#she doesn't know how to forge an actual connection with God

[scootersscooter]

It's a shame Grace Chasity is an evangelical Christian because the way she interacts with her faith truly does read as a Catholic teenager when they're taking their confirmation classes and feel the need to overcompensate or play up their faith to receive validation or be viewed as a good person because at that moment in time everyone in their life feels like they're constantly scrutinizing their every move or trying to drag them towards temptation, even when normally their own beliefs or actions do not naturally manifest in that way.

[pellucid-constellations]

If It All Fell

Pairing: Azriel x Reader

Summary: If it all fell apart—if you forgot who you were—would you love him again? Would the bond guide you back? Azriel doesn't know if that uncertainty is one he can bear.

Word count: 1.6k

Warnings: Nothing big in this one. Memory loss?? Overprotectiveness?? Azriel losing it (but not that much just yet)??

a/n: Hi this is going to be a series :) thank you for reading <3

Part 2 ♡

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist ♡

~~

As you blinked through the haziness, a dull throb echoed along the base of your skull. You sat up abruptly, feeling rocks and twigs digging into the backs of your legs, and winced as several shouts attacked your senses. You recognized none of them.

Gods, your head hurt. 

A few more blinks and the sun made an appearance, light assaulting your too-sensitive eyes. The leaves beneath your hands crunched and blew away in the balmy breeze, a few flecks of green still stuck to your palm as you brought it up to rub your head. 

“Don’t,” a feminine voice warned, and it was then that you pinpointed one of the shouts from earlier. But it was warmer now, calm. “Don’t touch your head, y/n. Azriel and Cas are getting help.”

You scrunched your face up but obeyed the command, taking steady breaths to try and manage the pain. The woman in front of you—blonde hair, brown eyes, a fierce expression—was like no one you had ever seen before. She was so incredibly beautiful you weren’t sure if you were actually awake. 

You took a pause. 

And then another. 

Who was the last person you had seen? 

“Where am I?” you asked instead, trying to appear sane. Your voice sounded unfamiliar. 

The woman’s expression pinched. “You’re in Spring Court. You remember that, don’t you? Rhysand sent us.” 

“Rhysand?” you repeated, the name foreign on your tongue. “Sent us for what?” 

“Well, we were supposed to be rallying Tamlin into re-fortifying his borders to win back the Summer Court’s good graces, but that beast is an idiot. Forging agreements with witches was quite possibly the worst move he could have made.” 

“Witches?” 

“I know, unbelievable,” the blonde ranted, sitting back on her heels beside you. “We came to help only to find out he had helped himself to the wicked. I knew he was distraught after Feyre, but to turn to this?” 

The pounding in your head was making it increasingly difficult to follow the tale the woman was spinning. Perhaps if you had more backstory, more information, you would understand what she was talking about. 

Desperate for that connection, you winced as you asked, “Um, not to offend, but… who are you?” 

Her aggravated expression crumpled into one of shock and concern. Her mouth parted, her brows came together at a point, and then she shifted, bringing her hands to your shoulders. When you flinched at the touch, the woman pulled her hands back, her fingers curling into her palms. “You don’t recognize me?” she asked, trepidation lining her tone. 

You shook your head, immediately regretting the action as pain shot up your neck. 

“Not at all?” she whispered. When your face remained blank, she pulled her hands into her lap. “Do you know who you are?” 

Another lapse in silence. 

“My Gods…” 

Darkness materialized nearby—swirling darkness. It reminded you of shadows and brought you a sense of peace for the first time since you opened your eyes. 

But then people started emerging from the darkness, taking up space in the vast forest, and that peace collapsed. Two large men with wings stomped against the twig-covered floor, causing a raucous disturbance as they began hurrying an older woman out from behind them. They both spoke in low, rushed tones and you wanted all the sound to stop. 

You ignored the woman’s directions from before and squeezed your head in your hands, your eyes snapping shut. It didn’t work, and you hadn’t expected it to, but Gods did your head hurt. It hurt and it was plagued by an impossible pressure that wouldn’t seem to let up.

“Mor, how long has she been awake?” one of the men asked. You felt him kneel beside you, felt him place rough, textured hands on your wrists in an attempt to pry your hands down. But he was gentle—so very gentle. 

“Azriel, she—” 

“Mor, if you could move aside. I need to look at her,” a much older voice chimed in. 

There was shuffling around you, new hands pressing to your face. You heard whispering that you couldn’t make out, and then the panic set in. 

You didn’t know these people. When you first woke up, the disorientation was focal; you were concerned about the pounding in your head and your whereabouts and that was it. But there were so many people here now, and you didn’t know any of them. 

You didn’t know who you were. Did they know who you were? They had to. 

“Majda, stop. You’re scaring her,” the man beside you, Azriel you’d heard him be called, practically hissed. 

Majda only hummed. “I am doing the job you brought me here to do. If I can’t work around a mating bond I will send you away, Shadowsinger.” 

Your breath came out in faster huffs, each one deeper than the last. You opened your eyes to try and gain some footing in the situation, still keeping your hands glued to your head. 

Your gaze went out before it went in, and you saw the blonde woman, Mor, beside a much larger man. His shoulder-length hair was messy and windswept, and he sent you a bittersweet, sympathetic smile that you couldn’t replicate. He watched with furrowed brows as your eyes darted from him, to Mor, to the wide forest around you. 

“I still don’t see why we couldn’t take her home first,” the man standing by the trees grumbled. “She would be more comfortable there.”  

“We didn’t want to move her with a head injury,” Azriel growled. “Not one from a witch.” 

His voice sent your attention towards him. Azriel was on his knees beside you, holding your wrists with his thumb circling the back of your hand in delicate strokes. He was painfully beautiful and you were left to wonder, yet again, if you were truly awake. When your gazes met, something foreign pulled at your ribs and the pressure sent an unexpected scream past your lips. You hunched over in a panic, yanking yourself away from those beside you.

That wasn’t right. None of this felt right. 

The older woman, Majda, cursed, staring after you as you pushed yourself further and further away. Each movement sent a new ache aflame in your head, but that didn’t stop you because you needed to get away. Your feet kicked up dirt and rocks and your hands tore with the effort but this wasn’t right. 

Azriel reached you before you could hit the tree just inches from your back. He held your head in his own hands and locked you in his gaze, keeping you trapped in the yellows and browns and the flecks that joined them. He took exaggerated breaths, wings flared out to block out the sun, and then he began whispering. 

It took a moment for you to understand the words, your heavy breaths mostly drowning them out. 

Something swished in the distance. More whispering, more secrets. 

“You’re okay. I’ve got you.” 

When Azriel’s voice finally came through, it was like a lifeline. 

“I’m here, my love. You’re safe. I know it hurts, I know.” 

It was odd, finding peace in a stranger. The shadows that seemed to dance around him swirled into shapes that framed your skin, and some of the panic felt foolish in their presence. They twisted and curved, somehow amplifying the cool tone of Azriel’s voice as he promised you things you had no capacity to understand. 

But he never stopped talking, not even when your gaze left his to follow his shadows instead. If anything, the action seemed to spur on the small beings more, and you wondered—for a brief moment—if he was controlling them. 

Something like amazement seeped into your panic as you whispered, “Who are you?” 

You didn’t know the man in front of you, that much was true, but he looked so… broken at your words. Something akin to pain clashed with his beautiful features as his jaw clenched to an unnatural degree. You were surprised that his teeth didn’t crack beneath the pressure. You wondered what else he could withstand—what atrocities he’d seen to make his eyes turn so dark when you spoke your words out loud. 

“No,” Azriel growled, chin hooking over his shoulder. His wings pulled back to reveal a new man, but this one looked slightly different from the others. No wings, different eyes. “You stay out of her head, Rhysand.” 

Rhysand. He was the one that had sent you here.

The concern on Rhysand’s face looked unnatural, like it didn’t belong there. “Az, it could help. Let me help her.” 

“You could make it worse. We have no idea what that witch did to her.” As Azriel spoke, shadows began to cover you more and more. Your sight became dim, your body camouflaged in darkness. 

“Looking in could be the only way to figure that out.” The next bout of silence was uncomfortable. The pounding in your head persisted, exacerbating to the point of tears along your waterline. “I know what you’re feeling, Azriel. I get it. But I want to help her, brother. You know I would never hurt her.” 

A twig snapped beneath a boot.

Azriel growled low in his chest. 

The pounding gave way to a sharp pain, and it made your senses lighter, less focused. 

You couldn't remember ever passing out before, but you thought it might feel like this. 

“Stay away from her.” 

“She doesn’t remember you, Azriel.” 

A choked breath. “Don’t touch my mate.” 

Darkness that surpassed the shadows finally granted you a reprieve from the pain. 

Maybe you'd wake up and this would all make sense.

Part 2 ♡

[witchofthesouls]

Just had a thought.

So you know how, in a lot of mythologies, the gods and goddesses of the countless pantheons each have some sort of "sacred animal" associated with them?

Would the Primes therefore have sacred mechanimals? And if so, what do you think they are?

I actually had thoughts about this, but instead of sacred animals, the Cybertronians used sacred shapes based on the Primes' sigils?

Prima is a single solid disc as the circle is the holiest of shapes, and He is the Eldest with the inherent right to assume Primus' own alt-mode as the Prime of Light. He is the sun of civilization.

Megatronus' sigils are highly contested. His is pieced by the entwined sigils by his cohorts and influenced by revivals and revisionists. There are many contentious and violent arguments on Prime of Chaos on his insignias, which are true, false, and the original. The most vicious fights are based on the academic parties between the 'Quintesson occupation' and the 'aftermath of the Primal Wars.'

Liege Maximo favors angles. Particularly paired triangles. An ode to his horned helmet, the fangs behind lips, the venom hidden upon tooth and claws. He is both medicine and posion. A duality within.

Solus, by the right as Creation, uses a circle as well. She is the Forge of Cybertron, so it's easy to conceptualize her favorite tool into a simplified sigil: a circle to represent the burning spark of her workplace connected to a rectangle pointed down as she is connected to the heart of Cybertron.

Vector, at his most simple, is a gear. He is the guardian of time and overlooks the Grand Machine that's the universe.

Alpha Trion is represented by a diamond of smaller diamonds. Neat and orderly as the Scribe of the Primes.

Quintus, unlike his siblings, is very abstract. Fitting as the Dreamer. Some find his sigil comforting. Others find it terrifying.

Amalgamous is one the whimsical of the Thirteen. As the Father of Shifters, he claims all shapes him.

Nexus is similar but has outward points as He has the power to bestow combination to others.

Onyx as the Lord of Beasts has a sigil in the form of claw, talon, or fang.

Alchemist has a series of shapes in a balanced equation as he's the student of the natural world. "As above, so below."

Micronus is a stable form. He may have a circle but the solid squares, rectangles, and trapeziods are an ode to how He connects to others; amplifying them.

Thirteen's had been lost to time. Many believe he doesn't exist. Or the 'Arisen' is meant for the mortal frames that rose to prominence after the Great Cataclysm.

[ari-gami]

Punkflower

So I've been itching to make some Punkflower fanfiction but i'm not too sure about my writing skills, so I'll post the first chapter here before i commit to AO3.

Summary: Hobie doesn't like the way Gwen handled the situation with Miles, especially after getting to know the guy better. It was messed up, and their friendship is on tense terms. Miles is still reeling from the emotional whiplash from Gwen, one minute feeling betrayed to being thankful, but forgiving her will be hard and he doesn't know if their friendship will ever bounce back into what it was. Luckily he has someone who has had his back from day 1.

"I Don't Like Your Girlfriend"

“You really like this guy huh?”

“Oh my god, shut up Hobie!”

“ I will when ya shut up about that spider from 1610.”

Hobie could see the light blush on Gwen’s cheeks as she turned her head with a huff. It was a bit endearing how her face would scrunch up at the thought of her own feelings, but Hobie knew she wouldn’t allow herself to admit them.

“You know it’s not like that.”

“You care a lot about him, Gwendy, you can admit that much.”

“That’s the scary part, Hobie! I can’t see him again and admitting to myself that I could have..feelings for him would just cause me more heartache. Also, Miguel wouldn’t..” she trailed off.

Hobie had a bitter taste in his mouth. He’s aware of the underlying statement. Miguel already thinks Gwen’s a liability if anything involving Miles Morales occurred, and he would not hesitate to throw her back into the very situation he saved her from if she tried to contact Miles. Gwen would be alone again, and this time, permanently.

He sighed and thought of what he would do if he had such a deep connection to someone, if he had what Gwen had. It's not that he doesn't have anyone close to him, he had Gwen and his bandmates after all, but the way Gwen described her bond with Miles made Hobie ache for something similar. To have a connection forged in mutual hardship, where both parties come out as changed people. To meet and have an initial spark so strong that it would set fire to all aspects of his life afterward. 

             If Hobie had been in Gwen's shoes, he wouldn't have stayed away from Earth 1610. He would've disassembled the watch to reverse engineer one for himself and jump right through the portal back into Miles’s world. (Not that he wasn't working on it now, he hates the idea of multidimensional travel being monopolized.)

             But Gwen was in a delicate situation and right now craved approval from adult figure- that's where they differed. Hobie could tell that if she had to choose between Miles and the Society, she would most likely choose the Society. The idea of that made him a bit sick, knowing that Miles would be betrayed and alone if Gwen didn't play her cards right. He would be all alone, just like Gwen had been, and the worse part, he might never know of the betrayal.

           He would give her time to make her decision, but Hobie would also be making his own. If Miguel starts shit with Miles for being an anomaly, Hobie would be there to help him. If Miguel decided that shunning Miles wasn’t enough and actively went to attack him, Hobie would do everything he could to stop him. The idea that the Society is trying to squash out an outlier to defend the so-called canon went against everything Hobie stood for. 

He just hoped that if it ever came down to Gwen sticking with HQ and Hobie with Miles, their friendship could be salvaged.

           From what Gwen shared, Miles was the type of Spiderman who couldn't be held down when he made up his mind. When everyone ganged up on him, he found a way to prove to them that he was capable of lifting the mantle. (Not that Hobie approved of the other spiders' methods. Actually, he hated the thought of them refusing to help him at such a low point in his life. He truly believes that Miles didn't need to prove himself because, in Hobie's mind, he proved himself by instantly jumping to help send the other Spiders back.) Miles went against everything thrown at him saying he wasn't ready and instead defied the expectations and did it his own way.

            That's pretty punk of him.

[vanguarddawn]

There's something I've been thinking about tonight that I really don't quite know how to explain, but I'm going to try it anyways.

It all regards a question I've received several times over the years: Why is Walhart one of my favorite Awakening characters, when Edelgard is my least favorite Fire Emblem character? Aren't their goals essentially the same?

This is a question I mostly receive from Edelgard fans who usually don't want to listen to what I actually have to say about either character, and just want to try and put the legitimacy of my biases under scrutiny, usually with accusations of misogyny being thrown in for good measure. And I've never really had an answer for them, not because I didn't want to get involved in that discussion, but because I had always judged Walhart and Edelgard based on gut feeling rather than deeper analysis.

Honestly, the more I look into them both in comparison to one another, the more vast that rift becomes. I'm not necessarily starting to like Walhart even more, but I'm definitely learning to like Edelgard even less, something I'd thought was impossible. I do not have the time or patience to write out a full Edelgard analysis, and honestly I don't want to do that either. So I'll talk about what connects them and what differentiates them.

Walhart and Edelgard are, on the surface, somewhat similar characters. They are both the leader of their nation, and seek to unify the rest of the continent through force, and ultimately intend to forge a world where man can only rely on their own strength rather than that of the gods. Both are armored axe wielders primarily associated with the color red, and both bear inhuman levels of physical strength. Both can potentially end up being defeated by the kindhearted king of the nation they invaded who seeks to strengthen the existing world through structural reform rather than wiping the slate clean, and cherish the power of bonds over the strength of the individual.

So why do I love Walhart but hate Edelgard again? Simple.

Walhart is absolutely fucking delusional. Dude is straight up off his rocker, and the game is actually willing to acknowledge this rather than trying to defend it. He truly believes in his whole "unity through conquest" bullshit, and is only willing to let go of it when he's defeated by Chrom. And you know what he does, instead of Edelgard's "if only i had your strength we could have made the world a better place together" stuff?

Walhart concedes. He basically just tells Chrom and Robin "alright, you guys won, you clearly know what's best for the world. I was wrong, might does not make right, and from now on I'm gonna do things your way." Of course he says it in his own distinctly Walhart way, but the message is still the same. While he doesn't come to accept the real message that Chrom and Robin were trying to send, one of bonds and togetherness, he does realize that his way of going about securing and maintaining peace was wrong. I understand that Edelgard also concedes somewhat in VW/SS, but in AM she tries to murder her salvation after being given one last chance to redeem herself, and in CF she successfully conquers Fódlan so there's no redemption to be done.

It also helps that the god Walhart was trying to stop to begin with was objectively evil and not just a traumatized archbishop. Yes, Rhea does some incredibly fucked up things, but comparing her to Grima, who literally destroys the entire world just for funsies, can't really be done in good faith. Rhea is more compelling as an antagonist because she actually has nuance - nuance that Grima mostly lacks.

I also want to address some localization weirdness regarding both characters. In Awakening's English localization Walhart's goal of crushing the Grimleal is only made clear after the player has already defeated him and is headed to stop the ongoing resurrection of Grima. The English localization of Three Houses, on the other hand, may as well be Edelgard apologist fanfiction with how much it rewrites her character to make her look completely justified in starting her war, including actively writing mentions of civilian conscription and execution, as well as foreign military operations out of the English script, and adding a line to her endings stating that she gives up power once her dream of a Crest-less Fódlan has been realized. She is a completely different character between scripts.

I also like how Walhart is written entirely seriously about even the most mundane of things in his barracks and DLC conversations. If you thought he was crazy about military, wait until you hear his opinion on vegetarianism (he is one and he intends to make it your problem).

Basically, I like Walhart because he isn't meant to be endearing. Awakening makes no effort to redeem him or justify his actions, because they are ultimately unjustifiable. Edelgard did essentially the same thing he did and required a whole game rewrite to justify allowing the player to side with her at all.

[jammedjanna]

Some (Slightly Yujin-Centric) Head Canons About the Original Study Exchange Characters

Warning!! The Great Ace Attorney 2 SPOILERS AHEAD

The grandma that raises Susato for the first five years is Ayame's mom. Yujin does NOT talk to his parents. but he does feel the need to quietly send them money out in the country. Helps him connect to Jigoku whose family straight up disowned him (the devil connotation in his name is too easy to not make his fam super puritanical and decide he isn't good enough for them), Genshin who lowkey wishes he could disown his parents but kinda needs them around cause of the whole teen dad thing and his wife being VERY poor so basically having no assets to bring to the table besides bastard child (made her a factory worker cause industrial revolution was growing at the time, women who needed to work were basically prostitutes or factory workers and the working conditions of both were shit, and Kazuma's speech in the original Japanese game is actually about the need to improve factory conditions and liberate those workers which was super progressive at the time so I think his mother being a former worker who had to go back to support them after Genshin died and that basically killing her would 100% radicalize him; sadly Japanese society would not have looked at her very kindly at the time, but I love her), and Kazuma's mom whose only family has been dead since she was younger than Kazuma was (helps him understand her better when Yujin comes back from England to discover his parents died while he was away and no one told him cause they just weren't in actual contact at all)

Ayame has a good relationship with her parents. They're great. They run the dojo Yujin and Jigoku (and later Susato) learn/practice judo at. It's pretty close to the university so they both decide to go their for it, which is how they meet Yujin ALSO meets Ayame there cause her mom insists he can come by to practice any time he wants cause his studies end up giving him weird hours of free time. So he decides to go in the middle of the night one time and Ayame Susato-Takedown style attacks him assuming he's an intruder. Her mom clarifies and leaves them alone. They talk and spar til they lose track of time and it's morning. blah blah love story. Her parents are also very supportive of women's rights so they encourage Ayame to have a career. So she's an writer under pen name (Yujn starts doing his journals in England in her honor since she was always jotting down notes like that to use later). Yujin's parents were much more conservative but he never really understood the point of their beliefs. Naturally questioned everything thank god.

Ayame is the one who applied for Yujin to do the study tour. He was too down on himself and sure they wouldn't pick him but she knows he's brilliant and forges the application for him (he doesn't know until he's accepted.) The plan was her pen name would take a trip to Britain independent of the study tour so she could keep writing and they could go together. Plans changed a little when they found out she was pregnant (they were already married but weren't really planning a timeline on when to have kids.) They decided to continue their careers in Japan instead so they could start their family and maybe they'll check England out when Susato's a little older. They were still cycling through candidates for the third spot when Tragedy Strikes, so Genshin and Seishoro convince them to let Yujin back on and depart the tour sooner than intended Yujin is not doing well in the wake of Ayame's death. He's truly trying his best but he can barely take care of himself and Susato cries anytime he holds her or feeds her or changes her to the point he's worried she might be colic before they actually knew what that was (really she can just sense how stressed he is and the looming despair of everyone around her grieving Ayame.) Thankfully Ayame's parents are there to help and she seems to do so much better with them that in his grief and dysfunction, he decides the best thing he can do for her is literally just to support her financially cause he's going to fuck her up if he keeps going like this. And making as much money as he can means going where pathology is the hottest right now, which the exchange trip is his ticket too

Seishoro and Genshin are friends from childhood (yeah I like Brutus by the Buttress for them too much not to be). Yujin and Genshin meet each other through Seishoro, Yujin meets Kazuma's mom through Genshin, and she meets Ayame through Yujin Important to me that they're ALL good friends, especially Yujin and Kazuma's mom cause I feel that relationship is very important in the year after he returns to Japan. It's what ultimately leads to him unofficially adopting Kazuma after her death.

Like mentioned above, she has to return to her factory job which she was thankfully safe from after becoming pregnant with Kazuma because Genshin's family has money from before the samurai abolition that could support them. But they never really liked her. They always thought she derailed Genshin's bright future (even though he's still very successful while he's alive) and they don't want much to do with Kazuma until he's of age because he's not much use to them as a child. So now it's up to her to support them. The options are pretty much the same after half a decade, so back to the factory she goes which escalates her painful but manageable health problems into life threatening ones. And she is VERY insistent that Kazuma does not get a job to try to take the load off. She had to start working as a child and it wrecked her body. She will not let the same happen to her son. He's a smart boy who is going to stay in school and focus on his grades and he'll find a good job to keep him out of this position even if it kills her. She will not let this horrible system take him the way it took her.

She also doesn't like Genshin's family. She saw the toll they took on him and she doesn't want that for Kazuma, especially since they only care about him when he's useful to them. Yujin is also trying to help her but he's already supporting himself, Susato, and Ayame's parents on the salary of a fresh out of school pathologist (he tries to continue on the coroner route but after watching Kazuma's mom fade away in front of him, unable to do anything for her, he loses his stomach for it and switches to research and academia.) He can only stretch it so much. So she begs him, her only real friend anymore (Jigoku gets distant from both of them during this time cause of killing Genshin. He warms back up to Yujin after a while but at that point it's too late for Kazuma's mom), to at least Kazuma in if something happens to her. The Asogis don't have his best interests at heart and he can't survive on his own. She doesn't ask him to go as far as he does, she mostly pleads with him to give him enough financial support to stay in school and out of the workforce. Yujin sees that he desperately needs emotional support too and decides to take him in as his own (he tries his best to respect that he's not his father but he can't help but come to see Kazuma like his son. Kazuma has very complicated feelings about the Mikotobas and loves them like family too but he creates an intentional wall between them (that Yujin can see but Susato doesn't until he comes back "from the dead" in the second game) because he feels like he's betraying his parents by loving anyone else like he loved them. Ryunosuke helps break that down a little and seeing him, Susato, Iris, and Sholmes kinda beats into his head the idea of found family, so he tries to let everyone in more post-canon.

I know the game literally only talks about Kazuma's dad. I'm pretty sure they don't even mention his mom once, maybe just to say the grief killed her or something. but I think Kazuma was 100% a mama's boy and at the time, losing her hit him much harder than losing his dad (tho it doesn't help that it stacked on top of that death) Genshin had already been gone for so many years that Kazuma was a little more detached from him than he'd care to admit. and they never had a chance to reconnect like Susato and Yujin did. vs. losing his mom who has been around the entire time and is literally killing herself trying to give him the best life she can I think over time, he hyperfixated on Genshin's death being the thing that "ruined his life," or at least tore his family apart and focuses on clearing his name as something tangible he can do to try to get justice since there's nothing he can do to bring either of them back, but even less he can do to avenge his mom

I think Genshin and his wife loved each other but they got married more out of circumstance than anything else. They provided an escape for each other when they met and all things being equal, they would've moved on with someone else and possibly never seen each other again. They came to appreciate each other more raising Kazuma together and their bond definitely strengthen over their shared love and devotion for him, but when they were on other sides of the world, they sort of fell out of "love". Don't get me wrong, they still very much care about each other. Genshin's death definitely devastates her and causes her health to deteriorate much quicker. I just think they both naturally feel an inclination to explore other relationships while apart but don't because they feel too guilty "cheating" on each other despite knowing on some level they both feel this way. Plus societal expectations of married couples still weighs on them. Even though a lot of people considered it no big deal for men to cheat, Genshin still struggled with acting on any of his feelings while in England (COUGH COUGH KLINT) I also kinda think they were both gay and were drawn to each other because of that but struggled with identifying their feelings because of comphet and their platonic affection for each other.

On the other hand, I think Klint and Lady B also started as a marriage of convenience. They're both the eldest living family members of their families and though Klint has Barok, they're both far from the perfect picture of nobility. So getting married is a good way to improve their social standing and preserve wealth and their family images. Plus they find each other charming enough to strike up a partnership and Barok likes her which is hard cause a sweetheart but kinda judgmental about the complexities of nobility and the way it shapes people (he's also very scandalized at the idea of marrying for anything short of love cause he's always been a hopeless romantic and that's what their parents did. He tries to get Genshin to side with him who then has to awkwardly explain he had a shotgun wedding.) Anyway all that to say they like each other enough but don't have any romantic feelings in the beginning. But I think they slowly fall in love over the next few years until they're genuinely very enamored with each other and want to start a family together. Which is a teensy bit of a struggle so the best day of Klint's life ends up coinciding with the worst. (His wife is pregnant and they're going to have a child together :D! But also Stronghart caught onto him taking justice into his own hands and blackmailed him into killing his mentor, who acted as a stand-in father after the death of his parents :/) 10. I think Yujin, Genshin, and Jigoku remain very close in London and get together quite often but they each have their own little corners of London they sort of keep to themselves. Great friends who are all somewhat acquainted with each other but only barely. Like at a party Klint hosts and wants to invite Genshin's friends and some Judiciary and Sholmes crashes it. Yujin has Sholmes and Mrs. Hudson (I can't fucking believe we never see or talk to her in-game by the way. They only mention her like once). Jigoku has Stronghart and some other dudes who are definitely kickstarting his villain arc. And Genshin has Klint and Lady B and Barok. and then they all kinda share Gregson cause he intersects with all their bullshit (much to his dismay) and Sholmes to an extent cause he NEEDS to know everything he can about Yujin's terrible taste in friends and he breaks into crime scenes and courthouses and offices a LOT

I don't know how accurate this is to ACD Watson, but: Yujin definitely thinks he's a good judge of character but he's actually shit cause he always wants to see the best in people So Sholmes 100% feels the need to investigate everyone in his circle to make sure he hasn't accidentally befriended Jack the Ripper. None of them are serial killers (yet) but he's keeping his eye on all of them.

OKAY NOW I'M DONE

Sorry for the stream of consciousness dump there but I wanted to get all my thoughts out about these freaks with barely any screentime besides Sholmes and Yujin.

And Would you believe I have all this head canon lore about Kazuma's mom/Mrs. Asogi but I STILL can't come up with a good name for her?? Same for Lady B but at least I have something to refer to her as besides Iris's mom or Klint's wife.

[js589]

So, my husband and I just finished The Dragon Prince, and...

We're mad.

(There is a lot I love about TDP, and about season 7, but it gets very little mention here. You have been forewarned.)

Like, this final season was just coming at us with everything it had for most of the first 8 episodes. Sure, there were filler-y bits every now and again, but there was a pretty good buildup. Episode 8 especially was just like oh wow, we're going here. (As much as Karim just never learning was frustrating, it made his fate very fitting. I was both horrified and impressed.)

But it seemed like the final episode, rather than serving as a fitting ending if there isn't further media, reminded us of all the plot threads that are still dangling, some from much earlier seasons!

The whole show had moments of "okay, this was an unnecessary bit" and "okay, when are we going to get back to this thing that seems to be really important?" but Mysteries of Aaravos was definitely much worse about it. The baitlings/glowtads, for example, probably should have been relegated to side materials.

And Harrow-bird... I have multiple misgivings. First of all, it should have been much clearer earlier on if this was indeed going to be A Thing. There's no way it resolves quickly, but it could have been spaced out through the seasons. And the unseriousness of the reveal really felt like it cheapened the emotional impact of Ezran deciding to forgive Runaan even though he doesn't know how to yet. That could have been an amazing exploration, and instead, it's moot because Harrow arguably hasn't actually died. Like, Callum could bring him back. Easily.

And while this is a show aimed at children, Ezran not actually using the nova blade after it got hyped for so long felt kind of like a pale imitation of AtLA, but Ezran's peaceful ideals never actually got confronted the way Aang's did. In TDP, Callum had to face up to his inner darkness multiple times, but God forbid Ezran not get saved from actually doing anything remotely controversial. I mean, Avizandum and Zubeia's sacrifice works, IMO, but it just feels like anytime Ezran has to confront big, scary things, it turns out he didn't need to and it's actually all kind of okay somehow.

But above all, the arc title is now too fitting. A lot of those mysteries of Aaravos are still mysteries, and they didn't need to be! If this is the Aaravos arc, then it should have had an actual resolution and not a "we'll circle back in 7 years" ending. Like, they'd better put it together and just keep Aaravos from coming back in that case. Seriously, Aaravos gave humans dark magic. Why did the Startouch council not intervene the way they did with Leola? Why did they not intervene when he returned? If he'd done something to incapacitate them, you'd think he'd have said so, but he appears to not have exacted revenge yet. Other questions: does the book that uses the key still exist? Is the key actually important? Can Callum use it to forge connections? Is (as my husband jokingly theorized) dark magic just star magic with a different source?

What about Claudia? I'm left wondering why she still serves Aaravos. I'm assuming it's because she understands his desire to avenge Leola and she doesn't care about who else gets harmed along the way, but I feel like that doesn't really square with her characterization? I dunno...

Finally, as much as I love Rayllum... yeah, it got a little too much focus. Not as much undue focus as other elements, but it was definitely overdone. (But I did actually appreciate Rayla readying to kill Callum. Like, dude's got plot armor up the wazoo, but she doesn't know that.)

Overall, I'm just really dissatisfied with all that's left open. Mysteries of Aaravos had massive pacing issues. I believe that the story could have been told in its entirety, and I wish it would have been.

[shadowqnights]

could you tell us about your mcd anastasia thoughts? i am intrigued

ANKA DON'T TEMPT ME. god where to start. i am trying to keep this short and simple cause my thoughts are a huuuge jumble rn .. also as a disclaimer it has been years since i Saw anastasia on broadway so i am going off soundtrack and memory alone..

very generally erhh lots of people i feel have made the connection of aphmau to anya, an amnesiac's journey to find and reclaim a lost identity while the idea of being a very famous well-regarded figure looms over their head. though more of a headcanon in aph's case, i always love the idea of her having small memories and deja vu to cling to. once upon a december is an easy song for them but also in my dreams and crossing a bridge constantly makes me think of aph - that she is also longing for someone to know her. but i feel a little bit insane thinking about how anya kind of goes out With the intention of knowing about her family, wanting to understand her identity and her dreams. mcd's story isn't spurred early on by the question of aphmau being irene or not, and her quest isn't to go out and Find the origin of her lost memories to see if she has a family somewhere. she isn't pulled By an identity constantly hanging over her head until its revealed to her and it takes her. she doesn't follow a path to know her family/past identity specifically, it unweaves as these other pieces fall into place. there are points in both of their stories that provide this closure and reclaim those identities, but in anya's case it offers her the ability to now forge her own identity as separate from the idea of anastasia - the idea of 'anastasia' is as much of this constantly elusive concept as an actual identity to me, and when anya comes to terms with this she is able to let go and pursue dmitry. she isn't renamed, she isn't forced to re-adopt her title, she is still anya but with the clarity of the truth, her family & her love. she thinks she wants to join the empress and reclaim her title, but realises that she can still refind the love of family and still be Her, the her that fell in love with dmitry and met all of these people and made these friends. irene herself also become something of a caricature of her original self through deification, and we know that through this has become heavily idealised. but aph finally finding out / realising that she's irene forcefully assimilates her into the public perception of her deification, something that she doesn't even want to reclaim. by all means, understanding her past/origin should now grant her the clarity of pursuing things like love, which we know she rejects for reasons of responsibility and duty (which i'm gonna come back to later because i feel sick), but it only gradually melts the expectations of something that has existed as a concept for So long into her own identity. and much of this is struggled with, she fights against it, and it does seem for a while that aphmau is determined to forge her own identity despite the pressures and expectations of the people around her who now simply consider her as irene, we know that in the end she loses nonetheless because of mystreet, where mcd aphmau has finally become that universe's irene through sacrifice. we know that she makes an effort to resist but ultimately fails, unable to redefine herself in the end. something something cycle of suffering and sacrifice idk. i think its interesting. by all means aph should have had the ending that the musical offers anya - finally knowing and reconnecting with the truth, but not being defined by it, getting to pursue love. by all means she might deserve to abandon her sense of responsibility and choose garroth or laurance in the end if that's your jam but ultimately can't. anya expresses her worries about life as a princess and is reassured that even if she doesn't reclaim the concept of 'anastasia', she and the empress are still reunited and she is still loved as herself. to me irene is the equivalent of the concept of the princess - the rumours, the whispers, this idealised mystery, an unclaimed identity that finally gets put to rest - rather than the empress herself. and aphmau never Gets to put irene to rest. that part of her identity never finds peace.

right now also very insane about quartet at the ballet - with aph as anya, i know that laurmau likers would hc dmitry as laur which i agree with but i'm putting him aside because ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gleb time. i'm trying to think of what to say because my thoughts are a very angry jumble of [GHRHGRHGRHGHRHGHRHGRRGRRRG] and its hard to put them to words. erm. garroth. there's a part of me that could see a version of zane as gleb for religious reasons but i think personally those can work Just as well with garroth. i don't really like making a 1:1 au unless i'm really into it and the characters fit because i'm not going to shove random characters in random places that don't make sense for funsies, i'm not on a mission to recreate anastasia in mcd, i just like to think about similarities and subsequent divergencies. my anastasia au would be based on a specific version of mcd where certain characters end up in different places and make different choices to get to a point where they can Become the 1:1 in my brain. aphmau would kin anya nonetheless, i think, and laurance and dmitry have so much in common that i kind of have to let the laurmau likers have a win. i think that in a certain au where garroth does Not end up in phoenix drop, he would take up gleb's role. thus fulfilling a vague 'love triangle' vibe but no not like that more like they are both incredibly fascinated with her but gleb is obsessed with a very idealised form of who he Thinks she is where dmitry very plainly falls in love with her as a girl despite his Initial fascination with the myth. thus fulfilling their brief duet in quartet at the ballet, agonising over her but they are both seeing different Parts of her. i have a lot to say about it but i feel like i'm going insane ghugrhgrhgrghhrhgrg. ok.

o'khasis!garroth, specifically in the case of going to the guard academy, returning to take up the mantle of the jury of nine [cough cough be a general]. drawing from the religious notes of mcd with garroth's faith translated to utter obsession with, again, this idealised concept. gleb's obsession with 'anastasia' [again, the idea] REEKS of o'khasis garroth who is witness/present to his father's atrocities and bears them as duty, but ultimately cannot bear that same shame and follow through. gleb's Constant conflict between duty and heart - his fascinations with anya herself, as a person, vs the violent obsession with this elusive 'anastasia' as a part of his father's legacy. the ability to point the gun, but can't pull the trigger. the sense of responsibility and morality at constant war because he recognises her both as human, a young girl, and that concept. and in the end he can't entirely dehumanise her enough to spill blood. she is a part of Duty, she's just a trembling young girl, she is a form of Closure, she is loveable. he is confronted with a very human anastasia, not a myth or legend or obsessive fantasy, but a Young Girl. garroth ro'meave eats that shit UP, in his current form he would less, but a garroth at the right-hand of his father, growing up to bear his legacy of blood and shame and Fulfill his command, at the head of the jury. he loves his country:) he loves his military capital city-state:) he has a duty to the people and to his father, dead of shame:). the children and their voices and how a man has to make painful choices huh. oh, he would. the neva flows/still + reprise is all him. i feel sickened.

i think i have more thoughts but i talked so much i am so sorry errrrrr woe thoughts be upon you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

[ultraericthered]

Coming back to this 'cause really, this does bug me quite a bit (though I can't say I find it too surprising given Wish is a very shallow and restrained movie in spite of all of this depth at its foundation).

A lot of people tend to misread what the "wishes" in Wish actually are and represent, similar to how "hearts" in Kingdom Hearts actually refer to a person's very self - their innermost spiritual essence that gives them their identity and personality - is also often misread.

The wishes that are materialized as magical orbs in the movie are of people's personal aspirations and dreams for their lives that comes from the heart, because "a dream is a wish your heart makes". But as King Magnifico explains, they're even more than that: they're a core part of a person's self. The best, most precious, most beautiful parts. So essentially, these wishes are splintered off pieces of human souls.

So when Magnifico goes and does this:

Notice how Sakina looks drained, clutches her heart, slumps over and reels in agony? That's not "feeling sad for a little bit" - that's her experiencing a piece of herself getting killed. It's a temporary murder, yes, but she's left feeling a quarter less alive after having her wish, that magically protected piece of her soul, shattered. She later says "My heart knows this feeling. This is grief." A connection to her late husband isn't spoken aloud, but that's how she "knows the feeling" of grief. She's paralleling losing this part of her own self to losing her dear husband. Because both instances involve the loss of life.

Later on, we get this moment:

To forge his scepter, Magnifico crushes the wishes of three citizens specifically selected because they'd been questioning him earlier. While it takes until after the wishes break for these people to feel the despair and emptiness inside them created by the loss, the wishes themselves are visibly in pain as they're getting broken. Because, as fragmented shards of human souls, they're semi-sentient. They're alive. They sense. They feel. Splintered off shards of a larger whole, getting disintegrated for their energy that goes inside of Magnifico.

We later see that with his scepter and dark arts mastery, Magnifico doesn't even need crush wishes to kill them. He can just drain them.

Like the Dragon Balls after wishes for Shenron have been used up.

So to clarify: after discovering what power the wishes held and how alike such power and the Star's was, Magnifico's endgame was to ingest whole parts of his subjects' souls and leave them in that disspirited, grief-stricken, miserable and only partially alive state while he used his hot new evil magic, plus the magical stardust power of Star added to it, to bind them all down so they remain on the soil of his kingdom (now with a perpetually dark, cloudy sky hanging over them) and he may oppress them with an iron fist forevermore as his magic bindings plus the brokenness of their souls from the consumed wishes pretty much gradually drain the life energy out of them, to keep their lives and all proceedings in Rosas tightly controlled, all for his own personal gratification and pleasure. Institutional and magical power enhanced = institutional and magical power retained, making him stronger, more glorious and majestic than ever. That is a man who wants to play God, Savior, and Provider for the sake of endlessly feeding his ego, everyone else be damned, and if that doesn't make him a true villain, I don't know what does.

Fortunately, Magnifico did not count on the united spirits of the masses awakening within them the celestial stardust that, according to this movie, forms the whole of a living being's internal essence - heart, soul, and mind included. Their combined magical stardust power reaches Star, whose own magical stardust power activating in tandem with their hearts revitalizes and revives all the dead wishes.

A resolution so fantastical as to be nonsensical? Completely! But hey, that's just the power of Disney and modern fairy tales for you!

Hmm. When I really stop and think about it, it strikes me: the wishes are like Wish itself! In the film's development it had a soul, but thanks to King Magnifico higher corporate management and studio notes, that soul got repeatedly fractured and scattered into what we got, rendering the film less alive and less magical than it should've been.

[velvet-vox]

I just wanna preamble, that I'm really sorry towards all of my mutuals who really love Yeva as a character, but for me, I just can't come forward to liking her, and it's all for a simple reason:

Genuinely, why are we getting so much content with Yeva? Why did we need a flashback to the Core collapse when episode 7 was already crammed as it was? Why did we never see Yeva die on screen but saw his unnamed, barely mentioned husband get openly murked on screen? Why do Uzi and Doll treat each other like complete and utter strangers when Yeva should have been there to forge a connection between the two that would have spared us the plot and saved the entire colony in the process by uniting Uzi's resourcefulness and spirit of initiative with Doll's badassery and tactical mind?

I like Doll's dad. Liam clearly didn't bother to give him a name or a personality since he wasn't relevant to the plot, and of course, for Liam Vickers the plot comes before the characters, so him being dead doesn't really ring any alarm bells within me; he is very clearly intended to be a blank slate for the fans to latch on any head canon that suits their ways; he's a little bit of wasted potential, a trait that unfortunately he passed down to his daughter, but at least he doesn't really terrify me in any way that matters (especially since he would theoretically be Khan's foil. ....... Yeah).

But Yeva...... My god.

I shit you not when I say that to me, she's the scariest character in the entire show, way more terrifying than whatever any of that mid crap with the Absolute Solver or that lame ass body horror porn Cynesssa were.

Because to me, Yeva doesn't scare me in any physical, gorey matter, no: Yeva scares me in a psychological way.

Yeva is definitely being built up as this non impressionable, unfathomable badass, who has passed down to Doll all of her girlbossery and mastery of the Absolute Solver; she is the true caring mother between her and Nori, she was so good that Doll wanted to avenge her dead at any cost, she is so cool and strong that the patch worked on her flawlessly, and then proceeded to just completely mop the floor with a possessed Nori; Nori, that, may I remind you, was capable of fending off against a fully possessed Solver Uzi able to throw out copius amounts of black holes; the same Nori, who, as a core, ended that fight by slapping Uzi so hard that it created crumbling debris upon the impact; that Yeva was then killed by a solo hunting V, who has been shown multiple times to play with her food.

And the fandom somehow believes all of that?!?

Nobody is questioning just how sus any of this information is? Even if so many of the pieces when put together don't make any sense?

Do you remember these two shots from episode 6?

Aside from their questionable reliability considering the fact that Tessa was actually Cyn in disguise, don't you remember when we all speculated Nori to be more than a puppet and a possibly willing harbinger of death? I do. Never forgotten.

Now, I'm not jumping the shark and saying that Yeva is actually a manipulative monster, that would be extremely detrimental to the story; I'm saying that with all the parallelisms between the two families it's suspiciously weird that we aren't getting any noticeable narrative similarities between Nori and Yeva; because, you see, when I said before that Khan and Doll's dad weren't foils I actually lied:

In the Pilot, to protect the colony, Khan sacrifices Uzi to N and shuts a door behind him, refusing to shoot with the rail gun; in the flashback of Promening, to protect his daughter, Doll's dad shoots a photo of V to distract her, while Doll watches his dad sacrifice himself behind a door.

We just saw that Uzi's mother survived the attack of the Disassembly Drone (N) and turned into a crab. Now, I don't know all of you, but to me, N always seemed like the most efficient of the Disassembly Drones. His lack of empathy coupled with his low ego and self esteem made him a much more competent murderer than J or V, who were either too busy showboating or coping hard with the consequences of their violent actions; so for N to be unable to kill Nori while V was able to kill Yeva just seems like the most convenient writing decision possible.

(Convenient is a word used by Uzi to describe Doll's trap in episode 6)

Yeva absolutely creeps the f##k out of my brain, it's genuinely so unsettling seeing how much Liam Vickers has been playing up this character's current unimportance and getting away with it by the eyes of the community.

I don't know you all, but I haven't felt scared by Murder Drones at all ever since the Alice finger scene in episode 6. I was like, "cool Liam, do whatever you want, play up all the horror that you like, congratulations, I'm officially desensitized. Your cute little flesh iron puppy that you've been building up for a year barely stroked a dent into me" but I'm not like that with Yeva. Whenever a fandom starts to play up a character's innocence that's when my fight or flight reaction kicks in. I've been a fervent protester of indoctrination for all of my life, and that includes fandom culture and mob thinking; I ain't buying any of you all sweet Yeva crap until episode 8 rolls around.

[butterflydm]

Story missions and lore updates in DAV...

I think that the Dragon Age series might have my favorite lore that I've ever run across in a video game. It has so much depth and the history of it is just so palpable playing the games. From the very beginning, using the codex system as a way to give information that was very much biased in-game, never free-floating knowledge but always knowledge that was tied down to specific people in the specific cultures that they were writing in.

Even before we started getting some of the big historical revelations in this game, I've been blown away by getting to visit all these places that we've only gotten to hear about or meet the occasional companion from in the previous games. Actually seeing Treviso! Touring Minrathous! Spending time in Nevarra! And each of the environments feels so rich and like so much time and thought was spent on fleshing it out.

I've played some big side quests involving Mythal and Solas, and pushed forward with the next story mission, so there's some big-ish lore spoilers below.

We've gotten so much information that has exploded basically everyone's religion, but none of it actually contradicts the previous lore, because all of that was in-world beliefs that were written down by people in the game world. I love it!

The Tevinter Old Gods were really the dragons that the Evanuris had bound to themselves, and were able to whisper to the ancient Tevinter magisters because Solas didn't understand the nature of the bond between the dragons and their masters. So the Evanuris... were making an escape attempt. There were seven Tevinter magisters who breached the Golden City in an attempt to obey their old gods. The reason that the dragons told them to go there was because they were hoping it would free the Evanuris. But it failed. They released the Blight instead.

Theory: Andraste connected to a Spirit of Faith, and that's where she got all her ideas that she then went running with, and which eventually became the Chant of the Light that we have in the present day. Probably already been speculated before, I wouldn't be surprised! We know that spirits can give people these kinds of big revolutionary ideas (see: Anders).

It's really spirits all the way down, like turtles, it feels like. Spirits are so integral to everything. Spirits and the Titans (I might want to do my second Rook as a dwarf, because that would be a very different and interesting perspective than my elf Rook has, I think. Solas harmed the dwarven people in a very direct and clear way).

It sounds like humans also already existed. But then spirits used lyrium to forge bodies of their own, becoming the ancient elves, who then became truly mortal over the course of living in the world.

Also! Oh! Learning that Solas was originally a spirit really does give even more poignancy to his and Varric's disagreement over Cole, and whether Cole should become more 'human' or remain as a spirit. Solas regrets his choice. He doesn't want Cole to also regret it.

I did a quest for Harding and we learned that dwarves are essentially small pieces of the Titans -- what has survived of them. So when they say that they came from the Stone... they really did. It was neat. We went to a Kal-Sharok outpost and talked to Shaper Valta (who is now a very big statue). As soon as Harding mentioned Kal-Sharok, I was hoping it would mean Valta.

I did the next big quest and everyone is shook. Especially Darvin and Lucanis -- Lucanis feels like he failed and Darvin is feeling a bit of a loss of purpose, since he killed an Archdemon and didn't die.

Both Varric and Solas continue to be good advisors, I think -- Varric is good as a team adviser (morale and such) while Solas is a better war adviser. But I think both are useful for Rook. I really do love how their dynamic was brought forward and continued from DAI.

Next, we're trying to strengthen people's resolve and get our alliances strengthened as well. Kinda giving me a ME2 vibe with regards to that and I wonder if the endgame of this game will have a 'Suicide Mission' type of component, where different characters' survival depends on if you helped them keep their focus and how strong your alliance is with their faction.

Lucanis is making Rook work hard for that romance! One single flirt with Taash and Rook was being asked if they wanted sex! But I've flirted with Lucanis at basically every turn, and we have still not kissed. I feel like that "Let me in!" at the gates meme, lol. We might have to finish his personal quest before we can move forward with the romance.

I finished up the Solas side-quest and have learned the extent of his history and his regrets. Getting that nice long conversation with Morrigan was great, and I loved seeing all the memories. Solas did a lot of things that he now regrets, and yet he keeps trying over and over. His pride can't let him stop, I think, no matter how many mistakes he makes.

I talked with Mythal (the spirit-side) and was able to talk her into handing over her essence (I did restart the conversation once when I fucked it up; I admit that! But I really feel like my elven Rook should be able to convince her. It also sounds like having the essence might end up affecting how the endgame goes, and I want to see it, lol).

Next time around, I plan to tackle Lucanis's personal quest, and then move forward with Neve's story quest.

[piglet26]

Star Wars Rewatch: TROS

Oh, God.

Palpatine come back and ruining Anakin Skywalker's redemption. Why? How? Cloning, okay, so this Palpatine isn't the real Palpatine?!

We get to see Supreme Leader Kylo Ren for about 4 minutes before he's immediately benched by Palpatine as co-pilot. Why? I get they didn't want Kylo Ren as the big bad, but this is just lazy writing.

Green goblin, I remember you don't last long.

R2D2, they never wash him or nothing?

Maybe the First Order should win. They take hits and keep on knocking. They take losses and recovered, quickly and well. They always seem to have intelligence from somewhere. In short, they are competent.

Poe and Finn, have a great dynamic.

Rey is finally training for everyone who had a boner for two movies about her having a rocky fight montage.

They moment where Ren is praying over Darth Vader's mask and his mind bridges with Rey is a great reminder that these two are connected.

This film did something most franchise should never, it responded to criticism in real time.

Poe, you fucked up Han's ship. Stop attacking like she doesn't have a reason to be annoyed. Also, Rey is currently the sole Jedi in the galaxy, she should be training, not running off on every errand you have to do.

Colin Travano (whatever his name is) I wouldn't have wanted his script. Like at all. Poe and Rey do have chemistry though and you can tell they enjoy needling one another. It's just not endgame.

That Finnrey hug was awkward. It's a church hug with their butts sticking out. I'm Reylo to the core, but I have place for FinnRey in my heart. They're soulmates in a different way than Reylo is. Also, Daisy Ridley and John B are adorable and you can tell they enjoy working together.

In a flawed film, Rose Tico being sidelined was a wise decision.

Rey, Poe, Finn, Chewie and 3PO are cute. JJ Adams did seem to love friendships developing and for the third film we needed to see all these characters together on an adventure.

Kylo Ren is forging this dumb ass mask again. Look it worked initially, character wise and so forth, but at this point?! He smashed it and moved past the need for it. The audience liked that he smashed it. We have to see his face for emotional scenes. Why is it back? Oh I know! Because JJ Adams good juvenile friend was sad his mask wasn't in the film anymore. General Hux and Kylo are magically little bottle of goodness. We got so little.

We leave one planet for another planet but I keep forgetting what planet we're on. Title cards too much to ask?

Ren is actually pursuing Rey or The Scavenger because yes he wants her for himself. but he also wants to protect her from Palpatine. Their first force bond......... yeah. I've read the novelization so I understand it's been a minute since they've seen one another, but if I just watched the movie would I have known that? No. There is much they saying yet it's stiff and doesn't make much sense without context.

General Pryde. Why did we need him when we have General Hux?

I think Billie D Williams filmed all his scenes sitting down. He looks happy to be there but tired as hell.

Race through the desert of Pasaana. I like it. This crew does work and it feels like a fun adventure. There are cute, whitty moments between all of them and it works.

She heals a snake - Two halves of the dyad should only have been able to heal one another, but here we are.

The Trio and Co find the evil sith ship or whatever. The Knights of Ren gotta walk while Ren is flying. Ren tries to run down Rey, again this make sense in the novelization and not at all in real life. After Rey injures his planes, he crashes and the majestic prince emerges out of the flames. Seriously?! Why the hell are you covering this guy up?!

In a rip off of The Last Jedi we get a tug-o-war scene between the ship Chewie is on. It's not as great, but it's a good scene and we see how Rey's powers have grown. We know it's a waste of time though. They're evenly matched. It's a nice surprise when the lighting shoots out. Okay, I don't mind her being a Palpatine. I mind the retconning. I mind Palpatine magically coming back.

Rey confesses to Finn about her dream of her and Kylo Ren on the Sith Throne. Where? We would have liked to have seen this.

This is a nice FinnRey scene. Despite her display of "dark power", her killing Chewie presumably, Finn doesn't look at her any different. She's still Rey to him. He's patient and present and she describes her challenges. We still don't acknowledge Finn is force sensitive. Why isn't he training with Rey?

We are blazing through this movie. That's part of the problem we're just pushing plot points at this point. The movie needs to be more selective about slowing down and concentrating on character development. Something painfully lacking in this film. Even the Reylo scenes are about pushing the plot forward rather than pushing the characters forward.

3PO actually has a storyline this movie. Good for him. Look secondary characters in a trilogy, you get your moments and it ain't gonna be every film.

Zorri and Babu are nice additions. I like Zorri and the fact that Ren kicking her ass actually made her like her. Women supporting women. Were Zorri and Poe a thing. What's a spice runner? A space drug dealer?

Rey's social skills lack a bit. but she's great with Droids.

Wait, Chewie and Ren were both on Ren's Destroyer and they didn't even have a scene together?! Chewie's like an uncle to Ren.

Ren, show up in your boss ass destroyer to get your girl.

Standout lines -

Poe: 3PO! Move your metal ass.

3PO: How dare you we just met.

Finn, Poe and Chewie cowboying through the destroyer. Nice scene, doomed for failure I'm afraid.

Second Reylo forceskype is exposition. First real Reylo scene is exposition. Hey, movies gotta get it done haha but Ren literally is like here's the plot of the movie and everything you've been confused on up until this point. I will say watching the progression of the force bond that their spaces are now physically bleeding into one another. Nice touch. It's also nice to see what they each see when looking at one another through the force bond.

General Hux is the spy. Could've gone farther with this. RIP Dawg

Another FinnRey scene where you begin to understand Rey is pissed off and darker than possibly Finn thought.

Palpatine and Ren scene. I'm so annoyed Palpatine is in this movie.

We meet a ragtime band on horses surprise their former stormtroopers. All of them. From the same company. Sure Jan.

Seeing the death star again, so odd and doesn't look a thing like the original. We see scavenger Rey again.

Reylo fights again because Rey is the denial queen and she's free to take out her aggression on Ren. He likes feral Rey. In another less PG film, they've fought and then boned, but Leia died. Also, Dark Rey.... I'm here for it. Mostly cause it looks cool.

The film makers did the best they could with Carrie's Fisher passing. I thought they handled it with class and dignity while incorporating it into the film.

After Leia's passing and Rey healing it. Ren in his ever presented conflict nature overlooks the water when his father appears. It's poignant and character driven scene. It's beautiful scene about the enduring love of a parent. A flawed parent but a loving one nonetheless. Ben had two of those and he seems to finally understand that now.

Poe has a good scene with Leia's body about being a leader. Something that, despite all the bravado, he finally admits he doesn't know how to do. This would've been a great scene with her alive. Part of the issue people have the sequel trilogy of the lack of respect paid for previous generations. As if they are flawed and bigoted. On screen and off screen. A scene where Finn, Poe or Rey paid respect for the accomplishments of previous generations. Their courage and their bravery. Billie D. feels like just a stand-in.

Palpatine army blows up yet another planet. yawn.

Finn is a general bestow as such by Poe. Good choice. Sanitation worker aside no one knows more about The First Order than someone who was a stormtrooper. Finn reveals Palpatine wanted Rey alive...... then why tell Ren to kill her? Because if Rey didn't go dark then Ren was the fall back or vice versa?

So far it's not a bad film, just a disappointing film. The stuff that made my blood boil is about to come.

Rey isolates herself on Acht-to, burns the ship and we see ghost Luke. Why? She saw herself on the dark throne and she's afraid of herself. This might have meant something. At one point. It just feels like a retcon at this point. She's a Palpatine but Leia and Luke didn't care? Then what the hell were you worried about Ben for? If blood and legacy means nothing.

I'm not one of those people that need everything in a movie to make sense. It's also a space fantasy film, but damn.

Rey leads the Resistance to Exegol, she just doesn't know it. That was handy. No, really the way the movie sliced that together worked very well. Poe and Finn make a great speech about the resistance. Not as rousing as I'd like.

Exegol being the basis for the Sith religion is actually really cool. Wish we could've learned more. Empress Palpatine sounds like a boss ass name.

I hate everything about the ending of this film.

Rey once again goes into the enemy territory without a plan. The resistance doesn't really have one either except gumption.

Ben Solo is back! He's great. He's a hero. He's got great hair. He's likeable. We haven't seen him for 20 minutes, he doesn't say a word except "Ow" We have a beautiful Reylo moment where we Rey and Ben see each other through the Force Bond and she looks at Ben with such relief, joy and love that he's there with her. Ben fight like hell to get to her. This is it! Bendemption. We've waited three films for this. Then they tossed him off a cliff.

While it's a great scene of Rey listening to the previous Jedi's and rising up. I'm so confused how the dyad coming together empowers the devil. Ben has been made completely irrelevant.

I mean, we got a Reylo Kiss! It was epic and then it was over. We were lucky to get that considering Disney started to shy away from Reylo due to all the "controversy" I just hate this so we'll move on.

The hug was nice!

Rey Skywalker?

And that's that

[vaalthus]

The Mana Core (Spoilers)

Oh boy have things escalated quickly.

I have to say I like the brief gander through the Project Casca laboratory. It reminds me all too well of sequences in other video games, in which, characters finds themselves in dreary or primitive settings only to find highly advanced sterile white rooms indicating they are in the presence of something that completely contrasts the settings they've been in prior that tells them immediately that something is either very off or that the world around them is much bigger than they realize.

Unfortunately, in the case of the Magesterium's little white room, we learn that we should very much be in a state of unease when learning the consequences of their use of this facility. To learn that the Mana Core is not self-replenishing is very concerning, as it makes manaphages more terrifying, and it's alarming that the Magesters are more than fine with continuing to take pieces of the Core if it means they can have a stranglehold on their empire and how far it reaches if no alternatives can be substituted for the Core. I'm curious as to whether or not they would have brought Lore to the very brink before giving up on this resource and I feel like we already know the answer to that.

and speaking of alternatives...

Rather interesting to learn that the Exalted did, as suspected, come across MQ based technology and incorporated into their own works. What I find interesting is that one of these remnants was used in the creation of the Exalted Artillery. It certainly explains why the Exalted were able to forge a weapon capable of harming the Aequilibria to begin with as there has been a bit of consistent theme of mechquest related structures, or entities, being able to kind of just break the rules of reality. I wonder, in looking upon this revelation, if Notha would be proud she followed in similar footsteps of the Exalted when it came to incorporating and manipulating technology.

Which of course explains why Akanthus can't be bounded by the rules of magic in this world and is incredibly strong. Not only is he accessing the vast well of mana that the Magesters so desperately wanted to tap into for themselves one day, which grants him a strong body, but he is also slipping past the laws of the magic that governs Lore. Or perhaps more accurately, those laws are overlooking him so to speak. Either way, the world just doesn't know what to do with something like him or rather what he's been connected to.

I genuinely do love the amount of self-pitying Akanthus does in this moment. Yes, it does suck that Sobieslav was effectively raised up alongside other children to be experimented upon until they achieved a state that they were rendered effectively magicless in a world defined by magic and that they might just fade into the Ether once they die but it doesn't justify all they did after they were exiled by the Magesterium. It doesn't justify all those he killed or allowed to be killed in the Land of Dragons nor all the suffering he caused under the guise that he was achieving the peace the Rose claimed it offered.

He implies his lack of mana is what made him a monster, inhuman, but it's not. It was his selfishness, brutality, and apathy towards the lives of others. You were human Akanthus. You just chose to be the worst of what we had to offer.

For a moment, I thought this was going to be the most terrifying moment in this quest...

I even thought perhaps this was going to be that moment, but no there was something much worse waiting to happen. Also screw this guy for putting his hands on the dragon child!

*Ahem* No what was actually terrifying was this moment.

The Aequilibria, the gods of this universe, reawakened. Imagine my utter horror at the fact that it wasn't Jaania trying to weave herself into the Core or the doom bomb being the cause of this moment but us bringing Draco, one of its creation, being the reason why the gods woke up to see what was going on in their world.

Curiously enough, they bare the face of Sk'aar prior to turning back to the eight elemental stars we can see at the top of the Exaltia tower when fighting the Engineer in the Inn. This seems somewhat odd given that Sk'aar seemed to be implying they wanted to awaken a separate entity alongside us which seemed to be the Aequilibria itself.

I just love how this moment proved my suspicion that the eight eyes of Sk'aar we saw in AdventureFriends were supposed to be representative of the Elements which makes sense given the only reason we had that dream in the first place is because the love potion we drank had Quintessence in it, something that clearly contains all eight prime elements within it.

Curiosities on the visage of Aequilibria aside, what follows next is a pitiful sight.

This seems a narrtively fitting end for Akanthus if he can't be harmed. For the longest time, Akanthus viewed himself as an abomination cheated out of his rightful place in the world alongside everyone else and committed countless atrocities in his quest to regain that place. Going as far as waking up the gods of this universe to grant him his way. Upon awakening, they confirm that he is indeed an impurity to the natural order of the world but they do not grant him the connection he seeks. No instead, they remove him even further from the world itself and they contain him in a way only a god can when killing isn't an option. I don't know if this farewell for good to Akanthus since his soul still exists but if so I say goodbye and good riddance to bad rubbish.

With Akanthus finally neutralized, we turn our attention to the elephant in the room:

Our gods are analyzing the state of their creation.

And they are not pleased with the current status of Lore one bit.

All of Lore has just been marked for death because a frozen arch magus and one big metal butthead couldn't leave stuff alone.

Interestingly enough it seems like Aequilibria was referring to the twin cycles when they asked if it was time to start anew. This makes me wonder if Draco themselves aren't necessarily the true destroyer that is meant to wipe clean Lore but merely responsible in alerting Aequilibria when it times to refresh the system and Fluffy in turn is meant to alert them when its time to create life again. It seems somewhat unlikely, especially if they meant they were only waking up because the cycle has gone so wrong, but the Aequilibria makes it sound as if they were supposed to be woken up at set intervals.

What concerns me most though is the way they speak. Others have already pointed out that they talk very robotic in nature, very similarly to how Sk'aar spoke in one of the AdventureFriend routes, and their decisions are very straight to the point and seemingly without any trace of nuance.

Connections to MQ aside, this is very much a being that expects order and nothing but order in the system they have created and if it deems its creation has deviated too far from the system it will conclude to destroy it. I do not have high hopes for being able to reason with such an entity. It took the resources of all the Exalted to force this thing out of commission for a period of time so we are in some serious trouble.

[swallowtail-ageha]

Hey! Name 10 of your favourite Soulsborne characters! Doesn't have to be in any particular order, unless you want it to be!

SORRY FOR DELETING THE FIRST ONE AND MAKING YOU SEND THIS AGAIN

Also putting it under the cut because goood i love to get verbose and this shit is almost infinite for how long it got

Ok so *cracks knuckles*

1- Shanalotte

My precious girl!! My beloved!!! I have actually found most fromsoft level up maidens (bar her and melina) to be actually  pretty lacking in both relevance and story so she was a nice breath of fresh air! Her lore intrigues me very much like. She was created *specifically* with the purpose of being kindling (or that's what the "created to break the curse" implies to me).

She's one of the most normal looking dragon-human hybrids but it's ALSO implied that she's internally way more fucked up and unstable than them because she was pretty much left to rot alone by aldia in the dragon aerie. She can teleport propelled by the power of a funky feather. She has an emo haircut. Her intentions might not be the kindest as they might seem as instead of lettingherself burn she cultivated SEVERAL undeads to reach the throne instead of taking the throne for herself and she ALWAYS knows what is really going but refuses to tell the Bearer of the Curse anything that aren't the barest informations.

Forever will be salty that due to executive meddling we lost the time travel plot and didn't manage to see her as a child

2-Ranni

I think one of the biggest improvements overall of elden ring's ending questlines compared to the ones in other soulsborne is that they gave us a quest from a scheming character that ACTUALLY explains you what your schemes entrail and lets you through bosses and additional questlines forge a deeper connection to the npcs and Ranni (and her questline) are the epitome of that.

Like i have soo much to say about the fact that her ending is basically the classical courtly love story with the maiden in the tower rescued by the brave knight where the tower guarded by the dragon can both be her rise who is guarded by Adula (whom fights you to death before you can go to Manus Celes and marry her) and the cave in the lake of rot which is guarded by Astel.

AND WHILE PEOPLE MISCHARACTERIZE HER AS COLD AND UNLOVING SHE IS SO FULL OF LOVE. She's yes scheming and willing to do evil acts to reach her goals but she LOVES Iji and Blaidd THEY WERE HER FAMILY BLAIDD WAS HER BROTHER EVEN IF HE WAS ENGINEERED TO BETRAY HER IF SHE WENT ASTRAY AND THEY BOTH KNEW IT BUT THEY LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH THAT BLAIDD OVERCAME FOR A WHILE HIS SHADOW'S INSTINCTS. She didn't want you to continue your services for her because she knew that iji and blaidd were doomed and didn't want you to end like them AND YET. AND YET. YOU TRAVERSED THE LAKE OF ROT FOR HER. YOU KILLED ALIENS AND GOD TO SAVE HER. SHE FIRST INTENDED TO GO AWAY WITH NO ONE FOLLOWING HER BUT YOU DECIDE TO DEPART WITH HER. NEVER LEAVING HER ALONE IN THE COLD AND EMPTY SPACE.

I am sorry for the all caps and incoherent rambling but i genuinely love ranni so much. Elden ring in general is very dear to me and her questline was one of the first ones i've ever done in a soulsborne game :3

3-Rykard

Ok i admit that while at first i only liked him for "funny snake" stuff the more i learned about him the more i liked him.

He's like Ranni in the sense that where he did commit many atrocities one of his most overlooked characteristics is how he loved.

He loved radahn so much that he had paintings of him all over his home. He loved tanith so much because he knew what he would become once fused with the snake and offered her a way out of the suffering that it might have caused her (but we know tanith didn't mind) and trusted her so much to let her lead volcano manor in his stead. He loved rennala so much that he left his own Special Torture Device around the academy to hurt whoever wanted to kill her. He loved ranni so much that he helped prepare her great plan and was willing to take the blame and challenge MALIKETH HIMSELF in order to protect her if the plan went wrong. And he loved radagon so much that him abandoning them to follow the GW literally caused him to react so badly that he decided to infiltrate it's ranks as a loyal inquisitor to destroy it from the inside in the way it would hurt the most (like burning the minor erdtree). Also he's bisexual. Miyazaki you might have removed the daedicar's woe item description but he remains bi in the heart of us rykardpilled

4-Tanith

Aside from being the canonically freakiest person in bed in the lands between the whole rykard-tanith-rya storyline makes me go RAAAAH "my greatest distress would be forgetting you" and then she goes on to ask you to unconsensually do to rya the same thing that rykard consensually asked her to do!! Because for her it's better to live a lie than to know the truth!! And the fact that this is likely caused by her feeling inadequate to be a mother (as cut dialogue shows)!!!

Also undying loyalty literally wanting to have someone live on through you by ingesting them... her obsession with rykard and what he represented preventing her to actually move on after he gets killed by the tarnished but also her love for him is one of the reasons WHY volcano manor still stands + the fact that rykard married her not out of pure lust but because he sawnin her a dignity befitting of a ruler AND HE WAS RIGHT.... Miyazaki. Martin. I love you.

5-Nashandra

Ok i might not have papers upon papers to write about her but she's one of my favourites in the sense that she hits the extremely specific archetype of extremely cunty woman who exploits manipulates others but that's because she's an eldritch abomination whose existance is extremely fragile and literally just wants To Live (the other character who fits this is Ma evilliouschronicles and she's like my fave character 5eva).

The concept of the daughters of manus is very cool and i feel like there's some significance in her sharing the "shan" in her name with shanalotte but only miyazaki knows.

I really want to know what her and vendrick's marriage looked like i KNOW they were freaky

6-Maria

MARIA MY BELOVED MARIA... I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS (TM) ABOUT HER and the main one is that to me she is like one of those protagonist from those late 19th/early 20th decadent novels but if they were a girl.

The thing that appeals to me the most about her is how much of an utter failure she was in both life and death like her arc is such a downwards spiral. I am not okay with cainhurst's hunting thecniques? Ok! Let's join the victorian equivalent of the scalp hunters from blood meridian! Oh shit oh no oh fuck i ended up committing genocide and eviscerating a pregnant god and now i am extremely traumatized well i'll try to redeem myself by joining the blood murdercult and by committing experiments based on the evisceration of said pregnant god to help advance humanity. All the experiments i led are for naught and only led to more suffering? At this point i can't handle it anymore every single good thing i did led to death and misery i'm gonna kill myself AT LEAST IN DEATH I CAN'T HARM ANYONE :) RIGHT? :) [cue her upholding the nightmare and its inhabitants suffering and then dying against the good hunter causing them to rampage through the hamlet again]

I think her biggest flaw in the end was to keep denying the fact that her actions slowly got more brutal because she wanted to think of herself as a good person until things snowballed so much that they got out of her control and couldnt do anything to prevent damage from happening. Rip my sweet angel corrado silla and alfonso nitti wouldve seen you as their long lost sister

7-Sulyvahn

HE LIVED HE SERVED CUNT HE DIED. There is something oddly poetic and horrifying about someone who came from a place designed to keep away those rejected by the gods being the responsible of the fall of the gods himself. AND YET none of this came from rightful vengeance or a sense of duty towards his fellow inhabitants of the painter. No. He didn't give a single shit about it and hated the place. He only did that because he was power hungry and skilled and had the possibility to do that.

I am also OBSESSED OBSESSED OBSESSED with the fact that it's implied that he has more than a few grievances with women and i like to think of him as a huge misogynistic creep in the way fanon gehrman is. He is so insidiously manipulative and backstabbing and needlessly cruel he is up there in the alley of my favourite nasty old men. He might or might not have had beef in the past with aldrich which led to aldrich kicking his ass earlier and weakening him enough to permit the ashen one to kill him. We love a villain whose downfall is caused by his constant backstabbing

8- Fauxefka

I know that she's very barebone as npcs go but i am soo fond of her she's my canon oc. There is soo much implied about her aside from the fact that miyazaki considers her one of the only heroic people in game like. She is from the choir (and might have stolen the umbilical cord from willem) while Iosefka who looks exactly like her is implied to have been a defector from mensis so academic beef might be one of the motives for turning her into an alien i have SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT and if you send the suspicious beggar to her house he STILL turns into a celestial emissary which means she alone was strong enough to overpower him.

Also her voice gets me sooo <3333 and add that with the fact that she was brave enough to gobble down an umbilical cord without a single thought she's a lunatic but also probably the sanest person in yharnam and i'm here for it

9- Friede

Friede is another one in the halley of pathetic women like yass girl... doom a world where you found comfort in to ruin because you are so traumatized by your first death by burning that you refuse to let it happen again despite it being a good thing so she parallels nicely with gwyn.

Another thing that i found interesting is that aside from that she is ALSO motivated by love for the inhabitants of the painting but is willingly blind to the love wilhelm and yuria had for her

Side note but i found a really good wilhelm/friede fic where mid fuck she removes his ring that prevents him from looking like a beef jerky and muses that he'd never do that because he's too loyal for her and is happy of the power she has over him and that is sooo good i'll just incorporate it in my headcanons for her

10- Gwyndolin

I already joked about him being the joker for trans men but like. The tragedy of his story makes me go insane <3 Imagine being reviled by your father for literally every single part of your being. You have your older siblings. They are your father's favourites, THE golden children. And yet one by one they leave you all alone, one being kicked out and erased from history for siding with the enemy and the other flees as she always does whenever she encounters trouble. Your father who hates you throws himself into the first flame and leaves you alone with massive abandonment and gender issues and you spend literally every single moment of your life trying to continue his legacy even to the point of living in your father's tomb. You revile him and how he treated you especially regarding your gender so you try to be independent. To throw away your old identity he forced on you and finally live as a man and a king of your own right BUT you'll always be desperate for his love and will never separate from his shadow down to the bitter end. You raise what is your sibling or niece but also instead of actually making her independent you keep her naive and sheltered, every single place of power is purely symbolic.

And then the tree guy who works as your knight and whom you might or might not be fucking fucking overthrows you imprisons you and your sisterniece in the cathedral and feeds you alive to a guy whom you sent to his death by burning ages ago to continue the cycle your father started. Life really be like that sometimes.

So... here it is! I am sorry for how long it got lmaoo

[dwarf-vader-of-middle-earth]

I just wish I had someone who appreciated my original fiction the way I do. Someone, just 1 person, who would read my own universes and be inspired and want to partake in them and their lore. A single person to read what I make up from my own mind, and appreciate the effort I put into it genuinely and wholely. Instead, it's just my fanfiction, which I don't really write much of, that garners attention. Every piece that takes place in established universes, gets way more likes and reads and attention, versus what I pour my entire heart and soul and life essence into coming up with all on my own, which gets none ever at all. It doesn't matter if I tag and reblog the story 50 times, all 50 notes are from my reblogs and not 1 person even gave it a like. I've paid for advertising my books on multiple platforms. I've shared everything I've ever written as a rough draft for free on my pages so people can get interested in the final product. But no one even looks at those ads, or at the free 5,000+ word stories I write, let alone buys anything from me... I'm seriously pissed... My original ideas are creative, unique, and epic. And nobody cares.

Want to read about the legends of gigantic robots the size of mountains, which were piloted by people who, when they died, they'd lay down in empty fields in their mechs and pass peacefully as nature grew over the mech and turned it into an actual mountain? Go read my dream of the Titan Mechs, then.

What about a man who loves another man he can't remember? And every day the two meet by chance, one angry that he keeps crossing paths with someone not of his realm, and the other frustrated he can't remember this man at all but has a connection to him? And they search for a way to remain in each other's hearts and minds across dimensions that won't allow for such a romance as theirs to prevail? Go read Forgotten Magick, then.

What about sentient robots called Kydons whose queen forged a sword long ago that could control all technology anywhere in the world, and when she died, she hid the blade where nobody could reach it for fear that someone would use it to end her world? And Humankind rises up to find that blade believing the spearhead of the hunt will build something great for Earth with it, only for one Human to find out that spearhead is planning to ruin both Earth and Antu'rok and all life to rebuild everything in his image as the one ruler? So that single Human who found this out must betray his people and find the sword with the help of the Kydons to get it before the spearhead does? Go read my excerpt for Golden Horizons, then.

Are you curious to see how a single man serving Death goes on to become a god of all things good and righteous by inheriting the power of an ancient god who he freed from control of a wicked warlord and then, with said powers, kills to free the universe from falling into an empire of wrath? Go read Ascending Death, then.

Maybe you'd be interested in a universe where the world is made from four giants, all of whom embody a single trait, and when one giant chooses to make Humans, Death, in a jealous rage, casts a plague upon them all in attempt to end them, and one lone Human goes on a quest to find Death and beg for a cure? Go read A Means to an End, then.

Perhaps you'd like a world where Dwarves and Humans once existed, but the Dwarven mines collapsed and all Humans thought Dwarves to be extinct? And for centuries, the stories and evidence of Dwarves faded out until they were nothing but legend? But one Human man is determined to prove the existence of Dwarves, and find out if any are alive still or not? Go read the story of The Forgemasters, then.

And I have infinite more universes to look into, if you're ever curious. I'm always coming up with more and more of them, by the day. Please, support a small original fiction author, and, even if none of these appeal to you, go ahead and share because you never know who might just be interested!

[llycaons]

I'm trying to be chill for my reread but chapter one is called "Love Thy Neighbor" OH FUCK OFF.....okay under the cut the rest goes

never paid attention to the chapter titles honestly I just slurped it all

the manga actually starts with imuri stating her desire to fall in love - to have a genuine romantic bond with someone that she doesn't ruin and that people don't try to hurt her for. I've seen the claim that she's the 'true' protag of the manga and I think that's a little silly. she can be a serious major character and not the protagonist. she's not even as major as some other anime/manga deuteragonists I can think of

the fact that she paints humans and demons falling in love hits a bit on the nose knowing who she is but it's also an honest depiction of her desires so. it's okay

why the hell are you laughing at a 12 year old getting beaten up. are you stupid (he's stupid). he is cutes tho

nicholas is so dehumanizing towards the priest damn...I actually don't think dante experienced as much physical abuse from him between the other kids being mad at him for being favored EVEN THOUGH HE'S GAY and his attitude towards the church as a kid being generally positive, just a hassle to deal with. but who knows!

and four years later the church is like damn the priest is doing so bad mentally thats crazy. typical allusions to remaining 'pure' and warning dante not to be a womanizer around him

hehe. anyway he says he's going to raise the priest but at the end of ch1 I think he just leaves?

oh stop this might have been one of the first kind touches he's ever had. DANTE...no wonder the priest remembers him fondly. he was like hmm this kid is really withdrawn I should give him some affection. and it kind of worked

the post I made about this got like 50 notes in a day bc we're all starved but he does appear to be in physical pain. and it's not even that he forges connections with these women or appears to really get to know them, he just invites them over to drink together and then give them tons of money. it would be nice if he actually got to know these women and maybe spent his money more umm strategically like maybe these women are fine but they know other people who really need it...but I don't think he's thinking that hard it's just verge on the mind. but he's also focusing his efforts on adults and not poor kids...🤔 like that woman a bit later doesn't want to be pitied

WAIT I FORGOT...he was doing this as a ploy to flush out succubi. it WAS part of the job and he WAS thinking about it and he WAS forcing himself to act het for it. sad. well I guess it worked

nah this is a W for dante keep scamming the church. OHHH MY GOD verge thinks that dante goes to brothels and fucks women and that's part of why he's mad at him right. like he thinks he fully embraced the homophobia of the church and denying himself and is pissed at him. I thought he knew about the money but why would he! i mean it's vague so maybe...he heard about it from becu or someone else who was there but maybe not! anyway im sure dante is a virgin

he did seem a little holier-than-thou lmao I liked this

we see his face later and it's not like this so I genuinely think he's been stressed out his whole life due to pressure and abuse and he just thinks its normal

okay I went to dante's wikipedia page bc I wanted to know where he was from and I saw 'markmanship' among his abilities and I just started laughing. I know it's not funny. but. well we know he hit ONE person dead on

also if he grew up in the plavce the priest did I guess he is italian but he mentions 'coming to this country' so ig he's been living elsewhere

he's so baby....

dante asks him if he's joking and he QUOTES SCRIPTURE at him...also this is a trait that we see later on too, his comittment to and reverence of honesty

OHHH MY GOD it was because she wanted to fuck him

dante must really be an elite exorcist if the priest is impressed...we see how well he fights later too

genuinely didn't see that coming. chills

oh good lord the pregnancy horror. it doesn't bother me but I forgot to put it in the tw list 💀

WAIT. SHE IMPREGNATED THAT DEMON WITH HERSELF THEN RIPPED OUT???? scream...kind of metal tho

SEX AND DEATH ALWAYS IN THE SAME PLACE.....what a line to start this manga out on given how much priest's trauma is from 1. sexual assault and 2. physical violence

because he is literally gay...another thing I like a lot about how the story handles the demon of lust. attraction is not universal...

LEAVE HIM ALONEEEE

god no wonder he's suicidal

the way that the demon of lust slinks in and exposes all his vulnerabilities immediately and then uses them against him...that's an aspect you see later with aria too. she used his attraction to get close to him and then uses that closeness to hurt him. I screencapped this because it's a particularly upsetting page, but the 'don't look' really hit me on both reads. vulnerability and intimacy, emotional or physical, is difficult enough for him. to have it forced from him is horrifying, and I want to say mirrors the physical assault they're treatening him with as well. a really scary aspect of lust

my antichrist theory...or son of lucifer theory...or the jesus theory who knows

LUCIFER WAS AN ARCHANGEL NO???

she talked such a big game about being the most powerful of the seven sins and he defeated her in like five pages. well she does come back ig

dante internally going 'whatttt the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK'

it may be extreme, but the series doe not beat around the bush in establishing its themes and subject matter

he looks shocked/horrified here but his dialogue is PISSED....he knows nicholas obviously and he probably already hates him

I actually really love this panel. it's easy to make fun of it but it's genuinely what the priest needed to hear just now in his sexual shame-induced spiral and and it does become relevant later. also I like how it's laid out. dante very firm, very strong. this is good advice! consensual sex is okay! masturbation is okay!

esp as a gay man in the church (even closeted) with the experiences we knew he had, I think dante probably sees his job as damage mitigation not just in the sense of literally defending people from demons and giving money to swers, but providing a more supportive and umm less regressive voice in the church. probably not many kids are AS twisted up about this as priest is, but there's plenty of young people in the church with religious trauma, and plenty of gay catholics specifically

he wasn't wrong....

the thing is..he's right. the priest isn't actually that faithful

dramatic irony is a hell of a thing

:( he is twelve years old

THIS HUG....🥺