#redemption is a change which i am willing to make

[thekeeperof-thefandoms]

Hi, could i request Alastor x reader where one of them does something nice/gives something to the other not realizing that in their culture it's equivalent of courting/proposing? And since the other is in love with them, they don't mention the connotations and it takes someone else to point it out for them to realize? :)

Going to be honest, I wasn't sure how to write this one, since I'm white and to my knowledge Alastor's a Creole man from 1930s, so I wasn't sure what from either of those cultures could be mistaken for a proposal. After doing some research I'm going to tweak this ask a bit, simply because I am not entirely comfortable representing other cultures that I am not a part of and only have a few hours worth of google research knowledge of. I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted. If you or anyone has more specific traditions to use as examples, I'd be happy to try and expand on the idea.

(Or reinterpret this as like, flower language, gift giving symbolism by pagan standards, or crow language. Which not gonna liez my ADHD ass really wants to write a crow sinner giving them weird random stuff they find that they think the others would like.)

Anyway, I'm going to do things you'd do for each other that make you both wanna get married. Hope that's ok!

Alastor

It's not so much a single thing you do, but more like there is a single moment where he realizes he wants to marry you. And to be clear, his idea of marriage is going to be based off of what he grew up with and his own personal level of comfort with romance and intimacy (remember folks, aromantics have a spectrum as well and can get married and have perfectly happy, functional, healthy relationships and marriages).

It's probably not even a big grand gesture or anything. It's more likely something domestic and really sweet. Like it's post the finale fight with Adam, and he already knows he's getting attached because he let you help him get patched up. He lets you in his room, his space, and being touched by you is as easy and comfortable as it is with Rosie and Niffty, who have pretty much a free pass whenever.

Yet you're still always so respectful of his boundaries, of giving him subtle ways to avoid or redirect your touch if he's not feeling up to it. You never push, chosing to take what levels of affection he's willing to express but always letting him know you love him, and this last small thing is the thing that makes it click in his brain.

You bring him his coat, newly patched, cleaned of any trace of blood. The stitching is a little sloppy, crooked, and the fabric isn't lined up as well as it used to be, but you tried. He can see the effort and knows you spent hours holed up in your room after patching him up.

"I know it's not perfect, but it'll hold until you feel well enough to visit your tailor again." You say timidly, as if you expected rejection or critique. And while criticism wouldn't be unwarranted, he's just too emotional to say anything. His smile is gentle, a little wobbly, and he reaches out and brushes the coat aside to grab hold of you and pull you into a hug.

You're just so sweet and considerate, you understand him. He's not going to change, he doesn't want redemption, he thrives off the bloodshed and chaos of hell, but at the same time he's still just a man. And he wants you to be by his side for eternity, if he you want that too. He's never thought of marriage before but now...now he can't stop. He wants to have that with you. Domestic life, something to come home to.

He won't say anything right away, he wants his proposal to be perfect. He's going to have Rosie help him plan this every step of the way, but regardless, one day, you will be his partner.

As for what your moment with Alastor is, I think it entirely depends on what you value most in a partner. However, a general consensus I've seen in most of the fanfics and tumblr posts is the idea of Alastor showing us a softer side.

Not just showing us that he's more than a serial killer and cannibal with his own sense of morality. More than just feeling comfortable enough to let us initiate touch, hut genuinely letting us see past the Radio Demon persona.

Maybe it's by cooking for us and talking about how he learned the recipe from his Mama, which leads into him slowly opening up about her, how much he adored her. What she meant to him.

Maybe it's him and you at the bar in the hotel or in his room, sipping drinks, his jacket off, sleeves rolles up. Letting himself be casual and in a compromised state around you. Maybe he'll even take your hand and spin you across the dance floor like he used to with Mimzy. He doesn't even care if you're not that good, he can teach you, practice makes perfect, he just has fun with you.

Maybe it's a moment where he let's you touch him. Or seeks you out for help because he knows you won't say anything. Or if he humors you and flirts back when you tease him. Or let's say he has a tail and he doesn't snap your head off for accidentally touching it as you go by. Or he agrees to watch a movie with you or listen to a podcast despite how he feels about technology.

Maybe it's just a quiet night, sitting next to each other, each reading a book, his radio playing softly for background noise, and you look up to him to ask a question or say something and he's already watching you, a small, adoring smile on his face.

Take your pick of which one is the moment where your heart stops, your breath catches, and you realize that you wanna marry this man.

And then your delulu ass wakes up, lol.

Decide for yourself if you'd go through with a proposal or if you just accept how things are.

[shantechni]

The Redemption of Slash

Seriously, can I take up 33 seconds of your time to share how in love I am with this? Slash was influenced by Raph's constant frustrations with Leo back then, and his mutagen fueled mind was so satisfied when he sent the kid flying across the roof of the building. He wasn't just telling Raph to join him because he was his long time companion and confidant, but because he also used to believe a lot of the things Raph said about his brothers, one of which being that Leo did a terrible job of leading.

By the next season though, he amazingly pulls a complete 180.

I know he technically redeemed himself in Newtralized!, but it wasn't until Battle for New York that he finally tried to make things right with the entire team, and of course Leo isn't so willing to put any faith in him or his abilities (he's such a hypocrite btw, he tried to argue with Slash over Pete being used as bait like Mikey isn't right there lol, tbf Mikey's hardly sent in as bait by this point of the series anymore, but still). They expectedly go back and forth quite a bit for a majority of the first part, wherein Leo is repeatedly doubtful of Slash's leadership and causes the snapper to become frustrated with the treatment he receives. Raph even steps in on one occasion to defuse the situation.

Leo's mind eventually changed near the end of the episode though when he watched Slash defend Pete from a laser blast, and he realizes Slash doesn't truly view Pete as the meat shield of the team. He expresses how impressed he was by the result of Slash's leadership skills, and Slash brightens up over the compliment before proudly responding that he's changed from the turtle that bruised up him and his brothers nearly a year ago (this hits even harder when remembering that he starts to believe Leo's words of doubt for a minute after the Kraang captures them later on).

And the cherry on top of all of this? When both teams reunite after bringing all of the humans back to New York, Leo comes around to rightfully apologize for the way he's been treating Slash, even going so far to refute his earlier words by saying he deserved a second chance after all. And Slash tells him to his face that he was his role model, this is peak cinema fr-

[presidentbungus]

spy had a long string of accidents leading up to his departure. coming home bruised and bleeding, or with police lights on his tail. men showing up at the house at night. maybe scout's ma sees spy teaching her boys what to do if they think they're being followed and something just breaks in her heart a little bit

spy's flaky, and dangerous, and as much as he seems to try he's still the man she sits at home next to the phone worried sick over when he mysteriously disappears every few weeks. one time he vanishes for three months--three--a few days after the birth of his son, his son, and when he has the nerve to show up at three AM begging for forgiveness (and waking up all her boys while he's at it), she snaps. there's an ultimatum: give up the job, or leave, because she loves spy to death but she ain't gonna lose her children for him. spy tells her it's all he knows how to do.

she tells him she loves him, more than anyone else she's ever loved. she just can't trust him

when the sun rises the next morning spy is gone and it's almost like he was never there at all, and she supposes he made his choice, didn't he. selfishly she imagines him crawling back in a few weeks, tail tucked between his legs, apologizing profusely--i thought i could make it without you but I couldn't, and I'm sorry, and I just want to live with you and be with you and grow the fuck up and

but he never does. obviously he never does, and it's probably for the best, and it crushes her. and she knows it's probably not true, but she can't help but think that maybe it was like she always feared; disposable, fleeting, nothing. she has no way of knowing that spy is spending every day in bunkers and ballrooms thinking about her and regretting leaving, or maybe regretting her in the first place--for letting his guard down, for getting attached like he swore he never would. it was the best thing he's ever done but now he gets to know he'll never have it again. and, really, the worst part of it all is he knows he probably could, if he set aside some of his pride and gave up on the unforgiving work that leaves him less fulfilled every day anyway, but he also knows he won’t. he just won’t, and there’s a thousand reasons, but it’s impossible to put into words and at the end of the day he knows the only thing that’s stopping him is just himself.

he’s horrible. they both know he’s horrible and they both wish so desperately he could change that—that he was willing to change that.

and when he starts work at a backwater mercenary company in the worst part of the united states for—well, even he isn’t really sure, but he sees scout for the first time and suddenly he knows. it’s just so obvious.

and suddenly, he is entirely unwilling to distance himself any further from what very well may be his last chance for redemption—so he doesn’t run, which surprises even himself, after so long. but the more he desperately looks inside for anything whatsoever the more he realizes he is entirely unwilling to approach the man that, more obvious by the way, he left of his own volition a little over two decades ago.

he knows this strange limbo, this block of figurative amber, can’t last forever. he hopes.

so he waits. and he waits. and he waits.

[twig-tea]

Cooking Crush Finale: I'm Going to Miss This Show

Honestly tl;dr on this post is that this show is great, it ended leaving me the way the show has felt for me week to week, which is a good thing. I've said it too many times in tags and posts but let's say it once more: This show is fundamentally kind, it felt like it was giving me a hug every week, and I'm going to miss that a lot.

In my post after ep10 I mentioned that the writing on this show was making me so happy by having the conflicts converge on this one contest, and that did come to fruition in a way that I found very satisfying. The one nitpick I will say is the bullying storyline did feel dropped. Theoretically, from a thematic read, I actually love that, because these bullies had the best possible comeuppance by becoming completely irrelevant to Prem, Dy, and Samsee's lives and utterly forgotten. They failed at getting them kicked out of the contest, failed at eroding their self-esteem, and failed at preventing them from succeeding. The victory over the bullies is really how these three left that contest still feeling proud of themselves, good about what they accomplished, and optimistic about their futures. The show focusing on their group hug rather than the "winners" of the contest underscores that for me. And I love that we get the timeskip to see Prem's chef's table restauraunt, and that all of them are there as the first customers (including Metha, so glad this MVP stayed part of the group!). However, without the show telling me explicitly that should be my takeaway, I hesitate to assume that's what it meant to do (rather than the show just running out of time). It's satisfying enough for me, but I acknowledge that I had to fill in that detail on my own to be satisfied. And I am willing to do that for this show because it did such a good job with the other threads.

The conflict with Ten's dad was so satisfyingly tied up in Prem wanting to win the contest--not just to prove that he was worthy of Ten, but to be able to pay Ten's father back for the money he'd gotten--and I appreciated how Ten's resolution with his father was nuanced and not perfect. His father showed his support and gave verbal acknowledgment of Prem as a suitable partner but remained distant, and that visual contrast of him sitting at the restaurant table alone in the same spot he used to sit with Ten and his mother was telling. He doesn't apologize, but he doesn't get an easy redemption either; it felt very in character that he'd only accept Prem in Ten's life after Prem proved himself over time (and only after Ten continued to prove that he was still going to live up to his father's expectations while dating Prem).

I referenced in my Fire & Dynamite hype post that one of the things their relationship does for Dy is give him confidence that someone will be there in his corner. When he came out of the room having lost and was the only one without someone to hug, my heart dropped. But his did too, and it's because he knew, in that moment, that something was wrong. He had learned to expect and rely on Fire's presence, and that growth is something I loved to see. The way he went searching for Fire rather than internalizing that Fire wasn't there for him, and then was able to be there for Fire in the confrontation with Fire's mom--that meant so much to me. It was subtle, but compare it with the scene in ep10 when Fire shows up at the contest and Dy is surprised to even see him. My boy has grown so much! That confrontation with the mom was also really well done; I loved that Fire made it clear his sexuality was not Dy's 'fault' but was something he'd hidden from his mother and tied all of that up in his dynamic with her overall: that he's afraid to share his true self with her because he's afraid of disappointing her. This was such a huge moment for Fire, and I was so proud of him! And I love that it took her time to go away with that, sit with it, and decide to take it in and to change. And I also love that she still doesn't really like Dy, and that their relationship is antagonistic tolerance lol that was a satisfyingly realistic place for those relationships to land, and I really appreciated that none of that was easy. The look on Dynamite's face when he sees Fire's mother accepting him was so complicated; I absolutely loved Aungpao in that scene. Seeing someone you love being accepted for something you weren't by your own parent is so complicated a feeling--I don't doubt for a second that he was so happy for Fire, but there's a moment where I'm sure he was also feeling sorry for himself (rightly so). And Aungpao was able to communciate that complexity of emotion. I'm really looking forward to seeing more from him in future.

And the way they retained the Ten and Prem communication dynamics all the way through was so satisfying for me! I wrote a really long post about this halfway through the series here, and I haven't felt the need to do anything as thorough for the back half because the show really just kept doing more of the same (and I loved it every time). But, just to highlight this moment in the finale, when Ten asks Prem to say he loves him, and Prem kisses him and asks if Ten can hear him--for once, Ten doesn't ask him to use his words, he just asks Prem to say it louder (i.e. kiss him more), because Prem is now using his words more regularly and Ten finally understands what he means with his gestures, he no longer has uncertainty requiring the reassurance of explicit communication. It was a really cute nod to their continued pattern through this show, and to the deepening of the understanding between them.

Tying this moment from the finale to one of the broader things I found so comforting about this show: The relationship between Ten and Prem took work, which they showed on-screen, both the initial formation and the maintenance. And in that work, we got to see a couple stay together through difficult times, decide together how to handle problems as they come up, support one another through hardships, comfort one another, give one another strength, and ultimately make one another better at the things they were trying to achieve. Even though there was very little fighting in a literal sense, these two are my ultimate battle couple to date. I wanted to hug this show back every week as these characters made choices I'd been yelling at my screen for protagonists to make for literally years. And there was still conflict, and the characters still had growing to do, and they weren't perfect. But they let one another not be perfect, they let one another be hurt, and then work through that together. This relationship has skyrocketed to one of my favourites in any BL.

And as much as I love this core relationship, as well as the incredibly nuanced queerness of Dynamite and Fire's dynamic, which was so satisfying to see depicted on my screen every week too, and which I will absolutely love forever--the way Dy gave Fire space to figure out how and when to come out even to the point of risking his own precarious housing situation, and then supporting him by being honest about what to expect (and what he will be risking) is something I will also hold this close to my heart as one of my favourite BL moments--the best thing about this show was the core friendships. I will be forever thankful for a show that treated its core queer friendships with the same or even higher priority to the romantic relationships. I've written previously about how exciting it was to me that one of the major conflicts in this show was between the friend group, and I want to call that out again because it was so rare and so satisfying as an arc. And that moment in episode 10 when Ten delays asking Prem to be his boyfriend in order to allow Prem his emotional reunion with his friends was such an important gesture--not just for Ten and Prem, but for the Cooking Crush audience. It was so rare and satisfying to see a show prioritize friendship first.

Alright I've ranted enough. If you weren't sure about this show for whatever reason (too much else to watch; heard rumblings about some of the early episodes; didn't want to trust GMMTV again), I am happy to tell you that if you like good character arcs, solid writing, class dynamics, queer representation, found family dynamics, good communication, couples that stay together and persevere as a team, and lovable dorks, this show was wonderful and it holds up.

AND IT LET TEN KEEP HIS GLASSES ON THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH!!

I'd recommend the uncut version, which is available for free with a Thai VPN on WeTV or grey, but the cut version is available on YouTube and a couple of very cool tumblr folks have summarized and provided clips of the cut bits so nobody has to miss out: @respectthepetty (here) and @keepthetension (here). Thank you both for your hard work every week!

[i-eat-deodorant]

Tell me about your onions.

here's an onion. i'm so funny.

ahem.

ok real talk though i've been doing a couple brief dives into the reincarnation aspect of buddhism/hinduism, which haven't been super applicable to COTL so far. which is a shame, bc it has such an interesting take on rebirth and resurrection within the nature of religion.

in COTL, death is seen as semi-permanent and a boon. lamb uses it to their advantage via the nature of game protagonists being able to restart from a save point when they died. the ritual of resurrection is groundbreaking for followers, and i headcanon that the ritual of rebirth is the main reason why TOWW got imprisoned. it is very much a loaded gun in the COTL world.

but buddhism treats rebirth as not only a nature of living, but something that needs to be escaped from. literally something that one must fight to be unshackled from, to break past samsara and reach ascension via nirvana. it's such an interesting viewpoint to consider and explore, especially bc my interpretation of lamb has them never being willing to become this resurrecting figure in the first place. as much as the red crown has been a boon for them, it's also acted as a bind. they will always have both their mortal and godly vices.

in both hinduism and buddhism there are multiple schools of thought that tackle the continuuity of resurrection, aka "what is carried over when one is reborn?"

now suppose narinder did not carry everything he had as TOWW to his mortal form. what is lost, and what is gained?

if i were to adapt samsara into my cotl fics i'd focus less on actual death and more on metaphorical ones. which, ok bear with me here, is a huge part of my personal philosophy.

humans are not static; we grow and develop, and in doing so we shed prior versions of ourselves like metamorphosis. a sort of ego death lite, if you will. when faced with a traumatic event, the person you once were is not the same as the person you are now. that is the kind of metaphorical death i'm talking about; the death of a former self.

but what exactly marks the new self and the old self? nothing, theoretically. we can make the boundary as low or as high as we want.

consider the ship of theseus: if a huge portion of my body is replaced every 7 years, can i definitely say i am who i was 7 years ago? what part of identity and self stays constant, when my personality's changed drastically? am i a stranger with the memories of someone else?

now narrow the boundary. if the self is physically static, then every time a cell dies, the self dies.

using that technical definition, technically i die and am reborn every single second. a metaphorical death and a metaphorical rebirth, and what gets carried over?

something something life and death are two sides of the coin of change.

that's why i kinda keep emphasizing lamb's impostor syndrome crisis about themselves dying in both soul and body during the execution. that's why i divide narinder's life into such stark epochs (mortal, bishop, imprisoned, mortal again). that's why i love treating their afterlife not as a continuity of their character development, but a second chance. ship of theseus, broken down and rebuilt anew.

it's not nirvana. but it's making the best out of your own personal samsara.

and just. there's something so poetic about narinder and lamb reincarnating as gods of death, because the only way to die repeatedly is to live again after each one. a taste of permanence in the impermanent, without ever reaching that finality that they embody as gods. they represent the very thing they are and aren't. it's a paradox that makes perfect sense the moment you remove the black-and-white boundary of life/death that dictates they must be opposites.

and this is what i love exploring. breaking down the barriers of identity and death in the metaphysical sense, in two characters who are defined by so much loss in their lives. (metaphorical) death, treated as redemption, treated as healing.

lamb, offering a hand up to a newly reborn narinder. i died, i got up, and i live.

[greenerteacups]

Hello! I love Lionheart (literally started four days ago and have read continuously since and am, in a word, Obsessed).

One thing I've noticed that is a common theme among Dramoine fics is how Draco gets away with his pureblood ideology and essentially has no consequences (besides Hermoine's anger/disgust) until his eventual redemption arc through their romance. However, I've noticed that your fic is unique in the way that Draco is constantly held accountable, especially backlash from Ron (btw, love the way you characterized Ron, my boy deserves some justice) and Harry, but especially through Hermoine, who fights back in any way she knows how. So my question is: what are your thoughts on this common trope within the Dramoine fandom? Do you think that Draco's eventual love for Hermoine negates the harm that he's done in the past?

I absolutely believe that love can be redemptive, but that doesn't mean you redeem yourself by loving. It's not about how you feel, it's about what you do. You can love someone a whole lot, but if you don't treat them well, and make a real effort to be good to them, well — I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't "matter," because everything always matters, but I wouldn't say that love has really changed you. Which is to say, I don't know that it's really love at all.

Draco can't be made better by the fact of loving Hermione, but he can make himself better because of it. Reasoning past, getting over, and making amends for his past wrongdoing should — ideally — be part of that development. Now, this is assuming that you want to do a real, honest-to-God, "I'm going to drag this horrible little wet blorbo kicking and screaming into Heroism" redemption arc. Maybe you don't! Maybe you want to write a story about two fucked-up people who fuck each other up more. Maybe you want to write about a bad man who isn't held accountable, and the kind of person that produces. Draco Malfoy can be many people, depending on where you take him, and many of them are interesting without being particularly nice or good. And you can still do great fiction about that! Romances with and between horrible characters can be totally delicious. I'm a big fan of 'em. But the kind of love I personally prize the most — the kind that makes us, if anything can earn this word, really, truly holy — is a love that's so selfless you are willing to be changed by it, and to change for it, and to constantly reforge yourself in order to do justice to the object of your love. It's veneration. It's finding in each other a reason for goodness. That's what I think real humans should look for, and so I guess I can't help trying to write about it when it comes to fake humans.

So when we talk about love as the catalyst for a redemption arc, I think what we mean is: love can awaken you to the personhood of others and ignite latent capacities for empathy that might not have existed otherwise. It opens you up to new ways of seeing, of being — James Baldwin in The Price of the Ticket has a brilliant quotation that captures it perfectly:

"If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earth quake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win."

[fiendishfyre]

I want to hear your thoughts on Regulus👀

Oh my gosh, I m literally so hyped for this ask!!

Hehehehehhee. Okay, I am not eloquent nor articulate so forgive me.

Okay, first off, I *abhor* the notion he was forced to become a DE, I am sorry but neither Walburga or Orion would force Regulus to clip out anything related to his Lord and Saviour, Voldemort. Look, they allowed Sirius to have his posters and yes he put a sticky charm on it but you're telling me that they couldn't actually get it down??? Like literally could hire someone.

What I am trying to say is, they had free will and chose what they wanted to have be up. (Fook it, Walburga could have added an illusion charm to make it appear differently. I could go. Walburga left Sirius' room as is for a reason. They were not dictator parents.)

So I am a Regulus was a willing and proud (for the most part) Death Eater. He was a blood supremacist. We don't need to have seen him say mudblood to know he'd likely have tossed that word around like it was nothing. He is a ***minor*** character so of course we shouldn't be getting that much info. And no I am not saying what we had was plenty in the sense that, he is Sirius' brother and it would have been interesting to see more on him. But unnecessary, in my opinion.

Now for his betrayal/'Redemption'.

To be frank, I don't think he had a change of heart. He could have easily turned because his house elf was almost killed and you can take it as he is doing it for the fact someone he cared for was used or that his *property* was used, I see both. He's a pureblood and a Black and you don't fuck with whats theirs kinda thing.

Also the horcrux, knowing Voldemort created one. Tore his soul apart for it. Which is the taboo even amongst Dark wixen. You can take out muggles, burn down blood traitor families but to tear ones soul could have been the limit for Regulus, fearful of what Voldemort was willing to actually do. And that it tears the mind too. Who wants to follow a crazy leader?

All of the above doesn't mean he had a change of heart, that he was betraying Voldy for a truly altruistic reason. He kinda traumatized Kreacher all over again. He let the poor elf stay in the cave.

And you'll find me hard pressed to make Regulus this 'woke', progressive, Slythertin. That such screams OC (Original Character) to me. I see him very much as a misogynistic, sexist, blood supermacist. He had his family crest over his bed! Agh! He was a proud Black!

He is a pathetic white boi. I love him for it. I don't wanna change him. XD

I love Regulus Black, but I love villains/dark/flawed/etc characters and I don't agree with the notion that you must change these characters to justify liking them. That speaks to the person on how they have a morality complex. (Or perhaps not morality complex but a lack of understanding what you like in fiction doesn't mean you support it in real life. This topic deserves its own post.)

There is more on Regulus that I could talk about but this is long enough already. Hahahaha.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Why I Love Crosshair- A Story About Persevering

I talk about Crosshair so much on my blog. With TBB ending in a few days, I wanted to share with y'all why he resonates with me so deeply. This show and these characters have touched the hearts of so many in this fandom. I'm curious, which Batcher has resonated with you? Anyways, here we go!

Crosshair's hot. That's it. I'm a simple woman. Moving on.

He's really freaking cool- I'm not gonna like, seeing Crosshair make those trick shots has me on the edge of my seat. It's just so much fun to watch someone do an incredible skill whether it's dance, playing music, or in Crosshair's case, take out several battle droids with one shot. I love it.

His character arc- Crosshair is one of the most interesting and complex characters I've met in recent years. I'm not going to lie, it's refreshing to see a really well-written morally grey character. Crosshair's one and only loyalty is to his family (plus a few others). He will do anything for them. However, Crosshair isn't drawn to some bigger cause like Echo or Omega are. From my POV, it's something interesting to think about. What makes a good person? How far is one willing to go for someone they love? At what point does that loyalty and love turn selfish or self-destructive? These are all questions that Crosshair's character brings up.

I also appreciate the love and passion put into his character. Jennifer and the team took their time to give Cross a proper redemption. It wasn't as simple as "Crosshair just flips on a dime" or "he dies proving he still loved them." No. The change had to come from Crosshair. Crosshair had to be the one to make the steps towards coming home. It had to be his choice and his choice alone, not something that was forced onto him. I really appreciate that tbh. People are so complex and we all make mistakes. Crosshair made some pretty bad choices (not that he was 100% in control). Still, he had to figure things out for himself and when he was ready, he decided to come home.

His story- Crosshair's story is one of struggle and persevering in my eyes. "The Outpost" is one of the best depictions of what it's like to struggle with mental health. It's why I love it so much. I see a lot of myself in Crosshair. So often, it's much easier to just lie down and quit. But Crosshair doesn't quit. No. He fights. He fights so hard and in the end, he makes it. To see Crosshair come home after so long meant the world to me. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. You can and will make it. And he didn't do it alone. Omega continued to be a light in his life. Crosshair reminds me to never give up. Even when it all seems impossible, we need to keep going and there is hope for the future. When he meditates with Omega, I almost cried. That episode reminded me of my mom because she's constantly encouraging me and supporting me. She always tells me that I have to be the one to help myself. It's difficult and she will be there, but I can't just expect things to fix themselves. Similarly, Omega told Crosshair that he needed to help himself. I don't think I've ever related to a SW character as much as I have with Crosshair.

Crosshair has taught me so much about myself. Through him, I've learned that there's a lot going on in my head that I need to work on. I realized why S1 Hunter pissed me off so much. Because like Cross, there are times at home where I feel like no one listens. He taught me to keep going, to keep fighting, especially in times of great uncertainty. Crosshair and Omega's relationship shows just how special the impact of one person can have. I see their relationship reflected in my life in many ways. There's so much more I can say about Cross, but we would be here forever lol.

I am so grateful for Crosshair. I am so grateful for his story. He might be just a character, but he's really helped me tackle some rough times in my life. I love him with all my heart and will forever be thankful to TBB team for bringing his story to life.

Thank you DBB, Jen, Brad, Michelle, and everyone on TBB team. Thank you for everything ❤️

[sequesteredbhaalspawn]

hi! i really liked your analysis of durge. i think a lot of people gloss over the fact that they're innately predisposed to evil beyond just getting 'possessed' by bhaal on occasion. i haven't played a dnd game since 3.5e and am still catching up on the new lore, so i'm wondering what you think about the relationship between durge and bhaal as divine beings? my understanding is that durge and bhaal are both quasi-deities at the time of bg3 (correct me if i'm wrong), and it makes me wonder if the urges are only connected to bhaal's influence over durge, similarly to the way they work with other bhaalspawn, or if its because durge literally is bhaal, to an extent, or some part of him, at least. i feel like larian has already taken quite a few liberties with bhaal (quasi-deities shouldn't be able to answer prayers or grant powers, should they? not to mention durge's redemption literally amounting to "tell daddy no and you get out scot free" lmao) so i'm curious what's actually going on. what do you think?

@aureliaen // Bhaalspawn are more likely than being have a predisposition towards being evil. It is when they grow up in loving stable environments (Like Gorion's Ward) that they tend to be good, or not act on evil intentions (it is after all only after The player gains control of the character that traumtic things start happening to them, that can cause a change in their world view). Durge, like Sarevok, had their their life was upheavalled time-in-time again, not receiving much nurture to over come their predisposition. It would be different if they where not a divine being, they had have more freedom in their ability for self determination. That being said when this done to none divine beings it gets kind of gross and racists *points at old Drow lore*

But, yes. They would both be quasi-deties. Durge lines up well with being a Titan, while Bhaal (because he was dead) lines up well being a Vestige.

(from the 5E DM handbook)

So yeah, none of the Dead Three should be able to do what they are doing in BG3. none of them should be giving out spells, none of could have a Chosen. The main problem is that Larian doesn't know the lore for the setting they made the game for. That's what's going on, for the most part.

If we work under the assumption that The Dead Three are lesser Deities, then there are far less problems.

Since Titans can be "born from blood spilled by a god" it does kind of line up with Bhaal making Durge from his own divine flesh 9I guess he could have also willed Durge into being, or "substance" can be his flesh). There's nothing stating that Quasi-Deities can not create other Quasi-dities (though I personally feel like Bhaal would pushing the limits of his power in doing so. As awesome as the power of deities can seem to mortal characters, they do have their limits).

But as a creation of Bhaal, I think in the grand scheme of things they'd call into a more subservient role. Though it is not canon lore I think it makes sense to interpreter Titan's to be similar to Exarchs (mortals rasied up to Demigod-like status to serve their gods, like how Bane made Fzoul Chembryl his Exarch after the human man had died in his service). It just skips the "mortal life" part. The case does vary though. Titans can be made accidently.

Bhaal created a Bhaalspawn Titan with the intention of it being his servant, so even if Bhaal doesn't come for them personally (right away anyways) Durge still faces the possibility of being labelled not just Fairhless, but False (Jergal/Withers resurrecting them isn't going to protect them forever, it just means he gets some say in what happens when they truly die, since it seems Bhaal designed them with that being a possibility).

So yeah this was just a long rambly way of saying that I think Durge's relationship to Bhaal is similar to an Exarch to their own god (honestly the way gods are categorized from 2E is just better). Because Durge was also his Chosen (which means they also had MORE of Bhaal's divine essence put in them, but that's what gods do when they name a being their chosen, it's not just some flowery title).

It's very a master and servant kind of deal between them (on top of father & child). I just had to explain a lot of my reasoning behind to why one quasi-deity would be a servant of another (not all quasi-deities are equal to each other in power).

Bhaal being a quasi-deity also make shis whole "kill literally everyone" plan make zero sense. The only way he'd going to gain power is why getting worshipers.

There is also the whole problem of Durge having to have been created while Bhaal was dead (just due to how old the game implies Durge to be). And That default Durge shouldn't be able to be a Dragonborn (becaus ethey only came to Toriel while Bhaal was dead).

There is so many blind spots, and so much lore wrong for Bhaal, his worshipers, and Bhaalspawn in BG3 that it hard to make sense of it at times.

[violet-sumire]

Weird MHA AU I came up with

So there's a trafficking ring with a bit of a unique way of procuring "goods". They have a number of people with special quirks - one person with a deaging quirk, and one child with a particularly powerful quirk. This one gives the target a magical sex change, with the small side effect of fully reverting any changes made to their body. A full reset: wounds, limb loss, implants, piercings - all gone.

The group uses this to kidnap men and make them unrecognizeable as their original identities before selling them off overseas. They try to prioritize men with piercings or scars, as an extra safety net.

This means that, maybe a year or two before canon, Dabi is targeted by the group. They do successfully kidnap him and get the quirks used on him, but he manages to escape thanks to the quirk suppression drug they use being not quite effective to fully remove his ability to use his flames.

(The drug, by the way, is one I came up with that doesn't block the quirk factor itself, but damages the subject's ability to concentrate. It's normally used in hospitals and prisons, but some criminals have gotten their hands on it. It didn't work on Dabi because his fresh new skin meant a lot of pain and sensitivity, which grounded him.)

So anyway, Dabi escapes, but he is now a fully healed teenage girl about the same age as Shouto.

And if it wasn't for his need for revenge and recognition, he'd maybe prefer it that way

He continues his life on the streets as if nothing's happened, with the added bit of "how am I going to get my father to recognize me when I'm like this", until he ends up in a bit of a public scuffle with some villains by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He defends himself, of course, but a local hero (Crust maybe?) notices, and declares that he's willing to sponsor this heroic young woman for the UA entrance exam as a recommended student!

Dabi of course isn't interested in being a hero - that ship has long since sailed - but being at UA would provide an unprecedented opportunity for training. And free lunches.

So "Himura Tomoshi", the mysterious girl with a fire quirk of almost unprecedented power but not quite enough resistance to handle it, ends up as one of UA's recommended students in class 1A.

(And of course she has a change of heart. And a gender awakening.)

Accidental redemptions are my jam.

[itsbenedict]

i should probably clarify that last tag about hazbin- when i say "kind of bad actually" i'm not referring to the over-the-top edge or the kinda samey toothy character designs. i love that shit. the look of it is great and the animation is really impressive given the amount of extraneous visual detail going on. theoretically i am all about this show.

unfortunately, it's got Bad Writing Disease. episode one, the protagonist is treated to an extended musical number from the main antagonist, informing her that no, Heaven doesn't give a shit about redemption, they just want to murder demons for sport in perpetuity and actively don't care whether they're evil or not... and for some reason this changes absolutely nothing about her goals (save demonkind by "redeeming" them so they're allowed into heaven).

so the protagonist's main goal, and the one that supposedly pulls the cast together, is a joke that everyone but her knows is a joke, including the show, and all it's capable of are unfunny cringe comedy setups. (and she should know it's a joke, given what she knows about the angels, so all her actions don't seem like they're being taken by a person with thoughts in her head.) and it... kind of wants to have its cake and eat it too, with Charlie's belief in forgiveness and kindness being her main strength as a character and the thematic backbone of the show, and also making her idea of redemption as schmaltzy superficial say-no-to-drugs Good Behavior the butt of the joke constantly. it doesn't work.

and, like... it's hard to disentangle what this show thinks is "cartoon funny sin" versus "real actual sin that's a problem". because it clearly has opinions on this! that's sort of the core thing! but it'll mock Charlie for singing the praises of no-sex-before-marriage, and then turn around and mock Angel Dust for being too willing to have sex. are drugs bad? is not wanting to do drugs cringe? it changes its mind on this a dozen times a minute depending on what fits the joke right this instant, and unfortunately the jokes mostly aren't funny.

(except the one where the tiny evil maid has to film a line for a commercial and Is Really Bad At It. that gag made me crack up.)

the show seems at its best when the camera's on the villains, who are allowed to just be cartoonishly evil at each other without having to grapple with the show's schizophrenic moral framing. love that evil TV guy. love Alastor, who just seems to be there to troll everyone and be a real motherfucker. would love to watch those assholes go all Spy Vs Spy on each other instead of watching the main cast dynamic, which somehow manages to feel preachy without actually having anything to say.

i dunno, does it get better after episode 3 or something? currently not feelin' it.

[vitanithepure]

Gale and Mystra

Ok, first thing I wanna talk about, what absolutely lives rent-free in my mind since I finished my first run is how much I love the companion's personal stories. I will for sure make an Origin run with most of them. I want to know every last detail about those pixel people.

With no surprise on nobody's part - I want to talk about Gale first. I believe I once said my OC Vitani and I share exactly one brain cell and it is consumed with thoughts about that wizard.

He did get a bit of a lift up when it comes to the story we knew from EA and it turned out absolutely fabulous. I won't be focusing on our relationship with the man as much as his with Mystra, the goddess of magic. This would be far too long otherwise, there is just too much to say.

Regardless, this will also be a long one, and full of spoilers for his story, so be warned. Placing it all under the cut.

First, some facts. It turns out, from my understanding, that Gale was not after Mystra's godhood, quite contrary to his bio on the website (which I find…weird) but rather tried to ascend by himself. He was impatient; he wanted more, and he wanted it now - and Mystra was not willing to grant his wishes. It goes without saying he was in the wrong, no explanation needed.

So, to convince Mystra to share even more with him, he decided to "screw flowers" and tried to get her what turned out to be that cursed Netherese orb. At least, that is what he thought. We know that this went horribly wrong and Gale was not only stuck with magic he can barely control, but severed from means to stop it - as Mystra, understandably, abandoned him.

Which is also to say how little she actually cares about other mortals, leaving a ticking bomb to run free in the Realms. We could assume that, in her "infinite wisdom" she trusted Gale to do the right thing and just go on and die somewhere remote, like he planned to if he ever started to lose control of the orb. Not really sure what lesson is there to give through such a punishment, that is for Mystra to answer, I don't get it :)

This is when we meet Gale, humbled, but not giving up. I don't want to repeat myself too much as I did a breakdown of his EA content a while back [link here] and not much changed in that regard, his slight rewrite didn't change my opinion on how and why he does and says to us.

So, moving on:

The juicy part truly begins when Elminster shows up and drops the bomb (heh…) about what Mystra expects of Gale… I instantly went with "ok, yeah, here it is, my heartbreak I've been waiting for". And from that point, he seems so…resigned. I can't imagine what a person in his position goes through? Not sure I want to. Can you imagine that? Someone you genuinely looked up to, perhaps even loved, in the past, someone holding infinite power over magic in this world, hell, someone holding power over you asks you to forfeit your life to deserve forgiveness? Damn, D&D gods are stone cold.

Like, I get it, and I try not to excuse Gale. He did a terrible thing, a horrible breach of trust and who knows what kind of person it would make him if he succeeded. As it is, though, it shows such an awful imbalance in power. Mystra was never in any real danger, she proves this by being able to control the orb, decides that this - already humbled and regretful - man has to die to make it okay with her? 

Even though she clearly sees he learned his lesson? And she could remove the orb at literally any time? Because that is what she presents him with if he refuses to just lie down and die for her. She will remove the orb if he brings her Karsus's Crown, along with the netherstones - the thing the Elder Brain possesses.

I don't know what happens if we go along Gale's plan to control the crown himself, possibly nothing good (I am about to find out, I so desperately want to see his whole arc, from every perspective), so here I want to finish off with how it ended for me on my first run - with a complete redemption, both in his and Mystra's eyes. 

Gale recognized his folly and, in hindsight, agreed he had everything a mortal man could ever possess and lost it to his arrogance and ambition. But also him realizing "no love was lost between them" makes me simply happy, he is healed at this point.

From what I gathered, he finishes his story by becoming the Chosen of Mystra once again. Still curious, because how could he not be with his love for magic, but knowing his limits. No longer known as Gale of Waterdeep, but Gale Dekarios, your neighborhood nerdy wizard with a good tale to spin over some wine in the Yawning Portal.

And seriously, fuck the D&D gods with their mortal flaws.

[sibylsleaves]

Can you expand on your thoughts on redemptions in the show? I enjoyed Hen’s mother’s and Eddie’s fathers because we saw they are genuine in their willingness to change and have an understanding how they have affected their children. They aren’t perfect but it’s taking accountability and it’s a start. The others? No. With Taylor they give her a backstory to distract from her bad actions that seemed never ending. Now with Tommy. Do you think the writers/Tim think the general audience doesn’t pick up or remember how these people’s actions deeply affected the other characters(Buckleys, Chim’s dad, Taylor and the other T) before they bring them back and force people to have sympathy for them? I try to invoke nuance and empathy because losing a child is horrific but two living children did and still suffer from the Buckley’s actions. I am glad that Buck and Maddie appear to be moving forward despite their parents unwillingness to address and accept their role in how their children are to this day but that’s got to hurt deeply. As well as Chimney’s dad. And when Taylor left after causing the chaos and hurting so many people over the years they bring in someone else that has a grimey past that is already overlooked

you sent this to me a while ago and I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to answer it. I saw it and I was like hmmm interesting topic I will ruminate on this and then of course I forgot about it.

Anyway. This IS an interesting topic to me because I feel like the concept of redemption is in many ways the raison d'etre of the show. Or at least they want it to be, given how they set up Bobby's character arc in the first season. It's definitely a theme they keep returning to with, imo, mixed results in their execution.

Part of the problem I think is just that 911 is fundamentally a basic network procedural television show, which is always going to tend more toward the schlocky and heartfelt. Which, don't get me wrong, is also one of the selling points of the show imo--we are not watching this show the way you watch prestige television that's maybe more willing to take its characters down a darker path and grapple with these questions with more complexity.

So at the end of the day it's kind of in the show's nature to want to tell feel-good stories, and to that end I think they are maybe more likely to brush off past wrongdoing in order to make the point that redemption is always possible and reconciliation is, almost always, the end-goal. There are a few storylines where they have characters who are simply painted as irredeemable monsters (Doug and Jeffrey are the main ones that come to mind) and what's interesting to me about that is they really have to heavily emphasize the monstrousness of those characters.

But fundamentally the show is just ill-suited to telling the story of like. Here's a kind of shitty guy (or woman) who isn't a complete and total monster by any means but nevertheless will not actually learn from his mistakes and seek redemption because sometimes people are just incapable or not interested in doing that. Or even: here is a kind of shitty guy or woman who did something fairly reprehensible and is trying to do better but nevertheless the people affected by their actions have every right to NOT forgive them or want them in their lives.

As a show it is overall more optimistic than realistic about the human condition--and again. I do think that's a selling point of the show and often what makes it work. Just thinking about personally some of my favorite moments of the show which are heavy on the "heartfelt/feel good": everyone coming together to lift the firetruck off Buck, the scene with the christmas lights during the black-out, the part in Defend in Place when they are all praying together in the parking lot.

But. all this to say. That does mean that sometimes their depictions of something as complex and messy as "redemption" can fall a bit flat. I do think the show has a pattern of "redeeming" characters without actually showing us that they understand what they did was wrong. They use short-hand instead--the Buckley parents sticking around after Buck was struck by lightning to show us they've changed, Tommy shaking Chim's hand after he saved his life, etc. And skip over the actual messy parts of the process of redemption. Which is also in part because these are, at the end of the day, side characters, and their internal lives are not really important except with respect to how they influence their relationships with our main characters. Which is also why I think the most nuanced take they've managed to do is with Bobby's story--at least with SOME of the Amir storyline it's clear that to Bobby this process is far from complete and the fact that Amir did not actually offer Bobby his forgiveness at the end is, in my opinion, the closest they've come so far to telling this story in an actually nuanced way. But even then they tied it up with about as neat as a bow as they could.

[spicyicetea]

So... Me again. Did I just put a post out saying that I probably won't update any time soon? Yes. Am I now putting out a chunky post about a Pokémon au I've been making as stress relief? Yes. Am I scared of being judged or people thinking the au sounds dumb? Very much so. Well here's my au! Please enjoy, I beg you.

Distortian au

This au is centred around my personal favourite pokemon characters and a villain team me and my friends made up one night. The evil team is refered to as team lotus and their main goal is to open a reliable pathway into the distortian realm to comune with Giritina. I don't want to give too many spoilers about why they're doing this, in case I do end up writing a longer story, but it isn't for inherently evil reasons, like self gain or the destruction of humanity. The Y/N character in this AU would be the younger sibling of the leader of Team Lotus. Y/N is unaware of their siblings association with the team and works with the other trainers at trying to take down the team.

Speaking of which, the other strong pokemon trainers, like the champions, gym leaders and other powerful trainers (Like Emmet and Ingo), would join in the fights trying to take down the team as they recruit technology and members of other evil teams from other regions. The team is hiding itself under a man made resort island that is currently hosting a world wide battle competition to determine the the strongest trainer in the world.

How would this change the actual characters?

Well the personalities of the characters wouoldn't change in any extreme way, however I would be applying personal headcannons onto them for what happened after the events of their game/games or just how I believe they would actually act. Just as an example of what I mean by this, I like the idea that certain evil team leaders would have tried to redeem themselves after being defeated. Obviously some of them would have remained set in their ways, characters like Ghetsis not being willing to change his views and Giovanni wanting to change for the sake of Silver but struggling due to old habits. The other evil team leaders I can see redeeming themselves are like Archie and Maxie as they were just very... dumb with their actions and I'm a big believer in a Cyrus redemption arc where Cynthia forces him to therapy out of pity and he reshapes team galactic to monitor the distortian realm with their technology after damaging the veil between the distortian realm and the normal world. I can't help myself, I tend to like the bad guys more than the good guys in pokemon games, or at least the older ones, the newer ones just don't have the same spark and appeal as the old ones in my opinon, excpet for Guzma... I love Guzma.

More about Y/N:

Although I refer to them here with they/them pronouns, if I were to actually write them I'd prob use fem pronouns because it's what I find easier to write for, especially for shipping reasons. As much as I would love for it to be completely self insert with the pokemon team being up to the reader, I will have to make hard decisons if I ever have Y/N in a pokemon fight or just relaxing with their pokemon. For any posts about this au, feel free to put suggestions for pokemon for Y/N to have, the more I see it, the more likely I am to consider it as an option.

Now time for me to dump all my art regarding this au onto yall, or at least the stuff on my iPad. Most of the drawings are just the slight redesigns I use for the au stuff I have written so far. Most are slight changes, but some get complete outfit changes like Cyrus to fit his new role in the au.

[greenerteacups]

I'm "cool about Lionheart" in the same way Draco is "cool about his relationship with Hermione" in Lionheart, which is to say, not at all... it's freaking epic! You're doing an epic service to the Dramione fandom and you should know!

I want to ask so many questions about what's coming up in your rewrite of canon but I know that would be asking for spoilers so I won't...

Instead, as I'd also love to hear your thoughts on canon as this story is such an amazing canon rewrite, I want to ask at what point in canon, based on the way his character is portrayed, do you think Draco could have realistically had a turning point and switched sides / become friends with the trio / fallen in love with Hermione etc.? Or do you think that Draco in the original story wouldn't realistically be able to change enough for that to happen? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as a Dramione fan and writer as I think it's something a lot of people struggle with with his character in canon.

this is such a wonderful ask! i am happy to discuss anything about the fic, and i will do my best to talk about its future without spoilers! questions are an indulgence for me, not a task. (fun fact about this question in particular: originally, when i was thinking of the idea for Lionheart, i wanted to do something with a draco-switching-sides rewrite starting around book 5 or 6, only to realize that the way I wanted to write draco in that fic just wouldn't be in-character without a lot of backstory that would be terribly clunky to try and exposit in media res. which prompted me to start thinking about ways that his character could be changed to reach that point, which made me think... you get the idea.)

To your point, I think Draco is a highly reluctant Death Eater — he's a pureblood supremacist, sure, but he's not dedicated to the cause or anything. mostly he's just a selfish fifteen-year-old kid who does what he's told and gets swept up in his parents' mistakes. if there's one thing about draco, it's that he does not make calls based on a moral compass: he makes calls based on what is best for Draco Malfoy, and possibly a very small circle of people beyond that (all of whom share his last name). it's one of the fundamental tenets of Draco's character: he's not a humanitarian. Even four years of relentless moral reformation in Lionheart can't really beat that out of him. It's just not how he thinks.

But that's actually a pretty convenient thing, if you want to start a redemption arc, because the thing is: if at any point the Order of the Phoenix had been able to offer Draco a better deal than the Death Eaters could, I think he'd have jumped on it. Draco does not want to be part of the war. he doesn't want his parents to be part of the war. arguably Lucius does, but by the time we see them in Book 6, both Narcissa and Lucius seem to be clearly horrified and regretful about the situation they've put themselves in. this is why I think fics like Disappearances and A Season for Setting Fires are such natural springboards for Draco's character — because both of their premises are fairly simple: "what if we just let Draco leave the Death Eaters?" That's all it takes! And that could happen at any time. Realistically, it probably wouldn't happen until Book 5 or 6, because that's the first time the Malfoys are actually called upon to serve Voldemort. But I think if anyone had been willing or able to put Draco in witness protection, he would've changed a lot as soon as he was removed from an environment where performing an earnest and violent belief in blood supremacy was literally necessary to his survival.

For instance, I've sometimes toyed with the idea of a canon divergence AU where Draco goes into Witness Protection at the end of Book 5 — Bending Light kind of has shades of this, though the sequel takes it in a very different direction — and ends up doing what he's doing for the first act of Disappearances, which is bumming around Grimmauld Place and basically annoying everyone until the horcrux hunt kicks in and his Black lineage creates a pretext to haul him along on the quest. That kind of environment is really easy to do redemption arcs in, because the characters are in a constant pressure cooker of stress and hormones and near-death experiences, which will trauma-bond the fuck out of them really quickly and get them fairly comfortable having Big Conversations after like, the third or fourth time they save each other's lives. It also makes for a much easier environment to fall in love, because it removes them from the normal context of Hogwarts and pureblood society and makes the stakes of socializing across class/House lines much, much lower — both for Hermione and for Draco. In fact, talking about this has kind of made me realize why Disappearances is such an incredible fic for me; I think it's possibly the most realistic Draco arc I've ever read. But anyway, if it were to happen earlier, then I think it would have to be outside the Hogwarts context — or maybe a Hogwarts where Draco's not in Slytherin. (Hey, speaking of which...)

[starheirxero]

I have been booped more! :0 I HAVE BEEN SUPER BOOPED-

WAIT THE BOOPING HAS DISTRACTED ME, BUT YEAH, SAMS WAS WILD-

This definitely tells us a bunch about the characters!

If I wasn't sold on Ruin before… BOY I SURE AM NOW! He lost everything. Saw, as his friends slowly lost their minds, unable to do anything. And he was left unharmed, left with whatever sanity could remain after witnessing this tragedy. Everything he's done, everyone he killed…it was all for vengeance. For justice. Because killing his own wouldn't be enough. It would never be, after all the years of suffering. And of course he won't regret it, how could he? He killed those responsible for driving his friends mad, for making them destroy each other. HE IS SUCH AN AMAZING CHARACTER, I CANNOT-

And apparently Solars don't exist much at all, even less than surviving Eclipses??👀

Speaking of Eclipse, he is partially Solar now! This does actually make a lot of sense. Eclipse has been shown unwilling to change. Perhaps he has been too stubborn, or he has felt too hurt. However, with a part of Solar inside of him, there might be a chance! Because he'll listen. He listened to Earth, he listened to Lunar. He has been listening and mulling it over in his head!

This is so interesting, I can't wait to see where this goes-

-Stardust

I KNOW RIGHTTT everytime there's more Ruin lore revealed I genuinely fall in love with him more, he's SUCH a fun character. He had the same vibe as Eclipse in that "character that has a past that explains but not excuses their actions and serves to make them more tragic," yk???

AND THE SOLAR DETAILS YEAH OMGGG that was so exciting!!! Solar was exactly like Eclipse, he just didn't fester!! That's so interesting!!!

AND ECLIPSE. STARS, YEAH, ECLIPSE. Like you said, we've seen him willing to listen more!! My friend Kat mentioned too that there's been a lotta emphasis on how Eclipse isn't wholly Eclipse anymore and that can mean that typical Eclipse-y traits may not be as hardwired which can lead to a potential redemption!!

He even defended Earth when Ruin said she needed to learn to be more cruel!! Eclipse said to leave her out of the conversation!! He didn't agree, he didn't insult her, he didn't even give a noncommittal grunt, he said to leave her alone!! Eclipse has been having small changes like that fer a minute now and the idea of it being because he has Solar's base now is soso terribly fun 2 me <3