#i'm contented with the way this connects the game canons? anyway

[bananasfosterparent]

@thewillowbends Hope it's okay I moved to text post, it seemed like a better idea.

First, let me be clear: People can write whatever they want and I'm not saying they can't or shouldn't.

----

"If Tav is happily evil, then we’re back to the issue of limits in the narrative functionality beyond shorter works."

If Tav HAS to be a meek, regretful abuse victim in order for a story to be lengthy and meaningful, then that is 100% a skill and creativity issue of the writer. Either them not having the ability to see the story from another perspective, or them not having the creativity level to consider other canon-friendly manifestations of the Evil Tav x Asc Astarion relationship. Those "limits" you speak of are only limits if you allow them to be and don't let yourself grow as a writer.

"As it is, game is pretty blunt about how the story of spawn Tav ends"

The game is not blunt at all. The game gives us NO ending to that. It's up to the player. The closest we have to an idea of an ending for "spawn" Tav, is this datamined title card:

(read image description for transcription)

While this was cut from the official release of the game (like all the epilogue content), it still shows what Larian had/has in mind for the direction of the Asc ending. And it's got no hints about abuse.

Astarion tells you as much if you break up with him — “I would’ve ruined your love, used your trust.”

This is called metagaming. BG3 is not like a tv show where all the little dots connect and line up. BG3 is a "choose your own adventure" novel in video game form. It works just the same. So any choices or options you DO NOT select are NOT TRUE for your character in that playthrough. So nothing Spawn Astarion says in that ending matters in regards to a playthrough with the Ascended ending. Nothing Asc Astarion says matters in regards to a playthrough with the Spawn ending. In BOTH endings, he thanks Tav genuinely, fully appreciates the choice, is glad the opposite choice wasn't made, and wants Tav to choose what their next adventure will be. Both endings have to be worthwhile and feel satisfying for the player, and the best way to do that is to have Astarion genuinely appreciate what Tav has done, in BOTH endings. And he does.

"it’s a story about cycles and the destruction of life. It’s telling you what Astarion will become because Cazador used to be in his position."

It's telling who Cazedor was and his story. That doesn't mean Astarion is doomed to repeat it. Or that a specific ending IS him repeating it. There is no warning of such. It CAN go that way, but nothing in-game says it has to. Because breaking "the cycle" isn't one specific thing. And he breaks cycles in BOTH endings.

Astarion's story is about corruption and choosing to either become more corrupt (than he already is) or try to live by the rules of society and just accept how things are. In the Spawn ending he talks about the "cycle of power", meaning the cycle of vampire culture that thrives on a pyramid of power. He is free of that headache and appreciates that. As to the quote you mention, Astarion is speculating about ascension. He has no idea what would have actually happened, he can only guess. He is an opportunistic optimist so he'd more likely see the path he couldn't take as one he shouldn't have anyway. And having him say that in-game for that ending, makes that ending feel worth it for the player.

In the Asc ending, he breaks the cycles of loneliness, living in darkness, selfishness, hunger, and wants to treat his own spawn better than Cazedor ever did. Astarion hates the word spawn and chooses to call his future ones his "children" instead. He loves the sun, it's symbolic for him. Yet, he is fully willing, without hesitation, to give up something he loves so much, so that his "children" can thrive in a world that is shrouded in fog. He also takes on a consort (vampire bride/groom) and wants to share that power, something Cazedor did not do (as far as we know).

You can break away from Larian’s story, certainly, but a lot of fanfic writers are trying to stick to what was extant within the media itself. At some point, if you pull too far away from it, you’re just writing an original story, and the issue most writers then run into is…why not turn it fully original and publish it then?

Here's the problem with this: Larian's story IS BOTH endings. There is no metaphorical build up in the game that sets up *only* the Spawn ending as his "real" or "true" ending. It's a metaphorical build up that can have TWO different solutions. One being reject the power and accept life as it is. The other being usurp power and rewrite the rules. Ascension is never shown to be a truly evil or bad thing. The worst part of it is sacrificing the 7000 spawn. But if Tav/Durge rationalizes this, there are no real negatives. The only negatives may be if one does not vibe with his confidence boost and prefers him more docile. The whole last statement you've made and way of thinking makes it seem like his Spawn ending is the real one and his Ascended ending is just some "fun and sexy" alternative but invalid thing you can do.

His story arc is BOTH endings. They are both just as bad and as good as the other, it's just a matter of what works for your Tav/Durge and for you as the player. He does not have ONE TRUE ENDING. You choose the lesser of two evils. Which one is "lesser" depends entirely on the player and Tav/Durge as individuals.

If ANYTHING, writing Ascended Astarion as an abusive, uncaring, unloving monster is just writing an original story and not sticking to what is within the game itself. Not the other way around.

Also, as a last comment... a fanfiction does not have to be a 70 chapter epic. It can be 1-3 chapters and be a complete work. Or just one chapter. Or a few paragraphs. But Tav and Astarion being happily evil together shouldn't be a reason you can't write a lengthy and fleshed out story. That's just lack of creativity. Spawn ending fans outnumber Asc ending fans, and most Spawn fans have a negative view of Asc Astarion. So that's more likely the reason why we never see many happily evil Tav x Astarion fics.

[corallapis]

Hi <3 No obligation to answer, I know dw lore is really convoluted and there's a lot of expanded universe material, but you've mentioned a few times that you think the War Chief is the Master. I'm also a War Chief/Master truther because I think that makes the contents of The War Games more fun and interesting (& also could count as another time the Master got the Doctor killed <3 romance <3) but I wanted to know if you had more reasons/examples from canon that supports that idea

anon i’d be delighted to talk abt the war chief!!! he’s My Guy <3 and (dare i say it?) possibly even one of my favorite incarnations of the master. i’ve got lots of quotes for you under the cut, but to give a short summary of So Why Do People Think the War Chief is the Master, Anyway?:

the war chief was introduced in the war games, written by malcolm hulke and terrance dicks. (dicks, it should be mentioned, was also co-creator of the master, with barry letts.) when hulke & dicks novelized the serials colony in space, terror of the autons, and the war games, they dropped several hints that the war chief and the master were the same man. so, the creators of the characters were the first to suggest a connection between them.

but, i hear you cry, didn’t dicks go on to write timewyrm: exodus, which shows us a future incarnation of the war chief that isn’t the master? yes, because the official editorial line for the vmas & vnas was that the war chief & the master were two distinct characters. this caused more than one writer that personally believed them to be the same to write otherwise professionally. however, i think dicks still dropped hints linking the two despite this editorial limitation.

and what about magnus, the guy who’s well-known in current fandom as the “academy era” version of the war chief? conceived of by gary russell, magnus was originally written as a young incarnation of the master, not the war chief. in flashback, goth opera and invasion of the cat-people, the character of magnus is a young master. so why did russell retcon his own character in divided loyalties to be the war chief instead? he did so out of respect for david mcintee, who had recently written a different backstory for the master in the dark path, using the name koschei. despite divided loyalties’ portrayal of magnus and koschei as separate characters, it actually in large part serves to conflate the two further, due to said retconning.

in faction paradox lore, the war king is a version of the master (i don’t need to make a post on that, do i?) that also was once the war chief.

and now we’re really getting murky canon-wise, but craig hinton’s rejected pda time’s champion (ultimately completed & published after his death, by chris mckeon) explicitly depicts the war chief as an incarnation as the master, as well as reasserting that magnus was the name the master used at the academy.

even with all this Evidence, i’m like you, anon — i just think it’s Fun. i mean, just look at the guy lmao. if you can’t see the way that future incarnations are riffing off him, idk what to tell you. and ultimately, it just makes the most sense to me. three & delgado’s first meeting doesn’t really strike me as a First Time Seeing You Since You Left kind of affair, but the way two & the war chief react to seeing each other? and the conversation they have abt it…? yeah. love it.

the ‘70s target novelizations

doctor who and the doomsday weapon (aka colony in space) was the first novelization to feature the master, and was written by malcolm hulke in 1974. it begins with a scene that doesn’t occur in the tv story, where a senile old time lord tells his apprentice about the theft of two tardises by a pair of time lords now calling themselves the doctor & the master:

“There have been two stolen, you know.” The younger Time Lord didn’t know. “By our enemies?” he asked. “No. By Time Lords. They both became bored with this place. It was too peaceful for them, not enough happening.” The old Keeper smiled to himself, as though remembering with some glee all the fuss when two TARDISes were stolen. “One of them nowadays calls himself ‘the Doctor.’ The other says he is ‘the Master.’”

if there have been only two tardises stolen (at this point), then where does that leave the other renegades we've seen on tv? well, the answer to that is that the target novelizations were meant to be self-contained, without prior knowledge of the show needed or past episodes taken into account. it’s easier and cleaner to present the doctor & the master as the only two renegades. except the older time lord continues, and a little further on says:

“There were tens of thousands of humans from the planet Earth, stranded on another planet where they thought they were re-fighting all the wars of Earth’s terrible history. The Doctor” — he interrupted himself — “I told you about him, didn’t I?” “Yes,” said the young Time Lord, now used to the old Keeper forgetting what he had already said. “You mentioned the Doctor and the Master.” “No, it wasn’t the Master,” said the old Keeper in his confused way. “The Master never does anything good for anyone. He’s thoroughly evil. Now what was I saying?”

despite the self-contained nature of the novelizations, the events of the war games (which had yet to be novelized, when this was written) have occurred and are specifically brought up in relation to the doctor & the master. what does ‘it wasn't the master’ mean? the keeper’s confusion leaves it open to interpretation, but the fact that it’s brought up at all is quite a hint.

terrance dicks then wrote doctor who and the terror of the autons in 1975. additional info is added to the scene between the doctor and the time lord who comes to warn him about the master’s arrival on earth:

“As a matter of fact, I’ve come to bring you a warning. An old friend of yours has arrived on Earth.” “One of our people? Who is it?” The Time Lord pronounced a string of mellifluous syllables — one of the strange Time Lord names that are never disclosed to outsiders. Then he added, “These days he calls himself the Master.”

he uses the master’s gallifreyan name first, as if the doctor doesn’t know the name he’s now going by yet. then, we’re given a description of the master, including:

Already he had been behind several Interplanetary Wars, always disappearing from the scene before he could be caught. If ever he were caught, his fate would be far worse than the Doctor’s exile. Once captured by the Time Lords, the Master’s life-stream would be thrown into reverse. Not only would he no longer exist, he would never have existed. It was the severest punishment in the Time Lords’ power.

which brings to mind the war games, as the punishment described here is exactly what the time lords did to the war lord & what they would have done to the war chief, if he hadn’t died/escaped. and, speaking of that escape, the doctor asks:

“Is his TARDIS still working?” “I’m afraid so. He got away before it could be de-energised.” “Then he was luckier than I,” said the Doctor sadly. He had never really got used to his exile.

unlike the doctor, who was unable to get away from the time lords at the end of the war games, the master was ‘luckier.’ this could, of course, mean a more general escape from the time lords by the master, but i’d say all the hints here are pointing in the same direction.

in 1979, malcolm hulke wrote doctor who and the war games. the first conversation between the doctor and the war chief is slightly changed, and again it’s reiterated that there have only been two tardises stolen. first, the war chief teases the doctor about who he must be:

The War Chief took the Doctor into his private office just off the war room and told his bodyguards to leave. “Now,” he said, “a traveller in a time-space machine. There is only one person you can be.” “I had every right to leave,” said the Doctor. “And to steal a TARDIS?” The War Chief smiled. “Not that I am criticising you. I left our people too. We are two of a kind.”

and later, he summarizes that their empire (their empire <3) will be secure because, again, they’re the only two with stolen tardises:

“Now I understand,” said the Doctor. “It’s my TARDIS that you want. But surely you have one of your own?” The War Chief smiled. “No more mine than yours is really yours! We are both thieves, Doctor. Yes, I do have a TARDIS hidden away. But are not two better than one? While I rest and enjoy the spoils of victory, you can patrol our empire. And I shall do the same for you.” “Our empire?” “We shall rule the galaxy without fear of opposition,’ the War Chief said confidently. “For we shall be the only two who can travel through both space and time.”

this (very romantic imo) proposal is also, of course, very reminiscent of delgado’s ‘half-share in the universe’ proposal to three.

timewyrm: exodus by terrance dicks

in 1991, terrance dicks wrote a vna, timewyrm: exodus. in this novel, the war chief appears as a botched two-bodied regeneration after his death at the end of the war games, called dr. kriegslieter. no mention of the master is made. as i said before, i think this is down to virgin’s editorial policy, and i think there are hints connecting the two nonetheless. like when the doctor realizes who kriegslieter is:

And behind them, aiding them, manipulating them, giving them the time technology they needed, the Time Lord renegade who called himself the War Chief. Or, in German, der kriegslieter. “Well, he couldn’t have spelled it out for me much more plainly,” muttered the Doctor.

like, c’mon. it’s just classic master shenanigans to have your alias be an extremely obvious translation of your name. and then there's also kriegslieter’s plan, which is to steal the doctor's body to use as his own (complete with sexual innuendo):

“Once I have wrested from it the secret of the TARDIS, your mind will be of no further interest to me. But your body…” “Please,” said the Doctor, looking embarrassed. “Ladies present.” “We are both Time Lords, Doctor, our brains and our bodies are compatible. Regeneration therapy is far beyond the War Lord’s scientists, but even they can manage a simple brain transplant.” Kriegslieter studied the Doctor with detached, clinical interest. “To be honest, it isn’t the body I would have chosen but it’s infinitely superior to the one I have. When all this is over Doctor, I shall be you — and you, or whatever shattered gibbering remnant of you is left, will be me. Appropriate, don’t you think? A crippled mind in a crippled body…”

how many times have we seen the master do that? maybe only once when this book was written (in the keeper of traken, of course) but at least three more times since then, by my count. in addition ‘we are both time lords’ is an echo of both two & the war chief's conversation and three & delgado’s (in the mind of evil, the claws of axos, and colony in space).

kriegslieter also calls seven ‘my dear doctor’ throughout, which is not a quirk of speech that the war chief has been ever shown to have. i can't claim it's unique to the master, but i think there's a certain history there. (did you know ainley says it five times in one 50 min long serial?)

magnus, as the master

as said before, the character of magnus was introduced in comic flashback, which appeared in the doctor who magazine winter special for 1992 and was commissioned and edited by gary russell (& written by warwick gray). it depicts seven and benny viewing a scene from the doctor’s past, where two old friends, thete and magnus, are at odds.

magnus was, at the time of this comic's creation, meant to be the master. there is no connection to the war chief in this story. which is why when goth opera, written by paul cornell, is published in 1994, magnus is the name used for the young master when listing out the doctor's school friends:

“That was when I was young and wild, Doctor. My contemporaries and I grew up to take our responsibilities seriously.” “Ah…” The Doctor nodded. “Unlike my year. I begin to see.” “Yes.” Ruath warmed to her subject, sipping from the goblet. Her eyes never left the Doctor’s. “Mortimus, the Rani, that idiot Magnus. And you, Doctor. All graduates of Borusa’s Academy for scoundrels.”

and, in 1995, when gary russell wrote invasion of the cat-people, he again used magnus as a name for the young master, referencing the master running out of lives far more quickly than the doctor by the time of the deadly assassin:

Polly smiled. “I’m glad you’re completely recovered, Doctor. You had us worried, you know.” “Regeneration’s a tricky thing,” he said. “And it was my first one. Always the trickiest. They’re supposed to get better as they go on, so long as you don’t flitter them. Always used to say to my academy chum Magnus, ‘Magnus,’ I’d say, ‘Magnus, don’t throw old bodies away like you would a suit. They don’t grow on trees.’ Or something like that. Never listened though.”

when gary russell wrote divided loyalties in 1999, he followed mcintee’s lead in using koschei as the name for a young master, and instead retconned magnus a younger war chief, showing the two of them interacting during the doctor’s academy days — the final nail in the coffin of our lil theory, right? well, all i’m going to say to that is that all the academy era stuff we see is actually a nightmare the fifth doctor is having. so who’s to say he didn't dream his best friend as two different people? (he forgot which one of them killed a guy with a rock, after all...)

the war chief king

in the book of the war, the 2002 faction paradox ‘encyclopedia’ edited by lawrence miles, the entry on the war king states:

His personal assistant notes that his office is brimming with official business, but devoid of decoration. The only concession he makes to sentimentality are the components of a hypercube, twelve white squares stacked neatly on his desk. Its significance is unclear, but it’s thought to be the War King’s last remaining link with his unfortunate past.

the very first use of a hypercube was, of course, at the end of the war games, when the second doctor called the time lords in. if that's not concrete enough for you, the war king spells it out even more clearly in the 2021 audio sabbath and the king:

THE WAR KING: I have failed to introduce myself. I am— ah, but as we have just seen: names have power. I do not think I shall grace you with one of my true names, Sabbath, no, not yet. Let’s see. The Deathless? Oh, let us not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Chief and Master, Minister and Magistrate, President and King… I have been many things.

time’s champion

and finally we have time’s champion, originally written in the '80s(?) by craig hinton, completed and published by chris mckeon in 2008. first, we have mel stumbling upon a corridor of portraits in the tardis:

Her first impression was that the Doctor was at the end of a long, thin corridor. And then she realised what the corridor was. An art gallery, the length hung with paintings, from the doorway to the far distance. As she started padding silently along the corridor, she looked at the paintings, and saw they were all portraits. Portraits painted in a variety of styles, from photo-realistic to impressionist, and everything in between. And she recognised some of the subjects. […] Moving on, Mel had hoped for something a little less depressing, but it wasn’t to be. The atmosphere had changed again: it was still cold, but a sterile light was now bathing the area. Then she realised why: the sterility, the coldness — trademarks of the Time Lords. This must be the Doctor’s own people. Pride of place was given to the Master — or rather the Masters: the familiar, music-hall villain in his velvet penguin suit had been captured in all his melodramatic glory, but there was also a suave, older man, his eyes radiating a fierce, evil intelligence wrapped in charm, next to which was positioned the portrait of a young, satanically handsome man with long, sharp sideburns and a thin, beard-length moustache, whose hand vainly clutched at a strange medallion hanging around his neck, as if clinging to the only power in his possession. And then there was an image of the cadaver, that rotting corpse that Mel knew was all that remained of the Doctor’s oldest friend and oldest enemy, animated by nothing but pure malice and spite.

the description of the ‘satanically handsome man’ is obviously the war chief. and then, the doctor remembers events from his past:

The night time vanished into the shadows of light, as new images, all familiar, threw themselves past the Doctor’s eyes: his tedious years at the Academy, his rise in the Time Lord hierarchy, his flight from Gallifrey, the early years of his exile, the planet of the War Games and his reunion with the Master, the lost years of imposed servitude to the Time Lords, all his memories and so many more impressed their way across the Doctor’s vision, even up to the moment of the present day. Then, abruptly, the vision ended. The Keeper began to speak again.

his reunion with the master occurs during the war games and precedes his exile (which is when his meeting with delgado’s master occurs). and magnus is once again used as a name for the young master:

The Doctor and Benton managed to glimpse him as he raced past. He was young, with a curving moustache and a dark, haughty face accustomed to obedience but now shadowed and twisted by fear. He ran onwards without even pausing to acknowledge their presence. He seemed desperate to outrun something. Moments later, a group of well-armed and uniformed men rounded the corridor and also hurried past the Doctor’s party, following the fleeing man in their wake. Steadying himself against the cool stone wall at his side, the Doctor watched the squad pass, recognising them as members of the Chancellery Guard, but clothed in armour and dress from the long departed era of his days in the Academy. The Doctor paused, wondering where he had seen that face before. “Magnus?” the Doctor whispered. Benton stepped over to the Doctor. “Who was that bloke those boys were chasing after, Doc? He looked a bit like the Master.” The Doctor gazed into the distance. “That he did, and for good reason.”

[plague-of-insomnia]

Ask game: A ship you like, but others don't?

A ship you dislike but others do?

This one is easy.

A Ship I Like Others Don't: All of them? lol.

Honestly, most of the ships I love are uncommon. Some I am literally the ONLY person who has written about them here or on AO3, including BardAgni and Vintaka, which makes me so sad bc they're suchhhh good ships.

Even Sebard has very few followers. And sadly, sebagni is almost all antis </3. I'm like... the only one posting about them here (who I don't have blocked or doesn't have me blocked, anyway). There's a couple non-anti artists who still draw sebard occasionally.... sebagni is almost never seen anymore outside anti circles... and it's not a popular ship in Japan so there's no content in that fandom, either.

There's a lot of other rare ships I like but haven't been able to write for yet, like Bardlau, or Sebataker (one of the more popular ships I like)*.

*Correction, I *have* written Sebataker, in WDH, but not as its own story. Yet.

But I love trying out different combinations. If I had had more spoons in my years in the fandom I probably would have written at least one little thing for every ship I felt like trying out.... maybe someday. I still want to do that Vintaka vampire fic eventually....

Ofc I haven’t mentioned every ship I like, bc we'd be here all day, lol, but yeah, I really, really wish I could get a few people into BardAgni and Vintaka (and more into Sebardgani)..... maybe someday.

A Ship I Don't Like Others Do: Sebaciel

I don't really DISLIKE it, but it just... doesn't do much for me. I enjoy their dynamic in canon. It gives me ENORMOUS glee when they're working and scheming together, like in the Murder arc or Weston arcs (partly why those are my top two fave arcs). But they don't... spark much in me the way other ships do. I don't.... get that buzz of emotion when I imagine Seb and Ciel the way a lot of people do. I WISH I DID SOMETIMES because there is SO MUCH CONTENT for them in canon and ofc fan made.... But.... as much as I like Ciel in canon and admire him as a survivor and a character, he just... doesn't really connect with me out of canon in the same way that other characters do. I don't even include him in most of my stories lmao. He just... doesn't really interest me outside of the manga.

Thank you again for the asks. I'm sorry for the delay in replaying.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Idk what is it with legacy but everything seems to me like it was written on a napkin five minutes before the programming started. I'm crying about the ancient magic and the fact that nothing was done with it. The friends weren't involved with the plot enough, Fig was involved too much (were they trying to copy year 4 and 5 with Rakepick???), we CAN'T FUCKING ALLY WITH RANROK, Isodora and Bragbor successfully cooperated to create the repository but we can't have main character and ranrok paralleling that and working together.

You know, you're absolutely right.

This game was like...almost incredible. But in every area it could have been incredible, there's this pesky "almost" stuck as a prefix for this reason or that reason.

The companion mod is proof that not enough was done with the characters in this game (Amit doesn't even get a quest-line) but it's obvious that the characters are still compelling. Poppy and Natsai are three dimensional and lovable, and Sebastian's popularity speaks for itself. Even the ones who aren't meant to be in focus can be well crafted. (They rolled a real winner with Ominis, I said what I said.)

Fig was obviously meant to be a significant character (I am still not clear on what subject he teaches, does anyone know...?) and given his connection to the plot through Miriam, that's to be expected. He's a lovable guy and I don't mind him being so relevant, but it's obvious that (for better or for worse) the student characters are largely here by obligation and in the mind of the developers, they're more for side-quest content. That other characters like Fig and Lodgok are meant to be the important ones. Again, for better or for worse. I've heard it said that Sebastian's story should have just been the main storyline of the game and honestly...that's not entirely a bad idea.

Though frankly, I think a far better idea would have been just having Isidora as the villain instead of Ranrok.

Which is a good segue into talking about the other points you mentioned. I've talked about this before as well, but yes. Ranrok was beyond wasted as a character. What you describe would have been perfect, and yeah, it would have mirrored the backstory. It seems so obvious. Ranrok deserved more development and deserved to be portrayed as someone the MC might sympathize with. He deserved an ending of his own, where the player can side with him. Never mind the political, real-life reasons for why this was essential, it's just a no-brainer in an open world RPG that would have you believe it has multiple endings. (It really doesn't...)

Oh and that reminds me, this game pretends it has two endings when really, it only has one. Yes, you can choose to harness the Ancient Magic rather than becoming a Keeper, but it changes nothing about the game's ending. Half of the players were already going to head-canon their MCs as doing that anyway. The Ancient Magic is such an intriguing concept but apart from being a map marker for The Fifth Year to discover new plot threads, we don't learn much about it at all.

Honestly, the most fascinating the Ancient Magic ever gets is when we're learning about it through Isidora. The scene where she removed her father's pain was genuinely chilling, and in that I saw the glimmer of a terrifying villain wielding magic we had never seen before. Isidora would have been the best kind of villain because she would have believed she was doing the right thing and would have had understandable reason why she believed it. What she could do to those who oppose her...what she did to the people she loved, and all because she wanted to help them...the power of Ancient Magic is frightening, in no small part because we know so little about it, but we could definitely have stood to learn a little bit more, especially as it's unlikely to be featured again. (Unless they make a sequel.)

I think above all, what this story needed was more nuance. Everything is way too black and white. There are hints of something more, but they get dropped almost immediately as they get brought up. Maybe that's why Sebastian's storyline is a fan-favorite. His dynamic with Ominis and where his story ultimately goes, not to mention the sympathetic reasons why it ends up where it does...and the actual impact The Fifth Year's choices can have on this story...yeah, the rest of the game could take note. Isidora isn't developed enough, and neither is Ranrok, when they could both be exceptional characters.

You want to know my favorite scene of the game, bar none? The scene where Lodgok opens up about meeting Miriam and his grief at her death. That. That is the kind of nuance I'm talking about, and combined with the scene's atmosphere and raw emotion...I teared up. I mean it. That was so powerful. I wish more of the Ranrok storyline was like that more of the time. Any story in the Potterverse that centers around a Goblin Rebellion cannot afford to be this black and white, and we all know why. But in general, it's just better storytelling if there are more shades of gray.

[basuralindo]

You'll Have Me Rise ch.19 is up!

Content warnings for nongraphic discussion of animal death, relatively graphic arachnophobia, mentions of family death and funerals.

Editing by @kamikazequail

And as always, commentary under the cut

-Yeah Jamil just walked straight into that pickup line completely unaware… Jade's never gonna let him live it down, if anyone ever tells him.

-Jade hides his emotions as well as he wants to when he's prepared, but have you noticed he's totally transparent when caught off guard in canon? I think he'd be more obvious than expected if something he wasn't prepared for made him uncomfortable.

-Yugioh voice: "You've activated Jade's special interest! You must stand by and listen to nature facts for a full hour." 

-Yeah Jade totally picked blue for poison specifically because it's such a universally innocuous color

-Jade: "Yeah I got whosits and whatsits galore" *opens door to reveal a horde of roadkill and mold*. Rizz game like no other

-tbh I just love slime mold and wanted to bring up slime molds because they're so fucking cool <3

-Oh btw, another fun psychology thing: If someone has a lot of stressors that they can't control or afford to be afraid of, the repressed terror can manifest as really intense irrational fears to things that are safer to avoid. For example, Jamil can't do anything about his situation and the risks and pressure involved, but he can absolutely obliterate a bug with very little repercussion. I feel like that phenomenon explains the level of fear he has with bugs in canon tbh.

-I also just really love bugs and didn't want Jamil killing them for character accuracy, so I've inserted Jade as protection. 

-I might go into this more in some other post but like, I love the contrast of classic fishtail mermaids in their reef environments vs deep sea monster mermaids. There's just so much room to build on the potential cultures surrounding that.

-Did I need to go on a tangent about mermaid funerals? Will the details ever be plot relevant? Probably not. But hey, world building. (I'm considering Azul keeping a locket with his stepdad's teeth)

-!!! I've been waiting to drop more info about the tweels parents! Anyway, it's a personal headcanon that the twins' social issues developed in response to being involved in mob violence early on. Too much ugliness to handle as kids, and they both kinda broke in opposite ways. Also kinda ties into their unique magic imo: Floyd being expected to handle himself in a fight and needing a defense, and Jade needing a more efficient way to extract info from people. 

-I could go on a whole ramble about my ideas for the Leech parents, but the short of it is that I think Jade and Floyd each picked up some personality quirks from the parent they were around more, but mostly developed emotional responses to balance out each parent's behavior (ie: reserved, observant, and meticulous in response to unpredictable emotional outbursts, vs emotional instability and exaggerated emotional reactions in response to emotional neglect and under-reactivity), hence the two comparing each other to opposite parents last time it was brought up. It also resulted in them balancing out each other's dispositions, leading to the kinda codependent dynamic they have as adults. I think they'd both feel like they specifically came out wrong as a result too. Like, Floyd believing he should be more pragmatic and levelheaded like Jade (like his mom wanted), and Jade feeling like he's too far gone and distant to connect with other people the way Floyd does.

-Mind games can be a form of foreplay, if you're tedious enough.

-I think Jade and Jamil would have similar ways of showing insecurity, Jamil's just more flexible about it. Jade, meanwhile, has ensured a position where he doesn't have to relinquish control unless he chooses to

-Will these people ever make out with Jamil in a normal location? The world may never know.

[thecruellestmonth]

Hello!

I saw your fic recs post (Jason Todd fics 2022)!

Aaaaand I saw Bloodstains Won't Make It Matter there. The fic about Jason resurrecting Stephanie and going for revenge in Gotham.

Do you know any other Steph fics? Maybe with Jason and Steph. Because... this one is great, but very biased and some things are VERY different from canon. Kinda like the writer didn't really read War Games and consequences. Which is sad, because it's a story that is placed right after the War Games and have Stephanie as one of two main characters.

have a good day/night✨

I made a Steph & Jason fic rec list a while back! "Jason and Me" and "Just Another Kid" are some of my top fics ever for Steph and for Jason, but I think everything there is solid! "Bloodstains Won't Make It Matter" is over here too.

Anyway, more random Steph fic recs!

"What's So Amazing That Keeps Us Stargazing" by Cerusee - Batman doesn't take another Robin after the second one, and Spoiler is effectively his third kid sidekick. Bruce has an actual heart in this fic, and he uses it to connect with Steph.

"The Unseen Garden" by Nokomis - Steph has a lot of emotions about the baby girl that she placed for adoption. This fic might make you a bit misty-eyed.

"Birthday" by CrimeAlley1048 - Like the last fic but softer.

"she’s like a shine on your shoes (or hearing the blues)" by Anonymous - The Bruce-is-Steph's-bio-dad fic that you didn't know you needed. A series of disembodied vignettes with hilarious comedy, mean-spirited pranks, and heart-melting moments.

"Have I Told You About Minnie?" by Hinn_Raven - Funny and sweet Malone family shenanigans.

"hit 'em up style" by TheResurrectionist - Really silly comedy. Bruce's perfectionist dad instincts lead him on a quest to buy the best menstrual hygiene product ever.

"Crepe Suzanne" by Cerusee - Steph deserves waffles and to tell Bruce that she hates him.

"little matchstick girl, asleep in the snow" by lifetimeoflaughter - NOT A HAPPY FIC! Revisits Bruce's abusive treatment of Steph and her alienation from a support system in canon.

Fan fiction replaces the biases of canon with different biases, and that's to be expected as a rule. If I want to engage with canon, then I read canon or talk about canon. I do bring in Doylist and Watsonian perspectives about canon events, but I try to exclude fanon and non-canon apocrypha. But when it comes to fan fiction and other fan-made content? I freely enjoy things that absolutely contradict canon. I'd definitely say my fic tastes do stick much closer to canon than most Batfandom/Batfic trends, but you can find some aggressive and gleeful butchering of canon in my fic recommendations.

About "Bloodstains Won't Make It Matter"... I'm not sure what you mean that it is "biased". I think the fic does a good job of portraying how Steph and Jason descend into terrible cruelty, violence, and grief, while also acknowledging them as victims of unresolved injustices. And just looking at canon only, without bringing fanon into the discussion at all, I believe War Games is part of a long deconstruction of Bruce Wayne/Batman in comics that continued all the way through Final Crisis. As a fan fiction, "BWIM" obviously does take some liberties with fudging canon, but I don't think the story is unfairly biased in favor of the Dead Robins or of Batman.

[oathkeeperoxas]

tag game to better know you

Ty @new-anon for tagging me! What else to do on a cold Monday morning public holiday then fill out a questionnaire about myself 🤔

What book are you currently reading?

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Definitely has nothing to do with the fact that we can see this book on Ice's shelf next to the photo of him and Mav shaking hands after rescuing the USS Layton...

What’s your favourite movie you saw in theatres this year?

I have only seen the new Spiderman (literally 2 days ago) so I guess that! I think it was pretty good, but tbh I liked the first one more.

What do you usually wear?

Pokemon or bird themed t-shirt paired with shorts or my high school gym trackies if it's cold. I have one green overcoat that I wear pretty much any time I need a jacket, it is very versatile in what weather it can be worn in.

How tall are you?

170cm, that's 5 foot 6 inches to those USAmericans in the audience (had to google that...)

What’s your star sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event?

I don't know any celebrities off the top of my head that I share a birthday with, and the only historical event I connect immediately with my birthday is a bad one lmao. Though it happened in the 1920s, so mostly only relevant when I was studying history in high school...

Do you go by your name or a nickname?

Serie! Fun fact, I made this name up on the spot randomly when playing Facebook games as an 11 year old and the RPG ones wanted me to input a name. I have been stuck with it ever since.

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child?

My current job didn't even exist when I was a child, so, no!

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one?

No relationship, and I have not had a crush since high school pff

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at?

Good at procrastinating, bad at resisting the lure of more wips 🙏 this makes for a wild combination haha

Dogs or cats?

Probably cats, but I am allergic to cats and dogs (and most fluffy creatures) so I don't have any pets :(

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what’s your favourite picture/favourite line/favourite etc. from something you created this year?

Probably my favourite things that I've posted this year was Dawn and well. haha. (nuts) because they were both very self-indulgent in a way that I always enjoy writing with codywan, though for very very different reasons.

What’s something you’d like to create content for?

I want to write more Aloy femslash!! I've written so much for her, but none really with the characters from the new game, and now with a canon femslash kiss under her belt, I think she deserves to be a wlw icon. Next year for femslash February I'm thinking of trying to organise a Horizon event to get some momentum not just for me but for others to create too

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

Val Kilmer's jaw.........

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

I can maybe half say the Horizon: Forbidden West DLC - I liked the overarching plot well enough, and they gave Aloy a lesbian kiss so I'm not too mad, but it carried over almost all of the issues from production that the base game had, which I was keen to see fixed in the DLC. That and the lack of backstory for Seyka or the Quen, the lack of side quests and the lack of interesting stuff to do in the wilds of the DLC made it a bit of a mediocre experience for me (though after HFW I wasn't expecting anything too good anyway).

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

Not sure if it's hidden, but I'm particularly good at spotting double spaces in a document. Pisses me off (it's my editor brain going haywire... my team is always making fun of me for this at work lmao)

Are you religious?

Nope!

What’s something you wish to have at this moment?

Someone to make me breakfast </3 alas after I post this I will simply have to do it myself

Tags?

@elwenyere @tragediegh @playablekairi @cillyscribbles if you like! No pressure ofc

[101flavoursofweird]

Terribly sorry to disturb you for what may be a very simple oversight on my part, but I'm still rather new to your Professor Layton content (which is ✨️spectacular✨️ by the way), and I've come to notice the mentions you make to an Azran time crystal that powers the time machine that offed Claire. Is this crystal a canonical object, or is this an original creation of your own design?

In the event it's your original idea, by the way, I think it's very creative and I quite like it!!

Hi, that’s ok, thanks for asking! Thank you for reading my fics :)

I did mention an Azran crystal in a Targent!Claire AU I recently wrote (The Phoenix). In that fic, Claire notes that the time machine was powered by an Azran energy source— that being a purple crystal. 

I don’t think the term ‘Azran crystal’ is ever mentioned in Azran Legacy, but I based it off Aurora’s pendant with the purple jewel and the purple ‘prism’ (as it’s called by Aurora) controlling the Azran sanctuary’s mechanisms and the golems. 

The prism powers the sanctuary, it looks very crystal-like… and to quote puzzle 150 from AL: ‘If you truly wish for them to be reborn, use the hourglass to turn back time’. This might just be a figure of speech when Aurora brings her fallen friends back to life, but still! 

Who’s to say another ‘Azran crystal’ couldn’t power the time machine? And that Targent were the shady company who funded Bill Hawks?

I know not everything has to be connected between the original games and the prequel Azran saga… Part of me likes how the original three games can stand on their own… but this is just an AU idea, anyway!

I also headcanon that the Relic Stones are Azran crystals (or some variant of them) as well. Maybe the same ice wall that kept Aurora frozen is linked to the machines used to keep Layton and Luke frozen, IDK. Which would make Desmond and Emmy’s lack of an appearance in the anime even more confusing— Did they just not care that Layton was investigating the Azran again?)— but OH WELL.

[r4tmaid]

hi hello, i wish to inhale mason lore since my lovely friend (noodle, noodle is my friend) got me into content smp, showed me a charcater that will now live my brain and THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN THE LORE !! (can you belive that. so rude /j). but have no clue where to start.

basically all i got was that mason is a guy who is now dead, and had a thing for ending world? and also picked up like. 2 kids on the way, and eventually stopped after killing child's 2 entire species because they were pathetic. then the idk. content smp happens, and he dies.

there's also something about circles. and ouroboros and The Seven (<- i think that's what they're called). noodle sucked at explaining that. but they kind of remind me of bloodborne which is my favourite game ever and my Special Interest Of All TIme so i'm SO curious. do you happen to know where i can start inhaling and picking apart this so interesting lore?

thank you in advance :D

No problem :deranged:

So, the funniest part about Arathain’s characters is that Arathain is The Bloodborne Enthusiast Ever. 95% of their lore for anything is Bloodborne inspired. This also, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you view it kekw) applies to their character, The Mason. I have this (albeit REALLY outdated) insane person moodboard from my my good friend ghostpajamas (linking and not tagging because he’ll fuckign kill me /lh) only posting this one because he never finished the powerpoint

The namemc skins connections have been expressed by Arathain to be NOT CANON I just don’t have the energy to edit it out (help its 1:30 am)

We have gotten lucky with the fact that The Mason is fuckign dead and therefore can no longer have any more interactions so less vod scrubbing but unfortunately we still have to scrub through them to get the most recent stuff like the destroyer of worlds and entire peoples. We also have posts from The Arathain Themself (another link bc I’d rather kill sif than tag them) about different lore (which I’m sure noodle has expressed before)

There’s no really “good place to start” you kind of just grab a piece and start munching on it. The more you explore the more you’ll find. Their lore is the MOST complicated to decipher but that’s why we’re insane about it o7

Also Arathain always wants me to get peoole to watch the tbskyen playlist of the bloodborne boss designs because their brain is wired around that for lore or something (<- hasn’t watched it. dude its like over 30 hours long???)

Anyway. I started writing this 30 minutes ago, got distracted to yell at Arathain, almost went snrrr mimimi without finishing the post, and remembered I have to wake up in 6 hours. Good luck on your journey my friend o7 if you have any specific questions about anything ever I’ll do my best to answer, and though even I don’t know everything, I’ll still answer to the best of my ability.

[bravevolunteer]

okay, i didn't think i was going to have to do this but recent developments have unfortunately also made it my problem, so

i don't fully incorporate any of the books into my portrayals— my understanding of all the books, INCLUDING t.ftpp, is that they are meant to introduce ideas and stories that influence the content of the games without directly translating their exact events into them. this has always been how they functioned and there isn't sufficient reason to prove otherwise, so that's how i'll treat them

while i am OPEN to discussing different possibilities for the events of f.naf 4, i don't default to the nights we see being michael's nightmares. of course, michael CAN have guilt-induced nightmares, and only under plotted circumstances will i be entertaining the idea that they're illusions / induced hallucinations / etc. i don't write it off necessarily, it's just not by default as that's always more flexible for myself and others!

f.naf 1 takes place after s.ister location in my timeline, full stop. that's it

aaand under the cut is just me ranting about my main issues with this— tw for mentions of child experimentation and hallucinations

so................. the IDEA of william conducting experiments on the fear levels of multiple children is not that out there for me? it actually really aligns with how i interpret the purpose of the funtimes— we've KNOWN they were built to capture kids and collect remnant, which... since we really don't know much about it, this experimentation could easily connect to his pursuit of remnant, immortality, etc. my PROBLEM with claiming this has "solved f.naf 4" or whatever is that it doesn't make sense with the timeline. WHY exactly would william BE conducting experiments on children before the death of his youngest? before the missing childrens incident? before he found out about remnant?

it seems like people who insist the books are one-to-one canon are debunking this question by saying "well of course william is an awful person he built robots to kill kids" and YES. he has ALWAYS been a terrible person from the start. he could've always ended up killing whether cc died or not. but i don't think it's sanitizing or excusing his actions to ask HOW he got from point A to point B— spur of the moment murder and carefully planned child kidnapping/experimentation is a HUGE leap, just like the discovery of remnant and immortality is more likely to be a gradual descent. if a situation like this were to happen it would make more sense around the time that the funtimes were made than it would in 1983. THAT is my main issue with claiming this is what was going on during fnaf 4.

i'll save any other thoughts for when the book actually comes out ( and i can see it for myself without relying on vague tweets claiming things without evidence ), but that's only just the biggest question of Multiple tbh.

again, i'm not fully against the general idea of this and i'm willing to plot about it in certain circumstances ( which is how i believe the books should be interpreted anyway! ), but that's the only way i'll be talking about any of it for now.

[bananasfosterparent]

Update on my current runs!

Silkina the Bard Waveservant -

She got the Volo eye (not pictured) and has been helping her friends while looking for a cure. This is my first "good" solo run, so it's a lot of content, more than I'm used to! Definitely going slower than my usual, but still a lot of fun! Also never realized how funny Karlach is lmao. Just getting to the goblin fight so we'll see how it goes! Very excited to get Wyll's party scene!! Silkina is sassy, but kind and really an outlier among other waveservants because of it. Well, she's really good at connecting with others at least. Despite it being odd, since most Waveservants (especially clerics) are quite standoffish and introverted, Silkina focuses on making her outgoing nature work for her, sharing the might and fury of Umberlee with her words (and music).

Also.. after getting the Volo eye and almost everyone disapproving, I noticed Wyll didn't.. but he didn't have a ! either. I had her talk to him anyway and he was like "Welcome to the one eye club! A woman with one eye is very intriguing c:" and I giggled.

Efeniti (Spawn Astarion ending AU run) -

In the exact same place it's been for a few weeks lmao I have not touched this playthrough. I AM SCHTALLING. I know what you're thinking... because I'm an AA fan... but really, I just can't emotionally handle the break down scene after he brutally stabs Cazedor. Or the brutal stabbing. I am really not ready for that. I have my own feelings for why and what it makes me experience, but maybe if I actually go through with it this time, I can talk about it (it's not that bad, I'm just procrastinating).

This version of Efenity is who she would be if she hadn't lost the woman who was like a mother to her. If she had been able to have a somewhat normal life and become a private magic teacher in the upper part of the city. She's much kinder and able to temper herself much better.

Efenity (Canon AA romance run #whatever) -

This is idk like the 5th time I've played as Efenity. I've lost count 🤷🏽‍♀️ Most of these runs, I only got to Act 3 and only 2 I've gotten to the final fight and couldn't win it after trying over and over. This time I plan to finish it!!! I want my epilogue, dang it! I killed Minthara this time, at the party. There was a leftover from EA with a voiced Tav scene. If you killed Minty and the goblins at the party, that night or morning after(?) there's some conversation and Tav says something in the cut scene! ANYWAY... I tried it and it didn't happen 😭😭😭 I either did it wrong (I attacked before Minty had her murder cutscene) OR they patched it out of the game! I could go back and try it again, but I barely won that fight and it took me SO many tries (mostly due to needing to long rest).

But! Regardless! Even though I didn't get that cool voiced Tav scene... I have added Efenity killing Minthara and the goblins at the party to her canon story. Because it just makes sense that she'd do that. Originally, she just uses her to get to Moonrise but I scrapped that. While Efenity just sees the tieflings as collateral damage, she knows Shadowheart was struggling with that whole ordeal which did bother her... she cares for SH and she is her first real friend. And with Minthara insulting her for not wanting to sleep with her, on top of it...

Efenity was like OKAY. Time for you to go, ma'am.

Solenia Omraebra, the Drow Cleric -

I've only had her for about a week and I love her. She's also been through at least 6 different hairstyles 😭 Solenia is my newest Tav, a Drow and cleric of Eilistraee! She's very studious and scholarly. I don't know much about her beyond that yet. Still working on her backstory and whatnot, BUT she is good to a fault. She wants to save everyone, in every way that she possibly can. Even those she probably shouldn't get close enough to, to try to save. Even those she is told are irredeemable. She's romancing Gale! She's just getting through Act 1 stuff and almost to the goblin camp!

[misc-obeyme]

🪿 returning very shortly after reading your most recent posts Just wanted to wish you the best! I'm quite new to obey me but i've really enjoyed your headcanons, drabbles, and ocs. Ciaran in particular really connected. I always end up making an side character oc rather than self-insert and it just spins further and further away from canon from there. I used to feel guilty cause it limited my interaction/contribution to the community, i still do often, but it never seemed right to fight against the urge. So, uh, if I could slip in a request (if it helps you find fun in your funk): Of the brothers, who is the worst at minding their space when in their demon forms? i.e. How often has Luicifer, in all his winged glory, turned too abruptly and knocked Ciaran over, if ever? Who has adapted too well to their human forms and forgot that things like horns and tails and wings take up physical space? And of your demon OC's, who would (theoretically) take up more than their fair share in a (hypothetical) subway car?

Hang on, hang on, 🪿?? Was I supposed to add that emoji to my list, but forgot?? Wow I hope not, if so I'm very sorry!! I try to add them right away so I don't forget because I'm very forgetful. Please let me know if I was supposed to add that to the anon list!

Oh, thank you so much! It still surprises me that people like Ciaran. I don't know why, but I guess I've just had more of a response to them than I ever expected to!

I hope you never fight against that urge because I do the same thing. I don't really like to put myself into self insert situations. I like to imagine the story through the eyes of someone who is not me. It's more fun for me that way. But I also understand the guilt - I always feel guilty about posting OC content, but I make myself do it anyway. I'm trying to be more confident and remember that I do this for fun!

Uh, I'm gonna put the rest of my response under a read more because it got LONG and I don't want people to have to scroll that much!

Okay, I love this idea of the demons being too used to their demon forms. I hadn't thought about it previously, but now I'm convinced that Lucifer has knocked Ciaran over with his wings lol. Just another thing to add to Ciaran's "Things That Annoy Me About Lucifer" list. It's probably got quite a few items on it already, but you can be sure they'd be adding "careless with wings" after such an incident.

That being said, I also think Levi might have this issue. His tail certainly seems to be the longest and the most likely to trip somebody. And when he's freaking out about something or really focused on one of his interests, I think he'd forget that he was in demon form entirely.

I could also see it being an issue for Mammon, who seems to rarely get into demon form at all. I think he's very proud of his wings, but I do think he probably forgets about them when he's in demon form. Just because they aren't there most of the time.

I'm imagining them at the castle at some fancy party, since they often go to parties in their demon forms.

Ciaran is likely checking out the food tables because they know that everything there was made by Barbatos and they are not going to pass up such deliciousness. Levi's in a nearby corner, huddled up on a chair playing some video game, tail completely forgotten and splayed out across the floor.

Ciaran is making their way down the table with a plate half full of food when they let out a yell as they trip over Levi's tail. They're on their way down, about to face plant into the floor, when -

Mammon dives from across the room to catch them!

Ciaran is flustered, but okay and the plate of food was saved!

Mammon is preening because he did such a good job. Then he turns abruptly to give Levi a piece of his mind for being so negligent about his tail. And whacks Ciaran in the face with one of his wings.

Ciaran manages to keep hold of their plate, but they are not pleased.

At this point, I suspect a three way argument would break out because Ciaran can have a short temper lol. Cue someone like Barbatos or Diavolo having to come over to calm everybody down.

Ah, honestly writing about Ciaran is really nice. I don't feel the same kind of pressure about it, so I really appreciate you asking me about this!

I feel the same way about a lot of the demon OCs because most of them are minor characters in Arrie's story.

So to answer your question about who would take up too much space in a subway car, it'd have to be Chymion. Arrie is a big demon, but his demon form is something he has a lot of control over. He's picky about it lol. Chymion (for those who haven't seen about him on the masterpost, he's one of Arrie's band mates) takes up a lot of space even when he isn't in demon form. I wanted to create a character that was unmistakably demonic, even in their "human" form, and thus Chymion came into existence. He's big and tall, but if he's in demon form it's all wings, tail, claws, and extra limbs.

Lael (another band member) is the only other one that I think might have an issue and that's because he has a big ole fluffy tail that'd probably take up an entire seat just by itself.

All the rest of my demon OCs have better control over their demon parts and would be able to contain themselves. In their "human" forms, most of them are also average sized. Arrie is a big guy, but he'd be okay. Chymion would still take up too much space. But the rest wouldn't have an issue lol.

Anyway, thank you very much for this ask. It definitely helped inspire me and it was fun to think about these questions!

[bgs-cave-o-thots]

i have a question, as a fellow Orbot and Cubot fan, how do you feel about most recent content showing all egg man's robots as his children and them all being siblings? i like it for metal, belle, and sage, but i don't know about Orbot and cubot. also i get worried about shipping them? i totally shipped them before frontiers but after sage referring to them as her brothers idk how to feel. i joke that cubot is a "brother in law", but idk how long canon will allow us to ship them before it gets weird. anyway, just wanted to know your opinion! thanks!

I'm not the biggest fan of the fanworks showing Orbot and Cubot as siblings/Eggman's kids, personally. Nothing wrong with it, never was, just not my thing. As for the canon stuff...honestly? I don't think it's as big of a deal right now as people worry about.

When I first heard the news I hadn't seen all that far into Frontiers yet (it was only a day or two old at this point), so all I knew was from seeing someone i follow saying "well shit theyre canon brothers now guess im not shipping them anymore" out of nowhere. Which. Without any context. Did make me a bit afraid at first.

But later I saw what was actually said in game and realized...this is just some kid trying to learn what a family is supposed to be, and what her family would be compared to that, with her father figure basically going "yeah if you say so i guess". This is not Orbot and Cubot calling each other siblings. They aren't even there to call Sage their sibling. Sage is trying to connect the relationship of inventor/invention to parent/child, which, while functional sometimes, is not an accurate assumption 100% of the time.

I am an extremely firm advocator for how relationships involving sentient robots has very different rules to organic beings. A robot and their creator can have a parent/child relationship, sure, but they could also be a couple, siblings, friends, enemies, literally any relationship to each other should they choose. The parent-child dynamic could even be swapped, with the robot taking the parental role and the creator being their child (they've done this in the Sonic franchise already, see Mombot and Eggman from Sonic Boom). Same goes for multiple bots of the same maker. Partners, families, anything. And one robot seeing the creator as a dad doesn't mean the other robots made by that creator have to see them that way too. I feel like this especially applies to things on the scale of Eggman's robots. He's made thousands, if not millions or even billions of robots. At that point it's more like a whole race/species/community/something on that larger scale than one single family.

I also have a distaste for the "all eggman robots are siblings and are kids of eggman" thing especially when it gets used for ALL Sonic universes, not just the modern universe? For example, if you apply that to Boom, you get some...uncomfortable clashes with some canon relationships (see: Cutebot & D-Fect, Mombot, every time Cubot hits on another machine, probably other things I'm forgetting)

Anyway. Obviously I have a lot to say on the topic, but in the end...who cares? I don't see them as siblings, I probably never will, regardless of what canon does to 'em. None of my shippy art or writing will ever have them as siblings, and I assume the same of all that I reblog. I've been here on the cuorb/cueball train for years, other people have been here even longer than me. Definitely a whole lot longer than Sage's little throwaway 'brothers' comment in Frontiers, or Orbot's 'big bro' gag in Rise of the Wisps.

If those things make the ship feel icky to you when it hadn't before, and you don't wanna ship it now, that's fine. Sure, it sucks when a ship you love doesn't work out, but it's not your fault canon threw a curveball at you. Sometimes that ball hits you in the gut hard, makes you feel sick. You can hit it right back - choose to ship it anyway, via au or canon divergence or whatever else - but there's no shame if that ball hits you hard enough that you gotta sit out the rest of the game.

So, my final verdict?

Just do what you want. It's more fun that way.

[nibwhipdragon]

what are some of your favourite fics?

Oooh boy. I have...a lot. Uh. How do I start. OK this is getting long I'm putting this under a cut

One of my faves is definitely Chasing Stars by @midnighteraser ! I read the fic before actually playing Sonic Frontiers, and when I ended up experiencing a celestial starfall I ended up being disappointed in it. This fic is so beautifully written that it wasn't done justice by the game (usually when people say that it's the other way around...funky). Tbh I like all of Kirsten's fics and simply chose this one due to it being my favourite out of them all, she leans quite heavily into description and they always end up being super good! It's just so. Ough. If I had a printer I'd print out her fics, blend it with some fruit into a smoothie and drink it the descriptions are that good

Another one I definitely am NOT leaving out (because I have too many to feasibly make a list of) from this is Would You Love a Werehog? by @pajulammas ! This fic man. Cannot even describe how much I love it. There isn't much werehog stuff on AO3 (and even less that I'm actually interested in reading, why is a good chunk of it NSFW 😭) so this fic was a lovely gem to find when browsing AO3 one night. It explores Sonic and his feelings towards the werehog form which was something critically underused in Unleashed, and what can I not love about deeper explorations into things shown in canon? Not only that but the sonadow dynamic here...not the biggest sonadow shipper, just neutral on it, but GOD does this fic get their dynamic right. All of Paju's fics get the sonadow dynamic right actually, the plots he has for his fics are great but the great characterisation is also a nice bonus, like getting sauce in a burger you ordered. I will go into his fics and come out with a million thoughts per second and not a single one of those is a "He would not fucking say that" or anything along the lines. It is great. I am also getting off of track. Getting back on track, Chip is in there so the fic is guaranteed a 10/10 in my eyes. I love Chip he is like. Probably in my top 3 sonic characters of all time.

Moving on, there's also Bloody Macarena. Shin almost dies from doing the macarena. And despite the fic being about something more on the comedy/crack side of things, it also goes into some nice detail on Shin and Kanna's relationship, as well as more on Shin's inner thoughts. None of the yttd fics on AO3 have really ever hit the spot, but this one certainly does!

Genuinely surprised it's taken this long for me to list a jjba fic here, but Connected is just. Ough 👍. I am a big fan of horrors, and this hit all the grooves in my mind, it's so good in terms of horror, I love the open ending sm! Though. Only problem is that the fic was so interesting I want to know even more, knowing I'll never be able to. In a hell of my own making... It also reminds me a little of Superhot. And that is always a plus. Superhot is a great game we all love Superhot here

...I'm gonna be real with you all. This fic is actually very good. Please hear me out on this though I have proper reason to it I beg. Anyways if this is how you find out about the existence of Joseph and Caesar enjoy a burger then I am sorry. The contents of the fic is nothing short of cursed and messed up. It's most certainly crack. It sometimes keeps me up at night simply by thinking about it. In horror. Because I've read this a few times to my friends to see their reactions in real time. And repeated reads of things allows you to notice things you didn't notice before. This fic. This fic is genuinely well-written. And that scares me on so many levels. This fic knows that it's cursed and that it's crack, and by knowing that it knows how to throw its punches. You'll get the general crack vibes out of it with the blatant mischaracterisation of Joseph and Caesar. And then out of nowhere the fic will jump you with a sentence that makes you feel like you've been hit in the face with a frying pan (biggest one that comes to mind here is "The pregnant man groaned." and I actually can't believe I'm writing those words on my tumblr blog. This sentence actually hit me so off guard I literally had to pause my reading). There is good structure. There is actual foreshadowing there. How do I live with this info. Help Me

Now, onto more...normal fics. dinner date. is so so SO good I love it so much. Domestic fluff with Joseph and Caesar is always great. And I love food in any and all ways so having it be food oriented is a bonus. I also love the way Joseph is written in this, it's very cool and awesome and feels very in character :3

And to end this off (because this is going to be ridiculously long if I continue, and because it's literally almost midnight here), a more angsty fic in the form of Too Far! Ough. I love fics (and just stories in general) where a character accidentally upsets another character by getting too angry and snapping and saying something they don't mean/shouldn't, it opens up so many possibilities for things to happen it's wonderful <3

There is definitely more but it's not feasible to list them all. So here's a select special few :3

[hazbincalifornia]

(I’m pretty sure the way I type is recognizable but I need to like pretend at anonymity bc I feel. Remarkably silly about this)

I wanted to like idk rant to someone in the HB fandom who isn’t balls deep in the “anti proship” sphere bc like, I’ve been struggling w guilt over enjoying a certain ship that everyone hates and considers problematic (I think Loona and Octavia is rlly cute!) and I’d like to make content for it but I also rlly fear being seen as like a pedophile. Do u ever worry abt that kind of thing? And is there anyway ur able to get over it if u do? I don’t like getting into anti/anti anti discourse bc I feel like it’s a very reductive way to view and interpret media but I still have a crazy amount of worry/guilt

First off, it is still ridiculous to me that this is even a problem in this fandom. This is an adult show about characters in Hell, and the main characters are, respectively, assassins and the eclectic cast of the Hotel which includes a cannibal serial killer. (I am eternally both amused and completely baffled that like half the awful puritanical takes I see are from Val icons. Buddy. Pal. The fucked up fiction is coming from inside the house.) I saw waaaaay more fucked up shit on Zim nsfw twitter than I see on Hellaverse twitter and that show was Y7. Up your game, guys.

Personally, I don't really see Loona and Via as siblings/sisters as much as I think a lot of others do, more just friends (and honestly I think canon moved much too quickly to give them such a heartfelt scene together, they hadn't even met officially before that point?) so it's really only the age thing and even then, the plot of HB has seemed to imply that a fair amount of time has passed since the series started, probably around a year- so Via would be 18 or older by the time anything actually started anyway, especially if they became friends first. Setting aside the 'justification' though... they're not real. They're cute together, I agree, and I think you should be perfectly fine enjoying them just in the lens of 'they're similar, I like how they'd interact, and I think they're cute together'!

I was pretty much forged in my opinions about this from Invader Zim stuff, where people insisted that liking two characters that I'd liked together since I was thirteen made you a pedophile. Obviously, I could tell that wasn't true, because it had never been the case in all those years up to people starting to be bitchy about it in 2019. (Before that, it was that it was bad because it was enemies to lovers and, more importantly, gay. Great hater throne to inherit, guys!)

Unfortunately... as stupid as it is, this fandom is way more puritanical than it should be, so it wouldn't be wrong to engage through anonymity to protect yourself. Find the people in the tag who are using 'proship/proship interact' or something along those lines (I've seen a few, although some tend to lean more on hard/dead dove content), post on ao3 into the anonymous collection which removes your name, make a tumblr sideblog that doesn't connect to your main, find fellow shippers and interact with them specifically. Do whatever you need to do to keep yourself safe from people who can't understand that thinking something is cute or interesting to explore in fiction is automatically bad just because they don't like it. The more stuff that's put out there about the ship, the more likely you are to find kindred spirits, that's honestly part of how I gathered my mpreg weirdos to me in both this fandom and the last.

I'm pretty sure that the callout I got for Sunny was why several mutuals who were a friend group unfollowed (and likely muted) me on twitter. Unfortunately, it left me worrying that the other shoe was going to drop any day for about a week because it got just enough notes to make me worry but not enough to get to anyone with any real reach to spread and get it 'over with'.

At this point, I've sort of reached a state of 'fuck it', because if it happens, it happens. I know that I'm fine, and the people I genuinely care about know that too. I know that what I'm making is entirely separate from my morals as a person, if not from how dumb the IZ stuff was than from the fact that I was an English major. Literature is full of stuff that authors don't make as a 1:1 with their real-life morals! And the one you're thinking about isn't 'bad' comparatively at all.

I think the fandom is starting to see that being a dick about fictional content is bad through the backlash to Poison and 'hey, maybe telling somebody that they need to detail their trauma to the public to make fiction is bad?', but it seems to mostly be centered on dub/noncon, so I wouldn't necessarily hold my breath.

At the end of the day though, remember this: You, as a person, are completely fine, no matter what others might think. Octavia and Loona would probably be seen as a totally normal ship like ten years ago (except for people who'd be dicks about them being gay) and there is no judgement to be made on your character in any reasonable way for thinking they're a good ship. You're not a pedophile for thinking a fictional owl and hellhound look cute together, any more than I was for smacking together two Nicktoon characters, and frankly the IZ argument held slightly more water than 'the almost-18-year-old and the 22-year-old' because Zim's age was so ambigious. Try explaining this 'people think the young adult animals holding hands are bad' to any adult who isn't sucked into fandom discourse and they'd probably be baffled that it's a problem.

I know that the guilty feelings aren't always rational and it took a bit of time for me to unwind how I felt about creating certain stuff too, but try to remember that above all else- exploring things in fiction has been a thing people have done for a very, very long time. What matters is your actions towards other real people, not what you do with fictional dolls.

If nothing else, if you want you can always send me a dm and chat that way, I'd be happy to talk.

[supernovaa-remnant]

Ask game: 24 22 and 19

19. What are come of your favorite pieces of c!Dream animations/songs/other types of video/audio content?

The Old Days animatic by Knp lives rent free in my brain. Watching that animatic changed the trajectory of my life I'm so serious it's so aklsjdhsgajksdshass the way it so perfectly represents c!dream's longing to return to a simpler past? when he could laugh and have fun with c!george and c!sapnap???? the way you can see when c!dream stops smiling in the animatic?? aughhhh c!dream team my c!dream team you are a wound that never stops aching.

22. If you had all the time, resources, and skills to create your ideal piece of c!Dream fan content, what would it be?

I've talked about it before, but genuinely You and I Drink the Poison From the Same Vine (my theoretical c!dreambur semi-canon compliant fic that I talked abt in the post linked). I think about it all the time. I would love to just... have the commitment needed to write this long fic that examines canon through the lens of one non-canon element being added.

Also, it'd be really really fun to write interactions between c!punz and c!wilbur (where c!punz doesn't understand why c!dream keeps c!wilbur around and does what he wants and c!wilbur holds his connection to c!dream over c!punz's head like a taunt).

Uh, other than that, I have a slide show about c!dream that I never finished. I started making it with the goal of presenting it to my non-c!dream sympathetic irls haha

24. When/how did you become a c!Dream apologist?

Okay, this is going to get long and I may get into way more detail than I need to, so buckle in because this was quite the journey for me.

So, I didn't get into the fandom until around august-september of 2021. However, I had multiple irls who were really into the dsmp in late 2020-early 2021. And, uh, they're very very non-sympathetic to c!dream. (also believers in the l'manburg mythos, but we are not getting into that...) anyway, I heard a lot about the dsmp from an outside perspective during my time of not being in the fandom. And this included hearing about the exile arc (with one hilarious instance where my friends did not specify it was rp so for a moment I thought cc!dream was just a really really bad dude 💀) and hearing about how horrible c!dream was how evil he was etc etc.

In typical "I am not invested in this fandom at all but my dear friend is" fashion, I just agreed with them. All of my info came from hearing them talk abt something they were interested in, so why would I disagree?

Anyway, flash forward, like, half a year, and I begin watching the manhunts. I got really into them and ended up reading some non-dsmp fics. And then everything spiralled and I got sucked into the fandom. I remember reading some c!dream redemption fics, and I was really enjoying it, but I still didn't consider myself an apologist. Afterall, my entire first impression of him was how horrible he was through my friends.

Anyway, I don't have an exact timeline, but it wasn't until I actually followed someone from dreblr that I started fully embracing my c!dreamisms and my c!dream apologism. I kept my c!dream apologisms hush hush in front of my friends for so long. I still do to an extent. I'm scared, okay? And I don't wanna get into arguments with them, so it's best to just, like, not bring it up I guess.