#callum will probably win

[mandaloriandragontrainer]

No one had a good time, but these two definitely suffered the most.

[arverst-aegnar]

Apropos of nothing, i've been playing a lot of Cultist Simulator lately. I also discovered this picrew maker that lets you design custom portraits in the game's style, and i've made my protagonists (from this particular chain of legacies) thus far.

This is Anna. She was an Aspirant who very interestingly had Mr. Allen retire quite quickly after she started working under him; i chose to interpret this as her being a very impressive office worker. Sadly, her pursuit of power was cut short by her own dark thoughts.

This is Benjamin, the handsome but shy and nerdy doctor who looked after Anna in her last days. He proceeded to do far better than she had, pulling off several expeditions, recruiting over a dozen followers, wooing one of them (i finally figured out how that worked), and achieving success as both a doctor and a painter while running an occult organization. Unfortunately, this success proved to be his undoing, as he gained more than enough notoriety to attract the Suppression Bureau. He got off on his first trial, despite the damning evidence, but had no such luck at the second.

This is Callum, a bright young thing much less successful than Benjamin. As his inheritance from his father started to dwindle, Callum made a bargain that, if he had thought about for more than two seconds, he would have realized he had no means of fulfilling. Without a cult, he didn't have any followers to betray, and so the only person to hand over was himself. Hope the shiny gold was worth it, Callum you idiot.

This is Clara, Callum's much smarter twin sister who decided to try things like low-level office work and painting before agreeing to bargains with occult forces she didn't understand. Her cult is quite small yet, but the fact that she has one means she's already outstripped her brother. Whether she will outshine Benjamin as well in her pursuit of new, dangerous sensations remains to be seen.

[miloformula123fan]

Hey, can I request something (don't really care what, I just want to read something about this 😭) about Y/N being Max (or Charles or both 👀) best friend, but everyone (from the grid, their team and the fans) think they're dating, but Y/N is actually either aroace or not into guys (maybe she even has a girlfriend). Eventually someone of them snaps and she brings her gf to a race or wears a shirt with a giant asexual pun on it. 🙈

I hope this is not too specific (or not specific enough idk 😭) and I would love if you could do something like that.

okay I'll be honest I loved this, but my layout was not going well so this turned into a blurb

Please keep requesting - y'all have awesome ideas we agree on a lot of stuff :) - my guidelines are here, and if you want some prompts, they are here.

also feel free to come in and start chatting to me in my asks, would love to get to know y'all better

Okay I apologise, I really wanted to get this out, so I did turn this into a blurb

And I loved how detailed this request was - i really don’t mind how detailed you get as long as I can write something

Y/N grew up with Max and Charles

So even before they made it to f1, the fangirls were shipping it

And it wasn’t that big of a deal

Until it was 

Aka all the media questions were about her relationship

And her attempted soft launch on her insta

It got a bit annoying when Christian joked about her letting Max win the championship 

And Callum and the mechanics were constantly making jokes and laughing at the 2 of them

And when she spent 10 of a 15 minute press conference answering questions about Max and Charles 

Yeah she’d had enough

So she brought her girlfriend to a race.

(probably Maya Hawke, cause let’s be honest every lesbian and bi girl has a crush on her)

So it’s just the 2 ultimate women together

The world goes crazy

Christian just turns round and goes ‘why didn’t you tell me?’

It gets worse when Y/N rocks up to the press conference, not in her red bull shirt but this shirt

Twitter goes wild

Any of coure Y/N wins the race for Maya

(i can’t even drive and I would win the race for Maya)

[coimbrabertone]

Injuries, Job Security, and How MotoGP and Indycar Differ...Or Don't.

In the last two years, two racers I support have been seriously injured. One was Enea Bastianini, rider of the #23 Ducati in MotoGP, and the other was David Malukas, who never actually got to drive the #6 NTT Data Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet Indycar.

So, just to go over what happened to them: Enea Bastianini was injured in the opening sprint race of the 2023 MotoGP season, the Portuguese GP at Portimao. Luca Marini went up his inside into turn five (Torre VIP), lost it, and his bike slid into Enea's bike. Enea broke his collarbone in this crash, wound up missing the opening five races, came back, injured himself again at Catalunya, and missed another three races.

Enea would return for the Indonesian Grand Prix and would then win the Malaysian Grand Prix towards the end of the season. That win, combined with Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati failing to beat Francesco Bagnaia for the championship, secured Enea's seat for 2024.

So, while Enea was enjoying a secure offseason, David Malukas was preparing for his switch from Dale Coyne Racing to a frontrunning team in the form of Arrow McLaren...except, he never actually made his debut for the team.

David Malukas was mountain biking in California, riding an easy trail, when, trying to slow himself, pulled the front brake too hard, went up and over the handlebars, and landed on his hands. He would break his left wrist and it was announced he would miss St. Pete and probably Thermal.

St. Pete and probably Thermal soon became St. Pete and definitely Thermal, missing those two races. Callum Ilott would fill in.

Malukas missed Long Beach next, with Theo Pourchaire in the car now.

Then Theo Pourchaire raced Long Beach as well.

Around this time, various rumors started flying about Malukas getting replaced. This only grew as Nathan Brown reported that Malukas had traveled to Panama in order to receive stem cell shots to speed up his recovery, and only then did he get the pins in his wrist removed.

Then, after Barber - the fourth race of the season, Malukas blacked out his twitter page. I was sat in a discord debating what exactly this meant with some other Indycar fans, with news picking up that he had been dropped. With the story pretty much out there, Arrow McLaren made the announcement early in the morning, David Malukas had been released after failing to meet his contractual obligations.

By now, it's been announced that Ilott will do the Indy 500, and then Theo Pourchaire will fill out the rest of the season in the #6. The Malukas at McLaren story ended before it could even begin.

Meanwhile, in MotoGPland, Enea Bastianini continued with the factory Ducati team. However, with Jorge Martin now building up an annoyingly large championship lead and Marc Marquez on the Ducati stealing all the attention, the whole world seems to think it's between the two of them to get the Ducati factory seat for 2025.

For the record, Enea is tied on points with Marquez, just two behind his teammate, and spent this weekend's race - the French Grand Prix at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit - starting tenth, getting a penalty, recovering to fourth, setting fastest lap, and finishing just 2.2 seconds off the lead.

Enea is an immense talent, he's the rider I chose to support when I decided to become a MotoGP fan ahead of the 2023 season, and it's so rotten to see his career falling apart because of factors outside of his control.

As for Malukas, he's a young, popular kid and has proven so talented on the ovals in a Dale Coyne Racing car. I was so eager to see what he could do with an Arrow McLaren, particularly at tracks like Iowa, Gateway, and Nashville which seemed like they'd suit him. Now, we're not going to get the chance, and it's unclear where he might land if he were to try and return to Indycar.

So, in theory, MotoGP gives more time to injured racers, but no matter what series you're in, motorsports can be a cutthroat business. Bastianini and Malukas certainly aren't the first racers to lose top rides after an injury, and they certainly won't be the last. It's not exactly an industry known for job security.

If I could manifest a happy resolution to both, I'd have Enea Bastianini go to factory Aprilia to join Maverick VInales, while David Malukas could join Meyer Shank Racing (perhaps with Tom Blomqvist returning to IMSA with the same team) to reinforce their oval program the same way Felix Rosenqvist has revitalized that team on the road and street circuits.

For now though, we wait to see what happens to them.

To end on a happier note, Brad Keselowski won the Darlington Goodyear 400 NASCAR race last night running a throwback scheme in honor of the TOM's Castrol Supra. That is an awesome motorsports word randomizer and the fact that it's real is why NASCAR is really cool in 2024.

One day I'll write a blogpost where talking about current NASCAR is actually the point instead of just spending the final paragraph gushing about last weekend's cool race.

[raayllum]

Hello! Can I first just say that I absolutely love your work? Cuz I do!

Anyways I had a question/thought to share with you. Idk if it’s been discussed before but why do you think it is that the cube will only glow for one arcanum at a time even if two separate ones are in the same proximity to it? For example when Rayla returns in s4 the cube glows for the star arcanum presumably for Stella but not the moon symbol for Rayla even tho she is actively using her moon shadow form. I know Stella was closer to it at first but it began to glow before she touched it and even after that while she was on Raylas shoulder the moon symbol never lit up. And why did the star arcanum win out at that point and not the moon arcanum?

Again sorry if this is a redundant question or is something already explained that I never saw!

Thank you!! Your kind words are very much appreciated <3

I've written about the cube (specifically onscreen rune placement) here, but I've never done a formal analysis about how and why the rune itself glows. This is largely because, while TDP is a detail oriented series, there is no definitive answer for how/when the key glows as opposed to any other time.

The most consistent glow we see is the rune glowing when it faces the arcanum-holder (plant, animal, person) most directly; if I had to say how it definitively glows, this is probably the one I'd default to.

However, we see exceptions to that 'rule' all the time, such as when it glows adjacently for Bait or for the moon squirrel (Callum is a dork loser and I love him so much).

The cube also glows just from having Stella hold it in 4x02/03 (but more on that in a second), even if it means the rune glowing that's Opposite from her, never mind adjacent or next to her.

Which indicates that presumably whoever holds it should be making it glow... but Callum never does even when he's routinely holding the cube (any of the times in 3x02, when he grabs it from Soren in 4x01 or from the table in 4x04 / 4x07, etc).

But okay, maybe just... loose proximity is enough? Whoever is Closest.

But we see that also not be true more than a few times as well. The fish is sensed a decent amount before it arrives on scene, Callum is a good deal away from the Key, and it ~ glows ~ to help hint that we're arriving at a special Moon place (the Moon Nexus) but never glows when we're actually at the Nexus, nor when we're at any other (the Storm Spire).

I also don't think it's summoned by whatever is 'the most powerful' source nearby, either, as that would routinely count Callum out pretty unfairly and like I said, it doesn't glow consistently at the Moon Nexus either, so it can't be that either. (Maybe it glows in 1x08 consistently because they're unknowingly surrounded by illusions, and those illusions grow more numerous the higher they get, but I do think they were leaning more towards foreshadowing the Moon Nexus being at the top > anything else.)

While there was enough consistency with how the runes were displayed on screen for me to hedge my bets foreshadowing wise ("You found it?" overlaid the ocean rune made me guess we'd find the prison in s5, routinely highlighting moon but particularly ocean in Callum's dark magic dreams made me think he'd do dark magic/something adjacent to Aaravos' bidding on Rayla's behalf in s5), I think when/why the rune cube glows is just... too much leeway to say anything definitive about an in-universe explanation.

Outside of in-universe laws, though... The cube glows whatever it needs to whenever the story needs it to, almost always tipping the audience off to something before the characters themselves know it (i.e. Callum's burgeoning sky arcanum, the Moon Nexus as previously mentioned), or to help guide Callum to an epiphany (the cube helps him remember the pendant is a moon opal, which he then uses to help Rayla). This is also true in the way information about the key is presented (i.e. we know who Aaravos is when we learn it's his Key almost 2 full seasons before Callum does).

One of the longest running theories regarding the cube is that it would open itself, or open something, if all six primal sources were there to make it glow. This is still pretty reasonable (Callum probably could've experimented with 5/6 primal collections in the timeskip without ever having Star, as it's so rare) but he doesn't express any excitement over Stella having it if that was the case, nor have we ever seen it glow more than one primal at a time even if there'd be good reason(s) for it to. While the "6 primals at once" could still be how the cube is Unlocked (whatever that means) of course, it seems it has to be under those ultra specific collection circumstances to have anything glow more than one at a time, so it sows seeds of doubt for me that that's how it works.

[theredhairedmonkey]

In the heart of Katolis castle, amidst the grandeur of its stone walls, Soren, Callum, and Rayla sat before a campfire in the castle courtyard while Ezran convened with Opeli on the crisis in Lux Aurea.

The flickering flames of a carefully tended fire illuminated Soren's face as he couldn't hold back his questions any longer. "Hey, Callum," he began, poking at the fire. "How did you even learn the Ocean Arcanum? Did you find some ancient scroll or a magical tome?"

Callum looked up from his sketchbook, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Nah, it's not like that. You can't just read about it and get it. Arcana come from lived experiences, the connection to the primal source. But, I did have a little help."

Soren raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Help? What kind of help?"

With a casual grace, Callum reached into his bag, retrieving a weathered book with a sea-blue cover. "A book of Ocean poems I stumbled upon in the castle library. The words resonated with the magic of the ocean, helping me grasp the Arcanum in a more profound way."

Rayla raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Poetry? You're telling me you actually found the key to elemental magic in a book of poems? I thought you were joking!"

“Hey, don’t knock it! The rhythm of the language, the emotional resonance...it stirred something…elemental inside me.”

Soren cleared his throat theatrically. “Oh Callum the poetic prince, weaving spells with heartfelt verse!” He exclaimed in exaggerated fashion.

Callum chuckled while Rayla playfully elbowed Soren’s arm. “Didn’t know you had a knack for poetry too,” she teased.

Soren took Callum’s book of ocean poems into his hands. "So, what’s next, painting landscapes?"

A chuckle escaped Callum's lips. "Well, maybe not landscapes. At least not yet. Dunno, maybe that would help with the Earth Arcanum?"

Rayla’s eyes glinted with curiosity. "Who would've thought, the former High Mage turned poet. What's your take on this, Soren?"

Soren, never one to miss an opportunity for a friendly jab, cleared his throat dramatically. "Ahem, Prince Callum, the poetic mage, casting spells with a quill on an enchanted page!"

Callum smirked. "Okay, that was terrible, but I appreciate the effort."

Undeterred, Soren continued, now fully embracing his poetic side. "By the ocean's edge, with waves so grand, Callum found magic in the sand. With every rhyme, he flies above, a princely poet, spreading love."

Callum couldn't contain his laughter any longer. "Alright, Soren, you win. I never knew you had such a hidden flair for rhyming."

Soren, reveling in his poetic victory, grinned. "Well, maybe I'll start dropping rhymes on the battlefield!"

Rayla, with a sly grin, teased Soren, "Who would’ve guess the big tough warrior had a soft spot for poetry?"

Soren winked. "Soft spot? More like a strategic advantage. Imagine facing an enemy who's too confused to fight because you hit them with unexpected rhymes."

Callum, still chuckling, added, "It's a unique tactical approach, to say the least."

"Who would've thought our journey would include poetry lessons from Soren of all people?” Rayla asked.

Callum, finishing up a quick doodle in his book, replied, "Life is full of surprises, I suppose."

Rayla met Soren’s eyes with a smile. “Poetry in moonlight,” she said, lifting her gaze to the glittering blanket of stars above. “Friends beside a dwindling fire.” Her hand found Callum’s, their fingers intertwining. “The laughter of loved ones, where just hours before there was only silence.”

Callum gave her hand a grateful squeeze, touched by her words. “Hey now, look who discovered her inner poet.”

“And just like that, my work here is done!” Soren announced. Getting up, he let out an exaggerated groan. “It’s getting late, we should probably call it a night.” 

“Agreed,” Callum said at last, gathering his sketchbook as Soren kicked dirt over the cooling coals. The three wandered back inside, the mystical poetry book tucked under Callum’s arm. The Ocean Arcanum flowing through his veins. But the real magic of the night glowing in their hearts.

[scenetocause]

hiii i was just wondering if it was you that wrote the max/ lando/ luisa fic where they changed genders? and max like stays a girl? i’ve been back reading nortrell and absolutely loved reading this one the first time. i can’t find the fic anymore and if it was you that wrote it, did you delete it?

it was me! it is here. also your other ask led to me looking at it and being like on what planet did i rate this mature it's got like, several dp scenes haha what.

for something that was pure whimsy cus someone on a discord server was like lol there should be mandinha sex swap fic it's one of my favourites. in retrospect it probably should have been clearer to me that i am not at all cis earlier on lol.

here's a little drabble to make up for making my own fic completely fucking unsearchable with my bizarro rating assessments. ("nsfw i guess" there)

It's not exactly news that Lando likes tits. Especially Max's. So she could've thought through wearing a bikini a bit more thoroughly but Lando's been away for weeks and Luisa's been on Strictly or whatever and there frankly hasn't been nearly enough attention on her from either of them.

And it's the first sunny day in London for ages. She'd definitely have her top off if she was a boy right now, so she can lie on the sofa in a sunbeam soaking up the warmth if she wants.

Until Lando's blocking the light, anyway, eyes crinkled with glee. "Maxy, oh my god."

"What? Get out of the sunbeam, mate, you're in the way."

Lando ignores her but does at least crouch down so he can trail his hand up Max's waist, cup his stupidly massive palm over her tit. "You're so hot."

"I'm fucking freezing actually, it was nice in the sun but some bloke's fucked that up."

Lando just rolls his eyes, picks Max up off the sofa with an ease she's still not sure if she's jealous of or can't help enjoying. It takes her breath away a little bit, sometimes, that the guy so tiny he had to be velcro-ed into a fucking kart could throw her around, now.

Even if the way her body changed was different (sudden, all at once, no years of carving muscle in the gym) it's crazy to think how much they've grown, still with each other. Makes her a bit soppy about it, maybe, so she has to hide her face in Lando's hoodie while he's putting her down on the bed and then tucking her in.

"Warm now?" He's a fucking weapon, this guy. Lying on top of the duvet, on Max, so she's basically pinned down.

"Be warmer if you got in, Bob." She's missed him. Got to into her own head while he was off driving laps of Bahrain and making heart-eyes at a more successful ex-Renault junior.

Lando relents easily because she's going to let him fuck her. Might even be up for anal, if he wants that. Sometimes they like it, as a throwback to how they used to fuck and Lando's dick feels pretty good anywhere.

Under the duvet his hands get everywhere, undoing the ties on Max's (well, Luisa's) bikini and slipping it off her, down into the foot of the bed somewhere.

"God. Your tits are so great." Lando's doing something with his mouth, between them, that's really not very far off motorboating and Max would object but it's the weird attention she's been craving. All Lando shit, unfocussed and a bit mental.

"D'you think you could do F1 Academy?" Obviously that's the kind of mad thing Lando asks when they're about to fuck.

"Bob, no. I don't know? Maybe." Callum could probably ask. She might, just to race again. Maybe. Maybe she could actually take a fight to Doriane. Or, mortifyingly, find herself massively off the pace. It's a big gamble.

"Could be the Silverstone wildcard. Be all sexy, we can both win." Alright, Mr confidence.

"Don't think they're racing there." Max kisses him, tries to get Lando's brain back on the job at hand by stroking his dick through his joggers. "C'mon, make me come and then I'll show you what Connor's done to his hair."

[dragonsanddrama]

After watching The Dragon Prince s5

I realized All this stuff we've been doing to ourselves, bottling up our feelings and living with a mentally unhealthy routine, saying that "It's easier somehow". We're like Claudia. Performing dark magic because it "Has to be done" to save her father, protect her family. And she didn't win in the end. Her spells always failed after a while. And what happened to Viren, embodying dark magic his entire life and realizing the truth only at his death. You get what I'm saying? The stuff that humans aren't supposed to do to themselves is like dark magic. We gotta try primal magic. Callum found a way. There's always that pure way. Primal magic will probably save you from the bottom of the ocean (or the bottom of your shower). Primal magic is expressing your feelings, acknowledging what needs to be acknowledged like the inability to control everything in the ocean. Dark magic is going to eventually kill us. Let's figure out how to use primal magic.

[wheretwofacesmeet]

Dragon Prince season 6/7 theories and ideas about what could feature:

-Terry going dark or trying to,in an attempt to win back Claudia

-When the final battle against Aaravos or of the next season goes down,it's kinda like when the Mystery Shack got upgraded. Villads steers his Giant Hermit Crab ship into battle...maybe against a full-sized colossal towering raging Aaravos?...with Team Zym/his crew/Berto and Nyx

-Callum tries to fly up to the stars on his mage wings. When he flies higher than the sky,he of course loses the wings. But it's on purpose? So that he gets as close to said stars as possible. He must connect to the Star Primal,he only has one chance,super-dramatic heartbeat-accelerating gasp-eliciting scene with probably some new beautiful music...aaand just when it looks like he's gonna fail and fall back...he does it. WHOOO YEAHHH GO BEST BOI CALLUM yells collective audience.

-Terry dies a dramatic sad death. Trying to save Claudia's life again,or fighting the heroes,or both. It breaks her shattered heart into even smaller pieces,and she goes on her redemption arc as a result .

-Aaravos is having a flashback or dream,and not an actual scene? Maybe trauma/grief over elf shown's death.

-We see baby and toddler and kid and young adult Aaravoses. Awwww !!

-The Celestial Elves somehow show Callum Aaravos's backstory,for some reason. OR,via unknown star magic-means,he finds it written in the stars. Callum sees it all...and,so do we. Awesome.

-Aaravos convinces a member/some members of Team Zym he's all repentant now,totally leaving his sins in the past. He just can't STAND this private hell he's been trapped in for hundreds of years!Please,he's paid for his crimes!Or he was just jailed wrongfully for helping humans! He just wants his freedom! Free him please!!

Master manipulator that he is,it works. Maybe it works,because like any good liar,he tells many truths mixed in with all those lies. I bet he's a fantastic actor when it suits him too. Helps if he's channeling his real emotions over his past experiences and current suffering into that performance. Certainly,he could move Ezran's heart.

Option Two of "Aaravos Pulls On Heartstrings With Emotional Plea "Theory:

Aaravos ain't lying. Just not telling everything. Sure,he's got a real tragic backstory,lots of sad stuff in there. Sure,he both does AND doesn't deserve to be where he is,depending on how you look at it. I know TDP writers write complicated situations like that,it's rarely black and white.

And sure,he just wants to be free...

(Plus,hasn't he suffered enough already?? If he IS their worst enemy,WOULD they wish this on him or not?)

...It's just that he's omitting one teeny little detail. Which is,what he's gonna do AFTER they free him. Possibly revenge. And maybe trying to knock down elves and dragons from their thrones,their pedestals,their high horses and hierarchical dominance,and usurp them with mankind +himself.

Those are all my ideas. Wonder if any of 'em are gonna be right?

[badnewlifesmpideas]

[Not an idea, more on info from a past smp!]

X-life is one of the servers apart of scott's "Life series" (One life, X-life, afterlife, etc.), wherein each player starts with one heart and gains a heart everytime they die. If they die while having all 10 hearts, you'd be out of the series. X-life is a personal favorite of mine tbh.

A major point in the smp was the start of a religion over a donkey. Lore-wise "the one true jeremy" tasked Joel in starting the Church of Jeremy. Based on the infro from the X Life wiki, ""the one true jeremy" appreciates when other animals are named after him. He promises longer lives and rumor has it that there is another life after our 10th. The Jeremy life where we live on through the body of Donkey Jeremy." Hence the name "Jeremyism", based on the donkey's name. A lot of people called it a cult, the members deny it being one. One major "plot-line" is that Lizzie, a member of The Coven and a former enemy to Jeremyism, was the original founder (yeah I aint explaining that lmao).

Another thing about Jeremyism is "The Book of Jeremy", which pretty much were basic rules the members of Jeremyism had to follow (No I'm not going into details there). One of the rules back then went along the lines of "Scott was not allowed." (Which probably was the oldest occurance of scott constantly being against joel)

The major twist is that later in the series, joel creates a Death House, with the prize for clearing it is becoming the new leader of Jeremyism (spoilers: Scott cleared it at half a heart)

With Scott now being the leader of Jeremyism, he planned a "smooth takeover" and changed a few rules of the Book of Jeremy. Later on he finds out about secret lairs of the Jeremyism members and a goal to take down Scott in which he made the decision to take down Jeremyism, even if he goes down with it.

Jack, one of the members of the smp who named himself Jeremy, had lost his last life and wrote down a will (which both callum and scott had to follow because it said so) and wrote down how he should have a funeral held for him. Scott took this as an opportunity to destroy the church and everyone in it. With some slight modifications, a rigged TNT trap, some lava and some wither potions, he was able to kill everyone attending the funeral. Including himself. (Recommend watching it, it looked pretty cool) and casually said that Jeremyism is over and just went over the rest of Jack's will.

[TLDR: Joel gets contacted by a donkey, starts a cult relegion named jeremyism, writes a book about the rules, makes a rule about scott not being allowed near jeremyism, scott didnt like that, coven was formed and was "declared" as an enemy to jeremyism, the coven made peace with them, apparently lizzie is the original founder idk how, joel built a death house and promised whoever wins becomes the leader of jeremyism, scott wins and makes slight changes to jeremyism, the members didn't like that and planned to overthrow him, Jack (one of the memebers) died, Scott and Callum were asked to fufill his will and a funeral was held for him. Before that tho, scott rigged the church with lava, tnt, and potions and basically killed everyone inside the church, with some dying twice. Scott declares that jeremyism is no more and the server moves on until the inevitable end of X Life.]

-✨️ anon (haha guess who i mainly watch)

Just- *pushes this across the table for newer folks*

I will say though that half of the coven literally could not care less about Jermemyism, you have no idea how funny it was to be a Gem viewer watching this all unfold. The episodes were like, "guys guys cmon look at my pretty plants!!!" *watches silently as Joey and Joel argue about shadows* "hiii Blue 💞" "GEM COME WITH US JEREMYISM HAS SENT SPIES" Katherine: I was just trying to read ;-;

Comedy gold, honestly

-Raven

[rileychester]

So apparently from what I have heard the powers that be at EE are saying that Max's partying ways have overshadowed his four years working there.

That just doesn't make sense though.

I'm not saying Max can't be a party boy or even have an issue with substance. And yes when he first came on the show, most of the pictures that articles showed of him were him on Waterloo Road and probably from Max's social pages of him out with his male friends. Smoking and drinking happening in many photos, though that seems general behavior for young males in the UK.

Through all that Max has been through in the last four years, he seemed to grow up a bit, losing someone close to you and becoming a father can do that to a person, I imagine. I'm judging this off interviews and social posts I have seen him post.

The problem I have with EE is I heard them say it is because Max's partying has gotten in the way of his work comment.

Since Max arrived on the show as the new Ben, he has been given heavy, juicy, award-winning, hugely popular storylines. He has become one-half of an insanely popular and award-winning pairing. They also just won an award for best partnership before all this went down.

He's also gotten a ton of screen time and attention over other castmates who have been there longer like Tony and Jamie.

I mean so much of Jay's storyline revolves around him either being Ben's friend or someone's boyfriend. Callum as well has kinda become more about Ben than being his own character. Callum doesn't really have friends outside of the Mitchells and they barely show him in scenes with the Carters, Whitney, and his family have all gone. Hell, they made Callum a cop and he really hasn't had any scenes as a cop that in some way don't lead back to the Mitchells and Ben. He's also not paired with Jack in scenes either, I mean I'm not a big fan of Jack, but at least Callum would have more diverse characters to act with than just Mitchells.

Also at this current point in time, Ben has multiple heavy-hitting storylines and I remember a few months back thinking he already had way too much and other characters should have a chance to shine. Only for them to give him more material to work with over others.

So if he was really letting his partying get in the way of his work over his entire time working there.

Why has he gotten such layered and meaty material as an actor to sink his teeth into?

He has gotten more screen time over cast members who have been there for longer?

If he's as unreliable and problematic as they say, why did they give him so many chances to sink the show? Yet he continues to turn in strong work and win awards.

Also, they have given other actors screen breaks while their behavior offscreen got in the way of their performances like Jessie Wallace's naughty behavior. For the most part, Max has stayed busy.

Something isn't adding up here.

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

Why is the worldbuilding in ATLA more cohesive than in TDP?

because the writers actually remember it as a context for its story and characters.

........... ok more elaboration.

the worldbuilding in ATLA and TDP is very similar in the respect that they have color-coded elements where each "nation" has each element. in both series the color-coding exists to make each group obviously and immediately different.

in ATLA the cultures deeply matter to the characters and story. as early as the first episode you see hints about the culture of the water tribe from katara and sokka. you know sokka has put this immense pressure on himself to be a Warrior and his sexism is partially an outgrowth of that. katara is fascinated by waterbending and her culture but there are no resources for her to learn because of the war, and you immediately get the idea she's also hoisted on a "mom role" from a very early age. all of this reinforces the patriarchal standards of water tribe culture and also the fact that they're impoverished thanks to the war. the characters would not be the same if you transported them to a different setting.

like some of the dialogue can be clunky and the entire conceit of the world is obviously kiddish ("fire nation" "water tribe" "earth kingdom" "air nomads" is not going to win any realism of the year awards.) but it's a very effective introduction to these characters and ties them explicitly to the setting.

in tdp it matters fuck-all. rayla is a moonshadow elf and the effects of their honor culture are clear on her. out of all the characters i'd say her, runaan, and ethari are probably the most developed in the aspect of "the setting should inform the characters." yes runaan and ethari are shitty parents but honestly like what would you expect from an honor culture society where one party is an assassin who allowed rayla to become one thanks to her guilt complex, even when ethari expressed doubts?

this is basically thrown away to tell her "oh dw all your parents (dads + bio parents) are all Good and Did Nothing Wrong." they also scrub away all of her flaws that she exhibited in the first season, or really anything that might make her seem like a "bad person." the moonshadow elves are just scrubbed to be Vaguely Good Guys With No Problems And Whose Choice to Ghost a Teenager Must be Respected (finger wag from the writers.) this could have been genuinely compelling drama for rayla. the setup is there. but they just forget about this stuff i guess.

how about callum and ezran? how does the culture of katolis or indeed any of the human kingdoms rub off on them? does their culture actually inform anything they do? i mean besides the fact that the human kingdoms aren't magical because of dark mage lords eating magic or whatever, which, by the way, the idea of dark mage lords doing this is like. in supplementary material and there is 0 indication of it happening in the actual show. do they have a particular culture or perspective at all? does even something as simple as the fact that they are princes and might have some differences with the common people ever come up? no. they're just bland POV characters who are high-minded to a kind of absurd degree. their context is very clearly supposed to be "Normal." which isn't a context at all because nobody's context is actually Normal. it should be normal to the character, but a grave mistake for the writer to treat it as such.

with the elves it's a little better but still not great. they have at least thematic set-up but moonshadow elf culture is the best of them, which isn't saying a whole lot. what exactly is the relationship between the dragons and the elves for example? who knows!

the writers frequently forget that their characters are situated in a particular situation in a particular world. i mean my favorite example to throw around is the time one of the writers said (on twitter) that khessa's comment to janai ("have fun with your pet") was meant to be a tease about their relationship. and that's insane to me. "have fun with your pet" does not work as a cheeky little tease when you are talking about a pow who's afraid for her life and you are a cruel monarch that tortures people for funsies? like this is khessa endorsing SA if you decide to take the show's context with any level of seriousness. this isn't a coffee shop au? this isn't a high school au? this is supposed to be a high fantasy with actual stakes that addresses Deep Themes? the context to a situation that these hacks themselves wrote should matter?

etc. etc. xadia does not feel like a real place because the setting is completely disconnected from the characters, and only matters to the story insofar as "wow look at this Cool Place you will find your Macguffin in!" It's just about worse in every way even if on the surface it may appear to contain """nuance."""

[whump-me]

Martyr, Chapter 18: Now We're Getting Somewhere

Chapter 18 of Martyr, a novel-length sci-fi whump story about a captured Martian rebel with a secret and the renowned interrogator who has waited a decade for the chance to break him. This series is best read in order. Masterpost here.

Contains: defiant whumpee, cold whumper, restraints, interrogation, verbal sparring, guilt, fatal beating mentions, brief wound infection mention, adult characters described as “kids” by an older and more jaded narrator

---

Wraith

The Isadora who sat across the table from Wraith in the interrogation room was the same Isadora he had met on their very first time in this room. Her hair was as impeccable as her uniform. Her face was stone, her eyes ice. The Isadora he had seen in his cell seemed like nothing more than a dream. He might have thought he had dreamed it, if not for the bruises on her knuckles and the nail that had broken off at an angle from her right index finger.

He studied her other nails, looking for blood. But she had cleaned herself up soberly. There wasn’t a speck of the prisoner’s blood to be found. She had been thorough.

Wraith leaned back and tried to smirk. If she could show him her old self, he had to do the same, or the point would go to her. But the stretching of his lips felt strained and unnatural. The feigned smile fell away. He tried to hold her gaze, but found himself staring down at his lap instead.

He wasn’t fooling anyone, not Isadora and not himself. She might be able to pretend last night hadn’t happened, that she hadn’t beaten someone to death in front of him for no apparent reason, but he couldn’t. This point would go to her after all.

He wasn’t sure he cared.

He felt like he was the one who had been beaten. He hadn’t slept after Isadora’s guards had taken the body away. He hadn’t tried. It would have felt obscene to lie there trying to sleep, with the man’s screams still echoing in his ears and the smell of his blood still thick in his nostrils. Instead, he had stared into the darkness, trying to make some sense out of what had just happened. Isadora claimed she always had a strategy, so what was her strategy now?

Only a single word had come to him. A name. Callum. The prisoner’s name had been Callum.

His ankle was swollen to what felt like twice the size of the other one. The ankle cuff holding him to the chair, which was even tighter than the one in the cell, didn’t help. Every so often, blood dripped from the wound he had ripped open last night. The blood was the wrong color now, a sickly orange instead of dark red. Maybe the wound was infected. Maybe it would kill him.

As if it mattered. He would die here regardless. That was probably a better way to go than some. Better than Callum had gotten, for certain.

“I know what it did to you to watch your fellow prisoner die in front of you,” said Isadora, jolting Wraith’s attention back to her. “There’s no need to try to hide it. It won’t work, in any case.”

At least she didn’t try to make her words sound sympathetic. If she had acted all sugary-sweet about it, told her how sorry she was when she had been the one to do it, it might have sent him into a snarling rage, shredding the last of his self-control and winning her another point. Instead, she said it flatly, which led an air of unreality to the conversation. How many people could talk about beating a man to death as if they were reading off the nightly news?

Isadora Pope, he supposed.

“There aren’t many people who could watch something like that and feel nothing,” Wraith agreed, as civilly as he could manage—which wasn’t very. “I’m not ashamed of that. It makes me human. As opposed to whatever you are.”

If his words hurt her at all, she didn’t show it. “It means you’re a good man,” she agreed, with a small nod. “Better than the one who sent you here.”

At first Wraith couldn’t understand the words. The script was all wrong. This wasn’t the way the conversation was supposed to go. When the meaning hit him, he went rigid in his chair. A chunk of solid ice lodged in his stomach.

He didn’t dare say anything in response. He didn’t even dare breathe. Any reaction could betray too much.

But it was already too late for that, wasn’t it?

Her eyes glinted. He knew that no matter how hard he had tried to remain expressionless, he must have showed some reaction, something that had given him away. “Yes,” she said, “I know you aren’t who you claim to be. Your leader was afraid we were getting too close, wasn’t he? He thought sending a patsy to die in his place might buy him enough time to go deeper into hiding. I’m not surprised he thought that was worth spending one of his people’s lives for. After all, he’s been asking others to die in his place for ten years.”

“Of course that’s how you’d see it,” Wraith spat. “Because that’s how you think, isn’t it? No one is human to you. We’re all resources for you to spend as you choose.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why I ever thought the two of you were the same. He cares even when he shouldn’t. It’s going to be the death of him someday. But you… is there anyone you care about? Anyone at all?”

Isadora drew up straighter in her chair. “Everything I told you the other day was true,” she said icily. “You were the only one lying in that conversation. I care about Earth, and I care about the future of this miserable planet. I care more about it than anyone on Earth does—and more than your little band of rebels does, too, whatever you may think. I’m not the one willing to destroy an entire dome—the only thing that makes life possible on this barren planet of yours—just to make a point.”

“I didn’t ask what you cared about. I asked who. Is there anyone on this planet you claim to care about so much—even anyone on your own side—who isn’t a resource to you?”

“People like us can’t afford that luxury.”

“People like us?” he sneered. “Don’t put the two of us in the same category. I don’t have a problem with killing, but I do it to save people. You only use them.”

“I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about the one who sent you here. You can’t say he didn’t see you as a resource. Not when he sent you to die.”

“Saying stuff like that just proves that despite a decade of trying to hunt us down, you don’t understand him at all. No wonder it’s taken you so long.” If Isadora didn’t care about anyone, Gabriel had the opposite problem. They were all painfully real to him—every lost life, every sacrifice he agonized over in his office late at night.

He and Wraith had argued it out so many times, Gabriel behind his desk, Wraith pacing back and forth. Wraith would lecture him about how he had to stop caring so much or he would burn out and the rebellion would be left without a leader. Gabriel would tell him it was that same capacity for caring that let him find the strength to keep fighting, because it reminded him what he was fighting for.

He had always been like that. Too big a heart for his own good.

Wraith would know.

They had known each other from the start, had worked in the same factory together before Earth came. They had been young then, as reckless and unserious as all kids were. Gabriel hadn’t had that boundless sorrow in his eyes. Just like Wraith hadn’t had a constant flame of rage burning in his heart.

Tragedy had changed them both, because that was what tragedy did. Wraith had wanted revenge. Left to his own devices, he would have stalked it straight off a cliff. Gabriel had wanted something nobler. In the space of a few short months, he had gone from a kid who could laugh at a fart joke one moment and cry at a sunset the next, to someone people twice his age looked up to and were willing to take orders from.

Wraith hadn’t loved Gabriel back then, not the way he did now. That had come gradually, stealing over him with every soft word of encouragement Gabriel gave him and every time Gabriel held him back from doing something stupid, until one day he realized Gabriel owned his entire heart and he had no idea when it had happened. It didn’t make him unique. He knew he was hardly the only one to love Gabriel enough to sacrifice for him. He was probably far from the only one who wished it would turn into something more than soft words and sacrifice, something big enough to hold not only the devotion to a shared purpose, but moonlight kisses and hands running over bare skin.

But he liked to think it was different between the two of them, even though he knew he was probably deluding himself. The others hadn’t known Gabriel as long as he had, after all. And when Gabriel needed to let down his guard and talk honestly, he didn’t go to any of the other rebels; he went to Wraith. Wraith used to imagine that someday Gabriel would look inside himself and see that his own heart belonged to something other than his cause, and then they would share that kiss in the moonlight.

But he had set those dreams aside for Gabriel’s sake long ago. Just as, eventually, he had set aside his life.

“I was wrong about your leader after all, it seems,” said Isadora, interrupting his thoughts. “But not in the way I originally thought. I imagined him as a soft man. That was why was so surprised when I met you. But you’re just one more disaffected child driven by emotion. The one who sent you, though… he’s something far more dangerous. He’s cold. Ruthless. He wins the devotion of his followers, and then he throws them away.”

Wraith wanted to laugh, because she was so far off that she might as well have been standing all the way back on Earth. He wanted to snarl at her, because this was Gabriel she was talking about, and he wouldn’t have her slandering him. He pressed his lips together and forced himself to do neither. He imagined Gabriel beside him, a soft hand on his shoulder, a murmur in his ear. Don’t react. Don’t give her what she wants.

“As much as you brought your fate on yourself,” said Isadora, “I actually feel the slightest bit sorry for you. You were used. I know enough about your rebellion to know the kind of devotion your leader inspires. He knows how to manipulate people. He can get into their heads. And he took advantage of that. The man is a coward, and he used your devotion to save his own life.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Wraith spat, before his imagined version of Gabriel could warn him to keep his mouth shut. He closed his lips too late. He had given her a reaction, just like she wanted. One more point to her.

Isadora’s voice softened fractionally. “You’re a better man than him—I can tell. You may be stupid enough to let the anger in your heart control you, but at least you have a heart. You were sufficiently brave and loyal to allow yourself to be captured in his place, even knowing what it would mean for you. And you were strong enough to resist telling me the truth, even when you must have known you could have used it to work out a deal between us.”

“No,” said Wraith, “I couldn’t have.” The thought had never so much as occurred to him. He could no more betray Gabriel than he could force his own heart to stop beating.

“He must have seen all that in you. Your courage, your loyalty. Your strength. How many of his people have the fortitude to do what you’ve done? Not many, I imagine—not unless the people on your side are made of stronger stuff than mine, and I’ve met enough of you in the past decade to know that’s not the case. He saw everything that is admirable in you, and he used it for his own selfish—”

“No!” Wraith yelled. The word echoed off the walls. Isadora’s lips curved upward almost imperceptibly.

He had given her another reaction. He had betrayed a little more of himself to her.

But she couldn’t sit there and say those things about Gabriel. And what did it matter how much he showed her, anyway? She had already found out the one thing that was truly important. She knew he wasn’t who he said he was.

“You’ve got it all wrong,” said Wraith, his voice quieter but laced with anger. “You think you finally have him all figured out, but you’re more wrong than you ever were. He didn’t use me. He had nothing to do with it. It was my plan from the start.”

“I’m sure it was,” she said, like she was humoring a child.

“He didn’t want me to come here, you know that? We argued for hours. The only reason I’m here is that I didn’t give him any choice in the matter. He would never have asked me to do this, because he was dumb like that. He never did know how to make the hard calls. So I came up with the plan, because I could see the writing on the wall. I knew how close you people were getting to him. I told him what I was going to do, because I figured I owed it to him to say goodbye in person. And when he tried to tell me no, I told him I was going to do it with or without his approval, so he had better get on board.”

Wraith paused to draw in a long breath after his rush of words.

“So you’re wrong about him,” he concluded. “And you’re wrong about me. I’m not a resource—not yours, and not his. No one uses me. And he’s a better man than I’ll ever be. Why do you think I gave myself up for him?”

Isadora’s only reaction was a slight widening of her smile. “Ah,” she breathed. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

---

Tagged: @straight-to-the-pain @soheavyaburden @gala1981 @whumpacabra @sacredwrath @suspicious-whumping-egg @sonder35 @decahedron-crabclaw @seasaltandcopper @tremendousenemyhideout @bloodinkandashes @whumplr-reader

Ask to be added or remove from taglist.

[dragonprincequotesimadeup]

Question and answers from the Offical Q&A's in The Dragon Prince Discord Server: Character Questions

Q: "Was Callum's in episode 9: "I'm so glad that you're come back!" Actually, the reaction to her coming back a second time now (meaning how she left again in episode 9). So the reaction to her second comeback?"

DG: Yes, it was written this way to have a double meaning! Great catch. This was an opportunity for Callum to say and do the thing he should have done the first time he saw Rayla in Episode 402 (“Fallen Stars”): Hug her and tell her he's glad she came back!

Q: "Callum and Rayla are understandably awkward in season 4, and Callum is understandably angry with her; however, his behavior in particular often seems intended to antagonize her. To what extent is he just so mad around her that he can't think straight, or is his behavior calculated to get back at her for hurting him?"

DG: In Season 4, we get to see Callum struggling with a lotof difficult feelings. This is in part because he’s a teenager—and that on its own is ROUGH—but it’s also because someone who hurt him deeply (a person whom he still loves deeply) has now come back into his life. He expresses some of this struggle to Ezran—that he's both angry and happy that Rayla has returned, and that it’s hard to sort out. Callum definitely does intentionally antagonize Rayla a little, which is obviously not the healthiest response to everything that's happened between them. I wouldn't call it calculated, though, just him emotionally lashing out. By the end of the season, though, Callum does come to realize that his happiness in having Rayla back in his life very easily wins over his anger at her—which we get to see with the "I'm so glad you're back" hug reunion at the season's end.

Q: "will we get a longer callum & rayla conversation and apology about how much she hurt him by only saying goodbye through letter, leaving for 2 years, and suddenly coming back?"

DG: This kind of growth and healing between Callum and Rayla happens gradually. In future seasons, they'll have some discussions about trust—and what to share with each other vs. what they keep to themselves. It's an important part of the dynamic of their relationship going forward. They have so much to work through!

Q: "Obviously you can't spoil too much, but can you give any hints about what Callum and Rayla's relationship dynamic will be like going forward?"

DG: The line between deep friendship and romantic love is a complicated one, isn't it?

Q: "We’ve seen that Callum is definitely upset with Rayla for leaving, but are others upset too? Are they holding back their emotions for the sake of her and Callums feelings?"

DG: Of course they’re upset, but in a very different way than Callum. I think it was a little easier for Soren, for example, to reconnect to Rayla after so much time had passed—even though he was probably at least a little bummed out to learn she’d left, especially because they’d only just started to become friends. When she returns, Soren sees it as a happy occasion: another chance to connect with this strong, respectable elf he’d only just gotten to know before! Another chance for Team Good Guys! Ezran is an almost endless well of empathy. He was also hurt by Rayla’s leaving, but did his best to understand her reasons, and is the type of person who can put hurt aside and express his joy at Rayla’s return up front. (It takes Callum all season to do this, in contrast.)

Q: "Rayla's gift speech heavily implies that she is still ghosted and hasn't been in Silvergrove. If this is correct, is this because she still technically abandoned her assassination mission or because they are unaware or willfully ignorant that it was her who returned Zym?"

DG: Unfortunately, yes. The Ghosting spell still stands. Returning Zym to the Dragon Queen does not erase or make amends for what is considered by the Silvergrove to be the reason for the Ghosting in the first place: The fact that Rayla betrayed her oath and abandoned her mission, and that these choices led to the deaths of Ram, Skor, Callisto, Andromeda, and (presumably) Runaan—elves who all had friends and family who cared about them. One grand, sweeping gesture of goodness and progress does not resolve the very real pain in the lives of the Moonshadow elves who are still suffering. While Ethari may have forgiven Rayla, others in the Silvergrove have not.

Q: "Now that Rayla has the coins containing Runaan, Tiadrin and Lain will she go on a quest to release them or will someone else break them free?"

JR: That’s the question, isn’t it? The fate of the entire world on one side vs. the very real chance to potentially see your parents and mentor/adoptive father again. Rayla has a lot to think about!

Q: “Did Callum know that Earthblood Elves say “Trees to meet you.” or was that just coincidence?"

DG: He’s a nerd, and he read it in a book somewhere. He’s lucky it was a real greeting in the book and not a joke he absolutely beefed.

Q: "In season 4 Ezran called Callum “the first human primal mage in centuries.” Does this mean there have been others?"

JR: There have been a (very) few other human primal mages in the ancient past, but they are exceedingly rare and far between. So rare, in fact, that nearly all information about them has been lost to history. Callum is alone in trying to figure out his path through magic.

Q: “This is concerning Callum and his quest in learning how to use magic. What all spells has he learned since we see him use a few new spells in the new season, has he learned a few or all the available Wind spells? And will he learn spells from the other elements?”

DG: Callum has learned a TON of Sky spells, both practical (his lil’ umbrella spell) and powerful (blanketing the forest in fog to slow down the Drakeriders was no simple feat). There’s still plenty he doesn’t know, though. He’s definitely interested in learning magic from some of the other primal sources, and HAS spent some time studying them, but—as we saw before—cracking an arcanum isn’t something you can just pick up out of a book. For Callum to master another type of primal magic will require challenges and experiences and realizations about himself that don’t come easily.

AE: Yes, I would add that with Rayla gone the past two years, Callum has obsessively dived into studying magic as a coping mechanism… not the greatest emotional tactic, but side effect is he has leveled up A LOT.

Q: "How did aaravos feel during and after he was locked away? Was it a painful experience for him, emotionally and physically?"

DG: I think the experience of being imprisoned has been more painful for Aaravos emotionally than physically. His pride was wounded, his plans interrupted and delayed, and he was cut off from the world entirely…or so was the intent. (You can see some of his resentment and the deep churn of his loathing in the short story "Patience", as well as the little birthday note we wrote for him a few years ago.) Aaravos has had a long, long time for all of his anger to fester into something even more dangerous than it was before he was imprisoned.

Q: "Aaravos shatters the mirror after possesing Callum which i assume means that they can no longer spy on aaravos through the mirror and vice versa. My question is why did he choose to shatter it then? (assuming he could shatter it whenever he wanted to). Personally my theory is that it has something to do with his startouch elf powers and "seeing into the beyond", so maybe he had all of this planned from the very beggining. even before he was put in jail."

DG: In some ways, Aaravos is very arrogant. He’s extremely confident that the things he’s set in motion—perhaps more than what is immediately obvious to us, the viewers—will all play out in his favor. He does not need the mirror anymore; thus, he shatters it. Now, Aaravos is waiting for all of his puppets to play their parts.

AE: Aaravos is showing them he will not be contained—and letting them know his power can reach them. It’s a warning, a threat, and a flourish…

Q: "I’ve been really curious about this - was Aaravos able to posess Callum because he’s used dark magic before or simply because he’s a mage?”

R: Mages, especially human ones, do seem to be drawn to Aaravos across history. However, simply being a mage isn't enough. Callum was indeed able to be possessed because he used Dark Magic before. (Dark Magic, Not Even Once.) Aaravos is very specific about what he does and what he chooses not to do. Simply because he can do something, doesn't mean he always will. For him, everything is according to keikaku plan.

Q: "When Claudia tells Soren that the elves and dragons are taking advantage of him, and that "to them, you'll always be just a human" — how does she reconcile that belief with the relationship she has with Terry? Does she think he thinks less of her? Does she see their relationship one of mutual use rather than love?"

DG: Personally, I think Claudia is just so taken with Terry as a person and not an elf that she hasn’t quite begun to apply how she feels about him regarding “dragons and elves” as a whole. He’s different—so much so that, by her measure, he almost “doesn’t count” towards her deeply hostile and hateful feelings towards the rest of Xadia. She sort of sees him as an exception to the rule: “Dragons and elves are my enemy, except THIS one, who is unique and special in a way that only I could possibly understand.”

AE: I think Terry agrees with Claudia that the elves and dragons were wrong to divide Xadia and drive the humans out. This doesn’t mean either of them universally hate all elves and dragons, but it means they have a belief about history and how humans were treated in the past.

Q: "How is Terry so cool with the idea of dark magic? So far all the elves and dragons we've seen are superbly against it, but Terry just rolls with it, even though it involves killing creatures from his homeland."

DG: In the same way that humans in the real world are comfortable with various degrees of, say, eating meat or consuming natural resources, Xadia has layers of complexity, too. Terry sees a bigger picture than the black and white of "it is inherently evil to do dark magic," especially in regards to Claudia, who does a lot of what she does out of love for her father—which Terry finds beautiful and admirable. He has a line, though: he won’t stand for it when Claudia does something to just be cruel instead of as a means to an end.

Q: "In the upcoming seasons, will there be more emotional scenes regarding relationships and things that happened in seasons 1-3? Especially involving Viren’s family, it felt like all of the betrayal and conflict were ignored and not payed attention to at all this season. For example, Viren gaslit and manipulated Soren constantly in previous seasons, Soren actually KILLED the illusion of Viren IN FRONT of Claudia last season, and it felt like all of that tension and weight of the situation was discarded this season."

DG: Yes, we will absolutely revisit this. Trauma, its impact, and the different ways we deal with it is a central theme for “Mystery of Aaravos,” and the relationship Viren has and has had with his children—as well as the relationship Claudia and Soren have with each other— is one of the core journeys we’ll take across the next three seasons. It’s something we want to unpack bit by bit, though, not at all once. AE: I think Terry agrees with Claudia that the elves and dragons were wrong to divide Xadia and drive the humans out. This doesn’t mean either of them universally hate all elves and dragons, but it means they have a belief about history and how humans were treated in the past.

Q: “Will Viren ever have a moment to really think about the things he's caused? Over his son turning against him and his friend being killed (other than about Claudia being used by Aaravos). Or maybe not in the show but in another graphic novel? I would get that in a heartbeat.”

AE: When Viren fell from the Storm Spire to his death, many of his life choices raced through his mind. And, in Season 4, as he grapples with his second chance at life, we see more self-reflection. Now, he’s been swept away on a quest with Claudia to find Aaravos and, in doing so, save his own life. At the end of Season 4, after hesitating and avoiding it the entire season, Viren uses dark magic once again… Do you think he will return to his old ways, full force now? Or is this a bump on his inner journey?

Q: "Why was there no reunion scene or any dialog between Soren and Viren ? Will there be any flash-back on this?"

AE: I think it's fair to want to know what happened after Soren and Viren reunite in Episode 407, but the truth is: It's not a very visually satisfying moment. Viren is too caught up in his own head to say much to his now-estranged son, and Soren is (both uncharacteristically and understandably) relatively silent as well. What I think you may be asking is: Do Soren and Viren have an opportunity to confront each other, after what happened between them at the Battle for the Storm Spire? And the answer is yes. We will see more of their relationship play out in the future. I think their most meaningful interactions are yet to come.

Q: "How does Viren feel about Soren at the moment?"

DG: Distant. Cold. Viren is very much trying to shut down the swell of regrets and doubts he felt upon his resurrection to follow Claudia and help her complete the spell by finding Aaravos. Soren’s presence introduces a lot of complicated feelings that he just can’t stomach right now as he’s tunnel-visioning on trusting Claudia and Aaravos to keep him alive. I think, in his mind, “there will be time for Soren later”—whether that means reconciliation or further estrangement, though, well… he can’t think about that yet. It’s a well so deep he’ll drown in it.

Q: "i loved janai & amaya in season 4, but is there any chance that they'll join our main heroes?"

DG: If you recall how the journey of Amaya and Janai eventually collided with the journey of Rayla, Callum, and Ezran in Season 3 for the Battle of the Storm Spire, I think you’ll have a good idea of what we’re aiming for here (“here” being Seasons 4-7) structurally. Everyone will have their parts to play, and yes! They will all meet again.

Q: "What can we expect for Ezran moving forward? Will he ever learn how to fight? Will we ever explore a darker side of Ezran? Can we expect him to participate in fight scenes in future seasons?"

DG: Ezran is well-intentioned, but ultimately…his good heart still has a lot of naivety in it. We started to see some of this in Season 4: his good-feelings visit from Zubeia didn’t go exactly as planned, and his attempt to make a heartfelt speech at Rex Igneous didn’t really land, either. Maybe good feelings and heartfelt speeches aren’t going to be enough to break the complicated cycles of hatred and violence that have dominated Xadia for hundreds of years? Ezran has a lot to grow into, and it won’t all be easy.

Q: "How does ezran and Zym communicate also how does ezran understand zym?"

JR: Ezran connects to animals on an instinctual, mind-to-mind level. This is much deeper with Zym, and the longer they spend together the more connected they become. It’s a true mind meld, where they aren’t talking; they are directly sharing feelings and emotions. They are able to intuit what the other’s state is, even if they aren’t next to one another—and this includes Ez being able to see “through” Zym’s eyes.

Q: "Will Zym get a voice like the other dragons as he grows or will he stay like his adorable puppy-self?"

AE: Archdragons eventually talk… when they are a bit older!

Q: "Why is Bait primary with Callum instead of Ezran now?"

DG: Bait's a great friend to both Callum and Ezran! But he definitely bonded with Callum over the first three seasons—like on Villads' boat, specifically, while Ezran was busy taking care of Zym—so now he splits his time a little bit more evenly between the two brothers.

Q: "That big door only started moving when Bait helped. Is Bait confirmed as the strongest and most powerful character in the whole show?"

JR: Bait is the most powerful creature in Xadia…in his own mind. While Bait is strong, in this case he’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, giving the final bit of effort needed to push open the door and get everyone to safety. That being said, you don’t want to arm-wrestle with Bait—glow toads pack a mean punch for their size.

Q: “Will we see how rayla and Stella met? If not do you guys have any funny stories/head canons regarding them?”

DG: I can’t say much about how Rayla and Stella met right now, but as a funny story: Our storyboard artists and animators decided to start putting in these little background details where Stella just… steals stuff. She’s unrepentant. An absolutely shameless criminal. Please keep an eye out for her heinous crimes in upcoming seasons.

Q: “Can we get official birthdays for some of the newer characters like Stella and Terry? Also one for Zym I don’t think he has one yet!"

SJ: We absolutely love that you love celebrating our characters’ birthdays! Canonical birth dates for more characters are coming (including Terry, Stella, and Zym), and we’ll be sure to include them in our official party posts starting next year.

Q: “Why does the creature that guides Claudia Viren and Terry know that they have to go to Umber Tor? I understood that Aaravos doesn't know where he is locked up, and the creature that is guiding them was the one that came out of the mirror so that Aaravos could communicate with Viren, therefore he shouldn't know that Rex Ignious can help them or know something about where he is Aaravos prison.”

DG: Aaravos does not know WHERE he is imprisoned—or even the very nature of his prison—but he does know WHO imprisoned him. He also knows that Avizandum is dead. So, the creature born from the chrysalis (which is infused with at least some of Aaravos’ will, I’d say) guides Claudia, Terry, and Viren to Rex Igneous as a functional first step in seeking out answers.

Q: “Will we get to see more about the key of Aaravos and how it works?”

DG: Yes, you will learn more about the Key of Aaravos! But, it may not be what you think it is…

Q: “As far as we know, there are four coins with people in them, and we know who's in 3 of them. Are we eventually going to see who's in the last coin? Is it a character we've already met? I'm sure you can't, but could you give us a hint about who it is?”

DG: Will you eventually find out who’s in the fourth coin? Absolutely yes. Is it a character you’ve already met? Technically, no. Will we give you a hint about who it is? Absolutely no. For now, you’ll just have to speculate. (Got any good theories?)

Q: "What happened to the rest of the dragonguard?"

DG: We know some of them fled – but did they all flee? Or did Viren do something so horrible to some of the Dragonguard on the front lines of the Storm Spire that most of the others could only run in terror, abandoning their posts? We at least know that Rayla’s parents, Tiadrin and Lain, stayed behind to fight and, well…we now know how well that turned out.

“Who is this?"

AE: Justin and I just talked about her recently in an interview with Cartoon Universe! We call her The Jailer. She is a human mage who is a sort of mastermind of prisons and puzzles.

[princemick]

Micklore for dummies his racing history

here's part 2, random important micklore

so, Mick, well like his last name is important ig but also he is esteban ocons best friend so priorities anyway, when he was karting he drove under his second name 'junior' and his moms name 'Betsch' he mostly raced with Tony Kart. during the start of his single seater career and a bit during karting Mercedes sponsored him, did a few sponsor things with them too.

when he got to F4 he started using the Schumacher name and in 2015 he signed with van Amersfoort racing he didnt accomplish much with them but in 2016 he signed with Prema racing, an italian racing team closely connected to Ferrari and later in 2019 he signed with the Ferrari Drivers Academy.

with Prema he finished second twice in Italian F4 and ADAC F4. then in 2017 he got to F3, where he finished 12th in his first season and 1st in his second. so in 2019 he moved to F2 where he again finished 12th in his first season and 1st in his second.

in his second F2 season he was a test driver for both Haas and Alfa Romeo. later in 2021 after his F2 win he ended up signing with Haas in F1. in his first season he ended 19th in the championship not getting any points. in his second season he ended 16th with 12 points. during this period he was still an FDA driver and reserve driver for Ferrari.

in 2023 he is going to be the full time Mercedes reserve driver.

under the read more there are important names and races in Micks single seater career.

important names that go along with Micks racing career.

Callum Ilott, his F3 teammate and 2020 Championship rival. he was also part of the FDA.

Robert Shwartzman, his 2020 F2 teammate and also part of the FDA.

Sean Gelael, his 2019 F2 teammate.

Nikita Mazepin, his 2021 Haas teammate.

Kevin Magnussen, his 2022 Haas teammate.

Gary Gannon, his F1 race engineer.

do I have to mention Seb? anyway yeah Sebastian Vettel, one of his closest friends and mentor.

Antoine Okla, his F2 race engineer.

Paul Beauvie, part of Micks F2 team.

Rene Rosin, Prema racing's TP.

Important races and moments in Micks racing career:

Monza, 2020. his first race win in Formula 2.

Silverstone 2021, his first F1 points.

Austria 2021 sprint. mick defending his lil ass off.

in F3 he won 5 races in a row. race 22 til 26 of the 2018 season.

during the 2020 Monza feature race, he qualified P7 and got to P2 in the first corner.

there's probably more stuff and obviously more you can learn about Mick at all times but IMO these are the most important basic mick facts to know.

[raayllum]

So as we know, a lot of what is said about the Cube so far is meant to be literal, down to how it’s foreshadowed in 1x04 from the start

So with that in mind I want to talk about what is probably my favourite line regarding the Key (and the last time the motif was mentioned directly to Callum until S4) from 2x07, which is:

You practicing magic, or are you losing to Bait a game of rolly-cubes?

So let’s talk about it.

1) Losing a Game

First off is the most literal layer that arguably makes me scream the most which is that Callum is losing a game. This is major as in S1-S3, the Game Motif running throughout the show that S4 explicitly ties to Aaravos directly was largely regulated solely to his cube. We also know that come hell or high water eventually all the heroes’ efforts to stop Aaravos from being freed have to fail. Therefore, while Callum and co. will eventually win in the end (S7) they have to fail first. They have to lose the game. The only thing we don’t know for certain is how/why. 

2) Practicing magic

The next layer is the mention of magic and I could see this going two ways. On the one hand, Callum’s journey with magic has always had the the game motif littered throughout (“Is this a guessing game? Just do it!” moments before he does his first spell) and indeed what put him on a path to the cube and Aaravos in the first place: “Mages were his prey.” We could see Callum’s path with magic, for a variety of reasons, being what causes him to lose the game, even if he thinks at first perhaps he is improving or it is the right thing to do.

On the other hand, this could foreshadow even later in the series than we think, with magic being a core part of Aaravos’ downfall and Callum ultimately ‘winning’ the game. That, and framing things - like war or death or the end of the world - as a game to win is something that has mostly been in Aaravos’ forte, not Callum’s, who is more sincere and sensitive. Thus I think Aaravos’ initial game that everyone is entangled in is his quest for freedom (seeking Callum’s primary thematic core) that will give way to a quest of warped Justice (Ezran’s thematic core), presumably. Aaravos has been beaten at his own game once by the archdragons, but I don’t think that sort of move is probable this time around, either.

If you want more thoughts on what sort of magic may cause Callum to inadvertently fall into Aaravos’ path, I have an analysis / predictions post here regarding different viabilities of dark magic.

Thus, given the symbolism I think it’s most likely that this relates to Aaravos’ plans to get out, as he does say immediately proceeding this, “Oh, my time has come. My return to this world is inevitable” not something more vague like “My plan is in motion” or something that like, but specifically regarding his return.

3) Rolly-cubes

This is perhaps one of the more interesting implications. The game could be left up in the air, but Rayla’s line makes it clear that Callum is a participant in a game due to the ‘rolly-cubes,’ that the cube itself is a key (haha!) part of the game. But this again makes sense if the cube is part of what is and has been, narratively, dragging Callum into Aaravos’ machinations more than anything else. If the game revolves around Aaravos’ Key, and the ‘win’ is Aaravos getting out, than this line makes that connection explicit. 

4) To Bait

I’ve talked before about Bait’s weird connotations with the cube which I won’t go into here, but am very curious about (given that glow-toads / glow-toys are also used as bait to catch deep-sea fish, Aaravos’ prison being presumably in water, next season as Ocean, etc). And again, this is where I think the phrasing is very interesting, if it is meant to be this intentional or taken so literally. For example, Callum being lured in by the mystery of the cube - for the cube itself to be ‘bait’ in which you are taken in, hook line and sinker - only to get in over his head and backed into a corner by Aaravos, this is something I could see even if I don’t think Callum would ever let himself go quite that far without some other kind of external motivation (perhaps thinking it could free him from Aaravos’ possession, or something).

But Rayla makes sure the rolly-cube and Bait are distinct. Are you losing to Bait at a game. Are you losing to bait at The Game? Which indicates that the bait that will make Callum lose the game the cube has pulled him into is not the cube itself. The bait isn’t the cube; it’s something else, something else he wants.

And well - you know I think I know exactly what that is.