#and who is also implied to not be long for this world

[sup3riorsese]

My thoughts on Rujinu (Negative)

So (Long rant incoming) do not let the title deceive you, I am not here to start any discourse of say anyone's bad or wrong for shipping what they like, especially since this ship is heavily implied, but I think a large problem with Rujinu is how both the fans and seemingly the movie view them.

I've seen a lot of people say things like "Oh Rujinu are soulmates" and "They belong together" and all this other stuff and I keep questioning if we watched the same movie.

The entire movie, Jinu was a selfish, manipulative liar. Starting with his backstory, he left his mother and sister, literally abandoned them, to live a high life. Mind you, a woman alone during that time would have little to no way of funding herself and her child unless through unconventional means. He actively left his mother, who probably did everything she could to feed and care of him and his sister, to basically starve on the streets because he was the one making the money. He was rightfully tormented and punished for this selfish act and lived 400 years paying the price. Moving to acts during the movie, the only reason he even pays attention to Rumi is because she's part demon, which is fine as it is natural to be curious, but the thing is, he is using her the entire time.

During scenes where Jinu is being "vulnerable," he is lying. Yes, there are times he seems genuinely conflicted or even remorseful (When he was looking at the little girl's picture, for example), but ultimately, the only reason he does all this is to erase the memories of his mistakes. When he tells Rumi about his family the first time, he is actively being deceptive. He lies to make her think he's not evil and makes her feel like she can be vulnerable and trust him. Throughout their meetings, he's giving the impression that not all demons are bad (Which may be true), but that's not the case for him as he was punished for committing a selfish act.

When we get to the climax of the movie, he is the one who uses two of Rumi's biggest vulnerabilities (Her friends and her marks) against her and publicly humiliates and exposes her. He quite literally had them torment her on stage, disguised as her best friends. Then, when confronted, he acts as if this was her fate the entire time. Doesn't apologize, and tells her he lied. He throws the fact that she believed him in her face and leaves her there.

He causes so much strife in her that she asks THE WOMAN WHO RAISED HER to end her life.

People saying the man who almost brought Rumi to death is her "soulmate" is almost offensive, especially because the only reason they say that is for one, his sacrifice, and two, how the movie portrays them.

Jinu's one selfless act during the entire movie is saving Rumi. Everyone acts like it is such a romantic gesture when in reality, it was the least he could do. He damned his family to being poor on the street, fed on people of 400 years, and tormented an innocent woman for his own gain. The very least he could do was sacrifice to stop Gwi-ma. Also, this may have to do with the fact that throughout the whole film, he didn't have his soul. That may be a reason he acts the way he does, but still. Many people think that he and Rumi should've kissed, but no. They shouldn't. Not only does it make the scene more heartfelt, in my opinion, but Rumi has no real reason to. Maybe before he revealed his true nature, and she thought he was a flawed man, I could see it, but in truth, after his reveal, Rumi owed him nothing. He proved that he was like any other demon, maybe conflicted and more intelligent, but still a demon. While she may appreciate his sacrifice and death, she doesn't owe him anything.

I think people think so highly of the two of them together because of how the movie shows them together. They make them out to be the only people who understand each other, and they can change the world if they work together. Firstly, they don't understand each other, and they wouldn't have changed anything because of that. Rumi doesn't understand Jinu because he lied to her. Jinu doesn't understand Rumi because, similar to Celine, he doesn't see her human side, only the demon. The whole movie, he was trying to convince her that this is what they are, what they are destined to be, but they are entirely different. Rumi was born with demon marks. She didn't do anything to gain them; she simply had them. They were and are a part of her. Jinu, on the other hand, did something to get them. He was selfish and was punished for it. He doesn't see Rumi as what she is, a woman who happens to be part demon; he sees her as a demon woman. He can't understand Rumi, because her doesn't know her and he doesn't try to see past something she had no control over. The movie unfortunately makes it seem like they just get each other, with things like Free (Which is truly hilarious as Jinu quite literally lied to her, and that whole song means nothing since he didn't tell her the truth of his own accord).

I think what people should be focusing on instead of Rujinu, is HUNTR/X.

Whether platonic or romantic, the three girls have a way more impactful and caring story and relationship than Rujinu ever could. From the start of the movie, it is clearly shown that the three of them are synced. From the way they move flawlessly together in battle to the way they formulate songs, they are linked. Through the movies, Zoey and Mira both try to include Rumi in things such as couch time or the bathhouse despite her previous refusal. They actively enjoy being around her, and even when she disrupts their brief rest, they don't seem all too upset. When at the doctors, they all agree with what he's saying, understanding each other fundamentally. When Jinu pushed Rumi over and didn't help her, both Zoey and Mira stopped drooling over the Saja Boys and backed her. They are there for her when they think something is wrong, and even when they were arguing, they were still concerned. When they all sat to talk out their feelings, they listened and expressed themselves openly, and were encouraging when Rumi made it clear why she didn't want to sing Takedown.

When they realize Rumi is vulnerable, alone on stage, they immediately try to rush to her aid. When Rumi's marks are revealed, they aren't angry that she's a demon; they're upset that she didn't tell them, that she's actively been lying to them. For two people who have been trained to hate and kill demons, they don't attack, even when they raise their weapons. It seems more like an action done out of instinctual confusion rather than malice. They don't even chase after her when she runs, they just slump in hurt and shock.

Gwi-ma gets hold of them, not because they are angry, but because they are hurt, confused, and separated. Mira thinks she's lost a piece of her family and immediately goes to blame herself. Zoey thinks somehow she wasn't enough to keep them together, and she falls into despair. It's only after she loses everyone she thought was on her side (Specifically Zoey and Mira) is when Rumi goes to Celine.

What I think is really important about Celine's reaction to Rumi is how it contrasts Zoey and Mira's reaction. Where Celine thinks Rumi should hide, her friends want her whole truth. Where Celine can't look, her friends embrace her happily. To show that the very woman who raised Rumi couldn't see past her heritage, to two girls Rumi happened to grow close with, brush past it as if it was nothing, is impactful.

When Rumi comes to the stadium, Zoey and Mira both immediately snap out of their trance after hearing her. By this point, they still had no clue if they could trust her, yet they without hesitation walked through the crowd to her and exposed their souls, to which Rumi did the same (You can tell by the blue lights in their chest, that soon after happens to Rumi right before the World War Z demons attack). Despite having no information about Rumi being a demon, they look past that. Zoey and Mira are the only people to SEE Rumi. They see her as she is: Smart, sweet, energetic, confident, and reliable. They don't just view her as her individual parts. They fully trust her.

After all this, they do normal things. Going to bathhouses, doing nothing on couches, crying about how happy they are that none of them died in a bathhouse. Zoey, who is extremely affectionate, doesn't change her ways. She still touches Rumi even after her marks are shown. They both don't show disgust or plain ignorance to who she is, like Celine and Jinu do, they embrace her to her fullest.

Yeah, this is the end of my very long rant. I just feel like I had to get that out. I don't want to shame anyone for shipping Rujinu, but I just feel like everyone brushes past all the bad he did just to make them a couple. It degrades Rumi, and that's not nice. Be better, be GOLDEN.

Ted talk done :)

[dairyfaerie]

YOU’RE MINE..AND WE BELONG TOGETHER...

Mohawk Mark/ Prisoner Mark

Word Count: 1.3k+

Pairing: Lensless!Mark x Reader (mentions of Husband!Mark)

Inspired by @maybellewriting

Warnings:

(MDNI!!!! 18+!!!!)

home invasion, pregnancy (reader is heavily pregnant), panic attack/anxiety , kidnapping during labor, psychotic obsession, delusional behavior, violent implications/murder mentions, This mf talks to himself like a lunatic, trauma dumping mid-invasion, He also wants to be the baby daddy now, zero comfort, pure madness, Implied sexual themes, he's lowkey a freak,

(THIS CHAPTER IS SO LONG HELP)

———————————————————

The TV glowed like a ghost in the dim Living room. You sat frozen on the couch, curled into yourself, hands trembling on top of your apron, over the tight swell of your belly. Sweat clung to your temples as you leaned forward in suspense and fear. Your lips moved soundlessly—whispered prayers slipping between cracked breaths.

“Please, God… please bring him home safe…”

You had been in the middle of prepping for dinner when Amber had texted you to check the News and you’d turned on the TV. Now you sat on the couch, fully engrossed.. watching the world you lived in dissolve into chaos by caped villains who looked like ..Mark. There were so many of them you’d lost count ..but one thing you knew for sure was that they were destroying everything you lived and Mark—YOUR Mark Grayson( or as others knew him..Invincible)— was out there risking his life for the world. The news anchor was a blur, words dissolving under the thrum of your own pulse. But the footage—that you couldn’t ignore.

Mark. On-screen. In full gear. Fighting like a man possessed. A blur of violence and light.

You watched as he took a hit that sent him flying—slammed through a wall and didn’t get back up right away.

Your breath hitched and a little panicked croak left your lips.

“No, no, no—” you gasped, clutching your belly, rocking slightly as if motion could ward off reality. Watching as Mark didn’t get back up..“Please—Mark, get back up honey..Please—”

You were a breath away from a full-blown panic attack. Vision tunneling. Fingers going numb.

Your body was clammy, cold shaky. Your breaths quickened, nails digging into your palms as the world began caving in—

Then, the front door slammed open.

BANG.

You flinched so hard it felt like your heart detonated.

You turned your head—vision swimming—just in time to see him.

Mark.

Still suited up. Boots heavy, shoulders wide, goggles on���no, wait. Not goggles. No lenses. Just…

You didn’t notice.

Didn’t care.

Didn’t have time to care.

You sobbed, got up and turned off the TV quickly and ,before you could move to your spot , he was there.

“Oh my God, Mark—” you choked with relief and affection.

His strong arms wrapped around you from behind, crushing your back against his chest as his lips pressed into the side of your neck—too eager. Too hungry.

But you didn’t notice yet…not as you felt the heat coming from his body, his muscles against your spine, his scent in your nostrils.

“Miss me, baby?” he purred, voice pitched just a little too high, like someone mocking human emotion.

Your body sagged in relief and you let him kiss your neck, rubbing your sides possessively—but then you stiffened.

Like your body knew that something…

Something… wasn’t right.

He was holding you wrong. Touching you wrong.

He didn’t move like Mark.

He felt like someone playing your husband in a poorly rehearsed stage act.

Then the scent REALLY hit you.

Iron. Sweet and sour, like blood dried on fabric.

That wasn’t how Mark smelled after missions. Especially not after finding out you were pregnant. He had made it a habit to go straight to the shower before even going near you out of concern for you.

“…Mark?” you breathed gently, hesitant. Your hands shook as they crept to his suit—but nothing. It felt exactly the same as usual.

You looked up at him long and hard, trying to figure what the hell your instinct was trying to tell you that this was not who it seem

He stilled.

Then giggled.

Giggled.

Not chuckled. Not laughed.

Giggled, shrill and unhinged, like a clown watching someone choke on confetti before it spiraled into a maniacal laugh.

“Oh, I love that,” he said, pulling back enough to look you in the eyes. “Say it again. Slower.”

You stared.

No lenses.

No blue—

Just black.

Black eyes like pits of tar, swirling and endless, pupils wide and gleaming with madness. And that crazed smile matched it completely.

Not your Mark.

You staggered back, eyes widening with shock. Almost fell. One hand clutching your belly, the other scrambling behind you for something—anything—to throw.

What had they called them on TV?

Invincible clones??

He burst into laughter, tipping his head back like it was the funniest damn thing in the multiverse. Wiping an imaginary eye from his eyes.

“Fuck, did I really think I could pull that off?” he wheezed. “Five whole minutes! Five!” He bent over, gasping between hysterics. “God, I forgot how smart you are. In every fucking universe.. damn it…That fucking ruins everything.”

You backed toward the hallway. Each step slow. Careful. Trying to keep your breathing steady, for the baby’s sake—trying not to scream or cry or collapse— because why was this person here? Why??

He saw your hand slide protectively over your stomach.

Tilted his head with intrigue because what the fuck were you doing just then—

And then he froze.

Eyes locked on your belly like it had just flashed a divine revelation.

“…No,” he breathed, voice dropping to a whisper.

Then louder:

“NO. FUCKING. WAY.”

He charged, no, SURGED forward.

You barely had time to blink before he was on his knees in front of you, hands grabbing at your apron like a kid tearing open a birthday present.

“You’re pregnant?” he gasped, wild joy dripping from every word. “With his kid?”

His mouth hovered inches from the bump of your belly behind the apron.

“Oh my GOD, I could kiss your cute tummy RIGHT now.”

And he did.

His lips pressed to your belly, rough and frantic, muttering blasphemies and blessings in the same breath.

Not gentle. Not sweet.

Obsessed. Possessive. Terrifying.

You really, REALLY wanted to slap the fuck out of him—but you didn’t know what he was capable of and stood frozen with fear.

“She got knocked up,” he whispered like a lover. Not to her. To himself. “She actually got fucking knocked up. What does that make me, huh? Father Mark? Daddy Deluxe? Wait, wait—”

He jerked upright, eyes glittering with manic light as he giggled.

“What if it’s mine now? Finders keeper yeah? Multiversal custody, bitch.”

You tried to move them. Disgusted and scared.

He gripped your thigh.

Tight and hard enough to bruise.

“Don’t,” he hissed, voice dropping to a menacing his face close enough to fog your vision. “You know what the difference is between me and your Mark?”

His hand skimmed up your side, rubbing you. Over your belly again.

“I don’t pretend. I don’t fake nice. I don’t play house unless there’s blood on the walls and screams in the hallway.”

You whimpered.

He tilted his head, almost mockingly tender. Face tilting with sadistic satisfaction at your obvious discomfort and fear on your face, even your body betraying how you felt.

“I want this. I want you. And I don’t care if you scream, cry, or beg—I always get what I want.”

He paced the living room, tugging at his suit collar like it was choking him, speaking to himself like there was an audience of ghosts.

"In my universe, she tried to kill me." His voice dropped. Dark. Distant and low…almost fond.

"Would’ve succeeded too—if I didn’t pop her skull like a grape. I was honestly mad I did it too.. .Wanted to hear what noises she would’ve made if I’d tortured her instead..."

He giggles again. The sound was wet. Cracked.

“I did love her… I did. But she just HAD TO BETRAY ME.” He spun toward you like a thunderbolt, eyes wild, hands twitching with clear violence. Expression one of rage, insanity, and glee. “They all did. And I killed them. All of them.”

His grin stretched, wide and jagged. Eyes glinting with malice.

“They were like animals. So I slew them like animals. THEY DESERVED IT!”

His fingers twitched at his sides... then he moved towards you... one of them reached out—slow, reverent, trembling. Like he was about to touch you the same way.

And before you could stop yourself…you slapped him.

Hard.

Hard enough that you knew his ears were ringing and his face burned.

His head didn’t flinch, not even a muscle …but the sound cracked across the room like a gunshot, filling the tense silence.

You let out a horrified squeak .

What had you done?!

He stopped. Slowly touched his flushed cheek.

Then—his lips parted, splitting into a grin. His eyes sparkled with a wild , glassy glint.

“Oh…”

“Oh.”

His voice was breathless.

“Ohhh…” he moaned softly, fingers dragging over the reddened skin. Body tensing with…pleasure??

“THERE she is~.”

A shiver ran through him as he spoke to himself. His pupils dilated with mirth as he leaned towards you.

“God, you hit just like her. Better, even. Stronger. That’s my girl—” he whispered it like it meant something. Like it was a title only he could give.

You stumbled away, bile rising in your throat. Horrified. Disgusted. This wasn’t just a maniac—he was a monster that actually LIKED being hurt.

“I’m not your anything…!—“

His tongue flicked out like a snake’s, tasting the air.

“Not yet,” he grinned, stepping forward, the air growing thick with tension. “But you will be. You’ve got the fire. The mouth. The instincts. Pregnant and still swinging? Damn, baby—who raised you~?”

He began moving towards you again, slowly as he spoke in a provocative manner.

“I’d let you hit me again if it meant I got to touch you right after. Bite me. Kick me. Choke me. It’s all the same to me. Don’t hold back, Sweetheart.” He moaned salaciously, louder, and you could feel the heat waves rolling off of his form as he got way too close for comfort.

“You’re disgusting..!” You spat, shaking more and more. Eyes filling with tears.

“I’m honest,” he replied, eyes flashing. “And look at you. Soft swollen belly, swollen tits, all that sweet little maternal rage—don’t pretend you don’t like the attention. I’d worship the stretch marks if you let me. Mmmm, God I’d have to be pried off of ya~”

Your whole body recoiled as he leaned in and whispered in your ear, his hands gripping your hips possessively.

“I’d keep you fed. Fucked. Safe. Rub your feet after you scream at me. Let you cry in my lap and still call you ‘mama’ while I split you open.”

You shook your head and let out a little cry.

“I don’t want you. I’ll never be with you! M-Mark is the only one for me-“

He cocked his head and sighed, dramatically dragging a hand over his face. At your noncompliance. Your fearfulness. Did he really need to spell it out for you??

“Are you still worried about YOUR Mark?” he cooed, smirking mockingly and your heart froze at his next words. “Listen, Baby, He’s dead. He just doesn’t know it yet. And when you’re broken and scared and full of grief, guess who’s still standing, ready to pick up the pieces? Who’s right here, no matter what…Because at the end of the day…”

He points at your stomach again, eyes sparkling like stars.

“Baby needs a daddy. And I’m right here.”

Then—

He stopped blabbering.

Just like that.

Stepped back in fact.

Smiling knowingly.

“How about this….?I’ll give you let’s say…a day..,” he said softly, gently. “Maybe two. Get your crying out. Paint the nursery. Pick a name for the kid….”

His eyes narrowed.

“Then I’m coming back. And when I do?”

He licked his lips.

“We’re playing for keeps.”

And just like that—he was gone.

But not with a blink or a teleport.

He floated out.

Casually.

Slowly…

Left the door wide open like a promise of his return.

You ran.

Ran as much as your body would let you in your current, pudgy state.

Straight back to you and Marks shared bedroom.

You collapsed to your knees and slammed the door closed, locking it with shaking hands, sobbing so hard it felt like your ribs might break.

Your fingers fumbled for your phone, the device slipping out of the apron you’d been wearing.

You called Mark.

It rang.

And rang.

Voicemail.

You screamed, mind not caring that he was fighting for his life.

You NEEDED him.

Your body shook.

And then—pop.

A wet sensation between your legs. Soaking your favorite skirt and creating a damp puddle on the carpeted floor..

Your eyes widened, face paling.

“No, no, no—please—oh god not Now-“

Your water had broken.

Seems as though the situation at hand had really gotten to you.

How sad…

You tried to stand—legs buckling and knees slamming down to the floor .

You crawled toward the bedroom, hands leaving streaks of fluid on the floor. You let out a wet mewl of fear and helplessness before slumping against the foot of the bed.

Another call to Mark.

Nothing.

The contractions started.

Fast.

Violent.

You let out a pained scream and doubled over, sweat dripping from your brow and your body trembling violently.

You tried him again and again and got nothing.

Nothing.

Then the door to your bedroom exploded.

Not opened.

Ripped off its goddamn hinges, wood pieces flying everywhere.

You screamed, tears pouring down your cheeks. Body trembling as she took him in once more.

He stood in the doorway, arms out, hovering—his boots not touching the floor.

All blood, teeth, flesh and a smile that belonged in Hell.

“There you are, mama,” he sang, his eyes wild with mania and his body buzzing with violent unconfined energy.

You couldn’t run.

Could barely breathe as he floated closer, slowly, like a lion descending on its prey.

“I thought about it and decided.,.why wait till tomorrow when I could literally just take you right now…So I said fuck it and came backkkk~~~!!! ...And looks like my gut feeling was right because my poor baby is going through it Awwwwww~”

He floated to you, hands gentle and horrific as he scooped you up like a bridal carry—like he’d earned this. Blood soaked your clothes, his black eyes boring into your scared, panicked face.

You screamed.

He just smiled and kissed you gently on the lips, his eyes boring into your own.

Caressed your cheek as you tried to weakly flail and get away, nails clawing viciously at his face—

“Don't worry, Princess...Your knight is here to SAVE you~ .”

And then, without a flash, without smoke or showmanship or any possible warning—

He flew.

Out the bedroom, through broken front door, into the sky, carrying you in his arms like a stolen relic.

Humming as he swept you away, over a dying and burning city.

Your screams echoed throughout the sky, ash and smoke swallowing the two of you whole….

Your nightmare has only begun.

Author's note: As you can see, your honor, I have a thing for sadists... Which variant should be next???

[seventeendeer]

I played Sonic Colors for the first time recently, and it touched on another little Sonic franchise writing quirk that I find funny(?)

infamously, Sonic games and etceteras have a very large cast of recurring characters. however, each set of characters sort of tend to stay in their lane - the colorful little sweetheart characters mostly show up for lighthearted stories, for example, while the edgier/more serious characters only really get a lot of character focus in the gritty sci-fi plotlines. team sportsboys only shows up for the racing game spinoffs. if Shadow the Hedgehog is a playable character, you know he's about to break the record for "worst day of his life" yet again, but it's really rare that anything all that bad happens to Amy Rose. and so on.

based on character theming and how they sort of attach to different vibes/genres, you'd think sweet baby Tails - 8 years old, very light on lore, looks like a long Care Bear, just a friendly little guy who likes to fly airplane and loves his pals - would be safe from the consequences of some of the more dramatic stories ... but for some reason, across 30+ years of franchise installments, like a dozen different writers have semi-independently decided to throw rocks and hammers at him every single time he's even mildly plot-relevant, even when the rest of the plot is super calm and low stakes ???

and like, It Makes Sense, obviously, usually you're playing as Sonic and Tails is your little buddy who helps you out. taking narrative potshots at your little buddy is an easy way to try to up the stakes and create emotional investment. also, a consistent complaint from fans is that Tails is frequently sidelined to make space for some other one-off plot relevant deuteragonist, so whenever he does show up, it makes sense that there would be some attempt to fully utilize his character.

but the thing I find so absurdly funny is the sheer level of consistency with which they heap random violence on that poor little boy. Tails cannot be in the spotlight for five minutes without some random chimp event happening to him, and once in a while it'll be well-written and properly built up etc etc, but a lot of the time it's just like a timer goes off like "you have been standing next to Sonic the Hedgehog for more than 25 minutes of screentime, prepare to die"

this started all the way back in Tails' debut game, where he was held hostage by Doctor Eggman for most of the game. the bad ending stresses just how dang sad it is that you failed to save him. restart game right now, you monster

which feels reasonable on its own, there's a new character and he's Sonic's friend and you have to save him, standard story structure, sure thing

but then you start looking ahead to newer games that generally focus on something else, but still can't help but torment Tails a little bit just to try to stir pathos. in Sonic Forces there's a random line that seems to imply Tails went mad with grief after Sonic was presumed dead for 6 months?? never brought up again. when we meet him later he's literally fine. I seem to remember that detail was dropped in there in the English script only, which would explain some things. but also why did they do that to him

even more recently, Sonic Frontiers opens with Sonic, Tails and Amy crashlanding on an island, and while you find Amy almost immediately, Tails goes missing for something like 75% of the game just for the narrative tension, and the characters keep stressing that You Have To Find Him Right Now, Every Minute You Spend Goofing Off In Our Open World Game Is Another Minute He's Trapped Alone In Sci Fi Silent Hill Cyberhell

Sonic Colors, released back in 2010, was trying so, so hard to escape the "too edgy" allegations the series was suffering at the time, but they still just couldn't help but pause the funnies to blast that little guy with a mind control ray for no real reason at all except to establish that Eggman now has a mind control ray and it's time to get scared. it's not even a boss fight, just a random 2 minutes of pushing Tails down the stairs again

not even 3 years later, Sonic Lost World recycled the mind control thing beat-for-beat, only with more hilariously out-of-nowhere melodrama that clashes completely with the rest of the script and never goes anywhere. this time the villains are explicitly trying to force Sonic to kill him just to be mean. once again no boss fight or anything

certain spin-off series do have some genuinely choice storylines for Tails, but I think some of them deserve a mention anyway just because of how much they twist the knife whenever there's an opportunity for it. like the time in the IDW comics where a mad scientist brainwashes some random kid into being Tails' evil doppelganger. Tails tries to help him, but that scientist was very literally gaslighting that poor kid so hard that a few misunderstandings later, he's decided Tails was trying to trick him too and now the only thing he wants for himself in this life is to kill him

and of course. probably the meanest "you want Tails to be plot relevant? okie :)" monkey's paw plot of all time. there was that one time in the 00's anime where he spent a whole season palling it up with new Plot Relevant Doomed Girl Character. and then in the series finale when she's fixing to sacrifice herself for the greater good, they MAKE HIM PULL THE TRIGGER ...

I don't have any real essay conclusion or anything here except I think if I were Tails, I think I'd start thinking about going missing in some deep dark forest, far away from narrative focus. it's right up there with "Sonic is injured or poisoned or contracts another deadly disease" as a go-to plot device to try to make things a little scarier, tonal whiplash be damned

I love this series so much, I love how insane the writing is. sometimes it's good, a lot of the time it's bad, but 100% of the time I find myself frantically scribbling notes while studying it in my little lab. Tails is such a sweet baby and I can't believe how often they run him over with a big truck just to try to make you feel something. anything. pull-the-trigger-piglet-ass franchise

[florezcookie]

silent salt and elder faerie theory + analysis!!

I recently found out I wasn’t the first one who thought of the theory (regarding my first post)

But this is good bc means i can get to see other opinions to write this post! (Which means most of my Media was taken out of Reddit and Twitter!)

okay,,, <- she writes this right after writing a long aah ramble about a cookie game, proceed with caution aware of spoilers and intense info dumping and yapping

from a character arc perspective, it builds on strong thematic symmetry lore, just like other beasts have their symmetry with the ancients; as White Lily transforms into Dark Enchantress Cookie, betraying the Ancients, Silent Salt’s potential betrayal of the other Beasts (by orchestrating their sealing) would mirror that fall…. from solidarity to silence (ha! Foreshadowing???)

Both arcs would center on moral compromise and emotional rupture, adding weight to their potential bond. This could even imply a dual fall-from-grace motif driving their relationship and future conflict🤓🤓

okay onto a small detail about the tree where elder faerie cookie “sealed the beasts”

Using structuralist narrative theory, the events and causality must remain internally consistent. Silent Salt is explicitly shown to be sealed in the tree alongside the other Beasts.

where. is. silent salt/white lily’s. souljam???????

Now this places a hard limit on where and when he can act: IF Elder Faerie is Silent Salt, the theory requires time travel or a retroactive manipulation of the timeline,,

Silent Salt would have had to escape the seal, live as Elder Faerie, and then return to be resealed?? Or did he pretended to be sealed in first place??? and always knew how to escape to live as Elder Faerie, hMMMM??

This contradicts key canon imagery tho—specifically, the confirmation of Silent Salt’s presence within the seal during the moment it cracks the tree

For the theory to hold, we’d have to assume Silent Salt escapes, becomes Elder Faerie, and returns to the past to become the version of Silent Salt that is sealed again. This would require a closed temporal loop, which, while possible in speculative fiction, lacks any textual setup FOR NOW. I mean time travel still not real so anyone can interpret however they like!

The idea of the temporal loop could be also very interesting to apply in this context, I mean, the only way to break is if someone else is add into the narrative of going to the past and future; leading to White Lily receiving her awaken form or we getting Dark Enchantress Cookie in Gacha (freaking finally)

but back to the time travel:

the use of time travel in this universe is not without precedent. Characters like Croissant Cookie, Timekeeper Cookie and Twizzly Gummy Cookie provide textual proof that temporal distortion is a narrative tool available in the Cookie Run universe. May I add that we have diverse forms of the fantasy world; example is that awhile we have ancients look like lands, we have cookie playing guitar and using guns, while other stick to canons and arrows, other wear atl and meanwhile we have princess and armors

However, these events are clearly established within their respective storylines. In contrast, there is no indication that the Beasts’ storyline—particularly regarding Elder Faerie or Silent Salt—is meant to explore time travel 👁️👁️💔

Attempts to parallel this with the Pure Vanilla/Shadow Milk Cookie paradox from Episode 7 further demonstrate the narrative inconsistency to the time travel theory: while the PV/SM duality might imply some temporal fluidity, most evidence suggests metaphorical language or magical echoes rather than literal time travel,,

The most substantial evidence that might support time travel—or at least temporal overlap,, comes from the Fortune Teller Cookie aka Corrupted PV twist. His appearance before PV’s corruption introduces a paradox. However, the Fortune Teller’s ambiguous motivations and identity suggest alternative explanations, such as magical echoing, foreshadowing, or even psychological projection, rather than true temporal displacement ☝🏻☝🏻 like freud’s point on copying mechanisms ig

Shadow Milk’s domain being a place where “time and space are malleable” does offer a backdoor for time manipulation, but this hasn’t been concretely tied to the Elder Faerie/Silent Salt plot, so,, yk? We may get this better in Episode 11-12: STILL,,, If anything, this paradox demonstrates the story’s preference for metaphysical ambiguity over hard sci-fi time loops. Thus, while this subplot may flirt with time distortion, it does not justify applying the same logic to the Elder Faerie theory

Instead of reading the story literally, a metaphorical reading may better support the Elder Faerie = Silent Salt theory, such as for the design of them:

i do see resemblances, I mean, sword, the armor and colors… they are quite similar and there’s the plus where this still is just his silhouette, so maybe when we see him fully under the game we could see more 🤷‍♀️

Elder Faerie guarding the tree might symbolize internal conflict—a being caught between loyalty to old companions and duty to the present

The armor, the silence, and the absence of a revealed face all reinforce themes of hidden identity, emotional repression, and guilt🧐

This reading aligns with the suggestion that Silent Salt was never corrupted—he chose silence as a punishment or mourning for his betrayal,,, This leads to the name SILENT Salt being literal 🗣️🗣️ Like he made a vow or smth to keep all under the rug (well, this case its a tree) And such a choice may not have required a full transformation into a separate persona (Elder Faerie), but instead signals that he and Elder Faerie are complementary echoes of the same internal struggle,,

so this is how it lead me to use my thoughts with philosophy from freud into them

Silent Salt could represents the superego—the internalized moral law, manifesting as silence, guilt, and a rejection of desire (solidarity turned into isolation);

Elder Faerie, on the other hand, represents the ego attempting to maintain order, stability, and function in the world, all while bearing the repressed trauma of having betrayed the other Beasts.

Under this framework, Elder Faerie is not literally Silent Salt,, but the embodied conscience of him, a protective mechanism for the unbearable weight of past decisions…. This repression also explains the absence of a clear motive or memory trail; the metaphor lies in the fracturing of the self under the burden of betrayal

exploring the concept of the "banality of evil" (by hannah arendt), arguing that catastrophic moral failure often stems not from monstrous intent, but from thoughtless conformity, bureaucratic detachment, and the refusal to take personal responsibility:

In the metaphorical interpretation, Silent Salt’s act of sealing the Beasts was not malicious but necessary- yet it still required betrayal If Silent Salt chose to bear this alone;

Or maybe Silent Salt noticed he didn’t knew why he was like that with other beasts and simply locked them away to stop madness;

Still both leads to in silence, his transformation into a masked, mute guardian like Elder Faerie becomes symbolic of the concept, he surrenders speech and identity, withdrawing from the public world as a penance for having made a decision he knew would destroy not only his friends but himself.

Where there is encouragement to thinking as resistance to evil, Silent Salt chooses silence as self-punishment—an inversion that shows the emotional toll of responsibility. Elder Faerie, then, is not just a new form, but a living monument to moral compromise.

The obscured face of Silent Salt can be seen as literalizing the Jungian Shadow—what is hidden is feared

Elder Faerie, guarding the tree (a symbol of sealed knowledge or forbidden truths), becomes the ego’s effort to guard society (and the self) from confronting that dark truth. Silent Salt's silence is not weakness, but a protective barrier against the collapse of self. To truly reveal Silent Salt’s face (his identity) is to face the guilt of the past…. Until the story reaches this point of confrontation, the narrative resists giving us that catharsis, which reflects the Jungian idea that integration of the Shadow must come through voluntary recognition or maybe through white lily’s awaken fo—🔫🔫 *GUNSHOTS*

the two characters are existentially split, not literally. Elder Faerie is the self that functions; Silent Salt is the self that remembers. The narrative tension may not be about time travel or chronology—it’s about authenticity, and what happens when a being refuses to integrate all parts of who they are,, the idea that despair is the refusal to be oneself (just like white lily/dark enchantress cookie)

All of those parallels has its at odds with established lore,, Silent Salt could be presented as have never been corrupted, which complicates the idea of him undergoing a transformation akin to White Lily’s,, BUT this could bring his manipulative side of being “just like White Lily” when in reality is a lie and he choose the path instead of being forced into it🤔 smth like that “rooted in duty rather than delusion”

in this theory, the parallel between Silent Salt and White Lily doesn’t collapse under lore—it becomes more sinister. It’s not a mirror of shared tragedy. It’s a distortion, a manipulation—

what if Silent Salt wasn’t the noble martyr he (tried to) portrays himself to be—but rather, someone who betrayed the other beasts out of cold conviction, not reluctant necessity? UNLIKE White Lily, whose descent was emotional and chaotic, his “silence” could be the product of strategic manipulation.

This opens the possibility that his supposed purity is a narrative mask, much like his literal armor: He hides behind an image of stoic sacrifice, not to protect others, but to control the narrative—and perhaps even to weaponize his resemblance to White Lily in manipulating her. This would mark a powerful inversion: while White Lily succumbed to corruption, Silent Salt could have embraced betrayal with clarity, not madness. The story then becomes less about shared tragedy and more about a false equivalence: he claims to be “just like her” in order to exploit her, but in truth, he was never a victim of circumstance—he chose this path….

Thus, his silence is no longer merely a sorrowful symbol of sacrifice, but a deliberate obfuscation, a self-imposed myth used to justify or conceal his betrayal. “Rooted in duty rather than delusion” becomes a dangerous rationalization, not a virtue—an echo of authoritarian reasoning cloaked in self-pity🫢🫢🫢

In this light, the parallel between “banality of evil” once again

like it was all planned (mastermind type of shit yk? you do get it-)

this is all i can think off… you are free to go, poor soul🕊️🕊️ i kept u long enough for a crazy aah theory ramble

[sfznyxio]

-ˋˏ AFTERGLOW ˎˊ

SYNOPSIS. how does your significant other act after sex?

CHARACTERS. luke pearce, artem wing, vyn richter, marius von hagen

CONTENT. f!reader. canon-compliant. fluff, suggestive. established relationship. 0.5k wc. rewrite of afterglow at my old main blog @/verxsyon. reader was written as rosa in mind. implied sex. hickeys (marius).

VERA. for once, i don’t have anything. have fun, i guess lol.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. LUKE PEARCE

to think that the person he gives himself to is someone he has known and loved since childhood.

he leans against your forehead, closing his eyes to listen to heartbeats and breathes mold into one. soon laughter breaks the silence. the session was interesting and also the most fun the two of you had for a while. there are still many things to discover about each other; the sherlock and watson of stellis will continue to grow their love that way.

“i’m so glad it’s you.” the sentiment of his confession grazes your lips. he doesn’t take long to capture them with his own. he presses a kiss on your forehead and tucks you in his chest, where his heart is beating only for you.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. ARTEM WING

not even once did he regret choosing you as his partner — professionally and romantically.

he takes your hands in his, admiring how they perfectly fit together. while leaving chaste kisses on your knuckles, he examines your face and finds features that are overlooked from afar. he was lost in the beginning, but you were there to guide him. he has so much to learn, and he trusts that you will teach him the topic of romance well.

“thank you.” he kisses you senseless while his hands roam aimlessly around your skin. you become dizzy that you don’t feel your back pressed against his chest. the slips an arm past your waist to hold your hand, wanting to let you know that he’ll always be there for you.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. VYN RICHTER

the human mind is intriguing, but nothing more is intriguing than the person who believes he has the capability to love.

he buries his nose in your neck, inhaling the scent of sweat and sex from the intimacy the two of you shared earlier. the smile spread across your skin feels victorious — not because he has you all to yourself, but because you managed to tame the beast inside him. he is thankful for your kindness; you have shown him that he should not be afraid of himself anymore.

“stay with me, please.” you do, earning a content sigh and a longing kiss on your shoulder. he hugs you tight as the two of you fall into dreamland, refusing to let you go.

𝄞༉‧₊˚. MARIUS VON HAGEN

of all paintings he has seen throughout his life, he has never seen a grander masterpiece such as yourself.

he smirks at the trail of bruises from your collarbone to the underside of your jaw, filled with pride knowing that they will show the whole world who you belong to. shackled by reality, only you can give him free reign to paint out his fantasies into life under the sheets. you really are different from everyone else, and he is determined to treasure you as long as he lives.

“can’t resist me, hm?” he growls in your ear when he catches you staring at him, making you flustered. he kisses your lobe before joining his hips with yours once more.

[burr-ell]

In regards to how unfitting Vax just getting rolled back into mortality was to the overall narrative he had in C1.... I recognize that it's not great to put too much weight into fanfiction letting it determine how I feel about canon story, but the thing about how Vax's return is framed as Keyleth and Vex's Only happy ending, is that I read a lot of satisfying, sweet, touchingly real fanfic where all of Vox Machina eventually pass on to meet Vax as he psychopomps them to the afterlife! It carried a very comforting and resonant sentiment to be able to believe "this person is gone, but in a world where an afterlife is tangibly proven and real, you WILL see him again" and this carrying its own happiness! So for this to be overwritten YEARS later is just.... a denial of that.

Vax's return also just doesn't gel with the other narratives about death in the CR universe. Mollymawk, as loved as he was, doesn't get to come back; Orym doesn't get Will and Derrig back; FCG doesn't get to come back, but the story keeps on going for the people who loved them. What does it say in the face of those losses for Vax to come back?

Deanna WAS brought back, and while it'd be cruel to argue she should have stayed dead and imply that her newfound life wasn't worth the value to the people she made bonds with after her ressurection, it clearly fucked her up to be effectively a pawn to someone else's idea of fixing their life! It doesn't inherently beget a happy ending! What does it say when Vax's clear choice and faith in his championhood is overruled?

Absolutely agreed on all points, anon, and I think it's telling that Matt, Marisha, and Liam agreed on this with full knowledge and understanding that Vax and Keyleth had been making unhealthy choices. The implication is that despite this, none of them could envision a truly happy ending for these characters that did not involve them being able to continue a romance, and there are two problems with this.

Firstly and most obviously, wildly allocentric to imply that Keyleth could not have a properly happy ending without her college boyfriend who died three decades ago. To give context, thirty years is almost as long as Marisha Ray has been alive. Thirty years ago was the Oklahoma city bombing and the O.J. Simpson trial. Thirty years ago is older than 9/11 and the Iraq War. Thirty years is a long time, and I can't see Keyleth still being just as angry as she was at the end of C1 as anything but a person refusing to stop being mired in grief and move on. She even acknowledges it herself in Dalen's Closet, that she can't move on if Vax keeps sending ravens and then she still asks him not to stop. And to be clear, that in and of itself is a fine and even interesting choice! Rewarding that because the alternative is "unfair", for a rather nebulous value of "unfair", is not. It's not a happy ending to grow past unhealthy attachment and wallowing in grief, but it is happy to completely overlook those behaviors for a romance and some hackneyed callbacks to the ending of a better story?

Secondly, we don't even need to look at Molly, Will, or Deanna, although those are very good examples. Elaina is still dead. Juniper is still dead. Frederick, Johanna, Julius, Vesper, Oliver, Whitney, and Ludwig are all still dead. Every member of Vox Machina, including Keyleth herself, is eventually going to die. There's something that feels almost pointed about Taliesin emphasizing in 3x121 that Percy is still going to die decades before Vex, and we know Pike and Scanlan will outlive Grog by centuries. What, exactly, is different about their deaths versus Vax's? If Vax hadn't taken the revenant deal, he would have just died immediately—he was disintegrated. Liam made a point, over and over, both in the campaign and on Talks, of saying that Vax did not want a way out of his deal. What, in the in-universe logic of this setting, makes Vax so special, as opposed to every other person Vox Machina knew and loved who died or will die and isn't going to come back?

When I've had time, I've been reading through Vox Machina: Stories Untold, and something stuck out to me in the post-C1 content. Keyleth has taken on a young apprentice, an Ashari druid named Audra. We don't see much of their actual relationship, but it's close enough that Keyleth brings Audra along to Whitestone while she and the others have a night out, and Audra is friends with Vesper, Juniper, and Wax. In other words, Keyleth still invested herself in the community she was leading and kept in touch with her friends. She had a rich, fulfilling life that did not have to involve Vax in any way. Exandria did not stop turning because one person died; it kept moving, and Vox Machina kept moving. That is a vastly superior and more meaningful story than the ending of Campaign 3, and I find it absurd to imply that this ending can't truly be happy if this character doesn't have her boyfriend.

[daylighteclipsed]

I didn’t want to add to the og post bc it’s already long and not focused on this. But this post made me realize most of Sora and Riku’s softer/shippy moments do not in fact happen in the Realm of Light. KH1 takes place mostly in the Light, but the boys act as rivals/enemies. Their dynamic starts to shift after this, but CoM takes place in Castle Oblivion, which is the Realm Between. In KH2, Riku aids Sora from the dark until their reunion in the World That Never Was, which is the Realm Between. The Dark Margin talk happens in the Realm of Darkness. DDD is the Realm of Sleep… Compared to Sora and Kairi who share more moments in the Light, this trend is very interesting.

Sora and Riku’s dynamic in DDD carries over to KH3, and arguably, it’s a little more in the Light than before. No big moments (that are acknowledged in-game, at least), but I would say it’s starting to leave the shadows with Sora being teased by Donald and Goofy for finding Riku attractive and always listening to Riku, the reminders that Riku is always at the back of Sora’s mind throughout the game, and Sora’s discomfort when Kairi offers him a paopu fruit (with Riku nearby on the beach… who Sora starts this scene looking at and thinking about). Those are moments that happen in the Light. But the big ones still happen in the Dark… or are forgotten.

Sora saves Riku in the Realm of Darkness. He uses the Power of Waking to do this, which is honestly a huge deal. That’s Sora’s entire goal for most of KH3 — to gain the PoW and regain the strength he lost in DDD. It complements Riku gaining the PoW by wanting to save Sora in DDD, and it parallels Hercules getting his strength back because he wants to save Meg. But the fact that Sora’s goal is achieved here is unacknowledged in the game, to the point where it seems to go over a lot of people’s heads. It even went over my head the first time I played KH3. (Side note: I wonder if it says something that the Combined Keyblade, which symbolizes Sora and Riku’s relationship, has only been summoned in the Realm of Sleep and the Realm of Darkness so far. We’ve never seen it in the Light.)

Riku’s True Love sacrifice for Sora in the Keyblade Graveyard is in the Realm of Light, but it’s ultimately forgotten. This sacrifice saves Sora. It’s the reason light prevails over the dark and our heroes win in the end. And it’s totally unacknowledged in the game. It’s implied Sora sees something in the tunnel of light when he reaches for Riku, but that also seems to be forgotten. Not only is that in the physical dark, but we are left in the dark as to what Sora sees. It’s out of frame, outside the bounds of the story presented to us. The shadows of the shadows. As the audience, we literally and figuratively do not have the full picture.

These parts of KH3 are practically erased, almost like they never happened. Almost like they cannot happen. (The KH3 graphic novel actually does erase Riku’s sacrifice from the story.) And I do think that’s very, very interesting in the context of KH taking place in the Disney fairytale universe. Even in the Realm of Darkness, even in the shadows within this reality, there’s only so far the boundary can be pushed. A queer relationship has to remain subtext (Darkness). It can’t exist on the surface (Light). It can’t significantly impact the story. The story can’t be about that. Not in this world.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that jokes about Sora and Riku getting together in Quadratum because it’s (from their pov) Unreality. But it’s not a joke either, right, because this is a different world, made up of things that don’t exist in Disney fairytale land with all its traditional cishetero relationships and happy endings… This is a world where a queer relationship could happen. Because it’s not “real.”

Let’s take this a step further.

If we’re interpreting Darkness as a metaphor for subtext in a story while Light is what’s on the surface, that makes Reality canon stories and Unreality the opposite. Ideas that never make it past the conceptual stages or drafts, that are never published or coded, for whatever reason (like how Verum Rex seems based on Nomura’s Versus XIII, which was cancelled irl)… or existing stories and ideas that are so forgotten/lost to time that they may as well have never existed (like Strelitzia and the Lost Masters). Unreality is the other side of creation.

On a textual level, Sora and Riku’s relationship in DDD carrying over to KH3, with increasing moments in the Light, is a queer relationship starting to be consciously realized by both characters. On a metatextual level, it’s a queer relationship starting to be made more explicit by a creator… before it’s hit by censors, sentenced to the limbo of what could be. From this perspective, it would be extremely meta for Sora and Riku to get together (or for romantic feelings to be confirmed, at least) in a universe that represents unrealized/lost ideas while their relationship struggled to exist beyond subtext in a universe that represents what’s “real”/canon.

What the Master of Masters says about Light and Darkness is also interesting from this perspective. Light and Dark are not supposed to reach Quadratum, but they do. Reality is not supposed to touch Unreality, but it does. The line between what’s real and what’s not, what’s canon and what’s not, is blurring. Versus XIII lives through Verum Rex. Sora (“real”) meets Nameless Star (“unreal”) in the Final World. Sora and Strelitzia, stuck in Unreality, are characters from a “real” story that haven’t been completely forgotten. Riku (“real”) has dreams about Sora (“unreal” atp), and Riku crosses from Reality into Unreality to find Sora while still remaining “real” (not erased from Reality/canon).

I actually think Strelitzia kinda represents when a beta/draft character is replaced by the final one. Ultimately, Ventus takes her role in the canon story, and she is erased from it. But that beta/draft character was still created, so it still “exists” even though it’s not in the story. And the bonds you, as the creator, imagined them forming with other characters if they were in the story still exist (Strelitzia is remembered by Laurium, Elrena, and Ventus). It’s also not lost on me that Strelitzia is, technically, a queer character because she’s in love with the UX Player regardless of gender. So it feels like she is erased and replaced specifically due to censorship/executive meddling in this allegory for the creative process. But I digress.

I do think it’s significant that the Final World rests on the edge of Sleep and Death, and that Riku reaches Sora in Unreality through the Realm of Sleep. Dreams and Unreality are pretty similar. Both are made of what you hope, imagine, wish, want to be real. The biggest difference is dreams are subconscious and Unreality, I think, represents conscious ideas that are never made real or are forgotten. A world of lost dreams and desires, brimming with possibility and potential… Moving from the allegorical subconscious to the conscious-but-not-acted-upon reflects the evolution of Riku’s feelings in particular. He knows how he feels about Sora, but he does not believe his feelings could ever be reciprocated. So he’s in the world where dreams remain fantasy. For now.

If Sora and Riku represent a censored queer relationship, then I think them getting together in Unreality (and presumably making it back to their own world/Reality in the Light) would be like saying you can’t erase what’s already in the story, what’s already real. You can try. You can downplay, ignore, dismiss, censor, try to forget, but those moments still happened. Those feelings still exist. That bond still exists. Nothing can change that. KH3 sure dropped some big Sora/Riku moments that require follow up to make narrative sense. There’s no taking those back.

KH is also really big on the idea that reality is subjective. Nomura said in an interview about KH4 that Yozora’s world is fictional to Sora, but Sora’s world is fictional to Yozora. What’s real to one person is fantasy to another. And in the end, it doesn’t really matter who’s right, because if you believe something is real, that makes it real. So I think you can also see “soriku canon in Unreality” as like meta commentary on fanfiction too, from this perspective. It’s not “canon,” but it’s still “real.” Obviously, it would be canon because all of KH is canon, but in this allegorical take, as long as the boys are in Unreality, it wouldn’t represent “canon.” Does that make sense? My head kind of hurts.

Of course I’m not claiming this reading (Darkness is subtext, Reality is canon, etc.) is intentional. It could be, but either way I think it’s really fun to view KH through a meta lens like this.

[taramimeme-blog-blog]

I Need to Talk About: Constance

Last post: I Need to Talk About: Linhardt

Oh ho ho ho ho!

It's time for the Queen!

Those Who Slither in My Brain continue to compel me to write about Fódlan. And who better to help me banish them then the Light of Rausten the heir to the greatest magical house the Empire has ever known, the one and only, Constance von Nuvelle!

Now, to get one thing out of the way. In all fairness, I can understand why some people's first impression of Constance is that she is a 2-note gimmick character (restore noble house + changing personality).

Fire Emblem has had plenty of gimmick characters, especially in older games where screen time was often limited to a brief quip or conversation on joining, and maybe a couple of support chains if you were lucky.

But Three Houses benefits from having evidently been written by a bunch of lore nerds, so that even characters who do have some sort of gimmicky feature--like flirting with everyone, loving sweets, loving your dad, drawing in monsters when sighing, or the ability to magically summon a band to play Funny Footsteps whenever surprised or scared--still have an opportunity for more depth.

And you will never convince me that the world-building writers(?) scenario writers(?) involved in 3H were not lore nerds. The detail in stuff like the books in the library goes way past what was needed to make the game work. And Three Hopes itself is totally a fanfic alt-history that just happened to get published as an official game.

So, no, Constance is no more a gimmick character than anyone else in the game. Her gimmicks are just a bit more in-your-face because that's Constance; she's in your face.

So who is Constance von Nuvelle?

You impertinent, uneducated scoundrel! Know you not of the singular heir to the House of Nuvelle? Ha! Well, worry not! For I, taramimeme-blog-blog, shall rectify your sorry state of ignorance!

...if I should dare to presume that my pitiful mind can hold even a fraction of the knowledge necessary to do justice to the likes of the esteemed Lady Constance von Nuvelle. I fear that I am certainly not qualified for the task, but I shall endeavor in my own pathetic way to do her justice.

I think Constance is a fascinating character. She's clearly whip-smart, and she's utterly brimming with confidence and drive to accomplish things, at least as long as she is out of the sun.

I think a lot of people focus more on her shady personality. It is a lot more fun. But I personally like to think that her sunny personality is equally true to her. Neither side is just the result of her curse. They both are exaggerations of what was already there within her.

This is all head-canon. The games don't ever clarify if she was more like her shady self, sunny self, or neither before the events that led to her being how she is now. But I find it the most satisfying explanation for reasons that hopefully will be clear as I explain more.

Constance grew up in a noble house that was famed for its magical prowess, and that had existed for a long time in the Empire, the oldest nation in Fódlan. I've always thought that, because of the Empire's long history, they would probably be the country to most heavily emphasize things like lineage, historical achievements, and displays of "culture". Like, out of the three nations, I would expect the Empire to have the most finicky rules for social etiquette, and to be the most judgmental when someone fails to meet those expectations.

In contrast, there are a lot of in-game comments, etc, that make it seems like Faeghus places the most emphasis on loyalty and military prowess. And Leicester is a barely-held-together coalition of competing houses, where it's possible for a great house to be removed from the Roundtable (see Judith's house, Daphnel) or to be added (Marianne's house, Edmund). Also, Marianne's adoptive father, Margrave Edmund, is implied to have risen in power due to his economic success as much as anything, and Leicester is described as having a strong merchant class, so I would expect the Alliance's culture to place a lot more emphasis on material success than other factors.

Coming back to the Empire, I would imagine that, while Constance was born to incredible privilege, hence her pride and determination, she was also born into the pressure cooker of expectations that is the noble life in the Empire, hence her self-doubt.

We see a little of this with Ferdinand too. He swings back and forth between stunning displays of confidence, and self-doubt when he is given any reason to question his achievements. Even his personal skill in game deactivates the moment he's taken a single point of damage!

There's also Bernadetta, whose pressures come from her overbearing and abusive father who wants her to live up to some gold-standard of noble-womaness. And perhaps even Linhardt would be less unwilling to take on his inherited position if his house were in the Alliance instead. It may be that inheriting a title in the Empire is particularly odious and filled with annoying responsibilities in a way that may not be quite as true in Leicester. (I don't mention Faeghus here just because Linhardt hates fighting, so the martial culture there would leave him just as badly out-of-sync, just in different ways.)

So Constance may have grown up being simultaneously showered in praise simply as a result of being a member of her house, and constantly found lacking, not because she particularly was lacking in anything, but simply because the standards were so high.

Add to that the fact that her house had a long history of being accomplished mages means that she has to be good at magic or she's failing to live up to expectations. Plus whatever weird pressure would come from her house's big secret. They've been hiding that they carry the Crest of Noa for the entirety of their existence.

And that's why I think that Constance may have always had bits of both of her personalities in her from the beginning. She is automatically great as a result of her birth, but acknowledgment of her worth is always conditional, based on her living up to the expectations society has for her.

If you look at a map of Fódlan, House Nuvelle is located on a peninsula that juts out to the west, far from the imperial capital, and somewhat removed from other houses that are listed on the maps I've seen. They were geographically isolated, as well as isolated by their desire to keep the secret of their crest, which limited their contact (especially intermarrying) with other houses.

And this was the seed of their downfall. From what I remember, it is implied in-game that Constance's family was killed when Dagda invaded. But it was only after that invasion that House Nuvelle was erased. I strongly suspect that they were used as a scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the war, and their lack of close allies among other noble houses hurt them there. Plus, the only remaining member of Nuvelle was a teenage girl, so it was probably especially easy for other houses to take advantage of the situation to increase their own relative power, not to mention that surely someone ended up gaining control of the Nuvelle lands and whatever wealth they contained.

So to add another factor to Constance's split personality, she was betrayed by the very noble system that had given her the opportunity to be great in the first place.

But to Constance's credit, she was resourceful enough to immediately pick herself up from her ENTIRE FAMILY DYING and losing her title and lands. We know that after the Dagda invasion, she went to the Fhirdiad Royal School of Sorcery.

I can't emphasize enough how amazing this turnaround is. She's like, 15 at the time. Her whole family has died. She's lost everything. And she grew up in a structured environment where she probably never really had to make any decisions about her future. She was a noble heir. She was going to inherit her house and continue the line, probably through an arranged marriage.

So for her to so quickly make a decision herself and carry it out...she was probably desperate, but she could have also just given in to despair.

I believe I'm correct that Constance also attended Garreg Mach's Officers Academy after leaving the school of sorcery, meaning that when she attends in the game's timeline, it's actually her second time studying there, much like with Yuri and Balthus.

But after that, she ends up living in Abyss. She had enough drive to go to two different schools, but I would also imagine that she may have been at a loss as to what to do after that. As a noble, her upbringing almost certainly didn't prepare her for doing any sort of job search, and I could imagine her feeling lost once she's finished the structured path of studentry. She's like the person who finished their PhD and didn't become a professor, and is now thinking, well, now what do I do?

It isn't ever really explored, but I also imagine that Constance has a very unique perspective on nobles and commoners. She has been both. (In-game, she starts as the "noble" class, but I think that is more a sign of her dogged insistence on still being a true noble. In practice, her house is gone and she's a commoner.)

The only other characters with similar experiences would probably be Mercedes, Yuri, Ashe, and Balthus.

Mercedes is the most similar. Her original house was disbanded, like Constance's, though she did end up in another noble house after her mother remarried. But in the end, she and her mother ran from that house too, and Mercedes was adopted by a merchant, becoming a commoner. The biggest difference between Mercedes and Constance though, is that Mercedes ultimately ended up in a merchant household, so while she lost noble status, she still had access to the status and wealth of a merchant. And Mercedes never had to act on her own or make her own decisions, which is reflected in how passive she is in regards to what will happen to her in her life. This contrasts with Constance, who has been forced to act on her own, and has learned to be more proactive in making decisions.

Yuri started as a commoner, was adopted into a noble family, and then expelled from the nobility, so he's seen both sides too. However, his original status was commoner, and he seems not particularly attached to the nobility, being much more interested in furthering the interests of the commoners he works with in his gang.

Ashe too, started as a commoner, then was adopted into nobility. He never became a noble for some reason (maybe because Faerghus is strict about crests and inheritance) but he has learned to idolize the noble system, even though it appears he will never be able to join it as a member. At best, he can become a knight serving a lord.

Balthus also is classified as a "noble" in game, but he has relinquished his title and is living as a commoner for all practical purposes. (Plus, his mother is a commoner.) It's hard to say what his attitude is towards the nobility aside from finding the responsibilities that come with it unpleasant, and being perfectly happy to abandon it all.

I don't think Balthus thinks too hard about things like "What does it mean to be a noble or a commoner?"

So while there are some other characters who have also experienced both sides of the noble/commoner divide, none of them have quite the same experience or perspective that Constance does.

I would imagine that Constance is very aware of the rot within the noble system. Even in-game, she is shown as bearing a lot of bitterness towards the Empire, and she reacts harshly to Ferdinand when she thinks he is pitying her current situation.

But she doesn't generally speak badly of the nobility out-loud, and her goal is to rejoin it. I would imagine that, in private, she probably has plenty of bad things to say about nobility and nobles. Hapi has probably heard it all. And since the Church and the nobility are so intertwined, Hapi and Constance have definitely bonded over "Fuck the Church". You know those two are shit-talking all the more stuck-up nobles when they're on their own.

Constance refrains from outwardly criticizing the noble system because she does recognize that getting back in is her best ticket to living a good life again. She has personally experienced the desperation of losing everything, and she knows how precarious her situation is if she can't regain her title.

(I want to take a moment to also bring to mind her A Support with Hapi, with the "mean girls" scene. After defending herself and Hapi, when the other women leave, Constance disparagingly refers to them as "callow noblewomen" and "classless". She knows their type, maybe she even was one at one point in her life, but at the very least she's probably met plenty of them. They think they're better than anyone because of their status, and their adherence to an arbitrary system of manners. Oh, but I mostly wanted to bring up this support because Constance finishes by telling Hapi that she expects her "to keep me company well into my dotage"!!!! Aahhh!!! They're so married!!!!)

So Constance is fascinating! She has endless confidence, and endless self-doubt. She hates the bad parts of the noble system, but she wants to get back in. She continues to maintain the proper decorum that was probably drilled into her from her youth, but she's also open and flexible enough to adapt to a lifestyle as a commoner: messily holding fish in her hands (*gasp*) and biting directly into it (*gasp*) whilst sitting with a nobody, from-nowhere, got-no-connections, not-even-a-copper-to-her-name like Hapi (*sounds of noble bodies hitting the floor as they faint*).

Who is worthy of associating with the likes of our Lady of Nuvelle?

I've already mentioned Lysithea, Linhardt, and dearest Hapi in previous posts, so I want to look at some others.

Leonie

I'm thinking about these two because they have ZERO interactions in either game, and I think there could be some interesting dynamics.

Constance would definitely, definitely be off-putting to Leonie at first. Leonie has like, negative 100 patience for Lorenz's shit when she's first getting to know him, and she would probably immediately throw Constance into the same bucket category of "stuck up asshole".

Constance would also likely try to be "helpful" with Leonie in the same way she does with Hapi, attempting to teach Leonie "proper behavior". With Hapi, Constance's words just roll off her back and she isn't even bothered. I think it's a combination of Hapi's general lackadaisical attitude, but also the fact that she probably has actually had very little experience with being discriminated against by nobles. There's a good chance she never even met a noble until coming to Garreg Mach.

Leonie, on the other hand, is very aware of what nobility means, and what it means that she's a commoner. She complains about all the taxes her village has to pay the local nobility despite not seeing any direct benefit from it. And she also complains about how, as a commoner, she basically needed to present a bribe to a noble to be recommended to go to Garreg Mach. (I like to imagine that this is a tradition unique to money-obsessed Leicester.)

So Constance's attempts to teach Leonie how to behave properly would REALLY not go over well. Leonie would interpret it as Constance looking down on her.

If these two could somehow get past that though, they could have a mutually-beneficial relationship.

Both of them are concerned with money. Leonie has never really had any, and has gone into debt to her whole village to attend Garreg Mach. Constance evidently didn't lose all of her wealth, somehow. Maybe she was able to keep some more portable things like gold even after she lost her house. But she's now attended two different schools, and has never had a job as far as we know, so she is probably slowly spending down what she still has. Plus, Constance wants to be successful in magical research in order to restore her name, and she needs funding to do that.

Leonie is very enterprising about how to save money. She never wastes anything, and we learn in-game that she does things like make her own soap, and reuse scrap paper. Constance is driven enough by her goals that, I guarantee that she would be open to learning about things like this. I'm sure she doesn't like that she has to do it, but being successful is more important to her than the details of how she gets there. If she needs to make her own materials in order to save money for magical research, then she'll learn to do that.

Leonie could also teach Constance how to fish, hunt, forage, and cook. The hunting might be a stretch. Constance might not ever be very good at it, but the other two are good ways for her to make herself more self-sufficient.

What can Constance teach Leonie? Well, if Leonie can be open to it, she probably can find value in learning some basics of the rules of noble society from Constance. Leonie wants to be a mercenary, so she doesn't need to make a deep dive, but she does at least need to learn how to communicate with potential employers in a way that won't turn them off from her, or outright insult them. Leonie has probably not had many, if any, opportunities to interact with nobles before coming to Garreg Mach. Her village is isolated, and I would imagine that when they send their taxes to the local nobility, it is probably done with a delegation of village leaders. Since Leonie left when she was still a teenager, she may not have ever been in that delegation, even though her father probably is since he's a leader in the village.

Plus, plus! Constance is from the Empire, not the Alliance. She might have a lot to teach Leonie about the specifics of manners and ceremony there. And I've already theorized that the Empire might be even more stodgy than the Alliance is. And mercenaries go where the work is. Leonie wouldn't want to limit herself to staying in Leicester.

I also think that, like Lorenz, Constance could be an important example to Leonie of how not all nobles disparage commoners. Even more than Lorenz, Constance is willing to see the flaws in the noble system, and as we see with Hapi, she is willing to genuinely befriend a commoner, and to even become a BRF (Best "Roommates" Forever) with one.

Again, I think that Constance shits on the annoying nobles behind their backs. Get her and Leonie together with a couple of drinks and let them rip into all the snobs they have to deal with.

Would they make a good romantic couple? It might be hard to see the vision, but it is extremely sexy to see the vision, so let's see it. With Leonie, Constance is never lifting another finger to do any manual labor. Leonie is carrying her princess to bed when she passes out at her desk after a long night of research. Constance meanwhile, being extra in all things she does, will worship Leonie and praise her big, strong wife until she has used every positive word in every dictionary ever printed scribed in Fódlan.

Hilda

I've brought up Hilda a lot in previous posts. I like her a lot, but I hope I don't run out of people to talk about with her before I get to giving her her own post.

At any rate, Hilda and Constance seem like they could initially bond over stuff like fashion, and which scents are most appropriate for which occasions. Hilda definitely likes that stuff, and Constance has got to be knowledgeable about it too. I'm sure she has a collection of season-appropriate scents for her folding fans. (Fun fact: Using an appropriate scent on a folding fan was seen as a sign of good upbringing among Japanese nobility.)

But they also have some crossover in their mixed attitudes towards the nobility. Hilda wants to be free of the expectations and responsibilities that come with being a potential heir. Constance knows from first-hand experience that not all nobles uphold the ideals that they're supposed to on paper.

Unlike Hilda though, Constance is willing to take on those obligations again if it means she can once again have access to power.

So here's a funny thought. If they were friends, I could see Hilda setting Constance up with her brother, Holst.

Hilda knows Constance is driven and smart. Hilda's brother isn't a total meat-head like his good friend Balthus, but he still seems like the type to be very straightforward, and maybe not very detail oriented when it comes to day-to-day administrative tasks and the complexities of Alliance politics. Hilda really doesn't want to have to take on the responsibilities of heading Goneril herself, so she might like the idea of her brother having a wife who will make sure Goneril is well-run. Holst has the military stuff totally under control, so no one's worried about that, and with Constance at his side, House Goneril is in good hands. This frees Hilda to fuck off and do what she wants! Plus, she gets to have fun with her good friend whenever she visits her brother!

As an extra bonus, Constance herself is a handful, so she'll keep Holst busy and out of Hilda's hair.

I know, I know...I just Alois-MByleth-S-supported you all. I'm sorry.

So let's think about Constance and Hilda together themselves. It could very well work! Well rather, Constance would work. Hilda would relax and stay pretty for her wife.

With Constance at her side, Hilda might even be willing to become the heir to House Goneril (on paper at least) since she could rely on Constance to do the actual work of running things.

These two would be the fashionista, trend-setters of Leicester if this ever came to be! Imagine the grand entrance Constance makes at each and every Roundtable conference, fully decked out in the latest By Hilda™ brand accessories, a gentle tinkling of metal sounding every time she turns her head to scoff at Claude's latest proposition to vote on.

"My dear Riegan! You propose an increase in the funding for the combined Leicester forces!? Have you forgotten the contribution that House Goneril has already made in pure manpower during the last repairs of the East Derdriu Bridge!? You would have us do even more!? You scoundrel! I am aghast at your blatant attempts to bleed House Goneril dry!"

Hilda, meanwhile, is sitting off to the side, her feet up. She isn't technically needed there since Constance is representing her house, but she wants to see the show. Claude is forcing a smile and trying to get concessions out of Constance. Lorenz is throwing death glares Hilda's way. "These conferences were hard enough even before you turned over your duties to this woman!" he thinks.

On a more serious note, Hilda is very perceptive and caring, and loves to encourage people. I think she would very understanding of Constance's sunny side. But also with Hilda fussing over her, Constance will never be subjected to sun exposure ever again. Important ceremony to attend? Hilda's making sure that every path Constance has to walk is covered, and any platforms or podiums she has to stand on will be fully shaded no matter the time of day or the angle of the sun. What's that? An important noble visitor has arrived suddenly? Hilda's got an assemblage of servants with parasols out and ready before Constance even has time to set foot outside.

Annette

Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Magic Bomb.

Constance and Annette bond over their shared love of magic. However, the combination of Constance's overconfidence and risk-taking behavior with regards to experiments, and Annette's general clumsiness and tendency to get distracted means that they somehow manage to backwards engineer the technology of the Shambala missiles from scratch, but also set them off, thereby ending all of Fódlan.

Sothis sighs and dusts herself off. "Fooey! Do I have to create life again! This time around, I'm making them all too dumb to invent stuff!"

But putting continent-wide, life-ending disaster aside, I think these two would make excellent friends, although they're kind of bad for each other's health. Neither is going to remember to go to bed or drink water once they get started on a topic, but they will accomplish a lot.

Annette seems like she would be so happy as a teacher, maybe at a restored Garreg Mach Academy. She can use her connections to get Constance a position as a researcher. Constance will do the occasional lecture, and it will be a blast for all the students who like it when stuff blows up.

If they were a romantic couple, Annette is the one who defends them. She may only have 153 cm (5'0") of height and like, 50 kg (110 pounds) of weight (after a full glass of water), but she is the daughter of a Faerghus military house, and she is ready to fight! Constance, meanwhile, is a proper lady from the generally more stuffy Empire nobility, so even though she can fight too, she's happy to play the part of the distressed noble lady whose honor is being defended by her incredibly powerful partner. She's very good at it; punctuating the air with occasional gasps of "Oh my!" and "Such beastly behavior!" and throwing her hand up (gracefully) to her forehead before declaring that her noble nerves are frayed and she may just faint! (Uh, but she'll step in if she has to, like if Annette's opponent gets up on a tall chair out of her reach.)

Ok, ok. I've stuffed enough non sequitur jokes into run-on sentences for now. I really do think that these two would make a wonderful couple, or very good friends.

Like I said above, both of them seem like the types to get really into something and forget everything else, and I think that would help them to understand each other and not get angry about the others' forgetfulness. Constance seems like the type to get on certain people's nerves, but Annette would not be bothered by her, even from the beginning. She'd be too focused on excitedly talking shop with a fellow magic enthusiast.

And Constance's confidence in the shade is something she could share with Annette. My interpretation of Annette is that I think she has very low self-confidence. She doesn't mope around a lot, so it's not as obvious as some other characters. But we see hints of it, for instance, in her support chain with Lysithea. She seems to have a bad case of impostor syndrome, and doesn't think she can stack up to everyone else.

As for why Annette is like this, she has spent her life being a little scatter-brained, a little forgetful, and maybe never quite living up to the expectations of her hyper-masculine, military driven culture. Add in to that the fact that she may have felt some guilt or responsibility when her father left. (Was it because I wasn't a good enough daughter?)

But Constance will hear none of it! She knows Annette is smart and accomplished, and she will not allow Annette to put herself down!

Annette then can do the same for Constance if she has to spend time in the sun. Annette knows what it's like to feel like you aren't good enough, and she's going to make sure Constance knows her own worth, even when she's most down on herself!

Hanneman

I mentioned in my last post that I haven't touched on non-students as much, so let's take a look at Constance and Hanneman.

I'll put it out there right away. I don't see romantic potential. That's a big age gap. But like with some of the other more magically inclined students, Constance has a lot of potential as a sort of apprentice to Hanneman.

And it would be hilarious.

You think Manuela drives Hanneman crazy with her sloppiness and forceful personality? Oh, Constance will be in major competition with Manuela for the might-send-Hanneman-to-an-early-grave spot.

First off, I think she is going to aggressively seek him out. He's known as an eminent researcher, and Constance has shit she wants to get done in her limited time at Garreg Mach.

(Although, like I mentioned way above, I'm pretty sure that Yuri, Balthus, and Constance are all attending Garreg Mach for the second time when you play through the game. Isn't it weird that neither Hanneman nor Manuela are like, wait, I remember you! You're back? In Balthus's case, maybe Manuela wouldn't have met him. She hasn't been at Garreg Mach for quite as long as Hanneman, but then again, there are other reasons why Balthus and Manuela should have interacted in-game...)

So Constance hunts Hanneman down. She finds him in his office, in the library, and even when he's hiding from her in Seteth's office so he can get some reading done. She comes up with a magical Hanneman-tracking device so that she can find him at any time.

Why? Well, she wants to utilize his expertise to help move her own education and research along. And she hopes that if she makes a good impression on him, she can also get a recommendation to somewhere where she could continue her research after graduation. Or perhaps, she can even continue as a researcher under Hanneman, right here at Garreg Mach!

And it's not that Hanneman thinks Constance isn't worthy of his attention. He recognizes that she's brilliant AND driven (unlike Linhardt, whom Hanneman would love to have as an apprentice, but who temperamentally shows up or doesn't whenever he feels like it).

But Constance is a bit much for Hanneman. And on least one occasion she has excitedly shown up at his personal quarters, knocking on the door at 3:00 am (How did she even get past the guards at the entrance to the staff housing?) because she discovered something just so important that it couldn't wait until the next morning! What do you mean it's too late? The progress of magical research shall not be stopped by the pathetic hands of a clock!

Perhaps Constance's best "in" is to reveal the secret of her crest to Hanneman. Suddenly, I bet his schedule empties out a whole lot.

But I think she would win him over eventually (or wear him down, either works). Hanneman is totally dedicated to his field. He took the unusual move of renouncing his peerage so that he could focus on being a professor and studying crests. And his reasons for doing so are very tragic, if you've ever read his support chain with Edelgard. Hanneman, it turns out, is not fond of the crest-based nobility system. His sister suffered because of it, and what does he have with Constance? He has another young woman, like his sister, who has suffered from the system.

Given the clash of their personalities, with Hanneman being quiet and stuffy, and Constance being loud and chaotic, it might take a while before they trusted each other enough to open up about their pasts.

But then again, loud and chaotic is only one half of Constance. Maybe the opportunity to get to know each other better would come sooner if Hanneman had the opportunity to meet Constance in the sun. It would require him to put down his books and instruments and go outside, but, well, he has to eat sometimes, right?

I think Hanneman would see his sister in Constance in the way the crest system has chewed both of them up and spit them out. And seeing how deeply it has affected and hurt her would allow him to sympathize with her, and to learn to tolerate the aspects of her personality that would otherwise push him away from her.

Perhaps Hanneman would never quite want to take Constance on as an apprentice. It might be a bit much for his heart. But he would encourage her and assist her when she was a student, and he would take extra care to make sure that she finds a position where her genius is utilized after graduation. He knows the disadvantages of trying to research while not being part of a noble house, and he's going to use whatever connections he still has at the Empire, or within the Church, to make sure that she is able to continue on her path.

...her own path that leads her away from knocking on his door every day with new questions and discoveries. He is quite happy to answer all of her letters that she sends from her new position far away from Garreg Mach though.

Conclusion? Already? But you have barely begun to even touch on the many facets of the great, the only, Constance von...

Yeah, but I gotta stop it somewhere. Relax, Coco, you'll come up again when I touch on other characters in the future.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

me and cori's discussion questions from this movie

linda and lawrence leave for the movies right before they build the platy-launchers which implies that all of this happened in less than two hours first-dimension-time.

was 2doof the favorite child in this dimension and he's evil cause he's privileged? we see a framed photo of balloony in his childhood home which would never have happened in the first dimension and we also never see roger

hold on is roger fukcing dead

how much of this was inspired by sonic satam

do you remember the online website games for this movie they were so fucking fun. bring those back

why do candace and doof basically switch roles between this movie and CATU

the beginning of this movie places perry as moving in with the flynn-fletchers five years prior to The First Summer. so 2Doof's reign of terror lasted less than five years– BUT pnf don't even remember summer or going outside or meeting isabella? so maybe perry joined the family DURING the reign of terror? 2d!Perry at least lasted long enough for phineas and ferb to remember him but not long enough that he was able to stop doof

does isabella live in the secret bunker

2doof didn't know who candace was despite knowing that the OWCA agents used host families which means that 1) she's been leading this resistance for years without even getting onto his radar, 2) platyborg fucking ZIPPED IT before being roboticized about who his host family was

doof says they're in eastern standard time but earlier episodes said the tri-state area was on the west coast so like

do you also remember the wii game that was so fucking fun, me and cori spent weeks trying to win it and we DID it was a fucking PARTY

you can see the firestorm girls in the invention montage which means that the second dimension team showed up in time to see all this insane shit phineas and ferb built and they were just like "yeah ok give us the spinning tops"

"robot riot" fucks so severely and so does the scene it's set to

phineas fucking smiles when he tosses the piss-cushion at 2doof he's so fucking funny

is 2d!stacy fucking dead

we never see stacy in either this movie or the follow-up episode and 2d!candace looks sad when candace mentions "bffs and sleepovers"

oh my god i bet she's fucking dead

wait we know 2doof isn't opposed to turning people into robots and stacy is an agent in the new season wait a minute wait a minute

"whoo-hoo i did it! i saved the world!" this is how candace can defeat the Entity

how many tri-state area residents were mind-wiped versus how many were not. did anyone ever go up to phineas and ferb and be like "hey remember that robot riot? that was fucking awesome" and they're like "what"

i love the implication that phineas and ferb took all those selfies with perry WHILE they were still pissed at him. committed to the bit

why wont they re-release this in theatres

rewatching the phineas and ferb movie and being reminded that it's the greatest film ever made and no one can hope to do better

[peipakao]

that post about the lack of fic in opm fandom made me remember this fuckin. essay i wrote like a year ago for a reddit comment that i then shamefully deleted cos it was so entirely irrelevant to the original post. but i saved it so. here it is. a fanthropological analysis on the state of fic in opm fandom:

One Punch Man is not a small fandom by any means, but it definitely seems that most fans are of the 'dudebro who likes to powerscale' variety, and I'm continually surprised by how small the shipping and fanfic writing side of the fandom is in comparison. Like, this is one of the most popular well known anime series in the world, I'm pretty sure even the most casual of anime fans has to have at least heard of it. But it only has 5k fics on AO3, which isn't exactly small, but considering its popularity and in comparison to other popular battle action "shounen" manga (technically OPM is seinen but no one remembers that so), it is bafflingly tiny. I've thought about it a lot, and I think it comes down to multiple related reasons, both internal to the story that limit the likelihood of a fan to write fics for it, and external, lowering the number of ppl who would want to write fics for it that become/stay fans in the first place.

Let's start with internal reasons. The cast of characters is huge, made up of mostly men (a lot of whom are young + attractive). Which seems like it should be a definite boon to M/M shipping--the backbone of a large number of fandoms! But I think there's a difference in that with so many characters, screentime/focus is really spread out across them, and I'd find it hard to really tell you who counts as a "main character". On top of that, there's not a whole lot of interaction between them, they all seem much more isolated. I think this is especially the case in the biggest arc that took 7 years to complete. Even the biggest ship/pair had a ~3 year gap in the manga where they didn't appear together at all.

But there are definitely still lots of ships with potential and interactions to fuel shipping (although I still think less than comparable media), so that's not the whole story. Which brings me to my next point about external factors. Most of those ships are not in the early parts of OPM, and you're probably gonna have to read through the manga and also the webcomic to get to them. Most people have not done this, and have probably only watched season 1 of the anime, considering that was the peak of its popularity. And those early parts are much more comedic, so I think the impression most ppl have of OPM is that it's primarily a gag anime/manga. Which is still true, but the story has definitely gotten more complex and serious. So I think a lot of people who might want to write fic for OPM probably don’t get into it because they don't expect it to have much potential in that regard.

I think the release schedule of the anime also plays a huge role, with the anime taking 4 years to come out with a (widely considered) disappointing second season, and with a third season trailer having been released after like 5 years. It’s probably not an understatement that most anime/manga fandoms are much more focused on the anime side of things, and not everyone who enjoys an anime is going to then get into the manga.

And let's not forget the manga and webcomic release schedule, with the webcomic releasing basically solely according to ONE's whims, and the manga constantly going through redraws. Which I'm not necessarily complaining about since we get all this lovely content for free! But it does pose another hurdle for new potential fans, and I imagine there are quite a few who simply didn't want to put in that commitment over time, or honestly just got confused about what was going on.

OPM as a whole has lost a lot of relevance, it seems not many people are getting into it right now and many fans who did write fic for it at the peak of its popularity have probably left the fandom in search of greener pastures.

This is all just speculation though. I wasn't actually in the fandom when it was popular, only got into it a few years ago, so my theories on its decline aren't super backed up. I hope it gets popular again, having said all that I think there's so much fandom potential that isn't being tapped into. Like others have said, a lot of fandom/fic is based on filling in gaps and aspects that weren't explored, and there's plenty to explore in OPM.

[littlebigmouse]

Something about AU Vander telling AU Powder she's "too smart to spend her life in a bar" vs telling AU Ekko (as far as he knows, anyway) that he thinks he'd be "running this place soon" makes the latter almost seem like an insult.

[serpentface]

Oh, birthing & midwiferyposting, please

Ok I will Elaborate

(Content warning because this contains discussion of infanticide)

This is speaking about midwifery and childbirth in the Imperial Wardi context (this also should not be taken as ubiquitous for every facet of the Imperial Wardi cultural sphere, but this is a broadly accurate rundown).

Infant mortality rates are high, and pregnancies and births can be very dangerous for the pregnant parent. Midwives serve a vital societal function and the best form of reproductive care available.

Midwives come in many forms. In poor families, the duties are usually performed by a family member and the skillset may be passed from parent to child. Some communities have resident midwives who perform their services for free or at low cost. Professional midwives exist for hire, and are very common in the cities. An upper echelon of midwives are a kind of physician-priestess, who will have received extensive medical training and are considered sanctified and uniquely equipped to fulfill the spiritual needs of childbirth. A few will perform services for free, but they are generally hired and their services are very expensive.

Wealthy families may have their own personal midwives, and VERY wealthy families/royalty have personal physician-priestesses.

Midwives are mostly women, though whether this is an expectation or merely an average tendency is dependent on the specific context. Cases where this is an Expectation tend to be in cultural contexts where the Gaze of a man is believed to have a sexual element that is uniquely powerful and harmful to the nude bodies of women (all Imperial Wardi cultural beliefs include a concept of the spiritually empowered Gaze and disempowered vulnerability in nudity, but exact nuances vary). Physician-priestesshood is, in theory, reserved only for people designated female, though a few throughout history have been known or suspected to be eunuchs.

Physician-Priestesses serve Anmir-Ganmache (an epithet of God as the domestic sphere, close in meaning to Ox-Face of the Hearth). This is not a priesthood specifically devoted to this face of God in the same sense that Odonii are the cult of the Lion-Face and Galenii are the cult of the Lunar-Face, they are merely seen as serving Anmir-Ganmache by performing their duties and being uniquely empowered by this Face's blessing. Most begin their training and education at puberty (though it's possible to join later in life) and are expected to serve for 25 years before retirement. Their primary function is to behave as midwives, but they receive a wide spectrum of medical training and are considered uniquely equipped to tend to the overall health of women.

A midwife is usually expected to not perform their tasks while menstruating (this may not be practical for poorer families who have to take what they can get), during which time a person is considered ritually unclean. Specially dedicated physician-priestesses are usually expected to be virgins and to remain so for the duration of their service (a method to ensure an entirely ritually pure existence). This is not expected of common midwives.

Most of any midwife’s job is typical physical assistance with the pregnancy and birthing process. Births are typically done in a sitting or squatting position, often wearing a special skirt or blanket to shield both parent and child from full view (a spiritual element to reduce unwanted metaphysical vulnerability during the birthing process). Under the best conditions, a midwife has several assistants of their own (in the case of physician priestesses, these are usually priestesses in training) who will physically support the person giving birth and attend to their needs.

The infant is shielded from direct view during its emergence, and is immediately cleaned and wrapped in cloth upon the cutting of the umbilical cord.

Part of the toolset for a physician-priestess is a pair of horns from a pregnant cow sanctified via sacrifice to Anmir-Ganmache. The cow had taken God's role in its sacrifice and its remains are holy relics, and used to put the mother and child under God's full protection. One horn will have been carved into a cup and holds a sanctified oil (usually olive), which is gently daubed over the eyes, mouth, heart, and near the genitals of the child, forming a protective barrier.

The other horn is intact (usually carved with protective imagery, notably a motif of a lioness-headed woman that has protective qualities for children, and an abstract, twisting serpent that represents and encourages the incarnation of the child's soul) and is waved over the child’s body in the form of a blessing. The same is done for the mother, with the addition of anointing the breasts to encourage healthy and clean lactation. Common midwives are unlikely to have easy access to sacred sacrificial relics, but this blessing rite is considered vital and can be accomplished (to a less ideal extent) with any cow's horns, so long as they have been properly purified.

Protecting the helpless, naked infant from the gaze and immediately exposing it to purifying agents is believed to help expel any inborn dagia or other polluting agents. This is believed to support the child's spiritual and physical health and hopes to prevent congenital or otherwise lifelong health conditions.

The midwife performs a thorough inspection of the infant, and will give a recommendation upon whether the child is healthy and fit to rear. Infants deemed at high risk of premature death may be killed, as the cost of care and emotional attachment for a child deemed unlikely to survive will often be seen as too great to warrant the risk. This act (presumably with the parent’s permission) is usually performed by the midwife themself, and is ideally accomplished with a fatal sedative dose (this death is seen as peaceful and painless, while a traumatic death would risk the infant’s soul failing to reincarnate and instead becoming a vengeful wandering ghost).

This obviously may be a difficult and traumatic choice on an emotional level, but infants are not believed to have fully incarnated souls until they begin to speak (it is believed that the soul begins to enter the body upon conception, but takes significant time to fully inhabit it), and will be reincarnated if they die before this occurs. So infanticide in this context is not usually perceived as the murder of a full person or a denial of life, as the infant’s soul will have as many other chances as it takes to become fully incarnated. (There's a variant of 'old soul' beliefs, where an especially precocious child or one that learns to speak early is believed to have had many previous reincarnations)

Intentional abortion of a fetus carries no stigma whatsoever for much the same reasons (though the MOTIVATIONS for this act on the parent’s part may carry stigma, such as to hide an illegitimate pregnancy). Natural abortifiacients are available and widely used in cases of unwanted pregnancy (though these are not by any means as safe or reliable as contemporary abortion procedures).

In all cases (whether an aborted fetus, a miscarriage, a stillbirth, infanticide, or another death before full incarnation), the infant or fetus’ remains are given the standard funeral rite of cremation to ensure their soul is freed from the body and can be properly reincarnated. Basic rites are all that is expected in this situation, but some parents will undergo extensive funerals with lavish offerings to encourage a prosperous and healthy rebirth.

There's also certain rites to encourage the same soul to return to the same parents (as it would otherwise be reincarnated into a human at random), the physical element of which is anointing the body (ideally the lips) with both parent's mingled blood before the cremation, as blood physically contains a person's spirit and the sharing of it can establish a powerful metaphysical bond. This is believed to assist in leading the child's stray soul back to the same source, and may lend a tremendous sense of comfort to parents in the face of a wanted, dead infant.

A pregnant parent who dies in childbirth is given special status and are believed to enter an esteemed afterlife (located within the Lapis Moon, a paradise where they will reside among saints and other esteemed dead). Childbirth is regarded as one of many analogues to God's self-sacrifice to bring forth creation, with the mother symbolically crossing the threshold of death and spilling her blood to bring forth life from nonexistence. To die in such a state is regarded as one of the noblest deaths typically available to women. (This sentiment is also entirely reflective of the typical place ascribed to those designated women in this society, where their chiefmost value is in bearing children). It's still (obviously) ideal for most to survive the birthing process, but this belief may contribute to some choosing to undergo an (almost always fatal) caesarean procedure in a difficult birth if the infant is assumed to be otherwise healthy.

In the case of a healthy birth in which all parties survive, the child will then be presented to its father (who in some contexts is prohibited from attending the birth), who will formally accept it as his own and bestow it with the family name (the child is not given a personal name until a month from birth, and undergoes a formalized naming ceremony at either their first birthday or when they begin to speak, tradition depending). A child born out of wedlock or to an absent father does not receive a family name, though may be formally adopted if the mother marries later on, or be given the family name of the mother's father if he chooses to accept it.

The mother should ideally undergo a full blessing to recover from the metaphysical vulnerability of the birthing state (the physician-priestess can provide this, but otherwise this is done at a temple or family/village shrine).

It's also generally expected to offer sacrifice to Anmir-Ganmache in thanks and to ensure continued protection for parent and child (the best offering is a cow, but offerings of milk or at the very least some grain is acceptable). Most who can afford a physician-priestess can also afford to offer a cow, and it's also expected that the best meat (usually the liver and flank) and the horns should be removed before the rest of the sacrifice is burnt, and gifted to the priestess as a personal thanks.

[vaguely-concerned]

to begin with I think previous relationship trauma (max got real Weird and unpleasant about rye showing off too much with his magic in ways that reminded him that his prized pet mortalitasi actually wielded vast power of his own outside of what max could confer upon him through his name and money) and uh magical masking for lack of a better term (having long since realized how nevarran magic is viewed by outsiders and knowing he already has enough of the mannerisms of an extremely weirdly socialized crypt baby that he needs another social weak spot like a hole in the head) would make rye avoid doing necromancy specifically in front of lucanis for a long time whenever he could help it, especially as lucanis is quite vocally dubious about necromancy and the necropolis itself initially.

(rye watching lucanis like a hawk as he drags him along into the depths of the necropolis and to hezenkoss’ party to try to determine if this is going to be the sticking point and — with the muscle memory of trauma that has a lot less to do with lucanis in actuality and a lot more to do with rye’s unconscious dialogue with his own history — how he can maybe shape himself into something more acceptable, if so. like… DON'T BE WEIRD!! HE IS GOING TO THINK YOU'RE WEIRD AND LOSE INTEREST FOREIGNERS CAN BE WEIRD THAT WAY!!! THE SKULLS COULD BE A DEAL BREAKER WE MUST CAREFULLY DETERMINE THE LAY OF THE LAND BEFORE WE GO THERE!!! SOME TASTEFUL SUMMONING OKAY, HE’S KIND OF INURED TO SPIRITS BY NOW SURELY, BUT HOLD THE BONES UNTIL WE KNOW FOR SURE. the ‘I can deny whole parts of myself forever if it means that you will stay’ gambit (do NOT try this at home it’s an understandable siren song to be drawn towards when previously wounded but it does not in fact tend to end well this has been a PSA))

by the end of the game rye knows with his brain that lucanis would not in fact drop him like a hot coal over the bones, but what your brain thinks it knows and what your heart thinks it knows… not always the same thing, huh. Even with the proven knowledge that lucanis loves him to the god killing end of the world stage and beyond, I think some deeply buried raw part of rye would still hold on to this remembered flinch and do its best to not be known. 

The masking translates into other things than magic/necromancy as well — while Rye does feel genuinely in over his head as to the task before him in the Veilguard story (it’d be kind of wild to have any other reaction, considering lol), he habitually performs a level of haplessness that’s not truthful too, for a multitude of reasons — to make himself seem unthreatening, to convey the ‘hey I’m just a little guy (please don’t metaphorically and emotionally hit me I’m literally just a little guy max)…🥺’, to hide and sheathe the sharper edges in and not let on that he a) is actually pretty clever in a way the societies of thedas might not prefer for an an elf, even one who’s a watcher, to be seen to be and b) can be a vindictive bastard once roused… it can be an interpersonal swiss army knife to just give the gentle impression that you have no fucking idea what’s going on at all times fhdsakj. Varric didn’t buy it for even five milliseconds, but that’s part of what made Varric what he was to Rook, most people are quite willing to go along with that projected image for their own comfort (make yourself seem harmless and easy to dismiss and you will be left alone to do your own thing in the background uninterrupted quite a lot of the time hashtag rye ingellvar life hack. Wait. why am i so lonely I could cry I’ve only cut off all avenues of genuine expression in myself. This is surely completely unrelated) or because it occasionally awakens a protective impulse in people (davrin goes there sometimes), or whatever. the little black dress of social navigation that is being chronically underestimated.

rye’s relationship to his necromancy is also borderline, vulnerably religious and deeply complex in many ways independently of any of this, especially after his (perceived) exile from the necropolis. He does break the ol' dance macabre out on a couple of notable occasions over the course of the game — occasionally when he’s hanging out with emmrich, and when the Formless One tries to pull its bullshit in rye’s own damn childhood home living room (the GALL!!!). within the context of the necropolis itself he’s willing to let lucanis witness his Watcher Persona (‘don’t worry that’s my jobsona you won’t have to deal with that outside this house of many mansions if you don’t want to! :) ’). But I feel like that fearful ‘if I never put it to the test I’ll never have to find out if that is where the good thing breaks bad and everything will be safe, I’ll never have to know’ impulse is also a big part of it. Again, a largely a subconscious one, of course, I don’t think he would be aware of this consciously, but it’s a system of thinking that’s always active beneath.) 

And furthermore I think lucanis would eventually pick up on this — through such nefarious tactics as ‘actually paying attention’ and ‘genuinely wanting to deeply know rook as a person’ (*rye voice hissed out in distress while clearly sweating nervously*: ah shit… I planned for every eventuality but this one… fuck’).  and once lucanis understood why (at least to the extent that it involves ‘rook anxiously cutting himself into pieces trying to render himself palatable (to me???!! :( )’) it would probably kind of break his heart. and also make him carefully cradle rook’s face between his palms and go 'hey. hey please look at me? do you really think cutting off a whole part of yourself to make me comfortable is what I want. Have I done and said something that made you feel that way, and how can I avoid ever doing that again. do you think I love you so cowardly' (his face is doing the thing it does in the coffee scene with harding through this whole thing, needless to say. rye is toast immediately it is so over for him he’s done for pray for him), and caught completely off guard rye is like '🥺...nohoho😭😭😭' and promptly sobs into lucanis' shoulder for like half an hour while lucanis kisses his hair and rocks them back and forth (and spite is like ‘???!!?! well lucanis seems to be handling it but this is like advanced mortal shit I’m not sure I quite get this one yet’). 

Justttt… Them talking about it finally once Rye is capable of talking again and Lucanis bemusedly cradling rook’s hands in his and venturing ‘...did you think I somehow missed all the fifteen foot tall corpse statues before I married you or…?’ (‘HAH! well when you put it like that my clever ruse does lose some of its integrity you’re right’.) You know one of those precious conversations where someone is able to pick through the strange and twisted overgrown paths in your brain with you to figure out why the hell you do this thing you tend to do and maybe clear some new less troublesome paths in the process, in a way that feels safe and doesn’t make your neurons shut the whole show down nothing to see here please come back later? Yeah, it’s one of those, they get pretty good at those which is good since both of them have some uuuuh Issues to get through.

One of Lucanis’ most endearing qualities to me (they are many and diverse) is the way he seems to really enjoy listening to people he cares about talking about things they’re interested in, even if his own investment in the subject is negligible at the outset. (see him working intrepidly to understand the basic deal with necromancy and finding satisfaction in understanding the necropolis’ financial role in nevarra (lmao I love you lucanis) in emmrich banters, or quickly warming to and engaging with taash’ descriptions of how to fight dragons despite ‘*sigh of deep sincere exasperation* having had enough of dragons’.) so considering how much he canonically enjoys just listening to romanced rook speak about literally whatever and his own unique position in regards to spirit matters (and of course the helpful fact that he is completely unbothered by dead bodies as a baseline), I feel like there’s every chance that he’d actually get quite invested once rye opened up and talked more about it with him unfiltered. Being so ravenous for and open to the corners of your partner’s soul you don’t quite understand or even necessarily have instinctive ‘liking’ for on first brush but growing to understand and love them over time because it is all them (and also getting tricked into liking yourself a bit more by being seen through their eyes oh no I knew there was a catch) feels like a very central thing in their relationship. Permission to be everything you are including all the unlikeable annoying unsettling or difficult things you hide from other people not only granted, I am begging you on my knees for it share it all with me my hunger for you is endless sort of thing. The mutual ‘Please be your full weird self with me I want to study you for the rest of my life’ going on. Unspeakable. 

They both have had to exile their anger so far away from them to in their upbringings (Lucanis has had to navigate Caterina all his life, and Rye was raised to understand that raging, raging against the dying of the light is ultimately futile, young watcher, can you not skip this particular developmental stage for your own good and our convenience we've got stuff to do these corpses aren't going to bury themselves (it would be so gauche to ask them to)), I think having a space to safely explore being angry and sharp and unpalatable together is like. Revelatory there. Lucanis is the first (perhaps only) person Rook actually confides in about his deepest beliefs and duties as a Watcher eventually, and like… sex is not nothing, to be sure, I think they have some very good tender life-affirming AND room to express some rarely seen corners of the soul stuff going on that way… but THAT conversation is the final frontier of intimacy for him honestly. Once that is open he’s let himself be seen in life and death and there’s no fear left at all. 

I feel like Lucanis does make his own peace with the Necropolis in the end aside from just accepting it as an important part of Rook’s life in the way that like… you know, when you’re an abomination with all the cultural baggage that comes along with it in most andrastian nations, there must be a comfort in knowing there’s a place you can go where you are not going to be even the fiftieth weirdest thing in any given room at any given time. He wouldn’t want to stay there all the time, but it’s nice to have those normality checks sometimes. Reassuring, in a way, even with all the grinning skulls bouncing around.    

Annnd as a final note (why am I like this)... a little funny and weirdly moving that I imagine Lucanis would in fact have the exact opposite reaction from Max’ to seeing Rook be ruthlessly unapologetically competent (that is, not only entirely unthreatened but also incredibly underlyingly enduringly horny). Rook in battle already makes him resort to effusiveness otherwise reserved for descriptions of coffee, we could be in for some incredible scenes here in a post-game scenario (I’m imagining him with his eyes full of stars, grabbing davrin by the lapels and shaking him a little in sheer overwhelmed emotion as he’s like “have you ever seen rook fight???? mierda it’s like watching light moving over water” *davrin patting him on the shoulder and covertly rolling his eyes like ‘yeah yeah buddy’ as rook falls upon the enemy like a wolf upon the fold in the background*). 

[wof-reworked]

I’ve been thinking, and I think I’m going to change the way I talk about my headcanons and wof writing to something like a rewrite/reworking. I love wof but it’s become really apparent that the way I engage with it is really more as a world to expand and work in vs a book series I’m analyzing as-is. I think it’ll give me the freedom to actually post the stuff I’m thinking and working on bc I don’t have to keep chaining myself to making it work with all the confusing and contradictory canon tidbits that Tui barely remembers she established. Thoughts?

[girltakovic]

hello upper middle class northern usamerican tumblr user. i want to play a game. you will notice that you are in a super america convenience store in rural kentucky - you have three minutes to purchase a snack and drink of your choice and make normal small talk with the cashier. however, if you use the word "cryptid" or generally make reference to appalachia and its inhabitants as "wild", uncivilized, or lacking restraint around alcoholic beverages during your time here, i will personally tie you to the chassis of a four wheeler and tip it into the river. live or die. make your choice

[r0setyler]

i think half of my beef with journey's end and the ten tentoo rose ending thing was also the way rose described in the big finish audios how she didn't feel like she belonged in pete's world, that she was out of place and didn't feel like herself. so while i don't hate tentoorose, i do hate that the doctor didn't take any of that into consideration with her and just had to use her to solve the problem that was the metacrisis.