#greyscale is much more complicated than I thought

[isharaneith]

February 2023 companion icons

Like, reblog or comment if you save, please

The centre one is aligned with circular shape in mind.

[campbell-rose]

Alastor Redesign

Omg there’s like over 70 people following me – guys I'm o///O flattered and flabbergasted. 

Anyway, onto today’s main event, Alastor. I hate Alastor’s og design, I hate his twig waist and his shoulder pads and the way you can’t see his antlers next to his ears, and his bow tie ugh viv please and his HAIR what even is that??? Not even mentioning that nothing about his design is really like a focal point. There’s no one thing that’s particularly interesting. At least before this he had that cathedral window looking cross on his undershirt that I found interesting. Nothing about his says he’s from the 1930’s other than dialogue. 

I wanted him to be in greyscale because that’s the coolest aesthetic, and colored photos weren’t a thing until way after the 30s. Recently I saw jjk, and Jogo’s teeth threw me because at some points I thought he was just straight up toothless. But then when I started this design, that colored tooth look spoke to me. Initially his teeth were yellow to look gross like he never brushes them, but then I was like ‘ayo wait, he’s literally a cannibal’, thus his vibrant red teeth to really pop against his greyscale. Initially his undershirt was white, but I feel like that was too much contrast and white is typically innocence, so by instead having a deep red it shows he’s just straight up bloodthirsty underneath his formal appearance. I also considered it being black, but then he looked like a pastor, and I wasn’t too much of a fan of it. The idea of the red on his design is that it leads your eye down his design to take it all in, with his face being the focus. I gave him glasses because I like the way it obscures his eyes a bit and I imagine they do the anime thing where they glow and hide his eyes. I liked Viv’s idea of sinners having marks where they died, and I slicked his hair back to show it off very prominently. His antlers are larger, I gave him cute lil deer ears. Also, under his suit he is lowkey buff. I feel like a serial killer should at least look physically capable of taking someone down not whatever the fuck viv’s nasty twig men can do. Like, in that comic with the cute sheep girl, when Alastor goes demon mode his body looks so snappable I just wanna like grab his waist in my hands and break it like a twig. I also tried to keep his design simple as if this were for animation, I know pinstripes are complicated and so are antlers but other than that I tried to keep his design basic. 

If I were to rewrite him based solely on the pilot, I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. Alastor is a decent character, his voice actor gives him life, the radio filter is cool, and nothing he did made me want to break my screen (ANGELDUST). The only thing I'd change would be his position in hell. Like, viv’s hell is so wack and I hate it, she’s got the princes, then the goetia and the overlords and then sinners and blah blah, it’s a lot to keep track of, not even mentioning the rings and circles thing. I think Alastor should have had dealings with hell as a human, maybe he routinely did sacrifices or something, and he made a deal with the archdemon Alastor and when he died like... uuhhhhhhh. Maybe through connections he’s gained more power? Idk, I just know I hate the idea of his dying and then having like the bestest most powerful demon powers despite not being hellborn. It’s got this mary sue stench. I’ll figure it out, maybe, who knows. 

I’m not gonna start rewriting since there’s nothing to go off of and alter yet, so that’s gonna have to wait until the show actually drops before anything concrete happens lol. 

Also the sheep girl is a sinner that reoccurs in the show now so sorry I don’t make the rules, you can’t give me a cute sheep girl and try to take her away, I’m gonna redesign her and shove her into the plot as someone looking for redemption at the hotel

[a-cat-in-toffee]

POST WHERE I TALK ABOUT MY HERO OUTFIT DESIGNS FOR END OF SEASON 2 SLASH SEASON 3 PRIME DEFNDERS :33 LONG ASS POST FOR THE RECORD

also I have pictures of their og design in this so. warning for white skinny pd jumpscare /joking

for sake of navigation I'm going in the order I drew them, and the order theyre in on the above image heart emoji.

"Virion" Vyncent Sol up first!! also can we talk about how his hero name is straight up just his name. lol. lmao even.

I HAD THE MOST PLAN FOR VYNCENT GOING IN TBH I wanted something similiar to the origami outfit while still staying reminiscent of his old outfit

I knew I wanted the jacket and I went with the turtleneck so it was the same as Jason's outfit. also Jason has really cool glove sleeve things I thought that was so fucking cool guys. and vyncent is generally from an actual outfit standpoint like... really simplistic? so just ourple pants and boots seemed most logical. I liked the mask and it was in both of his old designs so I decided to stick with it.

and then of course. the belts. there are ten total belts on his outfit jot including the two that would come with the sheath LMAO. plus the two pd colored belts on his boots!! I decided while drawing I wanted them all to have something in eachothers colors cause thats really cute.

i MUCHHH prefer the shorter jacket because of how it shows off the outfit and is reminiscent of his s2 post fauna design . . .

generally had the most idea going into his so there was very little in ways of additional sketching

also the Japanese where Jason's jacket had said Origami straight up just says Knife. I thought that was so funny. ENTIRELY ACCIDENTAL THING his outfit is basically just cantrips but colors flipped LMAO

BUT THATS ALL FOR VYNCENT. next up is (drum roll please)

"Wisperer" William Wisp!!! El wiwi himself. OKAY SO AS YOU MAY NOTICE. THIS IS DIFFERENT THAN THE DESIGN I ORIGINALLY POSTED. I had Not been happy with that one because it felt too cluttered and a little out of character so I ended up redesigning his jacket and redrawing the refs.

WILLIAMS OUTFIT WAS REALLY FUN THO I ended up going with a gas mask like he had in the greyscale arc, hoodie (which will get its own paragraph), cargo pants!! for his cargo and gadgets and gizmos, and then. because it's me and he's william. platformish boots laced with the orlther pds colors.

the hoodie was the thing I had changed in the new design because the old design wasn't william wisp enough for me yknow

i wnjoyed the outfit and it looked really need but it was much more complicated than his original hero suit and didn't really seem like smthn he'd design and wear.

i really liked the wisp belt and wanted to keep that wisp motif, which is why I ended up putting the flames on his sleeves! it looks cool as hell and keeps w the flame designs. IM ALSO SUPER ATTACHED TO THE WISPERER W THAT WAS ON HIS ORIGINAL HERO DESIGN.... so the hoodie has a stylized w.

also dakota and vyncent beads :)

I HAD A.... PROCESS MAKING THIS ONE LMAO. SO THERES A HANDFUL OF DRAFTS

i cinsidered adding stuff to make his outfit like Silhouettes then remebered i haye Silhouettes outfit. the images are out of order but I'm on mobile and can't be fucked to fix it. NEXT UP!!!!!!

"DC" Dakota Cole! only SLIGHTLY better than vyncent just using his name, bro is using his initials......

I CHANGED THE LEAST ABOUT HIS DESIGN HONESTLY. it was very nice to just get to draw Dakota though :)

the most I changed was I made it a bit simpler, and changed the jacket to be more like the Hexpert armor

also made the zipper look like her weird chest thingy....

I REALLY DISLIKE THE SHOES AND THE LITTLE BITS ON HIS ANKLES THOUGH. SO I CHANGED EM. they're now his thing in the others color heart emoji. I'd like to think they all sat down together and brainstormed ways to encorperate eachother into their costumes.....

i also made a little note of the back of hia jacket and I tried to make it look like a jersey

because he played soccer :)

ALSO.... DAKOTA COLE HONEY YOU SHOULD NOT ME WEARING A BELT EITH A BUCKLE. but it looks cool </3 if a little impractical

BUT THATS ALL OF EM FOR NOW..... love these guys.

next I. tackle redesigning this thing.

sighs. I so got this

[castielmacleod]

It is so critical to me that Cas and Claire’s relationship is just NOT black and white no matter how you look at it. Their ISSUES with each other are not black and white. These two are in a bonafide Situation that has no equivalent anywhere else on television and is as complex as it is batshit. To adequately and fairly depict their dynamic honestly takes a lot of thought to work out—like I’ve been at this for a few years now and I STILL haven’t quite decided how I want to write them together because there’s just so much nuance to take into account, on both sides. It absolutely can be done but it does in my opinion take some serious care and attention toward both characters to make it work.

I only wish there was more of a willingness to acknowledge these complications and accept the challenge and engage with the two-sided tragedy of it all rather than simplifying it to one wildly polarised end or the other. Because either it’s the heIIer brand “she’s literally Cas’ daughter uwu” romanticised thing which I find so reductive, unfair to Claire, and extremely shipper-brained. Or it’s the bronIy brand “Claire should hate Cass® forever and should’ve gotten to violently murder him for parading in front of her in her dead father’s corpse” grimdark thing which I don’t think is fair to the overwhelming regret and guilt Cas feels being at a point where it’s far too late to fix it (because lbr if Jimmy was still alive then Cas, as he’d become by season 10, absolutely and immediately would have given him back to Claire. I just know he would’ve) nor do I think it’s even remotely fair to the incredible capacity for forgiveness demonstrated by Claire given the circumstances (she did so on screen, for whatever canon is worth, and not instantly either. She CHOSE to forgive Cas, and it was an informed choice). Obviously it would have helped to have had more than two episodes where Cas and Claire interact to get a better sense of how their dynamic would develop in order to replicate something closer to what would be considered canon, but that being said I think the very fact that the writers didn’t elaborate on their relationship makes putting a fair amount of thought into fanon elaborations and hypotheticals that much more necessary.

Not to mention more interesting! Because revisiting Jimmy Novak’s daughter from six years earlier was brilliant. Putting her and Cas face to face again, even briefly, was brilliant. And maybe I am just looking in the wrong places but I would love to see more interest in actually getting into both Cas and Claire’s heads and really exploring the foundations we were left with and pushing their relationship in compelling and interesting ways that go beyond “I love Cas and don’t actually care about Claire’s feelings” ooc DestieI kidfics and “I hate Cas and don’t actually care about Claire’s feelings” faux-righteous text posts uploaded directly to the Castiel tag. To each their own or whatever but when it comes to Cas and Claire I really am looking for something a little more greyscale.

[jacketpotatoo]

A step-by-step look at my drawing process (commission edition) ✨

1) My client ( in this case @/brxkenvalley; ig) gives me their pitch and references. In this case, I was asked to draw their oc in whatever pose I thought would suit them and so I came up with these:

They’re very rough and I focused more on gesture and expression than getting the details right. I also asked them questions clarifying some of their designs and their personality traits (which is a really helpful thing for commissioners to provide so that the artist has a better grasp on the character)

2) my client then asked for C. with an altered expression resembling B. so I made minor alternations to the draft and they decided on the one on the right

3) After approval, i sketch out the character and I’ve taken to just cleaning up my sketch instead of doing lineart because that saves a lot of time

The annotations are me asking for some design clarifications because I wanted to make some alternations so that the piece looked better/more complete (esp cuz I thought straight horns did not look very good on the hat). The quick greyscale shading was just a temporary placeholder to separate the elements clearly. As for references, I use a combination of many from google and from pictures I’ve taken myself. For example, the hands here are based partly on an online reference, partly from my own hand, and partly from muscle memory of me practicing and knowing how to make a hand look like it makes sense

4) flats. This was tough because the reference I was given had the character’s whole colour scheme as similar shades of very dark grey and so I took some creative liberty to adjust the colours a little to make the separate parts pop out more

You can also see the horn fix and added details on the hat. Not much else to say except I stuck very much to cool colours for the whole thing to fit the character’s mysterious vibes

5) Rendering/painting. Everything prior to this was done on procreate but my brushes on Clip Studio Paint are just far superior so rendering was done there

This is what takes the longest and is where I merge my sketch and flats layer and paint over everything (with the help of the magic tool and lasso tool to select segments according to colour). I think it might’ve taken around 4 hours? I used a lot of different brushes to try and get a varied texture and when I was satisfied, I exported it back over to procreate for colour correcting using different layer types and their in-built adjustment tool. I also used an add-glow correction layer with an airbrush on the white parts it pop out more, as well as give the character a more ethereal look

6) I ask my client if they want any minor changes and if not, I’ll email the file to them :)

And that’s my commission process! I don’t do all of these steps when I’m working on personal art (esp the planning) but occasionally, when I have a clear idea for a more complicated piece, I find planning really helpful. I could also do a process thing for a background piece if anyones interested, just lmk. Also feel free to ask questions if you have any and I hope this was clear!

[princessofmerchants]

Nesta?

Thank you for asking me about my fave, @foxybananaaaz! Tagging @highfaenesta too because you also sent me my girl 😍

How I feel about this character: I don’t even know where to begin. Nesta Archeron is the first literary, fictional character who has made me feel fully seen on the page in terms of her emotional response to her particular trauma, which without getting into specifics is incredibly similar to my own. There’s a line in “Wings and Embers,” which, when I first read it, I crumpled into an emotional, gasping heap because I had never seen my own inner experience written so clearly: 

“She didn’t know what to do with it, that rage. It still burned and hunted her, still made her want to rip and roar and rend the world into pieces. She felt it all—too keenly, too sharply. Hated and cared and loved and dreaded, more than other people, she sometimes thought. Could sift between them all in a matter of moments, like she was trying on different sets of clothes, and no one could tell or care.“ 

The irony is, in my day to day life, I don’t act or appear rageful. But getting to see a fictional character fully experience and at times act upon the rage I also feel, but am a regulated grown person who knows it isn’t healthy to act on my own rage in the real world in the same way, is cathartic, and badass (women are allowed to feel rage - Nesta reminds me of this), and validating, and just, yea, I could go on. 

Then we get to ACOSF where Nesta’s particular traumatic response in terms of her inner life and experience of the world and herself in it, is also so deeply similar to my own, and my love and compassion for her (and by extension, for me - see how powerful that is?) only deepened. There’s so much more I could say, but I’m grateful for this character every damned day of my life since I met her when I first read the series years ago.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Cassian, obv. Because that quote above, that made me feel deeply seen? Cassian is the first person in her world to see that part of her as well, really see her, and not run or shy away. That is next level OTP right there. Nessian has my whole romantic heart.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Gwyn and Emerie, her fellow Valkyries. Friendship on the page does not get any better than what SJM gave us in ACOSF between these three. 

My unpopular opinion about this character: My opinions about Nesta are all gonna be unpopular with someone 😂 The two I think are unpopular with some of my fellow Nesta stans, though, I’ll go ahead and share, and they are intertwined with each other. 

First, I think Nesta’s healing arc in ACOSF, as it relates to her feelings about her father, Papa Archeron, was handled beautifully, and in just the way I felt made sense for someone who does not want to be held down with the heavy baggage of resentment and hate toward a parent whose relationship with her was deeply complicated. (I know many people think narratively that Papa A got off too easy, but when I consider the generational trauma and dysfunction that he was likely in turn enacting --- we don’t know anything about his childhood, what kind of father figure he had or didn’t have --- I think the ruling on what he deserves or doesn’t deserve in the narrative becomes less black and white and a lot more greyscale, and I think where Nesta lands in terms of her feelings about her father, at the end of ACOSF, is the most healthy place for her to have landed. This is also super personal for me, which I admit, but how SJM handled Nesta’s feelings about her father was on my shortlist of needs in ACOSF, and for what I was looking for in this regard, the book delivered and then some.) 

And second, I also think Nesta’s healing arc as it relates to her traumatic response in terms of her spiraling anxiety and negative self-talk, was also portrayed realistically, and in a satisfying way for me (as someone who has experienced the exact thing we saw in ch. 50 before). This one I hope to unpack in longer posts someday after I finish my slow, deliberate reread of ACOSF, but for now, suffice it to say in this book I continued to feel really seen by this part of her experience as well, and it means ACOSF, for all of its faults which I can readily admit exist, will be a beloved, favorite book of mine always, despite its faults.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I want Nesta to remain a main character (lol), and for the bargain she made with the Mother at the end of ACOSF to play an important role in the rest of the series. I also want a true but believable reconciliation of the three Archeron sisters in canon on the page, but I can see why we haven’t gotten that yet at this point in the meta series arc. And I want Nesta in the future books to still be her prickly self, even as she has access to inner peace a lot more now than she used to. 

Send me a character and I’ll break them down!

Past character posts: Mor | Rhys | Eris | Elain

[tracybirds]

Caesura

This fic is brought to you, courtesy of my complete and utter inability to trill and being mean enough to say if I can’t play the piano properly, neither can he.

Many thanks to @gumnut-logic for the prod to write it and to @hedwigstalons for making me feel better about endings.... look there’s even a title xD

-------------------------------------------------------------

Virgil wished he could tell people honestly that when he first registered the sharp snap of bone against rock, his primary concern had been for International Rescue. A broken bone was serious, even if it was a clean break without complications. He would need to be pulled from duty for at least a couple of months, leaving everyone else to pick up the slack. He knew what that felt like, to be a part of a team that was missing a limb, working longer hours and stepping into a role that wasn’t made for him.

But when the crack resonated in the air and the pain flared in his wrist, International Rescue had been the last thing on his mind.

***

Three days later, Virgil sat down at the piano. His left hand was a whirlwind of motion, running up and down the keys, and his right was strapped to his chest. He wasn’t using it but muscle memory kept his fingers twitching in the solid cast. He hissed and doubled over his arm protectively as the automatic movement twinged against the nerves in his broken wrist.

A hand fell heavy on his shoulder. He ignored it, the thought of soothing the dull ache in his wrist overwhelming.

“Virgil.”

Scott said his name like a command, and he looked up into the worried eyes of his brother.

“Come on, Virgil, what have you done to yourself? You can’t play with a broken wrist.”

“Wasn’t trying to play,” said Virgil, through gritted teeth. “Was practising my scales.”

Scott’s lips thinned, but he said nothing as he gently pulled his brother from the stool and brought him down to the kitchen. Out of sight of his beloved instrument, but never far from mind.

“Here,” said Scott, pushing two small pills and a glass of water over to him.

“No,” said Virgil, immediately. “It’s not that bad, I don’t want–”

“Stop being a hero,” snapped Scott. “You’re in pain, there’s no shame in taking drugs for it.”

Virgil glared at the pills in lieu of a response.

Scott huffed in front of him.

“What’s eating you anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It clearly does.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

He pushed the glass away and strode from the room.

“Great,” called Scott after him. “Good talk.”

Virgil ignored him, stalking up the stairs towards his own room. It seemed a cruel irony that now his schedule was wide open and the days stretching before him, he couldn’t do the one thing he’d always wanted to spend more time on.

He pulled a sketchbook from the shelf and threw himself onto a chair. He knew he had a lot to be thankful for, that things could have been so much worse, but the thought was of little comfort as he stared blankly at the open page.

A pianist leapt from his pencil, captured in the throes of performance. He could hear the vitality in the piece, the energy as the sketch moved his whole body with the rhythm.

It wasn’t just the way music allowed him to relax, he needed it, the constant heartbeat of the world translating to harmony in a way that kept him connected to those around him. Without his piano he felt cut off and distant, even his humming felt flat and lifeless.

The second sketch held an aching tenderness, gentle, the pianist caressing the keys as he played, head bent close. If Virgil listened to the phantom melody, he could hear the hesitancy between the notes. The silence echoed as he lifted his pencil, art reflecting life.

Uncertainty plagued him most of all. It was the long weeks where his muscles would waste away that he feared, where the dexterity he had worked so hard to maintain all his life could be lost in one minor accident. The stiffness surrounding his wrist felt unnatural and he didn’t know how to let go of the trepidation that was coiled in his chest.

A sharp knock lifted him from the world of greyscale and charcoal.

“Virgil?”

He sighed, knowing Scott wouldn’t wait to be let in forever, and trudged over to the door, yanking it open with a suitably annoyed expression on his face.

“What?”

Scott held up a mug of coffee.

“If you’re not taking meds, there’s nothing stopping you from drowning in caffeine.”

“You can mix caffeine with painkillers, you know,” he said, taking the coffee as he stepped back.

Scott kicked the door shut behind him.

“Well, I needed an excuse to get in.” His eyes softened as he spied the drawing materials abandoned on the desk.

“You gonna turn these into a painting?”

He shrugged, not in the mood to discuss his work. He wasn’t embarrassed, and he’d learnt long ago that very little could remain private with four brothers, but the new sketches were personal. They had a sense of fragility to them that he wasn’t ready to share.

He took a sip of the coffee, its taste bitter on his tongue. Scott always made it too strong.

“Can we talk?”

Virgil eyed his brother.

“Depends on what you have to say.”

Scott’s eyes narrowed at the challenge.

“You’ve been moping around for the past three days. I want to help, that’s all.”

“Well unless you’re hiding away a new medical breakthrough that can knit bone back together again, that’s going to be a challenge.”

“C’mon, you’ve had worse injuries than this.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“And that shattered knee was what exactly?”

“It’s not the same.”

“Four surgeries, Virgil.”

“But I could play then, Scott,” snapped Virgil. “You can’t make me feel better about this.

Scott halted at the words, regret washing over his expression. Virgil felt a twinge of satisfaction watching his brother crawl his way back to his contrite opening.

“I know piano’s important to you, but it’s only for a few weeks. And Grandma said you can switch to a brace and restart your strength training by May.”

Virgil sighed and shifted his gaze. Scott followed his line of sight to the beat up piano his brother had insisted they bring with them to the island. The one their father had given their mother as a wedding present. It had been ancient even then but it was infused with their parents’ love and both brothers had spent countless hours learning simple tunes on the instrument under their mother’s tutelage.

“I just miss it.”

Scott smiled sadly.

“Yeah, I know it sucks.”

“And what if there are complications and it never comes right? What will I do then?”

“You’d figure it out. People have played piano after worse injuries than a poorly mended wrist fracture.”

Virgil scrubbed at his eyes and leant back, suddenly feeling exhausted.

“I know it’s only a few weeks in the cast, and only a couple of months before I’m back out there on rescues. Maybe that should be enough.”

Scott nudged him.

“There’s no ‘should’ in this, you can be upset.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Just don’t get hurt in the process. Stay off that piano, you can’t help yourself.”

“It’s the perfect time to work on my left hand technique though.”

“Stay. Off.” Scott jabbed his finger at Virgil, a menacing look in his eye. “Or I’ll sic Grandma on you.”

Virgil rolled his eyes.

“Sure, Scott, whatever you say.” He glanced back over at the abandoned drawing materials and Scott stood, taking the hint.

“Right, well, I’ll leave you to it.”

“Scott?” he called after him. “Thanks.”

“Any time,” Scott said with a grin, closing the door behind him.

Virgil sat still, waiting, for a few moments before sidestepping the desk and making his way to the old upright in the corner.

The piano lid creaked as badly as it did when their Dad had first bought the instrument but the tuning was true.

His left hand sought out the chords instinctively, running up and down the arpeggios and exercises he’d learnt as a child, letting the notes wash over him like a soothing wave.

Scott listened from outside with a half-smile and a shake of the head.

He had to trust his brother with this.

[cxmetery-gates]

SURREPTITIOUS - DRACO MALFOY

PROLOGUE: THE GIRL WITH A SECRET

SUMMARY: Leslie Greyscale is given advice. WORD COUNT: 1.1k NOTE: I’m so excited to start this story! I’ve had the idea since before Fantastic Beasts came out and now that I’m (somewhat) motivated, I’m thrilled to share! There will be a lot of chapters taking place in the past, as well as a mix of past and present storytelling in the same chapters, so just something to remember. Thank you for reading!! WARNINGS: none (yet)

MASTERLIST

RELAX. BREATHE. FEET FLAT. BACK straight. Exhale. Focus.

Try harder.

Harder.

A pair of strained brown eyes pierced a man across the park who pushed his son on a rusty swing. The screams and groans the metal gives nearly set the girl in a rage. How is she supposed to focus with such a shrill sound? The girl considered leaving to go somewhere quieter to practice, but an old voice from an old memory reminds her that practice, even in the worst circumstances, is necessary for her to learn.

Rolling her knitted sweater over her clammy palms, a small girl of eleven with long brown hair and even darker brown eyes took a sharp exhale before cracking her neck. Balling her fists, she focused on the man once more. The boy had been easy; his small incomprehensible mind was full of nothing but rubbish. This made it simple for her to gain access. The older gentleman however had more secrets and life on his shoulders. She knew from the moment she saw him that it would be a difficult time entering his mind.

Leslie Greyscale could not describe her gift. It was not necessary mind reading, for the mind is not as mundane as a book, but not quite Legillimency either, which is the rare talent of being able to navigate through the many layers of a person's mind. Due to the lack of a better title, she called herself a Legillimen, this not only giving a name for her talent but also a label which isn't terribly known to the common wizard. Her father insisted that she was something more powerful though, more rare than a natural born Legillimen. Leslie's family line has had their fair share of the natural gift, however Leslie's father believed she was different from them. When Leslie was born, it was quickly deduced that she was given the ability to read people's emotions but that soon manifested into something much more complicated. With the proper focus, Leslie discovered she could wiggle her way into someone's mind, not only sensing what they are thinking but delving into memories or future plans, essentially seeing glimpses of a possible future. She can tell what a person may or may not accomplish in their life long before steps paved the road just by taking a look into their past, thoughts, current emotions, anything. Of course, these things involving what could happen are subject to change.

For instance, Leslie didn't think the small boy will grow to be a thieving criminal just because he desires to steal more toys from daycare. She knows he'll become a murderer or maybe a spy based on his consistent lying, mischievousness, and his lack of emotion.

But again, everything can change.

This is one of the last times Leslie has to practice without completely making a fool of herself. In two months time, she would be on a train off to a magical school. Her brother had attended his first year two years before her, bringing home stories that scared her even more. It was all a cruel joke, but hearing the lies still frightened the poor girl. For many students, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a second home, but Leslie was dreading her first year, for she's never been away from home before, let alone for nine months. During that long time at Hogwarts, students from ages eleven to seventeen learn how to wield their natural magic abilities all the while exploring the depths that is childhood. Hogwarts, though its name may not sound like it, is one of the most well renowned magical schools in the world. But for Leslie, the reputation didn't matter if the idea chills her to the bone. Even if she found herself comfortable within the school's walls, she still had one threat: social interaction.

Since a young age, Leslie had not been skilled in the art of friendship-making. She had several children to run around with when she was barely walking, but they had been her parents' friends' children. It was not like she had a choice, nor they. And if they did have the option, there was no doubt they would have left many years ago. Eventually, most grew tired of how odd Leslie would be at times, abandoning her for brooms or other kids. Unlike many of her father's peers' children, Leslie did not feel the urge to make friends based on status, differentiating her from most of her childhood mates. Instead, she much rather enjoyed the company of herself and her pet owl.

Staring with a quite angry look on her face, oblivious to herself, people had begun to notice the odd young girl at the park bench, opting to leave before she could make a scene.

"You're being obvious."

The voice caused Leslie to jump. She had not noticed a man sit next to her. His shoulder length light brown hair blocked his face from view, but she knew who he was from the moment she gained notice of him.

"Huh?" She asks.

The bright blue eyes of Janus Greyscale peered down to his daughter. The wealthy man is a proud owner of a winery simply called Greyscale Winery and when he isn't fishing for catering events, he can be found overprotecting Leslie from any possible foes. Based on her strange attitude and quirks and the reputation of his acquaintances, many guests were not permitted to have a relationship with the girl, only seeing her for a few moments at a time. Janus looked over to the boy and father, now trying out monkey bars. "Darling, you've been making the same face for the last ten minutes."

Her face flushed, embarrassment gaining weight in her cheeks, heavy enough to droop her face downwards. "I'm trying to practice. Sometimes it's hard."

Sighing to himself, Janus brought his daughter in for a hug. "I have no doubt. We just need to work on making it not nearly as obvious. Your gift is a blessing, but it can be used as a tool for someone with bad intentions." Janus looked up and spotted a man and a woman both looking in their direction before turning their heads to leave the park. His eyes narrowed until they disappeared out of thin air with a loud crack.

"No one must know."

[snowslasherr]

hcs for a michael who when touching their s/o sees the world in full color insteads of black and white? based on the color = soulmate au

of course babie!!!! i love that au

also i was halfway through when i realized it said touching and not seeing i'm dumbass

michael myers | the shape

soulmate AU

greyscale was quite useful in michaels case. everything was simple and easier. color would only add complication,, which wasn't something he wanted.

his routine hadn't changed. he didn't do anything. so why was his sight suddenly intruded? the comforting dull tones had been ripped away by something he couldn't even hurt. that he couldn't stab.

he had two victims the day it happened. he didn't notice anything special at first, but he decided it must have been them. he approached the one he though was the culprit. he had been stalking them for a while, but after making the world vibrant he decided the only way to make it return to normal was to kill them right away. no matter how much he planned on stalking him.

when the color didn't immediately vacate, he thought it must be an overnight thing.

he wasn't scared of the color, so to say. he's michael myers, of course he wasn't scared of colors. a better description might be wary of change.

speaking of change, there wasn't any when he woke up. it took him an entire hour to notice the difference, and by the time he did he was nearly shaking with rage.

so it must've been the other one.

he made it to the house in record time, his power walk even quicker and heavier.

and you were just lounging about on the couch when the usually silent man barged into your house, knife raised.

without even giving you time to react appropriately he slammed you against the wall, and effectively onto a tack that was sticking out

of course, upon the pain you cried out. it didn't phase the shape, he still towered above you with his knife held tightly in his grip.

he was about ready to stab you between the eyes. your eyes. even in his state, he noticed how your eyes were full of life. so different compared to his beautiful yet emotionless eyes. they seemed so dull compared to the ones he had in front of him now.

something caught his eyes. in his peripheral vision, he noticed more. your blood, coming from behind you. the tack that stabbed into your lower back had made a small wound that was now dripping blood. the color of it interested him. it was dark, yet intricate in a way.

and that was what stopped him from taking your life. the fact that some colors were okay, even fascinating

he had planned on keeping you as a "pet", to see what other colors he tolerated. the shape part of him wanted to kill you on the spot, to avoid confusion, but he resisted.

over a period of two weeks, he grew attached to you. he'd rather die than admit it, though.

and maybe you found yourself growing fond of him too, or maybe that's just Stockholm Syndrome kicking in.

truth is, to get into a relationship with michael you need stockholm syndrome, no matter if it's mild or intense.

he starts making small gestures. leaving clothes (that he stole) near your bed. food (that he stole) on the table. you wanted those new headphones? oh, what a coincidence. you must've forgot you bought them

he thinks he's sneaky, don't call him out or he'll stop

he doesn't really ask for a relationship. it just happens. you know, and he knows.

[disaster-by-chance]

Okay, okay, I think I'm finally going to address Clover's death.

I know a lot of people had mixed feelings towards Clover and that a lot of people had upset feelings about his death, but I just wanna put my own opinions on it out here for all y'all.

Clover Thoughts:

At first, I wasn't too sure what to think about Clover. I wanted to like him and his team, I really did. I always get excited when cool new characters are introduced and these guys were no exception. However, since I didn't know them well and they all seemed really cocky, I couldn't help but think that they were going to be traitors or something. I bought into the Clover is a traitor theories, despite me being really interested in his character.

For me,, when someone like Clover comes along, big, confident, strong, I immediately latch onto them. There's just something so intriguing about those kinds of people that just draws me in. So I couldn't resist him. But I also didn't trust him.

Time went on and slowly I began to trust him. He really hadn't shown any warning signs or hinted at betrayal, so I started to step away from the traitor theories. I did have a nightmare in where Clover did turn and it destroyed some of the trust I had built up,, but we don't talk about that.

Okay, I liked Clover. I genuinely did. I know some fans didn't care too much for him or they just didn't like him at all, but I did. I thought he was an interesting character and I was excited to see how he and Qrow's relationship (not necessarily romantically) would play out. I just wanted luck puns

I think part of me liking Clover is just that he was nice to Qrow. He was different in his actions to him and that kinda helped Qrow with his journey to recovery. If it wasn't obvious, Qrow is my favorite character from RWBY. I'm just naturally drawn to characters who have problems and then just suddenly turn into dad figures.

So since he was nice to Qrow, I liked him. And that's just me, that's how I am. If someone's nice to me,, I just fall for them instantly. You have my never ending loyalty. Clover had my loyalty.

Soon Clover played a bigger part in how I lived life. I started to want to be more like him, more positive, more uplifting, and all that crap. I spent a week giving my siblings compliments and it freaked them out. Clover's character made me want to be better. Hell, we don't know how much Clover knew about Qrow before James paired them up. He was just nice for the sake of being nice. What was he going to get out of it? He just saw that Qrow needed a friend, Qrow needed to get better, and so he helped. And gods,, that really did motivate me.

His clover became a helpful symbol for me. I made a little paper cut out to put in my phone case for some good luck. Then I made a wallpaper of the pin for my digital watch face as a reminder to be better. And last Saturday I made a keychain to have with me at all times. A reminder to be better about things. More positive.

I guess you could say he was something of a role model to me? And I know that's ridiculous after what he did and seeing as he wasn't here for long,, but damn...I really did like him.

I don't know. I just really liked him and wish I knew more about his past and semblance. I wish his story could've been explored more and stuff but...Things didn't quite work out that way.

The Fight:

I was,, disappointed to say the least. And at this point, I don't even know why I expect anything from any creator.

Look, I'm in the Marvel and Star Wars fandoms so I've had my fair (haha) share of bad characterization, bad arcs, and bad writing. But I thought RWBY was different and better than that.

I spent most of the scenes when they were fighting in anger. Tyrian was their target. He was more of a priority. They should've acted like civilized huntsman. But no.

And I get it, Clover had to do his job. They were all under stress and the atmosphere was really tense, I understand. But really?

I'm glad Qrow attempted to talk things out, but then, y'know...That didn't work out well in the end.

After the plane crash, I was devastated. I hated seeing the two fight against each other after seeing them work so well together in capturing Tyrian, and it just sucked.

I kept telling them to just talk it out, and in between the fighting they kinda did, but it just hurt. The hurt in Qrow's voice? Ugh. So good.

The teamup?? I get it. Qrow doesn't want to fight both of them, but why not turn into a bird and fly away? Or would that not work? I don't know..Anything else would've been nice.

Still hated these fight scenes. Even if the choreography was really good.

His Death Thoughts:

If you didn't buy into the traitor theory, then you had the death theory. That either him or someone from the Ace Ops was going to kick the bucket. And if you were like me, you believed both were possible.

When I was unsure about Clover, I also bought into the death theories. I didn't really want him to die, but I knew that it could happen, but I thought it would be later on. Other times I found it very possible that both would happen. And they fucking did.

At this point, I had totally forgotten about the death theories. I loved Clover too much to believe in that kind of shit. So when it happened, it hit me like a bus.

I was in utter shock and I don't think I started crying till later. After the video ended,, I just slammed my laptop shut and sobbed for a good ten minutes.

It was probably the most brutal thing I'd ever seen and just,, it hurt so much. Emotionally and physically. It just sucked..

I was upset because I knew he wasn't coming back from this. It was a huge wound. I was upset because I loved Clover. Stop killing my favorites. I was upset because it could've been avoided. And I was upset because what was the point other than for Qrangst?

I'm going to be honest, the scene did make me a little sick. And for the rest of the day I just had a terrible feeling in my stomach and that night I had a nightmare because of all the stress and pain I was feeling over the death.

So, yeah. It really did affect me and I hated the whole thing a lot. Not from a shipping point of view or anything, but because I liked Clover and because I want just a little more Qrangst, not a lot.

Throughout the week though, my brain has tried to both hurt and try to comfort me over my loss. Constantly the scene of him being stabbed replays in my mind and then everything goes greyscale before a kazoo verison of "Piano Man" starts to play. It's ridiculous and I hate my brain for thinking about it.

But the death did make me feel a lot of things. None that which were positive emotions.

Fan Response:

Okay, I love being in a fandom. I do. But with every fandom comes toxicity and RWBY is no exception. We probably have some of the worst cases of toxic fans, right next to Star Wars and Marvel.

I acknowledge that it feels like queerbaiting and BYGs,, but I just,, I don't know.

I think death threats are terrible. There's no reason for this. It's a fucking ship. Representation is great, I know. I'm a biracial bisexual, I live for representation. Nothing was explicitly said (i.e Clover flat out saying that he was gay or bi or pan,, ect)

Were they flirting? Maybe. Did things happen off screen that we didn't get to see? Likely. Yeah, they had their gay moments but Clover's trying to get Qrow to loosen up. He wants him to crack jokes with him and stuff. Y'all gotta be friends first before any sort of romantic relationships blossom.

Yes, shame on CRWBY for hyping Fairgame up and then literally killing it, but the need for death threats?? Quitting the show?? Ridiculous! They're real life humans who enjoy working on this show! Leave them be!

Look, every fandom has a moment in where their fans are left disappointed. They can't please everyone but they try their best and I think CRWBY is one example.

I'm a multishipper. I don't care who ends up with who, so long as they're happy. And so since one guy is dead and the other is probably broken by it,, you can say I'm upset too.

Am I sending death threats? No. Do I feel for Fairgame shippers. Yes. Will I quit watching the show? Of course fucking not. Am I hoping Clover comes back? 🤡 It's not that complicated.

So yeah. Those are my thoughts on the major controversies that came out of the last episode. Let me know what y'all thought.

And please. Be respectful.

It's what Monty would want.

[vmheadquarters]

We’re still playing our game of written hot potato! Dozens of your favorite authors are taking turns to tell a Veronica Mars mystery story. Each writer crafts their chapter and then “tosses” the story to the next person to continue the tale. No one knows what will happen, so expect the unexpected!

Follow the “vmhq presents” and “murder we wrote” tags for all the installments, or read the story as it develops on AO3. — Chapter Seventeen of MURDER, WE WROTE is written by @iimdestinyfreereally​.  And stayed tuned next week for Ch.18 from @happilyshanghaied​ ​ -tag, you’re it!

—————————————————————————————————— CHAPTER SEVENTEEN by @iimdestinyfreereally​

Veronica woke with a jump, disturbing her still-throbbing ankle and Logan’s snoring across the room. “Sorry.” She winced, easing herself off the loveseat as Logan roused slightly from sleep. “Just gonna head to the bathroom,” she whispered, and watched as he sleepily nodded his okay. Faint sunlight streamed through the window; Veronica guessed it was only a little after dawn. She’d slept like a rock for a few hours, but with a new day’s light came a return of last night’s problems. They were still trapped in murder country, with a rapidly-rising body count and any number of viable suspects. The cast of characters was growing as long as her arm, and she still couldn’t trust anyone but Wallace, Mac, and Logan. Dick was dropping off her suspect radar. Veronica tried not to underestimate anyone, but with the plot thickening rapidly and Dick just being thick… Veronica wasn’t sure she could picture him doing any of it, especially hurting Madison. She trusted him about as far as she could pick him up and throw him, but she wasn’t sure he had the motivation or stick-to-itveness to plan a complicated murder party weekend. Wallace, Mac, Logan, and tentatively Dick. Not a very long list of allies in a creepy old murder house, Veronica admitted to herself.

With a long look at Wallace and Logan, both propped up and sleeping uncomfortably in the vintage chairs, she tried to hobble quietly down the hall to one of the main bathrooms. 

Creepy old murder house, she sighed into the silence of the hall, watching the eyes of a grey-faced statue as she walked by. It didn’t watch back, but she maintained it was creepy. Veronica hoped the others had been true to their word about keeping two people up for watch duty at all times, but she knew they were all probably just as exhausted as she’d been. Carefully locking the bathroom door behind her, she smiled, relieved, at the pile of fresh towels in the basket and shook her head. Remember when this was just a fun little vacation? A weekend getaway with a game-y escape room schtick? Even outside of Neptune none of them could escape the shadow of murder and mystery, as hard as they tried. With a creaky twist, the faucet gave way to cool water, and Veronica let her mind relax a touch as she rinsed last night’s grime away, then pressed her face into the clean towel. Nothing about the weekend so far had been fun or relaxing, from the weather right on down to the murder victims; it had all been pretty tragic. Seeing Logan always had its perks, and she missed him more than she’d even realized. Even snowed-in-with-murderers was cozier with Logan. That had to be some kind of superpower. But with no way off the island, and no way to phone the authorities, Veronica didn’t want to wait for more bodies before taking action. This killer always felt a step ahead of her, leaving a bloodtrail leading her down a dark hallway with another fun surprise at the end of it all. She was starting to hate surprises. Thinking again about the sunken boats, she chewed her lip and fussed with her hair in the bathroom mirror. The murderer had meant to strand the teens by sinking the boats, but that just meant the murderer had to have their own way off the island. There had to be some back door out of the death trap, and Veronica found a little hope in that realization. Mentally, she started organizing a list of next steps. First, she needed to see if Mac was okay, and if she remembered anything else about her attacker. Her description of a tiny blonde Lilly Kane didn’t make sense to Veronica, but she didn’t doubt Mac’s eyesight. Just her blow to the head, she admitted. Veronica knew that meant she had to question Duncan too, an idea which brought on more than a little discomfort. Putting him out of her mind had been easy the past few years, but seeing him still felt complicated. She was glad he wasn’t dead; part of her felt relief, but confronting him about his role in both the fake murders and the real ones was going to be unpleasant. Where was the tiny Lilly Kane, and what role did she play in all this? Veronica only hoped Duncan would be more forthcoming during this mystery than he’d been during their past ones. Although it would be impossible for him to help less, Veronica reminded herself. Her mind kept going back to the long list of suspects, and the ever-growing list of victims. Madison Sinclair? It hadn’t been all that long since Veronica had wished her dead, or at least wished her a terrible perm, but seeing her actually dead? Dressed as a maid? The dots were hard to connect, even for Veronica Mars, super-sleuth extraordinaire and card-carrying private eye. None of this was random, it all felt planned. Methodically calculated. Definitely the hard route to mass murder. Veronica gave herself the chills by accident with the morbid thought. Giving herself a final dust-off in the mirror, she felt a little lighter leaving the bathroom and limping back down the hall to the library. With a playful wave and obscene gesture at the greyscale statue on her way, Veronica dared herself to not be afraid of this place. Smiling at Logan and Wallace still snoring, she contemplated lying back down and getting a few more hours of sleep. But after reaching for the blanket on the loveseat, the light feeling in her chest sank, rapidly. A small, white envelope rested atop the blankets where she’d been sleeping just a little while ago; it was addressed to Enid Curtis in fancy, curliqued writing. Veronica checked over her shoulder and around the room; whoever had left her the note was gone, so she tore into it, dread swelling in her chest. Did you sleep well? Soon you’ll be at your final rest, unless you win the game I came to play.  Will you bet your life on it? Will you bet Mason’s?                           -Mistress X Resisting the urge to crumple the note in her palm, Veronica sighed and reread it to herself a few times. The fake murder mystery was over, wasn’t it? So now real murder was supposed to be a game? Couldn’t Mistress X just clean up at poker like everyone else with a healthy competitive streak? But Veronica held the answer in her hands; danger written in plain ink, on plain paper. The thought of losing Logan, or Wallace, or Mac froze Veronica’s mind. Maybe there wasn’t time for a full investigation, with ample interrogations, and tracking of timelines, and crossing off suspects from a list. Maybe Veronica only had time to get the people she cared about out of the house and off the island. It was still snowing heavily outside, as if to emphasize the point they were still stuck. Stranded. Trapped. “Guys.” Veronica plopped herself back into the loveseat to give her ankle a break. Eyeing the room around her, she realized Mistress X might still be watching, might still be playing. “Guys.” She tried again, waking Logan and then Wallace, eliciting grumbles from both of them. “I found another clue, this one personally addressed and hand-delivered.” She brandished the letter, and Logan was first awake enough to read the note. Pressing a small, good morning kiss to the corner of her mouth, Logan’s face fell after reading the note. “Nope, nope, no thank you.” Wallace shook his head, stretching. “I’m gonna need at least two seconds to wake up before I deal with any psycho murderers, or new creepy-ass clues. Two seconds.” He stretched wide, huffing a sigh as he noticed Logan staring wide-eyed at the letter. “Well? Doesn’t really look like a ticket home.” He plucked the note from Logan’s hand, and Veronica lifted her brows in question when Wallace handed the note back to her. “Mistress X is extra getting on my nerves.” She ran her fingers over the letter. It all felt so personal, somehow, and Veronica felt herself a little shaken by that. She’d faced evil before, at least she’d suspected it’s presence in Aaron Echolls; but this felt almost like they were being hunted, or taunted. They were being played with, and that drove her crazy. “It’s just a threat.” Logan smoothed his hand over Veronica’s shoulder, eyeing the bruising on her ankle. Even in crisis, Veronica knew he wanted to reassure her, protect her, any way he could. Epic. She shook her head, but she wasn’t easily reassured. “Someone was in here while you guys were sleeping.” Veronica fought a shudder, leaning into Logan’s touch. “I could’ve just missed them in the hall. We can’t give them that chance again,” she decided. “We need to get everyone together, and figure this Mistress X out. I think we’re being watched, maybe even now.” Veronica didn’t buy that luck and good timing were responsible for the letter being left while she was in the bathroom. “There you guys are,” Dick cut in, leaning into the library. “Jeez, what’d you guys see a ghost or something?” He looked between the three of them, a scared expression creeping across his face as if maybe they really had. “Anyway, doesn’t matter, come on, you guys gotta see this.” He started back down the hall. “Is Mac okay?” Veronica leaned on Logan, after jumping up too fast for her injured ankle. Steadied, she silently smiled to erase the look of concern from his face, and fit her hand into his. Tucking the note from Mistress X in her back pocket, Veronica debated just how much she should share with the entire group. “The Mac Attack is fine, she just needed a little TLC, if you get what I mean.” Dick waggled his eyebrows over his shoulder at Logan. “You mean you gave her some band-aids, Neosporin, and Tylenol?” Veronica’s tone warned Dick about all kinds of negative-type consequences for him if he had anything else to say. She could always take him off her ally list. Frowning, Dick shook his head; Veronica Mars was a party-pooper, it was one of her biggest character flaws in his eyes. He resumed leading them down to the servants’ quarters, then remembered something. “Actually, we’re out of Neosporin, but anyway, you gotta see what the Mackster found,” Dick said, gesturing them into the room, and making a flourishing gesture in Mac’s direction. “Bond, I gotta tell ya, I think we might be in a little trouble here.” Mac was frowning at her computer screen. “And don’t call me the Mackster.” She grimaced at Dick. Logan and Veronica shared a look between them, steadying each other. The bodies piling up had actually given her some indication they were in a sticky situation, but Mac’s face was pale and scared. Maybe things were somehow worse than murder, death threats, fake names, and high stakes. Maybe Veronica had been lucky so far to only have been pushed off one balcony. “When you say might…” Wallace scowled, as if he had all kinds of bad feelings about Mac’s frown. “Nothing we haven’t survived before, right? Whatcha got, Q?” Veronica hobbled to the seat next to Mac, bracing herself for another curve ball.

[introvert-celeste]

What is your take on the whole White and Pink Pearl situation? I think its obvious they were switched now but why do you think that was?

Okay, this is what I currently think about the situation, given what we’ve learned in Change Your Mind.

Short answer: I think Pink caused the damage to her Pearl’s eye on accident trying to free her, and this was the final straw for White. She took Pink’s Pearl away and had a new one made for her, one that was supposed to be more logical than emotional.

Long answer: Before I begin, there’s two quotes from Diamond Days that have to be relevant.

“Steven, stop. You’re going to break her.” Pearl speaking in reference to Steven playing with Yelp’s strange way of addressing him as a Diamond, without understanding that he’s just Steven.

“Pink… White is very unhappy with you. If this keeps up, she’s going to take away your Pearl.” Blue in reference to Pink’s poor behavior, warning her that she would lose her Pearl if she continues acting inappropriately/outside her role as a Diamond.

We know from the dream sequence that Pink and her Pearl had a secret friendship, which they kept hidden from the other Diamonds. They laughed and played together, instead of taking on the standard role of master and servant, something that White would most certainly object to. If she didn’t take away her Pearl for the whole pet debacle/Pink’s interest in organic creatures, then this would definitely be where White draws the line. The question here is how were they discovered? What was the breaking point?

In NWOFA, we saw the particular way Pink interacted with our Pearl, attempting to ask for her opinion:

“Could you imagine that running a colony would be this dull?”

And becoming disappointed when Pearl prompts her to give an order.

“I could imagine it, if you would like me to, my Diamond.”

She doesn’t press the matter, instead opting to give her simple orders. Knowing about her relationship with her previous Pearl, it seems out of place that she should be so distant with this one. She wants to be friends with this Pearl, but she doesn’t want to push it. Why?

In considering Pink’s friendship with her original Pearl–who I will refer to as Pip for simplicity’s sake from now on–there is one aspect of their relationship that can’t be changed: Pip was made for Pink, to follow her orders. Also being made for Pink and having the same gem placement, Pip would have a similar personality to her. With all of that in mind, here’s my theory.

Pip is a childish, emotional, idealistic gem, much like her Diamond. She feels trapped by her position as a Pearl because, despite Pink’s efforts to befriend her, she is still physically compelled to follow her orders. Naively, she voices her frustrations to Pink, whom she trusts as a friend.

Pink, equally naive, tries to find a loophole for Pip’s situation so that her friend will not have to suffer anymore. They can still continue the master and servant charade when the other Diamonds are looking, but Pip will never be forced to do anything ever again. Ironically, Pink’s solution is to use this very trait against itself. She orders Pip to stop following her orders. Much like Cloud Connie in Open Book, when Steven tells her “I don’t want you to just do what I want”…

She breaks. She breaks because this order goes against her programming. (Also note that Connie’s eye patch is over the same eye as Pip’s missing one)

With this physical evidence that Pink has given Pip an invalid command, it is undeniable that she has been engaging in and encouraging inappropriate behavior. As punishment, White takes away her Pearl. Now, Homeworld’s policy for gems who do not fit the roles they were made for is to shatter them, and it has no use for an ownerless Pearl. By this logic, Pip should have been shattered, however I feel her continued existence is also a part of Pink’s punishment. Puppeted by White so that her own emotional “flaws” are no longer an issue, she exists as a reminder of Pink’s failure, a living threat to never, ever do this again. She becomes just another one of White’s manipulation tactics to keep Pink in line. If this is the case, then White sending Pip to retrieve Pink the moment “she” sets foot on Homeworld was as especially cruel move. “I know it’s been thousands upon thousands of years and everyone thought you were dead, but remember this gem that you tried to help and ultimately fucked up, forcing me to take matters into my own hands? Yeah, I’m still holding you to this standard.” Nothing has changed.

White furthers her manipulation with the air of a benevolent deity. Not only will she not shatter Pink’s poor, innocent Pearl (only completely deny her any sort of autonomy), she gives Pink another chance. A “new, sensible Pearl is custom made and delivered to Pink” (citing a barely legible entry on the show’s timeline from the Art and Origins book, written in blue, bottom left corner) whose ideals are more in line with White’s. She is tasked to make Pink happy, but the ultimate goal is to keep Pink under control, and the key to this is to keep Pink content in her role.

As a forehead gem, Pearl’s logic is meant to counteract Pink’s emotionally charged, bad decisions. As a gem made by White Diamond’s specifications, she has a rainbow color scheme. White light is made from all the colors, but since White refers to the different colored light as impurities, and affirms that: “I’ve removed their flaws! Now there is nothing to hinder my white light from sparking through them” upon turning them greyscale, it would only seem appropriate that a Pearl made by her specifications were not white herself. After all, white light means flawless to her, and no gem is flawless except her and all those under her influence. So our Pearl is the alternative, colorful. It also makes sense that our Pearl had a doll-like appearance when she was with Pink, given Pink’s childish tendencies.

Along with the wording on the map (not entirely legible but it can be inferred), the fact that White didn’t give our Pearl special acknowledgement tells me that she didn’t belong to White to begin with. It would also make sense because Pearl’s are made with one specific gem in mind, to follow that single gem’s orders. That is their purpose. If White took her own Pearl and gave her to Pink, wouldn’t that technically be forcing her own Pearl to go against her intended purpose?

So that just leaves one final question: why did Pearl not react in the same way as Pip when she rebelled alongside Rose Quartz? Why did she not break when she poofed her own Diamond? Regardless of whether Pink wanted her to do it or not, causing harm to her owner would surely go against her programming. In this regard, I feel that the difference between Pip and Pearl is that Pearl was allowed to come into this mindset gradually, so that going against her code is much less of a shock. Pip was thrust into this situation with one order, and her mind was unable to process it.

I do hope–and I feel it will be–they address how exactly a Pearl can be free of the influence of her owner, but I feel like it’s far more complicated than simply ordering her to stop following orders. As of now, my theory is that Pink was unable to give Pearl orders as Rose, and destroying the image of Pink by faking her shattering is what broke Pink’s control over her completely, save for that final order. No one can ever physically compel Pearl again, but every previous command that hadn’t been revoked sticks indefinitely until it is broken.

[interdimensionalspaceworm]

alright lads, I almost forgot I was supposed to make this.

it’s the markiplier lore color post that I have made because I think way too much about these things

so let’s start at the very beginning (I've heard it’s a very good place to start)

(putting a thingy here because it’s probably going to be quite long; also, sorry for all the parentheses and the pretentiously complicated language)

Prologue

So at the beginning, the early egos, like Wilf and (not-yet-canon) Dark didn’t really have color schemes to them. It was just Mark doing weird shit (and it kinda still is, but I digress). Even in the cyndago days, Wilf didn’t really have consistency in his outfit choices, so beyond just pink there isn’t really a whole lot we can say about his color scheme at this point. And it isn’t really until the interview skits that he gained his classic outfit, with lots of pink, some tan, some white et cetera. We’ve all seen it, we all love it, and I think that these colors were picked just to look neat, to go well with the situation and with Wilf's flamboyant nature. All this starts to get more interesting, however, when we get to the lore proper.

The Lore™

I’d just like to say before I start that most of the things I will point out in this section are likely just coincidental. For example, Damien and Celine's association with blue and red respectively was most likely included in The Lore because those colors are most commonly associated with Dark's aura (although, in ADWM, his aura includes other colors, and in AHWM, it is overwhelmingly red, but that’s another post entirely). However, as the recovering game theory addict that I am, I enjoy making connections where none usually exist, and I've been thinking about this stuff for way too long. So enjoy! This means nothing!

I’m going to start with Actor, since he happens to be the center of all the lore, which I’m sure he’d be very happy to know. His color is red (any red, really, though he does share the color with his wife)- the robe he died in was red, he wears a red version of Damien's outfit in DAMIEN, and even in his appearances in ADWM and AHWM he has a red tie while he’s wearing his suit. So it’s safe to say that he is often associated with this color, and for good reason, of course: red is the color of energy, emotion, and anger, and Actor displays all of these (he is an actor, after all) in spades. But I believe that this choice of color is significant in another way. 

Several characters in The Lore have red, or a shade of red, associated with them. Actor uses it, Celine uses it, Colonel uses it (the handkerchief around his neck, his suspenders) and, as Wilf, he will later be very strongly associated with pink (side note: yes, I know it’s more of a magenta-ish pink than a light red, but bear with me). What does this mean? What do these specific characters have in common? Then it struck me.

In a word (or thirteen): all of these characters are known to be associated with the House Entity (I really wish we had a better name for it). And, by saying associated, I mean manipulated by it in different ways. The intensity of the red that they are associated with corresponds directly to the depth of their corruption: Actor's red is traditionally depicted as the darkest of the three, and as we all know, his connection to the Entity is the deepest, having been influenced into betraying his friends and gaining a myopic, narcissistic vision of the world due to it. Celine's red is still very saturated: as one-half-to-one-third of Dark, a corrupted version of her personality exists in him, and even on her own she has enough knowledge of the occult and connection with the Entity to create a time loop in which to house her brother. William is less straightforward: he was also, in some interpretations of WKM, influenced by the Entity as a child and/or while having his affair with Celine, hence the red he’s associated with as Colonel, but why the pink? 

First, imagine a laundry machine (please,,,, for the love of all that’s holy,,,, stay with me here). Today, you’re washing your white clothes. But there’s something you forgot: there’s a fucking red sock. In your valentino white clothes. Now all your nice clothes are fucking red. You try to wash it out as best you can, but the best you can do is make your formerly PERFECTLY OK white dress shirt pink. Fucking pink. You can try all you want, but you can never get rid of the traces that that red sock left behind. Wilf is the dress shirt in this scenario. He no longer uses red- the signal of corruption by the Entity- because he’s no longer connected with the Entity anymore. My theory is that, in going mad at the end of WKM, he somehow made his mind inhospitable to the Entity. His reality-altering powers stem from the Entity, most likely, and of course his mind was broken indirectly by it, but for the most part the Entity cannot possess him utterly like we see it do with Actor (for most, if not all, of the time we know him) and Celine (in that rather dramatic instance in WKM). He is free of its influence, but its traumatic power still hangs over him: the pink dress shirt stained by that long-gone red sock.

And so, as Wilford, William is associated with pink: traditionally the color of whimsy, and of love and compassion. Wilf has no lack of any of these: as we see in WMLW, he helps Abe out of his distress, and out of all the canon characters he is one of the few who actually seem to care about Y/N. And, of course, he’d never be complete without more than a bit of whimsy.

And then, finally, there’s Damien. He is associated, as we all know, with blue: the color of trust, confidence, and sincerity. This fits him well, clearly, and there’s not really too much to say about that: he is what he is.

As Dark, Damien and Celine's souls are twisted and their worst aspects brought to the forefront of their combined personality. This can also be seen in their color choices: red can be associated with anger, blue can be associated with coldness, and both these qualities can be seen in spades with Dark. It’s so fun when everything works out, huh?

To be honest, I could go on for ages about the use of color in all the other egos, the palette changing from greyscale to oversaturation and back in WMLW, and all kinds of other things. And I will. But not in this post. I’ve had this sitting in my drafts for ages and I hope y’all aren’t disappointed, but this is the product of like 5 whole minutes of thought, which is more than enough to tire me out. So I’m gonna end it here. Stay crazy, y’all!

[color-ns]

Happy birthday Undertale!!! So happy another year and the community is still on! I hope we will keep celebrating your birthdays every year so this game will forever be in our hearts!!

I know I was late to the community, but when i arrived, it changed my way to look at things completely, and it inspired me to do more art than I thought I can make. And for that, I would like to say thank you. Some people’s jobs are based on the community like YouTube or tumblr. I think they think the same. I didn’t had the time to make something better, but I think it’s enough for this year. Next year, I’ll make something better, and more improved, I hope.

So happy birthday Undertale, and stay creative, stay alive, and stay DETERMINED!!!

Thanks because I love you:

Toby fox, for the game!

Temmie Chang, for the beautiful art style !

@unu-nunu-art, for all the error, ink, template and pale comics and art! Love it!

@loverofpiggies, for error, fresh, geno ,aftertale and many more! I can’t even say everything I want to say to about how much I love you!

@ask-glitch-and-squid, for the comic, art, and ask blog! Adore your art!!!

@allesiathehedge, for timetale and one of the best ships in the fandom!

@alainaprana, for mamaCQ comic! So good!!

@onebizarrekai, for so many things, I can’t even start! But the most for dreamswap.

@potoobrigham, for growth spurts, makes me happy every time!

@invertedfate, your comic is so good! Your pixel art inspired me to try and make some pixel art too! Love you!

@undertale-over-the-void, just, this comic. I love it so much, I do my self every Friday an alarm so I won’t forget.

@time-scar-webcomic, again, I followed your blog with just a glance of it and never stopped. ❤️❤️❤️

@sanstheseraphim I know you don’t really post anymore, but I still love your art! Always nice to look at old things.

@shattereddreamsau, have an alarm for you too! Love your asshole ink btw

@dryemiddi, you just started your moontale comic and I already love it!

@slylock-syl, I look at your posts and admire how you work so hard for this blog!

@summontale, I love your art and comic! I really have no other words!

@fatal-error-blog, you’re comic is amazing, strange, and full of Unending secrets, and that is the reason I love you and this comic with all my nerdy heart.

@greyscale-comic, I love how you make your characters so annoyingly funny, and how you make xaki such an asshole.

@hard--mode, I’m so sorry I don’t remember when was the last time you updated, but I love your comic! Btw please update soon, you left us on a cliffhanger!

@heavenfell-au, even though we still don’t know much about the comic, I love your art, and can’t wait till your next update!

@jakei95, you are at my top five favorite creators. You inspire me so much with your animation and art and everything you basically do! Please don’t work too hard, your not an animation machine. Love you!!!

@jokublog thanks for Dreamtale! This AU inspired so many creators and still do!!!

@little-noko, thanks for paper crane, a great comic, a great AU, a great character, a great blog!

@xxtc-96xx, thanks for endertale and many laughs and memes!

@xx-avj-xx, number 1 blogger! Your funny, always post weekly, and amazing art style! Your content is always so good!

@chocoblook-comic, what a cute comic! So funny, I love it!

@cats-artbag, your Swapout comic is one of my favorites! Keep up the good work, and stay amazing!

@nekophy, you, you are so cool! I love your ships, Undertale or not. Please don’t ever stop creating, drowning, and making art! I will always like every post you make, until my fingers are tired.

@naomyart, thanks for Ragnartale, a clean, beautiful, complicated comic with love, fighting, and mystery. I appreciate how you make your comic in different languages, so more people can read it. Really, thank you!

@nettletale, thanks for making ask corrupted blue, and of course many more asks, arts, and so many cool things! Love you and your art style!

@maxladcomics, thanks for making baby bones and more comics, you always make them so good!

@mramazingva, finally, you last, but for me the most important one. Some people have a hard time reading, For that the dubers exists. I don’t have a hard time reading, but I love your work anyway. Because of your work, I saw all these people, and the cool comics they make, and made my tumblr. Sans comic TV, Undertale comic TV, starbot dubs, vade, Undertale peasant, tehRogue, you, and many more, gave me the chance to meet so many creators, and if I think about it, you guys meet me the game! I first met the game from comic dubbed in YouTube. So, thank you.

And all the other creators of Undertale, you did an amazing job! Thank you too!!!

[kitten1618x]

GoT Afterthoughts ep. 08x02 ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ (Jonsa Edition)

Guys this episode was sooooooo good! Okay, okay, okay, let’s unpack here! I have lots of thoughts and since this isn’t broken up into parts, this is going to be a long post, so I’m gonna drop this bad boy under a read more. 

We begin in the Great Hall. It appears Jaime is on trial. Queen Dany sits at the head of the table—and imagine having the fucken audacity to sit in Winterfell — in Rickard fucken Starks seat—and in front of his grandchildren, talking about the extermination of Aerys Targaryen like he was some noble king that was just slaughtered by the big bad kingslayer, and NOT the murderous fucken mad Targ king, whom crimes’ you just recently apologized to Jon for, and called him evil to conveniently set yourself apart from him—or did you just forget all that, Dany? Hmmm? IMAGINE the big hairy pair you have to have to actually sit in between the Starks in their own home and utterly disrespect them like that—all while claiming to be in love with one of them? Wow. Just wow. And no, I’m not even sorry for that amazingly clunky run-on sentence, either.

~

I see that Jaime still has no interest in setting the record straight on why he killed Aerys Targaryen. It appears only Brienne will truly ever know about the millions of people he saved that day in doing so. Jaime stands his ground, though, and gives up Cersei’s plans. Tyrion tries to stand up for him, but Dany cuts him off at the knees (no pun intended), embarrassing him in front of everyone, as per ush.

~

For a moment her and Sansa have common ground. Sansa doesn’t trust Jaime either because of the wrongs he committed against her family. Jamie won’t apologize for any of it— their houses were at war. But Brienne vouches for him—my courageous, yet shy bb (God, I love her), and Sansa relents, her mind changed when Brienne says she’d fight beside him. Sansa trusts Brienne with her life, therefore Brienne trusting Jaime with hers is good enough for the Lady of Winterfell.

Dany is clearly not pleased with this turn of events. She turns to Jon, addressing him as Warden of the North and asks him what he thinks — assuming he will take her side, but—

He does not.

~

Dany finally relents as well, grounding out a “very well” between clenched teeth, as Tyrion breathes a sigh of relief that his big bro will not be extra crispy or original recipe’d today. GreyWorm returns Jaime’s sword—rather forcefully, knowing his queen is displeased—as Jaime thanks Dany for her uncharacteristic mercy.

~

Scene Highlights:

Bran blurting out “the things we do for love” and leaving Jaime shooketh

Sansa immediately standing up and leaving without waiting to be dismissed by the queen, and Jon ducking his head to avoid eye contact and then dipping as soon as Dany turns to face him.

~

Which takes us into the corridors of Winterfell and Dany resorting to her favorite pastime when she’s angry about things not going her way: berating her Hand in front of everyone. Luckily for Tyrion it’s just Jorah and Varys to witness it this time. Once again she accuses him of treason, and Tyrion is pretty sure that his time as Hand in her service is fast dwindling.

~

We jump to the forge where Arya stands back admiring Gendry work his magic—a callback to their time at Harrenhall in their younger years. They have a little flirty weaponry banter, and Arya wants to know what the AotD are like. She utters the iconic ‘many faces of death’ lines from the trailer while she impresses Gendry with some dead ass accurate blade throwing. He’ll be getting right on making her that weapon, by the way—and probably walking a little funny while he does it. 😉

~

Jaime seeks out Bran in the Godswood. He apologizes for what he did and tells Bran he’s not that person anymore. “You still would be if you hadn’t pushed me out that window, and I’d still be Brandon Stark.” Wow. Jaime wants to know why Bran didn’t tell them what he did, and Bran basically tells him it’s because they need him. When Jaime inquires “what about afterwards?” Bran drops an ominous “how do you know there will be an afterwards?”

~

We jump back to the Winterfell courtyard, where the Lannister brothers are catching up and commiserating about being in Winterfell again. Dany is different, Tyrion tells Jaime, and Jaime doesn’t seem so convinced. Tyrion wants to know if Cersei lied about the baby, and Jaime tells him that was true (as far as he/we know, people). But what I REALLY love about their conversation is this part:

~

J: She’s always been good at using the truth to tell lies. Don’t be too hard on yourself. She’s fooled me more than anybody.

~

T: She never fooled you. You always knew exactly what she was, and you loved her anyway.

~

The funny, or actually ironic thing about this conversation is they’re talking about Cersei, but if you flip the dialogue between the Lannister brothers here, the same could be said for Dany—especially the bolded part. Think back to the things Tyrion said to Jorah when he kidnapped him back in season 5 — he was confused by Jorah’s blind loyalty, too. How the mighty have fallen, Tyrion.

~

They move their conversation up to the battlements, where Tyrion finds the silver lining that at least he won’t die at Cersei’s hands, and perhaps once he’s torn apart by the dead, he’ll march to Kings Landing and rip her apart too. But he’s talking to himself, because Jaime is too busy watching Brienne supervising the training of her ranks just outside the gates.

~

And my Braime heart is siiiiiiiinging!!!

~

He joins her below, and she calls him out for acting weird and not insulting her as per ush. lol It’s really just an adorable little love spat — complete with awkwardness and frustration and plenty of UST. And as the music lulls romantically, he basically admits that she’s the reason he’s here and even though he’s no longer the fighter that he used to be, he‘d be honored to serve under her command if she’ll have him—which is basically fucken a straight up declaration of love, okay? He literally just said—complete with puppy dog eyes—“I love you.” CHANGE MY MIND!!

~

Brienne is taken aback by this declaration of love and is at loss for words — and so she ducks out, leaving him to watch after her forlornly. And my Braime heart is still siiiiiiiinging!!!!

~

We head back inside of Winterfell, Dany is alone in her chambers — and they aren’t the Lord’s Chambers, that’s for damn sure. She’s not having a very good day, and her expression here certainly reflects that. Jorah enters, asking her forgiveness, reminding her that forgiveness is important. This leads into a conversation where he basically asks her to take it easy on Tyrion and give him another chance.

~

While book!Jorah might be a creep, I truly adore show!Jorah, who laments that when he found out Dany gave Tyrion this position, it broke his heart, but he still believes that Tyrion was the right choice; he’s smart, he owns his mistakes and he learns from them.

~

What I find odd is Dany’s reply: “You’re advising me to forgive the man who stole your position?”

~

Wait... what? When did Tyrion do that? I recall Dany proudly pinning that golden hand pin on a very humbled Tyrion in the season 6 finale—not some rabid dwarf attacking an unsuspecting Jorah and wrestling the position from his gnarled greyscaled hands—and what-the-ever-living-fuck kind of crazy ass dialogue are they giving this girl?

~

Jorah has one other suggestion for her, if she’ll allow him such liberties. Annnnnd now the Sansa/Dany scene makes so much more sense. Dany didn’t seek Sansa out of her own accord to try and bridge the icy gap between them because she’s just so humble and wonderful and loving and good!!!! !!!! !!!! It was actually Ser Jorah’s idea.

~

So Dany takes him up on his suggestion and seeks Sansa out, finding her in the library with Lord Royce. But ahhhh this scene is just so fucken good, so let’s unpack it, shall we?

~

Dany enters and asks that they speak in private, and Sansa cedes to her wishes, dismissing Lord Royce.

~

D - I thought you and I were on the verge of agreement before... about Ser Jaime.

~

S - Brienne has been loyal to me always. I trust her more than anyone.

~

D - I wish I could have that kind of faith in my advisers.

~

Here she takes a low blow at Tyrion again, but Sansa defends him.

~

S - Tyrion is a good man. He was never anything but decent towards me.

~

D - I didn’t ask him to be my hand simply because he was good. I asked him to be my hand because he was good and intelligent and ruthless when he had to be. (See, I told y’all Tyrion didn’t steal the position... and yes, I’m being petty lol). Dany steps closer into Sansa’s space as she continues. He never should have trusted Cersei.

~

S - You never should have either.

~

Sansa drops a truth bomb, insinuating (rightly) that Dany shares the blame here, and Dany doesn’t like this at all. She swallows, containing her anger and paints on a fake smile in her irritation at Sansa’s words.

~

D - I thought he knew his sister.

~

S - Families are complicated.

~

Dany smiles at that and pulls up a seat, indicating for Sansa to do the same.

~

D - Ours certainly have been.

~

S - A sad thing to have in common.

~

D - We have other things in common. We’ve both known what it means to lead people who aren’t inclined to accept a woman’s rule. And we’ve both done a damn good job of it, from what I can tell...

~

Sansa smiles briefly at this. Clearly, Dany is using the compliment strategy again, but not so shallowly this time. Even if she truly believes this, the commonality of them both being women ruling is where this similarity ends. We’ve seen how differently they run things via season 7’s blatant comparison of ‘the three queens’. Sansa stores food, Cersei steals it, and Dany burns it (and yes, I’m going to keep bringing this up). But honestly, who could forget?

vs.

D - (cont.) ...and yet I can’t help feeling like we’re at odds with each other. Why is that?

~

Sansa takes a deep breath but doesn’t reply.

~

D - Your brother?

~

Yeah y’all, they really did that. But again I say, no love triangle brewing here, folks.

~

S - He loves you, you know that? *(I’ll address this in a minute)

~

D - That bothers you?

~

S - Men do stupid things for women. They’re easily manipulated.

~

D - All my life I’ve known one goal. The iron throne. Taking it back from the people that destroyed my family, and almost destroyed yours. My war was against them until I met Jon. Now I’m here, half a world away, fighting Jon’s war alongside him. Tell me, who manipulated whom?

~

Y’all are you serious?!?!? This entire fucken monologue is like literally POLITICAL!JON — I mean, it’s like D&D are literally fucken trolling this relationship so hard. Nothing like hiding some shit right out in plain sight for all the world to not see it. *And if you think for one minute that Sansa is not playing the game here, and that she actually did a complete 180, then I don’t know what to tell you other than, just wait and see.

~

There was a reason that they cut that office scene between her and Jon in the last episode, and after mulling it over with a few of my comrades, I think that it’s possible that Jon came clean and brought Sansa in on it. They have been a unit since they reunited, and a major part of Sansa’s hostility in the last episode was because she felt Dany was encroaching upon that, and she was losing Jon. Romantic or platonic, no one can deny the dynamic is there between Jon and Sansa. I happen to think it’s romantic, and I will die on this hill—but political!jon and jonsa aren’t mutually exclusive!!! !!! Okay, back to our dialogue.

~

S - (releases a small laugh and looks down—and I can’t help hearing Catelyn’s voice in my head: ‘you always look at your feet when you lie’) I should have thanked you the moment you arrived. That was a mistake. 

~

D- (reaching down and placing her hand atop of Sansa’s). I’m here because I love your brother, and I trust him. And I know he’s true to his word. He’s only the second man in my life I can say that about. 

~

S - Who was the first?

~

D- Someone taller. 

~

They both giggle. I assume the other man she’s talking about is Drogo. In any event, I feel Dany is being truly sincere here. This is why people (her stans and the GA both) have a hard time seeing the darkness in her—because one minute she’s sitting narrow-eyed at a table, fighting off a tantrum while she drones on about her father—the fucken mad king—and how her and her brother fantasized about what they would do to the man that murdered him (one can only assume she wasn’t implying knitting him a sweater and mittens), and the next minute she’s all gentle heart and eyes and soft tones about loving and trusting Jon, and giggling with his sister about her ex being much taller than him. I get it. I really do.

~

But here’s the thing about political!jon that the antis and the jonerii always get wrong—at least the version I subscribe to (and yes, there are several variations of it because we aren’t a hive-mind like we’re always accused of being): Jon has every intention of fulfilling his pledge to Dany and whatever that entails—which is why he keeps trying to convince everyone that she’ll be a good queen (including himself). But he doesn’t love her. He simply used the feelings that he recognized that she had for him, to manipulate her to his cause. This doesn’t mean that he’ll throw her out of winterfell and bone his sister when it’s all said and done—because no, Jon isn’t a creep, but he is actually rather cunning when he deems it necessary.

~

However, he won’t have to keep up the charade, or boot her ass out of the north, or any of the other things the jonerii accuse us of ‘fantasizing’ about, because Dany is going to go dark, and everyone will see her for what she truly is. So, let’s return to our dialogue so I can get tf off of this scene! lol

~ S - And what happens afterwards? We defeat the dead, you destroy Cersei, what happens then?

~

D - I take the iron throne. 

~

S - What about the North? (Sansa’s tone drops here as she becomes emotional about her home and her people, the music becomes more ominous as the softness ebbs from Dany’s face). It was taken from us, and we took it back. And we said we’d never bow to anyone else again. (Her tone gets sharper, as she asks again). What about the North?

~

Dany looks angry now. She’s done playing nice, as she pulls her hand back from Sansa’s. The ominous music drones on as they stare at each other, and the maester interrupts them.~Theon has arrived at Winterfell. The music swells, and Theon looks first to a very visibly emotional Sansa, then Dany, and then back to Sansa again before customarily bowing to and acknowledging his queen. Suddenly Dany gives a flying fuck about her ally and inquires about Yara. Theon explains she’s taken back the Iron Islands in her (Dany’s) name.

~

“But why aren’t you with her?” Dany asks, confused at his presence, while the music swells again and Theon looks again, to Sansa���and not his queen. Dany of course notices this, and turns to look at Sansa as well, as Theon directly addresses—you guessed it—Sansa, and not his queen: “I want to fight for Winterfell, Lady Sansa. If you’ll have me.”

~

And oh dear god, I’m so emotional rn, as Sansa’s eyes flood with tears and she runs to envelope Theon in a hug — Theon whom through his own trauma, not only helped to get her away from Ramsay and safely to Jon — but also cared enough for her and the Starks and what he did, to come back and finish making amends!!!! And you know Sansa is so proud of him!!! And I just had a conversation earlier with my bb @scullylikesscience that Theon would likely pledge to protect Bran, and that he will also likely sacrifice himself somehow to save one of the Starks, therefore completing his redemption arc, and I just can’t even rn— 😭😭

~

Scene Highlights:

Lord Royce leaving only when Sansa dismissed him.

Dany witnessing firsthand the devotion that Sansa and the Starks inspire in people.

Also... don’t forget

We’re back out in the courtyard, where Dadvos is serving up dinner to the Northerners with a side of confidence, and Gilly is advising a woman where to go below in the crypts. A little orphan(?) girl with burns on the side of her face asks Davos where she should go and my fucken heart is shattering again because you know he sees Princess Shireen in her!!!

~

And Fuck you Bryan Cogman, you’re killing me!!!

~

She’s not sure where to go because she knows the children are going to the crypts where they’ll be safer, but both of her brothers were soldiers and so she wants to fight too. Auntie Gilly to the rescue: she tells the girl that she’d feel much safer if she was down in the crypts protecting her and her son, and with a purpose, the girl happily accepts her bowl and heads off as Gilly smiles softly at Davos. And god dammit, Liam Cunningham played this scene so well. He literally has me tearing up here!

~

The horn blows for a new arrival, and Edd is here! The last of the Nights Watch are back together again — and Tormund. lol He glomps Jon, affectionately dubbing him his ‘little crow’, and they let Jon know that Last Hearth is done for and anyone else who’s still out there is pretty much part of the AotD now. They have until sunrise to finish preparing. 

~

And the war council has commenced.~We get a little glimpse of what the NK wants, I guess??? Bran says “he wants to erase this world, and I am its memory.” —but why? And then Sam says something pretty poignant that I want @thelawyerthatwaspromised ‘s thoughts/opinion on: “That’s what death is, isn’t it? Forgetting. Being forgotten. If we forget where we’ve been and what we’ve done, we’re not men anymore, just animals.Your memories don’t come from books, your stories aren’t just stories. If I wanted to erase the world, I may not start with you.”

~

Pretty sure those that theorized that Sam is writing A Song of Ice and Fire were right, y’all —  and with such a ‘poetic’ title, to boot.

~

They strategize a plan to ferret the NK out using (a volunteering) Bran as bait in the Godswood. Theon volunteers himself and the Iron Born to stay with Bran and protect him (and jfc here comes the end I predicted for Theon and I hate it so much), as Jon shares that taking out the NK will likely diminish the entire army. They cement their battle plans and Dany insists Tyrion stay in the crypts because she intends to keep him on as Hand. Tormund announces that they are all going to die, but at least they’ll die together, and Jon suggests everyone get some rest. Avoiding eye contact with Dany, he utters “your grace,” and then quickly ducks out on her ass again, leaving her looking confused and frustrated.

~

Scene Highlights:

Jon’s commanding presence in this meeting — even so far as to dismiss everyone, despite the fact that Dany is the queen and supposed to be the one calling the shots. Even her people look to him here for leadership, which is interesting.

Aegon Targaryen and his sister-wives.

Thank you @goodqueenalys ❤️

Alys Karstark making another appearance here, standing beside Theon—yeah, I’m becoming more and more convinced we’re getting a Sansa death fake-out at the expense of this ginger beauty.

~

We head back out to the courtyard where a lonely looking Missandei attempts to befriend some northern children. Unfortunately, she came with the Dragon Queen, so they want nothing to do with her. Grey Worm joins her and the two make plans to leave for Naath after Dany takes the throne — which means that one of them is probably going to die. Sigh.

~

Way up high on the ramparts, Sam asks Jon if he’s told Dany yet. He has not, and so Sam prods him a bit — and oh look, there’s Ghost, off to the side looking like they literally photo-shopped him into the scene. 🙄

~

Edd joins them, and the last of the Watchers On The Wall commiserate, and poke a little fun at Sam. I’m very emotional as Edd says “last man left, burn the rest of us” (which most likely won’t be him) as they pan out to the northern scenery in the distance.

~

The Lannister boys are reminiscing again, this time by the hearth and are joined by Brienne and Podrick. Momma Brienne allows Pod a half cup of wine (which Tyrion overflows) and Jaime encourages her to join them (smitten fool). She does, as well as Davos and Tormund, too—who is fucken hilarious here as he tries to impress Brienne with one of his tall tales, then sloppily downs his horn of sour goats milk. It’s all rather strange. lol

~

There’s a brief scene of Arya and the Hound on the ramparts. She wants to know what he’s doing here—when’s the last time he fought for anyone but himself, as to which he replies: “I fought for you, didn’t I?” True enough. Beric joins them and Arya takes her leave, declaring she doesn’t intend to spend her last hours with these two miserable old shits. lol

~

I’m not sure where she headed off to, but Gendry finds her and presents her with her weapon. Arya wants to know what the red woman wanted with him. He tells her his blood because he’s Robert Baratheon’s bastard — which leads into Arya wanting to know how many women he’s been with. Gendry avoids the question, but Arya persists, many face gaming his ass until he relents. LOL

~

The number is 3, and Arya wants to be number 4. She wants to know what it’s like before she dies. And holy shit, they went there! They kiss passionately, with Arya taking the lead. She orders him to take his own bloody pants off and takes the bull for a ride—if ya know what I mean... 😉

We return to the group before the hearth in the hall. Tyrion remarks that almost all among them had fought the Starks at some point, and yet, here they all are defending them. But yeah, this story is about a Targaryen restoration.

~

In their battle banter, it comes up that Brienne is not a Knight—and while Tormund would happily Knight her gorgeous big-womaned ass ten times over, tradition does not allow her to be one because she’s a woman. Oh the irony that the most honorable of them all—the one who actually is a true knight, cannot be named one. Until Jaime says, “hold my beer!” (or wine, rather).

~

Okay guys, like honestly, this is probably my most favorite scene of the entire series. Everything about it is so beautiful and wholesome, as Jaime declares any Knight can make another Knight and bids Brienne to kneel. She looks to Pod who, with an adoring face, gives her a little nod of encouragement, then she looks to Jaime, and he does the same.

~

The lovely music, the proud faces of all the men who look on with awe as Brienne kneels and Jaime says the words, pressing his blade gently from one shoulder to the other and makes some fucken Westerosi history when he says proudly: “Arise Brienne of Tarth, a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.”

~

Guuuuuuuys!!!! Omg!!!! I’m definitely ugly CRYING here!!!! Brienne’s eyes welling with tears, her proud smile, all these men clapping and their proud faces!!! Yeah, this is definitely 10/10 my most FAVORITE ever GoT scene!!! Just beautiful!

~

We jump back out to the courtyard where a very adorable and yet insanely stubborn little Lyanna Mormont is arguing with Jorah about going to the crypts. She pledged to fight for the North and she intends to, so she bids her cousin good fortune and leaves to take her place. Sadly, I think that she will not make it through the battle for Winterfell.

~

Sam has come to give Jorah Heartsbane. This is another very loaded and lovely scene, and my heart is pretty heavy, because I’m not very confident that Jorah will make it out of this battle alive, either. Sam tells him: “your father taught me how to be a man. Taught me how to do what’s right. This is right,” as he presents him the sword. Jorah accepts this heartfelt gesture and declares that he will wield it in his memory, to guard the realms of men.

~

BRYAN COGMAN!!!! I’M COMING FOR YOU FOR MAKING ME CRY ALL DAMN NIGHT!!!!

~

But seriously, the dynamic between Jorah and Sam has just been so beautiful. And all the antis can fuck right off with their shit-talking of this beautiful and wholesome creature that is Samwell Tarly!

~

We jump back to the crew before the hearth who are loathe to call it a night. Tyrion wants a song, and we are treated to Pod’s beautiful rendition of Jenny of Oldstones — and this entire montage is so beautiful, as we see how everyone is prepping for battle, spending their last hours with those they love and saying their goodbyes. The desperation in Missandei and GreyWorm’s very passionate goodbye kiss is extremely moving and makes me think this is probably their final kiss goodbye, and Jorah looks so gallant as he swings ‘round his horse, making his father proud and my heart is just swelling with love and dread and ughhhhhhhh!!!!!

~

At first I was a bit upset that none of the Starks were actually together here, but in my rewatch, I’ve come to understand why a little bit more. It seems as if they’ve all revisited their own life’s journey prior to coming home (in this episode). Jon, on the ramparts with Ghost and his remaining brothers of the Nights Watch. Arya, first sharing a brief moment with the Hound and Beric (brothers without banners), and then with Gendry. Sansa sharing a meal with Theon out in the courtyard in the home that holds both good and traumatic memories for both of them. He redeemed himself through her (as Jon said), and they share a bond of both surviving Ramsay and his horrors.

~

Bryan Cogman did NOT disappoint with this lovely episode, which has been what we will surely look back on as a bittersweet eulogy of sorts to some of the beloved characters we’ve come to know over the years. Yeah, this was beautifully done.

~

Ahhh, and lastly, we delve down into the crypts where Jon stands before the statue of his mother. Dany has very obviously (and understandably) grown tired of being avoided and sought him out. When he acknowledges her presence with a brief glance and a very faint smile, she cautiously moves closer and wraps her arms around him. And yep, here it is—the reveal. I honestly thought he would keep it from her as long as he possibly could, but I guess he figures they might all bite it anyway, so fuck it... (i’m kidding!! Or am i??)

~

Dany is taken aback by his words. She releases a shuddering breath and immediately steps away from him, denying it: that’s impossible. Jon tells her he wishes it were — and I fully believe him. Aside from the full-on identity crisis he’s been experiencing, you all know he has no interest in the Iron Throne... all this man has ever wanted was to protect his home, and the ones he loves.

~

Dany thinks there’s a conspiracy against her between Bran and Sam—and now Jon’s tone and demeanor have changed a bit. He takes a step towards her and insists that it’s true, calling her Dany because it’s informal and personal, and he knows now that she’s his aunt—that means she’s still his family—and I think he’s hoping that they’ll still be able to find some common ground with that.

~

But the fact that she’s found actual family—that she’s not really the last Targaryen alone in the world anymore—doesn’t seem to affect her as much as the fact that Jon is the last male heir of their line, and so therefore his claim for the throne overrides hers. A claim he has expressed no want or intent for, mind you. Maybe he intended to tell her no one would have to know, and he’d never contest her claim if she’d agree to leave the North independent when it’s all said and done... who knows? Certainly not Jon, because it’s clear he’s taken aback by her response here.

~

D - if it were true, it would make you the last male heir of House Targaryen (she grounds out those bolded words through clenched teeth and Kit’s micro expressions are on point—jfc, Watch his eyes!!). You’d have a claim to the iron throne.

~

And with the final utterance of Dany’s last words, the war horns sound. As if that doesn’t seem like a harbinger of Targbowl?!?!

~

But I will say, in my honest and most humble opinion, that his delivery here was all wrong. The way Jon lamented the story, it kind of came off as if it’s something he might have known all along... and therefore she most certainly will feel betrayed at this. Especially considering her earlier conversation with Sansa. Which, the crazy ass irony of it all is, with political!jon, he was actually already betraying her—just not about what she’ll think it was. Did I say that right? lol

~

They join Tyrion on the Ramparts, the dead are here. Jon looks towards Dany, nodding as if to ask if she’s ready, and she storms off ahead of him, anger evident on her face.

~

Ahhhhhhhhh, I’m really scared for Jon here, guys...!!! What are your thoughts?

~

Remember to care for yourselves and stay hydrated as we slug through this hellish week!

~

ty @farmgirlusa for your dialogue corrections. 

[meta-shadowsong]

On Moral Ambiguity in Fiction

And where it works and where it doesn’t (at least for me), using Star Wars and Harry Potter as sort of examples/case studies/what have you.

Couple sort of definition things to get out of the way--first, when I say ‘moral ambiguity,’ I’m talking specifically about characters and character arcs/dynamics, rather than overall situations/plotlines. Because the two universes, as a whole, are pretty firmly “there is Real Evil and we are going to Defeat It” type of stories. And both verses also have clear and obvious Evil Bad Guys Who Ruin Everything (Palpatine and Voldemort).

I should also say, as a sort of disclaimer before we get started, that I really like nuance, especially when it comes to characters and character alignments. I have a thing for double agents; for people who were once good but now evil, or were once evil but now good, or who are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, and exactly where they end up depends on the weather/time of day/what have you. Which is not to say that I don’t enjoy the Obviously Evil villains, or the True Good heroes. Honestly, I think that a universe that has variety going for it tends to work the best.

Last definition - there’s a few different ways to do a Morally Ambiguous/Grey Area character. There are the fallen heroes, of course, and the redeemed villains. There are also “technically on our side in the bigger fight against Evil but also really shitty people” or “Your Allies Can Be Assholes”; and “clearly our enemy but also in some ways a decent person with whom we can Empathize” or “Your Enemies Can Be Decent People.”

(Also, while I’m not really going to focus on them here, I should mention that there are also sympathetic villains, who are never redeemed or switch sides or anything, and remain entirely Villains throughout, but have enough character development/humanizing characteristics that you can at least somewhat empathize with them even as they’re Horrible People who do Horrible Things. I’m leaving them out primarily because characters in that category tend to need way more in-depth discussion/their own essays about where they fall on the good vs. bad line; and besides I’d rather focus on different kinds of Morally Ambiguous/Grey Area characters for the purposes of this essay. Also, while I think there are examples in both verses, characters in this category tend to be very much YMMV. Basically, there’s a sliding scale from “Pure Evil” up to “Your Enemies Can Be Decent People,” and I’m trying to pick my examples that sit further on the lighter end of the greyscale here.)

Right. On to the actual discussion. Star Wars, on the surface, bills itself as straightforward good-vs-evil/Fairy Tale Logic/“once you start down the dark path” etc., etc. Harry Potter, on the other hand, has that great line: “the world isn’t divided into Good People and Death Eaters.”

Of course, once you actually start digging into it, Star Wars is absolutely not what it claims to be, and Harry Potter, while not technically wrong, fails to deliver on everything that statement implies.

When I look at Harry Potter, there are certainly a lot of Morally Ambiguous characters involved. We have Dumbledore, who fits into “Your Allies Can Be Assholes;” Barty Crouch, Sr. fits into this category as well. You have Fallen Heroes, with Pettigrew being the primary example. You have people who are maybe not technically actively working for/with the Big Bad, but are still Truly Awful People; i.e., Vernon Dursley. And you have people who are maybe on your side and maybe not assholes, per se, but have their heads so far up their asses with their preconceptions/have so many blinders on that they move past useless into actively obstructionist; i.e., Fudge.

But what you don’t find is the flipside of that. I can’t think of a single person who falls under “Your Enemies Can Be Decent People.” And while I can think of a few “redeemed” villains, they’re either so badly handled they become Your Allies Can Be Assholes (Snape), exist entirely in Backstoryland and thus don’t really have personalities or anything to latch on to (Regulus Black), or are barely present in the narrative by the time they have their Heel Realization (Dudley).

And that’s...like...leaving aside all the other issues with Harry Potter that have been cropping up in hindsight over the past few years...I think that’s a large part of why I fell out of love with the franchise. Like I said, I have a thing for double agents and grey-area/ambiguous characters, and I think a lot of it comes from the way I read this series when I was younger. I mean, it comes from some other places, too, but HP was a big one (probably because HP was such a big Thing for a long time overall, in my life and in pop culture in general). But looking back, it’s...really not what I thought it was. And it’s such a bleak, crapsack worldview, you know? “The bad guys are Bad Guys, but gueeeeess what! So are a good chunk of the nominal Good Guys!”

So, no, the world isn’t divided into Good People and Death Eaters. Technically. But it’s divided into Death Eaters, Other Bad People, and A Few Trustworthy Friends.

When I look at Star Wars, on the other hand--yeah, there are definitely Your Allies Can Be Assholes characters running around. Saw Gerrera, at least in Rebels and Rogue One, is of course the primary example. But there’s also--like, Borsk Fey’lya in Legends. And, depending on the reader/writer/narrator, various characters could fall into the “so many blinders on that they move past useless into actively obstructionist” categories. Plus, characters like Hondo, and others from the seedier side of the galaxy who are Not Good and Only Occasionally Nice, but they’re reasonable allies against the True Evils out there. And of course we have our Fallen Heroes--even if we exclude Anakin from this conversation, we have at the very least Barriss, to say nothing of Dooku and Pong Krell (we don’t really see either of them in their not-fallen hero state, but we know it existed at some point).

But you know what Star Wars also has?

The other side of this coin.

Again, even if we exclude Anakin and Vader from this conversation. Redeemed villains and “Your Enemies Can Be Decent People” are all over the place. I mean, there’s obviously my best beloved Alexsandr Kallus, but there’s also Bodhi Rook and Galen Erso; there’s General Madine (another super-prominent defector); going to Legends there’s Mara Jade and Gilad Pellaeon; there’s Ventress, who was a good person and then fell and then slowly starts finding her way back; there’s my girl Bo-Katan, who joined Death Watch and probably murdered A Lot of people, and then realized Just How Awful things were and tried to fix it. (...side note, I kinda ship Ventress and Bo-Katan, anyone with me? XD). I’m still catching up on some of the canon novels/haven’t really played the video games, but I know through Tumblr/fandom osmosis there are examples there, too.

Plus, something that came up quite a few times in the Clone Wars was that, apart from Palpatine and Dooku and their inner circles, the majority of people on both sides of the conflict genuinely believed they were fighting on the side of Right; and the Separatists actually did have some legit points about the way the Republic government was messed up. (Which is one of the bits I had a slight issue with in Queen’s Shadow, that they seemed to be taking that away from Mina Bonteri a little bit by having her in contact with someone who seemed to be either Sidious or Tyranus, but I digress.) But the PT era in general is where ambiguity and complicated politics lives, and this also starts getting into some YMMV territory, similar to Sympathetic Villains, so I’ll leave it at that.

I think that what it comes down to, really, is that HP, for all it makes its moral ambiguity explicit/centers it/talks about it, leans hard into the Your Allies Can Be Assholes aspect, while Star Wars leans more towards the Your Enemies Can Be Decent People side of things. And, again, this is not saying that there isn’t a range of quality in how these things can be handled. Like, Your Allies Can Be Assholes, when handled well, can be really engaging/amazing. And Your Enemies Can Be Decent People can quickly go in all kinds of bad directions if it’s not handled well.

But overall, a story that leans more towards the second is more hopeful. One of the main arc words in SW is hope, and I think that’s why the grey-area characters work so much better there, because they support that thesis, so to speak.

I also think that Star Wars has a much more balanced greyscale than HP does. Like, the Your Enemies Can Be Decent People is more prominent because, again, the series’ watchword is Hope, but there's still quite a few Not Nice people on the side of Good, which adds its own layer of nuance/interest, at least for me. ...and, you know, the fact that Star Wars has both Pure Evil and more nuanced villains/antagonists probably contributes to that. It might be that this kind of Moral Ambiguity works best when there is a clearly defined Evil to compare it against. Both in terms of the greyscale good guys and the greyscale bad guys.

In the end, I think there’s probably a lot of things that go into it, but overall the ambiguity in SW works so much better for me than HP. And I think the distribution along that sliding scale is a huge part of it. Because HP’s version kind of boils down to ‘Life Sucks; sure there are a few Good People who try to make it suck less, but most of the people, even on your side, are kind of awful’ and SW’s version boils down to ‘there is hope, even if it doesn’t always pan out; yes there is evil in this world and there are some, even on your side, who might choose it and refuse to change--but there are at least as many people who turn their back on it, even if it takes them a while.’ Both acknowledge that there is Evil in the world, and that dealing with it isn’t always simple or clear-cut, but SW takes a broader, more nuanced look at that question. Even if it doesn’t outright say that’s what it’s doing.

(And, sure, the fact that HP promised things it didn’t/couldn’t deliver and handled a few of the examples it tried to provide really badly doesn’t help, but...yeah.)

So, there it is. A lot of Personal Opinion, obviously, but...I feel like I might be on to something here? What are your thoughts?

((Also, I’m aware that I didn’t talk about the ST like at all, but that’s because, at least IMO, the ST has fewer morally ambiguous characters in general, at least in the sense I’m talking about. That being said, there’s at least the one guy from the Phasma frame story who falls into Your Enemies Can Be Decent People; and I guess I technically could have mentioned Kylo Ren when talking about fallen heroes, on the same justification I included Dooku/Pong Krell, even though I personally find him much less interesting than Dooku, in particular...Anyway, what I’ve noticed in the ST is that, when people are working at cross-purposes, they tend to still be firmly on one side or the other, just with differently-aligned priorities. And/or are Hondo, who marches to the beat of his own drum and always will. I love that he’s still around XD.))