#like with other echo fighters I can sorta understand

[das-a-kirby-blog]

so uhh why couldn't dr mario be an alt

[stellarstarwarsimagines]

Five Times Din Accidentally Turned You On

Pairing - Din Djarin x Reader

Summary - It’s embarrassing how a man whose face you have never seen is able to turn you on so quickly without even realizing it. 

Word Count - 3k

Warnings - brief description of an injury, but that’s it! 

When you had agreed to start working with the Mandalorian and met the little green menace, you knew that your life was going to be turned upside down into chaos. 

You had expected most of that chaos to come from the bugger, not from your apparent lack of control over your hormones. 

It was ridiculous. There was no way that you should be this attracted to a man whose face you had never seen. If your mother could see you right now, she would think that you were crazy. Of course, she thought you were crazy already for traveling with a Mandalorian around the Galaxy, but this would be a whole new level for her. 

Yet, here you stood, a little goblin attached at your hip, watching the tension rising with mounting anxiety. You clutched the kid closer to your side as Mando confronted the man, who you now knew wasn’t a Mandalorian, but a Marshal instead, asking him where he got his armor. 

“Bought it off some Jawas.” He answered, taking a sip of his spotchka. 

“Hand it over.” 

Maker he was so damn menacing when he was like this. Even without being able to see his face, you felt a shiver going down your spine from his tone. He was so intimidating; you didn’t see how anyone stood a chance. 

You also didn’t see how you continued to find it so kriffing attractive. 

“Look, pal, I’m sure you call the shots where you come from, but ‘round here, I’m the one tells folks what to do.” Vanth replied. 

“Take it off.” Mando said, stepping forward. “Or I will.” 

As soon as he said those words, all you could think about was him saying them in . . . another context. There was no way you could control your response. At least that’s what you tried to tell yourself after you let out the oddest little half squeak / half choked sound. You bit your lip as you watched everyone in the room, the bartender, Cobb Vanth, and even Mando’s helmet tilt in your direction. You even felt the little womp rat’s head turn towards you curiously. Which gave you the idea. “I - the kid - I’m gonna - while you two work this out.” You said, gesturing to him before hurrying outside. 

As soon as you stepped out of the bar, you took a deep breath, and then let out a loud groan of embarrassment. Looking down at the kid, he gave you a look that clearly said he was disgruntled at being blamed for a noise you made. 

“I’m sorry, buddy, sometimes your dad . . .” You were not about to tell this little guy how hot you thought his dad was. “You’ve got to take one for the team this time okay? I’ll get you cookies to make up for it later.” You added when he didn’t seem like he was pleased with that. 

At least bribery worked with him. 

____________________

For as long as you could remember, you loved flying. You didn’t know where it had come from, since your mom was scared of heights and you didn’t know anything about your father other than he had been a farmer, but from the moment that you looked up into the sky and saw a ship soaring overhead, you had loved it. Getting the chance to live on a ship and see the galaxy that way was another reason you had said yes to Mando when he asked. 

Flying on a ship with a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter was nothing like you expected though. 

Your eyes drifted back and forth from the sky to Mando, too captivated by the sight in front of you to be scared. Tie fighters were shooting at you from what seemed like every direction, but you couldn’t bring yourself to be worried. Mando would take care of you. He always did. 

You glanced over at the child who was buckled up in a seat next to you, his little green hands in the air as he cooed and giggled in excitement. Despite the situation, you couldn’t help but grin at the sight. 

“Hang on,” Mando said to the two of you, and your arm reached out to the kid, close enough to where you could grab him if he went flying. You held your breath as the Crest began to fall for a moment until Mando engaged it once more, spinning it in circles to avoid the tie fighter’s blasts. The Child’s laughter became louder in your ears as you grabbed a hold of his clothes, but your eyes were glued to the sight in front of you, adrenaline pounding in your veins as you came closer and closer - 

Then he blasted it out of the sky, as you knew he would. 

You let out a cheer, echoed by the gremlin next to you, and leaned forward, finding a bit of Mando’s arm that wasn’t covered in armor and giving it a squeeze. “That was amazing! I’ll never understand how you can do that so easily.” You told him, your voice as breathless as if you had been the one flying. 

“Wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.” He said, and by the way his muscles tensed under your hand, you got the feeling he hadn’t meant to say that. 

It was no secret that Mando was protective of you. He had been from the start, but hearing him say it like that? Almost . . . possessive? Maker, the way it made you feel. You opened your mouth. You weren’t sure what you were going to say, but before you could, he interrupted you. “And the kid of course. Not too bad, huh kid?” He asked, looking at him over his shoulder. 

The little womp rat gagged, expelling the remains of his blue cookies. 

____________________

All of this was way out of your league, that was obvious enough. The Jedi, the Force, all of those things had been over your head from the start. They had been legends for so long, it was hard to believe that the little green gremlin you had been looking after, Grogu, you corrected yourself, was one of them. 

You watched as the Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, beckoned Din over to her, deciding to use Din to get Grogu to show his powers. The bond the two of them shared had grown even more so over the past couple of months, and you had to admit, if anyone could get Grogu to use his powers, it would be Din. 

Sure enough, after some coddling, Grogu made his favorite little silver ball fly from Din’s fingers to his hand. The smile on your face widened as Din spoke. “Good job! Good job, kid!” He exclaimed, stepping towards him. “You see that?” He asked you and Ahsoka without waiting for an answer. He stopped in front of him, bending down to his level, “that’s right. I knew you could do it.” He took the silver ball from him, “Very good.” 

Warmth filled your chest at the proud tone in his voice. The way that he interacted with Grogu was one of the cutest things that you had ever seen. While he wasn’t the kid’s biological father, you knew that he was close enough. You couldn’t even begin to imagine how great he would be with his own kids, if he decided to have them one day. 

. . . maybe with you. 

The intrusive thought had the heat rushing to your face, and you cleared your throat as if it would help get the images out of your mind. 

“Are you all right?” Ahsoka asked from next to you. 

You nodded, but from the smirk on her lips, you got the feeling that her and her Jedi mind tricks knew exactly why you had gone into a coughing fit. 

____________________

“You’re getting better.” 

The words should have been a comfort to you. Din had been teaching you fighting techniques for months, but now that the kid - Grogu, had been taken, you were practicing with renewed vigor as you all geared up for a mission to find Moff Gideon’s coordinates. You knew that you were getting better, and Din didn’t say anything he didn’t mean, but you knew it wasn’t enough. “I can’t get the kick.” You mumbled, brushing some of your sweaty hair out of your eyes. 

He nodded, and your heart rate kicked up even more as he moved around behind you. He was so close you could hear every slide of that beskar as it moved with him. “You need to widen your stance.” He gave a gentle kick to your left foot, and you obediently spread your leg further apart. “Adjust your hips like this . . .” The cool leather of his gloves landed on your hips, moving them into position. “Now find your center of gravity.” He added, his voice even lower than normal. 

It turned your brain to mush. How the hell were you supposed to concentrate like this? The man you desired more than anything was so close to you that you could feel every exhale of that beskar chest piece against your back, hear every breath as it exited his helmet. 

“You can do it.” Din said, his hands giving your hips a little squeeze. 

You remembered him saying those words. To a little green goblin that had stolen your heart. A child you were determined to get back. The thought managed to snap you back into focus, and with a deep breath you executed the move to perfection. 

Well, sorta. 

Din caught you as you stumbled back from the momentum, his fast reflexes allowing him to wrap his arm around your waist and catch your back against his hard chest with a soft chuckle. The sound, so rarely heard, made your stomach swirl with butterflies. “Good girl. Just have to work on your balance.” 

Good girl? Good girl? Dank farrik was he trying to kill you? You stumbled out of his arms, heat rushing to your face. “I’ve got to - I can’t - I’ve got to go.” You couldn’t be around him for a second longer or you were pretty sure you’d lose your mind and do something stupid like beg him to call you that again. Preferably with no clothes on. 

Even if you couldn’t see his face, you could tell by the tilt of his helmet in your direction that he was confused. 

You didn’t stick around long enough to give him the chance to ask any questions. 

____________________

Everything had happened so quickly it turned into a blur in your mind. Storming the ship, getting shot by a blaster and having to be dragged by Fennic and Bo-Katan onto the bridge while you tried not to scream at the pain in your thigh, Din arriving with Grogu and the dark saber in his hands, and Moff Gideon in his custody. Then there was the DarkTroopers arriving and subsequently being destroyed by a Jedi. 

And as soon as you had gotten Grogu back . . . he was gone again. 

You didn’t look when Din took his helmet off. Your eyes stayed glued to Grogu as soon as you had seen his hands move to the helmet. It seemed . . . disrespectful to look. This moment was for the two of them, no one else. When Grogu was gone, the helmet went back on, and without anything to distract you from the pain anymore, you let out a whimper. 

 Din rushed to your side at once, and you thought he might have been grateful for something to focus on other than your little family of three now becoming one of two. He lifted you into his arms without a second thought, and after some directions from Bo-Katan, carried you to a small medbay where he got to work on your wound. 

Watching him was a nice distraction as he ripped open the leg of your pants until he could see all of the wound. The display was already stirring something inside of you, and it escalated as he took his gloves off and touched you for the first time with his bare hands. 

They were large, but of course you already knew that. The gentleness they touched you with though . . . it was a sharp contrast to the way he had ripped your pants. He touched you as if he wasn’t worthy to be touching you. Hesitant and soft, every movement of his fingers slow and careful as if you were going to be scared away. When he pressed against the edge of your wound, the whimper that left your lips wasn’t only because of the pain. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, his voice rough through his helmet as he grabbed ahold of some bacta spray from a table nearby. While the bacta helped the pain, it didn’t help your racing heart. 

It was embarrassing. More so than it had ever been, that you couldn’t get your feelings under control. Surely he had to notice. The amount of times you had done something stupid because you had taken what he said the wrong way or touched you was numerous. How could he not know? Had he been humoring you because you were good with the kid? 

And now that Grogu was gone, did he even want you around anymore? 

The sudden thought made you tense because while it had come out of nowhere, it could be true. Yes, you could do some simple repairs and cook, but your main job had been watching after Grogu. He didn’t need that now. He had survived fine by himself before you got there, what’s to say he wouldn’t want to go back to that? He’d never given you any indication that he didn’t. Was this the last time the two of you would be together? 

Attentive as always, he noticed the shift in your mood at once. He spoke your name, soft and almost melodic. “What are you thinking about?” 

Of course the one time you most needed to lie to him, you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Not after what had happened. “Do you want me to go?” You whispered, looking down at the ground. You couldn’t stand to see what his expression might be.

There was a moment’s pause that made your heartbeat pick up, and for the first time around Din, not in a good way. “What?” He asked, his voice sounding a little strangled. 

As was your normal response when you got nervous, you started babbling. “I know I mostly looked after the kid. I’m not a fighter . . . I’m not a Mandalorian . . . I’m a nuisance and another mouth to feed. If you want me to go, I can go.” Would it break your heart? Absolutely, but you never wanted to be somewhere you weren’t wanted. 

“Stop,” was all he said, so quiet you almost didn’t hear him. 

But you continued, unable to keep the words from leaving your mouth. “Bo-Katan or Fett can drop me off at the nearest planet, and you won’t -”

There was a loud clunk as a helmet of beskar hit the floor. You jumped, the sound startling you and you watched as it rolled a bit, stopping a couple of feet away. “Look at me.” 

It was the second time you had heard his voice without the helmet, but it struck you harder this time. Maker it was beautiful. Gruff and low, yet somehow he was so . . . soft spoken as well. As if he wasn’t sure how to talk without his helmet, and you guessed he probably wasn’t. You wanted to do what he asked. You wanted to know what he looked like, but it still felt so private . . . 

He said your name again, and you almost started crying at how tenderly he spoke it. His hand found your chin, tilting it up to reveal his facial hair covered jaw, his pale, pink lips, and pointed nose, all the way to the most beautiful, most expressive brown eyes you had ever seen. 

Din Djarin was in fact, every bit as handsome as you imagined him to be, which made your next words so much harder for you to say. “I have feelings for you.” You gasped out. “Strong - really strong ones, and they’re not going to go away. So if you can’t deal with that I need to -”

His hands cupped your cheeks and all of the sudden, Din was leaning closer. So close that your breath mingled with his and everything around the two of you seemed to vanish. There was nothing else that mattered except this moment. You expected him to say something, anything that would cut this tension that hung in the air, but he didn’t. 

Instead he closed the small distance between the two of you and kissed you. 

It was soft. Oh, so much softer than you ever expected him to be capable of doing. Then you realized how stupid that was of you to think, because Din had never been anything but soft with the people that he cared about. 

For a moment you didn’t move, still surprised that he was kissing you, but then you couldn’t hold back. Your lips moved against his, as lightly as his were moving against yours. Your fingers were itching to touch him, to tangle in those messy brown waves, but you were afraid to scare him off. So they hung by your side at a safe distance while Din continued to kiss you and make sure that you never wanted to kiss anyone else ever again. 

After what seemed like hours, and you wouldn’t complain if it had been, he pulled back, but not far enough to put any real distance between the two of you, instead pressing his forehead against your own. “Just because I gave up the kid, doesn’t mean I want to give you up too.” You let out a soft sigh as his lips left gentle kisses across your jaw and cheek. “Stay with me. Stay cyar’ika.” He whispered against your skin. 

As if anything could pull you away now.

[loregoddess]

Hey, remember me saying I was gonna write out the DGS-Echoes AU idea? I wrote it out. This is 99% rambling, 1% actual AU talk. I lost steam partway through, but still got the gist of all my ideas so I’m...going ahead and post bc I doubt I’ll ever find the motivation to revise/rework this in the future.

I’m not usually an AU person really, but I was playing through the Very Dramatic reveal of the Masked Knight (aka, we all knew he was Celica’s “dead” brother the moment he showed his pink hair for half a second) and was like, huh the reveal of a mysterious masked knight brotherly figure kinda reminds me of Asougi’s reveal in DGS2 and then I was like wait...

Now, in this AU there are no perfect parallels bc there just...aren’t. And Asougi isn’t Conrad bc that would make Susato Celica, which would then make...I guess Haori as Alm? But Haori doesn’t have enough characterization to really go off with this idea. But casting Ryuu and Asougi as Alm or Celica does work, albeit with the lack of masked knights which is...fine honestly.

The question then is who is the “Celica” and who is the “Alm”? Asougi tends to rush forward into things and generally takes a more aggressive path in DGS, so he seems like a good fit for Alm, and Ryuu’s entire thing is being confrontational in a non-confrontational manner, making him a decent Celica, but Asougi tends to make rash, emotional decisions which is more like Celica, and Ryuu tends to act levelheaded and think most of his decisions out a bit which is more like Alm, and there’s the fact that the writing in Echoes screws over like, 90% of the women anyhow.

After writing both out (er, writing one out, attempting to start the other), I couldn’t bring myself to cast Genshin as Lima IV, and casting him as Rudolf is slightly less mean-spirited of me, so we’re assuming Asougi is Alm and Ryuu is Celica. This means we don’t get the angst of having Vortex manipulate Asougi, and miss out on the image of Sherlock raising Asougi and Iris as his kids, but we get the angst of Asougi having to fight Genshin, and also the angst of the ridiculous stabbing-to-life scene. Although if you want, flip-flop Asougi and Ryuu bc that stabbing-to-life scene would be super intense regardless of which was manipulated into sacrificing his soul to Duma and which was instructed by Mila to stab-to-save the puppet-corpse left behind.

Asougi leads the Deliverance, Ryuu leads the Pilgrimage For as far as character casting goes, I’d have Asougi as Alm (unique sword-wielding class), which would make Genshin Rudolf (this sorta works bc Genshin isn’t technically a bad parent but makes some really questionable decisions--I’m sorry, dueling a serial killer to the death, so that said serial killer can have an honorable death, is...uh....Genshin can we maybe talk this out--which is more or less on par with Rudolf’s “my son was marked to save the world so I’m going to give him to my friend and send him off to the neighboring country which I will then wage war on so he comes and kills me and eventually the gods as well”).

Yuujin is Mycen bc he’s as good a Mycen as anyone. Susato would still be his actual daughter of course (I’m saying fuck gender-locked classes, bc she’d make a great dread fighter), and Haori would be one of the childhood friends from Ram (cleric class bc she’s a med student in DGS and also bc clerics are one of the best classes).

Ryuu is the Celica (sorry to Ryuu’s dad who I’m almost certain was not as shitty as Lima IV) and is therefore the “dead” prince of Zofia gone into hiding (unique bow-magic class?). Sherlock fills in as Nomah bc if anyone’s gonna get lost in the flooded waterways beneath a temple devoted to a very powerful goddess bc he was worried about his kids, it would be Sherlock (I guess he can be a mge class as well, it more or less works). Iris is his adopted daughter as well, she’s probably a cleric bc she has similar hair to Genny and also writes stories like Genny does. Lestrade could fill in as the Saber, being the mercenary Ryuu and Iris hire to help them get to Mila’s Temple.

I don’t have people for like, 99% of the enemy goons, but there’s plenty of unpleasant criminals in DGS, so take your pick. I’m casting Vortex as Jedah though, bc who else would be the manipulative head of a shady organization?

With this sort of setup, Asougi, Susato, and Haori would join the Deliverance, with Asougi getting talking into leading it, while Ryuu, Iris, and Lestrade head to the Temple of Mila, find she got kidnapped by the Duma Faithful, recruit Sherlock, and decide to head to Duma Tower. Asougi and co. are eventually forced to confront Genshin, and Asougi is understandably devastated and confused when he figures out Genshin’s his father, and also kinda mad with Yuujin for like, not telling him anything (but they still have a chance to work it out and still be a family afterwards, bc that’s literally what Alm and Mycen’s supports are). But Genshin’s dying words also revealed the treachery of the Duma Faithful, and Asougi knows Ryuu is in serious danger and heads over to Duma Tower. (There’s no Berkut or Rinea in this AU bc there just...isn’t). Asougi’s fears are spoit on, as Vortex has manipulated Ryuu, playing on his doubts, and Ryuu foolishly agreed to sacrifice his soul to Duma, believing that doing so would save his friends. This is of course, a very, very bad idea. Which is when Asougi shows up, sees the possessed Ryuu, and with Mila’s guidance we get the very angsty stabbing-to-life scene, where Asougi thinks he actually killed Ryuu for a few moments before the power of magical dragon swords and love restore Ryuu’s soul and then they and their friends go and kick Vortex and Duma’s asses into next week. And then they get married and rule Valentia with a castle full of cats.

I was gonna write an entire summary of Echoes but like, with the DGS characters, but lost steam halfway through, so that’s why I have the summary of the summary instead. I was more interested in trying to figure out which character to cast as who...

But anyhow, that’s that.

[sometimesrosy]

Can you tell us, from a writer point of view, what’s Echo’s plot and what you think of it? What type of archetype is she? Where is she headed? How did her character in past seasons influence her character in s5 and how will it influence s6? Sorry if it’s too much, I’m just really curious because barely anyone analyses her character without being biased. If you take this “challenge”, I’ll thank you for it. If not, I understand and thank you anyways.

Okay. First, archetypes aren’t like, a definitive label to place on a character. Archetypes are traditional stories and characters, patterns and tropes and conventions that we are familiar with due to eons of these stories being told.

They help us build our concept of humanity, of ourselves, and of expectations, ideas of right and wrong, and help us make sense of the world around us. They are subconscious stories that *feel* right to us, so we can understand character or personal motivations.

As such, I can explore a character through many different archetypes and might have different understanding through each one. Some might fight more fully, some might be only a partial fit. A character might drop one archetype, and move onto another, like Bellamy starting out as “the rebel” and becoming “the caretaker.” He was DEFINITELY “the rebel.” And then he wasn’t. Or perhaps he still has some elements of “the rebel” in him. The more complex a character, the more realistic, the more we’ll be able to see multiple archetypes within them.

Okay, so I did a little google (with a short trip through some mens rights horror) and settled on our basic idea of archetype. Jungian. Generally with this show, while there are many literary elements going on, they are usually pretty simple ones, and you can find understanding on page 1 of your google search.

So for Echo, I’m going with:

The HeroMotto: Where there’s a will, there’s a wayCore desire: to prove one’s worth through courageous actsGoal: expert mastery in a way that improves the worldGreatest fear: weakness, vulnerability, being a “chicken”Strategy: to be as strong and competent as possibleWeakness: arrogance, always needing another battle to fightTalent: competence and courageThe Hero is also known as: The warrior, crusader, rescuer, superhero, the soldier, dragon slayer, the winner and the team player. [X]

She is The Hero before we meet her. I don’t mean the hero of the story, and i don’t meant The Hero’s Journey. I’m talking character type. Personality. 

So we meet her in the cages, where the enemy has beaten her and her story is basically over until she meets Bellamy who she blames, sorta, and hates, until she realizes teaming up is the way to survive and win. This actually reminds me of Clarke. She recognized him as “the hero” and leader, the “other” who could be allied with in order to win. Which she did. They work together to defeat Lovejoy, and Bellamy goes on his mission while Echo takes on HER mission, mobilizing the grounder troops.

However, her leader calls her to stand down, so she abandons her new comrade in arms and leaves him to fail, while following her leader, who has chosen to betray their allies. 

We know that this bothered her, because she told him it was wrong (as did Lincoln and Indra.) In season 3 she came back, and leaned on her relationship as comrade with Bellamy, apologized for her betrayal, and then, leads him away from the plot against Mount Weather. Thereby saving his life and fulfilling her debt to him for saving HER life, but also betraying him AGAIN. HOWEVER in doing so, she has followed her leader’s requests, again, in word, while also getting her goals accomplished. Saving Bellamy. Who she feels a connection with, as well as owing a debt to.

In season 4, she’s back again. This time, with power. The king depends upon her. She is a warrior again. She makes decisions for the best of her people. She continues with her enmity against the sky people, which has been the case since they landed. (witness her initial meeting with Bellamy.) BUT her interactions with Bellamy have taught her that the sky people have also contributed and are warriors in their own right. She still disregards the skypeople and thinks of them as enemies, but BELLAMY is not like other skypeople, and she would like him to trust her. :/ I am not a big fan of “not like other girls” thinking. Lxa did it too with Clarke.

That actually is important, because there are a lot of parallels between Echo and Bellamy’s relationship and Clarke and Lxa’s relationship. The opposite side enemies, who become allies and comrades and are betrayed, leading Clarke and Bellamy to basically lose it, who must come back to become comrades again in order to survive and then, fall in love. 

Lxa and CL was important to Clarke because it allowed her to embrace the dark side of herself, to make the hard choices, and face the terrible repercussions of those things. Lxa was her shadow and she needed to fall in love with her in order to move forward.

Echo and B/E is important to Bellamy because it allows him to forgive HIMSELF, to let go of his hate and resentment of the enemy who has caused him so much pain, so that he could accept “the other” as part of his family. As humanity. He needed this to move forward and lead with his head, while Clarke needed CL to embrace love and lead with her heart. 

I point these out because, while Echo is important and has her own story, her MAIN place in the story is to act as a foil for BELLAMY’S journey. Yes. She is there to serve his story. She is a secondary and sometimes tertiary character. because it’s HIS story. Why didn’t we get the story of B/E falling in love? Because it wasn’t about their love. It was about how their love changed Bellamy and allowed him to move forward in HIS story. He is a holistic leader now, he has forgiven himself and his enemy (sometimes the same thing) and now he can live without the trauma he has been holding and we see him as The Hero he is meant to be. For Bellamy, that is not actually his archetype, that is his role in the story. Not personality. Sorry, there are many forms of “the hero” in lit analysis. 

Echo’s story in s5 CHANGES. She moves from being a minor or tertiary character to being a secondary character.

NOW we get to see her in her Hero archetype. She is the fighter. The warrior. The team player. She goes on the missions. She saves the day. Right? 

Her story in season 5 and I suspect season 6, because it is not over. I feel like she went to sleep in the middle of it, is “The Hero” discovering that she does not need to be the warrior all the time and she has a place in her family without having to be fighting someone all the time. 

With the fight for Eden, she had a clear role. It was EVEN how she got Octavia to allow her to continue her relationship with her boyfriend. Her romance is not really the story. Being ALLOWED to be part of Bellamy’s life is. We don’t SEE their love. We see them fighting to be able to love. And to WIN that permission? What does she do? She fights against the enemies. She provides the leader with military advantages. She is The Warrior. 

It is hard to tell you what I think her story is this season without speculating, because I don’t believe her story is done.

I do not think her story will be about a romance, but I DO think it will be about belonging, about family, and about being the good guy– and what that means when she can’t just fight “the enemy” and let that be enough to make her worthy. It is part of the main story of the whole show, with different characters exploring what it means to be good. What IS good. Her issue is where does she belong, because she has always belonged AS The Warrior. If she can’t be The Warrior, then WHO IS SHE? 

I’m seeing some echo between Echo and Clarke now. The beginning of s1 had Clarke asking who was Wanheda if there was no one left to kill. And I think Echo will be having a similar question in season 6. When the warrior went to space and put down her sword and became a part of a family and found love, but then had to pick up the sword again and fight enemies again. So she had a place. The family, the love, the sword. 

I think her question will be “am I worthy if I don’t have the sword?” Partly because the question of love will be up in the air, with both Octavia and Clarke there now, and Bellamy loving Clarke. And to THEN be confronted by Clarke and Bellamy’s decision to “be the good guys” and Bellamy’s declaration that they weren’t going to kill their enemies. It leaves Echo without a place. This would essentially be a confrontation of her archetype. If she’s always playing the role of the hero and that is how she finds value, then having it taken from her and finding her own intrinsic value is a subversion of the Hero archetype.

I think she’ll find that being part of the family is ENOUGH. That being HERSELF is enough. And she might end up making some decisions that are the right thing to do, but not for her family. Hmm. I think she’s going to prove herself as the good guy also, but it may not be how her family wants. BUT that is speculation on what I see her story going towards, not an analysis of it yet. Because it hasn’t gotten to that part yet.

I believe that s5 and s6 are a two year long story arc for all the characters, so I’m looking at where we could go from where we are now.

. What do I feel about her story? If it goes the way I see it, I think it’s good and important and strong for a secondary character. I don’t like the romance because I ship Bellarke, but I also don’t see it as a threat, because I see it as a narrative tool to move Bellarke into the romantic. All the signs are there. It’s slower than the fandom wanted, and left us in the middle of it which makes them feel Bellarke isn’t happening, but it’s all still going along the conventions of the love triangle, so I’m good. 

I am leery of the ship wars, and I know the ship wars make me not want to pay as much attention to echo as i might otherwise if i didn’t know people would use the analysis to prop up a ship and shoot mine down, and take my analysis of what I see as a romantic obstacle to Bellarke as an attack on them. And while I appreciate echo, I can’t take part in echo appreciation because people use that to hate on Clarke, which I cannot abide. So the fandom limits how I may address characters and stories. Mainly because I don’t want the drama. 

I took the challenge. It was hard. ;)

[bublp0pr]

UT ramblings. undyne + monster politics

most people don’t seem to appreciate undyne the same way that they appreciate sans or pap etc. (I could go on for hours about how much the UT fanbase is far far faaar to focussed on sans but that’s not really relevant...) So i just wanted to bring up all the facts because most people don’t really realise that ALL the main characters of undertale are extremely 3 dimensional with backstory and depth and purpose and motivations and relationships and dreams. A lot of stories/art i see of undyne just focusses on her aggression, her over-enthusiasm or her relationship with Alphys, but she’s more than just some trope. 

So i guess i’ll just start with the generic stuff and get more detailed as i go. 

Hope for monsterkind

Undyne is a monster (gasp! never would’ve guessed that one would ya?) and so she is trapped underground with the rest of monster-kind underground. The sneaky thing about Undertale is it’s very good at giving us absolutely noooo reference points to infer the time of various events in it’s history (damn you Toby Fox for your sneakily vague ways) but the common conception i’ve encountered within the fanbase is that she was either born underground and as such has never seen the surface or that atleast she was really young when it happened. 

Now this is important: to her getting out of the underground isn’t a lamenting about what has been lost, because she doesn’t have many/any memories to hold it towards, they’re all just stories to her. What drives her wanting to leave is little to nothing about leaving herself but providing hope for the monsters of the underground. 

Backstory history stuff:

Monsters you can talk to from all corners of the game make it clear that they are actually struggling a great deal because of their situation with problems such as dreariness, overcrowding and lack of sunlight. They say that most make jokes and such to try and ignore the fact that there’s a lot to make them lose hope. Hope in leaving, hope in their situation in life improving, hope for there being any purpose to monster-kind existing at all. 

A part of this despair is mostly from their royal dramas (namely Chara’s plan backfiring :P). 

The loss of their royalty’s future heir, Asriel, to humans of all people after trying to make things right for them re-iterates just how much they are, even in this state, completely at their mercy. It emphasises how futile fighting it is - even if they do make it to the surface. Not to mention how knowing that their leader has lost his next-in-line would affect political confidence of the kingdom. 

What makes matters worse is that Chara (yes. I’m using the true name to refer to the first human, it makes logical sense within lore to select the name most endorsed by the primary material. deal with it) was also a variable within the state of the people at this time. With the arrival of this human and the king and queens actions at making peace and welcoming them, Chara likely symbolised the first step in making peace with humanity - proof that monsters and humans could co-exist in harmony. With their death coupled with the involvement of humanity with Asriel’s actions to peacefully mourn them, it crushes all the ideals that came with that. Asgore, in response to the deaths, declared war on humans which would set the ground for monster-kind’s bias against them. 

We all know how Toriel responds to Asgore’s actions. As people who play the game, the idea of her fleeing to the ruins and locking herself there makes perfect sense, but to everyone else at the time all they know is that their queen just disappeared one day. There might’ve been rumours about how she had been arguing with Asgore, how their marriage had begun to fail after losing their child, but the general public would just see it as their weakened royalty becoming even more so at their hour of need.

(ok... back to what i was actually talking about)

Anyway, Undyne is absolutely crucial to stopping them from losing hope. To put it simply, she inspires them. In a time when there are hundreds of reasons to hate life, and the only ones doing ok are either too ignorant to understand the problem or are simply pretending that they don’t exist, she is the figurehead for change. She takes action. Unlike their king who, for as a kind a person as he is, feels reluctant to take an assertive stance on the attack (opting instead to just sit around and wait for the humans to come to him, hoping they never will, like toriel put it) Undyne provides ways that monsters can be helpful NOW. 

Many call her the hero of the Underground - and for good reason. Her passion is infectious, it inspires others and for the first time in a long time (again, don’t know how long though because TIMELINE). She makes them think it’s actually possible, like a future on the surface is within their reach. Afterall, Asgore already has 6 souls, all they need is one. She makes it sound so simple, so possible. It doesn’t hurt that she’s the most capable fighter the Underground’s seen in a while either (excluding Asgore obviously) which makes them feel powerful for once.

In short, Undyne is single handedly bringing momentum and hope back to the underground. Because of her the Underground at last is in a position to take back the surface and they feel empowered. And she’s not bearing it alone either, she’s bringing every lasts monster who wants to help with her, inspiring the masses to action.

What drives her (sorta linked to last one)

From a phone calls you can make in the echo flower rooms, we learn that she has heard the personal wishes of many monsters made to echo flowers all united in their desire to leave this place. I spoke a bit before about how it’s unlikely she has much experience with the surface herself. She’s doing this because she cares about others. What drives her is the dreams and determination of everyone she knows and cares about.

How awesome is that?! I mean, that concept alone should make her one of the most respected people in the game. Compared to Sans (and i’m not hating here, Sans is awesome too) who fights you because there’s absolutely no other options left, to let you pass would be to mean everything be deleted forever (i mean, how could you NOT fight at that point, he had nothing to lose); Undyne’s reasoning requires commitment, passion, energy, devotion! This isn’t something she had to do. This is the accumulation of all her compassion for the monsters and her bravery to stand for change. She’s doing this for the ones she loves, the ones she hates, EVERYONE. She’s doing this for her people, for Asgore, for the sake of monsterkind! NGGGAHHHHHH!!!! (sorry, got a bit carried away there)

Representing the people

Something that really resonates in the undertones of the game through her story arc is the responsibility she bears. She is the representative of the people, the hero, a role model to the younger ones and a saviour for the older ones. Everyone is following her because of her passion to the cause. She needs to be strong, to show just how committed she is. 

Something that really shows in her character is how much she cares about the people who depend in her. She sees herself as someone who needs to meet that standard. Fortunately for her, she’s basically perfect for the job, being driven is who she is. She loves it, she loves the stakes, the fighting. The energy she brings to the table comes naturally for her, she’s a natural leader. Truly, she just bears the expectations of monsters like a real champ.

For an added bonus though, calling her in the room behind the waterfall shows she takes breaks too :) “When i feel like relaxing, i always take a break there. Which means NEVER!! I hate relaxing! I LOVE being ANGRY and STRESSED OUT! Just kidding.”

I like to think that Monster Kid kinda is an analogy for all the people she’s fighting for in the game. She’s his role model, his idol. He wants to be just like her when he grows up, even though he has no arms. The kid has no arms!!! And she still makes him feel like he can take on the world! Isn’t that just so inspiring? And what does she do when he gets in the way of fighting you? She takes him aside to protect him. She put the safety of a kid she barely knows before the epic fight she’s been dreaming of, the final showdown that will finish this once and for all. A lesser person would have just dismissed him and fought you anyway. But she’s not like that. Because she CARES. Extending the analogy even further, MK is an innocent, he just wants to be friends with you. And this confuses and annoys Undyne. Because everything she does is for them. Don’t they WANT her to break the barrier? That’s where a lot of her anger comes in about your ”goody two shoes schtick” in her fight. 

Can i also point out that when you kill monsters in Snowdin, she remembers them? She lists them by name, defends their intentions and fights you to avenge them? How noble is that!

Determination!?

I’m still always flabbergasted that she actually USED determination. I mean, not even sans did that. Her cause meant so much to her, she had with her the support and hearts and dreams of so many people that it literally filled her with determination. For the sake of all monsters she refuses to even DIE! And when she starts to melt, her form physically incapable of handling the powers she’s meddling with, SHE STILL PRESSES ON. TO THE VERY LAST ATTACK SHE FIGHTS! 

Just... just take a moment to think that through.

THERE’S MORE TO HER THAN BEING A HERO

I can see why people find her drive very two dimensional. Even with all the caring stuff behind it, which makes it more meaningful, she still comes off as very cliche protagonist. Firstly, she’s supposed to be like that, it’s ironic because she’s like a real life anime hero just like she idolises in Alphys’ um... *cough* history books. She’s sincere, it’s a fundamental character trait. She’s true to her convictions and when she wants something she takes action, some people are just like that. She has passion and she refuses to hold that back. Cooking with her definitely shows you that haha. 

But she wasn’t always so popular. Can i remind people that, in true anime fashion, she ALSO has a tragic backstory that she refuses to let hold her back??? It’s actually mentioned a few times in the game but you never really notice it. Undyne is scary. Under any other circumstance, where she didn’t stand up to take the role and there was reason to admire her, everyone was too scared to be around her. That energy that everyone finds endearing made people frightened. She didn’t have many friends growing up because all the kids were to scared of the overly-aggressive fish monster. She says she doesn’t care about popular people to papyrus. It’s because, if things hadn’t turned out like they did, she too would be unpopular. She was alone, a misfit, strong and weird. 

For me that really changes how i look at her. When she fights for the underground, she’s fighting for the people that used to be afraid of her. Her energy, the thing that left her ostracised, is the hope of everyone. I like to also reflect on how nice it is that she can fill this role too, it sounds just like a TV show for the strange one to rise up and be all that is good regardless. It’s also nice how she isn’t resentful of it. She still cares about the people as a whole and about each and every individual that makes it up.

Okay, now the alphys stuff

So i find the way that her and Alphys meet so enjoyable to look into. It’s heavily implied that Alphys has at times been suicidal (and there’s even suggestion to her taking this action in some of the neutral routes). Undyne meets her at the edge of a waterfall into the abyss and listens to talk to her for hours about the theories about what’s at the bottom. This is SO consistent with her character, of course she’d be the perfect kind of person to talk to when Alphys is like that. Undyne’s kindness shines through again. Also, the way that Alphys can go on for hours is just as driven as Undyne’s drive for other things. The parallels are what she admires about her. 

It’s also cute the little things you notice that suggest she’s got a crush too. Normally Alphys’ side of the affection is what we notice but the tiny things... Like how a monster at Grillby’s knew undyne was off limits because she had a crush on someone. And how undyne would call alphys about the weather when there literally isn’t a sky. And how undyne corrected her statements about no nerds being allowed in her room. The water cooler being added in also shows that Undyne visited the lab often enough for Alphys to get concerned and install it - Undyne, a fish used to cold wet climates, literally went to a place filled with dry fiery rocks to see her. 

Another thing i find fascinating about the pair is that they are quite similar actually. Both feel the need to bear responsibility in freeing monsters from the underground and face the pressure of wanting to meet people expectations. In a way, Alphys creating Mettaton has provided a similar effort to monster’s attitude as Undyne. Alphys researching determination is her way of fighting the barrier the same way Undyne leading the royal guard is. The difference obviously comes in the degree of confidence the two have, Alphys is clearly very insecure and her failure with the DT experiments only make it worse for her.

Papyrus

Sigh, do i even need to explain this one? She admired Pap’s dedication, respects him as a person and fighter and doesn’t let him join the royal guard because she worries about him which is really sweet. Instead of just flat out saying no, she even goes the extra mile of encouraging his other hobbies and entertaining his dreams. They’re good friends.

Random extras

She trained under Asgore and respects him a lot (but we already know all about that if from the cooking date). She was committed to fighting him again and again until she could finally beat him and pacifist Frisk reminds her of him. Sweet.

She plays piano. Can i point out that her fight is one of the few with straight up piano in the soundtrack? It’s a cool little easter egg and i can’t help but imagine her practising her battle music. It also ties in with the ancient artefact puzzle, which Undyne funnily enough made (a nice little extra :) )

[opaledrobin]

A little rant art concerning the way some parts of the fandom rally for more “Feminine” clothing for female asura..and only them..and unintentional implications there of. All of the rant is below the cut:

For context: I’m a AFAB nonbinary, I primarily like things that society tends to deem “Feminine”. The  character in said art is my main roleplay character Truu. She tends to prefer her practical, protective armour for combat, but she  also likes dresses and suits equally when out of it

She also wasn’t raised by the asura and their  typically genderless society. She was raised amongst humanity. 

So imagine my surpise when the sentiments spoken by her bullies  in the backstory i made her...wind up echoed by a good number of the playerbase of asura. Some near word-for word and  kind of disturb me.

Part of why I love the Asura. Is that well, Gender roles are non-existant and for the asura AND unlike the Sylvari also had similar lore. It was represented in their armour choices too. They don’t even differ that much physically and both genders could wear the same stuff. Awesome, Great! finally I could play a feminine character that wasn’t  overly sexualised! I could explore options I couldn’t  as female Sylvari, Human or Norn.

Yes It was a bit saddening that male armour is default. but it was a victory and a good number of the male armour was fairly feminine looking,  especially if you mix and match  and especially so for light.

Now if only you could choose  if you could wear the “female” or “male” armour regardless of race and skimpy armour remained skimpy regardless of gender.

Surely my fellow playerbase had the same sentiments right?

..Well

..sorta?

While some did and continue express my above sentiments, that  all races should have a choice between Male/Female armour  instead of it being locked and that skimpy armour on a female shouldn’t be head-to-toe covering on a male.

Allot of people especially in the asura part. Kept demanding less for that and more that Anet should give them the ability to wear female armour on their  female asura. Male asura where left ignored.  One person.. who I won’t mention even bemoaned at how.

“They couldn’t male their female asura actually look “soft” and feminine while in heavy armour”

...Heavy armour the armour class for frontline fighters. the right-in-the-heart of battle folk.

My heartsank. I’m sure some folks didn’t even mean it. But their comments mirrored the same Hetronormtive bullshit  transfemmine and gender non-confirming  people face. That femininity is only one certain way.  That it could not be expressed in anything except something that signifies to cis folk as that which belongs to a “woman” 

That a man (or in this context male asura) couldn’t  possibly want to wear pretty dresses too.  No  feminine-clothing is only to prove that your character is a ~feminine and soft, proper woman~.  That the fact that the character has every other trapping of  womanhood in accordance to her culture and species isn’t enough. She must conform to human standards of femininity too.

I understand looking at the female versions of some armour espically the ones that don’t have stupid boob-windows or are overly sexualised and would be peeeerfect for asura and going. “Anet pls.. ;o;”

Because  I do the exact same thing.

But please. Think carefully before you speak a request  and ask.

“Why am I  only  asking for one  side of the asura base? Wouldn’t there be allot of male asura players wanting it too? Would I be able to say this to a trasngender or nonbinary person without hurting them in the real world?”

It can and does hurt when people hyerfocus on only female asura in their suggestions for more femmine-armour options. 

It can and does hurt when people bemoan about how  hard it is to tell if an asura is “female or not”.

Be kind to each other. Reword requests so as a way to make everyone happy.

and unite as one voice to cry.

“ANET PLEASE LET US PICK BETWEEN  FEMALE OR MALE ARMOUR AND STAPH MAKING SKIMPY ARMOUR SKIMPY ONLY FOR ONE GENDER FFS”