#I'm very impressed with myself for that reference

[riteliso]

S01E08

Do they have any rules that don't pertain to minimizing upskirts

ALSO

LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND MOTHERFUCKERS TOO COOL FOR THAT LAME SHIT,

WE HAVE REACHED THE PEAK EPISODE

When you force people to watch this show, you only have to get them here. After that, you don't have to force them to do anything, they get thirsty for it.

Hell, this is where I locked the fuck in from "This show is pretty fun. I really like the main leads even if a lot of this stuff is trope-y or lacking." to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT"

And to clarify, I'm not saying that ANY of what we've been through already was BAD, it's pretty good.

But I don't watch things that are "pretty good." I get bored because I'm a picky little bitch. I watch things I think are spectacular, and NO LESS. Like baman and piderman, or treasure planet, or notwizards.

Anyway here's where things go from "pretty good" to "spectacular" and it really manages to carry that momentum MOST of the time, which is fucking INSANE. Like, ASININE. It's a fucking MIRACLE. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO MAKE A GOOD SHOW? DO YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING CLUE? It's like the show was doing squats, and from here on it starts mostly doing a continuous wall-sit and it barely even looks nervous about it. It's unnatural. It's fucked up. Anyway I should stop yapping so we can watch the actual fuckin show, but if you, SOMEHOW, for SOME FUCKIN REASON, are reading this and haven't yet watched the show, I'll say that if you think what I've described, complimented, or criticized sounds interesting you should watch the show instead of reading the rest of what I say.

I'm sure that wouldn't even work, when people say that shit I never listen, but if you're only half sold then you can either trace through the first episodes or just skip to this one. To repeat myself once more, this is where we begin to pop the fuck off.

She's so excited to have an 11 year old fight a war

The sub track leaves out the important part here but the point is she's saying Shadow Weaver is obsessed with Adora

Which is the most fucking hypocritical thing I can imagine

The cat's complaining about the comb's furballs.

She's so stupid but it's not in the hot way I'm with Catra on this one, which I'm SURE is a real SHOCKER

WHY ARE THE SUBTITLES SO BAD DURING THE BEST FUCKING EPISODE

Anyway, what she's saying here is "I need to impress Hordak so he'll make me the new Shadow Weaver" which I point out because it's funny that she doesn't have a fucking job title

She's second in command but she's just referred to by her name she's just there

I dunno if she's a princess in the original 80s series but it's a very good idea to make her one here and have it be that her family relented to the Horde.

Makes sense for her lax and passive nature, allows for interesting dynamics and questions, and gives her more dimension.

You just LOVE to watch a bitch scheme in real time, I'm kickin my feet to this

God, so DENSE with that PRIMO shit.

I'm not gonna go into a full dissection but let's do some highlights, yeah?

The comedy of "How dare they turn your girl into a giant sword lady who runs off with people clearly inferior to you" combined with Scorpia's reaction eating it all up,

The baller yet classic move of inviting someone on a date by just stating that, yes, a date is happening, and in case you were wondering, you ARE paying for it,

And of course, the classic loveliness that is watching an evil bitch scheme on how best she can be her cruellest self.

If up and down are both friends and frenemies then everyone's who's got friends at all is also frenemies with them and listen that's how I live my life sure but I don't think Adora thought it through I think she's stupid

Girl what the fuck were you thinking NONE of those are ANY of her colours, she does NOT wear frills NOR flowy, and a centre-chest adornment makes you look like a fucking mario princess. Which is fine, but not for a SERIOUS OUTING like this. YOU'RE FOOLISH

This bitch got it in one, SHE JUST CAN'T LOSE!!!!!

Ignore her innumerous losses please.

That one actually works quite well for her visibly, it's just not something she'd ever enjoy wearing. The white band ties it all together quite nicely.

With She-ra you get to watch a goth chick get fumbled in real time

Another UNFORGIVABLE blunder from these WRETCHED subtitles, this is not POP music, it is HOUSE MUSIC

What you think I'm gonna talk about the easter eggs in this establishing shot? Google it idc

In She-ra you get to watch a working relationship with an 11 and three quarter year old get fumbled in real time

See this is where apathy is actually the right move this is where her expertise is actually helpful

ALRIGHT SO

Here's how we're doing things, right? We're gonna go one episode at a time, and I'm gonna give my thoughts whenever they come up. This is a train of thought type beat, alright? Unlike my usual grandstanding authorial and analytical self, this re-watch is purely for the rant factor. If you don't know me, and you just happened upon this thread because you like reading she-ra rewatches, hello. I'm a writer from Canada who found she-ra in 2025 and is currently on her sixth watch through. From that, hopefully you can discern that I like this show, even if I'm likely gonna criticize parts of it. We good to go? Good. We start with S01 E01.

RIGHT, THE SWORD PART 1! A zoom in, with an angelic singing being drowned out by digital bloopy fright zone vibes, and then Adora being a fuckin dweeb as her leitmotif plays in a decidedly crystiline synth-y tone.

Now, what do we learn from this? This, aside from one gripe I'll have more to speak on later, is an excellent introduction. With the music alone we're essentially taken from the beauty of the planet, the overwhelming dread of the fright zone, and then into a hopeful tune that isn't FREE from these sort of digital themes in the music, but is very defined and separate FROM them.

This isn't gonna be one of those things where I praise literally every single fuckin thing so keep your panties on, I'm not gonna full-on overanalyzing avatar this shit, but the most important parts of a story are the beginning and the ending.

Now, when I say that, I am speaking pragmatically. Every part of every story is important-- but when it comes to what people remember, what they love, what they never shut up about-- it's the start and the end. You need to nail the take-off and the landing, people will forget the turbulence from the rest of the trip.

Now, what does THIS bitch's intro tell us about her? Well, a lot, honestly. Most of what we know about Adora at this point is she plays by the rules, but she is a notably goofy person. She's goofy, but she's unwilling to goof-OFF too much.

And while we get a taste of the rivalry they have instantly, with "That's low, even for you." "You know nothing's too low for me~"

We instantly see that that is not the CORE of their relationship.

I'd like to praise the voice direction in this show for the first of many times here. The voice actors do amazing work in this, and the direction can be felt throughout.

"Come on, you look stupid hanging there" can obviously be a seen as a strange first line to show the warmth these two share, but the inflection from Catra's voice actor, AJ Mikalcha, makes it read as downright sweet.

Also don't get used to me using names of the crew besides ND Stevenson because I'm so awful with names I was still calling Catra Katara half the time on my second re-watch and I was like 90% of the way to realizing I kinned her at that point

Also don't make fun of me for kinning Catra there's no RESPONSE to people making fun of you for kinning Catra THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU SEEM MORE LIKE FUCKING CATRA OKAY

Anyway, the following scene makes it clear that this is not a one-way dynamic. The two banter, and it's clear Adora knows how to get under Catra's skin and annoy her as well. This is notable in a few places MUCH further on, but it is a difference worth highlighting NOW.

Once Adora leaves, Catra's primary goal is still to get under her skin. She's angry about it, she's mean about it, but she's still just doing what she's always done. The relationship between the two doesn't actually change as much as the context does. I'd say the relationship itself doesn't change much until the final season, at a scene I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about.

On the flip-side, Adora's goal when it comes to Catra is simply to fight her off. But that's not all there is. At points, it's clear that Adora holds some sort of REVERENCE for Catra, and while Catra is very capable of very mean things, don't get me wrong, Adora sees Catra as more of a threat than she realistically is.

At a few moments I'll point out she also relishes in getting under Catra's skin, but admittedly those are few and far between.

People have gone over this introduction billions of times, so I won't BORE you to death with it, but Shadow weaver's introduction does hint at a lot of what we'll learn later. I think it's very notable that while Shadow weaver brings a dark gloom that encompasses both our leads, her vile tendrils only dare to touch Catra. We learn the specifics of the dynamic these three have later, but it is a very unique and terrible situation to be the least favourite of an abusive guardian. Especially if you are repeatedly reminded of that fact.

I'm not gonna go over all the body language shit I've seen other text posts about it there's plenty of them a lot of focus in this show goes into tiny details where characters are constantly reacting to the world around them, and very rarely do we get lame stretches where anyone's face is just frozen and unflinching while they listen to someone else.

with all due respect to the setting at this point in time the bright moon rebellion is so pathetically anemic it's the two teens, some movie night lesbians, an immortal princess queen, and a bunch of fucking trees.

And you'd think the one carrying the team would be THE IMMORTAL PRINCESS QUEEN, BUT NO, ITS THE FUCKING TREES DOING ALL THE GOD DAMNED WORK

This introduction is fine. I don't particularly like it, nor have any strong feelings about it. It establishes the relationship between glimmer and her mother, but besides that it doesn't honestly do much. And don't come at me with "Uh, all it needs to do is establish that relationship?" Yeah, no shit, but we just had a better introduction to our other lead characters. And yes, those are the MAIN leads, the sort of heart of the show, but that doesn't mean that the other characters are unimportant. Glimmer's development later on is truly interesting, and Bow becomes a massively inspiring character. Fun jokey times are fine or whatever to show that they're immature and don't know the first thing about war, in contrast to our full-blown child soldiers raised from birth in the fright zone, but we really don't learn anything particularly INTERESTING about our best friend squad compadres in their intro, nor do we really see any of it until episode 2, to be frank.

This is something we don't actually see much of-- Catra has this ideal of being a conqueror, but it's very clear that she doesn't want that. Her threats are vapid and aimless-- She can enjoy some chaos, sure, but a shit-stirrer isn't gonna use that feces to build brick shithouses that they never intend to fall.

I think this should have been elaborated on more, personally. Catra is comically terrible with authority, and her plan, as stated later, is to wait it out until her and Adora are the ones calling the shots. But we don't really see what she thinks conquering even looks like, and it's not clear whether that's that she hasn't even imagined it and just likes evil words, or if she genuinely wants to rule with Adora as her Queen.

I gravitate towards the first, but that's partially because I wake up and post shit like "I want to destroy the world and rule its dust" and then forget I posted it when someone likes it 5 minutes later. If she do, in fact, as studies point toward, "be just like me fr," then I fully understand. If not, then I'd like to understand.

aw :(

Fuckin dweeb pulling the "my mom doesn't want me hanging out with you anymore" card

HA! Ah, what a bitch. Anyway, she's lashing out, but it's also quite tragic. A lot of people seem to think Adora IS, in some way, a people pleaser, but in reality she just has such an ingrained and violent sense of justice that she wants to right every wrong she has ever and will ever come across. She believes her validity is tied to what she can provide to the world, and she's got a natural sense of charisma, so it's natural for someone who refuses to blend in and naturally tends to put people off like Catra to have this view of her.

In reality, Adora is just-- a good person. And people LIKE good people. She's not a good person with an asterisk-- a good person with terms and conditions-- someone who falls into the definition of a good person while feeling and being treated like something else. Catra is the "a tomato is a fruit" of good people. Adora is just, like, a 1 dollar costco hotdog of a woman. An inarguable good treading water on this earth, no matter how hard it tries to pull her under.

Imagine falling for a brat with mad hops, like a fucking 50 foot vertical, you say you're too tired to play their favourite board game and they go hang out on your neighbour's roof, couldn't be me. Get fucked I guess

Yeah this is sad. Empathy is very much a learned skill, and people who don't learn empathy don't GET happy FOR people. Catra's not a complete person yet. She's not ready to be. That doesn't happen for a really long time, during an exceptionally long manic spiral. We'll get there, calm down, don't think about how far away that is and how much I've already yammered on.

Anyway, if you find yourself getting jealous or annoyed instead of getting happy for people, consider empathy isn't what you thought it was, and that you might still need to work on yourself.

fucking porno framing. Immensely sexual image, really. These bitches violently gay I suppose, I think I'm picking up on that during this sixth re-watch.

Buddy you got no idea how many problems those two already have you literally lose your little tiara at some point I think it ends up in the middle of a tree in space or something it's kinda unclear

Adora elbows her square in the nose during this so to everyone accusing Catra of physical abuse I just want it to be clear that Adora started it :/

Actually I'd like to retract that joke immediately because I know how people get about these two

My feelings are that they are literally child soldiers who were likely raised sparring each-other.

I was raised sparring other children and I ended up fine! Not for war, for Karate. And I didn't end up fine. And neither did they. Anyway, my point isn't even specifically that because this is sci-fi fantasy it's ridiculous to hold real life standards to it, it's more-so that because it's sci-fi fantasy there's extenuating circumstances that are going to affect how these two characters treat each-other. I'll go into hotter takes later, I'm sure, and get people to send me plenty of death-threats, but I'm gonna go into the nuances of exactly what forms Catra's abuse takes, and how it differs given by the separate circumstances we're shown the two in throughout the show.

my girl when I'm tryna live my best life playing as blue toad in mario 3d world

also holy shit we're only like halfway through this I am an AGONIZING yapper jesus fuck

Okay, what to say about lighthope-- well, their first words are "balance must be restored," far before they say Adora's name, so it somewhat lays out their secret priorities for us there. Besides that, I dunno, they got circuits on them? I don't have particularly strong feelings about lighthope, nor their introduction. I think they serve the setting and are written well, I just subjectively am not a sucker for the way they be. Their friendship with Mara is cute tho

I was gonna point out this is cute and how often I do this exact brat tactic but instead we data moshin, nothin wrong with a little data moshin, I'm down

This is the only reason she even wears a ponytail I'd stake my fuckin life on it

Once she leaves the fright zone that thing's fucking vestigial like a tailbone or having "any pronouns" in your bio when it's pretty clear you're very much a "she/they" type of bitch by now

glimmer why don't your windows have glass

or alternatively

how the fuck do you open and close that window

you can absolutely fucking hear her from this distance what on earth are you trying to pull

you a pillow princess tho how many of those arrows are just hitatchi magic wands attatched to a stick with duct-tape after the series ends do you think

The fuck you mean BOTTOM drawer we lookin at left and right here

or is this similar to my pillow princess comment and she's just addressing him and giving him an order

"Bottom; drawer."

It's established later on that he's a tech wiz but at this point in time they don't really give us much to lead us to the fact that he made that fucking thing

she's a freak

yes it's very sweet that she sleeps this way but I don't think it's some bdsm powerplay thing or anything like that, which would honestly be more tolerable, I think she's just like that

like how the way I'd sit in high school was to get two chairs and face them toward each-other then sit cross-legged across both

even if there weren't enough chairs to go around

people would sit on the FLOOR because I wanted to sit criss-cross-applesauce across two chairs, they wouldn't even ask for one of my chairs

also since I was sitting, again, cross-legged, it would have made more sense for ME to sit on the floor

I mean I think I got asked ONCE for one of the chairs and I just said "fine" but besides that people just let me sit on my fuckin throne

She really is kinda dumb, though. Like I ain't complaining, it's a character trait, but like obviously even if just you get in trouble Catra's gonna get blamed, you've seen it like at least once a month for your whole entire life

Mind you, can't really have Catra for the next part, because Catra's reaction to Bow and Glimmer wouldn't be "just let me have the sword" it'd be murder

oh wow we hit the image limit looks like we're doing TWO SEPARATE POSTS FOR THE VERY FIRST EPISODE YEE-HAW!!!!! THIS IS GOING TO TAKE ME FUCKING FOREVER

[tsunami-of-tears]

Gwyneth Berdara x 1989

And time can heal, but this won't

A/N: I COMPLETELY forgot to queue this one for Gwyn week 😭 @gwynweekofficial I also drew this before my Elain / Pen artwork, so my skills have vastly improved already 🫶🏻

✧ Please do not repost or use with AI ✧

[the-cimmerians]

It's 2024. I have been participating in fandom for 40 years. This is a ramble commemorating some history I've experienced along the way.

In 1984, I attended my first convention, and made a beeline for the one long row of covered tables in the Dealer's Room that was, according to the whispered lore of my friends, 'the one'. "um", I said, very suavely and coherently, except for how it was totally the opposite of those things, "I'm here for the... for the, uh. For-"

"Come around here," the man behind the table said with exhausted ennui, so I went around, and he lifted up the table skirt next to him and pointed to rows and rows of boxes underneath the line of tables. "It's all under here."

It was all under there. Along with about five older ladies with glasses, graying hair, cardigans. Flipping through slash zines and chatting in whispered voices like old friends (which of course they were). I noticed one of them had the good sense to be wearing kneepads. I was still too young and ablebodied to need kneepads when crawling on a carpeted floor, but I immediately found her preparedness skills to be both impressive and hot. "You're new," one of the ladies whispered to me--a bit warily, which made sense. "Are you sure you're in the right place?"

In the faint light (the kneepads lady had also come prepared with a flashlight, additional practicality hotness points for her) I grabbed a comb-bound book with a heavy line art piece on the cover, featuring a musclebound Captain Kirk getting righteously and enthusiastically plowed by a stern-yet-ebullient Spock. "This," I said, pointing helpfully at the cover, like I was trying to make myself understood in a language I had only the vaguest knowledge of. "I'm here for this."

Outside at the convention, most of the attendees were wearing large homemade circular pins that shrieked 'K/S is BS!!!'1. But underneath the table, we reveled in the forbidden.

***

In 1985, I fell very hard for Starsky & Hutch fandom. Which was simply referred to at the time as 'the other fandom', because there were only two. We were upstarts. Many fannish elders predicted that it was just a phase.

***

The 'circulating library' was a massive stack of barely-legible pages that smelled strongly of mimeograph ink. When you were on the list, you would write stories while you waited for your turn, and when the big box was mailed to you, you would read everything (new finds, old favorites), add your own sloppily-typed or hastily-mimeographed stories, and then mail the whole thing to the next person. For me, at the time, it was an extremely expensive indulgence--but my favorite one.

***

By 1990, slash fandom had grown enough that I no longer knew everyone in it, which was both thrilling and a bit daunting. A young woman at a convention waited for me after a panel I was part of (I think it was 'writing impactful smut' or something like that), and said she had a question she didn't want to ask in a group setting. I'd heard that before. I said that's fine, go ahead and ask; and she came out with: "Why do you have to be gay?"

I blinked. "Is... that a problem?"

She looked annoyed. "Yes, because your stories are on all the recommendation lists and in all the top zines, but if you're gay and I read something you wrote and I get hot from it that makes me gay, and I'm not gay."

"Wow." I grinned, I couldn't help it. It probably made me look very predatory-dyke-about-to-score-a-toaster. Whatever, it was enough to make her back away from me fast.

When I thought about it later that night, I wondered what it would be like not to be the only queer person in slash fandom.

***

By 1997, slash started appearing on the internet. Many fannish elders claimed it was the death knell of slash fandom, or dismissed it as 'just a phase'.

***

Anyway, I wrote all this for myself as a commemoration of sorts, but if you took the time to read it--thank you. Love you, fandom. I always will.

1 In those days, m/m fandom was known as 'slash', which grew from the fannish shorthand where 'K&S' meant a story of Kirk and Spock having adventures or tribulations or what have you, and 'K/S' meant a story of Kirk and Spock getting it on (Kirk divided by Spock or Spock into Kirk--it was mathy fannish humor and I was into it then and I still am now). Slash was decidedly unpopular in the fannish world in 1984, and there was a concerted effort to force slash authors, artists, and fans out of 'mainstream' fannish public life. Hence, under the table.

[egophiliac]

Hello ! I positively adore the running joke of Idia unknowingly finding Lilia to be the coolest guy ever whenever he doesn't know it's him, like when Silver described his father, or obviously with muscle red. I can't say what'd be funnier, Idia finding out his online best friend is actually Lilia, resident spooky hyper fairy; or them both never finding out, and it'd become even more ridiculous as time goes on. How do you think it'll play out ? You're always so on point

(Also, though it makes sense, I'm still devastated bat boy didn't get a ticket for the Halloween skeleton train : ( does anyone mentions him at some point ? Like how he'd have fit right in with all those Halloween town little freaks, and how he'd have impressed them with his spooks and scared techniques; after all he's been every Briar Valley's children worst fear on Halloween for centuries. I'm on the eng server and I didn't wanna spoil myself by watching the whole thing on youtube)

Have a nice day !

you and me both, Idia and Lilia being oblivious online BFFs (+ Idia being incredibly intimidated any time Silver brings up his jock gamer dad) is my favorite running joke/subplot. 🤝 it's SO good, to the point where I also am unsure if I actually want it to ever be resolved or not...maybe, like, as a post-canon stinger or something? everyone's standing around covered in overblot ink, and Idia and Lilia's phones go off at the same time...

(legit I do think this is part of why Idia couldn't be present for Lilia's dream, because for some reason Lilia decided he was going to just. embody his past self online. he probably quotes his own battle strategies or whatever in the middle of boss fights. Idia didn't pick up on the whole "oh how weird that we both live on a super remote island" thing, but he would spend thirty seconds listening to General Lilia describing siege warfare and be like "w-wait")

all that aside, however it does end up happening, I do see Lilia being very blasé and all "oh! cool!" about it. y'know, taking it very much in stride! and Idia...very much not.

(can't tell if tumblr is going to chew this into illegibility or not, this will be a fun surprise ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ)

as for Lilia sadly missing out on Halloweentown shenanigans...he does get one little mention as part of an offhand reference to the light music club, but so far no one has brought up how this basically is just Lost In the Book of Liliatown (Sebek's been too busy yelling about not getting to be in the same group as Malleus). 😔 honestly though, it's probably for the best that he got left out, because he would just settle right in and refuse to ever leave. canon would shatter. we would miss out on all the delightful angst of episode 7 because Lilia is too busy eating poisonous shrubbery inbetween practicing his very best screams, and no one can pull him away from it.

(I can hope for a sequel next year though...)

[breelandwalker]

I'm starting to question how much the "old" pagan costumes and festivities were indeed about fertility, sex, etc.

Ronald Hutton claims that there is no evidence in history that the maypole was saw as a phallic symbol, for example. And there are other possible meanings. But you usually just read in books as a matter of fact that it was a phalic representation and the dance around was about fertility etc

I recently read the witche's bible because I was curious about traditional wicca rituals and there is suuch a high focus on how every single costume or holiday was about fertility and sex that honestly it makes me wonder, how much it was indeed about those things and how much is just the interpretation of modern people like Gardner making it about those things

You're hitting the nail on the head without even realizing it, Anon.

SO much of what we think we know about "old pagan customs" comes from books written by Victorian-era occultists. And if there is one thing to be said about Victorian-era occultists, it was that they were horny as FUCK. (And the Edwardians weren't any better.)

These people went around rubber-stamping FERTILITY in big red letters on anything to do with goddesses or springtime or even the most passing reference to pregnancy, childbirth, midwifery, or babies. Literally any excuse for ritual nudity or a sacred orgy. And no, that is not satire. Or a euphemism.

The other thing that can be said about Victorian-era occultists is that quite a lot of them were history buffs and very prolific writers. (If you look at the roster of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and their regular guests, it reads like a Who's Who of the writers of fantastical fiction and poetry at the time.) So the result of that is a whole lot of literature about folklore and "ancient pagan customs" written by people who were filtering what little historical information they had at the time through the lens of their own opinions and those of their colleagues.

(It's worth noting that that "lens" often consisted quite heavily of free-associated ideas not supported by history or things they completely pulled out of their own asses. Leland's "Aradia" is a good example of the "Ancient Sacred Text Given To Me By A Real Witch Who Totally Exists And I Definitely Didn't Write This Myself And Make Up This Claim For Clout" genre.)

Quite unsurprisingly, a lot of these beliefs got absorbed into the roots of the modern witchcraft movement a few decades later, since those were the popular resources available at the time and the same generally-prevailing opinions and biases were still present. So this started WELL before Gardner and his coven were on the scene. They just picked up the thread.

And as we all know, once there's a generation or so of removal from the founding beliefs of a movement, people tend to take the older texts as gospel, regardless of how flawed they might be.

See Also: We Still Have To Talk About The Witch-Cult Hypothesis Because Margaret Murray Wrote The Encyclopedia Britannica Entry On Witchcraft And It Wasn't Updated Until The 1960s.

See Also: We Still Have To Explain The Difference Between Historical Fiction And The Historical Record Because Of The White Goddess And The Mists Of Avalon.

See Also: We Still Have To Talk About The Burning Times Myth Because Raymond Buckland Made That Stupid Fucking Documentary.

See Also: Why The Hell Is Anyone Still Recommending Silver Ravenwolf.

Anyway, the short answer is that yes, your impression is correct, and I'm glad you're reading Hutton and forming that practical context for the witchcraft/pagan literature and media that you encounter.

Keep honing that bullshit detector and best of luck!

[wharfwolf]

Lynx of the Icewings.

a personal reference for myself! I think I'm finally settled on a design for her but don't be surprised if I go back on some things haha. Can you tell she's a favorite of mine....

I have a couple of things about her, that of course, I've had to make up and headcanon blast her for myself. Firstly is lynx-like markings, I also prefer to have her very rounded and soft, catering to her bubbly, approachable personality. I also think, despite multiple mentions of her being pretty in canon, she is not an example of typical Icewing beauty, though despite that, she and her family have left quite the impression in noble circles. This goes for Icewings as a whole, but makeup used fish scales in it's early stages for iridescent sheens, so I'd assume Icewing makeup wouldn't be a far fetched concept, and she can get dolled up on special occasions. I have SOOO much yap about her, but I'll save it for another time.

[elliespectacular]

how do you go about captioning other peoples' videos? i mean this logistically; like does penny for example just trust you with her youtube account for the sake of writing subtitles into the videos? or is another thing happening

(asking bc i'm impressed by the quality of your subtitles and want to get into making subs for other peoples' videos as a Thing)

Caption files can be generated in any software that supports it. YouTube has an in-house caption editor that gets the job done but it's not very user-friendly. Newer versions of Adobe Premiere Pro and other editing suites have features that let you write and export a caption track (usually in .csv, or .vtt format) that contains the text, timings, and formatting. There are lots of options out there!

All you need in order to write captions for someone else is one such software and the final draft of a video, that way you can line everything up to the exact timing. Doesn't hurt to brush up on proper captioning etiquette too!

@sophie-baybey usually does the captions for Penny and she uses Premiere's caption editor. Personally I use subtitle-horse.com which is browser-based and does just about everything you'll need in the free version.

Since I tend to edit the highlight videos, captioning them is pretty straightforward when I do it - but we also have a production group chat when we need Penny or myself to clarify something that's hard to hear or a reference we don't get etc. I tend to send Sophie the isolated speech as a separate audio file just in case the audio balancing makes certain portions hard to parse. Like any collaborative project, communication between team members is key!

[sizeofyoursoul]

After the publication of The Queen of the Damned, I requested of my editor that she not give me anymore comments. I resolved to hand in the manuscripts when they were finished. And asked that she accept them as they were. She was very reluctant, feeling that her input had value, but she agreed to my wishes. I asked this due to my highly critical relationship with my work and my intense evolutionary work on every sentence in the work, my feeling for the rhythm of the phrase and the unfolding of the plot and the character development. I felt that I could not bring to perfection what I saw unless I did it alone. In other words, what I had to offer had to be offered in isolation. So all novels published after The Queen of the Damned were written by me in this pure fashion, my editor thereafter functioning as my mentor and guardian.

Edit 9-14-17 -- I fear this gives the wrong impression of my relationship with my editor; her detailed responses to my novels are very important to me, very constructive, and always right on. And there are still times, indeed, often, when she speaks up on a certain line, or a certain character, or a certain moment, asking pertinent questions, asking for more to illuminate, etc. I respect her insights mightily. I respect her responses mightily. ---- And over the years, I've been less threatened my detailed criticism. --- I still believe in the solo voice with all my soul, and when a reader tells me that she loves a certain paragraph or a certain chapter, I must know that I am indeed the sole author of that paragraph, that chapter. But I have become more secure, more able to handle my editor's insights and requests. --- What I have always rebelled against is the popular presumption that all fiction books have to be edited, --- the idea that fiction authors really are eternal adolescents, and, unlike painters or poets, they can't bring their work to perfection without a parental figure at a publishing house going over the work with a blue pencil. I've heard people actually voice this view, that fiction must be subjected to editing by some one else in order to reach its full potential. I have always questioned this. And always will. The publishing house does always have the option to reject a book if they feel it isn't good enough. (

EDIT - Feb. 18, 2019. I came back here this morning because I stumbled on a blog post where some one referred to this post and said it went "viral" in 2018. I was not aware of that. --- Allow me to add this: discussions of editing are confusing because the words involved simply are not precise. Every book published by my publisher, or any New York publisher, is thoroughly copy edited before it goes to the printer. No exceptions. And the copy editor is the final proof reader who catches a multitude of inconsistencies large and small, words that don't mean what the author might think they mean, unintentional repetitions, mistakes in chronology, plain goofs like a blond suddenly described as having black hair, possible dropped words, or sentences that for some reason don't make sense, inconsistent use of capital letters, and a lot of other things I can't now recall. None of my remarks on editors have ever referred to the almighty copy editor. I repeat: every book is copy edited. No exceptions. When I get the copy edited manuscript back, I not only go over ever single correction or query made by the copy editor, I read every single word of the book myself to catch the small mistakes which only I can catch. ---- When I speak of editors, as I have above, I'm speaking of creative editors --- In my case, this means the editor who accepted my first novel for the publishing house, and who has been my mentor, guardian angel, and friend ever since. And she does always respond to my novels with profoundly insightful comments. And she will indeed speak up if she thinks a character or a scene doesn't work as it should. -- My editor and I have one of the longest editor-author relationships in publishing today. We've been together over 40 years. --- I think we're a perfect match. But each such relationship is unique because each author is unique. I found exactly what I needed in my editor. And I count myself as blessed. I hope every aspiring author has good luck in this regard, and I firmly believe that getting to know the editor, becoming relaxed with the editor, and being able to explain one's feelings to the editor are all for the good. Thank you, guys, for all your marvelous comments below.

Anne Rice's thoughts on editors, twice revised for clarity, from her Facebook page.

[meanbossart]

I LOVE DU drow and I love your art style! I also really like how you draw Astarion's hair, it looks flowy but still with his trademark curls.

Can you give any advice on drawing Astarion's hair? I find it a nightmare to draw. Whenever I free hand it, it just doesn't have the amount of curliness I want, and when I try to use a reference it ends up looking rather stiff.

Take care and thanks for the art 😊

THANK YOU though to be honest I'm shocked to find this ask in my inbox because every time I draw Astarion a war is waged between me and his hairdo. But sure, lets give this a shot!

First of all I feel like its a good idea not to be too attached to his in-game model hair when drawing unless your style is very realistic. The only reason why that dry-noodle helmet looks so regal and bouncy is because of the high-detailed graphics. Like you mentioned yourself and many of us have experienced, if you try and stick to it too closely in most art-styles it just ends up looking terribly stiff.

Instead, I suggest just keeping growth-direction and shape in mind and applying as much movement as you want to it when you draw it. Here's some things to remember that might help you with that:

-I employ the liquify tool a lot when sketching his hair because I never get it big enough on the first try, lol. This can also aid you with "distorting" more curliness into your lines if you aren't used to doing that right off the bat, just try not to become too reliant on it!

-I usually leave the areas around the ears and back alone but imply a lot of movement with the top and front of the hair, taking as many liberties as I want even if it's not entirely faithful to the model. I feel like the impression of curliness comes entirely from the silhouette of the hair and little fly-ways that I add, and everything else I just try to do without overthinking it too much for a more natural look.

In truth, I feel like a lot of times we get stuck on things like parting-placement, right amount of curl, which brush we're using yada-yada when in reality we are neglecting what actually makes a character's hair recognizable: Hairline, growth pattern, and shape. If you get these three things right I feel like everything else is entirely just stylistic choice. It's worth pulling away for a moment and checking on these things if you feel like you're continually unhappy with your outcome!

-Astarion has a hairline capable making most men over 30 cry. It's very low on the forehead and tight on the temples with the slightest hint of a widow's peak. As someone who drew a lot of big-foreheaded characters with receding hairlines prior, this was a STRUGGLE for me to get used to and a big reason why I felt like I couldn't get his hair to look "right" for the longest time.

-His hair swoops to the right side of his face in a fanning kind of shape and is the longest at the front and top. You can imply a strong part if you want, you can split it into sections, you can have it falling over his forehead or not at all - as long as it's going in the right direction you will probably be fine.

-A mistake I would catch myself making often was getting the shape totally wrong - making it too slick at the top and putting all the volume in the back when that's pretty much the exact opposite of what his hair does. IT'S ALL AT THE FRONT AND TOP, REPEAT IT TO YOURSELF LIKE IT'S A MANTRA: IT'S ALL AT THE FRONT AND TOP.

And lastly, if you absolutely hate how his hair looks or hate to draw it, you can forego all of this and just do whatever you want. These tips are only worth something if you like how I draw his hair specifically.

Hopefully this was helpful at all!

[dragonfire42]

The finished product! A.Z. Fell's Bookshop Book Nook (with links below if you want to make one too!)

I used a kit and custom stickers by Julia's fanart (links below!). The parts I made myself are the angel mug and gramophone from beads and bells and buttons, and added bookshelves from screenshots of Aziraphale's bookshelves. (And I put a summoning circle hidden under the rug!) I also sculpted a mini emotional support cactus based on this Gleafer comic and made a small Maltese Falcon for the tiny shelf (that looks more like a duck but I'm ok with that).

I also added easter egg references specific to my Good Omens fanfic crossovers (The Neverending Story, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Wee Free Men, Modern Magic, etc.) and a mini zine of all the fan art ever made for one of my fanfics - I'll post the zine separately but it's the open book on the chair.

Here's the Rolife Book Nook kit (direct to their site but it's also available at Michael's and Amazon) - extremely well made, the pieces were easy to push out and put together, I was very impressed and had a lot of fun making it:

Here's a link to the custom stickers by @juliasfanart ! This has the rug, Fell the Marvellous posters, the clever signs included the closed sign and a list of hours, the cottage pic, custom books and so many great details!! I was going to try to make a lot of these and was ECSTATIC to find out she did already and made them available to download!

Just so happy with how this came out! (I also might add a sheet somewhere to download the additions I made if anyone is interested!)

[dawnatdaybreak]

EDEN 4164616D Lyric... process??

hello :) I wrote the lyrics for EDEN 4164616D on MACHINA MORI and a few other people are doing little lyric analysis/writing process things and I was like hey! I could do that! if you have your own analysis of these lyrics that might differ from how I wrote them initially: do not let my "official" interpretation make yours any less valid! feel free to share your analysis before you read this (or after!) if you want, I like to see what people think of my writing! but the main thing is that whatever EDEN made you feel, my intended meaning should not take that away from you

there are a few things I might keep a little secret for now because I might still be working on some lore that will be revealed later ;) but I'll talk about the main writing process and ideas I wanted to convey with this song in and of itself and you can dig into the lore later once it's done!

Giving content warnings for: Biblical imagery, talk of mortality and death. Analysis is all below the cut!

First of all, the little disjointed "a-a-a-a-ah" at the start was an intentional idea from me! I wanted it to sound kind of like a startup sound or like Rei was initializing her vocals for the first time. The background "ah"s later on were entirely Dav-P's doing though I cant take any credit for those! I can suggest you give them a careful listen though :)

The entire song is written to be directly from the perspective of EDEN's Rei, and I had something of a narrative in mind for it. It's a story as much as it's a song, and I put a lot of parallels in some of the verses between each other that I had a lot of fun with. I love writing I love words I love music I love this song!! I really am so glad I got to write it.

undefined Adam electric amalgam sparks intertwine in this vessel of steel sculpted in your image what am I?

This first section doesn't have a whole lot to dig into, it's mostly setting up for something later on and giving the impression of EDEN's Rei at initialization and how she feels (or rather, doesn't.) The use of the phrases "this vessel" and "sculpted" in place of the more human terms she will use for herself later in the song is very intentional! "Undefined Adam" is a very early lead in to the biblical imagery I used occasionally throughout the song, and also sets up the very basic premise of how Rei views herself and the world she is being born into: she is to humanity as Adam is to God, a new being made in the image of man as man was made in the image of God.

I cannot be one of a kind show me everything I want to feel the wind on my face the sea against my skin if you'd call it that

This section is largely also here to establish Rei's feelings, but she has a few more of them to dig into now! She is capable of want and what she wants is to feel, even if her wanting that shows she already has the capacity for it. She has this desire to experience the things that humans wax poetic about, the sea breeze and the waves on your skin. "If you'd call it that" refers directly to the mention of skin- Rei is a machine made of metal, so it's hard to really say if skin is what the surface of her body should be called. She's humanizing herself to an extent here, but she's also backtracking, putting that distinct separation between her body and a human body even though her initial instinct is to call them the same.

hello world teach me how to fly make me feel alive I don't know what am I? trapped in endless time

Hello, world! I was honestly worried that line would be a bit of a low hanging fruit and everyone was going to use it, but I couldn't resist it. And I'm glad I did put it in after! I'm pretty pleased with the second use of it but that's getting a bit ahead of myself.

This section is largely about Rei "waking up" more, coming to terms a bit more with her feelings and circumstances. She wants to learn what it means to be a person, but not necessarily "human"- there's still a big divide between her and humanity that should become clearer as the song progresses. "Teach me how to fly" is largely metaphorical here, but there might be something fun that comes of that in the lore later if you want to stay tuned for it ;) "Trapped in endless time" refers to the immortality of machines. Rei does not think her time on Earth will ever end, and while she knows that separates her from humanity she isn't really sure what that makes her.

hollow and heartless emptiness I can't fix somehow I find you reflect in me oh make me in your image divine light

"Hollow and heartless, emptiness I can't fix" is meant to show how Rei views herself here as empty and lacking in a heart in both a literal and figurative sense. She views herself as incapable of doing anything about this because she lacks the power over herself that her creators have over her. "Somehow I find, you reflect in me" is in reference to a common trope I may have borrowed for this, in which an android/machine's creators won't treat them with any sort of kindness or love no matter how human their creation is meant to be. EDEN Rei's creators view her as a means to an end and nothing more- her heartlessness is reflected in them. "Make me in your image" and its variations will be a recurring phrase, once again intending to draw on the biblical imagery of humans being made in the image of God. "Divine light" further refers to this- Rei views humanity and all of its facets as divine and unreachable to her without outside intervention.

the way I see you I want to be seen too strip away my inhumanity oh make me in your image heart and mind

This entire section is meant to establish how Rei wants to be seen as a person and granted the respect humans have for each other. She is made so similar to a human, but she is still not owed the respect being human commands, so she wants to be more similar to her creators. There is still a separation between her and them, hence, "make me in your image, heart and mind".

I cannot forget how she cried the stars in her eyes I want to know how did she catch the divine? is her dream lost to time? should I make it mine?

This is yuri by the way. The "she" referred to here is largely a secret for now, but she is someone Rei fell in love with, and she is also a machine. "How did she catch the divine?" may imply that this other machine actually grasped the human emotions Rei has been chasing... but "is her dream lost to time?" implies there wasn't a happy ending to this story. The main takeaway from this for tying into the rest of the song is this: Rei has loved someone, and that someone is now out of her reach.

hello world or is this goodbye? did I do this right? I don’t know why am I running out of time?

Hello, world! I actually wrote this section before the other hello world section, and "hello world, or is this goodbye?" is probably one of my favourite sets of lines I wrote for this song. This is meant to be a somewhat direct parallel to the earlier section- where before Rei was "trapped in endless time", she is running out now. She isn't sure how much time she has left or if she has any at all, and she doesn't know whether she's used any of her time existing effectively. There's meant to be just a bit of fear or grief in the lyrics here: where before Rei's "I don't know" was in the context of not understanding the world around her and being inquisitive about it and her place in it, it's now in a context of not being sure she lived up to whatever expectations she found for herself, and not being sure she has enough time to change any of it.

burn with a new flame agonizing outbreak I don't want this but I'll never escape unmake me in your image I won't fight

"Burn with a new flame, agonizing outbreak" refers to the sudden and painful experience Rei is having with her own mortality, and is meant to imply anger or hatred towards the creators who made her feel this way. "I don't want this, but I'll never escape" as well as the "I won't fight" is here largely because despite everything she is feeling right now and her newly realized anger, Rei is not going to fight the fate she sees laid out in front of her. "Unmake me in your image" is to indicate that Rei knows she is about to be destroyed, and she's accepted this.

poetic irony everything denied me finally felt just a moment too late unmake me in your image why do I cry?

"Everything denied me, finally felt, just a moment too late" is another of my favourite lines I wrote for this, possibly one of my favourite lines I've written in general. "Everything denied me" is emotion, "just a moment too late" is indicating that it doesn't matter anymore. Despite her acceptance of her fate, Rei is hurting. She asks "why do I cry?" which is as much a question of why she is literally crying as it is a question of why it hurts so much to feel the things she has viewed this far as divine.

tell me how I'm meant to feel tell me if my heart is real make me what I wasn't meant to be tell me why, god, why? tell me why, god, who then am I? tell me why

This section includes the vocals that continue into the last two sections and is meant to kind of be the last few questions Rei has about her creation and destruction. She was built with the capacity to feel, but what was she supposed to do with that? If she is able to feel, does that mean she truly does have a heart? "Make me what I wasn't meant to be" is her final way of rebelling against her creators: she still wants to be human, to be divine, even after everything. The final questions are to do with her death. "Tell me why" is a demand for answers to everything. Why was she made? Why does she have to be unmade? "Who then am I?" is the question of who she is now, but also who she was supposed to be from the start.

pre-defined Adam electric amalgam fingers entwine in my body of steel you unmake me in your image  scrap and wire

We get to revisit the first section now! This is a direct parallel to how Rei felt at the start of the song, while also showing that she is being disassembled in this moment. "Pre-defined Adam" in comparison to the earlier "undefined Adam" is to show that Rei knows now that who she was supposed to be was decided for her. "Fingers entwine in my body of steel" is meant to evoke the idea that someone is actively taking her apart in these last moments, and also parallel the earlier mentions of her body as "this vessel". Rei has come to view her body as hers, as opposed to just a vessel as she did at the start. "Scrap and wire" is simply what Rei knows she will become after she is taken apart.

mourning my own fate artificial heartbreak why do I love if I'm made just to hate? you unmake me in your image I don't want to die

This is probably my favourite section from the whole song I'm very proud of it. "Mourning my own fate" is fairly straightforward: Rei is about to die and she has to mourn herself. "Artificial heartbreak" mostly just sounds cool but also has to do with that grief, and in part to do with how Rei still doesn't view herself as human but instead as something else. "Why do I love if I'm made just to hate?" seems to be a line people really liked but unfortunately I can't say much about what it means here... it might have something to do with the circumstances around EDEN Rei's creation though! The rest is mostly more of the same and also self explanatory. Despite everything she has been through to reach this point, in her final moments Rei views herself as alive, and she doesn't want her life to end.

The scream at the end was also my plan and is meant in part to parallel the "startup sound" at the beginning! It's also where Rei dies, being fully disassembled by her creators. Although, maybe her consciousness could have escaped somewhere...? Been uploaded, maybe...? ;)

so yeah that was long and some of it was probably a lot more in depth than it needed to be but that's my writing process and main ideas for EDEN 4164616D! I really am proud of how this came out as a song and as a narrative, and I hope if you were interested enough in it to read this far you'll also be interested enough to keep an eye out for something that may or may not be related to it that might crop up either shortly before or after the MV releases!

if you're at all curious about anything else I didn't talk about here feel free to send me an ask about it!! I love talking about my writing process and seeing what people liked and disliked about what I made (and talking about anything else too!) so I'd be happy to see what people are curious about :)

[crimsonender]

Mikaila Orchard sucks at Paneling

I debated making this a video or not. But, I decided against it. If you guys are interested in me making videos about this sort of thing, let me know and perhaps it's something I could cover in the future.

So Mikaila Turkleson aka Mikaila Orchard has always made... questionable art. To me it seems like a weird amalgamation of Equestria Girls and Sophie Labelle's art. Anatomy bad character design bad etc etc. I don't however see a lot of people talk about her paneling.

Recently, Mikaila and presumably her partner, Lily Orchard started a new art endeavour. I assume to turn over a new leaf and bury the now-infamous Pokemadhouse. You can find it over at bhaalspawnfunnies. It appears as if the blog will focus around the player character of Baldur's Gate 1, Gorion's Ward, and their half sister, Imoen. This is the first entry.

Source

Where to start? My first impression is that this is very poorly drawn, and low effort even by Mikaila's standards. The speech bubbles are low contrast against the background. The ground/floor blurry blob looks extremely bad. As a fellow artist I get the distinct impression that Mikaila did not want to draw this piece.

Moreover, there's a huge issue with the panelling and pacing. Comics are really cool in that you can kind of use panelling and negative space to "time" jokes, leading the eye where you want it to go and using framing and other art tricks to make a punchline land a little better.

This "comic" has none of that. There is no pacing, there is no comedic timing. It's all bland and presented as a block. I took it upon myself to re-panel this piece, and I've made two versions: One, with Mikaila's art style and visuals, but with the panelling slightly adjusted to be more punchy and effective, the other I completely redrew, using the same joke.

Excuse the sloppiness. I'm not going to expend too much energy polishing and gilding this turd.

That being said, this is already a huge improvement. Even if Mikaila isn't at the technical level of a professional artist, this is very attainable with only a few more minutes of effort. The timing is punchier, the speech bubbles draw your eyes down the page, and even without colour coding, it's clear which of the characters is talking. This isn't exactly a hot take but in my opinion you shouldn't need colour coding on a comic page to denote who is speaking. It should be very obvious! Moreover, speech bubbles should be included in the composition, not added as an after thought.

I'm guessing the original comic took her less than an hour to make. I think I'm being generous here, honestly if this took her more than twenty minutes I would be concerned. Being generous though I gave myself one hour to make a version completely redrawn.

This was again, very quickly put together and of course is in no way perfect, but its to demonstrate what a little bit of thought can do to improve a comic page. I decided to change the pose of Gorion because making family guy references should be a a cardinal sin for artists, as well as make the characters a little more recognizable. "Aryana" is, notably, Lily's OC and bears little resemblance to the canon character of Gorion's Ward, but considering Baldurs Gate does allow character customization and dialogue choices, I decided to make their gender a little more ambiguous so players of any gender could see their version of Gorion's Ward in the comic, but kept the elf with long dark hair appearance from Mikaila's original. I also looked over the pic after I was all done and ready to upload and noticed some small flaws I could easily fix, and went back and did those things. You should always go over your pieces when you're finished them with fresh eyes before you submit them as a final piece.

Again, this certainly isn't perfect and I'd probably put more effort into a piece with characters I care about and a joke I actually find funny, but I hope this demonstrates that pacing and expression really are everything in comics.

[ebi-noodle-doodles]

Ok so I just found your blog and am in love with your art style and ofc your fat mikus! I just have a quick question--have any tips for drawing fat characters? I keep trying to, but every time it just looks so wierd. And I end up giving up. But I want to diversify sizes on my ocs! But anything that isn't the "standard" (aka what you see everywhere) size keeps looking off.

So any tips?

-@zakai-doodles

I can't fully say I'm an expert on the field since I'm still learning myself :D but here are the tips I can give on how I draw them

Notes: • Pear Shape-Star Shape/Teardrop shape • Give lines some weight- It emphasizes the softness of the character's body • ARMS- at first I didnt draw them plumpy, i got a comment saying the arms were thin so keep in mind. Fat gets distributed in the body, could be more on the belly or breasts or legs •BREASTS/CHEST- Gaining fat means gaining chests, but I don't think thats thats the case every time. While I see a lot of chubby characters being portrayed with heavy sets of jugs, based on my observation its not always the case and really just gives this idk weird portrayal of bodies that chubbs=big chests....hence the PEAR shape. •OBSERVATION and REFERENCING- This is the MOST IMPORTANT one. While I got used to drawing them without looking up references, it is important to work closer and learn more by observing side by side references to understand how body fat works. I think my works are still flat, having a reference gives you an idea how to approach on drawing it. •FACES/HEAD- I think I didnt change anything much with how I usually draw them. In my case I really like drawing them very cutesy like. The proportion of the face is smaller compared to the head giving an impression of (?) chubby face (dont know if I worded that correctly). •LINES- I tend to avoid sharp lines on chubby characters. I always try to make them look soft. •WEIRD TIP: How I actually learned is that I realize its like I'm drawing chibi characters but making them full(?). I realized that drawing chibi is somewhat similar to drawing chubby

[sun-citadel]

Headcanon time, hooray

Harpuia is a ✨️ narcissist ✨️

No, I don't mean the stereotypical portrayal of an individual with narcissism, but rather the concept of a person [ reploid ? ] with NPD [ pwNPD ] . I'm not saying this because he was a villain, but because it suits him.

Edit ;; this is a game based observation, I didn't account for the audio dramas as it's been a while

[ flag cred ]

Why specifically NPD ? It's typically viewed as the " evil abusive person disorder " , when in reality it's a maladaptive coping strategy to handle a sense of inferiority and an internal struggle with deep seated self - hatred from early on abuse, by portraying one's self as high and mighty — and in many instances, better than other people to cope. But that's barely scratching the surface.

Anyways. I did reference the DSM - V / an unofficial revised version by a pwNPD, as well as testimonies from others. But this is more an internal character breakdown, rather than how a person may view a pwNPD on an external level.

But to my points :

- 1. Grandiose sense of self :

That's very blatant with how Harpuia portrays himself, to where upon his first meetings with Zero, he states that he will repent for his sins, only to then be bested. While he'd admittedly impressed by it, he does tell Zero to stay healthy so that he may exact his revenge in the end — still believing himself to be superior, despite Zero's legendary status and capabilities. Upon years of going unopposed and retiring reploids to the point of almost boredom it feels like, I've always felt he'd garner a rather haughty attitude up until a challenge comes forth and bests him. Though, his disgust and anger is best apparent upon the repairs forced upon him. To be stripped of his position, to be torn apart, only to then be repaired by those he views as lesser is a clear strike to his ego. He's pushing himself to the point of fully avoiding repairs if it meant he could have a shred of pride left, which, self punishment and harm is common when a pwNPD struggles against a crash and feels at a low point. Harpuia has gone from mighty, basically second in command to X, to someone who was brutally beaten time and time again, to outright admitting to enjoy the pain / letting the pain distract him from his existence [ depending on translation ] to just cope with a fragile sense of self as someone split of X.

- 2. Preoccupied with feelings / fantasies of success, power, etc.

It does tie what I said previously, his countless attempts to try and surpass the legendary reploid, so I won't be redundant and repeat points. But he is in a place of power, of success, yet feels dissatisfied at times. His Japanese dialogue states that :

フフ‥あいかわらず‥やるな‥

それでいい‥それでいいんだ‥

オレは‥

オマエとたたかっているときだけ‥

なにもかもわすれることが‥できるんだ

しばらくは、これでいい

Only when fighting Zero can he forget everything for a little while, an act of self - harm that allows him to cope with the fact the world he knows is starting to crumble. He's forced to face his ego, when he never did prior to the awakening of Zero. It's a ruse. His feelings are complex, switching from the enjoyment of a challenge, only to go mask off during the repairs and admit to feeling highly inferior, especially after his banishment.

By this point, as to not repeat myself, I'll lump categories together.

- 3. Believe that they are “ special ” and can only be understood by other special or high-status people.

The Four Guardians position, being created of X's DNA — dare I elaborate ? He's essentially the top 1% of Neo Arcadia, just below Copy X essentially, with an entire battalion beneath him.

- 4. Require excessive admiration.

Harpuia recieves it, he receives admiration, respect, yet at the same time, fear. He is entitled, because he's so used to his role as someone so above everyone, yet below only Copy X — which he does seem mostly satisfied with, up until his questioning of things with Weil. Being betrayed by his Master like so, especially to someone like Weil, is bound to make anyone feel low : and with Harpuia, he results to harming himself by leaving early from the Resistance Base.

- 5. Sense of boredom, due to a lack of connection with others.

Points to the Japanese translation yet again. That, paired with the fact he seems relatively lonely. The other guardians don't even follow him in his banishment, and show up only after to aid in defeating Omega. They were a team, he worked closely with Leviathan — yet, ultimately he was left by himself.

- 6. Lack of empathy.

He's killed others for what he assumed the greater good, contemplated killing Zero while he was downed, attempted to kill Elpizo for knowing too much, there are various times where he takes a more selfish approach when he tries to play hero. Though, in his lack of compassion and empathy, he does choose to do good — especially when following the rules of robotics to help aid and protect Neo Arcadia. Though to other reploids, he comes across as callous, harsh, and even evil, yet, he is simply following orders that he learns to eventually question upon realizing he's doing more harm than good.

So he enters an arc of remission at the end, where he isn't cured [ NPD is incurable ] , but ultimately makes a selfless sacrifice to better humanity.

Does he like Zero after this ? Debatable. Does he respect him ? Absolutely, possibly to the point of being viewed as an equal in the NPD hierarchy in my eyes, despite initially starting out as a devalued person / bottom of the tier.

There are other points, but I really don't want to be repeating myself. He just comes across as an individual with NPD, judging from a fluctuating sense of self as his ego is repeatedly shot down by Zero. He's self loathing despite a mighty mask he wears, and ultimately, still attempts to do good despite the horrible actions commited from a lack of awareness that his goal caused harm.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[i-drop-level-one-loot]

Hun something else I want to ask is if you would do a hybrid dragon Yan..? Forgot to mention it in the last ask because I forget ideas a lot <3

-from the one anon who said to use 3 names you like :)!

P.s I’ll probably refer to myself as this forever now hun

I'm sorry this took so long!! Here it is:

CW: mild violence, video game logic

Yandere!Dragon x GN!Reader

The winds in the mountains were cold enough to slice open skin and leave blisters.

Traveling up towards the sky was (Reader), a warrior known throughout the lands for their incredible feats, climbing up the snowy pass towards the dark splotch on their map.

The dragon's lair.

Only human in appearance, (Reader) had slaughtered almost every type of monster and fiend in the continent, sending fear through all living beings. They were rumored to be immortal, since they seemed to be capable of recovering from any wound they received, no matter how critical. Whatever life threatening hit they took, and no matter how certain their death seemed to be, (Reader) would only black out, waking a few hours later. A warrior without a past, without a home, who only lived to kill.

Slaying a dragon would be the last creature on the killer's list, having already defeated deities and apocalypse level threats. It wasn't that a dragon would be harder than killing a god; they just hadn't gotten around to it.

In the grand scheme of life, dragon slaying would be a side quest.

(Reader) doubted that the battle would be difficult in any sort of sense; aside from their incredible physical attributes they also had legendary gear such as "the Ring of Absolution" which was forged from the tears of a Golden Warrior. That ring alone made it impossible for enemies to block their attacks or use "break out" to parry.

Upon finding the cave and entering recklessly, (Reader) wished that someone had told them sooner:

That "when you're at the top, the only place to go is down.."

A blast of fire knocked their helmet off their head as the heat pushed them back. Shocked (and a little excited) the warrior raised their vampiric sword. Inside the cave, a giant red and golden dragon sat posed, muscles tense and eyeing the invader with intrigue.

"Who are you, to enter my home?" His deep voice sounded more confused than offended. And when (Reader) pointed their weapon at him in response, he chuckled. "Adorable little human, if you wish to live a long life, leave this cave now, and I shall spare you."

(Reader) shouted, igniting a glowing light around their body, then lunged, slashing at the beast.

To the dragon's surprise it hurt.

"Foul little thing!" He snarled, attempting to blast the human with another bolt of flames (this time not as a warning) but the fighter rolled out of the way, effectively dodging the attack. (Reader) thrust again, angering the dragon when he found that he could not block the sword, the blade passing his harder scales and hitting his soft flesh despite his guarding.

Amidst the rage and frustration a new emotion began forming within the centuries young being; respect.

There were no dragons he wished to associate with, there were no creatures that approached him of their own free will. He was alone. For a very, very long time. For he was not just a dragon..

He was Targov the Malicious.

A dragon of legend, ender of nations, killer of kings..

And his health was slowly being chipped away by the steel of a mortal.

(Reader) did not know who the dragon was, only that this was the closest location for a dragon nest.

"Small human.. I have a proposition for you."

The warrior paused, tilting their head as they waited for the dragon to continue.

"You have impressed me, and you have earned my admiration. So I offer you a chance at life eternal: become my mate, and ascend to a higher state of being.

You shall never want nor need for anything. I will be your willing servant for all of eternity."

It wasn't the first proposal (Reader) had received, yet it was certainly the first from a beast. They stepped back a fraction as though his words caused them to stumble. His request sounded so genuine that it almost killed their blood lust.

Almost.

Disappointment and betrayal filled the dragon's eyes as (Reader) suddenly threw their sword like a spear, lodging it into Targov's chest, a feather's distance shy of his heart. But even that only further fueled the growing need he had for the mortal. And the obvious solution to the warrior's resistance was to make the choice easier for them.

Targov flew forward, but instead of attacking like (Reader) had predicted, he grappled the human in his talons and continued faster, propelling them both out of the cave and into the sky as he built speed.

The wind jostled the surprised human about like a rag doll as they rose higher into the atmosphere. Their ears popped painfully, but they could still hear the roaring laughter of the dragon.

"HA! Now what do you say, human?! Shall you be mine? Or shall I drop you?!" He held the adventurer loosely by the fabric visible under their armor in an attempt to frighten them. But what he saw next made his heart falter.

His eyes widened as (Reader) smiled triumphantly, raising a dagger while maintaining eye contact, and sliced off the part of their outfit Targov held onto, willingly allowing themselves to fall.

It was just a fall.

Yeah, it would hurt. It would hurt like a son of a bitch, but (Reader) knew they wouldn't die. They never did.

However, their near immortality was something that Targov didn't know about.

Before his emotions could fully form into separate feelings, Targov dove, recatching the little human, now with a more secure grip, and flew back to his home, his heart beating a billion beats per second once it restarted.

(Reader) was thrown to the floor by the dragon seconds before being blinded by a bright flash. The dragon was consumed in a bright white glow that illuminated the cave, morphing into a more human appearance, with deep golden skin and red hair. His horns and claws still remained, but as (Reader) could see clearly from his lack of clothes, was now mostly human. He charged towards (Reader), face twisted in his confusing mix of emotions. Anger, shock, hurt, feelings his adrenaline wouldn't give him time to categorize as he closed in on the confused human.

He hoisted (Reader) up by their neck.

"You'd really rather die than be mine?!" The enraged dragon screamed.

Struggling to breathe, the warrior grabbed one of his scaly hands while trying to smack his face with their dominant hand.

The glint of their ring caught Targov's attention, who recognized it instantly. He had been alive for a very long time, and killed many a god during his rebellious years. Sharp teeth sunk into (Reader's) fingers, the dragon biting their hand lightly, suddenly, earning a shocked cry from the struggling human. Targov dropped (Reader), pulling the ring off their finger with his fangs as he did so.

The warrior didn't notice their missing ring until they regained their composure and attempted to attack the humanoid dragon, who blocked their attack perfectly fine.

Targov wore the ring on his smallest claw.

"I see I was right about you.." His deep voice chuckled, but (Reader) couldn't tell if it was out of amusement or fury. "A fellow God killer.. who better suited to be my mate?"

He grabbed (Reader's) wrist, and despite it's low speed, the ring prevented (Reader) from dodging.

"Welcome home, my mate."

"Even if I have to break you, I will have you. And you will learn to love me."

[fafodill]

What do you think of Movie!Snape and Book!Snape? Do you have a favourite? Was your Snape inspired by both of them or something else? I'm just curious.

(I love your art, it's beautiful, as are your texts!)

I'm sending you heart-shaped cookies anon, thank you very much! 💚🍪🍪🍪

Well when I got sucked again into the HP vortex last summer I did focus on movie!Snape for quite a while. With time, as wanted to get deeper into the character I dived back into the books.

I do like both because they kind of complement each other imo. They're like two sides of the same coin - one being more important than the other but the second adding an interesting layer to the character.

At the end of the day, book!Snape is my man. I think his traumas, short-temper and feralness are so important to understand him fully and you just loose so much of it in the movies with Rickman's performance. I like how mean and twitchy and petty book!Snape is. I like his sarcasms, his humor, how expressive he is in the way he talks and moves his body and face. He's very emotional, which makes him very entertaining and fuels the aura he carries.

Of course he's also seen through Harry's narration, which is heavily unreliable since they don't like each other.

On the other hand, we have Movie!Snape who is way calmer and not al all seen through anyone's eyes except ours. He's frowning a lot, he's stern and not very patient either but he has a big aura. He commands a room. He's intense but in a more controlled way. He's impressive - unlike book!Snape who feels like an angry wet cat.

And I like to mix the two.

I like the wet cat, it colors him and gives him a lot of depth which you can then use to explore his character, be it with angst or comedy. But I also like to infuse him with a bit of that movie aura, because I believe that even though canon!Snape won't ever be posh and able to fully escape his sooty childhood, he tried his absolute best. He learned (with Lucius, the DE, while being a teacher) to speak and move and act in a way that commands respect. Nothing came naturally but he worked for it and if he was just looking like a sputtering clown in the books, Harry would have told us.

But Harry wouldn't tell us he found him impressive because he's biased, so I'm absolutely using that blind spot/trait of Harry in the books to justify my hc which is that Snape™ has also quite an aura, an intensity to his presence that is not depicted in the books. And that he can be calm and commanding when he's in control of himself.

I think Rickman's gave us an interesting and charismatic performance (that jkr really liked, I mean she wanted *him* for the role so she also might have felt like that there was something right with how he portrayed him) that I like to take into account. BUT he's a bit too smooth imo. I wish we had seen more of Snape's temper and overall expressiveness on the screen.

As for the facecard - which you haven't directly asked about but since you mentioned my art - I started drawing him with movie!Snape as a reference but with time I've been distancing myself more and more (as you've maybe seen). I love movie!Snape outfit and hair (in the first two movies) and I still kept some facial details in my current drawings (thin lips, the crease between the brows) but I have found lately some facecards that aligned way better with the idea I have of him.

Alan Rickman was quite tall and -I won't say 'buff' but he certainly wasn't a stick (I mean in HBP he has such a padded chest people made horny memes about it)(which was fair, it looked pretty comfy) and I do like to imagine Snape as... not being that tall... not muscular either and quite bony. It goes well with how twitchy he was in his youth and his overall dry mood and dry humor. I don't see him as short per say, but he's not tall nor broad. There's an energy radiating off of him, but it's pure aura, not classic masculine presence.

So in conclusion: