#the only person that knows me is this obscure character i aspire to be like

[neridiem]

"you've changed" well obviously, now i'm obsessed with a different fictional character than when we last spoke why are you so surprised

#my personality changes with every new obsession #you don't know me #i don't know me #the only person that knows me is this obscure character i aspire to be like #why am i like that 🫡

[toychest321]

With the end of Ramadan rapidly approaching, I'd like to give attention to another Muslim doll line. Though unlike the others, this one is far less obscure...

You know them, you love them, give it up for the Arabian Friends!!!

While Fulla is objectively more popular than Arabian Friends (having a longer span of releases and merchandise), I'd definitely say Arabian Friends are more talked about in western doll collecting circles. This is likely because while all the other Muslim doll lines I've found use Barbie proportions, these moreso resemble Winx or W.I.T.C.H.

Arabian Friends were released by Newboy, the company behind Fulla, in 2007. They were first teased in issues 08 and 10 of Fulla Magazine, before being officially revealed in issues 11 and 14 (the latter seen above).

Only 8 dolls in total have been released for the line: a Deluxe and a Budget doll for each of the four characters. The Deluxe sets came with two outfits, accessories, and an Abaya. The Budget sets came with one outfit and a matching Hijab. Each doll had 7 points of articulation, with bend-and-snap knees.

A third line was announced in 2008 in Fulla Magazine issue 19, advertising that whoever could answer which character had which profession would enter a raffle with the chance to receive a full Arabian Friends collection, but this ultimately never came to pass. (The answers were: Muna - Fashion Designer, Amal - Kids' Teacher, Dunya - Coach, and Ahlam - Air Hostess)

It's said on Dollect there might have been an accompanying animated series, but the most I was able to find were two videos. One seems to be a trailer for the animated series.

The other includes a Back To School merchandise advertisement, and what might be an animation where the girls reminisce on when they were younger and how their aspirations led to their respective careers (the trailer seems to re-use animation from both of these).

A comment beneath the Trailer claims these were actually meant to advertise for an upcoming movie rather than a series, but no further news came out after these videos were released. If this is true it's honestly a shame, and might have been cancelled around when the third series was intended to release. The animation provided reminds me of Sailor Moon, and I would've loved to see it in a full storyline!

First character up is Amal, whose name means "Hope"! Her description reads:

"Never forget that hope is the key that opens all closed doors. With hope in your heart you will never be alone and nothing in life will seem impossible.."

Amal reminds me the most of Usagi from Sailor Moon, as the animation seems to portray her personality as being kind yet clumsy. It's ironic that she eventually becomes a schoolteacher as well, considering she apparently had a habit of arriving to classes late. She's also seen tucking a child into bed, so perhaps she's a mother, older sister, or aunt as well?

While depicted in the animation as having honey blonde hair, her doll has dirty blonde hair in two low pigtails (possibly tied by pink ribbon or thread). And ironically, despite her Deluxe doll using more patterns than her friends, her Budget doll is the only one without a patterned shirt.

Next is Muna, whose name means "Wish". Her description reads:

"Wishes are like bright stars in a dark sky although they are only small they fill our lives with happiness and make the darkness beautiful."

Muna is a Fashion Designer with an eye for intricate design and detail. She spends a good amount of time in her studio, seen drawing on her friend's leg cast and her highschool classroom's chalkboard. At one point, Muna is also seen helping an elderly woman across the street, so clearly her devotion to her work doesn't stop her from being charitable when she can be!

Her fashion style in both doll and animated form definitely seems the most bold out of her friends, reminding me of when 2000s-era fashion would draw inspiration from the 70s! While in the animation she and Dunya were depicted with tanned olive skin, their dolls have the same skintone as Amal and Ahlam. She has brown hair with red highlights. In the animation her hair was often depicted with side part bangs and a headband. However, her Deluxe doll has a red beanie, and her Budget doll has a middle part with braids coming down on either side of her head.

Ahlam's name means "Dreams". Her description reads:

"Dreams are like beautiful butterflies that fly in the wide blue sky. It is good to have dreams because they take you to a place where anything is possible.."

Ahlam is apparently a pianist in addition to her Air Hostess job, having dreamt of flying since she was in school. She seems to be portrayed as considerate and low-key, which aligns with her cool blue color scheme!

Her doll's fashion style seems to be Boho Chic, with beads, frills, and florals. In the animation her hair is short, with a side part and a blue butterfly barrette. Her doll, meanwhile, wears her black and blue hair beneath a navy cap in her Deluxe look, and a middle part tied back in her Budget look. Visually, she reminds me of Ami Mizuno!

And last but not least, Dunya! Her name means "Life", and her description reads:

"Your friendship is like a beautiful flower to me. Your nice words, kind deeds and positive attitude are sure to be rewarded with happiness and love.."

Dunya seems to be a healthy eater, going to someone's house with a bowl of greens (salad or kale perhaps?), and making a smoothie while on the phone. She also does stretches and runs on her treadmill. All of this makes her the perfect fit for a coaching position!

Weirdly enough, her hairstyle in the animation is exactly like Amal's doll, with two low pigtails tied by pink ribbon. Her doll, meanwhile, has brown hair in a side part tied in a high pony with silver elastics (giving me Vidia vibes tbh). Her olive green fashion seems to be relatively modern (at least for the 2000s) and urban. Her clothes are the ones I can most easily see on a Bratz doll!

Overall, I simply adore this line!!! It feels more character-focused than other ones I've covered, and I'm a sucker for such strong color-blocking! It's hard for me to even pick a favorite, since their centralized aesthetics are all so compelling and unique! If anyone who knows Arabic would be able to translate what they say in the animations, I'll happily add an addendum to this post for clarification!

It's a shame the line and its movie was cancelled before it could receive the acclaim it deserved, I would've loved to see what more it had to offer! Regardless, I'm thoroughly impressed with what they managed to put out, and hope the designers have been able to apply their clear talents in other endeavors!

Ramadan Kareem!

#dolls #dollblr #muslim dolls #arabian friends dolls

[sopranoentravesti]

Ok I’m FINALLY in a place where I have a minute and brain space to recount some of my Convention highlights:

I got 2 hugs from Nana Visitor. And she told me I look good as a Bajoran, asked me what I do, and when I told her, she asked what I do to take care of myself.

I also got told by multiple people that my eyes look similar to Nana’s (brown eyes next to the nose ridge?)

On Saturday, I wore my Kippah with my cosplay, going from Morning Services to Convention.

At one point, Robert Picardo was talking and John Billingsley was crouching down in order to surprise him and his face turned red. I thought he was having a heart attack.

I put my hand on his shoulder and was like “sir, are you okay,” until someone was like “he’s fine he’s just heckling Bob Picardo.”

Thankfully, he didn’t notice

I was a bit late for my photo with the (present) members of the DS9 cast. They had to bring Penny Johnson-Jerald back, but everyone was very gracious, understanding, and sweet.

“Who am I taking a picture with! Oh my goodness, you are too cute,” she (Penny Johnson-Jerald) also wanted to know my first and last name

They stationed Rosie, my Rollator, “center seat.” Terry Farrell complimented my vest, which I crocheted myself, and very excitedly told me she just learned how to crochet.

(I commented that despite my disability, I am unable to sit still and was taught to cope with hyperactivity and keep myself from fidgeting too bad).

J.G. Hertzler at one point approached me and was like “that [my Rollator] looks handy! Can I take a seat?” And growl chuckled and clapped my shoulder ( Klingon friendly style) when I was like “that is not honorable.”

Later he stopped me again. Apparently, one of his loved ones has MS, uses a rollator, but unlike Rosie, hers is not upright, and they are worried about it contributing to back problems. He wanted to know more, how to find one.

I asked Siddig a somewhat rambling question about Julian’s disability, Eugenics, and how that may have affected his relationship to other disabled characters, and disability in trek vs our Society as a whole.

I had my hand up for a minute and he was like “relax, you got next question” I was kind of embarrassed but then he was like “I don’t think you’re hyperactive, I just want you to not exhaust yourself“

He listened attentively, and he gave a vent like answer where he was like “I see your concerns about Star Trek obscuring / erasing disability… my general thoughts are that we are all racist (i was born in Arab Africa, in Sudan, riddled by geopolitical conflicts, Africans are also racist) we are all ableist, and all have the potential to be disabled . And unfortunately, it’s your job to appeal to me as an able bodied person, and my job to appeal to [another audience member] as a brown person …And why we need to work to change laws first, before we work on everything else. Sorry, didn’t mean to get all political.”

Later, I was sitting outside the venue for mingling because of autism ears and photosensitivity.

And he approached me and was like “hey, how are you doing? I just wanted to check in on you.”

Naturally, I aspirated my saliva and stammered something about avoiding the noise and migraines.

I didn’t think he remembered my name (one point I was attempting to steer around him and he was like “so sorry, sweet thing,”) but later when he was signing my autograph! He did! I did have to spell it, but I usually do anyways bc it’s spelled not the typical way.

At one point, I dropped a change of clothes I had packed and Bonnie Gordon came up to me “Darling, I thought your days as a stripper were over.”

Thank goodness I developed a tolerance for making a damn fool of myself.

There’s so much more. I met many cool people, including several folks I knew previously only on tumblr (hi, @xenobotanist @philosopherking1887 @cardassiangoodreads @ettaberrytea and multiple others I am forgetting just now) I got to hang out IRL with some people from the SidCity Social Club, which previously I only lurked at.

I’m still absolutely filled up with warmth. Like I can take anything

#sorry this is so long #and sappy #last year was incredibly difficult #it’s gotten so much better but I’ve still been really isolated in many ways #Star Trek #convention #dni con #ds9 #voy #ent #disability #Rosie the Rollator #julian bashir #siddig el fadil #nana visitor #jg herzler #martok #kira nerys #terry farrell #penny johnson jerald #jadzia dax #kasidy yates #ramblings #personal shit #ngl there’s a demon on my shoulder that’s like “they were nice bc you were the poor little cripple” #but sometimes you have to take kindness at face value #and I also truly think Siddig is among the kindest people I’ve met

[secretgamergirl]

Does anyone actually like the whole "this total loser is the chosen one" thing?

You start playing some new game. Immediately, you are introduced to the protagonist. He's a total deadbeat loser idiot who has no greater ambition in life beyond playing games/becoming a cool rock star somehow without learning to play an instrument or form a band/watching some TV show. But through just the absolute sheer dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time, he gets The Thing, that lets him do main character in a video game stuff. Much to the frustration of this cool competent badass woman who's actively invested in saving the world and has a concrete plan to do it. Our accidental hero can't be bothered to care about any of that, and any time she's talking he either tunes out completely or sexually harasses her. Then once she eventually gives up trying to explain him he says something like "now here's the part where I do my thing!" and you jump into the action of doing 3 hit combos to enemies or whatever.

I hate that character. I can't stand him. His presence makes me not even want to touch a game, which is a real shame because I swear the paragraph above describes like... half of them. Also most shonen anime come to think, the bulk of superhero media, and a surprising amount of fantasy stuff.

Now, I understand why we have that guy. The thinking is, he's "relatable." We're making a not particularly challenging piece of escapist media, we're assuming most people who are going to be interested are losers who just sit on their couch all day, and we're also assuming they're at-least-mildly-creepy dudes even when demographic info suggests a given genre/medium appeals primarily to women.

Does anyone actually want that, though? I'm not some pathetic dude on a couch, so I probably wouldn't get the "he's just like me!" factor regardless, but like, I remember being a small child and having media constantly cram some annoying piece of garbage kid into everything for me to "relate to" and I was never able to stand any of them either.

Like if I'm watching Transformers the Movie as a kid, I am just rolling my eyes every time we have the dorky little kid going fishing or trying to use power armor, and for that matter as an adult I'm not too big on the pink girly one playing babysitter and being flirty. I'd be cool just giving all that screen time over to Kupp and Grimlock thanks.

And really, it always seems like a huge insult to whoever you're trying to give a relatable stand-in to. Some deadbeat loser who'd just be sitting on the couch watching TV if he didn't get a magic yo-yo or whatever isn't exactly an aspirational sort of character. Even if that's where you'd picture yourself at the start of the cool action narrative, if it were you, you'd want to get your act together and live up to the heroic role you fell into, right?

Like, recently I've been marathoning through Farscape for like the 5th time because a friend had never seen it, and there's a show where the protagonist is just a big fish out of water nerd in a crazy setting constantly making obscure pop culture references that absolutely nobody else is possibly going to have the context for, and I can sure as hell personally relate to that! But the key difference is, he doesn't suck. He does his best to adapt to situations and show compassion and actually learn how stuff he doesn't get works, so he's, you know, likeable. He's not some complete loser who only gets by because he has the spoon of destiny or whatever.

Actually come to think of it, I'm really combining two separate media trends I can't stand here. Loser protagonists get on my nerves even when they aren't the chosen one, and even when they aren't a total loser, I kinda hate chosen one narratives too.

Like... have you ever played a Bethesda game? They always want to do this whole bit where you come from the humblest of roots and go on to save the world or whatever, but they just cannot for the life of them wait until you've actually started accomplishing cool stuff before everyone starts in with the totally over the top hero worship. Just, "behold! This stranger to our lands has picked up the empty soda can and tossed it in the recycling bin! Truly such a feat of heroics means this is no mere mortal before us, but the great one foretold in legend!"

Like, can we please just have narratives where the protagonist is a decent person, who accomplishes things by virtue of actual competence and/or determination, and any respect or admiration they might receive is actually properly earned? Is that too much to ask? And if that IS too much to ask from a protagonist, can we at least stop treating members of the supporting cast who pick the slack up like total garbage?

And speaking of getting treated like garbage/the concept of supporting, I still don't know how I'm going to get through the winter with a roof over my head.

#writing #chosen ones #deadbeat protagonists #OK so mostly I saw someone streaming Hi-Fi Rush and the contrast between Chai and Peppermint just made me sick.

[thecurioustale]

Liking Things that Go on to Become Popular Kinda Sucks

I have the unfortunate tendency to be something of a social contrarian. For instance, just as a throwaway example, I learned recently that my favorite whiskey, Jameson's Irish Whiskey, is also America's most popular whiskey. You might think that I was pleased, as someone who almost never holds majority tastes in anything, but in fact all I could think of was, first, that I'd been usurped, and, second, that this will inevitably lead to the collapse of the brand once it stops being the current hotness. I am a very, very light drinker, but I would still be sad if my favorite whiskey became hard to find.

My contrarian streak is not for the sake of arguing. I don't actually like arguing, for the most part. Rather, it's often a mixture of feeling personally displaced (like I mentioned above) and internally cringing at the coarseness and imprecision of popular opinions (which is also a form of displacement, but subtler and more involved).

The first reason is pretty easy to understand: I've been a social outcast my whole life and have therefore come to have a strong sense of individual identity. When something obscure that I like becomes popular, I feel like I am seen when I don't want to be seen, like I am getting unwanted attention via my interests and affiliations. This is pretty simple human psychology and I don't have much to say about it that's worth making you read through.

But the second reason is more interesting: I have this incredible compulsion toward precision in my life. Anyone who has listened to me speak in person, or read my nonfiction writing at length, will know that my sentences are often extremely heavily qualified, full of asterisks that anticipate the inevitable objections to my clean general statements in their basic form. There is almost nothing of great importance that I could say as a general truth without being at need to qualify it.

When something that I like becomes popular, it is almost always the case that the prevailing appreciation or popularity in question is unbearably simplistic to me—leading directly to one of the things that makes me chafe more than anything else: being misunderstand through oversimplification. If someone else likes something that I like, but for extremely simplistic reasons, and their understanding of the thing is what ends up being promulgated through society, then anyone who sees me and my interest in the thing will, without knowing better, be apt to classify me as just a typical fan of the thing—when in fact my particular liking of the thing is likely far more esoteric and elaborate.

It's a form of erasure mingled with misrepresentation, and of course I don't like that. This too is fairly simple human psychology, and well-spoofed in characters like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. (Though I try not to be insufferably gatekeepy about it like he is. We all like what we like, and I'm not gonna tell other people "the right way" to like a thing.)

I should note that this doesn't apply to things that I come to like because they are popular. If I'm jumping on the bandwagon like everyone else, that's much less jarring than if I had previously liked a thing which goes on to become popular.

It doesn't always happen that I'll get upset if something I like becomes popular. In fact, it usually doesn't happen. What needs to come together for me to feel put out is either what I described above about the whiskey, where the thing I like is likely to become harder to enjoy once it inevitably loses its popularity, or it needs to be the case that the thing which becomes popular is something that I not only like but which I also pour some measure of my identity into. That's the cut in the skin that lets the act of being erased really sting.

And if this all sounds moderately petty and animalistic to you, it totally is. I am not claiming otherwise and not idealizing any of this as something you should aspire to. But maybe it's interesting to read about anyway.

#Armchair psychology with Dr. J

[thesketchyheartist]

04/22

Kon- Paprika

This was a nice movie. When I knew it was made by the same director as Perfect Blue, I had a strong feeling it would be something mind-boggling, but I didn't expect to see the same reality vs dreams switching.

Now, we have only grown characters, though I noticed Paprika seemed to look more youthful than Dr. Chiba, but I guess it's a little weird to determine a dream's age.

Also, the ending was quite unexpected with Dr. Chiba "changing her last name" to Tokita. I think Paprika telling the detective Dr. Chiba to change her name might have been her way of letting him go without inviting him on. In a way, I can sort of see why she would send a note via Paprika rather than telling him in person when they are already acquainted after he kissed her when she was unconscious and without consent.

I think Paprika telling Dr. Chiba how it was the doctor who was a part of Paprika, not the other around, was an interesting idea. Unlike Perfect Blue where illusions of Mima are part of the real Mima, even if it's a delusion, it was more like Dr. Chiba wanting to become more whole by becoming Paprika. In other words, Dr. Chiba did not save the world by accepting Paprika as a part of her identity, but Paprika was the identity she was meant to become all along. Not that Dr. Chiba was the lesser half, but Paprika is simply the "other me" she has been trying to find. And when she is "reborn" like the chairman, she becomes the person she wanted to be not through Paprika, but when Paprika and Chiba fuse to become the light. It is not the darkness that consumed her but her own light that she already had that was able to consume the darkness and reset the balance between reality and the dream world. Dr. Chiba's choosing to save Tokita shows that she has become Paprika. Even Paprika herself said she didn't know what to do. Without Dr. Chiba, Paprika is just a shell. She may be a caring hero who can understand and help people, but Dr. Chiba is the smart one who can create solutions. Without the other, the two alone could not have won. I also like to think Paprika can be seen as both the standalone (given how she was able to travel freely in the fused worlds like she was familiar with them and when she would save Dr. Chiba in the real world) and a piece of Chiba (when she understood why she needed to enter the Tokita robot to be the extra spice to Chiba herself).

I also thought it was strange and sad that even at the end of the movie, we never really knew who the detective's friend looked like. I don't know who the Radio Club bartenders are, but given how they and Paprika helped the detective on the side deduce the meanings behind his dream, his friend's face is still obscure. I also admire how even when Paprika saves him during his dreams, it is when Paprika is in trouble that he can save himself from his fears. By remembering his past and saving himself by ending his nightmare his way, he was able to accept his past as the past. I like to interpret him changing his dreams as to how people change their own aspirations. It is true that he once had a filmography dream, but he "woke up" from his first dream and "went to sleep" into a new dream. But he didn't keep his dream as a dream; he made it into his own reality by working towards it and becoming a detective and a hero like his own dream. So, by entering and realizing a new dream he is both awake and asleep.

Whenever a character enters a dream, we can actually tell this time. The moment we see the inanimate parade, that is a sign that this character is experiencing a dream.

This is the first time I have seen a Monkey King character as a woman. Kind of makes sense because like Sun Wukong (Son Goku since this is a Japanese culture class), he represents humans and their holy ability to defy the social order, including the holy order between the elitist deities of Heaven and the chaotic demons, and it took pain and suffering to learn his mistakes (and a journey to the west) to not get or find enlightenment but to learn it by enlightening himself. Or maybe they just wanted to use his flying cloud as Paprika fell through the skies into a dream and gave her clothes because it's a neat reference.

-04/21/24

One more post!! Then exams because no homework does not mean no work for me :(

[reveks]

honestly im just super interested in all of these, i feel like it's just gonna be going through all of them 4 at a time two gods and a ghost, takeover, peacock feathers, and folklore -funky slugcat

Me rushing to get this answered before work because oh my god I love Peacock Feathers and I cannot wait 8 hours to rant about it

Two Gods & A Ghost

This AU is still on the drawing board but here's what I have so far!

Revek's a spirit, killed by a rogue witch. He resides within a forest glade, mostly just keeping watch over the forest's inhabitants. Despite being killed with magic, he still has some to his name, and he uses it to protect others. He's sort of become their unofficial protector

Revek meets Kever and Zee, two deities who are hiding from the world. They're both dressed as local witches, secretly using their shapeshifting and hydrokinesis to help out others. The pair are run out of their village after Zee's shapeshifting is discovered, and they run into Revek while fleeing. Both have varying levels of amnesia- neither remember they're gods, and both have forgotten something valuable to them.

Revek feels bad for them, and despite his hatred for witches, he decides to help them, knowing how shitty memory loss can be. Along the way, he realizes that he's related to the two gods and was one himself. He was the god of nature (tying into Z being the god of fire and Kever the god of water) and was murdered by a witch who took his abilities for themselves. Now determined to both restore his siblings' memories and avenge himself, Revek leaves his forest home.

Again, this is still on the drawing board, but that's what I have so far! I'll have to make full refs for the three in the future

Takeover AU (also called The AU)

I can't go too much into this one because it's shared between me and a mutual who may or may not want to be named. This is also called The AU because it was the first we ever made

Short description is that Revek and Grimm find out the multiverse exists, and two of their counterparts are plotting to takeover. This one is on the list because it has great potential for the drawing style I'm going for

Peacock Feathers

I love to say aus are my favorites but this one is 100% my absolute favorite. It, too, is something I wanna turn into a novel. Also first AU with other characters like Hornet, let's goo-

(The name Peacock Feathers might not make sense at a first glance. It'll be explained in the ramble post)

Grimm's an upbeat, aspiring actor in the process of studying theater. He's also got a love for astronomy. This passion is how he meets Revek, a cynical bookseller. The two starts out as enemies due to their clashing personalities, but soon become rivals, and then friends.

The bookstore Revek works at ends up catching on fire, killing him and a few others. Grimm's initially saddened by this, but later sees Revek's ghost following him and realizes he's one of the only few who can see him. Revek's not too fond on the idea of haunting Grimm but he's got no choice in the matter.

Sometime later, Grimm realizes details about the fire look more and more suspicious, so he investigates with the help of Revek. He encounters Hornet, who can also see Revek, alongside Ghost. Hornet is suspicious of the two, but begrudgingly helps investigate, revealing that the same fire that killed Revek also killed her mother. She, like Grimm, suspects it was no accident

I actually made a small relationship chart thing recently. I'll do a full one eventually, since this one focuses more on Revek

This is a pretty laidback au until it's not lmao

Folklore AU

Finally, the folklore AU! This is more of a concept than a full-fledged au but here we go

Revek is a cryfox; a mythological creature from the folklore of the people in my area. They're really obscure, but they're essentially shapeshifting foxes with the ability to steal voices. They usually ransom these voices back, and most commonly use the cries of children to lure in new voices. He takes care of his sister, Starsi. Grimm is among the townsfolk, mostly just vibing.

Grimm wanders into the forest that borders his village and is lured in by Revek. Revek is initially aggressive, but pauses when he sees Grimm's attire. He's attempted to wander into town but his disguise isn't perfect, so he's usually unsuccessful. He's trying to find a nice home for him and Starsi where they won't have to use their voice-stealing for survival and aren't threatened by traps. Grimm, ignorant to Revek's true nature, thinks he's just lost and agrees to help Revek find a place.

Grimm does discover Revek's identity, but sees how desperate they are in finding their sister a home and reluctantly agrees to continue helping. Revek rarely uses his abilities anyways, hating doing so. He manages to secure a small home with Grimm's help and is elated, but upon returning to retrieve his sister and their belongings, is horrified to find out she's been snatched by hunters. In an act of pure rage, Revek lures Brumm into the forest and steals his voice, using it as blackmail against Grimm. Grimm reluctantly helps Revek in searching for his sister

I made an art of Revek a little while back but it's not totally accurate so take it with a grain of salt

#hollow knight #my aus #two gods and a ghost au #the au #peacock feathers au #folklore au #my art #threnodoodles #2023nodoodles

[rwby-redux]

Something that has always bothered me in canon. Travel in the real world is expensive. And I would assume that grimm attacks would make travel in Remnant MORE expensive. Yet Jaune’s family somehow has enough money to make regular camping trips to Shion Village a thing from wherever they lived (don’t get me started on how we have gone have way across the world and only run into one family member. Just where does his family live?) And yet he was still sheltered enough to not know what Aura is? It’s the type of thing that makes one ask questions about his home life despite how much he told us. And while I would love to believe they thought these details out, Occam’s Razor suggests that they just didn’t think about said details enough.

Anyways. I am wondering what your thoughts on this is and if you have any ideas on how to address it?

You’re completely right to think it’s weird! Because it is weird.

Aura isn’t some obscure resource exclusively used by Huntsmen—it’s a basic component of biology in this universe. That’s like not knowing what a kidney is. If Jaune grew up in a large city, then there’s an all-but-guaranteed chance he would have encountered at least one person with an unlocked Aura, just because of urban population density. If he grew up in some remote, isolated community, then there’s even less of an excuse for him not knowing what Aura is, because we’re explicitly told people who live far away from the major kingdoms need to know how to fight in order to not die. A character says as much in the second episode of Volume 2.

Blake: I was raised outside the kingdoms. If you can’t fight, you can’t survive.

No amount of hand-waving can justify him not knowing a fundamental concept of this setting. Especially one that’s non-negotiable for surviving.

Harris Brewis (Hbomberguy) talks about that issue here, and to summarize: Jaune is basically an audience surrogate character. He’s deliberately written to be ignorant, so that way, the show has an excuse to let Pyrrha explain the concept to him (and by extension, us).  

Not to go on a tangent here, but Jaune’s obliviousness really does underpin the issue with his character. If Jaune was so enamored with his family’s history of being legendary warriors, and aspired to uphold their legacy, then why does he not know the first thing about fighting? Look at Ruby and Yang—they both come from a family of skilled fighters, and wanted to undertake similar career paths. But unlike Jaune, they started preparing when they were young, and by the time they’re ready to enroll at a formal academy, they’ve been suitably trained and educated.

Jaune’s incompetence, in both combat and know-how, makes his decision to attend a Huntsman Academy seem like it was last-second. Like, why does he want to be a Huntsman? Why is living up to his family’s legacy so important? Why didn’t he try to enlist at one of the prep schools before applying to Beacon, so that way he was prepared? What are his motives?

Sorry. Jaune’s character is a sore spot for me, and it’s hard to resist taking potshots.

I know you were rhetorically asking about his family, but you might be interested to hear that I did come up with an explanation for it in the Redux. Along with an answer for why he forged his way into Beacon, and why he was so underprepared. And why Ozpin allowed it.

But to address your main question, regarding travel, infrastructure, and the feasibility of both:

The first thing I need to talk about is how I redesigned the majority of cities within the Redux. In the present day, Remnant has a global population of about 350,000,000 people, roughly distributed between 51 cities and towns. A little less than half of those cities are megacities, with populations that exceed 10 million.

While there’s a large degree of variety between them in terms of architecture and layout, functionally, most of the cities are similar to Ba Sing Se.

A thematic map of Ba Sing Se, an Earth Kingdom city in Avatar: The Last Airbender. | Source: Inkarnate.

The canon toyed with this idea back in V1, when we see Roman Torchwick studying a map of Vale’s capital. Vale is divided into various “districts”—commercial, residential, agricultural, and industrial—but the layout always felt kind of janky to me.

Like, why are the commercial and industrial districts so far away from where people live? How do people get to and from their jobs? Does the city have robust public transport—like trains and buses—in order to reduce traffic and commute times? As far as I can recall, the inner-city roads are predominantly used by cars (V2.E4). Actually, thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure that trains have only been used for intercity travel.

The SDC cargo train that passes through Forever Fall in the Black Trailer.

The subway that connects Vale’s capital and Mountain Glenn (V2.E11 - 12).

The passenger train that Oscar takes to Mistral’s capital (V4.E12).

The Argus Limited, which connects Mistral’s capital to Argus (V6.E1).

To date, the only city that has any sort of inner-city public transport is Argus. (And even then, we have no confirmation of whether or not it has to share the street with other vehicles.)

It’s just so bizarre, that in cities which are so densely populated out of necessity (due to a shortage of space not inhabited by Grimm), cars seem to be the default transport. Ba Sing Se’s layout addresses this problem by having a vast network of monorails that are free to the general public, thus freeing up the streets for people to use. (An issue which this post here does a great job discussing.)

The cities in the Redux are similar in that their layouts are optimized to make public transport efficient and accessible, while conserving space for day-to-day living. Most of the major cities have agricultural districts (just like in the canon), but they also have large parks and ecological zones that are safe for leisure and recreation. Jaune’s family wouldn’t need to travel all the way to Shion just to go camping.

Mind you, while all cities have public transport, not all public transport uses roads. Several cities in Mistral, for example, rely on airships and gondola lifts for getting around. There’s also a city in Eastern Vale called Petrichor, which is spread out across numerous islands within a lagoon. Public transport there consists primarily of waterbuses similar to the vaporetti used in Venice.

Now, as for the roads between cities, things are a little different. For starters, there aren’t a lot of them.

A (tentative) map of intercity roads across Remnant. Dark blue lines are the “main” roads; light blue lines are “minor” roads. Note: This map excludes rail lines, airship routes, and waterways.

With a handful of notable exceptions, virtually all inhabited settlements (both towns and cities) are located along these roads. The dark blue lines represent the major or “great” roads, which are directly connected to each country’s respective capital. Minor roads are depicted here in light blue, and are considered off-shoots that link out-of-the-way places to the great roads. These roads exist to primarily accommodate vehicles, although they can be traversed on foot. Why you’d want to, though, I have no idea, since these roads are technically outside of the safe zones of the settlements.

Roads are maintained by the governments of each country. Usually, the stretch of distance between settlements isn’t huge, so the roads (when broken up into individual segments) aren’t nearly as long as they look.

The main thing protecting these roads are the outposts, which are strategically placed along them. The Huntsmen stationed at outposts are trained to intercept and respond to distress signals, either from individual travelers, or (in the case of an emergency) from settlements at risk of being overwhelmed by Grimm. Without the CCTs (which made communication widespread and immediate), these outposts wouldn’t be nearly as effective.

The outposts were primarily created to give Huntsmen access to resources besides the academies. Plus, access to places where they could regroup and better coordinate themselves as needed. Part of that idea came from common sense, but the idea of them also existing to protect roads was somewhat inspired by the tambos and qullqas of the Inca road system.

On a parting note: Vale used to exclusively employ anyone with a speed Semblance as a courier. They were a lot like the chasquis of the Inca Empire.

#asks #animalia555 blog #i speak #urban environments #cities #infrastructure #huntsman outposts #the kingdoms #kingdom meta #kingdom meta asks #meta content #jaune arc #since i'm thinking about it i might as well add: #jaune and his family are from a city in western mistral called rabenda #it's a coastal megacity whose culture has hints of influence from vale #readmore

[sweetsoundsofignorance]

Ohhhh! 7, 10, 25!

What is your deepest joy about writing?

When it comes to sharing writing, it is when someone connects emotionally with something I’ve written, especially when it’s something I’ve whole-assed myself emotionally. For me, that’s also the greatest joy of reading, that rush of empathy.

I also get really happy when my intentions for a story are noticed by readers, the little details and symbols and themes and specific character traits. I know the author is dead and all, but this still makes me happy.

When it comes to actually writing, the act itself is one of my deepest joys. I’ve always used writing as a way to process and expel a lot of built-up emotional energy. For me, it’s a self-soothing activity.

Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

Oh, yes. Many.

For fic, though, pretty much anything @whatwouldflorencedo wrote for American Horror Story: Murder House and From Dusk Til Dawn lives inside my head rent-free, especially Kansas City Shuffle. I am a slave to many many things about their writing, how they write tension, intimacy, their exploration of moral grey areas. For one, no one writes smut like them, the kind that eviscerates you. I can only aspire to write smut like them. Speaking of which, I think Kansas City Shuffle is due for a re-read.

@darknessaroundus Total Dark Sublime, I’ll be obsessed with Jughead’s tattoo obscuring their names forever. I mean, I’ll be obsessed with a lot of that story forever, including the poem for which the fic is named.

I could go all day about specific scenes from books that are practically nailed to the inside of my skull, but the main ones would have to be the climactic scene in The Secret History, and the entirety of Bunny by Mona Awad and Call Me By Your Name. If I was any more specific, it would spoil the endings, but I’m partial to these sorts of last gasps of intimacy in the midst of irrevocable and/or unavoidable loss, and that is probably why the devil’s daughter and loose lips also haunt me 24/7.

What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

I’m sorry, but I don’t have a good answer for this one, or maybe I don't understand the question? Is it asking if there's a specific detail that I've left out of a story because it's irrelevant or a detail I included that has no purpose?

I’m sure there are strange attributes I’ve sprinkled throughout my stories that I’ve forgotten about and served no purpose to the story, but I can’t think of any detail I’ve purposefully included about a character that wasn’t put there for a reason, even the seemingly innocuous ones. I obsess over small character details. I think any attribute you give your character has a connotation attached to it that is, on some level, integral to their character and the overall story. It’s all informative.

Someone (I think it was Sully) pointed out that Jughead was left-handed in Kill Your Darlings, and that was on purpose. It was supposed to make the reader think about how it would look watching Jughead write. If you’ve ever watched a left-handed person write, most of them write like the runt of ten children at the dinner table, guarded, and because Jug is a hare, hurried in this case. Then, there’s also the reflection symbolism, the sinister element, and the messiness inherent to being left-handed (you smudge the paper like crazy; it’s unavoidable). On its face, it seems like a small insignificant detail, but it’s not.  

Thank you for the ask 🤍🤍🤍

#asks

[flowercrown-bard]

🍓(btw, loved the song reference in your tags lmao)

You know there are some people that are really hard to compliment because there are so many amazing things about them that you would just end up cutting yourself off all the time because you remembered another great thing about them that you need to talk about? That's you. Literally, where do I begin? You are one of my absolute favourite writers. Your fic ideas are all so unique and the way you write characters is incredible! I'll never be over how adorable and lovable Jaskier's parents are in 'The Knight's Favor' and I got all excited and happy when the fairies showed up in 'The Music Box' because the story has such a lovely fairy tale feel, it took my right back to my childhood. I just adore your writing style, the fairy tale style above all, but also with your other fics I get sucked in by the way you write immediately.

But that's not enough, is it? Not only are you a brilliant writer, you are also amazing at literally anything else! No matter what obscure craft comes up, my first thought is always that you've probably tried it before. And you have! You do bookbinding, you're an incredible artist, you do embroidery, you write the most amazing songs that send chills up my spine and who knows how many other things you can do! It's mind blowing. And you're also so so good at all of those things. I remember when I saw your art for the first time and I just went "wtf how is he also so good at that?? Leave some talent for the rest of us"

And the way you use your craft talent to make children happy. Them playing pirates? Oh sure, you just make a pirate ship for them. Why not? Honestly, it's the sweetest thing. You're the kind of person I would wish every child to have to look up to, growing up.

You are so so kind and passionate about the things you love and you are so generous! Opening your letter was like opening a treasure chest. And you're so fiercely loving. You're the kind of person I aspire to be.

Also you have me cackling every time you don't recognise me XD

(Send me a 🍓 and I'll compliment you)

#Friend loving hours #<3 #Now excuse me I need to scroll through your ao3 and decide on what to read next

[wanderingjournalofshadows]

principium

This journal is a remnant of a wanderer, an adventurer of sorts.

More precisely a solo RPG journal for me, traveling through the mists, and exploring the wonderful and horrifying place that is the home setting of Ravenloft.

The Hickman couple created something in 1983 that captured the fans of gothic horror and at the time emerging Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts - it became a cult setting for many alike.

My personal experience with the world of Ravenloft runs back to 2017 when I first started to run Curse of Strahd, the 5th edition variant of the classic module I6 - Ravenloft. I was just starting college and gathered a new group of friends to guide them into the mists of Barovia.

Since then I ran the campaign two more times, with more or less success, but I knew that it is the perfect setting for me if I ever wanted to play D&D.

So what is the premise of this blog?

I intend to delve deep into the lore of the setting and explore it through the lenses of a character who travels through the mists and gets to know the colorful (albeit desaturated) Domains of Dread.

I'll write about my adventures, as I slowly slip into the role of this character, and hopefully enjoy my time over the weekly sessions of a couple of hours, and leave behind something that is enjoyable to read as well, since I do have my aspirations of creative writing.

It is also a practice of writing and my (non-existent) English skills, since I'm not a native speaker of the language, but if I'm to write, I need to hone the skill well enough to create something that captivates the readers' curiosity.

So expect grammatical issues, or sometimes errors in semantics, as I power through descriptions and ways to express my experiences during play.

Aesthetics? Format?

I also try to leave behind sketches, and make it pleasing to read this journal. I'm already thinking about the formatting of the text so one can separate the narrative from the game mechanics, and only read the fiction emerging from my dice rolling and decisions. Solo Roleplaying is a very interesting concept in itself, that deserves a dedicated post later on.

I think my time with Play-By-Post (pbp) games gave me a certain standard when it comes to "written play" and how certain things should be presented.

Writing in first person or third person will be always one of the difficult decisions when it comes to the tone of fiction. For the setting the first person perspective offers a certain kind of intimacy, especially to convey the character's emotions, that might be a better option to convey a personal experience. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Read it if you have the time) was also an inspiration for this choice, since the plot is told through letters, written from the perspective of the characters.

And while reading I will listen to music that inspires me, I'll most likely leave a Spotify/Youtube link at the beginning of each post to have an audio ambience for the entry.

In the coming weeks I'll figure out the blog aesthetics as well, refreshing my CSS skills and/or looking for a suitable template.

So who will be the Wanderer?

I don't know at the moment, but I need to find first where I should start. There are many wonderful resources online that can help me choose the first Domain of Dread to venture to. What I also need to choose is the rules themselves. Since the first Ravenloft was written for AD&D 1E - I might opt for using an older version of the traditional formula. There are some pros for it:

It's OSR compatible. I have a truckload of OSR resources, that can be fairly easily adapted to it, thus giving me more creative and gameplay freedom.

Lots of compatible Ravenloft materials. Lots of resources exist for AD&D 2E which also has an easy conversion backwards, if I would ever need to have that, but again the difference between 1E and 2E are minor.

It's simpler. While it's obscure in nature, it is less complicated, and less restrictive with certain aspects of the game, compared to 3E/3.5.

It's crunchy enough. 5E is nice, but lacks a certain kind of crunch that I liked about the older editions. AD&D 1E might have just enough that will be still simple enough for solo play, that I don't have to spend too much time figuring out the system while playing.

In the next post I'll be exploring my options for the character and the first Domain of Dread.

But I think it's good to write down the foundation of the thought process, and I hope it gave perspective for you as a reader on what the hell I'm doing here.

Cheers,

Mythwriter

#ravenloft #solo #solo rpg #solo roleplay #dnd #dnd oc #dnd campaign #curse of strahd #strahd von zarovich #dnd strahd #barovia #journal #diary

[communistkenobi-archive]

How to Write Din Djarin

I made a previous post here on how I go about writing various SW characters, but I think Din warrants his own post because he’s pretty unique in a lot of ways that can be difficult to translate into writing sometimes. A lot of people have asked me how I approach writing Din, so I thought I would share my notes!

Now, this is just how I write him personally. This isn’t meant to be a definitive interpretation of his character, but it’s the way I approach him whenever I’m writing, and I hope people find it helpful.

This is a lot more in-depth than my other post, so this will be more like a DND-style character sheet for him lol. I’ll go into his general outlook/worldview, mannerisms & temperament, how he talks and thinks, etc, along with some other stuff like his dynamic with Grogu. 

As always, this is all going under a cut ↴

General outlook on life

He isn’t surprised by most things. Din is well-travelled and world-weary, so he’s not going to be shocked by cruelty or injustice, and may even initially outwardly appear as if he is indifferent to those things.

However, he does have an idealistic streak. He is inclined to help people, though he may bitch about it because it will cost money/time/fuel/etc (ie, things that are very precious to him because they are resources he uses to find work and provide for himself/his covert/the kid). He also seems to want to trust people and believe in them, though he isn’t particularly shocked if/when they betray him.

He also does not want his heroics to be spotlighted - he dislikes being the centre of attention and would rather be thanked quietly than have a crowd cheer him on. In general, he looks for solutions that will give the people he’s helping the resources they need to solve a problem on their own, and Din will step in to provide support/guidance/etc when necessary. He doesn’t like being the only person in the room who can solve a problem - he’ll teach people how to fight, show them how to lay a trap, be a liaison between two groups in conflict with each other so they can settle their dispute themselves, etc.

He is distrustful of most big institutions and is deeply skeptical of their claims to moral superiority or political legitimacy. Generally prefers to steer by his own moral compass, which is heavily informed by his heritage and history as a Mandalorian.

Principled - generally wants to keep his word, tell people the truth, and be honest about his intentions. However, he isn’t naive; he will obscure the truth if he doesn’t trust someone, usually by omission or silence rather than outright lying (he seems pretty bad at that)

Din’s frame of reference is very much shaped by his work. What I mean by this is that he plans for the “future” in terms of days and weeks - long-term planning is essentially impossible because of how unpredictable and chaotic his life is. He may plan out his schedule, finances, travel, meals, etc for the next two jobs he has lined up, but not much further than that. He’s living paycheck to paycheck more or less, and because he’s used to personal misfortune and loss, he is hesitant to daydream about long term goals or aspirations. He’s a pretty in-the-moment guy.

Because of how precarious his life is, his interactions with people tend to be transactional (“you do this for me, I’ll do this for you”). This isn’t because he’s greedy or selfish, it’s because he’s chronically short on time and cash. A good tension to have in a story is his desire to help people coming into conflict with his need to make money to provide for himself and his covert (and even after the covert is gone, he will still tend to think this way because of how much it’s shaped his life and experiences). Din is realistic about how unstable his life is and how one bad decision can lead him to financial ruin (or serious physical harm), but he also is idealistic in that he wants to help people, precisely because he KNOWS how exhausting and difficult precarity can be.

He’s used to being on his own, both in a personal sense and in a societal sense. He knows that, most of the time, there is no authority to turn to for help or protection, and that if he does go to the authorities it probably won’t work out in his favour. As a result, any disputes he has or gets involved in need to be resolved by the people directly involved in said dispute. This means that Din is prone to action when a problem arises - he doesn’t assume that someone else will handle it because experience has proven that not to be true. The society he lives in is deeply atomised, and any political or criminal authority controlling a planet/region is generally not concerned with the plight of its citizens (and, more often than not, is usually just another form of conflict/danger to most people). This informs how people interact with him, and how he interacts with other people.

Areas of expertise

I know it’s a fun fandom meme to say Din doesn’t know anything, but he‘s a pretty knowledgeable guy! These are just some of the areas/topics he has expertise on:

Weapons - pretty self-explanatory. Will know the make and model of most weapons he looks at, has good intuitions about their usage, utility, maintenance requirements, upkeep costs, etc. Even if he isn’t familiar with the exact name or make of a weapon, he probably has a good idea of how to use it, what condition it’s in, and how to counter it in battle.

Geography - Din is a bounty hunter and travels a lot. He has a pretty good knowledge base of the Outer Rim. He’ll be familiar with a lot of planet names, but he’ll also probably know things about those planets - what their major export is, what the climate/weather is like, how populous it is, major political factions that control it, main languages spoken, things like that. These are all relevant facts he’ll need to help in his hunts. If he doesn’t know it off the top of his head, he probably did at some point and will have it stored in the Razor Crest (F in the chat) for easy recall, or will know how to find out this information pretty easily.

Ships/ship maintenance - probably a more narrow slice than the above two topics, but Din seems generally familiar with different classes of ships, might know the layout of specific ship models for infiltration purposes, and maybe even what kind of weapons and technical capabilities they have. This is probably limited to smaller vessels, though, since larger ships are more dangerous and usually signal bigger problems (like the arrival of the NR or Imperials). Din is also knowledgeable about how to conduct basic repairs on his own ship, and will tend to default to fixing it himself unless he doesn’t have the time or the problem is too complex. He’s generally handy with tools but also isn’t like, an engineer.

The “underworld” - Din is pretty familiar with the criminal economy of the Outer Rim. Not only does he need to know this for his job, but he also seems to know how to get work outside of the Guild (see 1x05). This means he’ll be familiar with regional and local criminal factions, militias, gangs, crime syndicates, etc. and seems to know how to blend in to those criminal elements when needed. He probably also knows of the general disputes and conflicts between those factions, though probably not the specifics. He may have some opinions on those conflicts but likely won’t share them with people, since that’s usually a dangerous thing to express publicly.

Mannerisms & Temperament

I would describe Din as a laidback grump. He seems to take most things in stride, even things that would send most people spiralling into a panic attack, but he will be openly grumpy about setbacks, especially ones that cost extra time or fuel to work around. In general, he knows how to handle bad situations, but he won’t hide how displeased he is about it.

On that note, Din also doesn’t whine or complain that much - he will usually make his displeasure known through the tone of his voice, curt replies, and body language. He won’t sit around bitching about a situation he’s in, since his usual go-to response to anger/discomfort is to become quiet.

I think he’s quick to become irritated but slow to genuinely anger. He is generally patient if the person he’s interacting with is nice to him, and is especially patient and kind with Grogu.

When he IS actually angry, he’s usually silent. Angry outbursts will happen, but usually only if provoked. Din tends to express this with words and body language - he isn’t someone who will throw a tantrum or lash out violently at people or objects. He has to be pretty furious to be pushed that far, which would probably only happen because of A) someone is hurting the kid, or B) someone is trying to take off his helmet/parts of his armour.

Din doesn’t revel in knowing something another person doesn’t, and in general doesn’t like feeling superior to others (intellectually, morally, etc). He seems to enjoy teaching people what he knows, though he isn’t always the best at imparting that information to people. Likes to teach via demonstration rather than explanation or lecturing.

Din is used to things being outside of his control, especially really large and important things that shape and control his life. As such, I tend to write him as being focused on the things he can control, even if they’re extremely small or inconsequential. This may come across as slightly neurotic to people, but him finding some sort of structure in an uncontrollable situation can be an effective way to cope with bad circumstances (this is a little bit more interpretative on my part since it isn’t explicitly informed by canon, but I thought I would include it in here anyway since I use this character tick often in my own writing).

Din is not openly affectionate at all. He will communicate trust, ease, happiness, and even love in a very understated way, usually by being more talkative or allowing someone into his personal space as a sign of trust. Grand verbal expressions are extraordinarily rare - he would rather give people gifts (which usually have a practical use; think of a rare replacement part for their ship and not like, a stuffed animal or flowers) or make a point of keeping their company. This also goes for Grogu.

I think in general it’s a good idea to go with him being understated. He isn’t dramatic about himself or his feelings, and if he is being dramatic, there should be a good reason for it.

Generally doesn’t feel a need to explain himself to other people. If people think his behaviour is odd or peculiar, he tends to ignore them or pretend they aren’t there.

Additionally, if someone asks him to do something and he turns them down, he isn’t usually going to explain his reasons why. He may snap at them if they continually prod him for an explanation, but in general, Din is not self-conscious about random people thinking he’s weird or mean or anything like that. He’s used to being a social outcast and people interpreting every behaviour of his in a bad-faith way, and as a consequence he’s largely given up justifying himself to other people unless they are a close friend or he values their opinion. If a stranger doesn’t like him, he isn’t usually bothered by that, even if they tell him that opinion to his face.

By the same token, Din isn’t afraid to stand up for himself. He doesn’t let people push him around or bully him. He has a high tolerance for stupid or ignorant comments made about him, but if someone crosses a line he WILL let them know - he just won’t go on a rant or feel the need to explain like, why bigotry is wrong or whatever. Din is definitely not a wordsmith, and is concerned more with keeping himself safe and maintaining his cultural heritage than he is justifying his existence/way of life to other people.

Dialogue & Body Language

I find people struggle the most with his dialogue. He doesn’t speak a lot in the show, so it can be difficult sometimes to find his voice while you’re writing. Here are some general rules I follow when writing him:

Usually doesn’t initiate conversation unless he specifically needs to ask somebody a question. Din tends to be more passive in social interactions and will respond to people based on how they speak to him, rather than controlling the conversation or being proactive about the tone of the discussion.

The answers he gives people when they ask him questions are usually short and to the point. He uses plain language in general, though will use technical jargon in certain circumstances (such as in conversations covering the topics he’s knowledgeable in - see above). However, he isn’t easily confused or intimidated by people who use flowery/complex language, so him talking plainly and simply is more of a conscious choice than a limitation of his vocabulary.

Din is more talkative around friends (notably Cara and Greef), and will offer them information about his life and the kid and things like that, but is still pretty subdued and usually needs verbal prodding from others to open up.

He isn’t emotionally demonstrative in conversation. He doesn’t laugh a lot, he doesn’t tend to shout, things like that. If he’s relaxed and trusts the person he’s speaking to, they’ll gauge his good mood based on his body being physically relaxed and being more talkative. If he’s uncomfortable, he tends to clam up and exit conversation as soon as he can, only speaking to get necessary information out of the other person. People may assume he’s being rude or anti-social, but he doesn’t do it for the purpose of being mean.

Din isn’t averse to social interaction and can even be chatty at times (usually with the baby), but he is used to being mistreated by other people, like being asked invasive personal questions or mocked for his beliefs, so he’s extremely wary about opening up to people, especially about his identity as a Mandalorian. He also needs to keep a lot of that private to protect his clan, so if he tells someone anything about his Creed or Mandalorian way of life, that is a very deep sign of trust and not something he would do with just anyone.

He also seems to have a general awareness of how intimidating he can be to others, and will either use this to his advantage or downplay it depending on the situation. Generally seems to default to leaning into it, again because of how often people mistreat him - it is a reliable defense mechanism to keep people away who might start trouble.

On that note, the way he responds to invasive or rude comments is usually to ignore them altogether. Din tends to only respond to those things when someone starts touching him (especially if they touch his helmet). 

Speaks quietly most of the time. He doesn’t yell unless he needs to be heard over a loud noise or is particularly angry, but that latter circumstance is pretty rare. He can be grumpy but he’s not an aggressive or hotheaded person.

Defaults to the other person’s native language if he knows it and makes an effort to establish this with whoever he’s speaking to. In general he wants people to know what he’s saying to them - he’s an honest person and wants to communicate the information he needs to get across.

His body language is often more telling than what he says to people. He keeps his emotions and personal information closely guarded, but his conversational partner will probably catch hints of his mood through how he holds himself. As I said, he’s aware of how he comes across physically in conversation, so he can use his stature to intimidate people. He may also fidget occasionally with his hands when he’s annoyed or anxious, but he isn’t prone to a lot of idle body movement/twitching. Most of his movements are intentional or deliberate, and he has a lot of body discipline.

He tells the occasional joke, but he isn’t mean-spirited and will almost never mock people in conversation unless he has a real problem with them (see his opening convo with Mayfeld in 1x06). Din is more often than not funny by accident - he will make a peculiar observation or respond to something in a way people don’t expect that is endearing and charming, but he tends not to be aware that he’s being funny. Whenever he tries to be funny on purpose (which, again, isn’t often), it’s usually pretty corny.

Din is not a good storyteller. He isn’t used to speaking for extended periods of time, and will give people only the bare bones facts if he’s relaying a story of some kind. Anyone who wants to get a story out of him will probably have to ask a lot of pointed questions to prompt him for more information. This tends to make his commentary underwhelming and understated, regardless of what he’s talking about, which can often be another point of (unintentional) humour. He doesn’t embellish or dramatise, and will get straight to the point with whatever he’s talking about.

Tends to speak formally. “Yes” instead of “yeah”, “thank you” instead of “thanks”, “hello” instead of “hey”, things like that. Again, his sentence structure is usually pretty simple and he doesn’t use fancy words, but he is formal in the way he talks, which can come across as stilted or awkward at times. When he’s more relaxed/at ease his speech is also more relaxed - more contractions and words like “gonna” will slip in. This is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule, but I tend to lean more formal when he speaks to people he just met/doesn’t trust and more informal for friends, the most informal of which is reserved for Grogu when they’re alone.

Internal Monologue

This is a big one, and separate from dialogue. Din can reveal a lot in what he doesn’t say, and writing his POV especially can be a challenge.

I think the most important guideline I use when writing him is to steer clear of any explicit, internal examination of his own feelings - that has to be earned in narrative and come at a time when he’s at a very emotional turning point or crisis (ie, when his emotional state is the driving factor in the plot - he needs to reach a point where he cannot ignore how he’s feeling, and in order to progress he must attend to his emotions). In general, instead of describing how Din feels in his monologue, I describe how he physically reacts to those feelings - going silent during a conversation, tensing up, avoiding eye contact, etc. In a sense it can feel like he is an outside viewer of his own emotions. Din is slow to acknowledge his feelings and doesn’t spend a ton of time dissecting his own emotional state.

Again, the way to describe how he’s feeling is through physicality - body language, tone, demeanor, etc. He’s a dude in a full suit of armour who doesn’t talk much, so write him as if he is an outside party to himself trying to divine his own emotional state based on context clues. I find absence a lot more effective in communicating how Din is feeling and what he’s thinking than stating it outright.

Now, Din isn’t oblivious to his emotions - I think he has a general grasp on when he’s feeling happy or upset, but he isn’t prone to dwelling on them or reflecting on his emotional state. He can identify what he’s feeling, but instead of examining that feeling, he will repress it or distract himself if that emotion is inconvenient. This applies even when he’s feeling happy - he is wary of allowing himself to enjoy comfort and happiness because of his childhood trauma and how generally unfair his life has been. He may even feel guilty about being happy, which will be an undercurrent of tension even if the situation you’re writing is pretty lighthearted or fun. Din does not let his guard down almost ever, even to himself.

This detail is comparatively minor, but I think it’s important. Din almost never refers to Grogu as “Grogu”, either in dialogue or in his internal monologue. He might say it for emphasis or to get the baby’s attention, but 99% of the time he’s going to refer to him as “the kid” and nothing else (especially not anything flowery or affectionate, like green-bean or little one - just “kid”). Buddy and pal are also acceptable when he’s talking to him, but use it sparingly.

His relationship with Grogu

I wanted to make this its own section because I think their dynamic can be difficult to pin down sometimes.

This depends on which point in the show you’re writing them, but generally speaking, the more time they spend together the more at ease Din is around the baby. When they’re alone, he’ll tell the kid about what he’s doing, or where they’re going, simple things like that. He isn’t going to philosophize with the kid or try to have an actual conversation with him - most of what he says to the baby is inconsequential, stream-of-consciousness type stuff. If he’s speaking directly to Grogu to get his attention, what he’s saying will be a lot more concise and clear (“I know you’re hungry” / “you have to take a nap now” / “don’t do that” / “watch me” / etc).

Generally, Din will talk more to the kid when he’s just narrating what he’s doing, because he doesn’t expect a response. He’s mostly doing it to give the kid something to listen to and to feel less alone. When he does want to engage the baby directly in conversation, it’s usually when they’re doing something together - eating, playing, doing a task in the ship, etc. When that happens, his sentences are a lot shorter, and he’ll sound more like he does when he’s talking to other people, albeit more patient, more kind, and more at ease.

To reiterate what I said in the previous section: Din doesn’t reflect on his relationship with the kid or how he feels about him that much. Their time spent together tends to feel very in-the-moment - he may have vague worries about the future or how he’s going to provide for the baby, but he is not going to dwell on how much he loves the kid or how far they’ve come. If anything, Din is often in denial about his attachment to Grogu, which I think is partially informed by his own trauma - it’s painful to think about how much you love someone if you have a deep fear that the people you love will leave you (which Din very much does - he lost his parents at a young age in an extremely traumatic and violent event).

He gives Grogu pretty much unlimited access to his personal space, but he tends to wait for the kid to come to him for affection. Din usually only tends to be physically demonstrative with his affection if he thinks the kid is scared or upset in order to reassure him. Otherwise, he doesn’t really do stuff like pet his ears or head or whatever - the kid will just sit in his lap or in the crook of his arm. This may even cause some minor conflict between them if the kid wants more physical attention than Din is naturally used to giving him.

Man that was a lot! I THINK that covers everything. I’m probably missing some details but this post is already long enough. But regardless, I hope this post was helpful! A lot of this stuff is contextual, so you’ll definitely run into situations where some or even all of this may not always apply, but I find these guidelines helpful to me personally when I approach writing him.

#mando.txt #the mandalorian #din djarin #sw meta #mando meta #my stuff #my writing

[vgfm]

Deltarune Theory: The True Identity and Importance of “Everyman”

I’ve been away from the Undertale theory scene for a long time. It’s been so long that a whole new-fangled game got announced, and I’ve got some theories on it.

Are these theories about Gaster or Sans or whatever’s going on with Kris? Not exactly. At least, not yet. I’ve got a better character in mind.

Let’s start with Everyman: Undertale’s most obscure character and (I think) one of the most pivotal in Deltarune.

This is a two-part theory: the first part outlines who Everyman is and why I think he’ll be important in Deltarune. The second part? You’ll have to read and find out.

This is a long one and with loads of images, so strap yourselves in.

Sections

Part 1: Introduction to Everyman

Who is Everyman?

“So Everyman’s just an Easter egg, right?”

Everyman’s Importance

Why did Everyman appear in True Lab?

Why Everyman will have a bigger role in Deltarune

Part 2: Everyman is ???

What will Everyman’s role be?

Jevil’s Connection to Everyman

The Spade King’s clue

Additional Evidence

“Seriously?”

The Gaster connection

The “Strange Son”

Who made who?

“Seriously, who is Everyman?”

End

Closing Summary

Final Conclusions

Who is Everyman?

"Everyman” is a special attack that appears during the Reaper Bird amalgamate fight in True Lab.

This same figure appears twice in Deltarune’s first chapter:

Once as graffiti in an alleyway in Hometown...

...and again as a rare bullet attack during Jevil’s fight.

The name “Everyman” only ever appears in-game next to his graffiti portrait in Hometown. Everyman’s sprites are simply titled “strangeman” in Undertale’s game files:

[Image transcript: UTModTool is showing multiple highlighted sprite entries that begin with “spr_strangeman”. On the right is the file “spr_strangeman_walk” opened, showing a picture of Everyman. End image transcript]

Some time after Undertale’s release there was a since-deleted tweet from Toby with a picture of Reaper Bird’s attack that he titled “Everyman,” which is where fans first got the name.

[Image transcript: A tweet from toby fox that says “Everyman”. The first reply says “Is that his name. please thell me thats his obj name.” Toby’s response repeats “Everyman.” The next reply says “everything i aspire to be.” Toby responds again with “’Everyman’ you aspire to be.” Toby then adds another tweet saying “Description. Just a good guy that shows up on occasion.” end image transcript.]

This is a web archive screenshot so the image of Everyman’s bullet sprite wasn’t preserved here. Special thanks to catcat for tracking this one down!

“So Everyman’s just an Easter egg, right?”

I don’t think so. I’d be more inclined to write off Everyman’s role in Deltarune as a mere cameo if he had only shown up once. But it’s odd that Toby felt the need to include Everyman twice in a single chapter. To me this seems less like a one-off cameo and more like foreshadowing for a greater role in the full game.

Let’s compare Everyman’s appearances to instances of character foreshadowing and one-off cameos from Undertale and Deltarune:

Mettaton

[Image transcript: four Undertale screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left screenshot, the narration text box reads “(the machine isn’t working.)” as Frisk stares at Mettaton in Snowdin’s colored tile puzzle room. In the top-right screenshot, the narration textbox is reading a TV announcement in Papyrus’ house: “(It says ‘STAY TUNED FOR A NEW PROGRAM - MTT.’)”. In the bottom-left screenshot, Napstablook’s text box says “there’s a show i like to watch on it... sometimes...” as Frisk looks at their television. In the bottom-right screenshot, Undyne’s text box says “This oven is some top-of-the-line MTT thing.” as Frisk stares at her oven. End image transcript.]

Mettaton is foreshadowed multiple times before he makes his proper introduction in Alphys’ Lab. This includes a direct on-screen appearance of his rectangular form as part of Snowdin’s colored tile puzzle. What’s interesting is that half of these references (including the tile puzzle) only make sense in hindsight to a first-time player. For all we know there could be other, more-cryptic Everyman references already in Deltarune that we don’t have the full context to understand yet.

Rouxls Kaard

Despite his legendary introductory sequence catching many-a-player off-guard, Rouxls Kaard actually is foreshadowed a couple of times before his stunning debut.

[Image transcript: four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left screenshot, Ralsei is reading a message from Rouxls Kaard: “It says... ‘Thoust fools, thou will NEVER figure it out now!’. This is continued in the top-right screenshot: “Then it, um, says, ‘PS - I make my own Rules. - RK’”. In the bottom-left screenshot, a puzzle-master says “ROUXLS KAARD... Lord of the Puzzles... Be careful...!” In the bottom-right screenshot, one of Clover’s heads says “RK came by... What a hunk!” End image transcript.]

I’ve noticed from watching Let’s Plays that many people don’t even realize that these lines were meant to foreshadow him (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize it either on my first playthrough).

Ice-E

Now here’s something that’s an example of both a one-off cameo and proper foreshadowing! In Undertale, Ice-E is referenced exactly once in the entire game—as part of Sans’ Monster Kidz Word Search puzzle. No other character mentions Ice-E, Ice-E does not appear in-person, nor does the Ice-E’s restaurant appear... in Undertale. Deltarune is a completely different story.

[image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. in the left screenshot, Kris looks under their sink and the narration text box says: “A can of Ice-E’s Cool Boys Body Spray ‘Spray For The Boys,’ Flamin’ Hot Pizza Flavor.” In the right screenshot, Kris reads a chart in the hospital. The narration text box says: “(It’s a classic 1-to-10 pain scale, using ICE-E as a model.)” End image transcript.]

In Deltarune chapter 1 we find numerous references and bits of foreshadowing for Ice-E and, lo and behold, we see that Ice-E’s restaurant exists in Hometown at the end of chapter 1. And notice how it’s multiple references and not just a one-off like last time.

In every example of foreshadowing listed above we’re given more than one hint of a character’s presence, and so far Everyman fits this same pattern. This makes me feel safe in assuming he will have a bigger role in the full game.

Everyman’s Importance

What’s interesting is that in Chapter 1, Everyman appears in both the light and dark worlds. So far Deltarune has kept the light and dark worlds largely separate from one another, with only Kris and Susie traveling between them (as far as we know).

Everyman’s presence in both worlds implies that either he can travel between both worlds as well, or at least that lightners and darkners are both familiar with him.

Based on what we know, I’d wager that Everyman is a lightner—specifically, a monster.  I say this for two reasons: 1.) so far we’ve only seen lightners (Kris and Susie) travel between both worlds, and 2.) this would explain Everyman’s appearance as one of Reaper Bird’s attacks in Undertale’s True Lab.

Why did Everyman appear in the True Lab?

The worlds of Undertale and Deltarune are connected. Toby has all-but-confirmed this himself.

[Image transcript: A screenshot from the official Deltarune website’s question-and-answer page. The question says “So there’s no connections between the two games?”. The answer says “It’s a different world that might even have different rules. That doesn’t mean there will be no connections at all though.” End image transcript.]

One major connection between Undertale and Deltarune is their largely-shared cast of characters. Many major characters from Undertale make an appearance in Deltarune’s first chapter, and Toby has shown that at least some characters from Deltarune’s universe have counterparts in the Undertale universe as well.

The Undertale Alarm Clock App makes reference to Rudolph Holiday living in the Underground some time prior to the events of Undertale.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box where Asgore says “Rudy... loved the holidays, you know.” End image transcript.]

This dialogue also strongly implies that Undertale’s universe has a counterpart for Noelle.

[Image transcript: Another dialogue box from Asgore. He says: “With a warm slice of fruitcake on the table. His youngest daughter peeking shyly from around the corner...” End image transcript]

Depending on how one interprets the Clamgirl NPC’s dialogue, there may or may not be an Undertale version of Susie (aka “Suzy”) too.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Clamgirl tells Frisk: “Synchronicity...? My neighbor’s daughter looks about your age.” In the right screenshot her dialogue continues: “Her name is ‘Suzy.’ I feel like you two should be friends.” End image transcript.]

I’d argue that Everyman also had a “counterpart” in Undertale’s universe who lived as a monster in the Underground. Much like Rudy, the Underground’s Everyman likely grew old and eventually “fell down”. But unlike Rudy, Everyman was sent to the True Lab for the royal scientist’s soul experiments and became part of the Reaper Bird amalgamate.

This would fit with the pattern that we see with most other amalgamates, namely that they each seem to be made up of one named/noteworthy monster combined with several other generic monsters. The formula goes like this:

Lemon Bread = Shyra (Shyren’s Sister) + Aaron + Moldbygg

Endogeny = Muttler + various dog enemies

Snowdrake Mother = Crystal (Snowdrake’s Mom) + Vegetoids(?)

Reaper Bird = Everyman + Astigmatism + Whimsalot + Final Froggit

The Memoryheads seem to not “fit” with the other amalgamates, perhaps intentionally, so I’ll leave them out for now.

Long story short: Everyman was most likely a monster since he was part of an amalgamate and (as far as we know) amalgamates can only be made of monsters.

Why Everyman will have a bigger role in Deltarune

We see in Deltarune that three of the monsters who became amalgamates in Undertale have since passed away. This fits a trend I’ve noticed of Toby trying to “explain” the absence of characters who are prominent in one of his games but not the other.

The examples I cited above of Rudy, Noelle, and (possibly) Susie existing in Undertale’s universe also serve as “excuses” for where those characters were and why they were absent from the events of Undertale’s story. Rudy was dead and Noelle and “Suzy” were living with their families (presumably) in parts of the Underground where Frisk never ventured.

Shyra, Muttler, and Crystal are similarly “excused” from Deltarune’s story when the graveyard informs the player of their passing. Gerson is likewise excluded from Deltarune due to having passed away before the events of the game.

Conveniently, Everyman is not listed among the amalgamate monsters who have passed away in Hometown, and the alleyway graffiti implies he’s alive and well.

We know that Deltarune’s timeline and character ages don’t match up perfectly with Undertale’s—Deltarune Asriel is still alive and slightly older than Kris, who’s roughly the same age as DR Monster Kid. Conversely, Undertale Asriel died long before Frisk entered the Underground, yet Frisk is still seemingly in the same age bracket as UT Monster Kid (who’s barely younger than Asriel in Deltarune). Like Rudy, we can assume that Deltarune’s Everyman is younger than the Everyman who “fell down” in the Underground.

What will Everyman’s role be?

Remember when I said this was a two-part theory? Well, here’s the second half of my theory: Everyman is the Knight.

[Image transcript: A text box that says “Yes, you read that correctly.” End image transcript.]

Yes, the same Knight mentioned by Seam, Jevil, and the King of Spades. The same Knight who’s pulling new dark fountains out of the earth and who’s implied to be a major antagonist in the full game.

I could hedge my bets by saying Everyman is merely “connected” to the Knight, but if the Knight is a character we already know of then I think Everyman is the most likely candidate.

Let’s start with the name: Everyman’s sprites are titled “strangeman” in Undertale’s files. The very first mention we get of the Knight in Deltarune is Seam describing a “strange knight” who appeared, complete with red font for emphasis.

[Image transcript: Seam speaking inside of a shop, saying: “But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away.” End image transcript.]

The word “strange” seems to be used selectively and very deliberately in Deltarune’s first chapter. Here’s a breakdown of all the times it’s used:

Seam referring to the knight

Seam referring to the Knight’s “strange son” (more on that later)

Telling Seam about Jevil (”Strange Prisoner”)

Seam referring to the “strange someone” that Jevil met

Seam mentioning the “strange words” Jevil said

Rouxls Kaard referring to Lancer (”a strange and irritating darling!”)

Narration before Kris seals the dark fountain (”You felt something strange.”)

Flavor text during the Jevil fight (”Kris gazed strangely”)

The Devilsknife/Jevilstail appearing in a “strange chest” outside of Jevil’s cell upon defeating him (this may be dummied out or only triggers if your inventory is full of weapons/armors and Jevil can’t give his item to you)

The description of the key to Jevil’s cell (”something feels strange about it”)

With the exception of the line from Rouxls Kaard, every instance of “strange” somehow connects to the Knight or Jevil. If the Knight is indeed the “strange someone” who Jevil met then the list tightens even further, to the point where all but one use of the word “strange” is associated with a single character and his handiwork—a very “strange man”, as it were. Speaking of Jevil...

Jevil’s connection to the Knight and Everyman

Jevil’s fight is one of two places where Everyman appears in Deltarune chapter 1. Not only that, but Everyman’s sprite only appears as a rare event during Jevil’s carousel attack, implying that his appearance is somehow significant.

Interestingly enough, the other two sprites that appear during this attack are one with a head that vaguely resembles Mysteryman (believed to be Gaster) and another with the head of a horse, a.k.a. the same as a knight piece on a chess board. It’s also worth pointing out that it’s rarer for the Everyman sprite to appear than it is for either of the other two sprites to appear.

We can also see the Everyman sprite represented in the official Chaos Revolving Keychain from Fangamer.

Jevil mentions the Knight once you defeat him, showing that he has knowledge of his existence.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “THE HAND OF THE KNIGHT IS DRIFTING FORWARD.” End image transcript.]

This is interesting since Seam’s dialogue implies that Jevil was imprisoned well before the Knight overthrew the three kings at Card Castle. I can think of three possible explanations for this seeming timeline discrepancy:

Jevil is somehow intrinsically “aware” of things that go on outside of his cell

The Knight or someone else visited Jevil in jail to tell him about what happened with the three kings

The Knight is the same “strange someone” that Jevil met before he was locked up

The first explanation is the least likely, imo, due to Jevil asking who Kris, Ralsei, and Susie are when he first meets them.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Jevil is talking to the fun gang and he says: “BUT LO, THREE VISITORS STANDING INSIDE?” This continues in the right screenshot, where Jevil says: “WHO ARE YOU FEW?” End image transcript.]

If Jevil was aware of the outside world then he’d surely know of the fun gang’s antics by that point.

The second explanation doesn’t seem very likely either. Seam is the only character who acknowledges Jevil’s existence and we never see Seam visit Card Castle, even after the Spade King has been overthrown.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Jack Person tells the fun gang: “By the by, I asked Seam to come here, but...” Continuing onto the right screenshot, where Jack Person finishes by saying “There wasn’t any interest.” End image transcript.]

Jevil’s cell doesn’t seem to have any guards and it’s kept on its own floor, so that would rule out Jevil hearing about the knight from other prisoners.

If someone in the castle brings food to Jevil then he may have overheard it from them, but even that is speculative. Does Jevil even need to eat? He says his body “cannot be killed,” after all.

[Image transcript: Jevil saying “THIS BODY CANNOT BE KILLED!” End image transcript.]

And I’m not sure if the King of Spades would be so accommodating towards a dangerous prisoner.

That just leaves the third explanation, which seems the most likely to me. It’s also the tidiest explanation for how Jevil would be aware of both the Knight and Everyman—they’re the same person.

We can only speculate as to why the “strange someone” caused Jevil to run amok. If that strange someone was the Knight then I would assume that setting Jevil loose may have been his attempt to overthrow or destabilize Card Castle’s leadership. We know that the Knight eventually overthrew the three other kings himself, so that may have been his plan B after Jevil failed or he merely wished to remove Jevil as an obstacle. Either way, the Knight toppled the quadrumvirate and installed the Spade King as the protector of Card Castle’s dark fountain.

The Spade King’s clue

The Spade King is the closest ally of the Knight that we’ve seen so far. The exact nature of their relationship isn’t fully known, but the King’s words imply that he reveres and is loyal to the Knight.

[Image description: Four Deltarune screenshots arranged in a grid. In the top-left, the King of Spades says “By the Knight’s will, I shall shatter your heart to pieces!”. In the top-right, the King says “For the KNIGHT has appeared.” In the bottom-left, the King says “The KNIGHT that pulls the Fountains from the Earth.” In the bottom-right, the King says “My KNIGHT... I shall not fail you...” End image transcript.]

Both characters share an interest in maintaining the existence of dark fountains, given that the Knight has been said to create new fountains by pulling them up from the Earth.

Unlike Jevil, the Spade King’s attacks never make explicit reference to Everyman’s visage, but he does give a possible nod that many players have overlooked. When the Spade King is defeated, he makes a curious gesture by letting his cloak fly away like a butterfly.

While this may be a simple artistic flourish, I always found this moment to be odd and unfitting for a brutish character like the King. It’s also worth pointing out how the King’s cloak is clearly not a part of his body, unlike what’s implied with Lancer’s “clothes”.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the battle narration says: “You tell Lancer you can���t tell the difference between his clothes and his body.” The narration continues in the right screenshot, saying “He seems flattered... His ATTACK POWER went down!” End transcript.]

What if the King didn’t always have that butterfly-shaped cloak? Did someone give it to him? Think of where else we’ve seen butterfly motifs before.

At first blush, this seems obvious—the Reaper Bird is clearly made from the Core mercenaries, including Whimsalot. Whimsalot attacks with butterfly bullets, so that’s where Reaper Bird got them from, right? Case closed. Well, not so fast.

It turns out there are two different sets of butterfly bullets in Undertale’s game files, and Reaper Bird’s are different from Whimsalot’s.

[Image transcript: Two groups of butterfly bullet sprites. The left group is labeled “Whimsun / Whimsalot.” The right group is labeled “Reaper Bird”. End image transcript.]

Notice how Reaper Bird’s butterflies are smaller and have pointier, more symmetrical wings? While those differences could be chalked up to limited pixel resolution, it’s interesting how Toby went out of his way to create an entirely unique set of butterfly bullets for Reaper Bird when it arguably would have made more sense for him to recycle the Whimsun butterflies like he did for Whimsalot.

If you want to compare the sprites for yourself I suggest either looking at the game files directly or looking at an actual playthrough of Undertale. I’ve noticed that Spriter’s Resource mistakenly has Reaper Bird’s butterflies listed under Whimsun’s sprite sheet (which is a completely understandable mix-up).

To drive the point home, notice the string names that are used for these butterflies:

[Image transcript: An UTModTool window showing multiple named strings. Highlighted in red are six strings that each contain “obj_strangeman_butterfly” in their names. End image transcript.]

They’re “strangeman” butterflies. Not “amalgamate” or “Reaper Bird” butterflies (despite Reaper Bird having its own share of dedicated strings and named sprites), and they’re not “Whimsalot” butterflies either. Toby clearly delineates them as belonging to strangeman, a.k.a. Everyman, meaning that Everyman is specifically associated with butterfly imagery. The Spade King also makes use of butterfly imagery immediately after he mentions the Knight in his final turn.

Between the King and Jevil, this makes two characters that can be linked to both Everyman and the Knight.

Additional Evidence

Let’s circle back to Reaper Bird for a second. It’s commonly known that this amalgamate is made from Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot. To wit:

These enemies are part of the mercenary group that Mettaton hires to attack you in the Core. Have you ever noticed how out-of-place they seem? Almost every other set of enemies in the game is somehow themed around their environment — Snowdin enemies are ice creatures, Hotland enemies are fire/lava-themed, etc. These mercenaries are themed around medieval warfare and yet they show up in the Core, the most high-tech area in the entire Underground.

What’s even stranger is that this medieval theme seems to come out of nowhere. Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot act as “upgraded” versions of Loox, Froggit, and Whimsun, respectively. And yet their Ruins counterparts don’t have any medieval theming whatsoever—it was added purely for the mercenaries. For whatever reason they’re all dressed like a bunch of wizards and... knights.

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, a Core NPC says “Why do I look like a black sausage and not a knight or a wizard?” This continues on the right, where it says “Well... Everyone has an angle they look best from.” End image transcript.]

That’s not my interpretation of their designs—the game outright calls them knights.

On the one hand, it’s true that Asgore’s royal guards also dress up like knights, but the Core mercenaries are explicitly not part of the royal guard—they’re mercenaries.

[Image transcript: Battle flavor text that states “Mercenaries emerge from the shadows.” End image transcript.]

Assuming that Asgore has a dress code for his guards or is just old-fashioned in his sensibilities, there’s still no reason why fighters outside of the guard should follow their standard. Even some of the royal sentries don’t follow this theming, as seen with Doggo and Sans (who’s technically a sentry):

With the abundance of knight-themed royal guard and sentry enemies that exist already, Toby could’ve easily designed the Core Mercenaries to more accurately fit with the Core’s futuristic theme. Doesn’t it seem a little too coincidental that Everyman would wind up as part of the same amalgamate as these otherwise out-of-place knights?

When we look at the other amalgamates, we can see that Lemon Bread (a.k.a. Shyren’s sister) is made up of Waterfall enemies. Endogeny is made up entirely of dog-based enemies. These two amalgamates each have a “theme” for their component monsters that fits the “main” named monster they’re each made of, and Reaper Bird has a clear theme of its own. Why would Everyman be paired with a bunch of knights if he was not connected to them in some way?

Even the Undertale artbook groups Everyman’s concept art with the Core Mercenaries, specifically the ones that look the most like knights and wizards in-game. The book also repeats the name “Everyman” and Toby’s cryptic phrase of “Just a good guy who shows up on occasion.”

Perhaps Everyman knew the Core mercenaries when he was alive? Were they his fellow knights? Or did they work for him before he fell down and they had to then lend their services elsewhere?

“The Knight? Seriously?”

Some of you may be shaking your heads dismissively at the idea of Everyman being the Knight (or you more likely clicked over to another tab by now). I mean, just look at the guy:

What part of this design makes you think “knight”, let alone THE Knight? Well, Seam does refer to the Knight as a “strange” knight, and Everyman certainly fits that bill. But more importantly, we haven’t seen an actual overworld sprite for Everyman yet—we’ve only seen some graffiti and a couple of magic bullet attacks, which are always abstract and simplified.

Not pictured: Froggit, Migosp, Temmie, Moldbygg, Tsunderplane, Mettaton, or Endogeny.

Everyman’s “proper” design would almost certainly differ from his Pillsbury Doughboy-esque bullet sprite, especially if he’s wearing a cloak or a suit of armor. And even if his design doesn’t differ that much, so what? It’s not like this series has ever had an opponent that looks goofy or non-threatening, right?

Another little tidbit I noticed: one of Reaper Bird’s attacks consists of Everyman repeatedly removing his own head.

Or maybe it’s not his head? Perhaps it’s a helmet? Like one that a knight would wear? After all, it’s not unheard of for helmets to have beak-like protrusions.

And this is a series where helmets can come in any shape or size to better fit the needs of the wearer.

Just some food for thought.

The Gaster connection

It’s time to address the elephant in the room: “Isn’t Gaster supposed to be the Knight?” If you haven’t heard by now, this is one of the prevailing theories in the fandom. To be honest, if the Knight ends up not being Everyman then Gaster is the next-best candidate, imo, but these two theories don’t have to be mutually-exclusive. I think a case can be made that Everyman and Gaster are connected in some way.

Let me say up front that this section is highly speculative (unlike the previous sections, which clearly aren’t the least bit speculative). We’re dealing with two super-obscure characters who’ve yet to make a proper on-screen appearance in either game. It’s already hard enough to figure out how either of them connect to the broader Undertale universe, let alone to each other, but I’ll give it a shot.

For starters, we can affirm that both Gaster and Everyman are linked to the True Lab. There’s no shortage of fan theories and speculation on Gaster’s prior usage of the True Lab in his own experiments and I won’t get into all that here, but suffice it to say the True Lab has Gaster’s name written all over it.

(Am I the only one who thinks the DT Extractor looks more like Everyman’s head than it does a Gaster Blaster? Forget I said anything.)

We’ve covered how Everyman appears as one of Reaper Bird’s attacks. Interestingly, the amalgamate Memoryhead has an attack that resembles the head of Mysteryman, the figure believed to be Gaster (which I’ll assume here for simplicity’s sake).

If we follow the logic of my prior “Everyman is the named/important monster that makes up Reaper Bird, fitting the pattern of other amalgamates” argument, then Gaster (or pieces of him) could fill the same role for the Memoryheads.

Everyman and Gaster’s sprites both have the suffix of “man” in Undertale’s game files. Here are all the sprites that use this same naming scheme:

strangeman - Everyman

mysteryman - “Gaster”

snowman - gives you the snowman piece

riverman - a.k.a. River Person

darkman - the shadowy overworld sprites used for the Core Mercenaries

watchingman - The spoon-shaped amalgamate that tucks Frisk into bed

The snowman’s inclusion is a bit of a fluke, because what else would you call a snowman without using “man” in the name? If we exclude the snowman, each instance of “man” represents a mysterious figure that ties back to Everyman and/or Gaster.

We’ve already covered the connection between Everyman and the Core Mercenaries, and it’s easy to connect the “watchingman” amalgamate with the True Lab. River Person is also frequently linked to Gaster in fan theories (and they allude to “the man from the other world” and “the man who speaks in hands”), so what we’re left with is a close-knit community of strange, mysterious "man”s.

This naming scheme looks very intentional on Toby’s part, and he seems to be continuing it in Deltarune by referring to the secret unseen NPC who gives you the egg behind the tree in Scarlet Forest as simply “a man.”

[Image transcript: Narration from the secret egg room. The text box states: “(Well, there is a man here.)” End image transcript]

The Knight’s “Strange Son”?

Remember when I said I’d get back to the Knight’s “strange son”? That’s now. I’m a little iffy on this topic because it involves stacking a whole ton of assumptions onto a single line of dialogue that’s phrased in an ambiguous way. But, if it means what I think it means, it could shed a ton of light on Everyman’s possible connection to Gaster and whether either of them are the Knight.

When you ask Seam about the “Kingdom”, Seam says this:

[Image transcript: Three of Seam’s text boxes arranged vertically. In order, they read: “Historically, this land was ruled by the Four Kings, from CARD CASTLE to the East. But, recently, a strange knight appeared... And three of the kings were locked away. The remaining king put him and his strange son into power.” End image transcript]

Let’s focus on that last sentence. On my first playthrough I misread this line as “the knight put the king and his strange son into power” because that sounds a lot closer to the events that happened—the Spade King and his “strange son” Lancer are in power now because the three kings were locked away, presumably by the Knight.

But the actual text states the opposite—the remaining king (Spade King) put him (the Knight) and his strange son (i.e., the Knight’s son) into power. Or does it? The line could also read as—the remaining king (Spade King) put him (the Knight) and his (the King’s) strange son (Lancer) into power. The second way is  awkwardly-structured but technically valid. And this is assuming that Toby didn’t make any grammatical errors when he typed these lines, which he has done on occasion.

[Image transcript: A dialogue box where Dr. Alphys says “I felt so guilty knowing I hadn’t do anything to stop you.” End image transcript.]

Not to be too hard on Toby, but even if Seam’s line is grammatically correct it’s still clunky and murky in its conception—at this point in the game we’ve only just been introduced to Lancer and the fact that his dad is the King, and now this line is potentially introducing yet another father/son duo that is closely connected with Lancer’s dad—is it any wonder that this line is often glossed over by fans?

The second reading, where Lancer is the “strange son,” is also awkward because the Spade King would have little need to put Lancer “into power”. Lancer was already a prince and, presumably, already wielded power in that role. Various NPCs make reference to Lancer bossing them around, and such a thing could’ve easily happened before the three kings were deposed.

If we take Seam’s line with the first reading (where the Knight has a “strange son”) and assume there were no grammatical errors, then this is the only time in chapter 1 that the Knight is ever referred to as having a son. It’s also the only time that the Knight is addressed with pronouns, implying that the Knight is male. If true, this would rule out the theory that Kris (or any potential alter ego that Kris has) is the knight, since Kris is neither male nor do they have a son. This would also rule out Susie, who’s never been a popular contender for being the Knight but is referred to as a “dark knight” on her stats page.

Who made who?

So then, who’s male, widely believed to be the Knight, and is often depicted as having one or more sons?

This (alleged) guy!

“But wait,” you might ask, “isn’t your theory that Everyman is the Knight?” Well, the Knight and his “strange son” seem to be working as a duo in the scenario that Seam outlines, given that the Spade King put both of them “into power.”

Because of Everyman’s connections to the Knight that I’ve laid out, plus the more popular theory that Gaster is the Knight, it’s possible that one may be the Knight and the other may be the Knight’s “strange son.” The way I see it, it doesn’t make a huge difference which one is which.

Now, I don’t think that Gaster and Everyman would be father and son in the strict biological sense. There are a number of reasons for this, but for starters I’m not even sure if Everyman and Gaster are the same species. My inclination is that Everyman is a monster, while Gaster may be a darkner. The latter is mostly my own guess and springboards off of a popular theory that Sans is a darkner, but it’s a whole other can of worms that I won’t get into now.

More importantly, Gaster is strongly implied to have some sort of connection to Sans and Papyrus. All three of them are also connected with special fonts that they each use. As far as I can tell, there’s no widely-used font by the name of “Everyman”, so this would imply that Everyman is not a skeleton and therefore not biologically related to them. However, there’s more than one way to start a family.

Gaster was the royal scientist in Undertale’s universe and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he (or his potential Deltarune counterpart) could find the means to create life forms artificially.

[Image transcript: The vessel creation scene from Deltarune. The on-screen text says “YOU HAVE CREATED A WONDERFUL FORM.” End image transcript.]

Everyman could be a creation of Gaster’s and thus he’d be Gaster’s “son”.

There’s also another possibility: Everyman is Gaster’s creator. We know that the Knight is pulling new dark fountains out of the Earth. I think the Knight, regardless of who they are, must be able to survive without a dark fountain to give their body form, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to venture into areas where new fountains have yet to be pulled up. The Knight is almost certainly a lightner, and I’ve already detailed why I think Everyman is a lightner as well.

We don’t fully understand how dark fountains interact with darkners, but it’s stated multiple times that dark fountains “give form” to the Dark World.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Ralsei’s narration says “Today the FOUNTAIN OF DARKNESS-” and continues into the right screenshot, saying: “The geyser that gives this land form-” End image transcript.]

In the dummied-out manual pages, Ralsei also mentions how his dark fountain gives his body form.

[Image transcript: Ralsei’s manual excerpt, whic says “Dedicated to The unending pillar of darkness that gives my body form.” End image transcript]

Darkners need dark fountains in order to maintain their forms. They may not even be able to survive at all without them. From this point of view, when the Knight creates new dark fountains he’s bringing new darkners to life. If Gaster is a darkner himself, then it’s not unthinkable to imagine that Everyman may have brought him to life in this way and could thus be called his “father”. Seam does refer to lightners as the “creators” of darkners, after all.

[Image transcript: Seam’s dialogue box saying “They were like Gods to us. Our protectors. Our creators. Those who gave us purpose...” End image transcript.]

Ultimately the question of who’s the father and who’s the son is purely speculative. We don’t even know for sure if the Knight has a son, let alone whether it’s Everyman, Gaster, or someone else entirely. It’s very much a “the chicken or the egg?” kind of question.

[Image transcript: Two images. The right is a screenshot of the egg room with narration stating “(You received an Egg)”. End image transcript.]

Hmm...

“Seriously, who is Everyman?”

Let’s bring this home with the question we started with: Who is Everyman? I’ve gone into evidence that he existed as an actual person in Undertale and will likely play a role in Deltarune, but this doesn’t tell us much about the kind of character he is. We don’t even know if “Everyman” is his real name.

If Everyman is indeed a prominent character in Deltarune then there are two possibilities: 1.) he’s a brand new character we’ve never met before, or 2.) he’s someone that we have met before. The first option, while a strong possibility, doesn’t leave us with much to talk about, so let’s look at the second.

Right out the gate I can confidently say that Everyman is not a character that we talked to or had significant interaction with in Undertale. The obvious reason is that he was busy being stuck inside Reaper Bird and he couldn’t have been in two places at once (as far as we know). This means that Everyman would have to be a character introduced in Deltarune chapter 1.

I’ve said before that I believe Everyman is a lightner, so this would rule out any dark world characters. That leaves us with the residents of Hometown who didn’t have direct counterparts in Undertale’s story.

After careful consideration I’ve narrowed the field to two suspects:

Father Alvin

Father Alvin has always struck me as an oddity. He seems like an important member of Hometown’s community, and yet none of the other residents ever talk about him. He’s also conspicuously absent from Undertale’s universe.

The most notable thing about Father Alvin is that his church seems to worship “the Angel”.

[Image transcript: Father Alvin saying “Let the Angel’s power light your way.” End image transcript.]

Ralsei’s prophecy states that the three heroes must seal the dark fountains in order to banish the “Angel’s Heaven.”

[Image transcript: Two Deltaunre screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, Ralsei’s narration says “Only they can seal the fountains.” The right screenshot continues, saying: “And banish the ANGEL’S HEAVEN.” End image transcript.]

This would put the heroes at odds with both the Knight (who’s creating fountains) and whoever is serving this Angel. We can only speculate on the Knight’s motives, but what if he’s acting in service to the Angel?

Something that isn’t brought up much in the fandom is the religious reverence that darkners give to their fountains. The King of Spades refers to the fountains that the Knight creates as “holy” fountains.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the King of Spades says “Holy Fountains, whose shadows are creating a new world...” The right screenshot continues, saying “OUR world.” End image transcript.]

The soundtrack that plays at the Fountain is called “The Holy.” Dark fountains can seemingly create life, so it’s easy to imagine the Knight viewing his own mission as some sort of holy rite.

As far as evidence goes for Alvin being Everyman/the Knight, the biggest clue is the drawing signed by Alvin that shows up in the supply closet at the end of chapter 1.

Every other object in the closet represents a part of the dark world that Kris and Susie visited, and yet at no point do they encounter a dark world manifestation of this drawing. We know that the Knight visited Card Castle previously, so this drawing could be meant to represent the Knight’s presence in that part of the dark world.

It’s also worth noting how most of the closet’s toys are arranged from left to right in the order that Kris and Susie encountered them on their journey. Alvin’s drawing is on the far right, just past the open cabinet drawer (i.e., Card Castle), implying that Alvin’s drawing was either at the fountain or that it was effectively the “next” thing that Kris and Susie would’ve encountered if they had stayed.

It’s hard to make out what the drawing could be beyond being a “poorly-drawn picture of a green turtle”, as the flavor text explains. Could it be Everyman? Or is it just a reference to Bold and Brash? Both? Neither? The world may never know. Or it may know when the full game comes out.

Can I also add how strange it is that Alvin’s drawing is in the closet to begin with? Alvin looks to be a pretty old dude, so why would his drawing still be in a school that he no longer attends? I don’t have an answer, I just think it’s weird.

Other clues that could point to Alvin being Everyman are that he is, scientifically speaking, old-looking, which would line up with my hypothesis of Undertale’s Everyman being an older monster who fell down before becoming Reaper Bird.

Alvin also vaguely resembles Everyman as far as their proportions are concerned.

It’s by no means a perfect match, especially if we factor in Alvin’s shell, but both characters possess a round head with some sort of beak or proboscis.

If Everyman actually is Father Alvin, then the title “Everyman” could be a reference to The Summoning of Everyman, a 15th-century religious morality play. I won’t get into the specifics here, but the play focuses on a character named Everyman who must prepare for his inevitable death and judgment for his deeds in life. I don’t really know how much that would tie into Deltarune’s themes or if it’s even a deliberate reference to begin with, so make of it what you will.

Father Alvin was the first character that I suspected of being Everyman when I started writing this theory, but there’s one major sticking point that prevents me from fully embracing the idea: the fact that he lacks a character portrait for his dialogue boxes.

This may seem like a minor nitpick, but dialogue portraits indicate when a character is important to the story, and it would be a pretty big oversight on Toby’s part if a (presumably) recurring antagonist wasn’t given a portrait. Even a three-scene wonder like Rouxls Kaard was given a portrait.

It’s true that recurring characters like Napstablook and Monster Kid weren’t given portraits in Undertale...

But Deltarune has greatly expanded the number of characters with portraits this time around, and we can already infer that Noelle (who had a portrait in chapter 1) will be an important character going forward:

Given Alvin’s limited dialogue in chapter 1 and his lack of a portrait, I’m more inclined to believe that he’ll end up being a minor character, in which case he’d almost certainly not be the Knight (and therefore not Everyman). But who knows, maybe Toby will give him a portrait in the full game.

Thankfully, we have another candidate who might be Everyman:

The Ice-E’s Employees

You think I’m joking? Trust me, you’ll know when I’m joking.

I didn’t initially make the connection between Ice-E’s and Everyman until I saw a post from @curioscurio​ that pointed me in that direction.

Let’s go back to the Everyman graffiti that appears in Hometown.

Notice how the drawing right next to it resembles Ice-E’s head? I can’t believe this was staring me in the face the whole time and I never realized the connection.

Another point in favor of the Ice-E’s workers is that we don’t even know what two of them look like. We know that Burgerpants is one, and another is implied to be the Nice Cream Bunny that we met in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the Ice-E’s employee says “Psst, can I tell you a mascot secret? I only started working here because...” The right screenshot continues, saying “The logo made me think it was an ice-cream shop...” End image transcript.]

But this still leaves the “purple guy” and “The Warrior”, who remain in full costume for chapter 1, meaning that one of them could resemble Everyman underneath their mask.

Speaking of The Warrior, he certainly fits the bill as being “strange.” His title wouldn’t be out of place among the likes of The Knight, and his dialogue refers to the hospital’s medical staff as “white wizards”, which fits with the medieval theming that’s associated with Everyman’s mercenary cohorts in Undertale.

[Image transcript: Two Deltarune screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, the Warrior says “This castle’s WHITE WIZARDs relegated me to this HEALING CHAMBER...” The right screenshot continues, saying “But my BLOOD is BOILING FOR BATTLE!!!” End image transcript.]

Speaking of the Core Mercenaries, here’s an interesting tidbit:

[Image transcript: Two Undertale screenshots side-by-side. In the left screenshot, a Core NPC says “As a youth, I would sneak out to play by this creepy flaming pit.” The right screenshot continues, saying “Since the CORE is always re-arranging, it was like a game trying to find it.” End image transcript.]

I used to assume that the Core Mercenaries were older monsters who fought in the human-monster war, which would explain their insistence on dressing up as old-timey knights and wizards. However, these lines of dialogue imply that the Mercenaries are far younger—young enough to visit the Core when they were kids.

So why would a bunch of younger monsters dress up like old-school knights and wizards? Simple: they’re LARPers. This would explain why their more casual overworld dialogue doesn’t match their overly-serious battle dialogue whatsoever—the battle is over and, thus, so is the act.

What does this have to do with Ice-E’s? Simple. The Warrior is also a LARPer. But he takes it a step further and never lets the act slip. According to Burgerpants, he terrorizes customers with war chants during his day job, and we see him keeping up the act while he’s injured in the hospital. It’s clear that he’s living in a fantasy world, and someone like that would have every reason to spend time in a strange dark world that “seems like” fantasy.

[Image transcript: Lyrics from Deltarune’s credits theme. It says: “And the places that you know seem like fantasy”. End image transcript.]

Someone like him could grow attached to such a place and want to see it spread as far and wide as possible, with no regard for how it would affect the boring “real world”. All he’d need to do is create new dark fountains to sustain this fantasy world.

I also find it interesting that The Warrior is in the hospital during chapter 1. Burgerpants claims that this is the result of “pizza-related injuries.”

[Image transcript: Two dialogue boxes from Burgerpants. Read from top to bottom, it says “The Warrior - Thankfully absent due to pizza-related injuries. Constantly terrorizing customers with war chants.” End image transcript.]

But what if there was another reason? We can see signs of “some kind of struggle” in the King of Spade’s throne room, complete with tattered wall banners.

[Image transcript: Narration in the Spade King’s throne room. The text box says “(Wall banners. They seem to have been through some kind of struggle...)” End image transcript.]

What if the Knight sustained injuries when he overthrew the three kings and had to go to the hospital afterwards? A “struggle” implies that there was some resistance involved.

Another interesting coincidence is that the previews for Deltarune Chapter 2 strongly imply that it will take place in a dark world that forms in the hospital.

Earlier previews have also implied that Noelle will have a larger role in Chapter 2, and she’d have every reason to be in the hospital visiting her father when things hit the fan.

It feels awfully convenient that a new dark world springs up right in the spot where the Warrior is. I wouldn’t be surprised if chapter 2 gives us our first glimpse of the Knight in person, and what better way than a surprise run-in with the Warrior?

Some of you may be asking why I’d suggest a minor character like The Warrior might be the Knight when he has a single line of dialogue and no dialogue portrait? Simple: characters tend not to have portraits when their face is hidden from view. We see this with Undyne in Undertale:

She doesn’t gain a dialogue portrait until after she removes her helmet. This is also true of Burgerpants in Deltarune.

So, unlike Father Alvin, The Warrior has an excuse for not having a dialogue portrait yet. While Father Alvin has some compelling evidence supporting him being the Knight/Everyman, The Warrior has no major counter-argument that I can think of (unlike Father “no portrait” Alvin), so I give The Warrior the edge as far as Everyman suspects go.

I’d also like point out that if Gaster ends up not being the Knight or the Knight’s “Strange Son,” then we could get a two-for-one deal of Father Alvin as the Knight and The Warrior as his strange son. Definitely not the most likely outcome, but technically possible! I’d imagine those two would have a hilariously awkward dynamic if they were related.

Closing Summary

Wow, this post went on for a while! Let’s summarize what we’ve learned today.

Everyman (in Undertale)

Was likely a monster who “fell down”

Became part of the Reaper Bird Amalgamate

Likely knew the Core Mercenaries

Is connected to butterfly imagery

Described as “strange”

May or may not have looked like his bullet sprite

May or may not have been connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not have been connected to the River Person

Everyman (in Deltarune)

Is alive and active

Is known to both lightners and darkners

Can most likely travel between the light and dark worlds

Is known of by Jevil

May or may not resemble his Undertale bullet sprite

May or may not be connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not be Father Alvin

May or may not be an Ice-E’s employee

May or may not be the Knight or the Knight’s “strange son”

The Knight

Described as “strange”

Is pulling up new dark fountains from the Earth

Has been to the dark world

Is possibly a lightner/monster

Is connected to the Spade King, who uses butterfly imagery

Overthrew the other three kings at Card Castle

Is known of by Jevil and Seam

May or may not be Everyman

May or may not be “mysteryman”/Gaster

May or may not be the “strange someone” who changed Jevil

Likely male

Likely has a “strange son”

Everyman and the Knight (similarities)

Both are likely monsters

Both are alive and active in Deltarune’s world

Both are (presumably) male

Both have a presence in the dark world

Both are known by Jevil and may have met him previously

Both are associated with butterfly imagery to some degree

Both are connected to knight imagery

Both are described as “strange”

Both may be connected to “mysteryman”/Gaster

Both are foreshadowed in Deltarune chapter 1

Final Conclusions

So what do I really think? I’m reminded of Undertale’s original Kickstarter demo and how much of the full game’s story was left out of it. Right now we’re in a similar situation with Deltarune. I can’t view any of my theories with certainty because at the end of the day I have no idea what Toby’s going to write for the full game, but I can guess.

If I had to put a number to it, I’d say the odds of Everyman making further appearances in Deltarune is 95% and the odds of him being the Knight is about 66%. There’s always the possibility that Gaster will usurp the title of Knight and leave Everyman as the Knight’s “strange son” or as the far less illustrious role of “no one particularly important”.

If Everyman is in the game, I’d give 50/50 odds that he’s one of the Ice-E’s employees, mainly due to the Warrior’s situation lining up well with Chapter 2′s (likely) setting. I’d then give a 25% chance it’s Father Alvin and the remaining 25% as “anyone else”.

Thanks for reading all of this (or skipping to the end). I’ve seen hardly anyone talk about our favorite strange little man and I just wanted to get the word about him out there. Even if you don’t agree with my conclusions, I’m happy to (hopefully) ignite further discussion over this often-overlooked character.

For now I’ve said all that I can say on the topic. All we can do is wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Special thanks to @curioscurio​ for inspiring me to make this post in the first place.

Date published: December 10th, 2020

#deltarune #undertale #everyman #undertale theory #gaster

[qqueenofhades]

Hi, I’ve been tasked with researching Richard Plantagenet for a paper and thus far found extremely negative accounts of the king, his religious bigotry being a reoccurring theme (his treatment of Jewish dignitaries attending his coronation and his reasoning to join the third crusade etc)

I stumbled across your wonderful tag for Richard at the weekend and wondered if you wouldn’t mind sharing your informed opinion of Richard and his views on religions ? Your writing seems very well balanced regarding his attributes and flaws. Thanks :)

Oof. Okay. So, a short and simple question, then?

Quick note: when I was first reading your ask and saw "Richard Plantagenet," I briefly assumed that you meant Richard Plantagenet, father of Edward IV, or perhaps Richard III, both from the Wars of the Roses in the fifteenth century, before seeing from context that you meant Richard I. While "Plantagenet" was first used as an informal appellation by Richard I's grandfather, Geoffrey of Anjou, it wasn't until several centuries later that the English royal house started to use it consistently as a surname. So it's not something that Richard I would have been really called or known by, even if historians tend to use it as a convenient labeling conceit. (See: the one thousand popular histories on "The Plantagenets" that have been published recently.)

As for Richard I, he is obviously an extremely complex and controversial figure for many reasons, though one of the first things that you have to understand is that he has been mythologized and reinvented and reinterpreted down the centuries for many reasons, especially his crusade participation and involvement in the Robin Hood legends. When you're researching about Richard, you're often reading reactions/interpretations of that material more than anything specifically rooted in the primary sources. And while I am glad that you asked me about this and want to encourage you to do so, I will gently enquire to start off: when you say "research," what kind of materials are you looking at, exactly? Are these actual published books/papers/academic material, or unsourced stuff on the internet written from various amateur/ideological perspectives and by people who have particular agendas for depicting Richard as the best (or as is more often the case, worst) ever? Because history, to nobody's surprise, is complicated. Richard did good things and he also did quite bad things, and it's difficult to reduce him to one or the other.

Briefly (ha): I'll say just that if a student handed me a paper stating that Richard was a religious bigot because a) there were anti-Jewish riots during his coronation and b) he signed up for the Third Crusade, I would seriously question it. Medieval violence against the Jews was an unfortunately endemic part of crusade preparations, and all we know about Richard's own reaction is that he fined the perpetrators harshly (repeated after a similar March 1190 incident in York) and ordered for them to be punished. Therefore, while there famously was significant anti-Semitic violence at his coronation, Richard himself was not the one who instigated it, and he ordered for the Londoners who did take part in it to be punished for breaking the king's peace.

This, however, also doesn't mean that Richard was a great person or that he was personally religiously tolerant. We don't know that and we often can't know that, whether for him or anyone else. This is the difficulty of inferring private thoughts or beliefs from formal records. This is why historians, at least good historians, mostly refrain from speculating on how a premodern private individual actually thought or felt or identified. We do know that Richard likewise also made a law in 1194 to protect the Jews residing in his domains, known as Capitula Judaeis. This followed in the realpolitik tradition of Pope Calixtus II, who had issued Sicut Judaeis in c. 1120 ordering European Christians not to harass Jews or forcibly convert them. This doesn't mean that either Calixtus or Richard thought Jews were great, but they did choose a different and more pragmatic/economic way of dealing with them than their peers. This does not prove "religious bigotry" and would need a lot more attention as an analytical concept.

As for saying that the crusades were motivated sheerly by medieval religious bigotry, I'm gonna have to say, hmm, no. Speaking as someone with a PhD in medieval history who specialised in crusade studies, there is an enormous literature around the question of why the crusades happened and why they continue to hold such troubling attraction as a pattern of behavior for the modern world. Yes, Richard went on crusade (as did the entire Western Latin world, pretty much, since 1187 and the fall of Jerusalem was the twelfth century's 9/11). But there also exists material around him that doesn't exist around any other crusade leader, including his extensive diplomatic relations with the Muslims, their personal admiration for him, his friendship with Saladin and Saladin's brother Saif al-Din, the fact that Arabic and Islamic sources can be more complimentary about Richard than the Christian records of his supposed allies, and so forth. I think Frederick II of Sicily, also famous for his friendly relationships with Muslims, is the only other crusade leader who has this kind of material. So however he did act on crusade, and for whatever reasons he went, Richard likewise chose the pragmatic path in his interactions with Muslims, or at least the Muslim military elite, than just considering them all as religious barbarians unworthy of his time or attention.

The question of how the crusades functioned as a pattern of expected behavior for the European Christian male aristocrat, sometimes entirely divorced from any notion of his private religious beliefs, is much longer and technical than we can possibly get into. (As again, I am roughly summarising a vast and contentious field of academic work for you here, so... yes.) Saying that the crusades happened only because medieval people were all religious zealots is a wild oversimplification of the type that my colleague @oldshrewsburyian and I have to deal with in our classrooms, and likewise obscures the dangerous ways in which the modern world is, in some ways, more devoted to replicating this pattern than ever. It puts it beyond the remit of analysis and into the foggy "Dark Ages hurr durr bad" stereotype that drives me batty.

Weighted against this is the fact that Richard obviously killed many Muslims while on crusade, and that this was motivated by religious and ideological convictions that were fairly standard for his day but less admirable in ours. The question of how that violence has been glorified by the alt-right people who think there was nothing wrong with it at all and he should have done more must also be taken into account. Richard's rise to prominence as a quintessentially English chivalrous hero in the nineteenth century, right when Britain was building its empire and needed to present the crusades as humane and civilizing missions abroad rather than violent and generally failed attempts at forced conversion and conquest, also problematized this. As noted, Richard was many things, but... not that, and when the crusades fell out of fashion again in the twentieth century, he was accordingly drastically villainized. Neither the superhero or the supervillain images of him are accurate, even if they're cheap and easy.

The English nationalists have a complicated relationship with Richard: he represents the ideal they aspire to, aesthetically speaking, and the kind of anti-immigrant sentiment they like to put in his mouth, which is far more than the historical Richard actually displayed toward his Muslim counterparts. (At least, again, so far as we can know anything about his private beliefs, but this is what we can infer from his actions in regard to Saladin, who he deeply respected, and Saladin's brother.) But he was also thoroughly a French knight raised and trained in the twelfth-century martial tradition, his concern for England was only as a minor part of the sprawling 'Angevin empire' he inherited from his father Henry II (which is heresy for the Brexit types who think England should always be the center of the world), and his likely inability to speak English became painted as a huge character flaw. (Notwithstanding that after the Norman Conquest in 1066, England did not have a king who spoke English natively until Henry IV in 1399, but somehow all those others don't get blamed as much as Richard.)

Anyway. I feel as if it's best to stop here. Hopefully this points you toward the complexity of the subject and gives you some guidelines in doing your own research from here. :)

#anonymous #ask #history #medieval history #richard the lionheart #long post

[yuujism]

perfection (ryomen sukuna x reader)

Song drabbles: Small drabbles inspired by the theme songs gege akutami gave to the jujutsu kaisen characters!

←itadori yuji | gojo satoru →

| PAIRINGS: ryomen sukuna x reader

| WARNINGS: degrading, small mention of blood at the end, suggestive, divine figures, sukuna being referred as a god oop, grammar errors

| WORD COUNT: 917

A/N: ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ damn ok i kinda went of with this one and for what? i had so many ways to portray sukuna’s song but i really wanted to focus it on sukuna being this form of perfection, almost untouchable and he knows it. anyway this is the end of the song drabbles! idk if i will write about the rest but yea!! <3 hope you enjoy!!

✧･ﾟ ♪ ryomen sukuna - s(aint) by marilyn manson

You wanted perfect You got your perfect But now I'm too perfect For someone like you 

The feeling of pointy nails crawling down your back sent chills over your body, eyes closing in anticipation of what was going to be his next movement. You couldn’t help the small whimper that left your mouth when his nails finally arrived at your lower back, above of the curve of your ass.

Sukuna chuckled from above you, your back facing him as you laid on your hands and knees in the bed he personally prepared for both of you, for this night. 

You weren’t scared, even if you wanted to show you were. He could sense it; the way your body reacted to his touch was different from any other human who was offered to him. You trembled with expectation, inviting the King of curses to touch you all over your body.

In the end, you were the one who came up to him, asking for the impossible in exchange of an offering: you.

After being denied many times by Sukuna, tonight he finally spared you a chance, allowing you to walk up to him and give yourself to him.

“Look at you, human.” Sukuna muttered lowly, almost amusingly, walking around the bed to stand by your side. “So fragile yet you dare to beg for my help for something that you can’t handle.” 

You stayed quiet, not being able to bring yourself to look at him in the eye one more time. Not in this state. Not when you were about to basically sell your soul for the greatest aspiration a human could aim for and Sukuna had to spare.

Perfection.

Sukuna interpreted your lack of eye contact as an insult, grabbing you by your cheeks with one large hand, pointy nails digging into your skin painfully. He made you turn your face to see him, and a dark smirk adorned his face as you finally saw his eyes for the second time in your life.

You remember the first time those eyes landed on you.

Those red eyes that laughed at you.

Those red eyes that knew you were nothing more than a maggot. 

Yet he was here about to make you his. The King of curses. The most feared demon. The biggest deity in your village. Looking at you with desire and amusement, as if he couldn’t wait to break you. But who else but him to grant you with your wish? Even if it was deadly, being tainted by the obscure perfection of Sukuna was enough for you. 

“What a pretty bitch you are, huh?” His grip loosened up, thumb caressing your cheek almost in a caring manner before releasing it roughly, making you to look back down at the sheets underneath you. “I’m too much for you.” A deep laugh came out from his chest, standing up and walking away until you couldn’t see him anymore.

And you hated he was right. But you wanted him. Every bit of him. You wanted to worship him, to submit yourself to him until he had enough of you. Nothing was better to you than being owned by Sukuna himself after a long time of pleading.

He who would listen to your prayers.

A surprised moan left your mouth when you felt the tip of his fingers tracing your exposed core from behind, gathering your slickness in them. He teased your entrance, circling around it as you clenched around air. You couldn’t see him but you knew he was smiling at the way you were already this aroused for him, so desperate to feel him. Your hips involuntarily pushed back in an attempt to get more of him.

Sukuna growled in annoyance, pulling his fingers away. You didn’t even have enough time to react before he was fisting a bundle of your hair, pulling slightly yet firm until you were only on your knees, back pressed against his chest and ass against his hips feeling his clothed hard cock laying between your cheeks.

“Let me remind you something, human.” Sukuna’s lips brushed behind your ear, closing your eyes as his grip around your hair tightened. “You have no right to be greedy with me. What I give you, you accept without complaints. Are we clear?”

You could only nod. If your words weren’t stuck in your throat, you’re pretty sure you would’ve apologised a thousand times, telling him how everything he was doing right now was more than you deserved. But your nod was enough for Sukuna, who chuckled and released you, falling back into the same position.

“Such an obedient little thing.” He purred, fingers finally entering you, the stretch feeling too good for you to stay quiet, moaning Sukuna’s name in pure bliss.  “That’s right, human.” Sukuna praised, fingers thrusting into you in a deep manner. “Say my name again.”

And you did. Louder. One, two, theee times, syncing up with the thrust of his fingers in you until his name became the only thing you could say as he went by. You could already feel the way your soul was being tainted. Sukuna leaned down to leave a soft kiss between your shoulder blades as you kept whimpering his name. 

You were all he needed right now. And Sukuna was going to make sure to leave that engraved in you.

“I’m your everything.” His fangs sank in your shoulder and you sobbed, drawing out blood as he licked it. You were marked. “I’m your god. The perfection you aspire to be and everything you need. Don’t you forget.”

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen writing #ryomen sukuna x reader #ryomen sukuna #sukuna x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader

[silverfactory]

obviously vg for the fandom thing

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): jack fairy. kind and magical and believes in you, permanent limp wrist, wears a £2,000 ossie clark duster, has a lot of implied trauma but seems to be doing okay (?), probably smells great. what more could you want from an icon?

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped): malcolm. he’s like a very small soft shiny bird that is so loud. chirp chip all the time. i like that in a man. also seems like he’s always tripping over things…. his slightly vampiric aura makes it cuter.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave): mandy. this lady is utterly charming and no one pays as much attention to her as they should! her outfits are more iconic than brian’s and i bet she appreciates the finer things in life like maraschino cherries. i also think her teeth are cute.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week): micki and freddi, i couldn’t choose one! on the one hand micki has aspirations of meeting einstein (who she knows is dead) and only feels at home in the midst of elegant parties when there’s plush carpet underfoot and girl same i love that she knows herself like that. but on the other hand freddi’s minnie mouse suit is a singularly character-defining work of genius and “shaaa-non!” lingers in my head for weeks on end.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): cecil tbh. is he a good manager? not really. does he speak polari? yes! does my heart break a little during that scene where brian leaves him and he looks wobbly and lost? also yes… not to mention his implied hospitalization with AIDS in the 1980s timeline is one of the bleakest aspects of the movie.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): maybe curt but in a light and affectionate way? not a serious way! he’s already been very tormented and i want good things for him. i would steal his maraschino cherries and give them to mandy or something.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): brian slade. i see a pattern here with jenny petherbridge. both are insecure people who steal meaningful things they think will make them interesting, ruining other people’s lives and their own in the process. definitely the kind of person who can’t accept responsibility or apologize for anything. but he is pretty and it’s iconic that he knows every line of oscar wilde’s entire repertoire, i’ll give him that.

#velvet goldmine #i’ve been waiting for this moment #asks #maybe a little harsh on brian but when i look into my soul i think it’s true