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burningcheese-merchant · 2 months ago

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I notice that you give Shadowspice alot of shit because of how it's based off of shallow fujoshi stereotypes and how they would be miserable with eachother if you regarded there canon personalities (which is lowkey valid), but that makes me surprised you like burningcheese because you do remember that burning spice tore off cheesy's wings, threw her off a cliff, kept her wounded in a prison for sadisms sake and threated to destroy all she ever treasured before the queen turned the tables and have him his rightful beating.

Most burningcheese fanart I have seen depicts burning spice as hulking and towering and smiling down at golden cheese freaking as if that isn't basic straight ship stuff, I'm not going to cry about "abuser x victim" or how your a "proshipper" but a decent chunk of the Fandom portrayal of burningcheese ignores golden cheese's dominance and how powerful she is and I'm invested in how you think golden cheese will get romantic with the dude who tried to take everything from her with sadistic glee, all of that aside have a good day.

Turned out long as fuck lol my bad

Gonna start by saying I appreciate you being polite/civil. Ngl I started reading the first sentence and immediately assumed it was a ShadowSp1ce fan come to start shit or something lol. I'm glad that's not the case. As unhappy as that ship makes me, I'm really not out to get anyone who likes it. You do you, it's not my business. I mean it when I say I'd rather never speak of ShadowSp1ce again if I don't have to. I'm a happier person without it in my thoughts. Again I ask "where is the memory gun from Gravity Falls when you need it" lmao

To address your other concerns. No I did not forget what Burning Spice did to Golden Cheese lol. That's a pretty important scene in the story, I don't really have a say in the matter. But really, what he did is just what villains do. It's horrible, but not out of the ordinary for someone like that. It shouldn't be downplayed or dismissed but I also don't think it needs to be blown as far out of proportion as I've seen so many do. Video game villain. There are far worse ones than Burning Spice, who have done far worse things. Promise.

Maybe it's just my luck, but I've never really seen anyone portray BurningCheese the way you describe. Not on here, at least. I just see Burning Spice simping really hard for the golden goddess and smiling when she steps on him lol. Or them just being genuinely happy together. Plenty of angst, sure. But nothing I would really say is out of character (that I recall off the top of my head). I don't doubt that such shallow, stereotypical portrayals exist, and I lament that they do. I myself don't subscribe to that. Yes, he hurt her, but she doesn't take it (or anything he says or does) lying down. She gets up and fights back. And that's what he loves about her most of all. She fights back. To make her the meek, doe-eyed little church mouse secretary to Spice's domineering CEO or whatever the fuck in service of some puddle-deep hetero-flavored gooner shit à la 50 Shades is boring and flanderization. Burning Spice is tough but so is Golden Cheese. They are equals in every way. Let them kick each other's asses. Spice would never love a person who couldn't stand up to him anyway. Who isn't strong, physically and mentally. Which is what she is and always should be.

But my MAIN canon. The canon I operate on. The one my little fankid critters exist in. THAT romance goes like this:

As for how I ascribe romance to them... Let me start by saying that I ship them in multiple ways, through multiple lenses. I ship BurningCheese where it's a toxic one-sided crush/obsession on Spice's part (and his behavior is condemned ofc), because exploring that kind of darkness within a fictional setting is interesting to me. I ship BurningCheese where Golden Cheese gives in to despair, same as Burning Spice once did, and corrupts, and they become a villain couple (got a big fic in mind for that lol. That will be fun to write eventually). In a similar vein to that is the AU I've been playing around with on here where Spice is basically her pet serial killer and brings her severed heads and other things as tokens of affection (he is absolutely fucking deranged in this AU), and because she herself is... kind of a broken person in this story, she starts responding to these attempts to stroke her ego and win her favor, leading her down a rabbit hole of guilt and shame and denial and unhealthy attachment, where she eventually ends up as insane for him as he is for her (I know it sounds crazy, but... it's fun in a dark and disturbing way lol). I ship BurningCheese in that time travel AU (that I'm still cooking btw! That will be real fic! I'm working on it with a friend of mine!) where Golden meets Spice while he's still the Herald of Change, with all of the trials and tribulations that brings. I ship BurningCheese as a standard forbidden love affair, where she's good and he's bad and neither is willing to change for the other, but are willing to set aside those differences to be together, even if only for a time and away from prying eyes and judgment. I like them all sorts of ways, because I just like them, you know? I like how they click. How they complement and contrast with each other. They're both very alike and very different. They have a lot to give each other and a lot they can do together. And they're soulmates, that's canon, they are canon (at least in some way), whether anyone likes it or not. So I win no matter what lol

Slow burn. Very, very slow. Post-canon, after Dark Enchantress has already been defeated and order restored to the world. There's nothing left for the Beasts to really do anymore, Burning Spice included (they are not resealed in my canon, they all remain free indefinitely). They can't go out and cause chaos without their Ancients coming and curbstomping them immediately. But... Burning Spice likes that Golden Cheese does that, so he manages to forge an agreement: if she indulges him and spars with him a few times a month, he'll stay out of trouble. And she agrees, for everyone else's sake. She certainly doesn't want to be around him any longer than she has to.

They grow a little closer through these fights of theirs, albeit unwillingly on Golden's part. They bicker and banter while they exchange blows, and afterwards while they tend to their own wounds. Do you really have a choice, when you end up stuck with someone in such a way?

Burning Spice is in love with her. Always has been. But his love is selfish, toxic. He's more attached to his idea of her than the real her, because he doesn't truly know her, despite his insistance plus their soul bond. Golden Cheese hates him and considers him a menace to society, and indulges his whims purely to protect and serve the public. So long as he's focused on her, he can't hurt anyone else.

He hits on her all the time. She rebuffs him all the time. He doesn't necessarily mind; as much as he'd love it if she returned his feelings, he's content with her refusal as well. He likes her bite, her wit, her anger. And he has her, at least in some way. Has her attention. Has their battles. That's enough for him

Slow burn redemption arc on top of the romance. Really, Burning Spice's redemption is mostly an accident. Golden Cheese wasn't trying to fix him (at first) and he was never looking to be fixed. They both believed he was damned and he didn't care, and that was that. And it really was, for a while. But eventually, gradually, he started to... mellow out. Enough that he started becoming a little more approachable, in her estimation. Thus they grow closer still, which in turn makes him mellow out more.

He starts opening up a little bit, here and there. Bits and pieces about himself. His past. General personality things. She does the same in turn. She starts to recognize him as more than just a heartless monster. He starts to acknowledge things he'd otherwise leave buried forever. There's some sort of trust and understanding forming.

Spice gains a measure of clarity. Not quite remorse, but... regret? Is it regret? Is he really able to say he regrets anything about his life? Has he gotten that soft? That pathetic?

... He regrets how he treated her. That much comes to be true. And he apologizes to her. It's not much, he's no good at apologies, but he's at least sincere. It's shocking to her. She takes it to heart, despite not really forgiving him (she will not do so for a long time still). It marks a little turning point in their relationship.

She lets him into her life and world a bit more. She relaxes a bit more around him and vice versa. They're not even so strict about their scheduled duels anymore; sometimes he comes by just because he wants to see her, and she obliges. He's still an asshole but less of one. She's still begrudging but less so. It's clear something has begun to change within him. She's not sure what it is, but it's there. And it's... meaningful, at least to her. Because she never thought she'd see it

Don't want to get too deep into it because I want to talk abt it more later. But there's at least one suicide attempt by Spice bc he's gotten really depressed (more than he already was) and Golden stops him, and in doing so realizes that she's come to genuinely care about him as a person and doesn't want him gone, even despite his misdeeds. Another big turning point, especially on her part

They become genuine friends. Bit of a weird friendship, he's still a bad guy, but even so. She's honest about enjoying his company. She talks to him like she does everyone else. And he likes it. He likes that she's so casual now. That they're so used to each other now. It's pleasant

The more he spends time with her and gets to know her, the deeper in love he falls. But no longer is it that corrosive sentiment it once was. With time, it evolves into a healthy affection and respect for her. He's still smitten as always and forever, but in a more normal way lol

The more time she spends with him and gets to know him, the more she comes to see that... He's really not so bad, underneath all of his... issues. He's intelligent. Thoughtful. Creative, even (ironic). He's very handsome. He makes her laugh. He keeps her on her toes. He's not so different from her, in some ways. With all of that, and what he's willingly revealed to her about his life, she believes that... he can be fixed. He can get better. Somewhere within the dark chasm of his soul is man with some worth. There's something worth salvaging inside of him. One little ray of light, flickering in the dark. He can change, if he wants to. She truly believes that now.

So she starts making an effort to help him along. Starts pushing for him to interact with others. Do good deeds. Participate in society, in life. He tries to push back but ultimately gives in, if only to appease her. She's the only person he tolerates still, everyone else can keel over and die for all he cares. Just because he's not actively hurting anyone doesn't mean he cares about them.

But... it works, little by little. This war of attrition she wages. Of course she can't force him to change; he has to want that for himself. But she can at least show him the merit in doing so. And she does. Slowly, begrudgingly, he starts to actually talk to people. Hang around them. Do things of his own accord, not just to make her happy. He does not say so, but he's learning to enjoy and appreciate life again

That's when she falls for him. It was already in motion for a while, but it's watching him improve and become more of the man she thinks exists deep down inside that does her in for good. Of course she's embarrassed. She grapples with the moral implications. But in the end, she can't help herself. He's charmed her. He won.

They're happy together. They marry. He is gladly accepted by the GCK as their king, for they have embraced him by then. They have those two kiddos. He's forged new, genuine friendships with the other Ancients plus a few other people, and rebuilt the old ones he had with the other Beasts. He's... not a hero, no. He never will be again. But he's abandoned his evil ways. He's made peace with himself. He's been reintegrated into society. He's happy. They're happy.

No one approves of them besides Pure Vanilla. Throughout all of this, Spice has been regarded with fear, hatred and suspicion. (He doesn't really care much, to hell with what others think of him.) Though he's improved and some have relaxed around him, for many it's not enough, her friends included. They worry for her safety, for her sanity. She vouches for him, his character and their relationship. Only PV is on her side from the start; he's overjoyed for her, for him, for them. He's happy he's changed, as PV always hoped all the Beasts would. He wishes them well. He hopes for a similar happy future for himself and Shadow Milk. Everyone else comes around eventually, some sooner than others. (Smoked Cheese excluded. They will never be cool)

It's important to note that I came up with this for them because I enjoy exploring morality and redemption and forgiveness, and what that might look like for certain characters. Even if he's become a better man, does Burning Spice really deserve the happy ending he got? Does it undo anything he did? Does a man like that really deserve forgiveness?

The way Burning Spice would answer those questions is... no. No, he doesn't. He's done too much. The blood on his hands will never wash out. Golden Cheese can only forgive him for what he did to her specifically, not for what he did to the world. And he knows he isn't worthy either way. Should he ever die... well, he's certainly not going to Heaven, that's for sure. So he makes peace with it the best he can and just tries to be better. He can't change the past. All he can do is try to make it a decent present. He's not perfect, no. There are some things you'll never get back after living such a cursed life. The Herald of Change is long gone; perhaps he never truly existed in the first place. He can only be Burning Spice, with the weight of all his sins bearing down on his shoulders, and try. Try to do better. For his wife. For his children. For his comrades. For his people. There's nothing else he CAN do. He can never truly fix what he did. He has to live with that forever. But he's still managed to find happiness even with it, and that makes it bearable. And it's all thanks to her, in the end. Her and the kids. They make it all worthwhile.

I'm sorry I wrote a Bible lol. And also probably derailed at least once. I just hope I answered your questions well enough. This is ultimately how Merchant thinks Golden Cheese will get romantic with Burning Spice. The end

#i keep writing Bibles man... maybe I should be bible-merchant. unsolicitedrambling-merchant.#anyway i hope something in that giant wall of text made some amount of sense lol #tldr is I love BurningCheese and I can and will justify myself thoroughly #i can see their love. their connection. if i can convince more people to see it too then I'll be happy #i understand if you don't like them together. it's not the end of the world if you don't. i think it's a shame but oh well #you have the right to enjoy what you want. no need to seek anyone's approval. least of all an internet stranger that writes bibles for free #cookie run kingdom #burning spice cookie #golden cheese cookie #burningcheese #goldenspice #merchant asks #oh there's that vampire au too. the two different halves of it.#I've got a billion stories for these two dude lol. they've got me on lockdown here. they'll always be canon to me

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antianakin · 11 months ago

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Hey, I have a question to ask, and I'm gonna ask this to a few others cause I'm not a huge Star Wars expert on this.

Ever since The Acolyte aired, the jedi have been portrayed more as space cops. But, since when were they space cops? I thought they weren't like that. Am I wrong?

They AREN'T space cops, you're entirely correct, it's Leslye Headland who is wrong.

Here's the thing you have to understand about Leslye Headland and fans like her: they will claim to their dying day that they love the Jedi while sitting there talking about how the PREQUELS Jedi specifically were awful failures who doomed themselves by being heartless assholes who failed and/or abused Anakin and helped bring about the destruction of the Republic because they were simultaneously too political and not political enough.

When the Prequels first came out, they were received... poorly... by a large chunk of the adult audience. And it became a THING to hate the Prequel trilogy for a long time. After a while, people started deciding they didn't want to hate the Prequel trilogy, but they didn't actually LIKE some of the things in the films that were different from the legends canon that had already existed for years (primarily the way the Jedi had been interpreted), and so they chose to come up with interpretations that allowed them to "like" the Prequels better. The primary one that's become so popular as to basically end up considered the actual real intended message of the films is that the Jedi had become corrupt by the time of the Prequels, they were too old-fashioned and strict and stuck in their ways (specifically in that they forbid their members to love and were beholden to the Senate) and that this allowed Palpatine to win and Anakin to be seduced to the dark side, so they're the REAL villains of the entire story and the audience is SUPPOSED to dislike them.

In fairness to these fans, there IS a theme in the Prequels of an institute that's supposed to stand for peace and goodness being corrupted into an organization that is run by fear and greed. It's just that the institution in question is the SENATE, not the Jedi. And we spend a LOT more time with main characters who are Jedi, going out and doing cool fun Jedi adventures, than we do in the Senate with any of the known Senate characters doing political things. The only Senate character who could be considered a main character in the Prequels is Padme and a LOT of her more political scenes got cut from the films in order to focus on Anakin's story instead. Even in TCW, most of Padme's "political" episodes and storylines just devolve into action adventure plots instead. So it isn't hard to understand why people focused in on the Jedi and assumed that the story was ABOUT the Jedi rather than the politicians and picked up on a theme about corruption that was very much THERE and just misapplied it. But it's still wrong.

Leslye Headland appears to be one of those fans. A LOT of Star Wars fans of a certain age tend to follow this particular headcanon. Dave Filoni is another one of them, despite his reputation as George Lucas's "padawan" and the person who understands Star Wars the best after Lucas (spoiler alert: he's not).

So what we're getting in the Acolyte is a VERY intentional critique of the Jedi becoming more political I guess, more beholden to the Senate, and therefore becoming more like "space cops" instead of... I don't know... space Knights of the Round Table maybe? I think there's this concept that the Jedi should be more free spirited like... fairy god parents wandering the galaxy just handing out random miracles to worthy people and smiting the unworthy or some shit instead of being intergalactic ambassadors for the Republic, helping to resolve conflicts with legal backing and power.

This is something that's been around for DECADES now. It's in plenty of other books and comics that have come out during and since the Prequels, it's in TLJ, it's in TOTJ and TOTE, it's in the Ahsoka show, and now it's in The Acolyte. And it's obviously floated its way around fanfiction plenty, too. It's almost impossible to avoid if you talk to any other Star Wars fans from that age group (and even honestly fans YOUNGER than that age group because a lot of the older fans basically taught their children and younger siblings to hate the Prequels or that the Prequels were about the corruption of the Jedi, or younger fans just picked it up via osmosis if they spent almost any time within fandom the way I did). But it's becoming a thing that newer shows are really hammering in as if it's real canon. Headland genuinely believes that it is and we know that to be true because she's flat out SAID THIS in an interview she gave before the show aired. She 100% believes that the point of the Prequels, George Lucas's intended message in those films, was that the Jedi were corrupt and had fallen from grace. Her show is written with this misinterpretation of the films as a foundation for how she portrays the Jedi.

And that's how you get the Jedi suddenly feeling like "space cops" when that's so very clearly not what they are in anything Lucas ever created.

#star wars #jedi #pro jedi #anti leslye headland #anti headland #leslye headland critical #headland critical #anti the acolyte #anti acolyte #the acolyte critical #acolyte critical #the acolyte negativity #acolyte negativity #acolyte salt #the acolyte salt

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queenofthursday6599-blog · 11 months ago

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You know I want to say that Roger Doofenshmirtz is the least consistent character of Phineas & Ferb like character/personality wise.

Sometimes he's an actual mildly corrupt politician, who was raised the golden child and knows it. Where in the sibling rivalry is known to him, but still basically one sided as Roger won that fight basically before he was born.

Along with just outright mocking Heinz's appearance on multiple occasions. He considers Heinz to be a bumbling fool, or an outright screw up, and he'll even just refuse to mention even having a brother at all.

Sometimes he's a himbo of a mayor and brother and has little to no idea that he was the golden child. Where he seems to think he and Heinz have a neutral or even good relationship.

While also seeming totally oblivious to the idea that he's considered a lot more attractive than his older brother. He'll even consider Heinz to be very talented or even an expert in something.

It's just.

Within the show it can seem like Roger has two entirely different and nearly outright opposing personalities depending on the episode.

Like in the episode where Heinz's plan is to get revenge on Roger for destroying a painting Heinz made in early adulthood. While Roger had spent years trying to have said painting recreated because he felt so terrible about ruining it on accident.

And the two were seen having a much closer relationship in that episode's flashback than we see in just about any other instance of their lives.

Implying that in their early adulthood, having moved away from their parents. The strain on their relationship caused by their parents' unequal treatment of them disappeared and the two actually became quite close.

Like when Heinz finished what he considered to be his magnum opus, he wanted to show Roger first.

And that's more or less the closest we ever see the two brother's relationship be. As it's heavily implied that the destruction of Heinz's painting resulted in a falling out between the two that their relationship never recovered from.

Where as we see that most of the flashbacks that involve early childhood and feature Roger are full of resentment due to their parents' favoritism.

So I wonder what version of Roger Doofenshmirtz will make an appearance in the next two seasons.

The smug golden child who frequently appeared in the early seasons, or the softer more himbo-esque one who's shown to either want to fix his estrange relationship with his brother or even assumes he already has.

Because Roger Doofenshmirtz doesn't appear at all in Milo Murphy's Law, and I don't even think Heinz even mentions him except for in passing. So even with Heinz having officially turned away from evil, the Doofenshmirtz brothers' relationship is still effectively a big question mark.

Honestly I can't tell if Heinz is just completely uninterested in anything to do with Roger anymore, be it get revenge for their parents' favoritism, or try to fix and rebuild their relationship to something healthy and functional.

But like, when Heinz ends up homeless due to his building getting destroyed when he crosses over into MML, he doesn't even attempt or think about turning to Roger for help.

Which implies that he's just fully done with Roger. He doesn't want revenge, he doesn't want to try and rebuild their brotherly relationship, he just doesn't seem interested in really thinking about Roger at all in MML.

Even though I wanna say a good chunk of his schemes in PnF were Roger focused.

So I'm just wondering how the new seasons of PnF are going to handle the dynamic of the Doofensmirtz brothers.

Because depending on the version of Roger that gets used in the new seasons, combined with them retconning Heinz's turn away from evil or not, I could see like a few different ways it could end up.

Like if they fully just retcon Heinz's reformation, even though rumors say it's set the following summer, and thus post MML, then we'd end up with the two dynamics that appeared in the original PnF seasons.

With the brothers either mutually antagonizing each other while thinking themself the rightful superior brother, if we get self absorbed golden child Roger.

Or with one sided antagonism on Heinz's part, and oblivious brotherly affection on Roger's part if we go with Himbo Roger who has little to no idea Heinz feels any negativity at all.

But if the show decides to keep Heinz's character development from the original series and MML then there's the potential for the development of a new kind of dynamic for the Doofensmirtz brothers.

Of which there are multiple to choose from.

If they decide to go with Heinz's seeming apathy towards Roger that he had in MML. In the sense that now that he's not focused on being "evil" and getting revenge for any and all petty grievances against him, he barely feels anything for Roger at all.

Which could be interesting depending on the version of Roger they use.

I could very easily see the self absorbed golden child get irritated that his screw up older brother who he could always act superior towards, and make himself look better when compared to, suddenly didn't care about him at all and basically started ignoring his existence.

Like Roger has been the focus of his entire family dynamic from literally the moment his and Heinz's mom learned she was pregnant. To the point that there's only one relative in their entire family who preferred Heinz over Roger.

Like what is a golden child without a scapegoat to compare themself to?

So we'd end up with a reversal of the dynamic of the original seasons.

With a reformed Heinz trying to figure out this whole being a good guy thing, and how to live his life without a focus on being evil (remember he first started having such aspirations as a teenager). While mayor Roger Doofenshmirtz started using his free time and power to start trying to bother Heinz.

If Heinz is reformed and we end up with Himbo Roger though, I could potentially see an arch or story line where the repair their relationship, and maybe we could get an expansion on the dynamic we see in the Heinz the artist flashback. Where the brothers are actually on good terms without their parents' influence.

#phineas and ferb #pnf #heinz doofenshmirtz #roger doofenshmirtz

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enavstars · 2 years ago

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Cyberpunk au

RGB designs for a new au

Important things:

The inspiration for this was the game Stray (that I finally played).

This is a hyperfixation that I don't know when it's going to end. I'll probably draw things from it as much as my motivation lets me but don't expect it to be a constant thing like Eclipse or On the road.

I love worldbuilding so there is a lot of details of this au already, feel free to ask questions.

The world is dark and very corrupted but the tone of the au is chill because the sibs dgaf about the world.

Worldbuilding details (my friend wrote this because this is complicated and I suck at writing) [very long text under the cut]:

The key element of this AU’s worldbuilding is a new biohazardous artificial plant which was originally genetically engineered by the scientist of the RGB’s city-state to fight the air pollution that plagued the region by attempting to reduce the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere (yes this is a biopunk universe :)). However, because they are an ugly reddish colour, have a bitter taste and are extremely nutrient-deficient and unhealthy, they have no natural predators and can spread like wildfire across both fertile plots and forests like weeds. On top of that, due to that nutrient deficiency, which stems from the slow absorption ability of their roots (not nearly enough to keep the heavy rate of photosynthesis), they evolved on their own to attach themselves to other living beings as parasites and basically invaded the entire area around the metropolis. With them being potentially lethal, this caused a massive problem that made the city panic; although they have plenty of weak points (like fire and a vulnerable immune system) and it takes them very long to get their roots to the rest of the body, their grip is so deep and strong that the only option is to remove the infected body part. So their special ability became a critical issue when the plants unexpectedly ended up liking animals better, and with them humans themselves, because they could carry them to other places and infest those too while still sucking the life out of them until they die (oopsie). Ultimately, with the lack of proper information on the parasites, and because the situation was handled very poorly overall, they ended up taking many people’s lives and made the most vulnerable species of the area (like cattle) go endangered or extinct, which in turn altered the balance of the ecosystem and the working class’ means of living :).

Sorry this chunk was so technical, we (@kaigoesbrr and I) are biology nerds, but basically the plants were so good at making more oxygen and so ass at getting what they needed to do so that they became parasites, and now they get what they need from plants and animals (and they like animals better, like humans, because they have more stuff and help them spread further). Then society collapsed :).

All of this caused a deep economic crisis that brought about high rates of poverty, and with it, a deep fear of the infested world outside the city walls. So this whole conundrum led to the city closing off to the lands around it, implementing absurd levels of security like a tight border control and a slower, more strict business traffic, and making a huge dark translucent dome that encapsulates the whole city to keep any potential smuggled plants from ever growing by blocking the natural sunlight. They even made a ditch around their walls (kind of like a moat) and burnt and bombed the fields and suburbs around them to make them extremely infertile. So yeah, this city-state is a terrible place to live, a gloomy prison where not even the sun and stars can be seen, but most the inhabitants never leave out of that paranoid terror and the heavy bureaucracy needed to just go outside and touch grass.

(haha with poor funding corrupt scientists who didn’t know what they were doing made a mess, shocker how that would backfire horribly).

However, the outside isn’t as bad as they make it out to be. In the end, the plants did clean the air as they were supposed to, and, as nature does, it did somewhat recover from the disaster to where human life is now sustainable again.

Taking advantage of their thick crust, trees were the least affected by the plague, and the other plants in the forest developed new natural defences against the parasites, which was yet another reason why they in turn became best at infecting animals. And many of the fungi, abundant in the now more humid forest (haha cooler air equals more rain), took advantage of their weak immune system (due to their fucking incompetent creators making a mess of the original plant’s DNA) and infected them (haha scammer get scammed). So basically, the fields and farmlands were lost to the people, but the forests are still intact. Also, even though one of the rivers around the city, the one which makes its ways under it and is therefore connected to the water supply and sewer systems, is trashed, the other, which is further away, is now perfectly healthy due to the city closing off and therefore leaving it alone for enough time. The real issue here lies within the actual government, which obviously does not want to expose how corrupt and lazy they are when dealing with problems and so they keep fueling the paranoia of their most vulnerable citizens since they are kids :). One way they do so is by manipulating the information their people get, claiming bullshit like “the current ecosystem is wild and polluted, it cannot offer our economy anything anymore!” and “the plants are dangerous and will kill you if you ever come into contact with them, and they have infected virtually every living thing around!”. Another is by not educating their population about “the Outside”, treating it like a sort of taboo. Therefore, they refuse to explain, or hush those who try to, the actual danger of the plants and how to deal with them (they do have many weaknesses, after all).

But the people in this world have yet another nasty problem. In this AU there are beings believed to be anthropomorphic demons due to their pointy ears, fangs, and sometimes strange behaviour. But in fact, these people are descendants of the dragons that once lived in these nations, but their origins were forgotten as the world gradually lost touch with its spirituality and ancestry, and now those who were once revered for their “godlike attributes” (yes, they kinda worshipped dragons, I mean, who wouldn’t) are today facing discrimination. However, even though they aren’t considered exactly “people”, the pure humans are still kind of afraid of them, so they usually choose the subtler kind of racism. In most governments, “Demons” get less job opportunities and are denied high positions, can be freely banned from any establishment, and face unmatched prejudice just for existing, especially those with a stronger blood relation with their ancestry. In the city, they are treated as less than even the robots (nindroids of all kinds), who are treated like any other respected social group by now because they have grown so advanced that most of them are just like humans in metal armour. In fact, many of them are mechanics, who are held in high esteem for making the many bionic implants for the humans.

And all of that combined made the RGB siblings (who are obviously demons, especially Lloyd), decide never to leave the Outside, where they grew up, to go live in the city.

When they were younger, Kai and Nya adopted Lloyd when they found him asleep in a box in the middle of nowhere, after having been abandoned themselves a few years earlier. This time, though, their dynamic in this AU is more of a team than Kai being a mom to them both like he always is, so even if Kai feels the most responsible for being the eldest sibling, they rely on each other almost equally. They fend off the plants that threaten them with fire (no they do not have powers, but Kai uses a fucking flamethrower because it’s Kai), and usually live on whatever they can find in the wild: mostly by making traps for game, fishing in the cleaner river and occasionally foraging edible plats (that’s more risky and they are more carnivorous anyway). Also, Nya routinely strolls through the ruins of the suburbs to collect scrap junk to turn as much of it as she can into useful trinkets, the rest of which she sells to Ed and Edna’s junkyard and their son, who is an amateur mechanic (wink wink but no shipping actually). Apart from that though, they usually sneak into the metropolis to cause a bit of mayhem here and there, which over time and on top of the fear over their species has earned them a reputation of People You Don't Wanna Mess With (or "Demons", more like). More than once they’ve even messed with a few of the gangs around town, which started sprouting up after the disaster, so overall their presence in the city is tolerated, but frowned upon. They manage to bypass the annoying border control thanks to the faulty assistant robot who raised them, named Echo (wink wink), who cannot perform any other social job (what he was made for) than to be the ferryman for those few people who decide to cross the wide moat and venture out into the Outside. They usually take a secret tunnel that a few smugglers managed to make, and the Guard do nothing because they do not give a fuck about demons anyway (in fact, only a few people know that their actual names aren’t Red, Blue and Green because nobody gives a fuck indeed). They do actually know a few people there, some of whom are also demons (like Mistake and Ronin), but especially as kids (which is when the story starts) they spend most of their time in the wild chilling and going on adventures :³.

(no the city and the plants are not named, we’re lazy :))

Anyway this is what I'll say for now. There's a lot more info, and hopefully drawings, coming. Hope you like this au because I love it for now ^^

(Btw let me know if you want me to make a post/reblog explaining the designs for the Rgb siblings and some info behind them)

#Idk how I come up with these things but I love them #I hope you enjoy them too #ninjago #art #ninjago au #ninjago cyberpunk au #ninjago kai #kai smith #ninjago nya #nya smith #ninjago lloyd #lloyd garmadon #rgb siblings

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enden-k · 6 months ago

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Just out of curiosity, if the things were to be reversed (fear Vika/human Saran), what do you think Vika's characteristics would be? I'm intrigued! Do you think their personalities might change? Maybe Saran would be less closed off? The fear itself (you mentioned it was like phobias? Iirc?) Would change?

Totally not trying to get you to talk more about lore and what goes behind fears/Saran turning into one, no sir-

"fear" is just the term used for any type of paranormal being that manifests due to intense negative energy (most often resentment, anger, hatred, sorrow,...) : theyre ranging from ghosts of deceased, manifestations of fears and phobias, nightmares and spirits etcetc and some are harmless and neutral (they can always evolve into smth evil tho) while others are harmful and evil

saran is not a phobia/fear manifestation like mogu is for example; hes a special case of vengeful ghost who went through a mutation (dont wanna disclose too much or i spoil a good chunk)

if their roles would be reversed...thats such a fun question!!! i think i might do an AU of it even AHHAKJSBCK i thought up a whole changed, alternative storyline now

warning for tiny (non descriptive tho) suicide mention, just in case

if their roles would be reversed, half of it would basically be like "if saran didnt die" scenario. their reversed story wont go exactly like the canon story goes tho bc theres no vengeful saran, no fear seeker eyes, no azais questionable methods

sarans life would go exactly how it did before his death (just the 7 years later, in the current present); hes in his early 30s, finished his studies to become a doctor and doing the amygdala stuff as a side job as azais partner since he still refuses to mingle w the ghost world again tooooo much bc of his upbringing in the cult (he always wanted to be just a normal guy instead of constantly interacting with the paranormal)

amygdala isnt a big exorcist organization like it is in canon story but rather a smaller group of exorcists now (basically, just one elite now instead of 10). azai and saran never had the argument that led to his death and azai didnt go the villainous route (lol) which makes saran still one of the only ones who can see the unseen all clear like he sees the living (like in canon story when he was alive)

which also makes him the first to notice and see vika who is a sorrowful sad puppy ghost full of regret bc he was enticed into suicide by an entity and still young and new to the whole paranormal world. its the first time saran feels for a ghost and doesnt exorcise them. vika ends up haunting him instead of the other way around (bc of course they fall in love with each other <3 in every universe) and sticks to him while saran keeps an eye on him to make sure his pure soul wont get corrupted and he ends up an evil ghost. he wants vika to have the chance to enjoy the life that was ended so quickly so early (vika is around the same age as canon) and vika wants him and only him to exorcise him before sarans life comes to an end one day

basically, less dramatic than canon story i guess? just saran and his puppy of a sorrowful ghost living a more or less domestic life bc theres no amygdala doing shady shit in the background and no certain vengeful spirits eating eyes and trying to take revenge kajscbjk

their personalities are still the same, altho saran has less of a "creepy evil" side since hes no evil ghost anymore and vika is even more puppy i think??

#reply #reverse amygdala stuff #not canon but AU

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mllemaenad · 2 months ago

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I wanted to throw a thought at you. You mentioned that it's really good luck that Thedas came up with the Grey Wardens. If Mythal's goal really IS to stop the Blight, who says it's luck? If we take the codex entry about Andruil's armor as evidence, Mythal already had an idea about how to fight the taint before the Evanuris were imprisoned. And the known ingredients for the Joining: darkspawn blood, that seems reasonable. Lyrium - a fairly reasonable conclusion if you're doing a magic ritual, though it is notable that it's being used to tie the Grey Wardens to the Titans. Archdemon blood - It seems to me like it would be pretty darn hard to get hold of unless you either saved some from a previous battle with an archdemon or you knew where someone had stored some. How did the Grey Wardens during the First Blight know it was needed and get their hands on it, unless someone who was around before the Blight was initially locked away told them?

I mean, yes, absolutely it's possible Mythal was responsible for the creation of the Grey Wardens, regardless of what I think. Her activities in this period are basically a blank slate, so honestly she might have been doing anything. There's a whole chunk of history there that, barring the release of more games or lore books, can just be filled at will with head canons.

That said, I think there are two parts to this idea to explore and they need to be looked at separately:

The idea of Grey Wardens

Gathering the ingredients

Hey – what if we tried blood magic?

Honestly, I don't really think Mythal is necessary for coming up with the basics of this plan.

The first Blight had already raged for 90 years. The world was in chaos. A god had risen, twisted and corrupted. The remaining gods of Tevinter were silent, withdrawn. What writing we have recovered from those times is filled with despair, for everyone believed, from the greatest archons to the lowliest slaves, that the world was coming to an end. At Weisshaupt fortress in the desolate Anderfels, a meeting transpired. Soldiers of the Imperium, seasoned veterans who had known nothing their entire lifetimes except hopeless war, came together. When they left Weisshaupt, they had renounced their oaths to the Imperium. They were soldiers no longer: They were the Grey Wardens. The Wardens began an aggressive campaign against the Blight, striking back against the darkspawn, reclaiming lands given up for lost. The Blight was far from over, but their victories brought notice, and soon they received aid from every nation in Thedas. They grew in number as well as reputation. Finally, in the year 992 of the Tevinter Imperium, upon the Silent Plains, they met the archdemon Dumat in battle. A third of all the armies of northern Thedas were lost to the fighting, but Dumat fell and the darkspawn fled back underground. Even that was not the end. The Imperium once revered seven gods: Dumat, Zazikel, Toth, Andoral, Razikale, Lusacan, and Urthemiel. Four have risen as archdemons. The Grey Wardens have kept watch through the ages, well aware that peace is fleeting, and that their war continues until the last of the dragon-gods is gone. —From Ferelden: Folklore and History, by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar – The Grey Wardens

I think it's worth remembering that the first Grey Wardens were veteran soldiers of the Tevinter Imperium. While they no doubt hailed from across Thedas, Tevinter was the dominant culture at the time, and everyone would have absorbed a few of its ideas whether they liked it or not – like most of modern Thedas has absorbed some of Orlais's weird ideas about magic.

And I mean ... blood magic is very much Tevinter's thing. They are the all time experts on the subject. I'd be willing to bet "What if we used blood magic on it?" was one of the first thoughts to enter their heads. They might have tried that before they even got to "What if we stabbed it with swords?"

What they would have discovered over the course of that first century is that using blood magic on an Archdemon doesn't work. Or, well, it probably works in the sense that you can unleash a lot of raw power on it and kill it ... but that doesn't stop it from popping back up again. And meanwhile your soldiers are still sickening and dying from taint, or surviving it and wandering off to join the enemy.

So now we're at Plan B: what if we used blood magic on ourselves? And I think there's pretty good reason to think that drinking blood, and specifically drinking dragon blood, was pretty high up on Tevinter's go-to list of solutions.

For a start, we know Reavers exist, and that dragon cults are weirdly prolific among humans:

Let us suggest, for the moment, that a high dragon is simply an animal. A cunning animal, to be sure, but in possession of no true self-awareness or sentience. There has not, after all, been a single recorded case of a dragon attempting to communicate or performing any act that could not likewise be attributed to a clever beast. How, then, does one explain the existence of so-called "dragon cults" throughout history? One dragon cult might be explainable, especially in light of the reverence of the Old Gods in the ancient Tevinter Imperium. In the wake of the first Blight, many desperate imperial citizens turned to the worship of real dragons to replace the Old Gods who had failed them. A dragon, after all, was a god-figure that they could see: It was there, as real as the archdemon itself, and, as evidence makes clear, did offer a degree of protection to its cultists. Other dragon cults could be explained in light of the first. Some cult members might have survived and spread the word. The worship of the Old Gods was as widespread as the Imperium itself—certainly such secrets could have made their way into many hands. But there have been reports of dragon cults even in places where the Imperium never touched, among folks who had never heard of the Old Gods or had any reason to. How does one explain them? Members of a dragon cult live in the same lair as a high dragon, nurturing and protecting its defenseless young. In exchange, the high dragon seem to permit those cultists to kill a small number of those young in order to feast on draconic blood. That blood is said to have a number of strange long-term effects, including bestowing greater strength and endurance, as well as an increased desire to kill. It may breed insanity as well. Nevarran dragon-hunters have said these cultists are incredibly powerful opponents. The changes in the cultists are a form of blood magic, surely, but how did the symbiotic relationship between the cult and the high dragon form in the first place? How did the cultists know to drink the dragon's blood? How did the high dragon convince them to care for its young, or know that they would? Is there more to draconic intelligence than we have heretofore guessed at? No member of a dragon cult has ever been taken alive, and what accounts exist from the days of the Nevarran hunters record only mad rants and impossible tales of godhood. With dragons only recently reappearing and still incredibly rare, we may never know the truth, but the question remains. —From Flame and Scale, by Brother Florian, Chantry scholar, 9:28 Dragon – Dragon Cults

Brother Florian here is deeply frustrated, because he can't find any halfway modern source to explain why people are running around drinking dragon blood. But ... well, I'd like to point the good brother back to his very own Chant of Light:

On the shores of the Nocen, in the lands of Neromenian King Antoridus girded his people for war. A thousand strong Carried spear and bow to the East. To be forged anew And rise on burning wings, heroes of Neromenian. Mighty were the Inghirsh, who returned numbers beyond counting To the lands of their fathers, carried on the shields of their kin. Antoridus demanded victory, and so his many Oracles Consulted the stars and drank the blood of unclean beasts, Seeking counsel from the Maker that they might deliver To their king the lands of the Inghirsh people. And the Maker gave them signs and portents That no victory was theirs to claim. – Threnodies 6, The Chant of Light

This is an account of a war between the most ancient human tribes, so it predates even the founding of the Tevinter Imperium, let alone the First Blight. And according to the footnotes in World of Thedas Volume 2, the "unclean beasts" referenced were probably wyverns. Wyverns are the close cousins of dragons and their blood can sometimes be substituted for that of dragons if you don't have access to a dragon just now.

My general feeling is that drinking blood, and specifically dragon blood, to empower oneself and defeat one's enemies was an idea that humans brought with them from their ancient homeland. I suspect that this was their outright equivalent of the typical use of lyrium in Thedas to augment one's abilities.

So, really, I think the ancient Tevinters were actually more likely to come up with this idea on their own than Mythal was. We absolutely have evidence of Mythal being able to defeat a tainted Andruil in her own dragon shape, but we don't have evidence of anything like ancient elven Grey Wardens. Our best evidence on her suggests she was quite touchy and protective about dragons, and pitched a fit when Ghilan'nain turned some guy into one:

There are whispers from the Well of Sorrows. It's impossible to understand the entire text, but certain parts suddenly reveal a shadow of their original meaning. "His crime is high treason. He took on a form reserved for the gods and their chosen, and dared to fly in the shape of the divine. The sinner belongs to Dirthamen; he claims he took wings at the urging of Ghilan'nain, and begs protection from Mythal. She does not show him favor, and will let Elgar'nan judge him." For one moment there is an image of a shifting, shadowy mass with blazing eyes, whose form may be one or many. Then it fades. – Ancient Elven Writing

I think Mythal had it in her to understand that a dragon might defeat the blight, but I think it took a Tevinter mind to make the leap from that to "... and therefore we should drink dragon blood" because that was a much more natural progression of thought in their culture.

So ... is this stuff safe to drink?

Of course, this brings us to the whole problem with Plan B, which is that drinking tainted blood is almost certainly lethal. Our problem isn't figuring out that we need dragon blood ... it's actually consuming it without dying.

Fenris will tell us that the mabari hounds were originally bred in Tevinter. While that's not a definite origin story, there's a certain amount of logic to it: they're eerily smart, and their habit of "imprinting" so exclusively is odd. They do seem to be at least a little bit magic. And, obviously, they are resistant to the taint. We know that, at least in some cases, a mabari can swallow darkspawn blood and live.

So if Fenris's tale is correct, the first Grey Wardens may well have seen that, with the right magic resistance, it was possible to drink this stuff.

Which makes me wonder very much about the role Archdemon blood is actually playing in this ritual.

The Joining requires darkspawn blood. Recruits are typically sent out under the watch of an older Warden to slay darkspawn and collect the blood. This is a test to see if the recruit has the courage and ability to fight darkspawn. Once the blood is collected, the Wardens add a single drop of Archdemon blood and use magic to make it at least remotely possible to consume. Archdemon blood is among the rarest substances in all Thedas, and it makes the Joining all the more exclusive a ritual. Older Wardens carry a small amount of it with them at all times. Normally, the taint within darkspawn blood can be lethal. Adding Archdemon blood only intensifies the effect, rendering the mixture instantly lethal to most. A recruit who survives drinking the blood is considered worthy of the Order. Should the recruit survive, he or she will forever share a deeper connection to the darkspawn, sensing them when they are near and, in a Blight, hearing the call of the Archdemon. This gives them a great advantage in combat with the darkspawn, but also dooms them to a horrible end. – World of Thedas Volume One

I mean ... why are we making Grey Wardens in the first place? The tactical advantages are cool and all – and they do let a Warden go "Ah, yep, this is an actual Blight, not just a random darkspawn party" – but they hardly seem worth all the trouble. And if you just want some insight into the power of the Song of the blight ... it'd be easier to just quarantine and observe some ghouls.

No, the big thing is immunity. Grey Wardens are functionally, though not literally, immune to the taint. They do not sicken or die from it; they do not become ghouls; they do not spread it. With the arrival of Grey Wardens, the people of Thedas finally had an army that could wade right through the ranks of the darkspawn, and then be capable of doing the same thing again tomorrow. Yes, after thirty years or so that resistance wains ... but for the purposes of stopping an apocalypse that will more than do.

And what are dragons? Dragons are resistant to the taint.

Within the carcass of the Abyssal High Dragon, we found cysts of hardened flesh. Sister Brigette, a scholar from Nevarra, said she had seen, once or twice, similar nodules in other beasts. To protect itself, the body grew a barrier around a foreign object that could not be removed. Naturally, of course, we cut into the cyst. The flesh within was blighted. We immediately examined all other cysts found in the other dragon carcasses. Each time, we found the blight. The only conclusion we can draw is that dragons can stem the spread of the blight within their own bodies. They cannot do this indefinitely, as the existence of Corypheus's dragon suggests, but they are more resistant than other creatures. – War Table: learn more about dragons

Dragons, like Grey Wardens, can be exposed to the taint and live. But, like Grey Wardens, their resistance is not infinite. Archdemons are advanced dragon ghouls, much like Grey Wardens on their Calling can be sophisticated humanoid ghouls.

I recognise that the conventional wisdom on using Archdemon blood is that ordinary darkspawn somehow to not have "enough" taint in them. But if I'm honest, that's never made much sense to me. Westley Vallen declined really fast, from nothing more than an encounter with ordinary darkspawn. And he didn't drink their blood. There just doesn't seem to me to be enough difference there to warrant Archdemon blood for the taint alone.

I would put forward that, while it is important to get a solid dose of taint in the mix in order to connect the Warden to the Blight, the important thing you are taking from the Archdemon blood is their inherent resistance to that taint. An Archdemon is deeply, horribly tainted ... but their bodies are also always fighting to contain it.

I think this is something that the first Grey Wardens probably could have known, or at least guessed. Blood magic experts all round, after all.

Could they have got Archdemon blood? Eh, hard to say. Defeating an Archdemon is no easy task (I mean, okay, except in Veilguard where we took one down in the first engagement ... ), but the war had raged for a century at this point. They must have "killed" Dumat multiple times, and it's not unreasonable to think that samples could have been taken off bloodied weapons. If they didn't have any ... well, they could very well have sent volunteers to get some. The first Grey Wardens pledged to do anything to stop the blight, and if "anything" means "suicide mission to get Archdemon blood" ... well, that's how it goes.

But I wonder if they needed to. That's the thing. It's the First Blight. You've got ... plenty of taint. If that's all you need, well, stick your head out the front door. That crap is everywhere.

What you need is the resistance part of the dragon. So ... does it need to be tainted? In future Blights, the Archdemon is obviously going to be your one-stop-shop for this concoction. Lots of taint, high dragon resistance built in, and you had to kill it anyway, so it's right there. But the first time ... yeah, you either have to scrape some off a sword, or you have to "kill" Dumat again to get it.

I do think the Grey Wardens could have pulled this off on their own: their willingness to go to any extreme to defeat the blight is a hallmark of their order.

But if the question is ... could Mythal, the dragon, the only surviving truly great dragon from the dawn of history, have contributed anything to the creation of the Grey Wardens, as part of her commitment to resist the blight?

Yeah, she could have given them a drop of her blood.

#dragon age

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icedragonlizard · 8 months ago

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My interpretation for Hyness after HiAD, as well as his dynamics with Kirby and all the dream friends

In my verse, Hyness became very slothful after he was freed from the Jamba Heart's influence. He doesn't do much with his life afterwards, and is basically the equivalent of an old man in retirement.

The reason why he's become so slothful is because he's incredibly overwhelmed and worn down by the combination of all the stress that he went under during his corrupted phase and all the guilt that he bears over his actions.

Even though he's exceptionally grateful to Kirby and the star allies team for rescuing him and the Mage Sisters at the end of HiAD, he's not exactly a happy person. If anything, he's actually a little miserable by virtue of all the stress and guilt he has over everything that happened. He does not feel good about any of it. He definitely has some relief that the bad stuff is done, but he's really messed up by all the regret he has over it.

He went through a bunch of pain and suffering while he was corrupted, enough to where it's been having some long-term lingering even after he's better. And he feels awful about what he did to the Mage Sisters. He hurt them really bad, didn't he? It haunts him that he sacrificed them to Void Termina. One of them is still unbreakably devoted to him, but the other two have hang-ups. They're all ultimately a reunited family, but their relationship just simply isn't the same as it once was. They have some complications even after they've been saved in HiAD.

All of these complexities have led to Hyness becoming inactive and lethargic. After being purified, he spends about 95% of his time at his home in the Jambandran Base. He's just chilling out at home and taking it easy. He's basically having a permanent mental break. The Mage Sisters love to commonly go out, have fun and cause chaos, and their dad is just relaxing at home while they do that.

And because Hyness spends the vast majority of his time at home, most of the dream friends very seldom see him after HiAD. The only times they see him post-HiAD is when the Mage Sisters take him with them for a Popstar vacation once every blue moon (and I mean literally once every blue moon). That does happen, and it's why I say 95% as opposed to 100% for Hyness staying home, but most of the Mage Sisters' visits to Popstar and other planets are done without bringing him with them.

This is the reason why Hyness is not in the list of characters that are present in my Google Doc for Kirby Character Dynamics. He barely has much of anything to do with a good chunk of them by virtue of rarely seeing them post-HiAD. That being said, however, I will post his dynamics with Kirby and all the dream friends in this post further down below. Again, many of them very seldom see him. There are exceptions, however. You'll see which ones see him more often than others.

Hyness acts very nice and polite to people that visit the Jambandran Base. However, he can get stressed out easily and is still capable of talking at a million miles an hour if he resorts to starting a rant, so probably not a good idea to set him off. One of the dream friends has ended up causing him to do it once, though.

And now, finally, to his dynamics with a lot of the Kirby cast. Let's start with his daughters.

Zan Partizanne: Zan, being the Mage Sister that's the most devoted to Hyness, is also the most forgiving one. She doesn't hold his actions against him at all, really. She's literally just happy to have him back. It warms his heart. He feels like he doesn't deserve his daughters anymore, but it makes him touched to see that Zan is still unwaveringly indebted to him. She acts as his main caretaker, and thus she's the least outgoing of the Mage Sisters, because she stays home more often than the other two do as she takes more care of Hyness than they do.

Flamberge: This is rather complicated. Flamberge has many hang-ups with Hyness. Early on after HiAD, she was actually pretty uncomfortable around him and didn't have a lot of trust in him. She openly expressed this discomfort to him, and there were even a few instances where she angrily yelled at him because of the baggage over the things he did. However, things do get better later on. They eventually make amends. Flamberge does still care about Hyness as she slowly warms up to him again, but what happened has permanently affected her feelings about him. He completely understands and just feels absolutely horrible about it.

Francisca: Like Flamberge, Francisca also has hang-ups with Hyness, as she was also uncomfortable around him early on after HiAD. Although she hasn't been nearly as argumentative, nor as she ever yelled at him as her fiery sister did that for her, but she still made her hang-ups with him clear. That being said, they do make amends later on. Francisca is more or less on the same stance as her fiery sister when it comes to her feelings about Hyness, as she still cares about him but it's more complicated than before. He understands and doesn't blame her. He's heartbroken that he hurt her.

*Despite the hang-ups that Francisca and Flamberge have with Hyness, there are still moments where they hug him. There's also just some serious baggage involved, as his actions have permanently changed things.

To see Hyness' dynamics with Kirby and all the other dream friends in my verse, click on the 'Keep reading' tag down below. This post is already getting very long as is, so I'm gonna put a tag for you to click on in order to read the rest of it.

Hyness, in a general sense, has gratitude for everyone in the star allies team for saving him, although some of them still have uneasy opinions about him. Honestly, they were more happy about saving the Mage Sisters than they were about saving him.

Here's how he interacts with them individually:

Kirby: Kirby forgives every villain that stops their evil deeds, and Hyness is no exception. The pink puff is very happy to have saved his life and purified him back to his regular self. He considers Hyness to be a friend. And just like Kirby does with all of his friends, he visits him at the Jambandran Base on occasion. Hyness has unbridled gratitude for Kirby. Part of him feels like he didn't really deserve to be saved, but it makes him so emotional that this little guy went out of his way to save him anyways. Quite frankly, Kirby has made Hyness cry happy tears over this more than once. He can't thank him enough. He's hugely indebted to Kirby as a result.

King Dedede: One of the many star allies members that Hyness seldom crosses paths with after HiAD. During the rare instances they do meet, their interactions are polite, but Hyness makes Dedede very uncomfortable deep down. Watching the Mage Sisters get rag-dolled hit way too close to home for Dedede, as it reminded him that he could've done similar things to his waddle dees if Kirby didn't humble him. He's glad that Hyness is purified now, but he can't shake off the discomfort. He wishes him well, though, and vice versa.

Meta Knight: Meta Knight feels discomfort about Hyness for similar reasons as Dedede. He'd never treat his crewmates like what Hyness did to the Mage Sisters. Meta Knight doesn't often express being horrified, but he did so over the things Hyness did in his corruption. After HiAD, these two very seldom see each other, although they do mutually wish each other well.

Bandana Waddle Dee: Another one that Hyness very rarely sees after HiAD, and so there's not much of a relationship between these two. Bandee was terrified of Hyness back in his evil phase, and although he's glad the man is better now, he'd still prefer to keep a distance. Not much else to say here, really.

Magolor: One of the dream friends that Hyness actually sees sometimes outside of his super rare Popstar vacations! This is because Magolor, by virtue of being decent friends with the Mage Sisters, sometimes visits the Jambandran Base. He and Hyness get along very well, enough to even consider each other to be friends. They have informative talks about the Ancients, as well as ancient technology. Hyness thinks that Magolor is a bright-minded and humorous young man, always appreciating his company. Magolor thinks he's an interesting individual and forgives him for what he did.

Marx: Like Magolor, Marx also sometimes shows up at the Jambandran Base due to being good friends with the Mage Sisters, and thus he crosses paths with Hyness more often than many of the other dream friends do. He likes Hyness. They had some not-so-positive interactions early on after HiAD, though, when at one point Marx tried to provoke Hyness into performing another super-fast rant, to which Hyness then snapped and attacked him. They got along better after that, though. Nowadays, Marx just says things to make Hyness laugh. Hyness likes Marx and doesn't grudge about that one instance.

Taranza: Taranza is another one that visits the Jambandran Base sometimes because he's good friends with the Mage Sisters, and so he actually sees Hyness at not an infrequent rate! They're on good and amiable terms. It helps that Taranza is close friends with Zan, and considering his devotion to Sectonia is of similar levels to Zan's devotion of Hyness, Taranza can effectively see Sectonia in him. It makes him sympathize with him and is glad to see he's purified. Hyness really likes Taranza and thinks he's a nice young man.

Susie: Like the three right above her, Susie also sometimes visits the Jambandran Base because she's a close friend of the Mage Sisters, meaning that Hyness sees her more often than many other dream friends. They get along well, although Susie quietly felt awkward around him at first because she's very close friends with Francisca and they both have daddy issues. Susie stays out of the Jamba family's drama, though, and her awkwardness about Hyness reduces once Francisca works things out with him. Hyness likes Susie and is pleased that she's friends with his daughters, especially his icy one.

Gooey: Gooey generally stays in Popstar, and thus it's seldom for him and Hyness to see each other after HiAD. However, during the rare instances where they do meet, they actually get along very well. Gooey is very forgiving like Kirby is, and he likes Hyness! Hyness respects Gooey a lot after learning about his origins. He thinks he's a very sweet and fascinating little guy. He wishes he could see him more often than he does. Gooey would also like that.

Rick & Kine & Coo: They also generally stay in Popstar, and so they rarely ever see Hyness after HiAD. And while they're not grudge-holders, they still feel pretty uneasy about him after witnessing the things he did in front of them and the rest of the star allies team. They're glad he's at least better now and wish him the best, but yeah they barely have a relationship with him at all.

Daroach: Daroach actually visits the Jambandran Base on occasion, and so he and Hyness see each other every once in a while at least. They get along pretty well. Daroach steals from the Jambandran Base, but that doesn't actually upset Hyness. It would, but the Mage Sisters are actually thrilled when Daroach robs the place, because they enjoy chasing after him for it, and they like him. Hyness acknowledges they're all just having fun, and so he likes Daroach. Daroach likes him back and forgives him for what he did.

Adeleine: Adeleine rarely ever sees Hyness after HiAD, and honestly she's not bothered by that. She thought he was really scary during his corrupted phase, and although she's relieved that he's now better, she still considers him to be unnerving. She has no ill-will towards him, though. Not really much else to say for this one.

Ribbon: Another one that Hyness seldom sees after HiAD. That being said, Ribbon doesn't actually mind him now that he's purified, as she's generally braver than Adeleine. The rare instances where she and Hyness interact are generally amiable. There's still not much of a relationship here, though, due to how rarely they meet.

Dark Meta Knight: Even though DMK does have a friendship with Flamberge, he never visits the Jambandran Base as he's not up to travelling all the way there, and thus he and Hyness barely ever see each other again after HiAD. And honestly, DMK doesn't give a crud about Hyness, so he's not upset to hardly ever encounter him.

Nago, ChuChu, Pitch and Shadow Kirby have all also met Hyness during one of his once-every-blue-moon Popstar vacations. Can't say there's much going on there, really. They were all spooked when they learned he was the big villain during the adventure that Kirby and all the star allies partook in, and are glad he's not evil anymore, but other than that they hardly ever see him. Although Nago did let Hyness pet him during their first meet.

Hyness did go with the Mage Sisters to a vacation in the New World because he was curious to check out it, and so he did meet Elfilin, but not much there either aside from Elfilin thinking he's scary. Elfilin is not a fan of the Mage Sisters as he thinks they're scary, and their dad isn't any less scary. They almost never interact after their first meet, though. Doesn't help that Elfilin was informed by some of the dream friends about the events of Star Allies, freaking him the heck out upon learning about Hyness' actions.

That's basically it for this post. As you can see, a lot of the dream friends barely see Hyness again after he's been purified, and truthfully he's still rather controversial in the general opinion of the team. They were all utterly horrified by what he did in his evil phase, and although they're all ultimately glad he's better now, many of them still have uneasy opinions about him.

Thanks for reading if you did.

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luckycheesefoodie321 · 2 months ago

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Violet’s signets: Onyx Storm spoilers

So Rebecca has reiterated (and this was first mentioned in Iron Flame? Or maybe it was Carr in Fourth Wing) that Violet’s first signet is power-wielding. Not lightning wielding. Lightning is just the most comfortable form her power takes. Maybe that’s somewhat influenced by her mother’s signet and could even be why she was so inclined to believe Theophanie was her own lightning wielding venin counterpart.

It’s certainly Violet taking the most grand display of power she is aware of as someone who for a very long time felt powerless.

Also the whole thing about commanding the skies - which some theories are percolating about true power residing in the skies and not the ground, hence why the venin are the ultimate corruption as they channel directly from the earth, but dragons bonding with humans who “ground” themselves to wield power that originally never should have belonged to them (hence why the irids are wary of the humans who have abused the abilities gifted to them).

It would be very on point, following that theory, that Violet is someone who pulls power directly from the sky AND is bonded to an irid, which makes her a rarity among rarities, even more so than we already perceive her as, having bonded two dragons.

BUT ANYWAY. Rebecca has told us that we have explored about 85% of Violet’s power. I am in full belief that the final 15% would be Violet figuring out how to wield power in forms that are not lightning. Like waves of energy or shifting the earth itself. Idk.

But having said that, Rebecca has said we have barely brushed the surface of Violet’s second signet, “Dream walking”. Which I put in quotes bc I firmly believe she can do more than that.

I would argue that her brand of inntinnsic is more than just wandering around the subconscious. It’s been proven that she can actually interact with the dreamer within the dream space AND she can interact with any intruders (see: Berwyn - the other “dreamwalker”).

BUT. I would argue that she has already “mindwalked” before, among other things.

LET US ALL RECALL “My house. My chair. My woman.”

I’m sure you remember.

In that scene, for a very brief moment, Violet is able to read Xaden’s mind (whose thoughts were basically a combination of mmm so good so nice and I love her so much). Now it’s kinda brushed over as their bond and Xaden being particularly unguarded in this moment, allowing her to directly reach his thoughts this time.

HOWEVER, now knowing she is a form of inntinnsic, I fully believe this is the first clear evidence of her “mind walking” in a conscious state.

Up to this point in Iron Flame, Violet had already been dreamwalking in Xaden’s dreams, as she keeps believing she is having a recurring nightmare of Berwyn coming for her and being forced to channel and give in to being venin WHEN IN REALITY these were all Xaden’s dreams. Now Andarna, upon Violet’s realisation of her second signet, says that Violet can do this with anyone, but she is most drawn to Xaden.

In “my house, my chair, my woman”, pretty much all her thoughts were Xaden. So her mind is drawn to his, and his mind is, for once, wide open.

Not to mention, that whole chunk where she reads his mind is in ITALICS. Rebecca is very clever with how she uses every aspect of the written medium to inform and enrich the story. It was italics and a lack of quotation marks that had us frothing at the mouth when it was first revealed that Xaden was an inntinnsic.

Time will tell if her abilities are strong enough to get past shields, which is why it seems like right now she can only dream walk bc no one can shield in their sleep.

I also believe there was one other time she mindwalked, and this time kind of intentionally? But rather than jumping into someone else’s mind, she forced her own thoughts on someone else.

After getting tortured by Varrish, Dain arrives and tries to read her memories. Violet, pissed as hell, decides she’ll give him every memory she has.

I’m pretty sure in Iron Flame, she describes it as something like “she grabs onto his presence in her mind and forces him to see everything”. Like thinking her thoughts aggressively is one thing, but forcing Dain, who we have been told in OS is actually quite powerful (perhaps more than we are actually aware), to stay in her mind and flood him with her memories is an entirely different ability. And Dain was pretty shocked and exhausted by the whole thing. So I wonder if her manipulation of his mental presence is physically taxing.

So not only can she mindwalk, she can manipulate what is happening in the mindspace, and as evident by her lucid dream with Xaden against Berwyn, the scene with Dain in Iron Flame is confirmation she can manhandle another the person whose thoughts she is walking within.

So Violet can mindwalk, manhandle, manipulate.

So moving forward:

Violet should be able to shape her power into forms other than lightning at some point

Violet could arguably reach inside the mind of another WHILE BOTH ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS and potentially rip their mind to shreds. Or yknow. Inception.

#spoilers #onyx Storm #onyx storm theories #rebecca yarros #Violet sorrengail #Xaden Riorson #fourth wing #iron flame #books #book theories #romantasy #long post #theories #onyx Storm spoilers #fourth wing spoilers #iron flame spoilers

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thesealantern · 7 months ago

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Pink corruption headcannons! (Varying from nonsensical, angsty to silly, most of these are weirdly specific but stick with me okay?)

• Pentellow was completely illiterate for a good chunk of her life, Iris has taught her the basics of reading and writing and while she can read simple texts fairly easily she still struggles with writing. Every time she needs to write anything she has Iris do it for her, she walks around the room like an old military general while she’s dictating. (It helps her think)

• Occasionally, when Iris is particularly upset, frustrated or stressed, he’ll blurt out something his dad told him as a kid. No one ever takes it to heart and half the time it isn’t even something particularly offensive but every time it happens Iris feels terrible and I’m telling you this man sits on his bed staring at his hands like “I am no better than my father”, he can time all instances this has happened and yes they haunt him when he’s falling asleep.

• Anytime Pyrare tries to write a letter to the other caretakers it ends in catastrophe. He refuses to shrink for the task, so either he tried to just write in very small letters and the text is absolutely unreadable, he asks Gold to write it who then proceeds to shorten it and leave stuff out (and has occasionally just changed the contents of letters entirely, mostly when it’s someone he doesn’t like) or there was that one time he just sent Pentellow and Iris a monster sized letter. It was a pain to deal with, they still have it somewhere because Pentellow insisted they keep it.

• Iris has a weird hatred towards a very specific kind of cursive most of the people back at the palace (including his father) used. Anytime he sees it anywhere he just gets super irritated, it’s honestly kind of amusing. Is Iris aware that a grudge against a style of writing is stupid? Yeah, but he doesn’t care.

• Gold and Cyanide like to play chess together sometimes, they’re both fairly good at it and their games are super intense and take a long while. The other heroes all collectively suck at chess (Orange is mediocre, Tsavorite and Cyan are a lost cause) but join in if it’s at Pyrare’s place, though that usually leads to them using the ridiculously sized chess board to make up their own games.

• The first time Gold saw a non-monster shape he was absolutely flabbergasted, he did know of them, but for most of his life he hadn’t seen one (I imagine Pyrare and Gold lived a fairly isolated life for the most part) and Pyrare never made it sound like a big deal so he just kinda thought they’d be a bit shorter. The fact they had two eyes was also kind of weird, sure he has two eyes but he just thought that was a hero thing.

• Seeing the inside of a shape-sized house was even more baffling, Gold still hasn’t gotten over how tiny some things are.

•Every time they spend a long time in shape populated area Pyrare is just STARVING, there’s no way any of the inns they stayed at have portions close to what an adult monster needs. He never complains about it though. Honestly I think he would just pass out at one point, the lack of food mixed with so much travelling is bound to catch up to him.

• Kind of random but monsters probably have a much slower heartbeat than shapes. Since most large animals have larger hearts but they pump at a slower pace, I’m pretty sure it has to do with temperature regulation but idk man I’m no biologist.

#Don’t ask okay? most of these came to me like divine visions #the pink corruption #pink corruption #jsab tpc #headcannons #I’m not tagging all the characters mentioned #it’s mostly #tpc Iris #and #tpc Pyrare

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inkyrainstorms · 4 days ago

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If you perchance... 𓁺𓁺

Wish to elaborate on the wing situation, I'd genuinely love to hear it. This entire world you talk about, is... SO good. A mix between space, time and people with wings?? I LOVE that!

I WOULD LOVE TO OMG YESSS!!! <3 :D

(be warned, though, it does get... a little convoluted, lmao) (I used to tell my brother this story bit by bit every night over the course of 2 years)

(it got just as long as I expected, i put it under the cut <3)

Our story starts about 200 hundred years from now, in the throes of an absolute mess of an intergalactic war between the W (i can never remember the name for them, lmao. they're a letter now) and the Alliance (also shortened from their real name). The W used to be a solar system civilization with a rapidly growing population - and the only way to sustain it was to take invade other planets, other star systems, and absorb them into its empire. This continued on until they'd amassed a good third of the entire galaxy, and a hefty chunk of the other civilizations in the galaxy fought back against their growth (this is the Alliance)

Now, after about a century of expansion and increasing corruption, W had a huge internal conflict because of his absolutely bonkers massive and diverse it was, and the people rose up to overthrow their shitty government and instate a new one. This was all fine and dandy,, except that the W's people encompassed so many star systems that it was damn near impossible to create any sort of political coherence.

With the fall of the W, the Alliance took this opportunity to fill the power vacuum it had left behind (it stopped expanding), qnd essentially tried to take the land back by force. This entire conflict -with people wanting to leave the W, people wanting to stay, and people wanting to split the W into a million pieces and take it for thier own (thanks Alliance) - splintered hundreds of factions off of the Big Two, each with their own agenda

This is where our story really starts (yeah, i know) (It gets worse, don't worry)

Decades after the Fall of the W, the conflict had come to a bloody standstill. The Alliance was sick of this. Everyone was sick of this. The Alliance decided to consult their council of their greatest scientists and 'magic' users (call them the Sorcerers. they're basically the Alliance's secret ace card up their sleeve) and told them "hey, we need you to build a really big, stupidly powerful weapon so we can settle this whole mess."

Naturally, the Sorcerers, who were barely restrained from actually just overthrowing the Alliance and more than a little unhinged, went "sure, why not lmao"

So, they all rolled up their sleeves and collected a bunch of the most ancient objects with still-traceable signatures they could procure from some dingy little planet, which was more of a dumping ground for the Alliance than anything, (Aerth? Oarth? Something like that) and pulled whatever/whoever had the most contact with it the longest time ago, through the time stream.

It didn't matter what, or who came through. What mattered, was that when something was pulled through time like this, it collected residual energy while slipping through the tunnel from one time to the next. The more time between the jump, the more energy (imagine this like... a really glowy rainbow waterslide. the longer the slide, the more soaked you will likely become as you go through it)

... this was more of an art than a science, they had to admit.

They'd only managed to get one of the two initial trials to even work -

(somewhere, a million miles away, a young girl found herself on what seemed to be an abandoned fight jet, floating in the dead of space) (when she found the pilots chair, it was covered in blood)

-and they couldn't even manage to extract the damn energy from the Earth boy they'd caught properly. It refused to listen to them, inextricably intertwined with his soul - whatever that was to them - as it was, and whatever cracks they'd managed to make in the spiritual vessel only manifested in a pair of strange appendages on his back (the wings), and a incredible unstable energy core.

So they figured, as one does, that if they couldn't take the energy out of him to make a weapon, they might as well train him to harness the energy and become the weapon they need

@pinefamilycatsau tagging you also :)

#this is like... barely the gist of the beginning of Zee's story and not even breaching the surface on Akira #but it was getting very long lmao #if you'd like to hear more I'd love to talk about it!!!!!!!#Zee does make friends <33 and basically gets adopted by the guard meant to keep him in line.#Bea is the best Big Sister and a master of Malicious compliance #Akira (the girl) also gets adopted by a rogue pilot from one of the factions I mentioned earlier #and his bestie (who commited treason for him) and his besti'e girlfriend (who is so ride or die its incredible)#inkys oc storytime #<tag now #if you guys have ideas for actually naming this i'd love to hear it

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pessimisticpigeonsworld · 1 year ago

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Can you write a post with ur thoughts about the line "What have I done but what was expected of me? Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law" cause alicent is the biggest hypocrite to me

Oh yeah this scene is where Alicent's true character shines through the most. She takes a situation where her son has sustained a traumatic injury and has been caught spouting treason and turns it into an opportunity to attack Rhaenyra and her family. Her hatred of Rhaenyra and desire to undermine her overshadows everything else.

Alicent disrespects the Velaryons at least twice in the scene, more than that it's in their own keep on the day of their daughter's funeral. This makes no political sense, as it just distances the Velaryons, one of the most powerful houses at this time. All she sees is how disparaging Laenor, Lucerys, and by extension Corlys, is a way to attack Rhaenyra.

Aemond has just been maimed, in part due to the constant of treason she teaches him (granted she doesn't actually know what happened during the fight). However, the main target of her anger and hatred is Rhaenyra, not Lucerys who wielded the knife, or Viserys who doesn't seem to care enough. She reveals her true motivation when she says her "iconic" line.

Alicent reveals her true reason for hating Rhaenyra and her family. Rhaenyra refuses to be bound by Westerosi traditions and isn't being punished enough for it. Rhaenyra being named heir is a break from tradition (not law as some TG stans claim). Rhaenyra has had premarital and extramarital sex and hasn't been disinherited or executed for it. Rhaenyra has had sons who aren't her husband's yet they are still declared legitimate.

Alicent is a woman who has been harmed by the patriarchy, but instead of directing her anger at the institution that hurt her, she instead focuses it on women who refuses to be used like she was. Alicent wants the women around her to suffer like she did. That's why she hates that Rhaenyra didn't force herself and Laenor to have sex despite neither wanting it. That's why she wants Rhaenyra to sacrifice everything for Aegon's claim.

This bitterness and hatred is Alicent's core motivation, tainting even things that are supposed to be good. Alicent's love for her children is corrupted by her desire to put Rhaenyra "in her place", hence why she hurts each of them in her pursuit.

Anon, you are very much correct, Alicent is a massive hypocrite. To her the Faith, Westerosi law, and the good of the realm mean basically nothing. Her only priority is upholding the patriarchy and ensuring Rhaenyra suffers at least as much as she did.

Alicent preaches honor and decency, protecting the realm, protecting her children, and following the law while she disregards and trapples each of them. She supports and protects murderers and rapists, where's the honor or decency in that? She causes a war to put an incompetent drunk on the throne, killing thousands of innocent people and burning a massive chunk of the land. She sentences each of her children to death with her actions. And finally, she commits treason again and again, which is obviously breaking the law.

Rhaenyra is right, we know all we need to about Alicent once this scene is over. She's nothing more than a bitter and vengeful hypocrite who wants to tear Rhaenyra down because she rebels against the system.

#anti alicent hightower #anti team green #rhaenyra targaryen #house of the dragon #queen rhaenyra #team black

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monsoon-of-art · 1 year ago

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When was Olivia’s first appearance as Dragonfly? What was it like? Also, conversely, what was Lee’s first outing as Hayday like?

After training for a few years, her first outing was...a bit of a rollercoaster, physically. Her first time using her wings, she spent a good chunk of her first night flying around the city to get used to them. (You can't exactly test them inside, but you can't test them too early to draw suspicion!)

It certainly got the city buzzing with rumors, because The Dragonfly had been gone for years at that point. The corrupt police force and politicians and criminal underbelly were less than enthusiastic, but the people of the city were definitely interested.

Hayday's first outing was...less than glamorous. Mostly out of desperation. Basically taking apart and using an old scarecrow they had in storage, Hayday's first crime was probably mugging someone in an alley. No scythe, no broom, he didn't even have a name for himself. Once the whole 'hey this masked crime thing might be helpful', that's when he started actually putting in effort.

#myocs #dragonfly #hayday #technically they were operating at the same time: but they weren't really aware of each other yet #and clay wouldnt come into the picture until a few months later #and *then* they actually meet and yada yada #neon hero

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raayllum · 2 years ago

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this sequence lives in my head rent free

AAAAAAAAAA

why does the shot of callum's deep breathing linger for so long? why does rayla look so troubled? callum just did an incredible spell, and seemingly solved all their problems, so why is it all so unsettling?

specifically

this shot

ik this can't just be me. we the viewers are made to notice this scene

i think

help

So there's a few things, I think:

Thus far in show, outside of Light Spell (which is physical) and Ghosting spell (which is emotional / metaphysical) there's been very few instances of like, Primal magic being dangerous/horrific. (Viren's killing of the guards when Aaravos is channelling it through him notwithstanding in 2x09, but that's also easy to get wires crossed on because it's Aaravos, y'know?). So Callum having primal magic send him to his knees and giving him a hard limit is new, particularly for him. (It is worth noting, of course, that primal magic - as far as we know - doesn't leave any longterm harm or in-body corruption the way dark magic does, though, which is arguably the biggest thing.)

The second is that it harkens back to Callum's primal stone - which he had to destroy - and the reflection motif with the mirror that was ongoing in early S4 for him in particular (which TDP tends to have characters have a reflection like that when they're making decisions or not liking what they're seeing, which we'll get to in a second). But like, the Primal Stone foreshadowing continues, my beloved, and it's nothing good.

Jack De Sena has also said that when voicing Callum (particularly S2 onwards) he pays a lot of attention to how and where Callum's breaths are placed while he talks or does stuff. (This is why I loved Callum's sharp inhales and shaky exhales whenever he was angsting over Rayla in early S4, and that his crying when he thinks he's lost her sounds far more like a panic attack than like, sobbing.) And in S5, Callum has steady breathing basically the whole way through... until this scene when he's taken on too much (not too little) and is struggling for a decent chunk to catch his breath. And also why when Callum starts panicking in 5x08 over Finnegrin threatening Rayla ("Just let her go") you hear it in his breathing first and foremost.

But that's all like, little technical stuff. What I think 5x07 does so well is set up everything that's going to come crashing down in a lot of ways in 5x08, specifically in Callum's steadiness (of identity) and specifically his confidence. When 5x07 opens up, he's getting terse with Nyx for dismissing his skills and prowess as a mage and his position as High Mage, and in his zealousness to prove it, he sends poor Sneezles into the water... because of his pride and the fact he wants that recognition (whereas Rayla, who was also diminished as a "junior assassin" doesn't say a word about it, because pride isn't on of her faults). But then, when Finnegrin starts to catch up with them, Callum remains optimistic that he'll be the one who makes a positive difference (nor is he necessarily wrong):

And Callum's burst of speed combined with Rayla's idea to hide ("He can't hurt us if he can't see us") seems to work. Until it doesn't, and his attitude starts to change because well, the stakes have changed.

And then we get what's probably one of my favourite lines in the season / favourite bits of foreshadowing.

You put them in irons. You put them in chains.

S: I don't get it. What happened? Rayla: He took their wind away.

This was a far more taxing, difficult spell to pull off, and one that took a lot out of Callum (not unlike how Viren and Claudia's uses of dark magic have made them collapse) so it's unsettling to see similar physical behaviours here as a consequence. And it's worth noting that after this scene, Callum doesn't come up with any other ideas. This was 2/2, he's done. And I think it really elevates the impending sense of desperation and fear (that is of course going to be cranked up next episode) as well as the comparative limits of primal magic in contrast to dark magic. Magic can't fix everything, and it's this choice (taking the winds out of the sails) that signals to Finnegrin next episode that Callum is a mage, and sets up all of the conflict that comes from it.

A primal spell that leads to a dark magic consequence (in more ways than one).

Callum starts out as optimistic and proud at the beginning of 5x07. The episode literally whittles him down as it goes on. In 5x08, he starts off okay but battered, but still confident in his worldview ("See? As long as we protect each other, as long as we love each other, you can never control us"). By the end of 5x08 that's all changed, because he's had to accept that it was too simplistic, that it wasn't true, that

His loved ones (specifically Rayla) were/are the key to controlling him, even when Finnegrin wasn't the one holding his chains anymore ("That deal is no longer on the table"). He couldn't control everything, but he could control his responses, and he made his choice. And it's not a reality he likes, but it's the one lives in and the one he chose to live in, and he had to accept it. No matter how bitter or dark.

#tdp callum #s5 #5x07 #callum #arc 2 #thanks for asking #mini meta #m4rs-ex3 #analysis series #tdp meta #the dragon prince #tdp #i can't tell if i expressed what i wanted but #yeah #hope this makes sense #requests #finnegrin said 'you're a slave to your friends your loyalties your pride' and he said it For Me

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anotheranonymousquill · 4 months ago

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I don't think I've ever seen your blog before, so hi! What is your WIP and your characters by just some basic profiles?

Hello!

Thanks so much for asking, here is a ramble infodump/summary that hopefully helps give you an overview of my main wip and the characters I care about writing it for!

My main wip is a dystopian spy novel with a splash or royalty-ish politics and a massive class divide. It's follows Tess Anderson as she invesgates Ethan Wright in order to prove herself.

To whom she is proving herself has been her mother and the military for most of the planning process.

However I'm currently streamlining some things to make the series of events that allows anything to start happening make more sense, so it's now looking like she is investigating Ethan's family as a private mission for the Military leader in order to gain permission to be the military leader's son's fiance. The military leader is also the king's sister, so there are massive political/power advantages to Tess succeeding that she (and the mother Tess is endlessly loyal to) really wants to gain.

So Tess is trying to move from the top level of society into the tippy top circle of power by getting herself engaged to the son of the military leader and nephew of the king. Mainly because Tess's mother told her to. That's essentially Tess's primary motivation for most things - pleasing her mother, and the cause of a good chunk of her character growth.

And Ethan, they guy she's investigating as a personal favour/challenge/mission/one chance from the military leader? Yeah he has a whole host of problems to deal with. Many of which he Does Not Want discovered. For very good reason.

The biggest reason being the continued safety of his younger sister and mum, who are genuinely lovely and deserve that protection. His family is wholesome in a low key heartbreaking way when you look at how fiercely they love each other in spite of their situation. And Ethan keeping secrets with good intentions hurts in its own way because hes stuck keeping things from getting worse while his actions are also stopping anyone from having a chance to try help him (and by extention also stopping them from helping his family).

Ethan and Tess are my main characters, i love them dearly, but they are dealing with a lot and need help.

The side characters are awesome too tho, Ethan's sister and mum are wonderful. Tess’s twin brother is awesome if a little distant for valid reasons, and Tess’s best friend (kings eldest daughter and current heir) is the most passionately kindhearted person you'd ever meet.

The worldbuilding needs more work, both politically and in all the other practical ways, but I'll get there eventually.

The main important part of the setting is that the military is powerful but limited to border control for corruption-in-the-king's-court reasons, and key gangs have gained power through that corruption to the point most outer cities and industry are run by one gang or another and the normal civilians will just have to fend for themselves. Businessmen are either high level gang leaders or ridiculously wealthy and in the King's good books. (AKA the people running things are left to their own devices after securing a flimsy allowance of power from the king, who is drowning in courrupt advisors and pretending it doesn't matter if he gets to hold plans, galas and balls with (metaphorical) mermaids). Buuut the King's city and the odd uni or holiday destinations for his wealthy class of associates are doing wonderfully...so who cares about the rest of the citizens!

#dystopian wip #my characters

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