#and involves time travel

[capesch-arts]

I wanted to draw more doodles but I couldn't so here is my Lilith design.

Arthur at the end of the episode 👇

Face of someone who's done with everything but /pos lol

[batsyheere]

The dynamics between Dan, Danny and Ellie are so funny to consider. Danny is far too used to handling Sam and Tucker at their worst and now he has an additional gremlin duo who picked up whatever madness was in Vlad's system when he decided cloning was a great idea. (Danny is highly aware that it is not a good thing to have more him in the world and has resolved to better avoid clone plots). Meanwhile Dan and Ellie will fight over the most random, inane things, but the minute it's about family they band together into a proper terror and the only beings able to stop them are Jazz in her disappointment if the situation calls for it, and sleep deprived Danny who does not realize his exhausted presence is like a terrifying parental figure catching their kid doing something stupid.

It gets even funnier when Jazz finally breaks out of the mindset that she needs to be in charge and instead enjoys herself, and so the only leash for the three most feral Fentons (honorary and named) is a perpetually tired teen/young adult.

Now drop that in Gotham.

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

Jayce and the fallacy of the butterfly effect in Arcane's narrative

If Jayce's symbol is the butterfly, then my theory is that we're going into a full "butterfly effect" narrative in Act 2. Either we'll watch it happen, or we'll only see Jayce come out the other side of it changed by the experience, knowing - or more importantly, THINKING he knows - what to do to change the future. Literally, to "defend tomorrow."

tl;dr: Jayce will encounter the butterfly effect in season 2. Viktor and Mel both foreshadowed this in season 1. I think Jayce will fixate on Viktor and will believe that stopping or changing Viktor either in the past or the present - most likely the present - will mean he can save the future. I believe this will lead to an even worse tragedy and may have the same effect as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ekko's approach to changing the future by sticking closer to the present - considering only tiny increments of time to alter more immediate future outcomes - will be the superior approach. I also think that Jayce attempting to change the future will create the conditions that push Viktor to become the Machine Herald.

One of the most common reactions even the casual viewer had to Arcane season 1 was this: "If [character] had just done this one small thing a little differently, [tragic event] wouldn't have happened!"

Arcane has been called a Greek tragedy for the main reason that because of how well built up the characters' personalities and reasonings are, there's no other way season 1 could have gone. There was no stopping the multiple tragedies that occurred, because with one event leading to another, the chain of seemingly inevitable events goes too far back to identify what one singular event caused everything, what one character made what one decision to put our characters on the terrible paths they walked.

Arcane is about to investigate this idea in its own narrative, and I think that Jayce will be the character to stumble into the flawed idea that you can change one event, or stop one character, and change the future for the better. This is because Jayce struggles with a few very interesting character flaws, one of them being that he believes himself to be the main character, and it is therefore his responsibility to intervene, be a hero, and fix things.

Viktor and Mel both foreshadow Jayce's future encounter with the butterfly effect.

Recall that Viktor said: "There is always a choice."

Jayce sees choices in black and white, believes that he has no other options but to go along with what he's persuaded and pushed into, and acts too boldly with too much power multiple times.

Recall that Mel said: "We can't change what fate has in store for us, but we don't have to face it alone."

Jayce tries to solve big problems on his own, and though he delegates to Enforcers and the like, Jayce relies on his reasoning and his alone to make important decisions if he doesn't simply become persuaded - usually through strong emotions like fear - by other characters. In addition, since Mel is specifically talking about Viktor's plight here, it's worth mentioning that while Jayce did say that he would help Viktor in acts 2 and 3 of season 1, Jayce does wind up leaving Viktor to face his fate alone. When Jayce tries to change that fate in s2 ep1, ep2 shows that only tragedy can come of this as well.

Viktor and Mel's statements here are not contradictory. Viktor makes the point that you can always make a choice. In context, he's literally referring to the classic "secret third option," because given a choice between aggression and passivity, war and surrender, Viktor chooses to defuse the bomb instead. Mel, interestingly, seems to believe that destiny is fixed in a broad sense, and she operates as a politician and diplomat and investor who navigates that line of destiny in the most optimal way possible. In reality, in context, she is referring to the fact that Viktor can't change the way he was born and so he has no way to change his fate and therefore must face it, which is true - she's only missing the information that Viktor actually does have the means to change his illness and his body. Her wisdom still applies however, because he'll have to accept the hand that fate deals him after he makes that choice. Will he face it alone, or not?

There is always a choice, there's even secret third options, because having a fate doesn't mean that you are doomed to make only one possible series of choices. What it does mean is that each choice comes with a hand that fate deals you. It is impossible to know what all of these branching choices and consequences are in advance, and it is just as impossible in hindsight - the branches are too complex and the end outcomes are all equally meaningful, just different. If Arcane season 2 is to be a tragedy, it may show us that each possible outcome is still tragic if you fall for the fallacy of the butterfly effect.

Jayce is counseled by some of the wisest, cleverest characters with the deepest life experiences in Arcane, but he hardly ever takes that counsel to heart. If he does, he still acts on that counsel in flawed ways that have unintended consequences. This will come to a head in season 2.

Viktor and Jayce both have a butterfly following them around in season 1. The butterfly effect refers to one small seemingly insignificant event changing the course of history, and changing that event therefore changes history. Viktor bled over the railing of a Hexgate in season 1:

And Heimerdinger sees what we can only assume is Viktor's blood contaminating (?) the Hexgate in s2 ep3:

This might be the seemingly unimportant "inciting incident" that Jayce (and Heimerdinger and Ekko) settle on as something that should be avoided or erased by changing the past (if they time-travel with Ekko, for example).

I doubt that, if this is what this crew chooses to fixate on, it will be the only event that is considered as something to change. But let's take this and run with it for the sake of discussion.

As silly as it sounds, how do you stop Viktor from allowing his blood to come into contact with the arcane? Stop Viktor's involvement with the Academy entirely? Don't invent Hextech at all? But what if someone else invents Hextech besides Jayce? What if future tragedy befalls Piltover because it didn't invent Hextech?

The possibilities and what-ifs could branch on forever. But because Jayce is who he is, and because his tragedy with Viktor is still raw and recent and frightening, I think Jayce's butterfly effect experience will have to do with Viktor.

My personal prediction is that the timeskip between s2 ep3 and ep4 will be Jayce experiencing a timeline where Viktor, taken over by the Hexcore, brings about an apocalyptic event similar to what Heimerdinger experienced in his past. Either Jayce and co. can't go into the past to change the present, or Heimerdinger and/or Ekko advise strongly against it to avoid a paradox. This will lead to them re-entering the canon Arcane timeline before this apocalypse, but still after the timeskip. Jayce, believing that destroying Viktor and his cult will save the future, and believing that resurrecting Viktor was Jayce's mistake to fix, attacks him. But the consequences don't unfold the way he hopes, because trying to change fate once the cards have already been dealt has led to tragedy before.

The butterfly is a symbol of something other than just the butterfly effect - change, evolution, and rebirth. If the butterfly symbolizes the butterfly effect for Jayce, then I think it has a different meaning for Viktor - the change and rebirth meaning.

I've always found it very interesting that we see a similar-looking butterfly on Progress Day... but made of metal.

Every time Viktor's situation changes, he adapts and evolves. If Jayce attacks him, if his cult is destroyed, if the Hexcore is causing Viktor to decay, if all of these things happen at once - he'll just evolve again, and I think the Machine Herald is the next step. And the Machine Herald will be a triumph for Viktor, but Jayce will believe that he's created something even worse. The resulting feud will be a personal nightmare for both of them.

I think this still allows Viktor to use his own agency to choose to become the Machine Herald (the MH will probably be the "secret third option" that saves Viktor, or there will be a secret third option that ends the feud) while still allowing Jayce to be offended and horrified at whatever the Machine Herald represents or is trying to do in the undercity. Introducing the element of time travel allows Arcane to explore the meta concept of tragedy and fate that season 1 was built on while showing that you can't "solve" a tragedy, because there are other terrible possibilities lurking behind alternate choices. Especially if what you're trying to change is singular people or events and not systems of power.

This is why Ekko's approach with his Z-drive will be superior to Jayce's sweeping attempt at changing the future. Ekko's goal has always been societal change. He creates his own punk society in the undercity, more progressive and successful than anything Vander or Silco ever created, and a better bastion of safety, hope, and progress than what Heimerdinger founded in Piltover. Trying to change systems by going back in time is most likely futile. But taking what Ekko has already built in the Firelights, curing his tree, and fighting for the Firelights' survival bit by bit by optimizing the present with the Z-drive shows that:

It's more worth it to focus on becoming wise (Ekko's mask is an owl) and making choices you won't regret

It's best if you don't face your fate alone (act as a collective and take care of each other)

Consider every option, not just the obvious black and white choices

Maintain and fix what you've already built instead of abandoning it once things get difficult

Adapt as needed if the choices you made lead to dark consequences, and once again, stick together and take care of each other when the bad times do come

That's my Act 2 but, ultimately, my season 2 prediction based on the butterfly symbolism we've already seen. Ekko's involvement is what will give the series the at least partial happy ending that the creators have referred to. I personally don't think that the Viktor/Jayce feud will end quite so well, but maybe, they will still survive.

[ickaimp]

Got into a debate with a friend over something for fanfic.

No nuance, no dumplings, no pre-made, would you be able to make any sort of noodles from the raw ingredients? 🍜🍝🪱

[descendantofthesparrow]

i was hit with inspiration

[nionom-art]

Hm.... So, sorry, I'm a bit confused... I thought as we seen in Evolution, Fu met Ladybug and Rabbit noir, and he also met with Adrien and Marinette... And because of this, he sent Bunnyx to evaluate if he is right to asume these are his champions and if it's a good idea, and well, the timeline deviates from here from the seria...

To be clear, I'm confused about Bunnyx using they/them/their, and we see Cat blank/Ephemeral and Princess Justice... (I have asumed it refferes to Marinette and Adrien specificly as potential choices)

So my question is, who does Bunnyx reffer to as "they" ?

Marinette and Adrien (possibly not...) ?

Ladybug and Cat noir (these heroes specificly) ?

Generally to the Ladybug and Black Cat holders whos Fu going to choose ?

Okay- real quickly- “they” in “in those worlds, their destruction was absolute” was referring to the worlds that have been destroyed, not any specific people. Or, possibly, the people in the destroyed worlds. It’s not referring to any specific candidates.

In this alternate universe, Evolution doesn’t happen at all. I’ll get into the details much later in the comic, but the general idea is that Bunnyx and Master Fu have been working together for a much longer time than in cannon. Bunnyx was given the task to examine time lines in other universes, far before Fu even thought about giving out the cat and ladybug miraculous.

[izercharo]

Comic(?) for an AU Idea I have, that I'm still working out in my head

Set During the 1st palace

[cosmicourple]

thru Moirai Shenaniganery, Odysseus is sent thousands of years back in Time to the early stages of The Titanomachy, forcibly Deified and radiating with enough power to potentially rip a Fate-Changing hole into Greeces current state,,

However, he wants absolutely no part of the current events due to the staggering amount of ways things could get worse if he decided to involve himself, so The Former King goes into hiding alongside the ancient Cult of The Ôriginal Pan :3

,,,unfortunately, despite Fate not having it’s Personifications yet, they still manage to fuck up Odysseus’s lay low plan when he comes face to face with a young Poseidon, retreating from a battlefield, and taking a covered detour thru woods near The Cult’s current hiding spot,,,,,,

,,,aaaaaaaand then young! Dondon develops the hots 4 Ody’, deeply admiring this handsome, older stranger taking care of & guiding those around to him :) younger Zeus also catches The Feels bc yes

[vyoleya]

i have a. really normal and comprehensible dragons rising au.

i may post actual art from it sometime . perhaps. in the meantime enjoy these doodles

continuation + explanations here!

[transingthoseformers]

There's a certain brand of angst with the Megatron (war era / post war era) x Orion Pax (pre-war era) brand of megop

Crunchy stuff to me

[suguruuuuu-chan]

Every fantasy I have of One Piece is actually just increasingly elaborate ways of saving Ace at Marineford btw. Sometimes it’s showing up in the forest and letting the gremlin know he’s loved ugh

[nenoname]

greasy's diner being a train carriage is something i never really paid attention to until recently, like i've known since j3 was released but i didn't realise there were still train tracks underneath...

but also since train crash was caused by blendin fleeing after weirdmageddon, it means that greasy's is part of a timeloop....

[quesocheeso]

Hai!

Question,

Well first off, I love your stufF, ESPECIALLY your baby MK stuff.

Now my question is if you had done any Macaque expecting art. Like Macaque Mpreg with lil' MK? I don't know if you are not comfortable with that stuff or if you just never got asked since I'm kinda new. I know enough that Macaque was the one to have him.

If it's not too much, (It's completely ok if it is and you don't want to do it), could you do a small sketch of Macaque just having poor cramps with his belly, or even like that one trend where the Husband holds the belly from behind?

Please don't feel pressured, I'm just curious!

Just tell me if you want me to stop

-Astro

Hi Hello!

So me not sharing any drawings of Mac expecting MK is not that I don’t have any, in fact there is a lot of stuff piled up and brainstorming happening in the background, but that the timing to reveal more about MK’s birth is not right now.

I have like a plan/sequence of events to reveal first that slowly trickle down to present day.

Will I reveal the drawings one day? Most likely.

What will they be? Most are story related or funny skits (since a lot of decisions are based on what I think would be funny)

But yeah there are a lot of funny stories I am yet to share that are currently just in a folder, I’m just taking things one at a time👍

[tathrin]

I saw a mention of Celebrimbor in third age AU in your tags and I deeply wish to hear more about it 👉👈

Ohhhh my goodness, okay!!

So, it's a canon-divergence whose pivot-point is set on the idea of Celebrimbor returning to life from the Halls of Mandos shortly before the War of the Ring, and—somehow—begging a boon of the Valar that allows him to return to Middle-earth to help in the struggle against Sauron.

(Is this plausible at this point in time? Probably not, no, no matter how badly they feel for Celebrimbor's pain and how proud they are of his defiance of Sauron before he died. I don't see anyone being allowed to sail back post-Istari, but it's plausible enough that I can build a fic off it if I want to lol.)

So, we pick up in Rivendell with the Council, except this time Celebrimbor isn't just a name in the story of the Rings of Power, he's there. With all his history and skill and knowledge.

(And his trauma and guilt and grief, but shhhh.)

So all of a sudden, there are three options for the Ring: throw it into the sea, throw it in the fire...or entrust the elf who helped make the Rings of Power to take it to a forge, and unmake it.

Of course, with Ost-in-Edhil in ruins, there aren't a lot of forges that are equipped for that kind of work. In fact, the various members of the Council can only think of two: Sauron's forge in Mordor...or Sauron's old forge in Mirkwood.

So that's where the Fellowship heads for.

But since "attacking Dol Guldur" is a lot less stealthy of a mission than "sneak into Mordor," this time the Council decides they have to be more active in providing distractions for Sauron than in the books. They have to have enough attacks going on in other places that the one on Dol Guldur can get lost in the noise. It's one of Sauron's places of power, sure, but it's not really one that matters a lot to him (they hope, probably) so they figure if they have enough battles going on elsewhere, that one will rank low on his priority-scale.

It's a fortress of last resort, a fall-back position he flees to when things are bad elsewhere. If he has to choose between Mordor and Mirkwood, he'll pick Mordor. If he has to choose between attacking the elven realms where the Bearers of the Three Rings are (no longer) hiding, he'll pick Lórien and Rivendell. Who cares about Mirkwood, with its silly flower-crowned king who doesn't even have a Ring?

And if he has to choose between conquering the Dwarves of Erebor and fending-off an assault by Gondor on the Black Gates, or protecting his old half-abandoned home in Mirkwood, he'll surely choose the former two and forget the latter. At the least, if they can split his forces enough that he has to prioritize where he sends his armies, the one he sends to Dol Guldur is sure to be the smallest and least powerful, right?

That's their hope, anyway! So they instigate war everywhere else they can, and hope that while they're keeping Sauron busy there, the Fellowship and the little army sent to help them can both take Dol Guldur and hold its walls against whatever force Sauron sends to take it back long enough for Celebrimbor to do his work.

And if you'd like to read it, here's where it all begins.

[stantwinscodependency]

genuinely i enjoy so much coming up with adult designs for the mystery twins that very deliberately have the same sort of ridiculously square lantern jaw chins as stan and ford have. dipper and mabel deserve to look So Much like their grunkles.

love a good family resemblance.

[shitpostingkats]

Axel Kingdomhearts truly the success story we deserve. Square wanted a flamboyant sassy anime guy to be the secret twist villain of their gba spinoff title and scripted him in the die at the end but the team like working with him so much that "oh okay he can flounce off into the sunset and reappear in KH 2. But THEN he's gotta die." Except KH fans were like noooo we like the funny fire guy... what about his LORE?!?!???? and Square rubbed their temples and said "Fine. Here's a midquel game. He's a major character." and then "FINE. HERE'S A PREQUEL GAME WHERE HE'S A MINOR CHARACTER." and then we were even MORE annoying and they had to resurrect him and let him retire with his two kids. Truly, an unburyable queer. God bless.