#it requires Plot

[stemmmm]

ok a third one. i've got a third one

context: 1 2 3

[gunsatthaphan]

#in every universe.

[aroaceleovaldez]

the dynamic of demigods thinking which other demigod is the most powerful is always amusing to me because. like, we know the big 3 kids are all the most powerful. That's just a fact of their universe. And then we know nearly every character views Percy as the strongest demigod, and most people are very rightfully intimidated by him.

and you look at the powers of the Big 3 kids and there's Percy, but then you realize Nico is just kind of objectively more powerful than him but simply chooses to hang out in Percy's shadow like he's Percy's scary dog privileges. Like, the two of them are pretty equally capable of causing multiple different apocalypses. Nico just also has like four different instakill powers and it's not like he doesn't use them. He very much uses them! Not infrequently, even! And they don't seem to take a significant amount of energy from him! And other demigods are pretty intimidated by both of them! But Nico makes a conscious point to keep his cards close to his chest and not let on exactly how dangerous and scary he can be if he wants to. People are already scared enough of him without knowing anything about him and he doesn't like that. Percy doesn't think about that nearly as much, and so usually just goes in guns blazing and that's part of why he's considered a wildcard. And then Nico himself puts Percy on a pedestal, so those who do know more about Nico's abilities then presume Nico knows something they don't about Percy that implies Percy is even stronger than him.

And even on a meta level Nico's narrative role requires him to be functionally more powerful than Percy, because he very often serves the purpose of getting Percy out of situations he can't handle on his own. That's just part of his function as a character! But also narratively he can't overshadow Percy so he just takes a backseat of his own accord and that's very amusing to me.

[lala-blahblah]

The thing is I don't believe Miles Edgeworth would ever say "I love you" to Nick, and I don't think he would reach out to hold him. But I do think the moment he hears about what's going on with Trucy he would show up at Nick's door with a stack of documentation on adoption and sit down with him for hours as they wade through the legal process to gain custody. One step at a time, you are not alone in this, we'll figure this out together. Acts of service my beloved... Let me ease your burden by taking it on. I love you and want you to be well.

[fallenclan]

in my notes for the 4th page i believe my exact wording was "feathersight is sweating so bad"

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[marinette-buginette]

Kiyi is not a Princess - A Look At the Fire Nation's Line of Succession

It's not even that much about Kiyi. But the creators seemingly got so lost in the sauce that their ideas about how absolutist monarchies work are as good as taken out of Disney movies now. So, let's set the record straight.

The Fire Nation line of succession

When it comes to royal lines, there were multiple elements that went into setting the line of succession: descent, sex, legitimacy, religion etc. For the Fire Nation, the ones we have 100% confirmed are descent and legitimacy (this last one seen with the Camellia-Peony War, where Chaejin was excluded from the succession because he was born out of wedlock). I would have gone on a whim to say sex counts as well, however, it is a bit foggy. In the Reckoning of Roku, it is mentioned that Firelord Taiso believed Zeisan (Sozin's younger sister) would have been a more competent ruler but could never become Fire Lord due to being a nonbender (I didn't actually read the book, so if someone who did wants to pitch in with the exact wording, please feel free to). This implies that being a Firebender is a requirement, but being a woman isn't. However, it also implies that Taiso would have been fine with ignoring the descent part (Sozin was older) if he deemed fit. Skipping the firstborn in favour of the second one isn't unheard of when it comes to succession so sure. And he is the absolute monarch, if he wants to pass papers to change the line of succession, he can. It is unclear to me if there is any power in place to veto or block a Fire Lord's ruling on any matter so for all we know, if he wanted, he could have. Plus, the fact that Ozai got crowned over Iroh because it was 'Azulon's dying wish'. For the religion part, it seems like the Fire Sages have to perform the coronation and acknowledge the monarch.

So to make it more digestible, the line of succession (while Azulon was still alive) is: Iroh → Lu Ten (firstborn of the heir) → Ozai → Zuko → Azula. With Lu Ten dead, Iroh MIA (at the time) then we have Ozai → Zuko → Azula. When Iroh came back, he gets added at the end of this line of succession. I am a bit unclear on Iroh in current times because it looks to me like he rescinded his role in the line of succession altogether with deciding to live in Ba Sing Se and letting politically inexperienced Zuko rule instead of taking over for a few years to create some stability.

Right now, we have Fire Lord Zuko and his heir presumptive (aka an heir that can be displaced if the monarch has children) Azula. Unless he wrote a decree to take her out of the line of succession — which would require a lot more brain cells than the writers are willing to give Zuko, not that he had a lot of them when it came to politics to begin with —then she's next in line. It doesn't matter how much anyone wants it or not, if Zuko drops dead tomorrow, Azula gets the throne.

Now, onto the other matter.

How does one become a Princess?

Option 1: You marry into the royal family. For example, Ursa was styled as a Princess, as she married Prince Ozai.

Option 2: You're born in a royal line. For example, Azula is a Princess because her father is a Prince, her grandfather, at the time of her birth, was the ruling monarch of the Fire Nation etc.

Bonus Option it's complicated: Royals had a habit of having children out of wedlock sometimes. Said children, if acknowledged, could be granted titles (Count of X, Dutchess of Y etc.) . Getting acknowledged and a title does not automatically put you in the line of succession, though. For example, Firelord Chaeryu was forced to acknowledge Chaejin and avoid dishonoring his noble mother and her house, but he excluded Chaejin from the royal family.

So Kiyi is not a Princess. Simple as that. Neither of her parents are of the royal line.

Could she become a Princess?

Well, this gets interesting.

Let's start with the fact that Kiyi got a pretty bad deal in a class-based monarchical society.

First thing, while her mother is a noble, her father is a commoner. Even if Ursa's family became destitute after Roku's death because of political reasons, it does not change the fact that she is still nobility unless Sozin revoked Rina's title, which I am not 100% sure he did. We don't know anything about Jinzuk besides the fact that he was the magistrate of Hira'a. While magistrates do not have to be part of the nobility, they can be. He could have been a second/third/fourth son of a small noble family with limited power/resources, given the position he was given was in a place like Hira'a, which is what I am inclining towards. He could have also been just some guy, but someone appointed him, and as a rule of thumb, you don't just go into the street and pick a random person to appoint to an administrative and leadership role, even if it's a small town. Given that Azulon was set on Ozai marrying Ursa because she was Roku's granddaughter, whether or not Jinzuk was a noble, it doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. However, in Kiyi's case, it does if Zuko wants to give her a title. It's more stigma than anything because people can be given nobility titles for specific services to the crown etc. But this is not her only issue. Which leads me to...

Second thing, Kiyi is a bastard. Which, in my opinion, would hold even more stigma than her father not being a noble. Ursa never divorced Ozai. As far as we know, polygamist marriages aren't a thing in the Fire Nation, so her marriage to Ikem/Noren is invalid. Could she be granted a divorce retroactively by the Fire Sages? Actually, yeah. Because Zuko named Shyu as High Sage, which was like the one sound political move he ever did tbh. We don't see what the Fire Nation's stance on divorce is, but given that Shyu is a Zuko loyalist, he'd probably grant Ursa retroactive divorce from Ozai. I am not a legal expert, however, as far as I know, retroactive decisions tend to be reserved for correcting a mistake or omission in the written record. She was still married to Ozai when she went and married Ikem. Though technically, she married him under a fake identity (and so did he), which might make the marriage void regardless in the eyes of the law. Idk how Spirit involvement affects legal matters in the world of Avatar, but as things stand right now, unless we pretzel-twist ourselves to make excuses, Kiyi is born outside of legitimate wedlock.

Now, Zuko might not care. In fact, he probably doesn't. He could still give Kiyi a title, including that of Princess. It was not uncommon for illegitimate relatives of rulers to be offered roles/titles once acknowledged. The real question is if he would put her in the line of succession. Kiyi has no business being there because she does not have royal blood.

Could Zuko do whatever he wants, give her the title of Princess and shove her in the line of succession while taking Azula out of it for good measure? Sure, he can. He'd probably love that, in fact. But that leaves two things open.

One, nobility would not take kindly to a bastard child of a commoner with no royal blood being in the line of succession. If we also add the angle of taking Azula out of it, it would just increase their ire. There is already a long list of why the nobility is probably angry at Zuko (and should attempt to assassinate him a lot more than they do), but I think this one in particular has other implications. There might be nobles who are neutral about Zuko. Shamelessly discarding societal norms on a whim might make their perspective swing towards negative. It could make him lose goodwill he might have or potential allies.

Two, it will make the commoners wonder. If this random girl, raised as a peasant, with a commoner father, born out of wedlock, can be put in the line of succession just like that — while discarding a princess of the blood if we are at it �� then… is the royal line not that special? The whole premise of a monarchy is that the monarch and their descendants have the divine right to rule. Being part of that bloodline gives you the right to rule. So if that can be discarded, if that bloodline is not all that important… should Zuko be Firelord? And most importantly, does the Fire Nation really need a monarch at all?

Kiyi is not a princess, and for the well-being of Zuko's reign — which is already barely holding together — he better not make her one.

[kettlefire]

A Panic in Time (DP x DC)

This is all thanks to the awesome @tkiesai for basically being the foundation of this idea! This is probably going to be long, and probably won't delve that deep into my ideas about this idea. Largely so it's not insanely long. But here I go!

°•°•°•°

Bruce's head felt like it had been shoved through a straw and spit out on the other side. The throbbing was annoying, but it wasn't anything the man couldn't handle.

His mind was muddled, memories of what happened prior to him awaking was blurry and unsure. Bruce knew it wasn't something good.

He vaguely remembered a league meeting, a threat, something looming. It wasn't world ending, or at least that's what Bruce remembered. It should have been something they could handle.

But now, here was Bruce. Waking up in the grass of some random park. He was dressed in casual attire, something he'd wear in public as Bruce. Although last he remembered he was in the Batsuit.

The sun felt too bright in the sky. The sound of families filled the air and children's laughter. No one seemed to blink twice at Bruce as he pulled himself together.

It took a moment to steel himself, to gain composer again. It took a few sweet lines, and a charming smile for a nice mother to slide him a few painkillers. The lies rolling off his tongue like second nature.

To his luck there was a newspaper at the top of the trashcan. He was in some town called Amity Park, and the year... the year was the problem.

It was 1996. Whatever had happened had sent Bruce back in time. There was a few suspects Bruce can think were the cause of this. But something in his gut kept drawing his train of thought to the Flash.

It seemed like each time the League had any time related problems, Barry was in the center of it. Which also leaves Bruce with the question if he was the only one sent back in time.

God, he could only imagine the nightmare if the others were sent back in time. Yes, they can be professional. They understand the risk of changing things in the past.

But Bruce also understands that his team can be less than... intelligent at times.

Despite that, Bruce needed to find a way to get back to Gotham. He might not know for sure where everyone was right now, but he knew Alfred was the safest bet.

A plan laid out in Bruce's mind, a list of people he knew wouldn't be a risk to approach. He just needed to find a way to get to them. He had barely made it to the gates of the park before a shrill cry pierced the air.

There was just one loud outcry, before it quieted down. Bruce glance around the space, spotting a young boy curled on the ground. Tears streamed down the boy's chubby cheeks.

And no one even moved to the boy's aid. Not a single mother spared more than one glance in the kid's directions. No parents came rushing over to the boy's side.

Bruce almost walked away, he really did. This wasn't his time, anything he does can cause immense damage to the timeline. But when Bruce caught sight of blood bubbling from a scrape on the boy's knee, Bruce couldn't ignore him.

Maybe it's just the father in him, but Bruce barely even notices when he's crossing the small distance. His mind zeroing in on a hurt child that needed help. Kneeling before the small boy with a gentle smile, and pulling his handkerchief free from his pocket.

"You're alright there, buddy. It looks like you took a bit of a tumble there." Bruce slipped into the same tone he used to use when his kids were young. Gentle and understanding, as he pressed the handkerchief to the small scrape.

The boy sniffled, tears slipping from his eyes. Bruce was more focused on the way the kid was looking at him. Like he couldn't fathom someone coming to his aid.

That look had Bruce's heart breaking slightly. He's seen a similar look before. The few times he's come to the aid of a hurt child that wasn't used to getting help.

Something no child should ever feel or experience.

"Where's your parents, kiddo?" Bruce asked after a moment of silence from the boy. He had waited until the kid's breathing settled down when the boy's chest stopped pumping so quickly.

Except his question only seemed to bring a new wave of tears to the boy's eyes. The small child just seemed to curl into himself further, ducking his gaze away from Bruce.

And as much as Bruce didn't want it to be true, it was clear the kid didn't have the support he needed. It might not as be as far as some of Bruce's kids have had in the past.

But it was clearly not good.

"That's okay, it's alright. What's your name?" Bruce tried again. The boy's silence was leaving an uncomfortable pit in Bruce's stomach.

"D-Danny..." The boy spoke out his name between sniffles, and Bruce felt a wave of relief hearing the boy speak.

In hindsight, Bruce can see how strange the scene might look. A slightly disheveled man comforting a lone young boy in a park. It wasn't exactly perfect.

But with the lack of reactions from the parents around, Bruce had a feeling the town had an idea who this boy was. The whole situation just didn't feel that right for him.

It took a few more comments before Bruce managed to get the boy to crack a smile. A laugh had felt like breaking a massive wall.

Before long, Bruce had Danny actually like any other boy he's known. Carefree and happy, just like a child should be.

"You didn't tell me your name, mister." Danny had suddenly cut down the relaxed moment they were in. A pout laced the boy's lips as he looked up at Bruce, almost accusatory.

"I'm Bruce. Bruce Wayne." Bruce responded without missing a beat. He knew this might cause problems in the future. He wasn't supposed to be here.

But when his gut is telling him something, he can't just ignore it. He checked his pockets, finding no business cards anywhere. So, Bruce fell back in plan B.

"No matter how long it's been from now, you can come to me for help. Just look for Bruce Wayne in Gotham City, and when you find me... just say Fairbanks sent you."

Bruce wasn't sure if he'll ever see Danny again when he goes back to his own time. Wasn't even sure if this was the same universe as his own. But he couldn't walk away without at least offering the boy help in some way.

When Danny's eyes filled up with tears again, Bruce thought he said something wrong at first. That was until the boy was suddenly clinging to his shoulders in a tight embrace, muttering 'thank you' over and over again.

Bruce felt himself almost close to tears just from that alone. His heart was aching for the small boy. Even if Bruce couldn't help Danny anymore than this, he was hoping the boy would have a better life.

One where he wasn't clinging to a stranger for comfort that family should be providing him.

THWAMP

It didn't hurt, but it did cut their hug short as Bruce suddenly pulled away. Turning his head to see a young girl wielding a wiffle bat, and another young boy standing behind her.

Her purple eyes glared at Bruce like he had done the worst thing in the world. Her grip on the bat was threatening and ready to swing again. Her knuckles white from the tight grip alone.

Maybe leaving this time era might not be as easy as Bruce thought as the young girl probbed him with angry and scolding questions. Not that Bruce could blame her.

He just hoped this hiccup didn't get back to the league. They'd have a field day hearing about how Batman got scolded by a child with a wiffle bat.

°•°•°•°•°•°

Danny wasn't sure if this was the best idea. It's been years since he met Bruce Wayne. So many years. Danny had just been a kid, not even ten, when Bruce had introduced himself.

When he had an adult, actually check in on him. Yet, it was a memory Danny couldn't forget. Maybe it was just the kindness that Bruce radiated.

Or maybe it was when Sam came to his "rescue" near the end. Regardless, it was cemented in his mind. A core memory that Danny cared with him through the years.

Now, here he was, roughly seven years later. Standing in front of a manor that put even Sam's place to shame.

It took a lot of courage for Danny to knock. Barely a second later, an old man answered the door, an accent Danny was certain Bruce hadn't had.

A stuttered explaination of being here to see Bruce Wayne, that the man knew him, barely left Danny's mouth before the old man ushered him inside.

The man, Alfred, told Danny to wait by the door before vanishing further into the manor. It took a lot for Danny to not just vanish.

Being half ghost nowadays had its quirks, Danny could just vanish, and no one but Alfred would know. But he couldn't.

It had taken a lot for Danny to make the journey to Gotham City. He hadn't even thought to look up a current picture of Bruce either. Which was probably a big mistake on his end.

Danny didn't even know if Bruce was offering this kind of help. But Danny didn't have many allies to turn to. He needed help.

Not just for himself but for his family. For Amity Park. He couldn't be afforded the ability to run away. Not now.

Danny felt all the air leave his lungs when Bruce entered the area. The man didn't look a day older than what Danny remembered. Bruce looked a bit more put together, not like he had just jumped out of a moving car, but it was Bruce.

"Uhm... I don't know if you remember me. But my name's Danny... we met when I was a kid." Danny started trying to explain himself before Bruce could speak. He recognized that confused look anywhere, and Danny didn't have the guts to go through with this if Bruce asked any questions.

"You told me if I ever needed help, to come find you. Bruce Wayne in Gotham City... you, uh, told me to tell you Fairbanks sent me?"

That came out more like a question than Danny would have liked. But it did ease his nerves a bit as he watched Bruce's slightly confused expression turn to alarm and surprise.

Danny wasn't sure what this would do. If Bruce could truly help him. But he was out of options. Just seeing Bruce recognize something he said was enough to calm the teen's anxiety slightly.

"I'm sorry, Danny... I don't remember you. But I believe you and I want to help you. Come inside, have a seat, and tell me what's going on."

That response was enough to have Danny's eyes fill with tears. His chest filling with a sense of hope he hadn't felt in weeks now.

Maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.

[fictionadventurer]

This AV Club comment is making me so desperate to write a romcom, you have no idea.

[vitrificvitriol]

Quints allowed for an alternative payment

[hoechlinth]

the show having buck ask eddie "how old are you?" is actually kind of iconic. ok self awareness queen! shout out to all out your glaring timeline inconsistencies!

[gingermintpepper]

1, 10, 21 aaaand 23 :v

The fact that everyone sent in an ask asked me for 23 is very funny. I'm choosing to believe that's just because I give off the vibe of someone who's very strict about ships but who has somewhat relaxed with age LMFAO

Anyway ♡

1) the character everyone gets wrong

Apollo.

I'm not going to pretend I have a different answer for this - just Apollo. I can perhaps name three pieces of media where Apollo is written well - not compellingly, but I mean 'well' in terms of adaptation of the greek god figure they are purporting to have gained inspiration from. If he's not written terribly, then he's erased or minimised from the narrative to the point of erasure and it can be incredibly difficult to even find educational projects that remember to make mention of Apollo in a manner that isn't mocking or chastising. (I am looking directly at you Iliad/Odyssey content. I am staring at you with every single one of my eyes.)

The sad truth is that Apollo is a hard god to adapt. And speaking from the experience of someone who's spent a not inconsiderable portion of my life studying, reading about, chasing after and writing about Apollo myself, I mean it with all my heart when I say that I understand that he is an incredibly difficult figure to adapt and write. In general the gods are hard to adapt but there's a reason people usually fall back on the accepted Thing they can all be defined by. Zeus is king, Hera is queen, Ares fights, Artemis hunts, Hermes travels swiftly.

Apollo then presents a really difficult dilemma for people looking to adapt him - what is his Thing? What is his single unifying aspect that allows him to perform all of his other roles? Apollo doesn't have one. He's a musician and a prophet and an archer in equal measure. He's a healer and a slaughterer, a son who is also a father. He's pretty like a woman but he is one of the ideals of masculine beauty, as gentle as he is capable of horrifying acts of wrath.

To adapt Apollo in any meaningful way is to acknowledge the plurality of the ancient world. It is to discard the idea of neat little boxes with cute, concise labels that perfectly describe one's ideas of history and to confront that culture is a shifting, chaotic thing and that the modern, trope based process for writing and cataloguing characters is completely arbitrary and ill-suited for weaving stories of figures older than even the concept of tropes.

This is the reason, I think, that so many writers end up defaulting to the figure of Apollo the lover. And like, truthfully speaking, ON PAPER, the lover is a very good compromise for him. The lover is almost always young and intersects neatly with the bard as music is often a medium of love, it also connects with archery, beauty and gentleness. Similarly, the lover can also be negative - a poisoned beauty whose love stems from selfishness and therefore who cannot truly love without hurting. As far as compromises go - it's not bad.

But it ignores so many other facets and elements that make Apollo Apollo - his intelligence and the fear he inspires, his identity as a brother, father and son, his martial and medical prowess, the trust that comes with the love people have for him, the weight of the responsibilities he carries.

I totally get that it's unreasonable for me to expect people to put this much effort into adapting him - especially since, quite frankly, a lot of people are quite set on him being eternally locked in that position as A Lover - but I do wish people would care. There is a reason Apollo is considered the most Greek of the gods. I wish more people cared to understand why.

10) worst part of fanon

Massively unpopular opinion, but I think the worst part of fanon is the aggressive villainisation of Zephyrus.

Do I think Zephyrus wasn't insane for braining Hyacinthus? No! Definitely hold him accountable for that, my god beat his ass. But do I think that it's a little ridiculous that people treat him like he's an irredeemable asshole who would've been an abusive horrible lover to Hyacinthus and who's a creep and a general menace? YES OH MY GOD

Zephyrus has shit he does outside of Hyacinthus' story - Zephyrus was actually considered the gentlest wind and more importantly, the spring wind. It is Zephyrus who accompanies Persephone as she makes her journey from the edge of the Underworld back to her mother's home, and it was Zephyrus who protected and gently carried Psyche to and from Eros' manor. Zephyrus and Apollo are literally friends!! They BOTH have the same taste in men (clearly) and Zephyrus, like Apollo, is a noted and recorded appreciator of young, beautiful men and usually pays them a bit of extra wind across their cheeks to bring out the colour.

Y'all act like he's a supervillain who planned Hyacinthus' death in a basement with creepy music playing like goddamn, he was a sore loser, he fucked up, Apollo beat his ass and Hyacinthus is revived in the end. Leave him alone, my god.

21) Part of canon you think is overhyped

The Titanomachy.

Not because I think the Titanomachy is uninteresting - on the contrary, I think it is an AGGRESSIVELY interesting set of events - but because I just kind of think so many other things are more interesting.

I also don't think things need to have their own versions of the Titanomachy so much. Like, it's fine I promise, just tell me your story I do not need to be told how the Olympians won the war in the most non-specific way ever over and over again.

23) ship you've unwillingly come around to

Like I alluded to above, I actually do have quite a few of these so we'll do one I went from absolutely hating the idea of to actively shipping so hard I forgot how much I initially disliked it.

Orpheus/Heracles.

HEAR ME OUT RIGHT -- I was like, physically repulsed by the idea initially because what the fuck even, but it was something that kept coming up over and over as I was doing research for my writing and eventually, I ended up caving, writing the two of them interacting with each other during their Argo days and that was it.

But honestly? I can't even be mad cause?? It kind of fucks??? Heracles himself really enjoys music but never had the delicacy it required (he literally murdered his lyre instructor because he was disciplining him) and Heracles loses Hylas on the Argo and grieves him bitterly. Orpheus loved his Eurydice but she died not long after they were married after being bitten by a snake. Both of them make journeys to the Underworld - Heracles to retrieve Cerberus and free Prometheus, Orpheus to retrieve Eurydice - and both of them return from the Underworld to great misfortune. Orpheus swears off women and dies being torn apart limb from limb by the Maenads, Heracles tries to marry and is poisoned horribly, tearing off parts of his own skin and eventually throwing himself onto his funeral pyre to rid himself of the pain.

SO BASICALLY, WHAT I'M SAYING IS, HERACLES/ORPHEUS FWB AND IN THIS INTERACTIVE CHART I WILL --

[waltricia]

Another delightfully thirsty collection of Manny tweets ♥️

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

I read a fic today where David burnt down Cassie’s barn, and it got me thinking about that as a plot point- her barn was sort of their refuge, place of safety, and it being destroyed was a surprisingly large emotional impact. Do you think that’s something the series should have done?

My immediate response is "no", the series should not have. Supernatural, Angel, Batman Inc., et al. have tried taking away the characters' only home base — and it mostly creates inconvenience, rather than plot fuel. Like, instead of handwaving a cool gadget with "I bought it with my money," Batman has to instead come out with a dumb line about having found it in a dumpster. Instead of just letting the Winchester boys retreat to their car to talk it out, you have them standing around an alleyway doing the same.

Assuming that Cassie's barn that is destroyed, the biggest effect both in-universe and out- would be hassle. The kids still have to meet regularly, but now have to do it somewhere that's harder to get to or harder to talk openly in, and without any local animals' DNA nearby. The first few books do see the kids trying several locations — Jake's, Rachel's, the bell tower. But Tobias stands out inside a house, Jake's is a no-go re: Tom, and the human kids can only go so far from home most days.

Cassie's barn can easily hide a hawk, it's a place that both Jake and Rachel hung out regularly before the war, and it has several animals in cages right there. It has privacy, being its own area not inside her house. It has legitimacy, since it's semi-supervised and also the home of The Responsible Friend so none of the human Animorphs' parents have reason to worry about their kids spending most afternoons there. It has security, being hard to infiltrate even in morph without Tobias noticing. I feel like if you took all that away, you'd just be adding more inconvenience at the start of the story to explain how the kids got to the adventure and had useful DNA when they arrived.

[angelsdean]

the way that nick spell in 14x17 makes it canonically SO easy to open a portal to the empty. it drives me insane. dean literally HAD cas's blood. on his jacket. it was all right there. it was set up perfectly. why show us nick opening a portal to the empty and specifically showing that the main ingredient was BLOOD then. not using that. dean was meant to rescue cas!!!!! full circle moment. i'm the one who gripped you tight a raised you from perdition. what's the matter, cas? you don't think you deserve to be saved? i love you, too. of course i love you. SMOOCH. anyways.

[mollysunder]

The Plot Thickens: A Confirmed Timeline in Noxus

Riot recently flew LoL creators in to showcase some new developments. Necrit, a creator who attended the event, was able to get confirmation on what's going on with Noxus.

Timeline

By the time Mel arrives in Rokrund (Noxus) as we see in the "Bite Marks" cinematic, Swain is the new Grand General of Noxus, but Swain has NOT formed the Trifarix council yet. (The "Mel is Guile" theory is back on!)

Another thing that was cleared up in the cinematic was the nature of Katarina's job. Sure we know she was sent to kill a man, but who was he and why did he need to be killed?

It turns out that the masked man Katarina killed was meant to be the "host" that Vladimir mentioned in the "A Dark Gambit" cinematic. That means that LeBlanc wanted that dude seen above to become the host body for one of the darkin, a corrupted god warrior, soul weapons.

That's not all of course, because it turns out it was Swain who sent Katarina to kill LeBlanc's host like many of us assumed, it was Vladimir! Even better, there's proof!

For Katarina's bio for her Masque of the Black Rose skin, she's given her assignment via unsigned letter. Within it was a drawing of the target's (host) mask, soon after the Bite Marks cinematic premiered, Riot Twitter released this art with the following caption:

"You should know by now, darling: There are no coincidences in Noxus 🩸"

This room belongs to Vladimir. You can tell not just by his trademark "Darling" used in the caption, but by the vials of blood, the green jeweled crest (for Camavor?) he wears in the cinematics, and the metal claws the metal claws give it away.

More importantly, in the foreground is a sketch of the masked man Katarina was tasked to kill. In fact, it was almost certainly the exact sketch sent to Katarina for her mission.

Now that data mined lore tip that goes:

"Even the best-laid plans can be foiled by two-faced hemomancer. That's why LeBlanc always has a back-up plan".

is a lot more clear.

What Does Any of This Mean?

The story hasn't officially started, but the lines are already being drawn. LeBlanc and Vladimir's centuries' long partnership (frenemy-hood?) has reached a key break because of the darkin plot. LeBlanc has more major enemies than friends now. Vladimir's now a rogue element that likely still has plans for Mel and his "kingdom".

Whatever Vladimir's actual plans are they almost certainly run counter to Swain's own designs. Right now Vladimir has Katarina, a future key ally of Swain's (and a daughter figure I think) in his service, and they've both clearly set their sights on Mel. It's a scramble for Noxus' most emotionally orphaned heiresses to rule!

Sidenote: It's really funny to go back and watch those cinematics and understand all the effort Vladimir went through to stop LeBlanc from going through with a bad idea, and lobby for his idea to get Mel, all for LeBlanc to double down and pull out a back up. She's gonna start twenty apocalypses to stop the Mordekaiser one even if it kills them all. I adore their dynamic so much!

[beefharlot]

Jayce has been codependent and willing to die with Viktor since s1 and rewatching Arcane has only proven this to me. Look at this

While Viktor is waffling about whether or not to disarm the bomb or let him and Jayce blow up, Jayce…stays right there. He doesn’t run to get distance or find cover, he stays right there. Yes, he breathed a sigh of relief when Viktor did disarm the bomb, he didn’t WANT to be blown up in that moment, but he was not letting Viktor potentially die alone. The foreshadowing for what would happen in s2….Jayce man what the fuck is wrong with you (affectionate)