#and then everything went to hell

[symphonyofsilence]

Let the poor man rest.

[touchofhemlocktea]

ENERGY SURGE DETECTED! ALERT!

DIMENSIONAL BREACH DETECTED!

ALL AVAILABLE LEAGUE MEMBERS TO GOTHAM!

....

The smog blanketed skies of Gotham were laced with a sickly green haze. Most Gothamites immediately began to evacuate to their nearest emergency shelters.

Oracle let out a brief sigh of frustration as the usual suspects began to riot and loot the abandoned vehicles and shops. The Batfamily were already chattering in her ears as the League members slowly but surely began to join the comms.

The toxic glow of the clouds surged blindingly bright. An ear burstingly loud scream hits the world, as the very air itself begins to tear.

*Constantine has arrived. He sounds panicked. Cursing in increasingly incomprehensible languages.*

Silence and a heavy atmosphere blankets the world.

The heroes tense, preparing for anything, as Dark paints the air with power, looking to seal the rift.

With a final surge. The green ripples and clears.

The other side of the rift is the aftermath of a battlefield or disaster. Above a crowd of civilians floats a heavily injured, glowing green figure, clearly deep in concentration.

Groups on both sides of the rift hesitate.

"We need to help them evacuate here NOW." J'onn has a horrified expression on his face. The rest of the league looks to Batman for confirmation. With a grim expression on his face, he nods.

...

The league might not know what happened, but they recognize a refugee situation when they see one. The survivors are helped through the rift. The injured are tended to.

A group of armored people are among the survivors. The self identified Red Huntress, Pharaoh, and Nightshade remain on guard around the injured meta who seems to be the one who opened the rift.

...

It's almost surprising how anticlimactic the rift closing and sealing over is. The green fogs over, and in between one blink and the next. They didn't even notice the last 4 coming through.

[cchanticleer]

i haven't touched awakening modding almost at all mostly bc i don't have any major ideas. but i thought of one

[thatimageoftomscott]

im cryingggg they are literally perfect for each other.

[andi-o-geyser]

goddd zerxus’ success rate for backing a winning side is so shit. you’re 2 for 2, buddy. vecna isn’t a better bet than the literal lord of the hells

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[voidshrub]

"Follow me!"

[anuphim]

throws this oc doodle at u bc i have nothing else rn

[ghostbsuter]

Can be read as a continuation of this

.・゜-: ✧ :-

It's been a few weeks, really, since the day he met his biological father.

The oversized hoodie drowned him, a perfect haven while he waits near the entrance to arkham asylum.

The whole week rushed by after the event. His mom, wonderful, black belt, kickass mom had fretted over him the whole time, messaging his therapist not long after and getting an appointment.

His dad had been clingy, giving him bear hugs left and right, it felt nice. Jazz hadn't let him out of her sight for one moment, always searching, always studying.

Man, he loved his family.

"Are you going to visit him?" The gruff voice of Batman asks, and danny shrieks, jumping away as he looks at the vigilante with wide eyes.

"Oh Ancients—! Don't scare me like that!" Danny scolds, hand over his chest and breathing hard.

He can feel the amusement wafting off of Batman. Or something.

Huffing, the child leans against the brickstone pillar holding the gate again.

"No," he ends up answering. "I'm not here to visit... him."

Batman listens quietly, simply standing next to him. He doesn't pressure nor demand anything. If danny thinks more of it, he might get a headache.

"My sister is an intern in Arkham, we're gonna have dinner with Harley and Ivy today." A shrug, and the wind lovingly pushes him.

"Good." The man states, he hesitates a moment before he stretches his arm out towards danny, opening his hand and showcasing the items.

First is a lollipop, famous for being handed over to children after being saved by the bat himself. Second is a pin, in the shape of Batman's signature bat, it had a red button on the other side however.

"It's an emergency alert, in case anything like this happens again." Is quickly explained and Danny takes them, if not a bit tense.

He is unused to the trust the man shows him despite how short their time was spent together. Danny wonders if the bat already snooped around.

"Thanks—"

"Danny!"

His head snaps to the gate opening, brightening up as Jazz runs through and hugs him.

"Jazz!" He eagerly hugs back, thank looks up at her.

"You gotta meet Bat—" He trails off when they turn to the empty spot next to the pair, wind rustling leaves just as he finished. "man..."

Damn batman.

Danny huffs and tugs at Jazz's jacket. "Nevermind then, c'mon let's get a nice present before we visit harley."

Simply bringing her up seems to have Jazz excited. "I still can't believe we're having dinner with THE Dr. Harleen Quinzel!!!"

"And her wife."

"aND THE Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley!!!"

Her enthusiasm is rubbing off on him, he grins, hooking up his arm around hers, and they're skipping towards town, laughing like maniacs.

[mutable-manifestation]

Ghost Chirps AU Part 5

Part 1 & 2

Part 3

Part 4

***

While “Jason” (i.e. Alfred with an empty jet that Jason will meet up with later in order to “arrive” in Amity) hops a private jet, Red Hood is busy searching the Fenton home from top to bottom.

The local police move slowly, and by the time they arrive Jack and Maddie Fenton are both tied up and disarmed in their living room under heavy guard.

They hadn’t been restrained immediately, Batman talking him into giving them a chance to implicate themselves first.

Hood let him take the lead, but he didn’t even get a chance to ask a question, being cut off at the first indication he might want to talk about their “work.” Less than 60 seconds in, and the pair had outright confessed to violating the meta protection acts - and in tedious detail.

The questioning didn’t suffer any from them being tied up.

Far from the mulish silence or crocodile-tear laden denial of most criminals, they instead doubled down, insisting that nothing they had done was illegal, then jumping to the assumption that they were “possessed” - and boy had it been a nasty surprise when the whole house came alive trying to attack them with a quick verbal command.

Well, trying to attack Hood. And only him, for some reason.

One laser also freed the Fentons, who turned out to have even more weapons built into their suits. 

Somehow. 

Despite them being skintight.

That had been a pain, but Red Robin was able to hack the system using one of the couples’ own devices while Hood dodged - and kept the stray fire away from the others - leaving everyone else to recapture the pair. A blessedly simple task once they found out the lasers would splash harmlessly off of their armor (save for a gross film of green goop left wherever they grazed).

They take turns knocking each unconscious to change them in order to properly disarm them - Batman and Nightwing taking Jack first, followed by Orphan and Spoiler dealing with Maddie. 

The only non-weapon laden clothing they own turns out to be pajamas. 

This is around when the police show up, looking hesitant.

They, too, cite the “Anti-Ecto Acts.”

Oracle had debriefed them on the supposed Acts and “Ghost Investigation Ward” on their short drive over. Both were utterly bogus - the Acts had never even been proposed, let alone been approved as law, and the so-called “GIW” had no ties to the government.

The Fentons had been furious and denied the information intensely when told, but the cops mostly just looked relieved.

Apparently there’d been a lot of property damage by the GIW and Fentons both that had supposedly been dismissed under the Acts as “necessary in the pursuit of ecto-scum.”

For the Fentons, half of this damage was in the form of broken fire hydrants, cracked sidewalks, and totaled cars - they’d never been good drivers, before, the cops disclosed, but they’d become even more negligent since the ghosts began appearing, to the point they had to have a news segment warning when they would be on the road.

The lack of fatalities thus far had been nothing short of a miracle, they claimed.

“Of course there haven’t been any fatalities!” Mrs Fenton defends. “Our work is to protect people from those things, not make more! Officers, listen to reason-” Hood snorts disdainfully -”The Red Hood is clearly a ghost! All our systems targeted him the moment they came online - and they only target ecto-entities. He’s clearly taken these heroes under his sway - why else would they be working with a murderer!? You have to do something before he starts up his killing here in Amity!”

The officers look at him a bit hesitantly, but Batman is unmoved and gives the cover story Hood had outlined back in the alley.

Any concerns the locals have are quickly assuaged.

But for the whole explanation, Jason is trying not to shake even as he falls apart in place.

Their little website called them ghost-hunters, making it pretty clear what “ecto-entities” meant. 

Their system supposedly only targets ecto-entities.

The system had only targeted him.

The system only targets ghosts.

Jason had died.

A lot of his family members had died, too, granted. 

But Jason was the only one who seemed to come back wrong - anger sticking in his throat and never quite fading, an inclination towards violence even when he wasn’t angry well beyond what he’d ever felt before, and a sea of other emotions (that he would never acknowledge aloud) and triggers for those emotions that he always struggled to make heads or tails of.

He doesn’t have the meta gene. He knows that. He knew that.

He just assumed that the test missed it, because he knows he doesn’t know magic - the All Blades being the only exception - and he couldn’t think of another explanation at the time.

But he came back wrong.

And as he stands there, he wonders if he came back at all, mind on Solomon Grundy.

Wonders if he isn’t just some ghost, wandering around possessing his own corpse.

He jolts, as the thought strikes him: what about Danny?

If he’s a ghost and chirping is a ghost thing then what about his KID!?

Absently, he notes that Bruce has started interrogating the cops on what they meant by “ghost attacks.” 

He ignores the discussion, hustling for the door in the kitchen down to the lab.

He slams and locks the door behind him - in Red Robin’s face - as he descends, making a b-line for the computer he’d seen when the Fentons had dragged them all down there to start bragging about their crimes.

The only thing Oracle could get out of the whole building was things that were openly available online; direct connections were impossible.

Opening up the screen, he gets to cracking.

Going for the surface level files first, it turns out he doesn’t even need so much as a password to find what he wants.

One of the video game sub-files has an unrelated file in it: ghost notes.

There are plenty of other notes, of course, but he’d only been skimming to start, looking for anything hidden.

The Fenton parents were too open to bother, of course, with plenty of more obvious files strewn haphazardly across the home screen, but it’s always better to check. That there is a hidden file means it was likely made by either Danny or Jazz.

And it’s a treasure trove.

Sub-files for rogues, allies, conditional allies, and “halfas” were what greeted him.

The last being the only term he didn’t recognize, he clicked.

6 files: Clones, Danny, Dani, Dan, Vlad, and Red Hood.

He clicks his own file.

What greets him is a picture of himself 4 days ago, looking just to the left of the lens in an alley that he distinctly remembers searching for the kid in.

Just below is text.

~~~

??? Name: Red Hood

Species: probably a halfa

Status: Nnnneutral? I think? I know, I know, heads in bags. But Valerie tries to kill me all the time! And we’re allies sometimes! Hood- uh- looked for me? Okay I guess I can’t really judge this yet but please read the first met section before you judge please you guys?

First met: Aug 17, 2005, was in Gotham to bother Batman, stopped to think a bit on some fire escape - decide on the first prank yknow - but then my ghost sense went off. It felt like a halfa so I thought “oh cool, must be Dani” so I chirped, but then Red Hood - who was chasing some guy down an alley at the time - froze and looked around. I dropped visibility and chirped again and yeah, he definitely heard it. Humans can’t so he’s definitely a halfa - no glow so he can’t be a full ghost and it felt nothing like an overshadowing. 

Ended up following Hood around the rest of week - forgot to prank Batman, damn - and playing hide-and-seek with the chirps. It was really funny. But he very obviously doesn’t know he’s a halfa. But the guy is, like, scary levels of smart, so I’m sure he’ll figure it out on his own now that the chirp thing made it clear that something is up. Hopefully.

I figure I can go back in winter break - he should have it figured out and let his emotions process enough by then to at least hear me out when I explain the AEA and GIW and everything, then it won’t matter so much if he can, like, track me by voice or something if I talk since we’ll have MAD by then.

Despite his reputation, the people living in his haunt seem to love the guy. I can see why. On top of the whole smart he’s actually really nice to people he’s not shooting in the knees (which only even happened one time in the week I was there? It was actually pretty relaxing - most quiet week I’ve had since the portal opened THANK YOU TUCKER for hacking the portal hatch to be inoperable for a week). 

Where was I? Oh yeah, he’s actually surprisingly nice to people? So like, I think he’ll probably hear me out if I go back and be polite? I hope. Hate to leave the guy in the dark and him end up on the GIWs dissection table for “lots and lots of painful experiments.”

Not that those guys could even catch the Box Ghost. But uh, Hood doesn’t seem to have powers either? Or if he does he doesn’t know about them I don’t think - he only used the chirp the whole time I was their - not even to cheat with moving around.

Seriously. That guy's acrobatics could make Freakshow’s contortionist green - er, red??? - with envy. Actually wait, aren’t contortionists and acrobats different things?

SAM NOTE: help^?

Powers: 

?

~~~

Jason leans back, breathing deeply.

“Not a full ghost,” “not 'overshadowed'” - a term that sounds likke some kind of cousin to possesision - “definitely a halfa,” “humans can’t hear chirps.”

Halfa. 

Half. 

Ghost. 

Half Ghost.

It should sound absurd - you can’t be half alive and half dead.

But Jason has seen the Lazarus pits, has met Solomon Grundy, has met aliens and bullshit magic and can pull magical swords out of his own damn chest.

Half alive. Half dead.

Hopefully not just a fancy way to say possessing his own corpse.

He doesn’t have time to deal with every file - he’ll “confiscate” one of their USBs with a copy of everything for himself before leaving the rest to Batman & co, of course, minus the halfa files (a small part of him wants to shove his condition in Bruce’s face and demand he kill the clown again even though he knows it’s a futile hope, but the rest - the same part that snapped and denied and refused to say he was a meta less that a day ago now - cannot stomach the thought of even more rejection. Of a Bruce that believes he’s a monster. Of a Bruce that mourns him even while he’s right there. Or at least, more than he already does.) - but while the files copy he take the time to look at Danny’s.

The image has two people, Danny Fenton on one side and a version of the kid in a black hazmat suit with white hair, tanned skin, and painfully familiar green eyes. And floating.

~~~

Human Name: Danny Fenton

Ghost Name: Danny Phantom

Species: Halfa (half-human, half ghost)

~~~

It’s the section after that that makes Jason’s breath catch in his throat.

~~~

Death: The Portal Accident

So like, there was no audio (thank GOD I do not want to hear myself screaming) so. Details: When the portal didn’t work when they plugged it in mom and dad left for fudge, Jazz went to try and talk them into a more realistic career choice than ghosts. Sam and Tucker came over and Sam dared me to climb in and check it out - it was broken anyway so no harm. Except it wasn’t broken, just that my parents put the on button inside. Which I caught myself on when I tripped on a wire.

Anyway, electrocution! 

(T - Danny for the love of god be more serious, the cheerful tone is creepy)

(D - Hey! I’m the one who died! Shouldn’t I at least get to write my own epitaph)

(S - …Danny this is not an epitaph. You don’t even HAVE a grave)

(D - wow way to rub it in Sam)

(T - yeah Sam)

(S - ugh! Whatever, just stop with the chatting in official files)

(T - “official”)

(S - Tucker.)

(T - shutting up now)

Electrocution! I got zapped to death, but the ectoplasm from the portal was also opening up on top of me and a lot got bonded to me I guess (S - probably because of the electricity with how you ended up with some of Vortex' powers for a little while) at the same time said electricity was reviving me? - probably getting my heart beating again or something, I was a little busy screaming to pay attention (T - yeah okay we're going to Nasty Burger after this. And playing Doomed) - not that it would’ve mattered without the ghostification preventing me from melting me all the way to death.

Status: Me!

Powers:

Chirps! (ghost echolocation of some kind! humans can't hear em - halfas can, of course, in either form)

Form Change (really Sam? This barely counts)

Human form

Ghost form (no need to breathe)

Flight (last clock speed 210mph) (T - and climbing. Dang dude)

Invisibility (S - don’t forget shareable.) (Shareable. sigh)

Intangibility (Shareable)

Ecto Rays (eyes & hands) (T - and butt) (D - dude! I’m deleting that. Tucker why can't I delete it. TUCKER) (T - bow down in awe of my ksill) (S - ksill) (D - ksill) (T - yeah okay it’s permanent now) (D - aw man!)

Ghost Sense (S - why do we never test your range?) (D - no need? They always make themselves obvious or are being sneaky specifically to annoy me so *shrug*) (S - I still think we should test it)

Power Absorption (that time with Vortex’s weather powers)

Cryokinesis (Wayyyyy to much ice. NOT testing max output on that) (T - yeah frozen city was enough, let’s not cause an ice age. Tech needs some cool but too much is still bad and I just upgraded Patricia)

Ghostly Wail (cone of destruction, very exhausting - always at max output. Not to be used)

GHOST FORM ONLY (but really just never)

Cartoon Body (D - what???) (S - Freakshow literally turned you into a puddle and you just turned back and were fine. I don’t know what else to call that) (D - okay fair. but:)

GHOST FORM ONLY

Physical Enhancement (better strength, speed, stamina, durability, reflexes, balance, etc much better than human) (T - why does this look like dnd knockoff stats haha)

GHOST FORM ONLY (S - obviously mr last place in PE)

Resistances (pretty solid on the overshadowing, avoided being taken in by Ember until targeted, didn’t get turned to stone during the Medusa thing) (S - which was pure luck! Be careful!)

Ecto Electricity (ghost stinger, but I really don’t think this counts Sam. I mean I just. Make my ecto zappy. But it’s still just ecto) (S - so is your ICE and you don’t just call that "just cold ecto") (D - fine, but it feels overly specific) (S - maybe writing it all down will make you stop. Forgetting. POWERS!) (D - come on Sam that was a lucky hit! I was distracted! And it turned out fine!) (S - Fenton…) (D - oop okay doing fire now)

Ecto Fire (made Dash’s shoes melty that one time by make the ecto hot) (T - really needs more testing)

Tech possession (chasing Technus into computers, not very tested)

Ghost form only, i guess?

Overshadowing (control people, copy their voice, invade dreams - the control one erases the person’s memory so they don’t know they were overshadowed just lost time. I hate Walker. SO much) (T - rip Danny’s reputation, you’ll be missed)

Probably ghost form only

Duplication (T - That’s optimistic) (D - I’M WORKING ON IT OKAY!?) (S - pretty sure it just falls under cartoon body until you can actually separate) (D - :( betrayal)

Probably ghost form only

More? (D - ugh I hope not) (T - hey don’t say that, maybe you’ll get a power to make the JL give a crap about Amity) (D - honestly I’m getting pretty close to letting Boxy loose in Gotham) (S - Danny, don’t stoop to their level!) (D - it's only box ghost!) (T - I mean he has a point)

~~~

Jason changes his mind, seeing the commentary, and deletes the entire hidden file from the computer as soon as his copy is made. He can go over everything and bring any important info to Bruce separately, the bat’s can just chew on the parents’ files for now.

Once the original files are thoroughly and irretrievably removed he pockets his shiny new USB, makes a second one with all the official files, and heads back up and out - carelessly brushing past a thoroughly irate Red Robin with a pair of firemen and broken jaws of life. And not a scratch on the door; impressive - just in time to get Oracle’s text that he’s got 2 hours and 16 minutes to be at the location on his HUD so he can “arrive” to Amity.

And a fresh set of civilian clothes will be waiting in the plane, Alfred as reliable as ever.

“Files,” he says, tossing the safe USB to Batman and interrupting his interrogation of the police officer.

He catches it effortlessly of course, but the officer stops paying attention to him to jolt at Hood’s reappearance - even outside of Gotham his reputation is fierce.

“I sent a copy to myself. I’ll review them and give you an overview, but other than that consider this the end of my involvement in this little shitshow,” he says, continuing smoothly to the door. “I’m heading back to Gotham.”

Now, he has a little over two hours before Jason Todd needs to arrive in Amity Park. He only needs to lay hands on a laptop that he can isolate from Babs’ influence and he should be able to review the Halfa files in full before he "lands" - after he figures out just why the kid has a grudge against the JL.

[rikitiki-infinity]

happy hulk happy life :)

[blackpilljesus]

Enjoying things for yourself is a big act of resistance in a world that demands your labour to architect their environment.

Every now & again videos of women harmlessly having fun (without maIes around) make the rounds online and several people would seethe & project at it. Late last year there were a ton of lookalike competitions happening & people found it funny until it was one for Zendaya; then the think pieces about not wasting time and "contributing to community" were cranked out. When women enjoy or do things for themselves it receives a lot of hate. It's seen as "over consumption".

People are afraid of women doing things for themselves because it's a threat as women are the social nucleuses of society. Numerous factions in society rely on women slaving away & serving them. The time gone into womens leisure is time that could've gone to slaving after a moid, or raising children, or maIe political causes, or picking up slack that maIes leave behind, etc. So when women focus on themselves & not serving a maIe or community, things fall apart. A lot of backlash to women enjoying things is either about how it's useless (i.e not serving maIes) or women not "giving back to the community". There's a general air of misogyny to it as well but either way - fuck it. Explore & indulge in what makes you happy no matter how silly or selfish it is. Our actions don't have to serve society or maIes. We don't have to inspire or be role models. MaIes do far worse in terms of wastage (that women clean up) and nobody is ever grateful for womens labour anyways so just focus on yourselves ladies and dont let anyone make you feel bad for not giving them labour/energy. You don't owe anyone shit, and the more you own this the less it can be used against you.

[bberry005]

maces and talons symbolism post because i was originally gonna just post it as a reblog to the other post i made but it got WAY too long. but basically i've recently been going a little insane about how maces and talons is used as a way to symbolize hiccup's character arc from explorer to chief that's eventually fully realized in httyd 2 (and also 3 but i'm not gonna touch on httyd 3 for this one even though i think it does have some fascinating storytelling that just wasn't conveyed well. but that's a whole other post)

we're first introduced to maces and talons when viggo is introduced as the primary antagonist. maces and talons is, in its shortest form, a game used to test the skill of chiefs in battle. it's mentioned multiple times that this is the game's primary purpose, even if we see multiple instances of the riders playing it for fun. so right away we're somewhat subtlely told this game is going to be used to test hiccup's skill in battle and his abilities as chief.

maces and talons is above all else a strategy game, and as hiccup and viggo fight we see that they're playing real life maces and talons against each other for seasons 2-4. hiccup is the viking chief and viggo is the chief of the marauders. the dragon riders and dragon hunters are the viking pieces, and the dragons are surprise! the dragons. but we're also introduced to a special piece: the traitor, who viggo explicitly names as heather. she plays both sides, tries to figure out dragon hunter secrets to tell the riders, and in the end is nearly killed for it, hence the line "the traitor always dies in the end" (this isn't an exact quote this is just what i'm remembering)

this first game is our first indicator at exactly how high the stakes have risen and despite how smart hiccup is, it shows us how much smarter he needs to become to best viggo with his morals and ideals still intact. with just dagur as the antagonist previously, the stakes were high but they weren't as impossibly difficult as they were with viggo. viggo gets innocents caught in the crossfire (ex: STARVING BERK to get hiccup to do what he wants), he payrolls a gladiator style fighting ring, and we understand him as someone who will do anything do profit off the sale of dragons. it's a harsh introduction for both hiccup and the viewer that the world outside the archipelago is much rougher than it seems and that dragon's edge is much MUCH more than a research station and their outpost. it's a military base, and often times serves as the last defense for berk before enemies get too close. hiccup running dragon's edge is almost his "trial run" as chief, and his first maces and talons match with viggo is the first real test. he passes because he won that specific game. viggo is presumably dead. ryker is certainly dead. there's no more threats to the dragons or berk, and dragon's edge can once again be a research outpost.

but then krogan enters the picture, and the riders are on their back foot again. it's an incredibly rude awakening to the fact that if hiccup wants to be a protector of dragons, he needs to be hypervigilant. it's unfair and harsh, but hiccup's distraction is what led to the edge falling. yes, he's 19 and wants to spend time with astrid and have fun, but if he wants to run dragons edge like a true leader, he needs to operate under the assumption the maces and talons game is never over.

the fall of dragon's edge is hiccup's biggest failure to date, and it's the first one we're led to believe he can't come back from. even when he lost all of berk's gold, there was the assumption he'd get it back and that it wasn't entirely his fault. but when dragon's edge falls? the blame falls on entirely on hiccup, and i think it's amazing writing that snotlout is the one who calls him out on it. snotlout is hiccup's right hand (yes, even over astrid or fishlegs. i have a lot of thoughts on this that i'm not gonna get into right now), and we often see snotlout as the irresponsible one. but here he is, after having just led the rest of the dragon riders through the absolute hell that was krogan's takeover, forcing hiccup to confront the fact that being a leader isn't everything he originally thought. in this moment, hiccup reaches that turning point he didn't reach with all his other missteps. this mistake is what solidifies the reality that people rely on him for more than just training dragons and that distraction isn't acceptable. it's the first thing that forces him into leadership in ways he didn't really process before. the next time he plays maces and talons with the newly resurrected viggo, the stakes will be much higher and the implications even more severe.

the true players of the next game aren't revealed until season 6 episode 8: triple cross. this is the episode where viggo dies, and maces and talons comes fully back into the picture with this episode. there are hints that there's still some game going on, since viggo and krogan do have a conversation about the merits of maces and talons when they take dragon's edge in season 5, but we don't truly know what's going on until triple cross. in this episode, hiccup is positioned as the viking chief, viggo as a new piece known as the accomplice, and johan as the chief of the marauders. the accomplice is a piece similar to the traitor. it's a piece on the other side that actually belongs to the opposing player, and with viggo's death, we assume the accomplice also always dies at the end. this is also the first and only time in rtte where hiccup loses an ally (no matter how brief or reluctant) to death, which is notable in its own right. no one on hiccup's team has ever died in battle, and viggo's death is another thing that shocks the reality of the situation into hiccup.

when they part ways at the end of the episode, viggo gives hiccup the one missing piece on his maces and talons board. back on dragon's edge, hiccup places the piece on the board, knocks it over to represent viggo's final defeat, and closes the board before walking away from it. closing the maces and talons board represents the end of hiccup haddock, explorer and researcher of dragons. there's no more game, no more dragon's edge, no more living with his friends and finding new islands and having his "trial run" as chief. hiccup's game of maces and talons is over. he's proven himself, and now he's hiccup haddock, future chief of berk and legendary trainer of dragons. he walks away from the maces and talons board because his time for learning is over, and he even says it when he tells astrid that they learned a lot from viggo.

SO BASICALLY all of this is to say that race to the edge is set up as a giant maces and talons game that proves hiccup is ready to be chief. he's learned all the necessary leadership skills and proven himself in battle over and over again. he's cemented himself as a strong, capable, and strategic leader who is curious and loyal to a fault (as many fictional characters are), and at this point his reputation makes him seem larger than life to many (ex: astrid is literally able to use hiccup's reputation as the "dragon master" to bide time for her and the rest of the riders when they're captured by eret)

okay that's it for now. this is already so long but maybe i'll do more maces and talons posting later who knows

[max-of-progress]

Could've gone my whole life not knowing that they crafted Silco out to be this "dirty little thing" and the only one who didn't see him as that was Vander, but noooo.

They had to go out and put that on print with those fuckass pictures of them young and in love so that every now and then I'll remember that fact, about how Silco fought so hard to not be seen as some dirty thing and how Vander never saw him as being that until he did, and how damning that must've been for Silco to have the one motherfucker who saw you as something different, something beautiful even, try to put him down in filth.

[hella1975]

getting a diagnosis for smthn is actually so crazy. 22 years old and looking back at my whole life like OHHHHHH. I GET IT NOW

[crynussy]

can we talk about how before regression hyj had shj's number saved as "scammer" like this is so important to me.