#backstory for them is A Lot to explain without turning it into a whole Thing

[hurricanek8art]

Y'know what screw it I'm here I'm thinking about SWTOR I wanna get out of my shell more SO. Uh. Art? I'm still nervous about sharing but ART! At 2:30am! I'm totally good at this social media thing. 🤣😭

Meet Vega's parents, my smuggler/chaos magnet Reilly Hawkins and the long-suffering extremely loyal Quil Kodral. I have a whooooooole backstory and it's complicated and not entirely fleshed out because I keep changing my mind and the hamster that runs the writing wheel in my brain won't FOCUS ON ONE THING FOR MORE THAN A WEEK C'MON MAN *cough* anyway. Childhood best friends that got separated in their teens, found each other again as adults and realized "hey I think I've actually been in love with you like my whole life", went on a whole crazy adventure together and decided "let's do this together forever". Quil becomes a spy for the Alliance and Reilly uses her status as the Voidhound/Port Nowhere's captain to help Hylo and the Alliance's smuggler fleet. I love them so much. Closeups under cut because Tumblr crunches my art a lot. Imma go sleep now see you in the morning. 🤣😭

If you see any vague resemblance between Quil's design and the Winter Soldier no you didn't and also I swear I didn't do it on purpose. I don't hate it though? Eh.

[varesai]

HIIII I JUST READ YOUR BOOTHILL IDEA ABOUT PREGNANCY AND I AM WELL FED 😭 i love how angsty it is. oh boy i'm sure struggles a lot during his s/o's pregnancy. like...it has lots of cry and self-conflict because he may thinking that he isn't helping his s/o. there gonna be small arguments and misunderstandings. it's hard for the both of them and the baby. 🥹

ohhhh yes. yup. decided to take a real angsty route with this one. I added some mentions of his actual backstory here, bc my og one was written before his backstory was released lols

Boothill definitely cries during your whole entire pregnancy. He also has a lot of bad thoughts about himself during it, too. 

At first, he tries to hide it, and either subtly cry, or just simply wait until you’re no longer in the room or the house. He doesn’t want you to know that he’s not happy because of the state he’s in. 

He used to be human, he used to be flesh, and most importantly, he once had a daughter of his own, and that's what crushes him the most. He fears so much that he’s almost going to replace her, even though he knows deep down in his heart that it most definitely wouldn’t be able to happen. 

He also feels so bad about not being able to do normal human things for your during your pregnancy :(((( he knows how much you want to be able to be soft and intimate, to take baths and be able to have a cozy massage and just a cozy person around in general, and he’s the exact opposite of that. He doesn’t even think he deserves the husband title anymore.

He literally once asked you why you’re still with him and not someone else. You explained that you loved him and you wanted to be with him, and even then he never really expressed the way he felt about himself to you but you could sort of see it in his eyes. He didn’t like the way he was and the fact that he can’t be what he refers to as a “proper dad” to his kid. 

He knows it’s hard on you, too, and he also knows that you’re catching onto his harsh thoughts, and you’re catching on fast. It caused an argument a few times, on how you’re hurt that he’s not expressing his emotions, he doesn’t want to, it turns into a “do you not trust me or something?” conflict on your end, and a “I just don’t know what to say without hurting you” conflict on his end. Misunderstanding that likely won’t just dissipate. 

There was one argument that you both had when you were nearing pretty close to your due date, and he decided he was going to walk out midway through and not come back for about a week. For some reason, he chose a petty route, leaving you anxious and super betrayed, considering he refused to answer his phone, too.

The argument was over something that seemed incredibly stupid, if you both must say so yourselves. He was, once again, insecure, and he wouldn’t tell you why. That was what bothered you- did he not trust you enough? Did he seriously not want to be a part of this baby's life? Why else would he just walk out?

To say it made you super anxious, scared, and lonely was an understatement. You were left with the thought that you’d have to give birth alone, and go back to your original game plan that you already mentally set up. You thought he genuinely left you.

That was, until he walked back into the house on a random afternoon that next week. He ran up to you and apologized, allowing you to cry it out in his steel arms. He felt so horrible, and he vowed to you to never, ever do that again.

He tries to start letting you in on his troubles from that point on, but there still seems to him like there's a barrier blocking his words from coming out. Sometimes, he just blames it on his synesthesia beacon, which seems to work for now. 

He also lets you see him cry more often, but that stops when you give birth. He doesn’t need you to be more overwhelmed than you already will end up being.

[heartscrypt]

tfw you sign your soul over to an eldritch fear deity in order to regain some semblance of control over your own life (tma au)

nobody understands how fucking crazy i am about this au. its tormenting me. also epel is here as well he's corruption he has a lot of worms in him sorry in advance

closeups + design notes + au jamil fun facts under the cut!

(tw some body horror stuff? eye stuff)

design notes

his hair jewelry has been replaced with spider silk cocoons / string. also very obviously spider themed hair gem thing

spider eyes! both in the way of he has 8 human eyes and actual spider eyes on his neck

web tattoos. they spin outwards and grow in a kind of mesmerizing hypnotic pattern when he uses his powers

his braids now form a spiderweb pattern. hes also prematurely greying a little LOLL

his belt chains form a spiderweb pattern as well

he has piercings! an erl piercing across his nose bridge and four piercings on each ear

his pants are based off the spider-tailed horned viper-- a snake whose tail has evolved to look like a spider so the birds it feeds on will mistake its tail for prey

au jamil notes

his backstory pretty much remains the same honestly

except when he's around 11, instead of getting poisoned and falling into a coma, he gets trapped in a buried-aligned artifact that he touched while cleaning one of the asim treasure rooms

nobody could find him for weeks and kalim was really tearing up the whole estate about it because he insisted that jamil would never run off or disappear without a reason

jamil escapes the buried by taking the assistance of the web (he does it in the way of "i don't know what's going on but this thing is reaching out to help me and i don't want to die so fuck it" but he's still accepting the web into his life regardless)

after two weeks they find him covered in cobwebs and dust in the treasure room and he gets scolded for making everyone worry

he doesn't even bother trying to explain to people what happened to him because he knows it's too unbelievable for them. he spins a lie and he's surprised by how natural it is to just Lie to people

jamil's powers as an avatar of the web manifest visually as him "pulling strings" out of people's eyes. like unwinding their irises like they're spools of thread. if you've seen the prev post on web!jamil you know what it looks like

if he leaves the iris-strings half unwound they become very suggestible, very easily manipulated

however if he yanks out the iris-strings fully, he can turn the other person into a complete blank slate. no thoughts head empty. basically an empty cocoon of a person. he tends not to do this because 1) it's very conspicuous and 2) it renders the victim completely useless to the web

he has to concentrate very hard to do this and he can usually pull on only one person's iris-strings at a time

[ldrloversblog]

In defence of Vivziepop and the women of HB

I’ve been seeing a lot of people criticising and bashing Vivienne for the way she writes her female characters compared to her male characters and to an extent fans and the antis are correct and their criticism is valid but it’s reached to a point that the fans and the antis are being more misogynistic than the person the claim to be a misogynist (Viv).

They are always blabbering about how she can’t write a woman who isn’t mean, evil, emotional and has no depth or a sad backstory. I believe that most of the times people forget that Viv is not the sole writer of the show, yes she is the creator but she is not the only one in the writing room she is not the only one who has control over the story and the characters there is whole team involved.

“But all her female characters are mean without reason”. Wrong there are reasons why they are the way they are.

Verosika is the way she is because of Blitz. In AT we learned that when she finally mustered up the courage to confess her love for the person that was her boyfriend and presumed bodyguard at the time (since she is a pop star) left her in the middle of the night without an explanation and stole her credit card which he maxed out on horse riding lessons. Ver isn’t a bad person just because, she is that way cause of heartbreak, hurt and betrayal. She even had his name tattooed on her arm that’s how committed she was.

Barbie Wire, a child with an abusive father turned to addiction and alcohol and we know that she still keeps on using because of a freak accident that killed her mother, burned the circus, left her and Blitz’s best friend disabled for life and scars than can never be healed.

Loona an abandoned child that grew up in the orphanage and every time she got adopted she got turned back due to her temper and problematic teenage behaviour. Of course someone who was never wanted as a child and treated nicely isn’t gonna be all sunshine and rainbows. Despite all that Loona has come a huge way from being the always mad, defensive and socially awkward hellhound we met in ep.1.

Octavia, one of the most if not mischaracterised and wrongly hated character of the show. The first time Octavia is shown to us she is a child that has a terrible nightmare where she can’t find her father anywhere. From that alone we can understand that Octavia is someone who’s afraid of being abandoned by the only person that she can find comfort in. Her parents constantly scream at each other and most of the time ignore her (whether it’s intentional or are too wrapped up in their own problems and goals) and never try to communicate with her properly or explain the whole situation. She is not a spoiled little princess who’s always broody and “emo” and annoying just to be, she is 17 a very vulnerable age at which she needs the two people that are supposed to take care of her in the world the most but she doesn’t and she feels that she never had them cause she never mattered, the only thing that mattered were their petty fights and duties. Via is allowed to feel hurt by her parents actions and lack of care and is right to confront them for their shitty behaviour towards her her whole life. She needs time to process what’s going on and come to terms with her own emotions and situation. If she doesn’t want to hear what Stolas has to say right now then that’s the right thing for her to do now. The love and trust she has for him is so strained and it’s gonna be a while before he can make up for his mistakes.

Stella is another character that the fans and antis complain that is evil (or cartoonishly evil which is boring as they’ve said after the last episode) because Viv has always to make her women unlikeable and stupid. Stella and Stolas were forced into the same fate without their consent at the age of 10 and have been miserable ever since. I like Stella I’m not gonna lie she is not the best written villain and we don’t know why she is the way she is but what we know is that she really hates and resents her husband and doesn’t really care for her child unless it’s to manipulate her against her father. Cartoonishly evil or not, she is entertainingly stupidly evil for someone driven by her hate and big ego, a narcissist that’s always right and above everyone else but what she doesn’t understand is that her brother is holding the strings and plays her like a puppet so he can do his own bidding in the disguise of getting rid of her husband. Sometimes villains don’t need to have a heart wrenching backstory, someone or something that made them evil some people are just evil either by them themselves or their environment. There are 2 more seasons left of HB im sure that the writers sooner or later will give us a good explanation as to why Stella hates Stolas so much and wants him out the way.

Millie a Wrathian who thought that she was good for nothing but killing people and being “the muscle”. Millie (as seen in GF) worked by herself taking jobs to survive and make a living until she met I.M.P and became a part of a team, a family that taught her that she is more that just a machine to kill people and is now the best version of her self. Married, happy with her career choices and I can’t wait to see how s3 will handle the unplanned pregnancy plot because there are a lot of things on stake here.

Why do we as fandom always have to demonise women for the smallest things and baby men for the horrible and wrong things they do and have done to others? Why don’t you give the same energy to Paimon, Cash and Crimson? Neglectful and abusive fathers? Striker? Who preaches about how royals are the worst thing to happen to imp kind but the moment he is paid by a royal to betray one of his own he’s quick to take it and run? Blitz? Who until recently never apologised for the bad things he did and ruined so many people’s life’s? Stolas? Neglects his own child in favour of his lover and stuck in his own foolish fantasies in the process losing whatever little faith Octavia had in him, obliviousness to see past his nose and his (not purposefully) prejudices?

[mgu-h]

Hii. I'm someone that doesn't really know much about lando but I do care for some lando ships and I wanted to ask, do you have any pointers to characterize him? I am afraid of writing him because I don't know him as much and don't want him to come as ooc or just as a prop for the other driver.

Hope this ask doesn't come off badly it's in good faith 💞

This is a lovely question that is difficult for me to answer without a very long essay haha but I will do my best to explain some of his whole deal with only a medium-long essay. I have a characterization post that has frequent words and phrases he uses, a bit of his lore and backstory. You can ignore the Max Fewtrell information there, but it’s just good to know that he exists, as he is a key figure in Lando’s private life and shared business interests with Quadrant.

I think Lando is a bit slippery in characterization terms because he's grown up a great deal in the years that he's been in the public eye, having gone through several major stages of development, and if you try to write him like a 25yo when you're writing a story set in 2019, it’ll feel a bit weird, but writing about him 2025 means that the 19yo might surface. It's difficult to get the right layers of maturation that give the characterization depth, accuracy, and nuance.

His mess of contradictions makes more sense when you understand him as an evolutionary process rather than a single, fixed personality. He can be sweet or shockingly bossy or whiny in some contexts (Lando the boy), an awkward, enthusiastic, nervous, spiraling wreck of anxiety in others (Lando the teen), a party-loving idiot with deeply slutty energy in others (early 20s Lando), and a more mature and responsible team leader and serious competitor (now).

Knowing when he might slip up and revert towards immaturity, versus when he might step up is key, and that’s not an easy task at all. He’s unpredictable and surprising, for good or ill. His level of confidence is related to so many factors in a scene, external pressures and observation, feeling threatened or mocked, or internal pressures like a feeling of failure or like he let people down, all of that makes him primed to lash out.

Like he’s got a somewhat brittle ego, and his embarrassment can turn to anger. He can get quite mean and bitchy (especially if he views someone as a safe target who won’t hold it against him), but that’s him at his worst, not who he really is at his core. There’s a fundamental sweetness and generosity to him, a curiosity and creativity. He has a zest for living and the means to live well, pursuing all hobbies and interests, picking them up and dropping them fast. He's not book-smart, but he's far from stupid.

He struggles to communicate well, speaking thoughtlessly and without eloquence. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to try to contextualize his thought process to see how he ends up saying things that he really shouldn't, either oversharing or insulting. People can take him out of context very easily and assume a lot about his personality and emotional state, which aren’t accurate or fair. He's loved and hated by people who don't know who he really is, and he’s had to come to live with that, which isn’t easy.

Just like.... it's hard to understand his whole deal unless you internalize that he was very small growing up. He’s caught up now in terms of physical size and strength, but it took a lot of work and a longer period of time than others to reach that level. As he gained success in motorsport, his school friends drifted away, and while he made good, lasting friendships through karting, he was still a bit of a loner and a geek as a teen, spending way too much time online, and that was formative. He's grown in confidence but the introversion remains at his core.

Early in career he would read all the positive and negative things about himself online and internalize the negative. He’s always been a perfectionist with impossibly high standards for himself, but despite or perhaps because of his insecurity, he is willing to work hard with remarkable persistence to succeed. He’s resilient and determined, with an intentionally developed sense of humor about himself and his failures. He may spiral, but he always gets back up and tries again, you know?

He’s just neither a wet wreck of a pathetic heap of a man, nor a cool, suave, badass lady-killer either. He just occupies a confusing middle ground and can tilt in either direction given a context, but never go all the way. He's got both a size kink (for bigger men) and a daddy kink (as the daddy), you know? What version of Lando you get really depends on who he's with and what they're doing, so you need to decide how safe he feels and what he wants, and go from there.

[riririnnnn]

You know, majority of the Fandom including myself seem to have forgotten that another match is going on alongside BM Vs PxG:

Nagi has been miserable since the BM match and considering this panel:

I can place a safe bet that THIS is probably the BEST time to reveal Nagi's backstory. I mean, this has happened earlier too: a brilliant player goes downhill -> backstory revealed -> the player makes a comeback. Of course, there are chances that Nagi will make a comeback without his backstory being revealed, but I can't think of any other better moment than what we currently have.

I understand that many of you are getting confused now like Nagi's backstory? Huh? Don't we know a lot about him already—we, literally, have a spin-off Manga of him!?

And you are not wrong, but it ISN'T his backstory—it is just his story BEFORE he got into Blue Lock/Soccer while a backstory explains why a person is the way they are, and we surely don't know why Nagi is the way he is.

You might argue that, "Some people are just lazy without any reason," and I agree, I wholeheartedly agree with it and that's exactly what I thought about Nagi too until I saw this:

And my whole life turned upside down.

I did know about his parents' Laissez-faire method way before, but at that time I didn't think about the effect it might have had on Nagi's character as a whole.

Of course, I don't have a first-hand experience in parenting, but I do have a first-hand experience in being parented—some children are just naturally independent and CAN do things on their own at the first try (my sibling) while some children NEED someone to guide them around until they become comfortable enough (me), so considering Nagi's behaviour, I kinda think that hands off parenting wasn't the one for him 'cause this:

isn't exactly something to be happy about, you know. Yes, yes, I understand the deeper meaning of it, but you get the gist of what I'm trying to say, right?

Speaking from personal experience again, people who had to take care of themselves from a young age and had to carry their own responsibilities usually turn into a very hardworking, considerate and kind person or they become 'lazy' like Nagi—they burnout.

One more thing to note about the burnout 'lazy' people are that they are very efficient in whatever they do 'cause they used to have so many things to do in their hands that they just naturally happen to follow the least energy consuming path which in turn becomes a habit—no wonder Nagi got into Hakuho and is usually good in whatever he does.

Further, I do think that some times, his parents kind of nearly appear neglectful:

If my calculations are right, then he was only 15 years old when he moved out into a new place in a new city on his own. He was also fresh outta middle school! Crazy!

And no, we actually haven't gotten any 'neglected child' backstory till now—from a broader perspective, Kaiser had abuse as his backstory while Lorenzo had abandonment as his backstory.

Him being an unintentionally neglected child also explains why he went along with whatever Reo told him to do.

You see, judging by Episode Nagi Chapter 22.5 alone, he seems like someone who appreciates actions and words, and that's exactly what Reo has been doing from the start. Reo has shown his efforts openly to him—he is very verbal which was something Nagi's parents, probably, weren't.

I don't think it's very surprising if someone who is craving for validation and affection for his whole life gets attached to someone who finally gives them everything that they wanted and needed.

What do you guys think?

[evilbihan]

Bi-Han's and Kuai Liang's father was not a good father

And now it's no longer a theory. Now I have proof.

The last thing I expected to get out of this very strange invasions mode season was confirmation for a theory I've had ever since I first finished the story mode. Despite other characters in the game claiming that the father of the Lin Kuei brothers was an honorable man, something about that never sat right with me, given how cruel that man was in all the previous timelines and how vastly different Bi-Han views his father compared to his brothers, Liu Kang or Sindel.

I made this discovery on the mesa of Shang Tsung's laboratory.

At the very beginning of the mesa when you come in through the portal and head to the right (your character's right) towards the two crates that are next to each other, there's a node featuring a fight against Scorpion.

That node, loosely translated from my language, is called "Daddy's favorite".

It might seem like a small and meaningless detail and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but if the name of that node is anything to go by and if it's a reference to MK1's canon lore (which it has to be, otherwise I don't see why it would be there) this adds a whole new layer to the tragedy of the falling out between Bi-Han and Kuai Liang and Bi-Han's decision to let his father die.

Was he neglected? Despite being the oldest son and the grandmaster's heir, Kuai Liang was the favorite son. He was his father's pride and joy, not Bi-Han. That explains Bi-Han's bitterness and his resentment towards his father as well as his eagerness to earn the respect of others. Because his own father didn't give that to him.

Sub-Zero: I helped you, but I've earned no respect. General Shao: Because there's nothing lower than a traitor.

Johnny Cage: I thought I had daddy issues. But you? Sub-Zero: My family is none of your business.

Would a good father have a "favorite son"? Should a good father not love his sons equally, without picking favorites?

Another small but noteworthy detail is one of Bi-Han's invasions mode encounters being named "Joyless initiate" (again, loosely translated because my game is in my native language, not English). You have to wonder what kind of life Bi-Han lived for the game to refer to him that way and how much of that is owed to his father's strictness or lack of care towards him since he wasn't the favorite son. It certainly implies Bi-Han faced hardships that the main story never really talked about or even mentioned.

It might not seem like much, but I'm sure some thought was put into making these nodes and the references and hints exist for a reason.

I'm aware that a lot of people think the father of the Lin Kuei brothers was a good guy, but as a reminder, in the original timeline, Bi-Han's and Kuai Liang's father was ruthless enough to kidnap the brothers from their mother, potentially even killing her and their younger sister in the process, and turned them both into assassins for the Lin Kuei. Of course, the reboot is set in a new timeline, but as I said in my previous post, all characters are still essentialy the same. Some backstories and allignments have changed, but not the character's personalities and even in this new era, the old grandmaster is no saint.

I think it's messed up that his response to the Lin Kuei killing Smoke's entire family and turning him into an orphan was to take Tomáš in and turn him into a warrior for the very clan that murdered his family.

Sure, some might view it as a noble gesture that he took responsibility for the mistake he made and decided to give Tomáš a home after he was orphaned, but if that man cared at all about Smoke's wellbeing, he could have found a better solution for the situation. He could have told Liu Kang about what happened and asked him to let Tomáš stay at the Wu Shi academy instead of turning him into an asset for the clan that killed his mother and sister.

While that's only a side note, it proves that Bi-Han's and Kuai Liang's father had a twisted idea of what it means to be a good parent if he thought that taking in the son of a family his own warriors murdered was the "honorable" thing to do without sparing a second thought to what that was going to do to Smoke mentally.

Anyway, this subtle hint is one of the few good things to come out of this invasions mode season and I'm glad I found it.

[thelittlegirlinwonderland]

What I'd Change about MHA

firstly, i'd put monoma in 1-a. i'd replace sato b/c i hate his character design and does he even do anything?

i'd make aizawa more of a stoic, scary looking guy but he just wants what's best for these kids. he doesn't lie to them or use ruses but he tends to push more and seems like a hardass to prepare them for the cutthroat life of heroics

i'd flesh out the characters more, their backstories, why they want to be heroes. i'd also build their relationships more. give them time to bond, spend time together outside of school without a disaster happening. filler type stuff

i like most of the plot up until the war arc, so i'd probably keep it, changing small things like stain. i think i'd make stain a former hero, like lady nagant, who saw corruption in his field and decided to handle it in the most extreme way. i would either get rid of stain attacking tensei or have it be a 'wrong place, wrong time' scenario where tensei found stain attempting to kill a different hero and wouldn't leave(similar to midoriya running in to save tenya)

ofa is one of the things about the og that annoys me. firstly, more than 9 users. probably 11-13. if it's supposed to be 2-3 hundred years since quirks, 9 doesn't make sense. especially since the first 3 were all around the same age and most of them died young. i'd also have more diverse users and quirks. i hate fa jin and gearshift, and danger sense and smokescreen don't make sense. blackwhip and float are great quirks. expand on the users' pasts as well. why were they chosen? what did they do with the quirk when they had it? also more izuku/vestige scenes. no random bakugou look alike user

i'd change a lot of the villain's stories. i'd change toga to actually be a victim of the system instead of just a blood-crazed lunatic. she was starved and didn't understand her cravings until she snapped and accidentally killed a classmate. from there, she's treated like a monster and pushed into the league who help her get the blood she needs which calms her down significantly. no wanting to become the people she loves and creepy harrasment of izuku and ochaco. just make her a scared teenage girl with no one else to go

as for shigaraki, when afo gets arrested show a slow change in his thought process, behavior, and lifestyle as he adjusts to life without the man who had been grooming and abusing him his entire life. make him realize afo isn't a helpful sensei but rather manipulating him. have him grow and reject afo and his ideas. have him start forming his own ideas of how he wants to change society

dabi is a tough one. i think i'd make him ostracized from his entire family. he had the quirk but not the body or mind for heroics. enji rejects him, rei can't stand his ambition, natsuo and fuyumi don't have anything in common and so he pushes them away, shoto is the masterpiece. this makes him more sullen and closed off. i'd have him run away instead of nearly dying and being save by afo. when he finds the league, he starts to open up more and develops more of a personality in this new family.

i wouldn't make kurogiri oboro. i think i'd scrap oboro as a whole. kurogiri is still a nomu but he has no ties to any heroes.

i'd have more people die in the war. more important heroes like all might, miruko, edgeshot, jeanist etc. bakugo stays dead, it's a tragedy that even someone as strong as him can't always win. maybe parents, friends, past classmates of the students because this is a war, collateral is going to happen. gran torino also should've died.

izuku: -make izuku's hair slowly turn white after he gets ofa so by the end it is completely white. this can be due to stress, having multiple quirks, getting a quirk when he didn't have one, etc. -all for one is his dad. this can explain why izuku can wield all of the past users' quirks, he's built to have multiple. now, this doesn't make afo a good person suddenly. he's still the man who groomed tenko and killed countless. maybe he just makes kids every now and then to get/make new quirks. it's just a game to him, he doesn't care about izuku or inko but it give izuku more personal stakes. -lean into izuku's analysis and intelligence more. -make monoma part of his friend group and have them bond over quirk analysis. -i think i'd make Mic his tutor. like how aizawa saw shinsou and decided to train him, mic sees izuku and his destructive quirk and decides to do something about it.

[burningcheese-merchant]

Its the cycle of History. Civilizations rise up. He watches them thrive. They eventually fall. Witnessing an expected event over and over with no Change can be desensitizating. After all, there's no reason in madness! (Timekeeper being in a similar boat of boredom only satiated by causing problems on purpose in roundabout ways for lols)

One might say that all he does with Destruction gives him a sense of control. Finally he can play HIS way. Speeding up things so he doesn't end up getting attached. Even better if he can be destroyed in turn some day. The combo of adrenaline and spices make for quite the addiction :3 If it turns out he sent spiced out cookies to Mystic then not even his supposed friend is safe from bull

It's rather interesting with what we've seen in Mystic Flour as the first Beast release. Girlie cared too much til she had no more f to give. BS destroys everything before he could prolly care. Can't wait to see Smilk spiraling into silly[tm] from knowing too much! Time to crave tragedy!!

I know, brother. Trust me. I've made a post addressing this before, and... Well. What I work on and study irl has an awful lot to do with history as a subject lol. I really need you wll to believe me when I say I understand the cycle of history. I know it so well, it hurts. It's part of why I'm such a cynic irl. I know exactly how awful history and people are. I really, truly do.

And you have a point, yeah. It could be a play for control. For things to be the way Burning Spice wants them to be, if only once. Sort of like what I suggested in that post: just cut out the middleman and end it all yourself. Be the "solution" to the "problem", before the problem even actually happens. It's a valid theory. Certainly an interesting one.

It's still bullshit at the end, though. Same with Mystic Flour's reasons for turning bad. Same as all the others' reasons probably will be.

Idk I think I'm just... tired at this point. History is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart for many reasons, and has been my whole life. In studying history, you learn a lot about people and life and the human condition. And part of that is hearing every single excuse for doing evil deeds possible. And in hearing Mystic Flour's backstory, and even Burning Spice's (how little we actually see), all I heard were all those same excuses all over again. And I got sick of hearing them a long time ago.

I'm not sure I necessarily see what Mystic Flour did as "caring too much until she had nothing left to give". I see it, I see what you're saying and it's valid, I just... it reads more as outright naivety to me. Girlie acts like she's never heard of greedy people before. "There were people who wished for selfish things and wanted my powers for themselves" uh yeah lol. That happens. There are people like that out there. You should know better than to think otherwise. You should also know better than to just go ahead and grant every single person's wishes. It inevitably leads to greed and entitlement. But regardless, that's no fucking reason to want to wipe out all of man/cookiekind. That's fucking stupid. Some shitty people took advantage of me, therefore every single person on earth should lose their individuality and die. Fuck you, you miserable bitch (I know it's more complicated than that, I'm just distilling it because MF legitimately does irritate me as a character lol)

"I'm bored" oh man. Oh jeez. That's the worst thing that could ever happen to someone, now isn't it. You're so bored, it seems, that you can't even be bothered to explain why or how. Are you tired of building something up and caring about it, only for it to be destroyed, over and over again? Did you lose someone important to you while enforcing that cycle? Are you overwhelmed by the burden of the responsibility you were given without choice, and thus slowly driven to madness? All of the above? None? It doesn't matter because those are stupid, too. And they're rendered stupid because you use them as an excuse to hurt people that have nothing to do with anything. "I destroy things to regain a semblance of control over my life and to prevent attachment" cool motive, still murder. If you (and MF, too) are that bothered by the way things are then just fucking kill yourself. Why not? End your oh so terrible suffering instead of inflicting it on everyone else. But they won't, and neither did the other Beasts, because they are all fundamentally dumb, selfish, hypocritical cowards.

Or, how about this: ABDICATE. You don't want the power and responsibility? Give it to somebody else. You don't want to help uphold balance? Fine, that's fair. LET SOMEONE ELSE DO IT, THEN. Have the humility and integrity to admit you're not cut out for the job instead of doing this heinous shit. The Ancients worked for the power and accepted the responsibility that came with it. That's why they're better than you and always will be. They're not bummed out by immortality or the cycle of history or whatever else you want to cry about. They live their lives and do right by others and get the job done. It's obvious you can't, so just man up and step down. Or don't. Hoard the power and neglect the responsibility and be a blight on society instead of coming to terms with your own shortcomings. Because that's easier, isn't it? Being evil is the easy way out. That's why so many people are. Because they're too weak to try anything else.

That's all the Beasts were and continue to me, to me. Weak. They are right to be unhappy with whatever unfortunate circumstances befell them. They are right to resent their creators and the burden they bestowed upon them. But they are wrong to punish everyone else for it. It's selfishness. Weak moral and spiritual fiber. Congratulations, Mystic Flour, you've proven that your apathy is fake by trying so hard to get the Soul Jam back and wanting to steamroll everyone else's rights, thoughts and feelings with your own. Congratulations, Burning Spice, you're still perpetuating the cycle of history by being the exact same bloodthirsty tyrant as every single one before and after you. I've seen these clowns before, history is full of them. And they all start grating on you after a while lol.

Idk if any of this made sense. I think I'm just irritated with the Beasts (and with villains in general, maybe, to a degree) and your ask gave me an excuse to ramble semi-coherently about it lol. I nevertheless appreciate you telling me your thoughts. You have good and interesting ones. I wish you a wonderful New Year and a big basket full of delicious bonbons

[nyc3]

One thing that is now unfair to ask is...what is Nine's name? Look hori treated him as an afterthought but his lack of origins works better than the comical twnko's origins.

Yes his family was all killed thanks to him but ...I can't help to think that scene was too ridiculous.

We never saw anyone mentioned them again, not even shig. (He remembers them in MVA and we do see the disgusting human puppet hori flay around) But that's it.

So Nine...

Im not one of those people who think a new character needs to be related to a pre stabelished one. Nine doesn't need to be a Todoroki, Shimura or hell even a lost Midoriya (hahahahahahaha as if hori would care for this family)

But ....imagine if Nine was related to Oboro, somehow, wouldn't that be interesting?

Maybe, maybe not.

Oboro's character became a thing to turns Aizawa into a better character...and fails. Kuro was sacrificed for nothing.

The thing about Shigaraki/Tenko backstory is that it feels... a bit overdramatic?

Well we can say that about his whole character, but the part of his backstory in particular when he kills his family is so exagerated for the sake of shock value that it kinda feels comical.

Horikoshi tried a bit too hard on make MVA feel like the edgier and "different" arc of the series, but the contrast in so big that I can't take it seriously.

Especially when Hori already nailed a dark tone without being super explicit or over the top.

Take the simplicity of Eri's backstory for example:

No blood, no unnecessary violence, just two panels giving a basic idea of what happened to Eri's father and yet the image of those clothes lying on the floor is much more haunting and eerie than the enterity of Shigaraki backstory.

Why Horikoshi stop being subtle with his storytelling?

...

Anyway going back to Nine real name, or the lack of one, I think it's interesting how that aspect of his character adds to the underlying theme of how AFO and Garaki dehumanize people, especially the ones that are part of their experiments.

We know very well how AFO doesn't view other human being as persons but rather objects that belong to him. This starts with his very own twin brother, which name Yoichi means something like "my first possesion".

And just like Nine, number 6 from Vigilantes was a child which whole life was modeled by AFO. They both are just numbers without a real name.

In this case the idea is presented even more explicitly because Six was a child who suffered some kind of amnesia and couldn't even view himself as a normal human with a face.

He even died as a monster without ever know if he had an identity outside being the number 6.

It's funny how you mention the idea of Nine and Shirakumo being connected somehow, as isn't the first time I've hear that.

It's interesting notice how they share this common theme about sky and clouds as part of who they are (Nine's name also is supposedly a reference to the term "cloud nine") both Nine and Oboro are individuals willing to sacrifice their own lifes for others, and ironically both of them ended being experimented by Dr Garaki.

I even have the headcanon of Kurogiri being the "Number 7" in this line of experiments were Nine and Six belong, as sort of missing link between Six and the sentient nomus.

I probably should make a post later explaining better this idea.

And yes for Horikoshi, Shirakumo was just a diposable character to make Aizawa look cooler and more edgy.

While the author of Vigilantes clearly invested a lot of effort on making Oboro a real and memorable character which complements Aizawa rather than just being an accesory. But that topic deserves it's own post as well.

P.S: I have an idea of what real name we could give to Nine, but I keep it for me at least for the moment.

[hugsandchaos]

Wait, guys!

So I’ve made jokes about Danny being friends with Wind before he met the others, but what about Twilight and Time? Here’s what I have for those two.

With Twilight, he met Danny when he went out after dark to just go and stargaze in the Ordon Spring because it’s nice. He saw Danny after spending about an hour in the spring, when he heard footsteps and someone panting like they’d just pushed themselves past their limits. He goes to investigate and finds Danny using a nearby tree to support himself.

The kid looked like he was struggling to see straight and collapsed before Twilight could ask him what was going on. After bringing him to the village and getting some help, they came to the conclusion that he’d been running or living in the forest for a while and had simply passed out from exhaustion, but the scarring on his chest was very worrying. When he woke up, he freaked out and nearly hit Twilight.

The ranch hand was patient with Danny’s refusal to let anyone too close and answer some questions. The kid looked around at almost everything as if it was out to get him and he was terrified.

Luckily, after a few weeks, they managed to gain his trust and saw big improvements. He was talking to them and helping out around the village. Danny claims to be lost and unsure what to do, but in the meantime, he’s staying with Twilight in his basement and helping out.

Yes, he wanted that. Yes, they thought it was odd. No, he doesn’t care.

When Danny meets the Chain, he’s surprisingly okay with it. That’s because he realized that Clockwork probably wanted him to help the group in some way. And yeah, he told Twilight all of this.

With Time, the old man was near a pool of ectoplasm for whatever reason and Danny kinda just popped up like “Dude, are you lost? Pretty sure the nearest town is, like, 10 miles from here or something. What are you doing here??”

Time, being both confused and surprisingly chill, explained the situation. Danny offered to help, Time accepted, and they got out. Danny stuck by Time until they reached the village, where Danny stopped and they said their goodbyes and “good luck with whatever you’re doing”s.

When they meet up again, it’s because Danny went to check out what was up with the timelines joining without actually joining back together and he found the group. They were in trouble, so he stopped to offer a hand. He had a brief chat with Time and explained that he thinks he should stick with them since the black lizalfos might have something to do with whatever’s going on.

The kid ends up joining. The rest of the group is fairly surprised and would like a bit of backstory, please.

I’ve honestly come to really appreciate the “Time and Danny duo” thing. They’re both a couple of cryptids who drop random pieces of lore and give no further context.

Time genuinely respects him, partially for committing to the whole “cryptid” bit and mostly for his strengths. One more piece to the puzzle is that Danny helped the group communicate and coordinate better by asking simple questions like “What are you thinking?” or “What if we do this”, which prompted them to talk about their plans more.

Danny sees his role as the leader and goes with it for the most part. He’s not going to just butt in and start questioning Time’s role in the group when he clearly has it for a reason. But there was a moment when he essentially took charge. Let’s say that there were a lot of poes or some ectoplasmic entities. Time just turned to Danny and went “Got any ideas?” and Danny said “Yeah, just let me handle it. I got this one.” and proceeded to mop the floor with them.

Time doesn’t know much about ectoplasm, only that it’s green, it glows, and it hurts like acid. He also knows Danny is more knowledgeable in that field, and that some of his blood is actually mixed with ectoplasm, so Time believes it to be a smart move to let the expert take charge.

Oh, yeah, and he’s seen the ghostly wail. If the kid is in ghost form and tells you to cover your ears, please, for the love of Hylia, get behind him and cover your ears. Unless you wanna get blasted who-knows-how-far.

[itsgirlcraft]

I didn't like how the background blended in too much so I edited the birthday gift a little-

If you zoom in on anything I can literally give you the backstory and HD version of it, feel free to look for your blorbos ehehe :3 (I promise they're there somewhere lol)

@dracl-dragon @itisindigos @chaoticcyprus @thebeingmerf

Anyyyyyway-

Here's a few close-ups as well as the collage without the background :p

More yapping under the cut!

I wanted to make something as a visual representation of how much has changed in the time of Sabre creating his channel and now. Originally it was gonna be smaller but I think this works in its own way. This is just over 150 pieces of fanart I've done in the past 5 years I've been a FavreMySabre fan, more or less organized into the years between 2019-2025.

And this is, mostly, just my favorites, and the moments I had an artstyle change or learned something from one of them! Ngl, I can kinda see dracl's style in my old art- /vpos- I mean, we hadn't met at that point- but like, the shapes and hair- I just. I think I like my old style a little more thanks to Dracl :]

I genuinely don't know where, or who, I'd be if I hadn't found this community and Sabre as a whole. I remember my first fanart was way back in August 2019. I don't think I ever could've understood the magnitude of what I had done that day. It was because of a YouTube channel named Kessa Steve that I finally tried my hand at making fanart, something I hadn't done since like 10 years old when I was really into Garfield the cat. I'd been basically adrift creatively since I left behind Garfield, and I really didn't feel confident in my own art. So I found someone who I could try to follow.

And, well, now? I have to admit that a lot of my sense of style and interests as a whole are because of these silly block guys, and the one who made up their little stories. I was mostly neutral towards clothes, but I started thinking about "casual cosplays" and now I have so many clothes that I actually like to wear. I've used the Steve Saga and more as inspiration for assignments, which often is the only reason I could get through those at all.

And, if I may be completely real with you, the only reason I am holding on every day is because I want adventure. I don't...I really, really don't know how I'd be able to convince myself to flip the switch, from fear to focus, to actually face my dread and face the real world. A lot of how I explain my own experiences and emotions and struggles is through the Steves, through Trapped, through all the FMS stories.

Dread Steve, Colle, Seer, RQ Dark, Time Steve, Galaxy Steve, RQ Light, Trapped Sabre, Trapped Victor, Prof. Red, there's- there's a lot.

The intro of the Twisted Rainbow finale has genuinely changed me so much. "Beware the cosmic fallacy. The spiral we believe we must follow to find the way out. Accept this reality - not the position you find yourself in, but that this, IS the position. Then begin to create change and prosperity. My message to you: look around and Breathe, or things may become...Twisted."

I don't feel strong most days. I don't have much confidence in my own ability to survive and take control of my own life. Most days, I end up following at least one spiral. Maybe it's not a ~completely devestating~ spiral, but it's a spiral nonetheless. A lot of the time, I get stuck in my head, and even when I know I am blinded, I don't take off the blindfold. It feels like glue, the circumstances we find ourselves in, especially when you know you got there of your own volition. But you can't change from shame and guilt. You have to find a sense of love to truly change in a way that matters.

And by God, that is hard.

But hey, when there's a little block guy that you can pretend is sitting right next to you on the bus, sometimes it's not so impossible anymore.

So, yeah. Thanks for reading this ramble-turned-personal, I guess. And I love yall, don't ever let your spirals get the best of you <3

And happy birthday, Elan. I hope things are going better than ever for you.

[friedclownshrimp]

Hiii gamers! As i promised yesterday, today i am here to finally do the doomsday idol cult infodump....i would like to first thank my oomfies @orangelovesyoumore and @sotogalmo for wanting to hear abt it, giggling :3

I was gonna post it directly into the post i made, but i wanted to put some tags into it since i wrote a lot and wants this to get some traction, so here we go <3

1. What the HELL is the idol doomsday cult?

The actual name for it is "Golden Flight", and it is a fictional cult that i am making right now, with my friend @chioniphilia actually making one of the people who participate in it. This cult is part of the Alien Stage universe, it started first as just the backstory of one of my ocs, but i thought it had a lot of potential, so i thought about turning it into its own thing, away from the main plot of Alien Stage (since i can't make it a completely original thing as it is really tied to the unvierse of ALSNT)

The cult is commanded by an alien that no one knows the name of, but whom is called "Father" by everyone who is a part of it, they don't make a lot of public appearances, but all the humans who are brought into the cult know about them, with them being mostly this "divine" figure that is always looming around and knowing everything they are doing. The main idea of the cult is that the universe is quickly shrinking, and that one day, there will no longer be enough space for everyone, and when this happens, aliens will first start killing their pet humans and then kill each other, however, there is a planet that will stay there until the end, and the people who live there will all live and one day live in harmony - with this including both the aliens and the humans. (i know the aliens in the alsnt universe have their own name but i forgot what it is so im just saying alien)

This harmony presented in this small group of survivors is said to be due to them all sharing "the same soul", with them all having this dream of living in a world full of peace and with no suffering in it, being seen as "divine beings" who, even if they die, will "take flight to the paradise" as they are pure.

Of course, most of these things are hidden from most people, with this community being seen as a "training place" for humans to become idols - a little like a competitor to ANAKT Garden, which i'll explain further down <3

2. Ok, if it is a cult that is all about "everyone living in harmony", why did you only say that humans partake in it?

For the people in the cult, the explanation given to the humans who are taken care of by "Father" is that they are trying to get as many humans as possible there as a way to "pay for the aliens mistakes", saying that they will help as many humans as possible survive this apocalypse since they know true pain and thus will know how to not make the same mistakes the aliens made related to how the other species are treated.

But in reality? They get humans into the cult because not only it makes no one be suspicious of them (since humans are just seen as pets, with no one really caring about their suffering or whatnot) but also because for them, it is a lot easier to convince these humans to come willingly to the cult - the situation that most of them find themselves is dire and without a lot of hope to it, so thus, "Father" knows that the promises of a new universe where they have a participation in and can leave peacefully is enough to make most of them come, or even the promise of revenge agaisnt those who wronged them.

In the end, they do have aliens in it as well, however, the human to alien ratio in the cult is very afar from one another in my head.

3. Where the part of "idol" comes from?

OK SO NOW THIS IS THE PART I LIKE THE MOST TO TALK ABOUT AND WHAT MADE ME START THIS WHOLE THING!!!

The part of "Idol" comes from the main form the cult has of putting out propaganda for it without it being obvious what they are doing: through songs, and this is done by an idol group sponsored by a corporation in the ALSNT universe called "Eden Dreams" (which is actually a shell corporation comanded by the cult), and this is where the name of the cult actually comes from, as the group is called "Golden Flight"

The group consists of 12 members in it, with each one of them having one color representing them (the colors being red, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, brown, black, white and grey) which are the only colors they can use - this is not only in their clothes, but also in their hair, eyes, makeup and so on, with most of them going through surgeries to be of the colors assigned to them. The surgeries they can go through are also to be more "marketable" to the aliens. All of the members of the group are winners of past seasons of Alien Stage.

The members of the group change over time, as every time one of the members end up dying or "disappearing", a group of people is chosen by "Father" to be trained to take the spot, which them being given placements - then, this group of people is given an intense training just like the former member did, and, when they are done, the "best one" in the group is chosen to be put in Alien Stage as their "final test" while the others stay, if this person wins, they go through the surgeries in their appearance and become the new member, if not, the next in line is sent to the next one and so it goes until one wins. The reason as to why members of the cult want to become members of this group so badly is due to the propaganda "Father" spreads, saying that all those 12 people who are in the idol group are the "purest" ones there, and they will be the ones who will take care of all the survivors when the day of the apocalypase comes. (although most members in this idol group range from the age of 15-25)

This idol group is EXTREMELY popular in the ALSNT universe, not only because of all the money the cult puts behind them, but also because the members of it are actually good at what they do, and the fact they are winners of Alien Stage make them get even more attention. Their songs normally have themes related to peace, friendship and harmony to them, spreading the ideas of the cult of "everyone having the same soul", which makes them be popular not only to aliens, but also to be seen as inspirations to other humans.

The 12 members of the cult are also the only ones who know of "Father"s true identity, as they are called their "children", and thus can interact directly with them, and the members of it call each other "brothers" and "sisters".

The training they go through is not only related to learning how to compose, sing and dance, but they are also trained to not fear death nor to have empathy towards their "enemies" (the people they go agaisnt in Alien Stage and other people who might not want to join the cult) as these people are only doing that out of "being agaisnt the universe's peace", and thus they shall be punished by dying and being sent to the limbo, to forever know they didn't take the opportunity to be in a better place. The members of the group are extremely controlled, however, they also partake in controlling the cult - since they have direct contact to "Father", they are the ones who always tell them when something happens in the cult and if one of the members is "misbehaving", which makes them be punished properly.

I don't have all members of it planned, having only made the orange one and with my friend making the red one...........So if anyone wants to make one idol for it hit me up!! ^-^

4 - How does the cult get new members in it?

1 - One of the ways they find new members (and which is also easier) is to go to the slums and other places where humans live in precary situations. When they go to these areas, the members (who are always groups of humans) take care of the people living there, giving them food, medicine and other things that they normally have trouble finding, and, after some days, when they are leaving, they ask these people to come alongside them, promising all these things and more if they go, and, as these humans do not have owners, no one really notices that they have went there.

2 - Fan meetings. One of the things the idol group does is make fan meetings, with them normally doing some for only human pets as well, in these meetings, the members analyze which pet humans seem to not have stable homes or be victims of bad owners. When this happens, they find a way to discover where this human lives, and they take them forcefully to the "paradise" without their owner knowing where they went, this or they manipulate and help this human in "getting rid" of their owner, helping them "find somewhere to hide" afterwards.

3 - The Eden Dreams program. It is a "program" made by the shell corporation mentioned before. Basically, as all members of Golden Flight are winners of Alien Stage, the cult will offer this program where they will train pet humans to become "winners" as well. If an alien pays for it, the human is taken into the cult for training (all the things an idol needs to know + the brainwashing), where they will go through it for years without any contact with their owner (as they say this will "distract them") and, when the cult deems the human as "worthy", they are sent to ALSNT - if this human dies, their owner is returned 60% of the money they invested in the program, but if the human wins, they are sent back to their owner, with the cult receiving 30% of any money the owner gets from the human's success. Also sometimes they do the same as the second way and make the human "disappear" to get them back into the cult but ykyk.

I didn't knew how to break my other thoughts from the actual infodump so im using this image..........I have some things here and there made for the cult as well but idk how to organize them here, so i'm here just to say: if you guys are interested in this idea and wanna know more about it, please send questions in my inbox or in my dms, PLEASE I LOVE TALKING ABT THIS I GEN WANT TO MAKE AN ASKBLOG FOR THE IDOL GROUP AUEUEEUEUEUE

Also again if anyone wants to make an oc for the cult feel free to do so to..................Again thank you all for reading this love yall so much <3

[chuusheartattck]

i would looove to know some haunted headcanons u have or maybe any hints for the future on the ghosts 👀 SORRY IM JUST SO INVESTED I LOVE WHAT UR DOING W/ HAUNTED

(Also... if its not taken could i ve 🐹 anon :3....)

OMGG tysm!! 😭🩷 here are a few hcs/fun facts without spoiling anything!

The group formed when aether and lumine had their 16th bday party (all characters are now 18+) and invited their own friends. They were worried the groups weren’t going to get along/become awkward but it actually worked out! After, they would just say hi to each other in the halls but slowly it turned into them hanging out as one group.

In high school, scara and his mom (ei) didn’t have the best relationship. Once ei married yae, the relationship got better. There’s still some rough patches but it’s way better now than it was back then. (i just wanted to make a story where scara and ei have a semi decent family relationship)

As for the university, let’s just say the ghosts are trapped there! Their souls are restless and can’t seem to move on. It’ll get explained in later chapters. Some are mischievous, vengeful or with sad backstories.

Y/n and their friends aren’t the only ones looking into what is going on with the school. People are just more sneaky about it.

The university has a dark past and it’s not just spirits. It’s way more sinister than it appears. It’s like a “if you saw/heard something that wasn’t paranormal, no you didn’t” Some people just don’t get the memo. The same thing happens to everyone who has tried to reveal the truth. It’s more than just them disappearing.

There’s no love triangles for this story! There’s just a lot of jumping to conclusions and miscommunication. The romance will progress with the lore.

The school is quite prestigious (think of harvard) so everyone wants to get in. Obviously there’s other universities, but they don’t have the proper funding. They’re more like backup schools and they don’t look as nice on a resume. I wonder why that is.

Back to the group dynamics! Navia, hu tao, kazuha and scara were really popular in high school. They were always invited to parties and events. That didn’t mean they would abandon the group. If the person wanted them there then they should let their whole group in. If not, they just wouldn’t go. They’re loyal!

Y/n gets frequent nightmares and sleep paralysis. Things will intensify as the story goes on.

This is all i have for now! Lmk if you want anymore specific ones! I have a lot of things planned for this story :)

[dom-guilfoyle]

Okay so (sorry if you've answered this before, Tumblr isn't turning anything up, but the search function is notorioisly...nonfunctioning) I have a question.

I'm trying not to give many dire spoilers to anyone else new, but what are the 'proper' pronouns for the Queen's child? Do the fae even conceptualise them the same way/does it even matter to them? I noticed that Queen usually uses 'they' for their child, but also just kind of goes with the flow well enough, and uses 'he' sometimes when Guide is using 'he' to refer to him. (And, sidenote, I'm p sure they're always or almost always referred to as they themself too. I can't remember if anyone besides Guide refers to any of the other fae using pronouns and not just titles/nomikers, and Guide assumes Stranger is 'he', but is that correct? Or, again, is there even such a thing as 'correct' when it comes to the fae? Is this something they care about? Or, also, could it be something they purposely don't clarify and prefer the ambiguity, because the less people know for certain, well...the less people know! And the less they have over you! That does seem to be how they operate).

And Beast I'm pretty sure referred to them as 'he' a couple times soon after Guide said what ppl at Mistholme knew him as, but usually defaults back to 'she' still, because that's how he remembers his friend.

I'm just interested to know if there's an answer to this, I suppose, and if it will be brought to a conclusion in the show or purposely left ambiguous. I think either way is interesting, as from my questions above, I've been turning this around a lot.

Also, related: was the whole backstory of the Queen's child, with the pulling away from family and finding a place with Beast instead, and then going back only to basically take what they could (what was theirs) and leave again, stay estranged because of the expectations of them they didn't want, plus added in that Beast literally knew his close friend as a girl only for him to be known as a man later in life... was that Supposed to be a trans allegory at inception, or was that just a happy accident? I feel like it's too much to be accidental, but I thought I'd ask. I love it either way and was really taken in by Beast's arc, and I'm very interested to see how it pans out when (if?) they [Queen's child]

Sorry that was so long lol. I've just been bingeing the show the past few days whilst i was working on things and it's been on my mind a lot!

Hey, thanks for listening and also thinking so much about the show!

I've kept things a little ambiguous with regard to the Fae's concept of gender, because it allows for the conflict between the Queen and The Man to be about more than just one thing. It's about gender, but also parental expectations and finding yourself and whatever else it sparks inside you. The Fae are very different from us in a lot of ways, but also a lot like us in others, and that means the story can resonate with our experiences without being a direct allegory.

I was definitely thinking in terms of gender discovery and transness, but from the Queen's perspective we don't even really know if that's part of it at all for them. I wrote the Fae to have a different concept of gender to us because, well, why wouldn't they? And then I've left it a bit ambiguous because explaining everything about something can make it mundane, and I definitely don't ever want the alternatural to be mundane. In my head, the Queen is The Man's only "Parent", they just decided to have an heir and kind of... manifested one? Because that seems like something a Fairy Queen would do. But that's not really important to the narrative, so, no need to include it.

Pronouns for characters are:

Guide: It/Its

The Queen: They/Them

The Man: Tricky. The people in the Museum use He/Him, because that's what they've known him as this whole time and they've never been corrected. They don't know how The Fae relate to gender and they have bigger problems at this point.

The Queen uses They/Them, because The Man is more than just an individual- they're The Heir, they're not a person they're the future, and all of The Queen's expectations made manifest. Sometimes they've said He in front of the Guide, because the Guide has actually interacted with The Man far more recently than The Queen has, and they're like... going along with that? But they always default back to neutral terms.

The Beast still thinks of The Man as their friend, the person they were when they were both cubs. It's very stuck in the past, desperate for a return, and the complexity of the Fae isn't something it understands. Sometimes it uses He/Him, but it's not really sure what it all means.

Stranger: He/Him is probably fine? I think Stranger probably changes it on a whim to mess with people anyway lol.

[homunculus-argument]

Show concept: an animated show with pre-planned "censored episodes". A show that's a combination of goofy and serious in tone, mostly handling the more dark themes and subjects in the same kind of way as shows like Avatar - not pulling the punches on the emotional impact of things, making it clear that War Is Hell, politics are complex and messy, dysfunctional families can be brutal, and a whole continent can go straight to hell when those things get mixed up with each other, but demonstrating that weight without showing the carnage.

And then there's one or two filler episodes that don't advance the main plot in any way, which you could skip over without missing any of the real storyline, that are Not Like That. The same silliness and tone of adventure is still there, the characters act like themselves, but these ones specifically feature adult themes. Like a "beach episode" where the characters get drunk. The Orphan whose backstory has already been covered explains exactly how the main villain slaughtered their family, in a brutal flashback. Someone explains that he did, in fact, actually fuck his brother's wife - that wasn't the original reason why they became mortal enemies, but it certainly didn't help. And it turns out that the Sweet And Wholesome Character starts cursing like a sailor and picking fights when she's drunk, and everyone agrees to never let her get drunk again.

The rated episodes don't go out of their way to be Shocking And Edgy, they just state out loud a lot of the things that the show otherwise already heavily implied is going on, they just add to the serious tone of the show. You could skip them without missing anything vital, and if you take those episodes out, the show is 100% something you could show your kids. But with them in, it's an adult show where the explicitly shown and stated things are simply all just concentrated in one or two episodes.