#'light and dark are a part of a very important balance (tho i think light is still better bc thats what we're taught)'

[littledudeholland]

How i make my drawings

Hello! Since @wolfsune09 asked how i make my shading and all that i decided to make a little tutorial on my shading style! (I draw in Clip Studio Paint)

Also english is not my fist language so i'm sorry if i make any mistakes or say weird sentences!

So let's start with brushes:

The brushes i mainly use are The Calliflakes brush, Soft square brush, and the regular Turnip pen and Design pencil from Clip studio

These brushes are like, MY LIFE i love them so much dfjsdbfhbsdb

Anyway, the drawing i'm making is a screenshot redraw of a homestuck panel because i can

Get homestucked lol

Anyway after the sketch i make the shading plans, they are really important and will basically dictate if the drawing will be good or not

always make sure the light direction is the same throughout or else it will look lackluster, think about the character in they're primary forms(head is a square, torso is also a square, nose is a piramid etc.)

Now is the real kicker, plan the reflective light (i can't explain it really well so researching it is a better option)

I like to see the light sources with their correct blending modes before drawing to check if the colors look ok

In the end, the objective is to make it so the drawing still holds up without the sketch, if the light makes the pose readable, it's all good to go

Finally, it's time for the lineart, i made the Calliflakes's brush change in size depending on the tilt, this is great for a dynamic lineart and a crunchy look

I usually use three sizes in the lineart, the main size, a medium size to make more detailed parts, and a smaller one for when i need even smaller details, tho it's good to use it sparingly since it might make the drawing look unbalanced

Also, i usually don't use black in my drawings, mostly because of the shading process

Looking good!

Now it's time for the flats! This part is pretty simple, this ios also the part where i paint the lineart, i ONLY paint parts that are INSIDE the silhouette, mostly to make everything blend more and also becuase i like it :)

What a handsome fellow!

Alright now for the part you came here for, the shading! Alright, remember the shading plan? Use that as a base for the actual shading.

First, since this drawing is in a dark place, i grouped the whole drawing in a folder, then made a multiply layer with the color closest to the original image, then i clipped it to the folder(this is a very common thing here)

(I didn't shade the eye since it is the main point of focus of the drawing)

Now let's see it with the lighting plan

nice

Now let's talk soft squares and design pencils

The way i shade with the soft square is that i make it mostly cell shaded, then i come with the same brush but transparent, and i VERY CAREFULLY make circular motions to erase part where i want the shading to make a gradient effect, the key to a good shading job is balancing the sharp shadows with the soft ones

Now with hair, i use the design pencil, i basically just make a bunch of close streaks, almost like painting with a paint brush, after that i make streaks with the same pencil but transparent, making variations in lenght so it looks natural and organic

Alright time for the first shade pass, this one is for the more general shadows, so it won't look that dynamic

Now you can see where the shadows are lacking and make the second pass to deepen the shapes

(P.S: all these layers are the same color, they are in multiply mode)

Alright time for the star of the show! The lights!!!

Using the shading plan i refined the shapes and put it on the add(glow) mode, a good tip i have for this stage is to make shapes shapes shapes! Also remembering that the farther the thing is, the least bright it will be.

Oh my! That changes the whole vibe!

Now i saw the hair was a little boring looking, so i added an extra layer of airbrush to make it more dynamic

Actually fuck it, time for some finger tip smudge

Now we're talking.

Alright, now it's time for the reflected light, make sure it's not too bright unless it looks like a second light source, also this layer is in glow dodge mode!

We could say it's done as it is...

BUT NOT BEFORE THE COLOR DODGE

It looks so muck better now! But that's not all!

Now that we have this beautiful boi, it's time for the finishing touches! These make ALL the difference in the drawing

There we go!

Well now it's my favorite part... the FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT part!

This is where you add all the textures and special effects! I like mostly using a noise filter (so AI can't steal my stuff) and achromatic aberration, also adding some ashes and a nice metal texture in the background to make it nicer looking

Now, this is technically finished, but if you want to go the extra mile, you can do some color correction, i like doing it to give more contrast, also to make the piece more balanced, i also added some extra details on the eye and a blur last minute

And it's done!

As you can see my process is a little all over the place, but that's the fun part of drawing for me! It's always an adventure where you never know how it's going to end!

Anyway hope this helped at least a little!

[asterefflores]

I saw the post about angst in your story. I want to put a comment but mine might be just too long and this app is just not ready for it xD, so I drop it here.

For me, the angst in ur story tilts towards the darker side. It's not just sad, unhappy stuff. I don't know how to articulate it in human language (istg), but I find it remarkably balanced and just feels right. It feels fitting, somehow.

Each arc in your story unfolds at the perfect moment, revealing itself in due course (what am i talking about). Tbh, your story might be considered heavy. I said this numerous times already (maybe) but I love the world-building in it (even tho my brain needs to restart every time).

The characters' backgrounds and the reasons why they are in their current state are intriguing. Moreover, although you introduce certain angsts, what I admire is that you never dwell on them excessively. They are relatable, logical, and not exaggerated or cringe-worthy. They are in the right amounts.

It's like, the story holds multiple layers of surprises each time you unveil the answers to the readers' questions of "why." Also, the angst within goes beyond than just sadness, contain/hiding various emotions and elements of irony.

I remember how the other readers and I went crazy (for fun) with theories in the comments when it was first revealed that Cale had a connection to the Secret Kingdom. We all anticipated something light and fluffy, but oh my goodness, jahahshfhf it took a darker turn that caught us off guard in the most unexpected moment. I love that aspect, and the transitions between each arc are incredibly smooth.

I also love every one of your original characters, (wait you already knew this ajshfkh) but duh, I've never had this much love or enthusiasm for fanfic before. I have a huge crush on your art and writing. It's therapeutic for me to see and read them. Thank you for the artwork and stories, even your daily shenanigans at your office @Xwitter are entertaining to follow up. Love isn't enough to describe how fascinated I am with your work.

I know, I throwing so many compliments for you on this one. I can't help it. I hope you don't mind🧍🏻‍♀️if you mind, I'd still going to do it. So I hope you still don't mind.

Please have a good day 🍀 (Please rest...)

I like to keep the characters realistic with logical responses in any case according to their traits and their back stories and whatnot, I don't like dwelling on anything too much in the plot, sure the angst part is important but if used too much it'll ruin the story not only for readers but also for me lol, it'll feel like I'm forcing it on the characters when, logically thinking, they wouldn't stay depressed for long or behave in certain dramatic ways, based on the way their brain works and all.

And yeah, well, my fanfic was indeed meant to be simple at first you know, but I naturally turn any plot I write heavy and dark with time, and it gets worse gradually but I try to hold back and be reasonable before I mess up at some point lolol

I didn't know you find my transitions between each arc smooth, I'm really happy and thank you for letting me know, all this time I stare at my stories and ask myself "Are there even arcs? Isn't it all a mess? Does anyone notice the transition? Is there even a transition?" Then laugh at my own writing and say it is what it is and keep writing anyway while confident that I'm doing everything wrong somehow XD

And you know, when I introduced OCs in my fanfic I was very sure no one gonna care or pay attention to their parts (except maybe my close friend lol) so I'm really glad to see some readers come to love them eventually, though I think Tristan is getting most love than the rest but that's expected considering his character and his role with Roksoo and Cale lol, I expected many readers would hate his role as their father but now the majority is cheering for him xDD

About my office shenanigans, you just made me recall how my followers on Instagram used to like and anticipate my stories about my daily life at work lolol I didn't think anyone would find joy in them also on twitter/X but glad you enjoy my comical work life 🤝🏻

Lastly, ofc I don't mind, at all, you don't know how many times I read your message and made me smile the whole time, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me 💕💕💕

And I'm trying to rest, I think I'm resting— ok, the fact I don't even know if I'm resting says enough lol but I'm working on it *cough

Thank you again and take care you too, have a good day 🌸🌸

[sotogalmo]

5:55

Oh yeah! Uhm. Fanart for @scribble0rat 's old Sonic movie fic! (I've been re-reading their stuff)

But. Yk- did my own twist/interpretation of the reader since he lives on the moon, he has lots of fur on him. Fluffiest one out of all of the mobians that Tom & Maddie EVER met(good for winter, BAD BAD for summer. HATES the Sun)

He has long ears to hear from basically all around the moon he lives on. So when he went to earth? Oh FUCK his ears were KILLING him.

He also has a long tail! For balance. 0-gravity on the moon, and he needs to adapt to live in it better. That's also why he has claws that are permanently out! So he can hold onto things for safety, and stuff!

Some parts of his fur is black, due to how he mainly went to live on the dark side of the moon(nighttime basically?). But he also went to the light side(daytime ig) of the moon: his front area is very light to not absorb that light.

With how he chooses to stay in the dark area of the moon, and how FREEZING COLD it is, he gained weight! Tho it's more like- subcutaneous fat to keep the heat inside.

Other fun facts I did when thinking of other factors of his character: he has GREAT leg muscles! He ran across the moon many times! <- to get supplies he knows a very deep hidden spot where the plants(fruits, veggies, and meat. Weird, ik, on how meat is growing on a plant but who cares. Comet finds it very interesting and funny) grow very fast. He checks it every 2 hours or so.

He also doesn't know if he IS a hedgehog, but he only calls himself that because of how similar he looks to Sonic.

Also the reason why he is bigger is cuz of how. He's like. Somewhat like a camel? He stores water inside of him too. The moon doesn't have THAT much water, so he saves up his own(which is. Disgusting tbh. Cuz his own "water" is just. Piss. So you can say he's used to. ... Drinking pee. He's alone on the moon: no one around and the only thing he has is himself. And it's the Moon. NO water is on it)

,, some close ups:

His paw design! Very wide and small with claws. It helps with digging and stuff.

That scene where he's. Comforting Tails <3. Ough.

Which. Also gave me headcanons: since he's tribal like Knuckles, he would somewhat have his same mindset? But it would lean more to loving and cherishing family and friends. Honor comes second, as family - friends and love come first to the Soulful Moons. That's why they forge alliances with the Echidnas and then the Owls. They want to survive, and stay around.

Purple is a common color to the Soulful Moons. No real reason- they find it pretty and they like it. But for Comet(the name I went for him), and the new generation of Soulful Moon adjacent kids, purple is like. A color of new beginnings, future, duty, luck and love. It's a very hopeful color then it is to humans(as the color purple to humans just mean. Basically royalty). = Purple becomes important

He's naive like Knuckles, but would rather see the good in people. Because, basically his first impressions of Earth is that of a mom deer and a baby deer. His first impression is that a mother worries for her kid, and that shows that she is good. The kid as well. The kid was just curious, but then was wailing because they wanted to live. — First impressions of Earth were that of compassion and family. So he does trust people blindly, he's a bit stupid like that tbh (silly guy).

He makes soup a lot! It's his favorite thing to do. When he heard of many types of soups? He would go for all of them.

[cyberneticlagomorph]

I owe 3 ppl replies (I think that's everyone feel free to yell at me if it isn't)

I have them all Saved so that I don't lose them this time tho so they shouldn't have to wait too long for me to get to them BUT

Regarding the Ambassadorable: she has a zipper down her spine that nobody alive has ever seen open.

(I mean she's also got plush legs and literally no brain so like-- but I digress)

Inside the zipper is a hollow made of pulsating meat webbed with dark veins, no bones, no organs, no fluff, just a meat suit containing a little girl that couldn't be more than 3 or 4 years old but the longer you look at her the more you come to realize that you can't remember the most basic details about her face.

The color of her eyes and how many she has

The shape of her nose

The length and number of her teeth

Everything else you can remember, her soft and chubby hands, the nightgown that goes down past her knees that's covered in juice stains and marker smudges, the bandaids on her knees

You see, the Ambassadorable is a guardian of sorts, caring for the toys and daydreams that got us through childhood. But she's not just the soft parts, she's also every unkind word your parents ever said to you, every punishment, every nightmare, every time they hit you, every "I feed you, I dress you, I give you somewhere to sleep", every skinned knee and dark thought you ever had growing up

She guards the sift parts you don't need anymore since you grew up and sings the sharp parts to sleep so they can't hurt you anymore

She used to be little, she used to be human, but now she's a part of Fairyland and that means she's a part of the weird and whimsical balance that keeps this universe running.

Regarding Fairyland's sun and moon:

A long time ago when Fairyland was just a rock some high Elves had found and decided to call home, it had no light

So they spun a sun from stories and Wants, they made Her green and told Her they loved Her

They tied Her to a chain and dragged Her around the planet by hand.

There were no God-Beasts back then so it was literally just some dude with the world's worst balloon walking around the planet very slowly, manually adjusting the height and therefore the temperature of the sun so nothing would scorch

The moon was carved from dreams, back when the sandman was still alive and the dreamlands wouldn't immediately try to kill you upon entry

The moon quarry is still there, you could go and visit it if you wanted, but I wouldn't recommend it

The dreamlands are feral now, overrun with emotional baggage and nightmares, lost trains of thought, and lots of things that couldn't exist anywhere else

The moon had a guardian too, the first elf who carved it by hand and set it loose is the sky pulled it along behind him and made sure that the night was just as important as the day

He would tug the tides along too, and keep the sea in check

[princecharmingtobe]

So I mentioned I made V (Vervain Auvraheal) in BG3. And I've become a little obsessed with his dynamic with Shadowheart...

So due to the constraints of the video game, I've made it an AU in which V never got cursed as a child and ended becoming a life cleric instead of a peace cleric. Still got that level in monk tho.

Another change due to constraints is his god. His canon god is Angharradh, a goddess made up of three other goddesses. But she wasn't an option. And I don't know if any of her component gods were options either? But you know who is an option? Selune. One of the goddesses who makes up Angharradh is Sehanine Moonbow, and Sehanine is an aspect of Selune, so it works out I think. (spoilers onward)

This does make things a little awkward with Shar-worshipping Shadowheart though! :D Cause in case you weren't aware, Selune and Shar are twin sisters who fucking hate each other and want each other dead and also like... light and dark and all that fun stuff. Despite worshipping such a dark goddess, Shadowheart's generally a very kindhearted person. She and V actually get along very well, so long as religion does not come up. So well, in fact, that they have expressed wanting to bone.

I've started calling them Star-Crossed Clerics, and I'm not sure how things will work out between them (no spoilers please). But they're so sweet and so tragic right now. Cause they'll talk about all sorts of things, be respectful of each other's boundaries, be all cute and stuff like V getting Shadowheart to talk about her favorite flower, and generally seem to agree morally on most things.

Shadowheart is also the one who convinced V that maybe he shouldn't blindly trust the dream guardian person thing. Cause of the companions I currently have, two were fully gung-ho about it, and two wouldn't even consider it. V at the time believed the guardian to be Corellon (because I didn't know what to make him so I was like fuck it, The Protector himself) and was all hyped about it. Gale and Astarion reinforced the idea that this was a good thing in his mind, and Wyll Lae'zel just came across as stubborn and close-minded to him so he just avoided the subject with them. But then Shadowheart acknowledged that there may be some good to using the tadpoles, but that parts of it just didn't sit right and she was concerned it might be dangerous. Having it approached in a more balanced way that points out the good and bad made him actually stop and think and realize he might have been acting naively.

So they get along with most things, they're really cute and respectful of each other, they listen to and ground each other, and they wanna bone. But then religion- something extremely important to both of them- comes up and they're at an impasse. They don't trust each other's goddesses or orders, they probably want to convert each other, and the very nature of their goddesses means it would be very hard for them to be together long term. And like, V tries so hard to be understanding and patient with everyone, but literally the day after they discussed wanting to bone, Shadowheart decided to share with him her dream of becoming a Dark Justiciar, to "weed out the non-believers" and "bring forth Shar's eternal darkness" or whatever. And externally V was like "Thanks for sharing..." but inside he was like "AAAAAAAAAAAAH" and he's now doubting if they can really be together.

It's heartbreaking :(

[hazelcephalopod]

The Great Hunt Ch 21-22

Inns and Lore! A far more pleasant experience with some allies gained and others lost.

Disclaimer: this is my first read thru but I’ve watched all of the show thus far and been spoiled on some book things. So… I’m going to lean into that. Enjoy figuring out what I know, and what I think I know, and what I just don’t. Also s/x I add commentary when I edit.

Spoilers for the first and second book and all of season 1 under the cut. Potential spoilers for later books -idk if they’re light spoilers or not.

21: The Nine Rings

That’s the name of the inn too

Harp

POV Rand

Inn chapter?! Why am I excited for this? (Editors note. They barely leave the inn. It’s kinda awesome!)

Oh great. Soldiers

Probably was

Inkeeper: Maglin Madwen

Lol. Chill man!

Technically true. The found it already

Her husband was an asshole. Apparently they are in Cairhien now? (Editors note. Or very close because they still talk as if they are going there. Maybe it’s also the name of the capital?)

Cairhienin are all known schemers according to Maglin. She’s from Lugard tho (I soon learn this is because they just take political conniving and court politics to a new extreme)

Do they have money?

Is this just curry?

Unsurprisingly the Two Rivers seasoning options were limited

Also. Food!

Don’t. Do it. You have too much attention already (editors note. Guess what?)

He’s going to do it isn’t he?

Yup. He’s letting them assume he’s a lord and playing the flute in the inn now (editors note. Is that what you guessed? Good job! /genuine)

…everyone is going to assume the Two Rivers is basically it’s own kingdom by the end of all this aren’t they?

Cap Aldrin Caldevwin of the Cairhien military. Met. Apologizing for his men singing. Lol

Ffs he’s now just going around telling everyone his name and address. That’s kinda funny

Oh he’s testing him. Luckily Rand has been cursed by the pattern to be important and know important shit.

… I get now why he’s been set up as a lord. Glad it’s becoming amusing

On of the barmaids, Catrine dropped a lantern just as Aldrin asked Selene her name. She didn’t reply

…b/c she def caused Catrine to drop that lantern

She’s not even that good an actress it seems?

What’s the Foregate?

Men from there are excavated the stature. The Wizard orb one

Galladrian? Oh! That’s the king. He’s part of the scheme to frame Bayle Domon. (Which makes him my enemy)

Also Selene has gone upstairs because she doesn’t feel well. (Editors note. Pretty sure she uh… left then)

Ah. “Daes Dae’mar… The Great Game. The Game of Houses, some call it. This Caldevwin thinks you must be doing something to your advantage or you wouldn't be here. And whatever you're doing might be to his disadvantage, so he has to be careful." -Hurin when Rand asks why Caldevwin seemed so suspicious of them/Rand

Lol. This might be fun yea. Rand really doesn’t have many plans beyond ‘help friend. Maintain deep denial about various things. Try to be nice. Avoid all the servants of the dark (poorly)’

…I say poorly because like he does do it but he keeps running into more. So it’s like a balance to the point it seems like he’s doing a bad job but really no.

Oh yea. “The Great Game? What game?” -Rand. This will be good

It politics. Just feudal politics and court drama

…all southerners do it according to Hurin. Tho I’m pretty sure just everyone does some version of that

Oh no Selene left /s. Ju… just such a. A shame. Darn. /s (more)

… she left a letter. No I won’t repeat it

Well Caldevwin is just set himself to go with Rand now. Oh no just his men. New leader dude, Elricain Tavolin, hasn’t said a word yet.

Rand ‘huh. Idk. But ok. Should help ward off all the people following us’

So Aldrin had the inn watched -according to Hurin who is likely telling the truth and maybe has super hearing- and Selene got away without being seen. B/c of course she did

“Nothing is happening the way I expect.” -Rand… bud, you still have expectations?

22: Watchers

(Editors not this answers my final question. The title of the chapter. At least in part)

Sword

POV Moiraine

“Nothing is happening the way I expect.” -Moiraine. (Lmao) to Lan.

She appears to be in a densely packed library. Of books. No idea about the people yet (I soon learn it’s not really a public library and only Lan is there rn)

Ok she’s in Tifan’s Well, Arafel. Home of this old Aes Sedai couple. Adeleas and Vandene

“The villagers came to the sisters for advice on their problems and cures for their ills, and valued them as women blessed by the Light, but no more. Adeleas and Vandene had gone into voluntary retreat together so long ago that few even in the White Tower remembered they still lived.” -Tgh. Sounds wonderfullly gay to me. Good for them.

They just decided ‘eh white towers a bit tedious let’s go cottage core it up in the middle of fucking nowhere village and retire as village grannies’. Excellent

With a Warder. Also very old. Still very good for the three of them then.

…don’t tell me when it comes crashing down this is very fun rn

They plan to write a book on the history of the world since the Brwaking. That may be verbatim. I love them more and more (editors note. I just continue to love them. Especially Vandene, who we shortly meet)

“Movement caught her eye, and she turned. Lan was lounging against the yellow brick fireplace, as imperturbable as a boulder.” -(Moiriane). “Lounging”. This story really has a lot between the lines s/x I swear

Oh wow this is great. So, Moiraine and Lan met while when she was young and seemingly freshly minted Sedai. Following her attempting to question Lan he threw her into a pond. Then built a fire and a sort of tent for her to warm up. And then she dumped half the pond on him with the power and it seems they had a prank war for the next week or so while traveling together. But she’d already decided to ask him to be her Warder the first day.

Honestly I find Lan having more a dry humor then I’ve seen credited to him

…people do not loose deep humor that leads them to ruthlessly prank their best friend. Not entirely

And the elation has come crashing down. “Before we left Tar Valon I made arrangements, should anything happen to me, for your bond to pass to another. When you feel my death, you will find yourself compelled to seek her out immediately. I do not want you to be surprised by it." -Moiraine to Lan. Wtf Moiraine? He did not know this (I very quickly learn he is far from pleased by this)

Apparently the Bond can be used to compel a Warder. Yikes

Ma’am not really your choice to make

That is quite sad tho

His Bond will pass to a green sister named Myrelle (I soon learn she has three other Warders already)

Oh he’s rightly mad

Oh and too be passed onto yet another once the right one is find (Editors note. Pretty sure Moiraine believes it will be Nynaeve. Still like girl… no. Not like this)

"Has all this talk been a test- a test!- to see if you could make my bond rub? After all this time? From the day I pledged to you, I have ridden where you said ride, even when I thought it foolish, even when I had reason to ride another way. Never did you need my bond to force me. On your word I have watched you walk into danger and kept my hands at my sides when I wanted nothing more than to out sword and carve a path to safety for you. After this, you test me?" -Lan to Moiraine

Sounds like a test or means of pushing him away. Girl what are you doing?

The fuck? People need guidance? Lan was right.

Ma’am are you ok? (She not)

Well the Bond can be released. So… there’s that. (Seems like a lot to unwrap there tbh)

Girl… no

…like truly. I think you misjudged a redwood for a branch. But also forgot how to treat humans

Moiraine… has never felt jealousy over any man? Ever? Until right now? Which Tbf he is her best friend who may actually be falling in love love for the first time. So. Fair. But the never feeling jealousy over a man is curious

Still disappointed in Moiriane but understanding where she is at helps. I still love her

K

I’m… I got thoughts. But this is like decent romance writing. Like… yea.

The sisters Warder is Jaem

A green and a brown? Vandene and Adeleas respectively. I assumed both we’re of the brown Ajah. I’m excited to be here!

"’Whatever it is, you don't even seem to know where to look.’ Vandene shifted some of the books and manuscripts on the table, shaking her head. ‘So many subjects. The Trolloc Wars. The Watchers Over the Waves. The legend of the Return. Two treatises on the Horn of Valere. Three on dark prophecy, and— Light, here’s Santhra’s book on the Foresaken. Nasty, that. As nasty as this on Shader Logoth. And the Prophecies of the Dragon, in three translations and the original.” -Vandene. She’s kinda throwing caution to the wind huh?

Lol. There’s a rumor someone has already found the horn?! That’s great

Ok. More lore time. According to Vandene (who would know), the Horn -of Valere- isn’t mentioned in the Prophecies of the Dragon, nor at all linked to him. But must be found before the Last battle. Which the Dragon will fight. The only potential link to Toman Head is a line in PotD “…Five ride forth, and four return. Above the watchers shall he proclaim himself bannered cross the sky in fire..” (Vandene. Tgh)

She also believes that the word watchers (ma’vron, which technically means something more than just watchers, a’vron) refers to the Watchers Over the Waves and therefore will appear “above Toman Head, in Arad Domain, or Saldaea.” But she thinks perhaps it means Taim, who hasn’t been caught by the Tower yet.

Lol. Who knows maybe you’ll survive and finish it yet! (The history book)

Onto Shadar Logoth. Mordeth used “the tactics of the Darkfriends against the Darkfriends”. Also apparently Adeleas knows all about Shadar Logoth. It’s not linked to the Dragon in any of the prophecies or whatnot. Only one false dragon had any connection to it (Yurian Stonebow, who is familiar). No idea why a Fade would have any interest in it or in an object from there it as it destroys shadowspawn -and any creature of light or dark, except Mordeth.

She says she doesn’t know much about Foresaken tho. Other than what is taught to Novices. Which… seems like they were trained many years apart might be a good idea to exchange notes

“The Daughter of the Night remains as much a mystery as if she truly had cloaked herself in darkness… Lanfear was linked to the Dragon, to Lews Therin Telamon.” -Vandene on Lanfear

Oh wow. More lore. Uhh. Vandene is of the opinion that the Dragon Reborn must face the Dark One and then be defeated/neutralized himself before he goes mad and destroys the world. And that the Amyrlin will surely call upon all the sisters to get him to do the first and then to do the second. Also, the seals on the Dark One are clearly weakening. Considering all the strange events happening they must be.

K

What? A Draghkar?! Do they have siren powers?

… and energy vampire/soul and life draining powers to the point of death with its kiss… uhh. That sounds very familiar. Not form this series tho!

“Embrace death!” -Lan and Jaem. Uhhh. No. Wtf

At least they killed it

That is an odd quirk of the Power

She’s just saying the Black Ajah warded that Draghkar. Telling them to cover it up and leaving. The end. ‘That’s weird. The bad ones did it. Uh. Bye? Huh? I gotta go. Good luck!’

I am honestly not sure which answer she’s found. Have to think on that.

[babiesdreams]

The mirror +18 Doyoung Hogwarts au Part 2 This 2 fics are important. Really, read them if you wanna keep up w/ everything

Part 1 is in here (For context). Alsooo, as I said in the first part, I do not stand by what the Harry Potter creator says/thinks about the trans community. Don’t hate on trans people, trans lives matter.

Word count: 2.1k

Warnings: sexual content, fem1 reader

It’s been weeks and you were really dying to know what Doyoung saw on the reflection of the mirror, but he always refuses to tell you. At this point you really believe it must be something really embarrassing, since he wasn’t talking about it. 

Your best friend, Donghyuck, has been telling you how you shouldn’t trust him. The Gryffindor boy always hated on Slytherins and Doyoung always got on his nerves. The two of them were constantly fighting about completely unimportant things. 

“I’m sure he saw your dead body” Haechan says with a creepy tone.  “For god’s sake Donghyuck, he’s not the devil. He’s just a student” He chuckles “You know who else was just a student. Yes, you got it. Tom Riddle” He says in an ironic tone that really gets on your nerves. “He doesn’t want me dead okay?” You say angrily.

“Who wants you dead?” Doyoung says from behind of you. “What did you see in the mirror?” Haechan says getting closer to him, trying to intimidate him, but Doyoung’s eyes are only looking at you with a serious yet hurted expression. “You told him?” He says slowly. “I-I didn’t mean to-” You stutter, trying to explain yourself but he just furrows his brows and walks away, completely furious. 

“Fight me you stupid” Haechan shouts at him but he doesn’t seem to care as much, his body turns back, looking at the Gryffindor boy and he simply says “Aqua eructo” Pointing his wand at the boy. Inmediately a jet of water emerges from the tip of his wand, wettening Haechan’s body.

“See? The devil” Haechan whispers once he’s gone. You hit his arm, completely mad at him, but also wasn’t all the fault on yours? Weren’t you the one who told him about that personal and intimate moment?

“I gotta go” You say, holding tears from falling down your cheeks. You get to the girls bathroom, to hide from everyone around. Your tears quickly start floading, in between loud whines. Moaning myrtle’s ghost starts talking to you instantly almost like tears and cries called her soul everytime.

“Who made you this sad?” She coos at you. You look at her, kind of disgusted, knowing how annoying she could get sometimes. “I don’t wanna talk” You simply whisper. “It was a boy right? Boys are so cruel” She says crying out loud. You look at her fiercely and shout “GO” 

She shakes at the fierce and scary reaction. “Leave me alone” You scream at her. She ends up leaving with loud cries that get to your mind, making it hurt like crazy. Gosh you hated that annoying ghost.

------------------------------------------------

You’ve been trying to apologize to Doyoung for weeks in different ways, but he always found a way out, not even wanting to look into your eyes. So you decided to go with the harsh way. “Petrificus totalus” You say pointing at Doyoung’s figure. 

His body petrifies under the effect of the spell. His expression turns into an angry one before it gets frozen. His body surprisingly mantains the balance, which is rare on victims under this spell.

You start off explaining yourself. “I wasn’t conscious of how much that moment meant for you. I really thought you would talk about it with your friends too. I just... He’s my bestfriend, and I know he can get really annoying sometimes, but he’s a good guy. He was just scared, since you were a Slytherin, and he doesn’t really trusts Slytherins... I’m so sorry Doyoung. I should hae never done that, or even pressure you to tell me. I just don’t wanna lose you. I have been so afraid of losing you this past weeks. I had to petrify you so that you would listen” You say, as tears start appearing in your shiny eyes.

“I love you Doyoung. And It fucking hurts okay? I don’t know what to say or do to make you stay. But if I can do something, anything, please tell me... I really can’t imagine my life without you” You cry out, looking at his petrified angry expression. “Renervate” You finally say pointing at him with your wand. His body slowly returns to its natural form. 

His expression in no longer angry but sad. “You can do whatever you want. I just wanted to tell you” You say as you turn your back to him, wanting y¡to leave the room. Now filled with embarrasing moments for you. “I wasn’t mad” He says, stopping your steps. “I was just hurted. But you couldn’t know why. You don’t know what I saw” He explains.

But your tears don’t stop falling, His words wouldn’t stop your mind from blaming your actions. It wasn’t your fault? Yeah sure. You couldn’t know? Why would that even matter? You revealed an intimate moment between you two without his consent.

“Are you listening?” The boy says worriedly. “You deserve to be mad at me” You say controlling the tone of your breathy voice. “I’m not mad” He shouts “I don’t care” You answer, also screaming. “You should be mad. You should be hating me. Why aren’t you?” You shout at him and he looks at you with a serious gaze. “Because I love you”

His words replay in your mind, like something that you needed to hear, yet you were to scared about. “You want to know what I saw in the mirror?” He says, almost tearing up, but you shake your head. “It doesn’t matter anymore” you whisper as your lips get closer to his. Your lips collide together in a explosion of feelings.

“I missed you” He says under his breath. “Me too” You simply reply.

------------------------------------------

It’s been a couple of hours since Doyoung forgave you and your heart was already fluttering around. His arm pulls you into a room, an empty room, and instantly everything that happened that night replays on your head.

Doyoung’s lips are leaving wet marks on your neck, making your body shake due to the pleassure. “Let’s take it slow this time” You whisper at him and he nods. His black hair really looks great with the rooms lighting. His dark chocolate eyes are fixed on your lips, your soft and moist lips. 

His thumb caress it softly as if redrawing them. They tear apart slightly, leaving a gap in between your top and your bottom lip. “You look perfect” He says looking directly at your lips. “Stay by my side” He whispers in your ear and you simply nod.

His thumb slowly enters your mouth, getting wet with your saliva as it does. He’s completely focused on fucking your mouth with his fingers in a very sexual way that he forgets about everything else. Your mind is also focused on the slow movements of his finger passing through your wet lips over and over again. Your tongue moves slowly, caressing the tip of his finger as he keeps inserting it in.

You swear you could just have  cum right there by the mere actions of a finger in your mouth, which was quite embarrassing. The way he moves tho... He doesn’t need a spell to control you, his words are more than enough. His free hand finally travels along your curves, The way his fingertips brush your skin makes you shake slightly, in anticipation.

He reaches your cunt, drawing a straight line through your clothed folds. His thumb is fully inside of your mouth, not moving now. His lips get close to your neck, pressing a soft kiss on it “I love you” He whispers against your skin before his tongue licks it off slowly. “I fucking love you” He repeats and you can’t contain yourself from humming against his thumb.

He chuckles, knowing exactly what you wanted to say, and keeps going. His tongue getting dangerously close to your breasts. Your hands fastly remove your clothes from his way, wearing only your underwear now. “Good girl” He growls against your collarbone. He licks his way down until he reaches the limit of your bra. 

As if reading his mind you unclip it, letting it fall down right after. His lips trap your left nipples, sucking it in slowly. His teeth slightly caress your skin as he dows, making you gasp. His lips slowly get away from your chest, making your nipple slide out. He then straight up bites the sensitive skin. His teeth are gentle tho, only making you feel a slight hint of pain in between all the pleasure.

His hand is still on your cunt, drawing circles around your clothed clit, making your panties completely wet and uncomfortable to wear. If his thumb wasn’t on your mouth you’ll be moaning out loud, letting the whole school know just how good he’s fucking you. But instead you’re only able to hum around his wet digit.

His fingers slide your panties down, letting them fall to the ground, the sensation of the cold air and the relief of not having a wet spot brushing your cunt is absolutely perfect. You don’t have much time to think about it tho, because his fingers quickly enter your dripping wet pussy, slowly yet deeply.

You wanna scream his name so that he knows just how much you’re enjoying it, but it doesn’t seem to be needed by him. He can tell just how much you’re enjoying it purely based on the wet fluids coming out of your cunt. 

His mouth finally atacks the other nipple, that was completely abandoned. His lips repeat the actions he previously did with your other nipple. You let out a whimp around his thumb, which he gets out of your mouth, leaving a wet trail of saliva connecting his digit to your lips. It’s a split second though, just before he gets his index and middle finger inside, filling your mouth again.

You hum in protest but he doesn’t really listen. His fingers get faster inside of you, curving themselves as they do, instantly making your body shake out of pleassure. His actions come to a stop shortly after as his fingers slowly pull out of you, making some of your juices fall to the ground from his fingers.

His fingers get out of your mouth as well. “On four” He simply orders, and eventhough you wanna protest you simply obligue, getting on the said position fastly. He’s busy removing his clothes, on your back. “I love you too Doyoung” You are finally able to reply as he gets undressed. The boy chuckles at your cute confession.

“I know baby” He says kneeling down and inserting his tip in you. You whimper loudly and he sighs. “You have to be quiet if you don’t wanna get us expelled” He says and you nod as if understanding, but deep down you know you will not be able to control sounds from coming out of your mouth.

He puts his hand on your mouth making your body follow his arm. Your back touches his chest slightly getting the boy’s sweat on you. His dick gets inside of you fully as you do. His hips move fast as if he had been retraining them all this time. “Have I ever told you how good you look like this?” You shake your head and he smirks. 

“You look perfect like this, when I fuck you” He whispers in your ear, leaving goosebumps all over your body. And it’s true, the way the lights reflect on your body, as it shakes, covered by shiny sweat is really a mesmerzing view. “Now you are gonna cum for me as I do okay?” He says softly and you nod, already feeling a wave of arousal coming.

Your body shakes when you feel his hot cum filling you out. “Fuck” You whisper loudly once he removes his hand from your mouth. He pulls out of you, letting his cum fall to the ground and he sits down, catching his breath back in.

“I need to tell you” He says in between heavy breathes. “About the mirror” He starts saying with a shaky voice, but his figure starts dissapearing without he even noticing. You gasp in surprise, not knowing what was happening. “I saw” His breathy voice says just before his whole body vanishes away.

You’re really shocked, not knowing what to say or do or think. You never saw this kind of magic before and he for sure wasn’t controlling it. Your eyes keep looking at the spot where his body used to be, thinking to yourself if all of this had been just your pure imagination tricking your brain. 

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To be continued.

Masterlist –requests open– How to request?  Check out your score.

[prome-th3us]

I thought a lot about how I should set up this part of the series, if I should give a mythological background or not, and I came to the conclusion that no, I won't do that right now. I will talk about the Greek and the Norse Pantheons when I will be free from exams, but for now I will just give my personal experience with the Gods and how we've built our relationship during those years together.

Here you can find the rest of you are curious 💜

My dieties: Hekate

She has been the first diety for me (I mean I had Loki around but hey I didn't know yet). As I said in the previous part, she's one of the guardians of our family, so she has been with me since I was born too.

When I first started getting into paganism, it was natural for me to call out for her, I didn't have any doubt that the Goddess I was seeking for was her, and she didn't disappoint me.

She has always been present since I started to notice her energy, whenever I needed or I was calling out for her, she was right by my side. We've been through the worst time of my life together and even if I wasn't able to have a dialogue with her, I was never alone. She uses to touch my head when she's there and this is what made me know at that time that she was here with me.

Considering her loving presence and how many problems I have with my mum, with time I started to consider her a motherly figure and now she's the only goddess I'm "working" with and the only one that I trust (I have serious problems with trusting women in general, it takes me a lot of time and effort).

I can describe her like the goth mum who likes to hype her son/daugher and wants them to be their truly self: fascinating, intriguing and dangerous. Her energy is dark, powerful, but also very calm and fascinating, like a particular perfume; I associate her with with a mixture of spices and other smells: vanilla, lavender, incense, cypress, sandalwood, nutmeg. Like all together, it's very particular. The Goth Mum does smell good.

My work with her

We don't actually work together but she isn't here without doing anything. Considering that she is a goddess related to the Underworld and, to make it short, basically the main goddess who were invoked for necromancy rites, she had been helping me a lot to get in touch with spirits and how to behave with them.

She's also a protector of the household, so even though I consider her my foster mum basically, she always wanted me to get back to my real mother: for a long time I didn't want to, until my therapist made me do that too and when things get harsh, she's always there to give me courage and love. Also, she's the one who keeps away the bad guys, both "friends" and strangers: she made me do a wooden guardian with this specific intent as an offering for her. Jerry is outside near her altar.

She's a goddess and she embodies a strong and independent woman, as a lot of other goddesses: she knows my struggles with my gender and how much Loki helped me with it, and even though she knows that I don't really need labels for who I am she wants me to get in touch with my woman-side. She doesn't want to make me become a woman: she loves what I am and she respects that, but at the same time she knows how important it is to get in touch with both our feminine and masculine sides (we all have these two polarities and we should normalize this topic). We are currently working on this together, how I perceive femininity on me and on the others as well as working on its archetypes. Just let me say this: it has been months since we started and I'm still genderfluid but hey, I've never felt more comfortable in my body and in my mind, I'm just feeling in harmony with what I really am and I'm so fricking exited to start to balance both polarities (i've always been more on the masculine side), I'm sure it will be AMAZING.

I also perceive her as the goddess of choices: she is associated with crossroads and this is a place in which you choose your path, both physically and spiritually. Everyone at a certain point has to make a choice: she's there watching over us. She will never tell you if you're making the right choice because she knows that this is up to your free will, but she will always be there, challenging you to take those steps alone. This is what she taught me: I never got at advice from her about my spiritual and life paths, because she wanted me to be able to get through decisions alone, but this doesn't mean that she wasn't actually ready to help me if I really needed. She is a diety who will make you cross your own boundaries, just like Loki, and she will bring you to the edges of your personal reality: you will start questioning everything and everyone, every choice you make, until you understand that this isn't the point. She isn't thinking when she is crossing the line between the material and the spiritual world: she is using her intuition and this ability comes mostly from experience. This doesn't mean that she won't teach you anything: she taught me a lot of things but she never said when I was wrong nor she got angry. She patiently waited until I realized and then we had a talk about it. That's also why I consider her a mother: she gives me the independence I deserve but she's never distant and she's always ready to intervene if I mess up too bad.

For example, one day I really wanted to try necromancy. I knew it was a bad idea but hey, I just can't think about anything else when I get hyper fixated. While Loki and Hades were so concerned because I wasn't obviously ready and were trying to change my mind, she came and said:"let her do what she wants. If she's not scared, why not? And anyways it's better since we are here now. My dear, come with me and tell me what you had in mind". My idea was obviously terrible, it was just trying to remake what Odysseus did, but I tried anyway. I still don't know if I messed up or if I got really scared and my body reacted in this way, but I had this sharp pain on my right shoulder in the middle of the ritual. I started to have migraine and feeling nauseous as well (this was probably my anxiety or the fricking pain but ok). Loki and Hades were here as well but she made them swear that they wouldn't get involved unless she asked for their help. She came near me, touched my shoulder, and turned her key in the air. I immediately felt better except for the shoulder, since that day it's hurting from time to time. She looked at me and said:"sweetheart, I suppose we both agree on not doing this again for a long time, right? " Nothing else. This is how she teaches me things.

She does help tho if I explicitly ask: in spells especially. I had to do this protection spell which was active, not passive: this means that instead of just giving protection, it would do something to the person crossing her boundaries. She gave me that spell and it was my first time doing that, so I asked for her help. The spell lasted three hours and her candle was basically non existent when we started: that little flame lasted until I sealed the spell, to let me know she heard my call.

She is also the one who taught me that witchcraft isn't always safe: with a lot of spells are going to change the reality around you, this is what you are doing them for. She didn't go easy with me: we were doing basic spells together, but soon enough I learned that they can have bad consequences on your life, and she didn't help me fixing anything because I had to learn how to do that by myself. Thanks to her my practice is completely gray: one day I can do a self-love spell or a protection sachet and the next day I can throw an hex on someone who really did bad to me (please don't be moralistic: it's bad and everything, but trust me when I say that they deserve every inch of that hex. They made me go through a lot with my parents when I didn't do anything and still my relationship with them isn't ok due to those guys, so yeah). But as I said, mostly there's a price to pay and I know I will deal with the consequences sooner or later, the solution is the balance between those two aspects of my craft: dark and light always go together, that's the biggest lesson she gave me.

So yeah, at the beginning of my path she was very present and rn she took over Loki a little because I really needed to work on my feminine polarity, but we're doing this every Sunday (she gives me homework for the rest of the week), for the rest of the time I can perceive her coming to say hi, but mostly she doesn't interact with me unless it's needed. She's always watching, but from distance, that's because I call her guardian.

How I honor her

During the day I wear a key that I consecrated to her using her candle, so she knows that I always think about her.

When I do my makeup or I express my femininity, I say a little prayer to her because I'm honouring our work together.

As I do for the other Gods, I give her offerings:

Herbal tea

Moon water

Normal water

White wine

Dried fruits

Some sweets (just when I don't have anything else, she doesn't really like them that much)

A lot of keys

Some collectible dog figurines

Some jewelry I don't use anymore

Amethyst

Rocks

Purple flowers

Dry leaves/flowers

Basically that's all about the material offerings. For the rest of the time, I keep in mind what she did for me so I try to behave like she taught me during this time.

[sparkles-and-trash]

South Park Main 5, Headcanons Masterpost  ~

Stan Marsh 

Looks: 

hair is actually nice and somewhat floppy naturally, but because he wears a hat most of the time, it’s usually flat and a little greasy kshdhsd

hair is that blue-ish black color

eyes is piercing ice blue 

skin is light, kind porcelain like, but he also tans really fast?

soft sweaters are the only thing he’ll wear from early autumn to late spring

in summer he’ll literally only wear band shirts and flannels lol 

Personality and General Trivia:

totally cares more for animals than most people let’s be real 

sometimes he struggles with seeing things from others point of view and ha can come across as a little self centered 

he is aware of it tho and tries to be better at it 

his instagram is filled with Sparky haha 

let’s Sparky sleep in his bed every single night even tho Sharon tells him not to 

likes reading and writing, has a tiny obsession with dark themes and Lovecraftian stuff 

he and Kenny volunteers at the local pet shelter and homeless shelter together 

the pet shelter was Stan’s idea, and the homeless shelter was Kenny’s 

wants to be edgy but is really just very soft

“Kyle said...” 

believes everything Kyle tells him lol 

enjoys video games a lot, prefers single player, story based ones tho 

also still enjoys boardgames a lot, and when the big group isn’t up for hit, he, Tweek, Jimmy, Butters and Cartman groups together to nerd it out 

has clinical depression, but is managing it with help of a therapist, his mom and friends

sometimes things gets pretty dark, but he is getting better at reaching out and asking for help in those times 

Friendships:

like I mentioned above, he struggles a bit with seeing things for other’s point of view 

but he is aware of his flaws and is trying to be better

can get a little bit caught up in his own drama, but listens when his friends tells him he needs to get over himself 

will always stand up for his friends, especially if they’re not there to do it themselves 

when he starts getting closer with Butters in early high school he gets really upset when he realizes how much he gets shit-talked 

enjoys spending time with his friends individually, probably the most of the group, and takes initiative to do so a lot 

which is very important to Kenny, since he tends to feel a little overlooked sometimes, and it makes their friendship really strong 

same with Butters, except Butters doesn’t usually doesn’t mind mainly being in a group, but the first few times and Stan hangs out alone it’s obvious he really appreciates it 

Family:

daddy issues 

sorry I don’t make the rules lol 

has a decent relationship with Sharon tho

she’s a good mom 

and he wants to be a good son 

Shelly is still kinda angry and scary

she keeps the “only I can beat you up bro” attitude and there is secretly mutual respect there

but we don’t talk about that!!! 

Ships and relationships:

okay so my main ships for him are stutters (Butters), stenny (Kenny) and Style (Kyle) 

my fav is stutters tho 

I usually head canon him as bi or pan, but as with everyone in SP, I’m open to different interpretations if different Au’s and stories! 

I just really like the idea of them learning to balance facing their issues AND celebrate the good things in life together 

I def think he can be a bit insecure in relationships, struggling with feeling like he’s not enough, and would need a partner that naturally will be affirming and positive 

that’s not to say he’s super needy or clingy, he’s just a bit insecure 

but I really think he would truly be a good partner 

he’s caring, kind and very appreciative 

which is again why I really like him with Butters offh 

Kenny McCormick 

Looks:

sandy blonde hair that’s always messy and floppy/softly curled 

teeth is kind of crooked due to lack of funds for braces 

his front teeth are kinda big and has a significant gap 

lots and lots of freckles man 

all over his face, shoulders, back, hands and arms 

tans fast 

I actually really like him with brown eyes? like, soulful deep brown eyes 

but also very, very clear blue ones, like almost unnatural (yes that’s a mysterious thing) 

medium tall 

wears his hoodies, usually with the hood up, no matter if it’s freezing or a heatwave

not conventionally attractive, but charming looking lol 

likes to wear some eyeliner every now and then

and nail polish, but it’s like super clumsily put on and always chipped

Personality and General Trivia:

falls asleep in class a lot, but always seems to know the answer if the teacher asks him something

also has decent grades

I think he’s way smarter than he gives himself credit for, both socially and school wise 

the therapist of the groups 

actually, the therapist of the whole school 

knows a lot of secrets due to this, but he always, ALWAYS keeps them 

I see him as very friendly and approachable, but terribly hard to get close with

lots and lots of walls, man

very much an observer type? 

quietly stays in the background if that’s an option

but if he is talked too, or feels like he has something to really contribute to in a conversation he’ll jump in and be comfortable talking and taking up space if he is with friends or people he knows 

if not, he’ll just stay in the background with that.... look on his face that just makes you know he knows more than he says 

works at Tweek’s parents coffee shop, is kinda close with Tweek because of this 

zones out a lot 

“…what?” 

can fall asleep anywhere

Friendships:

is pretty close friends with Butters! 

Butters used to have a little crush on him, but Kenny didn’t find out until years later lol 

he also has a lot of patience with Cartman compared to the others

which is why Cartman actually cares when Kenny sets him in his place 

likes learning new things, and does that with Kyle a lot! 

both school and homework stuff, and things like cooking and other homey stuff, the two of them really bond with this 

him and Stan volunteer together, and I already mentioned, and that time means a lot to Kenny 

since he works with Tweek, the two of them are pretty close and good friends 

is the one of the main boys who gets along the best with Craig and those guys

actually hangs out with them from time to time, so does Butters

it low-key drives the others crazy

Family:

I often like to think his parents would keep having these bursts where they try to get their shit together? 

and it’s slow, and one step back and two backwards, but the fact that they’re trying at all means a lot to the kids after years of them... not 

I can also see Kevin stepping up and taking more charge, Kevin get’s way too little love in this fandom! 

Kenny usually never fights with his sibs

but when he does it’s with Karen, usually because he’s worried about her and it’s nor pretty

none of them can stay mad at each other for long tho

Kevin trying to be all “big brother” and kinda failing because he is chaotic, but he really wants to do right and Karen and Kenny knows that and appreciates it 

Ships and relationships:

ohhh kay here we go, unpopular opinions ahead! 

first, my main Kenny ships are Tokenny (Token x Kenny) and Stenny 

rn Tokenny is my main, I love the potential dynamics, both with their personalties and backgrounds and families 

I tend to head canon him as pan or bisexual, and demiromatic 

I know the demiromantic part is... controversial, at best 

but hear me out! 

I see him being very comfortable with discussing sexual stuff, and being attracted to someone physically is never something he feels awkward or bad about 

but when it comes to more emotional connections, he is way more awkward and fumbling 

for those who doesn’t know, a demiromatic person (like myself! surprise!) won’t have crushes or romantic feelings for someone they don’t already have some form of emotional bond with! We can still feel sexual attraction tho, and some of us are comfortable with casual sexual encounters (like me!) and others are not, and both are very valid! 

I usually have two ways of writing him 

either him being comfortable having casual sexual interactions, but struggling with the romantic aspect and having to figure out how this works for him 

OR 

him having some trauma related to debating sexually very early, thinking he was all ready and it was just sex, but getting his emotions caught up in it and being very heartbroken and confused, and therefore having issues with being intimate with people for a while 

I mix them up depending on the story, but the first one is usually my go-to! 

Kyle Broflovski 

Looks:

he still covers his hair a lot, either with hats or hoods? 

because I really see him being insecure about it 

it’s a medium sort of red, and like, really curly and fluffy 

not frizzy, big like... big 

I usually give him green eyes, but I also could see him with a light brown or hazel! 

some light freckles on his face that only really shows up if he’s spent time in the sun 

pretty tall, kind of lanky 

d i m p l e s 

Personality and General Trivia:

big nerd energy

in every way, board games, video games, loves school, like genuinely, enjoys studying for tests, loves fantasy books, the longer and more complicated the better 

co-captain of the debate team with Wendy 

is good with arguments unless he gets too passionate on the subject, or if someone knows his weak points and uses them to tick him off

it’s usually Cartman  

his mom wants him to go to an Ivy League but honestly he just wants to go to the same one in Denver as Stan, Butters and Cartman are planning on, and now that Kenny is also considering it he seriously think he’ll die if all his friends go to the same college without him

he struggles with FOMO, which is kind of an issue since he’s a busy guy, and some of his friends are not lol 

if any one of these kids become a jock, it’s def Kyle with his basketball change my mind- 

but not like, a letterman wearing fuckboy type of jock, but like, is obsessed with his sport and his team and works really hard to do well type of jock

Friendships:

very loyal 

he and Stan walks Sparky together at least twice a week, just to be sure they’re always caught up with each other even when they’re busy with school, sports and dating

yeah they’re still super best friends 

when they started high school he got closer to Wendy as she’s also on the debate team, in all of his AP classes and they share a lot of the same interests  

they’re still good friends, but nothing more

the first time Cartman got really drunk was at a party freshman year, and at the time everyone was pretty fed up with him, and he ended up crying and Kyle found him, and Cartman thinks Kyle doesn’t remember, but he does 

that was the first night Kyle really kinda understood why Cartman was the way he was, and even though he still thinks he’s a dick at times, he tries to remember everyone have a story, and to give people time 

but he often gets too riled up to remember that lol 

good pals with Jimmy, they share a lot of interests in fantasy stuff and have the same humor 

he also start to go along well with Craig when they are around middle school age, but they’re both kinda too stubborn to admit they’re friends until a year later lol  

Family:

even tho Sheila is pretty overbearing and can be too much, he is a mommy’s boy deep down 

tense relationship with his dad 

enjoys cooking, so that’s where he spends a lot of time with his mom! 

tries his best to keep up with Ike and his life

sometimes he is a tad cringy when doing so, but Ike appreciates the gesture 

Ike is pretty confident and strong in himself so he doesn’t care if Kyle is a bit awkward lol 

the type of brothers who genuinely enjoys spending time together 

Ships and relationships:

I like Style, Kyman, K2 and Kyvid! 

I think he’d be a late bloomer when it comes to love and dating

struggles with opening up and letting himself feel these things 

I often think of him as biromantic asexual, but I’m not always set on it! 

he’d enjoy traditional dinner and a movie type of dates a lot, such a nerd 

Eric Cartman 

Looks:

keeps his hair cut pretty short and styled

has heterochromia iridium (different colored eyes), one blue and one brown

also he has a real nice smile when it’s a genuine one

which is rare but like 

it happens 

is kinda insecure about his weight and tries to compensate with always having the newest stuff and pretending not to care

sometimes tries to diet in secret

he isn’t huge anymore, but is still sort of broad, and isn’t skinny, but like..

kinda bulky, if he wears the right type of clothes it’s hard to see if he’s chubby or buff

but he is def chubby 

Personality and General Trivia:

spends way to much time on reddit arguing with randoms

angry gamer, will call you a slur on voice chat 

after almost getting dropped by his friends in middle school he tries a little harder to be a more decent person

still an asshole at heart, but like, an asshole who sometimes cares about some people 

always tells people that’s he’s seen that meme before, even when he hasn’t 

nothing is ever his fault and the only ones who can get him to admit he’s wrong are Kenny and, very, very rarely, Kyle

he wears supreme hoodies for a full year of High School and stands in line all night for the new ones and never shuts up about how he is the first in South Park to have the new stuff 

Kenny finds it hilarious to buy the fake supreme stickers and put then on his own worn out hoodies

Kyle makes it his main goal in life to put things (everything from used gym socks to old food he finds in his locker) in Cartmans hoods and see how long it takes for him to notice 

can’t handle alcohol, is constantly being teased for it

sloppy drunk lol 

one of the main reasons the other bothers with Cartman trough middle school, when he is at his worst, is because of his big basement, the old Coon Lair, who got a big renovation around 7th grade and is an awesome, private hangout spot with a big TV and wifi and gaming systems

Friendships:

constantly says he hates his friends but would die if everyone left him 

is secretly terribly jealous of Kyle, both his closeness to Stan, his basketball skills, his grades and his family

but they had that thing in Freshman year when Kyle found him drunk, alone and sad, and Cartman himself barely remembers it, and doesn’t think Kyle does because he never mentioned it 

but he does

so much tension there, but also co-dependency 

sees Kenny and Butters as his best friends, and knows deep down neither of them feel that way about him and it secretly kills him 

is in the same board game group with Stan 

is low-key terrified of Tweek lol 

Family:

big mommy issues 

but also very protective of her

I really enjoy the AU/headcanon that Liane marries Clyde’s dad 

it’s not like, the only version I like, but I put it in as many au’s and works of mine as I can 

I def think both boys would be mortified right away 

but Clyde comes around first, because he really wants a brother, even if that brother have to be Cartman 

Cartman would never admit it, but after some time he really starts to see Clyde as a brother and genuinely cares for him 

Ships and relationships:

I mainly see Cartman as gay 

sometimes I start of AU’s and stories with him not being out to himself or anyone else tho, I think that whole journey for him will be very interesting and help him grow as a person 

I def think he’d have a few girlfriends before he comes out tho? 

he can be very charming when he wants too yanno 

my only Cartman ship is kyman atm, but I’m def open to explore more of

Leopold Butters Stotch 

Looks:

I really really really like T A L L Butters??? 

like tall and gangly and adorable 

I know it’s very popular to head canon that he bleaches his hair, but I like to think he has very light blond air naturally! 

keeps it short on the sides and longer on top, with cute ass curls 

soft sky blue eyes 

also dyes his bangs light blue in high school!! 

Pete the goth helps him because he is a pro of dying bangs 

I like to think he’d be into pastel grunge, and keep his love for Hello Kitty and Sanrio etc, but still be a bit more... edgy? 

Personality and General Trivia:

one of those people who’s friendly with almost everyone

but that doesn’t mean he’s friends with them, yanno? 

gets drunk from one wine cooler 

loves the theater and is in the drama club, but likes to be behind the stage, not on it 

wants to be a director one day 

watches Netflix on his phone every single time he has any time to spare, because he’s always binging a show

is usually pretty positive and kind, gives people the benefit of the doubt 

but can be very stubborn, and if he has decided he dislikes or doesn’t trust someone, it’s almost impossible to change his mind 

Friendships:

Butters put up with Cartman for so long because he genuinely thinks he can be fun when he’s not horrible, and he really tries his best to believe in people

he was also the first one to forgive him after the others cut him off 

a very loyal and fun friend

takes a lot of initiative to do stuff, and loves hosting movie nights 

thinks of these boys as his closest friends, but is also real close to Wendy, Bebe, Jimmy and Tweek

Family:

I just hate Stephen so much you guys

so tbh I usually like to just... have Linda leave him, or straight up kill him off oops 

I know Linda is terrible too, I do, but I think she could possibly have a moment of realization if something happens like Butters potentially being taken away? 

idk I’m not gonna go too deep into this, I know it’s such a heavy topic and I don’t wanna seem like I just ignore it, but I personally don’t usually include Stephen directly in my stories, and this is why, I hope y’all understand and respect that! 

Ships and relationships:

my main Butters ship is Stutters (Stan x Butters) 

I mentioned a lot why in Stan’s headcanons? 

but idk, I just really think they’d balance each other well, and could have a very interesting and cute relationship! 

I usually headcanons him as pan or gay, and genderqueer, but I’m open for other interpretations too! 

he does date a little bit, but have never been in a real relationship and isn’t stressing about it! 

he did have a pretty huge crush on (a very unaware) Kenny during middle school, but then they started hanging out a lot more and became really close and Butters didn’t really bring it much thought?

that’s until Cartman gets jealous and throws out a “what are you guys dating and fucking and being gay huh???” and Butters mind immediately goes to “omg ew no he’s like my brother!” 

aaand that’s how Butters realized he was over his crush 

they two of them stay close friends tho, Kenny makes Butters laugh and helps him be more sure of himself and Butters helps Kenny remember that they’re still just kids and should have fun and be good

[satanfemme]

Nonbinary flag redesign

The original flag was created in 2014 so it’s had a lot of time to become the “official” nonbinary flag. Because of this I am in no way suggesting we must replace the old flag, I don’t even think I would have that power if I tried, I simply made this version for my own uses. HOWEVER, anyone is free to use this version of the flag, no need to credit me (unless you want to). so make all the icons/merch you want with this, if you feel inspired to do so. 

Additionally, if you want to use this post as a bouncing off point for your own redesign, feel free. Though I like this version better it still feels imperfect to me, and if you’ve got a helpful idea for further improvement I’d welcome it!

info about why I redesigned it/why this version is better imo under the cut:

original version for reference:

Reasons why I don’t like the old flag:

- the design feels unbalanced. Change the flag to greyscale and you’d see what I mean, the top two stripes are literally identical in brightness. One key aspect in good graphic design is keeping your design recognizable even in black and white, because our eyes notice contrast first, and then color. This is why the shades in the original feel off and unprofessional, imo.

-the colors just don’t go well together. Yellow and purple are complementary colors, meaning they are on opposite ends of the color wheel. In some compositions this could work, but here it just feels like the design isn’t uniform, like as if it’s just random colors thrown together with no thought put into the aesthetic. Honestly I think that might have literally been the case, with meaning prioritized over style.

Things about the old flag that I like/wanted to keep:

-The meanings of the stripes. If you have forgotten or were unaware, heres what the the stripes mean:      Yellow: genders outside of the binary      White: people with many/all genders      Purple: genders that are a mix of male and female      Black: people without gender I really like having all of these meanings in the flag, in order to include the full range of nonbinary experiences, and wanted to incorporate the old meaning into the new flag as well!

-The number of stripes. With as many pride flags as there are it’s important to keep each one recognizable. One big way to do that is by the number of stripes. The old nonbinary flag is recognized as having four stripes. I wanted to keep that in the new design as well, so it wouldn’t become too unrecognizable

Ok, bringing it all together: the changes I made and why:

-Switched the positions of the purple and “yellow” stripes. My thought process here was to switch the stripe order from: light, light, medium, dark, to: dark, light, medium, dark. What this does is create more contrast in the design by framing the lightest stripe with two darker stripes on either side. Additionally, keeping the very darkest stripes at the top and bottom of the flag frames the entire design, adding more balance. No more out of place black stripe at the bottom, now it actually fits the design! lol

-Changed the yellow to an orange hue. Orange isn’t a complementary color to purple, but it is a near-compliment. Anyone who’s worked with color will tell you that tho its difficult to get complimentary colors to look nice together, near-compliments almost always do. However, most importantly, orange can still fit the meaning of being outside the binary, so the original purpose of the stripe isn’t lost.

-Changed the brightness/saturation of the stripes. This was in part to help out my first bullet point about contrast, but also so it’s no longer near-eyestrain, and the palette actually feels like it works together!

In conclusion:

imo the new flag is still recognizable as the nonbinary flag. The number of stripes and the colors are still reminiscent of the old flag, so there should be minimal confusion should the new flag be used. People will still see it as the nonbinary flag! However, by adjusting the colors slightly and switching around the placement of the stripes I feel that I’ve created something more aesthetically pleasing, and also more professional. Again, feel free to use this design, credit isn’t necessary (but it would be appreciated). And happy pride month!!

[phoebehalliwell]

Okay, but like straight up, Chris 100% just stole some clothes from like a Goodwill that no one was gonna notice were gone (bc they're ugly, sweetie:/) and called it a day, but here is my question: his style in the changed future? Please make it better, even if it's just like Wyatt or Bianca going absol-fucking-lutely not, change you dumbass, like any headcanons about it being not that (or even still that and reactions, idk, man, i just love chris even tho he dresses so terribly)

it’s like tho. how did the sisters really let him wear so many ugly outfits. how did paige not ask him if he was dumpster diving for his wardrobe. why did phoebe not give him the old boyfriends pile of clothes to choose from. ladies. i will say, his looks did get better towards the end of s6 so maybe this did happen off screen. however, some of his fits are like so ugly it’s like i don’t even wanna gif them bc they make me so upset. another thing i will comment on real quick. bianca’s tits out leather vest look with like buckles. what was that. is that what the dark future fashion looked like. bc if so. did chris also own a leather vest. if that was the style, mark my words, wyatt owned like ten. just throwing that out there.

okay so like: chris’s fashion in the changed future. i am gonna say like the chris in my head like when i write him doesn’t actually look like drew fuller bc uhh he doesn’t. idk why but i decided somewhere along the lines that he was like. 6′4″. bc like. the vibes man. if u’ve ever met a skinny 6′4″ brunet with daddy issues you’ll know what i’m talking about. and like. i don’t think chris was like remotely well dressed in y’know like middle school but like who was tbh but like he was definitely one of those kids who like wore t shirts and basketball shorts everyday and i think the first person to like really intervene was piper bc like. okay yes the basketball shorts r conveintent bc like they’re cheap and chris keeps growing out of normal pants bc like. he keeps growing. but like. he looks so stupid in basketball shorts. and like they always look huge on him bc he has to find the balance of being long enough to reach his knees but like small enough to fit his waist and it’s like. he looks so stupid. piper’s just like no. i can’t have this. so i think we have piper to thank for the greatest improvement which was like the introduction of the skinny jean into chris’s wardrobe. i also think he’s the type to rarely buy clothes from himself so it’s like would he go out and buy himself skinny jeans who knows he doesn’t and yet they still make up the majority of his wardrobe so there. (gifts for chris are almost always either clothes or witch stuff.) i’m also saying his wardrobe is just like. boring. which honestly i wish s6 chris’s wardrobe was just boring bc it would have been a great improvement over what we actually got. but like. the color palette for his wardrobe is like black. slate grey. navy blue. a white t shirt. maybe a hint of green. but like. i don’t think he’s really gonna have like any colors in there (wyatt on the other hand has a Shit Ton of colors in his wardrobe bc wyatt is  fun and ten times more fashionable than his brother). i also think like the thing chris owns the most of is just hoodies. like i know chris wore a leather jacket once and people went yes chris wears leather jackets but like. does he really tho? think about it. i think his jacket situation is like 90% hoodies. he might own like one leather jacket but he is not the type of man who would go out and buy a leather jacket for himself. if he does own one he obtained it through some other means like a gift or something idk he’s one of the oldest so handmedowns aren’t really an option. (bc idk how many of y’all shop for like leather jackets but they’re not like cheap unless you’re buying them from forever 21 (rip) but chris is not shopping at forever 21 so it’s a moot point). and then the single most import part of chris’s wardrobe is the t shirt nothing more vital that the simple t shirt nothing fancy to little pocket on it no prints or patterns or logos just like plain t shirt. if he finds a tshirt that fits nice he’s gonna buy like five of them one in white one in black one in grey one in blue and then one wildcard color if the color is nice. a desaturated forest green or a desaturated burgundy. maybe a light blue. i think if anyone’s gonna bully him about his wardrobe it’s gonna be wyatt be like. witchcraft can be a messy side gig things blow up a lot there are lots of guts and strange colored goos but uhh wyatt has an orb shield. so like. if they’re vanquishing some demon and that bad boy explodes wyatt’s protecting his fit with a shield and chris is getting fucked over and every single time chris complains about it wyatt’s like ohmygod i’m so sorry here i’ll buy you a new outfit i have seven dollars in my pocket so that should be more than enough. i think chris definitely keeps trying to put wyatt in situations where his clothes get ruined by some magical means but he has yet to successfully pull anything off. in regards to the whole bianca situation i just like. i really want them to go to events. i want bianca do be like the dress code is cocktail. white tie. creative black tie. beach formal. smart casual. and every single time chris is like What The Actual Fuck Is That Supposed To Mean. and it’s like. i have no idea why chris and bianca would be on outings like this. but i would like to see it. also in regards to bianca / chris’s fashion i don’t think they start dating for like a Very long time again it’s sorta this enemies to lovers slowburn but i think they are often in cahoots together frequently but they are never an item until that day when they finally are when they have crossed the line into lovers territory and even tho they’ve like been in again like “cahoots” or whatever for like idk two years maybe more it is not until they official become an item that bianca starts stealing chris’s clothes. she’ll wear his hoodies all the goddamn time looking like ariana grande with the way they go all the way down to her knees she’ll take his t shirts and tie them up in front knots and where them out and about it’s happened before where she’ll literally take like his pajama pants and she has to cuff em to the nth degree so she can walk in them without tripping but like it Will Not Stop Her. and chris is like befuddled bc like a) sometimes he just straight up does not realize the t shirt bianca is wearing is actually his and he’s like where do all my clothes keep going how am i losing my clothes and b) bianca has had access to his wardrobe his whole time like if she wanted an oversized hoodie she could have taken it like sixteen months ago or she could just buy her own and he’s like explaining this to wyatt and wyatt’s just like huh you really have no concept of stealing your so’s clothes huh and chris is like no i don’t i don’t get it until he like finally obtains one of his hoodies back after it’s been in bianca’s possession for like four months and it just sorta smells like her perfume and chris is like oh : ) and like wearing it around his apartment minding his own business

[beingpassionateabout]

Elsa in white and Anna in black--> opposite attract. That is it. That is the whole post.

I’m sure you did not ask for this but it made me think so bear with me for a sec. lol

I think we elsanna fans like to play with the idea that Anna and Elsa are color-coded as a romantic pairing and that’s fun and true but now with Frozen 2 we see that they’ve being given new colors and so their coding changed as well. There are even some people pointing out how they’re playing out a more “yin & yang” vibe. But what does it mean?

In order to comprehend their changes I took to Tvtropes to help me better characterize each of their phases. 

1. “Red Index/Blue Index”

In Frozen 1 and most of Frozen 2 Elsa and Anna are color coded as the Blue/Red (purple-ish) dynamic duo we see in this image. According to TvTropes, this means: 

“There’s just something about red and blue, the way these two colors complement each other but also seem to oppose each other. Since they contrast so well, they seem to be paired together in some form more than any other two non-gray scale colors: hot and cold, red team and blue team, red ribbon (2nd place) and blue ribbon (1st place). And this leads to their inevitable contrast in symbolism […]”

Also, in the Red Oni/Blue Oni section: 

“This trope is about two individuals (or occasionally, factions or civilizations) that are significantly linked together somehow (such as through a rivalry, friendship, being siblings, co-workers, competitors, etc.) that have differing personalities and, with it, often different approaches to the world in general, especially whatever they might be competing in/for/over.”

In both F1 and F2 they are represented in these colors. The “hot vs. cold” metaphor is even used in Olaf’s song “In Summer”, to indicate how they are opposites and yet complementary forces, and how he views both of them due to being a result of their creation. Also both the red ribbon (2nd) place and blue ribbon (1st) place play a part in there, indicating their places in life and the line of ascension to the throne (more on it later). 

All in all, this color-coding indicated their conflicting (in the beginning of F1) and complementary (F2) colors and approaches to life, with Elsa being more reserved and introverted and Anna being more assertive and adventurous. We saw how in F1 this color-coding meant that their arcs’s main goal was to overcome their differences and reunite in the end, as long lost siblings who just found love and comfort in each other’s presence after years of separation. That’s good and it fits the sibling narrative (canon) and the fanon shipping of them (elsanna) we saw after F1. 

Btw, this is my favorite spin of this trope: “Fire/Ice Duo: Since Fire Is Red and ice is generally light blue”

Bc I’d have loved if they gave Anna fire powers in F2 and made it even more of a romantic coded-pairing. So easy to ship.  

Back to the analysis tho, I was thinking to myself that my favorite aspect of F2 is how much elsanna we saw in it, totally wearing my shipper’s goggles, of course. 

But it’s important to point out why we see so much of them: because The Creators words were right and Elsa and Anna’s relationship is the main focus of the narrative, playing an important role in explaining later developments (like the “bridge”, as they told us later).

I am still of the opinion that this was a weak script and they could have done many things differently, not to mention better. However, now that I think of the main reason why i liked Elsa and Anna’s story together I see that it’s bc the creators had the right idea in mind: developing their relationship into something that would support both of their character changes later, while still keeping them together and strengthening their bond.

I’m not saying they did it well, i’m just saying that now that i see it, it sounds like a good idea (and even better shipping material, if you ask me) and that they really took them from one point to the other. 

Let me explain. They were coded before as Red and Blue, but after the changes in F2 they are now color-coded as:

2.  Light/Darkness juxtaposition. 

sauce

This new color-coding can mean many things for characters, mostly pointing out at the broody type/sunny type of relationship I don’t think they actually embody anymore (even so, Elsa would be seen as the broody type but she’s in light colors now so.. doesn’t fit). That makes us turn to the more mythical implications of this trope, as seen bellow:

“Darkness is the absence of light, and light cannot exist without darkness. The dichotomy between the two has been part of human storytelling for a very long time—many Creation Myths often involve light emerging from darkness, and many destruction myths involve darkness engulfing light.”

In F2 they did play with death and ressurection, with lightness (acceptance) and darkness (despair) and with mythical vs fairytale themes, but what did they settle upon for Elsa and Anna’s relationship? A narrative of epic and mythical love.

Yes.

“It can also be used in conjunction with other contrast tropes; for example, Life/Death Juxtaposition will generally have life associated with light and death with darkness. Solar and Lunar usually pairs the sun with light and the moon with darkness (due to its association with night). Chinese philosophy associates this with Fire/Water Juxtaposition, where the yin is associated with darkness and water, and the yang with fire and light. Light and dark can easily be treated as opposing cosmic forces.”

Wow. 

Their love for each other transcended death not once but twice.

Now that Elsa achieved goddess-like status and Anna ascended the throne (no longer representing 1st/blue and 2nd/red place, but standing as equals), it means that their character dynamic are now placed on a higher level than before too. But what could beat the True Love narrative of the first movie? A mythical tale of balancing cosmic forces, of course! 

Not only it means they’re each other’s true love, but it also means that they can’t exist without the other now at the risk of destroying the world’s balance. 

This fits nicely with the idea of The Bridge (a terrible excuse for separation but a beautiful metaphor for their love story) and how they connect the nations.. but most importantly this fits nicely with how they connect both human and spiritual realms now.

Whoa.

Now I see why Anna tells Elsa this line “our love is worthy of the great myths” by the end of Forest of Shadows. Because it is. Their love is worthy of the greatest tale of all. 

Here’s to hoping i made sense.

[vaguely-concerned]

I am reading the Rogue One visual guide and I’m going to ramble at you about it

Starting with Baze and Chirrut facts because nothing is more important than Baze and Chirrut

- The Guardians of the Whills believe very deeply in the Force but their cosmology doesn’t center any fight between light and dark and they believe mortal minds can ‘encompass the totality of the Force’ with the right training (seemingly even for non-Force sensitives). *thinks of a little green baby who’s going to need some help with his place in the universe one day and how reductive the light/dark side dichotomy can be* good to know good to know. yes everything eventually comes down to baby yoda and his poor stressed out dad. protect them

- “Opposites in balance. Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus share a homeworld and a history, although they strike a compelling contrast. Baze is a hardened pragmatist, while Chirrut’s faith flourishes even in trying times. They both claim to act as the protector of the other.” 

in every way they are #goals. bffs/partners to lovers is Everything. ‘They both claim to act as the protector of the other’ is very funny and very sweet and very true; my favourite thing

- this book describes chirrut as baze’s ‘best friend and moral compass’, which is a funny way of spelling ‘husband of 30 years’ but who am I to criticize 

- baze is just. he’s so good. they say here pragmatism is his biggest trait but you can tell how much love has been at the center of him (and probably continues to be under it all) from the totality of his rage. I don’t think you can be this deeply hurt without loving just as deeply first. (like chirrut says, he used to believe more than anyone and now he’s thrown aside literally everything about the guardians except chirrut) it’s like he’s suffered a moral wound just seeing what’s happened to his home and it won’t heal and it never does, he just loses chirrut too and then at least it’s over. jesus christ it’s so soul crushingly sad in a quiet undramatic way 

- “Though both are Guardians of the Whills, Baze and Chirrut could not be more different in their approach to combat. Traditionalist Chirrut still carries weapons associated with the ancient order, while Baze adopts an implement of modern warfare. Their methods suit them individually, and both are effective extensions of their distinctive personalities. Though Baze may chide Chirrut for his antiques, and Chirrut may decry Baze’s reliance on soulless tools, they trust each other’s defences to such weapons.”

THEY TRUST EACH OTHER’S DEFENCES TO SUCH WEAPONS. YOU HAD TO WORD IT LIKE THAT HUH. YOU HAD TO GO AND MAKE IT CLEAR THEY’RE EACH OTHER’S MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD. WHAT. THE FUCK

- it’s implied baze’s hair used to be shorter when he was a Guardian! he’s just let it grow past what’s customary for them (and an excellent choice too his hair is wonderful)

- his repeating blaster is described as ‘modified and highly illegal’ hahaha

it also weighs 30 kg and is meant to be mounted on a tank

baze is the best

- chirrut built his own lightbow! apparently used to be a thing the guardians did to symbolize the end of their training. I wonder if baze used to have one too? even more I wonder if they’ve always been part of the same uh ‘divisions’ or what have you within the guardians, because I think there are some implications that baze has been more of an assassin/focused on violent conflicts even before the empire came and chirrut hasn’t

- this book does not adequately capture chirrut’s trickster/funny side, making me wonder how much of that was an addition by the actor and how much was planned out

- honestly... more baze & chirrut (well baze/chirrut let’s not play here) prequel books WHEN. what does their living room look like (because we do know they live together) how did they meet, when exactly did baze lose his faith and chirrut his sight, what was their first kiss like 

inquiring minds want to know (it’s me I want to know) 

- unless the wording is deliberately misleading here chirrut was not born blind (though he won’t discuss how he ended up this way) and he’s learned his current fighting technique over a prolonged period of time 

- bodhi is a bit of a gambling addict! and specifically one who’s pretty good at it; even after the empire knows he’s a defector he gets past their restrictions because he’s saved up all the credits/favours/even id-vouchers he’s owed by other imperial grunts fsdhfksdjf precious I love him 

- saw gerrera’s medical droid a) has been modified so its programming won’t stop it from being able to dispense drugs at dangerous intervals, b) professes sheer bafflement that saw is still alive and c) is ‘frequently deactivated to prevent it from building an ethical case to discontinue treatment’. I find the whole thing darkly hilarious.  

- there are literally whole subplots going on in the crowd scenes on Jedha about a mad evil surgeon who ‘decraniates’ people (essentially turning them into mindless servile husks with all of their head above the nose cut off, somehow), a masked cop from the Milvayne Authority who’s gone rogue to do the right thing and hunt him down against orders, a death cult, a bunch of different religious sects, a translation droid who has befriended a group of local orphans and shares his credits with them so they can eat and he’s SAVING UP FOR A PROCESSOR UPGRADE SO HE CAN BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF SPIRITUALITY ;_____; what the fuck I want a tv-series about this droid IMMEDIATELY 

- this book shows you just how crucial K-2 is as an asset and what a masterstroke cassian’s reprogramming of him is... and it says some very, very sweet things about cassian as a person under all the trauma and spy stuff that he essentially treats him as his best friend instead of a tool. cASSIAN he deserved to survive and have SO much therapy ;_____; ah well at least we’re getting a prequel series about him right? pls be good

- oh cassian was a proper separatist during the clone wars! he probably has some very interesting points of view about the republic pre- and post empire huh (this is what I love about the clone wars era; they have built SUCH a believable and interesting political world here, all shades of grey. there were separatists with very valid points even thought they were lead by a guy named COUNT DOOKU played by CHRISTOPHER LEE, the first sign that you should look inwards and ask yourself... wait are we the bad guys)

- it’s so much more understandable to me now who in the rebel leadership is for following jyn’s plan and who is not. (namely: the ministers of finance and industry are both Not Into challenging the empire directly, kind of understandably)

in depth description of weapons technology... I sleep. deep dives into the political structure of the alliance leadership and their backgrounds and motivations? I have never been happier

(this. sort of should have been in the actual movie tho things would have made more sense)

- BAIL ORGANA Leia’s actual dad out there lookin’ fiiine, being righteous and good, almost making me forget he’s going to die SO SOON oh fuck :( 

- orson krennic is, presumably straight faced, described as ‘a cruel but brilliant man’ which is PATENTLY LUDICROUS because krennic is by literally every indication a fucking idiot, he needs galen to do all the real work for him, he mouths off to DARTH VADER and then tarkin just effortlessly swoops in and fucks him over in the end, easily outmaneuvering him... orson krennic is a fucking loser I don’t care if he’s the one who introduced brutalist architecture to coruscant

lol lol lol *arrow pointing towards krennic’s head* ‘Keen mind dissects architectural puzzles and conspiratorial plots’ okay I see what happened here orson krennic wrote this book 

- oh galen erso is kind of one of the most interesting and heartbreaking characters in all of star wars. (and I do not say this just because of mads mikkelsen’s cheek bones) he’s incredibly intelligent but from a really poor family and wanted to eliminate the difference between rich and poor and invent a new form of infinitely renewable energy... and technically he did achieve that, except his old college buddy orson krennic immediately found a way to use his technology for genocide and he didn’t realize until it was too late :’) there is something so comforting in the fact that in the end galen still got the last laugh in the most epic but unsung way. he’s the sort of quiet Magnificent Bastard who doesn’t even care he’ll never get the credit as long as it worked. u did good on that one jyn

also several of the scientists galen is leading on eadu are in the same category as him -- captured and forced to work for the empire. so that’s great and not at all upsetting 

- galen and lyra’s falling in love story is kind of sweet (though naturally it pales against baze and chirrut’s whole deal but then who could compare) and the sheer effort and detail that’s gone into building the farmstead in the beginning we end up seeing for 5 minutes... dude (it feels very convincingly like somewhere a family would live though) 

- *sees that ‘databook’ is a concept that exists apparently; groans in fic research I thought ‘holodisc’ might do the job but maybe this is a better fit*

- I will say that my largest gripe with this movie is how glaringly unnecessarily male it is. there’s literally no reason for most of the rebels and ESPECIALLY all of the scientists to be male but here we are. 

well the stormtroopers could all canonically be any gender behind the armor so uh that’s. something lol

- despite being all desert-y jedha is apparently quite cool! temperature-wise I mean though the huge ancient statues lying everywhere are pretty awesome too

- wow stormtrooper armor really does just suck huh. it’s like ‘well it might protect you from a blaster bolt if you stand upwind and angle yourself just right, who knows’. I guess this is why everyone and their grandmothers are drooling over mando’s beskar lol

- star wars’ insistence on sticking to single-biome planets is so silly and I love it. stick to that incomprehensible world building decision lucasfilm I respect you

- mon mothma! basically the most important character in the star wars universe who most people won’t know about lol she’s like the anti-palps. for the most part she is one of the most Big Goods in all of star wars (along with bail) but also she’s played by the actress who voices moira in overwatch so I do instinctively distrust her whenever I hear her talk haha. called palpatine a ‘lying executioner’ to his face which is both admirably bold and remarkably restrained, considering all the things palpatine is.

- oof the two people mentioned the most on anakin/vader’s pages are palpatine and obi wan. that’s. hurtful and bad and awful. the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was making me watch ‘clone wars’ because watching ‘clone wars’ actually made me care about anakin skywalker :(

-ah shit this is a lot of pages about pasty empire dudes i’ll uh come back to these lol

[sobdasha]

"I definitely updated my list of books I was reading on tumblr so it's all good" -me, a lying liar, right before spending several months finishing my reread of All The Discworld Books I Own But In Chronological Order For The First Time Ever Which In Fact Makes A Difference.

(and then I did it again after the libraries closed)

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin Hm, so. I definitely read this. At some point. It was not really for me, not bad, but not really for me. This particular edition had various notes before and after the text, all of which I read, which made it an experience I got more out of. It's important for me to know that the author is aware that the protagonist is a raging misogynist who's stupid, and yes this was on purpose so you'd realize how really incredibly stupid he is and thus maybe be tricked into changing your mind yourself. It is a legit tactic, but one I tend not to enjoy, so if I hadn't been forewarned I'd have been UUUUGGGGGHHHH MAKE HIM SHUT UP ALREADY and probably rage-quit. As it was, I was able to better appreciate what Le Guin was doing here, even if this book didn't win a place in my heart and I probably won't reread. I definitely preferred Ancillary Justice's take, with the feminine pronouns. For my brain, masculine pronouns = they might as well all be men = business as usual = I didn't really get any gender queering from it. I can't really remember much else now. Oh, it was also part "survival in the wilderness" story, which they're big on making you read in school (which I find very suspicious), and which I tolerated and read a few classic ones on my own until they kept assigning these kinds of stories for us to read and now I get nothing from them and mindlessly hate them. Anyway, as I said, not bad at all but not really for me.

Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin This one's a reread--I picked it up from the library during college because we were doing Titus Andronicus in class and it didn't occur to me that there might be more than one Lavinia???? But hey it worked out because later in college we did the Aeneid and then I had Background for rereading Lavinia. This is the book that is lyrical and beautiful and pulls me in and makes me care deeply about the world and the characters. This is the book of Le Guin's that makes me feel the way everyone else feels about Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness and etc. I would like to find more of Le Guin's work that makes me feel the same way, because as I've said you can really tell from her other stuff that she's a solid writer who knows her stuff. I just…don't enjoy any of the other things. Anyway I recommend. I always forget about this book, and then when I reread I'm like "wow why don't I read this more often?????"

How Long 'Til Black Future Month?, N. K. Jemisin I liked every story in this short story collection. I should just reread it and try writing this up again tbh but also tbh I'll probably do the rereading and then just not write anything up again. Just read Jemisin's stuff I love her writing so much okay. ETA: that’s exactly what I did, I reread this during my covid rereads and said “I should do a proper write-up this time” and lo and behold where is it

Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin Okay, this last Earthsea book treated me much better than the others. It's probably not for everyone else, which might be why it's for me. It's much more domestic, much less "plot" happening, full of introspection, and centered on women rather than men. This novel acknowledges and confronts the rampant internalized misogyny in the previous three books, engages it in a way that the misandrist in me finds satisfying even though it never comes to a good solution for the problem. This book is more like a reflection. Earthsea has never been about "light is always good, dark is always bad; be a hero, fight evil" etc. But this one I think shifts the tone a little farther; it's less about balance, and more...I guess I'd put it as, "actions have consequences." It's not concerned with right or wrong, it's concerned with people getting hurt. It's pretty somber and serious, without any humor to balance it out, tons of bad things happen to people, lots of PTSD...but this time I really cared about the characters, and I feel like it was all handled really well? In addition to critiquing internalized misogyny, it also critiqued victim blaming. Seemed like it handled disability pretty well too--was honest about how people are jerks about it in reality, while still being optimistic and treating Therru as valuable; made occasional mentions of considering work-arounds for having only one fully-functional hand, while mostly just having Therru go about living and doing chores and being capable and assuming she did find those work-arounds without having to draw attention to it; and Therru's terrible scars didn't get magically healed at the end, the whole book makes a point all the way through that her physical scars will always be with her the same way her emotional scars will be, and she's simply learned how to go on living with them. Tehanu: a book full of trauma happening to people, where what would normally be the plot in a fantasy novel ended up not even getting started to be resolved, but Le Guin's writing and handling of the subject matter helped heal my jaded soul.

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee A quick summary of my experience: Chapter 1 - ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh what is going on what even Chapter 2 - no, no this is just, this is what sci fi is like, right? Just give it a few chapters and then by the end of the book everything will probably make sense. I'm sure that's how it works. Remember how even in Ancillary Justice I ended up with two separate Battles of Valskay, but now everything is fine??? It's. Fine. Chapter 4 - (ohhhhhhh I still don't know what's going on) Several Chapters Later - still no clue what's going on, but hit my stride with the terminology, my foreign language instinct kicked in where words stopped sounding weird and while I could not for the life of me define any terms for you, I had a vague comprehension of how the words operated In Context. Sort of. And by then I had, without realizing it, begun page-turning and binging, so I guess I liked the book lol! Another serious-but-not-funny one, but with an extra dose of War Memoir and all the gruesomeness that entails (but probably, like any good War Memoir, probably not actually gratuitous and actually in fact the necessary amount of gruesome). Jedao was turned into a woobie at the last minute and, well, damn, guy knows the way to my heart. The novel apparently gripped me enough that I don't even mind that it only came into play at the very end of the game. And hey, there's two more novels to deal with that revelation, which I have picked up from the library to read immediately! Yay! Current personal theory: based on the heavy math references that made me want to cry at the start, but the almost entire absence of actual numbers, and a reference to "there's no way actual physics works like that, it was obviously a calendrical effect" or something…I'm going to throw out a wild guess that the calendar stuff (and all the social structuring that goes with it) is so that they can break and reinvent math. So they can effect a universe where 2+2=5 and therefore a bunch of people standing in this exact position makes a force field or bullets of rose thorns or whatever and some other dude can make himself immortal. This sounded like a pretty terrible theory already and it sounds even worse now I've typed it up but oh well.

Raven Stratagems, Yoon Ha Lee Guess who didn't write this up back when she read it!!! Also, I returned Ninefox Gambit to the library right before the libraries shut down for covid. So, I had Raven and Revenant on hand for months but I didn't have Ninefox on hand to do an immediate reread to see if that made the sci fi make more sense. (It probably wouldn't have, but I would have liked to do a rereading while the ending was still fresh.) By this time there is a lesser degree of visceral viscera. Lee is brutal, however, about continuing to be honest about what war costs and whether war is worth that cost (which depends, really, on whose lives you think matter. Very relevant for these times. Very much prepared me to shut up and not whine about the inconveniences of protests and their fallout. There is no pretty and clean way to have a revolution, since it involves destroying a particular [terrible] way of life, so we're all just gonna have to sacrifice together). Also I think by this point all the character development from the first novel paid off in the form of character dynamics being hilarious now despite, y’know, the gruesome shadow of war.

Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee Continues to discuss the honest price of war and the messiness of fallout. Shuos "The risks I took were calculated, but boy am I bad at math" Jedao. Oh I think this is also the one where every so often one of the characters thinks, "Okay so this person is a tyrannical murderous dictator but he is ensuring that there will never again be food shortages and no one in the space empire ever goes hungry." And then Lee turns around and is like, "Haha but don't forget this same person invented a form of vital infrastructural technology (and also immortality) that is optionally based off ritual human torture sacrifice. Like he didn't have to do that to make it work. He just decided to anyway. And that's always bad :) " (Also useful in our current climate of "Okay but we should consider the other person's circumstances and point of view" and also "Yeah but that doesn't apply if they're literally Nazis tho.")

Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee A collection of short stories set in the universe of those three books. There's one story at the end that does satisfy the "But I wanted another sequel!!!" urge. And there's a bit of backstory for Jedao and Cheris. But by and large what you should be in the mood to read is flash fiction snippets that simply happen to be set in the same universe but have no bearing on the plot. Which is pretty cool and interesting if you are in the proper mindset! Even better, Lee includes author's notes at the end of each story to talk about the story, or the influences, or the context of his life at the time, etc etc. That is always my absolute favorite part of a short story collection. Also these notes told me everything I needed to know about why I liked certain things about his writing. "I wanted to write my own AUs," "If I get stuck I go on TV Tropes," "My only regret is that I had to cut the scene where Jedao goes to ~Halloween~ dressed as himself and trolls people" ahhhh that's also a regret I share.

Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee This one is YA! There is a lot less gore although I guess there was still genocide! Read this when you are in the mood for something that doesn't attempt to hide the fact that the plot is completely, conveniently contrived to give you fast-paced action and fun. Min sure has a lot of coincidental meetings that should stretch my disbelief but I don't care. Also, I am enjoying reading books with girls as protagonists that do what I'm tired of being told to love about boy protagonists--just keep barreling along with complete self-assurance that you are right and, if you run into trouble, you can egotistically figure your way out.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin Gods and mortal ruling family's messy soap opera sexcapades is not exactly my favorite genre, but luckily it is handled by Jemisin so it's all good. Lots of Souma Family Values. I'm really appreciating how Jemisin considers choice of narrator very carefully and uses it to brilliant effect in this trilogy. Stories are things told by a narrator to an audience; why should we rely on the artifice of an "impartial" "reliable" "omniscient" 3rd person narrator writing into the void? This trilogy was Jemisin's first, I believe, so it's a little awkward coming back to them now, only because Jemisin is such a powerful writer that the themes she's begun working with here have only gotten stronger with each successive work.

The Broken Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin This one I rated as I read for Protagonist Is Blind based on the scale of a sighted person going "but some of my best friends are blind!" In that regard, I think the book does really well! Blindness doesn't define Oree's life and value; Oree doesn't get magical powers that make her a blind person who isn't really blind; Oree moves away from home and gets a job and lives on her own which seems very accurate to me based on my knowledge of one (1) person who is blind; instead of being ~cured~, Oree actually gets more blind at the end of the story and this is considered a Good Ending. Also personal bonus points are awarded for references to her stick being handy for hitting people with. Some stuff was stereotypical, but Jemisin's intent was not. A+, will read again, please support including way more characters who are blind in media. Anyway I enjoyed this one.

The Kingdom of Gods, N. K. Jemisin First off, Jemisin directly up front critiques the narration choices she made in the first two books and then pays it off like a boss at the end. Like holy crap. I admit by now I was getting a bit bored of the genre, but the book was still very engaging because Jemisin is a master. It may also have been affected by how much increasing pain I've been in lately.

The Awakened Kingdom, N. K. Jemisin I'm dead. This one was way more my speed and you need the other three books to understand this novella but ohhhh my god it's perfect. I read a lot of choice passages of this aloud to my roommate because how could you resist. It's still heavy but it's hilarious. Bless Shill.

[legobiwan]

I’m freaking out because i just...i’m SO psyched for the Kenobi series but i’m so afraid that they’re gonna give him a romance. I hate it because i...i just, and you’ve talked about this before, he’s he perfect Jedi. To Obi-wan, being a good person IS following the code, even after the order is gone. He wouldn’t have realistically ever left the order for kryze (even tho i don’t consider that canon that always felt ooc to me) or the others bc he’s completely devoted to the code above all else 1/2

Especially after what he saw happen to anakin and padme because of that attachment. I highly doubt he would, 8 years later, be willing to even have temptation of a romantic partner. And god forbid we hear more Rey Kenobi theories. I’m just worried Disney is going to do a disservice to his character bc hollywood HAS to have a romance plot in everything. Do you think they’ll go down that route? 2/2

So we’re dealing with a few different issues here. Let’s break this down:

“The Perfect Jedi”

Obi-wan attempts to be the perfect Jedi. He tries, oh so hard, to keep himself at that exacting, impossible standard. Of course, no one is the perfect Jedi - not Obi-wan, not Yoda, not Mace Windu - and certainly not Qui-gon. (And yet there is something in there, the delicate balance of striving towards excellence as opposed to striving for perfection, and it is an important distinction, one that I don’t think the Jedi, as a whole, always got correct as a sense of extremism took root within certain sectors of the Order.) Now, the reason behind this predilection - well, we could point at a few factors. Obi-wan’s sense of impostor syndrome (not at all helped by one Qui-gon Jinn, who seemed to be constantly thinking Obi-wan was somehow behind on his development, as shown in Master and Apprentice.)

(There’s a whole other meta I’ve touched on regarding the whole inter-Lineage…I don’t want to use the word trauma, but let’s just say they all inherited their predecessors’ issues and manifested them very differently.)

But yes, from the get-go, it seems that Obi-wan needs to prove himself. To Qui-gon, as a Padawan. To Qui-gon’s memory, when he takes Anakin. To Anakin, to prove he could be the Master of the Chosen One. To the Council. Etc. It’s a lot of pressure on one person. And the thing is, Obi-wan cracks, more than once. His sardonic, biting sense of humor is indicative enough of his less-than-perfect adherence to the Code, not to mention all the rules he bends for Anakin, his devotion to Satine - which is an interesting case study. In the end, Obi-wan does not succumb to Maul’s taunts to go feral/Dark Side but Obi-wan’s actions on Mandalore, precipitated by his very un-Jedi actions regarding Satine, set off a cataclysm of far-reaching events. As does his refusal to kill Anakin on Mustafar, which could be construed as a wild infraction of the Jedi Code. I mean, had Obi-wan killed Anakin, made *sure* of it and not walked away, what would have happened?

And yet, he tries to do good. Even as he realizes his faults, his part in moulding galactic events. Obi-wan could have done more, could have done differently, and yet despite his awful circumstances, he never gives in to hate. He is flawed, imperfect, but still holds on to some core part of himself. And I think that core part is something…that’s not the Jedi Code. The Code, in the end, is meaningless after Mustafar. (And I really REALLY hope the series touches on this idea of loss of faith, because Obi-wan held on to the Code so tightly, as a way of justifying so many of his actions because what else did he have? And I love existential crises when they’re not my own. HA!) The Code may have been his way of telling himself he was doing good - was doing what Qui-gon wanted, what the Council wanted, what was best for Anakin…but I wonder when Obi-wan sat down and thought about what he wanted for himself? Without expectation, without other people’s narratives. (Okay, so I may be projecting a bit here.) 

I’m getting off-topic here. Would Obi-wan have left the Order for Satine? No. He would have thought about it, fantasized about it. But at that point, he would have been too wrapped up in expectations to actually do anything about it. And by the time the Clone Wars came around? He was too responsible, too enmeshed. And…you know, I get it. I’m around Obi-wan’s age in TCW/RotS. There’s so much narrative to unpack in your life, so much expectation that you can internalize or throw away and whose story is it anyway? Those around you? Your own? Some odd mixture therein? But Obi-wan wasn’t ready to let go of that narrative, of those expectations, of the ghost of Qui-gon and so, no, he wouldn’t have left the Order. But there would be nights, those nights. When the lights have dimmed in the quarters on board the Star Destroyer, when the company you keep is an empty durasteel table, half a bottle of Corellian whiskey, and twenty years of what if…

But you were asking about romance, about attachment. (So often conflated, although never one and the same. Or perhaps they are different terms for the same idea, not love in the carnal sense but illogical devotion to someone or something. I always like the idea of there being many words, ideas for love, as the Greeks made popular in our culture. Love, or attachment to an idea or a thing can be just as wonderful, as intoxicating and dangerous as it can be with a person.) 

Realistically? An Obi-wan set adrift in Tatooine might get attached, despite everything. (The novel Kenobi does a fantastic job of illustrating this.) We yearn for connection, and someone who has all but cut themselves off from interaction with other beings…how long can you hold out? 

This isn’t to say I would support a full-fledged typical Hollywood romance in the series. Because honestly? Not the time or place. 

Now, if it is something where Obi-wan feels a connection with someone and then purposefully acts against it? I would be okay with this. As it would be in service to the idea that he is (tragically) cutting himself off, believing himself to taint others, to be less than. And given the trajectory of recent streaming, I’m more confident than I would have been a few years ago that a series can do without a “typical” romance. (Which…thank the gods for that development. I don’t mind natural romance (I’m looking at you, Good Omens), but the shoe-horned heteronormative plots I was forced to endure through the 80s, 90s and early 2000s were…tiring, to say the least.)

We’re in a new era now, with these streaming services, with the impact fandom has on media, with social mores changing for the better, in my opinion. (But seriously, it’s wild for an old fogey like me to watch unfold. A little weird, I’m not going to lie, but on the whole, a positive development.) I’m going to put my faith in a few things, including a) Ewan McGregor wouldn’t have signed on to this if it weren’t going to be something interesting and nuanced (and gods know he held out long enough, so I’m assuming the man has standards) and b) Disney wants our wallets and has a pretty good grasp of its demographics (probably a scarily accurate grasp, but that’s another story for another time), so I’m not too worried about a prototypical romance plot.

Now, as to Rey Kenobi theories, I have to admit, I enjoy them, only because I’ve been struggling for more Kenobi content recently. I doubt that’s the route they’ll go down, especially in light of all the rumours circulating about Episode 9. And so, in the end, what I hope (and believe) we’ll get is a very human story about a man who tried to live by a narrative and failed, and tried to reconstruct himself not totally escaping the chains of those events and people, but still trying to do good.

[malisonquill]

Half-Raptor Rex (and Emmet)'s Biology

So to start things off, Rex is roughly half raptor. For the purposes of making things simpler, I'm gonna refer to him as being half and half, but that's probably not the case. He didn't set out to be a hybrid when he altered himself to be stronger, that was an accident, so he had no say over just how raptor-y he ended up. I would say when you take into account his looks and all his behaviour and stuff it does work out to being half human and raptor. But physically? He's definitely more human. After all, his body structure looks pretty human. He's still got a very human looking torso, head, and arms. It's just his extremities (his legs, hands, and addition of a tail) that are far more raptor looking. That's why when I draw him, those raptor-y parts fade to a darker shade of blue. So like, raptor parts = darker blue like how the raptors have, human parts = lighter blue similar in tone to what his normal human skin colour would be. (That's excluding his markings of course. They don't count in that and they're all over him.)

And whilst we're on the subject, let's first take a look at his outward appearance!

So the stripes. They start on his neck near the base of his skull, run all the way down his back/ spine, and down his tail. Then there's more stripes on his shoulders, that run down his bicep and the top of his forearm and hands, stopping at his knuckles. He's also got stripes that start at his hips and go down the sides of his thighs, all the way down to stop near his ankle/ where his trousers end. (Hmm… I should probably draw a ref for all that at some point 😏)

Then like I said before, all his extremities go to a darker blue at the ends. You can see this on most pics of him I've done.

Then of course there's his strength. He's very strong, very buff, and also very tall (I’d say he’s about 7’6” and you can see his height in comparison to Lucy in this pic). I don't constantly jokingly refer to him as "beefman" for nothing! xD Cuddlesome summed it up best in her fic: 

“Dumbbells and barbells had long since stopped being a challenge for his mutated body to handle, so he’d taken to power lifting with the Rex-wing fighters. It’s the only thing that poses even a bit of a challenge to his massive arms.”

Strength was the aspect he was going for and most hoping to improve when he changed himself, so of course he’s physically very strong. To workout, he either has to lift very heavy objects or maybe use some kind of sci-fi dumbbells that can have their gravity increased (like in that one episode of Futurama). People pose no challenge for him to lift. He could easily carry both Emmet and Lucy over his shoulders, or under his arms if he wanted to and be able to keep that up for a long time. (Here’s a doodle/ wip of him doing that. Rex is a tad too big in it tho.)

He mostly uses his physical Dino strength when it comes to him master breaking. He only uses the more mystical "destroy a temple in one punch" kind of thing in rare circumstances when he's incredibly mad. Because his dino strength is enough most of the time. 

But before I can talk more about physical stuff and behavioural traits, I first gotta talk about my headcanons for Rex’s/ the Lego Movie-verse raptors. 

Now real velociraptors were covered in feathers and about the size of a turkey, only coming up to about the average adult human’s knee. Obviously the Lego Movie raptors are a LOT BIGGER and much more based off the Jurassic Park interpretation. 

So I came up with the idea that the movie raptors are a subspecies that are a lot larger. It’s a fictional world after all, you can take liberties. Though despite me doing that, I have tried to include as much real science as I can. So for example, real raptors apparently went from hatched to fully grown in about a year. And as the movie raptors are 3/ 3 ½ times bigger than a normal raptor, I think they’d take 3-4 years to fully grow. They eat a lot in that time to grow big real quick.

As for noises they make, I think they make many different sounds. They can roar, screech, growl, chirp, hiss, all that stuff. 

And for their behaviour, they obviously act like dinosaurs. So they’d do a lot of lizardy/ snakey/ crocodile-like things. But the movie has them act like dogs too, what with how they go after tennis balls and all. And personally I’ve given them some cat like aspects too xD Like with their slitted eyes going wide in fear or at something they like. So their behaviour to me is kind of a melting pot of all that.

And so of course, how does that apply to half-raptor Rex?

Well let’s start with behaviour. He has a lot of raptor instincts, and they can overpower his rational thinking when his emotions get too intense. Which is why he has a fairly good handle on controlling his feelings. Using things like meditation techniques to calm himself down is very important when you can do a lot of damage when their left unchecked. Or conversely, if the situation calls for it, he can let himself go entirely to unleash maximum destruction. 

The most obvious example with his heightened emotions is anger. He gets angry, he’s gonna growl and snarl. He starts off with quiet growls when he’s only a little angry, and would react like a human would mostly. If he was fighting someone at this point, he’d be using normal things like punches and martial arts techniques. But the angrier he gets, the more he loses control and the more raptor-like he acts. So when he’s furious and out of control, he does a lot of roaring, growling, snarling and goes into raptor fighting mode. Claws and fangs and kicks with his feet are used. (Also apparently scientists think that raised claw raptors have was so it’d be constantly sharp. So… he could use that in a fight >:3).

But raptor behaviour taking over his rational human behaviour doesn’t just apply to anger. It applies to all of his emotions. Fear can make him go wide eyed and whine, or super happy makes him go into raptor puppy/kitty mode. Some days he’ll get in a sad mood and follow Lucy and/or Emmet around like a sad puppy. He mopes and whines if they leave him (for too long). He'll just want to sit near them if they want to do their own thing, or cuddle until he feels less mopey. 

Raptor instincts taking over like that could help as a kind of defensive thing. Tho probably annoys Rex more than anything xD Like you know, if he's just trying to be chill and normal, but then someone throws a tennis ball and he has to REALLY restrain himself xD

Now obviously being around pretty much just the raptors for years, he picks up a lot of their behaviours and is more prone to doing them unconsciously. He’s generally more aggressive, but that’s probably more his normal Rex anger being heightened by the raptor-ness. He’s defensive of his food, he’ll hiss or growl involuntarily a lot, swish his tail at things, his pupils will change, etc. 

The raptors probably taught him how to ‘properly hunt’ as well. Which thinking about it, the image of him running alongside a group of them as they teach him and chase something down is almost cute? But he himself is probably gonna only take down small things. Taking down a big animal with a group of raptors might be a bit too raptory for him to want to do. Tho he probably did it at least once to see what it was like. (Also on the note of hunting, because he’s so equipped to do it, eventually during his redemption, he becomes a bounty hunter, but more on that in another post…)

All these raptor like things that he does, he only becomes really aware of post movie, when he’s hanging around Emmet and Lucy. He realises just how much humanity he’s lost after spending time with them. It hurts. It makes him loathe what he’s done to himself even more. 

But those two will help him act more human again. They can pull him up on behaviours and help him, and he’s grateful for that. Any little thing to make him feel ‘normal’ makes him feel better.

Now about some more physical stuff. 

When he’s standing still, he’ll let the end of his tail rest on the floor. Unless the floor is super dirty, then he might lift it up or curl it around a leg to keep it elevated. When he’s walking he’ll lean his torso forward slightly and lift his tail up. When he’s running at full tilt, his tail is out straight behind him and he leans forward a lot. (Almost like Naruto running xD but his arms are forward.)

Diet wise, he needs more meat than a human. He’s still an omnivore, but with a lean towards the carnivorous side. So he does need a balance of foods. And he can’t last on a meat free diet. If he tried to be totally vegetarian (not that he would xD) he would get sick or malnourished in only a few weeks. He can’t live on just veggies. And conversely, he can eat raw meat, more so than a human could, but if he tried to eat nothing but raw meat in his meals, he’d make himself ill with food poisoning after a week or two. Also to keep up his muscle mass, and also just because he’s a very big guy, he needs to eat big meals. Lots of protein, that kind of thing. 

So on that note of food, he’s got a lot of fangs to deal with eating meat, and if he was hunting prey, and that’s mostly at the front, but he does still have some flatter molars at the back of his mouth. Also he can open his mouth quite wide and has very strong jaw muscles for clamping down on things. 

His eyes are obviously raptor/ cat-like, so he can see in the dark quite well. 

His skin is rougher and feels a bit like soft scales. It’s gotta be tough you see. Means he isn’t as injured by light scratches. And the more raptor parts of him have tougher/ more scale like texture. 

He isn’t cold blooded, but in some ways he is a bit? He is a lot more sluggish in cold weather. He hates being out in it, and avoids it at all costs. He’s more susceptible to the cold too and can have trouble keeping up his body temperature in cold environments. He needs to wrap up warm and can’t stay out in the snow or something for as long as a human could. 

He can make all those sounds the raptors can, and speak and understand raptor fluently. Sometimes he talks like this instead of using words by mistake. He’s just so used to the raptors for company. 

“How many T-Rex jokes does he have to deal with?”

Mostly the raptors joke about that to annoy him if he wants them to do something they don’t want to do. But if they piss him off too much by doing that, they quickly do as they're told. He’s like their Alpha. He’s the boss, and you don’t mess with the boss 0-0

Lucy would joke about that too. He begrudgingly lets her get away with it more than he otherwise would.

Now for some Emmet stuff!

Emmet as a half raptor is still pretty sweet, but if he gets aggravated he can snap a lot more easily and violently than he would as a human. He doesn’t have any control over his feelings/ instincts like Rex does. Rex could hold himself back if someone threw a tennis ball for him. Emmet would case after it, catch it, and not realise he’s done that till it’s in his mouth and he’s chewing on it. He does a lot of things like that involuntarily. 

But for the most part, Emmet is like a giant puppy. Playful, clumsy, likes to chew on things he shouldn’t. It’s cute.  

And that’s pretty much all I can think of for now!