#idk where some states are but i know about continents and countries at least

[faunandfloraas]

my unpopular opinion, i think flat earth is totally plausible. i've seen theories where there are like 20 other continents outside of the 7 that we know. our 7 are completely surrounded by a strip of land, obviously forming a circle, called antarctica. it's forming a wall of sorts, blocking our 7 continents from the 20 other contents on the other side and our 7 continents are trying to keep those other 20 a secret from it's inhabitants for some reason... why else would every country agree to make it illegal for normal citizens to travel to antarctica? they're either doing something they don't want anybody to know about, they've discovered something they don't wan anybody to know about, or they don't want anybody to know about the world outside of our 7 continents. i know there's like proof from space and whatnot that the earth is a sphere, i do believe that but i still feel like flat earth with more than just 7 continents logically makes sense.

i also think the american moon landing was faked. countries were in a race to get to the moon first and the american government faked it so they could say they got there first.

i also believe cats are aliens, there was a race of cat aliens that came to earth and helped egyptians build the pyramids and that's why they worshiped cats. the tops of pyramids were their space crafts and that's why the pyramids do not have their tops anymore, because the cat aliens left earth in their space crafts but they left domesticable cats behind.

octopus are also aliens, they have alien dna.

i whole heartedly believe that they replaced biden with a lookalike, you can see subtle differences (and not subtle differences, nobody becomes president with detached earlobes only to end their term with attached earlobes). also the american government has been taken over by a species of lizard alien/people, other countries governments (like russia's) as well.

avril lavigne was also replaced by a lookalike.

now some honestly more believable ones... i think yellowstone is going to erupt within the next few years, taking out entire middle section of the united states. i wouldn't say it's due for a cataclysmic eruption, volcanoes can't be predicted like that. but the magma levels have risen 3 inches per year for the past 3 years.

the san andres fault is also due for a major earth quake, one that with change the united states (at least) forever. the entire west coast of the country is going to fall into the ocean which will cause a huge tsunami either to the united states or it will travel as far as japan, taiwan, and the philippines... possibly even indonesia, papua nuew guinea, and australia - plus all the smaller islands in between.

i actually don't know if these would be considered unpopular opinions but they're my opinions and idk how many other people believe any of this is true.

[cavewretch]

updated apr 19 2024

welcome to earth! welcome to PHOTOSYNTH!

once upon a time in october 2022, i listened to a song called "the turn of a dream" by robert schroeder and imagined people in a space ship, en route to move (back) to earth. they've got two cats who are sitting on the dashboard panels of buttons and switches of the spaceship. there's a little bit of urgency, like they're on the run, but they're also a bit caught up in awe at the sight of earth.

visually there was a lot of messing with crt tvs like pushing through electricity and screens and static. more below the cut! feel free to ask me things about it :D

from that little song kernel i started having fun imagining what earth might look like in a distant future, and what the people would be like, and what their experiences might look like in a post climate-change-global-capital-collapse world. what could grow? in this project i'm also thinking a lot about technology- the sustainability and evolution of gadgets and gizmos over the last few decades and what consequences our excess causes.

what use can we get out of things that are old but still have useful parts or still function? what can we create with what's left over?

who gets left behind after the rich and powerful deem earth unlivable? what will they do to survive?

i have no idea what photosynth may come to be - perhaps animation? a web comic? i haven't decided! i'd like it to be a collaborative something someday! this is all a big sandbox i am stomping around in and constantly adding to ! i've drawn some characters a little and have brainstormed some scenes but i don't have something to be read yet. and i'm honestly perfectly content to let it stay that way for years . i hope it's something tangible in the world as a finished object in like. 10 years. i think that's a fair amount of time to give myself. (i have a pinterest board with 700+ images, an 11 hour playlist, unfinished sketches, an archival external hard drive, and a very chaotic notebook.)

anyway! lets ground ourselves a bit beyond abstract conception shall we!

on earth, the great emigration begins. earth has gotten severely dangerous for life, and Scientists have recently discovered the yellowstone volcano in the west of the american empire is rapidly getting close to eruption. they can't predict when exactly the volcano will blow, but they know it will mean certain destruction for much of the continent, and contribute to global climate shift. a volcanic winter/small ice age, at least. the governing bodies make some swift and grand decisions. space travel has improved enough that the upper class can access it when necessary. state-based spaceships are designated for the rich and powerful, because of course we need our government leaders where we go next, or else we'll be lost! mars exploration has developed enough that there is a station large enough for the federal branch of government to set up shop. able bodied manual laborers are organized by tech conglomerates across the country and are sent to work on building ZEXA, a man made base to start up this new ultimate civilization. any employee within the empire working in certain disciplines are given numbers and ships with certain number ranges are assigned for migration. the empire drops its borders, encouraging mass migration to the south and elsewhere in whatever way people can get access to. it doesn't assist the process beyond that.

an empire moves to mars, leaving a majority of its population behind.

yellowstone erupts. north america is largely uninhabitable. the globe's climate is significantly altered.

time moves. the largest settlement (Jovia) in the north american continent is established and is home to roughly [300k? 1 million? idk] people.

Zexa 5's Galactic Federation bombs Jovia, starting the interplanetary war. a little girl escapes the destruction. across an ocean, a pair of newlyweds gear up for battle. two continents over, a "research project" begins development. the war "ends."

occupation remains, and the pressure cooker is reaching fever pitch.....

lets meet some characters!!!!! :D

ROSE EYE, named for her pink heart shaped glasses that double as a sniper scope. also known as JEN, who once escaped the destruction of her home town.

Jen is reputable assassin, with skills in stealth and both long and close range combat. she got her code name after a factory whistle blowing turned into a company's collapse, which she only escaped because of the help of THORN.

THORN, named alongside rose eye for their partnership in rescuing factory employees and carrying out the attack on the company. she's dubbed thorn for her electrified blade weapon and her unique virus software .//th0Rn that gives her full access to multi level security systems. of course it helped she was a security guard at the factory...

also known as HANA. adept at engineering and spacecraft with a love for earth-bound air travel, hana is joyful and loves country music and happens to save her workplace crush who wears those pink glasses everywhere's ass, jumpstarting her criminal career and a high speed chase off-planet. next stop: earth!

on earth, twin boys are knee deep in the junkyards after school to scavenge for new materials. ADI is looking for electronics, AMIR is looking for anything he can fashion into useful clothing. amir is taller. not by much, but by enough that you should know. they've found an old pc with a series of oddly prophetic corrupted plain text files and jpegs. one file looks like some sort of schematic. they'll bring it home and scare their mother, reminding her of what killed their father.

both boys are 19, one sporting purple hair dye and the other a nose ring, for individuality. they're about to complete their foundational educations and choose their apprenticeships and mentors.

across an ocean or two, a galactic federation research facility enters its 21st year of operation. a man who's been fighting to escape it since its inception just might make it this time. in cairo, a pilot receives an order to target that facility.

IVAN has been a prisoner of a galactic federation human experiment facility since he was a child. he's been pushed and prodded in research of the "human limits of strength and survival". despite fighting his captors his whole life, he is what they wanted him to become: a deadly weapon. and he's about to be freed by a man who terrifies him in a different way.

MIGUEL grew up surrounded by rebels and pilots. after his parents were executed by the galactic federation he was raised by an old mechanic in cairo. covered in tattoos piercings and charisma, miguel fashions himself unknowable and invulnerable . with nothing to lose he carries out targeted attacks on galactic federation bases. he just received a mission order that will bring him back to an old friend and give him lives to protect and live for.

thank you for reading !!!! 🫶🫶🫶

[femmesandhoney]

A migrant from another country isn’t automatically a bad person. Far from. Most are just looking for a better life. But some people flee oppression, not least women. How do we help them by letting them come to our country, if we let the oppressors in too? Which is already happening, and would be a guarantee with open borders.

If you lived in Europe, you would know that a lot of the men that have moved here from African and middle eastern countries hold absolutely medieval views on women’s rights. And also on gay rights. There have been gang rapes. Numeous, systematic assaults on women at swimming pools, or just out on the town. Letting in men, and it is almost only men coming, that think that women wearing a skirt, shorts or a bikini and walking outside without male company, are free reign to do what they want to, that has been catastrophic for women’s safety in our countries.

And frankly as a feminist I think that it’s crucial that you understand this. Women don’t have the same rights that we do in the western world in every country of the world. There are entire continents where women don’t have basic rights. And the only way for us to uphold progressive, equalitarian values, is by having borders. Within which we can decide the law, and be protected by our countries laws.

Girl idk how to fucking explain to you that one can recognize male violence is an issue no matter where you go and who it can come from and that currently most nations border policies are actively harmful and inhumane to migrants and those in need of refuge. You sound like such a conservative shithead, you can reframe your argument as much as you'd like to try and hide that you seem frankily very racist and just don't want immigrants in your country, it really doesn't work.

"I think its crucial you understand this" um yeah, I literally study complex international situations for my degree. I think about complex shitty situations all the time, for a grade, for my future as an educator. I think you're extremely tone deaf to the idea that nation-states are not actually this amazing praise worthy institution you want to say it is and you repeating it as if western countries are the creme de la creme of morality and the most law abiding people ever is just painful to read. It doesn't automatically equal "progressive, equalitarian values" as it simultaneously kills and abuses thousands of people daily. But idk maybe thats just me :/ you can both want to make sure there's structures in place to protect women from any and all male violence while also wanting to help vulnerable people. And don't come trying "wah those men aren't vulnerable" like sure yeah probably, but i still frankily want to see all the migrant women and children reach safety and that means making sure the huge humanitarian crises happening with migrants right now is properly addressed by world governments.

[acourtofthought]

I really wish his hidden talent was playing an Instrument which is preferable the piano. Now, singer Azriel ain't bad, but I can't imagine a scenario where it isn't so cheesy. Sarah did confirm that we'll get a singing Azriel and Idk how I feel about that.

Perhaps when they are on they way to falling in love, we'll get a scene of gwyn panicking after waking up from a nightmare and Azriel, not knowing what to do (his communiation skill are DEAD) he starts to sing? But I'm not really liking that headcanon 😂 It just needs to be well written and while I don't think Sjm is the best writer to take potentiel into good use, I kind of have a good feeling about her writing singing Azriel.

Or she may not actually write it down at all. Before Acosf she literally confirmed that we'll see more if the other courts but all we got is just a bog visit, human lands, spring court visits and continent visits (only one country anyway). We didn't even get much describtion from these so her world building is clearly amazing but she doesn't explore that at all. I'm also really tired of the NC- Idc about velaris, Illyria and the CON anymore because all we ever get from them is "Grrr Illyria and CON, bad people! Dark horrible place. Oh look, the high lord and high Lady being mean for the entire night! Anyway- look at all these nice shops in velaris!". I'm so curious of how the dawn court is doing since it's more beautiful than the NC (props for Sarah to at least admit NC isn't better at everything), I'd like to see the Vanserra drama party that goes on in the autumn court and surely Eris has been doing some great things for his people behind Beron's back. Count that with the day court, since they're kinda connected. I want to hear from Kallias and Vivianne in the Winter court and how the systems work there. Same with the summer court.

But I'm afraid we might not get any of these at all. I'm afraid Sjm will use the stupid High kind card on Rhys and we'll lose all the uniqueness and any other special thing that each court has to the NC. I'm afraid that Rhys would use the spring court as a dark place like the CON, since he barely does anything for 2/3 of his court that is in desperate need of help. I also find it so stupid from Sarah to think that each high lord would just agree and bow to him. I certainly wouldn't, I'd be so pissed as a ruler of a court having to turn my court in and doing whatever some wannabe darkling ask of me. If rhys isn't even able to take care of 2/3 of his court, he sure as hell isn't able to take care of 7 whole courts and I am very sure he will turn some places dark if they aren't to his liking and the people there aren't obeying him.

Wow, didn't think I would fall away from the main topic but 🤷🏾‍♀️

Seriously, the piano thing is now fixed into my brain and I don't know that I'll ever be able to let go of that one. I never know how much of what SJM says in interviews is to be taken seriously because like you said, there are things that were previously mentioned that have never happened. I remember her talking about wanting to write a novel that dated pre ACOTAR and there haven't really been hints of that. Or, whether something that is mentioned in interviews will happen but in a much more minor way than what we imagine it. As soon as she mentioned Az and singing, the fandom was going wild with theories but maybe it will be in the most insignificant of ways (like Cassian hearing Az singing in the shower once he starts falling in love with Gwyn). Personally, I don't think Rhys will end up has High King. Not only for some of the reasons you mentioned (and I like Rhys but I think the other courts would still be too hesitant to follow him after the last few centuries and especially with the amount of power he has) but because SJM doesn't usually state something point blank and have it happen exactly how she brought it up. Which is why I don't think E/riel will happen. Feyre said "why not make them mates?" in reference to Elain and Az to which Rhys responded that a bond can be rejected. But it's not SJMS style to actually have Elucien reject their bond so E/riel happens after she said that because it would be too specific, it's too "she told us exactly what would happen!" The information regarding a rejected bond is important but I think it's going to end up important for someone else. And I think that's the same thing regarding Rhys being High King. If he becomes High King, it is too obvious because of Amren suggesting he become High King and Cassian thinking he would be a great High King. I think the take aways are the lines that the Cauldron would extend it's benevolence to another and Cassian thinking, "he could think of no other male he'd trust more. No other male who would be a fairer ruler." That seems to be the flashing sign telling us, "THERE IS ANOTHER TRUSTWORTHY CHARACTER WHO'D BE A FAIRER RULER!" It doesn't tell us exactly who it will be, just that someone else will prove to be worthy of the title. I remember SJM saying she purposely left things off the map in SF because there were areas that she wanted to remain a surprise. I'm really hoping that means the next book will give us the chance to explore other parts of their world because I feel the way you do. I think most of us have loved the NC, the IC, and Velaris but with additional books comes the risk of burnout for some readers. Where the constant visits to the Hewn City, to the Illyrian camp, to Velaris and the River House, to them celebrating the same holidays together, feels repetitive. It would be amazing if the next book gave us the opportunity to explore other Courts and other characters (that are not so IC centered) before returning back to them in future books.

[themelancholyhill]

I am so shaken by the news of the ban on abortions in the US. This news out of one of the most powerful countries in the world, with its progressiveness and inclusivity is absolutely devastating. What this means for American women is that they no longer have access to their fundamental rights to abort an unwanted fetus, and that these men in power can choose what happens to their bodies, women in the US will no longer have autonomy over what they choose to do about their reproductive rights. This ban is not just about abortions, it’s about control. They want to control women and put them in a place where they feel is to their advantage. Women are not incubators, we are not vessels for producing offspring, we are so much more than just baby making machines. I haven’t even touched on the fact that no abortions means no abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, no matter how old the woman/girl is. I don’t know what your view on this is, I am not afraid to speak my mind, because this ban could have implications across all countries and all continents. Abortion is reproductive rights, that includes birth control, basic gynecological healthcare and women’s health in general. To ban this outright means women are viewed purely as something for men’s pleasure and for producing babies. I could go on and on honestly but I will stop there, and end by saying I know firsthand the importance of abortions. We will hear cases of women dying from homemade abortions out of the US very soon. Today is a very dark day for all women. ✖️

I'll start by answering this ask, and I'll answer the first one later!

I heard about the abortion ban in the US (because I don't live under a rock!!) and it is abhorrent to say the least. Not only it is violating every woman's right to their reproduction system, but mainly their right to choose. This ban shows total control over women indeed and it is, pardon my French, a form of mild totalitarian control!

I'm not very acquainted with the issue of abortion, but I believe in women's right to choose what they want to do with their bodies. What will happen to rape and incest victims now? They have to live with the constant reminder of their traumatic experience and see it running around??! What if they aren't financially and psychologically ready to raise a child??!

Abortion isn't covered in my country that much and our state law doesn't include anything pertaining to this issue as far as I know. However, I truly believe that this is happening behind the scenes and I will take the time to do some research on the topic and look for testimonies of Algerian women who underwent an abortion or are considering having one.

Speaking of homemade abortions, what are your thoughts on them? Are they good or bad? This is how I see it, and I might be wrong on this; on one hand, it is helping women on some extent by providing them with their fundamental rights, but on the other hand, more women are prone to premature deaths if something goes wrong with the procedure, and isn't it contributing to the capitalist machine by "marketing" and profiting off of this issue?

It is indeed a dark day for all women, and violating their right to choose, simply means that they're demeaning womanhood once again!

PS: idk how eloquent I sound but these are my thoughts on this disposable issue!

[wolf-zer0]

Ya want some WORLD-BUILDING????

Have some world-building!

*REMINDER* This is based on characters, not real people.  I’m not going to be writing any shipping/smut content, especially involving minors.  Please be respectful of content creators’ boundaries!

The Crystallos Empire (AKA the Antarctic Empire)

Largest the countries (takes up most of the southern half of the map) but agreed to stop expansion after a bloody battle with Valeriana 

Centered on a large snowy mountain in the middle of the tundra 

Mostly stays out of other countries’ business, but will step in as a last resort 

Has some of the most well-known citizens in the world because… they’re pure chaos 

Attack at your own peril 

Has vast deposits of ores and gemstones, and the metalwork from Crystallos (mainly weaponry, armor, and jewelry) is highly sought after 

The only known food export is potatoes.  Wonder why… 

Associated Colors: Royal blue, light blue, crimson, gold 

Aesthetic/Vibes: gothic vibes, white stone and large stain glass windows, not particularly opulent or extravagant but still impressively royal looking, think catholic cathedral but brighter and with less Jesus (can you tell I’m a recovering catholic yet?), spires shooting into the sky that’s visible even during a blizzard, cavernous halls full of sunlight and echoes, snow that can comfort and kill in equal measure

Notable Members:

Philza Minecraft:

Angel

Visible wings look like a harpy eagle

Probably the most powerful person in the world

Didn’t mean to start an empire it kinda just happened

Also didn’t mean to adopt kids but his Dadza alarm went off

Usually kind but will not hesitate to use violence when necessary

Technoblade: 

Is pig.  

With braid.  

At least 8 feet all

Extremely adept fighter, skilled in almost every form of combat.  

Not a people pig, prefers his potato farm to being a prince

Hella protective of his family but will not hesitate to bully when given the opportunity

Wilbur Soot: 

Muse who can influence people through song

Can’t totally control people (yet) but can subtly push them in a certain direction

The public face of the imperial family

Would rather insult than fight but can and will cut a bitch if he needs to

Because inspiration is fickle he’ll have some … strange episodes (see: the Sand Incident)

Tommy Innit: 

Child.  

Chaos incarnate.

Is he human?  Is he not?  No one’s sure yet.  

But he’s a gremlin and a hellion and willing to throw down at any moment.  

Has a surprisingly caring side, but no one outside his immediate circle has ever really seen it.  

The Kingdom of Valeriana (aka Dream SMP)

Oldest of the countries 

Located in the middle of a massive forest at the center of the main continent 

Home of the Fae Courts

Ruled by a single king who is chosen by a tournament held every 100 years 

Known for causing chaos in other countries, but after an Incident with Crystallos they have kept their meddling to annoyances rather than outright declarations of war 

Considered the most magical of all the countries, and traditional enchantments almost all come from Valeriana 

Associated Colors: neon green (duh), bright yellow, forest green, light brown, blood red (more saturated than Crystallos), rose gold 

Aesthetic/Vibes: spooky art nouveau (idk what else to call it), lots of plants and nature but with an edge of danger, poison gardens and carnivorous plants, hedge mazes that lead everywhere and nowhere, laughter deep in the forest, deer with eyes just a hair too human, Alice in Wonderland on steroids 

Notable Members: 

Dream: 

Current king of the Fae

As long as he’s touching the ground, he knows where everything and everyone is

Can terraform

Unlimited in the boundaries of his kingdom

Much more limited outside of his realm

No one has ever seen what he really looks like, even before he took the throne

Since people outside the kingdom don’t know who he is, he’ll wander the outside world and challenge random people to fights

Never says what happens to the losers

Only one person has ever beaten him: Technoblade

He might have a lil obsession around Techno, but it’s fine.  

A little competition is healthy.

Sapnap:  

High Lord of the Summer Court

Dream’s right hand man

Likes fire a little too much probably

George: 

Human that Dream took a liking too and yoinked from the mortal world

Dream and Sapnap made him immortal but he hasn’t realized it yet.  

Skeppy: 

Changeling who started growing diamond-like scales across his body

Is vaguely allied with Dream simply because he’s Fae, but is more loyal to BBH

Like a lot of other Fae, likes to make challenges but he makes them less deadly.  Not totally safe, just less deadly.

Badboyhalo: 

Demon who was kicked out of hell because he was too nice

Found Skeppy in the Overworld and the rest is history

Cursed by the Demon King that the moment he says a swear word, the entire world would end, but can never tell anyone that he is cursed

The Merchant’s Guild

Not quite a country, more of a international power 

Oversees the largest and most important businesses in the world 

Makes sure that no laws are broken between different countries and everyone gets a fair shake 

Has a very large reach, so some members have dabbled in espionage for various groups 

From the outside it looks like the whole thing is kept together with duct tape and hope, but its actually pretty functional

The main members are just… a lot. 

More concerned with keeping things working than influencing other nations (although there are still jokes about it) 

The most valuable thing they trade in is information

They have a lot of fingers in a lot of pots, but are trusted with their information 

Associated Colors: dark blue, teal, deep yellow, burnt orange, copper

Aesthetic/Vibes: art deco babie, angles and lines, very modern and streamlined, sleek suits instead of armor or robes, whiskey in a crystal glass, wars won by words not weapons, knowing when someone’s lying without them saying a word

Notable Members:

Schlatt: 

Ram-man with a plan

Not that bad of a dude, but is in a position where he is constantly in possession of highly sensitive information and that does things to someone’s mental state

Drinks pretty regularly but not a full blown alcoholic

Trying his best

Can be a snarky asshole sometimes

Quackity: 

Lucky duck.  literally.  

Duck man with an uncanny ability to absorb good luck from people (typically Fundy) and apply it to himself

No one knows when or why he joined the guild, but now he’s there

Pretty damn smart, but hides it behind humor

Fundy: 

FOX!  

With BEANS!

Trying his goddamn best but life (and Quackity) make it very difficult

Usually is stuck with the shit end of the stick when getting jobs/contracts/etc. 

Wilbur being his dad is an inside joke that’s gotten a life of its own.  

(No Fishfuckers Allowed!!!)

Puffy: 

Badass sheep lady who captains a ship and commands her own armada

Schlatt’s sister

Also part of Storm’s Landing’s council and acts as the main liaison between them 

Do not fuck with her she will kick your ass.

Storm’s Landing

Port city that became a country after becoming a safe-haven for seafarers

Led by a council of important people, with the head of the council known as the Admiral 

Closest ties to Crystallos and the Merchant’s guild because: 

1) Clingy supremacy!!!!

2) it’s a good idea for a guild to have good ties with a large sea power

3) all the dads for Tubbo

Associated Colors: navy blue, scarlet, white, brass 

Aesthetic/Vibes: Nautical (obviously) with heavy “Age of Exploration” vibes, barnacles crusted on treasure chests, think tall ships and pirates and shit, respecting the ocean because holy shit she’s gonna smash your boat to pieces on a whim because she can, has an edge of darkness because when you go deep enough who knows what you’ll find down there (maybe mermaids???) 

Notable Members:

CaptainSparklez: 

elected to Admiral after the previous Admiral went missing on a routine voyage 

(idk who it used to be, I just wanted to make him new at leading)

not 100% sure about the whole thing, but handling it pretty okay

still answers to “Captain” instead of “Admiral”.  

Niki:

If Storm’s Landing had a queen, would be it unquestionably

Never gets robbed even though there’s a well known “underbelly” in town

Could probably end wars with her croissants

Has a significant history of empathic abilities in her family, so she can tell how people are feeling at all times

Eret: 

Owns a magic store in town that really only shows itself to people who need it.  

Having a bad mental health day?  

He’s got a warm blanket and a cup of your favorite warm beverage waiting.  

Dysphoric?  

She’s got the perfect outfit and affirming words already prepared.  

Trying to find that specific book but can’t remember the title or plot, only vaguely know the color of the cover?  

They’ve got it.  

Ranboo:  

Not sure why he decided to move to a seaside city when he’s not chill with water, but now he’s here and he’s too anxious to leave

Known for teleporting around town randomly when nervous, and the people who find him are always willing to let a hand if he gets lost

Tubbo: 

This boi!  Has so many dads!  

Epitome of “Kindness does not equal weakness.”  

While a lot of people underestimate him, he’s not some fragile little flower

He hasn’t fully grown into his ability to speak to animals (he can only understand bees right now)

He’s just as much of a shit stirrer as Tommy.  

When they meet up, look out.  Something’s getting destroyed.

The Astral Academy

An independent university focused on advancing knowledge in the arcane arts and engineering 

Not a country, but has the political power of one due to their vast resources and building prowess 

People can’t enter unless they are invited or have been given entry as a student 

There are a bunch of potential doors scattered around the continent that could lead to the Academy, but no one is sure where the real entrance is 

Associated Colors: royal purple, lilac, sepia, sky blue, silver, bronze Aesthetic/Vibes: bright academia, massive libraries with bookshelves stuffed to bursting, workshop benches covered in scrap and prototypes, open air observatories, runes waiting to be translated, the crackling energy that comes from successful collaboration, falling down a research rabbit hole, bursting with pride after a project is a success

Notable Members: 

Sam

Purpled

Ponk

Punz

Antfrost

Jack Manifold

I don’t know much about these characters, so if you have any ideas please let me know!

Zero’s OC Land - The North Haven

Smallest and newest country 

Recently gained independence from under a cruel dictator (not schlatt lol)

Located in a pine forest at the base of a huge mountain range 

Has pretty good relations with the other countries, but outsiders don’t know much about them 

Main exports are wood carvings and leather goods 

Associated Colors: Maroon, dark brown, black, pewter 

Aesthetic/Vibes: medieval but with a modern twist, dark wood lit by a roaring fireplace, snow-covered woods without a living soul in sight, half timber houses and detailed wood carving, no outrageous ornamentation or extravagance 

Notable Members:

Tyr: 

Lord of the North Haven

trying to keep his people safe and protected

one of the few remaining Spirits (higher in power than the Fae, but lower than angels)

Spirit of Justice

lost a hand in the war for North Haven’s independence

didn’t want to become the leader but does a pretty good job at it

Adopted 5 kids and is trying his best

Bragi: 

Heir Apparent

24 year old human

can influence the world by speaking (not singing) but has to be careful about which words he uses

has a book full of phrases that have proven effects (a spellbook of sorts)

has a friendly rivalry with Wilbur

Freya: 

Spymaster

actually the oldest but abdicated because she feels she’s not the right person to lead a country

age unknown because she’s the last known [REDACTED] (it’ll be revealed, but I wanna build suspense)

has gyrfalcon wings and heightened senses

chronic insomniac

Forseti: 

Official Librarian

20 years old

hybrid with an unknown entity

has black fingers with sharp claws

always wears gloves to hide them

can create portals to places he’s been or to people he knows (the second is much riskier, but not impossible)

knowledge sponge

wants to join the Astral Academy but is too nervous to apply

Odin: 

Older Twin

The “Sensible One”

17 years old

Has an uncanny sense of direction

Can’t get lost no matter what

Can manipulate magnetic fields

Loki:

Younger Twin

The “Hot Headed One”

17 years old

can manipulate fire

idolizes his older siblings, particularly Freya

The Institute

Creeping around in the background

Up to bad things

Something’s going on in the world, but no one’s noticed yet

They will though… soon

Aesthetic/Vibes: minimalism (the worst kind of vibes imo), think laboratories or empty hospitals, harsh artificial lights and cold floors, labyrinths of monotonous hallways with no doors

[fleabaqs]

TIPS FOR WRITING LATINOS FOR DUMMIES! 

because y’all can’t seem to get anything right.

under the cut you will find a lot of useful (maybe) information when writing latino characters. please consider leaving a like/reblog if you find this useful.

                                                      FIRST OF:

yes, karen, we will call you gringo. that’s not on the table, that’s not a discussion. all latinos use the word gringo, and if you say it’s a racist slur ONE MORE TIME, i swear you will regret it, filha da puta.

                                                                   SECOND:

NOT ALL LATINOS SPEAK SPANISH!! i know, crazy, right??? brazilians speaks PORTUGUESE, yes PORTUGUESE!!! bitch

yes, portuguese and spanish are really similar, but don’t write the “even though i speak only spanish/portuguese i can understand spanish/portuguese” depending on the country/state you’re born, you CAN’T. so just avoid that. 

if you’re character/fc was born in united states, they probably won’t be considered latino in latin america. PERIOD. that’s not up for discussion either. 

if your character/fc was born in latin america, he ISN’T going to be considered a person of colour if they have white skin. take for example the family from one day at a time. in usa they can be talking about racism and everything, but in latin america you only suffer racism if you have clearly black/asian descent. plus: if you’re white and you decided to shit rules into racism in latin america (at least in brazil) you’ll probably get beaten up. not a joke. and as a white latina, i support that.

WHY are you all so lazy? If you wanna write ANY character, from ANY country that is not yours = YOU SEARCH INFO ABOUT THAT COUNTRY!! i swear your hand is not going to fall of! im taking as example my country, if you wanna write a brazilian, search about the states! a cearense and a gaúcho are TOTALLY different!!! a carioca and paulista are totally different even tho rio de janeiro and são paulo are so close. DECIDE the country, the area, the state and city of your character!

moving on from geography: other types of stereotypes!! NOT ALL LATINA MOMS ARE CRAZY AND CONSERVATIVES! some are pretty chill! really… there are moms who won’t go crazy about anything. so don’t be afraid to write a mom that is okay with their child going out at night, being LGBT or being pro choice. okay???

okay, but why aren’t you using the word “latine”? most latino community are against this word. shocking, right? everyone has their reasons why they don’t like it, my case is because my family is really poor/my grandparents didn’t go to school and everything and as much as they would respect and understand non binary people, they would not be able to use it. not even my mom, who is a teacher, is able to use it. she respects their existence, but they gotta respect other people existence too. my family is one of the lucky ones, there are people in worse conditions. when using the word latine, UNDERSTAND the background of the character! 

ASIANS LATINOS EXISTS!! my god, this is a hard one. i never see asian latino representation in unitedstaten midia. like, what’s that about? they don’t have to choose between their ethnicities!! now shut up, karen

we DON’T call unitedstatens americans, or united states america! i don’t know what happened in their education system, but they really gotta understand america is a fucking continent with more than 30 countries. you’re not special, desgraçados parasitas do caralho

if i see one more latino drug dealer and latina sex symbol, IM GONNA KILL A GRINGO!! that’s not all we are!

we will get offended if you say we are from a country we are not, after we already said our country. i know it’s hard for you to memorize more than five countries, but i gonna be cheering for you!

most latinos hate, or at least dislike, our colonizers. in brazil, we make jokes about portuguese people all the time and we will ask for the gold they stole from us at any given opportunity. so when writing a latino character, know who colonized their country.

latinos are clean. i know this may sound a little off for non latinos, but our sense of personal hygiene is really important. again, this variates from country to country, but in brazil we are thought that we should brush our teeths after every meal (at least 4 times a day), and that we should shower EVERY day. no, no, don’t come with that unitedstaten shit about showering only when you exercise, or that during summer going to the pool is showering BECAUSE IT’S NOT, THAT’S FUCKING DISGUSTING HIJA DE PUTA. if your character has access to clear water and personal hygiene products, he will do this kind of things.

just... read abou that country you wanna write. here goes some ideias: *country* traditional food, *country* sports, *country* music (in this one, learn how to say the language of the country in the language of the country. example: don’t search “portuguese songs”, search instead for músicas brasilieiras. don’t search for “mexican songs” search for canciones mexicanas.), *country* books/writers, *language of the country* basic phrases! ]

latin america is part of three americas! america is devided in three. north america = mexico, and the other two; central america = cuba, costa rica, etc; south america = brazil, chile, etc. DON’T go to my ask to say “oH mExIcO iS nOt NoRtH aMeRiCa” because i swear i’ll track you down and shove a atlas down your throat!

latin america is not just tropical vibes, dumb bitch!! we have snow too! this is fucking brazil.  and this is argENTINA! 

just remember these facts when writing brazilians: brazil is the second country with the biggest japanese community, second country out of germany with more germans, and get this!! brazil has more lebaneses than lebanon.

latino accent when is speaking english is not just lydia from odaat. it changes. 

english is second or third or fourth (and so it goes) language for latinos. keep in mind that mistakes are made. and most latinos (myself included) love their accent!! we want you to listen to our voice and ask where we’re from, and that gets to: 

WE ARE COCKY! yes, we are very cocky about our culture, get over it! 

most latinos cried/got really happy when parasite won the oscar. now you ask me, why are you writing this on a guide on how to write fucking latinos??? well, my dudes, latinos are tired of imperialism. just that. don’t write a character that worships usa culture (can we call hamburguers and coke culture, my ladies? I DONT THINK SO), even if they moved to usa. “it’s also important to remember that the american dream is sold to all of us, since forever.”

i guess this is it??? just, talk to a latino and ask “is this correct?” when in doubt. we are indeed very energetic and we talk loud and a lot, but we don’t bite. writing us is difficult, you’ll probably get something wrong. but if we see that you did basic research, we will get really happy about it. bye, gringos!

edit 001: this link and this link are great! use them.

edit 002: any fc can be latino! ANY FC CAN BE LATINO! fun fact: the brazilian passport is one of the most expensive ones, because anyone can pass as brazilian. anyone can be latino! wong yukhei? big brazilian energy! madison beer? can be latina. ester expósito? latina. kim taeyeon? I HEAR THE LATINA DRUMS!! idk, kj apa? can be latino too! 

not all latinos are good dancers and not all latin dances are salsa. check “#latinodancecheck” on tiktok, if you have one. 

there are differences between spanish speaking surnames and brazilian ones. first of: the number of surnames changes with the country. second: spanish speaking countries surnames end in “ez”, while brazilian surnames end in “es”. examples: rodriguez, rodrigues; lópez, lopes; hernandez, fernandes; martinez, martins. but sometimes, we exchange surnames. you can find a brazilian with the surname “gonzalez” instead of gonçalves, if their family comes from a spanish speaking country.

this ask sent by the lovely anon! 

this other ask sent another sweet anon!

this.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hello :) I was the anon who asked about the American left problems on general and thank you for your feedback, now, do you see this same trend with the European left? Other thing I saw with the American left is that Liberals and SocDems are so eager to call out socialist figures for "not acting out of their principles" just because a streamer who is a huge socialist has a PC Gamer so they can work on a daily basis, idk how you can conceal this postures, and again, thank you for the answer :D

Short answer: In Greece half of the time, Yes.

Long answer:

To be clear, the previous ask was for the US American Leftism and my answer was about the US, so it was one country. Large, but one country, under one government and one culture (I understand the states are not homogenous but they are as different as Thrace and Crete, not different like different countries.)

As it's natural, I can't speak for the "European Left", meaning I can't speak for 50 countries and more than 100 ethnic groups. Governments, languages, religions, customs, and history vary a lot from country to country. Greece has a political climate more similar to Albania, let's say, than the one of Estonia.

People from European countries may reblog this post and answer about the Left in their country. But I want to preface this by saying that "the Left" isn't the same across the continent. In some countries, the leftists were the "actual Left", not whatever US Americans consider Biden to be today. (He says he is a center-left I think, so he is just leaning Left. So you can call him a Leftist I suppose for the US standards). It would be more correct to say that the US has Left-ISTS and not Left-wingers. Greece has/had some prominent left-wing parties, while the Left never quite settled in the US.

For instance, EAM, a Left party, was the biggest fighter against the Nazis and their allies during our occupation. In fact, the upcoming Civil War of Greece (1946–1949) was a great fight between what was essentially the Left, and the Right + the Monarchy. (This is a generalization, but I just want to get a point across). And yes, with the "help" of the US and other allied countries in the Cold War, tens of thousands of Left-wingers died and got tortured up until the fall of the US-supported Greek junta (1974). It is a huge scar in our history.

A list of communist parties of Greece. That's in Greek but honestly, Google translate is your friend and you can't go wrong with just party names in translation. If you want more info and can't find anything more in English, ask me to search more for you.

Since my knowledge is best for Greece, I will speak about Greece. Nowadays the old "authentic" Communist spirit has mostly died out here. It's quite rare to find Greeks who are "Left", and more likely to find Greeks who are "Center-Left" (aka Leftists, if we want to use common terminology). I think Greeks recognize that the Left and the Right are both extreme and instead go for "Center-Left" or "Center-Right" the most.

When the Leftists are under 30 years old, most of the time they have heavily influenced by US politics. (I am not saying they prefer it solely because of US politics, I am saying it's one of the factors). And they usually know more about the history and social issues of the US than the history and social issues of Greece so, apart from not being well informed about the US many times they are not even properly informed about their own country.

These kinds of Leftists are out of touch with what's happening in Greece and, most importantly, how to approach the Greek people. They operate in a dreamland where we all live the "American Dream of Freedom" when even same-sex marriage isn't even legalized here (we only have cohabitation agreements). They approach most Greeks as close-minded enemies and show attitudes that may be fine for the US but most people here will call super entitled. So not only do they fall prey to the same traps as the US American Leftists, but even more, I'd say.

"Liberals and SocDems are so eager to call out socialist figures for "not acting out of their principles" just because a streamer who is a huge socialist has a PC Gamer so they can work on a daily basis".

Well, this cannibalizing of the US Left doesn't happen here that much because - I might be blessing my own beard (Greek saying) - I think Greek Leftists have more common sense compared to the US Leftists xD Not that I haven't encountered Leftists call a Bisexual woman "homophobic" because she mentioned lgbt+ people are a minority, or haven't heard obviously pale Greeks in an all pale Greek company in a large bar with all-light skinned Greeks calling Greeks "Brown" - an assumption about identity which plays by the rules of US Americans. There are those who parrot anything they see in us-centric social media but those are not the majority, I want to believe.

One more thing I've noticed both in US and Greek Leftists is that, despite trying to be very informed, they don't know much about the Left parties' past and many times cannot name policies of the party they support. They just support it because "I have a feeling it's morally right" (yeah because the Central-Rights are all immoral assholes who want to see all minorities dead and they don't want society to progress, right?).

And they rarely think about economics, defense, immigration, and freedoms. And it's all nice and beautiful until you tell them to think if they want these things to happen to them or/and minorities. Then they suddenly backtrack. Not to mention, the solutions they usually propose are so impractical! If you pride yourself on having the moral high ground at least get out of your theory bubble and think about the pragmatic consequences of policies! And if anyone suggests that those theoretical plans don't work because of factors the Leftists haven't considered they are suddenly a bigot (even though they want to get to the same results as the Leftists, it's just their approach that is different).

Also, because reading comprehension on this site hasn't gone up in ages, I'd like to leave a disclaimer that I believe that both non-extreme sides have negatives, it's just that we are talking about the (almost) Left here.

[randomnameless]

I don't know if this has been asked before, but I was wondering what your thoughts on Rhea are.

Oh, I don't think someone asked it, but I remember a character meme.

Rhea's in the Julia tier : you're expecting things and the game doesn't give you any.

you asked for thoughts so this is long and rather unorganised even if i tried a bit and i feel like i repeated myself a lot so meh

If Edel and Rhea have one thing in common, it's being shafted by the need to make Billy the most special being every with the monstrous "I was lonely before you player-chan uwu".

Seteth'n'Flayn ? In the same trashcan Hubert went in.

Catherine, Shamir, the randoms living in the monastery? Dgaf but still she's willing to die for them so does she really gaf or not? Rhea's willing to give her blood and crest stone shards (to this day I still don't understand what those are) to trusted randoms who would become cardinals? "uwu player-chan". I know I've written a bit about it with the seirelm anon, but with the Canon-ish info? Post Zanado Rhea told a random dude she could turn in a dragon, gave her blood to the same dude and remained in his empire/fighting by his side for at least 30 years. Still “lonely without U Billy <3″

I've written this in the meme entry, but Rhea has her own net of relationships. They're not as important as Dimitri and his childhood friends, but erasing them for the sake of "player-chan" feels wrong.

Role and goals

Rhea's in an interesting place, being a former "legendary hero" like Athos, Sephiran etc.

Still her fight isn't over, she only defeated Nemesis and couldn't end the mastermind behind (a bit like Seliph if you only kill Arvis or Roy when you forget to pick up every legendary weapon). Also, if Seiros killed Nemesis, she hasn't won. In the current Fodlan, she still has to pretend to be a human, the Nabateans as a culture/population are dead. They're still 5 (ish? I think the apostles are lizards), she's still afraid humans will dice them if they learn the truth. Has she won? Idk. Could she win and make a Fodlan were lizards and humans could live together? I don't think so.

Her role as the Archbishop? Well, the game really liked Rhea as a red herring during white clouds and the way FE16 is built, around the monastery, reinforces it. Rhea's the head of the monastery, so she's the head of your world. Everything wrong with the world is automatically linked to Rhea.

So, when Marianne complains about people wanting to kill/ostracise her because of her crest, thinking it's a curse, we of course wonder "why Rhea can't tell to the randoms that no Marianne shouldn't be killed/shunned because of her crest?". Completely forgetting that, hey, Marianne's from the Alliance and heiress of Edmund, so if some people should intervene, it should be her dad "why the fuck are you trying to kill my daughter" or the Alliance council "Duke Riegan, could you please make a public statement about my daughter and how she isn't some sort of demonic beast so stop throwing rocks at her?".

Same thing with the Empire, why should you blame the church and the crests instead of the people doing shit? Hanneman's brother in law? Like is marriage so absolute that a husband can force multiple pregnancies on his wife to the point of literally killing her? The von Essar aren't as important as the Bergliez, but Hanneman's sister dying like that should have rang some bells? Hanneman's dad didn't care? No one wanted to appeal to the Emperor or something? If Jane the random or Karen the peasant died this way, it’d be usual class nonsense. But a noble woman??

Rhea should have done more to prevent crest abuse. She wrote tenets in her Bible and apparently doesn't discriminate in her monastery. But in the other countries? Idk. Her tenets are interpreted like your shopping list by Gloucester Sr "and add a part where interacting with foreigners goes against Seiros's teachings what yes I know better than those dunces from the eastern/central church".

It's not because Riegan Sr and Ionius aren't doing shit that she should do nothing too, but ultimately it falls on the usual landmine about Rhea's influence and power over Fodlan and if we consider Fodlan isn't just the Monastery we see but a continent made up of 4 autonomous states...

The so-called status quo isn't upheld by the church alone (if it is upheld in the first place!), but also by the empire and the Alliance... Lambert was toasted before making any changes, the Alliance is that weird thing where money is anything and crests/old nobility doesn't matter anymore, and the Empire is... Well. The Empire.

Regarding this, I find it really strange that Rhea went to Goneril and rescued one of their slaves, with how much she cares about protecting her monastery and not antagonising anyone, picking Cyril up, risking the ire of house Goneril, feels really risky from her perspective.

Imo WC doesn't sell me the "church rules over the continent" take.

Ultimately it doesn't matter because Rhea thinks she should have done more, and abused her position as the archbishop to rez her mom - I understand the "abused her position" as regretting her various omissions, like helping more people around etc etc.

I also feel like Rhea’s got a big survivor complex, and tries to fulfill impossible tasks. "leading/guiding the world?" she won't take an active role in it, but still resents the state of current Fodlan and wishes Sothis could restore some order (crest abuse? Or relics popping up right and left meaning more sibs dying). She wants to :

1/ guide the world and make it a better place (why complaining about the wayward Fodlan otherwise?)

2/ protect randoms who live under her protection

3/ make sure no one learns the truth about her appearance and relics at the same time.

I don't think it's possible given her current role and especially not possible on her own.

About 3/, call back to FE9 or not, but Rhea's paranoia is... Actually, not proven to be exaggerated in the game.

Ranulf was lynched in Crimea when he was discovered to be a laguz? In a certain route, Rhea's called a cruel beast due to her appearance, accused of not having "human" feelings and is depicted as a creature masquerading as a human. Hate and attack the woman all you want for things she did or might have done, but getting rid of her because she's not human? Rhea's right about not revealing her true nature, because, relics notwithstanding, humans will try to kill her for being a nabatean. Relic wise, in the DLC, we learn Aubin was recently turned in a relic, so that's even more reason to hide.

On 1/, wanting to promote peace in the land? National bias at play with rewriting history “to promote peace” issue. Rhea also built the officer's academy (if nobles from different states can live and study together surely they won't try to kill each other when they return home because they might have become friends?) and with help from the everyone in Fodlan (even the empire iirc?) built the locket to fend off Almyrian invasions. Not saying this is the best way to protect your borders but at least she tried to help instead of staying holed in her monastery.

Imo if Rhea didn't care about Fodlan, she'd have followed her bros and fortified herself in her monastery without accepting random humans to live with her, wouldn't have written a book about how everyone had to get along "unless it goes against the goddess" and wouldn't basically run what seems to be the biggest orphanage/place for the needy/and whatever is the abyss in the continent.

Not saying she doesn't have a priority, but Rhea tries to care, on her scale, about Fodlan's randoms.

About said randoms (and 2/)...

Well there's this bout with Lonato's rebellion and another herring where Rhea's all "I will destroy anyone who takes arms against the church and its believers" and it's extreme, I can’t deny. But if Lonato took arms and mounted a militia to attack Ositia's castle and its randoms? Hector'd have Armads'd Lonato without a second thought. Elincia had qualms about taking her weapons against her own countrymen who were used by Ludveck, but in the end, she took up her weapons to defend her castle, even if it meant she had to kill militiamen. Rhea's line seemed random and cold in the context, but it's the same general idea, attack her people and she will kill you. Still, if you don't take weapons against her, she won't react violently. Duke Gerth is apparently dick waving with Aubin's relic, but Shamir wasn't sent to recover the thing or to get rid of Gerth.

Ultimately Rhea blows her cover and abandons her dream to reunite with her mother to protect the monastery and its inhabitants in 3 routes (arguably in CF too). Someone once made a post about the differences between Seiros's and Edel's crowns and the symbolism of wings - the IO's wings are meant to protect. The IO is the guardian/protector. Rhea tanks missiles and buys time for the students to escape at the cost of her life.

Relationships

Rhea and Sothis? someone made a post summarizing my thoughts about their relationship, or lack of, and if we can argue Sothis was shafted by the devs like Rhea and Edel, ultimately the only important person to Sothis is Billy.

Billy doesn't warp Sothis's preexisting net of relationships, Sothis doesn't have relationships with anyone save for Billy. Rhea wants to meet her mom more than anything else (save for protecting randoms) but Sothis will never address that plot point. She only does in SS and off screen, and it ends up with Rhea wondering if she should live... so take it as you want, but to me it mustn't have been the "hug and pat on the head" kind of reunion.

Ultimately we see Rhea is able to let go of her dream (rez mom) in several routes, she understands and acknowledges Sothis will never return and Billy has her powers now, so either she dies more or less at peace knowing she can trust Billy with Fodlan's future, or she can return to Zanado and live peacefully with Catherine.

Which leads me to the Billy relationship,

As much as I hate player pandering, it makes some sense that Rhea would support Billy and not, let's say, Caspar. I still hate it though because Billy exclusive support means we were robbed of Rhea's other supports with, idk, her fam, Cyril, Catherine, Shamir, Alois, Hanneman, Manu etc etc.

In the beginning of WC, Rhea's pretty sure Billy's Sothis but without memories. Then in the non-cf chapter 12, she tells Billy they know what they are and thus must guide Fodlan, also telling Seteth Billy's a vector for sothis's powers, but not Sothis herself. In SS's finale she calls them "mother" but in her S-support finally acknowledges Billy's their own thing.

In CF Rhea's vicious in her trash talk but immediately jumps to the conclusion that Billy cannot be or hear Sothis, because, to her, logically, Sothis wouldn't side with Edel and her Agarthian allies (stealing the crest stones, Flayn, etc etc). Billy is something that stole Sothis's crest stone and sword and wants to finish what Nemesis started. I don't think CF Rhea snaps because Billy isn't Sothis, CF Rhea snaps because, again, someone is using her mother to kill her.

Rhea's also supposed to have been fond of Citrus to the point of talking to her remains (something she does with her mom) which could explain her sympathy for Billy regardless of the Sothis project.

Jeralt's a different issue, apparently they worked together for more than 100 years but Rhea never told him the truth about her nature, only about how he was saved. Still, Jeralt betrays when his baby is "weird" and unlike regular human babies so... Would he have ran away if he learnt what rhea was? Dumped Citrus if he knew she was an artificial being? Idk.

Catherine Shamir cyril and pals (Alois)? We don't know bcs the game dgaf about anyone not named Billy. As I said above, It’d have been nice to get more interactions with randoms she is working with, or at least showed some care, but nope. “Player-chan uwu” strikes again.

Seteth'n'Flayn? Rhea's close to them, she gets out of her room to look for Flayn and Cyril and Catherine note how she seems close to Seteth (who's totally her bro), but again, the game hates us. FFS don't think she has a line with Flayn!

Secrets and explosions

Tied to 3/ and 1/ from earlier, Rhea keeps a lot of secrets which could justify her lack of relationships/supports with the others... but this argument falls flat, because she’s not the only one with a secret and if Flayn doesn’t seem to care that much about hers, Seteth does and is still able to support students and staff members. Which leads to tragedies.

The Christophe incident is not well documented, and while we learn Rhea was the target of Christophe’s attempt because Western peeps told him so, it is not very well explained why she didn’t execute him on those grounds instead of falsifying charges about involvement with the Regicide. We are told it was to stabilise the Kingdom, but I still don’t know how the Kingdom would have suffered backlash if Rhea told the truth (maybe it would have led to open conflict between the western church and the central church in the kingdom, when the kingdom needed stability at that point? idk).

Still, Lonato wants revenge for Christophe, not because he was executed on false charges, but because he died ; imo, if Lonato learnt the truth, he’d still be out for Catherine and Rhea’s head.

Aelfie’s gambit is more of a direct result of Rhea’s secrecy, because she had “no words” for him about why Citrus was still in pristine condition, he gave up and tried to rez her. Would it had been different if she told him what Citrus was (and by extent, what she was)? Idk. Maybe, maybe not.

Still, Rhea doesn’t keep secrets from everyone every time - she once trusted Willy and told him about her alternate form and it exploded 1k years later, when Willy’s descendants are out for her head because she’s a creature masquerading as a human (I know mole people also played a part, but I guess it sticked more with Edel and the gang who already knew Rhea was a dragon ; trying to convince a random that “hey, this woman is a dragon !” would be more difficult). CF-wise again, Rhea trusts Billy with the SoC and, again, it explodes. In CF Rhea feels betrayed, she trusted some people and now the very same people (or their descendant in Edel’s case) are trying to kill her.

So it’s not a case of someone never trusting anyone, it’s someone trusting some people and regretting it afterwards (in both routes + CF at least, even if I firmly believe the “evil lizards ruling over the world” spiel doesn’t come from Willy, but from later emperors influenced by mole people).

There can also be a point made for Aelfie, who might have been able to merge with Citrus to create an umbral beast because he had Rhea’s blood and a crest stone shard - Citrus being a fake Nabatean and Aelfie having a crest stone + blood might have produced CS’s final boss? Rhea trusted Aelfie with a crest stone shard and her blood, and he became an umbral beast.

Interestingly, Rhea is hell bent on keeping her secrets regarding her identity, in SS Seteth has to beg her to reveal everything to Billy when Billy is the most important person in the world “uwu” or at least, the only person Rhea supposedly opened to. Even the “uwu” factor isn’t enough, on its own, to make her reveal the truth about her identity.

She gives Claude half-truths, and has to be on death’s door to tell him everything - still occulting Seteth’n’Flayn, to the point where Claude later wonders if there are other children of the goddess around.

Vengeful Rhea?

Rhea isn't a stale piece of bread like Julia. She says mean words to Nemesis but also brutally kills him. Rhea cannot forgive the Elites. I know it's very different, but Julia "dad is the kindest man I ever knew" making a 180° “i must atone for what dad did eff him” will always make me throw up - she doesn’t have to be vengeful or try to stab Seliph with a butter knife, but no acknowledgement of “dad’s the bestest” after his death, or even, of his death is meh.

To Rhea, Nemesis and the Elites are a trigger point, and everything related to Zanado. CF!Billy using her mom’s powers is like Nemesis, CF!Billy + Edel pillaging what remains of her siblings in Nemesis’n’Dudes. Flamey doing his shit with Flayn also parallels that. There’s the usual “vengeance sucks” speech to be given, but also the Tellius verse where Laguz aren’t depicted in a bad light when they want to destroy Izuka or when Tibarn learns Lekain was responsible for Serenes’s massacre.

Still, unlike Tibarn’n’pals, Rhea, unlike Macuil, doesn't seem to hold a grudge against descendants of the Elites. Maybe she had faith in them when she told them not to abuse the power of their crests, but then their descendants forgot or didn’t care and we’re in the so-called crest system.

In SS, Seteth asks the BE students if they want to return home to the Empire and how he won’t hold it against them. Seteth’s being Rhea’s right hand bro in this situation, I doubt he’d have proposed this solution without her approval.

She is vengeful and ready to pursue for more 90 years someone to kill them, but she won’t target that someone’s descendants or potential allies. I’ve read some takes about the Western Church being razed to the ground after Catherine’s paralogue, but iirc, Rhea’s only going to execute the Bishop there ; they appoint a new bishop in hopes to ease the relationships between the central and western church. There’d be no point to appoint someone to rule over a body that doesn’t exist...

Grey waves

Wave 1 : Another parallel with Edel is the will to sink in troubled waters to reach their goals.

However, Rhea stays on the surface.

Aelfie thinks Seiros failed to rez Sothis with the chalice because she didn't take more blood from the apostles. Blood rituals are creepy and gave an umbral beast. Seiros didn't pursue and sought another mean to rez Sothis without killing her bros. Rhea makes homunculi to host Sothis's soul? It fails but the homunculi isn't destroyed asap to make another one, hell, Rhea cares about them (which is all kinds of fucked up on its own).

AM wise, iirc, Seteth and Catherine say Rhea'd never forgive them if they run to save her instead of saving randoms first.

Still, making homunculus to create a vessel for her mom - making artificial lives - is problematic, she’s ashamed of it “i did questionable things” and Seteth berates her on her “questionable” experiments.

CF!Rhea eats babies during the final map. She burns the city to make her last stronghold and refuses to run away. CF!Rhea, at the end of this route, completely abandoned goal 1 2 and 3. She wants to survive, yes, but to recover Sothis, no matter how. She still seems to care about humanity, but takes everything too literally and is persuaded humanity and humans are after her to hurt her and her mother (i’m pretty sure uncle Arry was waiting with his Agarthan tech suitcase for Edel to deal with the beast in the background). Contrary to CF’s chapter 12, Endgame!Rhea doesn’t have lines when Catherine and Cyril fall. She’s still siding with humans, but she’s in this for herself now.

Of course, CF!Rhea is special, because CF!Rhea lives again through her trauma, CF!Rhea lost her home, her bro and niece a few chapters ago, she lost her human allies, apparently some peons from her church are deserting and Uncle is waiting with his portable electric saw to turn her in a shiny sword, because she trusted a corpse with Sothis’s heart and spine and trusted a human 1000 years ago with her secret. And now said corpse follows someone who rings at her door with an army, wishes to obliterate her unless she surrenders (?) and works with Uncle and his dubstep pals.

In the other routes, Billy doesn’t want to killer her with her mother’s spine and tries to defend her home, Seteth’n’Flayn aren’t forced into exile or dead and depending on the route she gets to see Uncle and his dubstep friends being buried under rubble.

Troubled waters to reach her goals also include slowing Fodlan’s technological advancements (but was it really slowing down Fodlan’s R&D’s department or cliking “no” when Mole People offer a free (for now) new technology that makes you advance from bronze age to the industrial era in one go?)

Wave 2 : Rhea’s anchored in the past, she wants to return to happier days with her mom and her family, but also wants to help randoms in Fodlan

She doesn’t seem to mind the present where humans do whatever they want, and yet will protect her people and tries (or tried since it’s history) to keep Fodlan safe.

I think the game wanted to tell us Rhea’s stuck in the past, but she also manages to form bonds (albeit fickle) in the present with Catherine, Shamir and, arguably, Cyril. Seteth’n’Flayn accept the past and try to move forward, Rhea cannot and yet is making baby steps forward, or at least to live in the present. “uwu factor” is supposed to mean Rhea’s stuck in the past and can only see Billy for what they are once she accepts to live in the present, but Rhea’s already fond of Catherine, calls Aelfie her child, was fond of Citrus and Jeralt, makes time for Cyril, etc etc. It’s not as clear cut as drinking tea with them but it’s still something that quashes the “lonely B4 U player-chan uwu”.

Rhea thinks her biggest grey wave is how she didn’t do enough for Fodlan and feels inadequate to walk in Sothis’s shoes as the guardian/protector of Fodlan - she could have done more, but she’s busy juggling with three goals, rez mom, protect fodlan, protect the fam.

I think one of her main issue (but the game was also made this way so) is to try to reach those goals alone, save for the “rez mom” goal, everyone in Fodlan, especially the heads of the three states should be concerned with keeping peace in the continent!

Lambert was BBQ’s, Riegan’s busy shitting on Gloucester and Ionius is... well, Ionius. Add to that Mole People starting up shit all around the continent and you have the recipe for a disaster. I’m not saying Lambert and Ionius should have participated to the “protect her family” goal, but at least not trying to eradicate them to turn them in relics would have been nice, sadly Ionius’s bro in law was an Agarthan.

Even if she is nearly immortal compared to a human, Rhea can’t do everything on her own. That’s why I ultimately think a SS ending is doomed to fail, Billy will try to be Rhea 2.0. and in 1000 years it will fall apart again.

AM ending? Billy will become like Rhea was post War of Heroes, but when Dimitri’s descendants start to do shit, his Kingdom disappears and humans start to return to their usual shitty selves, what will Billy do?

VW ending is kind of the same, Claude wants to open the borders and make everyone able to live regardless of their differences, but what if 940 years later an Almyrian president decides to build a wall between Fodlan and Almyra and make Fodlaneses pay for it? What is immortal Billy, who knew Claude and his ideals, going to do?

Wave 3 (lol i nearly forgot but remembered when i was rambling in the tags) : Rhea and technology !

The DLC book and Word of God said she slowed advance of technology in Fodlan to protect peace etc etc. But there’s a book where a cardinal said “eff to autopsies else people won’t rely on us with faith magic” which is... kind of weird. There’s a reason why Rhea might have approved that ban (Why does Freikugel look like a hip bone?) but it still deprived Fodlan’s randoms from the scientifical advance of autopsies... and made people reliant on faith magic.

Actually, the book goes

“Though it is widely believed that this is medically relevant, such actions upon a corpse are considered desecration of the dead. Since white magic can be used to a similar end, autopsies were deemed taboo. A notable cardinal asserted that if medical science were to excel over faith-based white magic, it would destabilize the foundation of the church “

I already pointed out the WTF between faith and white magic (Seteth doesn’t believe his mom is real so he has no faith boon) but interesting to note “desecrating the dead” is still something of an argument nowadays, not regarding autopsies but other practices like anatomical theaters etc etc. Maybe White Magic isn’t intrusive and yields the same results? idk.

Interesting to note, it’s a cardinal who edicted/justified that ban (Rhea as the head of the Church would have given her approval oc). As pointed out with the Freikugel example, Rhea’d have a personal interest in preventing humans to know more about anatomy (goal 3/). Would people stop looking to the church to be healed if “medical science” progresses too much? Maybe. From what we see in the curren Fodlan, it doesn’t.

Also, French version translated the “foundation of the church” as “stability” of the church - would the church become unstable or challenged if people could heal without using white magic? Again, we ultimately know that it doesn’t, magical science and medical science coexist, Manuela gives a short summary of the two - they have different effects.

As for things Rhea herself banned : Telescopes, Oil exploitation and Printed Press.

Telescopes were banned because Rhea thought it would increase violence during wartimes and would make it too easy to snipe from afar (TFW mages with bolting can do the same without telescopes, but they’re limited by their range and if they have a gloucester’s crest by Rhea’s sister’s femur’s range or whatever is Thyrsus). We know the mole people use (and most likely used before during the Sothis war) this technology. The “lessening the mystery of the goddess” thing is noted by Edel herself who wonders if the Goddess could really have come from space since it’s super far away. Edel doesn’t know the Goddess is an alien dragon-thing though.

Oil exploitation : “Misuse could result in accidental death” tfw random Faerghus countryman thought it was water and died :’(

Used tactically by those lacking magical abilities - like gambits? Was Rhea thinking that a random human cannot set fire to an entire city (lol) on his own with his limited spell pool/uses, but if he uses oil then he would only be limited by the quatity of oil? So it’d be easier to cause mass fires? Or whatever Robin did in FE13 with the ships and the Valmese army? Also, if Rhea thought oil could replace humans with magic, does it mean humans with magic were supposed to do everything oil can do? Like making a lamp or they still used something else as fuel? “Competition for it could cause strife” Rhea acknowledged that if humans discovered this ressource they’d deem it as essential and try to get their hands on it, even if they had to wage war?

Metal molding Printing Machine : “after careful consideration” Rhea banned it because it’d be useless for illiterate randoms - well yes, but why should this be an argument? You don’t ban something because it’s useless, look, no one banned airpods - risk of mass circulation of false information or rumors : rhea wanted to prevent redshit from existing This is a way to control information, but funnily enough in the game, we see the results or someone deliberately using manifestos spreading misinformation - risk of “increasing disparity between church branches” (fr version has “rivalry” instead of disparity) what does it mean? The central church would have more means to print books than the eastern church so the eastern church would be jealous? Or the Western Church could mass print its doctrine and have more zealots than the central or the easter church?

Ultimately, all those bans were lifted with time, Manuela performs Jeralt’s autopsy, Edel’s imperial science division managed to guess the distance between the Blue sea star and Fodlan, Oil is apparently used in several gambits, Edel’s able to send manifestos around the continent and Seteth can write children books and sell them without difficulties. Hilda can also lose books which would be a big no-no even if you are a noble if books weren’t, kind of, mass printed.

So why those bans? To protect Fodlan and the fam, but since they were lifted with time, I don’t think Rhea abandonned her goals, most likely, she thought humans were making small steps to discover those technologies, slowly learning about them so they won’t have them when they’re not ��ready enough” to use them.

The “ready enough” thing sounds paternalistic or what can be expected from a more technologically advanced alien, but technically Rhea’s part alien and she lived through (or not?) an episode where humans received technology and did shit with it (mole people) so maybe she won’t hand them the car with the keys this time, and instead let them figure out how to build the car.

Still, this is HC because, as usual, the game doesn’t let us talk or question Rhea about those things, so we can only infer, read between the lines or between pixels.

****

TBH, I didn’t care a lot about her when I played, but when she had to eat babies in CF I grew more interested. Other bloggers already pointed it out, but Rhea’s a Tiki, but also a “traditional FE lord” in the sense she avenged her mom who was killed by the king of another kingdom, lived in exile and raised an army to fight against the King.

Still, Rhea didn’t end up as the leader of the world, or as the first Empress of United Fodlan, or something like that. She let Willy do his thing. Why? How? Why didn’t she became an integral part of the Empire, if she had been politically important, or a kind of seer/oracle, it would have been difficult for the Empire to go against her!

But nope, Rhea figged away in her mountains to rez her mom, sprout some “doctrine” (she could have done the same as an Emperor/Seer/Oracle) and watched over randoms who made up her “church”. She sometimes tries to intervene in Fodlan’s best interests, but it failed. Because Rhea doesn’t want to rule. She feels like she has to be a guide, but when humans don’t follow her? Well, what can she do? FE16 doesn’t show us Rhea sending her knights against the Empire when the Empire kicked out her Church and basically said “fig” to her face. FE16 doesn’t show us Rhea being angry and punching Gloucester in the face because he doesn’t show “real piety” and sprouts doctrine out of his rear.

Still, when she has to take a more hands-on approach and cannot be a distant figure/guide, she complains about maintaining a certain image as the Archbishop and how she cannot socialise with students or even walk around without Seteth randoms guarding her. She feels her mother would do a better job and tries to act as a proxy. Imo, Rhea’s bound by duty to her mom, to her sibs dead and living, and to Fodlan. She doesn’t reject her role, she accepts it, she doesn’t like it yes, but if going Gandalf in non-CF chapter 12 shows, she will fulfill it.

What’s most saddening though, is how her duty is a self-imposed one. Rez her mom? She personally took the challenge, because she misses Sothis the most and feels ashamed of this feeling to the point of not telling Seteth about it (interesting enough, Indech seems to be aware Billy’s Sothis incarnation and didn’t jump to the “Billy must be one of Nemesis’s kids with the crest of flames” conclusion, as if he knew Sothis could “incarnate” one day, but was he thinking Sothis would incarnate on her own or Rhea would trigger it? Flayn also suspects a thing about Billy being related to them because of Rhea). Rhea personally thinks she has to lead/guide Fodlan and make it a better place, ignoring the heads of the 3 states who should also be concerned with this goal. Rhea will create a false history to protect her living siblings when Macuil and Indech won’t give a fuck and live in their bestial forms somewhere, and when Seteth hides, but made it clear his only wish is to protect Flayn and the apostles, if they were really lizards, disappeared in random villages.

FE16 isn’t interested by Rhea’s story though.

That’s why I’m desperately waiting for a War of Heroes DLC or prequel of BSFE or whatever because I don’t really care about Fodlan in 1180 and who can have a perfect tea time with Billy or not.

I’d like to know why Birdie and Indech figged away, why Rhea thought letting Willy control the entire continent when he knows she’s a dragon was a good idea, why the Apostles didn’t take part in the Nemesis fight, why Fodlan’s humans decided to side with Willy in his brand new Empire instead of staying with King Nemesis, did Sothis have a previous faithful and what happened when she disappeared, were the Nabateans tyrannical rulers over humans which made some with Nemesis’n’pals, what were they supposed to do when they left Zanado, etc, etc.

So just like Julia and the baijilions AU ideas I came up with, Rhea’s a fuel for AUs because her base game dgaf about her.

[queeruma]

pastelbatfandoms replied to your post “Unpopular opinion: (ignore if you're not taking them anymore) It's not...”

How are Ben's parents abusive? I think out of all the Aurodon kids,Audrey has the most abusive.

I’m like a week late replying to this, I’m so sorry!

So, I agree with you that Audrey’s grandmother is Terrible with a capital T, (’and perhaps I have owed you one, too’ biTCH HOW ABOUT APOLOGISING TO YOUR OWN GRANDAUGHTER FIRST????), but I would say Ben’s parents... well, even if you don’t want to use the word abusive, I’d say they’ve cultivated a pretty unhealthy relationship with their son, and they don’t treat him well.

I wrote about the way Beast treats him here, if you’d like to read about that in more detail, and admittedly I’d say Beast treats him worse than Belle does. However, that post is based on the first book, not on the films, so I’ll talk more about those now - and in the films, I’d say Beast and Belle are pretty much equal in how terribly they treat their son.

First film:

Ben is 16 years old. Why, exactly, is he becoming king (high king? emperor? disney im begging you to sort out your shit)? We see that he’s in school with at least a few other students who will also, presumably, take over their respective countries at some point, being their parents’ direct heirs. But neither Audrey nor Chad seem even close to becoming the leaders of their... nations? states?

If Ben were in the UK, where I live, he wouldn’t even be taking his A-Levels yet. He’s in no way old enough to handle the responsibility of running a country, let alone an empire-type situation. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with Beast or Belle, and I refuse to take tradition as the excuse, considering the United States/Kingdom of Auradon has only been established for twenty years. They’ve only had one king! And it’s Beast, who also didn’t become king at 16, so there’s literally no reason for Ben to be taking over now, except that Beast and Belle want him to. This is so fucking irresponsible - and unfair of them to place that pressure onto a literal child. Beast calls him a baby in the very first scene!

Then, we have the infamous family day scene. Beast and Belle give their son absolutely no support when things start going wrong, even though Leah is behaving egregiously towards children who are under their care, and in the end they blame Ben for everything that’s gone wrong, and walk away, leaving him alone.

Second movie:

They just fuck off. Their 16-17 year old son is trying to juggle managing an entire... country? empire? continent? while being a full time student and apparently also making a full tour of Auradon and making press appearances. Could he possibly need any help? Nah, time for a six month long cruise. When they do eventually come back, and something is off with Ben and Mal’s relationship, they immediately go to Mal, without taking a moment to speak to Ben about why he’s acting the way he is. From the audience’s perspective, this seems fine, since we know Uma’s probably done something to Ben. But from their perspective? Who cares about understanding their son, better make sure we comfort Mal, who is already surrounded by friends, first. (this is not me saying that Mal doesn’t deserve comfort in this scene. she’s having a super awful time. I’m just pointing out that they never seem to be in their son’s corner.)

Third Movie:

Oh good god, where do I even begin with the third film? The first scene we see them, they seem... fine. They congratulate Mal on her engagement, Belle makes some comment about finally having a daughter, Beast says well done to his son - I don’t think Belle says anything to Ben at all? Idk, it’s easy to read this charitably and say that Ben’s obviously already discussed this with them a lot, therefore there’s no reason for them to focus on him now. Mal is our main character, so we get to see their interactions with her. This is fine.

Then, the scene where Mal decides the barrier needs to be closed.

(A real-life image of me sitting through this fucking scene.)

First of all, Beast, Belle and Fairy Godmother have themselves positioned as a solid line opposite Ben. They’re literally opposing him right from the beginning. Beast instantly takes this condescending tone, as if Ben hasn’t realised that Hades almost escaping is not a great thing.

Once Ben has received his text? call? whatever that was about the crown and sceptre having being stolen, and Beast and Belle aren’t getting the reaction they want from him - Beast instantly accuses Uma of the theft and Ben defends her - they immediately turn to Mal, putting the weight of the decision on her, even though at this point she doesn’t have the authority to make the decisions. She’s engaged to the king, sure, but she’s basically just an 18 year old girl who’s just graduated high school. The second she gives them an answer they like - to close the barrier for good - they turn back to Ben and nod at him as if to say ‘see? even your girlfriend knows trying to do the right thing by those kids is a stupid idea’. The only time in this scene when Ben gets a chance to speak his mind is when he and Mal are having their conversation, away from the adults.

After Mal has done her best to talk Ben into it, Beast steps forward, and it’s here that I noticed - all the way through this film, he refers to Ben as son. Maybe that’s just meant to be a sign of affection, but in this context at least I can’t help interpreting it as Beast, at least subconsciously, trying to place Ben back into the dynamic where he has authority - father and son - rather than acknowledging Ben as the king, and therefore the one with the power to make the final choice.

And of course, we have the moment with Hades, where he refuses to move and growls, even though Hades has done nothing to warrant any kind of threat. Then, in the final scene, he objects even when it’s clear Mal and Ben are on the same page about opening the barrier. His behaviour speaks of a man who can’t handle letting go of control of any situation - and people who refuse to give up control don’t typically make great parents.

Now

I can’t say any of the behaviours I’ve listed here, like, individually depict abusive actions? But I can say that even without the books, which cast Beast (and therefore Belle, since she’s letting all this go on without speaking up) in a pretty damn negative light, when you put all of this together it’s possible to come up with a very sinister interpretation. And because these are the people who came up with, implemented, and tried to keep the idea of the Isle, I think interpreting their actions as less than just bad-parents-who-are-trying-their-best is pretty justified.

So, my interpretation is as follows:

Beast and Belle are placing their son onto the throne so young because they know he’s going to take over at some point, and if they throw him into it when he’s young, unsure of himself, and swamped with other work, he’ll depend far more on them to help him make decisions. They want to stay in control even once they’ve officially stepped down. They don’t help him during the first film because they want him doubting himself and his choices. They leave in D2 because it doesn’t really matter to them whether he’s doing okay as king or not. And by the end of D2/beginning of D3, they’ve realised Ben isn’t going to be manipulated as easily as they wanted him to, and they’ve moved on to Mal. I’ll just remind you of this:

hmmmm, Beast has been teaching Mal how to lead and it just so happens that in D3 she’s far more sympathetic to his way of thinking than she was at the end of D2. Wonder how that could have happened?

Mal, who after D1 is unsure of her place in Auradon, and no longer has the relationship with her mother that she originally depended on to guide her, is now perfectly placed to be manipulated herself, and therefore help them manipulate their son.

I know that’s just one interpretation but seriously??? When do we ever see a really genuine, happy moment between Ben and his parents where they don’t at some point cast doubt on something he does, except that one time his father congratulated him on getting engaged (to a girl he approves of)? Even at the end of D1, when Mal attempts to apologise to them outside the cathedral, Beast immediately places the focus back on Ben and his decisions - ‘I told Ben this wasn’t going to be easy’.

I guess what I’m trying to say is like... the films never take the time to properly establish that Ben has a good relationship with his parents, and so their whole relationship in the films, especially when you add the material from the first book, just ends up feeling super creepy and honestly, pretty cruel. It’s just conflict conflict conflict, without any material to properly contrast it. I don’t think Beast and Belle are in any way good people in this universe, and I certainly don’t believe they’re good parents.

[mysticalmusicwhispers]

APH England Headcanon: On Top of the World

Hey look another song headcanon. Idk why I get so much inspiration from songs but here it is. Long, Long, Long, Long, Long Post Warning (I went into detail here so... you’re warned)

Basically a look at this song (On Top of the World by Greek Fire, not Imagine Dragons, one of my favorites, please listen) through England’s eyes, because I think it really fits him, mostly discussing his imperial times (colonies, America, all that fun stuff):

Ok so: Imperial England, in my headcanon, is a Sly Old Bastard exactly the way China is/was at his height. And this post is going to be focusing on England’s sly, cunning nature and weaknesses (?) he might have felt at the height of the British Empire. Most of the song is reminiscing (“I remember”...), so it could also be when England’s empire has crumbled and he’s wondering how it all went down.

Anyway, first couple lyrics are just “on top of the world/on top of it all/trying to feel invincible”, the refrain that goes on throughout the song. I guess it just kinda sets the scene, I think as his empire got larger and larger, and as England got more and more colonies, he would become somewhat aware that all the things he’d been building, the states/lands he’d been conquering, would crumble one day, and then his empire would be no more (trying to feel invincible).

Slight Digression: Britain was a Roman province, however the whole of the British Isles were never quite subdued by military conquests, and I think England would have existed at the time and would be resisting the Romans with his mother Britannia (even though I think Scotland was the one left unconquered, although they were defeated in battle lots of times, England would not have willingly surrendered either). Therefore, he would also witness the fall of Rome, and carry with him the knowledge that all empires fall, no matter how great they are or how much land they have. So this would also factor into his state of mind of inevitability I guess (I was thinking of insecureness but that’s not fitting, England is too egotistical to be insecure imo) that his empire will end one day, and the least he can do is to enjoy (?) or pay attention to how it feels to rule while it lasts

Ok anyway: “I remember the nights/Caught up in dreaming my goodbyes/Watching the door for anything more than an ordinary life"

I have no explanation, maybe this was when he was first starting out as a country or when he was starting to grow his empire, when things used to be ordinary for him maybe? Idk what it means about dreaming goodbyes but rationale is: he somehow has a premonition that his empire will die someday? Actually wait, even better is that he’s saying goodbye to Britannia, who is dying, and perhaps deciding to build something great in her legacy? As a tribute (and also maybe a fuck you to Rome) to her, he wants her legacy to be “my son(s) did something great” rather than to be a forgotten woman to history. I interpret the next line as England perhaps being excited about the prospect of his growing empire, excited about leading, conquering. I think during imperial times he had the same god-complex America does; the US often markets itself as “doing good” for the world (eg. Ridding Communist Scum !!!) which, although it may actually be disastrous, is usually seen as “right” in some way (I have major issues w/ US politics as you can see but let’s not talk about that). So the wishing for a better, more exciting life might just be his wish to “make the world more civilized, more British, more gentlemanly” etc.

Next: “I remember the days/New beginnings on an open page/With something to prove/ And nothing to lose, not a soul to betray”

I think this could be about his relationship with young America as the 13 colonies, before the American Revolution. I believe (correct me if wrong) most of the Age of Imperialism, when England, France, Germany etc. started scrambling for land was in the 1800s, and so I think America was like England’s test run colony, and therefore the first person he really had to “care for” as a brother and a child. He didn’t have anything to lose with America, all he could do is build a relationship with this small country and open his heart to friendship and love from America. I don’t think England was as uptight about stuff then and America was his test run, his “new beginning” if he messed stuff up at home (idk if he really did though). He didn’t have any “history” or previous relationship with America before they became like a father/son duo, so he didn’t have to worry about damaging a previous friendship with him (”nothing to lose” by getting to know him).

Side note: I think America’s independence sort of broke England, and I definitely agree with @hongkongenthusiast ‘s hc that England distanced himself from his other colonies because he didn’t want what happened with America to happen again.

Next: “Here I am/Living a dream that I can’t hold/Here I am/On my own”

So this just kinda speaks to England’s loneliness ig. He’s literally living the dream: power, colonies, wealth, everything, but he still has the premonition/wisdom (?) to see that it won’t last (“...that I can’t hold”). He won’t be king of the world forever. He’s also up on a pedestal. I think after the Age of Imperialism England owned the most colonies (I think France is a close second), and like America with his modern-day “police of the world” status, I think lots of people knew about and admired/were jealous of England’s power (maybe they didn’t “look up” to him, but I think they certainly wanted his power for themselves), and being without an equal can make it feel pretty lonely at the top of the food chain.

Next part is the refrain, the new lyrics after that are: “I remember the lies/Caught up in building paradise/The angels were slaves and demons behaved/And everything was alright”

This could represent the propaganda England fed to his people at home to make them support colonization. I don’t think it would’ve taken much convincing, because of the “white men superiority” idea that were colonizers’ way of justifying colonialism and imperialism (actually called White Man’s Burden). However, even though that idea was prevalent, there are still historical propaganda pieces that glorify colonization; one example is called “ABC for Baby Patriots” (full text in link). It basically convinces people colonizing is good for the mother country, and I’d like to think England also told his people that to make them support it (“I remember the lies”). I don’t know how physically old England the character would be, but if he was still young and maybe not as cynical (unlikely but still possible), he could tell these “lies” to himself as well to justify his actions. I mentioned earlier about him wanting to make a better world by introducing British ways to his colonies, and maybe that was the version of “paradise” he envisioned. The last two lines strike me as a flip-flopped world where the bad are free and the good are punished, so maybe idk that was the actual situation, where England’s colonies were suffering instead of being helped, like he thought? Anyway this is getting into kinda political ugly history so...

Next! “I hear the crowds beneath me/I'm wishing they could reach me/But I'm on top of the world/Up here I'm dying alone”

Not really any analysis here, just another example of England being lonely ig as the leader of the imperial world. I feel like this part can be summed up in a more positive light by this

Next: “Inside the walls of gold/Outside of happiness/(It's all been a show, too late to confess)/No room for heart and soul/No room for innocence/Innocence”

To me, this is England reminiscing when he still had compassion and when he was young. I feel like nations, like humans, get more cynical as they age; they stop seeing good in the world and start just seeing people as things they can manipulate, pawns on a chessboard who can achieve their own interest. In the context of England’s imperialism, this is basically him thinking back and thinking what have I done. Maybe he finally acknowledged negative impacts of his colonization, and wishes he could go back to the days where he was just a small nation, minding his own people, instead of forging an empire that stretched across continents. I guess the whole imperial episode is: “I thought this was a good idea, I thought it would bring me happiness and glory, I thought I could make the world better, but instead, it only showed me the worst in people, and the worst in me”. Idk, I still don’t know if imperial England deserves compassion (Aftereffects of colonization are still being felt today, eg. when original India was split by Britain into India and Pakistan. Britain never clearly specified the India-Pakistan border, and that led to a whole lot of wars and shit and people are still fucking tense about this to this day) But I guess this song and my consequential thinking about it gives him a bit of humanity in spite of his Sly Old Man status?

Ok that’s it! You’ve made it to the end of this long-ass post! I’m so conflicted about England’s character now! I’ve literally disliked him so much ever since I joined the fandom (I also don’t really like FACE fam in general) but bruh my head just warps canon so it’s more palatable for me I guess hhhh. What do y’all think? Feedback Appreciated!

[incarnateirony]

I think the biggest lie about the united states that we’re told since birth as citizens is that... america is a country.

Okay, hear me out, two parts to this.

There’s the very obvious part of “The United States is a Country, America isn’t, it’s a continent.” EG North/South America. The United States of America.

But really in actual execution there’s another point -- to which the above shorthand even panders. Our states.

Our states are supposedly largely able to self-govern and set a bunch of laws free of actual national oversight. In fact, Republicans gong on about this and throw supposed fits while ironically pushing for bigger and bigger police state involvement America, but regardless of the actual effective application of it, that’s the idea.

Most states are huge. If you compared US States to countries in Europe in terms of size and diversity of geography and culture, you’d see next to no difference. 

“United States.” That’s just it though, that’s the key word. What’s in a state, really. Because by definition, the word “country” can be applied variably to states, sovereign states, nations and nation-states. That’s right, some countries are states. Which seems like a really basic thing but again, hear me out.

The very idea of 50 united states, all small countries unto themselves, united together is pretty much just... I dunno, a UNION. Like the European Union. But the countries, that could even be called states, within the European Union don’t just pretend they’re all one big country. 

So my weird point in all of this is that the nationalism of the united states is such a huge, falsely constructed phenomenon at our current junction. It’d be like europeans screaming back and forth at each other over the need to absolutely support any and all decisions by the biggest head in the EU or you’re Not Patriotic And A Sinner Or Whatever. Only in America’s case, that individual is making more and more martial decisions that are becoming outright catastrophic to surrounding nations.  

EU countries do things like give their citizens EU health insurance cards. Which would be like, rather than (State) medicaid, it’s also (Federal) medicaid, as long as there’s some reciprocation involved and basic communication. The European Union is the ultimate foreign policy maker. And so on. Sound familiar? Most of the EU is now border free without border checks or hassles. Also sound familiar to over here?

“The United States of America”‘s nationalism to force adherence to absolute bullshit is ridiculous. It’s more like The Smiles For The Christmas Card Countries of America, above which the slightly more organized but never invited to christmas canada hat sits hoping we don’t go nuclear. Just like countries have their own parliaments/parallel, we have state senates and whatever else. America isn’t just one country, it’s 50 very crudely strapped together countries that DESPERATELY need to at least break into like 5 territories for general management before we all just die in a civil war that isn’t even really a civil war just a continental one.

If it ever feels like Alabama and Oregon are completely different countries, that’s because essentially, they are. They just happen to be in the same union. It’s like pretending Sweden and Latvia have related political issues and needs and that people in one should get to make very loud decisions that heavily impact people in the other. Shockingly, the EU has mostly worked out war policy and health care. Maybe not perfectly. But better than our discombobulated asses out here.

I’m sure someone’s going to come and try to hyperanalyze pinpoint-pick-apart something on completely unnecessary semantics but the general point is here -- we’re now at a point where we’re... IDK. The EU has a few kinds of presidents, right? The council, Commission, and president of Parliament but that’s kinda like the three branches of government. I guess it’d be like a large batch of Europeans like worshipping Donald Tusk’s decisions even if he started rolling tanks through town For Reasons. Given I’m approaching this part from an academic level of more reading about than living the EU experience so there may be a better parallel. 

And no, Tusk is no Trump. AFAIK he’s been working against Russia meddling in Ukraine? And outright mailed that Trump is a huge threat to the EU? But like. Put Trump in Tusk’s position. Tusk in Trump. That’s it, that’s the difference, Europeans just aren’t brought to praise the ground the EU leader(s) walk(s) on.

Just random thoughts for people indoctrinated about US BS from the inside and people outside that are still sort of looking at the US and going WTF. There’s essentially 50 countries over here with different needs, and a large batch of them living in very, very old and dated times with heavy religious influence, but have used the union overhead to get themselves disproportionately represented among the union at large, in a way that’s dictating the entire union in favor of these smaller countries and barring this union from making basic fucking decisions that the better part of Europe is decades ahead of us on, even if struggling in some areas.

In fact, the better part of the states and areas that pull disproportionate advantage and representation just so happen to be the same areas that tried to leave the union during the civil war. And lost. Devastatingly. And have been trying to bend things to their old favor ever since. For all their "she lost, get over it" memes these same states sure haven't gotten over losing the civil war. Seriously. Cut slave states out of the union, run an election, see if a republican ever gets elected ever again. You know, to be the head of the American Union. Because that’s all it fucking is. 

The Confederacy was Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia  No, really. Please. Break away and do your own thing again, be a different country. California alone would outweigh about the sum of remaining red states, much less... literally everything else. 

You wanna know why Texas threatens to leave the union constantly but never fucking DOES? Because republicans would never win again and it takes down most of the rest of the mason-dixon front with it. That’s it, that’s the only reason. PLEASE secede from the union and take the others with you. BUT THE USA HAS A FLAG

so does the EU

BUT MY STATE HAS A FLAG

so do countries in the EU.

fuck this false nationalism bullshit in general. White nationalism is of course a huge part of it but seriously fuck general american nationalism it’s one giant fucking lie. The entire union is fucking corrupted in the upper levels, as we all know and rant about but in such a rancorous way that even pulling out for the Right Reasons would end up being disasterous, it’s like a hostage situation of 50 basically-countries all slapping at each other with a megaphone given to the people who LOST the war of how to run the union to begin with.

Europeans should probably start asking Americans what state they’re from and hold that in the same way they hold discourse about countries of the EU. And Americans should probably identify by state to the outside world. “I’m from Europe” gives nowhere near the idea as “I’m from Spain.” Same goes for America. In example, I’m traveled! I was born in California! Raised at the border of Illinois and Wisconsin! Spent a huge chunk of life in Texas! Had my best success in Oregon! Am currently spinning my wheels trying to get out of Alabama! And you know what? Literally ALL of them had completely different culture. But seriously fuck anything in the mason-dixon line.

[janiedean]

That's why I said worst country and im thinking EVERY Americans are very retarded. Remind me, who the fuck is in the white house again? A fucking celebrity star that MOST AMERICANS doubted years ago who wouldn't be a fucking president and would make a bad president which appears to be the case now and people voted for him??????????? Seriously, fuck Americans and perhaps maybe they should die if they do not pay more attention to the bad shit going on

Because I don’t think it’s even an excuse no more that I don’t want to hear about the badshit in the world because that shit is more depressing which is true but that does not justify them sitting there ass about it and doing nothing while they are playing games or posting something about cats!!!!!!!! Maybe everyone should throw the depressing shit in their faces as fuck them, they don’t care? Then everyone around the world don’t care about you And America fucking sucks more than China and other countries that they considered bad. Without looking at the positives and why you could argue that they are “better” than the US has even if these countries do not have something like the First Amendment. I apologize with this rant I’m going on but do you see where I’m coming from what this?

…. no, I don’t.

all right, I debated not answering this, but since I have a feeling some of y’all aren’t really catching the drift of my political opinions, I’m gonna go at it:

first: please do avoid calling people retarded - it’s not nice, it’s not funny, you can use any other damned word that doesn’t have the connotations that specific one has, and honestly, if I’m discussing a country where thanks to classism and a shitty educational system they have forty-three million people who can’t read and write because their teachers couldn’t be arsed to make sure they actually learned, you going and saying they’re *retarded* is really fucking shitty, end of question, so if we really need to have this conversation chill the fuck out and drop that tone because I’m not here to insult people like that especially if talking about people who might have not gotten an education because their teachers/peers thought they were ****retarded**** with a bunch of ***s;

second: okay, and berlusconi was elected in italy thrice and berlusconi OWNED the televisions that started the reality genre in italy along with gossip newspapers and shit so he was basically trump except less whacked (AND IF I’M SAYING THAT…), so what, now I’ll call **retarded** everyone else who’s voted berlusconi? or the current italian government made of utter incompetents or racists? trump is shit but I’m the least person who can go and laugh about it COMING FROM THE COUNTRY WHERE PEOPLE VOTED HIS EQUIVALENT THRICE and now voted pretty much the same;

third: actually trump didn’t get the popular vote and the percentage in which he made enough to win was…. poor white people who didn’t finish high school/barely finished high school. who most likely live in areas where no one has given a fuck about sky-high unemployment since at least the beginning of the eighties. ‘scuse me I’m not gonna judge people who fell for it when they didn’t get an education and he was an outsider promising them to change things (which ofc he won’t do but they can’t know), but never mind;

fourth: trump got 62,984,828 votes. hillary got 65,853,514. now, the US have an esteemed population of 328,355,612. if we take out trump’s voters, we have 265,370,784 people. now, according to you, TWO MILLION SIXTY FIVE PEOPLE SHOULD DIE BECAUSE OF HOW THE OTHERS HAVE VOTED? like, are you listening to yourself? because that’s fucking ridiculous, period;

fifth: I highly doubt most americans are on the internet posting pictures of cats;

sixth: americans on tumblr/on the internet are in 90% of the cases privileged people who have no clue of how the non-privileged people’s lives work or they wouldn’t be assuming that all trump voters voted for him because they have boner for neonazism, but judging the entire population by their online presence isn’t exactly fair;

seventh: man, I think, idk, NORTH KOREA is fairly worse than the US are (also pls just call them US, AMERICA IS THE ENTIRE CONTINENT idc for how it’s referred to in english IT’S UNITED STATES gdi), same as idk, eritrea, south sudan, every damned dictatorship refugees flee from, most likely syria these days, and a lot of other places, including china, because I mean AT LEAST IN THE US YOU DON’T HAVE RESTRICTED INTERNET ACCESS and shit like that like man if according to you the first amendment is not enough to make someplace way better automatically than dictatorships/autocracies, well, congrats but really fucking not. without free speech you don’t have a democratic country, period, and no one wants dictatorships. ffs;

eight: I’m all for us-criticizing (and criticizing tumblr’s us centrism) but in no way shape or form I am ever going to go like ‘all americans suck they should die’ because a) that’s not how it works, b) judging an entire population is always wrong period, c) a lot of those americans who voted trump and so on are actually victims of the system which sucks, d) I actually don’t hate americans as like, actual people, I hate us centrism and how the us meddle with about everyone else and destabilize entire areas and then OPS WE HAVE TERRORISTS ARE WE SURPRISED, but I don’t hate them and I don’t hate the US as a whole because again, as I’ve said a countless number of times, there’s been excellent stuff that came from the US and excellent people who came from there and writing off 325 million people because of politics especially when it comes to trump who has been elected in this specific political climate is just downright asinine;

finally: I didn’t write off americans as a lost cause when they voted bush jr the second time (the first was a fraud and we all know it), at this point I think I can afford to not do it for trump.

to finish it all off: I don’t know if it was clear, but just in case, the fact that I’m US critical doesn’t mean I hate the US as a whole and the fact that I’m a leftist doesn’t mean that I have to automatically think everyone who votes where I don’t or wouldn’t is an idiot and believe me my current government is making me test that every day but I managed to not do it yet, so can you, and the fact that I think the american left is centrist/that tumblr left is a joke, and the fact that I don’t think all trump voters MUST be evil doesn’t mean I actually like trump or that I’m not a leftist.

and I’m not having any political related discussion in those terms. ALL MUSLIMS SHOULD DIE was the point that I had to hear from neofascists/the equivalent of your alt-right people when I was in middle school post sept. 11th and I didn’t think it was a great argument, and all americans should die is the exact same matter.

tldr: if you want to discuss this like a civil person who can actually do things rationally fine, if not please find someone else to rant at because I don’t appreciate this kind of language/tone. thanks.

[okhotniker]

here’s some actual world building worldbuilding

this whole story takes place in an alternate dimension/universe, it has much of our current social justice emphasis/issues but is otherwise a mostly medieval fantasy type setting with some steampunk aspects-- steam power is a thing and i think people are just starting to work out electricity

the country (continent??) it takes place on is everoth

there are tons of countries/provinces/states on it, but p much the only relevant ones at this point are the kingdom clovis and the starsea

kingdom clovis is named after the clovis family, which the seventh son belonged to, the seventh son killed his entire immediate family as well as several extended family members, damn i really need to give him a first name, any surviving members are in hiding

the seventh son is old as hell because he’s an evil magic bastard and evil magic bastards tend to live forever

he has been the ruler of kingdom clovis for at least 3 generations; it’s been long enough that he has proven his might as a tyrant and squelched any opposition, and that the people of clovis don’t really know any other way of life

i’m probably gonna go with the bloodline idea so artura is one of his brother’s great-great-great-great-granddaughters which makes both her and juno able to legally claim the throne (he doesn’t know they exist at the beginning of the story; he later finds out about juno via ~stirrings of dissent among the people~)

clovis is a largely woodland/plains area, with a massive mountain on one end that was carved into a castle as a gift to the royal family ages and ages ago

it was carved and gifted by dwarves but idk why

maybe they live in the mountain range next to clovis and the clovis people helped them win a war or something

actually it would make a lot of sense if the people of clovis helped the dwarves win a war against elves and fairies because it would explain why the fairies retreated way far into the forest (that comes up in the story, idk if i’ll get to it in this post) thus furthering the disenfranchisement and literal disenchantment of the clovis people during the seventh son’s rule

the starsea has another name in its native language but idk what that name is yet, it’s the closest major city-state to clovis

it’s called the starsea because it’s in the middle of a huge desert and what do you see at night in the middle of the desert??? stars!!!!!! everywhere!!!!!!!!! exactly

this is milos’ homeland

much of the city and the capitol/rulers’ castle is built as part of the same structure that surrounds a group of large oases; it looks kind of dull from the outside because the sand wears down any kind of decoration but inside it’s covered in beautiful mosaics and the light reflecting off the pools gives everything a really neat glowy feel and there are all kinds of super creative indoor gardens and it’s just!! so gorgeous and such a testament to the creativity and ingenuity of humans

in the outer reaches of the starsea there are a lot of nomadic tribes and monastery-like villages; nico comes from one of these tribes

there is also a large portion of wilderness outside clovis / bordering the starsea (not between them, but like, if you imagine the two states as opposite ends of a right angle, this wilderness would be the point where the line bends) and this is where most of the fair folk live

this is also where nico and artura end up settling and raising juno, although they stay well away from the fair folk because the fair folk have made very clear they want nothing to do with humans after that dwarf/fae war i mentioned

juno ends up venturing super far into fair folk land to find argokles-- they went off away from human civilizations searching for the answer to some deep existential question like “are humans inherently evil” or something and ended up just staying with the fair folk because they were sick of bloodshed among humans; the fair folk accepted them because of their mythic status-- and she is the first human in decades, if not centuries, to be accepted by the fair folk

the proof of this acceptance comes from her discovering the remains of titania, one of the fae queens, and being allowed to take up titania’s sword and armor to fight the seventh son

[7goodangel]

7goodangel’s FAQ

( Can also be found at https://7goodangel.tumblr.com/faq )

[This version is made so then it can be easily searched within the blog and be easier for mobile users to find! Will reblog when an update to the FAQ happens! The original page will still be up as well as the post version of it. FAQ is under the Read More to not clutter up the dashboard. Please read this prior to sending questions!]

((Updated - 01/26/2020 - Updated part will be noted within FAQ)) [It will first be guidelines then general FAQ]

GUIDELINES

Q: Can I draw [character]?

A: YES! You can! Just make sure you credit me in the description! (either tag me on dA or Tumblr, or give a link to my tumblr if it’s on another website!)

–

Q: Can I write a fanfiction with [character]?

A: YES! Again, give credit where it’s due, but I am completely fine with you writing a story for one of my characters!

If there are any exceptions to those two questions, they will be mentioned below.

– **UPDATE START**

Q: Can I sell products / commissions / etc. with [character] in them?

A:  If it is a one time payment (like a one off drawing / voice / writing commission) that includes [character], that will be okay.  (refer to this post: https://7goodangel.tumblr.com/post/185382385438/so-lets-say-someone-does-comissions-and-gets)

If it is for a longer project or a line of products with [character] in them (i.e.: YouTube videos, items sold on a printing website, etc), I will have to respectfully decline for their likeness to be in/on the product. 

– **UPDATE END**

Q: Can I write/draw NSFW of [character]?

A: This is where I like to draw the line. I know I cannot police everyone and some will slip out, but I would rather not see any NSFW of any of my characters on this website or any website. My characters are very personal to me… and I just feel very awkward and horrible when I see or imagine one of my characters doing some of those actions.

But here I will try my best to say what is allowed and what isn’t allowed: Allowed:

Jokes about NSFW topics or hinting to NSFW stuff.

Leading up to the action, but then fading to black (not actually showing it)

Not allowed:

The actual action of NSFW stuff.

If the ’d’ is glowing/showing. (like heat)

Just do not want to see any of my characters do any of that stuff. But sometimes joking about it in a conversation can work. Touching, kissing, biting, hugging, cuddling, laying in the same bed - that stuff is ok. But when the actual act is happening - please - don’t show that.  

(Just note that with Paper Jam, he can really not do that. his body is unable to do that function.)

If you are wondering if what you are going to draw falls under the NSFW category for me, PLEASE do not hesitate to message me! I might say no, but then you would at least know for sure if you could do it or not. You can still draw that stuff in private, I am not stopping you there - just wanted to not see that stuff on the Internet.

Oh! I know that sometimes violence is included in the NSFW topic. GENERIC violence is ok since because of fighting and battles and etc that some of my characters do. So that’s ok! Other stuff like vore and rape will NEVER be tolerated.

–

Q: Can I repost your artwork to [Website/App Here]?

A: No. Not unless you got specific permission from me to do so. You will have to contact me and ask first, then I’ll give you a way to format the picture (basically keep the picture as-is, link to my tumblr, give credit). Do NOT repost my stuff unless you got my permission! Please!

Good rule of thumb for any artist - if you do not have permission, don’t repost it.

-

Q: Can I lineart/color/do both for a picture you have done traditionally / only lineart?

A: Ask me about that first. I have had people not ask be before doing it and most of the time if that happens, the colors or line art is messed up and is not interpreted properly. While I do like spontaneous collabs, I need you to ask me first through my inbox. Then I can provide you the right references and colors for it! If not, well, I will still appreciate it, but I will then mention about how you didn’t contact me within the comments (if I do find it). It’s just uncomfortable for me to have someone just draw over and color over stuff I did - and, in some ways and from some view points, this can be considered as art theft. Just… tread lightly and always ask before doing something like this with any artist - do not let another blog give you permission to do so - go to the artist and ask them directly.

-

Q: Can I have [character] as my icon?

A: Sure! As long as you credit the right people (character by 7goodangel, art by (whoever did the art))

-

Q: Can I create a ask/RP account for [character]?

A: No. Any kind of blog, account, etc that is used for role playing or for asking any of my characters is not allowed (or more on highly not recommended). The only exception to this would be if the character you are using is an alternate from a different AU (that has significant changes in design and personality from the original) AND if you run it by me first. I am generally pretty chill with alternates like that but due to how people misinterpret some of my characters I will have to say no to general RP and Ask blogs. 

This includes:

dA Ask/RP accounts

Tumblr Ask/RP blogs

Amino Profiles (unless you are only using the name/icon and not RPing or answering asks as said character), Amino Public Chats and RPing / Asking questions within the comments

Instagram Ask/RP accounts

Pretty much if it’s an account that says the name of any one of my characters and they are answering things as them then I strongly do not recommend doing that. 

Naming an account after one of my characters for other uses is just fine (due to how common the names I use for characters) or using an image of one of my characters as an icon is fine (as long as you got permission from the artist who made the image).

More clarification here: https://7goodangel.tumblr.com/post/175950661298/hey-i-do-not-have-a-question-but-i-idk-have-a

-

Q: Can I still RP as [RP] randomly?

A: I’m still fine with non-permanent/private RPs as my characters - just make sure that your RP partner knows that the character you RP as isn’t canon and all should be good!

These are pretty much where if you RP as a character in Private Servers / SMS / IM / etc., then you are fine. Private is A-Okay – but try not to do public ones. Thanks!

-

Q: Where do you draw the line with NSFW in RPs?

A: I draw the like at the point where most people go to a ‘Read More’. A good example of this is how askinfresh does that. And that doesn’t mean that moving to a read more is okay then - Like the NSFW question above, I do NOT want to see any PUBLIC RPs that are that type of NSFW. Hinting up to the act is ok but once the sections are exposed is where I hope that people would stop with RPS - do a fade to black and return to them after the fact.

ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE UNDERAGE. I really do not care if you like to sin and you are underage - that can get you into a lot of trouble. THAT is for YOUR safety. Just please - for any RPs or art or writing, if you are underage in your country - don’t post it. Don’t make it public.

Little note about NSFW stuff:

Now note with the NSFW stuff I point out PUBLICLY. That means that I cannot stop you from writing or drawing it in your own home or wherever you draw it privately. It becomes ‘public’, in my eyes, when someone can find it on the internet. If a kid could get to that picture or story eventually by looking through tags or searching, then I get uncomfortable. I just really want to create an environment that is family friendly. My own family knows what I do online due to me telling them about it - and I do not want to have the thought of them looking up stuff and finding NSFW of my character. Knowing that families and children could find that stuff just scares me and makes me even more uncomfortable than my own feelings about NSFW stuff (which is disliking it). I just tend to worry a lot… and I just hope that people can respect my opinion on it. I am not limiting everyone to drawing other characters - just my own. There are plenty of other creators that are more loose with their characters. Just - I do not want to get to the point of leaving Tumblr due to people not respecting other artists. It is really uncomfortable for some people and asking artists and writers goes A LONG way.

-

Q: Can you draw [character(s)]?

A: Maybe? Maybe not? It depends on what’s happening with me in real life. Most of the time I am open to suggestions, not requests. Suggestions mean that if someone gives me an idea that inspires me, I might draw it. If not, then I might not. I tend to collect the ones I like and then draw them in one sitting. Suggestions might go away when and if I start to do commissions.

—–

FAQ ON 7GOODANGEL

Q: Where are you from?

A: Earth.

-

Q: Ahahaha - no seriously where are you from/what time is it/etc?

A: I will not state my exact location due to privacy reasons. For this reason, no matter where I am located at, I use Eastern Standard Time. Why? No reason - guess Walt Disney World is in that time zone.  Just know - I'm on the Earth on a continent. Country should be obvious with some reblogs or topics but that's as far as I'll go.

-

Q: Can we be friends?

A: Sorry to say, but I cannot guarantee that. Typically my friendships happen organically, with neither of us asking to be the others friend, talking to each other for a duration of time prior to realizing that "WOAH - we only know each other for 6 months! Dude - that's crazy it feels like you've been here forever!" When at that stage, that's what I consider as a friend. So I can never guarantee this, especially if someone asks. I apologize in advance but I like a more smaller group of friends instead of a lot.That's my personal preference.

-

Q: How long have you been drawing? What programs you use? Traditional or Digital?

A: I've been drawing since 2006. I use Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, and Drawpile if on a different computer for digital, and just whatever paper and pencils I can grab for traditional; though I do use generic color pencils, sharpie pens, a calligraphy pen for lineart, and recently trying Prismacolor markers. I like both traditional and digital and would like to do more fusions of the two styles! ^^

-

Q: Do you like to multiship? (aka What ships do you like?)

A: Yes - I do multiship and I’m pretty open to most ships. The only one’s I’ll NEVER ship are ones where if the characters are related (like a brother and sister romantic relationship? NOPE.) or if at least one character is a minor and one is an adult (NOPE - no ships like that - that’s illegal in real life so nope.)

Those two are the big nopes for me for ships. (And that also means that I hope people don’t ship my minor characters with adults or make a character of mine into a kid and ship them with an adult… that’s just… not right. Same for any of my characters who are related to another character - don’t ship siblings or relatives romantically guys.)

-

Q: [[Any question dealing with FreshxPJ or FreshPaper]]

A: I will not be answering any more questions about FreshPaper. It is due to how people have taken my opinion on the ship and warped the words to sound like I dislike ships entirely which is complete false. You can ship what you wish, draw what you wish, but just respect what creator's have as canon to their character's stories as well as their FAQs!

And to note here: Canon PJ is with a Pluris named Omni, and will eventually have a kid named Monochrome (who is an entirely different species). Canon PJ does not like Fresh and that feeling is mutual with him. 

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Q: But how did the FreshPaper ship even start?

A: It’s a long story: It started when I was mostly on an RP account for PJ - and I interacted a lot IC and OOC with a friend who ran a Fresh account. People then started to ship us two (me and the friend) and thought of the name FreshPaper from it based on our muses. Eventually others started to experiment with the possibility of the muses in a ship and the name shifted to the ship of Fresh and Paper Jam. Some other big and known artists started to draw their versions of the ship and it pretty much exploded from there. Though it did bring some misinformation with all characters involved….But that’s the story!

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CHARACTER SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

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Q: Is Paper Jam / Blue Screen a Sans?

A: Nope! Neither PJ or Screen are considered as Sanses. They are children of sanscest ships but they personally are not Sanses

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Q: Is there a bio for Paper Jam?

A: Yep! You can find it here: https://7goodangel.tumblr.com/paper-jam-bio-official It’s also in the dropdown list of link on the desktop version of my tumblr page!

((More will be added later to the FAQ))

[figjelly]

How do you approach worldbuilding?

Okay, full disclosure here but I’m still working on feeling comfortablewith my abilities in “world-building” (I put the phrase in quotes for a reasonI’ll explain in a moment). When I started writing fanfiction, I did so becauseI wanted to write but didn’t reallyfeel like I had the skills to develop something from scratch. But I had a fewcharacters and I was really into playing Skyrim at the time. So, I thought, “MaybeI’ll just start out writing a journal for Rook in Skyrim.” Rook was a characterI thought I had a good-enough handle on (spoiler alert: I didn’t and, boy, do Isometimes STILL pay for it) and I thought sticking with the Dragonborn DLCwould be a really easy story to chart a beginning, a middle, and an end for acharacter I didn’t have to build from the ground up or build an entire world ora story. A diary for a character seemed like a good start.

Rook of Skyrimquickly became not a journal (althoughin the first couple of chapters, you can still see where it started out assuch). There are probably still some of the very first drafts on a Skyrim forumsomewhere (that I just never bothered deleting because who cares). Whilewriting in this older style though, all ofthe characters started yelling at me (“I don’t sound like that!” or “I see how it is—I’m just a cardboard cut-out to put hereas a convenient thing to mention. Fuck you too.”).  So, while I’ve feel I’ve gotten better atdialogue and the like, world-building is still something I keep floaters onfor. That’s not to say I’ve not tried my hand at world-building (Cognitiva Uprising had eleven chaptersbefore I sort of put it aside. I don’t think it’s hosted anywhere currently,but it was something that I have a beginning, middle, and end for. There arestrong characters. The world was just a bit weaker than I wanted it). Fanfiction is basically the way in which I practice small-scale world-buildinguntil I can get a handle on it. With something like The Elder Scrolls (althoughat one time I also wrote for Dragon Age so I think that would work well inaddition to Fallout), big events exist and some details but thegames don’t often give you mechanisms for why the world is the way it is a goodamount of the time. It’s easy to build a world and populate it but it’llbe super flat if you’re looking to build a narrative that has some richness toit. For a story like Thistle Do Nicely,I don’t have to build a world—or atleast worry about the mechanisms behind why it is the way it is. It’s set inthe reality we have first-hand experience with. I don’t have to explain howcollege works in Thistle Do Nicely. IHAVE to do work in Relentless toexplain the academic systems of knowledge on a number of levels: an individualstudent’s progress, dynamics of an individual institution, how a particularinstitution interacts with local government/state government, and how otherinstitutions view one another (to be fair, I also use Raven’s Song to do some of this work). We do not have firsthand experiencefor the world of The Elder Scrolls. We dohave firsthand experience for what issues concern universities in ourworld.WHEW. That was really long-winded. Why did I put “world-building” in quotesabove? Because I feel that it the phrase is often used as an inefficient proxyfor “external environment.” I would classify developing characters as internalworld-building and building the environment around a character as externalworld building. I think we could then classify these even further (e.g.interpersonal relationships as being an “ecosystem,” a character’s interactionswith the physical environment as being “embodied world-building,” etc etc) butit would detract from the point. Here’s what I’ve learned from my own experiences and approaches ofworld-building. The usual YMMV and these are from my perspective und so weiter:

Don’t build worlds off of our currentworld’s assumptions. I don’t care if you are writing a modern day romance set in the United States, take allthe assumptions you have and put ‘em in a box because you’re gonna need to dosome hardcore reassessment about “the way things are.” For example, compulsoryheteronormativity isn’t just a story we hear when looking at the “usual”romantic comedy but also things like a “socially-acceptable” transgendernarrative that looks like “I am a woman in a man’s body.” It’s a narrative thatconforms to the expectations and assumptions that heteronormativity asserts. Inhomosexual relationships, it is common to hear, “So who’s the man and who’s thewoman?” Even beyond hot topic issues (such as gender and sexuality), there alsoexists assumptions about how communication works (usually “data transferbetween two people”), how social interactions work, and even how someone thinksabout the world (we don’t all interact with the world in the same way, we don’tall have the same mental dialogue with ourselves etc etc).

Become an expert at thetop-down/bottom-up analyses of your world. “Ash,” you sigh. “What the fuck does that mean?” Here’s an example:

A lot of writing advice with world-building has writersthink about what the lay of the land is. So, is the setting on an island? Alarge, land-locked continent? Near mountains? That’s fine. But I think whatthen happens is a disconnect between thinking about the land to thinking aboutsomething such as governmental policy or import/export mechanisms. When I sayto think about your world from a top-down perspective, I’m asking you to thinkabout larger phenomenon and behavior of the characters and then how we cantrace that back to smaller elements in the world. For example, if you statethat in your world the local government has always had strict policies in placethat regulate the hunting of certain wildlife, then it’s also important to knowwhy that is from smaller, foundationelements. Perhaps the particular wildlife upon which the regulations are enforcedare a species that in some seasons are superimportant for soil recovery (idk like maybe they have a jacked upmetabolism and poop a lot). THEN you might look further down and see, “Ah,well, these people would want a quicker turn around on soil recovery duringseason X because farming season Y is right after that time.” And so on. Youkeep taking this large-scale, overarching observation (strict rules on huntingduring a particular season) and then keep breaking down the whys and hows until you’ve got a good idea for why things are the way they are. (obvs I like repeating myself). But what about a bottom-up approach? Let’s take something like a friend groupfor this example. Suppose you have three characters that are really goodfriends (A, B, and C because I’m so creative). If friend A says somethinghurtful to friend B, then not only will friend B’s feelings become hurt butalso friend C will have a/some reaction(s): be angry at friend A, besympathetic to friend B, agree with friend A, not give a fuck about either A orB because it ain’t their business, etc. We’ve got individual elements A, B, andC but we can now trace this one incident like a ripple effect. A, B, and C havelives outside of their relationship so how does this effect their otherrelationships? Work? Family? Etc etc. Let’s take our Poop Factory species fromthe top-down approach to understanding the whysof a world. Think about the very first time the local government first passedthe regulation. What did they notice? Well, sometimes the crops would be stableenough to sustain people but then other years it was absolute shit. You canpretend one of the Top Poop Scientists of the Country (I’m sure you’d give thema better name) was also like, “Hey guys, I think I’m noticing that on years inwhich the crops are better, there are more Poop Factories around.” And on andon. Now, is it important to describe all of this to your readers? Absolutely not unless it is important to the story. If it’snot, then you’ve got a good working knowledge that you can explicitly describeinside and out—AND THAT will shine through in your world.

Consistent, tinydetails matter. So, you’ve gotthe world, you’re an expert in it, and you’ve got a pretty solid idea of yourcharacters. Just don’t forget to include the tiny details in the story! Treat thislike seasoning on food. Too much will ruinthe balance (garlic is the exception in the food analogy, so think of garlic inplace of “good grammar” because you can’t have enough of that).

 Culture andreligion: usually a hot topic to bring up in any world-building how-tothat can be found via google. I would add to this simply by referring to the “Don’tbuild a world off of this world’s assumptions” advice. Religions are usuallydeity-based but one should think about how deities are interpreted/ARE in a particularworld. A really good example of this is the pantheon in Bastion (rpg by Supergiant Games). Each god seems to represent theextreme ends of a particular spectrum (e.g. health and atrophy) and would grantfollowers one or the other with no rhyme or reason. In the game, this plays outin two ways. In the world, there are temples but you get the feeling thatthings aren’t quite stable (inreference to the deity impulses, not the actualworld that is literally fallingapart from under your feet). In gameplay, the main character can worshipone god at a time. If you choose to worship the god I was referencing above(health/atrophy), protag will get +5% on experience and currency earned in eachfight but all enemies become resistant to physical attacks. This is a unique mechanismby which deity creation drives the mechanisms by which religion is establishedand how culture conducts itself (if we are all subject to the god’s whims, nomatter how deep our belief and devotion, how would that come out in culture?).You might have entire towns where nowhere daresbe anything less than a devout follower of a particular god.

But I’ve done a bad thing and lumped these two ideastogether. In actuality, culture gets played out in a number of ways: food,medicine, geography, clothes, dialect, how to conduct oneself based on powerdynamics, etc. If you’ve decided to world-build on an island, I bet thatculture is going to differ a lot than if you’ve decided mountain valleys areyour thing. The difference will probablybe reflected in the geography by which characters are bound. Meals willlook different and because they look different, you might see a difference inwhat is considered polite ways to eat food or to conduct one’s self at a meal. If you’ve got specific questions about the myriad of ways culture is going tobe built into the world, hit me up. I haven’t even touched tool-use anddevelopment!Okay, I’ve written a lot so that’s it for now!