#i think i like the characters more than the show itself

[stardustbuck]

there’s a legit reason i don’t/didn’t like marisol or natalia as LI for eddie and buck. it’s because kristin reidel shoved them into these relationships rather than actually built them up and made them interesting, connected them to the plot, and lastly because she is known to have hated bvddie. these LI’s were thrown together poorly, we don’t feel particularly connected to these characters, none of them have ties to the show besides being brought in as a LI which tim minear has literally said is smth that’s very hard to do, bringing in a new character simply to be a LI that is. which is true, when you’re seasons deep into a show and you have characters people love and adore it’s very hard to just bring in someone simply to be that characters romance and have nothing else to do with the plot in the show. hen and karen are established from the beginning, we grow with them. maddie is buck’s sister and works for dispatch. athena and bobby are well loved separately before they’re eventually put together at the end of s1. hell, even taylor was able to be integrated into the plot very well via her job (even if it didn’t work out in the end)

neither marisol and natalia have ties to the general plot of the show outside of simply being brought in as a romantic interest. which in itself it fine, but with a show like 911 it’s hard to make an audience connect and feel for a character that does not experience the things our main cast deals with.

so when you bring in a character like tommy for buck (which was out of pure coincidence that he ended up being buck’s LI) who was previously in the 118, is friends with chim, hen and bobby, is in the same line of work (athena & maddie adjacent) is written to be shown he is well liked among buck’s friends (and ofc buck as well) and who risks his life and job to help save people that buck loves, it’s no wonder why people immediately fell in love with this ship.

the substance is there. the potential for so much more lies ahead with buck and tommy. they have the potential to have henren, madney and bathena like moments.

as for eddie, i think he deserves to find romance in his own time and when he’s ready (im a bucktommy endgamer ofc but if that just so happens to bvddie then that’s that) not because he feels he needs to and with marisol he felt he needed to because of all of the blind dates he was being put through to “find someone” and “get over shannon”

overall, i think they hit a goldmine with bucktommy and i can only hope that eddie may one day get the same.

[keyleth-clay]

I'm really curious about your Kryn dynasty hair headcanons 💜💜

Okay so like, full disclosure, the vast majority of this comes from the brilliant minds of @quinn-of-aebradore and her fic What is left behind, and hanap (who I don't think is on tumblr?) and their fic Unbinding. Bullet points for simplicity's sake:

The only headcanon on this list that isn't directly inspired by a fanfic lol. Elves in fantasy media are so frequently portrayed with long, flowing hair - just take your pick of any elven character from Lord of the Rings, for example. As such, whenever elves show up in any other fictional media, I always just assume that they have the same long, elegant hair (unless described otherwise). At some indeterminate point in the past, I ended up learning how the Han Chinese had (at least for a very long time, if not in present day) traditionally stopped cutting their hair once they reached adulthood - @ziseviolet has a great post about that over here - and the two points of information neatly dovetailed into a headcanon for the Kryn Dynasty.

With one slight alteration, that is - in addition to new souls and unconsecuted souls no longer cutting their hair upon reaching adulthood, consecuted souls would stop cutting their hair once the returning soul becomes apparent and anamnesis is completed, as a signifier of the once-adult soul returning to the world. The long, uncut hair represents the long life they've lived, and the even longer succession of experiences of the soul.

Building off of the idea that not cutting your hair would leave it fairly unwieldy in the day-to-day, and the incredibly detailed elven-inspired braid hairstyles you can find all over social media (especially Pinterest), the idea of braids being the main traditional hairstyle(s) of the Kryn Dynasty sprung up. This would predominantly apply to the Drow of the Dynasty, along with any other consecuted souls who ended up in non-Drow bodies, with more freedom of hairstyle choice being afforded to non-consecuted citizens.

Inspired by What is left behind: the idea of different styles of braids being worn for different occasions. Like, there's a difference between their everyday braids, their standard ceremonial braids, braids for weddings, braids for funerals, etc. I am also totally in love with the idea of having ribbons or other similar materials woven into the braids, and especially with the Den colours that @quinn-of-aebradore came up with (Den Thelyss teal and silver, my beloved 💙🤍). Wearing the wrong style of braid to the wrong occasion would be a major social faux pas, and the correct colours and the right amounts of each colour are also important, though perhaps slightly less so than the braids style itself.

Also inspired by What is left behind: the idea of a mourning braid, which must be worn for a certain amount of time. Quinn made the period of mourning be a week in their fic, but I could easily see some people choosing to wear theirs longer, especially if the deceased was someone they were particularly close to, or if they were an unconsecuted soul, and as such the mourner would not be able to reunite with them.

Last one from What is left behind: building off of the Den colours woven into the braid, ceremonial braids will also use specific combinations of the Den's colours to mark the relationship the wearer has with the person the ceremony is for. For example, in the fic, Verin wears a mourning braid with "one silver, two teal, marking the deceased as his sibling." Deirta wears one silver and one teal, for her child. Further extrapolation should be pretty simple from there.

Inspired by Unbinding: the number of braids. I adore the idea of an additional braid being added for each major accomplishment and milestone of a person's life, because it already merges so well with the spiritual ideas of the unbroken strand of hair representing the long life and rebirth of the soul, and the cultural/societal significance to the style of braids and the colours woven into them. Now, the hair becomes a status symbol - the more braids, the more intricate the patterns and more impressive the person looks, as a direct reflection of what they've accomplished in their lives. The Umavi's , for example, would have incredibly complicated patterns of braids, while lower-ranked members of the Dens would probably only have one to three braids.

Inspired by Unbinding - and by "inspired", I mean that's straight up what happens in the fic: Essek cutting his hair off. That's a big deal, and by that I mean an enormous social taboo to the point of scandal. Hair signifies the Den, the soul's accomplishments, the journey of the soul through many lives as guided by the Luxon. Cutting that off could easily represent cutting the life short (which isn't totally inaccurate in this case, given that Essek isn't consecuted), could represent spurning the Den (again, not necessarily inaccurate in Essek's case), so on and so forth.

That being said, I think it's quite thematically appropriate for the Shadowhand (which according to Matt Mercer, is "those who focus on the dark mysteries of Exandria for the Bright Queen") to keep his hair cut short - it prevents people from learning too much about him at a glance, without Den colours or length or number of braids to tell them what he's done or who he's associated with. That being said, I don't imagine Essek cut his hair with any of that in mind - instead, it was one of the few, small ways that he could quietly rebel against a culture that he never fully believed in.

With all of that, I genuinely cannot picture Essek with longer hair. That's not a knock to Matt's depiction of him - he's his character, after all. And that's not a knock to the fanartists, either. My brain just refuses to make the mental connection of "Drow with shoulder length hair = Essek Thelyss". But, of course, none of this is canon anyways and I just like playing in this sandbox.

[helenakwayne]

And Then There Were Three

Thoughts on Bridgerton S3 Kanthony – spoilers abound (Alt. Title: Read Me Rant)

It was never my intention to watch Bridgerton. When season 2 came out, some of my best friends told me I needed to watch season 2, specifically. So, I did, starting from season 1, because context is important to me. I watched season 1. It was all right. I watched season 2. I had a new ship. I love Kate and Anthony, and if I’m entirely honest, I may love her quite a bit more than I love him. But I do love them together. I do think they work better as a unit than apart.

As every Kanthony shipper knows, Season 2 was unsatisfying. We felt precious screentime that should have gone to our leads was wasted somewhere else—something about rubies and American mines. It differed from the book, but we have made peace with it. We have two stories with the same, if slightly different, characters—more to love, right? But if there is something we’re all terribly happy about, it is the leads we got. Jonny Bailey and Simone Ashley have chemistry up to their yang; they make that enemies-to-lovers plotline sing, and they act out the hell out of their characters. They have both stated on numerous occasions how much they love their respective characters, and they do make them come alive in a beautiful way. Our complaints about season 2 mainly were about timing—did we have to make it all the way to a doomed wedding in episode 6? By then, Si and Daff were getting it on, leaving time to resolve everything else while we were barely reaching peak angst. We had no onscreen courtship. No onscreen wedding. No onscreen honeymoon. No onscreen Kate becoming the kickass viscountess she will prove to be (but I’m getting ahead of myself). No onscreen Anthony letting go of his psychological burdens. But our leads were together, so… yey?

Bridgerton as a show is not without its MANY problems, but I choose to watch it despite those problems. I won’t dive too much into those. What is troubling, however, is when they seem to waste outstanding opportunities that require minimal effort because of what looks like mere incompetence.

So, season 3 Kanthony… By some miracle, both Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey can come back for a few episodes. Jonny, we learn, made an almost superhuman effort to make it happen. Simone may have passed on a role to be there. They are fan favourites. They are the heads of the household, after which the show itself is named. They are excellent actors with a lot of chemistry. Episode 1, you establish they’re happy newlyweds, recently in from an extended honeymoon (and no, I do not think they went to India—not enough time); Kate’s adapting to her new role, but they both want more time to themselves, so, extended honeymoon. Ok, we can live with that. Is it frustrating that they only have about five minutes of screen time? Sure, but we can stomach it. Those were a lovely 5 minutes. They are happy and in love; they have a purpose and a somewhat logical explanation to exit the screen for a while. We can move on. We sit tight until Part 2 of Season 3 is released. We are told Kate will be pregnant! And… nothing else. So, we wait. And here they come. She is pregnant! She’s looking a bit nauseous from the ride, bless her, but Anthony is as besotted as ever, thinking naughty thoughts about his insanely hot pregnant wife and ready to shout his praises to high heaven. And that is awesome! As shippers, we are so happy for them. Look at them in bed! Aren’t they precious? Sure, their four-legged son is cockblocking Ant, and Kate is preoccupied about when to release the news, but they are the sweetest, hottest couple. Let us bask. Let us rejoice in the new Viscountess Bridgerton, running that household, caring for Greg and Eloise, crushing that party. She’s good at it, and she KNOWS it. She gloats, and she deserves it. You go, Kathani! You were born for this! And then, they have the sweetest, most perfect moment in which she tells Anthony they should announce baby Edmund is coming (because this needs to be Neddy, guys). He’s perfect in his speech, and she loves him, and he loves her. They tell the matriarchs, showing their excitement in different but complementary ways. And we love them. So. Much. So… where do they go? Where are they? Did they … poof away? We don’t know! One minute Kate was being the perfectest new viscountess, organising, hosting, wife-ing, mothering, sistering, being the meanest, toughest bitch in the ton, and then… where’s my Kate, you monsters? Anthony is wherever she is, surely, but wasn’t he perpetually busy? Wasn’t “dutiful” his primary descriptor? Remember all that paperwork he was supposed to be completing after the original honeymoon? Remember all that work he did on seasons 1 and 2? Remember all the planning and the family overseeing? Is he doing that? Where? Is Kate there, too? Well, we’ll never know. Let’s skip to episode 7, shall we? Because we must. This is Kanthony-focused, after all…

Episode 7 is a doozy because there’s so much… nothing for us. Do they look amazing? Sure. Look at visibly pregnant Kate. My brain immediately goes into protecting the Queen mode. But where is Anthony? Look, guys, I adore besotted, Kate-obsessed Anthony as much as the next shipper, but we love that Anthony because we know there’s so much more to him. We adore him because of how he grows for her. But this guy? He’s not exactly growing because he has no plotline other than being Kate’s husband and the father of her child. And if you’re here for just that, then all power to you. I am happy for you. Have at it. But that isn’t me. I need more. I need to see him trying to be who he has always been—the dutiful son, the protective brother, the respected viscount—while he is also Kate’s loving husband and Neddy’s amazing dad. The one-dimensionality of Anthony is killing me. Because we do get slightly more of that with Kate. The convo with Colin was her using all of her powers to save her new family once again. We saw a glimpse of Viscountess Bridgerton-Sharma being perfection in episode 5. But then it was taken away! It makes no sense for her to be seen running the household if she is there intermittently. Seriously, where were they? Was there an agreement that Violet would run Bridgerton House while Kate was away? Can you… I don’t know… tell us? But to add insult to injury, the things they wrote in. Ant saying he loves weddings? Kate saying theirs was perfect? You know what would have been perfect? WATCHING IT ON SCREEN. And as great as it was to know that Eddie did not marry the prince, but some dude in India who makes her oh so happy (good for you, girlie), Anthony goes on to propose leaving for India right now? NOW? With Kate visibly pregnant? With Frannie's impending wedding? Is this proof of a doppelganger? Has Newton cockblocked him to stupidity? Is this what happens when he ain’t allowed to munch to his heart’s delight? Seriously, what sort of OOC nonsense is this? And guys… gals… pals… I LOVE Kathani Sharma-Bridgerton being from India. I would commission an entire show about her life. I want to know everything about her background—from birth mom to Papa Sharma’s death to their coming to London. I want it all. Educate me! BUT THIS MAKES NO SENSE, ANTHONY! And finally… finally… as lovely as the nose-boop was, people, THAT MAY VERY WELL BE THEIR LAST SCENE ON THE SHOW. THAT WAS THE PARTING SHOT. THAT WAS IT. THE LAST DIALOGUE. And I cannot. The waste. The absolute waste. The awful writing. The missed chances.

Many would tell me to count my blessings, and I do. I will. I thank the people who made the clipped versions of seasons 2 and 3 so I can watch just my Kanthony without the extra plot. I appreciate the happy ending. And there are amazing fic writers who give me stories that are so much more fun, satisfying, exciting and fulfilling than this shoddy attempt at using two of the best talents in the business right now. Yey, baby Neddy! Yey, Viscountess Bridgerton-Sharma! Yey besotted Kate and Anthony! But, gods above… this SHOULD have been so much more.

[yuurei20]

Hey there! Absolutely love all the work you do here, it's really helped me as a newer fan of Twst get a better grasp on the characters and lore, so thanks a lot!!!

I'm not sure if it's ever specified anywhere, but do we know what exactly the name "Twisted Wonderland" encompasses in-universe? Like, is it the name of the whole planet, or a continent, or some other established grouping?

I know we do have a map that shows a lot of the characters homelands, but as far as I recall, it doesn't include the Scalding Sands. Which beyond it being the homeland of Kalim and Jamil, there was also a whole in-game event there that fleshed out the environment and culture, yet do we even know where it would hypothetically be on a map?

I also remember Sam talking about the cultures of the East during the New Years event, so there is presumably more beyond the map we know, but I just don't know if it has ever been clarified? Madol/Thaumarks are also the only currency we've ever seen, which could make it similar to Euro in how a whole continent uses it, or maybe there's something else to it.

Apologies for the long ask, I just found the implications to be fascinating depending on what little info we may have on the matter!

Hello hello! Thank you for this question! ^^ And you are much too kind!! ♡

From comments like “Twisted Wonderland’s got a number of educational institutions for cultivating magicians” and “Twisted Wonderland would be forever enveloped in winter’s cold, harsh embrace,” I do believe that “Twisted Wonderland” is meant to be the name of the entire place to which the prefect has been relocated! 

There are other times, however, where this can sound odd: the entire world (is it a world?) has the same traditional event (Beanfest)? The entire world has the same kind of fire and police organizations? Halloween is one of the biggest events in the entire world? Icicle mushrooms are one of the three greatest delicacies in the entire world? 

It is not impossible, but it is curious! Is it maybe not literally the entire planet, but possibly just a hemisphere?

(But is it a planet at all? Could it possibly be a dimension? 👀 We know that the dorms exist in dimensions of their own--are those pocket dimensions inside the dimension that is Twisted Wonderland?)

Except, as you say, Kalim and Jamil’s home country is not even on the main “world” map and yet it is still considered a part of Twisted Wonderland (as far as I can tell), so we know that “Twisted Wonderland” consists of more than what is being shown to us!

We have never been shown any borders of “this is where Twisted Wonderland ends and where another place begins,” or even heard that any place besides Twisted Wonderland exists here, so with the information we have at the moment I would say that everywhere we have heard of thus far is within the boundaries of Twisted Wonderland—whatever it is that may be 👀 (Limbo?)

Also as you say Sam does manage having eastern branches of his Mystery Shop, but Sam is very mysterious 👀

We technically do not even know if he is a mage (he does not seem to have a visible magestone, unlike the rest of the staff, and being magicless would tie in well to the character upon which he was based), or anything about these Eastern shops! It does not seem like it would be out of character for Sam to have access to inter-dimensional travel and, as aforementioned, his hometown cannot be found on the map 👀

Is Sam like the prefect, moving in between Twst and the world from which the prefect came (and maybe even Japan itself, hence his "Eastern branches")? I am pretty sure that there is nothing in-game to insinuate that this is the case, but it is fun to think ^^

Also as you say, Madol/Thaumarks seem to be a universal currency! I like your comparison to Euro very much!

While things like having the same traditions/currency/events/etc. throughout an entire planet might be a little unrealistic (in this game about dragon princes and mermaids who do parkour ww), it is possible that things were simplified just for the sake of keeping it all manageable within the visual novel medium ^^

My apologies for not having any answers! I do not believe that there is any information missing from what you already know, and while it is all very vague and curious, I agree it is also fun to think about! ^^

[bookishdaze]

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a...Chimpanzee?

How bird imagery, planes, mentions of flying, and Noa's intelligence could be foreshadowing Noa taking flight.

Get out your tinfoil hats. It's theory time!

I've been thinking about what'll happen to Noa and how the rest of the story will unfold. While doing so, I came up with this crazy theory. You'll have to forgive me for my wild imagination at times, haha.

To make this sound a little less...insane, I'll start with evidence that is in the actual movie itself before I start branching out towards more speculative territory.

Noa and Bird Imagery

Throughout the movie, Noa is likened to a bird through bird imagery. One way this is done is through feathers. Feathers are worn by the apes in Eagle Clan as necklaces, arm bands, baldrics, and other accessories, with elders like Koro wearing a lot more. Younger apes and apes of lesser status wear feathers too, just not as many. Even some of the children wear necklaces with a singular feather. These feather accessories come in blues, browns, and whites.

Here's the thing: Noa is the only one without colorful feathers.

Take a look at this image of the trio. Soona has her blue feather necklace, and Anaya has his brown feather arm accessory, but Noa doesn't have any similar adornments. It can't be because Noa is the youngest since we see children have feather necklaces, and we know Soona and Anaya aren't that much older than Noa, for they were "born within a sunset."

Noa has some feathers near his belt, but they're white and stringy, and don't match with the more elaborate feather accessories of other apes in the clan. They remind me of white fluffy baby eagle feathers, while everyone else's accessories have the larger, colorful feathers of a more mature bird.

Having Noa not wear colorful feather accessories while other apes do means that feathers are symbolic of Noa's character growth.

Noa starts off with little to no feathers because he's still a young ape at the beginning of his hero's journey who is yet to undergo his trials and break free out of his shell. To further emphasize Noa being likened to a bird, the catalyst of his journey is the literal cracking of an egg. When hatchlings are first born, they're featherless. He's even called "baby bird" by Lightning after he first arrives at Proximus' kingdom.

After Noa has defeated Proximus, brought Eagle Clan back home, and returned from his journey back to the ordinary world with new knowledge, our "baby bird" Noa has sprouted his first mature feathers. Look at 'em. They're so blue and pretty.

And I assume after the death of Noa's father, Noa will become the clan's new Master of Birds, or is at least on his way to become one.

The Planes

One thing that really stood out to me were the multiple planes in the background. We see these planes where Raka lives, which appears to be an abandoned airport. They're all rusted and crumbling apart after centuries of rotting. There's six planes in these two images alone.

Along with these abandoned planes, there's also this moldy mural of humans looking up at planes in the sky. There are so many planes in these scenes at Raka's home that I couldn't just chalk it up to mere coincidence. It could just be a cool way to show how much time has passed since humanity's downfall and how nature has reclaimed the earth, but I also think it might be foreshadowing staring at us right in the face.

Mentions of Flight and Falling

Ok, moving away from planes now. There's a few lines that caught my attention. One is right after Raka meets Noa. The friendly orangutan helps Noa up to his feet, then says to himself in amusement:

"Apes falling from the sky."

It's an unusual line, almost prophetic-sounding. Kinda funny, too. Reminds me a bit of the saying "when pigs fly," which is used as a figure of speech when describing something as impossible. Pigs will never fly, because it is impossible. Apes falling from the sky? Unthinkable. It sounds ridiculous, because it'll never happen...right?

Another line is when Proximus tells Noa of all the things humans used to do when they were the dominant species. We even hear these lines in the trailer, but in the movie, they're slightly different:

"In their time, humans were capable of many great things. They could level mountains. They could speak across oceans. They could fly, Noa! Like eagles fly!"

Proximus uses eagles when describing flight. The same type of bird Noa's clan raises and is named after.

And this might be a bit of a stretch, but Proximus mentioning Noa's name to bring his attention to the idea that humans could fly makes me feel like it was a purposeful decision by the writers as a little slip of foreshadowing for future events.

Ok, so what do planes, bird imagery, Noa being compared to a bird, and references to flying and falling have to do with each other?

From this point on, this is where I start heading towards more tinfoil hat territory, but indulge me, and bear with me. Remember, at the end of the day, this is all just fun theorizing. Here we go!

I think at some point, Noa will fly.

By the end of Kingdom, Noa has started to grow his first feathers, but there is still a long journey ahead before he can take flight. There will be a point in the story when Noa has fully grown into the ape he's meant to be, and just like a bird, will get to spread his wings for the very first time.

But why stop at just bird imagery? Why stop at metaphor, and have him literally fly?

Remember those planes? Could they have been foreshadowing that Noa will ride one?

As to why or how he finds himself in a plane, I'm not sure. It's too early to tell. Maybe humans are flying a plane that he has to sneak onto. Maybe humans force him onto a plane. Maybe he willingly agrees to ride one and go with the humans somewhere far (The humans from Fort Wayne are far from the west coast). Maybe he has to stop a plane. Maybe he's in a falling plane. Maybe him and Eagle Clan have to ride one to get to safety. The possibilities are endless.

Now let's take it a step further. What if Noa were to fix and pilot a plane?

Noa As An Engineer

Noa fixing and flying a plane sounded crazy at first, even to me, but in an early interview, Noa has been described as an "engineer" by Owen Teague.

We definitely see Noa's ingenuity multiple times in Kingdom. More specifically, Noa is really good at fixing things. When he finds the frame for the fish broken, he spends the rest of the day whittling away at a piece of wood for the frame, staying up late at night to finish his work.

When he finds one of the electric staffs, he spends a few nights tinkering with it until he finally gets it to work. This is important, because later on it is revealed it was Trevathan who built these weapons. When Proximus tells everyone at the dinner table that Noa was able to fix it, Trevathan gives Noa a look of shock, as if this were the first time he encountered an ape capable of doing so.

We also see Noa slowly picking up on how electricity works through his multiple encounters with it. He has his first encounter when Sylva uses the electric staff to shock Noa through metal as a conductor not once, but twice.

His second encounter is when he's repairing the electric staff. His third encounter is when he watches Proximus' apes try to open the vault, observing how they use electricity to set off the explosions.

Through careful observation and learning, Noa comes to understand how electricity is a power that runs through a wire when setting up the bombs with Mae to flood the vault. This is to show us that Noa is capable of understanding human technology.

In addition, the movie doesn't just want us to know Noa is smart, but that Noa's intelligence is a source of fear for the humans. Remember Trevathan's shocked look? Noa's intelligence even frightens Mae.

In this interview with Freya Allan about one of the other versions of Noa and Mae's goodbye scene, she mentions how Mae was going to kill Noa because his intelligence scares her. She doesn't want to, but she feels like she has to.

On Reddit, Wes Ball gives his perspective on what Mae bringing the gun means. One thing he mentions in parenthesis is to pay attention to the deliberate look Mae gives Noa when he repairs the staff.

One way I interpret Mae's look is her realizing what it would mean for apes to have the power to understand and even build advanced technology.

Think about it. The only advantage, the only chance humans have against the apes is their human technology. Apes are bigger, stronger, can survive in the wild, and will overpower a human in physical combat any day of the week. But as long as humans have their weapons and machines, they have a chance of reclaiming the world. That's another reason why Mae cannot under any circumstances allow Proximus to have this technology, for humans would lose their only advantage.

But it won't matter how many vaults humans flood or how much old technology they destroy so apes don't get their hands on it. If apes can just learn and build it themselves, clever apes like Noa are now a threat to humanity's future.

My overall point is that they're heavily emphasizing how smart Noa is by having him fix things, understand human technology, and how his intelligence scares humans.

Why show us all of this if it's not going to come into play in some big way in the future? What will he fix in the next movies? What other human technology could he pick up on? What could be scarier for humans than apes mastering electricity?

How about an ape fixing an airplane, understanding how it works, and mastering the ability of flight?

Airplanes Inspired by Birds

One way they could set up Noa to fly a plane is to have him develop a fascination for flight, particularly through birds.

"They could fly, Noa! Like eagles fly!" -- Proximus.

With Noa as an engineer and with plenty of birds at his disposal, especially if he becomes the clan's new Master of Birds, Noa could start studying birds to understand how they fly.

A quick Google search will show that a lot of the early ideas for flight were inspired by birds. It's called biomimicry, which is design based on the study of something found in nature. Take a look at these pictures as examples that I found while researching this.

Humans have been looking up towards the sky and dreaming of one day being able to fly, so they started inventing ways to be able to do so by first studying birds. The more ape society advances, it makes sense that apes will one day yearn to do the same.

Noa's Thirst for Knowledge

Noa starts the movie as a rule follower. Follow the law. Don't go to the forbidden valley. Listen to the elders. Eagle Clan has to submit to their new king Proximus, for it is law.

This all changes when Noa looks down at the symbol of Caesar, a reminder of a leader who had led with strength and compassion, a leader so unlike Proximus, and realizes with clarity that the law is wrong. The elders were wrong. The elders did not tell him everything because they do not know everything.

The story ends with Noa back at home with Eagle Clan. However, Noa has had a taste of what's beyond the borders of his village. There are books with strange symbols he can't understand yet. He found this strange machine that allows him to see stars far into the void of space. He doesn't know how, but somehow, humans could fly. He knows there's more out there. He's intelligent, and he's curious. He'll want to reach for the stars himself. The movie even ends with Noa gazing up at the sky. They're setting Noa up to be a character that wants to learn and understand all these new things.

This also reminds me of this quote, which is fitting, considering the topic of this theory.

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

In Conclusion, Why Fly?

Having Noa fly could be how this trilogy continues the parallels to Noah's Ark and the Flood by having Noa and Eagle Clan get on an airplane that Noa fixes and flies in order for them to escape some great danger.

This could also be how Noa, Master of Birds, becomes a mythical figure for the apes by having him be the first ape to fly, the same way Caesar became a mythical figure by having him be the first ape to speak.

If not a mythical figure, this could make Noa one of the founding fathers of science in ape society, setting up the stage for ape scientists in the future like Zira and Cornelius. I could also jump the shark and talk about how Noa's dreams that were only mentioned in the trailer were not dreams of the past, the future, or Caesar's ghost like we all thought, but were the dreams of a scientist's mind coming up with the first ideas for innovations like electricity and flight.

In the trailer, Noa said his dreams were of strange things. New things.

Do you know how many great inventions came from dreams? Einstein's theory of relativity. The periodic table. The model of the atom.

Having Noa fly could be great for so many reasons. Not only for his character arc, but for the worldbuilding of ape society and ape mythology, especially if they have more movies set far in the future. They have plans for 9 total movies!

Finally, I want to share a scene from The Planet of the Apes (1968) where Cornelius and Zira, two chimpanzee scientists, question Taylor's ability to fly.

Having Noa, a chimpanzee, learn to fly, something considered an impossibility by apes, would be such a wonderful way to have this story rhyme with what came before.

[adickaboutspoons]

Oh boy. Okay. Here we go

A totes calm and measured response to this post over here by @themetabridge. Forgiveness for the whole new post. I had too much to say to fit into what Tumblr apparently thinks is an appropriate length for a re-blog.

First? I mean. Text just means the words and actions as they are said and shown in a given piece of media being analyzed. Which is what I’m here to do with my meta – textual analysis. That’s why I insist on textual support for any argument interpreting the media in question. Naked assertions do nothing to explain how you arrived at your conclusion. Vibes aren’t good enough. Show me what IN THE TEXT made you think what you think, and I will do you the courtesy of the same. Otherwise, I don’t see how we could possibly have much to say to one another.

The fundamental breakdown we are having is that you have failed to provide a textual basis for why you think Ed is a bad person. While I respect your assertion that a person’s essential goodness is predicated on the actions that they perform, I cannot respect the corollary supposition that there are actions that are either “good” or “bad” in a vacuum, as this completely ignores circumstance and motivation. WHY someone does something is AT LEAST as important as WHAT they did.

For example - Stede killed Ned Lowe in cold blood. Does it matter that he did it because Ned “shit-talked [his] friend and damaged [his] ship,” and “fucked Calypso’s birthday”? Does it matter that Ed, the person whom Ned’s shit-talk actually impacted, told Stede not to do it? Twice? Does it matter that Ned was a subdued enemy combatant, and as such could have just as easily been gagged like Hornberry and the overtly racist Wellington, who survived imprisonment and went on to watch Ed and Stede sign the Act of Grace? Do we compare Ned to the French Captain who got flayed for his racist rhetoric, though Ned’s comment was, strictly speaking, about Ed’s class rather than his race? How far are we going to go to disentangle class and race when one absolutely informs the other?

How about a more straight-forward example; Stede set an unnamed man on fire and quipped about it like some asshole 80's action hero. Does it matter that he threatened Stede’s life? How about if, when he did so, he was twenty feet away, armed only with the bottle he had just broken over his head, and there were half-a dozen pirates between him and Stede who all thought Stede was hot shit, and so Stede was in no immediate danger? What if Stede has a long history of people making attempts on his life, and being unsure that he even deserves to live, and this is meant to show that, now that he has something to live for, he’s done with the part of his life where he lets anyone try to take that away from him?

This is what I mean when I say that the show is careful to never outright condemn the use of violence. The narrative tells us clearly that, within the context of the show, some things are more important than an unnamed or one-off character’s life – preservation of one’s own life or the lives of one’s loved ones, dignity in the face of racially-based persecution, resistance to colonial oppressors. The reasons for and direction of violence matters. Context matters.

And speaking of context, you misunderstand me when you suppose that only what literally appears before our eyes counts can be “read into the text”. I refuse to give extra-textual sources of information (such as the historical reality of sergeant recruiters and being pressed into service or the historical Golden Age of Piracy) any weight unless they can be validated by in-text support, because the show itself cares fuck-all about historical accuracy. But extrapolations about the in-show universe based on in-text support are fine.

So, considering that the very first thing we hear in the show is Frenchie’s little ditty about the violent reality of a pirate’s life, and considering Jack’s comment at brekkie about how pirating is an "ugly profession”, and considering what we see of the raids in 1x5 and 2x2, we can reasonably conclude that pirate culture is steeped in toxic masculinity where the expectation of performing violence is de rigueur. Because Ed has carved out a successful reputation as Blackbeard, and because we see the ease with which he can go from being casually conversant with Stede to “giving it some oomph” to scare the location of the treasure out of the French captain in 1x5 with the THREAT of violence, we can reasonably conclude that he can successfully perform the required violent displays of piratical society (or at least, given that we know by his bathtub confession that he has not personally killed anyone since his father, he can adopt a convincing enough posturing that no one would doubt he COULD). From his interactions with Jack and familiarity with “yardies” and “whippies”, and his ruminations about “the old days” of “drinking all day and biting the heads off turtles or making some poor bloke eat his own toes for a laugh”, and Fang’s assertion that Ed made him kill his dog, we can reasonably assume that Ed has a history with casual violence for the sake of fun and cruelty for cruelty’s sake.

However.

I think “the old days” is an important qualifier there. Season 1 Izzy may be frustrated that Ed is not performing Blackbeard sufficiently well to suit him (on that point we can agree), but even by his own deathbed confession “for YEARS I egged [him] on, even though I knew [Ed] had outgrown [the Blackbeard persona]” (emphasis mine, and pin in that for a moment). In 2x1, Fang is crying into his cake saying “I’ve never seen Blackbeard like this” - indicating that the conditions of the Kraken era are NOT the norm. The slivers of Ed we see in 1x3 before the Spanish raid are marked by him speaking calmly and rationally to Izzy (in stark contradiction to Izzy’s insistence that he’s half-mad) never even raising his voice much less using threats or any actual violence to get Izzy to do what he wants. In fact, it is Izzy who suggests a course of action involving very normative piratical violence (“Do we open fire? Or would you rather we just attack them, kill them, throw them out to the sharks, sir?”), which Ed counters with a genteel proposition - inviting (not even ordering!) Stede aboard for a face-to-face meeting. Izzy being comfortable enough to push back against orders (“Oh, Edward, can’t I just send the boys?”) even suggests that he feels no threat from Ed at all. Every indication is that by the time we meet Ed, well before he ever meets Stede, he’s already well past done with violence for violence sake.

When Ed does meet with Stede, before he’d fallen in love (Even though the are the U-Hauliest, I would argue “fascination” with a possible side of “infatuation”, but certainly not yet love), one of the early conversations they have is about the depiction of Blackbeard in Stede’s book of pirates. Ed expresses revulsion and anger that the persona that he’s worked so hard to cultivate has been twisted into a hyper-violent parody - a “Vampire Viking Clown” that’s barely even human, with a head of smoke and overladen with weapons and hardly bears any resemblance to the real man. We’re meant to understand that this is not a valid or accurate representation of who he is. Violence is a normative part of pirate life, but he has “one knife, and one gun JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE” (emphasis mine, again) - he doesn’t shirk from using the tools of violence when it’s necessary, but he is NOT excessively or wantonly violent. 

And we SEE the evidence of this because of how Stede reacts to the way Ed acts around Jack. Jack keeps Ed drunk all day, decoupling his inhibitions from his decision-making processes and, in spite of Ed explicitly saying that he’s mellowed out, Jack eggs him into the kind of hyper-violent Jackassery that is excessive even for pirate society if the nervous reactions of Stede’s crew are any indication. Of course, this is all part of Jack’s plan - to manipulate both Ed and Stede and force them apart - and the reason that it works is because the way Ed acts around Jack is NOT the way he chooses to act under his own volition, hence Stede’s frustration and disappointment.

While I agree that piratical violence is not political praxis, I would argue that, considering that every raid we have witnessed Ed participate in has been against a representative of colonial power and, more often than not, specifically the enforcing arm thereof, it’s not unfair to conclude that Ed’s reasoning goes that if piratical violence is to be done, better against someone who deserves it than not - i.e. those who perpetuate the violence of colonialism. Regarding instances of violence outside the context of raids, here’s where we take that pin out of Izzy. Izzy and Ed are locked in a cycle of abuse over the first season, wherein Izzy decides that Ed is not Blackbearding hard enough, and, because he feels entitled to controlling Ed’s actions, bullies and harasses him into capitulating  - typically in the form of performing violence. Afterwards, Izzy performs some form of deference - apologizing and/or acting as though he’s going to leave, which Ed “talks him down from” and mercifully allows him to stay. It’s why, when Ed sees Izzy packing up a dinghy (lol. With what? It’s not like he’s on his own ship or would have brought his things with him, or sacked plunder from the Revenge. Clearly he was just stalling until Ed noticed him and swooped in to do his part of the cycle) he tells Stede he “should deal with this,” as though it’s tedious, but normal occurrence. I think an important part of this cycle as the season progresses, though, is how Izzy keeps upping the stakes.

So by the time we get to the end of the season, when the last iteration of the cycle starts up again (when Ed is once more insufficiently Blackbearding by being emotionally vulnerable and open with the crew following his return to the Revenge and his stint in the pillow fort (note that Izzy is apparently FINE with Ed not being Peak Pirate, just as long as he hides it away from everyone), and Izzy once more bullies and threatens Ed) this time it is especially cruel - Izzy is a thumb in the wound, attacking Ed at his most vulnerable and saying it would be better if Ed was DEAD than “pining for his boyfriend.” This iteration now also brings with it a history of escalation (first in Izzy bringing Fang and Ivan in to force Ed's hand about killing Stede, lest he look "weakened by the love of a pet" before his crew, and therefore in danger of mutiny, and then by bringing in the British Navy to force Ed to take Izzy back - or rather, to force Izzy back into Ed's life because the terms of the agreement see Ed remanded into Izzy's custody as though he is property to be distributed at the will of the Brits) - an established pattern of the lengths to which Izzy will go to get what he wants, and so a very real threat implicit in Izzy’s warning that “Ed had better watch his step” as Izzy serves only Blackbeard. So Ed gives him what he wants. He Blackbeards it up just like Izzy insisted, and lets Izzy know in no uncertain terms that the insubordination is done. It’s not a "frat boy prank" when he cuts off Izzy’s toe and feeds it to him, or even something from which he's deriving pleasure as he might have in the old days; it’s a calculated, proportional response, done under duress and against his own inclinations, but exactly the tool required to get the message across clearly.

As to the question of why it matters if Ed is bad, first and foremost, because saying that he is bad requires you to explicitly read contrary to the text. If you’re not going to engage with the text on its own terms, I don’t see how you can do any analysis of what story it’s trying to tell. I already discussed the ways in which the narrative is specifically about how Ed is NOT bad, even when he himself thinks he is. I have also discussed how, while “violence is never the answer” may be broadly understood to be the correct way of comporting oneself in real life, the show never condemns violence across the board. The show condemns cruelty, both on an interpersonal and societal level, but positions the use of violence as an acceptable and reasonable response thereunto. It treats circumstance and motivation with nuance and weight. Living within this context, Ed’s use of violence by the time we meet him is well within the normative acceptable application thereof. Judging him by standards outside the context of the story within which he exists makes as much sense as judging the Stede from the show for being a slave owner because that’s historical fact - that’s just not applicable to who he is in THIS story.

But more importantly, it matters because Ed is a POC character. Describing him as “cruel and perverse” for utilizing violence, particularly when the violence he uses is NOT excessive or impulsive, perpetuates negative race-based stereotypes about hyper-violent men of color. Characterizing him as “bad” for his use of violence when other (white) characters, such as Stede, use violence in similar ways, or are cruel or petty, but can still be considered, on balance, “good” means that Ed is being held to a different, higher standard than those white characters, and perpetuates the frankly racist criteria of expecting POC exceptionalism for POCs to be considered for the base-line assumptions of acceptability that are afforded to their white counterparts. Saying that Stede’s love is what changed Ed’s behavior from cruelty to wholesale abandoning piratical principles is not only antithetical to what actually happens in the show, but suggests a read that POC Ed needs a good white man to show him how to behave, a real white knight to tame his savage heart. That’s some real White Man’s Burden shit there, bro. I highly recommend you put it down.

[bestworstcase]

Hi, I've been enjoying your essays on Salem immensely and your theories about Summer have got me hoping we will get to see her again. A thought popped into my head recently: do you think it might be possible for Ruby to choose a new emblem at some point? Her emblem is the same as Summer's except for color. She's starting to learn that she doesn't know as much about her mother as she thought and that maybe she shouldn't aspire to become the hero she thought that Summer was. So what if part of Ruby discovering herself came in the form of an emblem change? I guess it's a long shot, since the show hasn't touched directly on the emblems very much, but this particular one carries explicit narrative significance...

i think she might modify the brooch in some way—maybe take a leaf out of yang’s book and paint it?—to really make it hers.

this is smth i talked about while v9 was airing but the core problem ruby had to face in the ever after is that because she lost her mom at just the right age to have indistinct, amorphous memories of summer and grew up hearing about summer as this fairytale hero (who was just! like! ruby!), ruby is alienated from herself—her "memory" of summer is really more of a projected idealized form of herself.

we glimpse this in v6/v7 with ruby visualizing her own feelings personified in summer rose (+ the character model being a barely tweaked clone of ruby, which is not, as v9 reveals, what summer rose actually looked like—the low effort v6/v7 model may have just been a budget/time consideration but even if it was they leveraged it narratively to great effect) and ruby asking qrow what he thinks summer would have done in her shoes when she’s doubting herself. but the ever after pulls it to the surface and confronts her with it.

(this is also sort of what’s going on with penny’s sword, incidentally… it wasn’t literally penny’s sword that fell into the ever after somehow, it was an outward physical manifestation of her grief in the form of a sword because ruby’s the "weapons are extensions of ourselves" girl)

ANYWAY the point being, ruby sacrificing the brooch is what precipitates her katabasis in the last arc of v9 because she is, at the same time, letting go of summer but also rejecting herself, because her idea of summer is really her own reflection disguised as what she wants to be (<- STILL CANT BELIEVE THIS.) and then crescent rose shocks her and ruby just unravels. take the image, the icon of summer from her and she has no idea who she is.

that separation from the burning rose was necessary but (as surmised in the linked post) it’s equally crucial that ruby took it back in the end, first because it’s the one real thing she has from her mother and that’s important to her and second because it is also very much ruby’s symbol now—summer left it behind fourteen years ago and it’s belonged to ruby ever since.

the key is that she needs to detangle her own identity from the idea of summer rose—smooth out the funhouse mirror so she can see herself (and her mother) as she truly is. which is a different kind of challenge than stepping out from her mother’s shadow; ruby isn’t struggling to assert that she isn’t like summer; she needs to realize summer wasn’t (isn’t) her, that when she imagines summer she’s really picturing herself without all the qualities she doesn’t like about herself.

it’s the reversal of the standard trope, which would generally end with the child discarding their parent’s identity and symbols to forge their own. i think for ruby it’s going to be similar to what jaune does with his shield after the fall of beacon, having it reforged with the image of her diadem worked into it as a way of both honoring her memory and claiming the family shield as his own. keeping the brooch but modifying it with her own touches, like by painting it or maybe casting a copy, allows for that same sort of balance between memorial and new beginning. which is also in keeping with what the burning rose itself symbolizes narratively, so it works on that level as well.

[time-is-restored]

What Happened At The Church On Ruby Road?

AKA: Why does RTD want us to watch Ruby's first episode with a ruler and protractor?

Alright, so since I read this article excerpt yesterday night I haven't been able to stop thinking about what trick could be hidden in the sequence between the cloaked woman, the doctor, and baby ruby. While I'm not at all claiming to know the answer, I have a few details to point out that might help with further analysis.

First of all: A Continuity Error (On Purpose?)

At the very beginning of TCORR, when the doctor's giving his 'once upon a time,' speech, we see the TARDIS materialise + the doctor appear, looking in the direction of the cloaked woman, looking distraught. Disney+ is evil so I can't get an accurate screenshot, so take this scuffed photo instead, taken from 1:03. You can see a tear rolling down his cheek (little white dot on the left of his face, in line w this nose).

Later in the episode, when the doctor materialises in the scene for the first time, there is no tear. It's a marginally different shot in several ways, but that's the most noticable to me - screenshot taken from 42:59.

By itself, this is totally negligible. But I think when taken with the opening monologue (which heavily implies that the doctor finds out the cloaked woman's identity - "As for the mother, she was never seen again. No one ever knew her name, until that night a time traveller came to call. A traveller known as the Doctor."), there is possible evidence here that the doctor came to this moment twice. Once in the sequence of events as we see them, rescuing Ruby from the goblins, and once where... something else happened.

Second: The Layout of The Church

We get a few aerial shots of the church when the camera is showing the ascent of the ship, and a lovely wide shot as the doctor decides to not follow the cloaked woman (taken from 46:28 and 44:07).

The most important thing I want to point out is the way the hedge path curves to the right in the direction the doctor and the cloaked lady are facing. You can only really see it in that one shot (so I hope it's not a lens effect!). The aerial shot helps clarify that nothing is obstructing either of the character's view of the church.

We can also see that in this iteration of their encounter, the cloaked woman is standing a little bit to the right of the doctor (thanks to the curved path).

Third: The Timing

The only real indication of how much real time is passing in each scene is the clock striking midnight. So, when does that happen?

In the opening sequence, the clock strikes midnight after the man from the church has found Ruby and picked her up. We then see the woman relatively far down the road that we can see in that above screenshot, and THEN we see the TARDIS apparate and the Doctor appear.

In the goblin sequence, the woman is already far down the road well before it hits midnight, as the doctor sees her walking away before he runs to save baby ruby. Obviously time moves slower than usual in TV actions scenes, but that's not all - we see the clock strike midnight before the man from the church picks Ruby up.

Furthermore, the woman has... barely moved at all in those few minutes. Screenshots from 43:00 and then 46:45.

Okay, that should be all the relevant information from TCORR. Now to get to that point!

Fourth: The Point

This is where things go off the fucking rails. Here's our orienting shots for the Point.

Just to compare the positions of the doctor's shot here, here's the last shot we have of him looking at the lady in TCORR:

While this could just be a fancy camera angle, I think the Doctor is standing more to (his) left of the TARDIS than in this above shot. AKA: he's standing more to the left than she is. That emphasises that, if the woman was to be pointing at him when she turns around, she should be pointing to her right.

But I don't think she is -- especially in that wide shot, her arm looks like it's going wide. It's going more to the left than it should be. If RTD hadn't explicitly said the 'who's pointing at who' was significant, I would be fine with accepting that she's pointing at the doctor -- especially since that's how the doctor reads it.

And if we go back to the layout of the church, the things she could be pointing at are, in order of exactly how far to the left she'd have to point:

something just behind the doctor (would explain how close the point is to him)

the path up to the church

the clock tower

ruby/the baby

Regardless of where she's pointing, I think the implication is that there's someone else at the scene, doing something that the doctor didn't notice (perhaps due to his own bias with mother figures).

Wild Speculation:

Now, what do I think this means? Honestly, no idea LOL. It's still all just vague enough it could go in fifty different directions. But we know for sure that the moment where Ruby Sunday was left at the church is a moment in flux, thanks to the the Doctor's memory changing + the song in the background being different in Devil's Chord.

Part of me wonders if there's something (someone?) hiding inside that memory/moment in time? Like how Thirteen hid her companions inside their own time stream to try and buy time away from the swarm guys? It would explain the Maestro's reaction -- 'he couldn't have been there[...] on the night of her birth' -- in the devil's chord, the young boy is a harbinger. Maybe ruby is the harbinger of something too? That could also explain why it started snowing in the TARDIS after 15 scanned her -- the same thing happened when Maestro started trying to pull out her song.

Then if you go with the changeling angle, it's entirely possible we're about to get a shell game with babies 2: electric boogaloo (thanks russel for saying we should rewatch a good man goes to war, i'll never sleep again 👍). Maybe while the doctor's too busy watching the cloaked woman, someone else is intervening, switching her baby for ruby? Or doing something To her baby that explains why ruby is so... wrong, for lack of a better word?

Also, looking between the opening sequence vs the goblin sequence timing, we have several minutes where the cloaked woman is totally unaccounted for in the latter, as well as an entire interaction between her and the doctor that... didn't happen? Or did happen, but was forgotten? Unwritten? Rewritten? Etc.?

If I had to make a bet (and let's be honest, what else are we doing while theorising LOL), I'd say that something about that night has been memory-holed out of existence. Possibly a doomed timeline that righted itself, ala 73 yards, but left just enough trace that the people involved know something happened (ruby knows she's been to wales three times before, the doctor knows he was pointed at).

I think it was triggered when the lady and the doctor got too close to each other (did she hear that the goblin ship was taking her baby? did she turn around and see something she otherwise would have missed?), and realised something about each other (or ruby?) that needed to stay dormant. the cold opening implies the doctor learns her name, and since there don't appear to be any time of the angels sneaky outfit change moments, i can only assume it happened here, somewhere in this memory.

And hell, in for a penny in for a pound, maybe it all got undone (retconned, in universe, in real time), because the Doctor shouldn't learn about the cloaked woman until the finale? Spoilers? In TV meta, did the director tell all the other actors (the church man + the cloaked lady) to hold in place until the doctor was back in position?

[Final note, regarding the continuity error I noted first up, in TV shows with ad breaks factored in -- brief fades to black at dramatic moments, then the last ten seconds play again to remind the audience what's happening -- sometimes directors would use different takes for before and after the ad break. Maybe that's the explanation for the tear -- in universe, that cold open stopped in its tracks the moment the opening was cued to play. It then started again with a doctor who had last cried several minutes ago, and the scene played out as intended.]

Anyway fellow 'the mistakes are in there on purpose' believers how are we FEELING!!!!!

[moonselune]

Could I request a drabble where Halsin thinks about how he fell for female reader especially how she helps him even when she doesn't need to (even as a bear) & reminds him to take care of himself too? Even when she's dating him, he admires how she's still caring for him, and her companions including Owlbear, and Scratch too!

Halsin- lemme just- I just wanna smoosh my face into your face, please.

Halsin x f!reader

The camp was quiet, the night air filled with the soft rustling of leaves and the occasional hoot of an owl. Halsin sat by the fire, his thoughts drifting as he watched the flames dance. He glanced around the campsite, his eyes settling on you as you moved with effortless grace, tending to the companions. The connection you shared had deepened over time, blossoming into something beautiful and profound.

Halsin's thoughts wandered back to the moment he realized he had fallen for you. It wasn't during a grand battle or a dramatic event, but rather in the quiet moments, the times when you showed your unwavering kindness and compassion. You had a way of caring for others that was both gentle and fierce, a rare combination that had captivated him from the start.

One memory stood out vividly in his mind. It was a day much like any other, with the sun high in the sky and the forest alive with the sounds of nature. Halsin had shifted into his bear form, enjoying the freedom and power it brought. He had been foraging for herbs when he noticed you watching him from a distance, a soft smile on your face.

"Do you need any help, Halsin?" you had called out, your voice filled with genuine concern.

He had grunted in response, shaking his massive head. In bear form, he was more than capable of handling himself. But you had approached anyway, your hands gentle as you patted his fur and checked for any injuries. It was a small gesture, but it spoke volumes about your character. You cared for him, even when he didn't need it, simply because you wanted to.

Halsin's heart had swelled with affection in that moment. It was a feeling that had only grown stronger with time. You had a way of reminding him to take care of himself, even when he was too focused on the needs of others. Your concern was a constant, steadying presence in his life, a beacon of light in the often dark and tumultuous world they navigated.

He admired the way you extended your kindness to everyone in the camp. You were always there, tending to Astarion's wounds with a deft touch, listening to Shadowheart's concerns with an empathetic ear, and ensuring Gale had everything he needed for his arcane experiments. Your compassion extended even to the animals that had become part of their makeshift family. Scratch, the loyal dog, adored you, always wagging his tail excitedly when you were near. The owlbear cub, too, seemed to sense your gentle spirit, often nuzzling against you in search of comfort.

Halsin's gaze softened as he watched you now, kneeling beside Scratch and scratching behind his ears. The dog's tail thumped happily against the ground, and you laughed, a sound that warmed Halsin's heart. You glanced up, catching his eye, and smiled. It was a simple exchange, but it held a world of meaning.

He stood and walked over to you, his movements fluid and graceful despite his size. "You have a remarkable gift," he said softly, his voice filled with admiration.

You tilted your head, a curious look in your eyes. "What do you mean?"

"The way you care for others," he explained, his hand reaching out to gently brush a strand of hair from your face. "You remind me to take care of myself, to slow down and appreciate the small moments. You have a heart as vast and nurturing as the forest itself."

You blushed at his words, a shy smile spreading across your lips. "I just do what feels right."

Halsin chuckled, his hand cupping your cheek. "And that is why I love you. Your kindness, your strength, your unwavering compassion. You make me a better person, and for that, I am endlessly grateful."

Your eyes shimmered with emotion as you leaned into his touch. "I love you too, Halsin. More than words can say."

In that quiet moment, surrounded by the peaceful sounds of the night and the warmth of the campfire, Halsin felt a profound sense of contentment. You were his anchor, his guiding light. And he knew that with you by his side, he could face whatever challenges lay ahead.

Hope you liked this nonnie and thank you so much for your sweet message <3 xoxoxo

[glitterpensupremacy]

(NOT MTS CONTENT) Alright, as a Miraculous fan (with a particularly vested interest in Chat Noir) I’m making my thoughts on the new Chat Noir look clear.

I’m not super upset that he doesn’t have a new outfit, since, let’s be honest, Ladybug and Carapace needed it WAY more than he did.

I’m also not that concerned about his new proportions. Yeah, they’re a little funny looking, it that might just be the camera angle. Either way, he’s getting older so it makes sense that his facial structure is changing (plus I give my own CN a slightly more angular face to indicate that he’s a sweet kid, sure, but there’s a lot more to him than just “good perfect bean”.

So then, what’s got me emotionally invested enough to make a Tumblr post? (By now it’s probably pretty obvious…)

The hair.

HERE’S THE THING THOUGH- it’s not that I think the hairstyle is bad or ugly. It’s very stylish, and the smooth swishy look would be more than welcomed on a different character. But that’s the problem, this is the wild and chaotic Chat Noir, the catboy of destruction who tells terrible puns. His hair should not be that neat, and it should not be that perfect (yeah it’s a little messy, but only enough to have that “effortless, natural look” you’d see in a shampoo ad)

Maybe I’m overreacting; after all, it’s just a hairstyle, and I’m treating it like it’s the end all be all for his character in Season Six. However… it’s not just the hair. While watching Season Five, I noticed that Chat Noir doesn’t really joke around as much as he did in previous seasons (especially in the second half of S5), and isn’t really allowed to get mad or be rebellious outside of when his role as the love interest needs him to (trying to cataclysm Dark Owl because of the Married LadyNoir vision, trying to cataclysm Dark Cupid because he’s being a protective boyfriend to Marinette, telling off Nighttormentor because Gabriel forced him to go to London, sure, but the show makes it clear that the REAL problem is him trying to keep Adrien and Marinette apart). Other than that, he’s the perfect well-behaved supportive partner.

In general, it feels like Chat Noir and Adrien are becoming more similar personalities, which is good: I think a lot of us have anticipated this happening for his character arc… but the problem is, Chat Noir is becoming more like Adrien rather than Adrien becoming Chat Noir, because isn’t his arc supposed to be breaking free of the perfect controlled persona his father has forced him into, learning to express himself and become his own person? (There’s also the fact that I think he’s a little more interesting to watch as Chat Noir or the more expressive early seasons Adrien, but his development is the more important issue here.)

This kinda thing has me worried that everyone who believes that the finale was bad on purpose (the secret dystopia route) and that the writer’s genuinely do want us to believe that Gabriel’s actions have been valid and ethical (THEY ARE NOT: BRO IS A TERRORIST 💀.) Either that, or they just want us to watch the cute shipping scenes and not really care about Adrien’s character outside of that. Kinda a bleak view, I know, but that’s how things have been looking lately. (Maybe they’re making him look neater as a part of the dystopia route though? I guess we’ll see but it seems unlikely…)

(I probably should reemphasize that I’m not actually getting this “doom and gloom conspiracy board” over JUST a haircut. It’s more like I saw a bunch of other (personal) warning signs over the last two seasons, and this is just one other thing making me more worried.)

I know this isn’t my usual stuff but I felt like I needed to air my grievances (especially since while I have seen other people not like the new hair, it doesn’t seem to be for the same reasons as me, seeing as I don’t even dislike the hairstyle itself; just the fact that Chat Noir’s the one who has it). Hopefully this was at least interesting or even validating, but if not… Well, I’ll get back to my normal content after this anyway.

[cbrownjc]

Hi, Fun question I had while waiting for episode 6

Do you think Lestat, Daniel, Armand and Louis would like the twilight movies? Why and to which character would they relate the most?

Have a nice day!

Hi!

Well, first I should admit to you that I don't like Twilight. I've always disliked it since I read the first book before the first movie even came out. (And that is the only book in the series I've read BTW, though I have seen all 4 films -- only the first one in theaters though). So I actually don't know how objective I can be about this question . . . but I'll try. 🤔

And oh, you know what? I think Anne Rice herself commented on what Lestat and Louis thought about Twilight in a Facebook post back in the day, even though I don't have a copy of it. Which probably has a nicer reaction to it than I would give them about it. Or, at least what their book versions think about the series.

But I'm assuming you asking about the show versions of the characters and what they think, and with that? Well --! 😈

IMO, Lestat, and Louis both would find the whole movie series mostly hilarious IMO, just like they did Nosferatu. I can also see Lestat needling Louis a little bit wrt the whole "Bella has visions of Edward" thing if Lestat knows about Louis having visions of him during his first few years in Paris, and Louis being annoyed by that and insisting it was a totally different thing when it came to him -- given that, for one he was an actual vampire at the time unlike her and "vampire bond" and all of that -- and he is nothing like Bella Swann thank you! Anyway, Lestat saves most of his snark and laughter for The Volturi however because, as far as a coven that is supposed to be the head of the vampire world, how ineffective are they!?

Louis is also the only one out of the four who's even bothered to read all of the books in the series, even the most recent ones like Midnight Sun. He thinks they are less funny than the movies, but that's more because he didn't have Lestat in his ear making comments or laughing along with him as he read them. And hey, he can admit he does relate to the "not wanting to eat humans" thing of the Cullens though, sadly, the way that works in their world doesn't in the real one. 😔 Louis also knows that if Jasper Hale was real, he would purposefully antagonize the hell out of him on sight for that Confederate Army stuff (because if you think the issue of slavery wouldn't come up at some point --!)

Armand, being the true cinephile of the group would, IMO, find the films terrible just as films. And he thinks Bill Condon fell off as a director once he did that series, which is sad because Condon's Gods and Monsters is a film he greatly likes. However, he couldn't help but wonder if Stephenie Meyer was used by some ancient vampire -- via the Mind Gift -- to write this series of stories for the mortal world that gets so much of real vampire lore so very wrong on purpose (he read the first book and that was enough); and that maybe she was used by some ancient vampires to do so to hide something from the mortal world about something that was going on in the actual vampire world at the time. He looked into that idea very much at the time and, even though he didn't find anything, he still looks into it on occasion from time to time still, years later. But look, as far as the main story itself goes, Armand gets Edward not wanting to turn Bella. He just thinks Edward went about it all wrong. And he lowkey also gets Jacob obsessing over Bella too -- but he doesn't want to look at why he does too much.

Daniel was forced to watch all 4 movies with his younger daughter -- one of the few things as a deadbeat dad he did do with her when she would spend time with him after the divorce. (Same reason he's seen all the Harry Potter movies as well.) He thinks they're okay -- not the best thing he's ever seen, but not the worst. And he weirdly understands Bella's obsession with Edward for some reason -- he even feels a kind of sympathy toward her about it, though he of course logically knows she should just get over it because it would be the healthier thing to do.

If you are a fan of the Twilight series I hope you weren't too offended by this answer to the question. Because yeah, I can't pretend to like that series, and so my answer was going to have the characters snarking and critiquing it in some way, if not just mostly indifferent about it (in the case of Daniel).

[hatredmadeofgold]

So, Raiden has DID, right. This is a fact.

What do you think about his system? I know you write fanfic about him, do you think there are any other elaborated parts other than Raiden and The Ripper? (I'm not a fan of "evil murder alter," but I feel like naming would be pretty ambiguous. :)

Hey anon, I am sorry in advance but this answer is 2263 words long lmao Go sit back with a beverage of your choice (I recommend water) and enjoy the ride.

[Not sure if you’ve read my little attempt at an essay from July 2022 about him having DID (it’s here), but I do consider it outdated now and would love to update it (same as the one on him having ASPD) at some point when I got the energy for that.]

This is a fact made me laugh a bit, ngl.

I am not a fan of the “evil murderer alter” thing either (I watched Split once and while I give my kudos to the actor’s portrayal of various alters, the story itself sucks ass and I also found it boring as hell to be honest) — if anything, Raiden’s entire system consists of “evil murderer alters”, or none of such at all. We’re speaking about a character who admits to enjoying murder, and that wasn’t The Ripper speaking back then in MGS2 either — Raiden isn’t left in the dark of his violent nature, but he’s left in the dark about the details.

I don’t want to give too many spoilers for my fanfiction series @mgsr-sing-to-me away, since the story goes in-depth about my concept of his DID system, how it was created and what each alter roughly represents, but I’ll try to give you a quick rundown:

Something I think most MGS fans can all agree on is that Raiden in all three games in which he appears feels somewhat different, to the point of ‘inconsistency’ even, and this has created my interpretation and headcanon for him to have DID in the first place, and Raiden having suffered from amnesia is a well-known canon fact.

To me, however, it’s not MGR Raiden who feels strongly different in terms of personality — it’s MGS4 Raiden who feels like an inconsistency.

I consider the Raiden we see in MGS4 actually a different alter being in control of the body than the one who is in control during MGS2. During MGR, it feels like a mix of both of those alters but let me get to that later.

‘Jack the Ripper’ is an obvious alter, not an ‘alter ego’, and when I played MGR in Japanese, the cutscene after the Monsoon boss battle in which Raiden touches the wound on his abdomen made me realise — hold on, he suffered amnesia right there.

Something that I strongly dislike about the English Dub of MGR is that Quinton Flynn isn’t really good at the portrayal of Jack. Throughout the Japanese dub, however, Ken’yuu Horiuchi uses his voice to show the literal switching between at least three alters present in Raiden throughout the game. Unfortunately, this isn’t evident in the English dub much at all, aside from the Jack the Ripper Awakens cutscene.

For easier understanding’s sake, I will give those alters some nicknames (also to prevent spoilers for my fanfiction):

The Raiden of Denial, as we see him both in the first half of MGR and MGS2

The Raiden of Dissociality, as we see in the later half of MGR and on and off during MGS2 (especially during {optional} Codecs with Rose)

Jack the Ripper

The Raiden of Sorrow, as we see him during MGS4

I took these 4 observed alters from the canon as my pillars to roughly create my concept for his DID system, which boils down to an approximate number of 16 or more alters in total.

I say ’16 or more’ because Raiden has never received adequate therapy for his mental health issues during canon, and it’s hard to determine an exact number of alters in general due to the covert nature of the disorder.

I decided to keep the exact number ambiguous but clear and simple enough to not get overwhelmed because technically someone with such severe trauma as his could result in poly-fragmented DID (aka 100 or more alters), but that’s not even set in stone.

Let me get into the specifics a bit.

—

Raiden of Denial alters are parts of him that are, what the (flawed) model of structural dissociation would probably call “apparently normal parts” (short: ANP). I take this model with a grain of salt because DID isn’t as neatly structured as this model suggests (in my experience), but to keep it simple, these alters are less aware of the full extent of their traumas and are therefore ‘functional’ in everyday life as well as interpersonal relationships, however, they feel less ‘fleshed out’ or ‘mask-like’ in his case sometimes.

All Raiden of Denial alters tend to run away from their past, hence I label them with the word “denial”. All of these alters are adults, and the apparent Host alter {at the time}, present in the first half of MGS2 until the nanomachines suppressing a part of his memory (aka suppressing the majority of the system) are deactivated by Solidus Snake, is one of such.

—

Throughout MGR, we can see two alters intruding on each other’s consciousness with thoughts, feelings and memories. One of them is like the one we see in MGS2 and the prologue of MGR, one in denial. Then there’s one we see sometimes in MGS2 and more and more prominently during MGR, a dissocial one.

We see an indirect switch right at the beginning of Chapter 1, where a dissocial type takes over. This shift is also picked up by Kevin, mentioning Raiden’s callousness that Raiden does not respond to.

These two alters are in so much conflict with each other throughout the game that Jack the Ripper decides that he’s had enough of that shit from the other two because neither of them is capable of handling being consistently confronted with triggers and reminders of “who they all really are on the inside”, and shoves them both out of the frame and takes on full control.

This comes with strong amnesia about what happens during his takeover. It’s not total blackout amnesia, but rather that it feels like watching himself act in the third person perspective, and the memory feels like Raiden is watching a YouTube video on a bad internet connection in 360p resolution.

—

Now Jack the Ripper is a persecutor-type of alter — an alter that has a protective role for the system, however, a persecutor’s methods are causing harm to the system overall.

I don’t want to give too much away from my fic as I said, but I’ll give you the hint that Jack the Ripper that we see during MGR is both an adult and a child at the same time.

A child who is trying to protect himself by lashing out at everyone and everything around him. It is obvious given the context of what we are told from the games that Jack the Ripper was born from the horrible things he was forced to witness and forced to do himself when he was a child soldier in Liberia, hence his age-ambiguity. And even The Ripper is split into several variants, making The Ripper his own category of alters.

The variants of The Ripper handle various parts of the horrible things that he had to endure as a child soldier, and they vary in ‘age’ and what triggers them out but they all behave roughly the same.

Despite being different alters of the same category, unlike the other alters within the same category, Ripper variants all consider themselves to be one and the same, perhaps unable to understand the barriers between them as well as gaps in memory.

Also one part of these alters is a child alter who has none of these violent and hostile traits at all, but is still a part of this category. This alter is protected by the rest of The Ripper, and contains all of these emotions that he was not allowed to openly show to guarantee his survival back in Liberia, like fear, sorrow, and pain but also empathy.

There are multiple of these child alters in the system, but they are hard to distinguish without giving them names, some have memories of their trauma, and some are completely oblivious.

—

The Sorrow type of alters are what we exclusively see in MGS4 and are what I associate with self-hatred, recklessness, suicidal ideation (internal homicide), self-harm and substance abuse.  

Sorrow types are either adults or teenagers. They exclusively have a detailed awareness of Raiden’s addiction issues, which is another headcanon I have and is also listed in the content warnings for Sing to Me (ARC 2: Parasite Eve will handle this topic the most; and it may or may not be rather graphic, it depends on what I decide in the end what I will decide to publish).

—

Now I have listed 4 types of alters but I did not say anywhere that each category of them equates a set amount of alters to get to the number of 16 known alters in the system.

Because there’s another category to throw into the mix: Introjects.

So far, I have 4 introjects in mind that are part of Raiden’s system, but due to Sing to Me spoilers I cannot share them all.

Introjects are alters based on another person, be that a person in the system’s life, a celebrity they look up to, or even a fictional character. They exist in all DID systems in real life (and some sources confirm fiction-based introjects aka fictives since the 1980s) and their existence has a link to the psychology of child development.

One introject Raiden possesses is based on Solidus Snake/George Sears. Said alter is also a persecutor type and could be overlapping somewhat with the Ripper category, but is not a direct part of them. This persecutor introject of Solidus causes the entire system a major hit to their self-esteem, as he enacts the very same punishment onto the system, as the real Solidus Snake did on Raiden when he was a child soldier under his control, and also sabotages a lot of Raiden’s relationships by ‘protecting’ him from perceived threats that he sees in others.

—

Another I have in mind is perhaps based on Solid Snake/David and could have formed way before they’ve actually met. This makes sense because Raiden had gone through 2 years of VR training for the Big Shell mission, which put him into Snake’s role when he was on a solo infiltration mission on Shadow Moses Island in Alaska. This David introject is very loosely based on the actual person and is more of a fragment of what Raiden had been made to believe during those times. After their meeting, this introject might take the role of a ‘caretaker’ type of protector. Caretaker in this context must not be understood as to be something like a mother or father figure! However, this alter is counteracting the Solidus introject as well as the Ripper variants, by trying to get himself back on track.

—

Then there’s a fictive I feel like I can share about, and it’s the only female alter in the system: Ripley. And with that one I mean the actual Ellen Ripley from the first 4 movies of the Alien franchise.

Given that MGS2 mentions Raiden and Rose having met over arguing over King Kong, I came to think of what other types of fiction Raiden would enjoy and wrote myself a (still unfinished) list of movies and books.

The Alien franchise started in 1979 with the first movie, so it even matches timeline-wise that Raiden possibly saw those movies in his late teens, perhaps on TV or borrowed them from a local video rental store. Kaijū movies seem to be his thing, and although the Alien franchise is not considered one, it does overlap in some aspects of the genre.

Ripley as an alter might have formed when Raiden was moved into a foster family’s home, and to cope with his terrible nightmares that felt far too real, his psyche latched onto the fictional character to dissociate himself further from his past.

What I imagine is that he saw his nightmares, the flashbacks, and what he went through as something as undefeatable and unkillable as the xenomorph as described in the first movie, “the perfect survivor, without a conscience, guilt or remorse, nor moral code”.

Now Ripley was able to survive the xenomorph, and also kill it — by shooting it into space. Something that Raiden always wished to do with his past, just to erase it, as we learn in MGS2. At the time this alter takes its shape, he was maybe 15 or 16 years old. Ripley is also a protector, to protect the child in him additionally from pain. This alter then also takes a motherly role for the system inside Raiden’s Inner World, something that cannot be seen by an outsider.

—

The last introject I cannot say anything about it, since that one would give a too-harsh spoiler for my story plans with Sing to Me. I’d LOVE to talk about this alter and the absolute mindfuck he will create once he surfaces and interacts with other characters in the story, but my hands are tied. It sadly takes me so much time to work on the story due to the lack of energy I have overall, but it’s on my mind every single day. Even writing this answer took me two nights T_T

And considering that I’ve written over 2200 words to answer this ask already, I will make a cut here. Because honestly, I could write an entire book about Raiden (and Sam).

Which… I am actually doing, sort of, with my fic, due to its sheer estimated length of around 100 chapters for just the main story.

[woeismyhoe]

I'm gonna preface this by saying I have no problem with representation. I love queer stories, especially when they're organic and natural. I'm bi, and I've had fulfilling relationships with women as well as men. Honestly, I would love a spin-off on Brimsley and Reynolds. It didn't feel.....forced. the characters were new and their story grew organically. Michaela? No. I'm trying to articulate how I feel without sounding like I hate the queer community because I genuinely don't. I appreciated Benedict's story line even if it was a little jarring. He's exploring, experimenting and that's fine. It still doesn't take away from his story. But the introduction of Michaela felt like a guy punch. It felt wrong. I've never particularly like gender swapping in stories based on an original IP, because it changes a lot of dynamics. It changes a lot of story lines. And yes, it's fiction, but I'm sorry I cannot get over it, especially when it's such a blatant case of pandering. It makes me feel as if I'm wrong to question this change and I've somehow internalised homophobia. If so, then why wouldn't I hate other queer characters or be similarly uncomfortable?

Okay I think I can make my argument clear with an example. If anyone has seen the movie Love Lies Bleeding, I think they'll get it. The sexual orientation of the characters didn't matter. It felt right. And it was not important to the story. It was just an established dynamic and we could enjoy the plot easily. It wouldn't have mattered if it was a heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple, the story is largely unchanged. If Michael becomes Michaela, here's the issues I see. Who inherits Kilmartin. We've already established an estate will go to the next male heir if the current owner dies. A major part of Michael's story was his guilt over his inheritance and his imposter syndrome. His story arc taking his place in parliament. It's all gone. I mean, I know the show isn't interested in the plots other than the main character pairing but this felt so wrong. If they wanted a lesbian lead, the just make another show with original characters why force this? I'm not looking forward to Francescas season at all. I'm sure a lot of people will like it and that's their prerogative but for me, personally, the only thing keeping the story moving forward is Benedict. Maybe Eloise. But I feel like the story of the show has lost its charm and has dug itself into a hole like Disney or marvel

I’m going to try to be respectful as possible. As a lesbian, it’s deeply concerning and infuriating to me how so many people including ppl from the community have internalized misogyny and homophobia to queer women. Just because you support and don’t have an issue with queer male stories doesn’t mean you can’t be homophobic to queer female stories. Just because you’re bi doesn’t mean you can’t be homophobic. Why do you think majority of mlm stories are consumed by women? Why are the stories written and targeted towards women instead of the couple’s own community?

There’s an issue going on right now where many fans are okay and THRILLED with Benedict being bi and sleeping with a man, yet complaining about Francesca and Michaela— both have revealed that they have a potential to turn into queer stories. But no one’s batting an eye to Sophie being erased for Benedict’s potential gay partner. People are more okay with a lesbian Eloise than Francesca, and maybe because Eloise fits the stereotype more than Francesca. Why????

Maybe you need to reflect on why you’re feeling this way since you’re clearly favoring queer male stories over queer female stories. Why is a straight male character’s arc more important than a sapphic character who can go through the same arc and even MORE? Why are you okay with Benedict but not with Francesca? Why does Brimsley and Reynolds feel natural but Francesca and Michael is forced and pandering? Why is making sapphic representation pandering unless it’s based on stereotypes, but not gay representation?

This is Bridgerton. They made POCs part of the elites, it’s not historically accurate, the medicine and technology isn’t historically accurate. I see no reason why they won’t change the law at some point for it to be possible for a woman to inherit titles and estates. Even if they don’t go into that direction, I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more story to explore for a sapphic character.

There’s so many variants of Michael in other stories and media, he’s not special. But Michaela?? How many stories are there even in the mainstream media where we get a happy WLW couple that doesn’t end in tragedy? Literally 0. There’s no happy ending anywhere in popular media because Bury Your Gays is the default fate of every queer female story that gets even slightly popular. You say make a new show with sapphic characters yet 90% of the time they get cancelled after the first season and this is something we’ve been dealing with for decades and trying to call out.

So again, why is a straight couple’s story more important to you than a WLW couple who can offer a more unique, nuanced portrayal of yearning, desire, betrayal to one’s self, crisis of faith, even loss of identity and room to show politics in the Bridgerton world like how they did with Queen Charlotte— and make a bigger impact on how the public perceives queer women?

You’re uncomfortable with a queer female character changing what you know and are familiar with in the books— that she can’t possibly compare to what a male character can offer. It’s ironic how awfully similar that sounds to homophobes who can’t accept the existence of queer women in society because god forbid a woman can do what a man can for a woman, or even do better.

Don’t watch it if you don’t want to. The rest of us will feel valued and seen and enjoy it together when the season comes out while you distance yourself further from the sapphic community.

TLDR; Queerness makes the story richer than any straightness will.

[the-bitter-ocean]

10 12 and 15 for isat ask game :3

(FULL GAME SPOILERS + 2HATS/A6SE SPOILERS ) Thank you for asking these questions @aroace-poly-show ! I’m going to answer 10 since 12 and fifteen I’ve already in previous asks! If you’d like to know my answers to those you can find them here (ask 12) and here (ask 15) I have a ton of headcanons for both the setting of the game as a whole and also for individual characters but for now I think I’m gonna focus more on the world building aspect in this ask! I won’t delve into all of them but I’ll grab some that I talked about to my friends:

10- any headcanons about the in-game world? (about the forgotten island, craft types, just like. world building hcs, etc)

For the island I like to think the people living there would collect dandelions, folded paper cranes and looked for shooting stars because all of those are methods of making a wish. I also like the idea of there being festivals and ceremonies where people would make and light up lanterns to put in the sky. I also think that the Island had a close trade relation to places like Vaugarde (Bambouche specifically given how close it is to the island + both areas are coastal and how its cultural aspects seem to have major overlap in some areas as well with the favor trees etc). We don’t know a lot about the island or its culture in game but from what little we see from Siffrin’s memories and optional content in game it is very fascinating. I like to think out of all the countries the island is the more technologically advanced (given the studies on the stars and cultural practices of wishcraft/ time craft that region could have been the main ones studying it, hence the lack of info on either of these things once the island got wiped from everyone’s memories). I love when people in aus and fics and art explore the effects of this post game. Seeing everyone’s interpretations on whether the islands culture slowly gets remembered or more stuff about time craft/wish craft gets discovered or explore the effects of the color red being a permanent thing people can see now due to the events of act 5 is wild to think about.

In general I like seeing the different cultures views/ gods / faiths and belief systems and seeing how that affects the environment and characters who live within it. Odile mentioned having multiple gods aka “Expressions” (polytheistic) and that you build shrines / pray to only the ones you need in that moment, Mirabelle believes in the Change God (monotheistic) and Siffrin believes in the Universe (which to me reminds me more of a way of life/ belief system / conceptual idea of “Fate” itself rather than a conscious thinking autonomous being in the way expressions or the change god is ) All in all having these different elements makes the setting feel more open and interesting/ grounded in reality which u appreciate immensely. In the photos listed down below I said my personal HCS about the country of Mwudu since we don’t really get to hear about it in game aside from passing mentions and flavor text when you click certain objects.

[dkettchen]

I do enjoy dressing her entirely in canon outfits/cuts and the occasional top she's borrowed from nami and being like ye canon!sanji sure does own a pair of 3/4 pants with ballerina loafers he sure did wear that before with his whole cishet man ass and we didn't bat a single eye at it

[puppyeared]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you