#s1 and 2 are like. you can have a decent time and there are good bits here and there

[to-the-batcomputer]

i had heard titans was bad and it WAS bad and so i didn't realize it could get WAY WORSE

[eternalfics]

hii, can i request a saiki x gn!reader who can change fate? ty! :3

saiki x gn!reader who can change fate

a/n: like I said on 2 hc posts ago, I kinda left my requests in my inbox, so if u made a request it’s kinda gonna take a while since u got 2-4 in front of you..

summary: saiki with a reader who can change the future and stuff! 🥳

HOW YOU GUYS MET

when you guys first met, you guys were paired up for a school trip. it was.. decent, slightly awkward but it was fine! you were going to get through this with this quiet, silent man. of course you could have changed partners, but you decided to see how life is without your powers! (which was going.. well 🥲)

(this is based on s1 ep 12 btw)

when you guys got at the airport, everyone was so excited! of course, saiki looked the same. maybe he’s one of those people with a rbf? 😇

but all of a sudden, just one announcement about the flight getting delayed and the class looks like zombies. people who were jumping around had their heads on their hands.

yumehara had a lot of snacks in her bag? but now you could just see her blank expression and her stuffing them in her face.. not even hairo could have cheered them up. maybe you could just have a cheat day?

yeah that would sound good. all of sudden, the tv showed that the hurricane is gone! somehow, everyone’s back in a good mood. who knew that a trip could make everyone depressed? everyone’s better, but that guy who you were paired up with saki- sekai? saiki! yeah him, it seems that he’s looking at you. do you think he knows?

HEADCANONS

when saiki needs help or suspects something, your the first person he goes to! I mean, who else would he go to?

I’m just gonna assume that saiki already knows that you can change fate and you already knows that he has psychic powers!

out of all of the psychics in their class, saiki would say your the best one. well, your kinda not a psychic but your the best one he works with 😋

sometimes when your feeling playful or mischievous, you like to threaten saiki when he’s in certain situations😈

“what happened?”

“I finally got away from teruhashi. I swear nobody leaves me alone these day-“

“gimmethat200yenthatyouowemeori’llmakehercomeback,”

“..let’s talk about thi-“

sometimes saiki likes to annoy you too! it’s a playful relationship. but that dosen’t mean that you guys aren’t serious at times

overall, maybe your not a nuisance after all 😘

[tainbocuailnge]

post where I argue for the use of some less popular free units (you don't need me to tell you gladiia and lumen are cracked)

vigil

this guy has a combination of qualities from both his subclass and his specific summon that make him really convenient to use because he's able to do a lot of jobs decently: he's a vanguard that often doesn't need a healer because his constantly refreshing wolves are doing the blocking and drawing ranged aggro while you use the dp on other units, he can hit air, the wolves deal multiple hits and have some def ignore which allows them to easily shred most trash to midweight enemies, all combined meaning he can handle a lot of map demands on his own. in terms of stats and utility you're essentially deploying a 4* sniper, guard, and vanguard at once, packaged as a single 14dp unit

he interacts well with a ton of event mechanics too, for example the wolves can block the spread of burning reeds even while inactive, and they block line of sight from the lucent arrowhead enemies and don't care about taking machinegun fire because they have 3 refreshing hp bars, and those bugs from originum dust that reduce aspd when blocked don't affect vigil himself because it's the wolves doing the blocking, and the wolves deal hits equal to their amount of heads so they deal well with hitcount-based mechanics too especially if vigil is on s3. those 3 hp bars and the speed at which they refresh with s1 also makes vigil good at stalling enemies, particularly ones that deal strong but slow hits like mudrock colossi, but also just stuff like heavy defender type enemies. compared to other tactician vanguards vigil is much easier in general use because he requires minimal management, his summon blocks multiple enemies and with s1 constantly refreshes its hp without external input so you just put him down and he either handles it or he doesn't.

his s3 has pretty high damage potential and you see it a lot in vanguard only clears but in my experience it's gimped in more general use by having no buffs to his comparatively low atk + a lot of the damage being contingent on the summon blocking an enemy while giving up on the increased survivability from the other skills + the fact that unless you're in a particular challenge niche there's no reason for him to be the one doing the damage. I find s1 is the way to go the vast majority of the time because it makes the best use of his summon's unique qualities. s2 is theoretically some of the fastest dp printing in the game but only if there's a steady stream of enemies to allow it to actually be used so in practise its a pretty bad skill, you'd only use it over s1 if you're using vigil to block a stream of enemies that can't meaningfully hurt the wolves but might not get killed fast enough with s1 (i saw one vanguard clear where they put him on s2 just so the sp from siege's talent wouldn't go to him lol)

puzzle

puzzle's main claim to fame is that with s1, if he's able to continuously attack a target, he prints dp faster than a flag vanguard. ines s1 has the same dp printing speed (2dp per 4 seconds compared to puzzle's 3dp per 6 seconds) but ines does so much other shit there's still reason to have puzzle on hand to stand there printing dp while ines does her other shit. puzzle also has the upper hand on ines on this particular front in that if there's an event gimmick where you can attack some kind of device, like the orbs in lonetrail or the vents in jessica's event, since those things are technically at max hp every time he hits them he procs his talent (2 extra sp when attacking a target with full hp) on every hit and speeds up to an insane 3 dp per 3 seconds.

the OTHER notable thing puzzle has is a giant poison debuff on his s2 (up to 150% of his atk arts damage per second for 16 seconds), which is good for all the hitcount-related things poison is good for as well as just being a good amount of damage that he can deliver in a comparatively very small window of time as a fast-redeploy unit that also prints dp. I'm not sure whether the 16 seconds counts from first or last application but with a max level puzzle you're looking at a minimum of around 14k arts damage. it makes him really good at wearing down enemies that stand there menacingly in spots that are annoying to reach for regular assassin-type units, as well as contributing damage from behind another unit. I think this video gives a pretty good image of what puzzle s2 can do, look at him melt the power armor and dor-bionics.

jieyun

her first deployment has reduced cost and gives her a hefty boost to her already high artilleryman attack (she reaches 1k atk once deployed before module) and her s2 is a huge splash area with 50% slow + a damage modifier that doesn't clash with her talent so she just shreds everything that isn't really high def, and anything that is still gets significantly slowed while your arts damage units kill it.

since s2 always goes to a specific tile in her range it can also be used to make her prioritise certain targets, and since it's a whole 15 seconds of high per-second splash damage she's a good counter to bosses that spawn a bunch of other weaker enemies like essence of evolution or ya, or just huge amounts of closely grouped enemies like RA raids. it's also only 8 offensive sp at m3 (down from 12 at lv7) which is basically nothing already and even less when combined with common IS collectibles or RA food and support items. she shreds all those annoying flying cunts in collapsals afternoon the moment they come out of their box. she's genuinely just a really good unit for very straightforward reasons and very beautiful also.

breeze

do not be mistaken there is zero gameplay reason to invest in breeze over any other aoe medic because the others have every utility ever while breeze only has raw healing numbers but when it comes to healing multiple units at once her numbers are legit huge so she's very useable. i also find her very cute and charming, you should check out her english dub it's really good.

her talent is so conditional it might as well not exist however if you combine her mod3 talent (medics and supporters gain 15% max hp when breeze's skill is active) with silence alter's mod3 talent (operators in range gain 10% max hp) and honeyberry's talent (ranged operators in range gain 10% max hp) you could probably make silence take the manfred cannon which is funny.

czerny

the whole arts protector subclass is in kind of a weird spot where they've got good stats (defender level bulk with guard level attack, some res) and good traits (3 block melee unit with arts damage) and their skills and talents do some cool and unique things, but you rarely actually need or look for what they specifically can do so most people only end up using them when they just like them a lot or they happen to fit their particular niche.

czerny's unique niche is reflecting arts damage on his talent which leads to some really funny clears whenever it's his time to shine because enemies will just kill themselves. some enemies that czerny's reflect is particularly good for are dublin flamethrowers (each tick of the flamethrower gets reflected), londinium mobile artillery (the barrage is arts damage that he can take more easily with the increased hp from s2), crossroads units from lonetrail, those really long range sandcastle casters from ideal city who just stand there blasting you from fucking narnia, but really any enemy that deals arts damage will slowly kill themselves while blocked by czerny.

i find that in practise if you want to use czerny just to use him, his arts reflect talent and s2 explosion are secondary to the fact that he has really high innate res (25 thanks to his talent) with an s1 that doubles it, making him arguably the best anti-arts blocker in the game right now, and during s2 he can punch people for up to 2k arts damage per hit over a very respectable 20 seconds for 30sp. and his english dub is really really good.

shalem

I like him :)

shalem s2 hits air with a big forward range and since it's random shots it's unaffected by enemy taunt level, but conversely since it's random with a pretty big range you can't guarantee he'll hit the targets you want and it becomes less effective the more enemies there are. it's also kinda sicko damage (like 45k arts damage total/2.2k dps before res + effective guarantee of proccing his res debuff talent thanks to high hitcount) but it's hard to capitalise on when it's defensive recovery and guaranteed to kill him without someone healing him. in victoriaknights they tend to pair him with hibiscus or reed alter to stack arts debuffs and in defenderknights they often combo with saria s3 not just for the debuffs and heals but also because she can feed him sp to actually use the skill.

s1 is way easier to use and incredibly solid so that's what you go with when simply taking shalem to locations. it improves a lot with m3 (-35% attack interval to -45%) so if you end up raising him and find s1 lacks a bit of oomph that's why. like czerny shalem's got the arts protector problem where it's hard to argue why you should use him specifically since "melee arts damage" or "defender that kills" isn't really hard to come by these days, but that doesn't mean a defender with multitarget arts damage who can hit air isn't still a really good unit.

lessing

this guy has the problem of his subclass having middling base traits that his colleagues compensate for by being an abyssal hunter and having true damage respectively, and he does some things that nobody else does, except for lee who does it better in nearly all cases, lol. if you DON'T have lee available though or are in a situation where lee is simply eating too much dp to be viable then lessing suddenly kicks ass through the power of being the only other guy who can't be stunned, which is a gimmick that enemies throw out often enough to make it worth investing in having a hard counter like this. lessing's s3 modifier also stacks multiplicatively with external buffs so he scales really hard with those and can bonk enemies for some really funny numbers with the right backup.

however EVEN if you don't think you'll ever deploy him I think he's still worth the e2 for his base skill alone, he has a fixed 3 morale cost for all elite material recipes and an 80% byproduct rate increase which means he can cook big piles of high tier materials with a much higher byproduct rate than operators with comparable morale cost reductions.

tuye

tuye s1 can actually solo heal things that other medics would need backup for but you need to really micromanage her for that so nobody wants to fucking bother normally. if you're ever doing a stall strat where enemies are beating your ass in between your healers attack interval then tuye is the one you need, either s1 or s2 and with or without backup, she's the queen of finicky high damage healing.

her RA2 exclusive token is also insanely fucking good, everyone in tuye's range restores hp worth 6% of tuye's atk every second which works on enmity units, you put some atk food in tuye and suddenly everyone in her range has that abyssal regen on top of her healing them regularly. if you play RA2 with any regularity tuye is super worth investing in for this alone

folinic

read my folinic post

astgenne

read my astgenne post

[smolstarthief]

I gotta be frank, I think both interpretations of Hexcore!Sky are interesting in their own right ("official" statement from the crew aside but at this point, with how many times the apparent official statements from CL or anyone else has caused me to raise eyebrows (I don't mind the cast inputs since they're usually pretty respectful in tone as far as I know), I feel like we shouldn't fully rely on those in terms of what's considered canon at this point due to the occasional contradictions the show presented but don't take my word for it really. Up to you on that one).

Like the idea that it actually was the real her just adds more layers of tragedy since 1) It definitely showcases what could have been with her and Viktor's dynamic had she not died and 2) Her symbolizing his remaining humanity just makes her essentially dying a second time a bigger gut punch. It's just sad all around for both parties as well as Viktor being unable to let her go and even properly move on or even grieve her death and when he does... It's not for the better due to him proceeding to throw his humanity, morals, and emotions away in favor of evolving into the Machine Herald to continue his "Glorious Evolution." So her saying "No... You won't (miss our talks)" can be read as possible sadness and disappointment with the path he's now taking and he's not the same Viktor she admired and even had romantic feelings for anymore. Obviously, from Viktor's side of it, he was no doubt sincere in his goodbye and even sounded like he was about to cry but... Well you know the rest with that overall tragedy with him and his character (not trying to paint him in a bad light btw since I fully understand his position there).

Meanwhile the idea that it wasn't really her but the Hexcore using her image to isolate him and guide/push him to his "Evolution" path is also interesting but also paints a very messed up picture of the situation (basing more on my experiences with toxic people and yes some those people have been labeled as being, "too nice to be terrible" before so yeah take it with a pinch of salt if you wish but that is an actual thing with some manipulative folks. And this is NOT towards Sky herself but the Hexcore just to make it clear). That would basically be like, a hypothetical example in another piece of media (P5R), Azathoth conjuring up an image of Rumi for Maruki to keep him from straying from his goal of "saving" people even though that (like Viktor) his methods are considered questionable/wrong (again, hypothetical since it thankfully doesn't happen in the game but imagine if it did though). Especially if it's done at the expense of free will and thinking. Even before then in S1 where it seems to showcase signs of sentience over time. Most notably when it seems to lash out in response to Viktor trying to destroy it himself after Sky's death (NSFW jokes aside, it clearly caused quite a pained reaction from him and even has the implication (someone on Twitter pointed it out) that it took away the mobility it gave to his leg in response to his action there. I could be wrong though) which yeah... Not a good sign at the start.

Back to what I was talking about initially, the idea of it never being her but the Hexcore itself is just kinda scary and messed up and it does have decent evidence and occasional red flags to back it up a bit (ex: Her appearance looking a little different, even a couple of her lines can seem off and even out of character for her). Again, primarily based on my own experiences which is no doubt different from everyone else's so make what you will. So with that in mind, it can definitely have "her" final words take a different and even darker direction with Viktor showing a small bit of vulnerability and the response saying he won't miss their talks together can give the feeling of almost mocking or twisting the knife further with his already messed up state of mind. Especially with how cold the tone of voice can come off as. I guess the only issue would be that it kinda takes away some form of responsibility in regards to Viktor's decisions and actions (especially when the show keeps beating that over the head a bit) but I guess at the same time with all the discussions I've seen regarding how he's had own autonomy taken away more than once and it adds to the tragedy of him as a whole I think it can still work since the most the Hexcore did was give him nudges at best but still showcase that he was capable of making decisions. The nudges are subtle enough to be messed up but still have Viktor have some form of responsibility for his own choices (crossing The Line of you will... I'm so sorry for that I'll see myself out. The song does also hint at his thought processes though to be fair so chances are he does have some level of awareness of his decision).

But yeah, I think both ideas are super interesting and can maybe co-exist a bit? Or not and it's just wishful thinking. Eh, you get what I mean. I love Sky to bits along with the overall tragedy her death brought on Viktor's end (despite the flaws of the execution but then again I do sense a small bit of nuance with it but idk for sure) so these discussions intrigue me a bit!

[thesunsethour]

House MD and the use of the word 'miserable' (S4)

[S1 stats here] [S2 stats here] [S3 stats here]

'Miserable' total mentions: 35

'Miserable' mentions by House: 16

'Miserable' mentions by Thirteen: 6

'Miserable' mentions by Cameron: 4

'Miserable' mentions by Amber: 2

'Miserable' mentions by Kutner: 2

'Miserable' mentions by Chase: 1

'Miserable' mentions by Foreman: 1

'Miserable' mentions by Wilson: 1

'Miserable' mentions by Taub: 1

'Miserable' mentions by patients: 1

Times someone accuses House of being miserable: 2 - ( 1 from Thirteen and 1 from House's subconscious)

Full quotes:

4.01

House quoting a patient: “I’m miserable around Ben.”

House to patient: “You love somebody. Somebody who didn't drink, who wanted to have babies. And wasn't miserable.”

4.03

House to potential fellows: “The first to figure out what's threatening to deprive the patient of the twenty or so miserable years he's got left with SMA gets to keep their jobs.”

Chase to Amber about House: “I'm not working for him anymore, but he can still make my life miserable.”

Amber to Chase about House: “You have a chance to make his life miserable.”

4.04

Thirteen to Amber about a patient: “Convincing her that her mother's dead isn't gonna make her better, just miserable.”

4.05

House to Foreman: “I can make you miserable.”

House to Foreman: “You're going to be miserable.”

Foreman to House: “I already am miserable.”

House to Brennan: “You're nuts. You're going to be miserable, at home, at work, somewhere.”

House to Brennan: “Someone's going to be miserable sometime. Accept it. It's how I stay so happy.”

House to Brennan: “You're good. Don't screw it up just because you're miserable.”

House to Brennan: “You're the exact right amount of miserable.”

Cameron to Foreman: “The problem is you're not miserable.”

Cameron to Foreman: “You've every right to be miserable, but you're not, because even though this job is insane and House is insane, you like it.”

Wilson to Cuddy about House: “You don't have to make him miserable.”

House to Foreman: “You're miserable.”

4.07

Kutner to patient: “Not that your life must be miserable.”

4.08

Taub to Cole: “Right now, you're earning what I'm earning, which is miserable.”

Thirteen to House: “You spend your whole life looking for answers because you think the next answer will change something, maybe make you a little less miserable.”

4.10

House about Christmas: “The notion of picking one time of the year to be decent to other people is obscene, because it’s actually validating the notion of being miserable wretches the rest of the year.”

4.11

Cameron to Thirteen: “So unless I give House cable, you're going to make my life miserable.”

Cameron to House: “You think that because they make me miserable, I'm going to give you cable?”

House to patient: “Everyone is miserable. You don't change that because people don't change.”

4.13

House to patient: “Complain, you make people miserable.”

Amber to House about Wilson: “Either you're genuinely afraid I'm going to make him miserable, or you're afraid I'm going to make him happy, or you simply can't stop screwing with anything that moves.”

House to Cuddy: “What you've accomplished makes you proud, but you're still miserable.”

4.14

Kutner about patient: “He has the coolest gig ever but he’s miserable about it.”

Thirteen to Kutner: “Have you ever had a job where you were miserable?”

Thirteen to Kutner: “And were you miserable?”

Thirteen to Kutner: “It was a miserable job, but you weren’t miserable.”

House to patient: “Are you really as miserable as everyone seems to think you are?”

Patient to House: “And you think I’m miserable.”

4.16

House to Amber in his coma: “I don't wanna be in pain. I don't wanna be miserable. And I don't want him to hate me.”

[cosmicqueen10]

Lord forgive me for the cringe fest that is the real me. (Keep reading to get the whole story cause it's a still a lot for me to take in, thnx).

But thank you big sis for recording this which I was unaware of at the time because I was fully glued to Aleks who has bewitched my heart since November because of Lighter from Zenless Zone Zero and then rewatching Solo Leveling S1 but dubbed just to hear his all out performance as Sung Jinwoo.

Him being my first ever celebrity to meet and talk to at my first ever convention literally sent me on Cloud 9. Sorry the audio is kinda hard to hear at some parts. Some of that interaction I don't remember every little detail and some things I forgot or didnt get to say. Like telling him how I wished I could be more stronger and capable like Jinwoo and how he said I can and its all about perspective, I don't remember some of that exactly. I was in such a daze.

This is what I drew for him and Yuri to sign. Took me five days, lots of sleeping shifts between the couch and my bed working on it. Seriously hope to get this laminated ASAP since I did use some colored pencils in this piece and don't want this to smear or worse.

Big sis gave me $200 which means I also could get a print. Plus Lighter is single and not dead. He doodled on it as thanks for me drawing for him and being so modest about me praising him for being an amazing artist himself, I have seen some speedpaint videos of his.

Aleks himself is very cute in person, sweet, modest, and I got to shake his hand after the end of this video cause my sis had to stop recording to take our photos. And let me tell you ... best damn handshake of my life. Warm and calloused to a T. ☺️

I know he doesn't like smiling in photos but tbh my eyes always get too beady like my mom's when I smile in photos.

Out of all the photos I took those two days at Megacon, only like 2 of them I looked decent. Like with Yuri I looked fine. That's a story post for another time.

Overall, Aleks went from being my #2 favorite voice actor to now tied with Yuri as #1. Even though I told him he's #2. I did tell Yuri that as well and asked if he could tell Aleks they're both tied. Honestly those two be busy bees. I'm a face in a sea of tens of thousands weebs. But I needed this, wanted it, despite the not so good moments that happened before and after this ...

Oh the day after I wanted to say hi to him again and update him on the whole #1 thing but his line was more packed and even at closing time the line still be packed. I legit parked myself nearby like a shameful giant ... God if he saw me like that, I doubt it cause again packed line but still 😑. Forcing me and big sis to wait until closing time but after that it lead to us struggling to get an Uber to drive us back to our hotel cause night traffic be hell in Orlando especially before Super Bowl Sunday; I don't get the appeal of it tbh. All cause of my selfish wanting. 🙃 Again, cringe case.

Got overwhelmed and went to the bathroom a lot those three days cause I was a nervous wreck, slept not so well, and now I'm fully sore and may just hit the hay after posting this.

Yeah. This selfish Demon in human flesh is a mess still after all that. But at least meeting him, Yuri and others made me feel alive, free, over the moon and back. And I wish it never ended. I miss it so much. Maybe in another life, I get to have more moments like that with others outside my family. Like friends. And someone very special to me. If only. This moment is my safe haven. Paradise. Heaven.

Aleks Le, if you ever find this post, then thank you. I'll always love and support you and your endeavors. In voice acting and for being your driven, intense, goofy, crazy, beautiful self. With all my ❤️.

[absolutebl]

Good afternoon ABL,

I noticed that on your GMMTV 2025 Lineup review, you had already coloured OF2 in deep pink. And I combed through all your tags to see if I could find an answer as for why. (So I wouldn’t have to hassle you.) But alas, I struggled to find an answer (aside from the fact that s1 was dreadfully chaotic). So my question is: what made you decide to skip this particular show? Or more generally phrased: what criteria do you apply to shows to determine their “pink status”? (Asking so that I won’t bother you about something you’re absolutely disinterested in.)

Kind regards,

— Thel. 💚

P.S. As for your “Favourite Branded Pairs,” are we going with current branded pairs? And if so, how niche do they need to be? 🤔

Oooo, the How Dare category?

Well in the case of Only Friends 2 no secret I absolutely loathed Only Friends original so the best I could manage is a hate watch and I'm trying not to do that to myself these days.

I don't like the Messy Gays trope (recently dropped Gelboys for this reason), with a few noted exceptions and (so far) never from Thailand. It either gets too realistic or too depressing or both.

I prefer my characters being, generally, nice to each other, especially friendship groups.

I watch BL for the intimacy and the connection and the warm fuzzies.

How do I (a completest) decide not to even bother to pick up a BL?

That is a good question, because usually I would at least watch the first 2 episodes, just to make sure. (And so I can mark it dnf on the spreadsheet.)

To be fair I reserve the right to do that with OF2 and Love You Teacher.

Here's my criteria:

Can I get hold of it?

I'm lazy so if it is difficult to find, on a platform I don't have a subscription to (e.g. Netflix), only grey, or only served with tons of ads, and I'm not really intersted and/or I doubt the quality? I won't bother. (Boys Love Omegaverse from Japan is a good example of this.)

These get a cnf on the spreadsheet (could not find).

What country is it from?

If it's Thailand and a pulp I'm way less likely to hunt for it (we get so many, and so often they are of such poor quality, especially the travel-log ones like Chiang Mai Adventures). There are a few other countries out there whose quality (Vietnam) or ability to stick the landing (China, Philippines) I doubt with good reason, so I won't bother for them either.

Is it something I didn't like the first time?

I watched the pair before and wasn't into them. It's the second in a series (or a spin off) and I didn't like the first installment. You know what they say about the definitional of insanity?

Is it based on one of my least favorite tropes or triggers?

Again some countries handle some of these tropes better than others and I almost always give Japan a pass because they are so interesting and experimental. Messy Gay (for example) I don't love from Thailand but I'm okay with from Korea. I don't like extreme infantilization so I will avoid that (probably my biggest issue with Flirt Milk, which I kind of wish I'd dropped) and the reason I won't pick up Love You Teacher. I'm unlikely to watch anything based on the amnesia trope (side eyes Jack o'Frost). I dislike horror.

Nothing is a true deal breaker for me unless I witness it in action and can't imagine how the story or character would be redeemed.

Did the trailer wigged me out?

For some reason, something about the trailer upset me. Could be any of the above triggers or turn-offs or some other feeling I got from it, like it is going to end sad, or the chemsitry is bad, or one of the mains reminds me of an ex, or I just don't like the directing or acting style.

Favourite Branded Pairs?

Hum...

For me to build an alliance with a pair, I generally want them to have been in at least 2 shows together, playing different characters. I don't mind indie or niche or mostly playing sides. But I do want reliable, steady, and decent chemistry. I also think we should stand a good chance of them acting together again for me to bother to get invested (so no sunk ships).

Does that help?

[warblogs17282]

It can't just be me that thinks this show is starting to hint at friendships/support networks for Stolas right? I have two people in mind when I think about this.

For Vassago I have: certified good boy, also a prince, also gay like Stolas, and him being a prince could (although I have no evidence to back this claim up) potentially imply Vassago had to go through similar stuff to Stolas, like getting forced into an arranged marriage for example, which gives the potential for Vassago to be able to relate to Stolas on some things, making him a potential candidate to be a support figure and/or friend to Stolas, although we'll have to see Vassago more first before I can draw any solid conclusions.

For Moxxie I have: The musicals, we know that both Blitz and Millie don't actually enjoy the musicals, but I suspect that Stolas would enjoy musicals for a few reasons. 1: Because Stolas is like a Disney princess. 2: Bryce Pinkham is a Broadway star and 3: We've seen Stolas sing his heart out a few times now in beautiful ways, so there's a decent shot that Stolas would enjoy musicals in canon, giving Moxxie and Stolas a common activity they could do together to bond and as friends.

I will give you that Stolas has not referred to Moxxie and Millie by name yet, and has talked down to Moxxie and Millie in s1 e2, but I honestly see the potential of them being friends.

and honestly, probably IMP in general if Stolas ends up working there, because I feel like they're dropping hints that Stolas may end up working at IMP.

In s2 e6, we have this scene, aka the famous 'I love words' scene.

and IMP don't exactly appear to be doing great at managing their paperwork, so doing all the paperwork and shit just sounds right up Stolas' alley tbh.

Working at IMP would give Stolas a chance to bond and potentially become friends with the other people working there, mainly Moxxie and Millie.

[arcanetoymakerau]

Hmm... 🤔

Now, with the hype fire down and after another series rewatch, I can say that I honestly prefer Season 1 over Season 2.

Why?

So! S2 is cool, but it's so... rushed >_> like, there was plot there for at least two seasons, if not three! Most of it feels like a summary of events, while in S1, everything is told so well.

Heavy spoilers and rant alert for after the cut!

Another thing that bothered me was how Isha's death was written, and Jinx not coming back to Ekko (and I'm not saying this because I'm a timebomb shipper, I'm saying this from a writing standpoint).

The way Isha faced her own sacrifice was so... mature, like, how come a 10(?) years old be so under control of their emotions in a situation like that? The first time I watched it already felt so odd that I couldn't even get teary.

If they had shown Isha acting on pure instinct and panic, it could have been a parallel of when Powder used the monkey bomb to (try to) help her family, thus, reinforcing the idea of how Jinx sees her young self on Isha and how now she's an older sister figure.

If Isha survived somehow* and got in a severe comatose state, we could have had Jinx going full Joker mode. Imagine that she got done for good with everything and decided to create a deadly weapon to wipe Piltover (and possibly Noxus, too) off the map, and that's when Ekko would have shown up to make her change her mind about her next step.

*shit was going to explode anyway, so why not simply THROW IT INSTEAD?!

Unfortunately, the way they showed the many time rewinds actually made the scene low-key sort of comical, I saw myself snorting when I definitely shouldn't have! Plus, Jinx trying to trigger a massive weapon instead of killing herself could have been a parallel to the end of S1: Jinx is again firing off a deadly weapon because she's severely mentally hurt again, but this time someone managed to talk her out of the idea... IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A PERFECT "BREAKING THE CICLE" KINDA THING.

Also, why the hell didn't Jinx come back to Ekko?! Like... WHY?! That end of her deciding to sacrifice herself was SO RANDOM* to me! Because... she made amends with her sister, she had a place to come back after the war (the hideout), she finally had someone taking care of her how she truly needs it, leading her to finally achieve self-acceptance... we were supposed to have a parallel to epi 7 of main Jinx and Ekko bounding and that indeed happened because of how Jinx and Ekko are on epi 9...

*While I did cry when the explosion happened, it didn't take me too long to stop and go like, "Wait a minute!"

So why leave?! WHY?! SHE FINALLY HAD WHAT SHE NEEDED AND DESERVED... SO WHY FUCKING LEAVE?!

I can go over she trying to leave Vi's life so she can move on, but I can't accept her departure. Was that also for Ekko to move on? After all that bonding??? Like... WTF?! Did she tell Ekko she would leave for a while? Was the name he had wrote on the paper "Powder"? Showing how he finally accepted Jinx? That's why we didn't see what he wrote?

Now imagine that adding to the fact that Isha is in coma, Jinx would have another reason to come back to the Firelights and Ekko.

Urgh... okay, rant is over. I'll be back to writing my AU.

If you want to start a discussion with me, do it politely like a decent human being. I do like to discuss and theorize about Arcane, but I'll only lend you my attention and time if you are nice and chill, I'll not tolerate any form of hating and offencive behavior/discourse (also, be mindful that I'm not an english native speaker, so please, use tone indicators!).

[milevenstancyendgame]

Mike's Outfit Rating S2

✨Find S1 here.

It's hard to determine the colours and details of this outfit, because it's night time, but at least we get these two hilarious screencaps:

Nancy's face is everything in this scene (love her wallpaper btw).😆

Also, Mike's face.😂

Any way. We start with what looks like black trousers and a black jacket, but if you zoom in on the bike photo, the trousers have a brown sheen, and zooming in on the photo above, the jacket looks more like dark blue with a velvety brown collar.😳

Very interesting.🤔 Would have loved to see that in better light. The shirt is light grey with red, white, and probably dark blue stripes.

We hate to say it, but that shirt is awful.😒 BUT I like the dark brown and velvety collar.🤎 So have

2 out of 5 ⭐⭐ (I'm less generous this season, sorry bestie)

Definitely got the Ernie vibes this season.🤓 These might actually be the same brown trousers as in outfit nr. 1, this time with a dark blue shirt with red, white, and green stripes, plus our old friend! The blue hoodie.😱

Mike, you should know my opinion on blue by now.😮‍💨 Especially dark blue. It's only

1 out of 5 ⭐ 😔

The expressions sure are gold!😆 Now this is THE Special™ Outfit of the season.✨ Iconic.👌We love the cosplay, we love that logo with the ghostie and bright red.👻🚫 We love that it's not blue.🙏 Overalls aren't very stylish though. And beige...😬😬😬 And that proton pack is a fashion nightmare.💅 What a mix. Let's say halfway happy at

3 out of 5 ⭐⭐⭐

Have a photo dump of this one, because it's my favourite from the season - which doesn't mean much.😐 The full body shot is the best:

Inquisitive Wheeler!🧐

Man, he really loves those brown trousers.😂 I'm still not sure if they're corduroy or not, it's hard to tell. Also hard to tell if the sweaters base colour is beige or grey. But it has a wild palette of yellow, brown, green, and blue patterns on it.🤯 Certified Grandpa Sweater©.👴🏻 The collar of the shirt beneath seems to be dark green. It better be.🤨

Any way, love the old-fashioned energy, the amount of not-primary colours, especially the green.😌♏ We rise again to

3 out of 5 ⭐⭐⭐

And it's already time for our finale outfit.😭

Bestie had the good idea to change trousers before tracking vines, fighting demodogs, and setting tunnels on fire.👏 But guess who's back? The dark blue sweater.😬 And yet ANOTHER grey striped shirt.😮 Indeed, it's not the same as from the first outfit, this one has yellow and dark blue stripes. Seriously Mike, how many of those do you own??👹💀

Also:

THAT blanket with THAT outfit?😱

What can I say.😶 The only thing I like is the dark green trousers, but they clash with the hoodie of doom.😬 It's back to

1 out of 5 ⭐

Shout out for the apocalyptic vibes of this though:

They all deserve to be shown.😂👌Love how everyone's "WTF" in the last picture, but Mike's gone back into 😍 mode.🤭

Ah yes. The Snow Ball.❄️ Such a beautiful, heart-warming ending.💖 But not fashion-wise.😐

I don't even know what to say about those colour combinations. Why would you do that to a child.

The colour of the trousers is impossible to say. It might actually be black. But it goes downhill from there.🫠 Light blue button-up with red tie?🙊 Plus GREY sweater vest??🙉 With YELLOW and BROWN and WHITE and BLACK stripes??🙈 PLUS LIGHT BROWN VELVETY JACKET???😵‍💫😵🤯🤢

The funeral outfit was decent, what happened?😫 Unforgiveable.😤 This is it. The moment I hand out

0 of 5 stars 💀💀💀

Now I understand why s2 was my least favourite season.🫡

Besties. I'm so glad s3 is next. So so glad.🥲

[crab-people-overlord]

South Park RPG

ok SO this is super nerdy and super cringy BUT I'm so curious what your opinions are on this.

imagine you have endless resources to help create the most badass SP RPG game (I'm not talking snow day level, which in my own opinion was a major let down compared to TSoT and TFbW. not saying it had its own highlights or that it can't be a thing on its own; I just think it was marketed wrong. it's more on the level of phone destroyer and not nearly the quality of the other rpg's, and I think we can all agree on that at least).

say matt and trey wanted to end this decade with a badass third installment to their RPG SP lineup; the kind that makes SoT and FbW look like beta tests... what would you want to see in it?? the sky's the limit, and specs in technology aren't a limit. what would you want to see?

personally, i would love to see a multiverse type thing (and yes, they would make fun of themselves for doing this by breaking the fourth wall constantly like kyle saying multiverses are stupid like in the panderverse), following along the lines of a game like Baldur's Gate 3 meets Witcher 3 meets just normal SP dark humor where it's pretty D&D based, but with a SP twist.

like, they can start out kinda like the boys in stranger things where they're just playing a game of D&D. and they can have varying specs, but my thinking is (these are all based on level 8 in D&D, and yes, they all multiclass because they're all dramatic as hell): 1. Cartman- he would TELL everyone he's the grand wizard king, but in reality, he spends more effort manipulating others than actually studying actual magic to... do real magic lmao. like, he CAN do real magic, but only rarely. so in D&D I see him multiclassing as a rogue (5) and barbarian (3), which align well with all his skills in all the games including phone destroyer where he primarily plays as a tank, with decent but not great offense, fantastic health, and pretty much no ability to help out teammates with healing. so he's not actually a wizard, though he still claims he is, and also at the most random times displays actual magic (oftentimes when those around him are in utter chaos, which he thrives on).

proficiencies: deception, intimidation, persuasion, insight, sleight of hand, performance.

2. Kyle - given his high elf background, I think he'd actually be a wizard (5) as well as a cleric (3) given all his healing/rallying powers in previous games. this would be hilarious with cartman claiming he's the 'grand wizard' when kyle is literally a wizard - obviously with lots of fire powers (he's got that ginger/new jersey rage). and in my mind, he has a lot of pressure from his family in fulfilling his royal duties while at the same time being utterly sick of the traditions and just wanting to fucking actually make meaningful change in society. and he just is naturally good at fire spells. also, him being an elf while all the others are humans gives cartman all the more reason to rip on him. just like in the other games, he's lower on health but fantastic with healing and rallying the group, and while he doesn't have the best health, he can also deal an incredible amount of damage from afar.

proficencies: arcana, history, persuasion, insight, religion, medicine..

3. Stan canonically is a ranger (5), but his multiclass in my headcanon is bard (3). the ranger comes first out of necessity - he learns hunting from his uncle, etc, and he loves nature and animals but hates killing animals. he learns to play the lyre, which helps to calm down his tendency towards nihilism, hence the bard. also, ranger is lowkey my fave and perhaps underrated class to play in bg3 cuz I can call on my wolf in battle, and stan has sparky (who is totally half wolf, as stan explains in S1). he later learns that music helps dispel the darkness he sees in the world, hence his draw towards bard. like in the other games, he serves as a fairly well-rounded soilder, with decent health and damage up close and also an ability to heal- but you have to know how to use him strategically like with his Sparky companion to get the best out of him.

proficencies: animal handling, survival, athletics, nature, perception, performance.

4. Kenny I think would be Monk (5), Warlock (3). these are particularly for his main character without alter egos as Kenny, though his Mysterion and princess kenny roles would absolutely play a role - Mysterion more in the multiverse and when he's trying to make sense of why he can't die, and princess kenny when he needs to use charisma with those of higher social backgrounds. he obviously is trying to figure out why he can't die, and obvs the cult of Cthulu would have to make a comeback in the story. like other games, he has fantastic damage up close, and if the player knows how to play strategically, the best special powers of all come when he's dead (but the player has to be smart enough to know how to use those to their advantage).

proficiencies: stealth, acrobatics, insight, deception, sleight of hand, survival.

anyways, in my mind, they start out on silly quests with these stats, but eventually the game shifts unexpectedly from d&d/baulders gate style to a more multiverse twist where the other boys' personas are introduced (like superheroes, the other personas in phone destroyer, etc). there would be a cool three-act story surrounding it, and of course New Kid would make a comeback (and probably be the one who can control the multiverse like they can time. maybe the stick of truth has something to do with it). new kid would also partner with prof chaos as heavily foreshadowed in the end of tFbW (I have my own ideas as well for professor chaos lol)

this would just be at the beginning of the game as i have so many ideas i've been poring into a future project, but my mind immediately goes to game ideas first rather than story ideas, so I have to try to get them more into that storytelling fic area instead. i'd love to hear what you would like to see in another RPG.

[noddytheornithopod]

Time to watch Season 2 of Gretel and Hamster. Unfortunately, Disney+ doesn't have it up yet, so I'm gonna have to watch it in other ways.🏴‍☠️

Hakuna Ma Kevin

"I'm still single." Good to know, Veronica.

hey it's richard ayoade, wait didn't he defend graham linehan or some shit, is nobody safe

Fine start. By the end it was decent enough, though I do like the premise being set up that all this stuff for Kevin made him snap. Would've been nice if we got to see more of that. Villain was appropriately goofy yet creative. Highlight was probably Veronica desperately looking for love.

The Great American Telenovela

Not too much to say, pretty normal HaG fare, nice to use the telenovela setting. La Cebolla also actually using onions for combat too.

Lair Necessities

kevin u can say bullshit it's ok, maybe u need the lair for that in case the parents hear tho

Okay making the lair and stuff was neat but honestly didn't care much for the villains, it's like we just stopped to attend a less interesting plot before they could tie it back into the superhero lair thing. Hamster also makes lairs singlehandedly now I guess. :P

Tobor or Not Tobor

nordle drunk on milkshakes, lol

Alright ep. Tobor was good. Nothing too extraordinary but it was interesting to see Nordle after the S1 finale. Were those combat maneuvers Kevin told Gretel when Tobot lost it properly set up? IDK.

Evil Upheaval

"Dr Heinz" did people lose their shit over this even if this Heinz is a brain transplant guy apparently

adult ball pit

oh yeah the therapist is bailey's mum right, also huh she's voiced by debra wilson, cool

Well, status quo shift for Destructress and Fistpuncher. Was neat to see that development, but again, no too strong feelings here.

Ay, Ay, A.I.

Heh I thought that voice was familiar, the crossing lady is voiced by Carol Kane aka Nana Shapiro

Okay ep didn't seem like it was gonna be much but the whole robot crossing guard taking its job too seriously angle was pretty amusing. Pretty obvious commentary on AI and automation and stuff with the cliche "human touch is missed" stuff, but the silliness of the premise made it worth it.

Stress Brawl

was that a hamilton reference, also yeah makes sense it would be expensive as fuck

wow kevin is doing the fake date to try and make it look like he's moved on, rip, also wait pamela i thought you ran off with some other guy earlier

also funny that pamela is voiced by hiromi's va

wait is the lunch lady bolgylvanian

Okay this is the best ep so far this season. I did notice before Hiromi seemed to have a lot on her plate, being involved in a lot of school related stuff, but it's more than even I expected. The stress ball monster was a great addition, weird monster of the week but also represents Hiromi bottling up her feelings and being a people pleaser. And even if they didn't really get to say anything to each other, Kevin at least knows Hiromi's been struggling. Also accidentally fake dating someone who screwed her over in kindergarten, RIP.

I Love Luchie

dave x luchador?

Honestly not too bad! Was nice to see Luchador showing signs of reforming, or at least him being nicer out of the ring, and also the twist that the actual villain was his new partner.

The More The Meteor

So they introduced the new big bad. Cool, I guess. Neat space set pieces. Not much else to say TBH.

My Hammie Vice

did the ostrich make a chicken noise

Okay ep I guess, I did find the conflict of Hamster not being taken seriously kinda contrived tho, cuz it never really seemed to be an issue before. Like I guess he's never the one really suggesting anything, but he never really said much. Eh, whatever, shows like this always do this. Hamster's mob pal was aight I guess. The outsmarting each other at the end was also kinda amusing I guess.

Last Fred Standing

lol the calendar says it's april 2024... in the flashback... so hamster and gretel is in the 2030s... except it isn't... because it's clearly just a mistake...

why are fred's glasses purple in some shots now

OH IT WAS INTENTIONAL, THEY WERE SWAPPED OUT, FUCK

fredrick sucks, hiromi's right, fuck this shit

Ep was decent. Different side to Fred here. The things she'll do for impossible bottles (inside impossible bottles), huh? I know it was kinda the point but the rivalry was kinda dumb. Might've been better if Fred just ditched his ass (and maybe stealing her bottle anyway). The subplot with the main characters was amusing enough.

From Dust Till Dawn

little abuelita is actually... cute? rare case of this for the kids here

she's right, piranhas actually aren't bloodthirsty swarm hunters lol

hamster x dust might otp

also huh kimberly brooks voices her, hey jasper/allura/many other roles

oh so this is also in spring lol

Heh, that was nice. Abuelita episodes always seem to be hits it seems. Hidden family trauma discovered that's then resolved. Kevin does point out why her own abuelita didn't just tell her directly, but if it was a note like that, I guess this was a realisation late in life. Also weirdly works as something discovered only now because of how everyone refuses to touch them. But yeah, this was a nice story, and a surprisingly enjoyable villain (which Hamster seems surprisingly smitten by, or at least her capoeira moves).

I Think, Therefore I Slam

why is the credits text orange

fred cannot resist the cuteness of her cousin and her cousin's bestie

wait have we seen bailey without glasses

That was neat. Another appropriately silly villain, and while the message was pretty cliche and standard kids show fare, it was at least nice to see the "cool kids" were acting just as much as Gretel and Bailey were trying to.

Thanks, But No Pranks

wow not one but two different additional animation styles this ep, someone's feeling experimental

Buildingcraft????

This was neat enough. Pretty predictable, though the final act where they had to stop the prank guy was cool. Hooray for Bailey using structural knowledge to save the day, lol.

[indelicate-delicacies]

Hey so not to get too wildly off-track from the normal topic of conversation on this blog, but if you so permit it, I'd love to talk about another little theory of mine about the Magnus Protocol of all things. It's only a little hatchling, too young to really be too particular on the details, but we've got that season 2 drop closing in, so there's only so much time I have left to ship it off before it gets completely demolished from being proven wrong 6 times over.

As you might expect, spoilers incoming for pretty much the entirety of Season 1 (Not including the s1 epilogue).

So, the fears, right? If you've not heard of them, then you are the very rare individual that has somehow both found my blog, and listened to the entirety of Magnus Protocol before listening to half of Magnus Archives. I am very proud of you for managing to find this; though perhaps you should check if you've been marked by the Eye. (Joking.)

We're here to get down to the fears, where are they now, what's their new business plan, etc. etc. Well, I can say one thing for certain: Smirke's 14 is certainly not the main system we're operating with. There are some clear remnants of this system, such as the Stranger--they're still going strong, what with the Mr Bonzo and such. And I'll get into why that's still here later, but my point is we will not be relying on Smirke's 14.

But even if it's not 14, there are still some kind of division of the fears present. While the motifs may not be familiar to us, they are there if you look for them. The Deep is a clear example, because once it is literally name-dropped by an avatar external, the motifs become pretty easy to look out for. Even in one season, the amount of episodes involving drowning or water is too statistically significant to be some accident.

So you may be asking, "how does this work? How are the fears being stretched in such awkward ways that they have to go by completely different names?" Well, the thing is, they are not being stretched any more awkwardly by these new names than they were by the old ones. Think of it this way: they are mapping out the same landmass, but they break up the landmarks with completely different borders. You can see some decent overlap between certain fears, like the Deep with the Buried, and that's because that area has to go somewhere. And the Deep takes a good chunk of it, so as a result it seems awfully familiar.

The next question to answer: "If it's not 'Smirke's 14' anymore, then who's responsible for this one?" Shockingly, I think we can answer this. With the statement regarding Sir Isaac Newton himself, a Historical figure just like Robert Smirke, that shows him speculating on fear and its mechanics, we have a potential culprit for this new arrangement. Consider this parallel: Robert Smirke was always focused on balance, and how the fears are supposedly able to cancel each other out; Newton's third law of motion states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." That's not much evidence to place him as specifically responsible for all the current fear stuff, but it would be particularly powerful foreshadowing if the guy who designed these new fears was name-dropped all the way back in Season One, and Mr. Sims has made it clear he is quite fond of making sure everything is included for good reason. So I'm just going to make an educated guess and point my finger at Newton.

But the main thing I'm going to be discussing here is what the new fears are, how they're broken up, what their motifs/"motives" are, and afterwards, how the old fears factor into all of this. The thing is, I'm not exactly studied up on all the alchemy stuff, or much of anything regarding Isaac Newton outside of his theory of gravity; Maybe I'll research in the future, but again, we're working with a limited amount of time so I won't be diving into Isaac's methods and ideas just yet. Right now, I just mentioned him as a possible lead so I could have a name in here for the sake of naming this system of fears. That being Newton's system of 8. But let's get into that, shall we?

Here's how I think the fears are broken up:

The Deep. Related to the Buried and the Dark (and a portion of the Vast and the Lonely).

(Note: this is the only name confirmed in canon--the only other possibly canon name is "Liminal Hunger," which although it could be a name, it is likely not a frequent name. But for all the other names, they are speculations based on their themes.)

There seems to be only a small difference between the choking of the Buried and the drowning of the Deep. But there is certainly a difference. In the Buried, there is no action, no moving, no seeing. But the Deep is always moving. It pulls you downward, always further in, perhaps even convincing you to try and swim. But the pull is too much. You are locked in its grasp, and it will never stop pulling you closer and closer. The shock of cold gets you, paralyzing all your muscles except the ones in your heart, that cannot stop beating faster and faster. You struggle and fight and you try to swim, try to get one gasp of air. But it holds you close, and yet closer still. The cold grip tightens until you freeze. And only then do you stop moving.

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 11 case file; statement of the corpse from episode 15; Episode 29 case file.

The Wild. Related to the Corruption and the Hunt.

The climbing, crawling, creeping Wild. It describes the Wrath of Demeter, the dense weeds with desire to spread and take control, the angry beast that wishes to fight and defend its territory. Sometimes it comes to devour, sometimes it comes for the sport of sewing chaos. Its truth reveals we are all not too distant from animals. It's angry, and hungry, and it just wants to survive. So it will take, splitting rock open with its roots. From nature we came, and it promises that to nature we will return.

Occurrences of this fear are: Ink5oul's floral serpent tattoo (described in episode 2); episode 3 case file; episode 14 case file; Lady Mowbray (episode 15); episode 24 case file.

The Risk/Never Enough. Related to the Desolation and the End (and a portion of the Web).

There's always a risk. At any time, there's risk of an accident, an injury, death--every day is a gamble. We believe that we get control over our lives, but there will always be a risk of losing everything. And if that's the case, what harm is there in challenging risk? If you're already living with a ticking clock that could run out at any moment, why not try for something more? If a small gamble pays out, then maybe you'll earn yourself a bit of a safety cushion? You'll only be taking one risk to replace another, and if your luck is as good as it's been so far, with you still being alive and all, maybe you'll finally be safe from the risk entirely. Except, there's still a risk. Maybe smaller after taking that chance, but not small enough. You need more gambles, more wins, until you're finally safe. Finally free. It won't matter how many times you lose, as long as you win in the end. Just one more try, just one more risk...

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 1 case file 1; Episode 9 case file; Episode 13 case file.

The Pain. Related to the Slaughter (and a portion of the Flesh).

Fear of pain is simple. We're all familiar with it; that sting as some new injury has disgraced your flesh. Perhaps some marking their brand forever on your body, cutting deeply enough that your skin cannot repair without producing scars. A fear so common, it is almost ubiquitous. And yet despite this, it is a fear so commonly disrespected. What harm is there in hesitance in the presence of a needle? Why compare it to larger injury, when even such a tiny thing is capable of causing permanent damage? One needle is enough. Enough to burrow deep into you with complete disregard for the body it has infiltrated. Even a single sting is small, but it stays, and leaves you with some unnamable, deeper ache. A fear of its ability to return, and to take the opportunity to cause something much, much worse.

Occurrences of this fear are: Ink5oul (episode 2, 11, 16, 20); episode 6 case file.

Liminal Hunger. Related to The Spiral and the Flesh.

I'm not sure I understand this one. It is a hunger that must be sated, an emptiness that wishes to be filled. A place waiting to fulfill its purpose. But are the people who made it the source of this desire? The wish to have their work mean something, brought to life? Or is it something carried by the viewer, who expects something from a building until it decides to oblige them? Either way, there's something about those places. That it was created, theoretically with some purpose, and now its potential is being wasted. Even if it's some niche use, it still deserves to be used. It deserves to have a place, to get the appreciation that it earned. It deserves to have its purpose. At first I believed this fear to be something from the Flesh, being that the Hungry Man Grill really suggested that that fear was still around. I considered that it could have just expanded to be more than just meat and food, shifted toward a matter of creation. A hunger for purpose. But that wasn't it. While there are shared components with the Flesh, it is distinctly separated from its desire for simplicity and nature. The Flesh says we are all nothing but meat, but Liminal Hunger says we are something more. Something strange. And whatever it is, the fear wants it drawn out of us, have it pushed out our lungs and our hands and our eyes. It wants to live through us. It wants to be our creation.

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 7 case file; episode 8 case file; episode 18 case file; Helen Richardson (Episode 26); The Custodian (Episode 30).

The Stranger. Mostly similar to the version of the Stranger in the Magnus Archives.

This version of the Stranger is very similar to the one we're familiar with, but it's not the same. All these ideas on the "other" and the unfamiliar are present, but they have been shifted to be an examination of objectification and desire. For an example of the contrast: while the previous horror in the taking of Breekon and Hope's name was about identity theft and your name no longer being yours, the loss of Nigel Dickerson's self is quite different. Mr. Bonzo was a simple property of his, one that was such an obsession for people that it eclipsed him as a person. People knew Mr. Bonzo, they liked him and were familiar with him, but everybody forgot the person behind the character. And then, all of it was taken away when the famous face was turned infamous. Mr. Bonzo is a story about celebrity culture, about being popular but never seen. Breekon and Hope were quiet, a personal and secret theft of personhood, while Mr. Bonzo was loud, an identity tainted and swept away by a roaring crowd. Not all of the fear is reaching this level of publicity in its motions, but it does permit itself to be seen more often, even if that image will always be false. If the Stranger had a name-change to reflect the way it's been changed, it could be called the Performance.

Occurrences of this fear are: Episode 5 case file (possibly located at the amphitheater); Mr. Bonzo (episode 10, 12); Episode 27 case file (though seemingly a more traditional version of the Stranger than my suggestions of the Performance).

The Mirror. Related to the Lonely and the Spiral (and a small portion of the Eye).

Sometimes when we look in the mirror, we are disturbed by what we see. Either by what is there, or what isn't. Some become trapped by the sight, trying to make fixes, or make conversation. Some are disturbed by the warps they see in the reflection, wishing to find an image of themselves that portrays them in perfect accuracy--in the attempt to deny something they wish to not be true, or in the hope that they will one day be able to understand just what they are. It's a fear that many people interact with in many different ways. And because the way we fear the Mirror is personal, I can do no more than describe its silhouette. I cannot fully express the complexity of its design, the intricacies of its attack. Because it is impossible for me to be a part of the dialogue that only You and the Mirror can share.

Occurrences of this fear are: episode 17 case file; episode 21 case file; episode 22 case file; episode 23 case file.

The Network. Related to the Web and the Eye.

The Network is a lot of things. On some matters, it is much like the Eye, nosy and knows how to find people. But on others, it's blind and clumsy. Because the Network is the fear of people. Not like how the Stranger is the fear of people--crowds of unblinking dolls and false identities--but real, genuine humanity. People that are just the same as you, and yet will always stay separated. The disconnect from others that cannot truly be broken, despite how tightly we are all interwoven. The truth that everything, every bit of the social structure we have created to make people feel safe, will always be vulnerable to simple human error. And this fear is only exacerbated when systems of hierarchy are concerned. Humans that are no different than anyone, no better than anyone, are put above each other in a never-ending cascade of hierarchy. At times, some feel they gain power from this system, some genuine control over their lives, not subject to the bizarre whims of a stranger. But then, no matter how big the role they play, a bigger fish shows up. Even the Externals have something to fear. Because there is no top, no point where you're above other people. That's a fiction invented by the desire for control, for stability. The Network is the fear that there is no stability, because the world is filled with people just like you. The fear that we will continue to enforce a broken system, not out of ignorance, but because it's the best we can do.

Occurrences of this fear are: The OIAR (all episodes); episode 16 case file (though caused by Ink5oul, an External related to the Pain); statement of Samama Khalid from episode 28 (just speculative--motifs are unclear, but not sure how else to place it).

If you kept a careful tally of the different case files I divided up amongst the different fears, you might have noticed I missed a few. You might think this implies I left one of the fears unclassified or something of that nature, but I think it's different. All these edge-cases are essentially arguments between "philosophers"-- because despite the mostly lacking presence of Robert Smirke, there are clearly still some remaining artifacts from his work. Some examples include... You know... The Magnus Institute existing at all in the show. Also that violent violin that was nothing but a dead-ringer for the Slaughter (episode 4 case file). And I think they are present because, at some point in time, Smirke did actually get down to the brass tacks of trying to break up the fears like he did in the Magnus Archives. The only difference is, he failed, and most of the fear structures that he built eventually dissipated back into the format they were previously reliant on. There's a reason why the violin story was so old, and why the Archive only spits something out when someone goes picking at its supposed corpse. It's not clear whether the buildings were destroyed because Newton himself came down to beat Smirke to death with a metal pipe, or because Smirke made some little mistake that got him killed (resulting in his architecture being left to slowly erode over time). But clearly Smirke had a short time where at least some of his structures were in place, and if some fragments of their remains are intact, then they remain capable of producing the occasional little nugget of fear. The Stranger, however, might have outlived the rest for a reason. If Newton's setup already had something remarkably similar to the Stranger, it could have decided it was easier to adopt/reformat the new motifs than it was to wholly reject them-- perhaps even leaving the amphitheater mostly undamaged. This is why I listed the Stranger as one of Newton's system of 8.

With all that wrapped up for now, I wanted to leave you with an "honorable mention" of a theory. For how close the number of fears was to 7, and for the Christian themes in the Newton case file, I almost made my theory revolve around the seven deadly sins. But 7 just didn't make as much sense as 8, so you all have been saved from this theory cliché. But just so you all know how close it came: The Deep was Sloth, the Wild was Wrath, the Risk was Greed, the Pain was Envy, Liminal Hunger was Gluttony, the Stranger was Lust, the Mirror was Pride, and the Network was assumed to be from remnants of Smirke's 14--though that wouldn't have made sense when they were the ones responsible for destroying the Magnus Institute (and likely the other buildings).

[purjopainfuse]

perchance...band au dumb and stormz yap

this is long i’ll put it under a read more get ready for it to be ooc if a cc sees this i explode immediately

i’m so sorry to you anon, and the other 2 anons in my ask box who sent me this ask a while ago. i apologize for typos i can’t proofread on my phone it’s actually torturous (the purjopa who is away from home without a laptop). also i lowk didn’t make it just stormz and dumb and it’s like the entire au. i combined your ask and the other two hope you don’t mind…

okay, so the general plot of the au is meant to mimic infuse s1 finale to s2 ender. It’s really uh train wreck trio (don’t let that name stick) (dolphin, stormz, dumb) centered.

dolphin and soso both grow up as classical musicians, dolphin playing violin and soso playing piano. they meet at competitions when they’re younger and despite soso wanting to be friends and hang out and stuff, dolphin’s really dead set on climbing up and wining the like all state competition and getting first chair or whatever and stuff. To him, if he can get there, then everything will be okay. He won’t be [minecraft’s worst teammate] or whatever lol.

Dumb and Stormz both start doing like street side busking gigs for fun when they’re young (like around dolphin and soso’s classical days). dumb on bass and stormz on guitar. Their goal was to make it big, to play concerts and stuff. Dolphin one day runs into them playing a gig in a livehouse after ducking into a building to get away from torrential rain tm (a purjopa specialty in every music au/world she makes, shout out Aidols). he gets really into it and despite going back to locking in for competition tm he keeps going back to that performance.

jump a couple years, dumb and stormz are doing pretty good. not like, big big, but decent. They’re playing consistently at a livehouse as a regular band and get other gigs at other places. Youtube channel with their songs and covers is popping off, people know their names, it’s cool. Then stormz is given the offer by squid to be an idol. Like, sign professionally and have a manager and be under a company type offer. And Stormz takes it, because all he’s ever wanted is to climb to the top like that. But when Stormz asks if he and Dumb will be a duo or smth, the answer’s no. They only want Stormz, not Dumb.

So Stormz mentions this and Dumb, being a good friend, pushes Stormz to do it, thinking they’ll have a decent about of time before Stormz’s debut. And that they’ll still be able to hang out and play together. Turns out, no, that’s not the case, and by the time Stormz realizes he’s already signed the contract and he’s debuting like soon. The worst part is that, reasonably, Stormz can’t go around playing random gigs at random live houses with a random guy.

Stormz breaks the news that their plans for the entire next year have to be nuked because while Stormz isn’t debuting tomorrow he needs coaching and training and all this other stuff. Which leads to their interaction in this drawing i did.

Anyways, Dumb is angsty abt it for a solid couple months and angsts even more abt it when Stormz debuts. Already a shit day trudging home from uni (roommate to be revealed later didn’t do the dishes and also took both house keys by an accident, torrential rain, umbrella got wrecked, missed the bus, etc) and then he’s greeted by Stormz’s debut advertisements plastered all over the city. that’s this moment lol. And he’s miserable abt it. He runs into Dolphin at this point, who immediately recognizes Dumb because Dumb’s still been writing music and Dolphin’s been following him (on socials, not literally) since that livehouse gig.

The two run into each other by chance at a cafe later that day and Dolphin strikes up conversation. yadda yadda yadda Dolphin makes dumb an offer for a band, which Dumb point blank rejects.

Dolphin training arc begins (he doesn’t know how to play guitar) and he slowly gets together a band, soso keys, pika drums, harmony guitar. Dolphin really wants dumb on vocals (i’ve given dumb like guitar bass and vocal abilities because 1. my fav 2. if he’s producing his own music he’s probably decent enough at all of them).

Dolphin eventually convinces dumb, and thus the band is formed. For Dumb, his goal with this band is to reach Stormz, and he makes this very explicit. Like, it’s the reason why he keeps rejecting the offer in the first place. because he knows if given the opportunity he’d immediately drop everything to perform with Stormz. Dolphin’s goal is to just make it big with Dumb. To be Dumb’s Stormz in a way.

There’s a bit more abt how each character feels, what their general theme is, and like more plot (and also an ‘after’ for when everyone reaches their goals) but that’s like. the concept. ok this is long.

Dumb’s roommate also does music and is sorta plot relevant, Pika’s roommate is also sorta plot relevant… umm also other fun tidbits abt the au:

other mcyt related things exist in this universe as various medias (uu is a show, lss4 is a movie, various duos/trios are music groups)

the city is like if boston and tokyo had a baby. boston for the there are uni students everywhere cause the city has 3829283 different schools and the tokyo aspect of architecture and the weather. im project sekai pilled

Dolphin and Soso are both in a music conservatory, Dumb is a communications and music major, Stormz had plans for media studies and/or public relations major alongside music before idol stuff, Pika is a math major and film double major.

don’t ask me abt their instruments im still working that shit out. my guitar and bass knower friend is out of town so i can’t bug them abt it.

[princelance]

a movie........

time for a rant that has been a looong time coming because

the FUCK??? NOOOOOOOOOOOO PLEASE NO NO NO PLEASE GOD IF YOU'RE OUT THERE NEVER LET THIS MOVIE SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY NEVER EVEN MENTION THAT SHOW EVER AGAIN IN MY PRESENCE it should fucking DIE and stay DEAD

the WORST fandom i've ever come across/been part of. everyone was so fucking braindead. god the bullying here was So Bad. vld fandom was the epitome of 'you can't enjoy what you like'. and the bullies were like, some of the most popular blogs here. the content creators (among others ofc) here were NASTY. the people making decent art were so fucking rude to almost anyone that didn't bow down to them and agree with their views on the show, sitting on their high horse like they were fucking gods or something when they were like, 17 or something. mind u voltron was a show about ugly transformers lions and a bunch of kids in space meant for 7 YEAR OLDS. like stfu it's not deep, it's not important. i get that this is the internet i really do but apparently everyone was a pedo and homophobic and racist and needed to be cancelled because they weren't pure angels. i hope the people who liked the show, both teens and adults alike, have grown up and learnt what those words actually mean and why you shouldn't just casually throw them around. i hated you all. u had to be so careful about what you said on here, it was like north korea or something. i remember how kids got bullied into deleting their harmless fanfics, the fucking voice actors got bullied on a daily basis, it was BAD. i remember i got hate for having shiro as my icon and the background was the bi flag colours. I AM BI. also, so what if i had headcanoned shiro as bi, you couldn't have stopped me or anyone else from thinking that, and also IT WOULD NOT HAVE MATTERED, HE'S FICTIONAL, HE'S JUST LINES AND PIXELS. i know this is going to shatter some of your worlds (or at least would have back then), but a random ass nobody on tumblr headcanoning a character as bi when said character is "actually" straight/gay/whatever is NOT going to affect irl queer people in any way, it does NOT have real life consequences. who gives a fuck. since when has the fandom given a shit about canon anyway? fuck you.

okay, i've been bitching about the fandom enough (no i haven't, there's no way you can ever bitch about the vld fandom enough). what about the actual show? well. once again it's meant for 7 year olds. who cares if it was good or not. i've seen seasons 1–6. i liked season 1, didn't really like anything after that since the show seemed to change so much. the first season kind of has a different vibe completely? idk how to explain it, it just kind of feels like the actual show and then the rest was just a long fanfic by someone who was in love with keith's character. but since i was watching the show with my sister who was 10 at the time, it was fine, otherwise i wouldn't have kept watching after seeing season 2 i don't think.

here are a few negative things about the show imo:

making keith the main character out of nowhere after s1 (where he definitely wasn't the main focus) was so dumb. god the showrunners loved keith sooo much, it was so stupid. keith was nooot a leader. whatever.

making keith the black paladin was also so fucking stupid my god. and yes, everyone here wanting LANCE to become the black paladin just because he was the fandom favourite (don't get me wrong, he was my fave too) was so fucking braindead too honestly. shiro or allura. no one else made any sense.

canon allurance SUUUCKED. like holy shit that was so bad and horribly written, even lotor and allura had a better love story and had waaay more chemistry (and their relationship ended badly, rightfully so). and NO klance was never ever ever going to be canon, you were so delusional. like lmaooo did we even watch the same show? i just really enjoyed their dynamic and that's why i shipped them together, whatever. but yeah, like i said the bullying here was disgusting and everyone was cancelled, great, klance seemed to be the only thing you were allowed to like so in that sense i was lucky.

everything they did with allura in the later seasons............ you know what? i'm not even going to start. because wtfffffffff, as a storyteller myself i ?????? what in the world were they thinking. but yeah whatever it does not matter.

the point of this post is that EW EW EWWWW FUCK THAT SHOW AND FUCK YOU, if you were in the voltron fandom in 2017/2018 i personally hate you

[caldella]

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to Stolas that you like?

AND/OR

8. What’s something the fandom does when it comes to Stolas that you despise?

I thought you might like the choice to do a positive or negative post (or both!) 😊

Oh this is a good one! Had to think about giving one or two answers for a bit.

7. One thing I like: the creating!

Overall the Hellaverse has some of the most creative fans I've seen in a long time. From cosplay to art to fanfic to fan merch, it's incredible. I mentioned yesterday that Just Look My Way was basically my intro to the show. Paranoid DJ originally made that as a fan song back after Ozzie's. Without fans and what they create, especially for Stolas, I might have never checked the show out, who knows?

I also have a decent amount of fan merch (not as much as actual haha), and a lot of it is Stolas, so that falls into creating.

Some of my fan merch:

Second thing I like: the (productive) discussion!

Stolas has a lot to his story. Emotional neglect, a shitty life situation, domestic abuse, anxiety issues, depression issues, heavy behavioral masking, almost definitely neurodivergent (and I subscribe to the fan theory that he's autistic)... he's very complex. It's impossible to fully understand him without breaking down the how and why he got to who he is in the show. I see a lot of that, especially on here. And it's really interesting to discuss all of it and get standpoints/details that expand on him or make me understand things even I didn't get. I've had some incredible conversations about him and other characters, which makes me appreciate all of it even more.

8. A thing I don't like: misunderstanding/taking him at face value

None of the main HB characters can be taken at face value - they have way too much going on. I personally love when a story slowly develops to give us reasons/depth behind a character's actions, which is what they've done with Stolas. But I have seen some fans not understand it or complain that he was changed in S2, even though hints of all of this were already in S1 (seriously as someone who experienced an emotionally/verbally abusive family member, I started clocking the potential for that at Episode 2). People claim he's been 'woobified,' the ignore a lot of the behavior of other characters that might be similar, and they tend to pick apart his faults a lot. He does have a lot of them! But people hone in on the power dynamic the show starts him in and fail to see the deeper realities of it all. In fact, they seem to pick apart his faults more than other characters in the show. Stolas is a representation that being wealthy or from a good family doesn't shield you from abuse - that someone in a position of privilege can still be outcast and isolated. Someone can be comfortable in physical needs but emotionally miserable. I think someone here worded it that "the rich cannibalize their own" when someone among them doesn't fit into their strict expectations, and that's what Stolas is an example of. People who don't understand that really don't seem to 'get' what he represents, or they blame him for being abused. Blaming an abuse victim for their abuse really gets me. Escaping abuse isn't easy, no matter who or what you are, especially when you don't have a support system. And the point of his flaws are that his upbringing created a lot of them. He never had exposure to experience that might teach him better. My (least) favorite besides people excusing his abuse is when people want him to act more grounded in real/normal experience and social skills right away, when the show's gone to great lengths to tell us he's almost never had the chance to experience any relationship close to normal or healthy.

Thank you for the ask! <3

Link to the Ask Game for those not in the loop/curious to ask! (This is for any HB or even HH character or any other show/media I like tbh)