#this will always be canon to me it just makes 200% sense for his character and honestly brings a lot of interesting lore to the table | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

itsclydebitches · 5 months

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Though I adore the dynamic myself, it struck me as odd a few months back that fans were taking a "Monster loved for the first time" approach to Astarion. Part of the allure of a vampire (for me anyway) is the act of transformation; the horror and tragedy of having lost who you were before—including all those everyday, human experiences. There were debates about precisely how old Astarion was when he died and at the same time fans were screaming over him having his first hug, his first real romance, this is the first time someone has helped him without ulterior motives, etc. and I'm going, "How is that possible?" This is an elf who lived a life before being turned, even if it was short compared to what his race would normally experience. Astarion had a family. He had a job! Yet the fandom (and to an extent the game as well) treats Astarion as more of a Phantom-esque character: deemed monstrous from birth and blindsided by the simplest acts of love because he was denied them from the get-go.

Of course, it's easy enough to read everything through the lens of slavery and torture. Sure, Astarion had all this at one point but it's been so long and his life as a vampire has been so unimaginably torturous that it's eclipsed those earlier experiences. I get that... but time as the answer still didn't fully convince me.

Not until I started romancing him and hit this line:

"I... I don't know. I can't remember."

This is in response to asking Astarion what color his eyes were before they turned red. Can we just sit with that for a moment? He doesn't remember the color of his eyes. This line was a game changer for me because I can't even CONCEPTUALIZE that. Mirrors appear to be pretty common in Faerûn—it's not like this is a setting devoid of all modern inventions and Astarion, as a member of the upper class, absolutely would have had access to various ornate mirrors like the one he starts this scene with—so what does it take to make you completely forget such an ingrained bit of knowledge about yourself? 200 years as a dehumanized slave, obviously. Still, my mind continues to trip over the idea. I have blue eyes. That's a fact I've known since I had any real sense of self. If my eyes were to suddenly change tomorrow I can't imagine forgetting that they were originally blue. Even if I'd put it from my mind for an extended period of time I'd expect the very pointed question, "What color were they before?" would fire some old synapses and drag the information back. Obviously none of us have any idea what 200 years would do to a human brain (or, you know, an elf's) but it still feels firmly in the real of impossibility that I could ever completely forget something like that.

Yet Astarion has and this line more than anything else has sold me on his Baby Monster Loved For The First Time characterization, both in-game and in the fandom. He acts like he's never been hugged before? Of course he does! The guy can't remember his eye color and you think he's going to recall any probably-treated-as-casual-and-thus-didn't-solidify-as-significant-memories hugs while alive? When was the last time you were hugged? I'm not sure. I know I HAVE hugged recently but was the last one with family over Thanksgiving? Did I give my friend a brief side-hug before we parted? I'm lucky in that hugs are such a normalized part of my life that I don't give them much thought... which means that if you were to suddenly enslave me and keep me isolated for 200 years, yeah, I'd probably forget what they feel like too. Or that I ever had any at all.

(Self-hatred is going to play hell with memory too. Once you feel like you don't deserve something and it's continually denied to you it's easier to convince yourself you never had it to begin with.)

So yeah, Astarion acts like someone who was always the monster because he has, on a literal canonical level, forgotten what it was like to be anything else. Which just sets his relationship with Tav into such angsty, terrifying focus. Here's someone who has lost his previous identity. He (rightfully) despises the identity Cazador forced on him. Even if he didn't, Astarion is now miles away, the tattered remains of his self threatened by ceremorphosis. He stares into a mirror knowing he'll never see anything, but doing it anyway because he needs to figure out who he is—and that's precisely where most of us would start. What do I look like? What do others see when they see me? Is that the person I want to be?

Then Tav offers to be his mirror, just like they offered to sketch out the poem on his back. How exquisitely horrible for Astarion. He's being given precisely what he wants but he's in NO position to take it. All his sense of self placed in the hands of another? Asking, "Who am I?" and hearing, "I'll tell you. I'll be the keeper of that knowledge"? That's a far more intimate, potentially destructive power than anything else Astarion is looking to get his hands on AND he's trying to manipulate YOU at this point in the story! It just makes me crazy because Astarion is desperate to figure out who he is, but circumstances have ensured that, at this point in time, he needs to put his trust in someone else to begin answering that question... and the one thing he does know about himself is that he's a manipulative, mistrustful rogue who's only out to keep himself safe. Allowing someone else to take the reins with his identity (again) is probably the least safe thing he could possibly think of.

It's this messy tragic loop that yes, Astarion is working to break by the end of the game (depending on your choices) but in Act 1? Goddamn. No wonder he's trying desperately to maintain control of this relationship. No wonder—despite his best efforts—he's still undone by the simplest acts of kindness.

#BG3 #Astarion #mymetas

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donelywell · 5 months

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August 21- 31 2023

This is just how I'd draw Silver, Tails, and Blaze (with a cameo of Amy and Cream)

I've been contemplating Silver's design for a good while, I wanted to draw him with freckles, but since he has fur instead of skin, that wouldn't make a lot of sense (I realize now that animals can have spots on them, so you can expect more freckled designs >:D). Then it hit me, he has Chaos Energy! Just have the freckles be a marking of his Chaos Abilities!

I made him the Guardian of the Time Stones, since it makes obvious sense. You have a time traveller, and a means of time travel, so why are the two not used together??

He's wearing pants because (head canon time >:)) back when Humans and Mobians first interacted, some Mobians mixed their culture in with Humans. That includes wearing entire outfits, living in houses, and having human sounding first and last names. Over the 200 years and since this is a post apocalypse wasteland, it's safer to wear clothes than to not. Though some Mobians still don't wear shirts because it is extremely uncomfortable for them because of extra fur and quills/ spikes.

(+Bonus image of Silver eating a burger because he probably never got to have good food in his 'bad future')

Tails! As Tails grows to a teen, he gets more brown patterns on his fur, the one drawn here is when he's 8. I love the idea of Tails having 2 different colored tails and having them create an effect when he flies with them.

I swapped his oversized gloves with fitting ones, but he has a section of it blue as a reminder of the blue wrist straps Sonic gave him to help make the oversized ones fit him. He also wears socks that matches Sonic fur color (because brothers)

His Miles Electric also goes through a lot of changes. The Miles Electric goes through upgrades depending on what console you can play the game on. In lore reason: it's because he's constantly upgrading the machine. So when he first starts making the Miles Electric (although it is very basic compared to what it is today, only being used as a Chaos Emerald Tracker), it looked like a Game Gear, and in Frontiers: it looks like a Nintendo Switch for example. :)

Blaze was always going to be fun to draw. I made her outfit more fit to be active in (since it's gotta be uncomfortable running in heels and a coat). I like the idea of when she's extremely focused or using strong emotions, her ponytail and tail tip will catch on fire. I replaced the fuzzy material at the end of her gloves with gold bracelets and more jewelry (I'm sorry).

I made the gem on her forehead also a pattern on her arms because I think it'd be a nice touch, and a way to add red-ish pink to more of her character instead of pretty much just on her face.

(+ Amy and Cream :D)

#tails the fox #miles tails prower #silver the hedgehog #blaze the cat #sonic fanart #This is just how I'd draw/ I redesign these characters #I still really gotta learn how to draw gemstones #Hot Honey Cameo on Amy's shirt!#And little Cream in a onesie!

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youchangedmedestiel · 2 months

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As promised I said I'll give you fic recs to celebrate the fact that I have more than 100 followers now. Again, thanks a lot! This makes me happy! :)

So now, here's my gift to you:

Every fucking fic by xylodemon

The writing is always perfect! I'm not kidding, this is my favorite writer so far! I've never been disappointed by their fics. NEVER! I haven't finish to read all of them but I certainly attend to.

Fics written by deancaskiss

If you like reading about Cas and Dean "just" kissing, then you should try reading those, if you haven't done it yet. I haven't read all of them yet, I read only around 10 fics for now, but same I'll attend to read more.

Then, more specifically:

Blackberries Wild by SaltyWords (agent4hire22) Angst, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Canon divergent after 13x12, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, brief mention of suicidal ideation - around 2500 words

This is so well written, the descriptions are everything, especially the ones for the kisses. It could totally happened like that. It's very true to their character if you ask me.

a kiss for every season (literally) by sobsicles and it is also available as a podfic here read by Scintillating Gatria (LadyLoralye) Canon typical level of violence, Canon Compliant, Brief Dean Winchester/Benny Lafitte - Freeform, Angst with a Happy Ending, Kisses, Smut - around 22000 words

The title says it all, a kiss between Cas and Dean happens every season and since there's never enough kisses between these two, that fic is therefore perfect.

People Who Are Good Like Pie by sobsicles Blowjob, NSFW, Castiel is a Little Shit, Dean is In Over His Head, Flustered Dean, Confused Dean, Creatively ties eating pie into sex, Sounds disgusting but it's really not I promise, it's hilarious, fluff and porn - around 1800 words

And it is indeed hilarious imo as well as very hot. It's short and easy to read, really different from the above. But it's human!cas and I'm weak for him in a sense that there is so much potential with him in a fic and that I love him.

You and I Know the Way by aishitara Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Post-Series, Canon Compliant through 15x18, Fluff, a smidgen of angst, PWP, Porn with Feelings, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Mentions of Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort - around 4300 words

There is human!cas in there too, so yeah I'm sold. Plus some amazing, beautiful, stunning art from winchester-reload is included in the fic so it's even more perfect. This is smut yes, but, BUT you can really see all the love there is between them and that fucks me up. That's the type of porn that makes me cry. I never thought I could say that about porn one day. But maybe it's because it isn't, this is just LOVE!

Humans Do It Better by Hatteress Episode: s06e10 Caged Heat (Supernatural), Excessive Drinking, Light Angst, First Kiss, Second more heated kiss, Kinda Funny.

I invented the tags here because it isn't on AO3. I need to mention this fic because it was like one of the first fics I read. It was more than a year ago and I still remember it. Maybe because I wished it had a next FUCKING chapter. I want to read more about it. I want to see what happened when they meet again later. I want to see what's going on in Dean's mind the next morning when he realized what he did, thinking about how he corrupted a fucking angel. Feeling guilty about it because it's Dean. I - I, maybe I'll fucking write this second chapter one day. But I don't know if it's a thing, you know, writing a sequel to someone else's fic.

Anyway, I hope you'll like reading those if it's not already done. I for sure have more fics to recommend but I have to save some for the 200 followers I guess lmao. One can dream.

BUT if you need specific fics, like from an episode in particular for example, you can still ask me because I sort them by episode tag too.

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chubs-deuce · 3 months

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I am... confused as to what age the other anon thinks Charlie is but if she was so young she wouldn't be able to canonly date Vaggie, who I'm pretty sure is in her 20s

So why wouldn't she be able to be shipped with Alastor? I think Rosie was just teasing him about bringing a girl to her, anyways. Introducing someone you're close to to someone else you're close to, I could see it as a big relationship deal and I too would probably tease my friend

Idk man :'D

Sounds to me like someone was just really jumping to the most surface level conclusions without much critical thinking, it happens.

I think the comment might've just made them think that Alastor is like. Canonically double her age or something, which is really funny considering the opposite is the case by a long shot. Rosie likely just said that bc he came in with a young looking, objecitvely very pretty girly, so it's an easy jab to make - it's just friendly banter between acquaintances. [some further thoughts I ended up having about aging in hell under the cut]

It's really hard to guess how old Alastor would actually be tbh since sinners' demon forms generally seem to hardly reflect their actual ages, so he could've honestly died in an age range that's anywhere from mid-20s to mid-50s.

(And at least based on how stubbornly driven to achieve his mysterious goals he is and how childishly petty, if not outright violent he gets when his authority, power and/or control are questioned; and the fact that he is finding himself with a bad deal at his hands now that he's struggling to escape - so I presume he accepted it recklessly, not something a wise old man would do - I'd say he likely died on the younger side of that range.)

And if he died in the 1930s and clearly managed to not get himself killed all the way into what I'm guessing is the 2020s, then that adds like 90 years of further existence in hell.

But that still only amounts to about 110-130 years total.

Charlie's 200+ years completely eclipse that lmfao.

That does make me curious though how old Vaggie actually is then, we don't know if she's a human soul that has been alive on earth before going to heaven and becoming an exorcist, or if she's a natively heaven-born kind of creation...

UItimately... these characters are all adults at the end of the day, and as such they could all do whatever they want, hypothetical age gap or not - it's honestly not like that sort of thing is even really something we can track in this "nobody ages once they're here and can only die at heaven's hands" sort of setting, so I don't see why it should matter that much ^^"

Like-

Say, hypothetically, you die at age 16 and go to hell, where you then continue to exist for an infinite amount of time. Are you now perpetually and forever a minor? Do you count the years you spend in hell on top of your human age despite not actually aging on a physical level in any capacity?

I'm gonna go on a limb here and say that bothering with age gaps in Hazbin Hotel makes little sense, since the inherent issue with those always boils down to unbalanced power dynamics and uninformed and/or coerced consent anyways - factors that are easy to define as bad and we all understand are objectively toxic.

#charlastor #not the focus but mentioned and tangentially considered in my ramblings but still #hazbin hotel spoilers #chubs answers

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andreal831 · 1 month

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I don’t absolutely despise klaroline, although I definitely do not like them either, but one of the most stupid things in the entirety of the originals is Klaus flirting with Caroline while Hayley and hope is abducted. Would you consider this to be a writing mistake or just Klaus being Klaus? I’ve always wondered if he focused more on finding them if he’d of been able to save Hayley in time.

I've made an entire tik tok about this because I despised this episode since the first time I saw it. I laid out all of the dumb decisions Klaus made in the episode in the tik tok as well as a lengthy caption. You can see that here.

Klaus in Season 5 is terribly written. He may not be my favorite character and I don't like klaroline but everything about him and them in Season 5 was wrong.

Starting with Rebekah calling Caroline to go find Klaus. That made no sense. Why wouldn't Freya or Marcel go find him. They are his family. Marcel has known him for 200 years. It's not like Rebekah thought he wouldn't harm her, he had nearly killed Caroline multiple times. Marcel was upgraded, he would have been the best choice to go and talk some sense into Klaus. Or Freya who could have gone and yelled at him for abandoning Hope.

Just the fact that Klaus was ignoring Hope for five years made no sense to me. I get he was terrified that she would hate him after what she saw, but the end of Season 3 and through Season 4, we began to see a version of Klaus that was actually putting Hope's needs first. This abandonment was a complete regression back to his Season 2 narcissism. Also, Hope not continuing to astral project to find him made no sense. She is a powerful witch, if Caroline could track him down, so could Hope.

Now onto the day of the event.

My biggest gripe is that they are literally driving everywhere. Klaus is the fastest being, why is he taking an SUV that can go max 180 mph? Why did they stop at a rest stop to get coffee? Exhaustion doesn't affect them that way. They are literally flirting and joking around as Hope and Hayley are missing. Sure at this point they may not have realized how serious it was, but Klaus would never have allowed himself to be distracted like that. It was bad writing purely for ratings.

Klaus would rip apart the world to save both Hayley and Hope. Showing him doing anything less is a disservice to his character.

Good writing, writing that is true to Klaus' character would have shown him turning into a wolf to track Hope down. Ansel tells Klaus in Season 2 that he was drawn to Klaus as a child and even to Hope because wolves are drawn to their family. It would have been so satisfying to finally watch Klaus at one with his wolf side in order to find Hope.

It also was so out of character to see Klaus walking slowly to the house. Hayley was actively having her wolf side suppressed and fighting Greta. Klaus would have heard this from miles away and sped as fast as possible to the house. Instead we see him walking at a slow human speed. Caroline is also easily snuck up on by Elijah and Klaus doesn't immediately snap his neck? True-to-character Klaus would have ripped out Elijah's heart to save Hope and Hayley. After all, Elijah would have been fine.

Very little of Season 5 was not just poor writing. There were scenes and plot points that directly contradict established canon. The reason the writing was so bad is because the writers were killing Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus off no matter what. Hayley's death was 1000% preventable. Hayley was a hybrid and a member of the strongest family but was somehow killed by a 100 year old vamp? Say what you will about Klaus, but Klaus definitely would have saved her no matter what. She never should have died but Julie wanted Legacies to have an orphaned Hope and didn't care to make the writing good.

Shameless plug: If you want to read how I would rewrite Season 5 to make more sense, check out my story, Don't It Just Break Your Heart, on AO3 and Wattpad.

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marunalu · 6 months

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This cover still puzzles me today, what's the real point of putting Izuku face to face with an adult All for one if there's no way that can happen, besides everything it's an AFO with the Final War Costume with his face fully regenerated but still with signs of the Helmet, it seems like an alternate reality where psycho's theory that All for one would get his face back before the war was true, maybe it's actually a small sign that his clone crack theory isn't as far from the truth as it seems first sight

So if you are interested here is a link of the full "afo clone theory" @psychomurderz @lurking96 and I created.

It was purely out of fun and we didnt even took it that seriously, but after a while I startet to rethink that ridicolous crack theory and it actually makes way more sense then it at first seems to be. Dont get me wrong, its still completly crack though!

But its not impossible. The nomu mocha created a clone of dr. garaki, so who says that afo cant have one too?! Garaki hinted that afo can change his appearance/his face (he mentions in the message he left for afo that he always liked afos OWN smile and his OWN eyes), afo is 200 years old and has dotzens of quirks in his arsenal, he even has a quirk with which he can change his own dna so no one can tell me that man never considered to get a clone quirk. And the fact that one of his nomus has a clone quirk and that garaki can create copys of any quirk he wants, shows its actually very likely that afo has a clone quirk himself.

Lets not forget that clone quirks are actually quite important in mha. Twice as the most well known example, then we have toga who can turn into other people by drinking their blood in other words turning herself into their clone. We have mocha who had a clone quirk, garaki who had his own clone, garaki hinting that afo can change his appearance, afo saying that "this body is of no longer use for me."

And then also the fact how much hori is a star wars fan and how important clones are in star wars. Kamino in mha was named after the planet kamino in star wars on which the clones were created, the very clones which were used as CANON FODDER (something you can get rid off like a body you dont need any longer?) in the CLONE WARS and then used against their will to wipe out the jedi! Afo was inspired after darth vader who was once anakin skywalker and who had his own clone soldiers under him and after he turned to darth vader stormed the jedi temple with the clones. One of the most beloved star wars characters boba fett is a clone. The emperor cloned himself both in the old star wars canon and the new, the old canon books even had a luke skywalker clone. So we can all see without a doubt how much of an important role cloning in star wars has and it all startet in kamino - and the place were all might and afo had their fight and afo used as an hideout is named after that very planet.

So while the theory DOES sound completly bonkers its NOT impossible for afo to have a clone. And if bakugou manages to kill the clone afo just for the real one to show up fully healed and in his prime while he actually never left his fucking office in the chrysler building in new york city I will lose my shit!

#bnha #bnha all for one #bnha dad for one #afo clone theory

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frogs-with-tea · 4 months

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I think the One Piece Sound idea is Galaxy-brained. It has so much potential! The setting can be so rich, both in scenery and emotion: they’re all seeing the water and the sky and the forest all the time, but they all grew up there and they’re kinda stuck there so they don’t notice the beauty unless something brings their attention to it. And the potential for the characters! The main crew are 20-somethings living in a tourist trap - the older adults are going to consider their minimum-wage dead-end jobs (or lack thereof, looking at Luffy, king of the bums as far as they’re concerned) to be a sign of their laziness or whatever.

I’d like to think that Nami runs scams on the boardwalk to fleece tourists as legally as possible. She supports Luffy’s search for the One Piece bc she wants to be rich and famous.

I’d like to think Luffy is the goofy guy selling t-shirts out of Usopp’s van with absolutely incredible good luck (no matter what happens, he always bounces back). He’s always at every single one of Zoro’s kendo tournaments: he was the only person cheering Zoro on at Zoro’s first competition, where he foolishly challenged the current champion and got his ass beat to hell. Zoro calls him captain as an inside joke between them; they were friends first out of the group and they are each others ride-or-die. Everybody thinks Luffy is just a childlike dumbass until Luffy sets out to challenge and take down cruelty and greed in the town.

Since he was young, Sanji wanted to go to culinary school but he’s afraid to leave the town: ‘Zeff needs me, the restaurant needs me’. (‘If I leave, the Vinsmokes will find me’) After Zoro gets pregnant, Zeff is on Sanji’s ass constantly about mating/marrying the Cactus. Zeff’s views are a little old fashioned but his heart is in the right place. Sanji has the self-esteem of a flea so he’s really conflicted about it. When he finds out that people are looking down on Zoro bc he got knocked up by ‘just a line cook’ he goes nuclear (I’m thinking about a parallel between this mis-characterization of him and his bounty posters in canon being caricatures of him)

Usopp runs a “Ghost Tour!” that is 200% bullshit and he changes up the locations and stories every couple months. It is the highest-rated attraction on Trip Advisor for the town.

Robin works at the library and she’s got an extremely morbid sense of humor, which terrifies Luffy/Usopp/Chopper BUT she’s doing a lot of the reading research on the treasure and she helps in the search a lot.

Anyway, all of this is to say I think you’ve got a really winning concept on your hands and I wish you all the luck and energy to see it through!

Hey there!! It makes me really excited to hear that you're so passionate about my AU ideas!! I've actually laid out a lot of my ideas on my personal blog @spock-smokes-weed, all under the tag #one piece sound au.

My ideas for Nami and Usopp is that they would be the ones experiencing the most "my life is in a rut" type feelings since they don't have much outside of work and the straw hats. Nami works at a bait shop with her sister, cus I thought it would be fun to position Nami in the old-school economy of the town, fishing. I thought it would be a fun setting for Nami cus she's both a getting dirty with her hands kind of person and a girly girl. With Usopp, in my mind, he's that one friend who's always bouncing from job to job. If this AU is about early 20s eunni, then we all have a friend that can't seem to find a job that makes them happy or they can tolerate. Usopp is an artist at heart and a big personality, I think he'd find it hard to get fulfillment bussing tables or washing cars.

Luffy is pretty straightforward. Living in his van with his dog (Chopper), being a menace to society.

And honestly, I don't see Zeff being the traditional type at all or would give Sanji any grief about marrying Zoro. Since he exclusively hires ex-cons to work on his staff, and already has a non-traditional family with Sanji, I can't see him thinking marriage would solve any issues between Sanji and Zoro. Zeff is a big feature in the story and Sanji's biggest pillar of support, but his advice mainly comes down to "just do the right thing and take responsibility." He just wants Sanji to step up as a father and not run out like Judge did to him. Sanji doesn't react to Zoro being pregnant well (at first. he's terrified of being a father, and that causes him to lash out) and Zeff very much gives him some tough love about stepping up and taking responsibility for his actions.

And for a note about the Vinsmokes, with this AU I'm not looking for a pure 1:1 with canon. So they might be evil royalty in canon, but since I'm taking inspiration from slice-of-life, I'd rather refit them to fit tropes from that genre. I have two posts on Judge specifically and my ideas for his roll in the story, but the TL;DR is that he's a narcissistic deadbeat who only resurfaces in Sanji's life to take advantage of him and ask for money.

As for the other straw hats, I have a post here about where I think they'd fit into the town.

Also, I have a post about Zoro's focus of the story, mainly being his battle with his strength and masculinity and his struggle with the judgment he gets from the town around him.

This was all super long but I just get so excited when ppl say they like my au and all I want to do is share all the ideas I have cataloged (both on here and in my brain)

#ask box #non art #one piece #one piece sound au #sorry it took me a min to get to this '#you can only do embedded links on desk top and i was at work all day

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shadamyheadcanons · 1 year

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I love silver as the son of shadamy (he reminds me of trunks) let's be honest, if silver was 20 years old and not 200, we would all know that he is the son of shadamy, silver is a sweetheart like amy, they make you want to take care of them

Yeah. It’s been straight-up stated by the developers that he’s modeled after Trunks.

To be honest, though, I’m glad we have the 200-year gap. I think it’d be harder to make the case for him being an immediate descendant of the two of them. Silver just doesn’t have any of Amy’s physical attributes. Shadow lines up, but Silver doesn’t have Amy’s pink fur, green eyes, etc. I did make a case for them potentially having the same “hairline” because of how their quills fall in this headcanon, but that alone is a stretch. Rouge has literally nothing in common with Silver imo, but people would probably push her as being Silver’s mother far more often if he were Shadow’s direct son just based on her fur color alone.

With a few generations of breathing room, though? It’s much easier to make an argument for Shadamy. Things like Silver’s fur and eye color are much easier to explain if genes from other sources were added along the way. It’s believable that Amy’s visible traits would disappear; she’s the only character I know of with pink fur, so I’m willing to bet it’s a recessive trait. It also makes more sense that he wouldn’t immediately know Shadow and Amy are his ancestors if they’re farther up the line. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from focusing so much on two characters who barely interact, it’s that there’s actually more to work with when there’s an absence of information. A story like Shellshock is far more convincing when we know nothing about Silver and Amy’s parentage. There’s a ton of wiggle room to work with.

In terms of personality, I think you’re exactly right. It’s especially fun because despite their cute, sweet demeanors, they’re always the first to charge into battle. They can’t help it. He has her strong sense of justice AND steadfast idealism. It’s easy to imagine Shadow stepping in to protect Amy when she gets out of her depth, and it’s just as easy to picture Blaze doing the same for Silver.

^ Like this. [Source]

The more I think about it, the more I see parallels between Shadamy and Silvaze. Of course Amy’s great-great-grandson would go for a serious, intense introvert with a soft spot. It runs in the family, lol.

Also...I recently found out Shadow can do this:

[Source]

Look familiar? It should.

[Source]

Before anyone gets too excited, Shadow has only done this ONCE in canon as far as I know, and it was in Sonic Riders, no less. Silver was created early in Sonic 06’s development, which began in 2005. Riders came out after that point in early 2006, meaning they likely gave Shadow psychokinesis after it was already established as Silver’s signature move.

Does this mean anything...? :O

Lol, no. Definitely not. I’ll shamelessly cherry-pick all day in the name of shadamy, but even I can’t really justify doing anything with this. It’s too blatantly obvious yet specific to make a headcanon about it. I just like to imagine one Dadow-believer made this one singular animation just to be a troll. Just thought I’d share, lol.

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itsdappleagain · 7 months

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i know csweekly is on hold now, but I still have to catch up on The Luchadora Tango Caper, so here it is!!

Season 3 is maybe my least favorite season out of any of them, but I still love it, so I'm really excited to get into this!

Notes under the cut as always and please ignore the fact that I'm a month late on this thx

NEW CASTLE!!! NEW CASTLE YAYYY

sometimes I think this whole series is Maelstrom just talking about shit for like 14 hours

cleo sympathizing with guys in skirts <3 she knows ur struggle boys

love how they slapped up a giant glowing green world map and copper sulfate burning chandeliers before they put in insulation or heat

brunt, girl, calm down. they were just doing their evil minion bagpipe job

british on british violence

that was such a cute nod when this season first dropped. haha theres been no sign of her all summer because of the hiatus you are so clever

they rlly thought they had something with the turn them against each other thing. i cant believe they thought they tvy7 rating would let shadowsan and carmen kill each other 🙄

"carmen is DEAD" (cheery tango music)

i mean it works because we know hes wrong and stupid but like

no offense but the tango dancers are animated in a way that is reminiscent of a kid manually moving their barbie dolls legs to make them walk

our girl <3

tell me why dropping 200 feet onto the top of the metal detector was more sneaky than literally anything else she could have done

ok. yes. but the fact she is robbing it does not negate the fact that she will be on the news for breaking into a bank dsjfsdghfkdsa

1021 is the number on the box- could it mean something? in a strictly doylist sense. october 21st doesn't seem to have any significant holidays...I can't find anything, might just be a random number set.

good god the "i...have his eyes." hits me like a truck every time

gina pulled it out with the voice acting in this one

she WAS a very cute baby

"another" link girl what else has there been you should be ecstatic

ayyy its the character literally everyone except spintrap-stan and amaryllis solely remember for being voiced by dante basco

i love how snarky carmen immediately gets. if he knows her name and what she looks like, obviously he's an operative, so she gets to have a little fun in immediately declining him while still gaining valuable information, almost immediately, about who he is and what his talent will be

everyone is very stretched today

this is not my favorite fight scene honestly (at least until flytrap gets here. dont even get me started on her fighting style im in love with it) because its literally just like ooh. he kicks. she dodges. wow. they really do try with the tango parallels but idk

wow!! other people can kick too??? who knew

she protected the face

cutely runs into oncoming traffic

those cars were not even slowing down girl they were just like HONK MOVE OR DIE

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS FLYTRAP MY GIRL

okay mini rant incoming i already did a post on this like a billion years ago but flytrap is one of my favorites because in my opinion she and paper star are the most dangerous villains we ever see in the show. let me. try to find that post actually

yeah here it is

flytrap is also so hot and has the same va as luz so she's just top tier. idk if the team put half the episode budget into celebrity voice actors and thats why we only got 5 episodes but you know what

love how carmen is literally stopping her attempts to get free to banter. girl. stop

shadowsan <3

love how they do not even bother showing the fight they just get their asses handed to them

why didnt they start in veracruz just asking

not the table

ok guys. you can stop with the tango thing now. its okay

that little conversation between ivy and shadowsan is so good

comrades??? sir its not the cold war

article from 17 years ago, thank you for that easy to understand slang

carmen plot armored her way out of getting her skull smashed in on that train so hard that she made maelstrom stupid

its canon both in and outside of the show that color theory is so prevalent that any sort of red at all immediately signals carmen

the colors are so beautiful in this scene. carmen doesnt have her coat or jacket on, everythings just a little desaturated as she searches

THE ACME GANG <3333

not the finger guns and glasses wheeze hes such a loser i love him

THE FORESHADOWING TO EGYPT WITH THE PYRAMIDS ON HER LAPTOP!!!!

love how all we get of julia this season is her being pissed off and then leaving

he was such an asshole for closing her laptop why did he do that 😭

has carmen just been ignoring vile missions for the last season of the year to research her mom or

girlie is so sad about everything

ah yes, the door, the thing you wish to have opened, the best place to lean your full body against after you knock,

i'M SOrry. did you NOT attend a school for THIEVES

HSDGGDG HEY. just broke into your house. im your long lost daughter

i love how she goes DONT TOUCH ANYTHING and then immediately drags her whole arm across the wall and cabinet

also her face when she sees the masks is perfect

okay be honest how many of you have replayed carmen saying maybe mommy at least once. who. raise your hands

shes sooo buff

love how everyone is taking this so seriously and then carmen is just completely apathetic about anything thats going on

dont deadname lupe, carmen

her hair catching a gust of indoor wind for the sole purpose of making her look sick as hell in her intro card is so iconic

as ivy absolutely obliterating zack in the foreground is so fucking funny

she got that "EH EH EH." titter of "HEY NO. DONT YOU DO THAT" down scary well

devineaux strutting im sobbing. julia was doing SO well and then she got paired with devineaux AGAIN

that cab driver looks so concerned about the hulking texan in his backseat

remember when the trailer dropped and we thought those roses were for julia. good times

everyone narrowly avoiding each other as they pull in

you just know ivy smacked zack when he protested to decoy time hdsafhadsg

gotta say the "EH?" while getsuring to the trophies is fucking hilarious. obviously julia knows she wouldnt go after those but its so funny

i do love the way carmen just shrinks any time brunt appears. she is soooo traumatized

VAMOOSE EL MASKO SHES SO ACCURATREIUSDHKFSKHFD SHES EXACTLY WHAT MIDDLE AGED AMERICAN SOUTHERNERS SOUND LIKE

LUPE IS SO FUCKING COOL

devineaux showcasing his braincells for a spilt second this episode

ah, so begins the not a good time mantra

devineaux getting absolutely decimated because he thinks coach brunt thinks hes handsome is so funny

the referee watching two apparent civilians enter the ring: 🙂

carmen is so funny here. she uncuffs herself and then just leaves devineaux to die like fuck his ass he can get smooshed

carmen getting increasingly mad at devineaux while she drags him places is my favorite part of the episode

also, either carmen got stronger or devineaux had a few bouts of crazed research where he didnt eat, but she can drag him easily now as opposed to when she was struggling back at the trap in poitiers

they put this shot in the trailer and without context it just looked like carmen was standing there glaring at brunt menacingly

the cat burglar <3

worst fucking ref on the planet i love him

was carmen stopping to listen to julia's voice i would like to think so

ah the devineaux and cars gag. i mean, to be fair, it wasnt his fault this time

starts beatboxing

carmen really just dumped her whole life story on lupe thats so funny. girlie started the day preparing for a match, got her house broken into, and then ended the day learning about a global crime syndicate

they really ended s2 going THE NEXT SEASON WILL FOCUS ON CARMENS MOM and then started s3 going well actually um okay so

theres our transition sentence

lupe's yellow and blue palette btw!! cs color theory i love you

lupe is more of a mom than carlotta ever gets to be thats sad honestly

carmens little smile ough

here is a shot that very succinctly illustrates the dynamics in the coming seasons. the three at the table stand strong- always have. roundy is basically a footnote no one cares about him and then brunt...brunt is sort of on the edge. this carries over all the way into s4 when malestrom tries to drown her

oh my god i forgot about the weird halloween thing the faculty has going on this season i love it

my analysis is right in time for spooky season >:) halloween IS nearly upon us!!!

OKAY well my thoughts on the luchadora tango caper...pretty good. honestly its kind of net zero information because we introduce the premise of finding carmens mom and then immediately abandon it but it sets up um....well....it sets up....what does it set up

anyway- not my favorite episode, even though lupe is fucking awesome. i think it suffers a little from deviating from that classic caper structure and jumping around, but it does its job as an introductory episode.

until we return, sayonara, mon amigos!

#csweekly #carmen sandiego weekly #cs weekly #carmen sandiego

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apoptoses · 7 months

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WHY did Anne not include Daniel and Thorne in Marius’ painting at the end of Blood Communion?? Did she just forget??

The fact that she didn’t include Tarquin Blackwood and Mona Mayfair I already expected, because it was plain she did not want to follow up on their story’s at all because she disregarded their characters completely in the first two prince Lestat books (while introducing 200 new characters who I personally didn’t care about)

But did she literally just forget Thorne and Daniel? Daniel!!! He was kind of the reason the VC came into existence, is he not? And Thorne! Who even has actual lines in last three books!?

I love Anne’s writing dearly but some choices she has made regarding these books are utterly incomprehensible to me. I’ll never understand.

Ah man, I hate it too but I feel like there were a lot of reasons. And idk if you wanted to mutually vent or wanted my Actual Thoughts but I always kinda look at it like-

Anne sucked at continuity lol Which happens if you're writing a series for over 40 years! Lestat's eyes have been blue and grey and violet, his age has mortal age changed, and he was her top blorbo so like you'd think she'd nail down the facts about him perfectly? But sometimes she goofed or changed stuff. Which is why I never sweat too hard about exact canon facts, if Anne herself didn't have perfect continuity and I can make up a reason for a little change that makes sense in my narrative idgaf I'm gonna do it.

I think Daniel was hard for her in the same way Louis was hard for her- they both are avatars of dark times in her life. Louis was her depression over her own daughter's death, Daniel she poured her struggles with alcoholism into. And I can get her side lining them both because of not wanting to revisit that headspace and those memories. Which sucks for fans of those characters but it is what it is.

I also get the impression that she didn't really know what to do with a mentally healthy vampire that doesn't have shitloads of baggage? Like when Daniel comes out of his rough years in PL he's really on top of things, and Anne's happy place is developing new tragic backstories so...for better or worse that's what she did lol

And re: the hundreds of new characters, there's a whole chapter in Conversations with Anne Rice where she talked about wanting to explore the stories of mature adults, specifically older men. The loss of her father weighed heavily on her and drew her to create characters like David Talbot, and to lean harder into the story of guys like Marius who was 40-something in mortal body but thousands of years old in spirit. So you really see that with her later books, outside of Benji and Sybelle (who also get sidelined) and Rose and Viktor (who...same) she zero'd in on older vampires because that's what held her interest.

NOT THAT I DON'T ALSO HATE IT, I mean, obviously Daniel is a top favorite of mine. So take all of that, add in the fact that she didn't really use an editor and thus did exactly what she wished for all her work, and I think the conclusion is that she just lost interest/couldn't get a story going for them and so she left them out of the mural.

But god do I feel your pain, my kingdom for more content about established characters like Daniel, Bianca, Riccardo, Thorne and less random characters that didn't have enough page time to really develop 😢

#apoptoses answers

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skateskunk · 1 year

Text

I decided to re-design her ^^ because the Inuyasha writers make me so angry. Keep in mind they're only rough sketches and I'll probably do more in depth ones later

The two different designs are her in the two different time periods. This is kind of both a re-design and a re-write so I’m going to tell you about it for funzies

Okay so some basic information on my redesign of Kagome :

- She's a little chubbier before going to the Feudal era and becomes more toned with broader shoulders after she starts going regularly

- Every 24 hours in the Feudal Era is an hour in the present day, which also makes more sense considering the fact that its canon that the choices she makes in the Feudal era affect the present day history, meaning the time discrepancy should be smaller if not nonexistent

- Kagome trained in archery for most of her childhood as an extra-curricular, as she had a natural talent for it that her mother discovered while they were searching for extra-curricular activities for Kagome to do in her downtime

- Her grandfather is actually quite knowledgeable in seals and ancient practices and although she is bored with his old stories most of the time she does retain a lot of the information regarding the practices and she becomes more interested in it as time goes on in the Feudal era

- I made her 20 because I think it’s very yucky that she’s fifteen and Inuyasha (though he has the maturity of a young adult) is nearly 200 years old. Plus it generally is just weird considering the interactions she has with some of the adult men in the show. The way I resolved this was I decided she’s incredibly smart but often doesn’t have time to focus on school between helping around the house and the shine and with her brother so she continuously fails her classes. She has taken her last year of high school twice and if she fails again this year she’ll be expelled, which puts extra pressure on her to find a balance between her home life, the feudal era, school, and friends.

- In my rewrite Kagome becomes a very powerful and accomplished priestess. She is proficient in combat (especially as she gets more practice) and her ability to create sacred arrows is beyond impressive. She is capable of holding her own on the battlefield and when captured she is capable of making efforts to escape on her own. I find it annoying that we get glimpses at what Kagome could be in the anime regarding her strength and resolve but its always thrown out so she can be saved by Inuyasha or someone else

- I gave her a more accurate and less fetishy school uniform. I also think it's completely impractical the way she wears her uniform in the Feudal era instead of changing so I changed that as well

- Her Feudal era uniform is a high priestess outfit similar to Kikyo’s, though there are some key differences in its design to make them distinguishable. Kagome has her hair in two low ponytails that she often drapes over her shoulders and lets hang down her front. I imagine Kagome wears more jewelry and more practical shoes, probably boots of some sort as well. As far as character designs go it's not the best because of their similar silhouettes but my justification is that since Kagome is her reincarnation so it still makes sense.

- I imagine Kagome doesn’t spend all of her time in priestess garb, though I'm not well versed in the more casual outfits of the Feudal era. The priestess garb is probably usually for around Kaede’s Village and on longer travels. If she is anticipating battle (especially after meeting Sango) I’m sure she wears something more armored and closer to Sango’s outfit.

- The bag I gave her for the Feudal era is what I found when I was looking for traditional bags for that time period. A lot of the thought I put into her outfit is based on the intent of making her blend in. The backpack she keeps doesn't make sense from a tactical standpoint, and only works to put a target on her back, as well as her clothes. The character on her bag is the Kanji for guarding, defense, and protection.

-Also please ignore that I forgot what a quiver is called el oh el

Now the general story :

- Inuyasha stays the same age because, as far as I can tell, 200 for demons seems to be the maturity level of 20 for humans

- His personality doesn't change much, he’s still kind of a bitch and he still has mostly the same character development throughout, though he has more respect for Kagome’s abilities while still being worried about her / being protective of her

- Miroku is mostly the same at the beginning but he’s not fucking nasty to kids and his character development comes sooner after we meet him. He’s more respectful to Sango probably over the course of a season or so

- Shippo stays the same I love Shippo more than anything

- The story largely follows Kagome’s abilities and her powers growing as well as Inuyasha’s development with accepting that he doesn't need to be a full demon to be powerful. It less relies on Kagome being useless and Inuyasha swooping in to save her and more follows the both of them learning how to work together. If anything Miroku takes Kagome’s place and becomes the one getting captured as he doesn’t use the wind tunnel out of actual fear of being enveloped by it. Without it he’s not very useful in battle, having not seen much of it outside of protecting his old shrine.

#kagome higurashi #kagome #inuyasha fanart #inuyasha #fanart #rewrite #redesign #art account #art #artwork #artists on tumblr #digital artist #sketch #doodle #ramblings #actually autism #autism #hyperfixation

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beyondthetemples-ooc · 1 year

Text

So here's a random aspect of Azarath that has literally been niggling at me for YEARS.

Specifically about Azar. Basically a minor/background character in all cases except the one where she's raising Raven and the one where she's taking out Trigon.

But I..... have done inordinate amounts of thinking about Azar, let's put it that way. (*laughs in Great Understatement and also in Nexus*)

So the great mystery about her has always been... Which Azar is it, exactly, that's speaking in Terror of Trigon? WHICH ONE IS IT?!

The two main points of consideration are:

An Azar, third Azar, granddaughter of the founder of Azarath, gave Raven the rings, Raven says she can "still feel her" spirit in them (heavily implied it's this Azar specifically in the rings based on context of discussing that the woman who raised her had given her those rings before she died), and iirc they use those same rings to channel an Azar, presumably the same one whose spirit is present and known to Raven.

The ORIGINAL Azar, the foundress herself, who speaks to Trigon as if she's known him for centuries, talking about staying one step ahead of him and following him through dimensions, and iirc said something about Since His Inception... which happened at the time of Azarath's creation by Azar the First.

So I'm going to go through why this always confused me, but spoiler alert: I finally found peace in this decade-long debate with myself by settling on all three of them being the same person reincarnated through three consecutive generations. Or at least aspects of the same person.

In Tales of the New Teen Titans #2, Raven explicitly tells everyone that the Azar who raised her was the granddaughter of the original Azar. She mentions the most recent two living for multiple centuries each (dyscalculia prevents me from remembering the exact numbers, and which one had which lifespan, but they were quite literally Centuries.)

There is, however, definite mention of them having died. People usually only do that once.

((Raven didn't get that memo.))

If you ask me, the extent of the average Azarathean life span is still up for debate. Somehow it's true in canon both that Juris "was one of [Azarath's] originals", AND that they used the secrets of dimensional travel to form Azarath a thousand years ago. So implicitly the guy's a thousand years old??? But if that's the case, why are their head spiritual and bureaucratic leaders dying after a handful of centuries?

ESPECIALLY when it's heavily implied that Azarath's existence relied on them! I still can't rationalize how it came to mind, but someone asks something to the effect of, "Wouldn't Azar dying destroy Azarath?" And Raven's response is, "There were many who studied at her side." Implying, to me, that if these people HADN'T been there, it WOULD have been destroyed! (And also that it took "many" people to replace the power of one Azar, which is just... Whew.)

But why would average everyday Azarathean citizens have a longer lifespan than the 200/300 / presumably also 400 years allotted to THE PERSON WHO ALLOWS THE PLACE TO EXIST???

It just doesn't make sense!

Unless that essential person isn't really gone.

I don't think the NTT duo had the story straight on Azarath, unfortunately. I am definitely thinking harder about this than they did.

I'm not saying this is what I think they intended.

In fact, it's probably not. Any time an Azarathean mentions death or dying, they refer to it as "ascending to another plane of existence"-- or "joining Azar", supposedly implying In An Afterlife With Her. So the textual evidence reads like they believe souls leave the physical world and enter a separate world, an afterlife, and gather with their leader.

(Gee, Azar, how come your gods let you have TWO leaderships? /ref)

So that then opens up the question of Which Azar is Leading Them?

Not only in the afterlife, but in their posthumous defeat of Trigon!

I used to assume the Azar defeating Trigon was the one who raised Raven. Lilith "channels" an Azar, and I always supposed it was Lilith's connection to Raven, which would have been especially strong after doing a dang seance to contact Raven, that allowed her to open up to Azar.

(I mean, I guess now that I'm laying out my assumptions, a woman who was powerful enough to keep a place Not Being Destroyed simply by Being Alive is probably powerful enough that she could possess whoever she wanted. But it seemed a bit like she was asking permission?)

Anyways, as summarized above, the flaw in this logic is what Azar says to Trigon. I'm currently on a tiny phone and have no spoons to go hunting down the panels, but I distinctly remember the Azar that shows up in Terror of Trigon talking about them having a looooong history. Chasing him through the dimensions, and I'm pretty sure she says something like, "for centuries", or maybe it's "millennia". Again, dyscalculia, number words are Hard. But the third Azar, Raven's mentor, only lived for... I think 200 years, according to TotNTT 2?

Honestly Terror of Trigon kind of talks like there was only ONE Azar ever. I don't think there's ever any distinction between them except in TotNTT.

Hell, I've recently been wondering, when Raven cries out to Azar as an exclamation or expletive or prayer, which one is she asking for? The original who led the Azaratheans (the most likely to be deified in this way, if you consider that the founders of a cult are usually the ones who get deified), or is she praying to the one she knew personally?

But then: When Raven said Azar was an "almost-goddess", it reads like she was talking about the one that raised her. Azar III clearly had a lot of power and a lot of religious sway over the people. She was, canonically, their High Priestess.

I like both the idea of this spiritual connection being to the original Azar AND the sentimental connection of being prayers to the woman who raised her, "the only person who treated [her] like [she] was something special."

So WHICH IS IT?

But damn it, I'm sick of trying to puzzle this out when neither feels like "the one true pure canon".

So essentially, I did... Extensive Thinking. I, uhh... let's say I looked into my heart and interrogated the "vibes" I get. And the thing is, I can't see much narrative or emotional function in them being completely different people. It just complicates things.

So they died. Hella canon. Probably an important part of Raven's backstory, losing That One Person. But what if, when one Azar died, her soul stayed to guide the Azaratheans further?

This explains why their name is apparently their title, and they don't have, say, Azar Samara and Azar Karina.

There's absolutely no evidence that the Azaratheans believe in reincarnation, in fact it's a bit of evidence to the contrary. But their souls ARE able to return to interact with the living world. This is hella canon. This is how they defeated Trigon.

(And how Phantasm v.2 happened, but that's a mess I'm not ready to untangle right now.)

Plus: Anyone who's ever read my in-depth rambles about Azarath knows I like to draw from real world anthropology and worldviews to fill in the blanks. There are multiple cultures in our real world that believe (or, believed) that ancestors can reincarnate in the bodies of their descendants. Now, I've never done a dive into these cultures specifically, but Azarath's most obvious real-world influences seem to be cultures whose worldviews include reincarnation.

So why not reincarnation within the family?

I've been writing this for an hour and I'm running out of steam, but this is the only solution I like to a canonical quandary that has bothered me for years.

At the very least, the multiple iterations, multiple bodies, might be different aspects of Azar's soul. Fragmentary reincarnation is another form real-world worldviews include, whether you want to talk about ancient practices or the modern hodge-podge spirituality in certain communities I'm in.

So yeah. I finally feel more at peace with The Great Azar Iteration Paradox.

And with Azarath on the brain, peace is pretty essential.

*Raven voice* Thank Azar.

#rhs makes yet another post about teen titans #rhs personal teen titans #new teen titans #azarath #azar #posts for the blackwinged blog #digital mirrorbooking

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cateringisalie · 6 months

Text

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @subdee - thank you!

How many works do you have on ao3? 453

2. What’s your total ao3 word count? 1,617,537

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Final Fantasy VII (and some of its associated spin-offs. Okay, I think I have ultimately written for: Advent Children, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. No Before Crisis, Ever Crisis or any of the books), Bravely Default (and Second), Final Fantasy VIII, Avatar the Last Airbender/Legend of Korra

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

After the Wedding (341) – (rated T) – Kya/Lin

This remains somewhat bewildering. Coming as it does as a Tumblr askbox fic and not one I felt I did exceptionally well. I can only attribute this to catching the wave of sapphic output after Legend of Korra’s finale (not that the fandom weren’t already doing that beforehand, but looking at ao3, the demarcation between pre and post finale is startling in what it does to the character and content of the fics (book 4 did admittedly cause an increasing drift, but the change after the finale is dramatic)). I suppose it is a little risqué too…

Healing (320) – (rated T) – Genfic

The culmination of a frenzied writing process and a lot of misgivings of how Legend of Korra tied itself up. In all honesty, a lot of this fic’s popularity is probably slight misdirects of where it (and the two follow-ups) are going - with my own preferences conflicting with @danseru-kun’s in terms of subtext and implication. I am always a fan of alternate universe takes, so this was fun to re-work the series and try and give it more of a sense of an overall plot in a way other than the very make it up as we go feel the series had. As noted a lot, while this was a collaboration, I felt more like the director of photography since the major plotting was all Danseru’s. I had to render it into fic form and added my own flourishes here and there. There are probably a lot of mistakes in this as early on we sped up the chapter releases and it was extremely tough to revise completely in a week’s time-frame.

Return to the Scene of the Crime (226) – (rated G) - Genfic

This is just one of many fics that exist to deal with Zuko going back to Song (the herbalist in book 2) and dealing with his theft of her ostrich-horse. At one stage (not sure if still true) I was told it was the sole instance of Zuko going back as he originally met her and not in his capacity as the Fire Lord. Which just seemed righter to me. Also Iroh is here because Iroh has to be here. I do feel this is weak on re-reads; it feels a lot like I keep checking elements of canon to anchor it more firmly after the series and they feel a little redundant.

Sharing a Bed (211) – (rated M) – Aerti

Borderline smut! Which is not the entire mark of appeal (clearly given the other three fics up there), but the first bit of Aerti smut I wrote. Very much inspired by another fic (diane_b_taylor’s Breath of Firsts (Rated E) – and possibly took far too much from that fic) and also written for a prompt from the fan_flashworks community over on Dreamwidth. Which was ‘trapped’ incidentally (I vaguely remember the other inspiration that kept cropping up for the prompt was The Tunnel by Askerian (Rated E) which…).

Modern Love (200) – (rated E) – Clerith

Just smut. Okay, maybe not purely – there is more here (and a inelegantly edited version lives on fanfiction.net for as long as that site persists). This resulted as part of a conversation relating to dissatisfaction with a whole other fic (the name of which I do not remotely remember). And eventually it lead to a kind of out there question that nonetheless resulted in this: can Cloud and Aeris sleep together during the events of the first disc of the game without derailing canon? The debate turned to yes, but with specific caveats on just how their relationship would work – there are later events to uphold; how Aeris thinks of Cloud has to gel with what happens; how Cloud feels about her has to factor in things like the Highwind scene and all the implications there. The eventual solution was they could be basically sex-friends and take opportunities as they arose. I think this took me like a year to write in the end.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always. Eventually. I like comments and want to encourage more – and it feels like responding (and reasonably fast) should facilitate this. It does not seem to.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

(All fics mentioned T or lower rated – all genfic)

Ahead on Our Way has Sephiroth succeeding in the destruction of the Planet which might count. Metal has a deliberately second-act style conclusion as a setup for Lightning. Wait, its probably Soporific where the Bravely Default cast get addicted to painkillers (this makes… slightly more sense in context)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

On the Way to a Birthday (rated G) – Cloti

Pretty happy I think and one of the only Dirge fics, mostly because somehow Shelke worked for the attempted humour. Another for the pile of Cloti baby fics, though little Charis’s birth is somewhere past the end of the fic. Features cake and Turks and a trip to see an old friend.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

The closest was a comment in Spanish; I think it was a complaint that I had made Tifa have multiple previous partners in Words are Important Too (rated E - see below).

9. Do you write smut?

(all fic rated M or higher)

Modern Love and Sharing a Bed are described above.

Words Are Important Too (Cloti)

My read on Tifa’s mindset in the implied aftermath of the infamous Highwind scene (with desperate justification for why they are back outside as the sun rises and also dealing with the perceived idea of cabins in the Highwind that aren’t depicted literally anywhere in game. It makes sense to have them, just… where would they go?). Its smut but part of why I wrote it was thinking that Cloud and Tifa are at the end of the world and consequences are something to worry about if they live through tomorrow.

Maia Kendall (Aerti)

Owes a lot to a reasonably famous account of a blind-date in the Guardian newspaper, but also took big inspiration from Surprise by Asynca (rated E) (and fusing the two of them together resulted in Aeris and Tifa reviewing sex toys). Coming as part of a sporadically written AU where Aeris and Tifa meet years earlier (and well before the game start) this does veer into not FFVII fanfic territory anymore. Yes, its still Tifa and Aeris, but the setting could be (say) London in the mid-2010s for all the relevance FFVII’s setting has on the fic. The previous parts are more tied to the original setting and the environment and how that affects living in Midgar. But, that fell away in service of the smut.

First Time (Clerith)

Definitely a response to something, but is pretty much pure smut – with the same caveats as Maia Kendall – characters yes, and allegedly mid-canon, but otherwise completely divorced from the setting.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have!

(all fics rated T or lower)

Ignoring Kingdom Hearts (which is a complication all its own, though I will still slightly bemoan the lack of Emperor’s New Groove in the games):

The Second Amnesiac (Genfic)

The somewhat odd idea of Bravely Default only switching Tiz with Cloud Strife – and right after Cloud gets blown up at the climax of Advent Children. Its not exactly doing anything – Cloud wanders a similar path to Tiz, meets Agnes and Airy and then starts slicing cannonballs in half. Honestly this was not going to get any further than this, but it was again written for the fan-flashworks whose whole ethos was getting something written and that was what I came up with for that prompt.

Final Fantasy VII vs Bravely Second: Yuffie Kisaragi vs the World (genfic)

Deliberately silly fic after a Skype conversation way ahead of Bravely Second’s release. Back before names had been localized and the plot was way up in the air. Nevertheless; this was at least fun to do the crack thing and smash the two universes together. And then throw in a whole bunch of others. The point of connection was the Cat Master asterisk in Bravely Second and the cat house in Wutai. From there, if Yuffie gets a little power, the world will tremble! Not even Corvo Attano from Dishonored can stand against her.

Deliveries Take so Long These Days (Cloti)

Somehow came out of the prompt ‘red’. This was majorly inspired by a friend’s insistence so many years ago that Cloud was a consistent character across FFVII, FFT and Kingdom Hearts – that rather than being the same character used three times, he had a larger meta-narrative stringing the games together. This friend would slowly reveal themselves to have lied near constantly since I met them and the flimsy shallowness of said lies were bewildering in retrospect. But, the notion is not without its merits, though I avoided KH again. The major objective was to do the Tactics link which is largely overlooked these days, but it was fun to find people Cloud could deliver to across the FF series (especially Ultros).

Two Independent Contractors (genfic)

The teleporting/time displaced merchants of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Bravely Default/Second meetup and talk. I think the theory for the Adventurer didn’t pan out at all, and in retrospect the way both try to keep the timeline consistent is probably pulled from one of the River Song episodes of Doctor Who.

Betrayal at the Shinra Mansion (Genfic)

Sort of FFVII meets Undertale by way of Betrayal at House on the Hill. The Undertale cast play a version of the board game which is distinctly FFVII themed. Not much more to the idea than trying to interpret a prompt in as unusual a way as possible.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I had some reposted to another site off Ao3 years ago though still under my name. I would be honestly surprised if anyone bothered

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not language-wise, but The Sex Education of Edea Lee (rated G) was read on a Skype group-chat which was fun to listen to. Did underscore how poorly parts of it worked for spoken-word, but I’m glad they enjoyed it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

(all fics rated T)

Say hi @danseru-kun and @materiodic!

With the former I wrote: Healing (as above), Metal (part 2), Lightning (part 3) & Iroh’s Favourite Aunt (prequel)! With the latter I wrote Beneath a Steel Sky – in which Aeris makes an effort to see the sky in Sector Five.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Aerti

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

Inspired by the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, I have a fragment of what Elmyra was doing while FFVII was happening – up to getting Marlene back from Shinra. The intention was to wrap other side-characters through these events (The Illuminatus! Trilogy is convoluted structure-wise and I wanted to do something like it for FFVII). While I got Elmyra pretty far, I’m not sure I can remember who else was supposed to be involved/tying the narratives around each other might be very off-putting if you’re not into trying this weirdo structure.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Hopefully unusual ideas and alternate universe setups.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action I struggle with. Endings are a thing I don’t do often (lot of starts in amongst the fics). Punctuation is very much I get the basic stuff but anything past commas, full-stops and speech marks, I am not sure I am using them right.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I would probably cheat it somehow – either make it indecipherable from the POV character or make it clear enough to third person but have the communication fail. Not something that comes up hugely in the relevant fandoms, but absolutely could.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Mysterious Cities of Gold/Esteban, Child of the Sun. On a typewriter. Said small page(s) has been long since lost to time, but it was an immediate sequel to the series’ ending.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Symbiosis (rated G)

Let’s come up with a weird but somehow plausible reason of why Elmyra lives in a really nice house in the slums of Sector Five (outside of the aesthetics of arriving there being a break from what you have gone through en route and it not meant to be entirely literal. I am not taking any comments on anything that Squeenix has released post-1997 as relevant. You know what I mean), tie in some of the game’s infamous monsters and dabble in some Terry Pratchett-esque humour.

If the idea interests there are two alternates – Symbiosis represents the peaceful way to deal with a Hell House, but Aeris has to learn how to fight with a staff from someone, so maybe the house wasn’t in quite the best of states when Elmyra came to live there. Or an alternate universe post-game idea which could be a sequel to Symbiosis but is part of a vague setup where a key moment in game didn’t happen in quite the way anyone remembers.

Tag 20 people?! Of the ones who haven't been tagged then: @danseru-kun, @auncyen, @komatsujo, @lostchasingsilver and anyone else who would like to answer!

#subdee #asks #thanks!

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sunshinebunnie · 1 year

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Hi! Regarding the Director’s Cut asks, I may not be doing it right but I’m curious…

What inspired you to write Prairie Doll? Such a unique AU, I would love to hear more about your research process. ❤️

*Squealing* Thank you so much for the ask, Jess!!! (Sorry in advance because I’m totally gonna nerd out. lol) So, given Fez’s interest in Little House on the Prairie and being all ‘bout that farm life as his long term plan, it got me thinking. One of my two majors in college was History, and I had a subconcentration in U.S. History circa the Civil War/Reconstruction era. (I’ve been fascinated with this period of US History for a loooooooooooong time. lol) Anyways, it got me thinking of what would Fez’s life look like during this era. Although people were going out to California during this time, because the Transcontinental railroad hadn’t been completed yet, I hesitated to have Lexi try to follow Cassie out to California because if she’d lost contact with her, it would be highly unrealistic that Lexi going after her would be successful, and I’ve always known I’m going to reunite the Howard sisters in my story (It’s coming! I SWEAR!!!).

Given those 2 constraints, I tried to think of somewhere in the US that would be relatively far from where Lexi & Cassie started (which would make a little more sense why Cassie was responding to a mail order bride advertisement), while having enough going on that I could introduce the other characters in a way that made sense without trying to retcon entire arcs/storylines, but still being a little chaotic in a way that a state/city that was established for 100-200 years at this point in history likely wouldn’t be. I also didn’t want to feel duty bound to really dive into Reconstruction politics/attitudes by setting the story in the post-Civil War South, not to mention, I just didn’t get the vibe that Fez would’ve fought for the Confederacy. The other thing that I really enjoy about it (although it’s definitely been challenging at times) is that it’s such a fun era of history to think about how would things that we don’t necessarily think about play out in this world.

For instance, Ash’s awkward clothing sitch. Like, for the most part (certainly in canon Euphoria), if Ash started having a growth spurt or he had clothes he didn’t like, what have you, he or Fez could just go to the store or order something on Amazon or whatever. They have the means—both actually and economically—to get him clothes he likes and that fit. The whole idea that people would give him shit for not having clothes that he doesn’t look awkward in is a little crazy. But, transport him to the late 1860s/early 1870s? Yeah, now it’s a little less realistic (even for merchants with a little bit of money) to think he either (a) has some huge selection of clothing to pick from or (b) it would be easy for him to just get/find/buy clothes that are the right size. I mean, commercial clothing production really was just not as much of a thing back then, and clothes were still fairly expensive. It wouldn’t be uncommon to expect multiple members of the family to wear the same clothes, but add in the fact that they’re not living with Kitty full time and there’s no other wife/female relative who would be expected to take care of family tailoring for them, yeah, Ash more than likely would get stuck not only wearing Fez’s hand-me-downs but wearing them even though they don’t fit and he looks ridiculous doing so. But those kinds of things are great for the story! Because then it makes it easy/easier to figure out how to introduce the characters into each other lives and have those sub-conflicts (What does A need from B?) that help drive the story forward and develop the characters within the larger context of the story I’m trying to tell.

Anyways, I hope you like this BTS take on Prairie Doll!! Thank you so so so much for letting me nerd out and talk about my story/writing thoughts!!! 🥰💗🥰💗🥰💗

#the nicest people #sunshinebunnie psa #Prairie Doll Director's Cut

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themoomoorn · 1 year

Text

Scarlet Blaze Salt Mine Highlights, Part 2 (Because I hit the image limit last time)

It's kind of a sad day when you're transitioning hyperfixations (Chainsaw Man and Tactics Ogre, in this case), because I'm tired of this game and I haven't even begun to cleanse by entire body with Azure Gleam. But I must!

Also I just wanted to finish this slog of a route so badly that I forgot to give away Shez's Merc Whistle. Oops.

Previous post is here.

He isn't wrong. If anything, between this and Egg reassuring Shez that no, betrayal totes wasn't gonna happen, this just reinforces the fact that Egg doesn't respect Claude at all.

Still, big oomph on Claude because his dreams don't even exist/make sense in this game.

Here lies the Tabletop Demon.

Kind of poetic/ironic that he's the only one who can truly die, while poor Dimitri, who gets dragged around like a wet cat in Houses, will always survive in this game. Egg mostly does, if you count her getting subjugated to the director's fantasies lobotomized in Azure Gleam as "surviving."

"Now what that ambition is, I simply do not know, but I will boldly assume it had to do with using bibles as toilet paper."

No Lies Detected(tm)

Sothis attempts to salvage this trainwreck with a quick and miserable death, but by plot dictation, she sadly fails.

Byleth's death here is on par with Dimitri's on Verdant Wind in how unceremonious and cruel it is. Devs, are you sure you're not actually mad at how popular Byleth is? Especially the one with the 200% Bustline Modifier?

We Stan a megalomaniac /s

The Agarthans never got to the Holy Tomb or the Holy Mausoleum in this game, and here we get the idea of the kind of crap Houses!Edelgard condoned.

Really, the one thing Rhea did wrong was not using the Aurora Breath on Edelgard during her coronation.

Even now, Rhea knows Agartha is the true enemy here?????? Like back in Chapter...4?????

But no, per the Edelgard/Balthus Support, Edelgard started the war anyway, she knows that she's benefitting from the same megalomaniacs that have their hands in the Empire's politics, and she had farfetched history spoon-fed to her. She doesn't care. She still wants total power.

Bruh

Monica is talking about killing Thales, btw. Peak wlw representation, everyone /s

Linhardt is abhorrent.

Shez DGAF about anything, least of all on this route. But I suppose it's fine because they're not a weird nepotism teacher, or whatever.

So here's something I've noticed: Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire share several near-identical scenarios (the most obvious being the Chapter where Ordelia needs to be pacified), CGs (the still of Egg and Clyde shaking hands), and even video cutscenes (Rhea transforming into the Immaculate one; only the background is changed). GW!Claude knocks of a number of Edelgard's rhetoric and dialogue ("My hands are covered in blood and will never be clean again, feel bad for me uwu") and now we have a hollow knockoff of something poignant Claude says to Byleth on Verdant Wind.

There's also the general fact that because the Houses version of Claude ultimately became more heroic than intended, and because they had already delayed the game three times, they had Verdant Wind knock off most of Silver Snow...which is the default route for the Black Eagles.

There is a quasi-tumbleweedy-incestual bond between these two characters/routes. They fold into one another like brain proteins tangling on each other. This is not the case for Azure Moon (bar maps being shared, and even then the context differs drastically) and even more so for Azure Gleam.

Point is, I'm a Claude stan, but at this point, I feel like the Blue Lions route should be the canon one.

Local vampire simp and local masochistic noble boldly state their totally normal relationship with one another. I think I liked the Houses/Ending Card version more, because their bond made Edelgard jealous.

I did this strategy over the other two and it did absolutely nothing, by the way.

"ShE dOeSnT cArE aBoUt HiM" blah blah blah, we get it, you refuse to read the text and can't get over that Cyril and Claude are mostly incompatible when it comes to bonding.

I found a Khaloonie discover the flavor text for Seiros Tea (it's tea from southern Almyra and it got slapped with an in-universe localized name) and flipping out over it recently, funnily enough. Houses has been out for three years (as of this post) now, and you've only read that text recently???

"My daddy had stake over ruling the whole continent single-handedly first, you cut the line!"

Sothis please take the wheel -

Can confirm, they literally do almost nothing while Thales and Rhea tumble over that bridge. Very "Wormy Episode of Spongebob" energy right here.

"BUT SHE ENDED THE WAR FASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" /s

Good job Shez, you broke it.

The ending animation of the Crests rotating like planets changes depending on which route you picked, as that land's "native" Crests are what's displayed. Since the Empire's "native" Crests are that of the Four Saints (plus the Apostles Noa and Timotheos if you want to get technical), you get to bask in a kiddie pool of irony.

In the end, the standom's support of the Empire is akin to how many fans, from its inception in 1979, support the Empire of Zeon and factions similar to it across the Gundam franchise, I feel. Shame that Adrestia isn't as well-crafted as Zeon.

Speaking of worldbuilding, I suspect that there's a weird sort of hatred at how Faerghus is the most well-built (in a worldbuilding sense) of the three lands. This is pretty much proven by its first four chapters alone (having played the demo), and I can already tell I'm gonna be in for at least a decent time once I get to Gleam.

To cap off this shit-cake, here's what I find to be a pretty apt representation of how Edelgard is viewed/turned into during Azure Gleam's ending:

youtube

#few3h diskhorse #3nopes #egglegard #clob von riggles #garbage #scarlet blazed #golden dumpsterfire #blooth eisner #cant believe it took me this long to realize how Egg and Clob's routes fold in on each other #it's kind of weird #Youtube

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