#but anyway i'll post the line later just because i found it interesting

[deviltriggerdante]

i'm in the middle of doing something else right now + i don't normally make posts like this so this is going to be pretty poorly put together, but..

re:dmc1 novel, is gilver actually supposed to be vergil? i personally always assumed he was (+ and was therefore responsible for the resulting massacres etc.) until i last reread a few days ago:

for those unaware: the DMC1 novel mainly features demons that inhibit the corpses of dead humans. there are some instances of demons that don't possess any corpses which are described as "scythe-swinging shadows", but the main focus are the possessed corpses.

“Humanity was born a race of our slaves.” Gilver pressed harder on his weapon, and a thin stream of red blood rolled down Grue's neck. “Inhabiting the corpses taxes our strength and limits our numbers. But soon we will be able to migrate to this plane in our own prepared bodies.” (pg. 120)

The bandaged man [Gilver] radiated an aura of decay. (pg. 149)

however, dante does mention that gilver "doesn't smell like" the other demons. i left in the rest of the lines in mainly because i found gilver's characterization and dialogue here interesting:

“What are you, man? You don't smell like those other things.” “You don't need to know. In any case, I'm going to crush you.” Dante shrugged. “That's a fitting line for a villain.” “Your absurd labels are meaningless.” Gilver cackled behind his bandages. “The victor will be called the hero by future generations. Arguing about good and evil is pointless.” (pg. 172)

addt. gilver repeatedly separates himself from not only humans, but also dante:

“Do you have any questions, Dante? You have treacherous blood in you.” (pg. 172)

[...] Gilver finally pronounced. “You have our blood coursing through your veins. You're the mongrel half-breed offspring of a human and a demon. And you betrayed our side.” (pg. 173)

“This is your world,” he finally said. “Yes. The demon world is replacing yours. It will spread out from this nexus until finally everything is consumed.” Gilver hefted his sword, seemingly recovered from Dante's last attack. “This place is a cancerous blight to incomplete souls like you. [...] (pg. 180-181)

..... which is interesting, because throughout all of the novel dante has had trouble existing for any amount of time in the demon realm. whatever amount of devil blood in him doesn't help him and he struggles to stay awake and fight, even at the barrier between the two worlds. that said, gilver very obviously has access to some amount of demon power, mainly as shown through their battle in which he dons his.. demon armour lol

there are multiple other things that i didn't feel like touching upon right now, and the biggest issue is that... this is goikeda and kamiya's vision, not itsuno's. so it's possible that this IS actually vergil as the two wanted to write him, but considering this takes place just before DMC1.. it really could be possible that vergil's just been something considered dead, right?

... or maybe it is vergil and he just has blood on his hands and wanted dante to suffer, like i initially assumed. if anyone has any opinions or disagrees with me, please feel free to say as much :P i'd really like to analyze this book more and try to relate it to other DMC lore but it really is pretty difficult with how much has been retconned throughout the franchise. thanks for reading!

[marie-m-art]

Apart from the drunken bookshop scenes in Good Omens S1E1 being very entertaining, these well-loved scenes continue to fascinate me, because I'm seeing someone be persuaded to change their mind without being on exactly the same page.

My observations: they have common ground; Aziraphale isn't too far gone to be reasoned with; Crowley succeeds by meeting him where he is, and by reflecting Aziraphale's own logic back to him.

In conflict resolution IRL, identifying common ground can be a hurdle, but this is easy for them here, and also amusing that their common ground is the whole earth; they love it and deep down don't want it to be "tested to destruction". But Crowley's attempts to persuade him by pointing out all the things Aziraphale would lose personally isn't enough to sway him to help stop Armageddon.

I've observed IRL that someone too far gone to be reasoned with in a given moment tends to be someone so caught up in a strong emotion that their brain seems to completely block the ability to consider someone else's thoughts and feelings outside their own (and/or they'll seek out someone whose opinion confirms their own). I see that Aziraphale is disturbed by the idea of animals suffering when the world ends - which probably extends to humans, given how he cared about Adam and Eve, and that art and theatre comes from humans. He has deep, well-founded fear about disobeying his superiors, but he hasn't lost access to his empathy for others. He's nearly there: "I don't like it any more than you do, but I told you, I can't [disobey]. I'm an angel". "I can't interfere with the Divine Plan."

The really interesting part is when Crowley takes Aziraphale's ideas about disobedience and about the Divine Plan, and manages to get him to see them in a different way: the two seemingly contradictory ideas can actually be consolidated. Since the Plan is ineffable - Aziraphale's own idea reflected back - "You can't be certain that thwarting me isn't part of the Divine Plan too". Aziraphale doesn't have to completely reconsider his belief system, or change the status quo, or consider uncomfortable ideas related to his identity as an angel, to be persuaded: Crowley meets him where he is, and so he only has to stretch his comfort zone a little bit, rather than take a big leap. Additionally, Crowley prompts Aziraphale to think for himself rather than spell out his idea for influencing the antichrist: "It'd be too bad if someone made sure I failed..." Which I also like to see.

(Also, how great is it that Aziraphale uses this same tactic at the airfield base later?!)

As I write these sorts of posts, I worry that I'm just pointing out really obvious stuff; but I'll go ahead and post this anyway because it's an interesting exercise for me to ponder and pinpoint why exactly I like certain things.

And I love me some pragmatic, productive conflict-resolution and problem-solving in real life; scenes like these get me thinking along those lines.

[dropthedemiurge]

Boys Be Brave [EP.4] // Translation notes

Not so many this time so let me know if you're curious about anything else, I'll point out what I thought was interesting^^

"If you like someone, you start to feel ashamed/embarrassed. I'd rather die than to show him how embarrassing I am."

This interestingly ties to my previous post! Where I mentioned that Balgeum said the same word in another phrase: "Don't follow me around like a clueless fool. It's fucking embarrassing".

He didn't use any other specific words so I noted how vague it was, and I wonder if he was trying to tell Inho he was shameful for clinging to him but that's actually a word he found to describe his own feelings towards Inho. It doesn't matter whether Balgeum spends his entire life in poverty, debts and hustling as he said he's used to it, but he's ashamed of being with someone, even loving someone while he's so pitiful in his own eyes. A hole in his sock, family in financial ruins, he just doesn't dare to see a carefree happiness for himself, and he punishes and curses himself out for even having hope.

What is also interesting – I'm not sure whether other character names really have meanings or wordplays, but 밝음 means "brightness". Which also feel like a bit of a cruel joke to be named like that and live such tiring and grey life.

I was so confused with the subs here. I can guess what they tried to go for, but Kiseob literally says '아쉬었어', "I feel a bit bad about yesterday =)" It's a word that can be translated to "It's such a shame that... (something happened)", "It's too bad that... (I didn't achieve something)", like you can say it when you tried to buy a ticket but they were all sold out instantly. Or you missed some opportunity and regret it now.

We know Kiseob was talking about something else (I think he wanted to say it's too bad that he and Jinwoo couldn't enjoy making out for longer or something) but it's no wonder Jinwoo got so offended by this, because he thought Kiseob meant he regretted that he even kissed Jinwoo yesterday because the kiss was too bad. Does this sentence even make sense?xD

And that's why he started riling himself up and freaking out that it was all because of his kissing skills.

That's Kiseob's confusion right there after seeing that Jinwoo fled the scene after his comment. He didn't actually call himself a pervert of anything but he wondered what was wrong with his words, were they too much for Jinwoo to run away. I do believe he meant that it was too bad that nothing much happened after that kiss yesterday instead xD

So he apologized via message that it might've been too much and he will be careful from now on. Jinwoo, of course, read that completely differently again. And then Jinwoo angrily tells him not to be so arrogant after just that first kiss (he's not good but he'll be with practice, and Kiseob should not be the judge!). Meanwhile (I think) Kiseob is confused and focuses on the word 'the first kiss', so to him, that might sound like a promise of more to come, therefore he just sends 'okay'? But he also says they didn't really get to talk about their kiss later. I might be confused with the last msg too x)

Miscommunication, BL's beloved.

(if you're curious about the heart and emoji message, it was from the last time, Kiseob sent "I want to give you something as a last gift... can you come out?". And idk why, the message before that says 'Refridgerator', probably also something from 1-2 episodes xD)

"Who are you to evaluate me?" The boy really thinks Kiseob is the alpha expert on love, daring and romance, and he misjudges him himself huh xD

"By the way, you become weak-hearted if someone is hurt". My interpretation of this line – Kiseob talks about how Jinwoo cares about him and his wound anyway, despite all his defenses and rejections. Jinwoo, of course, denies and says it's because Kiseob will be a nuisance when he' gets's hurt.

Just a little nuance – Kiseob asks Jinwoo about everything, he doesn't say it in a mocking factual way at all. "Your schedule is disrupted because you like me, right? And you did that (kissed me) yesterday because you like me, right? Why do you like me?"

He is constantly asking because he doesn't know the difference. He is trying to understand himself through Jinwoo's feelings, so he asks. Asks why people like, how do they like, how does that feeling manifest in real life – because he doesn't know anything, even if he likes Jinwoo, he doesn't know why, he doesn't really realize it himself. He doesn't know why he kissed. He dated but he never experienced the feeling of love. He can't give Jinwoo any honest answers yet. Well, he's honest that he's not sure about anything, but it's not the answer planning-and-unambiguous Jinwoo wants to hear.

Can I just step out of BL show for a lil bit and say that I really liked them?! I think they were adorable together. Too bad polar opposites attracts and Jinwoo needs Kiseob and not the certain copy of himself (who also isn't the prim and perfect as she shows herself).

Anyway! There is one point in Jinwoo's perfect-ideal-type checklist which says 'To have J in the name like in 'JIN-woo''. 진 (jin) can also come from 'truth' so he invented that symbolic connection/condition for a partner. Which is also why Kiseob in the previous episode wanted to change his name to the one that includes J as well, but he choose the name 'Jongji' which had a ridiculous meaning of 'stop'. Again, technically correct but absolutely far from what Jinwoo actually wanted.

Isn't it interesting that, even though he went on a day with his Ideal Type, Jinwoo still enjoyed not the library date or the meaningful messages, but the game arcade time? The one that's supposed to be meaningless and not productive and with the purpose of just having fun? And he kept being distracted by the illusions/thoughts of Kiseob?:D Yeeeah... Maybe your perfect type checklist needs some revisions, Jinwoo.

About the side couple – I was right! They will go to three dates because Balgeum gave in. He even will sacrifice his never-ending-worktime for that. Hehe. He also says 'I have to become rich' with determination which in my mind, connecting to his 'I'd rather die than look so embarrassing to Inho' means that he now has a new goal. To... I guess, work even HARDER to be able to have a chance dating Inho. Will they even work out right now? No one knows, but it's obvious they both are willing to give it a second chance.

And the last bit – it's pretty obvious, but Hyejin actually shouts 'You fucking bastard!!!', which is so hilarious.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

ToA Theory 1 - Apollo's Waking Visions

First official theory post, here we go! :D

Alright. So. After rereading The Dark Prophecy, I started wondering about something. In TDP, Apollo experiences waking visions, where he conks out for a bit and has prophetic visions.

I found this interesting because, well...isn't Apollo supposed to be cut off from prophecy? With Python back in control of Delphi?

Because think about it. Python controls Delphi, the root of all earthly prophecy. This would include Dodona, Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl - sure, they aren't strictly connected to Delphi, but it's pretty heavily stated that Delphi just straight-up Makes The Future. It's prophecies are The Big Deal and you Should Listen.

Meanwhile the other Oracles seem more guiding and "beware!" instead of "this is how it's gonna be".

(sidenote: found out there are MORE oracles and I wanna know WHERE THEY ARE IN RRVERSE CANON because I want my boy Branchus okay??? Okay. Branchus's oracle was second only to Delphi let's give Apollo's first boyfriend the attention he deserves!)

So of course, like all great members of this fandom, I started thinking.

Let's do a little family history first. ;)

Buckle up. We go down a deep rabbit hole 😎

Apollo and Artemis are twins, born to Leto and Zeus. Zeus's parents are Kronos and Rhea. Leto's are Koios and Phoebe.

Rhea has connections to Dodona, as we learn in-series, but she doesn't really seem to be all that involved with prophecy.

Her siblings, meanwhile...ho ho ho, they are a WHOLE NOTHER STORY!

Let's start with Phoebe. Phoebe, like all first generation Titans, is the daughter of Gaea and Ouranos. She married her brother Koios. Her children consist of Asteria, Lelantos, and Leto. As well as Artemis and Apollo, her other two grandchildren are Hecate (Asteria) and Aura (Lelantos).

Her name means "bright" and is the root of Apollo's most famous epithet - Phoebus. She is often described as "golden-crowned" and is the Titan of bright intellect, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, and is the second guardian of Delphi, after her sister Themis. She gifted Delphi to Apollo for his birthday after he defeated Python.

Classic grandmother move.

Anyway. There's a bit of Phoebe lore. Time for her elusive husband :3

Koios. His names means "question" or "questioning", probably because he's the Titan of inquiring intellect. He's also the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and has an oracle up in the North Pole guarded by an earth-dragon - you'd know this serpent by the name of Draco, the constellation btw. Additionally, Hyperborea (where Apollo goes in the winter times) is part of his domain.

eyes

Unfortunately, we have very little mythological lore on these two, and even less in the RRverse (I cling to that one (1) Koios scene) which sucks because I love them already BUT it does give me lots of legroom to mess around with canon >:)

Back to the theory now. As you may have guessed, I'll be taking us in a direction concerning Apollo's mysterious grandparents. But what does this have to do with Apollo's visions?

Well. Remember when I mentioned that Delphi is the root of all earthly prophecies?

...look at Phoebe's paragraphs. She's the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, right? So it makes sense she's been affected by Python's takeover too.

(if you've read my fics you'd know this already lmao)

Asteria, Apollo's aunt, is a little trickier. She, too, has a hand in divination, but mainly through the night/stars and dreams. <-will come back to that later.

Koios, again, is overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and is heavily implied to be able to commune with Ouranos's spirit. This is, apparently, a Big Deal because nobody else is mentioned to be able to do this.

...Except...remember this throwaway line in The Hidden Oracle?

^Apollo can see Ouranos too.

Within this theory is a sub-theory, so to speak - that immortals with the gift of prophecy can see Ouranos, since they can see what cannot be seen. This would include Phoebe, Asteria, Koios, and Apollo.

And it'll make sense why they'd keep it to themselves. Kronos wouldn't have been happy to hear his dad was still around. Neither would Zeus, for that matter.

So here I was. Contemplating. Wrote a few fics based around this idea. And one in particular got me thinking (fic in question being When The Stars Align), and a little ways down the road I realized something.

If Phoebe, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, would have been affected by Python's takeover...was Koios? Could he even be affected?

Because here's the deal: Koios is the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies. Prophecies from the Sky.

Phoebe's are of the Earth - the Earth that Python has taken control of. And Delphi is the root of Earthly Prophecies - not Heavenly.

That would be Koios's oracle, up in the North Pole with Draco.

...So that means Heavenly Prophecy must have still been in business during ToA.

But then comes the question: If it was still within the gods' control, why didn't they use it?

Well...Draco's there, for one. He's probably the Python-equivalent of the North, and clearly he's still there since no myth has spoken of his death (that I know of).

If you ask me, I just think the gods are too nervous/afraid to try Koios's oracle. They were too scared to face Python, after all, until Apollo arrived. I think they'd be scared of a serpent who comes and goes from the stars as he pleases.

And as for why Apollo hasn't done anything about it...well, I think his fight with Python left him rather scarred, don't you think? He probably went "yeah grandma's oracle is enough" and the only time he ever got close to Koios's was during his time in Hyperborea.

So getting back to the main theory now. (So many rabbit holes to dive into with this post. The ADHD Urge is real)

Since Heavenly Prophecies is still active, but Earthly is in Python's control, I conclude Apollo's visions come from the Heavenly source.

Could they have come from the now-working Dodona? Maybe. But Dodona's all about those windchimes and trees. It doesn't have the Vibe, so to speak, for granting visions.

And remember. Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl aren't destroyed/freed yet. They have Zero connection to Apollo at this point because Python cut him off from them.

...but he didn't from the North. From Koios's divine power.

Because remember. Apollo is the god of prophecy.

Not of Earthly Prophecies, like Phoebe.

Not of Heavenly Prophecies, like Koios.

Not of nighttime divination and dreams like Asteria.

Of. Prophecy.

Prophecy as a whole. The entirety. The whole enchilada.

Every part of prophecy he's the god of, be it tarot cards to the Oracle of Delphi itself.

In my opinion, I think whatever Koios's Oracle is, it has just as must power as Delphi. The only problem was that...everybody just left it be. Nobody considered it because:

1) scary dragon

2) scary titan ruled the place

3) honestly at this point I think it's just straight-up forgotten about. Like Branchus's Oracle. I think at one point Apollo himself mentions there are other Oracles besides the ones in-series, but there's so many that his mortal brain cannot comprehend how many.

If the Grove of Dodona nearly faded into obscurity, then I think it's entirely possible Koios's Oracle was forgotten about (or so we think...I'm gonna be chewing on this for a while.)

Coming back round to TDP...I think this is a reasonable explanation about Apollo's visions. To summarize:

Apollo is cut off from Earthly Prophecy, his usual source of foresight that he gets from Phoebe

The unused, near-forgotten-about Heavenly Prophecy side of Apollo ignites to steer him on the right path

This is possible because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself, and not a single subset of prophecy, so he's not limited in the same way Phoebe is

Koios's Oracle is still out there and kicking and I will die on this hill

One problem. What about Asteria? She can interpret the future from the stars...aka the Sky. Like Koios. So couldn't she provide some insight to the future, since she, too, is connected to Heavenly Prophecy?

This is where things get a lil' tricky. And where I really slap on my tinfoil hat and start headcanoning my way through lmao

Basically, I think that since Asteria became the island of Delos (long story) a good chunk of her power is ingrained there. She's not as strong as she used to be, so her foresight isn't as strong.

This, in turn, I think could also serve as a reason why Koios's Oracle is "asleep" so to speak and nearly lost to memory in the RRverse - in fact, I think Asteria and Phoebe are the only ones who bother to remember its existence.

And Leto, of course. But I don't think she wants her son to know of another Oracle with a giant snake guarding it. She's had enough heart-attacks, thank you.

(Same with Lelantos, tbh.)

Canon is my sandbox and I am making some sweet sandcastles out of it XD

TL;DR

Apollo's visions in TDP stem from Koios's source of Heaven Prophecy because Phoebe's source of Earthly Prophecy (Delphi) has been taken over by Python. Koios's source firmly knocks on Apollo's mental doors and decides to kick back into gear to help its titular patron's grandson out. Because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself - every bit of it.

Extras:

I find it fascinating how magic and prophecy are both part of the same family tree (Hecate & Apollo).

and yes. You should expect a fic concerning Koios's Oracle at some point. but no promises on when :3

Thank you for coming to Insane Theory Time With Alder. I hope there will be more lmao

Websites you can look into:

Koios (Theoi)

Phoebe (Theoi)

Hyperborea (Theoi)

[kayo-min]

Anime Expo 2023 | BLEACH TYBW panel

Wow, what an experience! It was such a huge honor to be part of this panel by being on the stage with other cosplayers, Viz staff, and Ichigo's JP voice actor, Masakazu Morita!!

I wanted to write about my experience with it in case anyone is interested!

One of my best friends and I were cosplaying Rukia and Orihime (in a shihakusho) this day and we got in line early that was outside for the Bleach panel. As the line moved, we got stopped by Viz Media staff who handed us these numbers (7 and 8) and told us to enter to be part of the "Bankai Contest". At first, all of my friends and I thought it was a raffle because they first mentioned that we can win prizes. But when they told us that we get up on stage, I got nervous and was so hesitant that I almost said no, but thanks to my silly friends peer pressuring encouraging me, I chose to take it, thinking that if I changed my mind later I could just not go up.

The panel started and after about 3/4 of Morita's Q&A, there was a brief pause and the cosplayers who were given numbers were asked to come up to the front for the Bankai/Cosplay contest (There was a total of 11 of us). I thought, "Okay, I'll come up, I'm nervous as hell, but maybe I just stand there. I don't have my glasses on so I won't be able to see the audience's faces or see the sheer amount of people there, right?"

But we were told that the contest is more so who gives the best "Bankai!" shout and Morita will be the judge, and I was like oh no, I have to use my voice?! My mind was racing with how I should deliver my "bankai", trying to get a sense of how Rukia would say it. (Because well, we haven't heard it yet, but soon!)

At this point I think I astral projected because it was truly an out-of-body experience. After my silly and cringe "bankai" I stood next to my friend and the other cosplayers, as depicted in the photo above, while my brain and body were processing the shock of everything.

The Tosen cosplayer accidentally got chosen as being part of the Top 3 but to be fair he was really good so it wouldn't be surprising if he got chosen anyway! Morita then had to choose another cosplayer but when he said "Rukia", I physically turned my body slightly away from him because my brain was like DO NOT PERCEIVE ME, there are 3 Rukia's up here so surely I wouldn't be perceived, but he came up to me and picked me, and I was pretty much dying inside. ;;w;;

The winner out of the Top 3 was chosen out of audience applause, and the Tosen cosplayer won! The prizes were an autographed poster from Morita for each cosplayer, and the Top 3 received Bleach merchandise in a Bleach tote bag.

I didn't even realize I got 2nd place, I only found out about it when my friends told me after the panel ended LOL

Afterward, the panel showed 3 scene previews from Season 2 and they were phenomenal! Anime-only (new) scenes, the visuals, the sound design, it was so good! The cosplayers got front-row seats so my eyes got to drink it all up >:)

Sorry if this was too long of a post, but this was my experience at the Bleach TYBW panel at AX this year! It was absolutely crazy but a lot of fun, and it's crazier to think that I almost refused the number to get up on stage. Thank you so much for reading!!~

[alasse-earfalas]

Dark Link and Cowardice, part 4

This is part 4 of my LU theory. This theory had to be spread across four different posts thanks to Tumblr's image limit, all of which I will link to here. Part 4 is under the cut.

Part 1: Dink is a Coward Part 2: Cowardly Powers Part 3: Two Weapons Part 4: the Curse of Cowardice <—you are here

Part 4: the Curse of Cowardice

We've discussed how the curse of cowardice affected the Master Sword (or, rather, how it didn't). So let's switch gears and talk about how it affected Twilight.

When asked if any of the Links have allergies, Jojo responded with the following:

"Cowardice. It doesn't sit right with them."

At first I laughed this off. Okay yeah, of course the Heroes of Courage would despise cowardice, that just makes sense, right?

But then I remembered Twilight's symptoms. And Dink's behavior. And I realized that this answer was given not to the question of what the Links hate or dislike, but to the question of, "what are they allergic to". Suddenly what I thought was a silly quip seemed to be a lot more than that, and I found myself consumed with this idea and wondering, "Why didn't I see this before‽"

Immediately after being struck with the cursed blade, Twilight still seems to be relatively fine (as far as his courage goes, anyway). He repeatedly insists on returning to battle despite his grave injury; so far, so Link.

But by the time Four and Hyrule reach him in the village, his attitude is starting to nosedive; so much so that it just about offends Hyrule.

Notice the language Twilight's using here. He's starting to second-guess his motives for his journey, almost as if he's wondering if it was even worth it. He's placing the responsibility for his adventure on his friends, his loved ones, and everyone else who was in danger, rather than himself. He's beginning to sound like someone who doesn't believe they have control over their own fate.

This is the cowardice beginning to take hold.

By the time the rest of the gang gets there, he's gotten worse.

At first we get a few lines that establish that yes, this is still Twilight. We haven't lost him entirely as a person. And yet, the more he talks, the more hopeless he sounds. This man went from, "I'm not going to die from a scratch" to "I'm not afraid to die" in a matter of hours. And this is a Hero of Courage we're talking about, not some Joe Schmoe!

This goes to show just how potent this curse is, and how potentially deadly it is for a Link in particular. What these boys have been through would have broken the spirit of anyone else. This is a harrowing glimpse of what happens when the Hero's Spirit, the Spirit of Courage, is eroded by cowardice. Twilight refers to this as "divine courage" later, so it's implied that each of these boys understands just how uniquely powerful their courage is.

Thankfully, Twilight does not remain in this state. Once he's through the worst of it and is on the mend, this is how he describes the experience:

I find two things about this rather interesting. One, the curse weakened and let go of him on its own. I'll get to why I think this happened in a second. And two, once the curse fled, it was no longer courage that Twilight lacked—it was power.

These two things seem to confirm things that we already know about the Hero's Spirit, and that were brought up previously by various Links.

Here's what I think: Twilight was able to fight this curse in the first place because the Hero's Spirit is, by definition, unbreakable. Yes it was rocky; yes he wavered; but all it took was the stubbornness and encouragement of his friends to right his course, to convince him to keep fighting, even in his half-conscious state.

Many of the Heroes (all to some extent, but some more so than others) draw their strength and power primarily from their courage. Twilight is one of these. Hence, when the curse failed to deplete him of his courage entirely (see: unbreakable spirit), it instead held onto him long enough to siphon away all of the strength that he drew from his courageous heart. If it couldn't kill him by depriving him of his courage, then it would kill him by stealing his power instead.

Thankfully, his friends were there to lend him both their own courage and their strength in Twilight's time of need. Thus, the group as a whole is brought closer together, and they've learned valuable lessons about the seriousness of this threat, even if they don't quite understand how it operates yet.

It'll be interesting to see where things go from here. Ultimately this is just a fun theory and may or may not be what Jojo has in mind, but there's so much evidence for it that I had to throw it all together and share it with you guys. Thank you for sticking it out through multiple posts for this, I hope it was worth your time haha.

Take care everyone!

[bonefall]

how long is the gap between the clans being founded & firepaw arriving?

About 80 years

I'm working with the authorial assertion that Turtle Heart (canon: Turtle Tail) got flattened by a Model T, which had its height in popularity in England around the mid 1920's.

So, Bonefall DOTC, which takes place over a span of 10 years, is somewhere between 1925 - 1935. In terms of my History Lesson, that is called the Dawn Era of the Ancient Period.

The Ancient Period is chronologically the longest of any age, because it's not very well remembered. The Clans didn't really teach history until post-Ripplestar, many years later, so it's more of a collection of parables.

Anyway, Code Era of the Ancient Period lasted from about 1935 - 1950, and yes, overlaps World War 2 lmao. The geographical region I model experienced carpetbombing.

But here's where it gets interesting-- the Skyfall Era overlaps with the postwar boom, the worst ecological disaster since the Victorians back in the late 1800's. If you remember my other redux, Hollyleaf's Century? I mentioned my plans to model Victorian environmental destruction for that one. The first British motorway, the Preston bypass, was completed in 1958.

Logging, road construction, suburban expansion, it got REALLY bad in this period. That's what canonically happened to SkyClan too-- Chelford expanded. Seems to line up perfectly. It's safe to say that the Skyfall Era was something like 1950 - 1970, bringing us up to the modern age.

First Era of the Chivalric Period was the Ripple Era, and Ripplestar was an experienced cat when he took over from Dawnstar, so we can say that it was at least 1976. One year of war later, at least 1977.

We had another generation between this point and the events of Darkstar's Commandment, creating the Queen's Rights and starting the Crusade Era. 7 years is a reasonable amount of times for all 4 leaders to be dead, so it's safe to guess that the Crusade Era takes place around 1984, funny meme number

Attacks on Chelford, BloodClan forms in response, Pineheart is born towards the end of this era, Heatherstar kicks off the Campaign Era by challenging ShadowClan over the Mothermouth Moorland. The year is looking like 1991, it's been 7 years.

(side note: it's too bad that my timeline didn't line up perfectly for the Great Hunger to happen around the height of DDT's popularity in the early 70's. I would have loved to have talked about the environmental impacts of pesticides... maybe I'll bend it a little bit just so I can. Then again, I am basing my desire to talk about DDT off being American, maybe there was a different pesticide that was prevalent in England? Will do more research.)

Bluestar, Rosetail, and her friends are looking at retirement by the point TPB opens up, which in this redux, is about 10 years of age. We're going to say that Rusty enters the Clan in the year Into the Wild came out in England-- 2003. Seems right on time! Bluestar being born around 1993 lines up.

[cocolacola]

hellsing pokemon au !!

as promised, im going back to my usual hellsing shenanigans with some pokemon stuff. ive had this in my brain for months but have never gotten around to doing anything with it! my autistic ass has absorbed information about pokemon before i could have normal thought patterns, so hopefully my takes are at least a little satisfying. feel free to interact with ur own thoughts and suggestions!

i provided long explanations of each, but if you dont want to read all that just look at the pictures :P

long post ahead!

note: these aren't definitive teams, just me throwing around ideas. don't take this as the holy grail of headcanons or anything.

seras victoria

boltund would be her first pokemon i think, her main partner from before her work with the organization. togetic is here because idk im a togetic 4lifer and im a kinnie ? it just really made sense to me, just vibes, plus i think she really needed a flying type. may become a togekiss later, that would be cute. umbreon is pip's eevee that she evolved, and blastoise is a gift from walter. i think she needs more red pokemon to match her color palette and vampire vibes so ill probably add to this!

alucard

alucard needs a legendary of course, so darkrai. i think they would be good friends, they give the same "misunderstood tortured soul" vibes. houndoom to represent baskerville, noivern to fit the vampire/bat aesthetic.

and an important distinction:

i think girlycard should have a hisuian sneasel. they're the same critter. two ancient beings.

sir integra

im surprised with how much i struggled with this one. i feel like a fake fan. smh, anyways. sirfetch'd is perfect to me-even the unevolved farfetch'd is super fitting too-but i included the final form for this post. i wanted to stick with galar pokemon, but aegislash is literally a sword. cmon. stoutland is a recommendation from a friend that i 100% agree with. ive always associated her with the serperior line, so snivy was probably her starter. i think that'd be cute. im really open to suggestions on this one because i think she deserves more steel or normal types.

pip bernadotte

this is a big one! there were so many good options with pip... and i didnt even mean to color code it 😅 i wanted him to have an electric type to match seras (to add to the whole rivals-to-lovers aesthetic), so his main partner is raichu! it was between that or mudsdale, who i also really like (and is the only one on this team who cant be found in kalos, haha). i wanted him to have a bird (for the geese) so there's dodrio. scrafty and tauros just fit the vibe perfectly to me-they're sorta like honorable mentions. eevee is originally his but he eventually gives it to seras, who evolves it into umbreon. if pip would have kept it, i think it would have evolved into sylveon (the whole kalos thing).

walter c dornez

some interesting picks for walter. corvisquire is his main guy, his "angel of death", he's raised it from a rookidee since he was a kid. maybe it would evolve into corviknight when he becomes Dark Walter. not sure how that would work. i choose not to think about dark walter. bisharp is there for the steel typing vibes as well as the chess symbolism: it really hits right for me, with walter's arc being about how he's played as a "pawn", in a sort of way. also a nod to a very dear friend of mine who loves walter and the pawniard line respectively. :) now, why leavanny, you ask? it learns string shot, of course! also because id like to think he would raise a sewaddle in his old age to help him with things around the estate.

..aaand im out of room for images in the post! i'll make a part 2 with some bonus thoughts + the iscariot organization if i feel like it. bye for now!

[mare-sanguis]

Notes on "Lady Justice" here

Notes on the flowers in ep. 8 here

Notes on the colors in ep.10 here

Notes on the numbers on the car plates of No. 3 and KMC here

It seems like I cant reblog this post by @onomatopagu-et-cie it seems like i have to do it manually 🥲

Anyway, we left off at the symbolism of hands- or more who uses what hand and how it, right now, seems like KMC is ambidextrous.

I gathered some information (during class break, so it might be rushed but i'll read over it again as soon as I got enough time) about the "ambidextrous angel" i mentioned.

All highlighted texts are important to the statement I made earlier.

The paper I'm citating is "The Ambidextrous Angel (Daniel 12:7 and Deuteronomy 32:40): Inner-Biblical Exegesis and Textual Criticism in Counterpoint)" by Eugene P. McGarry (the whole of Deuteronomy 32 is pretty interesting and fitting to the whole topic of the drama- I will come back to this at the end of the post, where I dissect the different things I find the most interesting and important)

Eugene starts his paper with this paragraph where he introduces the angel

He later continues by expanding on what the angel does as soon as they set feet on earth. Tho, here its mentioned the angel only uses one hand to swear an oath, yet in the following paragraphs highlighted it shows it varies and its sometimes rather ambiguous and mysterious if one hand is used or two. Something nobody know of its true or not. There also is a man in "linen clothes" mentioned.

The author elaborates on what the man (presumable also the angel) taunts his people

I will just add all the following paragraphs I found interesting one after another, so its easier to read.

And at last we end with a painting description of Albrecht Dürers woodcut "Johannes, das Buch verschlingend/ Der »Starke Engel" (Saint John, swallowing the book/ The mighty Angel), 1498

-> Sheet 8 from the collection: The Apocalypse.

Excellent, deep black and even impression of the Latin text edition from 1511. With fine margins all around, trimmed only at the bottom right edge and at the top edge in the middle up to the border line.

This eighth paper marks the turning point of the end-time events. The criminal judgment against humanity hereby ended. The “Strong Angel” appears to John on the rocky island of Patmos, pointing to the saved souls in the altar at the top left with his hand raised as if in oath. “And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven; "He was clothed with a cloud, and had a rainbow on his head, and a face like the sun, and feet like pillars of fire" (Revelation, X, 1). The shapeless angel gives John a book, which he, excited by the words, takes in in order to learn new prophecies. The individual words seem to detach themselves from the pages and flow into Johannes’ mouth. In this way, Dürer symbolizes the divine inspiration that puts the words of his “revelation” into John’s mouth and ultimately moves him to write them down"

-> Now about the Deuteronomy 32

Thats it :,)

I hope i was able to contribute at least a bit to all those hidden symbolisms.

And who ever comes across reading it, I'd love to have a little chat with you to brainrot about it all a little more because so far I have only interacted with two people in this fandom but I really really need more

(oh and this got nothing to do with theories and all but I'd like to mention I published 2 tkv fics to far (KSJ/KMC centered) in tag on ao3, the other 2 should drop in the next few hours...just for anyone whos interested ofc)

[innerchorus]

Gurgin for the ask game, pick and choose whatever numbers you want! It's a free-for-all! :D

I probably am gonna ask you about Shapur, Isfan, and Kubard later too because of course I am

I said I wanted to answer every question for him and I wasn't lying. Thank you for enabling me! (Ask game post is here, for anyone else who wants to send something in / reblog it themselves. I have a few others to answer already which I'll get too asap now this post is done, but feel free to send in more!).

My first impression of them

Just one of a handful of evil masked guys. Best mask design by a long way, though.

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

I first got curious about him when I read about his backstory and found out about his shared past with Farangis. Honestly I'm not quite sure how I got to the point where I love him as fiercely as I do now, but I know I started shipping him with Zandeh after seeing art by @strangeshipper and it built from there. I don't know. I just find him really interesting.

3. A song that reminds me of them

I know I've mentioned You Are The Blood by Sufjan Stevens before, but also Don't Worry, We'll Be Watching You by Gotye (POV: you are being recruited by Team Zahhak).

4. How many people I ship them with

Always with Zandeh. OTP status for sure. I have considered other stuff (such as the Zandeh/Gurgin/Parizad OT3) though. And Hilmes/Gurgin in Mage Hunt AU. And if anyone wants to suggest other ships for him, I'm listening.

5. My favorite ship of them

Zandeh/Gurgin, obvious answer is obvious.

6. My least favorite ship of them

I don't know whether anyone actually ships it but Gurgin/the Master.

I won't lie, it's crossed my mind, but my headcanon is primarily that although the Master was once interested in stuff like that he's been alive for so long that he doesn't really have those sorts of urges any more (overlaps a bit with my thoughts on how the type of magic that Team Zahhak use might affect sexual desire, I don't think I've directly mentioned that before but the basic concept is that it can warp it from its baseline just as it warps their bodies, and results vary from person to person, but it's quite common for it to be either dulled or switched off completely and kind of goes hand in hand with the headcanon that their magic renders them sterile).

Gurgin in Sacrifice AU falls into that category, he doesn't completely lack interest but his focus is dominated by his work for Team Zahhak and by the time the AU picks up his story afterwards he's also underweight and depressed so his sex drive is basically 0. And then he meets Zandeh, and gets better, and realises what it's like to want someone so badly you can't think of anything else, lmao

(My headcanons for Gurgin vary a bit in this respect depending on the AU, though. There's probably an AU out there where his desire never returns or he never had any in the first place but even in that case I still see him and Zandeh as life partners and feel they'd work it out somehow.)

7. A quote of them that you remember

What he says when he's rallying his comrades at the end of Book 7 after their Master is (temporarily...) killed: "Let those who do not respect the Snake King Zahhak boast of their victory! Three years, just three years is enough. At that time, they will fall from the peak of joy to the bottom of the valley of despair. The higher they climb, the further they fall!"

It's primarily the last line that sticks in my mind. If I ever make the Gurgin playlist that I daydream about so often, I'd definitely title it 'The Further They Fall'. Anyway, that's actually the last line of dialogue from the final scene of Book 7 (the last book before the timeskip). A very ominous way for it to end, right?

8. Your favorite outfit of them

He has One Outfit. (He would've worn something different when he was a trainee priest, but there's no description of it. A manga flashback to that time feels much less likely now, but you never know, maybe Arakawa will decide to reveal a little of Farangis's backstory before the end… my one hope…)

9. Your least favorite outfit of them

One Outfit, and I love it so no complaints. But I wish Arakawa had planned to adapt the second half so I could see him getting drenched by the rain in Soleimaniye.

10. Describe the character in one sentence

My blorbo who did lots of things wrong.

11. What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?

Huh, this question made me realise that in the mental picture of Gurgin that first pops up when I think of him, he's not wearing his mask. His hood is up, though, and he's in Team Zahhak black. Maybe it's because I've been thinking about the Magical Healing AU more recently, where his appearance is often like this.

12. Sexuality hc!

He doesn't waste much time thinking about it, but he's mainly into men. However, I do headcanon that he had a crush on Farangis when he was young.

13. Your favorite friendship they have

This question makes me sad because I don't see him as someone who's ever had many friends. I don't think his peers at the temple liked him that much (though honestly I think he probably felt quite indifferent about this). There were a handful of other trainees he spent time with, but his closest friends were probably his brother and Farangis. There's certainly no real evidence of friendship between any of the Team Zahhak disciples.

He deserves more than having one-sided conversations with winged apes! Was that mainly for exposition purposes in canon? Perhaps, but it's also a result of a lack of human contact — the novel makes it clear that the mages feel loneliness as their numbers dwindle, and at that point Gurgin is operating alone and hasn't heard from his remaining comrades for a while.

(He absolutely does talk to Hamkar from time to time in Sacrifice AU before Zandeh arrives on the scene, too.)

14. Best storyline they had

Is there anything about his canon trajectory that I really wanna label 'best' lmao? I mean, I wish things had turned out different for him but I do find his loss of faith / corruption arc interesting. Though that's because I also love to think about a future for him where that all gets reversed.

15. Worst storyline they had

His involvement with what went down in Oxus, probably. Oof.

16. A childhood headcanon

You know, I haven't spent much time thinking about what his childhood was like (aside from Mage Hunt AU specifics that differ from whatever a general /baseline headcanon would be). I guess the only thing I feel certain of is that he and his brother had no other siblings, and whatever region they grew up in didn't have much to offer in terms of creating a better life for themselves, and that's why they ended up at the Temple of Mithra in Khuzestan. (Tentative headcanon is that he grew up in / near the Nimruz mountains.)

Aghriras entered the priesthood because of ambition, and that reasoning makes sense for Gurgin, too (they're azat, freeborn commoners aka the lowest social class above slaves, and if they want to climb above the few opportunities that affords to them then it's either joining the priesthood or proving their merit on the battlefield) but I do think that to a certain extent Gurgin followed his brother.

lmao I can feel a backstory headcanon forming even as I type this.. like, what if their father died or left them when they were young (Gurgin probably doesn't remember him much) and they were raised by their mother, who wanted them to have a better life than she had? She wouldn't have wanted them to face the horrors of war, so she encouraged them to work hard on their education so that they could find their place in the priesthood. Perhaps she, too, had passed away by the time they left for the temple, so at that point they only had each other. I feel like Gurgin didn't have any close family after his brother died.

Oh no Gurgin, are you desperate for recognition from your Master because you never had a father figure? Fuck.

17. What do you think their first word was?

Eh, probably some variation of 'brother' or 'mother' (with the headcanon above). I feel like most first words are… not that interesting.

18. How do you think they were as a kid? (Like, were they shy, noisy, wild, etc)

Curious and intelligent! Asked a lot of questions. Easily frustrated when things didn't go his way. I imagine at school he had trouble making friends as he both sought approval from his teachers and thought himself superior to others who were not as clever as him, plus he could be impatient with others. (He was, in general, a bit better about all of this at the time he joined the priesthood, but when he's with Team Zahhak all those negative traits are brought to the fore.)

19. The most random ship you've seen people have with them

Well, I'm not sure this really counts but sometimes I'll ask my boyfriend really weird ArSen questions out of the blue, and recently I asked him "give me a Gurgin ship" and usually when it's something like that he'll try and pick something at random that he thinks I won't like… He said Gurgin/Farangis.

(No, he didn't remember that they knew each other. And I can't think of a way this would work but it sure gave me a whirlwind of feelings to think about. The thought of something happening between them because of shared grief, years after they last saw each other? It's so angsty and messy. If something did happen I think Gurgin would feel immensely guilty for it, but I'm not sure about Farangis. I feel like she might be able to compartmentalise it as something that happened that shouldn't have done, and move on. She'd handle it better than Gurgin, at any rate.)

Wait, my Hilmes/Gurgin ship is pretty random I suppose? Think of that as an alternate answer. Zandeh/Gurgin probably qualifies too given that they don't ever meet in canon, but I can't see it that way now, not after spending so much time thinking about them together.

I've also had very vague thoughts of yeeting Gurgin back into the past, but would I ship him with anyone in that circumstance? Eh, not sure.

20. A weird headcanon

I'm sure I have many! The 'he likes hot baths' headcanon is a pretty random one that came from 1. reading that the real Mount Damavand has some pretty nice hot springs near it (which in ArSen verse are probably disgusting bubbling sulphurous poison mud pits but whatever), and 2. the fact that he probably had a bad time during the flooding of the Dark Temple and it amuses me to imagine him enjoying water in a different context? I just want to let him relax from time to time? He works hard, he deserves it.

I want to write a bath scene for him in Interlude (Magical Healing AU). Or I keep thinking about a comedy scene of him at one of Ecbatana's bath houses with a gaggle of bird-faced beasts for company, because it amuses me.

Here's another headcanon: he's pretty bad at archery. It was taught at the temple, but it didn't interest him much and he wasn't that motivated to work on his skills, even though Farangis tried to instruct him. As far as weapons go, later on he uses a Team Zahhak-typical knife, which he wears strapped to a thigh like Farangis. (He still has it in Sacrifice AU! Chekhov's Snake Knife lmao.)

21. When do you think they were at their happiest?

When he was at the temple with Farangis and his brother, before things went wrong. Other than that, he was pretty fucking ecstatic in Book 16 when the Master said that he would be his successor (disregarding the fact that it's because there is literally nobody else left at that point lmao). I'm not sure I believe the Master was ever planning on stepping aside, but whatever.

22. When do you think they were at their lowest?

After his brother's death.

23. Future headcanon

The whole of Sacrifice AU, I guess. Just anything where he makes it out of Team Zahhak and tries to lead a different life.

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

I love this question. I wouldn't necessarily know the answer for every character but I do have a headcanon for this for Gurgin, and that is that no matter how vehemently he protested his brother's innocence, a small part of him wondered whether Aghriras really had done it. I don't think he'd ever admit that to anyone (except perhaps to Zandeh in Mage Hunt AU, where Gurgin's backstory adjustment gives him very good reason to hope that Aghriras had killed that particular person). The fact that Aghriras's innocence was later proven only makes it much worse.

25. When do you think they acted the most ooc

I don't think any of his canon scenes are OOC? Is that what this question is asking? I may not like what he does, but none of it feels unbelievable.

26. When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?

Maybe I'm picking this just because it's before he went down a dark path, but I think the conversations he used to have with his brother back when they were at the temple are pretty typical of his true self. The little flashback conversation we get in particular gives the impression of someone who's curious about stuff he maybe shouldn't be, and is attracted to power, but it also shows that he was willing to listen to his brother's guidance. I don't think he'd have ended up with Team Zahhak if his brother had lived.

Otherwise, his Book 16 decisions that get him killed are unfortunately also peak Gurgin, at least in his Team Zahhak era.

27. If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc, who would be the most fun for them to meet?

Either (or both) of the Devil Forgemasters from Castlevania, 100%.

28. The most unnecessary thing they ever did?

Killing the dog at the temple. Or lashing out and cutting off the hind legs of a winged ape (a creature that is on his side, and under his command!) when his plans started to go wrong in Book 13.

29. How do you think they would be as a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?)

Honestly, not great but not as bad as he might think. But it's not something he wants. Thoughts of having a family aren't really on his mind (except for AU instances where he's worried it's something Zandeh might want that he won't be able to provide).

30. The funniest scene they had?

Okay, Gurgin's not actually present in this scene but it's hilarious to me so I'm choosing it: after the winged ape attack on Soleimaniye in Book 13 was thwarted, Kubard and Narsus are discussing what happened. They don't know that Gurgin was the one in charge, but Narsus's opinion is that it couldn't have been Ilterish (the usual commander of the demon army) because Ilterish would've done a better job, lmao. Sorry Gurgin but your inexperience is showing.

Anyway, that's the end of the questions! Not sure how many people are interested enough in Gurgin to make it this far, but like... if anyone does want to talk about Gurgin with me... my inbox is always open...

[scienceoftheidiot]

Hi! So I'm going to catch up on the latest chapter of All The Hope asap, but do you mind sharing some of the inspirations and thought processes you had behind writing this story? :D

Aahh don't worry about catching up, the fic is there and not going away, read when you can 🥰

I'm so sorry this is going to be... Extremely long... 😬😬😬 oops 😅

Sooo there are a number of thought processes I've gone through when writing this specific fic! I'll try to explain while being not too spoilery 😅

(Edit : in case anyone wants to read the fic, you can find it here : All the hope that I lost, you have found)

First, as I say in the notes of the fic, I had the idea of this because I had already written a fic where Roy didn't get healed after Promised Day and stayed blind, but in this one it was understood in the background that Grumman had pressured the other generals so he'd be able to keep him.

The result is a fic where, inbetween the lines, Roy has a LOT of pressure on himself, has to go through rehab and at the same time has to prove he can still be kept in the army - which means the frat laws still apply, and neither he nor Riza have much brain power left to try and address this, which makes for a weird power imbalance and Roy not knowing where he stands and what he wants out of the relationship (which. Is what backfires at the beginning, because, he in fact, knows very well, and what he wants is NOT nurse Riza 🙃). So the whole setting is different.

I still like this fic, and many things that happen in it, but it's pretty unrealistic even by FMA standards, lol (I also forgot to take into account that Havoc himself would need a lot of rehab before he comes back 😅), and I wanted to explore the other, more realistic option imo, that Roy wouldn't be kept in the army's ranks.

Because with Roy out of the army, so many things can actually work better.

Of course the obvious, and what Roy realizes himself in the first chapter, is that the frat laws don't apply. More on that later.

But there's also the fact that Roy, as a General (Grumman would definitely not leave him a Colonel after Promised Day at least in part because so many generals have died 😅), would have overseen Ishval's restauration from afar, and not be hands on. Because he'd have a lot of work, he'd probably be appointed to be the head of East Command at the very least (Grumman even talks about it in the manga), and while Roy this way can ensure there's enough funds and men and help going and he would have been far more able to pull money from the state and rich people of Amestris to fund the restauration, he would also be way too precious to be allowed to just roam around Ishval helping rebuild.

Basically, in post Promised Day Amestris, an able bodied General Mustang who wouldn't use alchemy much is far more precious to the army than an overpowered, but blind Roy. Not only do I like to pull the rug from under his feet because I'm just evil like that, I like how he's never been that powerful, and yet. While there's a lot of talk about how Amestris is pretty good at accepting disability (no meta from me there, I don't have much to say), it's stated plainly a couple of times that unless they can be fit with an automail, disabled soldiers are no use. See Havoc. Anyway that's the way I followed, because even with Grumman on top, the army stays the army, and the army is not a nice institution. At least Roy and Havoc got a pension 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don't think they could have expected much more.

So overall, politically speaking, having Roy stay in the army is interesting, but action wise a little less. Alchemy wise, too. Because I want Roy to use his new overpowered alchemy (he will !!! And not only to transmute tea, spoons and squeaky door hinges, lol)(this fic is very slow aaab I am sorry), and if he's not on the field or only as a last resort against some incredibly powerful enemy.... That's not of my interest. (Keep in mind that's just MY train of thoughts, lol, I am not dissing any fic that does that. I want to read them. Lol). And to be honest I don't see any other reason that just being kicked out where Roy would leave the army (in manga/BH. In 03 I have different ideas but this reply is already soooo long).

Another point is that I wanted to explore Royai as an established couple, but still stay within the lines of the original story. And here I have the perfect setting : no frat laws anymore, they needed each other to basically survive during and right after Promised Day, and I had them make this deal that if Riza helps Roy, she has to let him help her, too. In this fic, the result of Promised Day is that now they are codependent more than ever, and I wanted to explore that, how their relationship shifts but in the end stays the same, and how it helps them move on.

It's definitely NOT a sane way to recover IRL, I know lol, but I think for them there is no other way. Their lives are already so entwined, it couldn't work differently in this specific case.

Last but not least : I'm an angst monster. Taking everything from Roy and fucking up Riza? Yes please let me play with that 😈 How is someone as stubborn and ambitious as Roy going to deal with having his ambitions crushed, and his autonomy seriously hampered? How is Riza going to deal with what was basically her goal by procuration disappearing, and her job radically changing? How are they both going to go on? Together, of course. And as I had Roy say himself in the fic, maybe they can allow themselves that, even if it's temporary, because, well. They don't have much else left. And it's not hurting anybody so why not.

So with this as a (clearly not as defined at the time) base I went on and then the events just clicked.

However. I want to say a couple of things about this fic, more in a logistics way :

First, the number of chapters is a lie. I have hastily cut all the "conjoined" chapters I had in half to get a rough number, but in fact there are some chapters that I keep as one, some that I divided that I had not planned on dividing. So take the number of chapters as an indication that the fic is mostly written and almost finished, but it won't be 27 chapters for real. How many ? No idea lol. Probably more around 20 judging by how it's going.

Also. This fic is only the beginning of Roy and Riza's journey, be it together or to rebuild Ishval. It will end with the (nice!) big event that was already foreshadowed, leaving a lot to do still. But if I find the strength to write yet another crazy long fic, there will be a second part (ok uh. Second part is already 20K long and has a rough outline. I don't write linearly lol).

This whole fic btw is also there for two reasons : 1) considering I am (have been for YEARS) writing an original novel with a blind main character I just HAD to try and write blind Roy, couldn't pass on that, and 2) I have an incredible enabler in the person of @qs63 who just pushes me, gives me lots of inspiration, and reads all I write and is just so supportive, and who is a great writer herself - we even wrote a whole fic together, and it was A BLAST. This fic wouldn't be there without her because I didn't want to just write yet another blind Roy fic and she persuaded me the idea was good. And now I think it's one of the best I've been working on (with the one we wrote together, lol).

Aaaanyway sorry this is a lot of rambling and thoughts and this was very long, but thank you so so much for asking about this fic. I just love to talk about it and read how people feel about it ❤️❤️❤️ thanks !

[glngrbred]

So I've realized the errors of my way by not making these long posts clearly part of a series on my blog. Since tumblr is *technically* a blogging website makes the most sense for me to just write my shit and say my lines in the comfort of my own blog, instead of spamming tags on them that aren't fully coherent.

Anyways, GOBLIN TIME >:) In the 2nd Garder blog post I briefly? threw out all of the humanoids in my setting and didn't really effectively go over them, so this time Ima go in Depth, the deep depths, of the far side of the pool, on goblins specifically

History lesson time! (Why Goblins look like that lol) Typical greenskin Hooked nosed Goblins were once upon a time anti semitic figure heads. And while most of the time the depiction of goblins and other related variant Humanoids are completely harmless, I still feel pretty uncomfortable about how particularly interested in the Big Ear, Hooked Nosed, unibrowed depictions of goblins people are. Because all of those features were added to the goblin story later, like way later, just for the purpose of making them as similar to anti semitic caricatures as possible. Basically I wanted to keep the familiar Goblin silhouette, as little guys with 3 big triangular protrusions on their head, But I didn't want to fall back on the typical portrayal of goblins as Jewish people Demonized. Do I think The Popular depiction of goblins Is anti semitic? No, but I acknowledge the history of that caricature and want to do something unique already, so having this guideline of subverting the typical depiction is very helpful to me.

With that in mind, here's my description of the Gobling/Goblet, Goblin, Erkling(TBD), Hobgoblin, and Mother tree. Origins: The Goblin Race Were Likely Derived from the same Fey Enchantments as Wendigo, However, When a Wendigo was Enchanted, It's Host would Have near always been an Animal, or Humanoid, Goblins would have come from plants given incredibly advanced magics to be made into a permanent, reproducing, forest dwelling race. Goblins all originate from a singular group of mother trees, again, these trees were most likely enchanted by Fey. And on that enchantment it was most likely to create a Race of Protectors for their forest homes. When I begin to design flavor stories for sets 1 through 9 I'll flesh out the method of delivery for this origin story. most likely goblin investigation/entries and Goblin Oral histories.Anatomy: Broadly Goblins are plants taken animal form, and through typical Human definitions, Goblins are animals evolved from plants as they technically fulfill all requirements to be part of the animal kingdom barring genetics. Briefly and visually, Goblins are defined by their woody subcutaneous, and flexible skeletons, phloem as opposed to typical veins, spongey innards, and foliage. With Pseudo Hearts resembling a twitching tulip bulb and "Musculature" that seems like hydraulics, They are Most similar to a Gnome in biomechanical structure. While goblins do have mouths, and rudimentary digestive systems, they don't have lungs, or vocal chords. And therefore cannot vocalize through natural means, though Goblins are quite good at interpreting language, they simply can't produce many vowels needed in other Group's languages. This has lead to centuries of Victimization where Goblins were unable to speak up for themselves. Goblins Have advanced ears that work quite similarly to a human ear though, the liquid filled Cochlea, film of matter making up the eardrum, sensitive fibers that mimic the human inner ear etc. All this leads us to the Goblin Brain. Like most Magically Borne beings, Goblins don't actually have a brain. It's just a hollow, fluid filled cavity that performs all the same functions and activity as a Human brain. This 'bike' is extremely sensitive to electricity though, as some exceptionally inhumane studies have found, and just like a human, an arrow through the temple is the quickest way to kill a goblin. Also, in apearence the goblin head is big ears, foliage hair, and then eyes. wich are eyes. and instead of a big nose goblins have a big anteater snout for a head, but with the big ears, and the mouth opens a bit more than an anteater's, so its not quite a proboscis but gets close.

this post was too long for a singleton but the sevond will be in a reblog

[dr-fancy-pants]

I don't do that often but some little art rambling

I think I'll post it later but I made a sketch yesterday without a single look at a ref - which nowadays is very rare for me - and it made me realize some stuff

Using photo references so heavily has made me make a LEAP in how I see and construct anatomy, even without reference now. I'm better with weird angles, and quicker (people who have seen me draw IRL know I was already crazy quick. Well I'm faster now, sorry bout that. It's the brain worms. If not fast enough, I get bored and ditch it all 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Drawing people without clothes will help with that. And also. It's nice. 😅🤣 (No next drawing is not nakey. Just an open shirt. Already something eh)

Just like my style is different if I draw directly on the tablet (haven't done that lately. I was using hand drawn sketches and lined them on the tablet), my style is different if I use a photo reference or not. With a photo ref I tend to more realistic traits and proportions, with finer face features and hands. Without I get blockier/rounder faces, and more cartoonish looks. Which I should have noticed because I reduce canon proportions ON PURPOSE since high school (that's LONG AGO) in my art.

A little bit on canon proportions: I have no idea how to explain it in artsy terms because I have never taken a single art class in my life outside of the mandatory ones in middle school (which. Meh. The teacher didn't like that I was obsessed with stuff and kept drawing the same thing for months on ends, only adapting to the rules (limited palette, include stripes, whatever. I managed to do all that while still drawing horses only lol). I wish she could see my blog, now 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway canon proportions for an adult man are that the whole body will be 7x to 8x the head in height. Women tend to be 6 to 7.

My proportions are usually 5x to 6x, except for my OC Desden who gets 7 because he's supposed to be noticeably taller than everyone else. Which results in that more cartoonish look, because the head will look bigger compared to the body.

Anyway. Just found that interesting so I thought I'd share 🤷🏻‍♀️

[scriptfree]

I recently started reading "Harry Potter and the Boiling Isles" on AO3 and this story has a disgustingly tight grip on me. I know that the author made some designs for the characters already but I felt like I should just share what I had in mind when I first started reading. Especially since the whole entire document became CORRUPTED somehow and now none of the unrendered color versions and sketches are all lost and can never be recovered, which hurt my soul much more than I expected it to.

I first started designing it and put a stupid amount of worry into whether Harry should have a jacket or not in Season 1, which is currently taking place. I'll get into why I'm divided between the jacket/no jacket look later but Ron was particularly hard. I couldn't decide if I should go the book/description loyal route or Rupert Grint inspired route because, honestly, I never read the books so I will always imagine Ron as the average height guy that Rupert Grin has encompassed for the kid. I decided to just go with what inspired me more, which isn't so book accurate but was more fun to draw. And drawing it in the Owl House style was an interesting exercise in learning line weight and simplification of design. Though I'm pretty sure these would still need further simplifying, specifically for the belts and collar textures.

Mild spoilers and speculations for later in the story, I guess?

I'm sure that it's not much of a spoiler as it is implied that Ron will be studying abomination magic and that Harry and Lilith will reconcile at some point, so I made my post-show future designs reflect that. If Luz is 18 when the epilogue takes place, Harry and Ron would be like 15 or something so they would be like fourth or fifth years. Harry is wearing Lilith's grudgby jacket--like how Luz wears Eda's--and continues attending Hogwarts (don't ask me how with the whole Wizarding War situation, just let me be happy) and Ron decided to stay in the Boiling Isles to apprentice under Alador or Darius, even if it might seem a bit out of character. But, eh, Weasley's are ambitious folk and to become the first Weasley to master Abomination magic as a human would totally outdo all his other siblings at the dinner table and parties.

I mentioned being torn on taking away Harry's jacket in his season 1 design because I imagine Lilith would come clean about being Harry's mom at some point during or before Season 2, which is where I would imagine Harry would end up wearing her grugby jacket. And I wanted it to feel significantly different from his season 1 design because him wearing it would be a MAJOR development in the story and his relationship with Lilith. I also added more to Lilith's jacket because it felt a little bare compared to Eda's, but I will post that later when I redraw the designs.

I had a season 2 lineup cleaned up and colored too but I never saved it out so that version is lost forever where Ron wore some edgy ripped vest with abomination goo or whatever but I haven't finalized his design because it's always come as an afterthought and the kid deserves better than that.

Anyways, I imagine that by the end of the series, if the author is kind, there will be not much more physical scarring on the poor children after all their inevitable trauma. Harry will get a palisman at some point, which I headcannon to be a peryton (a winged deer with antlers) that he names Prongs (I dunno how he gets the name, I dunno if he knows his dad's nickname yet). Prongs came from the Forest of the Forgotten who used to belong to a jerkass grudgby player who threw them out after one of their wings broke off, which the flyer found unacceptable because it would "affect their speed". Prongs became attracted to Harry's passion for Quidditch and missed competing in a sport, so they bonded with Harry through that. I decided that Ron's will be a capricorn, because I imagine the ram would be a good representation of how stubborn he is but the tail end would sorta represent his almost contradictory flexibility under pressure. I haven't finalized the design and am still on the edge of changing it because drawing a capricorn is SO FUCKING HARD, so the little palisman is not present in the lineup.

None of this should be taken as actual spoilers for the story as I am literally making fanart of a fanfiction, so none of this is author approved.

But if they end up liking it, I would not mind them working with these ideas which would be a huge honor.

[browzerhistory]

anyways Personally i don't think it's possible to meaningfully separate the self from the body/world and thinking of them as independent entities can create serious issues in later lines of thinking.

i say this as someone who has several 'selves' (system) but all of us have been undeniably changed by our body and the environment it's in. we wouldn't be who we are now without the very specific conditions and events that shaped our bodies and personalities.

it can be argued whether someone is more predisposed towards certain traits and activities from birth, but even then, the way you're raised and how much access you're given to those activities, as well as how much you're allowed to express those traits, matter deeply in shaping the person you are.

it's why i struggle with "what if you were born a different sex/richer or poorer/in a different country/etc.?" type questions bc the answer you'll get from me is inevitably "the person in those circumstances would be so fundamentally different and unrecognizable when compared to me that i don't think it'd be fair to say they would still be me." you know?

take a relatively small example, like if my parents decided to enroll me in a different kindergarten than the one they did. i would never have swapped schools in elementary, which kicked off my anxiety disorder hardcore but also made me gain wonderful friends who i wouldn't trade for the world, and unique experiences that shape the way i adapt to situations today.

or say i went to physical (heavily masked) school during the 2020 school year instead of taking online courses. i probably wouldn't have fully split into a system and i wouldn't have missed my best friend's last year of attending the same school as me before moving away. but i also wouldn't have rediscovered one of my oldest, most beloved special interests, nor would i have met the short lived but wonderful community online that helped me realize i was trans.

what i'm trying to get at is that the popular concept of the Self or the Soul as this immutable, eternal force that drives a person's actions and is predetermined before they're born really doesn't line up with reality. not only in the context of how much your environment changes you, but how much you can change you. humans are creatures of habit, sure, but you can make and break habits with relative ease most of the time.

(i started crossing my z's in third grade because i thought it looked cool. i stopped listening to an artist i used to adore because he said some shit things and i've barely missed his music. lately i've been making an effort not to step on certain floor tiles in the hall just because. i know most things aren't this minor or easy to change, but it's just an example.)

as far as theories on the self go, mine is a pretty easy one to spiral on. especially since, before i started thinking harder about it, i thought there was this Special Thing that made me Me and no one could take it away, so when i considered the possibility of my me-ness not being inherent to my existence, it freaked me out.

but as i thought about it more, i found the thought really... comforting, somehow? maybe it's because i'm trans and a system but the idea that there's the True You you have to want to be (and if you're not then something is wrong with you) feels really restricting. people are always changing, even moment to moment. it's not a bad thing to be constantly changing, that's just what being alive is like.

which brings me to another point (that i probably should've made earlier but whatevs) that also lines up pretty well with my political views: nobody is doomed to be a bad person forever, even if they've done bad things in the past. (i could make a whole other essay on the ways punitive justice just Doesn't work and how annoying it is to see in leftist spaces all the time, but i'll breeze past it for the sake of this post not becoming a novella.) my point here is that while yes, vengeance and punishment for harmful actions does feel great and can very occasionally help, the sustainable and humane way to approach harm is through restorative justice and rehabilitation (for lack of a better word).

nobody is born evil and nobody is doomed to be evil and hurt everyone forever. this is true both in the sense of restorative justice, where the person who did the harmful action(s) can be trusted and expected to change their behavior, and in the more personal "you are not bound to suffering for all your life" sense. if you break your arm, do you set the bone or cut the whole limb off?

the concept of the self, when wielded as a tell-all unchanging revelation of a person's "true nature of violence/harm" can be and is used against already marginalized and oppressed groups to justify that oppression. this is a more political gripe, sure, but it's one of the reasons i think my theory holds up better. saying "people can't change if they've done bad things..." is a very good way to get people to accept "...so anyone who does a bad thing should be locked up forever/socially isolated/killed/etc."

idk. it's probably a Capitalism thing - something something making a product of yourself and products have to be consistent - but the attachment to a One True Self really grinds my gears in a way that i haven't been able to put into words until recently.

i understand the desire to have something that makes you fundamentally You no matter what, but the way i see it, it'd take one tiny change in your past to turn you into a completely different person. that doesn't mean you're not real or that nothing you do matters, it just means the world is as much a part of you as you are of it. it's worth thinking about sometimes.

(also please talk to me about this more i could go on for hours about the idea of the self and our relationships to our bodyminds and etc)

[thats-the-teen-spirit]

Fall Out Boy - So Much For Stardust song-by-song review

I'm just gonna start this by being completely honest: since MANIA was released, I haven't been interested in any Fall Out Boy songs because I was that disappointed by that album. To my surprise when they released the first singles of SMFS they sounded pretty good, but they still weren't enough to get me hyped, I even forgot that the album was to come out today until I got the notification

Well, this opinion changed instantly when I listened through the whole record. This might even be one of the best albums of the year for me already. But let's not get that ahead this early. Here's what I think song by song.

01. Love From The Other Side

The first single the band released off the album and conveniently the opening track starts with a dreamy piano+string intro which then explodes into a surprising rock riff that is very reminiscent of the earlier FOB records. So much so that when I first heard it I thought it was a B-Side from Folie A Deux or something. But no, it was a well-written pop punk banger with a great hook in the chorus that was a 2022 release (as a single). The music video is also hilarious with old man Pete telling a tale and the band wearing dumb costumes and having countless references to older FOB videos. Nostalgia factor 10/10.

02. Heartbreak Feels So Good

The second single and the second song starts with an intro that scared me a little when I first heard it. Not because it was spooky but because it had a little late 2010's dancehall feeling to it that I really hoped the music industry had grown out of already. But as soon as the drums and later the guitars arrive everything suddenly made sense. The post-chorus ooh-s reminded me a little to the MANIA era but they weren't as jarring as I expected. Sounded very poppunk again, similarly to the older FOB albums. The line: "I’d never go, I just want to be invited" is one that I think every introvert like me can relate to which is a nice touch in the song. The music video has Rivers Cuomo in it which made the song even better for me as a huge Weezer fan.

03. Hold Me Like a Grudge

Now this was what I expected from a newer Fall Out Boy single. Despite being only the first single that was released today, same day as the album itself, if I heard the full album for the first time, I would've guessed this was the first single. It's really dance-y, borderline annoyingly. The yeah-yeahs reminded me a little of Michael Jackson's highs that brought a little soul vibe to the whole song. Also although the song has distorted guitars in it, I wouldn't call this one a rock song, more like a funky, dance-y, disco pop banger which happens to be played by a whole rock band. The lyrics are really good in this one, seems like the boys found the right pen again because lines such as: "And I guess I'm getting older cause I'm less pissed When I can't get onto the guest list" or "Part time soulmate, full time problem" seem way less cringy than "I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color" for example. Overall this one is a great song but if you want the emo version of FOB, you might not like it.

04. Fake Out

The fourth track starts off really reminiscent of the 00's, this one is a calmer, "sad but i'm dancing anyway" type of song. The verse riff to me sounds like a blink-182 song, similar to Bored to Death or What's My Age Again with the clean guitars, it really seems like this one was written to pay respects to the band's roots. The lyrics in this are on point again, the opening line of the chorus: "Love is in the air, I just gotta figure out a window to break" is again really quotable, and Patrick's vocal performance singing the high notes is perfect as usual. The elder emos who liked FOB from Infinity On High might enjoy this song a lot.

05. Heaven, Iowa

The first more of a power ballad on the album starts very pop-ish, so the listener doesn't know what to expect until the second chorus hits. Patrick again shows his incredible range, and in the second chorus the guitars and the drums follow him on his journey to the highest of highs. It's honestly one of the more annoyingly catchy songs for me on the album, by the time the last chorus hit I was ready to scream: SCAR... CROSSED... LOVERS... FOREVER. There's even a spicy guitar solo/lick at the end that adds to the whole power ballad feeling.

06. So Good Right Now

If you want a really retro sounding, almost rockabilly song to dance to then look no further. This song also screams both Infinity On High and Folie A Deux to me. The chorus is a little repetitive, it's like it's purposely trying to convince you that the singer is feeling soooo good right now. Maybe this is an obvious contradiction that just flew over my head. There's also a lot of woah-s and yeah-s which add to this feeling of repetitiveness. Overall I think this one, despite sounding really retro, a forgettable song for me.

07. The Pink Seashell (feat. Ethan Hawke)

This one is an interesting spoken word interlude between the (seemingly) happiest and the biggest sounding songs on the record: Ethan Hawke's guest appearence from the movie Reality Bites where his character speaks about enjoying life despite its hardships. Honestly this interlude hit me way harder than it should've. There's not much to say, if you're a 90's movie fan, you probably know this whole monologue, if not then prepare the tissues 'cause you're about to be sad.

08. I Am My Own Muse

As previously mentioned, this one is easily the biggest sounding song on the whole record. The first intrumental section really shows how good songwriters the boys in the band are. There's a sting section, a brass secion, accompanied by the heavy sounding muted guitars are just amazingly well put together. I recommend listening to this one with good sounding headphones. The melody in the verses also similar to 40's and 50's love songs with the melody ending on a lower note. I feel like this song pays homage to these huge movie soundtracks and scores that were in the classic movies back then.

09. Flu Game

Surprise, surprise, another dance-y sounding piece. This one just blatantly tells you that there was a heartbreak and the singer of the song doesn't need to count on them or anyone anymore. I don't know if just because of the danciness or because of the production but Flu Game has major Folie A Deux vibes for me. I also like the ear allegory between Mike Tyson and Van Gogh. Sometimes I love FOB because of these clever lyrical comparisons and not because of the melodies, and this one belongs to that category.

10. Baby Annihilation

Despite the title sounding like a deathcore album, this one is just a short spoken word interlude by Pete Wentz himself, the first one since 20 Dollar Nose Bleed apparently. It doesn't hit as hard for me as the Ethan Hawke one but if you like Wentz' lyricism you might even enjoy this little break between songs. It's a disappointed yearning for something better and that's pretty much all it wants to say.

11. The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)

If you liked Save Rock And Roll, this song might be for you. The Na-Na-Na's bring that feeling to this song, the instrumental is not as pop rock-ishly heavy as in the other songs. I also like the melody before the bridge a lot, it's very pop punk. I don't think this one will become a hit but the diehard fans of the band will still enjoy this song a lot.

12. What a Time To Be Alive

We pretty much paid homage to every decade now, of course the 80's won't be an exception. The drums in the beginning sounded a little like Mary On A Cross by Ghost to me and the riff is also reminiscent of that kind of music. But again, the melody and the production also reminded me to Papa Don't Preach by Madonna so I don't know what to think anymore. The song's groove is similar to the Madonna song as well. The lyrics are clearly written about the lockdown era and how we were waiting for the apocalypse to happen. The song is vibey and happy but the lyrics are probably the darkest so far. To add to the 80's feeling there's even a harmonized guitar solo in the end. Great piece, I really enjoyed this one.

13. So Much (for) Stardust

And the cherry on top, as mentioned in the previous song, the title track of the album. The piano intro sounds very soul-ish to me which compliments Patrick's voice. Then we get a Save Rock'n Roll type of ballad chorus which is completely expected for a Fall Out Boy closing track but the real cherry on top is something else. Around 3 minutes there's a reprise of the first song of the album which hasn't happened in Fall Out Boy songs since What A Catch, Donnie on Folie A Deux. When I heard the callback for the first time I gasped "No Shit" to myself because that was such a cheap but great solution by the band that I didn't know was still in them. Pretty much the best closure since What A Catch, Donnie. Absolute perfection

So here it is, I didn't think I would enjoy a FOB record in 2023, but here we are. This album is perfect for elder emos' nostalgia boner but also a fresh take on how pop rock/mainstream pop punk should sound in the current year, embracing the nostalgia. The record is amazing for the early spring weather, I listened to it during a long walk by myself, I'd recommend you to do the same. Easily will be among the albums of the year for me personally.