#... I'll kill for her.....(literally)

[demaparbat-hp]

She will (and he'll let her)

[heyimkana]

aleks le needs to be stopped WHAT IS THIS BEHAVIOR???

[sunlight-shunlight]

i really wish flemythal got more of... anything, really, in dragon age before it croaked, bc i was genuinely so stoked to see her as a legit antagonist after all the buildup. give kate mulgrew some MONOLOGUES and MENACING LINES!! i wanted to see her go ham and wreak havoc. betray solas right back! kill elgar'nan with hammers! gaslight gatekeep girlboss!!

[hikayunas]

kirsten ('elly') isn't a witch that tends to get a lot of theorizing about her, but from what i have seen, there's been a lot of emphasis on the idea that, in life, she was an idol, and that idol culture and the hell that comes with it is what led to her downfall and ultimate fate as a witch. while i can see where that comes from, i think that's a rather surface-level reading of her themes and what's used to represent her --

judging by the other anime witches, their natures seem to represent and tie into the original magical girl more than their physical representations or anything else about them. oktavia -- who has heavy musical, symphonic imagery despite sayaka not having been the musical one in life -- is described as falling in love [恋慕], while gretchen's nature is described as mercy or compassion [慈悲]. and kirsten, with everything about her clearly screaming about how she must have been an idol, is described with nothing but 憧憬; the wiki translated it as 'covetous', but jisho's dictionary paints a better, more vivid picture -- aspiration; longing, yearning.

that is, i think it's safer to say that kirsten was never an idol. it was never something she was able to achieve or accomplish and the idol industry sinking its teeth into her is not what tore her down. the rest of her witch card seems to offer more insight into who kirsten was before she was kirsten -- she's described very bluntly as a hikikomori; that is, somebody who's completely cut themself off from wider society, family, and friends, never leaving the house unless absolutely necessary. anything she longs for is shut away behind glass -- that is, a tv screen or computer monitor.

but her witch card isn't the only thing that feeds us more about her. the designs of kirsten herself and her familiars (and how they operate) quickly make more sense when viewed from this angle -- kirsten is not the whole witch. kirsten is just the doll -- the witch's true body. and kirsten spends most of her time locked away behind a computer monitor; shut away behind glass. 'elly' -- the name scribbled on the monitor and the name of the idol figure that flashes and performs on the monitor -- is who kirsten presents herself as and is trapped within. kirsten need not be herself when she can be 'elly' instead.

but it goes deeper than that. it's not exactly visible in the anime, but when you look at kirsten's design sheets, it quickly becomes obvious that the doll body -- 'kirsten' -- only goes down to an empty, carved-out torso, trailing thick grime meant to resemble an idol's skirt behind her. she is, quite literally, only half a person. and this is a theme that continues into her familiars, too -- daniyyel and jennifer are angels, but each only has one wing; daniyyel a right wing, jennifer a left. they're each only half of a pair -- if they want to fly, as their job requires, they must work together. and speaking of their job, it's to carry things around the labyrinth, including 'elly' herself. 'elly' has wings -- a whole pair -- and looks like she flies around her labyrinth in the anime, but she's actually immobile and needs her familiars to move her around if she wants to get anywhere. and she can't attack intruding magical girls on her own, either -- all she can do is summon more and more familiars to do the attacking for her. immobile, helpless, reclusive. only half a person dreaming she was more.

and all of this even ties together nicely (or, rather tragically) with how kirsten is even introduced in the anime at all. we meet kirsten when she preys on hitomi and a crowd of others and has them attempt to kill themselves, many of them bemoaning how useless and worthless to society they are, while hitomi rants and raves about how this will bring them all to a better place. and the way they go about their attempted suicide? by mixing together two chemicals -- chemicals easily found in the house or to get your hands on, if madoka's flashback is anything to go by; harmless apart but deadly when combined.

immobile, helpless, reclusive. half a person dreaming she was more.

she can be more in a better place.

[alicentlesbian]

can't make one post being like "omg helena is my baby she's so sad i love her 🥺" without all the hannibal lestat saw franchise toxic yaoi fans showing up to give you a lecture on morality and how actually helena is TOO evil to like so you shouldn't ever sympathize with her and if you go one second without mentioning the severity of her crimes you're a bad person and going to hell

[tackykachowch]

By the way, did we ever talk about how stupid it is that they made Silco the reason Felicia died? I don't mean that he killed her personally, but that he jumpstarted violence on a peaceful protest. Because that's sooo who Silco is, right? A character who makes impulsive and poorly thought out decisions, right? A character who goes into a fight headstrong without carefully planning his moves and strategy and just YOLO-ing it, right? Right?? ......sigh

And don't even THINK about giving me the whole "wElL hE cHaNgEd SiNcE tHeN dUh" crap. Even s2 is smart enough to show us him writing something in a notebook in a flashback, which implies that he was the brains behind the Lanes' creation/revolution as a whole. And if he was he would never sabotage his own plans with something so stupid as throwing a single molotov at enforcers. Literally who does that???? Silco we know would probably organize an attack under the guise of a peaceful protest, but not just. Straight-up ruining just a regular peaceful protest. That's stupid. And Silco is the last character in arcane that would do something stupid. Literally the whole plot of season 1 relies on him being intelligent and sneaky with his plans are you kidding me.

[hopeswriting]

daily life arc miura haru. does anyone know who i'm talking about. do you guys remember her. i still can't believe what happened to her 😔

[qoldenskies]

there are a lot of parallels/lines/moments in cc that completely rely on it being in the written word (and a lot of parts that couldnt even be translated to art/animation or anything, like almost the entirety of ME) but goddddd the amount of visual parallels i could do if i ever drew it .... maybe i could fuck around for funsies anyway. get my ideas down onto the paper. i absolutely love visual storytelling man

[hamletshoeratio]

Can y'all just be you know normal Marina Thompson for like 5 seconds? Because christ, the sheer Misogynoir that some of you spread about her character is insane and you don't even realise it.

[morrigan-sims]

Judgement

upright: resurrection, reflection, reckoning, judgement, and awakening. reversed: lack of self-awareness, doubt, self-loathing.

Yet another tarot card edit, this time for my Curse of Strahd character, Avra! She's a shadar-kai/reborn phantom rogue who was brought back from the dead by the Raven Queen to serve as her chosen assassin. She was sent to Barovia to kill a rogue lich, but one of the people meant to help her (a raven given human form by the Raven Queen) has made a bargain with him instead...

Her epithet in my notes is "the revenant", and I think it's pretty obvious why. And also pretty obvious why she gets the Judgement card. (Resurrected from the dead, brings her goddess's judgement upon people, etc.)

In this case the reversed version of the card is also fitting, or at least it most likely will be as her arc progresses... (Though the "lack of self-awareness" is pretty accurate, given recent events in the campaign.)

Oh, and of course I had to include a raven looking down on Avra. The Raven Queen does keep a very close eye on her, even now that she's in Barovia...

[illdothehotvoice]

Thinking about overprotective Sans in the context of Papyton specifically again and anyways fucking hate that trope but Sans would never do that and all I'm saying is Undyne was right there. Undyne who tends to put her entire being into everything and is also super protective of her friends and cares about Papyrus a LOT to the point where she strings him along on "training" to keep him happy but won't let him in the guard to protect him and also she canonically hates Mettaton-

[clownakai]

Akam Princess Mononoke AU with Shuuichi as Ashitaka and Rei as San. That is all

[lightnersdream-archive]

again i don't know where people are getting the idea that Swansea would've jumped to Anya's defense if told before beyond general fandom character rot because like do you remember the game? one of the first things the game lets you see Swansea say is

in response to talking about opening the cargo after living for Two months in a wrecked ship knowing damn well no one is going to come save them. they had no reason to assume they're transporting exclusively mouthwash so that doesn't apply here, theoretically it Could have been something useful. he's exactly the guy to sweep shit under the rug and look the other way as to not get punished by the corporation he works for. he's not going to risk his own skin like that

it's locked for a reason, he says

(side note he was really mean about Anya in this scene for NO REASON? interrupting her at the table? "Even SHE can't make this situation worse with her presence" "that woman" WHAT IS UOUR PROBLEM...)

it's notable that he only tries to kill Jimmy once he has absolutely nothing left to lose. he's still not going to rock the boat until he feels like it's over anyway

(beyond that, it's implied he already knows, and chose to do nothing.)

[arttsuka]

Mouthwashing spoilers so if you haven't played it yet don't read this post

Do you think Anya knew about the last cryopod? Do you think Swansea told her?

Maybe he did tell her, that one night (the one it's implied she told him about her assault. 'It was her telling me all sorts of things instead') but they weren't sure if they should put Anya or Daisuke inside.

Maybe that's why she killed herself. To eliminate herself as an option for the cryopod.

Or maybe not. Just something I've been thinking about.

[oleskellybones]

anyone who likes a "weirder looking" guy than me automatically becomes my captain my liege my commander i will throw down my gauntlet to defend your honor

[sweetevoltrap]

Sylus reclaiming Little Bomb as a teasing nickname...