#& to varying degrees the Owl House

[tumblingxelian]

Near Uniquely RWBY - Main Characters

I was chatting with my sibling the other day and we were joking about the fact in 90% of the media I consume I generally don't like the main characters.

Not in the sense I necessarily hate them, but I generally don't find them to be the most interesting, engaging or enjoyable person on screen or page. Instead I tend to gravitate towards secondary or minor characters and even minor antagonists before any of the big names.

Some of this is rooted in my often rooting for what tends to feel more like a real underdog or characters that feel like they got dealt a bad hand by the author unfairly. But its also that in a lot of media the main characters tend to immediately, slowly or quickly go into personality lockdown.

Becoming less a personality and more the embodiment of expected tropes and themes, or they lose their unique edge or circumstances because the plot demands one benefits or personality changes be heaped on them to keep the tone and story going.

Some examples of this would include say:

Ichigo from Bleach, with him and his supporting cast being very unique and super interesting during the initial arc. But as Soul Society came in, he became a much more standard Shounen determinator a the expense of his personality and his supporting casts were largely watered down & left behind.

Or how in Naruto or Dragon Ball the whole underdog/hard worker aspect of the characters felt undercut by legacy power ups and an endless wellspring of natural talent, alien biology, ETC.

I know these are just two examples, but they cover the general gist of what I mean.

So, what makes RWBY different?

Well, off the cuff, is simply that the four main characters are women.

I've often felt simply putting anyone other than a cis-het guy into the main character slot of say, a battle Shounen, or Isekai stands a good chance of making it more interesting by default. Even if the author does nothing with it the audience reaction would be different because the MC would be an exception to the norms.

In that vein, while one can call RWBY some sort of Shounen or adventure fantasy or magical girl show the main four are unique in how they manifest on screen at the very start. From how they participate in action, to how said action is structured and framed and the kind of adventures and topics they tackle.

But being unique alone is not enough, that would simply make it more interesting than the bog standard but what elevates RWBY is the execution and exploration of such elements and its characters.

Going into every aspect would be difficult, but in light of what I said above would be how each of the main four are initially presented as familiar archetypes, only to subvert or deconstruct them.

Ruby is a peppy goth who just wants to be normal but has inborn powers from her mysteriously vanished mother and serves as a beacon of optimism to others.

Except Ruby's version of normal still involved fighting death monsters with a sniper rifle scythe and she is actually one of the more ruthless characters. Her peppy persona obscures that she can have a pretty vicious temper when pushed and has displayed strong bloodknight tendencies.

Her unrelenting optimism and desire to fix the world is a complex mix of true beliefs, coping mechanism for trauma and her grappling with positions forced on her against her will. Her inborn power is potentially useful but also not that much of a game breaker outside specific contexts & said power sure as hell didn't save her mom.

Weiss Schnee is the Tsundere heiress of a powerful family, with a haughty attitude that hides her loneliness.

Except the "Tsundere" is more of a defense mechanism born of coming from an abusive home where every member of her family manifested a different trauma response. Freeze (Mother), flight (Sister), Fight (Weiss) Fawn (Brother).

Despite her upbringing & some projected trauma, she's far from ignorant as to the worst excesses of her nation early on, and her journey was more about overcoming the impacts her abuser had on her and finding a family in her team that let her be safe enough to let down her walls. Also despite being "The ice queen" she's actually one of the characters least inclined towards more ruthless actions and is extremely empathic.

Blake Belladonna is a mysterious and silent rougish woman, something of a shrinking violet even, but she carries with her a wounded heart thanks to her old flame, the edgy Adam Taurus.

Or more accurately, Blake is the daughter of activists and politicians who represent the worlds main discriminated against minority. She spent her youth on the road as a protestor and where even her father could be nearly killed by a lynch mob. She was targeted & groomed by a man who claimed to want to fight the same injustice she did but who was only interested in using the movement to grow his own power.

Her initial aloof-ness was a trauma response to having spent years under his thumb and overcoming him and the idea she had to 'save' him was one of the main corner stone so her character. Also, despite the "Revolutionary fighter" backstory she like Weiss is much less inclined towards ruthlessness than her team in large part because her past experience with it.

Yang Xiao Long, introduced as the fun loving big sister of Ruby & boisterous bruiser of the team who loves to party & flirt.

Except no, Yang was parentified as a child and forced to raise her own sister as their family unit fell apart. Her "Party girl" persona was outright framed as judging a book by its cover in her own trailer and something she put on or took off as she needed.

She became disabled over the course of the series run as well as entered a Sapphic romance with her partner Blake. Unlike the stereotype of characters with her design, Yang is actually an excellent student, fighter and engineer/mechanic. Plus much like her sister she tends to be of the more ruthless and pragmatic persuasion despite being from the "Normal" background.

Character Conclusion

So, all the characters break out of their initial archetypes, which already makes them more interesting. What's more, these sorts of characters just being oput together and made the main characters rather than circling a dude is in of itself unique.

But there are other aspects of the writing which endear me to how it handles the main characters and what keeps them interesting.

Anger & Violence

See, while in various media women do express anger at times it is still often far less so than men. What's more, often women's anger tends to be presented in... Less flattering lights.

With the anger obscuring fragility while in a man it conveys strength. Or implying a sort of hysteria rather than an appropriate or controlled response. Or worst of all being demonized in general unless its rooted in or coming from traditionally feminine places.

The same tends to be true when it comes to violence with a lot of media either trying to find some way to make women in battle less... Brutal than their male counterparts. (More more like fanservice) Along with rarely letting women fight men, unless they are a special exception to the norm.

RWBY does not do this.

The main characters, hell, all the women in the series express a multitude of different forms of anger and violence. They battle men, they battle each other, they battle monsters all with no distinction nor fanservice shot in sight.

What's more though is that said anger and violence are not presented as, for lack of better words, wrong. The writers don't draw overt attention to this fact, they don't hang a big sign up saying "Girls can fight & shout too" or the like.

They just present these women with a range of emotions, motives and actions that are treated according to what fits the theme of the show rather than hewing closer to gendered lines.

This isn't to say anger & violence are lionized, but more that the experience and usage of them is not demonized or undermined because of the characters gender.

I suppose what I am saying is that CRWBY by and large lack double standards when it comes to exploring these things that I see so often in other media. The women in the main cast, among the villains, both sides respective allies and beyond can be flawed, or angry or do both good and terrible things.

But the writers are always treating everyone's pain as equally valid regardless of gender or situation. Which means that the situations that cause anger exist within a tone of respect that forms the depiction and framing of anger itself.

Which is just something I really enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

[starsfic]

I saw the idea of Mirabel joining the Owl House crew and I have few headcanons for it.

Pure Mirabel ones

Mirabel is the voice of reason between the adopted Clawthorne siblings, but it doesn't mean she doesn't have her crazy moments too.

She gets drawn into Luz's phone more than King because she's floored at what people can have outside Encanto.

Instead of using glyph paper like Luz Mirabel actually sews or puts glyphs into clothes or her shoes/slippers. When she dances with them on it is a terrifying display.

Mirabel is studying glyphs mainly so she can help lighten the load of her family, since she knows they're under a lot of stress.

Her Palisman is a Spectacled Bear, she calls Specs and she also carves him.

For Luz and Mirabel

Luz and Mirabel when planing something together will usually discuss the idea in Spanish so they don't have eavesdroppers.

Despite only being a year apart, Mirabel thinks of Luz of a little sister she never had. Despite the fact Luz is actually taller than her. Mirabel is five two while the Average 14 year old girl is five four

The two often trade art tips of their respective art talents, with Luz teaching Mirabel how to draw and sculpt, while Mirabel gives her sewing tips and teaches her to dance and sing.

She definitely did sew a witches hat for Luz.

For Mirabel and King

Mirabel will sew him new 'generals' for his army sometimes, many of them animals from Columbia.

When Mirabel first saw him, she picked up with spin and nearly called him cuter than Antonio

Whenever Mirabel sews King always ask if she can sew him a cape fit for the king of the demons.

When she heard Kings 'Squeak of Rage' she nearly fell over trying to keep herself from laughing.

For Eda and Mirabel

When she first met Eda her first thought was she was gonna reprimand her, until Eda just said good job.

When Mirabel told Eda about Encanto, the first thing on Eda's mind was to punch every spoiled village person square in the face.

Since Mirabel has a passion for music Eda tries to teach how to play string instruments but to varying degrees of success

Ooh, fun! Here's five from me:

Mirabel and Luz had to find a common Spanish ground because Columbian Spanish and Dominican Republican Spanish use different words in various things.

Since Mirabel is older and Hexside seems to be divided by age, she ends up in the Blight twins' and Viney's grade. She actually met Viney first.

Mirabel at first loathes the Golden Guard because he reminds her of Isabela, except actually willing to harm. Then she gets to know Hunter and then meets Terra, which causes her to switch her hatred.

Luz insisted on cutting the Palistrom wood in half so Mirabel could carve Specs.

They have to be careful not to open the portal in the Encanto bc Mirabel didn't have Vee to conveniently take her place. Antonio is on the lookout for that weird owl.

[astralissas]

Sacrifice (1)

Series Summary: Daughter of notorious Death Eater, Corban Yaxley, and best friend to the Weasley twins, you find yourself dragged into the Second Wizarding War pledged to a side you'd vowed never to support. But all will be justifiable if it means you can protect the ones you love -- at any and all costs.

Pairing: George Weasley x Yaxley Reader

Chapter Word Count: 2.7K

Warnings: None Yet

Series Masterlist

“It’s getting close.” The voice of your mother carried out of the bedroom door, making its way to where you were huddled against the wall.

“I know.” Your father’s baritone voice replied. You knew without peeking in that they were speaking of the mark tattooed upon your father’s forearm. You’d heard it said time and time again from those who passed through your house; the same words uttered in different ways -- “It’s becoming clearer”, or “It’s nearing”. The statements were nearly always accompanied with varying degrees of frightened tones, but not your father’s. He spoke matter-of-factly, determined.

“What will we do with her?” Your mother’s voice rose to a sneer as she spoke about you, “The Dark Lord will not be pleased with us given her…present company.” 

“We cannot control our children. The Dark Lord is all too aware of that.” Your father replied. “As for her, I think her present position may be beneficial.” You heard your mother’s hum, intrigued, but at that same moment, you heard your father stand, forcing you to slide down the hallway and back to your room, now out of earshot of their conversation.

You shut the door behind yourself silently, sinking down onto your bed. You’d grown adept at sneaking around, between the covert meetings at your house and constant company with the Weasley twins. The thought of the twins brought a smile to your face, and you glanced at the photo framed on the table beside your bed -- the only personal item you’d bothered to leave out when you’d packed your trunk in anticipation for today.  

The photo, taken during your first year, showed a shorter, younger version of yourself squished between the gangly red-headed brothers, the three of you glancing between one-another and laughing. You could still recall the day that you met the Weasley twins. You were a measly eleven years old, feeling both downright terrified and intensely relieved to begin your education. You’d sat on the train with Pucey and Montague, just like your parents insisted, and watched as they were sorted into Slytherin, to the surprise of none. So when the Sorting Hat was placed on your head, and, after a slight deliberation, had bellowed, “Gryffindor!”, dread immediately pooled in your stomach, along with the knowledge that you had just been branded to be the black sheep of the family.

You made your way to the Gryffindor table in silence, feeling as though you couldn’t take a deep breath. The two red-headed twins waved you over to their bench with matching smiles, paying no mind to your last name, nor the shocked glares coming from the table across the room.

The twins had been a saving grace, honestly. They’d jumped on top of the Howler that arrived a few days later, attempting to muffle the shrieks of your mother, “Disgrace!” “Traitorous!”, or the disappointed lilt of your father, “We just can’t understand how this could happen.” They’d told you the most absurd jokes to chase away the frowns that came after a run-in with Slytherins where the words “blood traitor” echoed in your ears. They’d even opened their home when you became too much of a shame to your family. 

That was where you’d spent the last two glorious summers -- The Burrow. Warm days filled with de-gnoming the gardens, tidying the house, swimming in the pond, watching from the ground as the twins looped around the orchard on their brooms, and sneaking into their room late at night to help them fiddle their way through an ever-growing list of new experiments. It was how you’d planned to spend this summer, until an owl arrived from your parents at the end of last term informing you that they anticipated your return to the family manor, for the first time in three years.

Your reunion was filled with indifference so cold that you wondered why they’d even bothered to summon you home in the first place. You’d secluded yourself to your room, finishing summer schoolwork in the span of a week, and only creeping out at dreaded mealtimes, or worse, when the families came to visit. 

Your home was a revolving door of pure-blood families. Although always stiff and unpleasant, the air of fear was new and palpable each time the adults visited, rushing into your father’s study and hurriedly closing the doors behind them. When not forced to sit in tense silence with the children of the other families, you tested out a set of hearing devices which you had worked with the twins on developing during the previous school year. They were faulty though; at best emitting only blips of your father’s conversations while, the remainder of the time, spitting out a horrible crackling sound that left your ears ringing.

You could only handle so much of the reclusivity before you snapped, demanding that your parents allow you to go to the Burrow, like every other summer. After a long yelling match during which your mother had gotten so angry that her wand erupted a vicious fireball that had scorched the walls, your father had finally agreed that you could go, only, as he pointedly said, because the holiday was nearing its end.

You spent the remainder of the morning watching as the rays of sun crept through your window and counting down the hours until the Weasley’s were expecting you. There wasn’t much to pack when you’d never truly unpacked to begin with, but you had carefully stown the photo between a few pairs of robes, and dressed for the day when the clock finally struck ten. 

Your parents were waiting for you near the fireplace, where one of your house elves had carefully stacked your trunk. You grabbed the handle of the trunk and tugged it with you as you made your way toward the Floo Powder. “Well,” You said lamely, even more eager to escape the tense atmosphere than you had been prior, now that the comfort of the Burrow was so nearly in your grasp. 

“Wait,” Your father grabbed your forearm in a bruising grip, forcing you to meet his eyes. He paused before speaking as he always did; finally beginning, “This year is going to be immensely important in your…education.” You tilted your head, brows furrowing together. Since you’d been sorted into Gryffindor, your parents had been indifferent about your schooling. “The Tri-Wi--”

“Corban!” Your mother hissed, and your father spared her a glance before turning his attention back to you. 

“We believe an event will occur. An event in which you must seek to assist in any way you can.” The urgency in his eyes paired with the death grip on your forearm only enhanced your desire to get to the Burrow, so you shook off his convoluted warning without much thought.  

You yanked your arm from his grip. “Uh, right.” 

“I mean it, Y/N.” Your father stepped nearer to the fireplace. “We’ve been far too lenient with you. You will not continue to disgrace this family name further.”

Your mother joined him, laying a hand on his shoulder and adding, “We will not allow it.”

Unsure of how to reply, you opted for no reply at all, taking a handful of Floo Powder in one hand, and your trunk in the other. You stepped fully into the fireplace, casting one last glance at your parents before dropping the powder and calling for the Burrow. 

Immediately, you were engulfed in the emerald flames as you began spinning, keeping a tight hold on your trunk. You squeezed your eyes shut and waited -- there was a reason you preferred to be in the stands during Quidditch matches. Finally, the rotations slowed, and you stumbled to the ground atop your trunk in the Weasley’s kitchen, inhaling the smell of Mrs. Weasley’s cooking, mingled with clean laundry and a fresh breeze floating in from the open window. 

“Hello -- oh, dear.” Mrs. Weasley hurried to help you to your feet, brushing soot off your shoulders. Her face twisted to a grimace as she glanced at your trunk, but she schooled it quickly, bringing you into a warm hug before pulling back. “Lunch will be ready in a bit.” She said kindly, “The boys have been waiting for you all morning. So incessantly that I’ve banned them outside.” She nodded out the door with a knowing smirk. 

“Thanks, Mrs. Weasley,” You said, reaching for your trunk to drop into Ginny's room before she stopped you, shaking her head. You beamed, basking in the familiarity of the Burrow, and finally feeling settled for the first time since the end of the previous school year. “I’m happy to be back.” 

“We’re happy to have you back, dear.” She returned the sentiment just as warmly before shooing you out the kitchen door and into the yard, where you could spot two heads of flaming hair lounging in the warmth of the summer sun. 

George was the first to spot you, jumping up from his position to envelop you in his arms, lifting you from the ground. He’d hardly set you down before Fred swept in for the same signature greeting. A giggle bubbled from your mouth, feeling the weight that’d been on your shoulders since the start of the holiday lift.

“It’s been a dull summer round here without you.” Fred said as soon as he’d set you down. You smiled in agreement, realizing that the few weeks spent at the family manor was the longest you and the twins had been apart since you’d gone to your parents for the summer holiday after Third Year. “Want a toffee?” Fred proceeded to offer, holding out a brightly colored wrapper.

“C’mon Fred, you should know better.” You laughed, settling yourself next to George on the grass, who was shaking his head, “It hasn’t been that long.” 

Fred shrugged, sitting on your other side. “It was worth a try, anyway. We need a tester.”

“Preferably someone we don’t like.” George emphasized with a glare at Fred.

“Isn’t your dad picking up Harry today from his Muggles?” You inquired. Having heard plenty from Ron about the abuse Harry sustained, particularly at the hands of his cousin, Dudley, it was quite obvious who the tester should be.

“Only dad and Ron, though.” Fred responded.

You shrugged, “Just ask to go with.” 

A smile crept across George’s features as he caught onto your plan, “Hasn’t Ron said Harry’s cousin is a bit of a pig?” Fred, too, smiled as he caught onto George’s wavelength. The twins were brilliant in their own right, but they had a habit of missing the answer that was right in front of them, too caught up in their thoughts and creations. You knew what awaited Dudley, having helped the twins with the engorgement charm yourself, and you felt a sense of giddiness as you looked forward to hearing about it in action. 

Being back at the Burrow, with the twins, it finally felt as if everything was right. The sun was bright, warming your skin; such a stark contrast against the cold manor from which you’d come, where the curtains were often pulled taut, settling a gloom over everything. The hushed tones of the manor were the polar opposite of the twin’s excited voices which they fought to keep quiet as they updated you on the progress they’d made with the newly dubbed Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. 

“But Mum came in to clean our room last week and found the order forms.” Fred went on with a pointed look at his brother, “George didn’t put them away.”

“Well, I didn’t think she’d come snooping!” George defended.

“Oh come off it,” Fred argued, “You knew she’d be tidying with Bill and Charlie staying in there.” 

George opened his mouth, ready with a retort, before you cut him off, “Well, either way, you’re lucky I have the order forms and products you sent me last month in my trunk.” You shrugged, going on, “I’m sure you’d made developments since then, but better than starting from scratch.”

“Have I ever told you how absolutely wonderful you are?” Fred charmed.

“Splendid,” George agreed with a vehement nod.

***

Much like many of your other cohorts with the twins, you really hadn’t considered the consequences beforehand. But now, facing a fuming Mrs. Weasley -- who was much, much more frightening than a few detentions, an owl home, and the disappointed cadence of Professor Dumbledore -- you were truly wishing you’d thought this one through. 

“The potential of you two!” Mrs. Weasley was roaring at the twins. She’d been cross with the three of you before, but you’d never seen her like this -- eyes sparking with anger, face increasing in shade until it nearly matched her hair. You wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d begun spitting fire with how riled up she was. “And yet you sit around putting your talents to waste on ridiculous, miniscule little pranks!”

“Just because we don’t want to sit around some dull office and measure cauldron thickness…” Fred mumbled under his breath.

“Perfect Percy.” George followed up in a mocking tone.

“I don’t want to hear another word out of you!” Mrs. Weasley snapped before continuing on her rampage. The tongue-lashing continued on for a few minutes but, when Mrs. Weasley finally allowed the three of you to depart, she was still far from satiated. You expect the reprimand would still be ongoing, had Mr. Weasley not cut in and reminded her, with a wink shot to the three of you, that she’d wanted to get supper out before the sun set.

“So, you think You-Know-Who is rising again?” Fred whispered incredulously once you all were outside, away from any prying ears that may overhear.

You shrugged, “I mean, he must be. Why else would the Marks be darkening?” 

“But it makes no sense.” George muttered, “Harry defeated him, what, fourteen years ago? Why come back now?”

You shook your head, “I’m not sure. I gleaned all the information I could before those Extendable Ears went faulty.” 

Fred’s eye twitched in annoyance -- the three of you had been trying to pinpoint the error in the Extendable Ears for months now to no avail. Your conversation was cut short, however, by a loud clanging noise. The eldest Weasley’s had engaged the dinner tables in a midair battle.

By the time the tables were settled on the ground, and loaded with a feast, you found yourself seated next to George -- “No, no, Y/N” Fred had insisted when you suggested he sit next to his twin, “I’d much rather sit over here next to Charlie.” Fred had patted Charlie jovially on the shoulder who, in turn, shot George a smirk while you settled bemusedly into your seat. 

As always, Mrs. Weasley’s cooking was phenomenal, and you found yourself listening to the animated debate the twins and Charlie were engaging in regarding their speculated outcome of the Quidditch World Cup the following day. The sun had set and the candles were burning low as you glanced at the twin beside you.

The twins had always been popular at Hogwarts. At first, it seemed everyone simply appreciated the boys’ humor -- their ability to make nearly anyone laugh. But, as the years went on, their athleticism on the Quidditch pitch and agreed-upon good looks had led to them acquiring more than a few admirers. 

You’d certainly be lying if you said you’d never looked at the twins that way -- one more than the other. You stole a look at George -- his hair had grown out slightly in the time you’d been apart, hanging over his ears now. His nose and cheeks were tinged red from the summer sun, and you knew the burn would fade into freckles in a few days. You averted your eyes before they could fall lower and linger on his lips.

Just a friend. You reminded yourself -- a mantra you’d had to chant to yourself for the last few years. But, as Mrs. Weasley sent everyone to bed, and George laughed at something Fred muttered to Harry, your mantra went out the window. You were so screwed.

[cyberr-v0id]

Could you tell me more about yourself?

It is for something important.

Oh yeah sure!

I’m cyberr, I go by a lot of names, currently my favourites are Phoenix, Leonardo, and Jackdaw. I use any pronouns and I am asexual.

I have numerous skin conditions, feet bones in the wrong place, and a really bad back at the moment, as well as chronic daily headaches . So uh. You could say that I am as fit as a fiddle, if the fiddle in question is the one in my garage, which has all its strings snapped.

I really enjoy reading, and have done since I was seven. I’m currently reading the reappearance of Rachel Price, as well as the Iliad. Some of my most favourite books include: the wizards of once, how to train your dragon, murder most unladylike, all about romance, Sherlock Holmes, and treasure island.

I’m also a writer, I’ve been working on this one story for five years now. Hopefully I’ll finish it one day. I write a lot of poetry.

I love mysteries and have been apart of numerous mystery solving groups, several founded by me.

I’m an artist, of course, and my top three mediums are pencil, watercolour, and digital. I’m not the best at digital tbh. I hate acrylic and acrylic hates me.

I usually do a lot of sports but right now because of my back I can’t do a few of them. I can still do swimming, archery, rounders (tragically:/), stand up paddle boarding, and roller booting. Because they don’t involve as much bending down.

I’m gay

I’m a part time goth, which is to say I listen to goth music (my favourites atm are fields of the Nephilim and all about Eve) but only sometimes dress goth, and in varying degrees of goth. I am the most inconsistently dressing person I know, and right now my catchphrase is ‘the duality of man’. For some reason.

Music wise I listen to a lot. One day I will truly be able to say that I listen to everything. But not yet. My most favourite band is the crane wives

I want to be a marine archaeologist when I’m older, or, failing that, a famous actor. Let’s be honest here, unless I do become a really famous actor, neither career path is likely to pay well. Marine archaeological, or maritime archaeology, is all about ships wrecks, and how cultures of the past interacted with the ocean and other bodies of water around it.

I like all the animals. Genuinely there is lot a single animal that I don’t like. Well- I’m not too keen on bugs but I wish them all the best, and may many of them please stay away. I have a severe phobia of moths, and slight arachnophobia that depends on how I’m feeling and what the spider is. Tarantula? No problem, big and hairy enough to be a kitten. Now let’s move away from it in case it sprays its hairs. Brown garden spider? Bloody Mary on a motor bike get it Away.

My attention span is low. I am a theatre kid. As I type this is have a musical going in the background.

. I’m so sorry I’ve kinda made this really long, idk how much information you need

Fandoms: rise: tmnt, Percy Jackson, the owl house, the dragon prince, httyd, the inheritance cycle, red wall, Sherlock Holmes, mythology, epic the musical, so much more I can’t think of right now

I love the ocean

Lmk if you need anything else, hope this has helped, and uh. Yeah it’s kind long winded

[lisa972kdlz]

Le cœur a sa mémoire :(Heart got his memory)

Another theoretical analysis about Underverse! More specifically about Error's character, his development, his personality and what might be going through his mind in the context of the series.

When you look at Error's behaviour in Underverse and compare it to his behaviour in the original comic, you quickly realise that it's not the same. And when you browse through the various versions of Error to be found in fandom, whether in fan fiction, comics or simple gags, it's this version of the Underverse that's found with varying degrees of nuance. In other words, a serious, grumpy, tsundere Error who hiss at the first person he meets. And... I'm really not a fan of this Error, because in my opinion it's less interesting and, above all, leads to received ideas that head straight for the cliché highway. Why do we have this skewed image of the character? Is it really inconsistent and unworthy of his integrity? Is this a bad thing, and does Underverse follow this line? Should we limit ourselves to saying that Underverse isn't canon so there's no reason to criticise constructively or even try to find connections?

Obviously not, because with a bit of imagination (and philosophy), there's (almost) always a way to put the pieces of the jigsaw together to give it concrete form! First of all, let's dissociate the Canon version of Error from its Fanon version.

In terms of personality, Error Canon is more like the Collector in The Owl House than the vampire-spider Miguel O'Hara in Spiderverse. An unhinged and paranoid Collector, but all the same. He's chatty, he smiles, and has no trouble talking to anyone, whether it's the creators who ask him questions, his prisoner Swap!Sans, or that strange visitor, the Sans that Fresh usually owns. It's a far cry from the grumpy, withdrawn character who refuses all human contact. In the comic, his reticence is often relatively controlled, and in any case, if he does do any harm, it very rarely comes back to the Gaster blasters. When Swap gives him a completely off-the-wall speech about friendship, yeah, he abandons him temporarily in the Anti-Void to teach him a lesson, but even in a panic he doesn't hurt or attack him. When he thinks he's being manipulated by Darkblitz8, he hangs her high into the air with his strings, but nothing more. Then he calms down straight away and quietly puts his hands back in his pockets and says, "What a nice lady, I love making new friends."

"Love. Making. New friends."

Yes, that's Error saying that, can you believe it? It's said as a joke, but OF COURSE he's sincere... And for a thousand and one reasons. What I mean is that, like every Sans else, he more has a tendency to hide his thoughts behind jokes or false humour than to reject or attack others. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it's a tendency.

The only time he pulls out his blasters (outside of destroying AU's) is when he gets a surprise hug from behind and when FRESH shows up out of nowhere. So it's relatively legitimate (but only relatively because there's nothing legitimate about exterminating your neighbour Ú^Ù).

Nevertheless, the Fandom version and the original version have one thing in common: Error is completely anti-social, fearful of others, and hates himself viscerally without admitting it to himself. But the "Tsundere" version is highly caricatured, with temperaments that are sometimes the exact opposite of what Error is! He is portrayed as cold, distant, incapable of not shouting when something displeases him, and so on. But in reality he answers questions, accepts a handshake from a stranger and even describes it as "pleasurable", talks about his tastes, admits word for word that he likes having people to talk to, concedes to requests... The only sensitive subjects are his personal problems, which include Papyrus, Toriel and, of course, himself.

But he hates glitches, right? The AU's and all that, he hates them?

Yes, he hates them, but subconsciously he makes a dissociation between the mass of shapeless glitches and an individual. When he goes to destroy AUs, they're glitches. When he meets someone at random and starts to build a human relationship with them (Swap), he almost forgets that he's supposed to hate him.

Canon Error plays the villain, but in fact he's a frightened little beast in denial about his extreme loneliness and strong self-hatred. This also fits the fandom version, but in a kind of misunderstood inverse: not only does he lose all his glitched, unpredictable, paranoid and nightmarish side, but above all he also loses his cute and childlike side, naive, unaware of social references like the term "ship", with surprising tastes and a real desire to form bonds when he feels it's safe to do so. As a result, he loses that strange duality that creates a feeling of unease, a mixture of fear and attachment, because we sense that he has totally human emotions but is too deranged to be able to be a truly healthy friend with anyone... He can hardly even be described as a narcissistic pervert, because he has already shown real compassion and even if he blames people for his misfortune, he won't tell them directly or make them feel guilty about it; he's more likely to say it to himself. He's more direct when he's in "destroyer" mode, but it's still accusations about people's glitch state in a general sense, like a "hate you all". No, he's not even just an asshole, he's just.... Insane. We forget that he's insane.

Also, when he feels threatened, Error will automatically step into his villain role with sardonic laughter and striking retorts. The Fanon version, on the other hand, will spit in the person's face and express his anger. He's rational, hateful, sinister, a killjoy and stable in his tempestuous character. Of course, there are fanarts and gags where the cute side is brought out... But they're usually just gags, and in fanfiction and comics they're rarely shown and often anecdotal without much imagination...

OK, I've been talking about the Fanon version for a while now, but does Error in Underverse have this problem?

Well...

No ┐( ∵ )┌!

Firstly because in Underverse it's moderate, and he's presented in situations where it's understandable (the majority of his interactions are with Ink, his sworn foe so obviously he's going to be on the defensive), but also, we'll see later, because the series raises an important side of who Error has become over the course of time, and confronts him with an ultimatum, where his status quô goes is smashed to pieces.

I'm not in favour of Error being ultra-aggressive and cold in stories in general because I find it makes him interesting as a dead rat, but portraying him as more serious, intelligent and aware of the world around him isn't a bad choice. How can we explain it?

Well... He grew old, that's all.

The Error of Underverse, and by extension of the Fandom, is a character who has evolved, been revisited and experienced in many different ways. He's gone from the "guy who messes things up in the AU's" to the "Destroyer", his overall power too has increased as fans have seen his potential for danger, which may be a parallel to the fact that he's... simply trained and toughened up as he goes along? There's nothing to stop us imagining a future based on the Canon we've been left with. He simply accumulates memory. Even the fact that Ink and Error are enemies, it isn't canon, but... Well, it makes perfect sense, because by putting universes in danger, of course he had to face the protector at some point!

Error has visited AU's, encountered situations that have taught him lessons... He has grown in maturity. Fine, he still gets nought for emotional maturity, but he has grown anyway, which is normal and a good thing (because if the characters never evolved in an open world, we'd be a bit bored all the same).

That said, there's a rather annoying glitch that's going to mess things up a bit...

It's her again, Ma'am the Canon description ! ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧

In Canon, canonically, in real real real real.... Error is incapable of evolving. It's in his nature, quite simply. Because he's an "error".

According to Crayon Queen, the ending of Error's comic should have gone like this: Swap! Sans, as a result of being exposed to the Anti-Void, becomes an error in his own right, an erratic and unhinged being whose character and memory become dislocated and distorted. He retains his positive and heroic character, so it doesn't make him a villain, but he remains unpredictable and difficult to follow, and therefore dangerous. Error will feel horrible about this and will even be confronted with a deep guilt that will convince him to let him go. "Blueberror" will then be guided into the Omega Timeline by Core Frisk where he will go to live. And Error will find himself alone again in the Anti-Void, alone in this white nothingness, alone in the middle of All. As time goes by, he will forget all about the experience and return to the person he was before without questioning, for such is the destiny of errors. Corrupted things with no hope of salvation.

Yes, it's tragic, but that's the way it is! And Passive!Night is dead, get used to it!

(Never! QwQ)

(*Rubbing her hands) What if we tried to slip through the cracks and get round this restrictive element, all the while respecting the character and his universe?

Come on, let's get started?

We're off!

So why does Error lose his memory?

Because he's an error, all right. But is that all? Aren't there other remarkable factors that make him forget?

Already, exposure continues to the Anti-Void, where living leads to harmful consequences. To explain why, I had theorised that, being the opposite of the Void, it was the Core of the Multiverse, also known as the Great Whole, where codes intersect and aggreate. –I've done some research in the meantime and the Doodlesphere can't really be a Core, because it's Ink's 'private' dimension. It's an empty zone (perhaps an empty AU which is recognisable by its nature as a white or off-white nothingness without, however, corresponding to the properties of the Anti-Void) where the painter has grouped together some sort of links to access the AUs. It's a bit like a custom Doc document with thousands of URLs, but not a Heart.–

Exposed to the Anti-Void for too long, some of our codes end up merging with the dimension; we lose some, we receive some, until we become errors, a bit like a slow dissolution. Our memory is obviously affected. At the moment of transformation, but perhaps also as we continue to be exposed to it?

If you don't like this theory, there's also the fact that, well... It's a void. White. No wind, no heat or cold, no light, no shadow, no palpable matter. EVIDENTLY it causes an alteration in the brain and memory. If Error left the Anti-Void for somewhere less... Creepy, it's easy to imagine that his continual amnesia would be less severe.

And finally, the last and most important reason...

Error is alone and bored shitless.

Now let's going to do a bit of philosophy, because philosophy of the real world is science of fiction.

What is Memory (and owh shet I don't have fucking idea of the nuances of vocabulary in English philosophy–) ?

(Well in French "Souvenir" is meanging like memory and "Mémoire" the global uniting of the memories, I suppose there exists a term to make the nuance but I don't know enough about it so... Let's say that Souvenir = memory and Mémoire = Memory, okay?

Sorry ...TwT)

So, roughly speaking, it's the collection of our memories recorded by a stade of consciousness of a moment that was present but is now past. Not to be confused with storage medium: there's a lot of information recorded by the brain that we can't remember (in Error's case it's most certainly out of order too, at least in part).

The conditions for a memory are as follows: to fixate on an object, situation or person in order to take aware of it. Reflecting enables this to happen, because reflecting is about taking the initiative and interrupting the flow of thought in order to consider a specific idea; thinking that you've had that thought. It's like a computer: there are lots of images stored inside, but you won't have access to them, or only with difficulty, if you don't think about printing them out in physical format. In any case, to have a Memory, you need a trigger, something that connects you to reality and makes you say: I remember that.

And Error doesn't have that. There's nothing memorable about his life as an anomaly. He is alone, all the time, in a nothingness where nothing happens, where there is nothing beautiful. A memory is only a memory if we have a consciousness of a past and a present. But Anti-Void has no day, no night, no timetable, no real time. And the only time Error goes out is to kill masses of people he doesn't care about and doesn't even consider to be living beings. He doesn't care about the AU's he destroys. If we were to make a scrapbook of his holiday memories... It would be limited to sewing, sleep, Undernovela, destruction, conversation with imaginary people (his dolls or even us), Outertale, sewing, sleep.

He's alone and he FEELS alone. So lonely that he hears voices in his head, so lonely that he talks to his own dolls. He needs others. We can even assume, in the Canon at least, that he's an extrovert.

Yes, I just said Error was extroverted, and that's extremely weird 😅

But really, it's not so crazy. An extrovert is defined by the way the person resources themselves. Introverted, by being alone, extroverted, by seeing people. It's perfectly possible to be extroverted AND asocial and anti-anti-anti-antisocial. And there you boned a bit.

I'm not making any claims, what I can see is that Error has a certain ease in expressing himself and talking about himself (as long as it doesn't have to do with his problems) and that he's quite talkative. But then, maybe he's something else, intro or ambi, because in his condition of absolute solitude, ANYONE would have an immense need to be with other people.

Besides, don't you think that in his comic, the longer he lives with Swap, the more logical, stable and thoughtful he becomes? It's experience that accumulates. It's the Memory that works. Because with Swap, a friend at last, he can remember what's going on and realise how much time has passed. When he learns to knit with him, when he watches Undernovela with him, when he answers the creator's questions with him, and so on.

It's only after Swap has gone that Error closes in on himself again, letting the Anti-Void devour him once more.

To have a Memory, Error needs to get out of Anti-Void AND have a face, someone he can see fluently to remind him of his past experiences. And who fills that role perfectly in the Fandom, I'll give you three guesses?

Ink.

This is arguably the strongest no-canon relationship in the Undertale Multiverse. His exchanges with Ink, whether it's a confrontation, a tempestuous dialogue or a bullshit funny, all these little interactions help to forge an emotional bond between the two nemeses.

Whether fans develop this into a rivalship, a bromance or a romance, who cares,

EVIDENTLY Ink is very important to him.

EVIDENTLY he sees him, in some twisted way, as a friend.

Because Ink's the ONLY stable, long-term human relationship he has. And the only way to keep that bond is to keep destroying over and over again to get the painter's attention, and maybe even other people's attention. And given that Error's incapable of being healthy with anyone, because he hates himself too much and is too afraid of other people, what better way to show his attachment than with an "I hate you"?

I'm going to use a really stupid reference here, but Error has a bit of a Dory memory. She forgets everything as she goes along, but from the moment she meets Marlin, she forgets less and less. All she has to do is look at his face and she remembers everything they've been through. And afraid he'll abandon her all alone again, because she doesn't want to forget again.

What if that's what Error was afraid of in Underverse, when Ink 'abandons' him to go and play with X-Gaster? What if he's afraid that if he loses him, all his progression he accomplished so far will go up in smoke?

Ink is Error's Memory. It's very ironic.

And the icing on the cake is that Ink has a lot in common with Error: faced with extreme loneliness in a white void, loss of Memory, ignorance of the conscious state of the beings around them... Ink expresses this suffering through a desire to protect, and Error through a desire to destroy (it's superbly explained in THIS comic you'll found just after validated by the creator, I recommend it!) Isn't he the perfect friend? The funny thing is that in Underverse, the roles are 'reversed'. Ink is prepared to destroy everything, while Error is prepared to do anything to save what attention he has left. OK, he destroys the AU's, but he doesn't care about the AU's, he cares about Ink. He had the chance all along to do it, but he waited until the ultimatum. Because his battles with the painter and his status as quô are vital to him. He was pushed to the limit to commit the irreparable.

If that, is not two lunatics walking on a beam, I don't know what is.

I'm extrapolating here, but imagine that the odd island in the middle of the sea had been requisitionee by Error to be his new den precisely because he'd had enough of the Anti-Void and the memory loss it was causing him? Perhaps, having had a truce with Ink, he no longer felt the need to protect himself from him by staying in the Anti-Void (since Ink has a great fear of white spaces, it makes a good lair) and he was able to move in later. After all, the only time we see him in the Anti-Void is when Ink kicked him back in the arse and in the 2nd Xtrascene when he's snoozing. It's as if he's been sleeping off his wine or something, as if he's gone back there in a fit of rage to forget everything again in frustration at seeing Ink having fun without him. Haven't you noticed that the dolls and the footstool he sits in only exist in his dream? And that when he wakes up, he's on the floor with nothing around him? Why didn't he sleep in his footstool? It's as if he's actually moved all his stuff, except his souls, since they're best kept in the Anti-Void by Ink. The footstool isn't on the island in Xtra scene 1, but it is in Comic the Truce, Error moved it. Maybe he really leaved the Anti-Void and is only using it as a repository for souls? All this just to... Stop being mad? Live a more or less normal life? Become aware of who he is and... Simply be?

Very capylotract but I love this theory xD

And I also think that Error doesn't just see Ink as a tool or a means. I think he really thinks the two of them have a special relationship. Because he's romantically inclined, which is suggested by his Sans past, his taste for Outertale and the fact that he watches a rosewater series with a ship where his alternative version and the alternative version of the woman he loved are in a misunderstood and forbidden relationship, because he's afraid but also wants to be loved deep down given that he's incapable of giving himself self-esteem, because he shows intense frustration when Ink doesn't show him that it's mutual...

And because RIVALSHIP! It would be a perfect match for the Joker/Batman relationship in the Lego Batman movie and I think it's HANDSOME!!!! (*shakes fan-girling head)

(I don't know if Jakei will go with what I have developed but whatever she does will still be super awesome, I wouldn't worry about it ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧!)

.

Error belongs to @loverofpiggies

Ink belongs to @comyet

Underverse belongs to @jakei95

[ghostofcinders]

They Came from Witchford Academy, as a RPG allowing characters to play in Magical Schools, owes a lot to the main inspirations that drove me to pitch & develop it. The Owl House, Little Witch Academia, and Witch Hat Atelier are its central direction, no doubt. With so many genre-appropriate inspiration from other media too (I also didn't write it alone, and all the members of the team brough their faves in the text to guide their work) Still, I also injected a lot of my love for animation in it, even when not *really* on point. Hilda is as responsible as the above for giving me the book idea (hey, Hilda has witches, and some are students indeed). Also, yeah, while I was rewatching The Owl House, I threw in Amphibia too. So while not as overt...let's just say you'll be able to find nods to both once the book comes out. Stuff like a "Tontu" name thrown there, or the fact one of the sample characters is a "froggoblin" who got to study at Witchford by hopping into a portal from her swamp-y dimension into ours.

Long story short: The degree varies, but there's so many little treats to find in there if you like any of the series I mentioned (and several more)

[mdhwrites]

Kinda surprised you saw Sasha as a parallel to Boscha. Many tend to see Sasha as paralleling Amity if she's ever compared to an Owl House character.

So funny enough: The artist I saw a good long while ago that inspired the post actually made Amity into both Sasha AND Marcy. One for when Amity had green hair, the other for pink respectively. I actually do like likening S2 Amity to Marcy because both become cinnamon rolls too precious for this world who can do little wrong... To varying degrees of genuinely good characterization for both. Amity as Sasha though, even restricted to just S1 when Amity is her most fleshed out and her most mean... No because while Amity begs for you to call her the best, Sasha and Boscha both do not ask for they believe by just being who they are, they ARE the best.

There's a lot of reasons why I don't like comparing Amity to Sasha but a lot of that could be countered with simply differences in writing quality or narrative goals. This fundamental difference in their characters though is the big reason why the two are simply incompatible. Why Sasha redeemed is still not just Amity redeemed and the closest she comes to that is clearly a mistake in Commander Anne. There's nothing you can do to get rid of an ego as large as Sasha's though without fundamentally damaging who she is and how she functions after all.

Amity on the other hand? Her first episode is the closest she ever comes to true confidence turned outwards and even then, she breaks too easily. During Reunion, Sasha is cold towards Anne when she resists her. She is upset but she's not actually angry. Not when she just believes she needs to correct Anne when Anne first starts resisting her. It takes time for Anne to whittle her down and even then, it's still with a cold threat that she tries to bring Anne in line until Grime gives her a way to settle the matter once and for all. It's part of why Anne beating her, and why surviving when she tries to let Anne live, hit her so hard. Meanwhile, Amity has a single award taken from her and she goes immediately into fully deranged desperation. It's not just about re-establishing dominance, it is about removing the existential threat to her existence.

Covention is even explicitly about this. Luz claiming to be a witch makes her feel lesser and not beating her puts her entire future in jeopardy in her eyes. When Boscha has a human suddenly out pranking her and making people listen to 'Luz' instead of her in Once Upon a Swap, she does it through a game and with a confident grin, letting 'Luz' fuck up and almost kill herself because Boscha doesn't need to go that far to remove the problem. Sure, she still doesn't like someone stealing her thunder but she believes she can remove the problem. If King had won the race, Boscha would have simply gotten a bit frustrated and tried a different approach but she wouldn't have gone off to cry like Amity did.

It's actually part of why Sasha's parents being bad parents would make Sasha's arc worse while it's entirely natural for Amity's arc for them to be at least overbearing. They didn't technically need to be evil but they clearly were part of what put this pressure and doubt into Amity's head. They are part of the expectations that she is constantly trying to meet, at least until she decides that the only expectation that matters is her girlfriend's. *eye twitch* It fits with the framing of her evil and her lack of confidence though that she doesn't get enough approval at home, allowing for layers to why she's like this.

Meanwhile, Sasha is a borderline narcissist who plays god with people. Everyone is just a pawn to her with Anne being her queen and Marcy a Bishop. They are more important but they are still less important than her. Everyone is and she treats life, until Turning Point, like a game. Like it's for her amusement, hence why she literally says she'll paint Amphibia red before going home. Why not after all? It doesn't matter. There's nothing her parents could add to that besides maybe showing that they spoiled their daughter and that's part of where her ego comes from. Even that's wholly unnecessary though because some people really do just want to play hero or be the best and need to get knocked down to learn how to be a real human being, coming from someone who needed that and who wishes his brother would learn that lesson finally.

Boscha herself even sees people as pawns to control. She practically quotes Machiavelli with how being feared is better than being loved after all in Winging it Like Witches. Sure, she actually DOES recognize she doesn't have the same level of power that Sasha does but, well, that's likely because where as Sasha is the leader of her group, Boscha is second fiddle to Amity and Amity rules through fear more than anyone really seeming to like her. Even at her own sleepover where everyone else seems to like her and Boscha even wants to try and include her, she's too busy brooding to even try to do anything with the ritual because S1 Amity is kind of a colossal dick to her friends for no rhyme or reason besides the show deciding they're bad because... Reasons. It never really gives evidence for them being bad besides them being fellow bullies, like Amity, their leader, and one "Okay Boomer" joke from Hooty's Moving Hassle that is BIZARRE in a show trying to be as progressive as this is.

But that brings me to why I get Amity being compared to Sasha. On the most surface level, both are bullies with deep ties to the main character who is reformed over time to be a staunch ally. However, the details are all wrong to make their personalities properly overlap. I joke that my love for Lumischa should prepare me to write Sashannarcy but the two actually have VERY different polyamory dynamics due to intelligence, confidence and social strengths between the three. That is definitely a topic for a different blog.

So yeah, I stick by my statement. If you want a Sasha comparison in TOH, Boscha is your best bet, not Amity or Hunter.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[tizzymcwizzy]

okay so the owl house episode comes out tomorrow and i have a shit ton of wips that have to do with like, guesses for season three and im wondering if i should just post them now or save them in case i finish them later?

i have a twitter poll going so vote here if you wanna but also let me know what you think on this post!! there's just a bunch of them at varying degrees of finality and idk if i should post them all now before the episode airs

[stardivinefinale-moved]

I'm so tired of the comparisons between the owl house and Steven universe, literally the only real parallel is that they got cut because of their lgbt rep. they are different shows trying different things they achieve in varying degrees and I'm tired of seeing "owl house will be treated like Steven universe posts" instead of judging The Owl House in its own.

[p1geonsh1t]

Do not interact:

Nsfw accounts

MAPS (not the animation thing), gender critical people, TERFS, ableists, homophobics, transphobics, anyone hateful in general

Accounts that promote self harm, suicide or eating disorders

Blank/ icon only blogs will be blocked

I Do Art :D

Commisions not yet open

Special Interests:

-Chernobyl

-Portal 2

-Gravity Falls

-History

Other things i like of varying degrees (in no particular order):

Junji Ito, Inside Job, Amphibia, Helluva Boss, The Owl House, Borderlands, Birds, Gorrilaz, Centaur World, A series of unfortunate events, flatland, the property of hate (im not caught up), eddsworld,

I am a self shipper but i don't post about it much cuz I'm scared, f/o letters are very much appreciated

F/o list:

Rick (portal 2)

Sniper (tf2)

Engineer (tf2)

Arthur Morgan (Rdr2)

[wromwood]

4, 12, and 25 for the artist asks?

4. Fav character/subject that’s a bitch to draw

That's a good question. And honestly, a bit hard to answer? Like, if a character isn't easy for me to draw, I just eventually stop drawing them. (That's partly why a character from my thesis project was phased out of the eventual comic blog.)

I think the most appropriate character for this, though, is Dirk, but only back when his anthro form used colored lineart.

Just look at all those colored lines. I had to make sure they were on different layers, that they were all in the correct order, that the coloring wasn't interfering with them.... ugh, it was a NIGHTMARE. But the anthro form was necessary in conveying emotion/body language that his sword form just couldn't. The anthro form itself also has a deeper meaning in the context of how Dirk approaches playtime and how he's kind of a hypocrite in some ways regarding that.

So I switched to black lineart and never looked back!

12. Easiest part of body to draw

Uhhhhhh.... definitely not hands? I'm not actually a visual artist, so nothing about drawing really feels easy to me, they're just a pile of varying degrees of difficulty. I guess faces from that easy angle shown above are the easiest to draw.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

That's a good question... My art style's biggest source of inspiration (Steven Universe) is the most obvious comparison, so I don't get too many others. To be honest, not many people tell me what my art looks like to them. They just think it's cute.

A few other suggestions I've gotten are OK KO, The Owl House, and Gravity Falls. I actually haven't seen Owl House (yet), but I am a fan of OK KO and Gravity Falls. Love em so much. However, I can't say I was "inspired" by them, art-wise. Unlike Steven Universe, I've never turned to either of those shows for ideas on how to draw a character, nor have I tried to draw anything from those shows. (I also think it's telling that my art style has been exclusively compared to shows that people often mistakenly write off as "CalArts style" cartoons)

Actually, if anybody reading this can think of something ELSE that my art style reminds them of, please let me know!

Thanks for asking! :3

[daimonzone]

Lydz's Interests:

I WILL HAPPILY RAMBLE ABOUT THESE TOPICS AND LEARN ABOUT THEM, I HAVE VARYING LEVELS OF KNOWLEDGE ON THESE TOPICS AND SOME OF THEM ARE JUST STUFF I KNOW SOME RANDOM THINGS ABOUT DUE TO GOING DOWN A RABBIT HOLE ABOUT THEM ONCE BUT ALL THESE THINGS ARE STUFF I CARE ABOUT TO SOME DEGREE

also there's no particular order

Has Not Left My Brain Since Spring of 2021: Omori

Fuck Yeah These Are Incredibly Important And Sentimental To Me and I Love Them: Undertale, Celeste, Splatoon, Animal Crossing

Still Pretty Important: Rain World, Deltarune, Shovel Knight, Unpacking, Stardew Valley, Bokujou Monogatari games, Pokémon, Rhythm Heaven

Can Infodump About But Not Currently Incredibly Interested: honeybees (specifically beekeeping and SPECIFICALLY HONEYBEES)

Broad Categories: linguistics, psychology, science stuff in general (soft and hard), computer-related stuff, witchcraft, queer topics, civil rights, economics, anime (maybe at some point i'll post about anime im interested in/currently watching)

Other Assorted Stuff That Sometimes Falls Under Broader Categories But Whatever: The Owl House, Bluey, Toki Pona, paradoxes/logical fallacies/cognitive biases/etc., Ghost And Pals songs, cellular automata, storytelling (tropes, techniques, tools, etc.), Civilization, The Sims games, accessibility

The Current Thing I Like A Lot: Fallout Shelter, Terra Nil (have been playing both games quite a bit recently lol)

[westeroswisdom]

Game of Thrones wouldn't have been the same without people speaking High Valyrian and Dothraki. A few words like dracarys and valar morghulis have even made it into English to a small degree.

If a language offers clues to the culture of its speakers, then the experience of learning Game of Thrones’s High Valyrian on Duolingo conjures visions of a bustling historic civilisation in which owls stalk the skies, magic abounds, and the spectre of death forever haunts the imaginations of the living. You learn to say “The woman is sweating” before that most basic greeting, “Hello”. An incongruously cheerful cartoon asks you to translate “All men must die, goodbye.” And, of course: “Ñuhyz zaldrīzesse gevī issi.” (“My dragons are beautiful!”). Described in George RR Martin’s books as the language of the dragon-taming rulers of a once-great empire, Old Valyria has been compared to the Roman Republic, and High Valyrian to classical Latin. The language only assumed full life when linguist David J Peterson took it on for season three of the television series in 2012. Working from the few High Valyrian phrases mentioned in the book – names, places, and the infamous strapline, “Valar Morghūlis” (“All men must die”) – Peterson created an entire language. The Duolingo course was launched in 2017.

Season 2 of House of the Dragon won't be seen until well into 2024. So there's plenty of time to become fluent in High Valyrian through Duolingo before then.

There's a lot more to a constructed language than just substituting a new word for an existing word in English, French, Spanish, Ukrainian, Thai, Xhosa, or whatever. Without a dedicated grammar and syntax, it would just sound like a more fancy form of pig Latin.

It is strikingly detailed labour for something that will be missed by most viewers. “Ninety-eight percent of viewers are never going to know 99 per cent of what we do,” says linguist Jessie Sams, the partner of Game of Thrones’s Peterson(in both life and work, they confirm cheerily, after I awkwardly ask for clarification); the two have since developed the languages in Dune, The Witcher, and Vampire Academy. “It doesn’t matter if people don’t really notice it at the time,” Peterson says, “it’s always going to be there. And so at some point in time, if somebody decides to analyse it, it’s going to hold up or it’s not.” (He recalls watching a Star Trek episode in which the actor for a highly intelligent character mispronounces a word.) Their involvement with projects varies greatly, from working with dialect coaches, to meeting with actors, or being around on set. Ideally, they would get six months to a year to create a language; more often, they’re given two or three. How do they account for the spiralling demand for their services? “Game of Thrones was so big that everyone wanted to hire everybody who worked on Gone of Thrones” Petersen says. “That’s why I got my second, fourth, and 15th job.”

One interesting thing about High Valyrian is that it has four genders. But we're talking grammatical gender.

High Valyrian from 'Game of Thrones' has four genders. Here's why.

You can create your own language, but it helps if you know more than one real world language – to get some perspective.

@languageoficeandfire

[serenity-ren-bliss]

regarding your "get to know the blogger" post, are there any other fandoms you're in other than genshin impact?

(apologies if there are other non-genshin posts, i don't check your blog too often,,)

star anon

Yep! To varying degrees. I mostly use tumblr for Genshin but here are some other fandoms I'm in:

Danganronpa

Percy Jackson (I'm good for spoilers for everything but The Kane Chronicles and TSATS)

The owl house

Twst wonderland

and Obey!Me

Most of my posts are just Genshin, but I do occasionally reblog other stuff

[karpad]

Hot Take maybe, but if you have watched The Owl House (if you haven't, you should) I think the unique thing which is probably the best thing about it is the adults.

Like, the Kids vs the Evil Tyrant is pretty old hat. It's existed for ages, for varying degrees of reasonableness; probably most important is thematically the intended audience of children will relate to heroes their own age, so stories will come up with various excuses to make it the kids' adventure and not the dozens of adults who should be responsible for it. In Narnia it's magic and no other humans are there, in original Gundam it's a ship that was crowded with refugees and the actual command staff died so either the teenagers run the ship or the ship blows up, in harold parbor everyone is a goddamn moron, you know, normal things.

But in Owl House, there's a half dozen or so adults looking out for the half dozen or so main cast of children. They are trying their hardest to keep those kids safe. The kids are brave, adventurous, and having an adventure to be sure, but the situation is not one where they would be safe if they just stayed home, and so the adults are there to do everything they can to look after them.

All that is to say Camila Noceda is iconic. Absolutely the hardest I have related to any character in years.

[sciencespies]

Dietary impacts of invasive mice on Farallon Islands

https://sciencespies.com/nature/dietary-impacts-of-invasive-mice-on-farallon-islands/

Dietary impacts of invasive mice on Farallon Islands

On an island 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco, a hoard of invasive house mice are packing an ecological wallop far larger than what their small statures would suggest. These are the conclusions of a study led by LSU Associate Professor of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences Michael Polito, along with researchers from Point Blue Conservation Science, San Jose State University and California State University Channel Islands. The study was published today in PeerJ — Life and Environment.

The island in question is Southeast Farallon Island, part of the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, home to the largest seabird breeding colony in the contiguous United States and many unique native species of plants and animals. House mice are not native to the island but were unintentionally introduced during the 1800s or early 1900s. Since then, the population of has grown to about 50,000 house mice inhabiting the island roughly the size of two football fields. The study found that mice consume and/or compete for food with native species and therefore provides support for the proposed plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to eradicate mice from all of the South Farallon Islands.

The research team identified how mice impact this island ecosystem by first gaining a better understanding of mouse abundance and diets.

“Prior to this research, there was a lack of data on what exactly mice were eating on the island and how their diets changed throughout the year,” Polito said.

To study mouse diets, the scientists used a technique called stable isotope analysis, which traces the unique chemical signatures of food sources into mouse tissues.

“Effectively mice are what they eat,” Polito said.

In addition, Polito and his colleagues examined the seasonal abundance of introduced mice over a 17-year period and related it to the availability of native seabirds, salamanders, insects and vegetation on the island.

They conclude that mice are highly “omnivorous and opportunistic” eaters whose population numbers and diets vary dramatically throughout the year in response to changes in food availability and seasonal climate. The researchers discovered that in the spring when the mouse population is low, they eat mainly plants. As summer rolls around, when their numbers begin to increase, the mice start to dine more on native insects and seabirds. In the fall, when the mouse population is booming, their diets transition more fully to insects, putting them in direct competition with the Farallon arboreal salamander, a species found only on the islands. Mouse numbers then decline during the cooler, wetter conditions of winter.

While it remains unclear the degree to which mice are actively depredating seabirds, or just scavenging off abandoned eggs and carcasses, prior studies have found that just the presence of mice on the islands attracts migratory predators, such as Burrowing owls, which then prey on rare native seabirds. The very nature of the island environment itself also leads to invasive mice having an outsized impact.

“Native plants and many animals can’t leave the island to get away from the mice, and these plants and wildlife never had to evolve defensive behaviors against rodents in the way that mainland species have,” Polito said.

The researchers conclude that mice have wide-ranging influences on the island’s ecosystem due to their high abundance and opportunistic diets.

“Our study provides the latest and most comprehensive understanding of mouse diet and the impacts they’re having on the native community — in particular to the endemic arboreal salamander,” said Pete Warzybok, Farallon Islands Program Lead at Point Blue Conservation Science and a co-author of the paper. “These findings make a stronger-than-ever case for the eradication of the mice as a crucial step in restoring the Farallon Islands ecosystem.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Louisiana State University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

#Nature