#btw some ships are not on here bc either i already did them for another prompt OR im trying to spread the love to the less done ships

[beanghostprincess]

What about transfem Sanji and Robin?? Like I need some headcanons. Please🥺🥺

OMG YES YES YES!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS WEFNLSNDFLKEN I LOVE THEM!!! I have SO many headcanons for these two <3

Sanji comes out to the crew not long after the time skip, but the first one to know is Robin and she's the one that encourages her to tell the others. However, Sanji is worried (and yes, I am making it Sanuso because I am just that annoying with them) because she isn't sure whether Usopp (they're dating already btw) will still love her after knowing this (not the fact that she's a girl, bc Usopp is like, extremely bi and Sanji knows this. It's more like the concept of being trans and her body and etcetc). Robin tells her about her and Franky and how she was also anxious at first (she's also transfem btw. She has wise older trans girl energy) but he loved her body just the way it is. Perfect. "SUPERRR!" in his words, of course. So Robin tells Sanji that she's sure Usopp will love her either way, but if, for any reason, he doesn't want to keep going with the relationship, that doesn't make Sanji less valuable. Just like Robin didn't need Franky to tell her she's beautiful for her to accept it.

Turns out everyone accepts her, of course, even Zoro is nice to her. Robin is next to Sanji when she tells them the truth about herself and how she'd like to be treated now. However, Sanji is looking at Usopp and Luffy the whole time. Her boyfriend and her captain. Luffy's the first one to break the silence, saying that as long as she's free and happy and still cooks for them, then it's alright!! Robin gives her a fond smile while it happens. Usopp approaches her when everybody is walking away, and without saying anything else, he just kisses her. A thing that is completely new because Usopp is mostly a man of words, but right now he just wants to kiss her, and Sanji isn't complaining. Also, if you're curious about the other straw hats' reactions (can you tell I'm super into this whole thing):

Franky: Now we have three SUPERRRR beautiful ladies on the ship!! 😎 (Or, another option: *Dramatically sobs because Sanji just told them the most heartbreaking story about her life and how she struggled to realize she was a girl*) Nami: Oh fucking finally, I thought I would have to deal with this forever. I thought you were a pervert but turns out you were just repressed as hell! Way to go, girl!!! Welcome to the club!! Zoro: She's still a pervert- Good for you, though. I'm still going to beat your ass when we fight. Not going easy just because of this, shitty cook. Brook: Oh, dear, I'm so glad there are more women here blessing us with their presence. Now, may I see your- *Nami hits him so hard his skull almost breaks in half* Chopper: Sanji!!! I'm so sorry we didn't know anything!!!! Now I feel bad for treating you like a man!!! You're not!!! You're a beautiful woman, Sanji!!! (Sanji: Chopper, I didn't even know. How the hell did you expect to realize first-) *Sobs* I- I don't know!! But I'm sure you'll be even cooler as a woman now!!!

Robin tells Franky ASAP to build a bed for Sanji in the girls' room, but she doesn't tell Sanji right away. Nami helps her move Sanji's stuff from the boys' bedroom to theirs, and they make it a bit cozier and wider for the three of them. After dinner, they show Sanji what they've done and she almost breaks down crying.

Sanji is kind of self-conscious about her body, and she actually really likes wearing her suits, so it isn't a problem. But sometimes she envies Robin and Nami's clothes and bodies, and she wants to be able to wear dresses and more fem clothes too. Robin notices without Sanji saying anything and ends up lending her discreet clothes from her wardrobe for now until they have the chance to go shopping. Nami, then, is the one to buy clothes for Sanji with her own money (as surprising as it sounds) because it's, and I quote: "A real emergency. The fact that I haven't seen you in heels yet is a crime".

She starts thinking about her hair one day when Usopp notices it's getting a lot longer, running his fingers through it. Sanji has always been used to short hair. She doesn't even mind having it like this. A lot of girls have short hair. But perhaps she can... Try. Not cutting it for a while. See where it goes. (Lil spoiler: Turns out she likes long hair because it reminds her of her mom <3 Usopp loves it because this way he can do all sorts of hairstyles with it!!!)

The first time she showers with the girls at some thermal baths they find on an island, she almost has a heart attack. Being a girl does not keep her from simping, she's just a lot more normal about it (I have the lil headcanon that Sanji's constant pervert behavior is just gender envy). But also it's the excitement and feeling of belonging!! Besides, bathing with them is sooo much calmer and nicer than with the boys.

Issues with her voice? Not to worry because Robin, being the wise older transfem she is, teaches Sanji how to feel more comfortable about it and shows her tricks to train it for her voice to sound more soothing and high.

Eventually, Robin asks Sanji if she wants to try and contact Ivankov because they could help with her body, if she wants to. Sanji isn't sure. She feels like changing it completely would be like betraying herself because she doesn't want to be ashamed of her body. She's a girl no matter what, after all. But sometimes dysphoria is just... Too much. And perhaps living with a more fem body would help her. Robin tells her to take her time to think about it, and that no matter what she chooses she'll still be beautiful and a wonderful young woman!!

Silly lil thing but I think Robin would always use her hands (like, her extra hands) to keep Sanji's skirts covering her legs because girl be fighting with Zoro without realizing she's wearing a dress, lmao. The thing about her fighting style being all about kicking doesn't mix with well with some outfits.

Usopp used to be invited to girl nights, along with Chopper. Because Chopper is just, like, y'know, kind of their lil brother and Usopp is... Usopp is Usopp. He's the bestie of the gals. He's one of the girlies (he is not. He's just there because he's like the token gay friend in the girl group that always stands out. Like in teenage movies. Dude wants to be there and Nami doesn't complain). But once Sanji starts joining those girl nights, Usopp is completely banned from them. No boyfriends allowed.

Robin and Nami start using "Sanji-chan" to talk about her and it just makes her feel so so so happy!! (Actually I had to look up if Robin uses -chan for Nami and she actually does when talking to others about her???? Which is cute. I think they'd do it with Sanji for gender-affirming reasons mostly rather than just using honorifics).

Whenever Sanji argues with Usopp (surprisingly more often than you probably think, but it's just about stupid stuff) she always goes to Robin because she's the rational one and will probably help her better than anybody else. And also Usopp asks Nami for advice so Sanji can't exactly go to her.

If I start talking about my ideas for Whole Cake Island with transfem Sanji hiding that she's a girl and Luffy going after her to save her I might actually die so I won't (and this would probably change this whole thing to a Lusan post and we don't want that right now). But!! Thinking about Sanji in WCI missing Robin's presence because she always knows what to say, and not knowing if telling Reiju is a good idea.

I'm out of ideas ngl

Have these Sanjis as a peace offering for not being able to write more creative stuff:

SHE'S MY WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!

Also shout out to our queens:

(Sanji would SO wear these outfits btw) (I actually have so many ideas for how transfem Sanji would dres aaaaaaaAAAAAAA)

[starrygalazy]

I keep seeing people doing this so this is my official ship list and some explanations. (Hell I may even take writing/drawing requests for the ones I like)

PSA: These are all my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I ask you respect mine, as I'll respect yours.

~'Love it' ships (aka I WANT THESE TO BE CANON or I LOVE THAT THESE ARE CANON)~

Genji x Mei (Aka my OTP): At first it was a joke ship bc I simp for Genji and kin Mei, but then it spiraled into thinking it'd be a really cute ship with a unique dynamic. Now they're my faves and I'll NEVER get tired of talking about them

Cassidy x Hanzo

Ramattra x Echo: Saw some cute fanart and it was OVER for me

Ana x Reinhardt

Bap x Mauga

Tracer x Emily

Soldier x Reaper

Gerard x Widowmaker: Their story makes me cry 😭 They both deserve sm better than what the world put them through

~'Like it' ships (aka "This is cute, but I like other ships more")~

Pharah x Mercy

Genji x Zen: This is only here bc Meiji takes top spot. When done right, this ship is so cute puppies and kittens are jealous. I also don't care too much about age difference here because, Zen's a robot.

D.Va x Brigitte

Mei x Zarya: Same situation as Genyatta

Lifeweaver x Bap

Cassidy x Bap: I definitely think Bap canonically has a crush on Cass (I won't break his heart, in at least a few realities they're together)

Mei x Lifeweaver: I've grown pretty fond of this ship and even wrote a fanfic (platonic) about them a while ago. They'd have such a unique dynamic either way, and I definitely am a fan

Lucio x Junkrat

Ashe x Widowmaker

Junkrat x Mei: The age difference has put me off for a while but I can't lie, it's kinda cute

Mei x Zenyatta

~'Meh/Nah' Ships (aka any I'm indifferent or negative abt)~

Genji x Mercy: For those who scream at any ship that's Genji x someone who's not Mercy or vice versa, I don't have a place for you here. To the nice Gency fans who're chill abt this, thank you. I just already have my favorite ship and some of you guys are way too toxic for me to really appreciate the ship. They're still besties in my mind tho, dw

Any type of *ncest: Please leave, thank you.

Any type of b**stiality: Same as *ncest. Leave the poor monkey and hamster (and all other animals) alone.

D.Va x anyone over 24: She's basically a child mentally, it's weird

Junkrat x Roadhog: I definitely think they're more like father/son, and I do NOT like that age difference.

Ramattra x Zen: It's just the fact they call each other 'brother' so often, so my mind is hard-wired to keep it that way

Soldier x Mercy

Sombra x Anyone: Sex-repulsed aro-ace Sombra supremacy 🙌🙌🙌 (queerplatonic is good tho), Bap's the only sorta-exception

And that's all for ships. I have a ton more but this is already a long post so I'm gonna end it here. Anything catch your eye? Pls let me know! Also here is the link to my ship chart which I'll update occasionally (so it's a bit less hectic):

https://www.tumblr.com/meibaestars/730349773528481792/i-got-bored-so-i-did-another-ship-chart-thing-with?source=share

(Btw I'll be editing this as I see fit and changing different ships most likely)

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hey i really love your blog!!! I just plucked the courage to actually send u an ask fhdjhd but GOSH i love your video edits and your gifs and your meta article posts, you're so articulate and you can explain/describe moments in a way that makes me go "oh wow, i cant believe i haven't seen it that way before!!" Haha ANYWAYS i'm just here to say that i completely agree with what all u said, Free creators might do a lil fanservice here and there for the 25 ships that exists within the fandom's circle, but rinharu's storyline is clearly the most romantic one! And i'd argue it's the one closest to being canon esp after part 1, i mean the fact that they put such an explosive emotional outburst right at the end of the second to the last movie means a lot. It's like reinforcing the fact that this series has always been about them, and everything that has happened only happened either because they met or they grew appart and miss eachother. I kinda feel like maybe.. juust maayyybe there's a chance KA wants to make the ship canon, since it's the last movie and they want to end it on a highnote maybe (bcs honestly i think the only reason they've been holding back is purely bcs of the merch sales, since they don't have a problem showing a wholesome lesbian love story in kobayashi maid dragon) butt i could be wrong, maybe i'm just overly optimistic and delusional, they could somehow ruin it and give an ending that panders to all the ships again 😅🥲, but at least there's a clear-cut guarantee that part 2 would dedicate a large portion of it fixing rin and haru's fight!!! Oohh how can i wait another 6 months now!!😭😭 (sorry for the long ask btw!! 🙏🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️)

OMG thank you so so much!! For watching my vids too! ❤️❤️❤️ It really means a lot to me! Ahhhh wow, thats the longest ask I've ever recieved! 😍 I'm trying to explain myself so hard lol I'm glad its appreciated, bc sometimes I'm like "I don't fucking know how to say this" xD

Well, you know me, I only care for one ship, which is the only one with confirmed info that they're both actually gay and have mutual feelings for each other. There are some other ships in free! I'm fine with (those do not include Rin or Haru in them xD), but I just mostly don't care, bc after reading all the stuff, you can see that in some of those to one the other one is actually like his second option, which I just do not like. Others I just don't even see, bc again to me who witnessed great close male friendships and having two sisters who I'm very close to, I just do not see anything romantic in that.

It's not just Free! tbh, it's like any sports anime these days. They see two guys walking together, it's a ship. And like no one cares if they're just bros. Like I'd get i they did some fanservice fanservice, but like I never saw anyone in Free! crossing the line the way rinharu do. I can without thinking much name you 10 rh moments that no matter how hard you think can't be explain as being bros, but can't name one when it comes to others. I just find some ppl shipping everyone with everyone weird sometimes. It's like western fans see like some eastern actors or singers slap each other ass lovingly and they're like "oh they're fucking" I'm like "yeah, ofc all 500 of them, you're absolutely right". And Free! doesn't do anything even like that, I just do not get sometimes like what moment even brought on some ships. I'm genuinely confused. Albert and Haru? You fucking fell from a sakura tree or smth? I'm...

I'm especially confused when it comes to guys, whose character type is who I call "I only want this one and if I can't have it, then I'm ok" xD. It just always surprised me, when they try to pair up them with someone else, it's like a complete ooc.

I'm also not into this whole "well, if there are gays in this anime, than everyone there is gay". I'm like... huh. It's like with KNB and MDZS I had same feeling. It's like you have already couples there who are canon/borderline canon, why do you need another 10 who don't even interact or just don't even go there? I'm always so confused in those situations. Or like wangxian is married and some are like "no, I actually don't like it, let me write a fic when they're with other ppl". Lan Zhan... being in love or having sex with someone else? Yeah, that's not Lan Zhan, dude, you're writing about someone else. Might as well change the name at this point.

But last time I went to twitter someone had a thread about how if they make s4 of Free! they should mainly explore there Momo's angst (and no, it wasn't a joke), so I'm already like, I'm just.. nothing will surprise me no more. But I'm forever gonna be confused.

Yeah, I eel you about "going there". I mean seeing part of it, it just kinda cemented my confusion, bc I do not get how it can be considered platonic. We were just discussing since yesterday with @freeseafirefly how I now even more perplexed and do not understand how they will resolve it without going into relationship territory. It's just our point here is that like... no one forced them to go there (I mean its not like this whole fandom has some wild expectations or anything already), we were waiting or our usual friendship and swimming and maybe tiny conflict about struggles of pro-careers and some usual rh implications (maybe all the rh gay in dramas as always). Not some pure fanfiction coming to life here haha.

Like why I'm laughing is bc I twice used in my "fics" bringing up him leaving Haru as a force to push the confession, bc there's no way if he adresses this it won't lead to this. And now we not only have this (bc Haru just basically layed it out there), but an actual scene of him playing on their feelings for each other and a literal image of Rin leaving and "taking Haru's heart with him" to the point when he's for the first time in his life openly crying on the ground. And it's not like this scene can be interpreted as anything else, the whole fandom talks same, bc the whole fight was just about them, what Haru said was just about them, there's a literal boom of his heart getting out of his chest, before he falls and now he's heartless.

So our question is like... why go there?

It's like some say that they might still resolve it with "they're special to each other" and swimming, but still like we already knew that, there was no reason to go that far is what I'm saying. And to think that it was planned since forever giving the clues is like... ???

The whole spoon theme also throw me on the loop because like, lets be honest, it's wedding themed. And that part of the interview about part 2 there also made me go...?????? Because I mean, huh?

This is just all in all very interesting turn of events to say the least. I do not see the point of all of this if its not what I think it is, esp after seeing tweets like "even I see a rh wedding and I'm mh T_T". It's just all very unsubtle, that's why we're confused.

Like who knows, maybe we'll really by some magic turn of events get lucky and they really decided that since its the ending, it's okay to go for it. But I also don't wanna to hype myself much, I'm already really happy with it, just bc again, this scene already proves all of my points.

And yeah, I'm sure they'll pander to everyone, bc it's the end and etc and we have to handle everything on the good note and there's a whole line of ppl who's obsessed with us, esp with Haru xD, but like bromance pandering and romance pandering are different things, you know *wiggles eyebrows* and u know who always gets the second one.

[hopefullystillatheatrestudent]

okay so i’ve been going crazy these past few days. all about cockles/jensmish and obsessively watching their panels or reading the transcripts BECAUSE. THEY ARE LOUD. LIKE. i saw some fancams on twt and i thought people were just exaggerating but noooooooooo!!!???? so, getting to the point. you said that how do we know that jensen is performing masculinity? because jared isn’t and THAT IS A BIG BRAIN MOMENT. ON POINT. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. a particular moment from gag reel that jumps out (which you’ve talked about) when jensen goes ‘cas, you are my baby daddy’ and misha goes, ‘i know i love you too’ and jensen goes, ‘i didn’t say i love you’ and misha goes, ‘i know you wanted to’ and jensen says, ‘i love you’ WHAT THE FUCK! that was NOT a joke. yes, people took it as a joke and had a good laugh BUT I HAVE WATCHED IT TOO MANY TIMES AND IT LIVES IN MY MIND RENT FREE BECAUSE IT WAS NOT A PERFORMANCE. THAT WAS JENSEN. THAT WAS MISHA. jensen has a had trouble with the pda and being all touch feely (the breakup theory) and he gradually grew into it, accepted it and misha was right there all along, never pushed it. it was like a deancas au but tbh, 99% of destiel is because of cockles and we all know it. i just. jensen has latched onto dean as an emotional support because he tunes with it. understands it. projects on to it. yeah, i just had to say it and get it off my chest. (and what about those poetry pages on instagram? alma? what is your opinion?) btw, you have a lovely blog and your analysis are right on target.

so there is a LOT i’m going to address here(how dare you bring up [gunshot] i HAVE to talk about it now) so again!!!! under a cut it goes but i hope you appreciate my rambles anon it seems like you do :,)

1. jared vs. jensen and performing masculinity. hell yeah man. jared and jensen are both just ‘guys from texas’ but they are still so vastly different. today i actually had a revelation that i’m pretty sure has to do with me being bi. and it’s that i have a group of straight friends(that i love dearly but they care too much about hockey and pitbull imo could not be me) and i have a group of queer friends(who are also batshit[affectionate]). and it’s like whichever group i hang out with a different side of me emerges? they’re both me, it’s just that certain aspects of who i am as a person only surface depending on who i am around. however, i will say i feel like i watch what i say around my straight friends more. i see that very clearly in jensen as well. around jared during panels and on set, he’s definitely putting on an air of machismo and engages in typical guy talk. i do think an element of it is performative, because he wants validation from jared that they’re still just two dudes from texas taking on the world together despite his sexual identity. does that make any sense??? i hope so. but when he’s with misha he is an entirely different person and his sense of humour becomes wildly different. the machismo fades away, he’s way less caught up in what people think about him, lets his guard down, etc. to go back to my original point which is how j2 are different in that regard....jared does not do this. he is a constant. he does not flip a switch between ‘performing masculinity’ and ‘not’ because he isn’t performing any part of who he is. he just IS. so yeah these two are similar in many regards but there’s somewhat of a dissonance between them when it comes to how they perform masculinity because one of them is putting on a show and the other is merely being.

2. that crypt scene blooper(here just in case you need to see it again. do it. as a treat.) when i tell you i have easily seen this over thirty times??? since it first came out??? i mean it. it is such an overlooked(r*mantic) moment and it means so much more than people think it does. i’ve talked about the context behind it, and i think that’s why this blooper was so meaningful, so i’ll mention it again. jensen and misha had a LOT of trouble with this scene. the reason is that jensen couldn’t wrap his head around why dean would be saying these things, if i remember correctly, and both of them sat down and scoured over how they should play it for a while before filming(teamwork ;) teammates *ahem*). [to be honest we all know why jensen had a hard time with that scene and it is because it is blatantly romantic. rip to him but i would simply give in to it at that point but oh well] so anyway, their heads were scattered going into shooting, which is NEVER a good headspace to be in for a scene, ESPECIALLY not a pivotal one. but they had each other to help them through said weird energy on set that couldn’t possibly have invoked the best feelings, especially considering jensen STILL doesn’t think he played that correctly(but he praised misha on his performance :,) ). and with that context every single part of that video hits haRD 

-’stop pulling my face towards your crotch’ i think this is objectively hilarious because it really really looks like jensen is pulling HIMSELF towards misha’s crotch. again, you’re fooling no one, jensen. misha’s wheezing laugh and the way he wraps himself around jensen is also,,,sweet??? like i don’t know how else to describe how i see it but this moment really reads as jensen, in his weird ‘constructing elaborate rituals’ way is asking for security through a physical touch from misha and he happily obliges and gives jensen what he needs. because i mean...watch it again. jensen ‘fights back’, but not really at all, actually. pretty wimpy counterattack. he literally lets himself be smothered by misha, and i would literally describe what they end up doing as cuddling. 

-’i need you, cas. you’re my baby daddy’ i love having an actor’s perspective on things bc i think i can explain what’s going on here. jensen just delivered what was(in his own mind) a rotten take of the lines he’s most scared of delivering. so the scene was already messed up. therefore; ensuing fuckery is warranted to help him feel better. but there’s also for sure more than meets the eye for what he says here because of misha’s reaction after??? like he seemed genuinely touched. first of all, he’s saying ‘you’re my baby daddy’ as half-jensen, but not necessarily dean either(because he didn’t say the previous lines as true to his character...you get it), to misha, not cas. i think i’ve made this point before, but every single innuendo in the gag reels is to misha specifically, never once cas. therefore; logical conclusion: ‘you’re my baby daddy’ was for misha and it meant something deeper than we think because of what follows it

-this part. jensen’s giddy ass smile after he sees misha crack and then misha says ‘yeah, i know’ (can i just say his voice when he says this is so intimate???? like am i intruding guys??? sorry i’ll let myself out) also he is smiling SO BIG

- ‘i know’ ‘why are you laughing?’ ‘no i know i love you too’ this analysis is already so long but i still want to get into what THAT whole exchange means. ‘why are you laughing?’ to me sounds like jensen’s pretending to be affronted by misha laughing at something that is serious. and it’s serious because he quite literally meant ‘i love you’. he did. misha knows it. misha’s really REALLY good at cutting the bs and just getting to what people are actually trying to say. he has an innate sharpness to his sense of humour. so yes, misha is being 100% accurate when he says ‘i know, but you wanted to say it.’ misha isn’t lying here. jensen did want and mean to say ‘i love you’. and then he actually does say it(in a jokey way but not really). 

- so yeah. it is actually so romantic??? like in a weird way jensen was professing his love for misha here?????? and that’s why this clip will NEVER. ever. get old. 

3. jensen having trouble with pda and projecting onto dean: we can all call ourselves dean coded cas girls but NO one deserves that title more than jensen ackles himself. he is dean winchester but marginally less repressed because he actually did admit he was in love with his best friend and let himself be happy, and pretty early on too. one year and two months as opposed to twelve years. so. happy deancas au is correct. and yes about the pda thing: one day i want to write my own post about both of their body language when it comes to each other, but all i can tell is jensen, even in the early days, couldn’t help himself from flirting with misha, but if misha ever crossed a line, jensen would not be happy. clearly he’s come around, however. what i find sweet is that misha always follows jensen’s lead when it comes to how much affection they’re allowed to show each other onstage. it touches my soul

4. destiel is cockles fault. yeah. and the thing is everyone knows it, too. even non-cockles shippers will explain early destiel as entirely dependant on jensen and misha’s wild chemistry. and that chemistry is easily explained by the fact that misha and jensen are literally just wildly horny bisexuals who were crazily attracted to one another and were falling in love on screen before our very eyes. and when you have THAT insider info(which sounds cray doesn’t it!!!! the destiel actors are in love irl??? huh???) everything really does click into place. why destiel got SO popular when the show and actors never ever intended for it to happen.(i know some people think misha was playing cas as gay the whole time for shits and giggles, and i won’t deny that[especially considering he found out early on that destiel was why he was staying on the show], but i don’t think he really wanted it to amount to anything, nor did he care??? i mean he has the real thing with jensen, for one, so their characters aren’t really as important. for two, he loves joking about destiel because it’s a cultural phenomenon and it’s fascinating, and i’m sure he did ship it because he’s unhinged, but i don’t think it was vastly important to him either way.) destiel got popular because everyone was and is unintentionally reading into the real deal. i could pull up countless gifs that people have used as destiel proof that is actually just jensen and misha being messy. mainly jensen. if i’m being honest.  the symbiotic relationship between destiel and cockles is why i’ve stayed onboard the destielcule and shellerscape for three solid months now; because it is utterly fascinating to witness and kind of super beautiful, too. 

5. alma(and others). so. i do NOT want to really REALLY get into this in its entirety here and now so i will just give you my opinion on if i think alma is misha or not. also; i don’t want to mention the other poetry accounts here bc i feel like that’s a bigger breach in privacy, but a lot of people do know about alma now. way too many, actually. this is why we can’t have nice things. anyway-to answer your question-there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that yes, misha is running that alma poetry account. i am 100% certain. some people think it’s actually three people and they’re all connected to misha in some way but that is so needlessly complicated. as it goes in psychology; the easiest explanation is probably the right one. it’s just one person running that account, and it is misha collins. i don’t know why it’s so hard to believe KNOWN POET misha collins(who is known to spend most of his free time writing poetry anyway) would have created a secret poetry account to write about his intense secret relationship under an alias and also get legitimate feedback since no one used to know it was him. oh and the handwriting is identical??? you are blind if you do not see that i am sorry. and a million other things prove it’s misha too but yeah all you need to know is yes. it’s him. it would take a literal livestream from a random woman on that account to convince me otherwise. and honestly not even that because a random woman could technically still log in if misha asked her too. so. it would take a hell of a lot to convince me otherwise, clearly. that said DO NOTTTTTTTTTTTT GO ONTO THAT ACCOUNT WITH A SUPERNATURAL RELATED USERNAME AND COMMENT THINGS THAT ARE COCKLES RELATED. ARE YOU BRAIN DEAD WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT’S OKAY. sorry i got heated but god please just don’t be dumb so many people have already gone way too far 

6. thank you for your lovely compliment on my analyses!!! i love doing them but i don’t know if people actually like reading them so i really appreciate it

[itsclydebitches]

I’m the tin foil hat anon and I wanted to thank you for the response on my bb submission, you make great points. Although I was frustrated that some of them raised even more questions I didn’t think of myself… UGH… lol the S2 wait is gonna be painful

On the point of crosshair thinking his chip was removed a looong time ago(meaning before bracca or even as early as ep1) it wouldn’t make sense bc of his response to Hunter’s “you tried to kill us, we didn’t have a choice”. He says “and I did?”. So he seems to be aware he couldn’t control himself in all their previous encounters. Does it mean he knows his actions were due to chip then?

And you say crosshair avoiding the “when” question can be due to him not caring if the horrible actions he committed are chip or himself and it’s meant to show that he truly is despicable and evil. It could be the case because he shows absolutely no remorse or regret over slaughtering civilians, never apologizes to his brothers for not only trying to kill them but almost successfully incinerating(!!!) them. On top of that (apparently) without a chip he casually murders his own squad without a blink of an eye right in front of them.

On the other hand, he shows care for Omega’s safety in that episode and wants a better place in the universe for his brothers(even if it’s obviously a mistake). He sounds hurt and betrayed by them yet he still wants what he thinks is best for them. He seemed genuine and sincere in that moment. Even after they refused to join he protected them against the droids. He had multiple opportunities to shoot Hunter or others in the back but never did(and looked like didn’t even consider it). BUT after all of that he decides to raise his gun and try to shoot hunter who already has his gun drawn?! And in front of the whole squad holding him at gun point!!! WTF was he thinking?! WHY? I know they rejected his offer but still. Did his reveal completely change his plans? I just don’t understand. I know he is meant to be “complex and nuanced character with layers” but what a mood swing lmao

As much as I loved and enjoyed the bad batch overall I’m beginning to think that all these inconsistencies aren’t meant to be a crafty set up for next season. What they most likely are is just writers being vague on purpose so they don’t write themselves into a corner.

And as to why the batch and Omega didn’t even try to rescue their brother could just be so that Hunter and Crosshair would have this drama and disagreement at the end. Despite brad rau claiming their argument was over ideological differences. And Jen Corbett saying in that same cursed interview that the batch always love and support each other no matter what because they’re family. Well, I guess not crosshair, he doesn’t count anymore lol

And I agree with you I’d rather see the batch acknowledging they could have done more to try and rescue him than go into the chip details. However, I have a suspicion the real reason or explanation on why they never went back for him isn’t going to be brought up ever. Even *in universe* it simply does not make sense. Just makes me sad seeing how many people also try to come up with explanations. That should have been the writers job to provide something besides Hunter’s “you tried to kill us” bc that’s a weak argument and a total bs since he was SHOCKED to learn crosshair doesn’t have a chip.

Btw sorry for the long posts lol I just found your takes very intriguing

The season two wait is something awful and I only just started it lol. No worries about long asks though! My blog has become quite meta heavy over the years, so this is normal for my inbox. Besides, it’s a bit of a pot and kettle situation. It's not like my answers are particularly concise :D

Okay first, I have the unpopular (?) opinion that Crosshair was never planning to shoot Hunter, partly for the reasons you lay out here. You’re right, it doesn’t make sense, and rather than just accepting that he had that kind of “mood swing" (which would be pretty bad writing based on everything else we've seen) I think it does make sense that this was never his intention at all. Rather, it’s just a setup to make the audience think he’s about to shoot Hunter—that’s the obvious goal of that moment: the shock, drama, confusion, and then relief—but that doesn’t mean that in-universe that was ever Crosshair’s goal, even for just a split second. Omega leaves the pod. Echo, crucially, says that he can’t see her, setting up that Crosshair with his enhanced sight is probably the only one who could. He grabs his rifle off screen and as he does, Hunter leans over the side of the pod as he prepares to jump in, precisely where Crosshair needs to aim to hit Omega. Hunter is in his way. He’s directly in the line of fire, not because Crosshair is aiming for him, but just because that's where Omega is and they're both aiming for her: Crosshair with his rifle, Hunter ready to dive. The little shift Crosshair makes reads to me as him ensuring he doesn’t hit Hunter, despite him being right where he needs to aim, not him full on changing targets.

Even if we choose to read it as him deliberately aiming at Hunter—because yeah, the scene is meant to be ambiguous—I don’t think he, like, meant it meant it. Crosshair, as we’ve seen throughout TBB and TCW, can be pretty antagonistic. He likes to do things to get a rise out of people, like staring at regs until they snap at him, or pushing Rex’s buttons until he swings. If he was choosing to aim at Hunter in that moment, rather than Hunter just being in the way, I think it’s only bravado. Remember the “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t make me your enemy” line? Crosshair has a need to remind others of his skill and power—whether it’s playfully like in TCW, or more seriously in TBB—and that’s likely what this is here. “Hey, Hunter. Look. I got my weapon back. I’ve got you cornered. I’m about to save our sister when you can’t. Remember that I’m good and you need me.” Those feelings of abandonment are tied up in that need to be needed, so when Crosshair is seething at being left behind, brutally showing them how he can get a drop on their leader and doing the thing they can't (save Omega) is a great way to remind them of what they threw away/re-boost his own self-esteem. But none of that means shooting Hunter was ever a real possibility. Because nowhere else do we see Crosshair willingly trying to harm his team. He does while under the chip’s influence, but then he never hurts Hunter when he’s captured. He kills his new team before they can hurt the batch. He helps them fight off the droids. There’s a tussle, but it’s not choreographed like either he or Hunter truly intends harm. Crosshair demonstrates no aggression during the entire escape, willingly gives up his weapon after saving Omega, and just stands there as they leave. If this guy actually wanted to hurt them, he would. Which is more likely, that Crosshair had a split second of real murder intent across two episodes of doing everything possible to help his team, or that this was just a mean bluff?

But personally, I don’t even think it was a bluff. I think the coincidence of Crosshair needing to aim there and Hunter already being there is just meant to imply an attack for the audience, not imply that Crosshair, in-universe, ever intended to hurt him, even for just a second. If he had, he wouldn’t look so surprised and sad when he realizes the others are pointing their weapons at him. If he was out to shoot Hunter, even if only for a moment, seeing his brothers come to his defense would be expected; a given. But if he only ever intended to save Omega, then seeing their weapons trained on him would produce the emotions we saw: shock that they’d turn on him and then severe disappointment. From Crosshair’s perspective, he didn’t do anything wrong and never intended to do wrong either. Hence, looking away in disbelief that his need to aim through Hunter was taken as a serious threat. He's realizing that they honestly believe that he would hurt them. Not the chipped version of him, but just him, all on his own.

As for the rest of his characterization, I think your point that “You tried to kill us” is a weak argument is pretty important. Meaning, Crosshair knows he didn’t attack his team and nearly kill them, the Empire controlling him like a puppet did. He (arguably) doesn’t owe them an apology for something that he was as much a victim for. However, we usually expect one anyway—like Wrecker still apologizing to Omega—because that's how people who have hurt loved ones react, whether the hurt was intentional or not, but that guilt is currently overshadowed by his fury that they left him behind. For him I think it’s a bit of a circular problem. Yes, he nearly killed them… but he wouldn’t have nearly killed them if they’d come back and rescued him. With the obvious disclaimer that the Empire is the real evil here, Crosshair as a threat is a bit of a problem of the batch's own making. If they’d done the right thing and gotten him out, there wouldn’t have been these scary moments like the engine incident. If they’d at least tried, then Crosshair likely would have been more guilt-ridden because he hurt his brothers who were trying to help him. As it stands, he tried to hurt the people who claim they're his brothers, but who left him behind. That's why he presents this second chance as magnanimous: from Crosshair's perspective, they haven't done anything to earn his care, but they're getting it anyway. An apology though? That's pushing things too far. If when Wrecker turned the group had locked him somewhere in the ship and gone off planet, leaving him there under the justification “Well, he tried to kill us!" would Wrecker still return with apologies for his actions... or would he be primarily pissed at being left like that, withholding apologies because they did him harm intentionally, whereas he did harm under another's control? I mean, maybe he'd be forgiving (the huge difference between his and Crosshair’s personalities is another factor), but also maybe not. Having Crosshair apologize for the near-death experiences requires 1. For him to feel responsibility for something that was forced on him and 2. For him to not be absolutely furious at the batch for abandoning him. They've gotta work through that before Crosshair can acknowledge that guilt.

Killing his second team on the other hand… idk if the batch cares, honestly. It was the killing of civilians that they balked at, not other fighters like themselves. Even the Jedis’ execution, something they clearly didn’t like, wasn’t enough to turn them from the Empire, presumably because the Jedi are capable of defending themselves. They fell in battle. It’s only when the Empire asks them to kill kids and untrained civilians that they go, “Absolutely not. This organization is evil.” Murder of other fighters was, you know, not great, but not worth defecting over either. Crosshair’s second team is made up of fighters who have been trying to kill them, so they’re definitely fair game. If we removed Crosshair’s plan from the situation and the batch was just fighting their way off Kamino after a capture, would they have also killed the team without a blink of an eye? Probably. It's self-defense. The second they raised their blasters it became a battle and, unless you’re specifically out to stun someone for some reason, battles end bloody. The shock is which side Crosshair was on, not that one side was willing to murder the other. It’s definitely messed up from our perspective that Crosshair laid a trap to murder his team to prove a point… but from the batch’s perspective? Crosshair killed a bunch of imperial fighters who were threatening them during a battle. That’s just an average Tuesday for them, nothing much to get upset over.

And omg don’t get me started on Crosshair wanting to find Omega a family! Like yeah, it’s obviously a #mistake and his faith in the Empire is Super Messed Up but... the underlying motivation is so good. It’s another situation where there’s no easy answer. Which is more important: Omega’s emotional health where she grows up with clones like her, the people who are now 100% her family, or her physical health, where she stays some place where she’s not always getting shot at, kidnapped, at risk of going hungry, etc.? It’s easy as the audience to go, “Of course she belongs with her dads!!” but if you choose to read the story through any realistic lens, Crosshair absolutely has a point about this being terrible environment for a kid, the exact point the batch themselves were making until Omega begged to stay. I love my feral, compassionate child but let me tell you, I YELLED when she yeeted herself out of that pod. This is a traumatized, formerly isolated kid with absolutely zero self-preservation, combined with, at times, a lack of basic common sense that’s inevitable in children (like not realizing she can’t pull a very heavy droid up through the water). As emotionally gutting as the thought is and, in this particular case, a Very Bad Idea, I really can’t fault anyone for raising the possibility that she go somewhere else, somewhere she’s likely to survive into her teens 😅

[bow-wow-wark-wark]

Hiii happy 4th hypmic anniversary, I know it's been like 3 days since the actual anniversary but *shrugs* anyways I wanted to answer the questions from this post to celebrate!! (This is going to be a long post lol, this just brings a ramble instinct in me)

1. How and when did you get into HyplMic?

I got into hypmic during the end of September/ start of October of last year, it feels like a lot of time and very little at the same time lol... so many people in the fandom have liked this for super long!! I got into it bc of someone I followed on twitter, they would talk about it sometimes and I was getting a bit sick of the music I listened too so I thought "why not expand my music taste?" Little that I know It was going to become the only thing I listened too lol. I also saw this like "a hypmic characther once said" video and I thought it was soooo funny I just had to get into it. I'm honestly surprised hypmic started in 2017 bc I was going through a god awful musical phase and knowing I could have liked it earlier in life amuses me (tho back then I thought anime was silly so it wouldn'thave happened either).

2. First impressions of the characters? Who stuck out the most?

(Another long one soz) I'm going to do most of them btw.

Buster bros: ichiro was the 1st chara I knew before I got into it, for a bit I had him mixed up with jyushi tho lmao. Tbh I didnt have a very strong opinion on him, I wasn't super into BB at the start 😅 same with jiro, I liked him the most, thought he was really cute. At the start I disliked saburo a bit lol, like he was just soooo mean and I didn't like that, also I wasnt a huge fan of new star at the start so I didnt like him bc of that either.

MTC: I had to fight a lot to openly like mtc, I felt a bit bad liking them at the start bc they're all like criminals and stuff lol. I have to be honest I think that at the start I didnt think about them like at all... the strongest impression here was Rio, he was my favorite also I thought jyuto was hilarious bc of the start of bayside smoking blues, I really liked his voice too.

Fling posse: ok so the moment I saw Ramuda I was like "this guy is evil as balls isnt he?" I was pretty right lol, I thought he was a child like saburo at the start bc hes so small, man fooled me there. I liked dice the most at the start, my 1st fanart is of him lol. I didnt have very strong opinions on Gentaro, I was surprised to find out his VA also voiced yamaguchi since I was a haikyuu fan if anything.

Matenro: Lol matenro was my favorite (still is), idk what was it but I saw all of them and I was like: great :D I dont remeber specific impressions tho.... It was almost like love at first sight lol. I remeber I really liked the fact that both hifumi and doppo had tips, I thought it was super cool.

BAT: ok so I also knew who kuuko was before I got into hypmic my actual actual 1st fanart was of him (I did it before I even knew what hypmic was like at all). I really liked him, I remember listening to gyara bam and being like "this guy rules so much", I really liked jyushi, as mentioned before I had him mixed with ichiro (they look nothing a like I dont even know how) I was super shocked to find out he was also a teen lol I was pretty happy. Not gonna lie I had no idea who hitoya was at the start (rip) I knew kuuko I knew jyushi but I didnt know him, I dont remeber being very big on him till like the dramas and getting more into hypmic bc before nothing nada.

Dotsuhon: lol I slept on dotsuhon for the looongest time, I literally only liked sasara, rosho and rei were just really there for me. Sasara was my favorite bc I loved his voice and tragic transitor gace me unrivaled latino vibes so he felt very close to me in a sense. I thought rei was a scumbag the moment I laid eyes on him.

3. Who was the first character you liked?

My 1st favorites before I found out about bat and dotsuhon where jiro and hifumi!! I really liked their voices and like over all attitude and stuff.

4. Which was the first Division you liked?

My favorite was matenro, they were just so cute and I liked how they were pretty chill and just had fun most of the time. Like how they tried looking all edgy and intimidating but they were all nice guys lol.

5. How have your favorites changed?

Not much lol my favorite is still hifumi tho know I have jyushi and Otome if were ranking on like top 3. I love all the charas now tho!!! Lol these are just my bigger ones. Division wise now my favorite is mtc, followed by bat I'm still a matenro stan tho!! All divisions have done some big growing on me so I love all of them anyways.

6. What was the first song you listened to?

The 1st song I listened to was battle anthem, I was super convinced it was the 1st hypmic song so I was surprised to hear it was division rap battle lol.

7. What's your favorite solo song?

Ghhhh this is so hard to choose... I actually like basically every single hypmic song.... if we're talking only 1t set that's easier to choose. Um that would be sensenfukoku, drops and champagne gold, I like all the mtc ones so I cant choose. Second set every single one is amazing so I cant choose either, tho at the start I disliked most of them somehow...

8. What's your favorite group song?

Ok at 1st i thought it was like an all division song but I just read it and it's just group song in general.... I love all of them but one of my biggest comfort songs is papillion so I'll say papillion. If were talking all stars songs that's easier tho: in no particular order its hoodstar (just heard the + ver and it slapped), survival of the illest+, glory or dust and hang out.

9. Which songs do you think are slept on?

Mmmmm I personally have no idea which songs people like more in general but I have seen a bunch of "my favorite hypmic moments" videos so I'll base it on that. I'll personally say any mtc song lol, in those videos theres always a surprising lack of mtc so yeah.

10. Do your favorite songs come from your favorite Division?

Yes, tho it's really no problem bc I like all songs😅

11. Objectively, who do you think is the best rapper?

I had never heard a lot of rapping till hypmic so I have no idea what good rapping is lol... I personally thinks everyone does a good job, I guess someone else can school me on that.

12. Which composers for HypMic do you listen to?

None... I honestly dont like know who composes which song.... I know very little about music and I dont look into it so I cant answer this one either.

13. If you had to get someone into HypMic with one song what would it be?

Oh :0 well I'm not very sure but if anything I think the way to go would be an all stars song bc you can get the feel of each division pretty good, then if they like that introduce them to other stuff. Of course this all depends on the person lol... my brother really likes strong songs so to him battle anthem was a good hook up... I quite personally would go for survival of the illest bc it has a good feel of the divisions and it's very silly which is a series staple.

14. Do you play ARB? Drop your friend code for people reading!

Nooooo I dont 🤧😢 I really want to but I dont think I would have space on my phone, besides idk how to download it, if you have to pay for it I dont have money and if it's only in japanese I'm learning at snails speed so I wouldnt understand it *cries a little* I have seen certain events tho, I find it funny.

15. What events are you hoping to see? What character combos do you hope will show up together?

Mmmm idk I have a post about but I'll love to see a sasara jakurai interaction, I'm pretty sure one has already happened but I want this funny man to interact with jakurai more. Some people mentioned that they would like to see more interactions between kuuko and samatoki and I agree, wheres that side of the mad comic dialogue line up? I'll also like to see hitoya and samatoki bc they're both into vintage stuff ish, like fashion wise so I think it would be interesting to see. Last I want a jyushi/jiro interaction idk of there's any but there needs to be I need them to interact!!! Or maybe saburo jyushi that would also be interesting.

16. Are you into any ships?

Yes!!! I'm a little shy talking about ships not going to lie so I don't talk about it too much lol. I like samajyu a normal amount, I also like ichikuu, jiroshi, hifudo and hitojaku. I like a lot of other ships too tho, like ot3 mtc is good so is fling posse tho my favorite is ramugen. Hypmic has a bunch of cute ships so it's hard not to enjoy most.

17. Do you have a yume/self-ships? Platonic or romantic.

Not really lol, I have considered reading self insert before but I always feel a bit embarrassed. If you do you're super poggers tho.

Ok I'll keep answering in another post bc this is getting super long and the next question is one I want to say a lot about again. Umm if you happen to see this and want to answer them too fell free to!! You can tag me if you want as well, I love seeing others opinions about like hypmic and stuff so feel free too. If you want to comment on something I said you're free to do so as well

[autisticjon]

Well now I need to know about ninjago ship names

okay i'd like both of you to keep in mind that you willingly stepped into this bear trap. that being SAID welcome to my twisted ninjago!

this is operating solely in show!verse btw because the movie ship names are simply piggybacking off show names. why are they piggybacking off show names you ask? good question! it's because tlnm is essentially a ninjago high school au. pretty good if consumed detached from canon is what i'm saying. i've already strayed from the topic so that's a testament to how coherent this post is gonna be. oh well.

so some background knowledge. in lego ninjago: masters of spinjitzu, each of the main characters, as well as some of the minor characters, has an elemental power. generally these are pretty simple things (fire, ice, earth, water, lightning, and... whatever lloyd's is, green/power/life/nature/spirit/etc.) which will come in handy when we implement shipping.

5 out of the 6 main characters can be shipped together in various ways (excluding kai/nya because they are siblings as well as any lloyd/ninja ships because of the age gap). now, for some ships the pre-established pattern of smushing the characters' names together is followed, such as jaya (jay/nya) or wusako (wu/misako). for other ships, however, the ninjago fandom they were going to make things more complex than just frankensteining names together.

take, for example, cole and kai. this is a ship between the elemental master of earth (cole) and the elemental master of fire (kai). what do you get when you combine earth and fire? there's a few answers, but the one the ninjago fandom settled on was lava. this means that cole/kai is called lavashipping, or lava for short. essentially the same thing happened with plasmashipping (kai and jay, elemental master of lightning), glaciershipping (cole and zane, master of ice), and some other more niche ships, such as thinkfastshipping (neuro, master of mind and griffin turner, master of speed).

"wait!" i hear you cry, "what about if the fandom can't decide on a name!" well then we end up with situations like bruise/geode. cole/jay is typically known as bruiseshipping- i can't remember whether this is due to the fact that their representative colors, black and blue, are similar to that of a bruise or whether it's because they fight a lot. either/or probably. while bruise is the typically accepted name for the ship within the fandom, there's another name based on the elemental master scheme from above. geodeshipping is the alternate name for it, because presumably putting lightning and rocks together creates geodes. idk. for someone who's mother used to be a geologist i don't know a lot about rocks.

it's the same for kai and zane, which most people call oppositeshipping. i've also heard it called steamshipping though, because of the whole fire meets ice and creates steam thing. i didn't learn that from my geologist mother though i just did well in chemistry.

"wait!" i hear you cry again, "what about people that don't have elemental powers!" well, like i mentioned earlier with wusako, sometimes people just mush their names together. however sometimes alternatives can be found that fit within the -shipping theme. ronin/dareth has been dubbed scruffshipping because, in the immortal words of artofthecol, they are both gross pathetic older men. i don't actually know the reason behind scruff as a name i just know that it's the name. other examples are techoshipping (jay and zane, bc one's a robot and the other's a tech nerd), samuraishipping (pixal and nya, because they were both samurai x), forgivenshipping (lloyd and brad, the bully from that one darkley's episode), and greencheerleader (movie!ship but WHATEVER, lloyd and chen, the bully from tlnm).

there's a few ship names that are even more confusing (mountain, blizzard, heavy metal, hailstorm, citrus, etc.) and some that are just straight up what's written on the tin. polyninja (cole/jay/kai/zane)? good shit. electricdjinnshipping (jay/nadakhan)? bad shit but at least it's tagged so i can blacklist it without having to put in 7 variations of a ship name.

"wait!" i hear you cry a third time, "how does this relate to tma? also stop using this format from 2014 tumblr posts to signal focus changes in your impromptu essay about ninjago ship names please" alrighty will do. i tagged a post about jonmartin, the dinghy, and assorted theoretical jonmartin ship names with something along the lines of "thank god we don't have the ninjago ship naming system", which while i understand it in-depth i still felt the need to write a super long post explaining it so y'all could suffer with me.

my original thought when writing this tag out last night was that a similar naming convention could be implemented by taking each avatar's fear they're aligned with and figuring out what happens when you combined them. it's similar to what we have currently with lonely eyes, peter/elias, and "sightless flame" as a name for gertrude/agnes that i saw used in a post earlier today in that it's based on the characters' powers rather than their names. HOWEVER, after a day of ruminating on this topic, i've realized that it would be nearly impossible to implement this new system because of how fast the already large fandom is growing and the amount of dedication that would be required on everyone's parts.

issue one: unaligned characters. this is the most glaring issue to me, namely because martin, one of the characters i took as an example for this, could be argued to be aligned with any of 3+ fears right now. this means that he has no definitive powers or entity tied to him. we could still go with the non-power approach: survivorshipping, because both he and jon survived the institute? teashipping, because of tea? seeingisbelievingshipping, because of the whole i see you thing (it would not be the most ridiculous ship name i've seen)? there's quite a few options, which leads into my next point.

issue two: indecisiveness. again, tma fandom is a lot bigger than the ninjago fandom already and it's growing every day. let's say you managed to find a ship with two avatars: off the top of my head, annabelle cane and daisy. not sure how that'd work in canon but whatever. annabelle's tied to the web (no pun intended) which means anything related to spiders, manipulation, lying, etc. could fit in her wheelhouse. daisy's the hunt, so anything about hunting, pursing, the thrill of the chase, so on and so forth. there's a lot of space for you to put those two together in. unfortunately, this means that it'd be hard to settle on one option that made everybody happy, and inevitably newcomers would have to decipher the ship names and possibly be spoiled by them.

in conclusion, [insert gif of tim stoker doing the harlem shake here]. thanks for coming to my ted talk

[taco-and-mango]

everyone else was making Shlorpian OCs, so here’s my lil family. more info under the cut!

so because I never half ass anything that’s not important, I thought way too hard about what it would be like if they appeared on the show and how they’d fit into the mix so here’s some fun facts, including potential voice actors:

Viyma - would be voiced by Chelsea Peretti - worked as the Shlorpian equivalent of a doctor, specializing in the process of cutting plant material off of people to use to create replicants - on Shlorp she was a total bombshell, I mean look at the curve of her head godDAMN - used to using her looks to get stuff/favors - actually really smart and works hard on things she gives a shit about (her job, family, bocce ball) - was in the same class in the Academy as Korvo - they fucking hated each other - they also hate fucked each other - robe looks like it flares out for dramatic effect but really she's just got A Fat Ass - Big Top Energy -started growing her replicant later than others in her age range because she was Married To The Job and didn't prioritize creating her own as opposed to helping others create theirs - Wine Mom, but never says no to vodka - has a soft spot for replicants (not just hers, she's pretty nice to Jesse and Yumyulack as well) - makes fun of Korvo for not having his ship repaired by now and refuses to help - partially because she has no idea how because she had someone do her Ship Repair classwork in the Academy but Korvo doesn't need to know that Xechee - probably voiced by Kristen Schaal idk lmao - Viyma's replicant - struggled to grow during her incubation and emerged from the soil earlier than normal - real pipsqueek - not actually dumb but def naive - never knows wtf is going on but is just happy to be there - chose female pronouns relatively early for her age - likes flowers a whole lot, hence why she wears one (it's not fungus from lack of handwashing, Viyma's checked) - her fingers never grew properly, just her thumbs, so her hands look like little mittens - will only eat food if you put maple syrup on it first - too young to really be helpful on the mission as of now but she's fun to have around Phin (full first name is Zelphin) - would be voiced by Joel McHale - pupa expert, and unlike Terry, he actually knows shit about the pupa - he and Viyma were kind of into each other before news of the asteroid came out - was friends with someone on the committee to assign mission partners and might have... influenced him to partner him and Viyma together - used to be a huge fuckin dweeb - Terry pantsed him at the Academy once but considering they wore robes nobody saw anything and it wasn't actually that funny - he's still salty about it though - Shlorp version of Be Careful Who You Made Fun Of In High School - Terry doesn't hate Phin but Phin definitely hates Terry - gets into microbrewing at some point probably - really into the Rugged Camping Dad aesthetic, owns 12 flannel shirts - petty af - cocky and constantly overcompensating - a pretty good dad to Willow and Xechee regardless - Don't Talk To Him Until He's Had His Coffee Willow - would be voiced by Ilana Glazer - Phin's replicant - mellow as hell, kind of a hippie - doesn't wear shoes - won't eat meat, and won't even eat fruits or vegetables bc they're technically living - eats straight up dirt to survive (Shlorp version of a vegan) - still smokes weed, and will eat anything while high - a little older than Jesse and Yumyulack, like 16-17 in earth years - discovered yoga pants and can never go back - was training on Shlorp to work in the Solarium and take care of incubating replicants - as a result, she's really into gardening and plants on Earth - got made fun of a lot on Shlorp for picking a dumb name like Willow and not a proper Shlorpian one like Xanthiolix or Greg - probably has a yoga and mediation Instagram 

Yeah but then I was like ‘wait why would they interact with the Earth fam if they’re supposed to be on another planet? so here a basic summary of what would go down: 

A new neighbor moves in across the street from Terry and Korvo named Brent and they NEED to get to know him better.

Korvo believes he would be able to assist with ship repair because he saw him changing the oil in his car once and I mean, come on, he would definitely be able to lift things Korvo couldn't. With those arms?? (also basically he wants to be friends with him and maybe fuck him but doesn't want to admit that). Terry wants to be friends with him because he saw the big screen tv in his living room and also thinks he'd be into doing butt stuff. He doesn't seem offput by aliens either, so that's a plus!

After a few failed attempts to befriend him they notice a space ship, very much like theirs, in his driveway. Was Brent in disguise this whole time?? Could he be a Shlorpian who could help them with ship repair??? And then Terry doesnt have to hear Korvo complain about how he never helps with ship repair???? Even better!

Then they find out the actual Shlorpians are Viyma and Phin, Korvo and Terry's respective rivals from their homeworld. Not only would they never help them with ship repair or the Pupa, but apparently they're both dating Brent? And they're going to constantly be around to spend time with him???

GREAT.

Yeah I haven’t drawn Brent yet but I like poly couples and I figured it’d also give these clowns an excuse to visit earth and annoy the Solar Opposites fam. They met Brent at Trader Joe’s because their uninhabited planet doesn’t have one so they would make the trip idk  shut up

I’m new to digital art (and it’s been a while since I’ve drawn at all because of reasons but I’ve been wanting to get back into it) and I drew Viyma first, so she looks kind of rough but I think I’ve already improved! I did Willow and Xechee (pronounced Zee Chee btw) last and I feel like I was starting to get the hang of what tf I was doing. Hopefully I’ll be able to draw the canon characters soon (and maybe Brent and their pupa)

[lovedcult]

happy birthday to the bestie @summerlost​​ 💗💭 !!!!!!!!!!!!!  jia. 🙈 what a crazy year it's been. all these memories we've made together. girl you crazy 😫but im not even about to put all that on tumblr 😂. congrats on another trip around the sun, im so proud of you ❤ love u girlie see u at the club LMFAOO😂❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉 

( jk ur real bday message is under the read more ilu HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABEY )

literally me preparing this message just hours before ur birthday but i was determined to have it ready by the time it hit midnight for u so HERE I AM HELLO 🤍 going to try and make this letter heartfelt and cute because we never say things like this to each other but u really have become such an important person in my life in such a short time u just mean very much to me and i really do want you to know just wonderful and special u are to me !! we have only known each other ?? like 5 months ? is that right ? girl idk but within those 5 months we have managed to talk to each other like every single day except maybe 2 days isn’t that so crazy ? so i want to thank u for always keeping me company and crying over txt with me and just being such a warm source of happiness in my life, it really has been so wonderful to get to know you and to be ur friend 🤍 

going to list some things that you’ve done for me that maybe you don’t know you’ve done for me but you deserve to know .. i know i said i was gonna get mushy here but good ness .. anyway it’s so nice to wake up to messages from u everyday and to go to sleep after talking to u all day and knowing that i will have a friend whenever i need it like fr i don’t know how we do it because i am usually so bad at communication rip ..... it has just always felt so easy to talk to you and we clicked right away and there was never a moment of awkwardness like there can be when first meeting someone which thank god .  i’m more comfy with u than i have been with some friends i’ve known for 5+ years and i think that says a lot about our friendship as well as you as a person. we talk literally all the time and it just makes me so happy, i look forward to talking to u every day 💗 whether its about our ships or personal lives or random shite or my godson pumpkin it never matters to me, i am just so happy you are here and that i get to know you

did you know i like never listened to taylor swift before meeting u ? apart from that one time i saw her live in concert when i was like 12 but i don’t even remember that NSNSNSN but i’ll have you know the songs you’ve showed me are special to me now and i enjoy listening to them and she will now forever remind me of u! i have a tendency to try to get into things and like what my friends like so just know whenever you show me stuff i will file it in the heart shaped jia folder in my brain and keep it there forever. literally no matter what it is. tht goes for pacrim too that was so random but i became obsessed with it right after u showed it to me and i’ve actually watched it twice more after we watched it together <3 speaking of, i hope we can have more movie nights together or just cute lil kosmi dates in general because they are so fun and we have a watchlist piling up already so we should crack that open when we can … whenever ur nawt busy being a doctor or whatever

reminds me; do u remember that time i panicked because i ate burnt chicken nuggets and u told me i was gonna get c*ncer ? girl fun times NMDCNBJSAKFJSFJSDV just so you know i WILL be directing any of my future health concerns to u because i might just break otherwise bc i don’t know how to survive and we don’t want that i don’t think so glad i have a smart sexy big brain friend like u in my life

i hope you have a wonderful wonderful wonderful day today which you just might because it’s also txt comeback today ( u fuckin lucky bitch i cant believe they are obsessed with u ) you deserve it so much !! you work so hard all of the time and i know school can be stressful as well as life but i really am so proud of u because u are doing great things and it will all pay off. u are never alone through any of it either so when it gets too hard u will always have me beside u !!! promise !!!! i love u lots !!!!! even tho ur a gemini !!!! but ur my gemini !!!!!!!

also want to mention how just WONDERFUL it has been writing with u omg ??? we have 11 official plots going on rn as well as a bunch of unofficial ones and it has just been the loveliest experience getting to write and ship with u with every single one of them and it’s just been so fun. u are such a talented writer and u put so much effort and thought into all of ur muses which i immensely applaud u for. you should know this already though considering i am vocally in love with all of them ( when jungjae finally d words i will be coming to sweep up sooyeon i really dont care what u have to say its out of ur hands ? let it go ) … jia best rp partner .. i’ve never had a writing partner that gets so involved with our plots the way you do with me and shows the interest that you do and it means so very much to me, i feel very lucky and im forever thankful u messaged me the day u did and introduced urself because i am a scared bitch and probably would have just admired u from afar on the dash instead <3 i hope we can have 327234 more plots and ships in the future because u have managed to make each of them so special. 

i feel like this letter is so all over the place but am i gonna go back in and make it prettier ? naur because im a mess writing it so ur getting the full heidy emotional love spill experience .. this is the first bday im spending with u so i had to write u this & let u know just how much u mean to me . literally thinking abt u all the time and am always hoping u are happy and having good days on the other side of the world <3 ur just that wonderful. thank u for being my friend beyond the rpc and i hope the future can bring us even closer together !!!! i love u so much stinky ( with affection ) stay sexy ......... <33333

us btw

[ship-obsessions]

Welcome to Bardo (& Nakara)

So I FINALLY feel like the season is picking up on the story in Season 7 (thank god) and the lull of the first few episodes—excluding the brilliance of episode 2 The Garden bc I LOVE my found family of Diyoza, Hope and Auntie O—to set the scene is starting to build and pay off.

As always there are so many different storylines, this season taking place across 4(!!) different planets, but as it seems to be the general consensus my fav plot is exploring the mystery of Bardo and the anomaly. I’ve been genuinely surprised at how much I’ve liked the Echo/Hope/Gabriel dynamic (until Echo’s newfound rage killing spree) and adding Octavia/Diyoza to the mix this past episode is *chef’s kiss*. I’m a little annoyed at how Clarke has been sidelined so far this season but I’m hoping (and assuming) that she will be back in the main spotlight when her group reaches Bardo (hopefully next episode) and combines forces with the Bardo “rescue” crew (lol they haven’t really had many successful rescues yet). I’m HIGH KEY annoyed at the lack of Bellamy of course, but even though I’m positive he isn’t actually dead it’s still frustrating for him to be off-screen. I hope Clarke breaks down when she finds out he’s supposedly dead (pls from Octavia) and everyone can see how much she loves and cares for him—sensing a callback to her conversation with Raven this episode “how do you do it? you never break” (or maybe that was foreshadowing...). Loved that moment btw. So glad Princess Mechanic was forced to talk one-on-one this episode and get to a mutual understanding and hopefully a step closer toward friendship. I would have loved even more heartfelt confessions and bonding between them (like if Clarke admitted when she did almost break ie. alone on Earth and in both situations with Bellamy and Madi) but I know there’s only so much time in the episode *sigh*.

I can’t even break down the shitshow going on in Sanctum... I’ve been against the whole repetitive narrative of “us” v “them” factions that don’t seem to have any common sense and focus on petty fights rather than understanding the greater problem at hand (I know they aren’t aware of it yet but like chill out and get along for a few days ffs). Although Insta is absolutely BOSS and the perfect leader in Clarke’s absence. I also loved Madi’s protective aunt and uncles (Emori, Murphy and Jackson). Wow what a beautiful, dysfunctional delinquent family all grown up *sheds tear*. Can they all be back together at the farmhouse having another picnic already? Pls.

Anyways... super excited about the Second Dawn connection. Since it was confirmed that Cadogan and his bunker crew used the anomaly stone on Earth to travel to Bardo after the first apocalypse (makes sense that one cult transforms into another) I’m thinking that Eligius 3 were the “native Bardoans” because their mission left several years before the first apocalypse. Maybe they didn’t figure out how to survive? Or maybe Cadogan came and killed them and just passed down a retold version of history? Oooo I could totally see that with all the previous warped versions of history that made it to future generations.

Still holding out hope for Bellarke since we’re still in the first half of the season. In the meantime I’ll be sitting here patiently anxiously waiting for their inevitably beautiful reunion. The longest they’ve ever been separated before—other than the 2,199 day time jump—was 6 episodes in episode 3 (between 3x05 and 3x11). All other separations have been shorter or else they were at least communicating (via the radio in season 2) or sharing the screen (even though Clarke was Josephine most of season 6). Fingers crossed for that reunion in episode 7 or 9 (8 is the backdoor pilot for the prequel). However, the more Bellamy is MIA from the story, the more I’m thinking he might somehow be the anomaly stormtrooper who grabbed Gaia before breaking the anomaly Stone. Plus I could see the writers totally giving us another “surprise bitch it’s Bellamy” moment of revealing himself from a helmet just like they will (probably) have another Clarke pulling a lever to save the world moment. Gotta love those parallels!!

P.S. I freaking LOVE Levitt and totally ship him and Octavia. Although I’m still loving Gabriel and would love him with her too... idk maybe I’m leaning more towards Levitt because Octavia deserves a man who treats her like a queen. Speaking of queens... who do we think the queen is in next episode “The Queen’s Gambit”. Clarke? She was literally shown as the queen in Sheidheda’s chess game with that subtle transition, but she wasn’t shown in the preview for next week. I actually googled “gambit” because I wasn’t sure what it meant lol but I found it’s either “a device, action, or opening remark, typically entailing a degree of risk that is calculated to gain an advantage” or specifically in chess as “an opening in which a player makes a sacrifice (typically a pawn) for the sake of some compensating advantage.” Well shit now I’m overthinking again. I wonder which plot line this is referring to? If it’s Clarke’s it could be her grand entrance to Bardo to showdown with Anders—like she just takes the risk and storms in guns a blazing to save her friends and shows the disciples the bad bitch she is. Or it could be referencing the chess game methaphor and she has to sacrifice someone (in the Nakara crew??) to gain an advantage over Anders... Based on the preview it seems like Emori could be the pawn sacrificed in the chess game that’s currently taking place in Sanctum—pls god don’t let that happen. Or maybe Emori is the queen since she’s playing the false god as a Prime and she makes some kind of sacrifice to gain back control of Sanctum for our heroes. The obvious option seems to be Clarke because she’s been referenced as the queen so many times in the show and has been positioned as the queen on the chess game metaphorically with Bellamy serving as her Knight/King. Idk anymore. My brain hurts.

[in-tua-deep]

My dude, my buddy, my guy, my gal, my pal. Please yeet more of this daemon AU at me, I'm super interested in this whole idea and would love to hear more, how do all of the daemons interact with each other?? What are the little quirks shared between daemon and human?? Did any of them have a phase where they couldn't stand their daemon?? Did Vanya's owl claw out Leonard's eyes when the truth came out?? How exactly would they find out that Five's daemon didn't settle?? I'm living for this AU now

oh i am SO ready for more daemon au are you kidding here we go starting with some NAMES because all good ocs need names and while the first post was mainly for just saying what animal is what now i can develop it into a full au and no one can stop me

So the kids and their daemons share a name for most of their lives, they’re both just,, one or two and so on. But when they get names they run into the roadblock of “do our daemons get the same names as us??” and realize that their one (1) example of a human/daemon relationship is their dad he his daemon doesn’t share his name so… probably not. But he only ordered Grace to give the human in the relationship a name so it’s up to their what their daemons names will be

I’m thinking Luther probably gave his daemon a space themed name because he’s my good space boy so I’m going to name his daemon Andromeda after the galaxy !! I think she would have wanted a somewhat regal sounding name because she tries really hard to model herself after Reggie’s daemon, who is the very definition of regal. Luther calls her Dromeda or Drom for short occasionally

Diego’s daemon HMMM i’m gonna say Valencia, Val for short because that means brave and I think it would be important to Diego to have a defender of some kind and they both would want so desperately to be brave bless their hearts

oh man i am absolutely naming Allison’s daemon Amraphel which means “one that speaks of secrets” and Allison calls him Raph for short and he’s still lazy and I still love him a whole lot

Klaus’s daemon i’m admittedly a bit stuck on but i’m gonna call them Rowan because it’s a tree that symbolizes life and courage and as some very fearful kids with death powers I think they’d appreciate it. Rowan is nonbinary btw (”are you a girl or a boy” “i’m made of fucking dust why does it matter”)

I named Five’s daemon Pancha because I like it and I feel like naming her Quinque, which is Five in Latin, would be way obvious because if you think Reggie didn’t make these kids learn an archaic dead language because he’s a pretentious ass then you’re probably wrong so yes Pancha it is and when the kids figure out it’s literally the number five in another language they’re going to throw a fit

Ben’s daemon is named Tamaya which means in the center literally just because they’re in the middle of two planes of existence and one is full of monsters and also because i like the name Tama as well so this is really two birds with one stone and no one can stop me

and finally Vanya’s daemon is named Pollux for exactly no reason other than because I say so and it sounds like it could be a name for a daemons from the books which i was trying very hard for the aesthetic with all the names but it’s been so long since i’ve read them oops

ALRIGHT with that over with i can actually yell about them which i’m putting under the cut because this is going to be long as FUCK

so how the daemons interact with each other… I’m probably going to leave out Tamaya for most just bc most of them don’t know that she survived Ben’s death for like,, a really long time in the fic i have half planned in my head

SO i already mentioned Andromeda is kind of a stick in the mud and unimpressed with her siblings shenanigans. She tries really hard to emulate their dad/their dad’s daemon but doesn’t have the control on her temper that she should. She’s blunt and says what she’s thinking, she doesn’t really care about the fact that daemons don’t usually speak to people that aren’t their own and she’ll boss everyone around given the chance tbh

She doesn’t get along with Val at all and there’s a lot of posturing between the two especially after they both settle. Generally she’s dismissive but occasionally she taunts Val with the fact that she settled as something that protects against wolves, and that clearly Val is too wild to ever amount to much. Val hits right back calling her and Luther “Dad’s obedient little dogs” and just generally when you have Luther and Diego going at one another Drom and Val are only half a step behind them

She gets along well with Raph and often carries him around when Allison calls him lazy and refuses to do it. Despite that thought Raph is like,, super muscular and strong and he’s a bigass snake, Drom used to carry him into position during missions and let’s just say they were a solid interrogation team with Drom’s teeth and Raph literally squeezing information out of people when necessary (though he can always rumor people just like Allison, he’s not fond of doing it and calls it cheating because he’s a contrary bastard). He tends to help immobilizing people and their daemons and is used as a restraint a lot until their people with thumbs can come along with rope or something

Andromeda and Rowan do NOT get along, mainly because Rowan is pretty vocal about the fact that their dad fucked them up and has no respect. Some of it also comes from the fact that Andromeda is a little jealous of Rowan’s grace as a cat because their dad’s fox daemon is exceptionally graceful and regal. But generally Andromeda ignores Rowan or growls at him, she’s never physically laid a paw on him outside of sparring until that scene with drunk and depressed Luther though

Andromeda,, also doesn’t really get along with Pancha either. It has a lot to do with the fact that as kids Pancha was constantly shifting where Drom would keep a form and stick to it. She would often tell Pancha that one day she’d settle well lmao jokes on her. Pancha used to frequently insults Drom’s intelligence and has called her a “dumb mutt” before but upon return those insults have been conspicuously absent for ALL the siblings. Five still has a fairly venomous tongue, but Pancha keeps her silence.

Andromeda and Pollux don’t have a relationship, simple as that. She ignores Pollux’s existence, even when the other daemon attempts to interact with her. She basically assumes their father is correct in Vanya’s uselessness and as such doesn’t care all that much about either of them. To be fair Pollux has learned from their childhood and doesn’t interact with Andromeda much either, and even when Vanya attempts to like,, call Luther out Pollux keeps his silence.

Val doesn’t like Andromeda and isn’t afraid to show it, bristling and snarling. Val actually settled first of the two of them (a point of pride), and some part of her is a little hurt that Drom turned into a dog that protects a pack from wolves and took it personally as Luther’s literal soul saying that he didn’t see Diego and her as part of the pack. 

Her and Raph don’t really talk a lot but they have a lot of relatable sibling-eye-contact moments over their family being dumb shits and whenever Andromeda wasn’t available it was Val who would carry Raph so they’re actually closer to one another than their people are. Raph firmly refuses to get between any argument of Drom and Val’s and would 100% rumor them apart when they were all kids because Raph was Sick Of Their Shit™ despite his general distaste for rumoring

Val and Rowan get along pretty well actually, Rowan frequently hops up to ride on her back like they’re the captain of a furry wolf shaped ship and Val allows it even though she thinks they’re a little shit. Rowan used to hide behind Val from Reggie and his daemon and Val might still have a lot of protective pack instincts that she showers on them because they allow it. Val may or may not be 90% of the reason that Diego just sighs and lets Klaus tag along whenever, though Diego and Val often disagree on how to handle the Klaus/Rowan situation since Val wants to kidnap them both and keep them safe in their boiler room while Diego is of the firm belief that Klaus is a big boy now and they aren’t responsible for him. 

Val thought Pancha was a mischievous little shit when they were kids as the other daemon would frequently jump wherever she pleased. Val isn’t surprised when Pancha “settles” as a hare since they’re associated with tricksters and are more solitary and independent and tougher than their rabbit counterparts. She’s super worried about Pancha when she arrived back with Five though, since the other daemon is far more withdrawn and look daemons are representations of someone’s soul they can’t lie - Five can put on a tough act all he likes but Pancha’s behavior is pretty clearly off and she looks at all of them like she’s seeing ghosts. Val is the one to carry Pancha back after the shrapnel incident, swearing because she knew she should have been suspicious that Five was carrying Pancha when she’d always hated being carried when they were kids

Val doesn’t particularly care for Pollux and is actually mildly uneasy around him. There’s just something… off about the other daemon. It raises Val’s hackles even if she doesn’t know why, and she doesn’t figure it out until after the fact that the reason she was wary of Pollux is literally because on some level she recognized the chains on him via the medication and was repulsed even though it wasn’t Pollux’s fault. She’s trying to be better after the fact with him.

I’m making myself so sad about Pollux right now tbh he deserves so much better than what he’s got but moving on

Raph is honestly the chillest daemon with everyone else’s daemon. No one has beef with Raph. Like, they might have beef with Allison, but not with Raph which might be why Allison and Raph are probably the least in sync out of the siblings with their daemon actually outside of Vanya. Raph loves Andromeda who carries him places and doesn’t mind him winding up on her because she’s warm. 

Raph considers Val to be his bitchface pal and they bond over their people being stupid. Honestly Raph just wants to sleep for the most part. But legit though Allison and Raph need an intervention for them never being on the same page I think Raph might resent Allison leaving to become a star and he’s the one that dislikes using their power and constantly advised against using it so he might, on some level, blame Allison for them losing Claire (and Allison wonders if the stereotype against snake daemons played a role and sort of blames him) and honestly their relationship is a fucking mess

Raph and Rowan are chill, they’re bros, they know what they’re about. Raph thinks Rowan’s sense of humor is fucking hilarious and they’re both sleepy bitches (Rowan is a cat they knows what they’re about regarding catnaps) so they napped together a lot when everyone was under the same roof. They’re at an unspoken truce regarding the drug issue because unlike the rest of the family Raph actually listens when Rowan explains about their power being the fucking worst and having to numb it down after Raph offers to rumor them to get clean. But yeah like Allison and Klaus don’t hang out much but Raph and Rowan are bros.

I said Raph gets along with p much everyone but he’s not super close with Pancha simply because she was constantly on the move and shifting every other minute as kids back when everyone was unsettled like she was constantly itching to get out of her own skin. Like, Pancha’s thing is moving and being quick and honestly Raph is a little surprised she didn’t settle as a bird daemon the way she flits about. Raph being lazy, they didn’t see much of one another but he was always up for a conversation when Pancha calmed down enough or exhausted herself. He likes her, he just thinks she’s exhausting. He’s much more concerned for her after she gets back from the apocalypse though.

Raph and Pollux kind of,, also don’t have a big relationship tbh. There’s just something about Pollux that makes Raph uneasy, but he’s a chill dude and is probably one of the closest to Pollux after Pancha. Sometimes when Raph would be going slithering through the house, Pollux would sit upon his back and chill as they both went to whatever destination. Raph does think it’s a little weird that Pollux doesn’t fly considering he’s, you know, a bird, but he doesn’t press the issue (which he regrets, later). But overall he’s not nearly as interested in mending bridges with Vanya as Allison is since there’s still that something that prevents him from fully liking Pollux. But as the plot progresses he warms up to the idea more and more without realizing that the reason he’s warming is because they stopped taking the drugs hmm

Rowan doesn’t get along with Andromeda but they’re pretty chill with everyone else’s daemons. They get surprisingly protective of their siblings and even though Klaus isn’t great in a fight pre-Vietnam, Rowan isn’t afraid to flash their claws when necessary. The biggest reason they got kidnapped is because Hazel’s daemon didn’t come to the firefight in the manor and they weren’t willing to break the taboo on touching a human when it seemed like the primary objective was to take Klaus not to kill him. They ended up regretting it for the torture scene though oof.

Rowan loves Val a whole lot and likes trying to groom her and they 100% climb up on Val’s back when they feel like being lazy. Rowan is a self proclaimed dog person though they often say that there are always exceptions and eye Andromeda but this comes up again with Dave and his australian cattle dog daemon where, when they meet, Rowan blurts out that they’re a dog person and Dave’s daemon snorts in laughter considering that Klaus’s daemon is literally a cat. He is the personification of ‘cat person’ his soul is a cAT.

I already yelled about Rowan and Raph being nap buds, they like Raph because he’s never judged them and just accepts that they know their powers well enough to know what does and doesn’t work

Rowan and Pancha actually get along weirdly well?? Like, Rowan can be off the walls crazy at times as you know cats get that simply zest for life and just go fucking nuts for a while before going back to sleep?? so Rowan is actually one of the few of the siblings daemons who could keep up with her when they were kids and Pancha was the last of them unsettled. There was a minor freak out where they didn’t see Pancha at first when Five popped out of the portal which prompted the whole “does anyone else see little number five” comment bc ghosts don’t have daemons but then Pancha popped up and Rowan was so fuCKING RELIEVED and continuously prodded at Klaus to follow either Diego or Five because they want to hang out with Val and Pancha

The only one of the siblings daemons who knows that Tamaya is still alive. She doesn’t speak almost at all, only rarely talking to Klaus but she talks a little more to Rowan. Tamaya is usually curled up in Klaus’s pockets or general clothing but there have been a few occasions where she rides on Rowan’s shoulders or goes off on her own for a little while (those are the occasions where Ben’s ghost also goes off for a little while, neither Klaus nor Rowan question where they go). Tamaya also occasions hides in Klaus’s room instead of accompanying them places. During the kidnapping she nibbles through Klaus’s restraints and allows him to escape a little more easily since no one expects an unaccompanied daemon, haven’t decided yet how this impacts the whole Patch dying situation

Rowan doesn’t really talk to Pollux and Pollux doesn’t talk to them, though Rowan does care about Pollux. Rowan is the most easygoing with Pollux because honestly being high means that they don’t notice Pollux’s strangeness on the same level as the others and will often direct comments towards the owl daemon. Pollux rarely responds, however.

Pancha time!! I love Pancha she’s a ball of nervous energy and can’t sit still half the time. As a kid she was constantly shifting between animals like she would run across a room and be five different animals in the time it took her to get to the other end, just always restless. She and Five kept each other sane in the apocalypse - I haven’t decided whether Dolores exists in this au and if she does would she get a stuffed animal daemon?? Decisions decisions. She’s changed a LOT from the Pancha that the others remember and is noticeably a lot more quiet and standoffish, but also she fades into the background where as a kid she was constantly bursting to the foreground and demanding attention. She looks at them all like they’re ghosts and will flinch when addressed sometimes even by other daemons. The others can sense there’s something just a little bit off about her but attribute that to the trauma (eventually though it comes out that Pancha is still unsettled and that explains it)

Pancha never got along with Andromeda and they butted heads a lot before Pancha left. Pancha’s a smartass daemon alongside her person so would frequently insult Andromeda’s intelligence or go off plan because she thought of something better and would frequently yell for Andromeda to ‘adapt!’ because that was her biggest criticism. Her fluidly changing from one form to another depending on the situation was her calling card for adapting and Andromeda would always growl that one day Pancha would have to settle and Pancha would shrug it off. As adults they still don’t really see eye to eye though Pancha has noticeably softened towards Andromeda. She doesn’t call the other daemon a dumb mutt anymore and in fact doesn’t insult any of the others at all.

Pancha liked irritating Val when they were kids but still got along reasonably well with her. Now that they’re back, Val is noticeably more protective of her family and Pancha is included with that. There are a couple of moments where Val bores holes into Pancha’s head to try and telepathically ask if the hare is okay that Pancha doesn’t respond to. When Five and Pancha are drunk off their asses, Val is the one who carries Pancha even though Luther is carrying Five. She insisted. She also carried Pancha home after the shrapnel injury and curled around her on the bed absolutely FURIOUS that someone dared to hurt her sibling. Pancha says some things while drunk that break Val’s heart, and Pancha never protests the coddling unlike Five. She doesn’t lean into it, but she doesn’t protest it.

Pancha and Raph aren’t close but Pancha likes the other daemon regardless because he never did pry into her business and showed her how to do cool tricks as a snake after he settled and she didn’t. Raph never made comments about her being the last to settle unlike most of the others (even though Ben and Vanya only ever mentioned it kindly).

Pancha and Rowan are bros though Pancha disapproves of Rowan drugging themself to keep the powers at bay and always expresses that they have faith that Rowan will learn to control them one day. Honestly Rowan finds it kind of nice even if Pancha disapproves because at least she disapproves because she 100% believes in them instead of being disapproving for disapproval’s sake. Pancha expresses that even drugged Rowan is one of the most observant of their siblings. Rowan worries about her after she comes back and keeps trying to convince Klaus to go after Five, but Five has a very venomous tongue and Klaus is delicate no matter how much Rowan figures it’s just a defense mechanism since Pancha doesn’t echo the sentiments. Rowan is worried about Five as well. Rowan is just worried :(

Pancha is the only one in the family who loves Pollux and actively seeks the other daemon out. She knows something isn’t right, but instead of being repulsed finds herself delighted at the mystery and assumes that the ‘wrongness’ is why Pollux doesn’t fly. Before Pancha jumped to the apocalypse, she kept trying to teach Pollux how to fly by shifting into various birds but it never did stick.

Yeah though Pollux is a daemon that really unnerves other daemons because they can tell something is terribly wrong even if they can’t quite put their finger on what. Pollux and Vanya don’t really communicate either and get second place in the “our human/daemon relationship is super messed up” after Allison and Raph. 

Pollux doesn’t really speak. To anyone. Especially after Five and Pancha vanish. He’s just,, not really all the way there to be honest. He goes where Vanya does but does precious little, often standing as still as a statue on his perch until moved again. Sometimes he’ll interact with other daemons but not usually by speaking - he’s sat on Raph’s back or tugged at Andromeda’s fur to get her attention or silently stood in someone’s way but seriously for the most part he’s somewhat catatonic. 

After they go off the meds he starts perking up again and speaks for the first time in years to Leonard/Harold and his skua daemon. He actually does have a personality, but he’s been suppressed for so long that he’s still figuring himself out alongside Vanya tbh 

As the White Violin his colors switch and instead of being brown with white spots as a spotted owl he becomes white with brown spots. He also is constantly flying while they’re using their powers, flapping and keeping himself aloft roughly above Vanya’s head, half suspended by their own power. As they figure out control, they eventually realize that it’s Pollux who can direct their sound based attacks with his wings and if Vanya tries to go alone it’s uncontrolled like the attack on the trucker dudes without the focus of her violin. They have to work together to control Vanya’s powers, and it’s difficult because they genuinely don’t really have much of a relationship or know each other very well since they’ve been sedated since Vanya was like, four years old

this post is already so so long so i’ll cut it off here probably but yeAH there’s probably a scene where Pollux attacks Leonard/Harold’s daemon and claws her eye out and there’s a translated wound on Leonard because that’s how daemons work and then they both get fucked up by Vanya and Pollux’s powers/knife storm thing

(Pollux isn’t as angry as Vanya is, truthfully. He’s just… tired. He’s so tired. Vanya wants to end the world in her fury. Pollux wants to end it just so everything… stops.)

but yes please keep asking me questions about this au i’m living for it i love these dumb idiots and their daemons

(still need to come up names for the background character daemons, there’s a part of my mind whispering don’t you fucking dare name reginald’s daemon regina soul i swear to fuck so that’s a thing - i’ll also take suggestions for background character daemon names as well!! it was hard enough coming up with these losers)

[roominthecastle]

Hi Room! Did you read Bokenkamp last interview?? Imo, there’s hope for Lizzington, am I right?? I like his explanation about John’s parent-child thing! Idk if you are going to read it, but if you do, I would love read your opinion! Thanks!

Okay, I went and looked this up and I agree, anon.

for those who don’t know what this is about, there’s a JB interview that came out a few days ago where he - unprompted - finally addresses in detail what many of us have had issues w/, that is:

“On the parent-child thing, you know, John says that often in interviews and I sometimes get after him about it because it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what it is — a parent-child relationship. What he means is that it is parent-child baked into the DNA of their roles. He’s a more experienced, seasoned, crazy bad guy. She started — and is still, in comparison to him — learning. And learning from him. And he has lots of advice that she takes. And so, you know, it doesn’t mean that he’s her father or, Troy, her mother, or, you know, and that it’s parent-child in that way (although it could mean that). But it doesn’t — that’s not what John’s saying. He’s just saying that there’s a — an inherent sort of parental nature that one is learning from the other.” (transcript courtesy of @alyblacklist, thank you! read the whole thing here)

Now, this is one of his better interviews, I admit, and despite everything I feel grateful that this show exists and that JB (in all good faith) tries to give us an insight into the messy balancing act of writing for a network show, but I still have 2 main issues here and both stem from the same source:

(1) “crazy bad guy” – seriously? Red is a beautiful, classic Byronic hero (or, in a broader, more modern sense, an antihero) for crying out loud. The troping is already laid in thick and somehow they still cannot articulate what it is that they have in him. I know Red is mostly James’ own creation (it shows, lbr -- the emotional intelligence, the eloquence, the self-awareness, the delicious nuance in everything he says and does) but still how can you dismiss his character like that even if it was just an attempt to be idk… funny? This is exactly what grates me to no end when these guys try to talk about Red and his relationship w Liz. It comes across so reductive, disrespectful, and disingenuous most of the time. Which brings me to

(2) apparently the actual (non-offensive) term to apply to Red/Liz is/should be adult mentoring. And when you mentor another adult, you do not label them a child ffs. This isn’t the norm btw professors and students at my uni and it’s def not the norm at workplaces where you’re assigned a mentor to supervise and orient you as you learn the ropes (at least not at those I’ve been to). In fact, it would be deeply insulting to be labeled a “child” in this situation, esp when you are an adult woman and you are mentored by a man. Also, if you insist on this being some defining element of their dynamic (I am all for it when done right), then maybe we should see some actual consistent mentoring btw these two bc it was great and def there in S1 but became kinda sporadic after that. In S6, for instance, it’s completely absent. Red giving Liz & the task force cases and then leaving them in the dark and to their own devices is not mentoring, it’s delegating.

To me it was already clear that James dislikes/dismisses the “parent-child” label (he shut down JE at SDCC, he never uses it during interviews and it’s in his portrayal of Red, too) and now it seems JB actually has a somewhat similar attitude but he’s still wishy-washy about it for some reason. “It is not that but it could be but in fact it is not but no” Come on.

Apparently, their entire reasoning behind using this label is that a hardened crime lord knows more about the practicalities of being a criminal than an FBI agent does and that he cannot stay mad at her when she rips his heart out. Okay, then. He also knows more than Cooper or Ressler, and he lets a lot of stuff slide w/ those two he normally wouldn’t w/ associates, yet those men are not characterized as “children”. I wonder why. And not being able to stay mad at someone “just” means you’re invested in them bc you love and care about them. Cooper couldn’t stay angry at his cheating wife, either. Liz couldn’t stay mad at Tim, not even after he beat her and coerced sex from her. So are these now parent-child dynamics, too? Please.

It’s a ridiculous, misused label that – at this point – is likely kept alive to appease the crybabies who need a security blanket now bc their simplistic, misogynistic fixation on “he can only be her parent” isn’t being humored on-screen anymore. It’s irritating but at least now we have additional confirmation about how little water this holds, which feels vindicating. I doubt it will resonate much w the rabid idiots who claim our ship is incest and pedophilia (bc that’s what you call shipping two unrelated adults these days when you don’t have a real argument) but oh well… JB was prompted yet refused to say anything against Lizzington (while he kept shutting down DG and MG), and he also let it slip that Red/Liz is “more” than Red and Dembe’s dynamic. That’s certainly nice to hear.

bottom line: the antis’ sad little hate platform is sinking fast and it’s amusing to watch them thrash about.

[kuriboo]

so. yugioh vrains is over. the last episode has aired.and with that in mind, with three seasons of this show, i’ve still got a lot of feelings about this show. especially that last episode. so i guess this is sort of the final thoughts and feelings post about yugioh vrains. not the last post in general about yugioh vrains. just the big opinions post, i guess, because there’s a lot.

yugioh vrains was good

yugioh vrains was very good. i liked it a lot. and me liking it a lot is the only criteria here for whether i’ll say it’s good or bad. i liked it! so it’s good.

i’m also very thankful that vrains has broken a curse yugioh has been suffering for awhile now. we’re talking about the dub. and no, i don’t really care that much that the dub censored some bullets, i think it’s funny, but i don’t care otherwise. this is just about general dub quality. zexal’s dub was bad. written bad quite a bit of the time, and a lot of the voice acting was just, not good. arc v, i can’t speak for the writing, because i only have seen like ten episodes of it, which is to be fair more than most people on this website, but the voice acting in arc v is atrocious, it’s worse than zexal. i’ve seen 20 episodes of the vrains dub, and look, i know. i know arc v’s main villain sounded like iago from fucking aladdin, i know that dub yusaku is voiced by someone who did voicework in zexal. but in 20 episodes of vrains, there wasn’t a single voice i didn’t like. the voice acting in vrains is good. and the dub is written well! it’s actually funny! i think i actually laughed more with the vrains dub than the sub for those 20 episodes. you know how the zexal dub tried to be funny every episode but it was just obnoxious? vrains was actually funny. the jokes are actually good. it’s been awhile since yugioh’s been dubbed well, and it was refreshing. the only thing i don’t like about the dub is that it only airs in canada and it’s impossible to watch in like any way online. i’m not done watching the dub btw eventually i’ll be able to watch more and i will watch more and i’ll be back here in this tag. if nothing else, i’m hoping it joins the other yugiohs on hulu or something when the dub’s done in like, two years. and if there’s a vrains manga i’ll definitely read it but like. shrugs on that.

the show’s got big megaman battle network, code lyoko, and the world ends with you vibes. i’m not saying this to knock vrains or anything. i love vrains. but if you like any of those games/shows, and you haven’t given vrains a chance, even if you haven’t watched any other yugioh series, i highly recommend it. the card games in vrains were very secondary to the story itself, and i think that went a long ways here, it worked well. 

so like, how was vrains, how did i feel about it

season one...season one was really good. in hindsight, season one had some good foreshadowing for season three. season one was probably my favorite season, though, but not by much. season one showed yusaku in school the most and i actually loved all the school scenes. revolver’s a really cool and interesting character, and while i’m glad he stopped being a villain after season one and went the sort of anti-hero route, revolver did make a really good villain. uncovering the mystery of the lost incident was fun. a lot of people guessed early on that revolver was both the person yusaku was trying to take down and the person he was trying to save, way before yusaku himself figured it out, but that wasn’t a bad thing at all. i’m pretty sure the show wanted the audience to figure it out before our protagonist, and the reward itself felt pretty rewarding. revolver has cool dragons, yusaku got a cool dragon, ai got insulted a lot, kusanagi was there, definitely a solid season.

season two was easily my least favorite season. bohman and blood shepherd kinda ruined it for me. thoguh, to be fair, blood shepherd didn’t do much. he gave us an excuse to get some takeru flashback, which we could’ve gotten through other means, and he sort of revealed judgement arrows and helped everyone be able to prepare for it, but like, anyone could do that. i hate blood shepherd a lot, but he’s easy for me to forget. i forgot him between episodes a lot, actually, and when he’d show up i’d have to be like, oh that asshole exists. bohman was worse because he was the main antagonist of season two. and he shouldn’t have been. bohman wasn’t a good villain imo! i feel like he wasn’t written super well. i can sort of make him work out in my head, but i don’t like him, and he kept just pulling ideas out that seemingly came from nowhere. he’d make these leaps that were hard for me to follow, and this was after lightning stopped messing with his memories. and since bohman was the main antagonist and because i really didn’t like him, it made it hard for me to enjoy season two. there were other good things in season two. takeru joined the scene in this season, and i love takeru a lot. i require apologies from everyone who didn’t trust my man takeru. lightning was a really good villain (lightning should’ve been the main antagonist imo), was very interesting, and i liked lightning a lot. and hell, haru was alright! i kinda wish they did more with haru. season two wasn’t bad by any means. we also saw the story of how kusanagi and yusaku met in season 2, and those were some of my favorite episodes of the season, along with the yusaku vs kusanagi duel. the story and message was good (though that doesn’t boost it up a ton given season 3 had the same messages) but honestly i just really don’t like bohman.

season 3 is very close to being my favorite season. this is the season of the protagonist having to face against their partner. it happens in like, any yugioh where the protagonist has a partner. vrains didn’t disappoint on that front. this season felt short! season two felt like it dragged on forever and season three felt short. it didn’t necessarily feel like it needed to be longer, when it ended, though. i just wish the show wasn’t over lmao. everyone got baited super hard like episode 1 when everyone thought queen would be the next antagonist after lightning + bohman and then she super wasn’t, which was kinda funny. most of hte time this season i was just yelling at ai to tell me the truth. i loved roboppy and ai this season. and im SO sad about what happened to them!! ai and roboppy were written really well, they made really good villains. i’ll definitely be making more posts about ai in the future. and also, that epilogue though!!! i didn’t get into it when i watched bc i was in a hurry, but!!! jin looks really happy, i love his haircut! and kusanagi is keeping the hot dog truck open so that yusaku still has a place to come home to! im gonna cry!!!! the knights of hanoi are all super good now and i love them. akira’s the ceo of sol!!! it’s what he deserves!!!!! and the whole takeru + kiku scene was really nice. everyone was screaming about that ship being canon now, which i guess it is? i didn’t read it as romantic, i read it as “kiku is a little scared about everything with vrains and takeru is helping her feel safe and secure, like, making sure she doesn’t fall off his hoverboard and shit”. i honestly read it more as takeru still being gay for yusaku while thinking about how cool yusaku is lmao. but i know yusaku + takeru will never be canon, i never thought it would be, and knowing yugioh, takeru + kiku im sure is supposed to be canon so like. it’s not a bad ship. i’m surprised how many people i see like that ship? but it’s just not for me i guess. im happy for yall who wanted this though. and that last scene!!!! we saw ai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i’ll save thoughts on that another time i guess, including yusaku post that time skip.

i liked shima a lot this series. i honestly wish there was more of him lmao. i mostly wanted more yusaku + shima interaction, not in terms of shima finding out yusaku was playmaker, i just wanted the two of them to bond more. i wanted to see more of them being friends (read: shima forcing his friendship on yusaku and yusaku reluctantly goes along with it but actually likes it more as time goes on). and i wish we got to see takeru in the duel club at least once. takeru and yusaku both going to one meeting and yusaku sleeps through it and takeru is pumped and like taking notes and shit and shima is just like how can yusaku sleep through it this is the best!!!

aoi....i have mixed feelings on. i liked her a lot in season one, and i liked her a lot in half of season two. i really don’t like the blue maiden avatar (i did like blue girl!), and i preferred the trickstars over marincesses. i did enjoy her figuring out yusaku was playmaker though, that was a fun scene. i like aoi a lot still, love that girl, but after a point i stopped liking what they were doing with her.

they did ghost gal dirty. ghost gal was GREAT in season one. i loved her. and then they gave her a brother, her brother was shit, and everything about ghost gal got thrown out the window so that her character could revolve only around her shit brother. i feel so bad for her. i mean, i kinda get it? this whole thing’s about bonds, a lot of the bonds focused on were familial bonds (either in the blood family or found family sense, there was both). but ghost gal was already developing a sort of family-ish bond with akira and aoi by that point. i never felt like she needed anything else. she still could’ve done cool things in seasons two and three without having a shitstain forced into her life.

im madly in love with kusanagi and if anyone says a single bad thing about him i will stomp you to death with my hooves

i’m running out of people to talk about here i can’t avoid it anymore i’ll talk about blood shepherd now. i hate him. i hate him. he’s an idiot. i’ve yelled about this before and i’ll do it again. some shit happened to him because of malfunctioning ai or whatever. cool. great. now he has a grudge against all ai. that makes no sense. if im playing basketball and i get hit in the head by a basketball (by accident) am i gonna blame the basketball? no, i’ll either blame the person who threw it or myself for not noticing it and letting myself get hit. if i sprain my wrist playing volleyball am i gonna get mad at the volleyball? no, i’m mad at myself for messing up and playing in a way that caused that injury. if i get in a car accident because my car brake stops working, am i going to blame the car itself? maybe a little, but not as much as either the manufacturer or, if i recently had work done on the brake, the mechanic i visited. see, these things are all inanimate objects with no malicious intent or free will. since vrains is one of those shows, it may sound cruel comparing an AI to a car or a basketball. but the ignis (all generations, we’ll include pandor and bohman and haru in here for simplicitiy’s sake) are a special case. the ignis specifically stand out because they were made with free will. other artificial intelligence does not have that. it cannot have malicious intent. artificial intelligence cannot do anything it is not programmed to be able to do. it cannot hurt or kill someone, unless it is either programmed to have that function, or you’re looking at an ignis. and blood shepherd KNOWS THIS, because he became a hacker, and even REPROGRAMMED AN AI THAT WASNT SUPPOSED TO LIE TO LIE FOR HIM. along the way, he would’ve had to learn that somewhere. an ai malfunctioned and caused blood shepherd and his mom to get in a car accident. the ai itself isn’t to blame for that! that’s the fault of whoever made it!! or if the car was hacked to cause that problem, it’s the car manufacturer’s fault! you blame those people!!! and if blood shepherd went after those groups it’d be fine! instead he goes after artificial intelligences because he’s the biggest fucking idiot the world has ever seen. this does not make sense, even in the vrains universe, because again, the ignis are the only ai with free will and who can make their own decisions. any other ai cannot do something like this on purpose. the solution is to make ai better, not get rid of them. the solution is to improve security. not get rid of ai. at this point ai is so ingrained in society that you’re not gonna accomplish that anyway. oh, and i hate blood shepherd for what he did to ghost gal’s character. other than that, he was cool for two episodes before we learned his bullshit backstory, and he hasn’t done a single thing i liked since except he died twice, and i liked those parts. i fucking HATE blood shepherd. easily one of the worst yugioh characters ever. i could rant on about bohman, too, but im tired.

i don’t have bad things to say about a lot of characters. yusaku, kusanagi, jin, ai, roboppy, revolver, lightning, aqua, akira, earth, go onizuka, windy, i don’t really have bad things to say about them now that the series is over. i liked them a lot!!! they were really good. 

i guess the bottom line of this is, i wish yugioh treated its girls and its “joke characters” or “comic relief characters” better. and i wish bohman and blood shepherd didn’t exist, or were executed better. other than that, very solid.

if you were curious about my preferred ships here, yusaku + takeru is the best ship this show has to offer and it’s a shame more people don’t like it, and miyu + aoi is really good. anything else is like, okay, but i don’t love it. the show’s most popular ships are fine but not for me. yusaku + ryoken is okay but doesn’t really work in universe for me, i don’t love it but it’s fine, and it’s aight in a like real au setting. i don’t think there’s any ships i don’t really like, not like, other than the obvious. but these two are the best. 

all in all, vrains was really good. this show helped me through some real bad times, and will continue to do so as bad times continue. i love it lots, it holds a special place in my heart, and im glad i was able to watch it. im excited for whatever yugioh has to offer next, especially following this, because vrains is definitely one of my favorite yugioh series over all. it was a lot of fun and made me suffer and cry a lot and it was just...a good time. please watch it if you haven’t. thanks for going on this journey with me. i’ll probably end up talking more about bigger characters like yusaku and ryoken and takeru and kusanagi and ai more in different posts. ive talked enough here already

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Athenas Masterpost

This is going to cover everything Athenas, like the official page and trailer, both new trailers, the art book preview, and some stuff shown in the ign trailers. It’s a lot.

There will NOT be endgame spoilers in this post. If there’s anything that comes up that I want to discuss, you can find it in a spoiler post I’ll be making soon :) I DO discuss a thing that occurs during the first 3 hours of BL3, though I think that’s pretty okay with y’all lol

tl;dr: there’s too much to summarize. 13 days until bl3. lmao im screaming on the inside.

“A misty, tranquil planet that has recently attracted the wrong kind of attention. Athenas is mostly uninhabited, save for a sect of monks known as the Order of the Impending Storm who have made their home in the high peaks of the mountains. What secrets do they guard here, inside ancient walls that were built long before humans set foot on Athenas?”

We definitely got a lot less info for Athenas than the other planets, and I can see why. They want to keep it mysterious.

Also, I’m not saying I totally called it that the pyramid was Eridian, but I totally called it. I am surprised it’s implying that the entire area was built by them, but what can ya do 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, since this post is long overdue, let’s just jump right in!

The Athenas video is nearly half the time of the Eden-6 one, so there’s not a lot to cover unfortunately:

We’ve seen this shot multiple times before

also the emphasis that Athenas is ‘tranquil’ and ‘peaceful’ ahahahaha no it’s not.

i love these dudes! Order of the Impending Storm!!! I wonder if their funky goggle things have anything to do with Sirens, like how they have Siren-trackers. I also really love their outfits. lowkey want one of these robes.

a great overview look of the area leading up to the pyramid. I got more to say about this... but it’s probably best if i leave it for later on in the post after we get more info

also, note the water and the rocks and stuff on the left there. This will come into play later... not even in this post. a later post.

also i totally called this being an ancient aliens reference lol

Vault logo on the flag there. definitely shows how much these guys worship the Vaults

This!!! I have so much to talk about here!

alright so now that we know what the vault keys look like.... this doesn’t appear to be part of any of the Vault Keys we’ve seen. especially not the Promethean one. not even the pyramid shaped one.

im mostly interested in this because this is obviously a monk, her robes match the ones we saw above with the hood. she doesn’t appear to be Eridian because we’ve seen the Watcher and the other Guardians, who are built in the image of the Eridians, and she looks wayyy too human. We’ve also seen statues of the Eridians in that one shot of the Pandora temple.

so it seems like the monks have gone inside the pyramid before and... built this statue? for some reason??? It’s interesting that she has an extra pair of arms as well. I wonder if she is like the Siren ancestor of Amara. which could prove my theory that the next successor of Amara would have another set of arms... it might also explain why Amara’s tattoos are everywhere on the buildings (outside of her being the Tiger)

it would also explain this shot, the skeleton with the book, which we now know we’ve seen before with Maya:

so even though they’re protecting the pyramid/temple, i don’t think they’ve been avoiding it entirely- at least not for the first time after discovering it. maybe they stopped going in after they discovered something bad, somethin like iunno... the Rampagers?

it would be Really Weird if the Eridians built that statue, especially when they probably didn’t know what humans looked like at the time. unless of course they helped shape humanity or smth. meaning they probably personally created Sirens. oh that’d be wild... i wonder if we’re going to learn about how early Sirens shaped humanity in that case. discovering fire could be entirely different lol

“hallowed land” 

i wonder if this is where we’ll have anointed gear explained to us... i imagine the order is still worshipping Eridian/Siren stuff, so them having all sorta knowledge of this stuff would make sense

more Maliwan. you guys notice we see cultists purely on Eden-6 (outside of the crashed ship), but Maliwan purely on Athenas? a mix on Promethea, tho that’s bc we’ve actually gotten gameplay. 

So my guess is Maliwan has joined up with the cult (be it through whatever means: Maliwan is in) and they’re looking for the Promethea key. which makes sense. they’re attacking Rhys on Promethea, so when he helps us out, word probably gets back to Maliwan (somehow) and they swap from wanting to take over Atlas (either by defeating them w/ Zer0/that giant space laser/whatever or just changing priorities) to wanting to open that fuckin Vault. Teaming up with the CoV is the best way to ensure that happens. I’m sure there will oodles of betrayal going on between the two parties.

I LOVE THESE THINGS

THEY’RE AMAZING

GOOD BOYS

in all seriousness, actually, im curious why we don’t see these good boys on Promethea. maybe they’re only for the top-tier squads? (mechanically, probably higher-level enemies) they look super high tech, so i would not be surprised if Maliwan thought Atlas would be an easy takeover so they didn’t send everything they could have

Nog! not much to say here tbqh

“Protect Athenas Before It’s Too Late”

I imagine before Maliwan gets the Vault Key or some other wild power, like power over the Rampagers. seriously, in the We Are Mayhem trailer, there’s a rampager are fighting on the side of Maliwan (altho if this is The One Rampager, or just One of Many is hard to tell. it could morph depending on which element it is. we just don’t know. personally i think there’s 1 per planet... i’ll explain later)

From the Art Book Preview:

Alright yes. “Maliwan forces have already seized control of the monastery, where part of the Promethean Vault Key has been located, turning a simply recovery mission into a vicious firefight...... A large and foreboding crypt built into the side of the mountain was also designed, and might perhaps have housed the Vault Key fragment deep within its gloomy interiors”

i don’t think this means the crypt is like an actual area. it would be interesting to discover that the pyramid is a giant crypt because... jesus. it would fit with the whole pyramid theme, at least. altho im wondering if this is more like a labyrinth situation where they’re trying to keep a Rampager inside as well as the treasure... which MAY be a Vault Key Fragment

Actually, this brings up a great point: did Atlas spread the Vault Key out throughout the planets? Is this where Typhon originally found that Key fragment? wtf was in the Vault that Atlas needed to disassemble the Key and return its fragments? oh boy i hope it’s something scary

From the Moze Eden-6 E3 Gameplay:

oh ye this. okay so this is definitely 100% Eridian. I’m guessing we get this from Athenas because this seems like a fairly important object and, well, Athenas is all about Eridian stuff. When we go through the next few videos, keep an eye out for the temples. You’ll see the glowing red diamond shape constantly reappearing there.

one of the devs admitted that there are hunks of Eridian Writing left around the world that will ‘open up’ things for the players, so I imagine this is exactly what we’ll use to get to it. If this IS only for endgame stuff I’ll be slightly disappointed. I know we have access to this before Eden-6, since there are gameplay videos that show the player breaking the Eridium chunks with this thing. the above one is from the Moze Eden-6 gameplay, tho I’ve also seen newer footage from the Balex gameplay with this same tool

The following clips can be found in this video:

im mostly interested in the wall art here

what looks like a sun or a planet

this symbol which makes an appearance elsewhere

these two are the same area, im imagining this is the fight up to the pyramid, with Maliwan forces and barricades everywhere

the sun again in the background (middle top)

this cool piece (bottom left of the above pic) which looks like a hand covered in glowing blue. i imagine this is some sorta representation of Phaselock? mainly because of the blue orb in the palm of her hand

not much to say about this area tbh. looks like a residential area to me, so possibly not in the residential district

writing on the top mid-right. 

idk why i just noticed these trees are green and not red but yeah, that’s interesting. so probably a different area from Amara’s trailer aka: not Partali

and yet we see amara’s tattoos on the building in the back right. sorry for such terrible quality btw, tumblr ate these images and spit them back out

These clips can be found in the Borderlands are Yours trailer:

looks like the small building we see directly next to Maya and Ava

altho very clearly not the same exact area so im curious what these are supposed to represent. tbh im kinda reminded of graveyards. i really hope there aren’t corpses in those omg

another better look at the two pieces of art. i imagine the one on the right has something to do with the eridians given its in a diamond shape, which we know has something to do with the eridians now

also im not playing amara first (possibly last. depending on how i feel fl4k may go last) but HOLY SHIT her action skills are beautiful

THIS FUCKER

i know he’s probably a vault monster but like... 

idk i feel its kinda sad gearbox is showing off a VAULT MONSTER of all things in so much promo material. like why is he fighting with Maliwan/the cult in the We are Mayhem trailer??

sup with that?

does he have multiple stages?? is that’s why he changes elements? goes from two heads to wings to extended necks. like wtf is up with this guy?? he definitely looks like he can be elementally charged given his eye sockets aren’t glowing when he emerges like they do

here but then

this dude looks like he has an entirely different skull like...

this dude is a corrosive one who also seems to be working with Maya (who i guess IS probably the corrosive aligned siren)

and we’re guessing the nuclear charged one is the one from Athenas... for reasons i’ll explain below

AND honestly i've been thinking and maybe the fire one is actually from Promethea? and maybe there’s another that’s on Eden-6 and another on Pandora?

alright so i have 2 reasons for this. one involves spoiler talk with the cloth map, so that won’t be discussed here (but if you see the map and the planets, you’ll understand what i’m alluding to here, most likely). the other is that in this screenshot of all the quests from the Eden-6 demo:

we see immediately after “hostile takeover” is the quest “the impending storm”. which is, indeedy, a reference to the Order of the Impending Storm. We know they’re on Athenas, so I imagine we run over to Athenas to get part of the Vault Key. We’ve established from the art book that’s where it is.

but then after The Impending Storm, Space-Laser Tag (which we all know is that giant-ass laser thing in the asteroid belt), and Atlas, at Last, there’s a quest called Beneath the Meridian.

And we know this area... is definitely underground. we’ve seen with the fire-y boy that the ceiling is just rocks

then we see this shot with the nuclear (?) one where the window outside is clearly showing off mountains/sky, which we know is kinda Athenas’s deal

and we know these two areas are the same v ^

since there’s the same ‘Vault’ in the background

so my only problem with this entire theory that there’s multiple rampagers is that

we see the twins killing/absorbing the red/fire one’s power which is also on athenas since the background is the same as the vault area from the above two pictures. unless there’s a similar vault-thing on promethea and eden-6. we know there’s one on Pandora, but that one is outside so.

so i guess they are the same beasty boy but... why why why show us one of the vault monsters

it’s so cool going in blind and not knowing what you’re going to get out of it.

so im going to say this is a minor vault monster (especially given it’s not exactly the same rock-like design as the other vault monsters) and the ‘vaults’ are actually something smaller. maybe they hold keys, or the pieces of the keys, or they’re part of that teleportation network i keep talking about (and i guess i should just make a seperate post about it) but i don’t know if these are actual Big Boy Vaults. especially when the Rampager doesn’t match actual Eridian-created Vault Monsters

that said given we see a bunch of dead guardians on the floor, its possible the rampager killed them? but i get the feeling we might actually be the ones to pull the trigger cause... combat is fun

so. yeah. if the rampager is guarding something that’s fine. i wanna believe teleportation network. i’d love to see the twins come in, walk out of that vault, absorb the rampager’s powers, and then walk out after locking us in like ‘peace’ and we have to use the teleportation system to make it back to promethea with the vault key fragment or whatever

[im here after the cloth map reveal like... uh huh. i see. u dumb bitchard.]

idk i just thought this was a fun screenshot lol

BoRdErLaNdS

ah yes

that’s eridium

this also appears to be in the temple, but, like, again if there’s more than one temple this could also be on Pandora or even Eden-6. Kinda leaning towards Pandora. HOWEVER since we only know for certain this sort of temple area is on Athenas (from that one statue shot), we’re gonna analyze this bad boy right now (also lowkey think this is Pandora because of the varkid nests but shhh)

what do i actually have to say about it? uhhh not much tbh. i think i’ve said all that needs to be said concerning the twins mutating cultists with slag/eridium. 

i will say im pretty shocked at, like, the eridium HORNS and shit. so maybe this is just some cool little miniboss. (okay not mini because look how big he’s gotten!! just like Bloodwing :D)

you know what, it looks like he’s standing on one of these

floor tile things, and now im super curious. is the fire part of a trap? is it powering this lad up? i definitely know he’s a cultist because he’s got the neon light tubes on his shoulder pad

see here

you can see these on other cultists like goliaths and such and such

also this is pretty similar to what we’ve seen in the LLE (especially the powersuits) given their bodies also form eridium crystals when they’ve ascended

i feel like its powering him up

you know during the fight with bloodwing when Jack powers up bloodwing using the elemental flamethrower things? would be interesting if this is similar to that.

like dis

yeahhh

the radiation boy is back and he’s actually elementally charged this time

huzzah

also i love the chest mouth lmao

has anyone here seen stretch armstrong? like that one episode where Gabe (crostini man) gets turned into a bunch of flexarium monster chunks

but yeah, awesome mouth my guy.

im curious if it’s being elementally charged to cryo or if it’s stopped being charged. if this is like a cutscene between different stages in the fight, etc etc. 

this also looks fairly similar to this area here

but red this time. which... may tie into the elemental stages. which maaaaay tie into those floor platforms elementally charging that demon baby up above. bloodwing 2.0!

You can find the following clips in the Official Guide to the Borderlands:

god i keep telling myself to be on the lookout for athenas clips but i get so distracted by the gorgeousness of this fucking game i forget and have to keep going back

if that dude in the back floating was t-posing i would have lost my shit

new Siren tattoos!!! we haven’t seen these before. they’re very flowy, i love them. i hope we get to meet the siren with them!

i also loooooove this area in the back. i hope we get to climb it and explore. i would love to just be able to climb to high up areas in bl3 and look down and see the area i just came from. it’s possible! we have the technology! thousand cuts / bnk3r ascension 2.0!!!

more of amara’s awesome looking powers

zane has 2 trans pride skins im so happy 😄

also look at how teeny tiny that ‘Vault’ is in the back!!! it’s only like 2x the size of Iron Bear!!! gimme BIG vaults!! GIANT VAULTS

also also

the VOID vault

i get a feeling these are connected somehow.

sniper spoooot

not much to say about this tbh. zane’s claw things look fucking dope tho. i want one irl.

we’ve seen this shot a few times before already

alright before you get mad, let me explain why i think this is athenas

you see this picture

this maliwan jackass. the building to his left is 100% athenas architecture.

the rocks in the top picture look identical to the ones next to him. plus we’ve seen water in the distance of some of the areas of Athenas

it could also be Eden-6 (which honestly i would not be surprised if it is instead) but given the ivy and the rocks i felt it was worthwhile to put in. plus the moving eridian structures are so cool looking. i feel like that’s going to be a puzzle.

oh oh also

maybe that area leads into/exits from here? because they’re both underground in cavern-like areas

but like... it could also be eden-6... because of that one shot of the temple area in the side of the cliff ASDFHDGJFJGFHSD

still radiation charged. 

also seriously this ‘Vault’ is wayyyy smaller than a regular Vault. like... the one in BL2 that you can walk right up to... huge. and nothing even comes out of it. the Warrior climbs up from over the edge

the bl1 is much bigger than this one, too. also the vault of the traveller, i would argue is the biggest out of all of them but eh

for the Vault of the Sentinel, the actual arch we see... i’ve already gone over why i don’t think that’s a ‘real’ vault and that its all more of a simulation, but you can read that whole thing here bc i am trying my damndest to not get off topic for this post because holy fucking shit. this got long.

Alright so. Onto the website pictures

another cool shot of the academic district, really showing off the pyramid in the background. god i wanna know what that is. could be the temple (underground things notwithstanding). it’s probably holding that statue with the vault keys in either arm

you know the one, it’s at the beginning of this post. but damn that thing is huge!! i am hoping it holds more than just the promethean vault key. 

did i already talk about how there are siren tattoos written along the edges of this area??? because... damn.

also the symbol for what is probably Vault Key sitting right smack dab in the middle??

also sorry i just noticed those blue shapes are moving. like a fountain or something?? weird light.

i mean... the trees are also warping in the background. wonder wtf is going on here... 

anyway whatever she’s holding actually doesn’t match up with any of the vault keys we’ve seen so... wtf are you???

a very nice shot overlooking the water. also a wind turbine in the background. i think the area on the left is where we’ve seen ava and maya? but dont hold me to that lol

definitely looks the same. even has the tree

another shot of that area i think we’ve seen Amara fighting in

big shot of the pyramid with the vault symbol everywhere. and the planet with the beams coming out of it. which in retrospect...

anyway that’s spoiler talk so let’s talk in another post.

another shot of athenas from a slightly different angle, we’ve seen this one before, too, and i remember because i complemented the road signs

annnnd im tired. good night everybody.

[kindasortaameyzing]

A Hot Take on j//nerys

*posting this as a separate post bc tumblr’s being dumb as hell* 

First of all, anon, thank you very much for this ask, because BOY OH BOY have i MANY FEELINGS about the magical targcest ship that is j//nerys.

This is about to be a long ass post. Also, includes spoilers to Season 8 Ep 1 (I’ll tell u when!)

First of all, when watching Season 7, I could not find myself shipping J and D. Like...I can see what D&D tried to do with the buildup and the chemistry (like the cave paintings and Jon Chilling with Drogon), and idk if they meant to make it so awkward and stunted, but it was. I felt -1000000 chemistry in between those two characters, frankly speaking. I could see some of it nearing episodes 6 and 7 if I squinted, but I was just kind of blown away by how I absolutely could not get behind this ship that the show has supposedly been leading up to for seven seasons.

At that point, I did kinda believe in Political!Jon because it made more sense for his character rather than falling in love with Dany “White Savior Complex” T. Before watching S8 Ep1, I already didn’t think jonerys was going to be endgame, even if they were canon for the time being. It was just such a stilted relationship and the Dark!Dany was coming in STRONG. But after watching 801, may I just say…

*if you haven’t noticed, S8 EP1 spoilers start now*

Here is a pretty hot take that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone share:

Jon Snow is infatuated by D. Maybe even in love with her. But he absolutely does not love her.

Let me start with the distinction. J is infatuated because he’s almost maybe even obsessed. He knows her as the Breaker of Chains, the Mother of Dragons, and all these mythical things that her title is, and combined with the fact that she swooped in to save him when he was going Wight Hunting, I think it’s just a bunch of savior idealism mixed in with a tad bit of Stockholm Syndrome. Not to mention, I think he’s being blinded with his obsession of finding more allies to fight against the AotD, and he’s willing to overlook all of her many, many faults to get there. He’s thinking very short term right now.

And honestly? I think that this infatuation is an ongoing trend with Daenerys’ lovers. None of them truly love her as an equal, except Drogo probably. They are besotted with her. Jorah, Daario, and mayyybee even Drogo to an extent -- they don’t love her, they are in love with her.

So does this kill Pol!Jon? Mayhaps. I think, actually, that Jon started out with those Pol!Jon motives in season 7, and I think he sticks to them up until Eastwatch (if his lukewarm reactions to D and clear annoyance with her has anything to say about it). To me, when watching Eastwatch, it was like a flip was switched. Suddenly, so suddenly, Jon was bending the knee to this woman who swooped in and saved the day. And I think his whole “let’s all be truthful once and for all” spiel in Dragonpit is sort-of evidence as to the falling of his Pol!Jon motives. (tbh, I can see how it could actually bolster the Pol!Jon argument, but it’s irrelevant).

Admittedly, this was all conjecture in my head. Up until Season 8. And BOY oh bOY did this episode feed me.

[Yay to Robert and Cersei parallels, anyone?]

I know a lot of people felt as if Jon was rather ooc in 801, and I agree. I think that’s due to his adoration for Dany. Not sticking up for Sansa when Dany threatened her? Asking Arya to take Dany’s side and making that little jab at Sansa for thinking she’s the smartest person in the world (btw, she absolutely is)? Generally being complacent as hell?

I think, in all those moments, he’s warring with himself. On one hand, angel-on-his-shoulder Jon knows that family should come first, that he should fight and stand up for the ones he loved. On the other hand, he’s desperately trying to justify his infatuation for D. He’s grasping at straws, and I think he’s scared of the fact that he is. I think the most telling part of this is when he tries to justify D’s murder of the Tarlys (AND, might I add, he doesn’t even know that she burned them alive yet, just that she killed them. Oh, i cannot WAIT for this tea)

Just...watching that scene [I’ll put a pic when I can get one]. Jon begins by looking confused and worried as hell. He’s beginning to look past his infatuation and see the truth. And he really tries to defend her, he does -- “I’ve had to murder people before” or whatever he says -- but Sam CALLS him the fuck out. And let me tell you? In that fucking scene, Jon doesn’t look angry. He looks scared.

And OOF that scene with Sansa? “Did you kneel for the North or for love?” (I’m paraphrasing, sorry if it’s not accurate)

Jon hesitates. He knows, in his heart of hearts, that he’s supposed to be doing this for the North, and he’s trying to justify his infatuation with Dany and marry the two, but it isn’t working.

And the “Did you ever have faith in me?” I think Jon truly thinks what he’s doing is right. Or it could be right. He’s may be looking for Sansa’s validation, partially, because at this point even he’s unsure of what he’s doing, but that’s a little tinfoil. 

Now, on to explain the existence of J//nerys moments that don’t involve the two characters themselves..

Davos, Varys, and Tyrion talking about a marriage alliance. I’d be lying if if I said I was surprised by it. And I don’t blame Davos for trying to push it. In an ideal situation if D was an actual good person, it would make sense. But she isn’t, and Jon doesn’t love her. Not to mention I find it kind of funny that they were looking at the pair and then we find out D’s just whining abt how Sansa doesn’t like her. Very romantic.

I think that scene was necessary for two reasons. I think they might add in a push for a marriage alliance in Ep 2, when I predict that the tensions btwn Jon and D will begin, and then Jon just reveals it can’t happen because he is, ta-da, a Targaryen. And then D will go back to Dragonstone before the Battle of Winterfell while leaving her armies behind (which people are predicting). But second of all, that scene was absolutely set up for Varys’ last line -- “Nothing lasts.”

A very purposeful line. A very purposeful shot to J and D as Varys says that line. This, more than everything else, confirmed that no matter how canon j//nerys might seem now, it’s never going to be endgame.

Now for the dragon joyride scene! Yay! Let’s take a break in the middle of literal war preparations and ignore an alliance about to fall apart at the seams to go chill at a waterfall that should be frozen over!

Honestly I thought this whole scene was such fanservice. There was no emotional aspect to it, no swelling music or long-awaited release. But D&D put it in there, using their precious screentime for a reason.

1. I think it shows Jon “embracing”, or lack thereof, his Targ side. It’s very clear he is not made for it, and he is not enjoying it. When Dany first rode her dragons, she did so with ease. Jon is absolutely not having it. I think this goes to show in some little way that no matter Jon’s blood, he’s a Stark. Or maybe it’s showing a melding between his Stark and Targaryen side. Idk. either way, there wasn’t an ounce of romance in that scene that didn’t seem forced

2. Foreshadowing for Dance of Dragons 2.0 much?? I think this is very much an introduction to Rhaegar-staying-with-Jon and knowing that Jon can control him

3. Oh my god was the romance one-sided. D instigated all the romance, she instigated the kiss. Admittedly, Jon obliged, but uh...his whole kiss while staring at Drogon? I???? What??? Ah, yes, very romantic????

I love D staring at Jon with all this love (I do think she loves him, and his betrayal will turn her to Dark!Dany, but more on that later) and Jon just trying his best! Keep your queen warm! uwu!!!!!!!!!!! 

PHEW! That’s all the meta-y thoughts I have on j//nerys. I’m also beginning to think that j//nerys is the Bad version of Ygritte and Jon? As in in both cases, I believe Jon began by trying to infiltrate the enemy party and pretending to be in love, but then actually truly falling for the girl in Ygritte’s case and falling in infatuation in D’s, and ending up having to betray her because it was never going to last in the first place. Also, cave/waterfall parallels maybe. That being said, Ygritte and Jon is far, far healthier and balanced, and this is just a crack theory, so don’t hate me on this one!!!

I really found it funny how j//nerys stans after 801 were frantically giffing the dragon joyride and makeout session bonus pack and blatantly ignoring how the entire plot of the story was pointing to Dark!Dany and the strife btwn them. Also, I could literally do an entire other post about Dark!D and how I absolutely hated her in 801 and then another one about jonsa, so if anyone’s interested, lmk!

TLDR: Jon has feelings for D but it’s not even close to love, it’s infatuation at best. Pol!Jon happened initially, but then faded away.  j//nerys is hella one-sided atm and even if jon truly loves D, it’s 101% not going to last longer than like ep 3. Also not mentioned but if D insults Sansa one more time I’m going to kick her ass.