#onica

[fishtail-tavra]

Dreamed of 1980’s animated adaptation of Age of Resistance (in the style of the last unicorn) and to be honest it was super fun

They pushed everything into one, hour and a half movie, so a lot of things that were secrets weren’t anymore and the set up got changed to move things right to the climax-

So everyone knows the Skeksis are evil and eating people, but the Skeksis are holding everyone hostage saying the Dark Crystal will die without them (taking all of Thra with it) and THEY will die without Gelfling essence, so from the very start tithes include sacrifices and the retuning of the drained people and

In my dream I cared more about the gays though, meaning Tavra and Onica.

Tavra got introduced arriving late to some big party Mayrin was hosting for the visiting Skeksis- no actually, it was for Brea? Some kind of coming of age thing?- anyway, Tavra trips and falls on her face coming in the doors and everyone’s very O_O; except her sisters who are already running over to say hi

She tripped though bc she saw ONICA in the crowd, disguised, and there were a lot of shots of her in the background during the main action of the party, looking worried and discreetly talking with Totally Not Onica while spilling things on herself absentmindedly or having to get tugged out of the way gently by Onica before she runs into/got run into by someone else

(there’s a morning scene later where we see them in bed together- very PG- both still fully dressed bc Tavra was up most of the night worrying- but Onica is watching Tavra sleep now, reaching out to touch her recently shortened hair (more on that later), and Tavra wakes up from that, smiling, and it’s the first time in the movie we see her really smile so)

In my dream I was mostly busy looking at screen caps and gifs of these two, but there was other changes I had fun with, like BADASS ARCHER NAIA

Naia showing up at the last big battle-

(right before the Skeksis get spooked into unleash the garthim and the clans all scatter desperately hoping at least one Gelfling survives the slaughter long enough to fulfil the Far-Dream that Onica led them into dreaming together blah blah)  

-with this MASSIVE bow, bigger than she is, (lots of cool shots of her arms and back muscles whenever she drew it) and to fire the thing she actually needs to be either standing on something (usually her brother) (or one time both Kylan and Amri stood in for a single Gurjin) or she needs to be airborne

She and Gurjin had this trick where he’d kneel down and she’d run and jump on him, he’d boost her up, and she’d use her wings to slow her fall long enough to get off a shot or two before landing again

She didn’t used it to kill anyone (except Arathim) bc movie Naia still was big on not having the Mystics as collateral damage for stopping the Skeksis,

But she did get a few really dramatic shots- once shattering a Skeksis’s jeweled staff when they were using it to hypnotized and then almost kill someone- and another where (after her own bow got broken) she picks up urVa’s bow (MUCH bigger than hers) and uses her legs while lying on the ground wounded to shoot a flask of essence out of a skeksis hand before they can drink it

In this adaption though Brea is the one who really gets the rebellion kicking, still by reading something, but not a book this time

The movie had Brea going through the trial by wing that her grandmother started as like a coming of age/proof of power to rule kinda thing, where the women who lead the Vapra have to fly the dangerous winds of Raunip’s Pass alone, reach this one high spot where Raunip left an inscription, read it and bring back a stone from the pile siting nearby

This rock pile and inscribed stone is actually the movie version of Lore,

only this time Lore was created by ye oldie Tavra (Raunip’s Friend) to keep her friend Raunip company long after she was dead, and as a way to show no hard feelings for the fight they had over the UrSkeks.

But when Raunip left for the last time (passing through the mountains of Tavra’s home and what would later get named Raunip’s pass) he left Lore behind in the cliffs overlooking Ha’rar, so the Dream-Stitched stone could watch over Tavra’s people even after he was gone

This choked me up every time dream me saw a dream post about it ngl

Anyway, Seladon the 1st, Mayrin, Seladon the 2nd, and Tavra had all just flown up there, seen some old oddly etched rocks, the dedication from Raunip to his friend Tavra, shrugged and grabbed a rock before leaving

(the size of the rock you could manage to haul back was also part of the trial and Seladon was feeling both worried for ‘airheaded’ Brea and insecure knowing her little sister was probably going to bring back a larger stone than Seladon- with her crooked wing- had felt safe carrying)

Only Brea actually takes an interest the ancient writing and the symbols and the odd carvings and she gets distracted clearing away some dirt and rubble

underneath she finds the Dream-Stitching, activates it, gets a lore dump from ye oldie Tavra’s memories AND gets Lore itself to wake up, when it turns out to be able to play recordings of Raunip’s voice etched into stone- Tavra’s real gift to him, a way for him to Dream-Stitch his memories and be remembered even without vliya- so Brea ALSO gets all of RAUNIP’S fears and confessions about his involvement with the second great conjunction and the UrSkeks and the shattering and how things have gone downhill since then and

Brea’s family is getting increasingly worried she’s taking so long, what if she got smashing on the rocks by the winds, what if she’s hurt and needs help-

and the Skeksis get a chance to be evil and manipulative commenting that if Brea isn’t strong enough to follow in her grandmother’s flight path then maybe it’s the will of Thra that she fails this challenge and never comes home

I think I remember this being one of those moments where you can see everyone’s different reactions in a single frame, and it went something like Mayrin: devastated, Seladon: flinching and cringing, Tavra: looking absolutely murderous.

This is when Tavra steps forward and when questioned says she’s going to go look for her sister, since it was the will of Thra that they BE sisters in the first place, and Seladon hesitates before also saying she’ll go with Tavra

But that’s when Brea comes home with an entire rock monster and sort of accidentally starts a rebellion by asking questions, so

The night BEFORE this, the party scene, with the tithing and the prepping Brea for her big day, there had been this moment when the drained Gelflings were returned home, and Mira was one of them

And so Rian had come too, because up until this moment the “crystal anointed” were kept in seclusion, hooded and veiled, to keep a general panic from breaking out, and they only were released back to their own family in the clan they came from

(an information isolation tactic, to help the Skeksis spread rumors of each clan paying more than the other, or of their offered Gelfling being less worthy of the Crystal’s light and THAT’S why they are Like That Now, but the other clans aren’t being effected, no no no it’s totally just you, and you’re also having to give more people because the richer clans are paying more in tithes to send fewer offerings, so really the ones you should be mad at are the OTHER CLANS, not the Skeksis, the Skeksis don’t care how they get their sacrifices, the Skeksis only care about maintaining the Crystal that maintains all life on Thra obviously-)

Rian followed them to Ha’rar (with Gurjin) (and Naia because Naia’s not letting her twin go off into maybe danger without her) to finally reunite with Mira, but she’s been SO badly drained he barely recognizes her and she DOESN’T recognize him,

Cue very sad scene of Rian trying to help her remember, and after a bit she does reach out to dreamfast, like its instinct, only nothing happens, and Naia (the healer) checks and declares she doesn’t have enough vliya to dreamfast with- in fact, she doesn’t have enough to stay alive with, even. She isn’t just old and drained looking. She’s dying.

Rian is horrified, Rian breaks down, Rian shouts at the Skeksis while crying and holding Mira close,

The Skeksis don’t like that and we get a fun dramatic party screeches to a halt scene as the General gets up and draws his sword

Dream me thought it was very fun that Gurjin still got his hero moment, causing a distraction by taking on the castle guards that came here with the Skeksis so Rian could get Mira away

(also callback to the first movie, with a drained and totally out of it Mira still managing to break her and Rian’s fall with her wings when he has to throw them off a cliff)

(he totally thought they were gonna die together and was fine with that)

(instead they land on a Sifa ship and WOOO YEAH TAE AND ETHRI ARE HERE totally not because Oinca had a feeling it would be good and convenient if they parked their ship in this very specific spot)

Back in Ha’rar, Gurjin is captured by the guard, a pissed Naia challenges and fights the general about it

(there was a scene were the Skeksis realize Naia and Gurjin are twins and get Excited about that)

So they make a deal with Naia, if she wins, her brother will go free, if she loses… they both will go to the crystal together.

And while all THIS was happening, BREA ran off to fetch Tavra, who’d slipped away at some point, and runs in on the secret that her big stern sister is very much kissing a Sifa, which these days is Very Very illegal, but Brea’s just shocked to see very serious soldier Tavvra actually kissing anyone-

She remembers to tell Tavra what’s happening at the party, Tavra dives out the nearest window to get there faster, Onica suggests she and Brea take a detour along the way

(the detour is to set up a small tricky sabotage that will let Naia escape in moment)

The first time we see Tavra do anything cool in the movie is when she breaks through a window, sword drawn, and slashes at the General’s hand to make him drop Naia when he has her by the throat

Tavra and the General duel, Naia uses this distraction to attack the guards holding Gurjin and they exit stage right pursued by more guards, Seladon is freaking out and Mayrin calls for Tavra to stand down-

And in the tags of one post about this, ppl talk about how earlier in the movie it was set up how Gelfling don’t normally cut there hair short, since hair is kinda like tree rings or roots to them, so getting rid of it is like throwing away your life up till then and wanting to forget/distance yourself from it

(a thing traditionally associated with criminals, outlaws, Gelflings who went against their families)

BUT lately short hair has ALSO been used by rebels, the rumored Gelflings who refuse to pay tithes or offer up people to the castle

So this scene comes up, Tavra's duel, where the General says something like “blah blah traitorous Vapra, blah, oath breaking Gelfling scum”

And Tavra’s just like, it’s not breaking a vow to defend the people I’ve sworn to protect- which makes the General so mad he tries decapitating her, only she just kneels in response and bows her head-

So the sword cuts off her braid of hair instead. Big crowd reaction shot and gasp

(also revelation that Tavra’s hair is really wavy/curly when it’s short and not tied back, I don’t know why dream me thought that detail was super fun)    

(tags on this post point out that this is kinda like, symbolism of how the Skeksis have being cutting Gelfling’s off from their actual old laws and traditions while making Gelflings bow to them instead)

And the other Skeksis sees this, hears the murmurs and muttering, sees the very bad PR image of a Skeksis about to kill a princess who is kneeling on the floor before him WHILE ALL THEIR PERSONAL GUARDS ARE MISSING and rushes in to pull the General back before he can split Tavra down the middle

The party ends… awkwardly, with the Skeksis placating the crowd by commending Tavra (through gritted beaks) for withstanding their ‘test’ of her loyalty and duty to her vows as a paladin, which they totally did on purpose, never would have actually killed anyone nope

They just barely restrain most of their rage when the guards come back (covered in odd powders that make them sneeze and slipping on boots covered in grease) to report that the three ‘criminals’ have escaped with their ‘abducted’ ‘prisoner’ (Mira)

annnnnnd they’re forced to accept Mayrin’s offer of Tavra leading her soldiers on the search, since they’re the only ones who know Ha’rar well enough to do it

(quick scene of Tavra directing her paladins to search the mountains and the cliffs and the village and the valley, and… no, not the seashore or the coast. Without the help of a Sifa they wouldn’t survive long there and would have to turn inland soon anyway. it’s not like there are any Sifa up here right now. Right? Right.)

I think I also remember that Deet gets introduced while she’s dreamfasting a giant taint-maddened nebrie-

(she can’t heal them, but as long as she’s dreamfasting with them SHE can take on the pain and horror of the taint, and when she sings while doing that they fall peacefully asleep, letting anyone nearby get safely away)

And it turns out she’s been working so hard to find out what’s going on with the tainted creatures of Thra she’s become sensitive to the presence of the taint, AND good enough at listening with her vliya that she can hear and understand what the Trees are saying, even though their voices have almost gone quiet

The trees lost contract with each other as the taint spread (some of them being taken over by it even) so Deet got sent out by her clan’s Tree to contact / warn / bring messages to the other trees and their clans

There was still that cool moment of Kylan dreamstitching the warning onto flower petals and everyone watching them fly off in a cloud so I guess Deet recruited him at some point… or no… maybe that was to summon the clans to what ended up being the big final battle?

I feel like there was a ‘lighting the beacons’ scene where all the clans lit their blue flames and a moment (echoing the opening of the tv show) where we saw their leaders all standing together in dreamfast on a map vision of Skarith land, reaching out to each other around a shared blue fire….

Anyway taking on the suffering of the taint was slowly tainting Deet herself, and she kept lashing out in pain more, or getting lost in the nightmare visions of the crystal’s breaking  

She got one cool scene at the end though.

After the Gelfling come together to Far-Dream the prophecy of how the Skeksis might fall and the Skeksis see this and, in a panic, unleash all their Garthim before they can even control them properly, leading to many Gelfling being killed instead of captured for draining-

Deet is one of the ones caught and brought back to be drained, but she’s laughing when they strap her into the draining chair, and when she calls out,

all the tainted creatures she’s helped over the movie wake up in time to cause havoc on any nearby garthim-

and so do the Trees, reconnected briefly THROUGH the spreading taint BY Deet as she’s being DRAINED by the crystal, and the connection lasts just long enough for their roots to soak up as much of the taint as they can while tearing up the ground around the castle, breaking the crystal (and the taint’s) direct connection to the rest of Thra-

The trees all die, burning up in a last blaze of vliya along with Deet, but the tainted creatures aren't tainted anymore, and outside the barren land around the castle everything else starts growing in healthy again

Turns out it was the world that was feeding life to the crystal, not the other way around

(another skeksis lie)

Which makes the skeksis ultra SUPER unhappy the garthim rampage killed off so many useful Gelflings before their essence could be drained

The stinger ending was Kylan finishing writing all this down and hiding the book just before garthim burst in, the shot of his hand desperately tucking the book away-

-jump cutting to Jen’s hand gently pulling it’s crumbling pages out of hiding who knows how many trine later

Final shot being a slow pull back and pan out of Jen calling to Kira about what he found, and her excitedly calling back that she thinks a small nearby sapling might have just talked to her, so maybe he could read the book aloud to both of them?

end credits roll over the scene as Jen reads and Kira clears away weeds from a young baby tree, while fizzgig gets chased around the clearing by a whole pack of little angry baby fizzgigs

And that’s it, that’s the movie adaption that doesn’t exist but I got to be in the fandom of for a few glorious minutes

The last unicorn animation style REALLY went well with the vibes. loved it.

[sifanjewel]

Here’s a reminder that Onica is a beautiful underrated character and was severely underused in Age of Resistance. Here’s to hoping our beloved Far-Dreamer gets a much greater role in the future 🌊🔮✨

[randominktm]

a few sketches from this week that I liked, aka a bunch of homestuck and an Onica just for the funnies, along with my mental thought process when redrawing Dave's hair for the 5000000th time.

[fuckyeahstimboards]

Onica Stimboard!

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Requests Are Open!

[theworldofthedarkcrystal]

additional highlights from dark crystal con:

* helena smee said the lamp Mira picks up was suprisingly heavy, but she does feel that it gave the motion more reality and groundedness, because Mira (Helena) reacts to the weight naturally

* kat smee and helena smee are sisters!

* kat smee said she was performing a musician podling during the skeksis dining scenes (in which helena was playing the collector), and it was an incredible sight because since all puppeteers were under the table, in real time no puppeteer could be seen, so she was looking down at the balcony at a bunch of skeksis feasting!  she said it was quite a sight

* helena smee talked about having fun puppeteering SkekLach The Collector because she is a more socially uninhibited skeksis and can make more fun movements

* kat smee said everyone was always excited for days they would puppeteer podlings, as these smaller puppets were easier on the body to puppeteer.  Dzenpo!!!

* brian meehl (dying mystic master 1982 OG) said he had to re-record the audio for the dying UrSu speech many times over many months because of the constant script re-writes.

* Steven Garlick (Jen) and Lisa Maxwell (Kira) spoke of three overall read-throughs that occurred while recording their voiceovers - 1, in their natural english accents, a 2nd, in affected American accents (they were both very young and at the start of their careers, so apparently the american accents weren’t the best), and 3rd, a take that was somewhere in-between - this last one was the take that was kept.  

* i mentioned to Tim Rose how much I like when SkekShod turns to tell SkekZok, “you should be emperor”, he turns, not the short way, which would have been away from the camera towards the SkekZok, but the long way, which is towards the camera towards the ritual master.  Tim Rose laughed and said “that would be because I couldn’t see where he was!!!”

these screenshots don’t do it justice - it’s a very funny dramatic turn.   possibly 270 degrees XD

* In a panel, when asked what additional stories he would like to tell in the Dark Crystal Universe, J M Lee said he would like to have a series about Tavra and Onica.   (here, here!)

* the costuming department worked in an odd space that had a disco ball.  eventually they figured out how to turn it on! (intel from the costuming panel)

* in a panel, Neil Sterenberg said he was very excited to say some of Rian’s speeches, because as a puppeteer mainly performing children’s cinema, he has never had an opportunity to say such dramatic speeches, and will never again have such an opportunity (his words), and it was great fun to plan how Rian was going to deliver those lines.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

the through line of Onica's "Seeing you as a spider does not shock me at all. I'm just so relieved you're still alive!"

and Tavra's "Wonderful. However, not being able to hold you makes me question whether this still counts as living"

leading to Onica's "Okay... Well hearing my girlfriend say that is literally the only thing I can think about now, absolutely no room left in my head for far dreams or having world saving visions, so maybe this would be a good time for us (her) to take a moment and consider our (her) mental health :) (she doesn't have any at the moment)"

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Book names + authors under the cut

Hunter/Serpentine- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Daniela “Dani” Vargas/Carmen Santos- We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Tavra/Onica- The Dark Crystal by J. M. Lee

Robin Blyth/Edwin Courcey- A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske

[domibomz]

tavonica still gets me

even if these designs are outdated uggaaa

[fishtail-tavra]

The Dark Crystal: Rise of the Age of Mental Health For Onica's Depressed Spider Girlfriend Specifically

[annithra]

・・・ Onica the Far-Dreamer ♡

She's the best Soothsayer and I luv her so much c":

Here's a small expression practice since I've been having problems with my art style ✧

She's watching Tavra leave :c

[dkscribe88]

Tavra: Uh oh.

Amri: What?

Tavra: I see an angry girlfriend heading our way.

Amri: Yours or mine?

Tavra: Does it matter?

Amri: If it’s mine, there’s a chance we’ll live, but if it’s yours, we’re dead.

[darkcrystalgifs]

[fenth-eiria]

You know what.. Why not post an Au of mine that is one of my best Aus.

The wonder twins that are referred are Rian and Brea.

@childlikegoblinqueen

Loti, and Jari are placeholder names for the librarian and Freckles the red head paladin.

[chaotictissuebox]

Man I feel old I remember waiting for AOR to drop night of on Netflix.

Anyway I’ve loved these two since the moment they came to be In the books and I never drew them because I couldn’t draw Curley hair, braided hair, and baggy clothes

which is all these little Beans are made of

so after literally years my need to make art of them finally won over my lazyness

anyway Tavronica for life

Tavra definitely carried in both the books and the show

slay spider sister slay

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

ooh can i ask what story the girl turning into the spider is from? it sounds sweet!

oh uh... it's sweet in the sense that, even though pretty much everything goes wrong, some things still go right?

Tavra (spider girl) is a very stoic, somewhat blunt and socially awkward, generally grim, only ever laughs bitterly but will gently stroke your cheek and remind you to keep moving forward main supporting character in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance YA books written by J.M. Lee. (mostly in the third one, tides of the dark crystal) (SPOILERS) She's... kinda like the older sister figure / adopted mom / eventual one half of fav OTP to the three point of view characters? Her whole thing is being ready to sacrifice herself and her happiness for the sake of saving people, enduring pain without flinching even while telling others to be careful, repeatedly almost dying and smiling about it....

....except that she really, really, REALLY wants to see her girlfriend again, too. Especially after kinda sorta dying and getting spider-ed.

Her uncharacteristic rashness and nervousness when showing herself to Onica- and Onica's zero hesitation to reach out to the small spider that sounds like Tavra- is the first clue these two are A Thing.

They've been a thing for a loooong while. A forbidden secret romance kinda thing.

Onica turns out to be outwardly the sun to Tavra's cloudy day, except she's actually still VERY angry at Mayrin (Tavra's mother) for being a jerk, and VERY bitter over how Mayrin treated Tavra over their relationship- and while Tavra tries making excuses for her mom the best she can come up with in the end is a damningly faint "that was a long time ago". Which. Well.

Anyway, up till now Tavra has always taken on the role the Experienced And Steady Advisor and Guardian to her new younger friends, but once she's back on Onica's ship (Onica is a single crew sailing ship captain able to dream of things happening far away have i mentioned that?) Tavra starts finally relaxing enough to show some of the stresses she's been under lately, even going off and 'mope' when her attempt at teaching one young friend how not to get killed with a sword goes badly.

(moping is described as Tavra "just being Tavra") (her kinda new little sister is the one saying this) (Tavra can be recognized in any form by her dower frown) (especially funny when Onica is constantly described as laughing and chuckling and wearing a mysterious smile)

So blah blah blah, Onica is a the good kind of terrifying and almost dies, Tavra saves her via the power of gay flashbacks with the help of their new number 1 shipper-

Then Onica's bestie, who is in huge awe of Tavra, tries to push a traumatized depressed disabled woman in the body of a spider into leading all their people in revolution bc she'd be ideal for it- and Onica very pointed says that you can't help others if you don't take time to help yourself before going off to presumably snuggle her sad spider gf.

The two are last seen in the books as Tavra's sorta adopted teen son Kylan-

(who turned her into a spider to save while committing murder despite generally being a pacific presumably bc of the trauma of watch his birth parents get snatched away by murders as a child)

-decides to look at some runes, and Tavra says she and Onica will stay with him.

So. Tavra never gets her old body back, and her mom is murdered, and part of her soul is drained and eaten, and her sisters probably think she's dead- but she also does not die. By the end of the story she is happy with the family she has found, and finally fulfilling her and Onica's promise to someday live their lives as one.

Oh did i mention there's a parallel between her and Onica's secret forbidden romance and the more tragic example that kicks of the whole story?

Did i mention Onica calls Tavra "my love"?

And Tavra was a swordswoman before becoming a spider?

I don't know if you wanted or needed all this info and I don't care, there will never be enough stuff about these two written but by gods i will take ever chance to scream about them

And that's how my arachnophobia was cured!!!