#“do not blow this for us”

[galactic-dragoness]

I'm so normal istg

[redfoxincutesocks]

[arttuff]

a menace to study habits all over the young justice team.

[mcmactictac]

yes the PJO show still has some significant changes compared to the book (the whole Medusa thing) but the understanding of the characters is spot fucking on. Like the percabeth dynamic? I’m obsessed. The mf consensus song? Hilarious. Every little thing they change they give a new thing that feels so real and in character that I just appreciate we get to see it. It’s like we get to see things that we haven’t before and they’re things that are absolutely plausible and in character for the trio.

[nat-20s]

rtd i am begging

[aacedust]

hey sorry to break it to you but your boyfriend blew himself up with a rocket during dps. no we don’t have anymore tokens. yes that’s a wipe. no he can’t be the div guy he doesn’t have the quest yet. i’m so sorry.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Seeing as the Gerudo turned on Ganon, he might not have been that much better of a ruler.

First of all, we literally have no idea, because the only ancient Gerudo that we actually get to interact with is Ganondorf himself, and he has nothing to say about his own people. The ancient Gerudo sage doesn't count btw, she doesn't have a name, we never even see her face, and she has literally nothing to say except repeating the exact same dialogue as the sages for the other races. The narrative does not treat the ancient sages as people; they are four completely interchangable weapons that are owned by the royal family.

And secondly, I don't care how Ganon ruled them; the Gerudo only get one man every century, if their king sucks, they've obviously got their own system of government to fall back on. I have no idea what kind of authority the sages had among their own people, but honestly I'd say if the four of them were in charge of their respective people, then they were just puppet rulers appointed by Rauru, given that all four of them happily agreed that to sell their entire race into servitude the second Zelda asked them. Say what you will about Ganondorf, but I fucking know that if he was told the Gerudo people existed for the sole purpose of serving the glory of Hyrule, he'd drop kick Zelda into the fucking sun.

And don't get me started on the implications of the cultural differences we see between the independent Gerudo and the annexed Gerudo. The background Gerudo characters all have their own models, and we can clearly see that the ones siding with Ganon have their own unique looks - for example, the amazing lady with the mohawk that summons the molduga swarm in that one flashback. And men are never mentioned in these flashbacks at all, which implies that the Gerudo genuinely didn't care about settling down. Ganon even speaks derisively about marriage, implying that it's very rare for Gerudo women to make serious romantic commitments with men. It implies that their culture is more along the same line as their portrayal in OOT - they are a closed culture. Men trying to force their way into their areas are arrested, and mocked for being entitled dumbasses. Outsiders are only welcome if they can prove that they respect the Gerudo as people, and aren't just there to try and pick up chicks. It's never outright said, but OOT also makes it pretty clear that the Gerudo women just aren't interested in marrying outsiders - close relationships occur with other Gerudo, Hylian men are only considered useful for making babies.

Meanwhile the Gerudo we see serving Hyrule are all trying to measure up to Hylian beauty standards, and appeal to their men. Their one goal in life is to meet a man and get married. Men are welcome in their lands, and only kept out of the town itself... and even then, there's a small army of guys trying to force their way into the town anyways, which is brushed off as just haha, boys will be boys. No men allowed isn't even about independence, it's just a silly romantic tradition.

Of course this is just a fictional culture in a game world, but it's still really fucking uncomfortable that the 'evil' Gerudo are the ones that have independence, both politically and socially, and display a unique culture that refuses to tolerate disrespect from outsiders. Meanwhile the 'good' Gerudo are the ones that canonically exist to serve a kingdom where 95% of the population is light skinned (even setting aside the unfortunate implications, just saying one race exists to serve a different one is super fucked up), they have classes on how to be more appealing to Hylian's, and their entire social structure is built around finding a Hylian man to marry, making them all inherently dependent on the goodwill of outsiders. Even their biggest value of 'women only' is treated as a joke; men trying to trespass in BOTW are just shoved back out the door, letting them keep trying all day if they want. The crowds of men plotting to force their way in are laughed off as a joke. Nobody cares that there's a guy running laps around their city walls and trying to trick women into being alone with him. I mean for fucks sake, in TOTK we find that the creepy guy trying to lure women away has taken advantage of a massive disaster to get into the town, and he's still there once things return to normal. You can't kick him out, or alert anyone to his presence. And the Gerudo just tolerate Hylians blatantly ignoring their boundaries. For fucks sake, TOTK even reveals that the seven legendary heroines they've been revering the whole time were actually completely useless and unable to achieve anything... because they needed the eighth hero, a Hylian man to teach them basic tactics and do all the heavy lifting.

TOTK does not respect the Gerudo people in the slightest. It doesn't respect anyone who isn't Hylian or Zonai.

...This got a little off track, but the point I'm trying to make is, no, I don't consider the Gerudo turning on Ganon to mean anything. The entire game does not feel like the real story of what happened, it feels like the propaganda version of history meant to make Hyrule look as good as possible. I genuinely cannot believe that we're being told the real story about the Imprisoning War, because none of it feels real, and we don't get to know any details that might have made Hyrule look even slightly imperfect. We're told that Ganondorf is evil because he hates Hyrule, and he hates Hyrule because he's evil. The Gerudo people followed Ganondorf and saw him as a hero of their people, then suddenly he was their worst enemy. Hyrule is a perfect kingdom that has strong, equal alliances with the other races, but also all of the non-Hylian races exist for the sole purpose of serving Hyrule, and their leaders are expected to swear eternal loyalty and submission to the Hylian royal family. King Rauru and Queen Sonia united all of the races in peace and equality, which is why they're sitting on the world's supply of magical nuclear missiles, and every member of the Hylian royal family is allowed to walk around wearing them as cute accessories, but everyone else only gets them at the last second, and they all need to outright swear to only use that power to benefit Rauru and his descendants.

There's just so many fucked up contradictions, and so many hints of something more nuanced going on... but the story refuses to acknowledge any of it, and just keeps aggressively pushing the narrative that Hyrule is the ultimate good and couldn't possibly do anything wrong. I don't even believe that Ganon was a bad king honestly; we never hear why his people stopped following him. We also never even see if the Gerudo people turned on him at all; all we know is the ancient Gerudo sage wanted him dead, and given that she also happily sold her people into slavery, she's not exactly the most trustworthy source of information. All we know is that Ganondorf was a hero to his people, only one of his citizens is ever shown having an issue with him (and her motives are never explained), and then he lost the war and was sealed away, leaving his people open to be conquered by Zelda and annexed into Hyrule. By the time we see any Gerudo actually opposing Ganon (apart from the ancient sage), it's been ten thousand years since the war, and all anyone knows is the Hylian version of the story.

[0xeyedaisy]

Recently read Solo Leveling and wanted to doodle these smiley guys

No comment here,,,,

[writer-room]

One among many things I love about Dragons Risings writing is that they're so unapologetic about making the original team very cool, but also absolute dorks.

It's just kinda refreshing to me? Like, yeah, sure, Lloyd's the super-awesome Green Ninja who's a descendant of God, Kai could set the world on fire if he wanted, Nya does not hesitate and was the ocean that one time, Zane will casually mention the most insane shit he did on a whim, Cole has a lava and rock monster form, etc, but like...they're also losers. Lloyd gets bullied constantly and tries to explain what a crab is, Kai has so much intelligence but so little wisdom at all given times, Nya has a 'shit happens' attitude as if she is not actively failing through this shit happening, Zane talks to a broom with Pixal's face on it, and Cole has it together the most by being a 9-to-5 dad with a boyfriend who he 100% believed was his power crux.

They're just people, y'know? Saving the world a hundred times over doesn't mean they're not still 20-something nerds who've been stuck doing this since they were teenagers. One cannot erase the time they had bad boy doppelgangers for like two minutes. Or had to raise their teacher. Or had the weirdest relationship drama. Or were huge video game and tech geeks.

And Dragons Rising isn't afraid to let them be that. To acknowledge, yeah, objectively, they're cool as hell, but to also admit that they're just kinda fucking around and finding out. It's a wonder what consistent and likeable characterization can do, who woulda thought?

[dawntainbobbynash]

Ok but they're finally whumping Bobby at the beginning of the season instead of the end so we're getting a recovery arc instead of just pretending he's immediately fine again right??? RIGHT ABC???

[uncanny-tranny]

You can be opposed to taking DIY hormones yourself, but don't treat trans people who DIY like they're stupid or they're uneducated. Oftentimes, people DIY because there are no other options for them. What you do about people who DIY is basic harm reduction - that means educating as many people as possible about the safest ways to monitor hormone levels, how to inject safely if they're taking injectable hormones, teaching people about common signs of hormone imbalance, among other things.

DIY hormones already have risks, and people who DIY know that. The least you can do is not shame them or treat them like they're stupid because they DIY. Again, people will often DIY as a last resort because trans healthcare is rapidly being targeted.

[bizarrelittlemew]

no but imagine if the studios weren't greedy beyond all fucking believe and the actors and writers didn't have to strike because not only would they be able to be hyped along with us but we would probably ALSO be getting bts material from Samba and Vico (and others but Samba's 4k+ files are just SITTING THERE) like thye'd probably be allowed to post stuff that didn't spoil beyond what the teaser already gives away, right? even just a little bit? but instead they can't celebrate their own work like they deserve along with the rest of us because the studios won't fucking pay their workers and give them rights i am so ANGRY

[feroluce]

So I'm well aware this is probably a case of "it isn't that deep" but I love looking at all the fiddly little accessories and bits and bobs of Hoyo designs and trying to justify them. Sampo's is particularly funny, because. What even is all that dkkxjdkd

His outfit has so many straps wrapped around him, like they're restraining or holding something in to keep it from bursting at the seams, and not all of them look like they're even connected to anything! But I'd like to think they are useful in certain situations, like if Sampo takes a hit out in the Fragmentum from one of the monsters.

He's hurt, his arm is bleeding, but he is ALMOST done, he just needs a couple more things to fulfill his quota to Natasha and he doesn't want to turn around and go back now. So Sampo frees a strap from his shirt, winds it around his arm above the cut, pulls it tight with his free hand and his teeth. He'll treat it properly in a minute, once he's done scavenging.

There's also the strange chains that resemble snake spines. Given how they're way longer in his splash art and the way they wind around-

I'd like to think they can extend somehow, and Sampo can use them to scale heights. Firefly clocks him as a covert fighter without even being within 20 feet of him, so it would make sense for Sampo to have ways to get around that don't involve usual/obvious methods, like stairs. Think assassin skill sets.

He's also the only one known to be able to get between the Underground and the overworld, and while he's pretty tight-lipped about his method, having some sort of device to help traverse vertical heights is probably insanely helpful there.

And the little metal ornaments across the backs of his wrists! You can see it a bit better in his reference sheet (everyone say thanks @/dragaliareferencearchive!) as opposed to his splash art-

they aren't flat, they stick up a bit off his arms. And so I wonder if Gepard has ever gone to arrest Sampo, and found that they interfere with his handcuffs haha

The ornaments don't match, the one on his right wrist is actually shorter and doesn't extend down to the back of his hand. Which probably doesn't make it nearly as annoying for handcuffs as the left one, but it would make sense for Sampo to have them like that, since he seems to be right-handed! I think a certain proficiency in being ambidextrous is necessary to dual wield daggers like he does, but. Sampo uses his right hand to

hold his blade in his splash art

throw his blade in his skill

play/show off with his dagger in his idle

lob smoke bombs in his technique

cross over his heart when he bows

and to flip his bangs during the cutscene where he saves the trailblazers from Bronya

So a shorter guard on his right hand would help him keep his wrist's flexibility to be able to do all that unimpeded (loving the thought now that Sampo is naturally right-handed and still better with it, but he practiced constantly with his left until he could do things passably ambidextrous).

I also love them because I wonder if they're in the perfect place to help block a hit, along with the chain wrapped around his left forearm.

Like I love the image of a hired killer soundlessly sneaking up behind Sampo in some shady dark alley, knife sloooooowly raising, and then all at once, they strike!

And instead of feeling the blade sink into his back, they get the unpleasant resonating of metal-on-metal shivering up their arm and rattling their bones, because Sampo has turned around at the last second and raised his crossed his arms to let the knife glance off the guards on his wrists.

And the mercenary is left to realize that oh, they are fucked.

[sijopolang]

Nobody for a second should doubt me when I say I believe she’ll be coming back 💕🥹 they didn’t add that last end credit change with her walking back to the others for nothing 😭

My beautiful, we’re all waiting for you!

[schmweed]

[nyxi-pixie]

if your ship has never said anything unbelievably suggestive to each other that the mainstream audience somehow can ignore like it didnt happen or sound like that then are they even your ship?