#she's a goddamn inspiration

[bowbowis]

Edelgard the Underdog

Something that tends to get overlooked because the Empire has the biggest army in Fódlan is that Edelgard herself is by far the biggest underdog among Three Houses' leaders. Yes, she is a princess of the Adrestian Empire but she was never meant to be Emperor, she only became the heir because she alone among her siblings was able to withstand the torturous experiments they were subjected to. By that point the Insurrection of the Seven had already happened and whoever held the position of Emperor was little more than a puppet dancing on the Prime Minister's strings. Dimitri's status was assured the moment he popped out of the womb with a Crest. Claude just had to convince his grandfather he was who he claimed to be and could always fall back on trying to stake his claim to the Almyran throne if things in Leicester didn't pan out. Rhea and Thales have run their respective organizations for over a thousand years. In contrast, Edelgard's position granted her right to little more than a fancy title and a gilded cage (once they let her out of the literal torture dungeon that is). She didn't have any power, and she was never meant to have any power, whereas everyone else either already had power or was set to inherit it in due time.

So yeah, she ends up with the best army by the start of Part II, but only because she fought tooth and nail for it, using every ounce of cunning and political acumen she had, all while keeping the Those Who Slither in the Dark in... well... the dark, as to her plans.

[khaire-traveler]

I think there is a lot of power in Ariadne's tale, actually, and I feel like that reflects on who she is as well. She went through a fucking awful situation, left behind by the love of her life - IN HER SLEEP, BY THE WAY - to die alone on the island of Naxos with no way to leave. Dionysus found her and offered her a new life, and not only is that a beautiful display of love, but it's also a beautiful display of Ariadne's personal strength. She pushed through the struggles of her past and learned to trust and love and live again. She must've had to build from the bottom up, healing from the pain of the past, and she fucking did it! She did it and succeeded and lived happily with her god husband who literally made her a crown of stars, and that's fucking awesome, and I just think that's a really beautiful and highly underrated part of Ariadne's story: her journey of healing that she took after being left by Theseus.

[olenvasynyt]

Really sick of this topic of Choice when it comes to Elain because it’s often used as a morality test against Elucien’s. A lot of E/riels truly do not understand how Eluciens view Elain. And I don’t think E/riels themselves understand what they’re saying with Elain.

This is basically every single conversation I’ve had with an E/riel when it gets on the topic of choice:

Elucien: Elain should give herself the chance to get to know her mate. This isn’t just about Lucien’s happiness but also Elain’s

E/riel: well Elain should have the choice!

Elucien: Yeah, Elain has had the option of choice since the cauldron…Lucien has been giving her the room to choose

E/riel: I want her to be happy! This isn’t about Lucien

Elucien: Yeah we…we also said we want Elain to be happy, and that this mating bond should be resolved—

E/riel: what if Az is actually her soulmate???

…..

I will be fully honest: a lot of E/riels are about Elain choosing, but I really feel like when we get Elain’s book…they aren’t going to like the choice Elain makes.

[necrotic-nephilim]

what are your favourite batcest ships and why?

AAA i love this question so much. i'm going to limit myself to a top five, because otherwise, i'd just end up listing all of them. the true joy of batcest is they're all so good for such different reasons and there are so many unique dynamics you can explore.

JayTim - it's funny bc, before i started this blog, i don't know if i would've put these two losers as my number one. but because i've done so much deep diving into their dynamic and i write them the most, i think it'd be a disservice for them to be anything *but* number one. their canon dynamic is just. so fun to play with. i truly love all of their interactions, particularly pre-Flashpoint. the concepts of Tim holding such contempt for Jason while Jason is weirdly obsessed with Tim. i'm a fan of Hannibal and Killing Eve and well. if this isn't a Hannigram-coded ship idk *what* is. i like ships where love and hate co-exist and there's no real "happily ever after", just fucked up co-existing, where they crawl back to each other like a bad habit and really, this ship is that so perfectly. the themes of jealousy in the Robin mantle. Tim wearing Jason's Red Robin suit to punish himself. i will likely never shut up about them. even in the New-52, there's such a substance to them, though the dynamic is wildly different. they will always be so weirdly dependent on each other's existence. i love them.

BruDick - you can't outdo the doer, i fear. i think i like BruDick mostly for the history of it, yk. there's genuinely *so much* queer history seeped into the homoeroticism of Batman and Robin, these two have been a symbol for queer people for decades. but the ship itself has so many dynamics i love. problematic age gap, "are we family or lovers", "i can't be in a room alone with you without getting into a screaming match but if you called i drop everything for you". all of it. i especially favor 80s/90s BruDick when they were in their divorce era just because it's so messy. Dick has canonically said he would die for Bruce, even during their arguments. no matter what, these two will always be single-mindedly devoted to each other. there will be other Robins, but none of them will compare to Dick Grayson, for Bruce. it's a unique and complicated bond that has endless layers to peel back. they always crawl back to each other bc no one else will match their level of intensity.

DamiTim - years and years ago, when i was a teen trying to people-please with how i existed in fandom, i used to insist i didn't like batcest and found it icky and gross. but there was one DamiTim fic that was my exception. that fic was my fucking roman empire. i reread it like once a year even though it's not completed and likely never will be i do not care. so now that i've killed the morality police in my head and i let myself ship what i actually want to ship, this ship holds a top place in my heart just bc of that fic alone. but in general i do fucking love their dynamic. similar to JayTim there's just so much mutual hatred in these two that has endless potential. Damian's insistence to not see Tim as a Wayne and as a legitimate brother/heir to Bruce is something you can play a lot if you give Damian an angry, fucked up crush on Tim he doesn't want to admit to. they have so many reasons to dislike each other, so to try to get them to slowly fall in love is a fun challenge. they either have a long complicated forgiveness arc and end up a happy married couple or they are the couple that tries to kill each other once a week. no in-between.

JeanTim - there's like. one person here on tumblr who goes as hard for this ship as i do and truly god bless them bc they feed me. Jean-Paul is too underrated in the batcest scene. once i reread Knightfall, i will have to help popular this tag on ao3. i enjoy both a very fucked up version of this ship during the peak of the Knightfall arc, where Jean-Paul is deep in his murder Batman era and Tim is trying to stop him to no real avail, but i *also* think there's so much you can do with the ship afterwards, where Jean-Paul is trying to make up for what he's done and be a better person and better hero. they're the peak Batman/Robin ship, to me. they truly care about each other, but have a very complicated/bloody history and i just. man i love it so dearly. i've been meaning to write a fic where Jean-Paul goes to Tim post the Sword of Azrael (2022) arc to properly discuss and apologize for all his actions in Knightfall for his personal healing and they end up fucking. it could be sweet and cute or kinky fun bc what is the joy of a character with that much Catholic guilt if you don't give them a weird religious kink.

BruCarrie - The Dark Knight Returns got me into comics and i will defend it till the day i die. Carrie Kelley can be pried from my cold dead hands. i just really love these two? Carrie took one look at that cranky old bastard and decided she was his problem. and Bruce is at a stage where he should be very averse to the idea of having a Robin, he knows it's a bad idea. but he just. accepts her anyway. idk how to explain their dynamic other than she plunks herself in his lap and stitches up his wounds while telling him he's an idiot and he lets her even if he's grumbling about it. they have the biggest age gap of any Batman/Robin ship and for that, they should get like. a dead dove gold star no matter how rare the pair is.

also honorable mention goes to BruTim, because *god* do i love the concept of Tim offering himself up to Bruce as Robin in every way, knowing that there are likely sexual/romantic implications to being Robin. it's one of my favorite flavors of batcest to exist. i don't view them as a "happily ever after" ship, because Bruce will always go back home to Dick, but it's a fun lil dead dove moment.

[liauditore]

new suicide squad anime got me thinking about the genderbend batman au i made when i was 16 again.

extra (nsfw??? body horror + shirtless doodle lol) art under the cut + drabble.

A mysterious actress appears in Gotham!

Production for the long-anticipated remake of the 1930s classic horror film, "The Clay", is saved in part thanks to the audition of one woman with no credits to her name, just a face and demeanor identical of the late leading actress of the original film.

However, the cast and crew have bigger worries than their limited budget and endless demands from their producers -- everyone involved seems to be disappearing one by one!

While the average gothammite worries that the cult classic's "cursed" reputation might be a little more than an urban legend, The Batman refuses to entertain such unfounded silliness and aims to get to the bottom of this crime against cinema!

presenting BATMAN '63 - THE RISE OF CLAYFACE coming not actually ever lmao

(her hair is brown now because I like the idea of her appearance never being fully consistent lol. shapeshifters gotta do their thing)

[hannibalismos-jaaneman]

the sole and devastating problem with monkey man is that it will literally never be able to push past the people who think the concept of the film disrespects hanuman ji to be exposed in an environment where people see it for more than its name.

[spaceratprodigy]

OC Inspiration Game

Tagged by @kyberinfinitygems 💖💕

Rules: Share your OC and two characters from other media that influenced them the most.

I am going to go way off beat and share all of my inspirations for Maril! ✨

Personality Inspiration:

• Kizzy Shao — The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

• Kaylee Frye — Firefly

• Parvati Holcomb — The Outer Worlds

–

Design Inspiration:

• Color palette is made up of my own favorite colors 🖤💙💚💛

• Kingdom Hearts character/outfit design in general

• Gen 2 female pokemon protagonists

• KH3 Sora's design in Big Hero 6 world specifically

Don't forget her father 💙✨

and, I mean, of course.. not the full inspiration for her namesake but they do share one lmao

open tag to anyone who wants to jump in!

[runefactorynonsense]

Cozytober - Day 1 - Leaves

It's not a mess to clean up, it's fun to be had!

[aztarion]

and in news you couldve went your whole life without knowing or caring . ive finally settled on a Look for sol 👍

[alethiometry]

for my own peace of mind i may need to stop reading r/yellowjackets jfc. in just a single post i have seen people theorize that

javi is still alive bc he found an underground hot spring / javi found civilization and saved the girls

jackie's dream actually happened bc she wouldn't have dreamed of the dead hunter

laura lee survived the plane exploding bc we never saw a body

[mitta-likes-moths]

I need to put them through such a situation they will never recover from

[noahtally-famous]

not me popping back on here with a post after months of semi-inactivity (uni is being a bitch) just to reiterate how much i love writing the pahkitew island cast.

aside from sammy and amy (obviously), literally everyone else can be shipped with one another and it'd make sense to some degree, like it takes skill to create a group of people so inherently shippable (platonically and/or romantically) and ofc the writers didn't know it they just shoved a bunch of random ppl together and dusted their hands off on it but fr tho 😭

(yeah im planning out my leonave 'stranger things inspired' au, and the gears are turning, and i forgot just how much i love writing for this dumbass group)

(i swear im working on the next chapter of a guide to surviving the apocalypse too)

[sapphic--kiwi]

tholomule family portrait 💛🤎 (full tholomule parent designs under the cut!)

the posthoot friday night inspired me to finish my mom and dad tholomule designs - their names are Atticus and Fiona 💛 Atticus is both boys’ bio dad, but Fiona is Matt’s biological mother and adopted Steve when she married Atticus. They both work in the Construction Coven which takes them away from home a lot, which is why Steve had to help raise Matt 💛 they attended Hexside, but worked in Latissa for many years before moving back to Bonesborough sometime during Season 1 (in order to put Matt into Hexside after Steve brought it to their attention he was being bullied at school). (I also worked on designs for Atticus’s siblings, one of whom is Boscha’s three-eyed-mom - I’ll post those hopefully soon but yeah the matt and boscha cousins HC is so personal and real to me)

[roszabell]

i wanted to play with pretty light brushes hehe

[bumblingbabooshka]

she’s never gonna make it. she’s never gonna make it in L.A

Closeup

[kraviolis]

the world is my oyster so heres my ocs in the owl house. they are girlfriends who are wild witches together (both use she/her)