#lmao this took 4 ever

[royalarchivist]

Bad: [Trying to lasso Pac for a bungee trick] Oh hey, Pac! Hey, what's going on?

Pac: Hi! Oh, I'm doing just great, how about you guys? Richarlyson told me you guys have something to show– [Gasps] Hi Chayanne! Hi Tallulah!

Bad: Pac, can you stand right here?

[Pac gets distracted by Etoiles and accidentally steps on the elevator]

Richarlyson: tio bad, dad pac is the most precious brazilian, be very careful with your doings

Bad: Oh, ok. [Proceeds to ignore Richas' warning] Hey Pac– stand over here for a second.

[raiiny-bay]

but I can't wait until I see your face and my brain thinks that it's looking at a stranger

[didderd]

Fell Week day 6!

Erm. this. was meant to be a small doodle. accompanied by a few others. but..

[sapphire-weapon]

I think Eagleone is canon because in the game something really happens between them and it’s very noticeable, but I’m wondering why you consider them canon?

Because the romantic nature of their relationship is baked into the thematic framework of the narrative. In order for RE4make to achieve what it's trying to do with its storytelling, Leon and Ashley's relationship has to be read as romantic.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is Resident Evil 4 re-imagined as a fairy tale. Survival Horror is the genre of the gameplay of RE4make, but Horror Fantasy is the genre of its story.

RE4make contains fantastical elements that were not present in OG, including but not limited to:

Leon and Ada's plaga hallucinations (Ada's especially looks like it has a magical effect)

The magical blue fire that keeps the Armadura at bay

The cursed black water in the castle (irrespective of whether it's tied to the mold in RE7; it's still attributed to turning men mad and is treated like a magical reagent during the ritual)

Ashley getting possessed -- not Saddler using her plaga to manipulate her body (which he also does in OG) but actually physically possessing her and speaking through her mouth and seeing through her eyes

New enemies that invoke the imagery of Minotaurs

On top of that, one of the major themes of this story is: folklore, story books, and fairy tales. We see it show up not just in the characters but also in the lore of the world itself. Just to name a few examples off the top of my head, we have:

Luis's parallels with and direct verbal references to Don Quixote

The folklore of "madness" spread around the villagers that Mendez tried to quell panic of

Historic folklore from when the people of Valdelobos thought of Las Plagas as demons

Salazar's invocation of Pulgarcito (which is a Spanish fairy tale)

Literal storybooks that you find throughout the game, like the one in Mendez's house and the holy scripture (complete with a colored illustration like a child's picture book) in the castle

And, most of all -- and, most importantly for our purposes -- "The Knight and the Princess Fair" allegory that gets repeated over and over throughout the game centering entirely on Leon and Ashley.

And it's not just Salazar being a crazy asshole, either. Luis also refers to Leon as "Prince Charming," beckons him to the ballroom, and tells him not to be late for the dance.

The story itself also has an element of "true love conquers all" in it, as both Leon and Ashley literally pull off the impossible. Leon manages to fight off Saddler's influence (something that we've seen no other character manage to do -- and Leon's plaga is very advanced at this point) while he's holding Ashley in his arms. And tiny little 120lb Ashley manages to heft all 200+lbs of Leon and his gear up onto Luis's surgical chair all by herself in order to remove his plaga. They saved each other for each other and only got through this ordeal because the other person was there with and for them.

This narrative is then reinforced by overtly romantic imagery, like Leon appearing to Ashley bathed in moonlight, and Ashley wistfully looking to him off towards the horizon, hands clasped to her chest, as embers float around her like fireflies.

It also invokes the imagery of classic romance stories and fairy tales, including:

Several literal princess carries

Prince Phillip about to break the spell on Sleeping Beauty with true love's first kiss

The Prince approaching Snow White's altar

Leon kneeling before Ashley like a knight does his queen

Romeo and Juliet's very famous balcony scene

Leon extending a hand to Ashley as though he's asking her to dance, not once but twice

And in case all of that wasn't enough -- if you somehow still didn't catch it, Capcom included a set of matching alternate costumes for Leon and Ashley literally called "Romantic."

I don't know how much more explicit they could've been about this, short of having a big, sweeping kiss scene -- especially when you consider that absolutely none of the above was present in OG. None of those scenes happen in OG at all.

And this isn't even taking into account that the devs restructured the plot of OG to follow the story outline of a romance novel beat-for-beat -- nor the overt sexual imagery associated with specific lines of dialogue between Leon and Ashley. And even if you ignore the fairy tale aspect all together, Leon and Ashley's relationship is intrinsically tied to the theme of teamwork, and there's a romantic element about how that is portrayed, too.

So, sure. You could look at RE4make as a story about a man who's just doing his job and saves the president's daughter because idk he's a badass and that's just what he does. And he overcomes his trauma about Raccoon City because he actually saved a person's life finally, and it wouldn't have mattered who it was; it just happened to be Ashley.

Sure.

You could.

But you miss the fucking point of what the storyteller(s) were trying to do.

You miss the intention of the developers paying homage to RE4OG being such a huge part of so many people's childhoods by turning the story into a fairy tale.

You miss the parallels of Leon becoming a broken husk of a person because of failing re: Ada, and Leon finding his smile and his kindness again through Ashley.

It leaves you with a shallow story where shit just kind of happens and Leon's a cool dude who overcomes the odds all on his own because he's so cool and strong.

And you'll never be able to convince me that that's how the devs wanted their story to be read. Not with the deliberate layering of themes and imagery and allegory that they've folded into the narrative.

And you'll never convince me that all of this was just a coincidence, either.

Eagleone is canon -- just not canon in the way that most people tend to think of it.

Because the one thing missing from RE4make's fairy tale is that Leon and Ashley don't live happily ever after. They don't end this game a couple, and they'll never be together in the future.

Because while RE4make was a fairy tale, it was the nightmare horror version of one.

And horror stories don't get to have happy endings. That was true for Ethan and Mia in the literal storybook that was RE:Village, and it's true here for Leon and Ashley.

But that doesn't make the romance between these two characters any less real.

[iarrelm]

An early morning conversation about tea got a little out of hand

[mango-mya]

Lmao a sudden headcanon pops out of my head. What if emperor awesome and Elora used to be exes?. Wonder what peepers reaction to that.

This probably

[starfall-isle]

I will try and take an actual good photo of her someday but I made Sage while I was playing through frontiers! ^^ 

[raayllum]

me reading seven (7) fics i wrote pre-s5 where callum says he would do anything for rayla

and by he i mean me

"I’ll always do everything I can to keep you safe. Everything.” She caught his steady gaze, and frowned. “You can’t dabble in Dark Magic again.” “I will if I have to.” She grabbed his sleeve in her other hand, twisting her fingers around the fabric. “Callum, no, it’s not right—” “It doesn’t matter,” Callum said fiercely. “If it’s to save your life, then I’ll do it. Every time.” [...]

“Rayla told me you used Dark Magic,” Tinker said, more stiff and cold. Callum shrank a bit, but his eyes hardened. “I couldn’t just let her die.” “You’d do it again,” Tinker translated. The prince scowled. “I’m not like Aaravos. He twisted the primal to be like Dark Magic. I would never do that.” “Unless you felt like you had to,” Tinker reiterated. “To save Rayla.” “Wouldn’t you do anything to save the person you love?”

—chapter 5 and chapter 13 of in search of silver linings (we discovered gold), from march 2019 and july 2019, respectively

“I love you too.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you. You know that right?” “I do,” Rayla assured him. “You know I’d do anything for you?” She smiled a little. “You already have.” 

—chapter 2 of if time is money, i'll spend it all for you dec 2019 / january 2020

He squeezed her hand and then let go. “Of course,” he said, standing up and turning away so he wouldn’t have to look at her face. “I’d do anything for you, too.”

—chapter 6 of looking for a way to break in, april 2020

“Think we can snag a horse to ride tomorrow so we can sleep in shifts?” he asked. Ezran and Soren were sharing a horse, befitting of a king and his crownguard. “Maybe if you use your princely powers,” she said with something akin to a smirk, even if she knew he didn’t really like (read: feel too confident) pulling rank. But he would, for her. Of course he would. Callum laced their fingers together and raised her hand to kiss the back of it. “For you? Anything.” 

—your love is like a river that i am floating down, july 2020

“Mmhm.” She rolls her eyes, still with that sweet amused little smile on her face, like she’s chalked this up to him just being his usual weird self. “Can you light the fire with a fulminus after I set it up?” He’d do anything if she just asked, he thinks. Callum smiles and lets his elbow brush hers while she assembles the fire. “Of course.” 

—i don't believe that anybody feels the way i do about you now, december 2021

Rayla quiets, her smile faltering. “Um, anyway, I’ll let you get some rest.” She hovers for just a second, meeting his eye. “Thank you, again, for helping me with [the coins], I...”  He nods, because what else is there to say? No matter what they’ve been through, or where life takes them, they saved the world together. She still knows him better than anyone. They’ll always look out for each other. He’d still do anything for her, as she walks away.

—older, but just never wiser, january 2023

“Y’know, I think I might know a guy.” “Oh we couldn’t get him,” she puttered. “Too busy and in-demand.” “I dunno, I’m pretty good at drawing on connections.” She arched an eyebrow. “Are you now?” “Well yeah.” His big goofy grin softened, his fingers entwining themselves with hers. “Word is there’s this elf girl he’s got a big soft spot for—would do anything for her.”

—say the wind won't change on us, may 2023

[derpy-thebdayclown]

camptober 28: costumes

had to draw the gals at least once

[evildeerboy]

me: maybe i’m exaggerating and i probably don’t actually have adhd like the rest of my family. i did manage to graduate college

also me: yea a lot of the times i only read half of a post. like the interesting part. and i just Do Not notice the other half is there while responding to it. yea that’s why i reblogged dr who earlier. yea no i still don’t like that show its not for me. i just straight up didn’t notice there was a dr who image attached to the post. it was basically not there when i was reblogging it. yea this happens all the time. with everything

[yourelosingains]

i just think that them<3

[skitskatdacat63]

“Constantia et fortitudine” - Emperor Sebastian I “der Sieghafte”

[edmunderson]

here's a small preview of a build i'm doing for a story i've had bouncing around in my head for a few months now

[random-kido]

Eyes are burning because I stayed up pretty late last night on discord with a friend as we both lost our minds going through our old quotev accounts

Be cringe be free or whatever but also 💀

[vimbry]

I swolled 1 ibuprofen today

[horce-divorce]

It has been 0 days since the last "old man leaves blood tracked around the entire house and goes on with his day UNbothered" incident....

I cannot fucking verbalize how disturbing this shit is... I literally can't get up at 7am to take a sleep-drunken piss without having to wake up fully and fucking bleach the floor because I look down at my shoes and realize I'm STEPPING in someone else's BLOOD. AGAIN!!@!!@!!!!!!!!!!!

same guy that leaves food out for the mice, puts his used dirty dry ass dentures flat on the kitchen counter, leaves bloodied bandages on the TABLE!!!!!!

and every time you try to have a conversation with him he goes "oh haha!" and trundles off, absolutely utterly regardless of what the topic is. Period. Always. Once during a fucking tornado he sat upstairs watching TV, chuckled at us rushing to the basement as the sirens wailed, I informed him "we already lost everything once, we don't need to do it again" and he said "ha ha ha" and went and sat in front of the TV again.

Once he said "I wonder why the mice keep coming back in the summer?" And Bel looked him in the eyes and said "you! It's because you leave them full course meals every day, you should scrape your plate off into the garbage when you're done with it :)" he said "oh haha!" Wandered off and then never once cleaned his plate, continuing to leave full plates out overnight (im talking 3 corn cobs biscuits and gravy), and "thawing" ALREADY THAWED MEAT on the counter for upwards of 10 hours before just... sticking it back in the fridge???

He is literally not even on this plane of existence. To the point where he refuses to use his cane and yet falls down multiple times per day. I don't understand how he continues to live. Fucking energy vampire. Literally!who needs a cane! he just asks us to help him up off the floor! then refuses said help while we stand there and watch him struggle. he has THE most weaponized incompetence i have EVER encountered. He literally just likes an audience!!!! That's all he wants and he gets it for free every day!!!! Every day he lives one day longer and Thorin, Bel and I feel years age off our fucking lives in exchange!!!!!

I CANT! KEEP DOING IT! I NEED TO FIX MY CAR AND GET OUT OF HERE IM GOING FUCKING INSANE I DIDNG SIGN UP FOR DAILY BIOHAZARD WASTE REMOVAL IN EXCHANGE FOR MY FUCKING LIFE!!!!!!!LIVING IN THE WOODS IS BETTER ILL TAKE IT ANY FUCKING DAY

Hot tip: if you become homeless DONT just take the first offer of a roof over your head IF you can absolutely help it at all, ESPECIALLY if you became homeless due to fleeing abusive family. You will very likely just end up with someone else's abusive dad instead :) repeatedly :)))