#if only they lived in the same timeline.. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

just-sg · 2 days ago

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Oh they've absolutely killed people. It's canon (or may have been retconned but used to be; I didn't get into Nightbringer far enough to be sure; incidentally if any questions here are answered by it feel free to tell me lol) that their very first day at RAD they got into a fight and killed a bunch of guys. This is told as a silly nostalgic story they laugh about. It's hard to imagine Lilith was the only casualty of the Great Celestial War. There were many wars before they ever got ousted from heaven, and when MC met Leviathan in the past in OG season 3, he had become depressed because he'd built his identity so much around being a military leader as an angel that in times of peace he felt useless. There's so much.

But death barely counts as horror imo. Immortals play by different rules than humans; that's fair enough I guess. Animals do too. In real life, animals slaughter each other frequently, and it's upsetting for some humans, but it's just nature. Immortals do it with more thought and intention, and that makes it scarier, but it's still like... There's a simplicity to it, you know? It's definitive. Clean, almost.

If you wanna get deeper into the horror, there are all kinds of other avenues to explore, too.

For example: what then? When humans die, they go to heaven or hell. They manifest as ghosts with imperfect communication and far less identity than they used to have, or as entities that cannot be perceived by living demons/etc, even the most powerful of them, doomed to watch without being able to interact in any way. What happens when demons or angels or other immortals die? We KNOW it can't just be that they disappear, because erasing Lilith fully from existence was what Father wanted to do to her, as a specific punishment for her crimes. That was a step up from what would normally happen. So what DOES normally happen?

IIRC Mammon had a line in early OG that suggested he'd reconstitute after like a million years, but if that's true, even if the time given was exaggerated, what's it like in the meantime? How would it feel to wake up one day and so much time has passed that everyone you love is a totally different person than last you saw them?

In a kind of adjacent vein, there's the horror of Solomon's immortality, the idea of living thousands of years but still having a human brain that physically does not have the capacity for memories spanning nearly that far. We talk about the angst of MC's mortality but even achieving immortality doesn't look good for a human either.

And there's horror potential in MC's mortality in another way. It's not just watching them age. It's watching them change. Angels and demons change over time, too; they do so a lot faster with MC's influence, but they're beings that exist on cosmic time. Left to themselves, they change much much much slower. But for humans, "To love someone is to attend a thousand funerals of the person they used to be (and a thousand births of the person they're becoming)." There can be beauty in that, but after decades, do you think any of them ever get overwhelmed? Do you think MC ever gets afraid their immortal loved ones won't mesh with the person they're turning into? Do you think they ever get scared the person they're turning into won't be able to maintain the same feelings for the others they have now? Does it ever bother them that they're going to keep rapidly changing their whole life, and their friends and family and lover(s) won't change nearly as much with them?

Not to mention all the horrifying things that just casually exist in the Devildom. Diseases that change your whole personality. So many magics and poisons with different effects. Pocket dimensions and portals to other worlds that blip open just for a moment.

Don't get me started on how Barbatos can see across infinite timelines and has also just canonically erased all other timelines to force a convergence and destroyed every version of this world we'd never seen and also the versions of the characters we first met and came to love and no one talks about it because everyone was too busy being mad at Belphie lashing out in grief to even think about it.

Yeah death is far from the scariest thing you could play with.

I think the horror potential of Obey Me is sooo overlooked.

Like sir, you're living with seven of the strongest demons in Hell. And yeah, it's easy to forget that sometimes but the stuff you can do with it?

For example, a lot of people forget that Leviathan is literally the Grand Admiral of Hell's Navy. He's been to wars and he has most definitely killed people. Every brother—one way or the other—has killed people. And the potential it has is so high it drives me insane when people don't even think about it.

Yes, the game is light hearted but come on, you live with demons, the stuff they've done (and still do) can and will be morally wrong, and God, do I love it.

The brothers are still big shots in Devildom. Right under Diavolo himself. I like to imagine that a lot of demons are scared of them. You can't look me in the eyes and tell me that a lowly demon can have an argument with Satan, for example, and not get their head blown off. Death doesn't really mean much, especially when it's a low ranked demon they could find a million of in the span of minutes. The brothers are old asf and they've seen the wars in Devildom, too. They most likely fought in them.

Now you may have the argument of "But Mammon constantly gets kicked out of casinos, he gets beaten blah blah" and to that I say; He's Mammon. No matter how pathetic he may seem he's still the second eldest. And if you ask me, one of the most emotionally intelligent and mature ones among the brothers. The reason why Mammon is so often walked over is because he doesn't show his strenght. He has the emotional capability and general strenght to not lose his cool even if he's getting insulted by a low-life who he could obliterate in a second.

But back on track, as I was saying, I believe that all of the brothers have killed people, justified or not, and I just need more fics where they're horrifying demons. Batshit insane. A flick of the wrist and blood's everywhere. The angst you could pull off with it makes my mouth water. Like, just imagine accidentally witnessing one of the brothers killing someone and act like it's nothing. THE POTENTIALLL OH LOOOORDDDDDDD

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ilovebabygirls · 2 days ago

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CHO HYUN-JU IS THE TYPE TO... . girlfriend headcanons

pairing — cho hyun-ju × female reader | mention of cho hyun-ju × park yong-sik (platonic) | jang guem-ja mentioned

tags — sfw | second person point of you | no use of [your name] | post/no games timeline | gay people with a happy ending

word count — 1k

last updated — 28/07/2025

requested by me

latest work — kang dae-ho is the type to... . boyfriend headcanons

HYUN-JU is the type to pre-plan her outfit for the next day and model it for you to get an honest opinion (you think she looks gorgeous in anything).

HYUN-JU is the type to use you as a mannequin to improve her makeup skills. she wants to eventually work in the cosmetic industry, most likely as a makeup artist. after all, her girlfriend is the most suitable test subject at hand.

HYUN-JU is the type to teach you some self-defence techniques. she does not trust anyone outside of her close circle. as much as she loves her friend yong-sik, she knows he would not be able to protect you if needed. she understands she cannot always be by your side; so, better safe than sorry, right? during these sparring sessions in your living room (baby proofed), you mostly end up pinned under her, always leading to a make-out session.

HYUN-JU is the type to buy matching lingerie sets (usually long silk pink dresses for her) for the two of you.

HYUN-JU is the type to run you a warm bubble bath after a long day with rose petals, vanilla-scented candles around the bathroom, and soft jazz music in the background. she eventually joins you, hugging you from behind, whispering sweet words in your ear as she caresses your skin.

HYUN-JU is the type to pick indoor dates over going to restaurants in seoul. she is extremely self-conscious (although you remind her almost every day how stunning she is; that woman is a walking supermodel), and therefore, she prefers the privacy of your own home. dates are usually a homemade dinner cooked by the woman herself with the help of her sous-chef, of course (cutting vegetables and tasting the food), followed by cuddling in front of a romcom, skincare in bed and doing each other's nails.

HYUN-JU is the type to be the first to confess her feelings on a date night. you met on a dating app and went out as friends only (per her request, although she was already very much infatuated with you). after your first hangout, you thought the two of you were in a relationship but taking things slow. imagine your surprise when she confessed her undying love for you and officially asked you to be her girlfriend.

"we weren't together yet?" you bluntly asked, eyebrows furrowed as you halted in your tracks. she fumbled over her words.

HYUN-JU is the type to prioritise your relationship over anything else. your relationship is the exact representation of the question 'who would you choose in a room full of people?'. she does not have a biological family anymore. her father disowned her and keeps denying her existence. her mother blindly trusts her husband's judgments, but has attempted to reach out through letters (hyun-ju has kept all the letters in a drawer next to the bed, never answering any). you gave her a sense of belonging when everyone had abandoned her, accepting her true self before she had even undergone top surgery.

HYUN-JU is the type to wake up at dawn and take it as an opportunity to prepare breakfast in bed for you. due to her long and intense military training, she is particularly organised: she takes showers at a specific time, has a detailed morning routine she has never modified in years (as previously mentioned, she prepares her clothes the day before), gets to bed at the same time every night, and all the dates she had planned were neatly scheduled.

HYUN-JU is the type to exclusively drink black coffee in the morning and iced americanos when ordering at a coffee shop. her taste buds are destroyed, and yet she can perfectly cook for you, whether it is preparing a caffeinated beverage or a healthy meal.

HYUN-JU is the type to slow dance with you in the living room late at night.

HYUN-JU is amazing at communicating. if your previous partner had anger issues, she is the polar opposite. hyun-ju is calm, collected, rational, and knows when she is wrong. this woman never makes you feel guilty by flipping the situation around and always takes accountability for her actions. she never gets angry when you open up about something that has been bothering you, or frustrated over small things. voices are never raised between the two of you, and bitter words that will be regretted later are never thrown; therefore, arguments are quick to die down. she never gets defensive and will apologise. in the future, her mistakes will not be repeated. she constantly improves herself to be the girlfriend you deserve.

"i am so sorry, babe. it won't happen again, i promise," she declared, kissing your temple.

HYUN-JU is a sweet and soft-spoken woman; however, her voice will drop a few octaves the moment anyone attacks your relationship. when people are transphobic, she never truly reacts. your girlfriend claims she is used to the stares and rude comments (which is heartbreaking). moreover, she believes violence is unnecessary and would only make the situation worse. when you become the target of those same rude remarks, a switch flips in her brain. she is unafraid of getting her hands dirty to defend your honour and has punched a man in the past.

HYUN-JU is the type to call you her wife once you two are in an established relationship. it naturally came to her. she found a soulmate in you. you are her safe space; the one she sees herself getting old and wrinkly with. the one who accepts her no matter what. the one with whom she will travel the world and eventually move to thailand. the one who makes her feel comfortable in her own skin since the beginning. unfortunately, same sex marriage is yet to be recognised under the law in south korea; why not make her own rules? you are her wife. she is your wife.

geum-ja is already making a cake for the ceremony in her backyard after hyun-ju told her she wanted to propose.

#squid game #squid game x reader #squid game imagines #hyun ju squid game #hyunju x reader #cho hyunju #cho hyunju x reader #cho hyunju headcanons #squid game headcanons #cho hyunju imagines #player 120 x reader #player 120 #squid game season 2

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callmelyc · 2 days ago

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Au where Lance goes missing before the final battle on earth so Keith, team vld, and some garrison ppl set out to find him only to get thrown into an alternate timeline where the Galra win.

When Lance goes missing it's in the quiet. There's no grandeur, no shouting, no lion left to cry for him. And those left to search for him are thrown into a whirlwind in his wake.

The universe they're thrown into is one where the Galra win.

Not only do they win But Earth is gone, obliterated Into space dust just like Altea had been long ago. Alongside it went Voltron, each lion and it's pilot hidden on Earth until they could fight back against the newest galran threat.

The only survivor is Lance, who had been captured in an infiltration mission and used to track Voltron down.

The whole point was to see what new horrors the Galra were creating and instead it led to lance losing everything. A sacrifice to save Pidge led to his homes demise and lance had been forced to watch.

This lance looks at Keith and his team with hollowed eyes and horror. Its the first time in years he's seen another human, the first since the day he'd lost all hope that he's seen the paladins of Voltron.

Lotor makes sure these out of place humans aren't seen by the empire as they learn this Lance isnt theirs, would never be, can't be.

This lance is a war prize. A symbol of what was conquered.

Originally taken to get a lead on Voltrons whereabouts (they'd been hiding with new cloaking, evading too well until one slipup led to a capture) then kept as a reminder to those who defy the empire.

And lotor, having a soft spot for lance, offers to help these humans back to their timeline where they stand a chance at anything but this. Anything but the empire taking over *everything* and everyone.

Keith looks out tall floor to ceiling windows in a room bathed in galran purple to see zarkons face plastered everywhere, on everything.

Sentries lining streets

Soldiers at every corner

"Why help us when we could be another timeline conquered?" Keith asks,he doesn't trust this would never trust lotor after what theirs had done.

Yet, this lotor looks so assured, so calm when he responds "my sweetness should not see his love die again"

Keith looks at him "sweetness....?"

Lotor hums "yes, Lance is the empires darling creature. The emperors conquest, our sweetest concubine. Though I give him any comfort I am able. Saving you lot shall be another."

Lotor walks to stand by Lance, alt lance, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder "He may be a prize to the empire but I have grown fond of him, protective even. I can grant him this much, after everything."

Keith bristles, feels the others beside him do the same. He's immediately on edge at that

This isn't right, none of this is. Keith knows his face is just as stricken when Lance quietly says "Don't save me, don't waste your time."

Despite those blue eyes holding a familiar hue, Keith can't help but feel they're that of a stranger as he looks into them. The lance here is so sad, so very empty. All the fire in those eyes Keith knew was gone, all the love, all the hope. Crushed into dust along with his home

This lance steps forward still, stands chest to chest with him and says "I have nothing left to live for here, it's gone. Earth, my family, Voltron....you."

This lance cups his face to rub gently circles into his skin with hands far too cold "we never got the chance in this life so promise me you'll go find *your* lance and tell him how you feel, ok?"

Keith gasps, soft and delicate "how did you-"

"Don't give up on him either, don't let him walk away from this you hear me? My Keith and I, we waited...and I watched him die. please don't be like us."

This lance wasn't his. This lance *wasn't his*.....but, it could be if they didn't make it back.

Keith steps back, let's those cold hands fall from his face, let's the small smile that doesn't reach blue eyes fall with it "what do we need to do to get home?"

This Lance turns to Lotor with an understanding passing between them "we can help but time is limited."

"Then it's best we get started. We have a universe to protect."

~•~

Lance ends up being the one to help open a portal for them. Markings lighting up his skin in unatural ways, quintessence sparking through his veins. He's far less human looking like this than Keith wanted him to be. Like this, Lance is proof of the things he's gone through. Unnatural, experimented on like a toy.

He smiles at Keith still Small and sad as he works his alchemy thrrough spacetime to send them home. Keith's heart aches at the knowledge this Lance lost it all inclusing his humanity.

"Go to him." Lance whispers, the portal stabilizing at his fingertips

keith let's the other go first, makes sure no one is left behind as he turns to Lance one final time hoping to give him a semblance of peace. A morsel of something to hold onto

"I love you" he says soft and reverent leaving no room for question or doubt. "I love you" just so this Lance can hear it once from his lips, in his voice, and because it's true

Every lance, every universe, Keith will love him. *Does* love him and he desperately needs this Lance to know that. Needs him to understand.

And lance does, lets tears run down his cheeks, a smile lighting his face "I know, now go tell him too."

So Keith does just that missing the words fall from lances lips as the portal closes

"I love you too."

~•~

As for Keith's actual timeline?

Keith and co back in their timeline find their lance and win the war

The universe here is free but Keith can't help but think about all the other lance had gone through

So he does as promised

He confessed

He doesn't let his lance suffer for even a moment

Doesn't let his lance question any love or care in the world he could give him

And Keith prays to the stars at night that the other lance can find some semblance of happiness somehow

Even if just for a moment

I'm thinking alt lance gets a bittersweet end Lotor helps him find a way to die (whatever the experiments were altered his ability to, he isn't immortal but it's difficult to die) so he can finally be free and join his loved ones in another life

Lotor guards his room as he goes so lance can have a semblance of peace

For once he isn't looking at his captors

He isn't doing anything but seeing familiar faces flash through his memories

He's just Lance McClain

Not a trophy or an object

Just a boy from Cuba

And he's finally going home

#voltron #vld #lance vld #lance mcclain #vld lance #keith kogane #klance #keith x lance #keith voltron #langst #klangst #just a silly little au floating in my head rn since 1 this morning

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starlightshadowsworld · 23 hours ago

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I think my favourite villian in Bungou Strays Dogs (at least the main series) is Fukuchi.

Wild because I don’t like the man as a person but I love his character and he is such a good bad guy.

The reveal on the boat was insane. Lives were changed when Ranpo was yelling intel to Atsushi before just narrowly dodging being cut in half.

I knew Atsushi and Akutagawa were cooked the second they came back on board and Fukuchi was sat taking a smoke break.

It was over then and there.

His sword is bullshit but it works because he’s the only one can wield it too it’s full potential. Not only that but he killed Akutagawa and was using Dracula himself as a puppet.

All hope felt lost.

I legitimately had no idea how everyone was gonna survive this man because Fukuchi was giving the same kind of energy as Fukuzawa and Mori.

He felt legitimately untouchable.

He had this presence around him that few characters have been able to emulate.

And Fukuchi plays the liar role so well that when he’s being silly and goofy you kinda forget how terrifying he is.

He says he’s known as the man with 100 faces and you can see why. He kills Akutagawa, lies to the staff and then charms the UN into following his orders.

And yeah I think it gets overshadowed by things that happen later on but Fukuchi is also incredibly smart too.

The man outsmarted Ranpo for over a decade and that is no small feat. He had everyone fooled, his own men, and even his oldest friend.

He knew to let Atsushi go on the ship because killing him would complicate the timeline. And managed to configure the One Order to Fukuzawa’s command.

I also love how everyone keeps trying to pin some sad backstory on him to explain why he’s like this. The oh but he went to war snd suffered :(

Meanwhile Fukuchi is just like yeah and I tortured innocent civilians and feel no regret or remorse for it.

Like the man betrayed everyone who’s ever cared about him. He was killing his own men while sending vampires to aid Fyodor in prison.

And the best part of it for me is that Fukuchi is 100% convinced he’s the good guy in all of this. That’s it all for a cause you simpletons can’t understand.

He’s his own undoing and up until the very very end he won. His plan was foiled sure but Fukuchi was the one smiling as his best friend sobbed.

Awful person absolutely and a damn good villian that for me his so called “successor” doesn’t even come close to reaching the same level of terror.

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd fukuchi #fukuchi ouchi #bsd manga spoilers #bsd spoilers

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starcurtain · 2 days ago

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I believe the "trading off with the titan" aspect ended when Khaslana began the eternal recurrence, so there's no technical need for the Chrysos Heirs to become demigods in any of the 33,550,336 cycles, as there's never going to be a new Era Nova for them to become the next titans. In the first cycle of the recurrence, Khaslana confirms that other than Tribbie, no one else in Cycle 1 became a demigod, and everyone died as mortals, so I think it would be hard for them all to have lived and died by the specific terms of their prophecies, particularly since they only receive the prophecies when they become demigods. For one example, Anaxa couldn't have had the same death at all, given that Cerces would never have possessed him.

(Side note, but also, while I think it makes sense that our Chrysos Heirs might have been in a trade-off sequence with the titans we know [Gnaeus, Calypso, etc.], the impression I actually got is that neither Irontomb or Lygus had much care or attention for individual existences, so I'm just not sure I'd go so far as to say that the previously successful heir-to-titan swaps were between the heirs we know and the titans we know [then vice versa]. Like, Lygus telling Phainon and Cyrene that their batch of Chrysos Heirs were an especially great group of electrical signals kind of gave me the impression that the heirs that came before were their own people, with the system just refining the overall "model" for what each Chrysos Heir/primum mobile should perform like until it hit "perfection" with Cycle 0's batch, if that makes sense? At least I just don't personally get the impression that Phainon, Cyrene, Cipher etc. specifically existed as the same individuals we know in previous iterations before Cycle 0, although Castorice does complicate this... But her entire role in the story is "Don't think too hard" because who was Thanatos before Polyxia if they've always been trading off but weren't always twins? 🤔 Basically, I get the impression the "primum mobile" and the simulated paths existed, but that each group of heirs probably had their own names, personalities, etc., separate from the heirs we came to know in Cycle 0, who were the "final" perfected iterations, if that makes sense. I don't want to mentally deal with what it would mean for the game to reveal that on top of 33 million eternal cycles, the same exact group of heirs had also done millions of other cycles too! lol)

Ultimately, it seems odd to me that the system would be able to "course correct" to ensure that all the Chrysos Heirs were born in the same way, given that Khaslana would have been fiddling with the entire simulation, creating massive changes in the flow of simulated history. For example, if Khaslana went with Seliose to recover Aquila's coreflame (or even just went and killed Aquila after it had already merged with Seliose), why would Hyacine ever even need to be born as the Chrysos Heir of Sky? If Khaslana killed Oronyx before the Chrysos War ever ended and took the coreflame from them directly, would Cyrene ever have received Oronyx prophecies as a child to get herself labeled as a future priestess of time? If all of the coreflames were collected before year 41XX, wouldn't the timeline just end before the younger heirs were born anyway? 🤔

Since Khaslana's loops weren't planned by the system, I think it would be odd for the system to manage to maneuver around everything he was doing to still successfully produce the exact same Chrysos Heirs at the exact same points in time, right? Like, what if he just went and annihilated all of Kremnos a thousand years before Mydei was born? Would the system still insist on having Mydei be born, even if not a single Kremnoan still existed and Nikador was already long dead?

Maybe I'm being too practical, but I feel like doing something as significant as completely altering the history of the Chrysos War through helping Cerydra win should probably have resulted in major changes to the flow of Amphoreus's history that presumably would also have impacted whether later heirs were ever born or whether there even was a "Flame-Chase Journey" in those first few cycles... (But then again, perhaps that's applying too much logic to a video game lol.)

Overall, the entire scenario with the Flame-Chase Journey in the cycles is kind of a "don't think too hard," because if even a single coreflame was missing, then the Flame-Chase Journey wouldn't be considered complete, so if Khaslana wanted to achieve his mission in the most practical way possible, at the start of every single one of the 33 million cycles, he could have just taken the least defended coreflame, then waited until the heirs gathered all the others and simply snatched them from the Vortex in one go. The whole "Flame Reaver couldn't enter the Vortex" thing ended up being completely false (the Vortex was supposedly protected by Phagousa's power, but Khaslana already had the coreflame of Ocean, so why would he be blocked?). There's literally no reason why Khaslana wouldn't have just ensured the heirs couldn't fully complete the journey, then wait until they did the rest of the work for him. The whole "fight your friends to steal coreflames" thing is very much a "We want our Phainon angst and by god, we will have it--logic be damned!"

I think the same sort of logic applies to Flame Reaver getting coreflames from the demigods. If you attempt to apply any practicality to it at all, it genuinely stops making sense. There's a readable from back in 3.1, I think, that describes Flame Reaver literally popping out, asking an NPC what day it is, going "Oops, wrong day" and disappearing again... Because he was specifically planning to attack places where the Chrysos Heirs would be on a certain day instead just going to grab the coreflames that were sitting there undefended, like Aquila and Oronyx? If the goal was to simply stop the Flame-Chase Journey by grabbing all the coreflames, why would Flame Reaver ever wait until Kremnos successfully split Nikador's soul into five pieces, thereby requiring literal time travel to get the coreflame? Why not just kill Nikador before that happened, in every single cycle?

Ostensibly, in 3.1-3.3, the original reason implied that Flame Reaver couldn't just kill the titans and take their coreflames directly because if there wasn't someone filling the role of that divinity, then that "principle" was supposed to stop working in the world. Butttt... considering they said Hysilens was dead but Phagousa's power was still working all the way back in what was it 3.2(?), and that Khaslana in Cycle 1 "sealed away the coreflames" in himself without taking on their divinity, that whole lore reason went out the window really fast lol.

Overall, my impression was that initially Khaslana tried to make sweeping changes to the world by grabbing the coreflames at entirely different points in Amphoreus's history. However, this probably proved to be very chaotic, since it would produce timelines where he would have no idea what would happen in the future, no longer being able to use his experience in Cycle 0 to guess how events would unfold.

At some point, around the four millionth cycle, he realized he'd need the Phainon of each cycle to carry on the quest due to the strain of the coreflames, and so it became necessary for the path to no longer deviate in any major way--the Phainon of the each cycle would need to be the last person in the Vortex in order to defeat Flame Reaver, take on all the coreflames, and take on the memories. So every single action would then have to be dedicated to driving Phainon to that point and making him think Flame Reaver was his enemy--such as killing Cyrene/attacking Aedes Elysiae, attacking the demigods/Chrysos Heirs directly instead of taking the coreflames, etc. So I would guess, at that point, that Khaslana basically abandoned the mission of "collect the coreflames directly" and shifted to "become the villain so that Phainon's Flame-Chase Journey plays out exactly as it must," including doing nonsensical things like fighting Mydei in Castrum Kremnos during 3.2 even though there was no coreflame supposedly there for him to take anymore lol.

As for the heirs having the coreflames in 3.4... I honestly think it's a "don't think too hard" moment lol. I think the devs were really committed to the vision of Khaslana having to kill all his allies over and over so that they could twist the angst knife, whether it actually makes sense for that to happen in every lifetime or not. Maybe, maybeeee we could stretch our disbelief and say that the coreflames with corresponding demigods aren't actually housed in the Vortex as a single "location" but that placing the coreflame into the Vortex is the method by which the Chrysos Heirs initiate their titan's trial, and that once they successfully complete the titan's trial and become the demigod, the "divinity" is stored within them simultaneously, so killing them becomes nearly equivalent to killing the titan, and the coreflame, as that condensed "divinity," can be manifested from their corpses? Maybe we can be generous like that??? Otherwise, yes, it makes absolutely no sense that by the 108,00th-whatever cycle, Khaslana was fighting and killing Mydei every single time to get his coreflame... which should have been in the Vortex if he was the demigod of Strife...

And you're absolutely right about the most interesting thing being the notes about Phainon literally hacking Irontomb's system to try to infiltrate the Scepter's core systems, which the patch never bothers to show us in any visual manner. This is another major failing of 3.4, I think--that all of Khaslana's attempts to attack the system outside of the simulation happen only in the log notes, leaving us with no visuals of him attempting to compile the Black Tide, no visuals of him attacking the Scepter's systems itself--we get nothing of that at all, then we just get thrust into the animated short where he's already made it past Irontomb's firewall to reach out and attack Nanook... Holy jump, Batman.

This is definitely contributing to the problem where people think Khaslana's only role in the plot was the loops themselves, and not that he's literally been collecting coreflames for a reason, allowing him to slowly gain enough power to actively hack Irontomb's systems, which was his actual goal right from the start... but they didn't put it in the patch itself, so the people who didn't read the extras didn't even notice it...

HSR's storytelling methods do exhaust me sometimes lol.

Detangling Mydei's Backstories Backstory?

My last post, casting doubt on 3.2's revelation that Mydei's immortality is deliberate on his part, led to some interesting discussion in the comments that definitely reinforced my earlier thoughts that the inconsistencies in Mydei's backstory are too numerous to be accidental. Star Rail is not known for its flawless continuity (Robin and Sunday's backstory, I'm looking at you lol), but usually the inconsistencies are not so overt, and repeated so many times, that they become central to the entire plot of a character.

So I wanted to refine my earlier theory a bit: I'm cautiously optimistic that there are enough signs that the inconsistencies in Mydei's backstory are deliberate, and that the Mydei of the current cycle in Amphoreus is actively experiencing an entanglement between two different timelines, without (yet) consciously recognizing the incompatibility of his own "memories."

When we work from the standpoint that the events of Mydei's backstory can be separated into two distinct timelines, the inconsistencies vanish:

The "Sea of Souls" Timeline

This is the most prominent timeline, and the one that appears most accurate for "our" Mydei. In this timeline, Mydei was thrown into the Sea of Souls as a tiny infant and spent the first nine years of his life there. This is confirmed both in the flashback we're provided early in 3.1, as well as in Mydei's voicelines and character stories.

After nine years, he crawled out of the sea (possibly motivated by witnessing Tribbie's "star" in the sky). On the same day (or very near it), he met with a band of Kremnoan exiles.

Whether this was a larger group already, constituting a small "detachment" army of exiles, or just started with the five exiled friends and Mydei then grew into a small army by picking up other exiles over time, is still unclear. However, at this point, Mydei makes no mention of returning to Kremnos and instead goes straight from "leaving the sea" to "living ten years in exile:"

This is the key point of inconsistency between the two "halves" of Mydei's story--either he lived in Kremnos or he didn't. We can handwave here and say "Yes, he returned to Kremnos with his friends and they just hid their identities, leaving Kremnos years later in a self-imposed exile," but the story gives us absolutely no indication that this realistically could have happened. Mydei never once mentions hiding his identity, changing his appearance, or living a double life in the city, and never explains how he would have had access to the inner city of Kremnos ("as befitting a crown prince") and the royal library, yet still go totally unnoticed by his father or anyone loyal to Eurypon, including Krateros. (There's also no explanation at all for why he would have wanted to return to a city ruled by someone who tried to murder him and where he would have had to live life under a fake identity just to get by, but you know...)

Instead, the game does give us several pieces of information indicating that the five Kremnoan exiles did not return to Kremnos after meeting Mydei:

First, Mydei's character stories confirm that Mydei deliberately hid his name while traveling in exile across Amphoreus, indicating that he knew he would be recognized by Eurypon/Eurypon's loyalists if he didn't hide his identity. This awareness suggests it is extremely unlikely that Mydei could have returned to Kremnos without being identified:

This also suggests that, at this point in this timeline, no one in Castrum Kremnos knew for sure that Mydeimos had survived being thrown into the Sea of Souls and returned. This is further confirmed by a memory fragment where Krateros says there has been a "rumor" that the leader of the exiled Kremnoan army is one who "defied death." Krateros alone makes the assumption that this could be Mydei and decides to defect to aid him:

This memory suggests two things clearly: Mydei was not living in Kremnos at the time Krateros defected, and the exile of all of Mydei's friends must have taken place before they met Mydei, years in the past, as there is no way an entire small army could have been exiled from Kremnos, with Mydei in toe, and not at all attract Krateros's attention until after they were gone.

The idea that Mydei never returned to Kremnos is further enforced by Eurypon, who did not recognize Mydei when he confronted him, to the point that he didn't believe Mydei was even Kremnoan. This suggests that Eurypon not only didn't know Mydei's true identity--he'd never seen him before at all, making it extremely unlikely that Mydei was walking around Castrum Kremnos, talking to Chryseus Leo, and reading in the royal library all under some false identity for years. Eurypon certainly wouldn't have been capable of exiling someone he'd never seen before from Kremnos, in any case!

Therefore, we can assume the series of events in this timeline is pretty straightforward: Mydei entered the Sea of Souls as a baby, came out nine years later, went straight into a life of exile with his five friends, amassed power and support for ten years, and then returned to seek vengeance on his father.

The only remaining question in this timeline becomes "When did Mydei join up with Okhema?"

I think, in this timeline, it makes the most sense for Mydei to have only joined up with Okhema after killing his father. In 3.1, Mydei confirms to Phainon that all his friends died before he was able to kill his father, and that none of them ever made it to Okhema:

Therefore, the final order of events for the more prominent timeline is:

Dumped into the sea as an infant, nine years in the Sea of Souls

Ten years in exile with his friends amassing strength and support

Returns to Kremnos, kills his father, and the last of his friends dies that day

Then he defects to Okhema, leading any of the Kremnoans willing to follow him there.

By itself, this story makes perfect sense. If this was all the information we'd been given, there wouldn't have been any gaps.

Unfortunately, we also have a whole other set of information that massively conflicts with these events, which can only really be explained two ways: Either Hoyo messed up (again) and really dropped the consistency ball when it comes to writing Mydei's backstory... Or there's an entire separate timeline going on. Personally, I'm leaning toward the latter, because there are just too many seemingly deliberate fingers in the story pointing toward the inconsistencies for them to feel entirely unintentional to me.

Therefore, I propose that Mydei's memories are actually getting infiltrated by a second, entirely different timeline:

The "Gorgo Lives" Timeline

From 3.0 all the way to 3.2, we're given numerous pieces of information that point to a wholly different order to the events of Mydei's life, contrasting the story that Mydei tells Phainon in the Garden. At first, these events seem scattered and nonsensical, contradicting the "main" timeline in too many ways to be anything but errors... But when taken as a whole, we can build a second coherent timeline out of these events if we make one assumption: There is a timeline where Gorgo lived longer.

In the second timeline which is intruding on Mydei's memories, there appears to be one key point of divergence: Gorgo did not die dueling Eurypon. Either she never challenged him to the duel, or (more likely) she was never successfully poisoned, and therefore it's possible she won the duel, allowing her to rescue Mydei from the sea.

Working from that possibility, a second complete timeline emerges:

Mydei was thrown into the Sea of Souls as an infant but did not drift there for nine years. Instead, he was rescued and brought back to Kremnos, where he was allowed to grow up in the inner city, with access to both Chryseus Leo, who served as his teacher, and access to the royal library, which he is proud enough of to call "his" library. He is able to lead Phainon and the Trailblazer around Castrum Kremnos even in its ruined state because he grew up there, spending enough time there to know the city like the back of his hand:

This is where we can slot in the inconsistent memories Mydei has of Gorgo:

(By the way, although Mydei writes this scene off as a dream, you can actually hear Oronyx's whisper play in the black screen seconds before this "dream" occurs...)

But okay, let's say this is just a wishful dream. Maybe this scene never happened. If all we got of Gorgo supposedly raising Mydei was this moment in 3.1, I might agree that it was just a dream (other than there being no reason to play Oronyx's sound effect there, but you know). However, in 3.2 they then hit us with this:

That's multiple moments now pointing to a timeline where Gorgo raised Mydei. Once is handwave-able--twice? That's deliberate.

In this secondary timeline, Mydei appears to have grown up as Kremnos's beloved crown prince, being warmly embraced by his people (at least until Kremnos fell into calamity). Apparently his days consisted of eating pomegranates, training for combat, playing with Kremnos's kids, and hanging out with his five friends. We see snippets of this idyllic life (along with his five friends appearing to be roughly the same age as him--something that likely wouldn't be true in the "main" timeline, by the way) on Mydei's long march back into Castrum Kremnos:

I know some people took this to be Mydei hallucinating or just wishfully imagining a life where he was able to be happy with his friends, possibly even some metaphorical "encountering the souls of the departed in a paradise," but I don't think this is true. Every single time Mydei phases in and out of this "hallucination," the visual effect and the sound effect of Oronyx are distinctly played--the exact same sound and visuals that play when Trailblazer activates Oronyx's prayer to jump between timelines.

Mydei himself doesn't seem to quite understand what is happening to him in this moment, as you can hear him stumble and pant as he repeatedly goes through flashes of Oronyx's power. You can listen to comparison video clips on the prior post I made about Mydei's backstory.

Furthermore, if we work from the assumption that these moments actually represent a rupture between timelines, then the rest of the inconsistencies can finally be cleared up:

In 3.0, Mydei says that his choice to leave Castrum Kremnos was not a forced exile but a "self-imposed" one:

And this aligns with what he stated in the Garden of Life to Phainon, that he and his friends "left Castrum Kremnos" to go into this self-imposed exile, rather than having never returned to Kremnos from the sea:

Furthermore, this also aligns with the angry NPCs in the past version of Castrum Kremnos that Trailblazer and Castorice travel back to:

Remember that this version of Castrum Kremnos was supposed to be occurring while Eurypon was still alive, so there is absolutely no way this line makes sense in the same universe where Eurypon didn't even know Mydei had survived. There isn't any way, in "our" timeline, that Mydei could have been both the "crown prince" of Kremnos for these NPCs and completely unknown to his father, the king.

These NPCs, furthermore, directly accuse Mydei of "deserting Kremnos," suggesting that Mydei was living in Castrum Kremnos as their prince, and then abandoned them to join Aglaea in Okhema, getting himself and everyone who went with him labelled as "traitors to Kremnos" in the process. None of this makes sense in the context of a timeline where no one in Kremnos knew he had even survived.

Instead, all of these elements point to a different sequence of events:

Gorgo lived, likely winning her duel and thereby (likely) giving her the right to save Mydei from the Sea of Souls and bring him back to Kremnos. He was raised by his mother as the beloved crown prince of Kremnos. Then, years later, as his father and Nikador both descended into full madness, Mydei and the Kremnoan detachment defected.

But what would have triggered this sudden need to defect after years of leading Kremnos as a well-liked prince?

The flashback between Mydei and Eurypon actually suggests a possible reason:

Apparently, at some point, in some timeline, Mydei knew about Eurypon's plan to break Nikador's divinity into separate parts and seal him away, harnessing the power of their titan for himself.

Yet the Mydei of 3.0 seems to have no idea about any of this, never able to give any explanation for how Nikador has degraded so much nor why Nikador is seemingly unkillable. Castorice, Mem, and the Trailblazer have to come up with the idea to go back in time to the past Kremnos by themselves, because Mydei never makes any mention of there ever having been a plot to break up and seal away Nikador's divinity, even when they walk past the very blades that did the sealing.

Finally, there's one last piece of conflicting information: While talking to Phainon in the Garden of Life, Mydei states that all of his friends died before the detachment could ever join up with Okhema and that all of their deaths occurred by the time he went to kill his father. But this conflicts with the NPCs above, who state that Mydei had already defected to Okhema and joined the Flame Chase Journey as a Chrysos Heir while his father was still alive.

This inconsistency is further reinforced by a memory fragment with Krateros, who confirms that Mydei had joined up with Okhema already before killing his father:

Putting all of this together, the complete series of events for this second timeline becomes:

Infant Mydei is quickly rescued from the Sea of Souls, is instead raised by his mother, and grows up as the crown prince of Castrum Kremnos with his five friends.

At some point, years later, he discovers Eurypon's plot to break up and imprison Nikador's divinity, and he and his friends and supporters defect from Kremnos as a result.

Either they go straight to Okhema (I'm inclined to say that "ten years of wandering" doesn't fit, chronologically speaking, into this secondary timeline) or they do wander a bit, but ultimately, Mydei reaches Okhema and aligns with Aglaea before killing his father.

After aligning the Kremnoan Detachment with Okhema, Mydei returns to Castrum Kremnos to kill his father, possibly to halt Eurypon's evil plan to harness Nikador's power.

At some point in this timeline, presumably before Mydei returns to kill his father, Gorgo likely still dies (possibly killed by Eurypon and/or Nikador), which explains why the Gorgo in the Sea of Souls seems to be the one convinced that she raised Mydei.

And this is just pure personal speculation, because there isn't enough evidence to really confirm it, but I almost feel like we can even pinpoint how/when the whole decision to defect to Okhema took place. At the end of Mydei's flashbacks to the "peaceful" Kremnos, Peucesta says that Mydei has been away from Kremnos for a while.

Leonnius assumes that Mydei was away on some apparently extended training trip, but this moment specifically ends with Gorgo welcoming Mydei home and asking him one very important question:

Obviously these lines are doing double duty, symbolically welcoming the present Mydei back to the ruins of Castrum Kremnos and asking him whether he's finally ready to take on his role as the "Guardian of Amphoreus." But as the wiki notes, this takes place in a flashback to the past, and for the "Mydei of the past" (aka the Mydei of the alternate timeline), this could very well have been Mydei disappearing from Kremnos to make contact with Aglaea in Okhema, and Gorgo questioning him about his decision to commit himself to the Flame Chase Journey, leading up to an ultimate and permanent defection from Kremnos. (This is just speculation though, trying to tie the last few loose ends together.)

Anyway, when taken from this perspective, that there are two separate backstories here, one from a world where Gorgo lived and the more prominent one where she died, we can sort all the seeming inconsistencies in Mydei's backstory into two surprisingly tidy and complete timelines.

I haven't yet found anything in any Mydei scene that doesn't fit one of these two scenarios, so I'm starting to definitely feel optimistic here that this writing was intentional, and that the "contradictory" backstory we're seeing for Mydei isn't "the worst continuity Star Rail has served up to date," but instead an actual deliberate choice to present us with a character whose memories are a hodge-podge of two divergent timelines, snippets of one timeline constantly erupting and "filling in the blanks" of the other.

I think this would be a fascinating way to lead up to the idea that Amphoreus's world isn't real, that it's a cobbled together story or set of memories that someone is barely holding together, and that it's constantly cyclical in nature, with events repeating with slight variations across times. The idea that Mydei is actually experiencing two different sets of memories crushed together into a tangled jumble and that he's only just now starting to become aware of the discrepancies would be such an excellent way to reinforce the "unreality" of Amphoreus's plot as a whole.

I really hope this is the direction that they take the story... Or at least that I won't one day be looking at all my Mydei posts and sadly thinking to myself that I put a lot more thought into the character's backstory than his own writers did, RIPPPPP. 😂😂😂

Cope with me, people!

#honkai star rail #3.4 discussion #khaslana #flame reaver #amphoreus lore #the number one rule for playing any Hoyo game #just turn your brain off and VIBE

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calamitycons · 2 days ago

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Deltarant

Thanks for enabling me guys lol!

TL;DR: Deltarune is very messy and unfocused, and this negatively impacted my perception not only of Chapters 3 and 4, but the previous chapters as well. The things I'm most interested in are the things the game scolds me for doing, and this is the same major criticism I had with Undertale. Also, the characters are way too shallow in really weird ways.

EDIT: grammar and spelling checks, I wrote this really fast lmao

Chapter 3 is not a third part in a story, it's Chapter 2: Again.

In Chapter 2, we got what was essentially The Noelle Show, an entire world dedicated to reflecting Noelle's childhood, her personality, her struggles, and ultimately overcoming them through the power of narrative. It's a fun and wacky scenario that is difficult to take seriously because of the lighthearted tone, but what we get about Noelle is substantial information because we knew literally nothing about her beforehand. Chapter 3 is supposed to be The Kris Show, I think. It's supposed to reflect how Kris fell into escapist media to avoid dealing with the messy divorce their parents had, with the not-so-hidden stuff about the creepypasta video game echoing the "relationship" Kris has with the Soul. In that respect, it works just fine. But it also gets fucking annoying as hell, because…

I don't like the characters.

Tenna is a piece of shit. I don't like him, and I resent him for being essentially Spamton 2. Spamton worked for me because he was a very raw and unfiltered look at the kind of desperation and more frightening aspects of mental illness that a lot of people live with. The uglier parts, the scarier parts, the more unsettling and unhealthy elements of his illness were frankly and baldly presented and him being a spambot was an excellent decision because he essentially personified what it would be like to run into a human spam bot. Tenna doesn't have that. Tenna is just a show host who wants attention to try and stop the other people from doing the Plot, which is apparently going to get dark and unsettling really soon. But he's so manipulative, he rubs me wrong because he reminds me of real-life slippery manipulators and abusers I've interacted with before. I don't like him, I don't want to spare him, but I know that if I don't spare him then the fandom will eat me alive because if you dare to do anything other than The One Bestest Most Correct Timeline, you're a bad person. I also don't appreciate the aesthetic and thematic similarities between Spamton and Tenna because after two years, I expected something NEW. But I guess if this was the Kris Show, then it wasn't in the cards for Tenna to be anything other than a reflection of Kris in a similar way? But speaking of Kris…

The stuff I'm interested in doing is stuff the game actively scolds me for doing.

I will never understand why this is a theme in the Undertale-Deltarune body of work, because a game requires so much effort and work on the part of the developers for it to function. Why do you keep going to so much trouble to include something to explicitly make the player feel like an asshole for doing? Why are you spending so much time telling us what we're doing is evil when you could have very easily not included that point? The double bind criticism I had of the Genocide Route in Undertale continues to be a problem in Deltarune but this time it's even worse, because I'm sorry, but you really are taking too long. It has been literal years. You have been saying the same thing to us for a total of 10 years now, ever since Undertale came out in 2015. It's tiring to continually be told by this one game series that the only acceptable way to play it is shallowly, that I am punished for being interested in the deeper secrets and spooky elements that THE DEVS INCLUDED. Like jeez dude, I'm SORRY that I like being challenged in a challenging dodge-mechanic video game! I'm SORRY that I like the horror elements of your story that you wrote and took dev time and manpower to include, because I think you also believe it is cool. After all, we both love OFF. But the big thing that makes OFF's entire everything different from Undertale's Genocide Route and Deltarune's Spooky Shit is that OFF, while jokingly claiming to be "a nice game for cute children," was always an unsettlingly surreal and atmospheric game filled with things that were, well, off.

What is Deltarune about?

Look man, one of my favorite genres is "The Magic School Bus Slowly Becoming Dune" (as coined by WoolieVS), but while Deltarune wants to be that, it isn't really accomplishing it. The spooky stuff I'm interested in, the sweaty gamer stuff, the epic feats of skill and epic gamer moments I want to do, are not what the game wants me to do. So what DOES Deltarune want me to do? Undertale and Deltarune want you to think it's a narrative bullet-hell game about humans and monsters, and while Undertale had a clear ultimate theme of "don't kill, and don't be killed," Deltarune… uhhhh… Is Deltarune a story about human and monster kids learning about themselves and growing into better people through exploring the Dark World that manifests from their will, so that they can explore the world manifest by their own psyche? Like Susie going through the card-and-boardgame world to learn to be kind by interacting with a tiny child? Like Noelle learning to stand up for herself after exploring a world tyrannized by an overbearing and obnoxious maternal figure? Like Kris… uhhhh… What is Delatrune ABOUT? Is it about the spooky scary skeleton in the closet behind the code who has a little person saying shit in hidden docs that crazy people have to dig around to find? All the stuff about the Eggs and the Shadow Crystals seems to be leading us to finally seeing that motherfucking Skeledoc I've been dying to see for a literal decade at this point, but after so long waiting we still have yet to speak to him or understand him. Is Gaster the Egg Man? Is he the voice who made our vessel at the start of the game? Is he both? Is he neither? Will this EVER be resolved? And how does it interact with Undertale?

Deltarune has a lot of shit that I wasn't interested in.

The shmoopy lesbians

are fine, they can have their fun and are allowed to exist, I'm happy for them. I'm not interested in it though, because I don't think anything in their relationship is particularly engaging. They're just two kids who like each other, but nothing about their relationship actually seems to drive them to grow or change in any way. I don't know why they aren't already dating, they clearly like each other and should be together so that we can get past this part of the story already because they have BEEN shmoopy lesbians with no relationship movement for real-world years.

The Darkners in Dark Town

are bit parts. It's genuinely disappointing to me that Lancer has become so inconsequential to the entire plot after all his importance in reflecting Susie and who she was. The other Darkners have proven that, even if they initially have thematic resonance or importance to a character such as Queen to Noelle or Lancer to Susie, after the chapter is over it is time to put them the fuck away because they don't matter anymore. Lanino and Elnina are the most shallow possible interpretation of how a couple breaks up, but it doesn't matter because they go away as soon as their role in the plot is done. It's a very annoying feeling of discarding what is no longer useful, or "using things up," which the game also hates US for doing but I guess it's okay when the game does it because???????? It also particularly makes Chapter 1 feel like a waste of time, because Chatper 4's Gerson ALSO worked hard to push Susie to grow up and improve as a person, and honestly I'm coming to find her less interesting as a result because she has lost a lot of her initial edge and depth to ultimately become Kris's Fellow Weirdo.

Susie and Kris are often written as basically the same character

but there are two instances of them. There is nothing that Susie would do in any situation that Kris would not, or would do differently. If Susie were the one possessed by a Soul, I bet she would do a lot of the exact same things Kris is doing. If Kris were the bully and Susie the bullied, I think they would have the same reactions and behaviors. They SHOULDN'T be the same character. They have so many differences in their backstories, their species, their abilities, their interests. But their BEHAVIOR is exactly the same, and that is a fundamental writing weakness. I genuinely don't even know how this happened, but after hours of playtime and years of waiting, the only thing I can genuinely say that Kris would be willing to do but Susie wouldn't, is the Dark World Puzzles. Their moment-to-moment decisions are indistinguishable, and that's a huge problem for me.

Oh god I've written 1500 words

I think I got most of my problems out of my system so I'll stop here, but that's the majority of the issues I've had with Deltarune. Thank you for reading all of that if you did, holy shit.

#deltarune critical #deltarune critique #opinion #negative opinion #deltarune chapter 3 #deltarune chapter 4 #utdr

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dingodad · 2 days ago

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roxy and john/june is interesting to me as a friendship but i just don't see how anything romantic really adds to the dynamic. like them both being the only ones from the pre retcon timeline is fun but i don't think they should kiss about it.

then again with that said my interest immediately goes up if we're talking about june so maybe i'm just too yuribrained. idk i think we should maybe hunt and eat anyone trying to make june a heterosexual boy in this day and age just on the whole

maybe I'm a bad person for this like call me a fake #femslashfiend but I have never been able to get into roxygen even on the merits of girlmoding john 😭 I get that john has shit going on that contributed to the failure of her marriage and sorting out her gender shit would make her a more ready and willing person to live in that relationship but roxy has a lot of agency here too and I think her problems relating to john are a lot more complex than just what john happened to be identifying as at the time. I don't think "we sorted out our stuff, now it's time to try the exact same relationship as before" is the true gilded path for either of these soul searchers... but ofc this is just me being more invested in the current story than any shipping hypotheticals more generally

I do think the fact that even transing their genders roxy and john are destined to be hetslop is probably a sign that they are simply not to be........

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snailslimestuff · 8 months ago

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Timebomb comic for the people!!! Probably out of character leave me alone.

Fire?

#artwork #fanart #digital painting #sketch #digital art #timebomb #if only they lived in the same timeline..#arcane #arcane fanart #ekko arcane #jinx arcane #ekkojinx #timebomb arcane

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ailithnight · 2 days ago

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Danny is probably so completely bewildered, and will likely only get more so when Dick shows up. How easily these people are letting, no, inviting him into their lives. When he was just planning to help Jason home and then be out of their hair.

Someone better get a picture of Jason and Danny together. An album even. Equal parts "Lookit the adorableness!" and future sibling blackmail/teasing material.

Huh. I see Bruce, Dick, Alfred; but not a word about Tim. Which, I guess makes sense now that I think about it. I suppose, depending on the exact timeline, this would be either before or very early into Tim's Robin stint. Certainly before he's been pulled into the family proper.

Even if Tim is Robining right now, I guess there's no way to mention him without 1. Bringing up the nightlife. And 2. Admitting there is a new kid running around in the same colors Jason died in.

Yeah, maybe not a conversation to have mere hours after spontaneous resurrection and in front of a veritable stranger.

Graves Ch 3, Part 2

masterpost, please no editing or concrit. the word salad is strong today

“This is where you live?” Danny asks, face practically pressed against the tinted car window to get a look at the Manor.

Jason hums. The sound is almost soothing. His throat still feels raw from screaming. And, well, being… dead, he guesses. That fact is just there, looming like a shadow that Jason can’t quite grasp yet. Like, he knows he died, but he can’t connect that to where he is right then: alive and in Gotham.

“Wayne Manor,” Alfie answers for him. “It has been in the family some generations now.”

“Alfie rules it,” Jason says, hiding his smile against Bruce’s stupid nightgown.

“Well,” Aflie replies with a pleased sniff, “someone has to see that it is kept in good care. Lord knows I’ve almost given up saying the same for the Masters of the house.”

“Alfred,” Bruce says, the man’s name a gentle warning.

Jason frowns. “Dad?”

Bruce presses a gentle kiss to the top of Jason’s head. “It’s fine, chum.”

“Hardly,” Alfred scoffs.

Bruce sighs.

Danny tries to make himself a small as possible.

“Losing you… it broke my heart.” Bruce pulls the words quietly out into the open. “I’ve handled it badly. Dick has too. We’ve handled each other badly. Alfred was rightfully at his limits with it all.”

Jason’s heart skips a beat. “…Dick? Does he…?”

“I called him at the clinic,” Bruce answers. “He’s on his way.”

Jason sags in relief against Bruce’s side. It was hardly anything but he’s already exhausted. Being dead was tiring. Or maybe it was the revival part? Whatever.

The Manor gates squeal open and it sounds like coming home. Jason closes his eyes for the rest of the drive down the stupidly long driveway. The only reason he opens him when he’s pulled out of the car is to make sure that Danny is staying close. He needs Danny to stay close. Jason can’t grasp the why of it, but he knows that he needs that.

Besides, if Danny doesn’t stay close he’s so getting lost in the Manor. It’s just too damn big.

He stubbornly drags Danny down onto the couch with him when he’s settled into the living room. Jason figured he deserved to get something out of dying other than a shitty mom, and right then what he wanted was cuddles. Luckily, once Bruce and Alfred step out of the room, Danny relaxes enough to let himself snuggled into a proper little spoon.

“Won’t hurt you,” Jason mumbles into Danny’s ear, making the other boy jolt a little.

“What?”

“Bruce and Alfie, they won’t,” Jason struggles to explain. Words slip through his mind before he can spit them out, but he thinks maybe he gets it across.

“I know,” Danny lies. “I just don’t trust rich dudes.”

“Smart,” Jason says through a yawn. He tucks Danny’s head a little more under his chin. “Don’t too, but Bruce… is good. Stubborn, stoic, stupid, but good.”

“Yeah, but you’re his kid.”

“Just… street rat. Still good. Still won’t… didn… didn’t hurt.” Jason yawns again. The words are slipping away quicker but he needs to explain. “Just street rat before his kid. Annoying street rat too. Stole his tires.”

“You stole Bruce Wayne’s tires?!”

Jason laughed into Danny’s unruly hair. If only Jason could explain who’s tires he really stole. That would really shock Danny. But that would be bad, even if it was just Danny.

“Getting the idea that maybe you’re stubborn and stupid too,” Danny grumbles.

Jason just hushes him. It was time for a little bit of a nap, at least until dinner. Or Dick. Whichever D came first.

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stealingpotatoes · 6 months ago

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heres a crappy venn (??) diagram explaining the dynamics in the tl4j time travel au bc it's easier than trying to write a full plot

#tl4j time travel au #slightly longer ver is cal and ezra have 1. accepted what's happened to them and 2. know tragedy has given them an amazing found family #which they wouldnt have if everything was 'fixed'#and ezra knows from the wbw that changing the past is a Bad idea (which alongside the found family thing cal accepts n agrees w)#but ahsoka cant take her own advice and insists fixing this is Different to the Kanan thing #bc she has not accepted it the same way and her life is soo much more depressing and seeing the live republic reminds her #if she fixed the timeline she'd have her whole family back (bc rn she just has luke) and thered be so much less horrible horrible loss #and luke is the force's specialest boy so he assumes itll all work out great #its basically 'attachments + compassion for those the empire killed' vs 'attachments + acceptance of the world that exists now'#like both 'sides' are going half good jedi ideology and half attachment ig (tho cal n ezra i think have a one-up on jedi-ness of their idea #misc tag #but even tho cal n ahsoka/ ezra n luke have opposed goals theyre the only ones who understand what the other is going thru #so u get fun dynamics as shown by the diagram

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uncharted-constellations · 10 months ago

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~What i couldve been~

I was just gonna do the adult timeline zelda but im so enchanted by the idea of these two versions of the same character. People always talk about how link would be changed but never zelda.

#tloz #princess zelda #sheik #majoras mask #ocarina of time #loz redesigns round 2 #art #my art #redesigns #they had Entirely different teen years #a zelda who had to deal with the deaths of those close to her and having to be in hiding #meanwhile training up to hopefully take care of it on her own #only to seemingly doom her kingdom in the future to save another timeline from the same grief #creating this zelda who seemingly at most has one bad vision which is immedietly #confirmed by random fairy boy in the woods #and seemingly lives happily ever after?#i wish we knew more from the new timeline other than boring implications from tw-light pr-ncess #but yes i split different design element over both of them #oot zelda having shorter hair like her sheik form #while mm zelda keeps the long #also using some elements from the kid design like mm still kinda having that headband alongside the crown #the l-nks will be another post since i only have ideas for one right now

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slymanner · 2 years ago

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hurt my heart why dontcha.

#adventure time #fionna and cake #fionna and cake spoilers #simon petrikov #BMO #this is seriously fucked up u cant do this to me im so sadSNSSN #IMAGINE BEING BMO #just one day finn and jake say they'll brb and they're going on a important mission...#and BMO after this and them being gone for awhile just see's the world go into peril #death everywhere. no sign of his friends expect remnant's of the past..#and the only survivor is them...#no other's expect the thing who released hell upon this once lively and colorful world in the first place.#and BMO just accept's this...tells themselves that they're still around...cosplay's as they're old friend's...this is fucked up #in the current timeline all his friend's are gone to natural circumstances.#but for this one? it was too early. too sudden. atleast in this one BMO will remember they're name's but...man.#this poor lil robo cant get a BREAK.#AND THEY FUCKING DIE IN SACRIFICE AT THE END TOO SHUTUPPPDPDPDPD #and the fact BMO also consider's “jerry” a friend...not knowing...that the same person caused all this.#this is...SO FUCKED UP #WHY MUST THE SHOW WRITERS DO THIS TO MY HEART.

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syluss-karaoke-teacher · 3 days ago

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I agree with your points, and want to expand on the "the LIs are perfect boys" point further, because that is what bothers me the most personally. This a bit long, so I'm not expecting many to wade through it, and also sorry for piggybacking off your post ❤️

The LIs are decidedly not perfect. They all have their own weaknesses, which are at their core very realistic despite being dressed up in sci-fi/fantasy circumstances. Their lives have been moulded by so much trauma, both remembered and not, and it would be unrealistic for them to NOT be flawed in some ways. And I know people recognize those traumas and rightfully sympathise/emphatise with them. How could we not when we witness all of it first hand?

Thing is, MC too is traumatised. Firstly she was fucking TORTURED FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD in this timeline. Secondly, her not remembering her past lives with the LIs is not only a source of angst for the boys, but a major plotpoint that provides absolutely crucial context for the LIs actions.

Just think about her first encounter with Sylus from her canon POV: she goes onto a highly dangerous mission because she sees no other choice if she wants to discover the truth. She is drugged, kidnapped, threatened with violence, then her kidnapper is poofed out of existence by the leader of the biggest criminal organisation in the area. A man so powerful regular weapons do not harm him. Hell, he *makes her shoot him through the heart* while his Aether core messes with her head. Oh, and he imprisons her for days. He is the first LI with whom her Resonance doesn't work because she is so scared and disgusted by him, and in that time and place I'd say rightly so! Is it absolutely heartbreaking now that we the players know their past? Yes! Does it make the situation any less traumatic for her? No!

Or how about Rafayel stalking her for years? I personally can't wait for the moment when that is revealed to her in the present timeline. I absolutely understand his desperation, the way he must have racked his brain trying to come up with a reason to approach her. And I do think if MC finds out about it after/if she learns about their past, she too will understand. But that doesn't make it okay in the slightest. And don't even get me started on Caleb! In fact all of them are guilty of stalking her, except maybe Zayne, and I can't quite believe how many people in the fandom just gloss over that. It's completely fine to like red flag/dark romances, but I don't think it needs to be said that stalking is not healthy behavior in any circumstances.

MC is flawed, yes. Especially in the earlier cards she can be rude or too blunt, and even I think she takes her mistrust of Sylus a bit too far sometimes. She is also rash and sometimes childish. But if we are able to forgive the LIs flaws because of their trauma and their past, can recognize that they ultimately just want the best for MC, then surely we can give her the same courtesy?

Throughout all of her lives she has been shown to be kind, courteous and dutiful. The Sorceress doesn't succumb to blind rage and revenge, The Castellan and The Queen continue to serve their people to the end. She shows people who have wronged her way more patience and understanding than I ever could. And in the current timeline she became a Hunter precisely to overcome her own fears, despite her congenital heart disease. That takes some serious character!

Throughout the current timeline she slowly but surely works together with the LIs to built trust in the relationships, to finetune the specific dynamics she has with all of them, like becoming more attentive with Rafayel, more trusting with Sylus, more assertive and confident with Xavier. Especially in Feverish Attempts and now the new Promise 4* I was actively cheering for her when she got mad at Xavier for hiding things from her. She is strong, mentally and physically, and wants to care for the boys as they care for her. I could never fault her for that, and honestly it's sad if people read all of the story available to them and STILL come out of this thinking that she sucks as a character or doesn't deserve the LIs.

If you made it this far, thank you and sorry for the rant 😆

it’s totally fine that you don’t want mc haters to interact with your blog! I love her too…But I’m confused as to why you called the interaction toxic. If you and I were reading the same post, same comments, I mostly got the vibe that people were conversing civilly and bringing up points that were valid. Certain parts of MC just bother them and I think it’s a lot better to have that kind of conversation criticizing a game you play rather than the hostility I’ve seen against non-mc writers sometimes (not that you are one).

I agree it was a really negative post, but it wasn’t bad. People seemed to have found each others’ similar interests and decided to stay away from blogs they disagree with like your new warning.

I also hope we can have a non-toxic community but that includes being able to discuss these kinds of things without trying to shame anyone. Again, not that you are (By the way if we’re not talking about the same post then please just take me as a random observer giving their two cents! Don’t mind me! Thanks)

hello, welcome! i apologise if this is the first impression i made. i usually keep such opinions to myself because the fandom has enough discourses as it is, and i thought i didn't want to contribute more to the disagreements.

i think we were indeed reading the same post. i found it while i was searching for sylus x reader tag, and unfortunately it popped up first to the latest category.

there were many points of which i disagreed. it was a negative post that made me frown, and if you know the hate train that's been happening on the female characters of love and deepspace, at some point it gets tiring to see.

mc is you, you are mc. i understand if people think of her as a different entity (that's totally okay!), but at the same time you are the one who created her, and in creative spaces such as tumblr and ao3, you are also the one to appoint her with a personality type.

the game itself is a sci-fi fantasy romance otome game, it is not meant to be realistic. these men utter your name in the game (assuming you put your name/nickname in the player placeholder). by default, they are yours and you are theirs.

we get to become hunters, sorceresses, dragonesses, brides to the sea god, queens, princesses, metaloenergetic humans (i just made this word up idk), or have weird powers that attract trouble and causes us to get exiled by village nobodies.

the thing i absolutely found weird is how the men (xavier, rafayel, zayne, sylus, caleb) were praised above and beyond. how mc is called a mary sue for having them love her but no, the male characters are absolutely perfect in every single way. this is not specifically about the post either, it's how the fandom treats it's female characters and find nothing wrong about the reasons they give to hate a: character-insert who is meant to be the embodiment of yourself, your aunt-in-law, and even your coworker and best friend.

now the most common excuses of all: she doesn't treat the love interests right. she is not complex. she is too complex. she is a celestial being. she doesn't have a personality. she has too much personality.

on another note: i don't have anything against non-mc readers, i read them myself and i enjoy them as much as the next person. the only thing i don't like is how misogynistic terms such as pick-me comes out from girlies that i never expected to come.

so i guess the post was never meant for me, because i love the stories and how we were inserted into them. as for the "people were conversing civilly" i will let the comments of said post speak for themselves. "These good boys deserve so much better than a pretty-faced void."

i will not proceed any further, you are free to ask again if you want! i will of course reply as fast as i am able to. that was mainly for the exclusive non-mc consumers who view mc as a whole different entity and believe the love interests won't choose them and villainise the mc because of it.

i hope i didn't come off too strong. as a mc fan, and as someone who just hates disliking female characters (i have been in too many fanwars over sakura haruno, katara, korra, elena gilbert, bella swan, you name it), it got me bothered.

i'm sorry.

#love and deepspace #lads #lnds #lads mc #love and deepspace mc #love and deepspace discourse #mini rant #lads discourse #mc girl i could never hate you #i do not read or write non-mc stuff #nor do i self-insert #but i think you can do both those things without senselessly bashing the mc at every turn

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