#I literally have so much lore and stories of him that I only exists in my head. months backlogs of it.

[caseyjones-junior]

Hey do you mind questions about your AUs? Bc I'm fascinated by your Krang raised Casey AU. Specifically, what is the turning point for Kasey starting to view the turtles as family?

Kasey started to view the turtles as family through the Mad Dogs insistence that Kasey IS family, no matter what, even at the worst of times.

No matter what Kasey would do to thwart their plans (sabotaging supply runs, interrupting missions, stealing from them, fighting and trying to cause them real harm)… The turtles would never actually hurt him (they did fight back of course. I have one of these fighting instances as a commission here. but they were unwilling to seriously injure him. plus he has regenerative powers lol).

The Krang raised Kasey with a HUGE ego to keep him under their manipulation. But they only ever saw him as a weapon to defeat the turtles and harness Donatello’s tech abilities. But despite this ego, Kasey still craved affection that the Krang would never provide, and he has massive abandonment issues and insecurities that his true family would never love him because of what the Krang turned him into. He uses his superiority complex to hide these insecurities.

No matter how much Kasey tried to push and push and push away inklings of feelings like he belong… the turtles could not be dissuaded from trying to get through to him.

There have been a few instances where when they weren’t fighting (conversations, short stalemates, ext) they would just… talk to him. Offer him food. Kasey’s downfall is that he is excessively chatty and he would fall for this easily. It would always end in Kasey scampering off but it stuck with him.

(Kasey is also not above manipulation. There is one instance where he lured Leonardo away from the base, pretending to just want food and nothing else. Once in the meetup location, he knocked him out and scavenged any good tech supplies off his person…. But before leaving, he did eat the food Leonardo brought. Sitting next to his unconscious body. Running off before Leonardo woke up. This happens early on and is probably where the seed of wanting to leave the Krang began, unbeknownst to him…)

This all builds over time. There even become instances where Kasey would go out of his way to SAVE them, although it wouldn’t be obvious until the turtles thought about it later. Imagine all of them in a decrepit area, that is actively crumbling, with an incoming hoard of krang mechs and dogs. Kasey had stolen Don’s techbo. Don had took something of his. Kasey says they can trade. This was a lie of course, Kasey took back what was his + kept the techbo for himself. He ran off, while secretly ensuring that the turtles would be okay and the kramg mechs wouldn’t reach them.

Cutting this long explanation short, Kasey eventually is growing privy to the fact the Krang are actually just using him and don’t see him as a fellow krang brother (he sees the Krang as family. Even after joing the turtles. Lots of complicated feelings..). He eventually explodes in frustration and saves the turtle’s asses one last time and going with them instead. It took a little time for the Mad Dogs and the rest of the resistance to fully trust him, because he is a known manipulative little shit. But the Mad Dogs have seen for themselves glimpses of what Kasey had to go through. Kasey is a Hamato, and they love and accept him even if he has a hard time accepting this fact.

(There is one instance where they managed to spy on the Krang’s main base and have seen close up how the Krang treat Kasey but this post is already long enough)

[sassyfever]

Okay but why is Meet the Robinsons so amazing, like I'm used to finding good movies long after their release but to find a movie of THIS level without even hearing anyone talk about it even a little bit. I was just trying to pass time and stumbled upon a masterpiece.

[kavehayati]

I agree with absolutely everything she said his in game model is not as good as I envision him to be 😭 like fanart carries him FRRR but it’s honestly so sad ppl see the coolest ever character and be like yaoi 😋✌️how about NOOOO !!!! 😭😭😭 gosh this is so !!!! He has so many deep important aspects to himself, he’s so full of contradictions and despite it all he’s still one of the most kindest characters

[quartztwst]

LARGE Quartzul Divorce AU Lore Dump HELP ME (cringe warning)

(More info) (Also "Quartz" and "Quartzsona" are used interchangeably)

"How did they start their relationship?"

LMAOOO NEVERRRR jk

I think we all know that Quartzsona has a THING or at least a LIKING to Azul. That's literally the whole reason why she loves to ragebait him but she'll never admit it to protect herself 💔💔 ("omg tsundere-" GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!!)

I think Azul knows this fact too despite being beat up and having his spine broken into 5 pieces that you need find around the NRC campus to get a golden goose but thats okay

They don't really get together during NRC but after Azul graduates, they end up together somehow (Azul using sweet words).

Also take a note that Quartzsona is NOT a regular human or being in TWST, she does not have paperwork and no documents that is listed she is born or exists here. She is in the same situation as Yuu but her story is hella different.

TWST Quartzsona is just a vessel for the Actual Quartz to explore through different worlds so she could easily come and go aka DISAPPEAR AND REAPPEAR. She basically has no other purpose but that. (I'll elaborate it in a separate post.)

The Actual Quartz is only interested if the exploration is fun. If the fun is over, TWST Quartzsona HAS to go. If clinging onto Azul and creating a sudden romantical plot intrigues her maker, then she can stay in the world as long as she wants. Plus, she gets to date the guy she really adored.

Azul, on the other hand, doesn't really have romantic feelings for Quartzsona. He finds her confusing and weird but he knows she like him, which fuels his ego a lot and finds useful. He easily takes advantage of it to boost his image.

He thought the journey would be hard because of Quartzsona's stubbornness but he was surprised to see how much she easily gives in to his empty promises of love and attention.

"How were they in the relationship?"

Being the only one in love, Quartzsona was actually trying her best to be more comfortable and more open with Azul, acting a little childish and affectionate which weirded Azul the fuck out 😭😭😭

Yeah, he didn’t really like it that much. He found it so weird that the Quartzsona he met at NRC was so different to the one he's dating now. He expected her to act more mature and maybe aloof so he could easily just do work but she ended up being "so gross and clingy."

He obviously appreciated the love and affection but it felt scary for him to know that someone really believed he should be loved romantically.

Azul didn't really view Quartz much as a person but rather an accessory or a task on a to-do list. He didn't really want a wife but he had to so he could look at least desirable or for his image.

Because of that view, Quartzsona's actual feelings was usually ignored by him just showering her with materialistic things he thought showed his "love."

Azul sometimes criticizes Quartzsona for being "too affectionate and annoying" which would piss her off and lead to an argument. But Quartz still tried to be a good wife and listened to Azul's criticisms sometimes because she definitely felt like the dumb one in their arguments.

They still have a lot of petty arguments and they still fight over stupid things too. The arguments occurred more frequently at the end of their marriage.

"How did they part?"

I made a comic about that lol -> here

The comic actually has the "fusion" kid rather than Safira because this was before Safira and it has Quartzsona giving birth to her which I changed because of her lack of reproductive organs 😭

Safira's actual birth or how she came to be is ambiguous and who carried the baby is either Azul (🤯) or Quartz but no one really knows.

It might be Quartz because she took the baby first but we have no idea if she was pregnant 😭😭😭

But the baby was born and Quartz believed that the toxic environment she and Azul made would not be good for the baby, so she offered the divorce and Azul accepted.

Yes, it was a huge decision but Quartzsona had already given up the relationship for her kid and Azul was never in love with Quartz during the relationship until that day on Christmas eve.

It was a short and passing feeling when he saw Quartz walk away from the relationship but he felt a small longing for her. It wasn't anything crazy but he somehow described it as love since you don't miss people you don't love.

But he'll never say that out loud. It's too embarrassing even if it was just a small feeling.

On Quartz's side, she was only doing what she believed was best for them and the baby. Of course she'll miss him but she's willing to get over that. She'll struggle a little but she's willing to get through that.

During the conversation in the comic, you can see that Quartz is being understanding and still wants Azul to be part of the baby's life because he also loves that kid more than anything like her.

Quartzsona still wants her baby to have both parents in her life and is willing to work with Azul to raise her.

"After the divorce?"

As Quartz raised Safira, she started to process how much of an asshole Azul was and grew a strong resentment towards him. She sometimes gets carried away with her feelings and slips up infront of her kid

(THESE ARE REALLY OLD SO THIS IS THE FUSION KID but the same applies)

Azul doesn't really think about Quartz until he sees her dropping Safira off to him or when he's drunk. He's often really busy but he loves spoiling his kid and saying what his kid likes.

Azul's and Quartz's way of loving and teaching her is quite different. While Azul wants Safira to know that life is safe if Papa is there, Quartz wants to teach her that sometimes life is hard and we don't always get what we want.

They also both still argue and fight but they tone it down around Safira to not worry her.

Safira knows that her parents don't like eachother because why would two parents live in different households? As she grew older, she always tried to be the voice of reason when they fought but it really annoys her and WISHES for them to GET OVER IT IT'S BEEN YEARS

Yeah thats all I got

[thetrialsandtribulationsofeb]

it’s kind of ironic (and annoying) when some of GA watchers call buddie shippers “fetishizers” because we ship two best friends, but they root for bucktommy

when from what i’ve seen on my screen is that their relationship is just so freaking bad - they kiss, then they go on a date where tommy shames and dumps buck instead of being more supportive and empathetic, despite knowing that this is buck’s first queer experience. he doesn’t show up in the right costume for the bachelor party, he makes a weird joke about buck’s daddy issues (some people find it an icebreaker, but to me it felt inappropriate), they have a 6-month anniversary date where tommy gives buck a present he doesn’t like because he knows almost nothing about him, as proven by the hospital scene where buck’s best friend fills in on the lore. he breaks up with him because he’s insecure. he then tries to shoot his shot once again after their drunk hookup and reveals that he sees buck’s best friend as competition and is glad he’s gone, etc

there’s literally nothing for me to root for

like, if someone does ship two guys just because they’re hot together, then it’s the bt shippers

and they think that we want buddie because we want to “turn everything sexual,” but from all the buddie analyses i read, it’s not even the right point, ‘cause what we actually want is for them to be romantic (which they already are, but an actual confirmation would be nice)

and this whole issue of pairing buck and eddie with people just because they’re hot and available?? it happens with all their past relationships, actually

with ali, natalia, ana, and marisol there was no emotional connection shown - they were just so insignificant and the show just said, “yeah, this is his romantic partner. whatever”

and with shannon, taylor, and tommy, there were too many misalignments and conflicts, so i couldn’t like them either

i won’t say anything about abby ‘cause she was always meant to leave the show and be only at the start of buck’s journey

meanwhile, if i found what buck and eddie have with someone in my real life, i’d literally marry them. and i’m not even that into marriage - but with them, i would

and i would think that maybe the writers don’t know how to write a healthy and interesting relationship between a man and a woman and that’s why the strongest bond is between two male characters (like spn and its poor treatment of the women in dean and sam’s life), but it’s not the case either?? ‘cause bathena and madney exist

hell, sometimes they even make me emotional over random couples during emergencies

so the writers really wrote themselves into a corner with how they’ve portrayed buddie

and i’d think that maybe they’re against it, but all the scripting, acting, and promoting choices starting from season 7 tell me otherwise

either the people who are directly involved in the ship (tim, oliver, ryan, maybe someone else) are that stupid that they don’t see what they’re doing, or the bt fans are stupid because instead of shipping the two characters that actually have a beautiful connection with each other, they are more invested in some random couple just because tommy is hot and very clearly gay

buck and eddie can kiss and sleep with other people all they want, but the truth is, that romantically and emotionally, no one can compare to what they have with each other

and again, this is actually a classic friends-to-lovers trope, when no matter how much you try to build a relationship with other people, you always come back to your best friend because turns out they’re actually the right person for you

there are hundreds of songs, books, and tv shows written about this, and it happens quite often in real life

and if for some stupid reason (like tim minear maybe losing his mind), buddie doesn’t become canon, then i’m still gonna think that i’m right about my interpretation of their relationship and that he is wrong, because it’s the only development that makes sense for their story and for their feelings

and i’m anti-bucktommy till the day i die ‘cause something about people hating all of buck’s previous female love interests, but suddenly loving tommy - even though he’s just as bad for buck as they were - really pisses me off as a bisexual

it just screams biphobic and misogynistic to me

and like, yes, thank you for bi-buck-canon, but tommy is just a placeholder, because the only one who makes buck actually happy and gives him what he needs is eddie

after they get together, the writers can build other close platonic male friendships for “healthy male friendship representation” - like buck and ravi, or eddie and chim, for example

but buck and eddie? these two are in love with each other and they make sense as lovers

[jevilowo]

MY OPINIONS ON VARIOUS TF2 SHIPS

For funsies

SCIENCE PARTY:

fun ship, but they're GodComplex4GodComplex and I fear that would only end in disaster

TOASTED SANDVICH:

if there is one heavypyro fan on this stupid baka planet it is me. shout out to menacing quiet individuals who like violence but have a soft side fr.

BLOODY SUIT:

literally The Original toxic yaoi rivals to lovers red blue combo ship. speeding bullet and napoleon complex fans WISH they had our shared update and corresponding voice lines

BATTING HELMET: (scout n solly)

i just think it's really funny trust me on this one guys. have you seen them in the fourth comic it's a constant "yes, and" bit between the two of them. soldier's love language is choking people out.

HIT AND A MISS: (scout n pauling)

like most ms pauling ships, i'm only into it if scout's a cool lesbian. which he is not most of the time.

RED OKTOBERFEST:

AAAAAAAAAAAAA literally the ship of all time save me heavymedic save me. if they don't smooch in the next comic i will become jay pinkerton's personal sleep paralysis demon.

SPEEDING BULLET:

my feelings on it are Complicated. twas my first love (otp) in this fandom, but the overabundance of twinky uwu scout and daddy dom snoipah has built up some resentment on my part. call me back when people stop making up imaginary life problems for sniper to comfort scout over.

NAPOLEON COMPLEX: (Spy n Engie)

literally just rarjack if they were boys and not horses to me and i'm not even an mlp fan. it's alright, just doesn't really stick out to me.

SPYMA:

LITERALLY THE POWERCOUPLE EVER TRULY A LOVE STORY FOR THE AGES or at least the version that exists in my head is. i have so much made up spyma lore it's crazyyy. bonus points if they're polying up they cule with sniper it's quickly becoming my favourite genre of fanart (i have seen at maximum three)

SUPPORT SANDWICH: (spy n sniper n medic)

in my opinion, it is healthy for everyone to have at least one ship they just like bc they think it's hot. for me, that is support sandwich. not much else to say on that the fics are all banging go look them up.

SNIDOS: (sniper n GLaDOS)

hell yeah.

ADMINPAULING:

i used to like it a lot, but timelining implies ms pauling's been working for helen since her mid teens at the latest so i no longer like it. 4chan leaks my beloathed pleaseee don't make them kiss i think it would kill me in a bad way

URINE SAMPLE: (medic n sniper)

there's a lot of werewolf and vampire stuff for these two on ao3 which is pretty fun. and i'm way more likely to find sniper angst under the medicsniper tag than sb and bs which is always a plus.

FRENCH TOAST: (spyro)

have you seen that one animation where pyro gives birth to spy's child and gordon freeman is there at one point. yeahhhh. the ship's pretty cute tho spy would be sooo soft for pyro they'd light his cigarettes for him.

BOOTS AND BOMBS:

THE FORBIDDEN RED/BLU ROMANCE GOES CRAZY I ADORE IT. same team bnb is pretty banging too. bonus points if they're polying up they cule with zhanna.

SPYPAULING:

HEAR ME OUT ON THIS ONE. imagine. spy x pauling. yuri. that will be all.

SWORDVAN:

SWORDVAN MY LOVE!!! idk what it is about demo and sniper together but HELL YEAH TOP 5 SHIPS FR FR. shout out to the guy still writing monsterous intent, they're like single handedly carrying the swordvandom.

TEXAS TOAST:

I used to think "this is cute" but then my friend got really really into it and that hyped me up into "THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SHIPS OF ALL TIME" territory. bonus points if they're yuri! shout out to Technicolor California, my current favourite fanfic of all time (it overtook running blind in the interal rankings). oh yeah insert mandatory "no hate to engie and pyro father son dynamic preferers" message here lol.

Ok that's enough I will cover more at some point maybe.

[internalloops]

DA:TV rant … if you are of the mind that BioWare can do no wrong /its games can be criticize or if you truly enjoying the game and are loving everything that you’ve seen so far this post is not for you. Please move along and if you don’t want me showing up on your feed please block me.  I will not be engaging with any fan that will not allow me to take up space and vent my feelings on the disaster that is this fucking game.

*Also a lot of spoilers!!

.. it’s horrible, like I knew I was going to be disappointed but holy fucking shit …

I’m about to finish act one and .. they destroyed their entire lore … BioWare destroyed their ENTIRE lore /world build of Dragon Age

Minrathous has NO SLAVES !!! They are briefly talked about via shadow dragons but they’re are none visible at all in the city ( but they have the animation to give a poor person “fake money” )

The qunari who literally fought and tried to kill solas in trespasser have been turned into mindless brutes who willingly joined the evil gods … because they command dragons ?

The blight except for one mission is harmless. They purposely turned it into a bio weapon and then (besides the dark spawn spawning from it like something out of an MMO) due to *plot armor, no one actually contracts the blight ???

The black chantry minus one building that you go through in a side quest doesn’t exist? No chantry members , no talk of the black divine ..

Dalish are all engineers now and part of the veil jumpers ( which should not exist lore wise) and all elven magic has been converted into cyberpunk technology and artifacts. Very little talk about their oppression and they are all very willing to drop all their history , even their distrust of solas , to flight the old gods .

Varric Has been demoted to inspirational speaker and narrator he has no other role and the entire team acts like he died , even when he’s in the room with him ( I think BioWare actually planned to kill him but then chickened out ) and is a husk of his former self

Same with Morgan , you can’t interact with her at all and she’s given the same mysterious background as flemeth ( the theory that she carries mythal spirit is very strong right now )

Lyrim potions don’t exist, in fact lyrim doesn’t exist at all besides the dagger. All magic has turned into technology, and if you play as a mage mana just has an automatic replenish rate /cool down effect that you can level up.

Evil gods go back and forth between an actual intense adversary and threat to the world, and a typical Disney villain.

These are just the few I can think of off the top of my head, there is so much more than this …

The game can literally be summed up as Mass effect andromeda x2 with God of war animations and marvel style writing ( not the avengers I’m talking about the recent shit)

Also for the people who want to kill solas or simply dislike him, the game pushes a sympathetic view of him on you ,even your companions who outrightly want to kill him will feel sorry for him. And I’m saying this as a solavellan fan. Yes they’re options to be mean to him and antagonize him, but you won’t get anyone agreeing with your actions ,at best they’ll be neutral about it. Now this might play out differently for those who picked the “chooses to stop him “ option , but for those who’s inquisitions wanted to save him but they wanted their rooks to hate him … you’re not gonna be happy about what you get ..

The only thing that keeping me playing is the reveal of history of ancient elves and Titans and solas’s story. And Assan!! Assan can do no wrong !! Everything else is a slog to get through.

[inkzectz]

in your Bigger than the sky animation benrey starts out as barney? that seems so interesting lore wise? i would love to hear about what you were thinking when you animated that askdhfjlagh and the sweet voice and dreading stare? no clue what it means but curious as hell

ok im gonna go a little crazy on this because this is my biggest/favorite bc ever.

In the full vods they refer to benrey as “Barney” for the first while, it’s kind of unclear why, from Wayne’s perspective it seems he just didn’t know his name and defaulted to the character models name, and gir and Holly said they thought the joke with benrey was he was Barney but wrong, and they kept calling him the wrong name, so bipple, booper, Bentley, but eventually benrey, the name said by scorpy, stuck.

All this to say, it’s a BIG hc of mine that he was intended to be Barney (in universe) but due to being self aware was able to break off from this character he was meant to be. it’s kind of implied within the series they all have fake memories of who they are, being AI they are supposed to sort of act a certain way to maintain the immersion but at the end of the day, nothing before the game booted up really happened.

And benrey knows this, benrey knew from the beginning nothing was real, that he wasn’t human, how it ends, that no one actually dies, the works. I also headcanon that he became self aware during the AI model training stages, that the guy in charge of training his AI as Barney, broke him causing his self awareness and he was just launched into the beta game fully aware of the circumstances of his existence. I don’t think he was fully aware of how everything in game worked though.

but this to me is why he seems to constantly be changing his view of Gordon, antagonizing him one moment and then being friendly the next, his feelings about him are complex, he knows from the beginning he isn’t actually Gordon Freeman, but a guy just playing half life. Being a security guard, he’s programmed to protect Gordon with his life, but he knows this. He knows what’s compelling him to care for Gordon isn’t himself but lines of code he’s bound to, and this is why he antagonizes him. But that’s a whole different rant on its own lol

That sequence at the beginning of the bigger than the sky animatic was supposed to be a false memory, something he was supposed to think happened, but the version of Gordon he remembers isn’t real. This idea of ‘Gordon’ is a concept that only exists in these fake memories. (This is also why I think he never calls Gordon by name throughout the series, because he knows it’s not actually him (besides that one time but it doesn’t count bc it was for a bit lalala I can’t hear you))

there wasn’t much thought into the details of that part, like the coughing into the hand with the sweet voice, I really just put that bc I thought it looked dramatic and cool 😓

BUT on the topic of this big ass hc of mine, it actually is super important to a upcoming project im working on, and I realized throughout the story boarding it might need some explanation because it also has a lot of flash backs to some fake memories.

Sorry this got super rant-y I tried to keep it as short and simple as I could, I love hlvrai, I think about it literally every moment of my life and have so many hcs

[gold-rhine]

5.6. PARALOGISM SPOILERS

extremely polarizing feelings on this quest, ngl. i don't really have a problem with WHAT happened, but with HOW its happened.

first of all, pacing is crazy. after standing in a circle for 4 hours in a natlan finale we start doing ten million massive things in one hour, with almost no space for them to breathe or explore properly. this quest had less detalization than my bullet point inazuma rewrite. in fact, it feels like the writers did exactly bullet points in like one day and nothing else. i understand they were probs rushed due to change of direction with nod krai, but this is too much.

and tbh i dont even think it would take a lot to make this quest truly good. polish up an invasion sequence a bit, make it closer to natlan war section, add at least one actual cutscene. like the french gordon ramsey story quest had too many cut scenes, with special animations at that, and it tbh didn't need them, but they cant spare a separate cut scene for whole ass mond attack? hoyo, stop acting so cheap, we all know you have the money!

and then the main conflict, with albedo and durin. first of all. albedo saying that he considers himself a real human, just another type of human, and then saying that him killing susbedo is not a murder, bc he was NOT A PERSON??? babygirl, whats the difference between you two then? like he literally didn't have to say that, he could argue self defense bc that motherfucker tried to kill him and his friends. why dehumanize him and yourself?

and then framing durin as like ontologically evil, when all of his prev existing lore AND simulanka say that he was well intended, but with abyss aura that harmed the world just by existing. but now suddenly simulanka durin is the only one good, but actual durin is evil???? bc he's jealous of not being favorite child???? durin was thinking about how dvalin is beatiful and how he'd wanted to dance together while dvalin was killing him, but now hes pure evil bc of mommy issues, are you kidding me? bro did the writers of this quest even play simulanka? or take 5 minutes to read durin wiki page?? but even with that, in this very quest, venti says that durin feels like "an angry child". so you have an abandoned, tragic angry child lashing out and just go yeah, lets put him down, no attempts at reaching out??? what is this, hsr????

and like i truly think itd take like additional half an hour to fix and just a bit of actual writers effort. killing susbedo off screen is such a waste, and i'm not one of his fans or anything, i do not care about him personally, but he was a very well foil setup for albedo. and we exchange him for what? for fake copy of NPC no one cares about or knew before? literally why??? just washing 3 years of setup down the toilet.

instead of killing him off screen and having some durin mind controlled monsters (?????) dig him up for durin to eat, they could have just said he contacted durin himself. we know its possible! elynas is able to contact melusines through his blood crystals, same as dragonspine has, and even speak directly with the traveler when his heart awakens, and durin's heart is alive! bros, you already have the perfect setup, if only whoever wrote this took 10 minutes to read abyss dragons lore first! so susbedo could communicate with durin and teach him alchemy and influence his worldview!

albedo and susbedo could have had a confrontation that actually dramatizes albedo's conflict. albedo's answer to the truth of the world is that being a "real" human is about connecting with the world and other people, forging bonds and connections. which by itself is good character culmination and where it was always going, i always said that. but he just TELLS us that! instead, susbedo's philosophy could be the isolation, refusal to engage with the world, refusing to trust people bc he's afraid they will not accept him, and so instead using and controlling them. then it would be a juxtaposition of opposing viewpoints that SHOWS us albedo's arc instead of telling. and at the end of the trial susbedo could reveal the truth about albedo to try and turn ppl against him, but we could have mond people to accept albedo instead, bc they know him for years and he's friends with many of them! like that would be an actual logical conclusion of his arc, bc albebe, how are you gonna be like i'm a real human, truth is about having a life with other ppl, but you don't trust these ppl to not turn against you when they find out who you are?

and with durin i'm not even against durins merge, but they just introduced mini durin so rapidly, like RIP ppl who didn't play simulanka, and it wasn't explained in their "recollections" at all. and instead of just killing durin and replacing him with "better" durin, they could have communicated with durin, since hes whole theme is misguidedly lashing out, explain to him the situation. durin let himself be killed the first time bc he realized hes harming the world by existing, and he didn't want to, so they could have been like hey so in simulanka in special conditions we were able to clear abyss corruption from a version of you. we don't have fairy powers of life irl so we can't do the same exactly, but we can merge you with already cleansed mini durin, and we think this gives you the best chance to live an actual life as a part of this world, do you agree? like it wouldn't take much to write him to believably agree to something like that. like it would truly not even take that long to have that dialogue instead of putting him down like a sick dog.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

re: sympathetic ganondorf vs evil for evil’s sake ganondorf, i think this is misrepresenting and underselling what’s actually offputting to people

“i’m evil because i’m evil” or “i’m evil because demise is evil” and the associated lust for power simply for its own sake has always been lame and low effort. there’s a reason it’s “shit tier” on the classic “villain motive tiers” thing

“i’m evil but there’s enough nuance to make the player at least somewhat sympathetic to me even if i’m still ultimately a bad guy” is a good thing that people like? i’ve never personally interacted with a zelda player who thinks windwaker ganondorf ruined the character or anything - he’s generally regarded as the gold standard of villain writing both in and out of zelda. this is roughly “high tier” on the tier chart

“actually TWIST i’m not evil at all, it’s the good guys who were evil all along, i’ve done nothing wrong and i’m completely justified in my righteous quest against the status quo, you’re the real secret true villain for being complicit in preserving it” is technically regarded as “elder god tier” on the motive tier chart but i would personally label it as “oscar bait tier”. these things *can* be compelling in conversation with the existing landscape, but often it comes across as a deliberate effort to subvert the audience’s expectations for the sake of being unpredictable (or worse, for the sake of proving you’re the smartest one in the room). in separate works where this conversation/critique is the entire point (eg. Watchmen or The Boys), that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and the audience sets their expectations accordingly. in an established, long-running franchise, however, this almost always reads as dripping with contempt for the audience, like walking into a room and going “you morons like this shit? let me, a person much smarter than you, explain what it’s Actually about, because you’re an idiot if you’ve been a fan of this series before now”

on top of that, in the context of a series like zelda, this type of story feels myopic and disrespectful to the future of the series. “welp i burned down the 20+ years of lore behind this character so i could do a deconstruction, good luck using them in any capacity in the future, sounds like a you problem”

all this is to say, i think it’s a bit disingenuous/strawman-y to suggest that people put off by this want ganondorf to have 0 depth at all. there’s a lot of room for different kinds of depth, it’s just that the trend of the last decade has been for “depth” to mean “condescending deconstruction”

Hey!

Thanks for taking the time to write this ask, I think it warrants an interesting conversation. To me, there's like, a lot of things about what you're saying, and tbh I do see where you're coming from --in part.

First thing first... No yeah unfortunately some people Are hostile to even WW Ganondorf. It's been a rising trend in the fandom since TotK was released --people being very against the concept of any additional complexity to the character, either not getting it or considering anything he says pure manipulation that doesn't even warrant a conversation, literally making fun of people who were intrigued by this and wanting more out of this particular thread. This position not only absolutely exists within the fandom --less so on tumblr, I'll agree there-- but it's not even hard to stumble upon as a pretty regular opinion that gets tossed around. I had some interesting asks thrown my way, let's say. The idea that Ganondorf is a remotely interesting character that deserves more thought than what he gets is very much Extremely not the norm, and the very fact that you, as a fan, likes him as a guy is perceived as weird and missing the point by a lot of people. Like a lot a lot of people.

So I'll just... I guess I haven't clarified my position in a while, so I will reclarify my position on our favorite evil dude: I do like him perfectly fine as a villain, I do not want him to be "redeemed" by the narrative, I think he works fantastically as an ongoing threat, I think they could make him even scarier and more offputting and that would be super fun and thrilling... and I also think he already is complex. Like, inherently. Everything Nintendo has been putting into him since his first appearance is complicated --even their attempts at flattening him back in TotK do not fully work because they can't scrub him of the extremely loaded ideas they injected into him from the get-go. Nobody forced Nintendo to do a Mega Orientalism when inventing him, nobody made them write the NPCs to have this super weird antagonistic relationship to the gerudos in OoT, nobody made them have all this lore of the one man born every hundred years, raised by twin witches --and then nobody made them press on that tension point in Wind Waker explicitely, and then, in a more subtle fashion, in TP too. Nobody forced their hand when it came to having the strange "round ear" situation, suggesting (confirmed even, in additional canon) gerudos are born unblessed. The fact of the matter is: everything to make the relationship between Hyrule and the gerudos complicated has been there since 1998. There's no need for a Switcharoo to prove that anyone is smarter than the audience: everything messy has always been baked within the worldbuilding itself. It's in the cartridges already!!

Perspective on it is what could change, though --because, except in Wind Waker, we never get even a hint of a sense that we should think, as an audience, that Hyrule's super weird relationship to the gerudos is maybe questionable. Worth thinking about at least. Which, given the optics, is wild to me that to bring this particular can of worms up is still very largely considered crazy talk within the fandom (that, or the Sheikah situation across the series, also insane in many ways). And yes, it would perhaps lead to themes that are a bit heavier than what Zelda has been overtly dealing with (though, again, Majora's Mask exists --and I do find a lot of unpacked ideas in the Wild Era, like the very unquestionned gerudo bridal pipeline, very uhhh unfortunate already if I'm being honest --even moreso because it is unquestioned). But Zelda, when well handled narratively, can do wonderful things with evocative subtext, open doors never fully crossed, a lynchian pressure on what should feel offputting. We don't even need a sad monologue about it. It doesn't even need to be handled explicitely. But I think the pressure point is just better when understood and incorporated in some form, instead of being denied so hard the world itself start to feel incomplete and unlived.

I do want to say... I get what you mean with the whole "oscar bait" thing. There has been, historically and in recent years, a tendency to be driven by an external, almost panicked sense of morality rather than by the internal drive of a story, its internal thematic logic. I also do think it can feel very corporate, very "Disney looking back at its own movies and scrubbing off everything Buzzfeed deemed problematic in 2014 while making everything glossy and lifeless and awful" and it's not that great!!! and tbh I can't say I would trust Nintendo to handle any appreciation for the fact that the story of an eternal golden kingdom cheering on beating the evil outsiders who want to corrupt everything good and pure and blonde about that perfect inherently good place, is like, extremely not neutral. It absolutely is a delicate thread to weave, and I agree that putting a definitive end to Hyrule is probably not the smartest IP move to do. But, Hyrule doesn't have to be condemned as Bad, it can be merely complicated. And ongoing, regardless. To keep on with the Disney parallel: The Lion King would feel weird if we started to peel off the internal politics of the hyenas, it's just not the right place for it, when everything about this story revolves around the Righteousness of the Divine Right to Rule. But if the Lion King was an ongoing series that had been looping on itself for a while... wouldn't it make sense to figure out how to achieve majesty by studying other angles too, eventually? Is it that strange to suggest the exercise is like, possible? That it can be handled with artistry and soul?

I feel like... Yes, to acknowledge Ganondorf's humanity --not even to coddle it, just to acknowledge it-- implies taking in everything that makes him who he is, and that might rattle some foundational ideas about why this ancestral fight is even happening in the first place. I also do not think it means that he must be Good now. He can still punch a child and cackle maniacally, he can still be unredeemable --he can still destroy himself and others out of the most unconstructive spite ever, and we can still see the purpose in defeating him while basking in the "yea....." left in his wake (Wind Waker did that!!! Wind Waker did that and then we had more Zelda games!! crazy how that happened). This is hardly undoable. It does take some narrative skill, and some commitment to taking a bit of a risk, but Ganondorf is genuinely unmanageable as a character if you insist on your refusal to acknowledge his foundations --and I think it's partially why TotK's story is such a mess. He sells a TON, but you can't have him breathe slightly too loud without risking the entire world falling apart. They did try in TotK, so very hard, and to me they still failed--as insane as he behaves, Hyrule still doesn't come out of this looking good or particularly justified, because the very central core of Ganondorf's character is to be subjugated, and then rebelling in a destructive and brutally selfish, uncompromising manner that ends up robbing him of humanity --and the discomfort of that premise will therefore always haunt the conversation. Nintendo dug themselves into that mess. I feel like a lot of the Ganondorf fans I know merely... point at that. At the mess. And I feel like the longer the games avoid this mess, the more coats of spinach green they slather ontop of his skin, and the more nonsensical characterization they pile up, and the more Ganondorf will become a parody of who he once was, and what made him compelling to begin with.

And to top it all off, as if he wasn't contentious and complicated enough to handle already, they leaned into the internet turning him into a sex symbol for some fucking reason??? Yeah I genuinely have no idea how Nintendo will manage this dude moving forward, because to me, he is, at best, an endless source of (very lucrative) headaches, and at worst a ticking time bomb. I'm not sure how long they can get away with that TotKification strategy, is what I mean.

(Also: I tried to not overdwell on all the incredibly complicated conversation re: race and orientalism, but it's borderline impossible to have this conversation without acknowledging that I have never seen a major pop culture villain receive more pushback against "woobification" than him, and I don't think it's a complete coincidence let's say :) )

[demaparbat-hp]

Hi Dema!! Your art is fantastic and even the lineart is awesome! Solid and confident in where it's thick and where thin. I really like how your style has characters look more realistic and they have specific consistent features. Your blog has a pleasant atmosphere, and you're skilled in weaving AUs! There's a lot of details and structure, and I'd like to ask if any of them have a full story arc? Could you do a list of all of the AUs? Is there a motif that you especially like that repeats in any of the AUs? And whenever you add comments to my stuff in the tags I literally smile, it makes me want to keep at my plan to create everything I have in mind. So I'd like to spread this joy! I hope you have a nice day! (from late-draft ^^)

Hello, Late-Draft! I wasn't expecting this ask at all but I'm so glad to have received it!

First of all—I'll try to hold myself back from giggling like a schoolgirl. I'm having a sempai noticed me moment over here and that's just embarrassing. So give me a second to compose myself, if that's alright?

Okay, I'm back.

Now, on to business.

Character design, especially when it comes to facial features and how they're unique to each person, has always been a passion of mine. I always try to have a solid design for each character. I choose which features feel like the character in question, which face feels natural to draw, and go along with it. I love drawing Katara as much as I love drawing Zuko. Meanwhile, I seem to be on a never-ending battle against Sokka's features. Woes of an artist, I suppose.

Character design is actually one of the reasons I love your work so much, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm currently experimenting a bit with a different style... Hopefully it won't be long before the artwork is done and I can share it over here. I'm so excited for everyone to see it!

Now it's time for the reason we're all here.

I have said it before and shall say it once more: AUs are my lifeblood.

I love them so much! Building them, daydreaming the scenes, thinking of the characters and how they differ from their canon versions. The arcs and the themes and the worldbuilding. Building AUs is my passion, and I have so many of them!

There are a lot of motifs and themes that tend to repeat themselves in several of my AUs, I believe.

You'll notice that most of my stories are Zuko-centric, with a heavy emphasis on grief and humanity. There's the question of what makes us human and how to move forward when the whole world seems to push you back. I put a lot of stock in metaphors and symbolism within the narrative itself. I'm especially interested in the nuance of war and how it affects people emotionally, physically, and psychologically

I also tend to reutilize some elements of the lore and/or worldbuilding! Such as the Painted Lady's backstory, or the existence of War Children within the ATLA universe.

Now, the list!

I think I'll start with my current project, if that's okay :)

For the Spirits (New Gods AU)

Zuko was a child when he met Agni. Then, the spirits started coming to him. Eyes hidden in the hallways, voices pleading for help, for recognition, for remembrance.

Zuko could see Agni. He could see the broken remains of a Great Spirit and the empty smiles of amnesiac ghosts.

And they could see him in return.

I've been working on this AU for a long time, but only now did I get the chance to start writing the fic (linked up there!). I'm extremely excited about FTS and where the story will lead us in the future, but I'll try not to spoil too much.

It's a Zuko-centric story, with a heavy emphasis on Spirits and humanity. I'd like to add a warning for depression/mental health issues.

To Hesitate (Lee & Kya AU)

As she watches Lee and Kya avoid each other's eyes from across the room, the phrase comes back to her, swift and silent:

"To hesitate is to lose."

.

As Song treats the victim of an unfortunate interaction with a rare poisonous flower, her day takes an unexpected turn when it becomes apparent that the old man's nephew and her assistant have history.

A vivid history.

The Lee & Kya AU is a vibe, a feeling. It's probably one of my oldest AUs out there as well as one of my dearest.

A classical Lee and Kya From The Tea Shop AU, full with wholesome fandom tropes such as: fake (but not really) dating, fake identities, Ba Sing Se shenanigans, vigilante stuff, White Lotus missions, Iroh is a great Uncle, Zuko is an awkward turtleduck, and, of course, the fluffiest fluff you'll ever see.

Other than that, Lee & Kya is probably one of the less plot-focused AUs I have. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't scenes I can't wait to write or a canon divergence or two where Zuko is concerned.

(I have another fic posted but I'll leave that one to the end. You asked for a full story arc and, oh boy, does Soundless deliver.)

Kintsugi AU

Closer to being canon-adjacent than canon-divergent, Kintsugi is yet another Zuko-centric AU (and are we not noticing a pattern over here?).

I'd love to explain it in depth, but I believe the caption of the artwork linked above does a better job at explaining than I ever will.

Kintsugi is the art of decorating your scars with pieces of Agni.

In the Fire Nation, the amount of golden marks are a sign of status. Only the Royal Family can afford to seal every single wound with Kintsugi. Such is the weight of this tradition that, among the ones with Agni's blood, it is the highest mark of dishonor to have a natural scar, for it proves you aren't worthy of the privilege.

After the Agni Kai, Ozai forbid Zuko's scar to be sealed with Kintsugi. The boy wasn't worth his title, his traditions or his pride. Zuko would be broken, but he wouldn't be beautiful. Not anymore.

(And sometimes it's easier to pretend he never was)

Kyoshi Warriors AU

One of my absolute favorites!

In this AU, Ursa took Zuko and Azula with her when she was banished, so they could start anew. With help from Iroh and the White Lotus, she managed to relocate her freshly burned eight-year-old child and her crying daughter to Kyoshi Island.

Years later, when Avatar Aang and his companions first arrive at Kyoshi Island, they're met by the Kyoshi Warriors and their leader, Noriko of pale skin and warm brown eyes.

The Gaang leave Kyoshi Island many weeks later with a new companion. And if Jian Li, with his war paint and his scar and his dual dao, gives the island that he has called home for so long one final, longing glance as they fly away on Appa, they pretend not to notice.

Hunters AU

We're starting to dwelve deep into dangerous waters!

This is a Katara Joins Zuko In His Quest To Find The Avatar AU, with a twist!

This AU was born as a writing experiment. What if we take Katara's character, and change one of her core characteristics? Katara, who looked up to the Avatar as a saviour figure, now blames him for leaving and allowing the Fire Nation to wage war on the world.

Then comes Zuko, a banished Prince with a crew full of traitors and his own agenda. Zuko wishes for nothing more than to dethrone his father and end the war. He is a White Lotus member, an honorable, driven young man, and he has a plan.

The catch? He needs to take the Avatar to his father if he wishes to regain his title and be able to rightfully take the throne. Oh, and he will deliver the Avatar to the Fire Lord—but nobody said it had to be in chains.

Halfblood AU

I watched Blue Eye Samurai a few months ago and it destroyed me. The idea of a half-blooded child dead set on getting revenge for their very existence stuck with me, and this AU was born.

Kanna made a life for herself in the Earth Kingdom after leaving the North. Katara was raised by her grandmother in a small village, being taught to hide her bending if she wanted to live peacefully in a place she was only half of. Her mother had died in childbirth. Her father, a nameless warrior from the Southern Water Tribe who had loved Kya and left her behind, didn't know of Katara's existence.

Katara took over Kanna's clinic after she passed away. Always taking care of others. Always suppressing her need to bend. Always wishing for more.

One day, he arrived. A half-child, just like her. But while she was of Water, he was a son of Agni. He was searching for the man who brought him to this world. The man who scarred him. The man whose face he couldn't recall, whose name he did not know. The man whose specter had chased his mother to her grave. The man who would die at his hand.

The answers were hidden in a small teashop deep within Ba Sing Se. Lee offered her a way out, and Katara took it.

Soundless (Uiscefhuaraithe)

Katara of the Southern Water Tribe has hands scarred by fire and great talent, though no teacher.

Zuko is a mute War Child, a herbalist and healer, and the Blue Spirit. He bears the mark of fire, and the scar of the blade that took away his voice.

The first time they met, the Blue Spirit had just saved her, tough not before her hands got burned. The second time they met, his name was Lee, and he was healing her.

They live in war and they will fight, if not for the world, then for themselves.

You asked for a full storyline, and I shall deliver!

Soundless is probably the only AU I have fully planned. Three-books, Azula redemption arc, role-reversals and all.

This AU has everything. From travelling through the Earth Kingdom together, to odd character team-ups that somehow manage to work, and a major goal/conflict to resolve.

Zuko and Katara must find their way to Omashu in an Earth Kingdom ravaged by war as they also grow to understand each other, themselves, and the world around them. They meet with new and old alliances, keep their ears open for rumors of the Avatar (They say he is an airbender, Lee. Do you truly belive that?), and do their best to always be two steps ahead of their pasts.

Meanwhile, both the Northern and Southern Water Tribes are searching for the runaway heiress, Aang must find his way alone on this new, hostile world, and Azula must face the revelation that, despite what her father has stated for the last two years (liar, he lied at her! Her! He lied he liedliedliedlied), her brother might just be alive.

I'm sorry for making this such a long answer! I just get very excited about these subjects and don't know when to stop. If you made it all the way down here: thank you again.

I hope you have a good day ❤️

[nylloth]

My opinion about Arcane s2 (mostly Viktor)

I'm trying to be neutral on this, but I'm upset with what they did to Viktor.

I was wrong about their relationship with Sky (but I had hope), you can see he never really cared for her and the animators put their all into conveying that. Plus, let's say Sky represents Viktor's humanity and Viktor himself gives up on her. And it's a lot easier for him to give her up than it is for Jayce, who he's trying to show this new “world” to.

They have a lot of gay moments with Jayce, I don't know why the writers call it “family”. It's really hard to see family in that. It seems like at some point they decided to change the plot, because at the end Jayce and Viktor just disappear and no one just doesn't care what Jayce has with Mel.

The thing I didn't like the most was how they changed Ryze, that now Ryze is Viktor, the all-powerful mage. We know from the documentary that it was Ryze at one point. That would make more sense than Viktor traveling through time and constantly dooming himself to a series of miseries. But then again, they added the “all for Jayce” aspect to it.

You can see it's supposed to be a different character, right?

I really didn't like how they treated Sky because obviously she wasn't an evil manipulative core. Viktor killed her twice for his own purposes. Once by accident, the second time on purpose. Look, you add a girl who is IN LOVE with a man, make her die twice for him, and show WHY he doesn't care. It's a dirty act. Amanda said she was “proud to write Sky”, I don't know what there is to be proud of. As a woman, it was painful for me to watch. You didn't have to do that. Did you mean to say the character is gay? You don't have to humiliate women to do that.

I always hoped Viktor wouldn't have any romantic innuendos because feelings, for Herald, are a weakness. But the fact that they're indulging JayVik fans makes it look NOTHING like that. Like, I'm not a fan of this ship, but even I don't consider what they showed as brotherly feelings. Especially from Viktor's side. He is literally too concerned with Jayce's opinion.

I also think that the writers largely emphasized the clips and fights, but didn't add to the story itself. I mean Silco's deep thoughts in the first season on political topics and the theme of family in general was shown much better.

Herald is essentially non-existent. It's a character for the last two episodes who is immediately killed off because of a few words from Jayce. Viktor returns and they vaporize somewhere. I take it this is starting a recurring time loop.

They kind of tried to put in Viktor's “here he's come to the realization on his own that humanity is bad”, but they did it SO FAST and literally because of one event that it looked bad. Yeah, it's not about hexcore. VIKTOR SUPPOSEDLY CAME TO THIS ON HIS OWN. Why? Because Jayce shot him, and then Jayce helped him realize otherwise. No, really, what was that?

I also didn't like the redesign. I was hoping the mask would look different, but it looks HORRIBLE.

It's supposed to give the impression that Viktor “shut down and withdrew into himself”, they also tried to make him a “deity”, but since it only lasted 20 minutes before he went back to his normal state, it didn't make any sense… Anyway… I sympathize with everyone who loved Viktor specifically, outside jayvik ship (happy for you guys). I know they are excited, but this is not Viktor's story. You see, Viktor doesn't have his own personal story now, he's too connected to Jayce. You could say he did everything and nothing at the same time. Because he keeps running this time loop, but he's running it because of Jayce's influence.

Waiting for his updated lore to read….. idk I'll read it and forget it like a bad dream.

[coralover]

remembered about the existence of my brba/bcs oc !!

not only that, ive decided to... post her...?!?!?! 🤯

anyway, this is tristessa!! tristessa... salamanca, also known as triss!

this is her design stricly for bcs! hence 2003/2004 in the corner ^_^ brba design is in progress

shes pretty miserable, and when choosing a name it was between tristessa and dolores. both mean "sorrow, pain" 🤣✌️ its like mitski, alex g, and tv girl's music became human

basic info first, pain and lore next! yapfest and bcs spoilers alert

she is a cis woman, however i tried my best to make her as androgynous as possible, at least outside of the nurse outfit, her voice is pretty deep and i pray that she somehow could pass as a man. like at least a twink.

speaking of the outfit, she is a nurse! she works as one in a mental hospital/asylum. it doesn't affect her lore all that much, she quits the job by the end of bcs, all this contributes is that she simply more understanding of the psychos /pos in her family

being a salamanca, one of the older ones too (around tuco's age), she is a drug distributor..... she's basically a tuco or krazy-8, having some bums work for her and dealing the stuff herself

in her family she is the closest to hector, having been raised by him duh, and her cousins-twins marco and leo, when she desperately needs company and these two arent on an assasination job she third-wheels and hangs out with them (not like they become any more talkative, they all probably play cards or smt)

shes extremely claustrophobic! her apartement is literally empty space excluding basic stuff like household appliances or a tv, not even a bed she just sleeps on the floor

now LORE !!!!!!!!

during bcs, and by default when he was still alive, she dated ignacio varga, however i had mercy and didn't kill her off when her man died 🤣☝️ maybe thats what she wouldve wanted tho

they werent an outstanding pair, one can't really lead a barbie dreamhouse life when oneself and their s/o are cartel pawns, but they managed

until ignacio kicked the bucket 👎 rip king i love you

now, bcs triss and brba triss are two different people i dare say,

for example, she was sober in bcs, having only smoked weed and cigarettes, but in brba she fell off and started abusing other substances, too 🚨 (not promoting or projecting i promise) (she really liked heisenbergs product)

however, in bcs she was way less outgoing, struggled mentally, and barely ate. she was surrounded by lunatics at work and family-wise and dating a subjectively sane and normal person as ignacio, she matured (i swear the drugs are unrelated, she wanted to try the blue glass and she liked it)

coming back to the "i didnt kill her off" part, that is almost not true! some days before ignacio's demise she (as nacho has long before) deviated from the cartel and the two attempted an escape, they were apprehended in mexico, nacho being taken away by gus' men for his story to progress as canon (the motel) and triss being struck in the head by a rifle stock while putting up a fight

(gus wanted nacho alive but lwk nobody cares abt triss fr)

so she was pronounced dead. her "body" was handed over to the salamancas yet before nacho killed himself, only after that, marco and leo were tasked into burying their cousin somehwere in the wild as she was considered a disgrace to the salamancas and didnt deserve an official burial apparently 👎 acting like i didnt come up with this myself

mid-ride, she wakes up. unrealistic? could be. possible? i don't know. but she wakes up... and we come to a point where i present a second art!!!

clean (no blood or grime ver)

shes blind as a bat here btw 🤣✌️ loser with no glasses cant even tell who is she speaking to

marco and leo are as shocked as cold unexpressionless killers can be at this revelation (i love tjem sm) family-is-all and all that, to save the salamanca's name they shouldve killed her sorry ass, but for old times' sake they stop the van theyre in, hand her her glasses which they had for some reason (even though cracked), throw her outside, marco lets her use his phone to call a cab, and hand her money (around $900 maybe...?) to cover the ride, a motel for a few days, and maybe some stuff for her head since apparently U.S hospitals require payments in arms and legs

they bid her bye and she never sees her favorite cousins ever again, nor any cousins for that matter except maybe like joaquin, since she comes back to albuquerque directly after she hears about marco and leo's death, by hank's (and mike's ig) hand, in the news (brba timeline so like 2009/2010)

annd i think i should halt here... ive got more but im just gonna keep my trap shut for tonight

last thing is that she outlives hector and for some time is the only salamanca left, then dies too lol

just like mike ( i love him so much too), relevant for all of bcs and brba just to die, rip

if anyone read this all just know im making out with you sloppy. /nsrs /lh /j ive been typing this for 1 hr

gonna post more if i dont get tomatoes thrown at me

[palmolli]

SKSW ZELINK IS MY ROMAN EMPIRE!!!!

So I've already made a post like this, but like... sksw Zelink makes me violently ill. But like in a good way. They are an existential NIGHTMARE. And they drive me ABAOLUTKEKEY INSANE.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Here's basically how I view it:

Zelda was supposed to be the main character. Not Link. Link was basically just the love interest in her story. It's the Legend of Zelda, not Link, lol. In the game itself, Link was never supposed to fight Demise, he wasn't even supposed to be the one to use the triforce. Hylia reincarnated into a mortal for the sole reason of using the power of the Triforce against Demise's wrath. Link was only supposed to be a fallback plan. Yet they both fell for each other.

Imagine being Link. Your best friend in the whole wide world goes missing one day. She was basically all you had. You saw it happen and you couldn't do anything about it. You keep replaying the scene in your head over and over again, wishing you could've just caught her hand. But you couldn't. Then you learn she's still alive. There's still hope to get the one light in your life back. You don't hesitate to take up the sword. Losing your best friend is more horrifying than whatever awaits you on the surface. You follow her through old temples, slaying beasts left and right, and when you finally catch up to her, her words break your heart and explode your brain. She's really a goddess reborn. And you, nothing but her chosen hero. You still love her, and it hurts.

Imagine being Zelda. You've just fallen from the world you once knew. You're lost and confused. Only guided by a mysterious yet familiar stranger. You're told you're not who you thought you were. The life you were so familiar with shatters before your eyes. The girl you thought you were shatters with it. A piece of that life follows you down. Turns out he was just a pawn in your game. You used the person you love. But he doesn't care. He's willing to shed blood for your sake. Whether it's his or another's. It scares you. You don't exactly know why. Maybe it's because he was the only familiar thing in this new world, but now he's changed. He's no longer that lazy boy you had to drag out of his bed since you were just kids. He's no longer the boy you had to speak up for because he was too shy to do so with his own voice. You still love him, and it hurts.

PLEEEAAAZESSEEE AAUUUUUUGHHHH, I NEED TO SQUEEZE THEM LIKE DOG TOYS NOOOWWWWWW.

LIKE SERIOUSLY, BARELY ANYONE TALKS ABOUT THE ACTUAL DEPTHS OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP. EVERY EDIT OF THEM JUST TURNS INTO "ahaha, we get reincarnated to love each other in every lifetime!!! Teehee!!"

NO. SHUT UP!!!!! It is SO much more than that to me. The COMPLEXITIES. The CONFLICT. THE EXISTENTIAL DREAD.

They're the only Link and Zelda pair aware of the cycle. They were the very first. They planted the seed for what eventually grew into Hyrule. They lived and died with the knowledge that their people would never know peace. They are essentially the Adam and Eve of Hylian lore. That has never been explored in the Zelda canon, and it pisses me off sm.

ALSOOOO the very idea of once being a GOD in a past life and having the memories of one... it's almost incomprehensible. Same with dating said used to be God. If you try too hard to wrap your head around it, it'll unravel your mind. That is genuinely some kinda form of existential horror or something. Arrrrghhhhhhhh... they make me so violent...

Also... Zelda's soul is still divine. Link's isn't. What happens to them after death? Do NOT reply with "Oh, they get reincarnated as the other future Zeldas and Links!" Because... there's literally in game evidence of two Zeldas and two Links existing at once, which wouldn't be possible if they were the same person reincarnated. One. Botw Zelda and the Hylia statues. Two. The hero's shade and tp Link??? THREE. The og Zelda and the adventure of Link Zelda.

Hylia still exists after Skyward Sword... but where's her Link? Did he pass on and leave her behind? I genuinely don't think he would do that. I think Hylia's ghost is sealed away in the Sacred Realm, because the golden three thought she was too weak to exist in the normal realm. Separating her from her Link. He still lingers, somewhere... but she can't find him. Though she sees his face in every child that wields the blade he had cherished so dearly. She sees his face in every single one of their daughters that shares her name.

I think I could go on for hours, actually. I am so NOT normal about them.

[bugofmanynames]

update on the skinsuit guy lore 🔥🔥

uhhhh so i should probably confirm their names so i came up with the names a while ago but i didn't really know which one to give who so i just used the names for them interchangeably and in an earlier post i called this dude here simon

but i decided recently to swap their names around and keep it that way so just to clear up anything that dude's name is now jett and the spooky looking dude (aka young skinsuit guy) is simon

so AS FOR THE LORE simon and jett are coworkers and presumably friends. i genuinly don't know what the hell their relationship is, whether they're best friends, simon is framing his feelings for this dude as unimaginable hatred because he can't even fathom the concept of love, they're some kind of metaphor, or if they just genuinely hate each other, so i guess it's entirely up to interpretation.

basically jett's everything simon isn't, even though simon worked almost twice as hard to get where he was and jett just had it all handed to him on a silver platter, he has a stable, well paying job, a spouse and a daughter, and eventually simon reaches a breaking point and starts gathering as much intel as possible to plot his murder.

one day jett's just going about his day and simon pops out of nowhere and straight up jumps him and drags him into some kind of backroom where he proceeded to skin this dude alive as soon as he regains consciousness and dumps him out in the middle of nowhere, leaving him there to die a slow painful death. Meanwhile simon immediately gets into action, destroying any records or evidence of his own existence and poses as jett, even going under his name and everything.

simon's able to pull himself off as him pretty well, at least for a good bit until his facade slowly but surely begins to slip (quite literally too) and everybody's starting to realize that's there's something wrong, and eventually they begin to figure out that he isn't jett at alll and in the end, he loses everything because he tried to pursue something that was just always out of his reach.

anyway so where redacted comes in, simon/"jett" is miserable as hell but then this sad naive orphan comes into the picture and he sees them as the perfect opportunity to start from a fresh slate (identity theft again) and pretends to take them in, and at first he acts nice to lure them into thinking that he's safe, until they began doubting him as he slowly began to reveal his intentions, but he started emotionally manipulating them into thinking that he was the only one who cared and kept them safe and basically just made them an unhealthy amount of dependent on him. As part of "redacting" them, he basically did the same thing he did to himself and erased any previous information of their existence including their memories, making them literally nobody.

anyways so that's the backstory update and have some other random stuff about the characters

jett's daughter is named Shermy!!!!!!! she's like probably in her 30s in the current time of the story but i thought it'd be kinda funny if when she was a kid when simon took over jett's life he realized that he has a kid. And he just doesn't know how to be a father so he probably just let her do whatever she wanted and she thought that he was the coolest parent ever even though it wasn't even her actual father. doppledad

also i think it's probably important to mention that when simon was a kid he killed his parents by setting their house on fire. He was the only one who made it out alive, so he still has a bunch of scars from the burns he got. He was already kind of a disturbed child, so honestly that whole thing only messed him up more and made him into a deranged adult.

anyway yap over sorry if you read all of this

[tangledbea]

Where did Rapunzel learn/develop all the skills and hobbies she posseses in the movie? She is shown to know how to cook/bake, make candles, sew and actually make her own clothes or even how to read and write? Was Gothel was attentive enough to actually teach Rapunzel these things? I can buy Gothel teaching her how to clean and cook because that's acts of service but the other stuff? How many artisan skills does Gothel have? Gothel was a disciple of Demanitus so she must have been educated/skille

All Gothel had to teach Rapunzel how to do was read, and then Rapunzel could teach herself the rest with books. Just because she only has three in the movie doesn't mean that those are the only books she's ever had. Also, Gothel turned the tower into a gilded cage. She wanted Rapunzel to be content there so that she wouldn't want to leave, so the more access to hobbies she gave her, the less Rapunzel would feel the need to go anywhere else.

And yes, Gothel obviously knew how to read, she read Flynn Rider's wanted poster.

We can see at the beginning of the movie that Gothel used to be much kinder to Rapunzel, when she was a small child and literally relied on her. Obviously, that "kindness" was a lie Gothel told to make Rapunzel think she loved her, so that Rapunzel would want to serve her and want to stay. It's entirely possible that a good chunk of Rapunzel's hobbies are things they used to do together, so that Rapunzel would feel bonded to her. Gothel reads stories to Rapunzel, then teaches Rapunzel how to read them back. Now she knows how to read, and can entertain herself with books. The books Gothel brings her teach Rapunzel how to do more things that will entertain her.

But also, Rapunzel is extremely smart. Creating clothes patterns and charting stars are both math things. Playing guitar is math and experimentation. She could easily figure them out herself. And many of her other skills and hobbies are things that people (especially women) knew how to do, passed down from their own mothers. Gothel needs light when she's there, let's teach Rapunzel how to make candles. (The most basic of candles isn't hard to make at all.) Rapunzel needs to be clothed, let's teach her how to spin and weave and sew and mend and knit (and Rapunzel can figure out the rest on her own). Rapunzel and Gothel both need to eat, if Rapunzel knows how to cook, then all Gothel has to provide is the ingredients, and Rapunzel can do the labor. (Notice that Gothel making Rapunzel's "favorite soup" was a gift. I fully believe that Gothel doing the cooking was part of the gift. Rapunzel was even packing her basket for her before she left again.)

Also, you gotta remember that Demanitus/Zhan Tiri weren't even twinkles in the eyes of anyone when the movie was made. I have a hard time retrofitting some series stuff into movie lore, because they're practically two different settings to me. In the movie, the only magic that we know was real was the flower, and the way Eugene reacted to Rapunzel healing him implied that magic was so scarce in the world that it was delegated to "untrue story". But in the series, magic is everywhere all the time. Movie Gothel wasn't a disciple of Demanitus or Zhan Tiri, because neither of them existed when the movie was made.