#anonymous arc

[madmanwonder]

Crossover OT3 Crack Ship: Anonymous Eridu Paladin/Three Sides of Law

Jane Doe of Zenless Zero Zone:

X

Zhu Yuan of Zenless Zero Zone:

X

Jaune Arc of RWBY:

[pilot-boi]

Jaune has a shirt that says MILP

Man

I

Love

Pyrrha

I’ve had this in my notebook for literally months

[rwby-confess]

Confession #441

[canisalbus]

In one of your recent posts, you said something about thinking that Machete is doomed to repeat his mistake of choosing a joyless and soul-sucking career path in the modern AU (albeit without the disastrous outcome of his original timeline).

I like to think that eventually, he changes to something less "high-achieving" but more aligned with his passions. Perhaps he learns that the stress is affecting his health and could eventually shorten his time with Vasco. I don't know, I like to believe that Vasco would succeed in encouraging him to leave that toxic environment the way he wasn't able to in canon. What do you think?

Oh I like that idea! He'd get tunnel visioned to having a successful career just like in the original setting, but this time around he has the sense, guts and freedom to change the trajectory. Managing to avert the sunk cost fallacy that kept his former self tightly leashed.

Vasco could try to talk sense into him when he sees him getting sucked deeper into workaholism, but ultimately it's up to Machete himself to see that his work is actively harming him and their relationship and to make the pivotal decision to climb out of the simmering pot.

It's also fun to think about him in between jobs, with excess free time for the first time since he was little, a state that is uncomfortable and unnatural to him. Just existing and trying to figure out what he actually wants to do with his life. Maybe this is the point where he'd get really into baking. Or he'd spend his days religiously cleaning their apartment in order to still feel useful and in control. Listening to fashion history podcasts while scrubbing the grout between the tiles of their bathroom for the third time this month.

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[silverskye13]

im OBSESSED with you saying Xisuma's fatal flaw would be arrogance, i never would have thought of it and it tickles my lizard brain. could you go into more details about that vibe?

It's a couple things! Granted, I haven't watched Xisuma regularly in about a year, so I've atrophied a bit when it comes to him and his personality. Take what I say with a grain of salt.

I want to note that I don't mean arrogance in the sense that he thinks he's inherently better than people. He tries really hard not to do that -- I've listened to a few of his vods, and a lot of them have to do with deconstructing his worldview, changing assumptions he's made about people and politics, walking back and forth down a line of thought until eventually he settles somewhere on that road.

But during those reconstructions, I noticed they generally came from very heavy assumptions first, things he says with his full chest, and then has to walk back. There is a certain amount of arrogance in assuming you know what you're talking about, when you have only a handful of facts and perspectives at your disposal. This makes the vods interesting. He can talk back and forth with his audience about something he's learning about, and it becomes entertaining watching people discuss with him, and watching his opinion on that thing actively change. But that doesn't change the fact that he tends to start with: "So I saw this thing recently, and I think it's good/bad/morally ambiguous, and here is why."

There is a certain amount of arrogance in assuming you know something correctly automatically.

Which is, actually, my second reason for choosing arrogance. It seems like a lot of Xisuma's "derp" moments, his simple and silly mistakes that he makes when making machines or doing building, etc, stem from moments of arrogance. He assumes he has done something right, doesn't double check it, and then later when it breaks, he figures out something small and simple has gone wrong. Most of the time, this is funny. Look, Xisuma has made a silly mistake again! But sometimes these simple mistakes add hours of frustration, cause complete rebuilds of parts of a structure or machine, or inconvenience other people. It gets harder to justify, then, that little moment of, "No I'm sure it's fine. I won't double check."

There is an amount of arrogance in assuming you know something correctly automatically.

He is very proficient. He is very good at checking himself when the moment strikes him. But he often forgets to make that check, or dismisses the need for that check, only for it to come back for him. And, if we're talking about Fatal Flaws, the idea that there is something you do repeatedly that builds, until eventually it's your undoing, I think it would be those small moments of assumption and arrogance. One day, they come back around.

[chiliger]

For the emotions challenge:

G6 with Dogma and Cheers?

Btw I love your art so much. Your cadets and tubies are so precious to me, as well as the Loathsome Coworkers au. The new transformers you have been drawing look Awesome.

Yeah, I’d cheers 😉 to that.

Yeee thank you so much for the love! 💖 It made my day~

[technovillain]

YOUR ART GOES SO HARD TYSM I LOVE TRANS FEM DEAN AND EGG DEAN LIKE SOOOOO GOOD CHEFS KISS MWAH I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND FIND $50 ON THE SIDEWALK!!!!!!!!!!!♥️♥️♥️

i did not find 50 dollars this week but i did find this new drawing for you :]

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

How would Yang and 4 other ships react if after they scoffed and told jaune to "kiss their ass" he pulls down their dress/pants/shorts/skirt and kisses their bare cheeks?

Okay, since you only asked for Yang specifically, the other four were picked randomly from a character wheel. Thankfully, they are all characters I could see saying something like that.

Yang Xiao Long

She would be red in the face and completely caught off guard. Then, she would see it as a challenge and would refuse to lose. Jaune wants to kiss her ass? Then he can keep kissing it while she grinds it back on him, probably so much she pushes him down to the floor with it and then just sits on his face

Raven Branwen

She'd be a bit stunned, just trying to figure out if he was a complete idiot or if he had a death wish. Either way she's unsure, but she'll still grab his hair and hold him against her ass, forcing him to squish against, kiss, and lick every part of her ass. Including her hole. If he is going to do something like this, then he'll at least do it right. She'll kick his ass for it later, but for now she's going to show him that she's still the boss

Cinder Fall

She'd smirk down at him and grab his hair, holding his head against her rear. She'd probably say something like, "Not exactly what I meant, but good pet~." She might have been surprised, but she does have a thing for watching her man praise her bodies with kisses and licks. If he does a nice enough job, she'll let him off the hook for trying to win their argument like that. Maybe she'll get a chance to return the favor on his cute butt sometime soon

Emerald Sustrai

Pushes her ass back into Jaune's face. He wanted to try and one up her like that huh? Then he's going to be worshipping her thicc chocolate ass for the rest of the day! He doesn't get to get away with only giving her rear just one kiss. He needs to give it the proper amount of attention it deserves

Blake Belladonna

Kind of forgets whatever they were talking or arguing about and just immediately sits back into Jaune's face on instinct, pressing her bellabooty cheeks into his face, completely covering his cute dorky smirk. Somethings are just forces of habit, and Jaune kissing her ass would be nothing new and certain not something she wouldn't enjoy~

... Another bonus is that all these ladies have some serious superior posteriors...

[aroaceleovaldez]

The himbo, malewife, goofball -fication of percy jackson is such a crime by both the fans and riordan. It has made Mr not like percabeth as a couple because in all posts and in later books annabeth is such a girlboss, while Percy's dumb and can't fight his way out of a paperbag without her. All the posts are about how annabeth will be an architect and percy would love to be a trophy husband.

Even the humor in the books went from Percy's sharp wit and snark to 'my pancakes can't drown because I'm a son of poseidon.'

And now this recommendation letter bullshit.

Honestly now I'd wish percy just separated from annabeth (but they remain best friends.) He stays home with his family, becomes a camp counselor, helps young demigods, holds God's accountable and eventually becomes a social activist. (I also dislike him doing something marine biology related. It's clear he hates academics but he always wants to help people. Him helping demigods and mortals is such a wholesome profession for him.)

I fully agree with the first half of this, though I slightly disagree with part of the latter.

The later-series and fanon mischaracterization of Percy is at least a solid 50% ableism minimum, full stop. He's being warped into a very stereotyped ADHD character and the exact reason why he's being characterized as "dumb" is because of ableism. Percy is a very intelligent character! That's exactly why he's so in sync with Annabeth and they're such a strong duo! It's just generally Annabeth is more book/academically smart.

I disagree with where you say he hates academics - because that's one of the common misconceptions about his character. Percy doesn't hate learning or academic subjects! He's not even bad at them! We know explicitly that when he is in an accommodating environment he is interested in learning and gets significantly better grades! Percy only dislikes school because it is generally an environment that systematically he struggles with. It's literally just he has a learning disability (two, actually)! That's it! When his learning disability is accommodated for he does well! It's almost like that's what accommodations are all about! We know this from the first series! It's discussed pretty in-depth! Percy isn't a dumb character and he doesn't hate learning, he's just been let down by school systems so much that he's inherently distrustful of them. If they actually accommodate him though then he does just fine!

And that's exactly what CHB was all about and why New Rome University was supposed to be such a big thing for him! CHB is a learning environment geared for demigods. NRU is a demigod college. Both inherently imply an environment meant to cater to and accommodate students with ADHD and dyslexia! They are both systematically structured to be able to accommodate him! Heck, CHB and CJ even both address in the wider themes of the series a metaphor about how ADHD and dyslexia are commonly seen as childhood disabilities, and how it can be more difficult to find accommodations into adulthood because of that attitude but those disabilities don't just go away - that's why CHB is a summer camp but they talk about how demigods outside of CHB don't often fare well. The metaphor there is those who are not getting help or accommodations are struggling. Because that's how that works! This is a fully intentional metaphor from the first series! CHB is never framed as being perfect for demigods, because one of the entire central conflicts of the series is Percy and Luke going back and forth about this flawed system meant to help and support them but still letting people fall through the cracks. The "claim your kids by 13" thing is a metaphor about how acknowledging a child's disabilities (and possibly getting a diagnosis) earlier/as early as possible means they will have more time to learn and build up resources and support for themselves to be able to use later in life. One of CHB's major flaws is that it can accommodate demigods to a certain point, but it can only do so much before those demigods have to leave (the metaphor being accommodating school systems when those disabled students do not have any other forms of accommodations in their lives.)

And that's why Camp Jupiter was framed as being so revolutionary for Percy because it had an environment acknowledging that this is not just a childhood disability, adults with ADHD/dyslexia exist too and still need and deserve accommodations, AND is a place where those accommodations are available. That's why Camp Jupiter and NRU are treated as such special and important things to Percy, because it's essentially Percy being shown this type of thing can and does exist and it is available to him. It is an option he never thought was possible. Percy never thought he'd be able to go to college because he would not be able to go through school without accommodations, but NRU proves otherwise.

The part that's absolutely stupid is Rick then proceeded to retcon NRU so that apparently it's not a full college and Percy still has to take classes at normal mortal college which DEFEATS THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF NRU EXISTING. Rick has fully retconned that demigods struggle past the ages of 16-18 when they're on their own (see above elaborated metaphors) and in doing so we have fully killed all symbolism in literally all of that. It's so stupid. And by having the plot of the CoTG trilogy entirely be that Percy is not actually allowed access to NRU in the first place because he is a son of Poseidon and has to do extra to even be accepted is stupid!

All that to say, I agree the marine biology feels like a huge cop-out and a disservice to his character by reducing him to just a son of Poseidon. The literal only reason why it's the default option people take for him is because oh, fish thing, fish guy. But I feel like everyone ignores the really obvious answer for what Percy would want to do which is - writing. Both his parents are writers/authors and he clearly admires that about them. Percy likes telling stories! He canonically is already a published author in-universe! That's what the books ARE in-universe! The first series fully exists in their universe and Percy is the author! This is explicit canonical information! Percy canonically has help physically writing it down (accommodations) but he is still the credited author! Percy is a writer! Already! Canonically! Why are we making him a marine biologist he already has a profession that ties into his character significantly more. Like you said, Percy likes helping people. That's what the books in-universe are supposed to be for! It's point blank at the beginning of the series! Book one! The thing everybody quotes all the time! The books exist because it is Percy trying to give advice to other demigods who don't know what's going on yet! It's Percy's writing down his experiences to help new demigods understand and contextualize their experiences so they can understand themselves better and figure out what's going on - WHICH IN ITSELF IS ALSO A METAPHOR ABOUT ADHD/DYSLEXIA! Because the core of the series has and always will be built around ADHD/dyslexia! Percy as a protagonist EXPLICITLY was created so that ADHD/dyslexic kids could see themselves as a hero!

Sorry that all was a very tangential rant but my point being: Absolutely. Percy in newer stuff in the franchise and in fanon is horrifically mischaracterized in ways that are functionally either fully ableist (shoutout TSATS for just outright claiming Percy is intentionally lazy and skips school out of disinterest, which is like the number one ableist attitude towards kids with learning disabilities) or a complete erasure of Percy's disabilities. Also I think he should be a writing major not a marine biologist.

[pilot-boi]

I pictured Jaune riding on Pyrrha’s shoulders,

because there are times where Jaune wants to feel tall.

Oh my god I didn’t know they came in stack mode

[rwby-confess]

Confession #342

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

hey its goth ren and jaune anon, devastated when i heard the news of apropiation. is there any style/aesthetic that would do it for him? (bonus points if ren cant rock it, but no shame if he does that dude is pretty)

Ruby: Boy Band?

Yang: Everyone can look good in a boy Band.

Ruby: Rave.

Weiss: He's too much of a Dork.

Ruby: Grunge?

Blake: Too much of a Pretty boy.

Ruby: ... Electro Swing.

Yang: Hmm ... Golden Age 20's Brass Aesthetic ... push it maybe a little into Steampunk ...

Weiss: The more Earthen tone would make his hair appear Brighter without dealing too much constrast ...

Blake: Plus he definitely would listen to Electro Swing ...

_WBY: ... *Nodding in unison*

~~~~~

Jaune, Dressed in Brown Tweed pants, a white button-up undershirt, Matte-Brass vest, Dark brown Flatcap, and black dress shoes: ...

Jaune: I think most people can pull off this aesthetic. Why not go all in on the Knight-

Penny, Wearing full 1920's Flapper garb, including the headband with a single large feather coming off the side: I quite like how I look in this outfit!

Jaune: ... Humina humina humina-

[canisalbus]

I've been following you for years, and I love your art. Seeing you repost your older art pieces reminded me how much I loved the angry, bitter, miserable Machete art and how it resonated with me... but a part of me is also so happy to see the current art of him being happy. Cute art of him as a unicorn, or chilling in a bathtub with Vasco. Like, we're all growing and healing :')

[peace-hunter]

I wonder if Jazz could be a catalyst for Orion realizing he isn’t that special. Because B-127 definitely is going to view Orion as extremely special and important, and Elita may view him as especially annoying. But to Jazz, Orion is just a cool coworker and a fun guy to be around, who does reckless stuff but also likes to help. So long as he doesn’t get Prime-dazzled, he could be a great part of Optimus grounding himself in realizing he is also just some guy.

ooohh i love that idea! personally i think elita would still be critical for orion's character development in this au, but adding jazz to the mix could be really fun!

the thing about orion's arc in this au is that he has to let go of the idea that him being a prime since birth makes him inherently worthy of leading. both because that's a pretty conceited way of thinking and because it places an unreasonable amount of pressure on him.

the high guard are absolutely no help on this because to them orion being a Prime is the foundation upon which they've set all their hopes for the future. he's their last hope and they've built up an idea of what he would grow up to be like throughout all the years they've been apart. and when they finally reunite and he inevitably fails to meet up their expectations, their disappointment is so great it causes a lot of them to lose all their faith on the Primes and Primus as a whole.

which. not a great thing to put on a twenty something years old kid who just got his entire world shaken to its very foundation!

bee is not nearly as bad as the high guard about this, but he's definitely a little bit too starstruck to really give orion the grounding presence he needs for this. like. bee would've followed orion pretty much to the end of the world simply because he was the first friend he'd had in so long. so add to that orion being revealed as a Prime and bee is simply too attached now to really tell orion off in any way.

not to mention orion feels a bit too responsible for bee to let him know just how shaken and terrified he is by what bee clearly sees as something amazing. personally i see bee as just a couple years younger than the rest of the squad but enough so that orion feels compelled to take care of him in some level. more like a younger brother than a son, but still firmly in the "I have to be strong for him" zone.

now for elita i think she would be perfect to make orion understand he's being incredibly idiotic by thinking being a Prime inherently makes him a good leader. she worked her aft off to be captain of just one (1) miner crew and she's better than him in everything so what makes him think just being born with a fancy title is sufficient to lead an entire army. he has to put in the work too. there's simply no way around it.

and in contrast jazz can make him see that it's okay. it's fine that he's not the perfect Prime already. that he's not an irremediable failure just because he failed once. orion saved his life back when he was nothing but a reckless miner with nothing but spite and a good heart to his name. even when he messed up and got in trouble, he never stopped trying to help. that's why he liked him. why would him being a Prime change that.

anyway! i like it, good idea nonnie <333

baby prime orion au

[raayllum]

could you talk about the bridge scene with the leaf falling over rayla

anon i was literally thinking about that specific shot just a couple days ago so THANK YOU for the opportunity bc it's soo freaking good like

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the four Banther Lodge bridge scenes (Rayllum twice in 7x02, Ezran and Aanya in 7x03, and Rayllum's final scene in 7x09). Bridges in fiction usually symbolize transition, thresholds, or unity, but none of these ideas are particularly present in half the scenes on said bridge. I do think we can see some overall arc though if we look at Rayllum's scenes together in 7x02.

Rayla is fronting with anger and frustration, since that's what she's always done with her sadness and guilt, particularly when she feels helpless. The fact that it's a beloved friend who's unexpectedly being an obstacle to her when this was never the case with Zym/Zubeia has also gotta sting. This is also Rayla in some ways at her least mature / most impatient (beyond the marginally better council meeting, even if Rayla is canonically terrible at explaining things).

We also know she's reacting emotionally (as previously stated, Callum is literally the only person Rayla can count on to be in her corner here whatsoever; without him, she has no one, whereas Ezran has the entire council + Zym and Aanya) since when Callum does offer to be on her side and actively help her, Rayla rejects it out of love for him and Ezran. She wasn't necessarily asking him to take a stand for her earlier on the bridge, but wanting to know that someone else understood her perspective (and he does).

This episode in particular establishes a strong visual language for the two (i.e. Rayla standing in the dark during the council meeting, Callum's chair being closest to hers, etc). The visual parallels between the bridge meetings, as well as set up for later in the episode, are no exception; I'll talk about the couple more I noticed in a bit.

And Rayllum does have a nice moment of unity on the bridge, even if it ultimately is supposed to be their goodbye for an unknown period of time. The last time they were on a bridge of sorts, it was the pathway Viren had carved with dark magic in 5x02: "But it's a bridge between our two worlds, and now here we are, crossing it together." "Maybe you're right. It's an old wound that's healing."

Now, they're being forced apart by their own choices / circumstances, and reopening an old wound of sorts in doing so because Ezran hasn't healed (and at this point, largely refuses to try).

With all that out of the way, we can actually talk about the shot(s) you requested! The most interesting one to me, I think, is the choice to frame it in water. Now it could just be a nice way to freshen up the shot, give us a different perspective, etc. Water reflections and such are present in the other bridge scene with Aanya after all, and are commonly utilized in animation, storyboarding, etc to make things look more interesting when there's an opportunity to do so.

Most of the time in TDP, even when including Rayllum, water shots are framed rightside up, accentuating but not dislodging the audience's natural perspective of things.

For example, even in Ezran and Aanya's scene on the bridge, we don't see this inverted perspective the way we do for Rayllum here.

Which begs the question why? I think there's one more likely / direct option, and another more beloved tinfoil hat version. The one I think they were actually going for (the first) is to invoke a sense of unnaturalness. Callum and Rayla separating feels fundamentally wrong to both of them, especially this time, and turning things upside down, away from how they should be, helps create that feeling.

The other more tinfoil hat one is that — in a season with an episode titled "Inversion" — we have seen this "upside down" thread in TDP before.

We have King Harrow's "there's a beautiful upside down truth" in 2x05, which doesn't really fit with the above (although maybe there could be a connection with "forgive me" / "i now believe true strength is found in forgiveness, in vulnerability, in love" etc).

More directly, there's the Key of Aaravos, whose repeated 'turning upside down' has been a segue to dark magic use routinely, specifically in 7x06's case at the "If you love her, you'll be the you that can save her." (More on that here, if you're curious.)

With this in mind, the tinfoil idea would be that the Rayllum reflection inversion is set up to further connect with 7x06, and highlight how much Callum wants to help her, is only willing to separate from her for her own genuine good, and that he'd do anything for her. ("You don't have to ask. I would do anything for you." / "If you love them, Rayla, Ezran, all of them, you'll do anything to save them.")

After the above shot on the bridge, Callum begins to walk away, a reversal of earlier where Rayla left first. In doing so, Callum passes behind her, being totally covered up by her like they are one person. This is again to reinforce the pain of being potentially separated and how unnatural it feels, especially because this feeling of Callum-and-Rayla as one entity is going to be further reaffirmed in the finale (wherein unlike Viren's heart and body/life being sacrificed together unto himself, Rayla's heart and Callum's body/life would be sacrificed together).

Then the leaf pops up, obscuring Rayla's face/head — but this isn't the first time we've seen this framing. We actually just saw it earlier in the scene!

There's a few reasons, I think. The first is to accentuate division and absence. They're going to be separated, Rayla is going to be gone, anchoring us a bit more to Callum's thoughts/feelings accordingly. I also think there's an element of outside, externalized forces more so being the reason for their separation (i.e. everything with Ezran) rather than it being something either of them actively Want, either. There's also an element of erasure, reminiscent of Ghosting erasing not an elf's body necessarily within the spell, but their faces as a sign of the banishment. The boys and Katolis have been Rayla's second default home, but now everyone (except Callum) is against her, refusing to acknowledge her pain or perspective (although she hasn't done a great job at acknowledging Ez's, but she also doesn't have Power over him the same way he does in this situation), and she feels compelled to turn against them this time to do what feels right for her family.

Then we have the closing shots of the scene with the leaf.

The leaf causes ripples (which is loaded as a concept: Rayla causing ripples by chucking rocks at her still floating Lotus; her "ripples of mercy" in sparing Marcos in S1 that have not yet stilled; Aaravos' fascination with ripples as laid out in the TDP short story of the same name). We do know presumably that Callum's choice to go with Rayla to the Silvergrove (and help her father) was somewhat set in stone, since if Astrid had flown to Katolis she would've just found ruins, wouldn't have known to go to the Banther Lodge (or gotten info there since nobody knows who she is), so Kosmo must've told her where the Mage and the Warrior would be ahead of time. Very 'fated' in some ways.

The ripples also lead to distortion. This can convey impact (threaded back into the tinfoil lens) or Rayla being further obscured (negative). The leaf moves further to be a 'physical barrier' between the two on the bridge, as Callum leaves Rayla standing alone (but still, she's gone before he turns around).

I do think the choice to set it on the water is a nice piece of possible setup for water (the boat, aided by Callum's magic) being their successful (positive) getaway later.

Another little piece of symbolism I love this episode is their hands, specifically how they reluctantly part with Callum's lingering in their goodbye on the bridge, and how the hands are used to symbolize being reunified after he comes to her rescue.