#also feel free to theorize as to why she's growing

[mzoyagon]

GUYS IM GOING FERAL A WHILE AGO I THEORIZED TO MYSELF THAT UZI MIGHT BE VERY SUBTLY GROWING THROUGHOUT THE EPISODES AND EITHER GLITCH GOOFED OR I'VE JUST BEEN PROVEN EIGHT

(For context this is the image that says she's 127 cm)

[cupids-scream-queen]

House of wax request

Vincent Sinclair x fem reader

What if reader and vin have a kid together and she’s def a daddy’s girl and loves Vincent’s face they just a chill day them playing outside daughter hugging vin just super cute and fluffy

-> Vincent Sinclair x f!reader

-> Warnings: none! just fluff.

-> Summary: It's been years since you first moved to Ambrose. You adjusted to life pretty easily, and now that you had your first daughter with Vincent, life was pretty much perfect.

A/N: Thanks for this request! It was a really nice break in between Smutmas, and it's honestly probably one of the cutest things I've written recently!! It's kind of short, so feel free to send another ask if you'd like a longer version or HC's :)

Vincent hadn't spoken a word in all the years you knew him, yet the way he played with your daughter let you know that he loved her with every fiber of his being.

Vincenza--everyone called her Vinny--was a beautiful, ebony-haired child, just like her father. She had vivid blue eyes, a knack for getting into all sorts of trouble, and just enough awareness to gaslight her Uncle Bo into believing she was the most perfect girl to exist.

Vinny was in the garden, her little six-year-old hands on her father's face, his mask discarded to reveal his real face. You hadn't even seen it when he first got you pregnant--he took it off only in the presence of his daughter, once she was born. You weren't entirely sure why, perhaps it had something to do with the fact he wanted his daughter to see her father's face, but it was a sediment that you knew proved that he would never, ever, harm her.

Vinny was into flowers, her gardening skills allowing for a large variety of vegetables now grown fresh, including tomatoes, green beans, peppers, and a variety of squash that you really didn't want to ask Lester how he got his hands on. You also never asked Lester why he always seemed to have really, really good fertilizer, or where he got the squirrel he gave Vinny when she was born.

"Vin? Vinny?" You made your way to the two of them, your skin sunkissed in the Ambrose summer.

"Yes Mommy?" Your daughter held sunflowers in her hand, she was tucking them in braids she made in Vincent's long hair. "Look, daddy's pretty!" She giggled, and Vincent smiled, genuinely. You'd never seen him happier than when he was with Vinny.

"How's the flowers?" Vincenza pointed to the other end of the field, where a huge patch of yellow, red, and orange flowers lay.

"They grew! Mommy, I think Uncle Lester has magic dirt," She said the last part quietly, as if a secret between the three of you. Vincent had a playful glint in his eye when Vinny began to theorize why her plants grew better when Uncle Lester brought her bags of dirt.

"Maybe, or perhaps you're just very good at taking care of your plants," You sat on the grass, next to your husband. Vincent looked at you and smiled, the corners of his mouth playful as he pointed to his daughter. "She's adorable--just like you."

He blushed, his good half of his face a cherry color. You kissed his cheek, and your daughter followed suit, kissing the scarred side. Vincent smiled, and Vinny climbed into her father's lap, enveloped in him.

It was perfect, really. A happy family, a beautiful daughter, and a wonderful husband. Vincenza was your pride and joy, and Vincent was mutual in the feeling. The two of you were there to stay, your daughter growing up in a household of love and affection, her gardening habit growing to one day surpass the majority of flower beds at the house.

masterlist | feel free to like, comment, or reblog to support! requests are open <3

[leothil]

Hi! I know you got the anon ask, but in your answer you seemed to know what anon was talking, so I gotta ask you.

"Like one gets back with their partner as soon as the other does? Single at the same time and then not? What went on on that driveway 🤔!"

What does it all mean???? Was Ryan single recently? Is he back with his wife? Is Oliver back with his ex? What driveway? What is going on? 🤣

I ask as a good chismosa who likes all the tea, and then never speak of it again. I come in peace. 🥰😘

Hi, no worries, welcome to the inbox! 😄

So short answer first: no, neither Oliver nor Ryan has been single for many years, as far as anyone knows.

Last spring (and some whispers already on the fall 2021 side) fans started speculating that Oliver and his partner had broken up since she never showed up in his ig-posts anymore, he posted a lot of stories that'd fit in the genre I'd call "late night sad girl posting" and he seemed to attend Aisha's wedding alone. But he made a reference to his long-term partner on the recent morning tv appearance he made, so it's quite possible they just decided to take their relationship very private and off social media (more power to them, if so).

Now, when it comes to Ryan it ventures much more into fan speculation (and conspiracy theorizing?) so I just want to reiterate that that's what it is and none of us know the people involved or what their intentions behind any picture were. Ryan has always had an... interesting prescence on instagram and writes some truly wild and weird captions on both his posts and his stories, bless him. Some months ago most of the things he posted started having this really melancholy and resigned tone to them that made a lot of people go 👀, and around the same time his wife started writing posts about finding your true self and growing into who you're meant to be and restarting your life and so on (and following a podcast about breakups which. Fksjhdg). Perhaps the most "damning" was a story Ryan posted with the caption "attention is not love" that he then deleted within 30mins. Both of them have also deleted pics of each other off their instagrams. They did have similar vibes drama some years ago (before I was in the fandom and/or cared about the actors) and then it seemed to resolve when uh. Well, around the time she got pregnant again. 🫥 So while all of this can mean absolutely nothing, you can also see why people would kind of side-eye it.

The driveway thing stems from one of these ~dramatically captioned pics~ Ryan posted. It was of stonework that some people thought looked suspiciously like Oliver's driveway, that we recently got to see in the Men's Health interview he did.

So! Those are the broad strokes. Feel free to message me if you have more questions, but be aware that I'm just a person on the other side of the world from LA. 😂

[ankylosaurusthesaurus]

a long rambly discussion on alador and odalia

a small warning before i begin i will be briefly mentioning emotional abuse and neglect carried out by the blight parents. it’s nothing worse than what’s portrayed in the actual show, but just a warning if you don’t want to read that :)

also spoiler warning for clouds in the horizon and all of season 2 of toh

theorizing that odalia and alador only married for financial gain, and not for love. something really interesting that i noticed that episode is that they were referring to each other as if they were financial partners, and not a married couple. part of this could be that they’ve just completely fallen out of love, but i’d think it would be really possible that they were never in love. from the moment they were introduced, they never seemed very couple-y. and given odalia’s obsession for wealth and power, i wouldn’t be surprised if she manipulated alador into marrying her.

i mean, they are really solid business partners. she doesn’t have the means to invent things, but she is a ruthless saleswoman. and alador doesn’t seem to be as motivated or skilled in marketing, but he’s extremely smart and skilled as an inventor. given odalia’s oracle powers i really wouldn’t be surprised if she had mind controlled or manipulated or something’ed alador so she could gain the financial benefits that could come from his inventions. 

it’s also so fascinating how we see alador genuinely care for his kids, and we also see that his kids (amity at least) trust him to a certain degree. this doesn’t excuse or cancel out the emotional neglect he carried out for so long, or how he aided odalia’s abuse and refused to step in and intervene until the consequence was literally murder (escaping expulsion). this behavior is never excusable. however comma, it’s interesting seeing his character arch, and seeing how he’s growing and trying to be a better father. and he’s doing that through his actions, not his words. freeing the gang from odalia’s force field prison thing. shutting off his abominations. offering to pilot a coven ship to help save (who they then thought was hunter). making an effort to make (who they then thought was luz) to feel welcomed by him, + therefore amity’s family, after odalia was just. being a total and complete bitch. 

speaking of odalia, it’s really fascinating how her character arc completely juxtaposes alador’s. while over season two, we’ve seen small moments of alador growing, and clearly showing regret over his actions, or moments of compassion or realization in regards to his children, we see none of that for odalia. we actually see her become LESS CARING THAN SHE ALREADY WAS. for example, in reaching out, upon learning that amity was dating luz, this is a moment of realization for alador. he’s surprised, but he’s surprised because this makes him realize how little he’s actually been there for his children. and he responds respectfully. he doesn’t alienate luz from the family because she’s wanted or a human. and upon realizing how little he’s actually spent with his children, he attempts to reconcile with amity. and although she doesn’t necessarily forgive him, she also shows that she’s beginning to trust him, because his actions speak volumes.

additionally, while alador was trying to force amity to go to coven try outs that entire time, rather than continuing to force her, he actually makes the effort to why she doesn’t want to. he actually TRIES to understand.

odalia, in comparison. we have never seen her even attempt to make a connection or understanding with amity or the twins. she either forces things on them, or accuses them of things and refuses to hear them out. upon capturing everyone, odalia incessantly accuses amity, placing her own perception of amity’s actions onto amity. she never asks amity any questions, or if she does it’s in the way that people ask questions accusatorily, where they don’t actually want an answer. when amity does try to explain herself, odalia shuts her down and doesn’t take her seriously. upon odalia learning that amity is dating luz, she doesn’t stop to think about how her daughter is. you know. growing up and going for life. and odalia hasn’t stopped to be there for any of it. she hasn’t made time for her children. she doesn’t realize how shitty this is of her, like alador did. instead she’s just seething with rage because luz is wanted. i would say also because luz is a human, which may have been true earlier in the series, but i think luz has more than proved herself to everyone on the boiling isles just how strong she is. so i don’t think luz being a human is much of an issue for odalia at that point. just, you know, that she’s “wanted” and odalia probably perceives her of being a bad influence on amity.

additionally, it’s fascinating to me how odalia responds with “we’ll get you another girlfriend.” This is coming from a complete disregard for amity’s emotions. amity isn’t dating luz just because amity wants a girlfriend. amity isn’t dating luz to act out or rebel. amity is dating luz because amity loves luz, and cares about luz. we’ve seen throughout the show how much development they’ve gone through and also how much work they’ve both put into their relationship, and how much they both care about each other. amity wouldn’t want another girlfriend if something happened to luz. 

this shows the complete disregard that odalia has for amity’s emotions. she learned something really significant about her daughter. her daughter has a girlfriend. her daughter is growing up. and while alador had this moment of realization that he hadn’t been there for his children. and this prompted him to make an effort to try to reconcile with amity, and he asks her questions and supports her, odalia never does this.

offering to find amity another girlfriend also shows that odalia does not view relationships as something one does for love. she views relationships as something that one does for some sort of gain. it’s also fascinating how it seems her primary issue with luz is her reputation. luz is strong, and a powerful witch at this point in the show, and she’s demonstrated that she’s a powerful witch to pretty much everyone. but odalia seems completely disgusted by the fact that luz is on a wanted list. luz also does not come from a “respectable” position, seeing as luz is associated with eda. It can be presumed that odalia holds very little respect for eda, as eda never joined a coven, and despite being extremely powerful and skilled before her magic got taken away, she never used that skill and power to gain herself a position of power. she lives in a small house in the woods that very few people can enter due to a scary owl. we saw in season 1 just how powerful she is with her magic. from odalia’s perspective (even though we know this is not true, due to how her curse effected her), eda could have very easily gained some sort of social status in the boiling isles (other than being Eda the Owl Lady, of course).

but eda sells goods at (possibly?) illegal markets. she is secluded. she has the talents that she could very much make a name for herself, especially if she joined a coven (again, from odalia’s perspective). eda recognizes the coven systems are oppressive. additionally, the potions eda NEEDS to help her curse are financially inaccessible, which causes eda to need to sell and scam and steal, in order to afford the healthcare and medication the potions that she needs in order to help her mental health her curse. odalia doesn’t know this. if she did she probably wouldn’t care, but still.

odalia sees eda as someone who chooses not to have power, even though she should. and it is true that eda seems to not personally care about her social reputation, besides being proud of how formidable she is perceived. i don’t think it needs to be said how much this goes against odalia’s personal beliefs. and due to the fact that luz is eda’s kid, odalia associates her beliefs of eda with luz as well. which again, isn’t completely wrong, luz does not seem to necessarily care too much about social status. while a major part of her arc is feeling alienated in the human world because she doesn’t fit in, she never tries to force herself to change in order to fit in. in being in the boiling isles, she has major insecurities about not fitting in. and the boiling isles is a place where, inherently, she does not fit in. she’s a human. magic does not come naturally to her. however, she finds people who she does fit in with, and she fits in with them by being herself. she doesn’t care if she’s popular or of high social status at school. she finds community and friends and people who care about her, something she never really seemed to have in the human world. her insecurities still exist, but it’s not about finding greater social status, it’s her worrying about acceptance from other people.

odalia could not care less about finding community and friends and acceptance. she is someone who very clearly only thinks about status. and the fact that a) luz does not care about status and b) does not necessarily have high social status makes odalia think luz is an unfit girlfriend for amity. 

it’s also evident in this exchange just how controlling odalia is. before this episode we saw a lot of odalia being controlling in smaller but still really weird awful ways. controlling her children’s hair color. wanting her children to be perfect. forcing her children to help out with selling the abomitons. having a necklace that allows her to speak telepathically with other’s wearing the necklace. all of this is controlling, but only preludes all the things we learned about her in this episode. she thinks she could just choose who amity’s girlfriend would be. it’s clear she has some form of influence over alador. she does things that alador should have a say in without consulting him. she overworks alador, and doesn’t think twice or care about it. he “hasn’t had a weekend off in five years.” which is insane i’m not even gonna get into the really interesting dynamics of her as a business person, a boss, upper management, etc, and the way that she clearly abuses workers and those she deems beneath her. (her beratement of kikimora only once kikimora is demoted to a position “lower” than odalia’s. her overworking of alador. her firing workers with seemingly little warning, which likely put these workers in financially unideal or even dangerous/risky situations. i don’t know what kind of welfare support the boiling isles offers to the unemployed. presumably not really any. wait i’m actually really curious about this now. i won’t get into that but maybe in the future).

the owl house has a lot of commentary on capitalism, or at least abuses that occur under a capitalistic system. i won’t get into that cos this post is already way too long, but it!! is!! fascinating!!

i also have lost my train of thought so i will not continue i can’t remember how i was going to conclude this post but uh you get what i mean.

[fanmoose12]

FANMOOSE i just finished reading the devil you know oh my god i loved how you tied everything up, historia, the paths thing, zeke, hanj as a marleyan, them being used as a bargaining chip, even fking floch AHHHHHHH i could kiss you in the lips right nowW you're absolutely right why couldn't they just ,, u know,, ask ymir to stop??? GENIUS genius, I love it! I love how capable and not so helpless Historia and Mikasa are, Historia especially during the paths scene GAH the levihan is top tier you are brilliant and I love you this is so CANON to me you helped me get over the anime cough cough are you yams why is your brain so big such a great fix-it fic i binged it all morning and I LOVE YOU THANK YOU FOR YOUR MASTERPIECE your zevihan kinda inspired me coughs

ohh, the devil you know that's my baby!! i don't really remember who pitched the idea to me (sorry), but i love, love the setting! it gives so much freedom to explore hange's character! it adds more depth to it! i know i haven't actually explored it much in the fic, but i really love the idea of hange growing up in marley? weird, bizarre hange being raised in marley's conservative society? constantly looked upon because of her unusual interests? having to live under the weight of her father's legacy? again, i didn't really explore this theme in a fic because there was no space for it really, but i like the idea of hange as a strange child of a very important, very serious man who tries to shun all her achievements and set her on a right path, but hange persisisting through it all. of course, there is also a matter of marley's policies, of how they treated eldians and how hange disapproved of it all but also couldn't really do much because of her status.

and zeke, oh zeke, they'd make such a great pair. both insanely smart, both desperate to change the world and both quite unable to do that. i bet they had the time of their lives theorizing what would happen if only they were free to do as they pleased.

and then! then! hange arrives at paradise (this too makes more sense in my head. no shade on annie, bert and reiner, but sending kids on a dangerous mission to another part of world without any kind of supervision? not marley's brightest ideas), joins the survey corps and? for the first time in her life she feels like she belongs there? all of them are weird! all of them are rebels in a way! hange feels so free and happy! and then she falls in a love with a strangest, kindest man she's ever met! everything is perfect! until hange remembers who she really is and who all these people are, and.... the tragedy ensues

ok, sorry for ramblings but i really love this fic and this setting so, so much! and i love you @anyareinein you're the best!! can't wait for your next update!

[desmondkane-of-ao3-fame]

So how would Skara and willow become an actual couple? I’m only asking because you have a few different answers.

Unfortunately, I'm not certain what to say, because if you're asking me 'How canonically would Skara and Willow get together,' it's kind of difficult one to answer.

The reason I've given so many answer's as to how Skara and Willow become a couple is because A) People asked often for different variations of it, and B) The show itself doesn't give a lot insight into their relationship, so a lot of speculation's can be made. We know Skara bullied Willow in the past, and we know now the two are friends, but a lot of specifics and nitty gritty details are less clear. The show never even gives a hand-wavey explanation for why Skara and Willow became friends, for Titan's sake. It can make for pretty fun speculation fodder and fan theorizing, but it also means creating a perfectly 100% show accurate answer to how Willow and Skara start dating involves a great deal of headcannoning, and also would involve explaining how Huntlow would break up since it's fairly obvious the intention at the end is that the two are in some form of romantic relationship.

I dooooooooo have something of an idea, a potential outline for a long-term Skarlow focused post-timeskip fanfic I'd be happy to see someone tackle, but with life, GS, and another project, there's too much for me to ever do it myself. So if you would like to take up the challenge of writing it yourself, feel free to take the idea and do it yourself. Hell, I might even beta-read it for you.

It starts from Skara's perspective as it follows her developing feelings over Willow while the pair are at Hexside. Over the years, Skara can't help but grow fond of her team captain and friend, eventually realizing she likes Willow a lot more then she should. She refuses to act on her feelings though, both because of her past as a bully and the fact that she's dating Hunter, so Skara mostly just vents to her bestie Viney about it all. After Hexside, Skara becomes a teachers aide and thinks she's fully gotten over her feelings for Willow until Hunter's 21st birthday, where he proposes to her in front of all their family and friends. Willow runs off, panicked, Luz and Amity follow after, and the party attendee's, unsure what to do, try either to help cheer Hunter up, or slip away before things get bad, which is Skara's method. Later, she hears that Willow broke up with Hunter, and a tiny, selfish pang of hope in Skara's chest reminds her that she hasn't given up her feelings for Willow. Even if she wishes she really had.

Later through Willow's perspective, we see how her relationship with Hunter was like. How she always liked him, cared about him, but never felt the same way for him as she did for her. How she always saw Amity and Luz and her dad's and wondered if she would eventually feel as happy with Hunter as they seemed with their partners. And how she never wanted to hurt Hunter, but after he proposed to her, she just didn't know how to react other then to panic. Essentially, she'd always love Hunter, but never felt in love with him, which leads to a lot of her personal conflict in the story. How she never wanted to hurt her friends, but now seems to have created this painful awkwardness in the Hexsquad because she could never be honest with Hunter or herself...

The main focus would be on both girls and their complicated emotions, both regarding their respective situations and, after a while, their feelings for each other. It would also feature a number of subplots, such as Skara being a teachers aid, Boscha and her relationship with Maya, and Hunter's own journey of self discovery after the breakup.

Not all the details are worked out perfectly, but I think there's at least something here, ya know?

[crescentmoonrider]

If this unreliable self can become someone... - Part 4 (Annotated Edition)

Yuuta falls ill. Toji wouldn't say he was expecting it, wouldn't say he knew the gods would never let him have something good without taking it from him again, wouldn't say this knowledge terrifies him. There's nothing he can do anyway. -or- After a summer storm, Yuuta wakes up in front of a bridge, Rika-chan by his side. She looks so much smaller than he remembered. [Edo AU]

read on AO3

read on FFn

For the final time, welcome to my research notes for this series ! I hope you enjoyed the ride, I certainly enjoyed working on this project on my end ! I hope I can revisit this universe someday, I certainly have some ideas left, but for now this is the end.

Thank you to everyone who decided to try out this weird little story of mine, but now, on to the historical notes !

Face the river Sanzu and walk backwards into life

The Sanzu River (三途の川) is what separates the world of the living from the afterlife in Japanese Buddhist mythology. Before being allowed to cross, you have to pay a toll of 6 mon, and then there are three ways to cross it, depending on how you lived your life. The simplified version is this : the righteous can simply walk across the bridge, most people find themselves having to go through a ford, and the wicked have to swim in the waters (that just so happen to be infested by dragons). Of course, as with all myths, there are variations, and I had personally never heard of the ford crossing before doing research for this fic.

Also, the riverbank is supposed to have red spider lilies on it, leading to these flowers being associated with death (also, they bloom in early fall). So if you’ve ever wondered why these flowers are so prominent in, say, an anime like Jigoku Shoujo, this is why.

Of course, all of this serious talk about death is kind of undermined by my usual title bullshit, this time featuring the iconic dril tweet “If the Zoo bans me for hollering at the animals I will face God and walk backwards into hell”. Such a good line, honestly

“There’s fields around the road, but no one working in them.”

Toji was raised as an old-fashioned samurai, and thus doesn’t know shit about agriculture. Depending on the crops, summer might very well be a period where you mostly stay home and do other work, like cut wood to prepare for winter, work at the loom, maybe go into town to sell other products, because your fields just need to grow, and they’re not going to grow faster if you stay nearby.

I also very purposefully did Not specify what kind of crops are growing in these fields, one because I doubt Toji would be able to differentiate between (for example) millet and buckwheat, both of which were grown in Japan even before the Edo era. Surprise, people didn’t just eat rice ! Turns out rice is a pretty finicky plant, and most fields just can’t grow it properly.

But also uh, I didn’t want to have to figure out the harvest periods for various crops to make sure no one would, in fact, be in the fields at the time this part takes place. Which would be around August ? I think ? Anyway, feel free to theorize on what’s growing in these fields with that knowledge haha

Pilgrim

Pilgrimages were surprisingly highly codified during the Edo era. Or maybe it’s not that surprising. The shogunate at that time was pretty big on laws and social structure.

Anyway, the point is that, in part because of the belief that outsiders to a community would be a corrupting influence, laws called tochi kinbaku (土地緊縛, literally “binding to the land”) were put in place to limit the movement of regular folk.

As a result, people who wanted to go on a pilgrimage to one or multiple temples (with very few exceptions, pilgrimages in Japan target Buddhist sites), out of religious fervor or to pray for recovery from an illness – these people would have to fill the appropriate paperwork with the authorities of their hometown in order to get a permit, maybe fill more paperwork on landing if they went to Shikoku, follow specific routes in a predetermined time limit that usually didn’t allow them to stay in towns more than one night, and get their permit stamped at every temple. Local authorities, be it daimyo bureaucracy or village officials, would be allowed to check the permits of people coming through at any time, and would in turn report to the shogunate.

Now then, how realistic is it for Toji and Yuuta to be on the road all the time, with this in mind ?

Well, for one, the reason pilgrims were limited to specific route is that, you know, turns out that unless you want to build a wall all around your domain (with the exception of a few gates), it’s pretty much impossible to really regulate people’s movements. Also, between Yuuta’s knowledge of plants (and travelling healers were a thing at the time) and Toji’s physical strength, I have no doubt they would be able to make themselves very useful to the locals of whatever town they’re passing through, and thus wouldn’t get into too much trouble with the authorities.

And well, I guess Toji can always fuck the mayor if he risks getting thrown out ú.ù

Kayu

It’s congee. Yuuta is in fact getting his sick people food

Kakebuton (掛け布団)

The blanket part of the futon. I know these notes are getting short, but I’m writing them in parallel with the story, at the same time as I’m writing the second draft, and I’m kind of getting caught up in the emotions

Namu Amida Butsu (南無阿弥陀仏)

A phrase meaning “I take refuge in Amida Buddha” at the core of the Pure Land doctrine. Followers of this school of Buddhism believe that chanting this phrase will lead them to attain rebirth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha, even if one only chants it on one’s deathbed after a life of evil acts.

Originally, the principle seems to have been to meditate on Amida Buddha rather than simply chanting the phrase, but current Nenbutsu practice focuses on recitation.

“They were eleven.”

Until pretty recently (I’d say Meiji era, but this one I’m really not sure about), ages in Japan were counted from birth. So a two days old baby would be one year. Rika’s age was the same as canon when she died in this world, it’s just the counting convention that has changed

[ftstorm]

I'm tired of seeing all these posts about Steve dying so I'm going to say it once.

STEVE. HARRINGTON. IS. NOT. DYING.

If you pay attention, they're setting up a bunch of characters to possibly sacrifice themselves.

1. The obvious one. Eleven. She is the only one capable of taking on 001 so she'll have to fight him, right? And she has been wanting to be a hero for so long. She has sacrificed herself before so she is more than willing to step back into that role again.

2. I'm not sure why people is theorizing Steve will die. I have not seen extra spoilers about the filming and I don't see anything in the show giving away that they're building up to that. Sure, Steve is growing to be the dearest hero, he's usually beaten up by something. If anything, I'd expect him to rise above the situation and beat up the villain for once.

3. Nancy is much more at risk to die than Steve as far as we've seen. I cannot see a way of how the gang is going to save her from Vecna. Do they know her song? Do they have it available? Can she free herself from Vecna without it? They literally have seconds to figure out how to save her.

4. Brenner must die. Like, if anyone's going to die this season, is him. I can't see 001 not killing him. At this point I can't see him truly not dying before the show ends.

5. Owens. Likable but betrayed El. Feels guilty about it. Would endanger himself for her. Downside, he has a family so he probably will avoid sacrificing himself.

6. The one option no one's talking about. Will. Nancy said time stopped in the Upside Down the day Will disappeared. So, if everything started with Will, shouldn't it end with him too? Was he meant to die that day but got somehow saved by the Mindflayer/001? Because how did Will even escape 001 in the Upside Down? They never explained that. Yes, it may be a plothole but they're actually taking the time to fill in the holes (like the light thingy). Will was the first and only body that 001 brought to the Upside Down but didn't kill? Why? Was it because he was the first one and didn't know exactly how his powers worked so he didn't realize Will was there until later OR was 001 keeping him alive for a reason?

The thing is, 001 told Nancy "So close to the truth" and Nancy had said earlier, after taking a look at her diary, "The day Will disappeared. The day the gate opened." Three clues, in my opinion. Why even give Nancy such a huge spotlight at the end of ST4 part 1 if it wasn't important for the plot?

Those last minutes of the season were all about exposure and 4 characters showed up: Nancy, El, Will and Brenner.

Point is, there are so many other (more) feasible options than Steve.

PS: please be noted that Max and 001's dad cases are different from Will's because they weren't physically taken to the Upside Down. Their consciousness was.

PS2: 001 alluded that he killed Barb so I'm considering he is the Mindflayer. And we've seen that Vecna has stuffed attached to it (him?) similar to the Demogorgon and it continuously said "Join us" to his victims, therefore I'm also stating that the Demogorgon was an extension of 001. Basically, if he kills people psychically, his mental powers grow stronger enough to open portals. If he kills by flesh, his body grows bigger.

[the-freezing-cold-base]

Today I'm gonna be talking about Lexiconite head cannons! Isn't that fun!? Okay okay!

also @wordgirlheadcanonz this shit too big for the ask box lmfao so really sorry about the @ but ya know

Also this post is very fucking long this took me over three hours to type because I kept getting distracted /srs

First off I wanna talk about Cannon Lexiconite! So we far as we know only two types of Lexiconite exist. An energy draining one and a power drainer. While they share similarities there are clear differences.

Energy draining Lexiconite drains specifically Becky's energy but doesn't take away her powers like her ability to fly or super speed although with her energy drained she can't do anything which could be said as a power drainer but that's not the intent of the type of Lexiconite.

Power draining Lexiconite is exactly as it sounds where it drains Becky's powers completely and hinders her speaking abilities and her pronunciations and ability to define words. While she does feel physically weaker it doesn't have the same properties of Energy Draining Lexiconite which makes her almost sick like which is very possible that's what it's doing.

While these two types of Lexiconite are very similar in what they look like it's important to know the difference and why they look the same and that reason is that these two types of Lexiconite are under a specific category of what I like to call "Hindering" as they hinder WordGirls ability to do things such as not able to fly or not able to define words or just feel sick in general hindering her feelings of motivation. Now many things can go under the "Hindering" category of Lexiconite but it must meet certain criteria for it to fit for example it can not be life threatening or only slightly inconvenient. It must be something that prevents her from doing something like having motivation to stop crime or prevents her from flying.

Now for the next category "Alteration" this is a big category so try to stay with me on this. This category is broken down into two sections "Phycological" and "Physical"

Let me start with "Physical", physical alterations are when the body undergoes some type of change. You lost a tooth the other day? That's a physical alteration! Let's try something more noticeable to give a second example. Say Becky grew horns and teeth that would be a physical altercation of her body. Alteration to the body can lead to Phycological changes (like body dysphoria or unnatural habits) but it's kept in the Physical category as its initial alteration was physical and the Phycological changes are an after effect. Unlike most exposure to Lexiconite, Physical Alteration cases cannot be changed or reverted which means it can't be changed back after exposure unless it goes into medical hands but even that's pushing it.

Here are some examples of what Physical Alterations of Lexiconite could be as these are non cannon and fan made (feel free to add or make your own):

Horn Growing Lexiconite: Lexiconite that forces the holder to undergo the growing of horns. I believe this kind of Lexiconite would exist if some people of Lexicon wished to alter their form for various reasons such as fighting for defense, offense as a solider or maybe because they thought it would look cool. This type of altercation is almost impossible to change back and his handled with extreme care by those who know what it does.

Wing Growing Lexiconite: Now you may wonder 'Why would Lexiconite need wings if they could fly?' Well lets assume all Lexiconions can fly this would seem useless but be for flashy looks. Or it shows a sign of royalty to an extent. Or maybe some Lexiconions simply can't fly and were born without flight abilities. There are endless possibilities to this one and it's one of my favorites especially with our lack of knowledge of Lexicon. Have fun with it!

Species changing Lexiconite: Now here is a pretty cool one. So many people have theorized that Lexiconions are not human resembling and that Becky is a shapeshifter. Well what if technically Lexiconions don't have a resemblance to anything? Maybe they are a species that has dappled in a certain Lexiconite that has changed the generations so much they don't know what they originally were? I present to you the most common Lexiconite in Lexicon. The Species changer. It is the only Lexiconite that can be used once but can change your physical altercation back to whatever it was before. It's extremally useful and common among Lexiconions but also pretty expensive considering that it can only be used once before the rock no longer has power and you need a new one to change again.

Now for "Phycological" alterations. Oh boy this one is gonna be fun lol. So as you could probably guess phycological alterations happen when something changes in your mind or in your chemical balance. For example depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain in which its producing more sad chemicals rather then happy ones and this can happen for a number of reasons or no reason at all. Now with Lexiconite the same thing applies to the original category in which there needs to be certain criteria for things to fall under this category. For example a type of Lexiconite can not be placed under this category if the initial effect is not phycological. For example if Becky were to be hit with a mood altercating piece of Lexiconite lets say it's one that makes her angry then her reaction to it would be pure unjust anger with no other causing circumstances. If there are other circumstances for example the Lexiconite caused her to have a physical altercation and THEN a phycological reaction then the Lexiconite would fall under the "Physical" category.

Here are some examples of what Phycological Alterations of Lexiconite could be as these are non cannon and fan made (feel free to add or make your own):

Irritation Lexiconite: Unlike a more extreme Lexiconite known as the Rage Lexiconite (we'll go over that in a minute) Irritation Lexiconite works in stages with its counter part Rage Lexiconite. So what exactly are these stages?

First stage is hearing irritation in which the holder is irritated by sounds or lack of sounds unable to be satisfied by the things they hear around them. This is extremally subtle as its the early stages of the effects but is passed off as nothing. This effects through all the stages until the final one.

Second stage is physical irritation in which the holder starts to become uncomfortable in their environment or even their own skin causing them to move around or fidget before they become uncomfortable even doing that. This stage doesn't stop until the Lexiconite is removed and is active during the final stage.

The third stage is the verbal irritation which the holder starts to feel uncomfortable speaking preventing them from telling anyone about how they feel and becomes nonverbal even unable to make noises almost mute like. This stage stops after this stage is over which last about 20 minutes before they can speak again but you'd wish they couldn't

Rage Lexiconite Final stage. While all these things were happening to the holder the Lexiconite was feeding off the holders feelings like a parasite to become stronger and become Rage Lexiconite. In this final stage the holder is able to speak but always speaks with hateful intent and is constantly moving feeling uncomfortable in one spot for too long but is no longer irritated by sound. Rage Lexiconite has to be forcefully removed at this stage and once it is the holder will begin to feel withdraw towards it feeling irritated by sound attempting to get it back as develop a small dependency on the parasite but it does not last for long thankfully.

The reason for this behavior and stages of the Lexiconite is because this type of Lexiconite is infused with a type of parasite causing a parasitic relationship between the stone and the holder or the host in this case.

Okay okay maybe you don't wanna hear about that type of Lexiconite maybe you want more then just some surface level stuff. Lets dapple into the "Hazardous" category.

When someone goes up to you after seeing someone wave around something like a knife towards another person carelessly that person might say they are a hazard or are hazardous to others. This means they are a danger to someone or something. Hazardous is broken into two categories not including subcategories within them. (Yes there are subcategories suck it /j) Our first category is the "Endangerment" category.

The Endangerment Category is created for when Lexiconite is not a danger to the holder themselves initially bit caused danger to others. Typically you would think danger to others and self would be in a shared category but this isn't the case. This category must be used for when Lexiconite is designed to harm others rather then the beholder whether that be through the holder or directly harming non Lexiconions.

An example of this category is if the Lexiconion holder was to have the stone in their position and caused urges to bystanders to start doing absurd things to get said stone or earn it. For example bystanders might start fighting or arguing in the best case scenario but in the worst case someone might end up dead trying to take it out of the holders grasp.

But this also leads to a subcategory called "Alteration-Endangerment" in which the holder undergoes some type of altercation meant to harm others. Now before you say that Irritation Lexiconite should be placed in this category let me explain. While Irritation Lexiconite is an alteration it doesn't fit into this category because its initial intent is not under the endangerment criteria. Irritation Lexiconite is meant to alter the holders feelings and CAN lead to harm of others but that is not the intent of the stone.

An example of Alteration-Endangerment is the Hallucinogenic Lexiconite in which the holder undergoes phycological changes causing hallucinations and irrational fear in the holder towards others causing the holder to act hostile and fearful towards anyone that is nearby and sometimes actively causes auditory hallucinations, if the stone is strong enough, that urges the holder to attack the others thinking they are a danger to them or playing into the typical "You're just scared" card. The stone, very much like the Rage Lexiconite, leeches off the fear of the holder to gain power and lose power when the holder feels in control and fearless. The reason for this behavior of the Lexiconite is because this type of Lexiconite is infused with a type of parasite causing a parasitic relationship between the stone and the holder or the host in this case.

The next category for the Hazardous category is the "Self-Inflicting" category. This is for when the Lexiconite intention is to harm the holder and not the surrounding bystanders. While it is still possible for bystanders to be hurt or affected by the holder its intention is to harm the holder and thus is not placed in the "Endangerment" category.

(No examples are available at this moment pls I'm tired I've been working on this post for a few hours now I promise I'll have something later)

The final category! (Fucking finally) The "Lethal" category. This category is for Lexiconite that is extremally dangerous and causes the most harm to the holder and or others and can kill almost immediately or even worse. Such as but not limited to, heavy mutations, extreme rapid blood loss from eyes or other parts of the face, extreme sweating leading to dehydration, rapid decomposing while alive, and much more that I will not explain in detail anymore. Stone bad lmao.

That's it I'm finally done! That's it that's the post I really hope you liked it and if you read all of it please reblog I spent a long time on this and put a star emoji in the comments so I know who did finish it all pls I'm really craving love for this post specifically /j

[reginarubie]

The younger, more beautiful Queen - Cersei and Sansa (and Daenerys and Margaery; and Brienne of Tarth)

When Cersei recalls Maggy the Frog's prophecy about her being casted down by a younger, more beautiful queen we were all ready, thinking that younger, more beautiful Queen was supposed to be Sansa; then Margaery entered the picture and how could anyone actually ignore the dragon queen in the east and the threat she posed to Cersei and everything she stood for?

At which point many theorized each and every of three girls, younger and all described as beautiful may be the younger, more beautiful queen and would fulfill a part of Cersei's prophecy, each taking something she cared for from her. Which has many merits, especially thinking about how much Martin dislikes prophecies and likes playing around with them nudging towards the realization that we as people are the one who make our own destiny with Cersei being the real catalyst of everything Maggy the Frog prophetized for her.

Under the cut, my own personal vision of this prophecy and why I think that, no matter who will actually cause Cersei's downfall directly, Sansa (assuming she ending as QitN is also book!endgame, which we have good reason to believe it shall be so) is actually the younger, more beautiful queen.

People way more talented than me have already talked about this matter, but I wanted to give my input about it as well because I like to talk and this has been sitting in my files way too long and now I've decided to share with you all to see what you think about it.

Beneath her golden curls, the girl's face wrinkled up in puzzlement. For years after, she took those words to mean that she would not marry Rhaegar until after his father Aerys had died. "I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her.

"Aye." Malice gleamed in Maggy's yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be ... until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."

Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her."

Maggy 's prophecy has haunted Cersei all these years since first the words had been uttered and it's no wonder. Now, we know Cersei married the king - Robert Baratheon, first of his name - after he had won the Realm through conquest and we also know that the other part of Maggy's prophecy, about Cersei having three children and the King many more than her. So it stands to reason that this part may also come to be true in some way or the other.

Though show!canon has derailed and distanced itself from book!canon, it must hold some kind of importance that Cersei asks Jaime to find Sansa and kill her especially if we connect it with what child Cersei told Maggy the Frog "if she tries I will have my brother kill her"; while she easily, in the show, decides she will be the one to cause Margaery demise as well as Daenerys's.

But let's break the prophecy and try to determinate what exactly it may mean to Cersei now.

Maggy tells her that she will be the Queen for a time, which we know to be the truth, and that she will have three children while the king (Robert) will have over seventeen. She also tells Cersei that one day another may come, that she will be younger and more beautiful.

Note, the first person we know Cersei describes as beautiful, by her words, is Sansa both in show and the book.

In the very first episode of the series, when Martin was still very much part of the writing process of the episodes, Cersei comments on Sansa's beauty and on how it would be wasted in the North (foreshadowing in my opinion Sansa growing past her enamourment with beauty and return North to stay, but I digress).

While in Sansa VI, AGOT, she states "such a beautiful child. I do hope you know how much Joffrey and I love you"

Also, note that this is said about Margaery Tyrell in AFFC in Cersei III: “When all the vows were spoken, the king and his new queen stepped outside the sept to accept congratulations. "Westeros has two queens now, and the young one is as beautiful as the old one," boomed Lyle Crakehall, an oaf of a knight who oft reminded Cersei of her late and unlamented husband.”

(Guess maybe it can’t be Margaery after all tho I do remember someone saying someone else, someone younger — Catelyn about Sansa — would grow even more beautiful than she was and though she did not mean to confront Sansa with Cersei, but with herself, the phrasing did stuck me as strange)

So this girl coming to cast Cersei down will be younger (and all candidates for the place are younger than Cersei) and more beautiful (now this could be as simple as a math count of how many times each candidate is described as beautiful and confront that number with Cersei's).

The counts now stands as following:

Sansa: 18 times (without sharing those times with anyone, all on her own; 2 times she is defined as more beautiful than someone older)

Drawing by @innocent-enyo; sorry I took your pics, I fell in love with them! If it bothers you I will take them down!

Cersei: 17 times (thyo sometimes shared with Margaery so the counts, if we count the shared times with Margaery goes up to 20)

Drawing always by innocent-enyo.

[honorable mention] Brienne of Tarth: 8 times (wouldn’t it be just perfect if Brienne did manage of convince Jaime to fuck loyalty and follow her instead of Cersei? Oh wait… that’s already show canon) after all if every girl can be the another younger, more beautiful who will take (something) everything from Cersei why not Brienne the Beauty?, especially since it’s said sarcastically yet she is far more fair and beautiful in character than Cersei is. I would appreciate the irony and the twist, all I am saying 🤷🏼‍♀️

Drawing by Lucas Werneck.

Margaery: 7 times(of which 3 shared with Cersei)

Margaery Tyrell by innocent-enyo as well.

Daenerys: only 5 times (?! I am surprised as well, tho to be fair she is described as the most beautiful woman in the world once and she was asked if she had grown more beautiful in a lapse of time, but never confronted to another older)

Daenerys Targaryen by innocent-enyo again!

So we have a neck-to-neck between Sansa and Cersei.

And tho I do think each girl will fulfill part of the prophecy (to save Margaery from her marriage to Joffrey he is killed, which catalyses the series of events which brings to Tywin’s death and Myrcella’s; Brienne did convince in the show Jaime to leave Cersei behind for a time; Sansa took her legacy in a way becoming the second ruling queen of a kingdom of Westeros; Margaery in a way took away Tommen as well in the show since learning of her death he committed suicide; Daenerys took the throne and the promise of the child in the show) I think Sansa will be in the end the younger more beautiful queen because the stress on the prophecy is put on the fact that this Queen will take everything Cersei’s holds dear…

…what did Cersei want? [note; now we enter in the show only realm and book hypothesis of the story since we have yet to see the last two books]

To save and protect those she loved; she failed by her ultimate fault;

have the younger, more beautiful queen and enemy killed by her brother (lover)

To sit on the throne as queen regnant because she feels she deserves it.

To be with the man she loves publicly.

What did Sansa achieve by the end of the show:

She marched her troops South and managed to get Jon free and her plotting assured that her siblings were safe (they protected her as well)

Her “brother” (lover?, Martin I have faith in you) killed her rival (Daenerys) to protect her and their family.

She gains the North independence and is named Queen in the North and is the queen with the strongest power love and loyalty (“Ned Stark’s daughter will speak for them, she’s the best they could ask for” and “we didn’t choose you to rule us m’lady but perhaps we should have”)

I truly believe in the books she will end up (or it will be hinted at) with a man she loves or will grow to love.

So, imo, while each and every girl may take something from Cersei and perhaps none of them (fAegon I’m looking at you, sweetie) or only one of them will manage to directly cause her death and defeat in the end Sansa will be the younger, more beautiful Queen because all that Cersei held dear and wanted she managed to achieve and she will be remembered the way Cersei wanted to be remembered, which is ultimately imo the true meaning of Maggy the Frog’s prophecy.

[narniangirl1994]

I, like many other fans, was disappointed with several aspects of Lucifer's final season. Although it could have been much worse, I feel like certain decisions ruined several aspects of the show. For example:

They didn't show nearly enough of Trixie this season and didn't give her a satisfying ending. Not only did it make no sense for Chloe to ignore her child so often after Trixie just lost her dad, but she never officially found out about the celestials in her life and never got to say goodbye to Lucifer.

It was tough to care much about a new daughter from the future who was introduced at the last minute, yet had such a huge impact on her parents' stories. Especially seeing how sidelined Trixie was this season for a biological daughter (with Rory even saying Lucifer wasn't Trixie's real dad 😡).

I disliked the reasoning behind Lucifer abandoning his family at the request of a daughter who shouldn't have been that invested in Lucifer's calling. Yes it was important, but why was she willing to put them all through so much suffering for a calling that had nothing to do with her?

It was especially tragic to see Lucifer's choice essentially taken away from him because of Rory's insistence/coercion that he keep everything the same, after how much the show emphasized personal choice and responsibility. Not to mention his separation from his family for most of their lives is just needlessly tragic after everything they've been through.

Here's how I think the final season could have been made 100x better while still keeping the overall plot and taking into account the scheduling/COVID safety issues with Trixie's actress:

Instead of introducing Rory, have Trixie be the one who time travels back from the future to see Lucifer (therefore keeping her character relevant while using a different actress). This could be explained by her having asked Charlie to send her back in time. Not only would it make sense for Charlie to be the one to develop time traveling powers (since Amenadiel's powers were also time-based), but his powers could even be teased briefly with baby Charlie earlier in the season.

Her anger would be due to two reasons - Lucifer abandoning her so shortly after her father died, and Chloe telling Trixie that Lucifer was the only one who could have freed Dan from Hell, but that he didn't do it before leaving. Perhaps Chloe waited until Trixie was in her 20s/30s before telling her this, and that was the breaking point that made Trixie ask Charlie to send her back in time.

In the past, she somehow conceals her identity and uses tricks Maze taught her over the years to (pretend to) threaten Chloe in order to force Lucifer to bring Dan to Heaven. Lucifer knows he can't do that and it would likely make Dan a ghost, but Dan agrees to it anyway to save Chloe.

Once he's back on Earth, Trixie demands to know why Dan isn't in Heaven and gives up when both Lucifer and Dan convince her it's impossible. Realizing she failed her father, Trixie frees Chloe and leaves (obviously never intending to harm her in the first place). She later comes back, revealing her identity and explaining why she did what she did, why she's so angry at Lucifer, and how things go down in the future.

All the same shenanigans ensue, with Lucifer asserting he would never leave Chloe and Trixie, and trying to prove that he does actually love Trixie as his own daughter. He could do the same goodbye tour just in case, but this time spend a day at the beach with Chloe and adult Trixie.

Meanwhile, child Trixie can be off at a camp designed for children who lost a parent(s) and want to spend time with counselors and other grieving kids to help them recover. This would be a much better explanation than Trixie being off at a science camp and never seeing her mother so shortly after the trauma of losing her father.

All the other plots could still happen with Dan trying not to be a ghost, possessing Le Merc, talking to Lucifer and realizing he needed to speak to (child) Trixie, etc. Lucifer would still realize he didn't want to be God while Amenadiel would realize he did want to be God, yet more emphasis would be placed on Lucifer wanting to find his true calling.

Le Merc could kidnap adult Trixie, and she could similarly need to be talked down by Lucifer so that she didn't kill Le Merc in revenge. They could still figure out that Lucifer ultimately helped Dan get into heaven, and that he has helped other people (like Lee and Trixie) move past their own mistakes/flaws.

Rather than pressuring Lucifer to keep the time loop the same like Rory did, Trixie could explain how important it is to her that Dan was able to get into heaven because of Lucifer (and the time loop). And how important it is to her that other people who made mistakes, like her father, can get into heaven with Lucifer's help too.

Chloe's acceptance would be due to several things: wanting Dan to get into Heaven, being happy Lucifer found his calling, and - tying into the background plot of police brutality/inequality- realizing that many 'criminals' are a product of our broken system and deserve the chance to better themselves in this life or the afterlife.

Perhaps if they changed the focus of the Hell episode (where Lucifer helped the guy he hated confront his deepest insecurity), to his brother Michael instead, Lucifer would have a deeper connection to his calling. If he could learn to care about and understand Michael, he could care about/understand anyone. Perhaps Michael's issues aren't fully resolved by the end of that episode, but some sort of progress was made. This would enhance Lucifer's motivation to follow his calling/keep the time loop and give the ongoing Lucifer and Michael plot a real conclusion.

To emphasize that this really is Lucifer (and his loved one's choice) - rather than Rory or fate itself - perhaps they could even include a conversation with Ella, theorizing the possibility of creating an alternate universe if he chooses to break the loop, rather than making it seem like the loop is inevitable.

As such, he willingly chooses to 'abandon' his family (with their consent) for the next decade or two so that Trixie time travels and all of this comes to pass.

But unlike the finale, he can become a part of their lives again after Trixie has completed the time loop. That way, he isn't apart from Chloe and Trixie for the rest of their lives, but they all had a chance to learn and grow on their own before coming back together and understanding one another.

All of this would have provided a much more satisfying conclusion to the show. It would respect the relationships already formed (and affirm the validity of non-biological family), respect Lucifer's newfound ability to make his own choices, keep character motivations realistic, and more.

What do you think? What would be your preferred finale of Lucifer?

[vidavalor]

Did Stede hallucinate Chauncey for a bit there?

Spoilers below, mates.

Just finished bingeing The Gay Pirates Show the other night and am in love. One thing I was wondering about & didn't see much mention of yet (so forgive me if it's a thing already that I didn't see)... you know how Stede hallucinates Chauncey's brother earlier on in the season after he quasi-kills him? It dies down with little fanfare as Stede becomes closer to Ed and bonds more with his crew but a lot of those things are also distractions for Stede from dealing with fundamental issues he is trying to suppress and all those issues are related to guilt. Chauncey's brother as a hallucination represents Stede's guilt over the role he played in his death but the hallucination also chewed him out for the things Stede felt he wasn't good at-- being a pirate, leading a team, bonding with the crew and making friends. That voice is suppressed a bit as Stede grows closer to Ed and the crew... but as we know from the finale, it hasn't gone away entirely because Stede's guilt over leaving his family causes him to run from Ed. It's the middle bit between him making plans with Ed and their kiss and Stede running to Mary that I think is interesting.

I don't think Chauncey was actually there. I don't think he showed up and held a gun on Stede and forced him into the woods. Part of my rationale for this is that there's a sense of wobbly reality around this anyway, as Stede was alone in the scene, in bed, and Ed had just told him to get some sleep and an undeterminable amount of time passes before Chauncey shows up with the gun. (So, I suppose you could also theorize off of this that Stede falls asleep after Ed leaves to get the dinghy and dreams the entire rest of the season? It's possible. I'd only hate it because I want his interactions with Mary to be real but...) So, anyway, Chauncey shows up and forces Stede into the woods, only I don't think he really did.

I think Stede was completely unmoored by Ed confessing (in so many words) that he loves him and the kiss that they shared and all of his guilt came roaring back. His full on panic caused him to then hallucinate Chauncey, almost as an excuse to run. It's his mind supplying him with a reason that causes him to not meet Ed at the docks. He knows Ed is sending a guy to lead him to the docks so Stede's mind, panicking, invents the hallucination of Chauncey as a reason why he won't be there when the guy shows up. In reality, he wanders off into the woods by himself, hallucinating that Chauncey has him at gunpoint. He then lets Chauncey eat into him and say the things that Stede really is feeling himself: that he destroys everyone-- his crew, Mary, Blackbeard. It's the thought that he's even ruined Ed or made things harder for him that truly sends him over the edge and Stede, essentially, proves his destructive nature to himself by Chauncey then accidentally dying in, more or less, the same way as his brother. He trips, he falls, he blows an eye out on his gun. Even for a show with little logic at times (charmingly, I love it! :) ), this was over the top. It's impossible. That's because Stede is imagining it. He's both trying to get his inner voice of Chauncey to shut up but the only way to do that is to kill him and that, ironically, "proves" to Stede that he's destructive. This is also why a gunshot goes off in the quiet dead of night not far from the docks and Ed never comes running. He doesn't hear it. It's all in Stede's mind.

Off of this, Stede decides that he has to try to fix things. He has to make things whole. He decides he's bad for Ed and leaves him, thinking that will save him and goes home to Mary and his kids. We know the rest-- Mary helps him to realize that he doesn't belong in that home and that it's not entirely his fault and she sets him free of those burdens. In the process of that, he admits to himself that he loves Ed and he was afraid of that. He goes on a journey of putting his past identity to literal rest in faking his own death with some Ed-level bits of fuckery and races back to the high seas to find him.

I wouldn't be surprised if the actor playing the twin brothers pops up again just playing Chauncey again, alive and well, because Stede only imagined his death and this causes Ed (this is after Ed and Stede have reunited, most likely) to realize that his pirate husband has a mental health issue symptom that Ed hadn't seen before. Ed could also know that Chauncey is alive, maybe having seen him before he reunites with Stede, so when Stede tries to recount what happened the night Stede didn't show up at the docks, Ed thinks he's lying because he knows Chauncey is alive. Or something like that-- some series of events leads them to realize that Stede hallucinated Chauncey and basically wandered off into the woods and had a bit of a breakdown before he went to Mary's. It will ultimately be forgivable for Ed, of course, but it means they'll deal with Stede's breakdown as much as Ed's and deal with those things together.

[lovecolibri]

I am WHEEZING

How did get to that conclusion lmao?

Us: Lucy was not needed, the cheating storyline was unnecessary...

They: did you want Buck cheat with RaVi?!!!!!?

Like????

I know! Like, that is absolutely not the point anyone was trying to make? Because we in our small Tumblr space can theorize and come up with reasons for why the cheating makes sense as part of Buck's spiral, but we're being TOLD flat out, that Buck in 5b is feeling freer and lighter. Which was fine when we thought it was because he was growing and breaking up with his gf as part of that growth. And people were excited for Lucy because we thought we might get him being FUN reckless and then maybe learning he wasn't quite coping so well with taking care of Maddie and Eddie to the point of not taking care of himself. But him feeling alive and free and happy BECAUSE he's cheating on his gf? That's a whole other thing! Is he maybe spiraling? Yeah, it's totally possible! But in 8 episodes focused on Eddie and Maddie spiraling and working towards healing do we really need Buck spiraling as well?

THAT is the point people were trying to make! Right now with everything else going on we don't NEED to see Buck also spiraling out IF that's even the direction they're trying to go (which if they want to keep L around, why would it be?). We would rather his time be used supporting Eddie and Maddie with maybe some smaller fractures like we saw with Maddie, or Eddie in 5a, and save his spiraling out more for the finale leading into next season. Then his "at work" time could be spent with Ravi and developing that dynamic!

There was no need to bring on another person! Buck has never had a NORMAL friendship! Bobby is his dad, Hen reminds him of Maddie in that wise older sister way, Chim is basically his brother, and Eddie...well. Things with Eddie went hella hard from day one in that enemies to heart-eyed blushing besties speedrun. Buck trying to figure out how to have a normal working relationship with Ravi could be fun! And it would bring a little light and levity to a tough season and leave some breathing room for the other characters and other stories, AND would allow us to know more about Ravi which is all anyone has wanted since Jinx!

Cramming another character in there to take time away from the ones we already have, especially just for the cheap cheating drama when casual viewers are already tired of tuning in only to not get to see the characters they watch the show for, was a poor choice!

And 5a was full of poor choices too because KR is not particularly great at showrunning 🤷🏻‍♀️ We know Eddie was struggling, but that was little glimpses after the breakup up, just a few minutes of screen time, Maddie was gone, Chim was mostly gone too, Athena had the whole Jeffrey thing and Harry thing but Bobby and Hen barely had anything going on, there was the one ep with Buck deciding he's going to leave but other than that he was locked in his apartment bubble with tay kay and yet we know NOTHING of what is going on in his head. We actually don't know MOST of what is going on in ANYONE'S heads because KR is allergic to characters taking the time to talk things out, and focusing on these long through-line stories. Yes, 911 is typically good at long-form story telling. But EVERYONE including casual viewers have noticed the show has a different tone and feel since she took over, and that things are inconsistent and messy, and the main characters aren't DOING anything and the sure as hell aren't TALKING about anything most of the time. So the only option is to jump from drama to drama and that's never been what this show is about.

Point is, NO ONE is saying we want Ravi to serve the same purpose as L. We're saying that we don't need that much of that spiraling arc for Buck right now, and when we DO get it, we don't need to add a whole new character who has been hyped up as basically a new main character. None of the other side characters got that kind of attention and hype, so why did she unless they're trying to give her lots of screen time and have her around forever? And it backfired enough in the 5 minutes she's been around that I doubt they can keep her around like they planned.

And hey, it might turn out fine. They might cut some stuff, she might leave forever, it could end with the set up for a great Buck storyline! That doesn't mean it will be enjoyable to watch, or that this was the ONLY route they could have taken. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[weekend-whip]

What is your oc(s) backstory? What is their place in the world of Ninjago? --- Ninjago-Oc-Appreciation

(this took so long because I couldn't decide on who to talk about ghhh but we're gonna go with Miranda from my Legacyverse UA!)

-She is the younger sister of the current EM of Surprise, and is the only one prior to the Secret Ninja Force to be aware of his true nature. The rest of their family is convinced he's just quirky, but Mira helps him "train" with his powers by assisting in his magic shows, while also studying and theorizing how his powers actually function. Ironically, through gathering data on his abilities in (failed) attempts to make sense of them, she discovers a passion for coding, software development, and data management, which leads her to growing out of "believing in magic" and focusing more on science-y things, which her brother has some mixed feelings on.

-During Garmadon's first attack on Ninjago, she ends up badly injured, resulting in losing both her right arm and her right leg. Her brother blames himself for the incident, but ultimately Mira's just glad she's still alive. She's much more upbeat about it than anyone else, taking it in stride as a second chance, and is excited to get her prosthetics. However, they can't find a good match for her (due to not finding the ideal fit, one that works the way she needs, or just being way too expensive) which leaves her stuck in the hospital for a few months. Tired of waiting, she starts developing plans/code for her own custom (and complex) ones. The only problem is, who in the world would have the engineering capabilities to put it together, and have the supplies to even get it off the ground? (Certainly not a bunch of mech-building ninja, of which includes a literal engineering genius, a mechanical technician, a blacksmith, a freaking Nindroid, a Master Builder, and the poor sap her brother happens has a crush on, riiiiiiight?)

-Her place in the world of Legacyverse!Ninjago doesn't really kick in until roughly Season 3 events + she finally builds her prosthetics, as while the ninja are definitely tech savvy in the physical sense, most of them can't program to save their lives (and they can't rely on Pixal quite yet). She works to make sure the ninja's mechs, vehicles, and other machinery stay up to date with the latest software, while also occasionally upgrading them with random apps and whatnot behind their backs (which Jay finds hilarious and Nya...doesn't). She also serves to quick-fix issues with Zane/Pixal that aren't physical or immediately obvious. And (spoilers?) as Nya becomes a ninja a little bit earlier in this universe, Miranda fills in some of gaps on the sidelines that Nya would leave behind as a result.

Super-sketchy concept stuff for her under the cut!

I haven't even decided on a color palette for her yet, might go with some yellows/pastels/warmer colors because you don't usually see that for tech-y characters~

Other lil tidbits I wanted to share (mainly so I don't forget HA)

-Jesse is the only one to call her 'Mira' as a nickname; she tells everyone else to call her 'Randy', although she has no problems with 'Miranda'

-She and Jesse have a "Science vs Magic" rivalry thing going on (because I happen to love that dynamic A LOT and its kind rare). It festers because Mira thinks Jesse loses sight of reality a little too often, while Jesse fears the death of Mira's sense of wonder in turn.

-Her symbol parallels Jesse's: his is a fusion of an exclamation point and a firework (representing surprise/magic) while hers is a fusion of a lightbulb and a question mark (representing science).

-Once her prosthetics are built, she continues to upgrade the software programmed into them. Her arm can serve as a hotspot for free wifi for and can also be used for hacking, while her leg can hotwire vehicles and send out an EMP shockwave when she stomps hard enough (because every leg should be able to do that). Both limbs have bluetooth (because why not) and are connected to the various tech accessories Mira has all over her body (her earrings, her necklace, her left glove, and the small emergency power source on her other thigh). Each accessory has a different main purpose, but the main functions are to alert her of any tech issues and keep track of her limbs should they become detached (which happens a lot when you hang out with trouble-magnet ninjas).

-She is in the same class as Lil' Nelson (Nelson Roise in Legacyverse), which is a year behind Lloyd, Harumi, and most of the Darkley's kids. They bond over being fans of the ninja, constantly being in the hospital for limb-related injuries, and nearly dying in a Garmadon attack (just teen things).

[probably-haven]

Hello!

So I’m the anon who asked for more Archon War Venti headcanons and I just loved it! I really like reading your headcanons cuz some of them are similar to mine but mostly are headcanons that I didn’t think of so it really is nice to read and see your thoughts about Venti!

I feel like as if I’m asking too much but could you keep doing these types of headcanons? Like it doesn’t have to be Archon War headcanons but like some headcanons about Venti’s relationship with the Ragnvindrs and Gunnhildrs. Because the first Gunnhildr was the first one who prayed to Barbatos and the first Ragnvindr was his friend who left but came back and I really wanna hear your thoughts on that!

And I’ve decided to get off anon cuz you just replied to my texts and I wasn’t expecting that so I’ve got a short confidence boost that I am completely taking advantage of! And thanks for the advice! or uhh comment? observation? I’m not entirely sure but thank you for that! I’ve heard that be said to me a few times and I have been trying to be more, uhh, assertive so thanks for that!

rfouierjkhfkecs i actually came across information on Gunnhildr and the "Red-haired warrior" yesterday when i was doing more research into the rebellion against Decarabian and I was like "wow this would be really fucking fun to research and theorize on, but its too specific/niche to include unprompted no matter how much i want to" but bestie you prompted, and im literally so happy right now because I didn't think I'd ever really get the chance to post about them!

also lmao yeah, i tend to try and reply to as much as I can, since it's a good feeling when someone does and all. but yeah, no problem! I’m glad you felt confident enough to reveal XD. 

This may be structured a bit more like analysis/theory/just citing canon things at first before it gets into a more headcanony format.

ehe i have so much free reign on this it's lovely

More Archon War Era Venti: one two three

spoilers for Venti's backstory and Diluc's(kinda, i think, just in case)

first things first, laying down some canon background because before yesterday i hadn't heard of either of them outside of that one cutscene.

the very reason Decarabian had his storm wall up in the first place was because at the time Andrius had declared war on him- and his tower, and the city of Mondstadt by extent, were basically constantly under attack by Andrius's blizzards, which since he was still alive back then, were a lot bigger and covered basically what seems to be the whole of Mondstadt outside the barrier.

This meant that people had two options. Live in the city under Decarabian's oppression, or live outside the barrier, and brave the blizzards of a warring god... which was not a good idea

but the Gunnhildr clan(not yet called that) tried- and they almost died because of it. In the midst of a blizzard, the clan chief's daughter, named Gunnhildr(which the clan would be named after later) sent out a prayer that was heard by a wandering wind spirit. And the faith of that prayer gave the spirit enough power to create a small shelter to protect them.

When her father past, she became the new leader and also a priestess. She would later lead the clan to fight Decarabian alongside four others. And basically the Gunnhildr Clan ended up as like sworn protectors of Mondstadt

-

as for the red-haired warrior, who is basically assumed to be the earliest known ancestor of the Ragnvindir clan(im gonna refer to as Ragnvindir for convenience sake, even though "Ragnvindir" is technically a different character from Vanessa's era)theres not much information on him, but heres what i have from the various wiki's

- he was a wanderer

- one of the first to use the sign of windblume to find other rebels(so he's intelligent)

- actively propped up the nameless bard so he could watch as the tower was destroyed

there's this little tidbit too from the Windblume Ode bow's description that im probably gonna talk about a considerable amount too: "Atop the ruins of the ancient tower, amidst the cheers, songs, and tears of those who had newly won their freedom. A red-haired warrior turned his back on the newborn god, hidden like a single raindrop in a tidal wave of humanity. He was first among those who passed the secret sign of Windblume, the one who wove threads of dawn throughout the long night. His name has since been lost to time, but his deeds are still remembered in song." followed later by "The fate of this clan will likely never change: they shall ever live in the darkness and bring forth the flame of dawn."

-

Now I'm going to start with the Ragnvindir(geez, why's it spelled like that tho)

My idea of his character is basically formed by a mix of Ragnvindir stereotypes and just generally analyzing text.

So what do we know about Ragnvindir's for sure? they are shady motherfuckers- or at least they rarely operate in the spotlight. also damn, these guys are more cursed than anemo vision wielders- like the only one who didn't canonically lose someone close to them was Crepus, but considering that Diluc doesn't exactly have a mom..... he probably did

so what do we know? - he was close with the nameless bard - he was intelligent - he likely operated primarily from the shadows "ever living in the darkness" - he was a wanderer - he abandoned Venti during the celebration - but his deeds were still remembered in song, so Venti and him were likely still close

now the question of the century: how will i choose to interpret "turned his back on the newborn god"? And honestly, I'm- not sure- at first i assumed he abandoned him completely- but Venti did still make sure to carry on his memory- which could just be Venti being Venti, but for the sake of sanity, this is how I'm interpreting it.

A lot of things happened to the Ragnvindir that day. He lost a friend, saw another become a god to replace the one they had conquered, and he saw his goal, his reason for being in Mondstadt, come to fruition. "see the world through my eyes" the bard had said, and the Ragnvindir had been a wanderer even before. Sure, the people had won freedom, and that was to be celebrated, but he's intelligent to recognize that people would likely see him as one of the key figures in leading the rebellion. And for him this was a solemn time, and ending to a chapter, and not being one to operate in the spotlight, the last thing he'd want is to be swept up in festivities and attention at a time like this.

It also likely didn't help that he's probably smart enough to understand the idea of "power corrupts," and seeing the wind sprite just readily accept the mantle of Archon was likely not the most comforting thing to happen in the given situation after all. But Decarabian was gone, and Andrius had ceased his blizzards, so without a word, he slipped into the crowd and left, a wanderer once more.

-

now back to Gunnhildr

she was the first to receive an anemo vision from Barbatos, no I do not take criticism on this "the power bestowed on her by Barbatos" like please, they basically said it.

It also mentions that she crowned Venti with laurels(symbol of vistory) after the battle- the book Biography of Gunnhildr additionally says "the Gunnhildr Clan will continue honoring the legacy of its ancestors and its duty to the Anemo Archon: to protect Mondstadt, the land and all who inhabit it, forever."

I really like this because it conveniently ties into my past headcanon about Venti granting visions to the people of Mondstadt and having them be the ones to erect wind barriers and defend the city in his absence.

So in the Archon War I like to imagine that the Gunnhildr clan had a lot of people who were actually granted visions and were basically in charge of protecting it from those who would attempt to ambush them.

Mondstadt essentially became known for this- the fact that the mortals within it were strong enough to fend off the force of a god without support from their own.

but regardless, Gunnhildr, as she had before, served as a priestess to Barbatos, the closest thing that Mondstadt had to a ruler, and yet she only took charge of prayer and protection.... i hate to just- equate them to their descendants- but to an extent- her role was kind of like a merge between Jean and Barbara- Except with a whole lot less structure.... i really dont want their characters to just be carbon copies of the descendants but- c'mon, the comparison was right there.

anyways besties- back to Venti so i can tie them in

The Archon War was one of the worst times for Venti in his entire life thus far. And the time immediately after Decarbian's fall, while Gunnhildr and the Ragnvindir were still alive, was the key period of time in which things could have gone very differently.

Venti is the god of freedom. That's a reoccurring theme and I think I've made that abundantly clear. But during this time, Venti was anything but free.

I've mentioned before how he would stay far from the city of Mondstadt so the shockwave of his death wouldn't reach him, should he fall.... well- Venti is new to a lot of things- godhood- humanity- war- freedom- and at this point he was trying hard to figure out how to be Mondstadt's god without becoming Decarabian, and while still being able to survive, and make sure they survived, and see the world for his friend, and carry on his friends legacy.

And this is a lot of stuff for what was once a carefree elemental being, and there were certain things that had to be done for this to happen. He couldn't just stay in Mondstadt, or he would grow weak and his people would be vulnerable to attack, but he couldn't abandon it, because despite being able to fend for themselves, there's always hat just in case. He couldn't stay in any one place outside of Mondstadt for very long or he'd be found and killed. He knew in order for Mondstadt to survive he would have to take an active role in the war, strengthen himself so he could defend Mondstadt, and thats exactly what he did.

He started by going after the less powerful gods, ones he had a chance at beating with the power he got from the Gunnhildr clan and the rest of Mond, and by wiping them out, he would grow stronger, so he kept it up- working his way up the metaphorical ladder.

but he couldn't let anyone near him either, because he knew just what would happen if he was attacked then. Were it not for Gunnhildr's prayer, the early years of the Archon War would have been without contest the loneliest time of his life, and there would be nothing he could do about it, bound by survival and his attachment to the legacy of his friend, constantly fearing for his life and going against his very nature as the god of freedom. Frankly thrust into that circumstance that early on, and having to face it alone, it's likely that Venti would have caved under the pressure and dropped his attachment to either his survival, or to his friends legacy... or just something entirely worse(isolation messes with brains) so I'm attributing the fact that he didn't do that to Gunnhildr's companionship, speaking to him and guiding him through it as he had guided her through the blizzard some time ago.

I also like to think that she's responsible for founding at least a number of the different celebrations that still happen in Mondstadt even now.

Ugh supportive warrior priestess- we stan

anyway meanwhile! we got the Ragnvindir

He hears about Venti taking part in the Archon war during his wanderings and returns to Mondstadt to check in, wary of what he might find.

Venti, who hadn't seen him since the rebellion, is elated to say the least and they do a bit of catching up because they need it

and then the conversation turns more serious, and the Ragnvindir brings up a third thing that Venti needs to hold onto- his humanity.

See, in the early years, just desperate to get a foothold on the world, Venti's first number of targets were just indiscriminately going after those he knew to be weaker than him, and the Ragnvindir points this out, saying that while it's not necessarily bad, if he keeps doing it, it won't be long until he causes his and, by extent, Mondstadt's legacy to be tainted by a reputation for slaughter, no better than any of the other bloodthirsty gods that frequented the war's fields. "Think of what the bard would do, we were both close enough to do that much"

And Venti becomes yet more caged, but recognizes that he's right, and this is another turning point, that in the coming years would keep Venti from losing himself.

also- Gunnhildr, Venti having told her about the Ragnvindir's concerns that he now shared, probably organized some kind of event (not unlike the right of part, but also, yes unlike it) that was deliberately intended and designs to serve as an excuse that Venti could chose to take to visit Mondstadt, something she know he desperately wanted to do, but wouldn't allow himself for fear of putting them in danger. But if she made it an official celebration, then it would give Venti the opportunity to visit his people again, under the guise of it being a responsibility, not having to deal with the moral implications of doing so at a time when he was already dealing with enough of those already.

Also on his travels, the Ragnvindir probably started and spread a number of rumors that could end up working in Venti's favor, not that anyone ever knew it was him of course.

basically Gunnhildr protected the people of Mondstadt and did all she could to keep everyone in as high spirits as possible, Venti included.

And as for the Ragnvindir, he took a more realistic approach, traveling and getting venti followers in far places, spreading false information about him, and just overall making sure that Venti didn't do things he'd regret.

And when they died, Venti would carry their legacy with him as well, not losing his humanity to the tide of war as he very nearly had(though he still often came close), and trying to spreading high spirits where ever he could without fail.

[helioleti]

I've been rewatching ATLA several times lately and this time I especially ended up wondering a lot about Iroh and Ozai's past and characters in general. I just can't help but think it weird that Ozai is the ultimate trashbag of a humanbeing while Iroh ended up preaching harmony and peace. It just doesn't make any sense. These guys are brothers. They were brought up by the same parents, in the same fascist imperialistic nation, they were taught the same values growing up. You're trying to tell me the difference is that Iroh was destined to be the person he eventually came to be, but Ozai was just born evil? No, I don't think so.

I have two hot takes that I'm gonna elaborate:

1. Iroh had a guidance Ozai lacked

2. Ozai was the less favored son

(Disclaimer: I haven't read the comics yet so I don't know how deep they've already gone into this subject at some point. I'm trying to interpret and analyze the stuff that I got from the animated series only. If anything I say contradicts what has already been confirmed in the comics, feel free to correct me.)

Hear me out. Iroh wasn't born a saint. Everyone is aware of this, especially Iroh himself. He laid siege to Ba Sing Se for 2 years, costing the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom thousands of lives. Everyone knew that if the Fire Nation took over the capital, it meant almost ultimate victory for the Fire Nation. He even went as far as making a offhand sadistic jokes about burning the city to the ground in that letter to Zuko and Azula.

Iroh acknowledges it himself; He was a different man.

So what changed?

Yes, his son died. It broke and shattered him from the inside, making him drop all efforts to continue fighting in the war. To continue what had been his lifelong ambition, what he believed to be his destiny. He had a literal vision about taking over Ba Sing Se when he was a child, and that had been what he'd been pursuing ever since. But the death of his son managed to crumble all of that into nothingness. How is that possible?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's completely valid. I just don't understand how Lu Ten and Iroh could've had such a loving and caring relationship in the first place, when that's clearly something unusual among the royal family. Ozai burned and banished Zuko without a second thought, not to mention all the other shit he did to him growing up. Ozai didn't give two shits about Azula either, he only ever intended to use her as his weapon. Doesn't seem too surprising, if you ask me. Azulon didn't hesitate to demand that Ozai kill his own son if he wanted the throne. That's the man that raised Ozai, so it's just logical that Ozai learned that behavior and those values from his own father.

Even 9 year old Azula thinks it laughable that Iroh would fall apart at the death of his son. She is a child and this is how she thinks. The reason Zuko doesn't think like this is because he's had the guidance of his mother, unlike Azula. This is the kind of mentality these kids grow up with. They grew up with war and so did Iroh and Ozai.

So why was Iroh's relationship with Lu Ten so different? Where did Iroh experience the kind of compassion and love he passed on to his own son, that Ozai definitely didn't? People act on how they've come to learn, so where did Iroh learn to care about his son to a point that it made him give up on his lifelong ambition?

Let's review a very crucial information we have on Iroh and Ozai as siblings: They have a huge age gap.

Frankly, I'm guessing about 10-20 years. Looks more like 20 to me, but that could also be Iroh's greater amount of endured pain and war making him look older than he actually is. But no one can deny that an age gap is definitely there. Which can also indicate they had different upbringings, despite having grown up in the same family as brothers.

What does this mean? Well, that's just me theorizing now, but I can definitely imagine that Iroh had someone, a family member maybe, there for him who wasn't around or didn't care to be when Ozai grew up. There must've been someone there who gave Iroh emotional security and guidance throughout his upbringing. Who? That's up to imagination. A friend of the family? A friendly uncle? His own mother ((or father))? (The last two things worked out for Zuko in the end, didn't they?) Otherwise I can't really explain myself why Iroh had enough values to love the way he loved Lu Ten, while Ozai clearly didn't give two fucks about his children at any point in his life.

Iroh was the firstborn son, the one who had a vision very early in his life that his destiny was to take over Ba Sing Se. Probably the one who got to have a family member care about him enough to show him how to love.

(I like to point this out a lot because I find it very interesting, and very significant. Please A:TLA give us more info on Iroh's past!!)

Which brings me to my second take: Ozai was the less favored son.

Iroh was clearly a son to be proud of. He was a master firebender, the "Dragon of the West", if you will. He apparently had a vision as a boy that he'd conquer the most "impenetrable city" in the world. He probably lived up to his parent's expectations for his whole life, especially having no sibling to be compared to for a significant part of his life. He broke through the outter wall of Ba Sing Se during his siege. Yada yada yada, you get my point. He's the best son they could've wished for.

And Ozai? As far as I know, he barely even has any military achievements. Taking over Ba Sing Se was Azula's doing. While Iroh laid siege to the capital, he was at home chilling in the palace. He's the younger brother to an established hero and was never meant to be firelord. Now, I haven't read the comics for more info on Ozai's biography, but this man barely had a chance to live up to his parent's standards with Iroh as an older brother. If my theory is correct, Ozai also didn't have any person to provide him emotional guidance throughout his life. (*cough* like Azula)

The logical outcome is: infinite jealousy.

And when Ozai suggests to Azulon that he revoke Iroh's birthright to become firelord, this is Azulon's answer:

Azulon doesn't even hesitate to call Ozai out on his bullshit. He doesn't hesitate to take offense at the suggestion of betraying Iroh, and he even seems to care about Iroh's suffering. Not to mention that Azulon is overall annoyed with Ozai's request for an audience and sends the rest of Ozai's family away as soon as he can, to get whatever it is Ozai wants over with.

I could also mention the fact that Ozai tried to impress Azulon with his daughter's skills (Azula, even named after him) and the overall strained relationship these two seem to exhibit. It's obviously very different from Azulon's relationship with Iroh, if the way he talks about said man is anything to show for.

What if Azulon treated Ozai the same way Ozai treated Zuko? (Probably without the physical abuse, but you get my point.) What if this is where Ozai learned to treat a "useless" kid like shit, maybe also in a way to cope with how he was treated himself?

Getting deeper into the fact that Ozai is rather a loser compared to Iroh, without any big military achievements and without value for anything beyond that, this also explains a lot about Ozai's constant need to establish his dominance.

First; Becoming Firelord through radical manners (you know, killing his own son or killing his own father)

Second; Publicly burning and banishing his own son whom he considers a weakling, who dared to speak up in his war room. Doing this to have everyone know that he doesn't associate himself with weakness and that he will not ever tolerate any form of disrespect.

Third; The whole Phoenix King act. No one can tell me this isn't a madman's doing. This is literally to show off that he is the most powerful person in the world.

Ozai is so obsessed with proving himself and his superiority to everyone, including himself and probably Iroh too. This makes most sense if we consider that he probably lived in his brother's shadow for his whole life, ignored by probably every guiding figure he's ever had in his life, maybe even considered a laughingstock by his own father.

Perhaps this is also the reason Ozai didn't have any problem with Iroh accompanying Zuko in banishment. His brother, the hero in whose shadow he grew up, and his son, the failure he'd wanted out of the way for a long time already. It would erase Iroh's image that made him superior to him, once and for all. For himself and the world. I believe that branding him a traitor was the biggest satisfaction Ozai had ever experienced in his life.

I absolutely despise Ozai with every fibre of my heart, but it amazes me how ATLA continues to leave so much room for interpretation and explanation for a character as despicable as him. Writing this, even had me feel sympathy for him at some point. Feel free to disagree with me or add anything, I'm eager to hear everyone's thoughts about Ozai and Iroh's backstories because I'm geniuinely very curious.