#also she would be a better parallel to Maria

[karmaislost]

I have crazy ideas but I have no clue if it's lore accurate so they are just going to stay as ideas

[lyricthecat-12]

I urgently needed to talk about the last scene between Sonic and Shadow in the third movie, because I think what they did is simply beautiful. 🥹💙❤️🖤

Before Sonic 3 came out, there was debate over who would be the one to change Shadow's mind since at that point, there was no solid indication that Amy or Rouge would appear. I was a fan of the idea that maybe they'd have Jojo be the one to remind Shadow of Maria's wish, since she was an established character from the start and fits the profile like a cheerful, caring, and optimistic girl.

However, seeing that in the end they made it so that Sonic was the one who talked to Shadow and convinced him to fight to save the world, surprised me and at the same time fascinated me infinitely more. Because they managed to make the change organic by connecting it with narrative elements that were also raised and developed from the beginning; Sonic's grief over losing Longclaw and his paternal relationship with Tom, making this moment something special and significant for both of them:

It is a moment of connection and understanding between two people who have lost the person who was once the most important in their lives, who loved them when no one else did and gave them a home,

That for a long time they had to deal alone with the pain and guilt of having been the trigger for their deaths but, as they emphasize in the film, While Sonic was able to find a family that would love him and help him get better and cope with that pain, Shadow was alone and the only person he interacted with after awakening, only manipulated him in order to fulfill his revenge.

Until this moment, where Shadow finally meets someone who not only knows his pain perfectly but has also learned to move forward and not let it corrupt him even in the most difficult moments, and who in turn motivates him to do the same.

All of this contributes fantastically to their connection, as it is no longer just that their personalities and ways of acting are opposite, but also the way in which their stories correlate and at the same time distinguish each other, creating a new and emotional parallelism between them: They are two sides of the same coin, two extremes that ultimately come together to bring out the best in each other.

Which is beautifully reflected throughout the final battle. Sonic and Shadow display effortless synergy, supporting each other, backing each other up, and even casually joking around.

A good reminder of the great chemistry and dynamism they used to have years ago. Unlike now that they make it seem like Shadow barely tolerates Sonic, before they both had a friendly rivalry where they respected each other, valued each other and helped each other without problem. And I'm really glad the movie brought back some of that dynamic and reflected it in such a natural and fun way, and I hope that continues for future SCU projects instead of sticking to the current direction.

And I'm not just saying this because I'm a fan of Sonadow, but because I genuinely believe that this is the most natural direction for their relationship after all this time.

[princessofghosts-posts]

Recently realized that demigods at CHB are either rich/upper class or poor/broke by default.

You got Piper,and she is really the daughter of a famous Hollywood's star,she grew up under the spotlight all of her life,full of people that wanted to have her father's attention,and is super rich. She shoplifts thanks to her charm-speaking ability,yes,but she still got the money.

Rachel's the daughter of an important CEO,her family's money got her a last-minute helicopters (and taxis in all the city too-) to fly to Manhattan,in a couple of hours,while she was in a totally different locations. She hates her dad,and her family business isn't the best ecological one,but she is rich.

Annabeth's father is a professor that got his family of 5 (counting Annabeth even tho she doesn't live with them that much) moved from a state to another,Virginia to San Francisco. He might not be Rachel/Piper level of richness,but he is still able to provide a big family with an house in an expensive place and without economics problem. Annabeth is upper class.

Nico and Bianca's family is part of italian old money. Their grandparents were politicians,so was their mother,and they were probably related to someone with a noble title. During the start of the war,only a couple of people,usually the rich one,could travel from a place to another (Maria didn't met Hades in Italy after all). They lived in the Lotus and that place is full of everything you ever wanted,especially with the infinite credit card. Hades is the good of the riches too. They are upper class.

Half of the Aphrodite's cabin,if not full,is probably related to rich or famous people because of her nature. It's impossible she only had Piper that was from a famous actor. Silena and Drew are probably rich too but not on "Hollywood's star" level. (Tanaka is a japanese surname,and japanese families are usually well off,Beauregard is french surname so she is probably french,and most french people have a pretty expensive lifestyle.)

Thalia and Jason's mother was a famous television star that got Zeus attentions twice,so at least the first years of their life they had a good economic situation. She then went insane,and was horrible to her children and Thalia had to live on the street to get away from her (like Annabeth) while Jason got adopted by Lupa.

Then you got Leo that basically jump from a foster home to another,most of which are abusive or mistreat him. The guy lost his mother and the rest of his family hated him so much that decided to hand him to CPS directly. He lives day by day,and probably on the street a couple of time too. He is completely broke.

Percy (before Sally published her book and became a well-known writer,and Paul entered their life) was poor. They had enough to get by with Sally's money,and most of it was wasted on alcohol by Gabe. He didn't had a comfortable life,fortunately now his economic situation is better.

Now,you can discuss that Luke wasn't really poor,but the guy ran away from his mother and spent half of his childhood in the street. And with May's condition I don't think someone would employee her,and if she had a job before she probably got fired.

Ethan Nakamura literally lived on the street all of the time,either because he was doing something for Kronos,or because he didn't had a place at CHB (Hermes's cabin doesn't count).

Half of the children of minor gods/goddesses,and the revolutionaries who joined Kronos,were probably in the same situation as Ethan,if not worse.

Jason lived in a forest with a bunch of wolves. Then at CJ it's not like he had any monetary problem since they didn't really needs money inside the camp. And for any quest to do,I'm sure the romans had a vault,or some sort of safe,to keep money in case it was needed.

Probably majority of the Greeks demigods weren't in a good situation in their finances too,but I personally think that most of them had at least a a life with an enough stable economic situation.

Also,gotta love the parallelism that some of them have:

• Annabeth and Thalia (and Jason) are upper class thanks to their mortal parent's job,but had to live on the streets because their family were shit.

• Percy was poor but after his mom's business skyrocketed,and thanks to Paul's job too,they never had to worry about rent and not having enough food.

• Piper is rich but spent all of her teenager years shoplifting and stealing,trying to get her dad's attention.

• Rachel is rich but prefer to be an activist-artist,with oracle problems because she hates her dad.

• Nico and Bianca are rich,from both family's sides,but were forced to live in "poverty" (I have to desagree on this one because it's not accurate since it was from Percy POV's during BotL).

[rwbyrg]

Can we take a moment to appreciate just how well fed we are? Both in canon and beyond?

Oscar said "woah" the moment he first met Ruby.

"Woah. You have... silver eyes". Specifically.

The scene of them sparring at sunset and being goofy about it.

They're the two youngest members of the team, and both of their main allusions are stories about growing up (The Little Prince and Little Red Riding Hood).

Oscar's main allusion is of a character that's in love with a rose. Ruby's last name is Rose, she has a rose emblem, and can turn into rose petals.

They also have shared/parallel allusions from in-universe fairytales (Ex. The Boy Who Fell From The Sky, The Girl Who Fell Through the World, and most notably, The Warrior in the Woods).

The Dojo Scene

Their shared attachments to each other keep being put in focus.

Oscar cared more about Ruby being knocked out than Weiss being impaled at Haven.

Ruby's always watching his back in fights, and he always has hers in group conflict discussions.

Neo, the illusionist character, uses Oscar as both the first and last illusion to torture Ruby; going so far as to make Ruby "kill" him with her own hands. It could have been anyone, but it WASN'T. It was OSCAR.

Meanwhile, Oscar in the V9 epilogue laments to Ruby's "grave" about how he is struggling to hold onto who he is more than ever before. In large part because of the merge, but also because Ruby "always saw people for who they really were", and she's not around anymore to help remind him of who he is.

"You're your own person."

The Almost Hug.

The song that plays leading up to The Almost Hug is one about someone pining for a love they've lost and been separated from across worlds. The song airs a few episodes before Oscar and Ruby are the only "pairing" split up between Remnant and The Ever After. The song itself is called Treasure and Ruby is a type of precious gem, while Oscar's name alludes to gold.

Oscar's last name is Pine. Which, aside from the species of tree, is defined as: "to long or yearn for the return of something; to suffer, typically from a broken heart"(please see points 12 and 15).

They have multiple paralleling arcs and themes around choice, identity, responsibility, leadership, grief, etc.

Their character designs have complimentary colour schemes like other canon ships (red/green and silver/gold).

Sun/Moon ship

"Combat gear looks good."

They also follow the same story beats, separations, and reunions that other canon ships have in show (the meet-cute, the getting-to-know-you, the breakup arc, the distance makes the heart grow fonder trope, the (upcoming) emotional reunion, etc).

The animators, writers, and even voice actors on occasion, engage with fan content or discussions of the ship in a positive manner.

The Official RWBY Twitter Oscars Meme

Miles Luna has said a few times that the ship is cute. He also highlights that their relationship is built on mutual understanding from being in similar circumstances as the youngest kids in the group with too much weight on their shoulders.

Miles also said that in a hypothetical scenario where everyone celebrates Oscar's birthday, Ruby would buy a co-op video game as a present and the two of them would stay up really late playing it together.

Rosegarden won 2nd place in a popular RWBY YouTuber's "Top 10 RWBY Ships" poll as voted by fans after Volume 8 (it would have been third place if Renora and Bumbleby hadn't tied for first).

That one video from Aaron Dismuke, Oscar's VA.

"That kid's got a collapsible staff" -heart eyes emoji-

We've gotten a "Rosegarden Moment" in every Volume premiere since Oscar's debut in V4.

Oscar shouting Ruby's name too many times in the V6 fight against Cordovin.

Maria tells Oscar to "keep that fire fed" after he overhears Ruby talking about food always making her feel better. Then a few episodes later, he suspiciously makes a casserole for the "team" after "they" had a rough day (where he stood up for Ruby when she was looking defeated in a group argument).

Oscar's the only person Ruby opened up to about her grief until the blacksmith. Meanwhile, Ruby's the one who's always assuring Oscar he's his own person despite the merge.

The parallels of Oscar's struggle with the merge and Ruby's ascension in The Ever After.

"I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" / "What if you could be anyone?"

Characters within the narrative regularly notice how close these two are to each other. Mainly Nora, Weiss, Yang, Cinder and Neo.

Oscar blushed when Ruby touched his shoulder???

THE FUMBLE?!?!?!?

[mysterious-prophetess]

Metaphor: ReFantzaio—Parallels and Foils

This is going to get into spoiler territory, so I'll put those parts below a read more.

In most fiction, there is usually one obvious parallel set up between our Protagonist and his main Antagonist.

Metaphor is no exception. Will/The Protagonist and Louis serve as excellent foils to one another, especially after some late-game reveals show just how closely they mirror each other.

Another set of foils are Maria Alces and Cirisium Zorba. This is made more ironic when you consider that Maria's follower bond gives rise to the Healer Archetype Line and Zorba is a Necromancer.

Maria and Zorba's parallels are interesting because Zorba is what Maria might have grown up to be had she been left on her own without others helping her find her place.

Like Maria, Zorba is of mixed heritage—he being half-clemar and half-mustari while Maria is half-rhoag and half-ishkia.

Like Maria, his status is blatantly obvious as he displays visible marks of his mixed heritage— such as the third eye of the mustari but a single solitary horn from his clemar side. Maria's single pair of wings give away her ishikia heritage, and also give away that she is only half-ishkia from it being a single pair (we never see her ears, but I assume they're pointed like Grius's were).

However, where she found family and acceptance, Zorba only ever found a dark and twisted version of that with Louis and his patronage to the point of being so utterly devoted to a man who lacks the capacity to see beyond his own aims.

Now we circle back to Will/the Protagonist and Louis. Spoilers to follow. You have been warned.

Let's get this out of the way.

Both are of Eldan descent and have connections to both the Elda and More/Hythlodeus V, losing family to the burning of the Elda Village and being inspired by the Fantasy Novel.

Both can inspire others. Neither gives a damn about what tribe someone is.

Both are skilled at magic, albeit Louis is far more powerful in this regard; keep in mind that Will/the Protagonist comes pretty damn far in power level in FOUR MONTHS. Who knows how much closer the fight might have been had Will had the time to train prior.

I digress. Both have ideals they refuse to back down from. It's in executing their ideals where they differ the most. That, and Will wants to help everyone and Louis will only help those who can help themselves.

Will/the Protagonist has had the deck stacked against him, almost as much as Louis, and they even share the same traumatic experiences to a degree.

Yet, Will held on to his desire to make the world a better place in spite of its massive flaws and would work to create the world of his ideals, while Louis never escaped the flames of that night and only ever saw destruction as the solution.

Louis sees fantasy and ideals like Will's as lies because he was failed by More/Hythlodeus V when the King gave up on life (basically) after the cursing of The Prince/Will.

Will sees fantasy as inspiration despite More/Hythlodeus V giving up on the world and—by extension Will—until Will has to show his father's own vestige More that he was holding firm to his ideals, unlike More/Hythlodeus V.

Will finds the strength to keep believing, whereas Louis sees belief as a weakness to be stamped out (see his hatred of the Sanctist Church beyond his legitimate grievances with their leader attempting the genocide of Louis's people).

Will also shares some parallels with Maria and Zorba because, like them, he is actually of mixed heritage—half-clemar and half-elda. He can easily pass as just elda, but that's not much better for him considering how the elda are treated. However, because the game doesn't touch much on this, all I can point out is Maria and Zorba show different ways Will's own life might have turned out, but the same could be said of his parallel with Louis.

In the end, it's that Will has friends (in true POWER OF FRIENDSHIP) and the strength to keep going and stick to his ideals that allows him to triumph over Louis.

Yet, it's so easy to see where Will could have become Louis (or even Zorba).

[flyingpochama948]

I've seen for years how people would compare Shadow and Maria's relationship to Sonic and Elise's, usually to say how much better the former is to the latter. Because them being hedgehog boy and human girl relationships.

But, it donned on me that people have been looking at it all wrong for all this time. Because the parallels don't exist between Sonic and Shadow or Elise and Maria. In reality, it's more like Sonic is the Maria parallel while Elise is the Shadow parallel.

Think about it? Both Shadow and Elise had these daunting responsibilities forced upon them by their father figure. Respectively, Maria and Sonic are there to helpnshow they are more than that while also letting them feel joy and vulnerability for once. And they're both blue lol. Also worthy if note that Shadow and Elise's backstories revolve around eternal life, either through immortality or resurrecting the dead with usage of time. And Shadow in part created by Black Doom to be this sort of vessel for his powers while Elise was made into the vessel for the Flames of Disaster.

Then there's the deaths of Sonic and Maria, both shot in the back, and how it affects Elise and Shadow. Them essentially being killed due to factors that involved them (GUN wanting to shut down Project Shadow and Mephiles wanting to release Iblis). Shadow and Elise kind of work in reverse about. Shadow wants revenge, thinking that was what Maria wanted when he finally realized her actual wish to save the earth. Elise goes in to help right away in saving Sonic, and the world, but only after does she express resentment for needing to choose the world yet again over her own feelings. Shadow was even put in a position just recently in SxSG that was similar to Elise's predicament in 06. In the end, both Shadow and Elise do the right thing.

Anyway, just thought it was interesting.

[wisteriasymphony]

Hiya! I’m a bit new to your blog, but I’ve seen a lot about “Claude,” and I’d love to know more about that! Is he from an AU of yours or just an OC?

You know, I could draw a lot of parallels for canon (or pre-canon, in quantic Claude's case) characters to try and set a baseline.

But maybe it's better to just forgo all of that. Claudia isn't truly an "anti-Marinette" (whose main story got published almost over a year before the Paris Special, funnily enough), nor is she an "alternate Lila", or even extremely related to the 'quantic kids' version of Claude Haprele.

She's just.... Claudia.

..full name Claudia Guadalupe Maria Josefa Lopez Cardoso Perreault. I have talked a bit about her starting concept and how she's grown from there, but to sum it up nicely, I was interested in how a much more pessimistic, apathetic character would function in the mlb world.

What if you were too bogged down by your own misery to even bother wanting to 'solve' your problems with an akuma?

What if your first instinct upon recieving a miraculous was to try and put yourself in danger?

In a world where feeling positively is survival and feeling negatively gets people hurt.... what if you feel nothing at all?

Claudia was meant to answer this by having a swarm of akumas that essentially functioned more as a mundane pest problem than anything else. She would just go about her day, largely unrelated to the bigger machinations of Paris, because that was not and never would be her issue,

.....until, uhm. well.

....So turns out she contrasts Adrien in a lot of interesting ways!

So, of course, I started to think about how they would work paired up together.

...A LOT.

whoops. Now, this is barely scratching the surface of Claudia as a character, I could get into her miraculous and how that works, the way tweos handles (or, really, gets around having to handle) its lovesquare (which I think would also be valuable for explaining claudia through her relationship with Adrien), and I could even talk about the changes to Adrien as a character! But I'll save those for other asks. :P

[postingjustwhatever]

Spoilers for Sonic 3. This is just a rant. I just really want to get my thoughts out there and everything off my chest because I am just so upset, like really really upset. I am shocked I have heard nothing but praise for this movie. It really got my hopes up. I really didn't like the other ones. I'm not a big fan of the live action plus animated characters combo, The characters still look super uncanny and weird to me. I also really don't like Jim Carrey, I realllllly reallly don't like him. I don't find him funny at all. He's got kind of that millennial humor where it seems he thinks making weird faces and acting goofy is the peak of humor. Idk if younger kids find that funny, I feel like I wouldn't even as a kid. But I especially don't like it now, I'm just old man, I'm tired. I really wanted this movie to be a little more mature. Shadow Generations did such a good job. Dark Beginnings was amazing. I wish this movie could have felt more like that.

These movies just don't feel like Sonic at all. I know everyone gets sick of people complaining about Sonic's personality in these. But I think those are valid complaints. He just doesn't act or feel like Sonic and I don't think anything they do can make me view him as Sonic.

I just can't get over the whole Sonic the other characters being aliens from a different planet thing. It makes it hard to introduce other characters. And it completely changed who Sonic is. And now it's changed who Shadow is. Shadow is now just Sonic but edgy. He's just Sonic but if he got caught and put in a lab instead of living by himself and later getting adopted by humans. They took the Shadow being a darker version of Sonic thing literally. They changed everything about his backstory all while talking about how they wanted to do his backstory right.

It just hurts so much. I know I shouldn't be so affected by this. But I have been a fan of the Sonic franchise for so long and Shadow has always been one of my favorite characters of all time. And it hurts to have had my hopes up for this movie even a little bit thinking it would at least be better than the others and be so so disappointed. Maybe I don't have a right to complain because I didn't actually finish watching it. I started crying and ended up leaving around 45 mins in. Really embarrassing. I just couldn't enjoy it. I really really didn't like the Jim Carrey parts, they were painful. I was willing to sit though them because I wanted to see Shadow's backstory brought to screen in a big movie. But then then they explain his backstory and it's nothing like the games.

He crashed to earth in a comet. He wasn't created by Gerald. Maria wasn't sick. They didn't live on Space Colony Ark. I was so confused. I never even considered that they would change any of this. I thought the gun commander was just lying to Sonic about where Shadow came from so Sonic would work for them or something. But then they show the flashback with Maria and it's still the same. I ended up quickly looking up on my phone it they changed his backstory for this movie and they did. I just don't get why. I've seen people say because it wouldn't make sense in the movie universe because in the movies Sonic and friends are aliens. So they decide to just make Shadow an alien just like them?? I feel like they could have made his backstory work somehow. They didn't even try. Now he's just a literal dark parallel to Sonic. He's always been so but not like this. Do they think the most important part of his backstory is that he was in a lab, there was a professor and also a little girl he was friends with that gets killed.

It just kills me that they changed everything about Maria. She's not sick??? I guess if she's not sick it makes no sense for Gerald to have been researching a way to cure her or anything. I hate it so much. Shadow being just an alien takes away so much depth from all of their characters. Maria is the reason Shadow exists in the first place. She was so important. Their relationship was so important. It feel so much more meaningful for Shadow to have been created by her grandfather to cure her, than him just being some alien she was friends with. Her being sick but also so kind and hopeful was so important. She gets killed by the government when they raided a place that was trying to find a cure for her and she still tells Shadow to protect the people of earth. Maria was so important but now she's just some kid he was friends with I guess. I hate that they took away her sickness and her disability. I loved that the journal that came with Sonic x Shadow Generations portrayed that more. I loved that they showed it actually affecting her. I loved them showing her in the wheelchair hooked up to the iv bag but she was still smiling. She was still strong and hopeful despite everything and she still wanted Shadow to protect the earth despite what happened. And this movie took all that away from her character. I hate it.

Them just living on earth on some base makes me so upset. I was excited to see them on the Space Colony Ark. I wanted to see them looking out the window of the ark at the earth but instead I get them laying in the grass looking at the stars. Maria was so tragic because she loved the earth so much but she couldn't be there because she was sick. They took all of those parts of her character away.

I don't know how Professor Gerald was portrayed all I've seen of him was what was in the trailers and the brief glimpse I got before I left and I've hated everything I've seen. Gerald has never been as silly a character as Eggman. But it seems like Jim Carrey was playing him exactly the same. I assume he changes and acts different towards the end but my impression of him was already ruined. What's the point of him if he didn't create Shadow as a way to cure his granddaughter. It takes away so much from his character. He was also a tragic character. Him trying to do good with his research but then using his creation, Shadow as a weapon against humanity after his granddaughter is killed even after his death is ruined. He's still alive and he didn't create Shadow. I hate it so much. It's not as tragic with him still being alive. Did they have him still be alive so Jim Carrey could play double the annoying wacky roles. Gerald Robotnik is supposed to be a sad tragic old man but all I got was Jim Carrey in goofy looking prosthetic makeup.

Look I know it's a kids movie but couldn't they at least of made it a little less silly. The games were also kids games. Shadow Generation was also a kids game but it did a way better job with handling these characters. Maria and Gerald were Shadow's family. Gerald was his dad, sort of, I hate that they changed that. I guess Maria was still like family with him in this (idk what his relationship with Gerald was I didn't watch that far) but it's not the same.

I loved the Space Colony Ark, I loved it being some research lab up in space. What about artificial chaos, the biolizard, emerl??? None of that is a thing in these movies. It just sucks sooo much. Everything I love about the games is not in this movie. I couldn't finish watching it because I was so upset about the changes. It was bothering me so much it made Jim Carrey so much more insufferable. I am wondering if Shadow still has some connection to the Black Arms because he did fall to earth in a suspicious looking comet. I don't know if I even care because they already took away all the most important parts of his backstory.

Shadow's backstory being changed also kind of ruined the whole Sonic and his powers being sort of a natural force of nature thing and Shadow and his power being a man made thing. Like Shadow is always claiming to be the ultimate life form but he almost can't live up to Sonic's natural talent. It makes their rivalry so much more interesting. I also hate them having such similar backstories here. Sonic is supposed to be unburdened, free as the wind, living in the present, we don't even know what his backstory is. While Shadow is nothing but backstory, haunted by the past and burdened with tragedy.

Movie Sonic is nothing like game Sonic. There is very little that I love about game Sonic present in movie Sonic. I hate that since movie Sonic has a backstory they decided to take most of Shadow's backstory away so he would parallel Sonic. They really just made him Sonic but not nice.

I've just wanted to see a fully animated Sonic movie for years. I've especially wanted to see Sonic Adventure 2 adapted as an animated movie. These movies ruined my chance of seeing that. I thought this movie would be as close as I'd ever get to seeing SA2 in movie form. But there was nothing about it that was similar. Shadow may have the right personality but he has none of his backstory. Sonic isn't anything like Sonic. Tails is Tails I guess. I don't really care much about Knuckles but he doesn't even feel similar to his game counterpart.

I really hate everything they are doing with this movies. It's fine if people like them. I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion. I just really wanted to write how I feel about them because this one really upset me. I've cried a lot because of it. Which is silly I know. Shadow's character was important to me and so was Maria and it hurts so see so much changed about it. I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was watching this movie in theaters. In the dream there was some kind of change I didn't like and the movie was really short and I was really disappointed about it. I remember being upset about it because it sucked so bad. And the same thing happened when I actually saw the movie. They changed a lot and it was short because I left early. I just usually don't get excited for things because they usually disappoint me. I was kinda looking forward to this one and the good reviews didn't help. I was probably more excited than I realized because I did dream about it multiple times. I was disappointed in every dream. Usually when I am looking forward to something I have dreams about the thing where it sucks. I never been this thoroughly disappointed though. I think this is going to ruin my enjoyment of the Sonic franchise, everytime I see anything Sonic I think this movie and the disappointment that came with it is going to pop into my head.

Something that really bothers me is this quote from the director.

They didn't want too many characters so they could get Shadow's backstory right??? They got nothing about it right. I wish they wouldn't have added Gerald in the movie. He felt unnecessary. I would have much rather have had Rouge than another Jim Carrey. Rouge is important to Shadow's character. She was introduced in the same game. I hate that she was just sidelined like that. Them talking about how they wanted to do Shadow's backstory right just got my hopes up too much.

The lead up to the movie made me more excited than I should have been I guess. I preordered Sonic x Shadow Generations when it was announced. I played it when it came out, it had everything I loved about Shadow's character in it. I went to the Sonic Symphony this November. I felt like this movie, even if it wasn't great would at least be a fun way to end all of that. But it really just left me feeling awful.

I'm sure these movies have been great for the Sonic franchise. The money made from them probably helps them make better games. They've probably introduced a more people and kids to the Sonic franchise. I just kinda hate that this is the version they are introduced to.

I'm just so upset but I keep thinking something's wrong with me because everyone else seems to be enjoying it but I just can't. I don't think I am going to be watching any more of these movies, this one killed any interest.

[artificialchaoscola]

i think another interesting anti-shadow concept would be playing with his fear factor? like we see in shadow generations, maria ir scared of black doom and clearly appalled that they are connected by blood.

in shadow 05, i believe its shown that a younger commander towers saw the moment where both gerald and black doom are looking over shadow while in his pod; maybe it could have been maria instead and as she connects the dots she cant help but develop a fear of shadow. she wouldn't have interacted or known him at that point to know he has a good heart, so i dont think its too unbelievable.

just imagine what affects it would have on shadow to still want that connection with maria but her being to scared to reciprocate. maybe he would internalize it and relish in being seen as scary; or maybe his whole view of humanity would be even worse, considering maria never would have shown him the good in it.

this is such an interesting concept so sorry if i rambled!

NO RAMBLE MORE!!!

It's very much true that Maria was a positive influence on Shadow, allowing him to see himself more as a person rather than just another "heartless" alien or weapon. So if you made Anti-Shadow's Maria afraid of him, unable to connect on a personal level, his early years would've been full of drowning in self-loathing. That could then be turned into a coping mechanism where he pretends to not care about how others see him, leading him down a path where the worst actions are taken to protect his feelings, or he ends up relishing in fear because he knows nothing else. I imagine the Black Arms in Moebius' world would not be a race that thrived on devouring other species either since Archie liked to flip things on their head, so there could be something there as well. Like, perhaps the Anti-Shadow was made to only be a cure from a peaceful Black Doom and Gerald, but Maria feared Shadow anyway. And despite BD, Gerald, and G.U.N. being "better" on Moebius, no one provided Shadow with a stable environment to grow emotionally. Every child growing up in the world needs someone as a source of comfort. You could also parallel him to Scourge in this way as well, as emotional neglect was prominent in his backstory too.

Also, random, but I think that Anti-Shadow should probably smile a lot. Not in the Sonic way, confident and welcoming, but more in a way that puts people on edge by how unnatural it looks. Where our Shadow simply doesn't emote a ton, Anti-Shadow being expressive in an off-putting way would be cool!

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Mansfield Park - Henry Crawford and Fanny Price

I want to lay out how I see these characters and their relationship, because to me they seem to be set up as a deliberate contrast to Pride and Prejudice. At the tine of Henry’s first proposal, they are in a similar place to Elizabeth and Darcy at the time of Darcy’s first proposal, albeit with extremely different personalities than those characters: Fanny refuses him despite his wealth and her economic precarity because she cannot like or even respect him. However, Fanny, who is far shyer than Elizabeth, cannot lay out in direct and specific terms the foundation of her disapprobation of him.

From there, Henry sets out to win her regard in ways that very closely recall some of the events between Elizabeth and Darcy.

1) He does a great favour for a relative of hers. In his case, it is getting his uncle the admiral to have Fanny’s brother William promoted to lieutenant; in Darcy’s, it is saving the Bennets from disgrace by getting Wickham to marry Lydia. Darcy’s favour is far greater, and much more personally unpleasant for him, and he keeps it intentionally secret; he does it out of love of Elizabeth, but not to make her feel obligated. Henry’s takes only a few days of his time, its goal is get to Fanny to like him better, and he leverages it both at first and later to make her feel obliged to him.

2) He changes his manners to suit her. In Darcy’s case this means being polite rather than rude and haughty; in the case of Henry, who has always been charming and gregarious, it involves softening his manners to suit Fanny’s shy and quiet personality and engaging in more serious talk. In Darcy’s case this is a fundamental change in response to Elizabeth’s reproof; in Henry’s, it’s a simple adaptation to one person’s taste rather than another. He’s intelligent and able to engage in serious conversation when he wants to, but that’s not indicative of any fundamental change in his thinking.

3) He is polite to her family (the Prices, in Portsmouth) even when they are embarrassing.

4) He speaks with Fanny about reforms he is making on his estates to make sure his tenants are being treated fairly. These feels like a parallel to Elizabeth’s improved opinion of Darcy upon visiting Pemberley and hearing how well his servants speak of him. The difference is that Darcy has always been like that, whereas we are told early in Mansfield Park that Henry has been little on his estates during his adulthood: “To any thing like a permanence of abode, Henry Crawford had…a great dislike”. Darcy is acting in line with deep-seated principles; Henry is doing it as part of his courtship of Fanny, so he can bring it up to her and look good. He also tries to get her to counsel him to continue in this current vein, to engage her in a desire to fix/improve him, which Fanny shuts down laudably: “I advise! - you know very well what is right,” and when he reples that he always knows what is right when she tells him: “We all have a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person could be.” The weakness of Henry’s motivation is seen in the ending, where he puts off a visit to his estates to set matters right there in order to flirt with the now-married Maria Rushworth.

In short, Darcy is already good in many concrete ways, and sincerely improves in the ways where he is faulty, not in order to get Elizabeth to love him but because he thinks about her criticisms, agrees with them, and wants to be better for its own sake; and he helps her family solely out of love for her and deliberately hides it. Henry changes his manner and talk as part of his courtship, but his deeper values and attitudes do not change, and everything is directed at getting Fanny to fall for him.

The second area of contrast is in what the heroines object to. Elizabeth’s aspersions on Darcy’s character, regarding his interactions with Wickham, are found to be mistaken; her legitimate objections are to his attitude and arrogance, and he amends this. Henry’s manners are impeccable and his company charming; Fanny’s objections are to his character. She sees him deliberately flirt with both her cousins at once to a degree that implies an intent to propose, and play them off against one another; she sees him make some very deliberate and mutually-understood innuendo towards Maria, signifying that she should break off her engagement and be with him instead, all with zero intention of actually proposing if she did do so; she sees him use the theatricals to continue this pursuit of Maria. And this is very usual behaviour for Henry; his sister says he has broken many hearts, and when he starts courting Fanny his goal is to make her fall in love with him and then leave her “feeling she will never be happy again”.

This is what makes me judge Henry much more harshly than his sister Mary. Mary can be selfish, but she is not malicious or cruel, and she can be kind when it doesn’t inconvenience her (and one of her better traits is that even when she is unhappy or disappointed she never takes it out on other people). In contrast, Henry’s principal diversion and entertainment for years has been deliberately making young women miserable, leading them on, getting them to reject other suitors in hopes of him, and then departing without a care, to please his own vanity. He is, in truth, doing not once but habitually, what Willoughby did to Marianne: always implying enough to seem on the edge of an engagement but never following through, and then pretending it was all nothing. It’s a casual cruelty he finds amusing as a proof of his skills. In short, he’s a deceptive playboy. Even after Maria is married, he can’t resist flirting with her, which is what leads to her disgrace and social destruction.

Even though Austen lays out an alternative scenario where Henry might have married Fanny if not for that final flirtation with Maria Rushworth, all of the above does not lead me to believe she find that scenario desirable. She’s painstakingly laid out all the contrasts with her previous novel that make this scenario a very different one from Pride and Prejudice.

In addition to Henry’s serial seductions, one of the biggest red flags is his attempt to make Fanny responsible for his character, with an attitude of ‘you’re such an angel, you can make me do whatever you want’. This gives me Tenant of Wildfell Hall vibes, where Helen’s aunt tries to warn her off thinking that an older man of the world will let himself be guided and led by a younger woman who is in his power. Fanny rejects this idea: Henry knows what is right, can make his own choice to do it, and she will not let herself be appropriated as his conscience. Henry isn’t debauched like Huntington, but if Fanny married him the chances of him feeling bored after some years - when he no longer has the thrill of the pursuit to keep him interested - and pursuing other flirtations and affairs to Fanny’s misery, seems pretty high based on his character; and he’s skilled enough at skirting the line that he could easily brush away any objections from her as “oh, it’s nothing, just being sociable.”

On top of all the faults of character - even if Henry did reform, I have trouble seeing Fanny and Henry being happy together. At the core of his personality is a need for change, for stimulus, for challenge (the latter, rather than sexual desire, is the main thing driving his string of conquests), and for company. Fanny, in contrast, very much prefers quiet and the company of a few people she is close to, and I think this is her genuine personality, not something that needs to be overcome by “bringing her out of her shell”. Henry would be bored to misery living the kind of lifestyle that Fanny is comfortable with, and Fanny would be deeply unhappy living in the social whirl and flurry of activity that Henry prefers. In contrast, Fanny and Edmund are both “me after a quiet day in: time for a quiet night in” people.

So, with all this, why is Henry/Fanny a popular AU? Apart from fannish dislike of Edmund (which I don’t share), I think part of it is that we don’t get an open confrontation between Fanny and Henry, the way we do between Elizabeth and Darcy, where she lays out her objections to him: I saw you flirting with both my cousins at once, I saw you making them both unhappy for your own amusement, I saw you repeatedly tempting Maria to break her engagement with no intention of following through if she did, just because you liked the challenge of winning an engaged woman. And the lack of this naturally raises the question of: how would Henry react if this confrontation happened? Which provides fertile soil for AUs.

[lunareel]

Did you like the sonic movies? (PLEASE ramble)

stobotnik?

I did like all the Sonic movies! I think the third one is my favorite with the second movie very close behind. I liked the first movie, but I felt like it had too many scenes focusing on the people (or that they dragged on too long) when I wanted more scenes focusing on Sonic. The next two movies felt like it had a much better balance of that.

With the exception of any scene Eggman or Agent Stone was in. Those two characters made that first movie for me. I was so happy to see Agent Stone was popular enough to appear in the following movies, he was a very welcomed addition.

I do like Stobotnik a lot! When I first saw the movie I told my family and friends that the internet is going to pair the two together so much and I am happy to see I was right. I admit I don't do a lot of ship art anymore, but I think I'd like to do some of them sometime along with some other sonic ships I enjoy. I think my favorite thing I've seen is when people design what Agent Stone could look like in the Sonic games.

Not quite sure what specifically you want me to ramble on but I'll just give gen thoughts I have.

I understand why Amy and Rouge didn't appear in the plot of the third movie because of just how many characters they were juggling and how they had paced out everything it made sense. I am still sad about it though, as I really wanted to see those two for that movie. I don't know, I'm just bummed that the few major female Sonic characters have been on the backburner for so long.

I was very happy to see Amy in the after credits scene along side Metal Sonic. My friends and I are wondering if Neo Metal Sonic or Metal Overlord will make an appearance at all. We're also wondering if the fourth movie will cover parallel dimensions, time travel, etc. based on Metal Sonic and Amy just warping in (Amy very much giving I've come from the future to stop Terminator vibes). Also theorizing on whether it'll be an alternate Eggman or Agent Stone will be the major villain of the next one if not Neo Metal Sonic.

I adored all the Maria scenes, and I wish she had like one or two more just because of how much I liked seeing her interact with Shadow. I'm curious to see if they will end up doing a show covering Shadow's and Maria's time in the lab together. I feel like that would be a very interesting and tragic show.

The VA for Knuckles, Idris Elba, works so well for me. I was a little worried at first, but after seeing the trailer I went okay you work really well. Knuckles as well I am happy to see they didn't make him like his Sonic Boom iteration. I know he is headstrong, but in Boom he felt more dumb. (Very similar sentiment to Keanu Reeves voice Shadow, I was initially very hesitant on it, but ended up working very well for me.)

Tails VA did such a solid job, like I heard him and I went woah that is Tails. When I checked up his VA and saw that it was Collen O'shaughnessey, I was like oh my god it is actually Tails! No wonder he sounded perfect.

Sonic's VA I just can't unhear Ben Schwartz doing Ben Schwartz . He has a very specific character type he plays that his voice is so distinguishable it can take me out of it. It's not bad, but I do feel taken out of it when I can just hear the actor instead of feeling like I'm listening to the character if that makes sense. Like for example, I liked the Mario movie but I CANNOT stand Chris Pratt as Mario, all I hear is Chris Pratt, he feels so off and it takes me so out of it. I will say at least for Ben Schwartz his voice does feel close to Sonic and that he puts in the effort, but to me there's some moments where I go oh it's Ben Schwartz instead of fully thinking yes Sonic is talking right now. Hopefully this makes sense.

I will say I've gotten more used to it for each movie though. (I am not excited to hear Pratt more in Mario Movie 2, and it's the one thing I actually dread for that movie and genuinely makes me not want to go see the movie.) But overall I wish that like Tails, they got one of his game VAs to do the movie instead. Knuckles's movie VA can stay though (though I definitely wouldn't have minded if it was one of his older VAs as well, especially if it was close to Sonic X's version).

Lowkey wished Tom actually died from when Shadow attacked him. It's not that I dislike Tom I think he is fine, but I feel like it would've been a stronger parallel and given the movie more weight, but that's just me.

Actually quick side tangent, I hate the change of how Maria died. I knew going into this movie that they would make the military more sympathetic and I was so disappointed to be right. It's a small change but it's one I very much dislike that sours the taste of her death in my mouth. Instead of it being like no the soldiers were very much intent on killing her, her grandfather and Shadow and that all of them had no qualms of doing it. Instead it's shown as a military personal desperately trying to stop another soldier from shooting her and then it showing her death more as an accident. With the bonus of oh the soldier didn't shoot her, he just shot an explosive tank which killed her, so technically he didn't directly shoot her.

Like no, she dies because she got shot from a soldier who was completely fine with shooting a child. It wasn't from an explosion, and it certainly wasn't from an accident. I thought that change was incredibly dumb.

I don't want to make this super long, but those are my general thoughts off the top of my head. Overall, I really like the movies, I feel like they mostly improve with each movie and I'm excited for the fourth movie (I just hope Rouge finally appears as well and that Amy gets a significant focus and isn't just hyped up to be pushed aside).

[nyaagolor]

Now that you’ve played through all the episodes, how would you rank them?

Oooo this is tough, in part bc I like all of them a LOT. The designations between a few of them, especially in the middle category, are gonna be kinda arbitrary, but I'll do my best :)

Also this got stupid long so I put it under a readmore! Spoilers abound, as one might expect

8. Dawn of the Golden Witch (Episode 6)

I have some... mixed feelings on this one. I understand what Ryukishi was going for in using chick-Beato and Battler's interactions to parallel Battler with Kinzo and show Kinzo's dynamic with Kuwadorian Beatrice via analogy, but I also think it kinda fumbles a bit. There are points (cookie scene being a big one) where I feel like the characters take a backseat to the themes and the whole narrative feels off. Chapters 5 and 6 are supposed to be a perversion of the original story that Beatrice has lost control over, but there are points during 6 especially where I think it kinda loses itself. The rest of it is great (Erika's VA is a goddamn champion) but the very beginning of this chapter is easily my least favorite part of the series

7. Requiem of the Golden Witch (Episode 7)

I don't really have strong feelings on this episode. It would have been the high point in just about any other VN, but Umineko is so consistently fantastic that Episode 7 didn't really hit me as hard as the others. It did make me wish we got more Kyrie though, even if I know exactly why she wasn't as prominent as many of the others. Kind of insane that my second least-favorite arc is something I would rank like an 8 or 9 out of 10, Umineko is just that goated (get it???)

6. Turn of the Golden Witch (Episode 2)

While I do love watching the worst woman ever conceived have a 48 hour progressive mental breakdown, Alliance hits every point I like about the Rosa / Maria dynamic but does it better. It's still an arc I absolutely adore, so it feels weird to rank it so low, but I think about it a lot less than the other arcs so down here it goes. Shoutout to this arc for making me laugh to the point I could no longer speak not once, but twice. Kanon chuuni jacket and leashed Battler you will always be famous

5. Twilight of the Golden Witch (Episode 8)

I know that ranking episode 8 in the bottom half sounds like sacrilege but this arc had so much Kinzo and while I understand his narrative importance I Do Not Like Him. The fact that Kinzo is in the Golden Land but Kuwadorian Beatrice isn't makes me want to throw bricks at things. Other than that though, absolutely stellar. I bawled at the ending. The next day I thought about it more, misinterpreted it, and cried more, then I thought about it more deeply and talked with friends, really started to understand the core messages, and sobbed even harder. As these things tend to go. This episode ruined my life. Would recommend.

4. Legend of the Golden Witch (Episode 1)

note: 4 and 3 are interchangeable I like them both a lot for different reasons

The first time I read this episode, I thought it was great. The further I got into Umineko, the better it got. Now, with a full understanding of the plot and knowing how this chapter serves as self-reflection through the other (Sayo via Natsuhi) it serves as probably the most raw glimpse into Sayo's mindset we get. This episode ruins me and I'm pretty sure when I inevitably reread it I am going to dissolve into a puddle of goo. Also Natsuhi is there and she's my favorite of the matriarchs so I'm a little bit biased :)

3. Banquet of the Golden Witch (Episode 3)

This is one of the funniest pieces of literature I have ever read in my life. EVA-Beatrice, the entire sob story (that I, like Battler, fell for completely), the two towers fight scene... 10/10 no notes. I don't even have the words for how much I adored this one. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

2. Alliance of the Golden Witch (Episode 4)

Ok so fun fact I thought this arc was kinda boring at first, and was a little miffed I had to constantly go through Ange's little side quests when I just wanted to see Beatrice and Battler again. Fortunately, Ryukishi has a beautiful way of changing my mind very very quickly and the more I think about this Episode the more I love it. It has some of the most powerful emotional moments, a really good rehashing of the themes, and is a lot tighter and more condensed than I gave it credit for. There's a LOT that happens in this chapter, and it's been growing on me a lot-- while it doesn't take the number one spot in terms of my favorites, I do think it's the best written of the 8 episodes. As a bonus it focuses a lot on Maria who is one of the best characters ever and my darling baby angel.

End of the Golden Witch (Episode 5)

This is the platonic ideal of Umineko to me. The layers of metanarrative, the perversion of a formula to reiterate its structure, the use of genre conventions as a dual-use in-universe and metanarrative element, Erika. End of the Golden Witch is when I changed from someone who loved Umineko to someone who was obsessed with Umineko. The ending is one of the most visceral parts of the VN and I will fully admit I cried. There is so much happening in this episode I could talk about it all day. Also Natsuhi is there. Hey girlie <3

[refinedpet]

I'm waiting for my girlfriend to get out of work and have nothing else to do so

Get ready for an insane girls rambling review of Sonic 3 (the movie) (from now on she's going to call it "Shadow Movie")

So I've seen Shadow Movie twice now, at varying levels of high and both times I had very different experiences with how I felt about it and was entertained

This is gonna contain some spoilers. I'm not gonna go into crazy detail, but if you already wanna watch the movie, back away

First some background.

1. I am EXTREMELY NORMAL about Shadow the Hedgehog. I just think she's the coolest thing in existence and I love her

B. I have not seen Sonic 1 or 2. Because Sonic 1 doesn't look interesting to me and Sonic 2 seems neat but I feel I'd wanna warch the original first (the third didn't have the same problem because I was only interested in Shadow)

& Knuckles: I watched this movie directly after work BOTH times so brain tired

When I first watched the movie my excitement peaked whenever Shadow was on screen and would immediately dip when the focus wasn't on her. I'd get so excited with how much they were able to sell how cool she is I'd squeal and make excited gestures.

I'm gonna get into her story in the second viewing but what's important is as someone who loves Shadow, that alone and how this movie portrayed her was able to keep my attention.

With the exception of Maria and Agent Stone, basically every human focused scene just bores me in some way or another. Or I just wish it was focused on someone else. There's not too much of that but even the Robotnic stuff I ultimately didn't find that engaging in the moment.

What I'm really impressed by is how much the entire movie ties together, and into Shadow's story

They do an excellent job mixing the 3 focuses together theming wise. Showing Sonic as a parallel to Shadow and their similarities and as a result letting Sonic have alot of moments that's directly resonate with Shadow's story.

And while ultimately I don't really enjoy most of the Robotinics time on screen. I do find it interesting how it's just heavily implied that much like Shadow, Gerald Robotnic being trapped away for 50 years is what ruined him and why he's the way he is. The few glimpses we see of him in the past are completely different and make sense for Maria's characterization.

The way he refers to Maria and Shadow as "Kids" plural, showing he sees Shadow as as much of a granddaughter as Maria. Whereas in present day he's so bitter and jaded he doesn't actually care about Shadow. It's fascinating to me how none of this is directly spelled out, but told really well.

I don't have anything more to say but Agent Stone is such a good character for Robotnic to be around. He's better than any attempts at giving Robotnic henchmen in the games.

Now, Shadow's story. It's a very close adaptation to the games so I won't go into it in full and assume you know generally what her backstory story is.

But now it's time for the real reason we're here

Resonating with Shadow the Hedgehog too much as a Trans woman

So Shadow the Hedgehog is a Trans girl. This is an objective fact in my reality and I don't want to hear any one else's take.

There's a few scenes in this movie that really got me to tear up.

The metaphor with Shadow seeing an old Monster movie about an alien destroying cities, she appears sad and then asks Maria for reassurance that she doesn't see her like that.

And wow. I wonder what other group is forced to only see themselves portrayed negatively in media, often casually and in a way that their loved ones will typically ignore and continue to engage with anyways.

I also love how in the beginning it's said that Shadow was the cause of the Base getting destoryed when in reality it was a Gun soilder. This is another thing they show and don't say.

Showing that Shadow didn't even cause the harm she's punished for.

And wow imagine being ostracized just because you're different than anyone else when in reality you're not the one losing the threat and acts of violence are against you.

There's alot more that makes Shadow trans, but those exist in the games. I really love her story in this and it makes me happy

Anyways final segment

Misc things I screamed about

Chao in Space!!!!! Fuck yeah!!!!

I'm so glad he pissed on the moon

The Sonic Heroes Tails Jump they do when landing in Tokyo makes me happy every time

Live and Learn

Anyways thank you Miss Shadow I love you so much

This movie is like a solid pretty good/10

If I didn't love Shadow as much as I do I probably wouldn't ever wanna watch it again but GODS SHADOW IS SO COOL

[fantomette22]

Your reblog on GERHAM reminded me, I need to ask you for your Gerhman and Maria cooking hcs so you can put them all in one post here xD

GO FOR IT

Yeeeeeeeh!!! :D  Alright idk how to organise this so bear with me on this one XD

First, sometimes I like to go watch on YouTube & Insta people cooking old recipes or "traditionally" like they would do in the 1800s. It's very interesting and allow me to have tons of inspiration and imagine with more accuracy the daily life they could have in bb universe.

2nd thing: Both my parents cook quite well and my grandma too. So I guess I got inspired from this as well

So now, cooking headcanons!

So yeah I hc Gehrman can cook quite well. I mean he's not a chief and I don't think he can do very complicated and precise things. But you know, old and simple grandmas recipes would be his thing! And if you compared to the rest of the Byrgenwerth / old hunter squad he can do a way better job than most of them XD 

Dishes like meats&vegetables, pies, cake,pudding, biscuits, eggs, soup, sandwiches, gratin, bread etc everything link with very traditional, cheap and countryside meals for the era. 

He could just make beef stew for an entire week from the same pot and that wouldn't bother him XD 

Probably got most of the recipes from his mom and grandmas

He's very good at making tea and coffee and knows dozens of infusions to treat severals conditions.

Maybe he can do a few liquors or hydromel/mead.

And of course  he can prepare and cook every prey animals very well.

Somehow he have the patience to teach some of those to his dear friends… even if he’s really trying to not make fun of them at times XD

As for Maria now:

Well being a noble girl she wasn't really taught to cook and make usual meals. Still, that didn’t stop her and her cousins to go get a few pastry in the kitchen when they were kids xD but yeah girl couldn’t cook while younger and her first attempts weren’t really a success 😓 and even after learning she can still almost burned down things if she tried really unusual new things XD

She does know a lot of nobles/aristocratic dishes depending on the regions. Can be useful but she can’t really reproduce the recipes herself.

She has tastes a bit different from her peers too. I mean she like the same specialities other would consider « odds » but when it’s the 5th time in a row you get a rare steak she would gladly just have a salad XD (save her lol)

I guess she actually did know how to skin prey animals and prepare some of them (but before more complex cooking). And I guess she did know how to decorticate lobster and crab well! 

And actually she could cook ramen/noodles when she arrived at Byrgenwerth too (+tea) but that’s mostly it. She ain’t different from modern college students XD

When she went to the East for 6 months/1y she did learn a few recipe and taught Gehrman some of them as well. (Noodles, rice, tuna etc)

During her Byrgenwerth years, but also afterward when she went hunting and training with Gehrman he taught her how to make a few recipes. Especially the ones with just a firecamp during their camping trips (cooking rabbits, pheasant etc Maria became quite the pro at this!). Smt they went to those trips & training with others hunters, just Ludwig or just the 2 of them. That’s others very funny hcs XD. But it's for another time X)

Then during all the years they know each others he taught her how to cook and bake many other dishes! Taught her the tea infusions as well.

So afterwards, even if Maria probably lack motivation to make good food for herself (it’s not like she need much complex things to survive too lol) she got very good at making food for others. Collectively with the help of her fellow hunters or even when she helped the healing church (before research hall, in parallel with hunting, I hc that she helped HC with medical care for their patients, helped children with schooling or even make some meal for the ones in needs. Because that’s what a church is suppose to do right?? And idk if I ever mentioned it but that’s how I hc she meet and become friends with Adeline! The church helped her when she really needed and then she decided to devoted herself to it in return (to simplify very quickly).

So for the AU now, when everyone is fine and happy and alive XD and these two get together. Well, they both cook quite well. I mean Gehrman got more time to practice with a full kitchen so he became even better! Maria is not as good as him but can still make very decent meals! But in truth I guess she prefer to bring back food and prepare them (like cutting things, she’s a pro at it!) and he’s in charge of the actual cooking and baking. So yeah BRO IS A HOUSEWIFE FOR REAL 🤣 But yeah dw she never really burnt down the kitchen. It’s just a few flames with alcohol or grease. It’s fine😅 But they share tasks most of the time I suppose. And they have a garden as well. And they like to go hunt with their lil dog too. (Lil guy is like 1 foot tall and think he’s as fierce as wolfhound or smt XD they are proud of him).

Also not specifically related to them but here’s a few others funny hcs I wanted to share:

Thanks god the healing church & hunters got scholars to tell them which mushrooms & plants are edible at times XD (I mean Gehrman, Maria and Laurence & co know some)

I guess Mico & Rom tried at least once to make the gang eat cactus and scorpions when they were at Loran.

Dores can either cook something alright or do the worst thing ever x-x there’s no in-between XD she made also liquors. (She made sick everyone who tried her first attempt at snake liquors. Laurence almost died lmao but she got better afterwards I swear.) Ah yes wtf am I talking about right? Well one day I saw a bottle of alcohol where there was a dead snake inside ok?? But that wasn’t snake wine I think. Yes that’s real. No do not ask me why, idk. So yeah I imagined that's a logical thing Dores would try.

Laurence might be really annoying about food when he has the choice. Bro have some taste you see. But he’s too busy too cook you see, and depends on others. He likes Gehrman’s cooking a lot. Most of the time.

And I guess Ludwig learn a few recipes from Gehrman as well!

During their years at Byrgenwerth, Damian is probably the 2nd most responsible person at cooking in the team.

With the old hunters I have hcs where they go out of town for a few missions. Except when they are kinda lost in the forest but when they are in towns and villages, they don’t really have time to cook and rely on Inn, tavern etc. But I just imagine smt so funny…. Like Gehrman would ask some hunter to help him make bread and the poor lad never make bread before XD « WDYM you mother never taught you to make bread?! » «😓» 

Oh boy ok last one. When they came back from the fishing hamlet… (idk if they went straight to Byrgenwerth or a tavern or smt) but someone got the very smart idea to make them white sea fish for their next meal💀Like you can expect almost no one managed to eat it and almost everyone got sick. Laurence and Gehrman were so mad at this mistake while everyone else was either disgusted or sick.

To conclude, here’s a few images of what kitchen used to look like in the XIX century.

They either cooked with the fireplace & a rack or a bit later / in huge kitchen with a cast iron oven (the ancestor of our stove). You might maybe be familiar with it like I am, Crow.

For my hcs I think they used both + firecamps 

(I’m sure I’d saved other pictures months ago at the same time as bedrooms and bathrooms refs for my fic but I cannot find them?! So I quickly found those on the internet+ other more perso ones)

Also funny anecdote but in addition to our current electric utilities my grandparents do have a cast iron oven and my grandma cook stuff with it too! They also have (and sell) tons of copper cookware too. They were used a lot at the time and it’s still the case in some really high quality restaurants and establishments. How the heat diffused in it is a bit different from our modern ones. I guess many recipes were creates along with those at the time! Look how beautiful they are!

[mythicalmagical-monkeyman]

I wrote this for me and my beatie because THEMES and PARALLELS but hey yk tumblr also gets my deranged thoughts too

under cut besties @fruity-legos @murkystarlight

Summary:

Cooper accidentally catches Mrs Garcia on her way out

Additional Tags:

Author is running on 3am crack juice. gummie trio flows through my veins. turning Cooper over in my brain like a hot pocket. what if, fight me. the parallels. Mrs Garcia’s name is Maria in this. no beta we die like me. Aged-Down Character(s), Cooper and Garcia sibs are tinyyy

Did she regret it? That was the question, it was aquestion that she knew she’d never know or be able to answer with the right answer.  Did it pain her heart to be the one responsible for the small cries and screams that echoed from the apartment behind her as she closed the door harshly behind her and entered into the crisp wintery world outside? 

Yes. 

Did it also make her bite her lip to keep her face neutral as her husband stared at her with those big sad, doe eyes as he silently begged her not to? 

Also yes. 

But this was for the better. 

For the better, it’s what she kept telling herself and maybe one day she’d believe that. 

Maria let out a slow exhale that turned into a puff of white cloud as it hit frosty air as she tightened her scarf around her neck. 

Just one foot in front of the other and she’d be on her way. 

Maria placed a hand on the railing and began to walk down the stairs of her home, well what had been her home. It took a cautious second so as not to slip on the ice but before she new it she had planted both feet on the sidewalk. 

She didn’t dare to risk a look back, no that wasn’t something she wanted to do, this was a new beginning for her and looking back would simply ruin that. Instead she tighten her grip on her briefcase and started to continue on down the sidewalk towards where her car was parked and packed with all her things. 

“BLACK SUDAN!” A high pitched voice yelled. 

Maria jumped and glanced around only to find a small, red clad child crouched down and staring intensely at the wheels of the car in front of her own. She blinked and stopped to peer closer at the child, oh she knew this one. It was Cooper, the weird little kid from across the street, but what was he doing outside looking at car wheels at seven in the morning? 

Maria shook her head but before she could force herself to simply walk away from the boy, he jumped up, a twig clutched in his hand. 

Cooper turned towards her happily and it seemed he was going to move onto the next car in the row, parked along the curb side, before he noticed Maria standing there and tilted his head up to look at her. 

The boy’s big brown eyes blinked owlishly. 

Maria blinked back, “Hello,” 

“Ollo,” Cooper responded as a grin split his face, “Is Mateo already up!?” 

Maria bit her lip, “Um, yes-“ yet before she could continue a thousand more questions and thoughts started steamrolling from Cooper. 

“Waoh, but it’s so early! He likes sleeping in, he told me that on Thursday. Oh hey, you have a beefcase, is it really full of paper and not beef? Because that very misweading, they should call it a papercase instead,” 

A small sigh slipped from Maria as Cooper kept going. She was sure he could keep talking and talking until he talked himself hoarse, just like her Izzie. 

“Where are you going?” 

Maria gave Cooper a blank stare as one of the things he said suddenly registered with her in her brain. 

Slowly she responded, “I’m … I’m going away,” 

“Ohhh,” Cooper said, sounding very thoughtful even though it had been the bare minimum of a word, “For how long?” 

“For a long time,” Maria mused, she hadn’t thought about returning at all. 

“Awww,” Cooper whined, looking down as he started to poke the snow on the ground with his stick, “Mateo’s gonna be sad, he loves you a lot. And Izzie,” 

Cooper then took a few steps closer and muttered, “She’s making something special for you for Christmas!” 

Cooper started to smile again and he vibrated a little like he was thinking about how cool whatever Izzie was making was. 

Maria bit the inside of her mouth, shame. 

“Is that so?” Maria breathed, she still couldn’t believe she was entertaining this conversation. 

Cooper nodded vigorously, “I can’t tell you what it is though because it’s a surprise! But I guess if you’re leaving you won’t know it is for a long time, like ten years!” 

Maria nodded, forcing a smile to stay on her face, and began to shuffle away a little bit, “Yes indeed I won’t.” 

Cooper’s face scrunched up as he thought of something and he asked, “But why?” 

Ugh, children and their why questions. 

“Why what?”   “Why are you leaving?” Cooper asked. The question so small and simple yet it truly was quite heavy.  Maria could admit it took her a second to think of a response. She crouched down carefully so she could look Cooper in the eyes. 

“Well you see,” Maria started with a shaky breath, “Sometimes people just don’t belong somewhere. Everything they do feels unimportant, and it’s as if what they currently have isn’t what they actually want. Sometimes a person just wants to escape that and find out where they truly do belong even if it does mean they have to leave everything they currently have to find whatever it is they’re looking for. And also sometimes life is just too much, so they leave, they runaway and try to figure things out again.” 

Cooper blinked at her again and Maria was left to wonder if anything she had just said made sense to him, he still was quite young so she wouldn’t be surprised if nothing actually stuck. 

Slowly, Cooper tilted his head to the side, “Oh, bu-but what about Mateo and Izzie? You … love them right?” 

Maria hummed and she placed a gentle hand on Cooper’s shoulder, “I’ll tell you what, since I’m going to be going away I’m going to need you to do something for me ok?” 

It took a second but Cooper nodded. 

“I’m going to need you to take care of Iz and ‘Teo for me. They’ll need some extra comfort and someone to be there, so I’m going to need you to be that person.” Maria told him, grabbing the hand of his that held the twig and holding it up, “And you’ll need to protect them too, from all the scary storms and monsters under the bed. So do you think you can do that?” 

Cooper’s eyes seemed to glaze over just a small bit before he fixed them on the twig and he nodded, “Yeah! I can do that! I’ll fight off all the big bullies for them!” 

Maria forced a grin. She then pat the boy on the shoulder and stood, “Good, good, now quick! Get inside before your nose freezes off!”

Cooper giggled and tapped his twig on the ground before running off in the direction Maria had just come from. 

With a sigh Maria pulled her scarf tighter around herself again and headed off to her car. 

Damn kid. 

[cognitiveinequality]

I know it's mostly just been taken as a big joke on late night TV, but if you're a resident of either Canada or the U.S., you should know that Trump is pretty transparently using the exact arguments that Putin used to "justify" his invasion of Ukraine to describe the U.S./Canada relationship.

From the article:

"Ukraine is an artificial state," Putin told Tucker Carlson in an interview in February 2024. The U.S.-Canada border is an "artificially drawn line," Trump said in a Jan. 7 news conference. "You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like. And it would also be much better for national security," Trump said. "That would really be something." Trump followed up with a social media post including a map that erased the nation of Canada. "The reference to a meaningless administrative border," said former Canadian diplomat and international lawyer Sabine Nölke, "is how Putin described Ukraine."

Despite mainstream coverage in the U.S., this whole thing is not just about tariffs on lumber or whatever — the Trump administration could very well be getting ready to attempt to "annex" a neighboring country, and then we'd all be in the fucking soup for real.

I don't want to sound like a scaremonger, but I ALSO don't want this lunatic and his war-hungry minions to start massing troops in Minnesota because he's mad about Canada having a lot of trees or some shit.

Take this seriously.

(Full article text below the cut for those who don't want to click thru:)

Trump's talk about Canada parrots Putin's claims on Ukraine

Speaking on borders, economics and security — the 2 leaders sound remarkably similar

It took a while for Canadian politicians to figure out that Donald Trump wasn't joking with his talk about annexing Canada.

After Trump raised the idea at a dinner in Mar-A-Lago attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Nov. 29, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic Leblanc said the "joke" was actually a positive.

"The president was teasing us. It was, of course, in no way a serious comment," LeBlanc said.

"The fact that there's a warm, cordial relationship between the two leaders and the president is able to joke like that, we think, is a positive thing."

No one is calling it positive now.

Perhaps Canadian politicians can be forgiven their slowness of uptake, given that Trump's comments are entirely unprecedented in modern U.S.-Canadian relations.

But there is one strong parallel for his remarks. While Trump's words may never move past the talking stage, they resemble the claims, pretexts and justifications used by Russia's Vladimir Putin before and during his invasion of Ukraine.

Canadians' secret desire to be annexed

"Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State," Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Jan. 6.

"The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!"

That post contained themes that would later become staples of Trump and his supporters' claims about Canada.

First is the claim that lots of Canadians want to become Americans. Some in Trump's Make America Great Again movement have explained the absence of a visible groundswell of support for annexation in Canada as a result of a harsh regime of censorship, as decried by Elon Musk and this week by Joe Rogan.

Canadians' supposed secret desire to be annexed might sound familiar to Russians who have heard their leader make similar claims about Ukrainians, says Maria Popova, an expert on Russian politics at McGill University.

"The whole argument is based on the claim that fundamentally and deep down, all Ukrainians want this," she said. "They want this unification with Russia."

In a long op-ed he wrote in July 2021, Putin laid out his claim that the Ukrainian people, in their hearts, aspired to be part of Mother Russia, but their voices were censored.

"There are millions of such people," he wrote. "But they are not allowed to raise their heads. They have had their legal opportunity to defend their point of view taken away from them."

Better off together

Like Trump extolling the economic wonders of a U.S.-Canada annexation ("what a great Nation it would be!!!"), Putin said a combined Russia and Ukraine would be much better off.

"Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful," wrote Putin. "We are natural complementary economic partners."

Popova says both leaders like to emphasize how annexation would be good economically for all concerned.

"The first parallel I see is the argument that it is somehow in Canadian's best interest to be a part of the U.S. because fundamentally we're not that different. This is indeed very similar to the argument that, you know, Ukrainians have some sort of quirky identity maybe, but fundamentally we're the same."

Many of Putin's arguments about Russians and Ukrainians are based on Kremlin-centric historical narratives that, he claims, show a common identity.

"The thrust of the Russian argument is that Ukraine is not a real country, that Ukrainians are fundamentally wayward Russians," said Popova. "They're these younger little brothers who are going in the wrong direction and they need to be brought back into the fold of the Russian nation."

Trump is no student of history (he famously claimed that George Washington won the American Revolution after he "took over the airports"), and he hasn't echoed Putin's long-winded historical arguments about shared ethnicity.

But Americans are, of course, well aware of the cultural affinity of the two former British colonies — a selling point for Canadian politicians trying to pitch Canada's case in the U.S. No prominent Republican has proposed annexing Mexico as a solution to its ostensibly similar trade and border issues.

'Artificial' lines and countries

Canadian officials have said that the moment they realized Trump was serious about annexation was when he began to raise the history of U.S.-Canadian border arrangements, specifically the 1908 treaty that fixed parts of the border. The officials haven't revealed exactly what Trump said about the treaty.

Putin has questioned the legitimacy of historic agreements over the border between Russia and Ukraine, particularly Nikita Khrushchev's decision in 1954 to give Crimea to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

"Ukraine is an artificial state," Putin told Tucker Carlson in an interview in February 2024.

The U.S.-Canada border is an "artificially drawn line," Trump said in a Jan. 7 news conference.

"You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like. And it would also be much better for national security," Trump said. "That would really be something." Trump followed up with a social media post including a map that erased the nation of Canada.

"The reference to a meaningless administrative border," said former Canadian diplomat and international lawyer Sabine Nölke, "is how Putin described Ukraine."

Nölke was Canada's permanent representative to the international courts at The Hague as well as ambassador to the Netherlands until 2019.

"Now all of a sudden Trump started using that language," she told CBC News, "and it came in the context of him waving around this 1908 border treaty between Canada and the U.S."

That treaty, says Nölke, is a minor administrative one that mostly deals with physically marking borders already delineated in previous accords. "He latches on to little things as evidence or as being connected to a bigger idea he has. And his big idea is Canada is not a legitimate state."

"So somebody has waved this treaty at him. So he's now running around saying 'Aha, see there, it's all administrative. It doesn't really exist,' completely and utterly ignoring all the other indicia of Canadian statehood, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"But the bigger message is you don't exist. You should be part of us."

The myth of subsidies

Trump's grievances toward Canada are also ostensibly about money, and the charge that Canada is stiffing the U.S. on trade, defence and energy.

"Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years, and it's not fair that we should have a $200 billion or $250 billion deficit," he claimed on his third full day in office.

Putin, in his national address on Russian state TV two nights before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, made similar claims.

"Our Ukrainian colleagues turned to us for financial support from the moment they declared independence," he claimed. "According to expert assessments … the overall benefit for the Ukrainian budget amounted to $250 billion."

Putin accused Kyiv officials of "a parasitic attitude."

Trump has complained "We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada…. Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country."

In his eve-of-war address, Putin told Russians that Ukrainian authorities "always preferred dealing with Russia in a way that ensured they enjoy all the rights and privileges while remaining free from any obligations."

Protection rackets

"Russia has also constantly insisted that it is the best guarantor of Ukrainian sovereignty and security," said Popova. "And this is something that Trump has started bringing up as well, this idea that Canada needs protection from something, and only the U.S. can provide this protection."

Popova says Trump's comments about Russian and Chinese ships being near Canada are a "really big red flag."

"Take a look at what's going on out there [in Canada]," he said on Feb. 13. "You have Russian ships, you have Chinese ships, you have a lot of ships out there, and you know, people are in danger. This is a different world. Today it's a different world. They don't have any military protection."

Putin's eve-of-invasion speech also focused on the supposed threat of foreign military presence in Ukraine. "Ukraine's airspace is open to flights by strategic and reconnaissance aircraft and drones," he warned, as well as "activity by NATO warships."

Although she's not expecting an imminent invasion, Popova says Trump's arguments sound like a man trying to construct a pretext.

"It's an absurd claim in a similar way in which the Russian claim towards Ukraine is absurd because, in reality, nobody else was threatening Ukraine but Russia. And right now nobody else is really threatening Canada but the U.S. So this to me is a very alarming parallel in the rhetoric."

She pointed out that as NATO allies, the U.S. is already obligated to come to Canada's defence.

"So this is clearly a nonsensical argument, but one that signals that he is looking for these excuses that look like he is well-meaning — 'well, I want to protect you' — but in reality it's driven by a desire and plan to somehow make this annexation happen."

Nölke said Trump's 51st state talk may turn out to be just another meme created to entertain his MAGA followers. But even if the threats are never carried out, they have done severe damage.

"In terms of state-to-state relations, he has already violated international law, threatening international peace and security, threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Canada. This is not something that's going to happen — he's already done it," Nölke said.

"The threats he's uttering against Canada and Denmark are already undermining the NATO alliance. So that is something that I think the North Atlantic Council will need to address."

Merging world views a threat to Canada

Of course, Trump has not merely echoed Putin's Ukraine rhetoric when talking about Canada. He also repeats it when talking about Ukraine itself, as on Wednesday when he branded Ukraine's president a "dictator." Trump and his followers have repeatedly painted Ukraine as a leech for receiving U.S. military aid.

Trump this week suggested Russia has earned the right to keep Ukrainian territory because "they fought for that land and they lost a lot of soldiers." He has said that Putin, who launched the war in the first place and who has ordered repeated attacks on civilian targets, "wants to see people stop dying."

On Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hinted at a wider and deeper new relationship with Moscow that sounded a lot like an alliance, speaking of "the incredible opportunity to partner with the Russians geopolitically, on issues of common interest, and, frankly, economically."

A U.S.-Russian alliance — or even just alignment of views and values — would be dangerous to Canada, said Popova.

"That's really the fundamental danger here, that they seem to be aligned in how they think the world should be run — no longer through the rules-based order that prohibits conquest, but by big powers deciding the fate of the smaller countries. This is really making a comeback and that should be very concerning to us."