He was cursed to sleep (and didn’t age during this period) for several hundred years to avoid the warring era he was born into, only awakening when he found “true love” (ie Lilia discovered him).

The Dawn Knight is also an orphan; he was taken in by Leah and Heinrich’s father, a sickly king.

Silver was apparently named for his hair color, but we later learn the silver is not natural. Lilia actually named silver after the guiding moonlight, hoping that he could be a light in the darkness.

Silver was adopted by Lilia as an infant. He seems to be very close with his adoptive father and highly respects him (though that doesn’t exempt Silver from getting annoyed with Lilia every now and again), as he mentions in various lines and vignettes that he cherishes his “dear father”, as well as the name that his “dear father” granted him.

We learn in episode 7 that Silver is eternally indebted to Lilia; he absolutely wants to be by Lilia’s side until his dying breath and seems to be upset that he, as a human, cannot rival the lifespan or strength of a fae to endure alongside his father.

Silver made an acorn amulet (a symbol of good health and happiness) for Lilia, which Silver has since forgotten about. However, Lilia calls it his most precious treasure.

He’s friends with lots of animals!!

Sebek’s family would look after Silver when Lilia left for extended periods of time. Because of this and Sebek being of a similar age to him, Silver would often play with Sebek in their childhoods.

Sebek

Sebek’s father is a magicless human and a dentist. Sebek regards him as weak and someone who is difficult to understand, as Papa Zigvolt often dotes on his children, offers them candy, and acts impressed when he witnesses them use magic. Though Sebek seems to talk down to his father, he does also have a fondness for him that he won’t admit to (as, when asked who he would pick to be stranded on an island with, Sebek chooses Trey over everyone else. The reason Sebek provides is that Trey reminds him of his father, but he becomes embarrassed when his interviewer comments that he must really love his dad).

Mrs. Zigvolt is much older than Mr. Zigvolt, but she also looks much younger than he does.

Sebek describes his relationship with his dad as "not being bad", but that his dad smiles all the time and that irritates him. Additionally, Sebek is frustrated whenever he has to ask anything of his father.

Sebek’s mother is a powerful Nocturnal Fae and sports a strong bite (which is a trait of their bloodline). She appears to be very headstrong, as she married a magicless human despite significant social pressure against it. Sebek looks up to her and admires her, particularly for her prowess in magic, but does not understand what he sees in her husband.

Sebek's mom met his dad when she went in for a dental appointment at his clinic. She currently works as his dental assistant.

He has a grandpa (presumably on his mother’s side) who is a retired Captain of the Royal Guard. Grandpa Zigvolt (named Baal/Baul/Bal) immigrated to the Briar Valley from the Sunset Savanna. Despite being fae himself and having a disdain for humans in the past, he accepts Sebek (and presumably the other humans or half humans in his family) as they are.

Sebek seems to really like him, as he tells tales of spending time at his grandpa’s lakeside home fishing. (Baul lives next to his daughter and grandchildren.) Apparently, he doesn't approve of it when he sees Sebek eating sweets. Baal bought Sebek lots of books and fostered his love for reading

Sebek's grandfather is said to tell a lot of stories himself. Lilia describes him as "telling the same old stories" for many centuries. It also seems that Sebek has adopted his grandfather's narrow-minded attitude and manner of speaking.

Baul is also described as being stern, but seems very loving. He was proud of Sebek when told about his grandson's success in school and was happy when the Zigvolt siblings made him salmon carpaccio.

Baul initially thinks of Sebek as weak, so he asks Lilia to train him. Still, Baul thinks its important for his grandson to get a good education.

Sebek has an older brother and sister, but not much is known about them. He mentions that they took him to a contest where they use magic to try and match the color of a dress provided. All the Zigvolt siblings were impressed by the competition.

Sebek would often go to the park with his parents and siblings.

Sebek’s older brother also graduated from NRC.

#twisted wonderland #twst #Diasomnia #Octavinelle #Savanaclaw #Heartslabyul #Pomefiore #Scarabia #Ignihyde #question #notes from the writing raven #disney twisted wonderland #spoilers #Falena Kingscholar #Farena Kingscholar #Cheka Kingscholar #Marja Felmier #Najma Viper #twisted wonderland resource #twst resource #Eric Venue #Baal Zigvolt #Meleanor Draconia #Levan Draconia #Baul Zigvolt #Bal Zigvolt #Dylla Spade #Maleificia Draconia #Chenya #Che'nya

[wormy1424]

Okie dokie, I wanted to share my opinion on the PJO show so far. Feel free to disagree, this is my personal opinion.

The Disney+ PJO show does not live up to the hype. I'm trying not to be so critical since it is meant to be a kids' show, and I am no longer in that target age demographic, but it's really bugging me. I'm not saying that it's awful, but it isn't as good as people are making it out to be. My reasoning is below (the order does not matter, it is not an order of importance/most annoying to least annoying, it is literally just the order I typed them out in.:

1. Pacing. The first two episodes had really weird pacing and episodes 3 and 4 were only a little better. Major things are rushed and minor things are stretched out. I understand that adapting a book to screen means some things will be left out or rushed but this was to the extent that it was difficult to stay engaged because either too much or too little was happening.

2. Show not tell. Everything is told, nothing is shown. Instead of the trio figuring things out, they are just told everything. Too much of the show is an exposition dump. I understand that with something based on Greek mythology, there is some explaining that needs to happen, but this is excessive. Luke just said, "Annabeth's my sister," and they have like 1 interaction. Show the bond don't just say it.

3. Character development. I feel like we have seen very little character development from the trio. The most recent episode has it best, but the relationships between the trip are so important, and I feel like they aren't being delved into enough. This is true with all characters, but since the trio is going to be the main focus of the season, I feel like their development should be better. I'm fairly hopeful that this will get better in the coming episodes, but it is a gripe I currently have.

4. Acting. This one probably relates back yo character development and pacing a lot, and it isn't really a priority for me because I know the show focuses on child actors, and I can forgive them for not being the best because they are children. For the most part, the acting is good. That being said, there have been multiple occasions where the acting has been so bad or campy that I was completely taken aback. Percy has many moments where the lines seem really clunky or he just seems out of character. Waking up in the infirmany and his first little bit at camp was poorly acted in my opinion. Percy is supposed to think his mother is dead, and any grief or saddness is barely there. I feel like this may be because of how rushed Percy's introduction to camp was (back to pacing issues). Annabeth's introduction was incredibly bitchy and watching it just shocked me. I can understand her being reserved and a bit hostile, but the tone was just really weird, and to me, it felt out of character. Idk if that was an acting choice by Leah or a directing choice, but it was strange to me. There are some other parts where the acting isn't the greatest also. I know I may be too critical in this aspect, but these characters mean a lot to me, and seeing parts of them poorly acted stand out a lot and ruin my immersion. It's been getting better as the show goes on, and I'm confident it will continue to improve, but it has bothered me, and I wanted to vent a bit.

5. Stakes. They have made it seem like the entire quest is about Percy getting his mom back. I understand focusing on that angle because Percy is motivated to go on the quest because of the chance to get his mother back, but the quest is also about stopping a war between the gods. They don't mention the master bolt enough and haven't mentioned the fact that Zeus and Posideon are on the brink of war nearly enough. The dreams with Kronos taunting Percy help with this issue, but not enough, in my opinion. I know the stakes, but while watching the show, I even start to believe the quest is just about getting his mom back. I'm watching with someone who has never read the books, and they thought the quest was just about his mom. A little more emphasis on the whole saving the world part of the quest would be nice.

Other than these reasons the show is good, I like watching it and will continue to watch it. I just wonder how much of my enjoyment is coming from nostalgia and love for the books. I also think that as a community, PJO fans have not been very open to hearing criticism about the show. This is understandable because there is a not insignificant amount of criticism that is stupid like "its not the same as the books" or the racist bullshit relating to Annabeth's casting. However, there are definitely things that aren't great about the show and could be done better, and we should be able to voice these criticisms. We should be able to discuss differing opinions on the show without it becoming an argument.

#pjo series #pjo tv show #pjo fandom #pjo hoo toa #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy and annabeth #percy and grover #luke castellan #grover underwood #mr d pjo #heroes of olympus #disney plus