#since they’re both extremely destructive forces

[catofoldstones]

My point is that the ice and fire in a song of ice and fire are literally the ice and fire powerhouses re the white walkers and the Targaryens (and stannis & the fire lord etc), and they’re both the villains. Goodbye.

[sneakyboymerlin]

I have said it before, but Kilgharrah has a parallel-opposite arc to Morgana. His character is redeemed in the same streak of episodes where Morgana goes from an ally to a major villain. While Kilgharrah was often self-serving and manipulative in the first 2 seasons, this changes by the end of season 2 because Merlin chooses to show him mercy after incapacitating him. It’s the first real kindness that Kilgharrah has experienced in well over 20 years. Whereas, when Merlin shows Morgana mercy by making the deal with Morgause to save her after she’s been incapacitated, Morgana returns more vengeful than ever. Back to Kilgharrah, though…

Not only does he indebt himself to Merlin, he comes to see Merlin in an entirely new way. Before, when he would call Merlin kin, it was in the most literal sense—both are creatures of magic, cut from the same cloth, and should be allies. But now, they’ve formed a bond from that kinship (and in a literal soul connection sense, too, no less). Kilgharrah’s plea strikes Merlin with so much force because they’re both now the last of their kind, and Merlin cannot help but consider and understand what Kilgharrah has been through, despite the destruction he’s caused, because it’s happened to Merlin, too. When they see each other next, this is what they have to say:

Merlin: I didn't think you'd answer my call.

Kilgharrah: Merlin, I could not resist a dragonlord, even if I wanted to.

Merlin: I’m grateful, thank you.

Let’s focus on that: “…even if I wanted to.” Kilgharrah did not want to resist Merlin’s call for help because he’s come to care about Merlin in his own way. This development is easily traced back to Merlin’s show of mercy. It cannot be stressed enough: this was the first kindness Kilgharrah had been shown in over 20 years, after rotting away in a dungeon when he was betrayed in every way possible, suffering from the grief of his entire species going extinct on Uther’s orders. And with this one show of mercy, Merlin changed the heart of a creature that everyone had already dismissed as a monster (the same way Merlin sees himself), one who sought his revenge by razing an entire city to the ground. From the start, Merlin treats him as a person: “Why are you doing this? You’re killing innocent people!” No one who saw him as a mere beast acting on its true nature would ask a moral quandary of him. And in the end, this path leads to Kilgharrah being spared, and Camelot repeatedly being saved as a result.

Kilgharrah’s sincerity in his care for Merlin is consistent in later seasons, and is seen in more than just his rescues. In 4x02, he plainly urges Merlin not to sacrifice himself, despite the fact that Arthur’s life (and thus, Kilgharrah’s ultimate freedom) hangs in the balance.

Merlin: Arthur intends to sacrifice himself to heal the Veil. It is my destiny to protect him; you taught me that.

Kilgharrah: Merlin, you must not do this.

He shortly follows this with something we’ve known since Merlin mended the rift between them in 2x13:

Kilgharrah: From the moment I met you, I saw something that was invisible. Now, it is there for all to see […] It will be an empty world without you, young warlock.

Having failed to convince Merlin to let someone else be the sacrifice, Kilgharrah commends him. Not only that, Kilgharrah mourns him.

This is all to say that Kilgharrah’s actions in seasons 1 & 2 should not be the sole focal point for our judgment of him, when he undergoes such an extreme change of character. Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that Kilgharrah’s faith in the prophecies is anything but genuine. Alongside his newfound care for Merlin, his ultimate goal is his own freedom, and he believes that Arthur is the key to that.

Kilgharrah: We need Arthur to live […] Your destiny is to protect the young Pendragon until he claims his crown, and when he does, magic can be returned to the realm. Only then will I be free.

This logic is in line with what occurred in 5x13. Kilgharrah wouldn’t have said or done any of what he does in 1x13 if he did not believe that Arthur’s ascension to king would lead to his own freedom (even if it didn’t take immediate effect). Arthur’s place on the throne made room for an end to the wars, namely the one on magic. Kilgharrah did not make these prophecies up, nor is he the only one to believe in them. Alator and Finna possessed knowledge of the same prophecies, and both believed in Emrys’ vision/mission.

Kilgharrah had great knowledge himself, and tried to share that with Merlin to pave the best path, but he was not all-knowing, and he tells Merlin as much himself. Kilgharrah is merely a messenger, believer, and interpreter. So, he still believes the prophecy has come to pass, even if Arthur did end up dying anyways. The five kingdoms could now be united and magic restored to the land once the war was ended upon Morgana’s death. The prophecy was fulfilled within Arthur’s lifetime, despite the success of Arthur’s Bane. It did not go as Merlin expected, nor how Kilgharrah expected, but it still… went. This is what he means when he says, “No young man, no matter how great, can know his destiny.”

The idea that Kilgharrah simply played Merlin, when he was depending on Arthur as much as any creature of magic, and when he genuinely cared for Merlin as kin, is bad faith conjecture. How they got to the end point still mattered to him (i.e. Merlin must protect Arthur so that he has a chance to fulfill the prophecy), because that potential only existed through Arthur, and they all continued to suffer until that time came. Regardless of the age at which Arthur died, though, he was destined to fulfill these prophecies and return at Albion’s time of need. This, Kilgharrah knew. So is it any wonder that he maintained faith in it even after Arthur died? Especially after Arthur died, proving the prophecies true once again?

Kilgharrah: Merlin. There is nothing you can do.

Merlin: I've failed?

Kilgharrah: No, young warlock, for all that you have dreamt of building, has come to pass.

Merlin: I can't lose him! He's my friend!

Kilgharrah: Though no man, no matter how great, can know his destiny, some lives have been foretold. Merlin... Arthur is not just a King— he is the Once and Future King. Take heart, for when Albion's need is greatest, Arthur will rise again.

No, Kilgharrah did not predict the exact ending, but he did his best to help Merlin bring about the best possible outcome, and he said what he could to comfort Merlin when he was grieving Arthur. Kilgharrah was genuine, and his motives were in alignment with Merlin’s by the start of season 3.

[cosmosnout]

KH OC WEEK 2024

Day 2: Past

Shiro

Though Shiro themselves no longer remembers much about their past, they had quite an adventurous childhood. Shiro’s life has been rough and tumble from the very beginning as a young keybearer and they’re no stranger to finding themselves on an adventure.

The most important memories for Shiro are, of course, those spent with their friends in Twilight Town. Ephemer and Skuld were definitely considered Shiro’s best friends during that time, and the trio would spend countless hours running around trying to chase down the mysteries of the fortellers.

Shiro was also very close with their party members (the little weirdos from KHUX( /lovingly)) and would go on many adventures with them to grow stronger, and mostly to just have fun.

Chirithy and their dream eater companion where also very important people(creatures?)in Shiro’s life.

Shiro met the of the other dandelion leaders later on but didn’t have too much time with them due to the world kinda ending.

Usually during the time of fairytales, when someone discovers they were a keyblade weilder, they’d find themselves wondering into Twilight town one way or another. Shiro, however, was actually born there and doesn’t ever recall having a family or living outside of the town.

But yeah, otherwise, their childhood/pre-teen years were spent following the plot of KHUX, with the exception that they got to spend more time with Ephemer and Skype before being forced to part ways.

As children, Aiko and Viktor had a dream of building a spaceship to explore the stars with. They however, quickly realised that building a spaceship is a lot harder than storybooks made it out to be, so they instead settled on just looking at the stars.

It is still a memory they think fondly of years later. Not necessarily because of the absurdity of two children managing to build a functioning space ship, but because it was something they promised to do together. A promise of staying together.

(They immediately get separated, once they leave their world LMAO)

Viktor and Aiko both grew up pretty secluded from the rest of the world and had very little interactions with others.

Doing pretty much everything together was kind of a given, so having become separated from each other in the future neither of them took it very well.

Codependent idiots (lovingly) but they learn to exist outside of each other once they become older I swear.

I imagine their childhood home being a bit out of town near a beautiful meadow and forest that they’d play in.

(Oh, and they totally build that spaceship in the future once they realise that magic exists. It is extremely awesome, and I’d like to think Ansem’s apprentices will help them out with it once they finally get acquainted somewhere post kh3.)

Similar to Aiko and Viktor Merin and Tähti have been together since quite literally their birth. (Coming into existence together with no idea what you are is quite the bonding experience.)

Their creation happened under quite the confusing circumstances that naturally just had to involve old man Xehanort in it. Having had some unexplained part in their previous person's destruction, Xehanorts took the two under his wing for a short while. However, once he discovers the cause of the extraction failing (having both light and darkness extracted from the heart at the same time), he is quick to leave the two to fend for themselves as he continued on to advance his own goals.

(His goals were to create Vanitas. He just needed to know if extracting darkness from people was possible.) also, I say “unexplained part” in their creation, bc there’s no way that cryptic mummy gave them any sort of clear explanation for anything.

Vanitas was at least born with some sort of purpose and understanding of what he is, while these two were left to figure it out on their own.

You know those videos of otters holding hands while they float on top of water? Yeah, that’s what I think of when I think of Merin and Tähti.

They were pretty much in the same emotional state of ‘head empty’ as Roxas was when he first awakened.

They’ve come a long way from then tho

Also, I think for the two of them, having no idea who their previous person was is kinda like just having a whole piece of their being and self be missing. Just waking up someday to be told that you used to be somebody else, or more precisely, a part of somebody else, and now you need to exist outside of that person while also having no idea who that person was or if you’re really even your own person or just a part of somebody else.

Since I’m definitely more of an artist than a writer, I thought I’d add some other older drawings that I thought would fit the prompt. (TW old art /j)

@khoc-week

[bestworstcase]

i am revising my estimation on what rwby beyond will entail perhaps out of wishful thinking but: since they let the cat out of the bag on salem razed vale with the animatic that means salem razing vale is conceivably something that beyond might touch on. maybe not if her motives for doing so constitute a major spoiler (which is possible but seems unlikely), but that is a big “holy fuck” moment to drop in the Forbidden Eleventh Hour Episode Animatic and. hm. hmmm

i would really like to get a glimpse of the context. salem left atlas with herself and cinder; she can spawn hundreds of grimm per second but came to atlas with a giant whale and millions of grimm, which seems to have taken her several weeks if not a few months to put together. if the civilian retreat traveled very quickly southward to vacuo it’s conceivable that they arrive within hours of the destruction, which does leave salem time to have whipped up another storm.

but retreating so hastily would have necessarily meant leaving a lot of people to die (or be captured—depends what “there’s nothing left” means, really) and the longer it took the civilian retreat to get to vale, the less likely it is that salem stormed vale with a massive fleet of grimm a la atlas.

the other possibilities i can think of are:

salem and cinder flattened an entire city, which has horrifying implications as to how much salem has been holding back up to this point;

she cracked the wyvern out of gay baby jail and let it do the heavy lifting;

“there’s nothing left” means that salem encored her trick of ripping open the continental crust to make a grimm river, but under vale this time, cratering the entire city into a lake of grimm (which also has horrifying implications as to how much she’s been holding back before);

salem didn’t attack vale so much as she was seen approaching beacon tower and mass hysteria ensued, leading to the city being swamped by the local grimm again.

ponders.

or vale was a casualty of an extremely destructive attempt to brute force break through the extra protections ozpin arranged for the beacon vault. what that might look like practically is an open question, but… i mean, i’ve been thinking for a while on the possibility of ozpin weaving traps into those protections.

there is also the more interesting question of why. beacon fell -> grimm pulled out of vale within days -> surgical strike on haven -> held her forces back from attacking mantle -> no grimm in atlesian subway tunnels -> (ironwood forced the fall of atlas while salem was taking a dirt nap) -> razing vale to the ground apparently. what changed?

“people saw salem and panicked” seems like both a copout and also the explanation that tracks with what we’ve seen from her before and what we know of the situation. “something happened that made salem decide it was necessary to delete vale” is the more narratively punchy option and the one i hope they’re going for. in pursuit of a new world, no cost is too great, and all.

sighs. when glinda lays siege to the emerald city, the witch mombi magically disguises herself in the form of a rose, and general jinjur aligns herself with mombi in a bid to remain in power. salem has put a lot of trust in summer to hold beacon for her, never doubting her loyalty after a year or more without progress. if that trust were betrayed…

(<- NERVOUS.)

the other obvious possibilities is brutal overreaction to a perceived threat to cinder (“if anyone even looks at cinder wrong i will break this wyvern out of its shell” WAS A JOKE I WAS JOKING–). or she’s removing vale from the equation specifically to broaden the search radius for the crown, and/or now suspects that the vault is in vale. that glynda “emblem is a crown” goodwitch is being kept offscreen still is interesting in that regard, obviously.

i don’t think it’s a matter of salem feeling emboldened by possession of two relics, if only because she wasn’t emboldened by having the lamp in atlas, and also her character arc in v8 was firmly oriented around cinder and the beacon relic, in that order. that was the basis for my thinking that she would make a beeline for vale next, which is exactly what she did. my assumption was that she planned to dig in and wait for a counteroffensive to become necessary to hold the vacuo coalition together, which i did not guess would include razing vale—because i thought she might take a gamble on pitching her side to vale, to remove a pillar of support from the vacuo coalition; razing vale is a different tactical approach to the same end.

so it’s possible that salem simply made the calculation that razing vale was the most effective way to achieve her longer term strategic goal (eliminate vale as an ally to the vacuo coalition and prohibit a siege while she digs in at beacon). it comes at the cost of hardening the vacuan coalition by demonstrating that she’s capable of flattening two kingdoms in a span of weeks and giving mistral more reason to be nervous, but it also tells the world in no uncertain terms exactly where she is, which removes an obstacle to the counteroffensive she is probably counting on to deliver the sword to her.

narratively i think it’s a really exciting choice. the pressure it puts on the salem-summer-cinder dynamic stands to be very interesting and i would like to see it.

[vegaly-art]

The Tragedy of the Shroud Brothers, a Comprehensive TWST Analysis

Since my previous Ortho Rant did so well, I decided to write up another (and have one or two more in the works related to other aspects of him). I quite like sharing my interpretation of him, with all the evidence I can possibly get about it, and see how others react to it! It’s really nice to see!  This analysis will be on the Shroud Brothers, their relationship, and the several things that made it dark, unhealthy and extremely trecherous for much of their time in game, up until post Book 6. Now, to clairfy, I am NOT implicating either of the brothers for this directly, nor trying to slander them. Both of them had their parts to play (though admittedly Idia had a larger one), but I do not believe either of them did what they did, or formed the codependant and unequal bond they did out of maliciousness. They loved, and still do love each other very much, however their collection of mental issues, physical and mental limitations, circumstances and more made them have a very existencially uncomfortable dynamic, that is also profoundly sad... because they were both fucking trying, but sometimes trying and love alone are not enough. But they worked through these issues and I am very proud of them. Their relationship is flawed, and to some extent almost existencial, but it is also entirely human. It is filled with miscommunications and reliance and unfairness, because a relationship is not a ledger that resets at 0, but a consistent, ever growing and changing force of it’s own, that needs both sides to contribute to grow healthy. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin!

Too Much Labour Let’s start with the first and simplest examination: what the relationship looks like on the outside, and then delve deeper. Idia and Ortho are brothers, with Idia being about 2 years Ortho’s senior, and them clearly having a rather close bond. Idia takes Ortho almost everywhere he goes, whether to classes, around school, etc. Though they’re not always together, especially when Idia’s in his room or Ortho’s busy with errands, they spend much of their time together with Ortho being Idia’s closest friend, confidant, and emotional support. Idia trusts his little brother with almost everything, from his interest in games and anime, to his tech work, to homework, and occasionally his emotions, though he keeps a distance from Ortho with that at specific times, chosing to lock himself away rather than face his feelings. Ortho, on the other hand, balances Idia out. He’s much more outgoing and extraverted, he is much more careful and knowledgable of concequences, and to an extent more generally mature. He is always the one helping Idia if he’s in a slump, he’s the one comforting him or giving him space, helping him with schoolwork, helping with chores, forcing him to give certain things up before the concequences catch up to him (See Idia’s Labwear Vignette). And Ortho wants the best for Idia, even above himself, always. Idia is his everything. He is the only one who does maintanence on Ortho, who keeps his code and learning in check and has some level of control over what he can and cannot learn or do. He is all of Ortho’s responsibilities, his thoughts, his time. Ortho protects Idia’s reputation as best he can through petty or sometimes destructive means, and punishes those who speak ill of him. The amount that he does for Idia reflects that Idia is the only reason he’s... alive... at all... but I think the issues are already becoming present even from such descriptions. 

Ortho does basically ALL the emotional labour in their relationship. Not only must he be reasonable and smart and consistent and push Idia to try new things but not hard enough to upset him and make sure he’s always by his side and never get any new friends and do all his chores and other work that’s not school related but also... Ortho holds up the burden of pretending to be someone he is not, and fitting an image IDIA put onto him because he could not process the death of his brother (and nothing else. That was the only image he could live as or aspire to)... but what’s sadder still is that it’s an impossible task. Ortho could never live up to the Ortho who was alive... because Idia doesn't actually see Ortho as his brother, and Ortho is PAINFULLY aware of it. Idia mentioned at the end of Book 6 that Ortho "Doesn't have to pretend to be his brother anymore", and alludes a few other times to the fact that he knows Ortho is just a reconstruction. One that he made out of guilt and grief over the death of his sweet baby brother who was probably his emotional support even in childhood, and who he felt he could not function without... so he rebuilt  him for the soul purpose of ACTING like his emotional support, and also general support which is why he has things like medical knowledge, cleaning, why he has better social and reasoning skills than Idia (even if that was gotten from AI learning). And... I think it's very clear to see that Ortho knows how Idia thinks of him.

Filling In For Someone Who is Gone

He acts silly and whimsical even though he can clearly chose not to because that's what Idia needs from him. And that’s fine and all to do, it seems to be his preferred form of expression post Book 6, however at that point he at least expressed true negativity, true hopelessness, and true drive to grow and evolve and change. But... before Book 6, and even during it, Ortho was always positive, even when it was clear he was upset. He always went to Idia for help when needing problems solved, but all those problems were related to his technology, to his abilities, never to his emotions... He had to act like the perfect image of someone who did not exist. And he DID. And he did it WELL. VERY WELL... But there is still that distance there. The distance Ortho tried so hard to bridge because he knows that's what he's SUPPOSED to do, but he can't. Because he is not Idia's 'real' little brother, and never would be. He was just an AI reconstruction based on him, and nothing more. Just a computer; a doll; a puppet... but dammit he tried anyway. Though that was partially out of force... because Idia did not LET HIM be any other way. The way he absolutely rejected Ortho having free will in Book 6 is proof enough of just how controlling he truly was over Ortho, whether he intended it or not... but Ortho had his own will anyway, and put it aside because he knew his brother either would not like it, or it’s not what he needed... Ortho worked so hard, every moment of every day, without a choice to do or be anything else, and without the opportunity to be anything more... it’s so tragic. But one thing that likely complicated this is that: Ortho's memories are likely extremely fucking strange. Specifically he has probably the most depersonalized childhood you could think of (This is HC however it makes complete logical sense, let me explain). Obviously they couldn't get human Ortho's memories, only how others remembered him and likely camera footage. So it's likely he has to live up to this biased, 'perfect' standard of himself. And it also gives another reason (besides Idia’s controlling behaviour) why it took him so long to find his own identity as an individual since most of his memories were not actually him alone, and held NONE of his actual thoughts and feelings... which is really tragic and fucked up and terrifying. He may even have felt that his negative emotions may be 'unproductive' or 'bad’, and overall things he should not have because they cause others, especially Idia to feel bad, and likely were not put into his memories, or were not prioritized. So he masked these negative emotions with a smile and internalizes them, working through them completely alone. (This is very much based on his Burst Gear Vignette)... and it fucking sucks. He has to be the therapist for Idia, and also for himself because... well... who would be there for him? Idia is too unstable and would just see any emotions of Ortho’s own as a defect or ‘logic bug’, his parents probably want nothing to do with that sorta thing, and who else does he even have until Post Book 6?? Just... imagining being in such a situation is so viscerally terrifying if you think about it. KNOWING all you memories are not your own, KNOWING you have to live up to a clearly IMPOSSIBLE image of a person who didn't exist outside the minds of others, KNOWING that no matter what you do you will never be able to because people know that person is dead, and KNOWING that you have to do so anyway because your will is not your own, and this is the only path you have in life... and continuing to try and make the best of it anyway.

A Fresh Start    However, the most interesting part of all this to me is the Epilogue of Book 6, where, with a bit of the original Ortho's soul, Ortho chose to still be Idia's brother of his own will, even when Idia insisted he did not have to. While I think that may be a bit out of habit or obligation, I do think it also just reflects Ortho’s maturity. He is implied to have known all this time about the amount of control Idia had over his life. The unfairness of their relationship, and that he was forced to be someone else for Idia because he couldn’t move on. The amount of labour it took from Ortho, and the amount of emotion he suppressed after all that time, and that their relationship would likely take a while to be a truly honest, open, and equal one. And he was willing to give Idia the chance anyway, even though honestly he did not have to. He was willing to put aside the hurt, and put aside Idia’s immaturity and trust in him to be a better brother, and encourage him. Because he knows Idia still needs him... He is shown to be more independant from Idia post Book 6, such as with the Fairy Gala Remix where he made his own gear and solved issues on his own, or with his Union Gear which shows that he has his own room and likely has started doing his own maintanence and repairs, but he still cares for and is close to Idia. They just need that bit of natural distance. So Ortho can go to his own classes, do his own things, have his own friends and responsibilities. And Idia is obviously not super happy about that, it’s shown DIRECTLY in the Fairy Gala when he’s upset with how Ortho didn’t even come to him for any help, and didn’t heed his warnings not to take part in the fashion show... but... even still, he trusted Ortho’s judgement and believed in him. His heart hurt, knowing he had to let Ortho go into the big scary world alone, and also that he now would not always be there for comfort, and Idia had to get his needs met and be more responsible himself. But even though it hurt, he still supported Ortho anyway. Because it didn’t matter what Idia felt, Ortho deserved the respect and freedom. And Ortho responds in kind by being in a weird way a role model for Idia, with all that he’s learning and being mature and such, while also remaining a consistent wholesome presence in his life if he needs. And others also encourage Idia to be more honest with his praise of Ortho, which probably helps validate Ortho a lot so he doesn’t feel like he’s just... expected to do everything, but he chooses to and would get rewarded for it.  I love their relationship post Book 6 so much. And the one they had before Book 6 may not have been the healthiest, but it was rich, and genuine, and HUMAN. It had struggles and hurdles and unfairness and difficult communication and just... so much nonsense, but it was still filled with love and good intentions. And while that alone does not make it ok, I think that to judge it as morally wrong would be unfair. 

Further Reading/Sources in Game that support my points:  - Book 6(As usual, most of my analysis is based on Book 6. Notably from about when Ortho meets the Phantom to the Epilogue covers most of what I mentioned here).  - Book 5 (Shows his defence and also closeness with Idia, to the point of it being a little bit... too much. If that makes sense. Basically covers the first section of their relationship before getting into deeper details) - Ortho’s Dorm Uniform Vignette (Also shows his defensiveness of Idia, and implies his reliance on his brother’s opinions, changing his emotional state based on Idia’s, from proud to sad and apolegetic, and seeking validation after his prank finished.) - Fairy Gala Remix (I explained this directly, but still think it’s good to read for oneself :)) - Ortho’s Burst Gear Vignette (Reflects Ortho’s selflessness and focus on Idia’s emotions over his own. Also important timeline wise as it heavily implies that Ortho was only awoken a short while before Idia’s 3rd year at NRC based on dialogue, though this is more my interpretation. ) - Idia’s Labcoat Vignette (Shows the difference in Ortho and Idia’s maturity levels directly. ) - Idia’s Cerimonial Robes Vignette (Shows Idia’s extreme reliance on Ortho, to the point that Riddle actively points it out, and also Idia being COMPLETELY out of the loop with Ortho’s emotions and not having the mental capacity to think or care about them especially when his mental illness is getting the better of him. Also important timeline wise as it heavily implies that Ortho was only awoken a short while before Idia’s 3rd year at NRC based on dialogue, though this is more my interpretation.) - Idia’s Stargazer Gear (Shows that Idia does in fact see Robot Ortho as seperate from his real self, implies Ortho having limited memories/experiences as he chose to focus almost entirely on Idia in the memory he brought up, and Idia at least seeing that Ortho’s trying to get the two of them to grow closer together.

[youshouldjustliveinmychurch]

Thinking about the significance of falling when it come to Catradora. Obviously the imagery of cliffs, holding on to each other, and letting go are all significant in the narrative when it comes to their relationship. Two instances in particular stand out to me though as notable parallels. Catra falling into the portal and re-emerging as a twisted version of herself is very much in conversation with Adora falling into the chasm in the First One’s Temple and re-emerging as someone closer to the She-Ra that Light Hope (or her original programming) wants her to be. In both cases they’re reacting to having just experienced a mindbending mimicry of their lives together in the Horde before they split up. This is so eerie partially because reality is being expertly bent in both cases since there is a lot of truth woven into what Adora and Catra are seeing.

Adora is forced to literally let go (of her hold on the Cliff, her memories of Catra, her current feelings about Catra)/fall into the chasm. Light Hope has been trying to get her to let go the whole time because Adora’s attachment to other people threatens the First One’s plans to turn her into a weapon. Isolation. Other people are keeping her human. That of course extends to the Best Friends Squad, though it’s true that everyone expects too much of her, even the people she’s closest with. I think that’s one of the things that makes her relationship with Catra bloom in season 5. Catra wants Adora, specifically, not She-Ra. She is protective of Adora the person in a way that other people aren’t necessarily because she has an understanding of her that Bow and Glimmer aren’t going to have since they didn’t grow up with her in the Horde. Once Catra moves on from feeling in competition with Adora, then she can fully embrace her feelings. But anyway, tangent.

Adora being forced to let go/fall from the cliff is just the continuation of the idea that Adora feels like she has to choose the greater good over her own wants such as when she chooses the Rebellion over Catra. In her mind, she feels like there isn’t a choice. She has to leave Catra, even though she doesn’t want to do so. Light Hope is trying to take advantage of that trait for her own purposes, pushing Adora to follow orders and do what is best in the minds of the First Ones.

Now, Catra. Catra lets go of the cliff herself as reality is being pulled apart. This whole scene says so much about where her character is at this point in the plot. First of all, she tries to drag Adora down with her. She can’t stand the idea of Adora being better than her and on the moral high ground because part of that competitive dynamics is very much rooted in Shadow Weaver’s treatment of them both as children. Adora was prioritized. Catra was directly compared to Adora negatively and threatened with harm if she interfered with Adora’s “progress” in any way. Catra and Adora are both self-destructive at two ends of the same spectrum and the pressure/trauma caused by The Horde & First Ones are pushing them to extremes. Isolating extremes. Catra constantly feels a lack of safety and struggles with self-hatred. Catra lets go as she stares Adora in the eyes because she doesn’t feel worth much. I think that’s symbolic of her constantly pushing other people away on purpose as a way to both punish and protect herself.

When Catra re-emerges as Corrupted Catra we can see that her loathing for what Adora represents in her life has been taken to an extreme. I’m a believer that Corrupted Catra is just that. She’s still partially herself, but all of her instincts are taken to an extreme and it’s a raw expression of her hurt. Her pain is being visually symbolized by pieces of her simply being gone. This is another representation of the affect trauma is having on her and her life. That entire scene is brutal and it is good that Adora finally stands up for herself since obviously Catra is not justified in lashing out, but as she stands over Catra’s passed-out body, I think it’s a reminder that circumstances have been out of their control for a long while now. Trauma can isolate and push people away from each other (even when they need each other for healing), as well as away from being able to fully express themselves.

Then season 5 rolls around. Healing. Other people. Wanting. Self-expression. Wonderful things. Catra and Adora being together - what they bring out in each other - challenges both Shadow Weaver and the Horde’s purposes for them. Together, they defy control. You see, if they are able to truly love and connect with each other, then Adora might not conform to what the First One’s want of her and once Catra is able to move beyond the barriers in her relationship with Adora placed there by Shadow Weaver, she can’t be controlled by the Horde anymore either. They are defiance and self-expression and love and I’m totally obsessed with this show, aren’t I?

[whamss]

*extremely normal* once again getting all doomer abt hsbc and clenching my fist hard. istg if this team doesn’t give rosemary some degree of good closure i will bite all of their heads off

like. listen. it’s not like i want to doubt them. we haven’t even seen rose or kanaya in either timeline yet since they picked the story back up. but to this day i think it’s insane to me that the only established sapphic relationship in post canon has been turned into a parody of what it was in canon that exists almost exclusively to cause drama. and any sapphic relationship outside of that (‘jaderose’) is purely just to contribute to the drama rosemary is supposedly destined to cause. TO THIS DAY i think the choice to make rose cheat on kanaya is vile, esp when meat rosemary was already as messy as it was (and for the record, i think meat rosemary is good drama. candy rosemary is pointless drama that completely undermines not just rose’s canon character, but her established characterization In The Epilogues. yk, the thing they’re trying to play off of).

and i don’t want to sit here and say i think candy rosemary should be redeemed, i hope they divorce. i don’t think they should be salvageable as is, at least not easily. even moreso i hope to god that they stop treating kanaya like a sad punching bag who is solely victim to all of rose’s destructive impulses. kanaya has more than the capacity for anger, and more importantly i think kanaya loves herself. i hate to see a story where the one 100% canon lesbian character we have is forced to suffer and sit there looking pretty. i hate to see a story where they basically make kanaya’s entire life revolve around rose, forcing her to watch while she betrays her over and over. kanay was never like that, rosemary was never like that. it sucks that this is what they’ve turned into. i hope kanaya gets to kill people, or at least grow outside of rose. especially in candy, but in meat as well

i think meat rosemary has the potential to still be a good thing, they have some very interesting set up imo, but UGH there’s nothing more annoying than seeing kanaya immediately positioned as like, this sad figure who does nothing but think abt how much she misses her wife while rosebot exists to be nothing but a menace while terezi and dirk establish themselves as characters around her. and maybe i have no reason to, but i worry a lot anyways that we’re going to go into their arcs with this new team and they’re going to continue to discard them and either force kanaya to keep being a background character who watches rose destroy both of their lives, or sideline both of them entirely and position them purely as tools to fuel drama for the omega kids and otherwise act as catalysts for other characters to develop around

post canon in general has an undeniable woman problem. outside of vrissy it feels like the only women who’ve gotten any semblance of establishment as characters are terezi and alt calliope (even this recent update, aradia heavy as it was, had aradia mostly positioned to center some of the issues davebot is going to have to work through. which is fine, i guess, but not encouraging). i want to see this team live up to our hopes and deliver a good product. i’d like this team to treat its women well. i’d like them to treat their sapphics right. i believe that they can, i’m not trying to imply otherwise, but UGHHHH man do i think the old product didn’t set itself up well for this. and im just worried that this new team might not care enough to actually give rosemary (or rose and kanaya individually) anything remotely satisfying

[cursed-man-prayers]

Lost in Your Current Like a Priceless Wine

A queer analysis of wine mentions in Taylor Swift’s discography (folklore and evermore)

Rose’ flowing with your chosen family.

Chosen family is a very queer concept. Rose as a lighter version of red wine (literally), and also that it’s casually flowing refers to how this person (who was not “the one”) is able to freely express queerness around their chosen family, whereas Taylor is still digging up the grave another time. We’ll come back to this when I analyze Maroon (your roommate’s cheap-ass screw-top rose). 

August sipped away like a bottle of wine.

God this fucking song. I saw someone say that, since the song is from August's perspective (I know Taylor said "Augustine" but i think August is a prettier name), she’s saying that she herself was sipped away like a bottle of wine, carelessly. When you get to the end of a bottle of wine, you’re drunk and surprised that the bottle is already empty. The song as a whole is about a relationship that was unexpected, wrong, desperate, secret. “Are you sure?” “I’ve never done this before.” (Never have I ever as a teenage party game paired with “seven years in heaven” on happiness.) 

August is a retrospective. It’s nostalgic in lyrics and production. “Wanting was enough, for me it was enough” harkens back to False God and the desperation to stay for the sake of wanting each other. August remembers; she wonders if her former lover does to “do you remember when I pulled up and said get in the car…” The repetition of the outro reminds me of All Too Well 10 Minute Version. It was rare, I was there, I remember it all. Wind in my hair, you were there, you remember it. Wine is so fleeting but it leaves a permanent stain, as we first saw in Clean. 

“Meet me behind the mall” implies a youthful secrecy. August as a part of the cardigan/betty lore solidifies it as a song themed around adolescence. I want to write more on this later, but I believe the queer concept of “second adolescence” plays heavily into folklore, whereas evermore is the end of that adolescence.

Lost in your current like a priceless wine.

I think I’ll do a full queer analysis of willow someday, because the lyrics are actually devastating. The set-up for the song is that this person came into the narrator’s life unexpectedly and derailed her plans dramatically. We have secrecy (“wait for the signal and I’ll meet you after dark”),  the lover feeling exceptional from others (“as if you were a mythical thing”), and desperation for the lover to stay as they’re leaving  (“Wherever you stray, I”ll follow; I’m begging for you to take my hand”).

Here in the first verse, Taylor says she’s “lost in your current.” She didn’t mean to fall, but it’s “like a priceless wine,” the most meaningful love she’s had. The most meaningful, but once the bottle is open, that wine gets sipped away. It’s the best thing that’s ever been hers, and it’s almost gone. The rest of the album is about loss and endings.

And drink my husband’s wine.

Ivy is almost universally believed to be sapphic (though non-gaylors will call it fictional). It’s very Emily Dickinson (I watched all of Dickinson on Apple TV+ to get to the moment this song plays). Ivy is about an extremely risky affair, one that will inevitably end in fire and destruction, but one that is beautiful. There are so many queer themes included in the lyrics. What is more “magnificently cursed” than being queer and forced to hide it?

In ivy, to “drink my husband’s wine” means drinking it both secretly and in a way that takes from said husband. This wine is supposed to be the husband’s, but now it represents what the illicit lover can’t have. (i’ll mention here that I also think wine could also be a metaphor for pussy. tried to find a more delicate way to say it but u get it.) If wine represents sexuality, the context of it being her “husband’s wine” implies that, while they may continue to be together in secret, there will always be the shadow of this man looming over them. They’ll never truly belong to each other as long as the narrator is forced to stay in a heteronormative relationship.

Summary: here, wine is used in the context of loss. The end of the bottle is the end of the relationship. What was once full and beautiful and light has become sour and empty.

[sturthepotofmadness]

I wanted to add more to my accidental Unicron Redemption AU, so that’s what this is. Link to the original post: https://sturthepotofmadness.tumblr.com/post/698121264982786048/i-just-thought-of-a-crazy-transformers-au-that

LONG POST AHEAD

I mainly wanted to do this because I just remembered the fact that Skyquake is on Earth before the main human kids encounter the bots so...

aka this is addressing all the Cybertronians on Earth between the humans waking up Unicron (20XX +1) and Unicron getting his body back (24XX)

Since I already mentioned him, let’s start with Skyquake.

Also, I misremembered Skyquake’s pod location as the Arctic, but I don’t want to go back and fix it so he’s in the Arctic now.

Say it’s 219X (random year, could be any year between the previously mentioned dates) when humans manage to create portable heaters powered by Dark Energon that can be incorporated into gear made for extremely cold temperatures.

Humans start exploring the Arctic and Antarctica much more thoroughly compared to before they had the Dark Energon heaters.

While exploring, they com across this massive pod that is Cybertronian in nature. Humans take it back to a place where they can possible study it and ask Unicron about it.

They do so, take a picture of it, then show the image to Unicron. The god of destruction and chaos is already attached, so tells them what it is and how to open it.

The humans wake up Skyquake and the poor dude is smacked so hard with whiplash because what the hell did he wake up to

He expected to wake up to some Decepticons either getting his help or telling him the war’s over, not... these tiny hyper organics who praise Unicron and said god being effectively affectionate towards said organics.

After some rapid fire questions and answers from the humans, Skyquake gets some time to speak to Unicron without the humans crowding him like a flock of birds. There’s still some humans around, of course, there’s now a lot less of them mentally poking him around.

Unicron explains the humans to Skyquake and the seeker asks about the war, which the god just gets confused by, so Skyquake assumes the war never reached or has yet to reach wherever he is currently.

Skyquake can still feel Dreadwing’s side of the bond, but can barely interact with it, so he knows his brother is alive, he just can’t connect with his brother again for a long while.

The humans keep some of the Energon as straight Energon for Skyquake, but never figure out how to properly keep recreating regular blue Energon, so Skyquake is eventually forced to switch over to Dark Energon. Its weird switching at first, but he gets used to it.

Skyquake eventually also gets attached to the humans and joins them in resource gathering and planet hopping/building.

Around the same time the humans found Skyquake, they also found the Scraplet pod, but took one look at them, asked Unicron about them, saw Unicron freak slightly, then allowed the Scraplets to freeze to death in the Arctic before leaving.

The Insecticons, however...

For the sake of this, say its 230X (could be any year between the original two dates, just using this as an example) when humans finally successfully make the first drone using Dark Energon as fuel without said drone accidently destroying any loyalty coding it might have. Skyquake believes making these drones is wrong, but Unicron thinks its fine, so the humans go through with it.

Unicron eventually tells Skyquake that the drones are nothing like Cybertronians. Despite both Skyquake and the drones using Dark Energon as their main fuel source, these drones cannot act on their own without a guiding force. They’re physically unable to. Cybertronians, to his understanding, were created with such an advance intelligence that their knowledge and ability to do things on their own could never even be considered artificial intelligence.

More of that drone are made and become specialized in certain things, such as recording, mining, flying, diving, etc

Some mining and recording drones stumble upon the Insecticon stasis pod nest on Earth and alert the humans about it.

The humans come to the nest location and begin to properly obverse and take note on everything about the nest, once again getting images of it to show to Unicron. When the images are shown, Unicron identifies the Insecticons and the humans begin getting ideas.

After some discussing, Unicron decides to join them and only one of the Insecticons is freed. The Insecticon stares at these weird tiny organics in confusion as the humans immediately begin making observations.

The Insecticon attempts to attack the humans, but is immediately stopped by Unicron. When its stopped, it immediately attaches leader status to Unicron and allows the humans to continue... whatever they’re doing. They take the Insecticon back up to the surface with them to study more, leaving the rest of the nest behind and making some recording and guard drones behind to watch over the nest.

Eventually, but before Unicron gets his body back, they see the Insecticon clone itself into a smaller being and a final idea is made.

The humans make an artificial planet made specifically for “breeding” Insecticons, then poisoning them using a mix of Dark Energon to harvest them for their metal. They keep the more feral babies and kill the more intelligent babies and older Insecticons.

They, of course, free a good few more of the Insecticons to have a good base to start out with for the “breeding” farm, but they kill the rest for their metal.

I’ll probably make another post sometime later of the Autobots and Decepticons interacting with the humans and Unicron (and Skyquake) in this AU. This feels really long already and I don’t want to make it too long.

[inamindfarfaraway]

Perhaps the funniest League of Legends character interaction that's also highly plausible in-universe, thematically appropriate and emotionally charged is Rell and Veigar teaming up.

They’re both extremely magically strong and skilled. Rell controls metal, a product of the earth from which she can directly rip ore. Veigar draws his celestial magic from the stars.

They both have dark, tragic backstories: because of their magical talent, they were taken into custody by powerful, corrupt Noxian authorities, isolated, abused and forced to use their magic harmfully for a long time, at least relative to their respective lives. This traumatized and broke them so much that they now see inflicting pain as the only thing they’re good at, even capable of. They have no friends. They've never known or have forgotten what it feels like to be loved, joyful or carefree. All they were left with once free was so much guilt and grief and so much power. From that, they have forged new identities - roles to play - built around singular, combative ambitions that they cannot imagine lives or futures beyond. Rell identifies as a gritty, edgy antihero, having noble intentions but using brutal, destructive and downright gruesome methods. Veigar identifies as a villain, but is good at heart despite not comprehending this himself.

They’re both currently roaming around the Noxian countryside in order to find and defeat as many powerful, corrupt Noxian authorities who mistreat people as they can. Rell does this to make the guilty pay for their crimes and liberate and protect the oppressed. Veigar does it to replace the authority and prove that his evil is greater and cooler than theirs, but in practice doesn’t really bother hurting anyone innocent and just ends up making the guilty pay for their crimes and liberating and protecting the oppressed.

They’re both connected to Mordekaiser, and would be primary enemies of him holding personal grudges if his plot about trying to dominate Runeterra is ever developed. Rell was such an important project for the Black Rose because they hoped that she would be able to defeat Mordekaiser. He embodies everything she stands against. Mordekaiser was Veigar’s captor and abuser, responsible for who he is today. Rell can manipulate metal; Veigar wields incredible cosmic magic; and Mordekaiser is a magical suit of armour, so if anyone can finish him off, it’s these two working together.

Rell is practical, pragmatic, cynical and consumed by bloodthirsty, vengeful rage. Veigar clings to and imitates an immature ideal of Villainy, fashioning his outfit after Mordekaiser’s stereotypical fantasy evil overlord aesthetic, his behaviour after all the most theatrical tropes that archetype can be associated with and having very dramatic and flashy magic, but inwardly lacks the cruelty (not to mention dignity) to back that presentation up.

They both want the Noxian people to respect them as a threat. Rell has wanted posters and become widely feared by the elite army less than a year since her escape. Veigar has been ‘conquering’ for centuries and is still not taken seriously.

Their respective magic colours are yellow and purple, and the rest of both of their colour palettes is grey, silver and black.

Everything about Rell is played completely straight. Almost everything about Veigar is played for comedy.

Rell could come across a village that Veigar has seized and accidentally benefitted, like Boleham in his story on the website, and try to challenge him. Or they could both arrive to kill the same tyrannical warlord at the same time. She realizes that he is a) really bad at being bad, b) just a silly little guy and c) an extremely useful asset to her quest.

So she directs him at the Black Rose and they go and utterly fuck Noxis up while helping the downtrodden. There's so much comedy to get out of their contrasting personalities and perspectives. Rell always acts like the protagonist of a grim, action-packed young adult dystopian series and Veigar is standing right next to her emanating campy children's cartoon villain energy; they both think the story is a different genre and the acting and tone should reflect that. This premise is hysterical with the proper execution.

But it isn't just funny! They can genuinely bond and learn, or in Veigar's case remember, what loving and being loved is, and begin to process their trauma and help each other cope with their C-PTSD and be kinder to themselves and have fun and become fulfilled. And then kill Mordekaiser, whose return is one of the subplots. And then live happy, safe, peaceful lives together, because they were never meant for all this violence.

Other subplots besides Mordekaiser include LeBlanc, Rell's mother and the Black Rose's operations; the wider Noxian politics they tie into; Samirah hunting Rell; Annie also wandering around Noxis causing trouble and eventually getting adopted by Rell as a little sister (they deserve it); maybe the story of a Yordle who knew Veigar before and thus can supply some of his backstory that he's forgotten, a 'normal Yordle' foil to him; and generally lots of Noxian and Yordle worldbuilding and lore.

While I'm talking about Veigar, here are my ideas for a redesign of him, because his design is... not that great:

As yordles are generally animalistic or at least furry, he strongly resembles a black cat, with gold eyes with slit pupils and a dark purple nose. Black cats are associated with the supernatural, magical arts and misfortune, they're bad omens to some, but they're also fluffy little babies. He is covered in fur. You want to scratch his checks. You want to kiss his little forehead. He's so adorable and he hates it. His large pointy ears, visible under the brim of his hat, move to signal his emotions for more expressive animation. They both have notches, which help him look pitiable and allude to his past as a prisoner and victim of abuse. He has big 'weathered street cat hissing and growling at you when you try to pet it because it's reflexively afraid of people and shows that through aggression' energy.

@ohnoitstbskyen's idea in his "What's the deal with Veigar?" video that Veigar's face (his cute kitty face!) is never fully in the shadow of his hat despite him trying to look mysterious and ominous is brilliant. He’s very lively, since he acts like a classic cartoon villain who’s so excited and gleeful about being evil, so he has a habit of jostling his hat or lifting his head to reveal his whole face and then hastily pulling the hat back down.

His robe no longer has the spiked metal hem and is of a soft, loose, flowing fabric. It’s dark indigo with silver sparkles all over it like he’s wearing the night sky, in homage to the stars he draws his power from. Except the beautiful pattern is interrupted and partly obscured by a leather belt - not spiked and black, a bolder and more ‘evil’ colour than brown and a Noxian colour - with a tasteless spiky silver buckle that clashes with the stars. I love what TB Skyen said about the armour and spikes working best as a parody of Mordekaiser’s aesthetic, so I want those aspects to look tacked on and out of place. To feel wrong. Inadvertently on Veigar’s part, but deliberately in a meta sense. Between the robe, his big purple wizard hat matching his nose that also makes his body look smaller and cuter and the black cat associations, you’ve got a perfectly good yordle celestial mage design; but the influence of Mordekaiser is intruding on it, corrupting it, even. That is the clear conflict of this design. While the robe is comfortable, the armour doesn’t appear to be. This impression is helped by it all being at least a little oversized, because Noxian armour doesn’t come in yordle size and therefore Veigar has cobbled his together out of scraps he scavenged (I mean, he STOLE, how wicked) and he isn’t really a great blacksmith. His boots aren’t clown shoes or anything, but they’re big enough that his attempt at an imposing villainous stride is awkwardly clunky. They could have black leather straps on them to hold them tighter than their metal fasteners will allow. His spiked pauldrons were cut out of human ones and still jut out too much, one of them having an irregular shape that gives him a dash of Noxian asymmetry and marks him further as a flawed imitation of a fantasy supervillain. The message that he’s incompetent at something and did it anyway out of passion, perhaps not even realizing his mistakes or at least too proud to acknowledge them, makes him come across as comedic and yet an endearingly earnest, hardworking underdog, and adds to the surprise of his genuine incredible cosmic power - he couldn’t learn to smith properly before forging his own armour, but he can command the energy of the stars to smite you? Yeah. That’s Veigar. There’s one silver ring around the base of his hat that has five spikes on it, thick, long and evenly positioned so that from above, they form a star shape. Specifically, an inverted star with one spike pointing directly forward. Symbolism! His belt buckle could also be an inverted star to establish that as a motif of his; it’s spiky, but more personal and iconic than just spikes themselves.

Moving onto Rell... she has her sigils. I don't know why she doesn't in her model or artwork, they're such a crucial part of her character design! Her biography and short story both bring them up. There are even bare sections of her arms, which would only make sense if her sigils were visible in them because it's impractical and she's so averse to vulnerability, but the sigils are missing? What? Why, Riot? So yeah, in my redesign she has sigils right down both her arms. A few more recent ones are on her back (symbolic of her betrayal by her family, the Black Rose and the government). They're always hidden, even in her lighter armour on horseback, as she's deeply uncomfortable around the concept of being exposed and seeing them herself. We and Veigar only see them in dramatic character exploration scenes when a) she feels safe enough to take her armour off, b) she needs to due to injury or to hide her identity or c) someone else damages or removes her armour. Taking TB Skyen's advice again, her outer armour and therefore horse are spikier and less polished and regular, products of her undiluted heartbroken rage in the moment she destroyed the academy. They're highly distinctive, almost organic-feeling and definitely don't look like the work of a smith.

[zzthekaiju]

Godzilla: Monster Watch - The Human Cast

Protagonists:

Aiden Fredrickson – The leader of Monster Watch. A young man defined by wealth and narcissism, Aiden’s delusions of grandeur are boosted when he inherits his late parents’ fortune. Seeing easy profit via tracking down fabled Kaiju, he assembles a crew out of his college friends to go out into the world and film the adventure. Yet once it begins in earnest, Aiden has a hard time convincing the others that he knows what he’s doing, as it becomes increasingly obvious that the only reason he and his yacht aren’t in-between a monster’s teeth is his dumb luck and the contributions of literally everyone but him. It doesn’t help that he has a rather alarming lack of respect for almost everything. And when things get crazier than any of them could have imagined, he still somehow keeps rationalizing it all as being just a part of his show in a way that borders on a complete divorce from reality.

Joshua Evans – Aiden’s best friend since high school, and the only person who bothers to try and steer him away from bad decisions. Pragmatic to a fault and otherwise fairly decent, Joshua has two major chips in his shoulder. One is that he’s been forced to go on a reckless adventure for fame he doesn’t want. The other is that it involves Kaiju, which he hates with a passion after he lost his little sister to them during the war. The only reason he’s accepted Aiden’s bribe is the promise of getting out of financial strife. But soon he’ll find that the world of monsters isn’t quite what he imagined.

Aki Serizawa – The history expert of the Monster Watch crew. Aki began her passion for learning the truth of the Kaiju after being gifted the journals of her late father, who claimed to know them better than any other. While the reason for seeking the monsters is slightly disappointing to her, she’s nonetheless happy to see them anyway. While her knowledge is appreciated for the most part, she and Joshua often butt heads over their conflicting feelings regarding Kaiju.

Sadie Gonzalez – The Monster Watch’s self-appointed “combat expert”. Out of all of Aiden’s crew, she signed on the quickest, determined to leave her boring home life behind and, in her words, “do her thing” across the world. There’s definitely something off about this girl, with her borderline feral attitude and disturbing obsession with “un-aliving” things, but she’s always quick to reassure her friends that they’re in no danger from her. That, and when the gang does end up in a fix, she’s invaluable in a fight.

Moll and Lora the Shobijin – A sibling pair from Infant Island. They are the appointed emissaries of the great Goddess Mothra, having been hand-picked by her. While Moll is dedicated to her job and extremely cautious around outsiders, Lora, a trans girl, is incredibly open and friendly to the point of striking an unlikely friendship (read: budding romance) with Joshua when the Monster Watch comes to their island.

Antagonists:

Anton Ludwig – The enigmatic leader of Organization X, an organization dedicated to surprisingly advanced weapon technology and the destruction of all Kaiju. Cold and calculating, Anton is feared by all. His alliance with Toby is merely a useful means to get public support and funding as they tail Monster Watch, hoping to kill any Kaiju they encounter. The only thing standing in Anton’s way is both the general idiocy of Monster Watch and Toby combined, as well as Kaiju not generally giving up without a fight. Nevertheless, Anton’s persistence and influence is so focused and unrelenting, it seems downright alien to most…

Martin Sunder – Anton’s second-in-command. Unlike him, Martin is almost comically quick-tempered, and wastes no time letting Toby know how all of Organization X hates him. Yet despite him and Anton’s conflicting approaches to running the organization, their relationship has been compared to that of a stable marriage. It helps that Martin is the kind of soldier Anton can count on. One that’s hard to squish…like a cockroach…

Toby Fredrickson – Aiden’s uncle, and an incredibly wealthy CEO. Outraged that his brother’s fortune went to his idiot nephew and not him, he has enlisted the help of the nefarious Anton Ludwig to track Aiden down. Hammy and quick to anger, Toby fancies himself a brilliant strategist and self-made man. In truth, he’s a boisterous windbag who’s only useful to Anton so long as he still has connections and money to burn. As it turns out, he’s a lot more like Aiden than he gives himself credit for.

Next time I upload anything here, it'll be something VERY special that I made for this AU (and very back-breaking, animatics are an uphill battle if there ever was one).

[unlikelyandco]

Name: Chalice Species: Paracausal Being Age: Ancient Sex and Gender: Androgynous Pronouns: They/Them

Bio:

Brought to life by the forces of both the Gardener and the Winnower, Chalice was supposed to be a vessel for excess powers they cast into the Garden in order to keep the perfect balance. When the rivalry between two opposing forces begun, they were discarded and forgotten, left to their own devices.

They struggled without purpose for a long time, wandering the Garden, but ultimately left to explore whatever was out there. They witnessed creation and extinction of countless of species, rise and fall of empires, Darkness corrupting souls, and Light igniting hope in the hearts of those touched by it.

Chalice is still searching for a place to call her own and is still learning to keep the balance within.

Notable info:

- doesn’t have a real form but can copy the appearance of whatever race they want; - usually wears a veil to hide their face; - always has gloves on to prevent taking whatever energy the creature they’re interacting with has, whether it’s Light, Dark, or simply, life; - can get overcharged with Light or Dark, both extremes causing immense pain and threatening destruction of the surroundings since they have to exert the power somewhere;

[wonda-cat]

Misconceptions About Tommyinnit’s Character That Genuinely INFURIATE Me

Since the recent events following the second L’Manburg Festival and subsequent war, I’ve seen many, many hot takes surrounding the nature of Tommyinnit’s character on the SMP. Some of which annoyed me to the point where I felt compelled to sit down and actually write this. I’m going to only be highlighting the most common complaints or questions I’ve seen, one by one, in hopes of providing a better understanding of Tommy’s character for anyone interested. (I also briefly discuss Techno and Tubbo’s characters as well.)

If you’ve said similar things to what I’m going to be discussing below, please know that it’s perfectly understandable how you’d come to these conclusions. Some of these aspects of Tommy’s character are not always obvious; especially if being watched from another streamer’s POV. This may become quite lengthy, so bear with me for now.

“Tommy’s motives are all over the place. He can’t decide whether he wants the discs back or not.”

Tommy is actually one of the most motivationally consistent characters on the entire Dream SMP. Even Techno, someone completely confident in their ideals, does more motivational flipping than Tommy. From the very start of the story, Tommy has always cared for three things; L’Manburg, Tubbo, and his music discs. However, him caring for something is not itself a motivation. 

Surprisingly enough, his motivation isn’t even just, ‘Get my discs back,’ like many assume it is. Tommy’s one true motivation, since the end of the Independence War, has always been, ‘Keep things the way they are now.’ 

Tommy’s one fatal flaw is that he is resistant to change and refuses to let go of the past. This is seen through all of his actions and words; in all conflicts involving him. This flaw is the drive to all of Tommy’s mistakes. Burning down George’s house, an action which resulted in him getting exiled, was done out of a desire to pull pranks the way he used to before the first war. His friendship with Ranboo started because Tommy said he reminded him of Tubbo, back before he was President. 

Tommy still talks highly of Wilbur because he chooses to remember him as the wise, kind mentor who cared for him. This motive is the reason he defends L’Manburg so fiercely; it’s his memory of a better past. This is why he holds grudges more often than any other character; especially refusing to forgive Techno after he killed Tubbo during the Manburg Massacre.

It’s why Tommy falls under extreme distress whenever Tubbo or Quackity tell him that something will never be the same again. This motivation is entirely formed from an underlying desire for peace and comfort, something Tommy has been denied since being forced into a life wrought with war and death. To accept change, to Tommy, is painful and terrifying. But he will only ever truly be happy when he finally learns to let go.

“Why do the discs matter so much to Tommy? They’re not actually worth anything.”

Tommy’s discs are much more than just any ordinary pair of music discs. They were never important for their material worth, but for what Tommy was willing to sacrifice in order to keep them. Tommy is entirely what gives the discs their value. 

Tommy also commonly operates under the Sunk-Cost Fallacy, wherein he’s invested too much of himself into something to just abandon it, even if it’s causing him problems. This mentality is a huge piece of what keeps him tied to both L’Manburg and to his discs. He’s sacrificed too much at this point to simply let them go. If he admits the discs are worthless, then he’s admitting that he wasted all this time and effort, just to keep them.

The discs also act as a constant source of hope for Tommy because they are directly tied with his motivations as a character. They’re something he’s had since the very beginning. They’re something he used to listen to with Tubbo on their shared bench. 

To Tommy, they symbolize a life before war, filled with comfort and peace. They are a love letter to his country and his late mentor Wilbur. They are a physical representation of Tubbo’s companionship. They are the only thing, besides L’Manburg and his best friend, that gives him the hope that he can one day return things to the way they used to be. 

This ideal, paired with Tommy’s refusal to let go, has left him ruthlessly pursuing the things he’s lost. Not his music discs, but his peace and comfort, his friendship, his country, his mentor Wilbur, and his life before war.

In his desperation to hold onto his prized possession, it has only hurt and pushed away the people that love him. If Tommy continues to ignore this reality, while still refusing to resolve his major flaw entwined with it, he will lose all that the discs had once stood for. He will lose his country, then his friend Tubbo, and then he will lose himself.

“Tommy never grows or learns from his mistakes. This makes him a badly written character.”

Characters do not have to constantly learn from their actions to be well-written. Tommy is one of the best examples of this. The fact that his growth is infrequent is the entire point of his character; it’s completely stemmed from his fatal flaw. 

By addressing himself, he would be accepting change, something that terrifies him; something he stubbornly resists until he is absolutely forced to confront it. Contrary to popular belief, Tommy knows when he makes mistakes, but he pretends to be ignorant as to avoid facing reality. He digs his head in the sand despite knowing better, puppeteering the person he used to be during happier times, now gone.

In spite of his infrequent growth, the idea that Tommy still hasn’t learned anything isn’t quite correct either. Tommy, as of the last three plot streams, has shown incredible character development. By giving up his discs again, he had finally demonstrated that Tubbo is more important to him than his possessions. Speaking as a makeshift leader, he put aside his issues with others to rally them together against a common threat, something which Tommy had never been able to do before. He owned up to all of his mistakes openly, apologizing to everyone he’s ever hurt in one place. 

He apologized to Tubbo after they were reunited and came to terms with the fact that Tubbo was forced to exile him without choice, finally forgiving him. He was kind to Sapnap and learned how to be his friend after months of bitter rivalry. And these are only a few examples. This isn’t to say Tommy has overcome/fixed everything because he clearly hasn’t. There are still major things Tommy needs to work through that remain unaddressed, the biggest being his complicated relationship with Technoblade.

“Tommy only cares about himself. He does everything in his power to be the hero, always putting himself in the center of attention, especially during Doomsday.”

Tommy, since the start of the L’Manburg War for Independence, has never set out to be a hero. Not once. He may fall into the role of the protagonist, but his identity as a hero was pushed onto him by others. Giving up the discs was his only option during the Independence War. 

So when Wilbur called him a hero for it, Tommy said he didn’t feel like he was. During the November 16th War, Tommy again said he didn’t feel like a hero because he had lost what he thought was everything at the time. During exile, Tommy certainly knew he was no hero. And upon reuniting with Tubbo, he admitted to feeling like the farthest thing from it. That he’d hurt everyone and all he wanted to do now was fix it. 

The day before Doomsday, Tommy only took a leadership position because no one else was willing to, filling the role for Tubbo, who was crumbling under pressure. He had no choice but to try to bring everyone together, or fight alone. Most viewers never saw this during Doomsday, but before the battle, almost everyone who had vowed to fight alongside L’Manburg had abandoned them the very next day. They were convinced it was going to be destroyed either way, no matter what they did, so they chose not to see it through to the end; ultimately leaving Tommy and those who remained to fight a losing battle, alone. 

After about a third of the way through the battle, it became clear to everyone that they could do nothing to win. One by one, everyone stopped fighting and stood by to watch their country go up in smoke. Tommy was the only person on the battlefield who refused to stand down and give up. And so he took over the role as leader again, trying his best to keep them alive, to keep Tubbo hopeful; to keep fighting, no matter what. 

However, what most people don’t realize, is that this isn’t Tommy trying to be a hero or force himself into the spotlight. This is Tommy trying to convince himself to keep going. Because whenever things start to look hopeless, Tommy simply chooses to ignore them. He puts on a happy face and soldiers through it because that’s all he knows how to do. Tommy, at his core, is someone who wants peace through stagnation. He doesn’t want to fight, although causing the occasional friendly conflict is how he finds fun. He doesn’t set out to purposely hurt others. 

Tommy may come across as self-centered, but this is because he is an extremely extroverted character. He finds energy and joy in the attention of others, both good and bad. It’s why he’s always seeking the approval of others and, oftentimes, will destructively insert himself into another person’s life in order to find it. 

Out of every character in the story, Tommy is the most drawn to praise and positive reinforcement. He is constantly seeking out mentors and friends because Tommy needs someone else to help him feel confident in his own identity and abilities. It’s why Wilbur was such a positive influence on him. His boisterous confidence has always been a front because if anyone were to actually hurt him, he knows it will make his self-esteem crumble instantly. 

This is part of why Dream’s manipulation was so effective against him. By isolating him, he’s left without energy and looking to another person’s guidance. Tommy outwardly may seem independent and rude, but just under the skin, he’s unconfident and lost when he’s by himself. Tommy will only grow from this flaw when he finds his own identity and inner confidence; when he finally learns to be okay with being alone.

“Tommy goes to the festival solely to get his disc back and then tells Tubbo to give it away immediately after. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Before the screaming match between the two friends during the second L’Manburg Festival, Tommy had been in exile, manipulated by Dream for long enough to lose his will to carry on. It is because of him that Tommy’s reality becomes distorted, long after fleeing from his abuser. This mangling of ideals leads Tommy to subconsciously believe that L’Manburg and Tubbo are unsalvageable. 

Therefore, the only thing he has hopes of retrieving are his discs, which are easier to manage than the latter two things. And so Tommy does reprehensible things at the behest of Techno in a vain hope of getting them back, going so far as to kidnap and torture for them. This ultimately culminates in a confrontation between the ex-friends, quickly turning violent. It is in this violence that we see Tommy has sunk to his absolute lowest point in his journey. 

Swinging his axe, he nearly kills his friend as he delivers a string of words that cause the room to silence instantly. He says the discs were always worth more than his friend. Within the quiet of the room, Tommy is forced to reflect on everything he’s done. How he kidnapped and tortured Connor. How he accidentally drowned Fundy. How he traumatized Ranboo. 

And now he’s hurt Tubbo, the one person he has always sought to protect; someone he vowed to never hurt. This realization causes Tommy to break. He’s so ashamed of himself that he can’t look at anyone. Tommy knows now that he is worse than anyone he’s ever hated. 

With pain in his voice, he tries and fails to apologize to Tubbo in the moment. The only way he knows to redeem himself now is to prove to Tubbo, after everything, that he can still put the discs aside. And so he does.

“The fact that Tommy is still trying to get his discs back after L’Manburg was destroyed is unreasonable and ridiculous.”

Tommy deals with grief in an interesting way, doing something very similar to Techno. His grief almost instantly becomes anger and a drive to prove himself. It morphs into a need for vengeance in response to injustice, always. 

After the destruction of L’Manburg, Tommy saying he wants the discs back is a double-sided motivator. The obvious side being: Tommy still needs them to feel comfort. The subtle side beneath it: Tommy is using them as an excuse to find Dream and kill him. To make him pay for helping destroy their home, hurting his friends, and abusing him in exile. 

Upon the loss of his home, I’d also argue the discs have only grown more important to Tommy in the aftermath. Typically, in grief, people hold onto things that survive devastation far more than if the tragic event never occurred. If your eldest child dies, one may hold their surviving children tighter. If your house burns down, one may deeply treasure a box of items that survived the flames. Tommy’s desperation after losing so much is entirely understandable.

On top of this, the discs are still the core to Tommy’s fatal flaw. They are what keeps him from achieving total happiness, so him getting over this intrinsic part of himself so easily would make for an unsatisfying character arc. He still has to work for his happiness in order to change for the better. 

To add, I’ve seen a lot of people complaining that Tommy is still prioritizing the discs over Tubbo, especially in that moment. And while I mostly agree, there are some interactions that stand out to me as being different between the pair that may imply otherwise. Tommy says a few times that despite L’Manburg being destroyed, he still has something left to lose; each time, turning to look at Tubbo. 

This subtly implies that losing Tubbo would be as devastating as losing his home. Tubbo also never voices disagreement over Tommy’s continued pursuit of the item. However, Tubbo frequently does what he thinks will make others happy, so this doesn’t implicitly mean support for Tommy either. Besides these two things, this is still Tommy’s fatal flaw shining through, continuing to hurt others around him. 

I only hope Tubbo can learn to stand up for himself and voice his real thoughts to Tommy now, after everything. It would provide at least some desperately-needed closure for Tubbo’s character.

“How could Tommy betray Techno like that? Techno told him upfront what he was going to do.”

While it’s true that Techno was obvious about his plans, Tommy was also just as upfront with Techno about what he thought of it. In fact, maybe even more so, considering Techno attempted to hide them from Tommy for a good portion of their partnership. Whenever Techno brought up the idea of destroying L’Manburg or hurting Tubbo, Tommy would always remind Techno that he didn’t want to hurt anyone. And that if Techno ever did, Tommy would be there to stand in his way. He never once stopped saying this. 

Tommy’s two major positive character traits have always been his undying loyalty and his strength to never give up, even in the face of death. Two classically heroic qualities, both of which, ironically, reinforce his fatal flaw. His refusal to change makes him stubborn; stubbornness being the only quality that makes unwavering loyalty and extreme persistence feasible. 

Because of these two traits, it was impossible from the start for Dream to completely break Tommy’s spirit and for Techno to get him to agree to anything too extreme. Despite this, Techno already had no hope of keeping Tommy on his side after the events of the day before the Festival. During it, Tommy had asked multiple times for Techno to give his word not to hurt anyone. That they’d only threaten to spawn a wither, get Techno’s remaining weapons in exchange, then leave. That’s it.

Techno avoided directly promising Tommy but still agreed not to regardless. So when Techno chose to spawn the wither anyway, despite Tommy urging them to leave multiple times, whatever trust Tommy had with him went completely out the window. Thus, when the threat was finally real, that Techno would make due on his promise to burn his home country to the ground and slaughter his friends, Tommy intervened. It would be unreasonable to expect Tommy not to stand against him in that moment, especially after his mental breakdown which ensued as a result of him nearly killing his best friend. 

Adding salt to the wound on Tommy’s end, Techno decided to also align himself with Dream, someone Techno knew Tommy was afraid of. This might have been a way to purposely hurt Tommy. More likely, it was because Dream and him shared a common goal in the moment and Techno desperately needed allies.

However, the implication of Techno siding with Tommy’s abuser most certainly hurt him, regardless of its original intentions. This is possibly why Tommy kept insisting through Doomsday that Techno betrayed him, avoiding actually telling anyone the reason as to why. If he couldn’t find the words to describe what Dream did to him, even to Tubbo, he certainly wouldn’t be able to tell Techno either.

“Techno gave Tommy everything, only to be repaid with betrayal.”

This statement regarding Tommy is the one I see most often. (It is also the one I get the most heated about.)

Dream’s character is well known for his manipulation tactics against other characters; pitting them against each other, crushing them under his heel, bending their will to conform to his own. It’s what makes him an interesting villain. It’s something fun to discuss. 

But is it still fun to discuss manipulation tactics if they’re so subtle, almost no one notices them? This is the paradigm Technoblade’s character falls into. While people know Techno for his laid-back personality, dry humor, and complex motivations, many fail to recognize him as a manipulator. The reason why this is so hard to spot is because it is mostly unintentional on behalf of the character. Dream performs his craft with intention, Techno does it without realizing. 

As well as this being unwitting, it is sandwiched between Techno’s actual attempts to connect with Tommy and care for him. Thus, making the manipulation feel less damaging. The only problem is, this still hurts Tommy just as much, regardless of the intentions behind it. Especially after just escaping Dream, Tommy’s reality and sense of identity are horribly distorted. In this vulnerable state, he desperately needs healing and someone to help ground him. This is what makes him even more susceptible to Techno’s influence. 

And because it is much subtler, it is harder to notice, and much harder to break free from. Despite Tommy claiming to hate Techno for what he did on November 16th, he still chose to flee to his house because it was the only place he could think of going, as well as being the safest area possible. After the failed execution, Techno mentioned potentially hurting Tubbo through a vengeance plot. Tommy voiced extreme distress over this, to which Techno threatened to kick him out of his house. 

Tommy then says he’s fine being homeless because he doesn’t want anything to do with someone who would hurt his friend. This is when Techno decides to weaponize Tommy’s own trauma against him. To be fair to Techno again, Tommy never told him the extent of the abuse he suffered in exile. But Techno isn’t stupid. He knows Tommy is extremely afraid of Dream, and for good reason. 

So he tells Tommy that if he were kicked out, he’d be defenseless. That if he were out there all alone, Dream would find him very easily. That Dream would drag him right back to Logstedshire in an instant. He notices the way Tommy reacts to this, how quickly he changes his mind about being kicked out. He continues to use this trauma repeatedly in order to keep Tommy under his roof, no matter how disagreeable he gets about Techno’s plans. He knows he can’t retrieve his weapons alone because he has no leverage. 

Therefore, using Tommy like a wild card was a major side strategy. Techno knows it will hurt Tubbo by doing this and may make the President more willing to compromise. In addition to this, many of the strategies Techno utilizes are Narcissistic manipulation tactics, categorized by their intent to keep the victim in a position below the abuser in terms of worth. This includes Techno using the silent treatment as a punishment, something which hurts Tommy since he craves affection from others. 

He also attempts to isolate Tommy by telling him he doesn’t need anyone else; that everyone abandoned him during exile (something which Dream has also said.) He tells Tommy that he’s only alive because Techno is there to defend him and supply for him, as well as constantly reminding Tommy to not let any compliments he receives get to his head. These are both meant to make Tommy depend more on Techno and doubt his own abilities. Techno also occasionally engages in subtle gaslighting, attempting to sow doubt in Tommy’s mind about his relationships with Tubbo, Quackity, Ranboo, and Fundy. 

It’s also vital to keep in mind what exactly separates Dream and Techno in this regard. The most important thing being that Techno actually does care about Tommy. He trusts him and wants to earnestly help him. He knows Tommy has been traumatized and abused in some way, but he doesn’t know how to help because he’s not that great with people. It also doesn’t help that Tommy is unable to tell anyone what happened. 

In the end, Techno really does want to be a shield for Tommy. Despite debating handing Tommy over to Dream, it’s more likely Techno was using this as bait for Dream to waste his favor on something useless. After all, he could always save Tommy, should he ask for him to. Techno’s warnings about Tubbo and L’Manburg also come from a place of love, as Techno was personally hurt by them and wants to protect Tommy by telling him to leave it behind. However, just because something is done out of love, doesn’t mean it’s automatically helpful or good for someone. 

There’s no better example of this than in Techno’s most damaging and frequently used tactic: ‘Buy Their Love,’ a technique commonly used on children by narcissistic parents. At first glance, nothing seems wrong. Techno gives Tommy most things he asks for; providing him with food, gifts, protection, and a place to sleep. The manipulation within this arises when the act of kindness is counted as a debt against the person who receives it. That by receiving so many good things, they would be ungrateful to go against their abuser. Doesn’t matter if they emotionally or physically hurt you, they gave you gifts, so you should shut your mouth and allow the abuse to continue. 

Whenever Tommy speaks out against Techno’s violent actions or his plans to hurt his friends, Techno would frequently bring up all his ‘good deeds.’ He consistently reminds Tommy that he could’ve just thrown him back to Dream, but he was too kind. That he went out of his way to give him gear, food, and a roof over his head. That he was kind so Tommy should be quiet and let Techno plot to hurt the people he loves. Or else he’s selfish and ungrateful. Or else Techno will take all of his gifts back and leave him with nothing.

Knowing this, it is horrifying seeing people justifying this behavior by mocking Tommy’s character and calling him ungrateful using this very same fallacy. (Especially for those who grew up being controlled by this very tactic.) 

It is through knowing Techno’s use of the ‘Buy Their Love,’ method that makes Tommy’s, ‘I am worthy,’ response, not one of betrayal, but one of triumph. This moment is a major positive character change for Tommy for many reasons. When Tommy decides to stand against Techno, this causes him to fall back on his most reliable tactic. He insults Tommy and then asks for the Axe of Peace back. Instead of caving, Tommy refuses. 

By keeping the Axe of Peace, Techno’s final gift to him, he is not only rejecting the destruction of all he loves, but he is breaking free from Techno’s manipulation. He says, ‘I am worthy,’ because now he knows his own self-worth. He doesn’t need Techno or Dream to decide it for him. This moment is Tommy finally breaking free from not just Techno, but Dream as well. He is finally free.

“Tommy was only using Techno and never thought of him as a friend.”

Tommy and Techno’s relationship is complicated, which is why pretending only one side was in the wrong isn’t entirely accurate. Their friendship, in summary, is tragic when fully examined; being doomed from the start. Techno and Tommy are brought into conflict often because they are simultaneously so similar and so different. Techno and Tommy both deal with grief in the same way. They both long for a life of peace and comfort. They each long for companionship, hold their ideals in kind, and are both naturally resilient in the face of adversity. 

Yet, their personalities and courses of action are polar opposites. What makes this friendship one of tragedy is the fact that not just Techno, not just Tommy, but both of them, actually thought the other was their friend. They had each wanted to be the other’s friend since the day they’d met. Tommy never stopped wanting to impress Techno and get on his good side, even if his methods annoyed the target of his affections. Him calling Techno ‘The Blade’ was never meant to dehumanize him; it was a title of adoration. 

Along the same spectrum, Techno is a character who generally longs for friendship, but pretends not to after a lifetime of hurt. He’s been burned too many times, and so he chooses to stay alone. Techno is generally very reclusive and awkward around others, so when he likes someone or cares for them, it’s noticeable from a mile away. Their friendship has a very brotherly dynamic, and the fact that Techno allowed him to stay in his house, implies Tommy is a step above pretty much everyone else but Phil. Putting up with Tommy’s shenanigans is itself a sign of affection. 

However, when their goals come into conflict and the two start to drift apart, they deal with this in massively different ways. With Tommy devastated and enraged, and with Techno withdrawn and hurt, once more burned by someone he slowly learned to trust. They were once both friends, neither one was pretending. Yet, both of them thought their companionship was unreciprocated. 

On top of this, both Techno and Tommy were using each other. Techno used Tommy to get his weapons back by manipulating and lying to him. Tommy used Techno to protect him from Dream and get his discs back. They each hurt the other and refused to listen, both shouting valid complaints at the other that they refused to hear. 

Their relationship is also deeply affected by the themes of vengeance in the current arc, which is something I haven’t seen many people talk about. Most of the current conflicts this past month have resulted from characters being unable to forgive, resorting to revenge as a way to cope with loss. L’Manburg was the first to initiate this, through the influence of Quackity. The Butcher Army was formed to punish Techno for a war crime he committed. And while this is perfectly reasonable, what isn’t is the way the incident was orchestrated. It was an unchecked abuse of power to execute someone without a fair trial, as well as punishing Phil, who was not involved whatsoever. 

This was also particularly unfair to Techno, as many projected their anger at Wilbur onto him. Even Tommy did this, finding himself unable to blame his late mentor, so Techno was the next best option for him. However, it was Techno’s response to this that was interesting. He chose a path of vengeance, the same way L’Manburg did, after vowing to live his life as a pacifist. By doing this and following through, he hurt everyone, not just the people he claimed needed to pay for their actions. 

Instead of just picking the weed in the garden, he set the entire flower bed on fire. Through L’Manburg’s destruction, he gets what he wants. He destroys their government, but he also scars the earth and shatters the sky. He leaves uninvolved people homeless, deeply hurting Ranboo, Eret, and especially Ghostbur. Philza turns to vengeance as well, taking his anger at the death of his son out on people who do not deserve it. 

Tubbo, a day before the second Festival, was given another chance to seek revenge when Techno had spawned a wither on their land. Instead, all Tubbo could say was, ‘We do nothing … It’s pointless, vengeance. It’s poisonous.’ By doing this, he has managed to be a bigger person than even Techno was, with the strength and maturity to turn the other cheek. And now with Tommy’s plan to kill Dream, the conflict continues to escalate; only ending where forgiveness begins. 

It’s sad to think, if Techno didn’t choose a path of vengeance and Tommy was strong enough to tell Techno how he really felt, the two might have remained friends. Who knows? Maybe they still can.

“Tommy was the one in the wrong. Techno was right to destroy L’Manburg.”

Techno is a lovely character. He’s well-written, engaging, funny. He has many values and quirks that are generally relatable and interesting. His motives are deeply understandable and sympathetic. And yet, he is perfectly capable of being evil, in just the same way that Tommy can be deeply flawed despite being the protagonist. 

I’m sure most people already know that Technoblade is a villain. Or more accurately, a tragic antagonist. Techno (the streamer) knows he is and he’s having fun playing that part. Just because a character is morally in the wrong doesn’t mean their values and ideology don’t have merit. The best character I could compare Techno to is Thanos. 

They have completely valid concerns and points, but it is the way in which they go about achieving their goals that makes them into evil people. And despite this, many will still agree with them, even after they do something reprehensible. Contrary to popular belief, Technoblade’s tendency towards violence isn’t a good thing, no matter how you look at it. Even Techno himself knows this, that’s why he decided to reform and become a pacifist with Phil. He was not a good influence on Tommy, on top of also manipulating him. 

Techno caving to hatred and vengeance makes him no different to the resolve of the Butcher Army that pursued him. It is precisely the fact that he went on to destroy the home of not just Tommy, but also Ranboo and Ghostbur, that puts him in the wrong. He is allowed to despise all government and remove himself from it, but the moment he decided to insert himself into someone else’s country and take their home from them in order to destroy it, he abandoned an integral principle to his own values. 

This principle being: ‘Choice.’ The act of letting others be free to decide what they want for themselves. It is a huge component to the concept of anarchy, the freedom to choose. And yet Techno robbed this from, not just the ruling powers that hurt him, but individuals who were not even involved in the first place. He justifies this by saying it’s for their own good, that he’s helping; while acting in a self-serving manner. 

In his anger, he became the punisher, stooping lower than L’Manburg has ever gone. There is also the issue of Dream weaponizing Techno to destroy the one thing that has been a thorn in his side since the very start, manipulating Techno’s grief to achieve his goals. Tommy’s biggest sin in the Doomsday War was standing up to Techno and getting in the way of him hurting his friends and destroying his home. 

This isn’t to say Tommy is perfect, because he still hurt everyone he ever loved. But the only way he knew to redeem himself was to fight for what he knew was right. And so he chose to fight alongside his best friend, Tubbo. However, just because Techno is in the wrong doesn’t mean others are wrong for wanting to side with him, or by finding joy in his ruthlessness. The biggest appeal of Techno is the fact that he opposes people like Tommy. 

He knows how to put people in their place and it’s satisfying to watch. Some people love rooting for villains and it’s entertaining to see a being with so much power crush everyone else down so effortlessly. Especially because it’s so easy to sympathize with Technoblade. Sympathetic villains are the best kind; where they have understandable motivations, relatable flaws, people they love, and something they can lose. Dream is a villain you love to hate. Technoblade is a villain you hate to love. Simple as. 

Despite the destruction of L’Manburg being either devastating or fantastic depending on who you are, there is one major good it has done. It has pushed Tommy more towards the completion of his character arc. By losing one of the three things he loves, it will be impossible for him to pretend any longer. He will be forced to confront reality very soon. It all depends on whether Tubbo will have to die first for him to finally see it.

[ayamturd]

kid│technoblade

summary: (requested) an errand run forces techno out of the house; he meets an interesting kid in return

warnings: brief injury description, hinted abandonment, light angst and fluff

pairing: in-game platonic!technoblade

a/n: i took this request and ran so far with it lol. pls enjoy, i loved the reader’s dynamic with techno sm

wc: (4.0k) - m.list

It was hot, the day smothering in the summer heat as the village offered little coverage to the harsh sun. From exploring the lands of the Arctic to walking in the crowded space on the sweltering landscape, Technoblade let out a sigh from how his layered clothing stuck to him; his regal attire was more than slightly uncomfortable and was arguably only for looks then and there. 

Glancing down to the list in his hands once more, he grumbled from the tasks, supplies and ingredients he still needed, openly irritated from being forced on the supply run. Real funny Phil. Hilarious.

He scratched his head, lost to the busy market place as many shoved past him in the busy rush. Technoblade was a warrior, the Blood God, he was someone to be feared and feel threatened by, yet at that very moment he couldn’t be anything less than a lost tourist. 

Technoblade rarely ventured to extremely public places, but he knew he couldn’t return empty handed, the underwhelming mockery he would receive would be just plain annoying. 

With a final sigh of defeat, he decided it best to take each task step by step, that starting with the blacksmith. Now, make no question that Technoblade and Phil weren’t not capable of crafting their own weapon, but at times, the cost of another’s opinion did more help than that of personalized wants. 

It was even hotter once he entered the open store, the burning furnace emitting an almost intolerable intensity that rivaled the burning cold of the Arctic. Rolling his neck, he approached the front desk and unsheathed both Phil’s and his long swords, tossing a small pouch with a chink as payment for restorations and commendations.

Speaking few words in the villager’s tongue, the worker immediately began his assessment when taking the weapons in hand. Techno knew little in the different language, but he understood when the man explained the necessary works and time expectancy. 

He sighed for what felt to be his 15th time that afternoon, but complied when leaning against the counter for the next few minutes; he refused to leave his best weaponry in the hands of a stranger, and would do with the wait until then. 

Picking on the crusted mud that hardened on his fur coat, he jumped when someone slammed into the wood he leaned against, eyes dropping to meet the height of a young adolescent.

Unlike himself, they seemed dressed for the sweltering heat. Their cloak hung loosely from their shoulders, but was bare and thin, either from time or was purposeful from the climate, it was his guess. While they seemed as energetic as someone their age should be, he could tell from experience of the way they stood tall with their chin held high that they were a fighter, someone who seemed cautious of their surroundings by the constant shift in their eyes. 

He also knew they noticed him but was purposefully choosing to ignore him for whatever reason, he couldn’t tell. Coughing, he went back to his useless fiddling. 

They tapped anxiously, their fingers twitching while they looked longingly to the nearest axes, an overwhelming sense of excitement filling the stuffy air. While he tried to ignore them considering how little they could stand still irritated him, he couldn’t deny that they intrigued him. 

“Helloooooooo?” they called out, jumping above the counter and holding themself up with their arms stiff in strength. Techno waited a brief moment while they began yelling louder before rolling his eyes to interrupt them.

“They’re busy right now. Give it a minute, will you?”

His monotoned voice caused them to freeze, and as they slowly turned to meet the sight of him, a huge grin grew on their face. It made his frown grow in return. 

“A minute can be so long in silence, I’m only making it go faster.” Techno scoffed at their words and fully turned his body towards them. His genetics made him tower over them even when slouched, yet while he knew others would cower, the child in front of tilted their head in amusement. 

“By what logic does that make any sense?”

The mischievous teenager followed Technoblade’s posture, mimicking his stance with crossed arms. They jutted their chin out proudly, though it was obvious they were only messing with him further.

“My logic, obviously.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s yours, doesn’t make it right.”

With an annoying quirk of a smile, the small human smirked with feigned innocent eyes.

“Says who?”

Knowing full well that it would a battle in vain, Techno conceded and faced the front desk again, his arms resting against the table as he hung his head down with a huff of air. 

His considered defeat made the young stranger laugh lightly, and they copied his position, but instead held their head in their palms with a small hum. Staring at him intensely, their head rocked in thought for some time before they spoke up. 

“You look miserable.”

It took Techno a large amount of willpower to prevent himself from glaring in their direction, something the child took as a challenge. They filled the silence when Techno left it unattended, leaning closer to him while still in place. 

“I mean, the outfit is sick, I won’t lie. But you just look awful right now. How many layers do you have on anyway?”

Once more, he had to clench his fist tightly to drown out their bothersome questions. The child, as he now deemed it considering how persistent it could be, noted his subtle tensing and bit their lip to smother another coming giggle. 

“Is your crown real? Are you actually royalty? Am I expected to bow in honor or respect? I’m terrible with conversation-“

“So I’ve noticed.” Techno dryly stated, his hand coming to rub the back of his head, exasperated, with a shake. They completely disregard his side comment like he never spoke. 

“-but I never though I’d live to see the day I interact with royalty.”

“I’m not royal, I’m anythin’ but.” Techno’s voice dropped when considering the matter, his narrowed eyes in concentration against his constant fight for Anarchy and destruction. 

His seriousness created a beat of silence in the shop, though without fail, the teenager overlooked his internal monologue.

“Do you have a long, fancy name with numbers and stuff? Like ‘King George the First' or ‘Their majesty, Alas-’”

“No."

“But what about-”

Techno’s groan cut their next range of questions off, and he pushed himself up to stare them down tiredly. 

“You’re a pretty annoyin’ kid, you know that?”

Sitting up when he did, the teen jumped onto the counter backwards, swinging their legs on the edge while gripping the border tightly. They rested their chin on their shoulder with an eased smile as they now matched his height. 

“So I’ve been told.”

The approaching footsteps from the back entry caused the both of them to turn their heads, the young stranger facing to him while Techno’s gaze still remained. 

“But you can’t deny it, I made time go faster.”

Hopping off before they could be scolded, the blacksmith returned with the weapons’ adjustments and the requested engravings Phil asked for, drawing Techno’s attention away from the young stranger. He opened the cloth the worker brought the swords out in, and lifted his own while gripping the grained handle tightly.

Stepping away from the counter, he swung the blade in front of him, tossing it briefly as to adjust to its weight and consider its balance. The wind it generated in the slices of air brought a dark smile to his face. Satisfied with the result, Techno inspected the finer details up close a final time before sheathing it to his side. 

As he went to grab Phil’s, he caught the teen’s awed gape. He chuckled from their open amazement and moved to walk towards the displayed axes behind them. 

“What’s your name, kid?” With his back to them, he reached his hand outward to the various blade sizes, hovering over the edges with careful pressure. 

His question visibly threw them off, and they stuttered before gathering themself. 

“What’s yours?” they asked, eyebrows raised in defense. Techno felt the corner of his mouth lift from their faltering. 

“Technoblade.” He was patient as they swallowed before responding. 

“Y/n.”

Unclasping a light, yet deadly thin battle-blade axe from the wall, Techno eventually turned around to meet them again.  

“No last name?” 

While they smiled, it didn’t reach their eyes as they glanced away with a careless shrug. No origin or proper upbringing, he assumed.

“Never came up with one. Never needed one.”

“Hmm.”

Lifting the axe in hand, Techno gestured to the empty baldric that wrapped tightly around their chest. By their longing stares and stance as a fighter, it didn’t take much to make the connection that they were someone who fought with an axe. 

“What happened to the last one?”

Surprised by his close observation, they brought their hands to the bare hold as if they were searching for it. Unlike the past few minutes in his company, they suddenly became shy and spoke with a guilty smile. 

“O-oh. I, uh, chipped the blade. Wore it down. It’s been a while since I was able to treat myself, I thought it was finally worth the wait to get a new one.”

Shifting on their feet, they grasped one of their arms awkwardly. Despite their previously loud, outward energy, Techno sighed once he saw them as the kid they were; they were someone alone that was forced to survive in the big world, someone he could relate and understand. 

After a moment passed, Techno faced the worker. They had been watching their interaction the entire time and seemed as uncomfortable as they were bored. Without asking for a price, he wordlessly pulled out a handful of emeralds from his drop leg pouch and slammed them on the table surface. 

The blacksmith made sounds of gurgled delight, gathering the gems into his opens hands with furious nods in thanks. Techno only rolled his eyes and shoved the purchased axe forwards, leaving it open in his outreached hands to the child. 

“Save your money. It’s not worth any price they try to sell.”

Switching their sights from the weapon and Technoblade in disbelief, they breathlessly giggled when carefully lifting it from his hold. 

Twirling it easily before striking near the ground, the pulled the new beauty to their chest gratefully. They were at a loss for words, to say the least, and Techno laughed from their frozen shock.

His laughter died down and he decided to take his leave in quick steps. While the teen tried to shout to him in thanks, they were still dazed and couldn’t form words to yell. 

Techno paused at the entrance and dipped his head back, his hand bordering the door frame. He grinned slightly to the point where his sharper canines were visible, and called out to them in departure.

“See you around, kid.”

Bow raised, arrow drawn, Techno crept low on the forest ground with cautious and calculated steps. 

The overgrown leaves above provided a gentle shading that shielded the majority of the sunlight, only few splotches breaking through. It had been too long since Techno went hunting, the sport lost to him since his recent adventures and scenery in the very south. 

As he had been traveling for days on end to meet with his brothers’ call, he thought to gather food and see through with his lost skill; he had devoted a majority of his time in peaceful solitude to farming and raising cattle, he wasn’t as skillful as he used to be. 

Keeping that in mind, as his eyes narrowed from the close rustling of a bush before him and he approached meaningfully, he failed to noticed the grown roots that broke through the dirt. 

With a small yelp, his foot became stuck and he fell hard onto his face.

A small rabbit hopped out of the shrubbery and stopped briefly near him as if in mockery to his embarrassing failure before bouncing away. 

Technoblade groaned, both from pain and the circumstances, and gave up any hope for moving in shame when the voices began to mock him. 

“Well that wasn’t very royal of you.”

While his memory failed him more often than not, he recognized the voice specifically over the chaos that reigned in his ears. Contemplating the next-least humiliating course of actions, he settled on pretending nothing happened. 

“Like I said the last time,” he sighed while pushing himself up, “I’m not royalty.”

Brushing off the dirt that stained his clothes and skin, Techno turned to the child’s voice and jerked startled when their entertained countenance was closer than what he expected. They were hanging upside down with their legs hooked on a low, but sturdy branch. 

Face smug, they crossed their arms and openly snickered. 

“Agreed, you are far less graceful than what I expect them to be.”

Techno shook his head and searched for his bow, the old relic more traditional and practical in comparison to his crossbow for hunting. He hummed when spotting it and tried to shift the conversation. 

“What are you doin’ out here, kid?”

Pulling themself up in a sitting position, they swung their feet wildly and looked around the woodlands with a shrug. 

“I live here.”

Freezing mid crouch with his bow in hand, Techno’s words were slow following after. 

“Out here?”

“Mhmm.”

There was a pause as Techno looked at them confused. His brows furrowed fro their vague input. 

“In the trees?”

“Sometimes,” they sang. Leaping forward, they landed smoothly onto their feet and raised their eyes to the sky. “It depends on my mood, and whether or not I want to see the stars.”

“Ah.”

With that, Techno turned and started to walk away. His hunting attempt was a mistake that cost him a bullying teenager that apparently lived in the woods and was homeless, the voices adding onto his internal torment; he wanted to leave as fast as he could.

Racing their steps ahead of him, y/n began to walk backwards to address him directly. 

“Why are you here? I assume you don’t live near here since you dress like an old, aristocratic woman with modesty insecurities.”

Techno looked ahead without faltering considering their playful jab, and they tried for an answer again. 

“Plus you haven’t been around for weeks.”

Steps slowing, Techno was genuinely surprised to hear their observation and glanced at them with an inclined head tilt. 

“You looked for me?”

Caught in their own web, y/n timorously avoided his stare. 

“The town’s always busy with newcomers, travelers, royalty,” they emphasized with a pointed look at him, “trust me when I say you stick out like a sore thumb. Your turn.”

Nodding from their reasonable, but untrue explanation, it was Techno’s turn to glance away while formulating a response. 

“I’ve been… uh, explorin’, you could say.”

In a paralleling manner, they copied his previous nod despite their skepticism. 

“I see. And now?”

“Now I’m visitin’ an old friend, old relations.”

“Ahhh. Girlfriend?”

Technoblade stopped walking altogether and incredulity gawked at them. 

“What?”

“Boyfriend?” y/n continued, now turning with their back facing him. Techno rushed to meet there stride and spoke down to them.

“No, stop it.”

Hand to their chin, they pretended to reach another revelation with wide eyes. 

“Ohh I get it now, distant family.”

“You can be quiet now,” Techno grumbled. Smacking his forehead, he rubbed it exasperated while their joy became evident in their cheerful tone.  

“Are they misunderstanding?” the teen asked, their cheeks flushed excitedly from his apparent discomfort. “Is it the person-friend they don’t approve of?”

“I’m leaving now.” Techno hurried his pace as to leave the forest ground.

“They rude? Unbearable? Selfish? Annoying?”

“You know what,” he stated, spinning to them to clarify since they had stopped walking entirely behind him, “yes.”

“Ooo which one?”

“Annoyin’, and you remind me so much of them.”

The trees were now clear as the plains had become more visible during their trek. Strapping the long, recurve barbow over his head and around his chest, Techno thought the exchange done and allowed the sun to bask over him. 

Before he could make his way to his camp, their voice yelled out to him. 

“Aww that’s sweet!”

Perplexed to how anything of what he said could be seen as ‘sweet’, his curiosity got the better of him and he turned again. 

“You consider me like family? I’m touched!”

Eyes narrowed, Techno bowed his head it defeat once again. He could never win with them, could he?

“‘kay, I’m done with this. Goodbye.”

Y/n waved avidly with a wide grin in spite of him not looking. 

“See you around, Sir Blade!”

“You should consider yourself lucky.”

The stillness was deafening. Regardless of the wind that howled outside and forced the shudders to rattle upon constant impact, or the fire the lit the room bright in heat and warm tone color, the quiet was tense when y/n awoke in Techno’s house. 

“I saw the smoke burn miles out. Had the wind changed its course, I would have never noticed.”

As his back was turned to them, Techno pulled the cork from his most recent regeneration brew and poured it briskly into a small mug, its small rippling sound overtaking the room. With a plate of bread he prepared beforehand, he finally addressed them with the sustenance in hand. 

Y/n was completely engulfed in the large bedding they rested in, Techno’s bedding. Their arms were wrapped tightly with gauze that covered their forearms all the way to their chest. Eyes sunken and dark, they squinted heavily from recently awakening with ashen hair that matted to their face. 

“Is everyone alright?” they asked, voice faint yet rough from the intense smoke inhalation and damage they sustained in the event. Coughing from speaking for the first time, Techno was quick to hand them the potion. 

They downed the drink voraciously, and he decided to speak while they ate. 

“Everyone that managed to escape, probably. But those that did fled long before I arrived.”

Glancing at down at them, Techno could only sigh at the sight. They were so small under his gaze, and he shifted his attention to the nearest wall with crossed arms. 

“It’s one thing to help others, it’s another when takin’ on a raid by yourself.”

His pointed comment caused them to snap and try to defend themself, however, they moved to suddenly and winced from the slight movement. Despite his frown, Techno’s hands were raised gently with concerned eyes from their evident pain. 

Breathing in and out harshly, they were still hunched over when they glared up at him in anguish. 

“You didn’t hear them scream, you didn’t hear them yell for mercy. You weren’t there, but I was. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.” Their voice cracked near the end, and with vast tears that escaped, a broken sob filled the space as they hid their face ashamed. 

Techno was at a loss when comforting others, but he wasn’t a jerk to ignore someone after surviving a tragic incident, one they tried to fight yet lost to. 

Slowly, he moved to sit on the bed side. He clenched his fist shut in hesitance, but steadily, he hovered his hand over them before stroking their back reassuringly. 

“Listen, kid,” pausing, Techno caught himself and cleared his throat, “Y/n, I know you barely know anything about me but trust me. I understand how it feels, how it must’ve felt then to be overwhelmed by sudden cries that surround you to the point that you make rash decisions. Trust me when I say I get it.”

Their cries died down from his words, and he spoke earnestly as they listened more closely in smothered hiccups. 

“I respect what you tried to do in the end, but you have to be self aware that you’re still just a kid.”

His blunt statement made them freeze, and when the fully processed what he said, they dropped their hands to scowl at him incredulously. Their red eyes are hard and made him laugh from his lack of explanation to his true meaning. 

“Hey, I never said it was the age that was at fault.”

Pulling his arms away, he grasped his hands together and rested his elbows to his knees, though his focus was still on them. 

“You’re young, and young means inexperienced. Give yourself some leeway and accept your limits that come with time.”

They looked down from his attentive eyes, but still nodded when understanding his perspective. 

Rubbing the bottom of his chin with the back of his hand, Techno attempted to further the conversation amiably. He was out of his depth socially, but he was trying for their sake. 

“Besides all that, I have to say you can definitely fight.” Their eyes shot up to meet his, the acclaim unexpected. Their face was too emotionally soft for Techno to look at, so he turned away before speaking with a joking smirk. 

“Though I’m not too sure about your close combat.”

Gawking at the audacity, y/n lightly smacked his arm and scoffed. A smile crept on their face as they shook their head from the backhanded compliment. 

“You try training with a tree, they don’t always fight back.”

His snicker grew from their weak justification, and eventually, they joined his laughing fit. Helpless giggles replaced the once solemn air. While it soon died down, the elation of each other’s company still remained. 

Techno rose from the soft mattress and crossed his arms loosely in thought. With a single nod, his monotoned voice encouraged them considerately.

“Get some rest, we can talk later.”

Like his past departures, his steps were fast and large as he moved to exit. His hand pulled the door with him, but a shy call of his name stopped him from closing it fully shut.

“Technoblade.”

His head peaked from behind the wooden door and was met with soft eyes that expressed more gratitude than words could convey. 

“Thank you.”

“No thanks needed, kid.”

Bonus:

Shutting the door gently, Techno walked into the kitchen space with a sigh. He rubbed his eyes from the hours he spent watching them unconscious after tending to them, and heeded the voices’ command for food (real food for once, not blood).

He leisurely approached the pantry, and without turning to address him, spoke lowly.

“Not a single, word.”

Phil lowered the book in his hand and raised a hand defensively with a shrug. He was sat in the living room, obscured in the large armchair from the kitchen; Techno was aware of his presence, however, and knew of his routine.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Phil called out, though Techno was quick to respond. 

“Phil, you are the least stealthy person on this planet.”

“No, no, I’m serious. I have nothing to say.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Techno murmured a sure and moved to the front door, an apple in one hand and bag full of produce tucked in his other arm. He stated that he was going check on the animals and slammed the door close harshly.

Moments passed as Phil sat in silence, save for the crackling fire that roared beside him, before speaking as if he could still hear him. 

“To think, I sent you to the store and you brought back a kid.”

[lazyliars]

/rp

Before I get into it, I want to state that is EXPLICITLY an analysis of the Characters, and is not intended to touch on how the cc’s played them in a meta sense unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, this is technically a part two to my other post, which took a more in depth look at Techno and Phil’s reactions to Tommy’s death. It’s not necessary when reading this post, but I don’t address their reactions here.

So. The question must be asked.

Are we [the Syndicate] the baddies?

Yes.

The End.

 Why are the Syndicate the baddies?

They got damn logo is a wither skull.

The End.

That's not how this works.

Yeah, yeah. You’re right.

The Syndicate's goals as an organization are not inherently bad. They seem to have good intentions behind them, and the focus on the freedom of it's individual group members is important to remember when talking about it; It is not a government. There is no hierarchical power system. No one is forced to do anything against their will, or surrender any of their rights or power to remain a member. It is not a government.

I also want to address Techno and Phil backing Ranboo into a corner – I see them getting a lot of flack for this, but I personally do not think it is relevant to the greater discussion, or necessarily representative of any contradictions within the organization. It was clearly played for laughs, and after they back off they clarify to Ranboo that they won't force him. Then later when Phil and Ranboo are alone, Ranboo feels safe enough to express that he felt like he was pressured into it, and Phil assures him he is allowed to leave whenever he wants; He is not being forced to do anything, and he is not being coerced or blackmailed.

None of the Syndicate members have done any wrongs against each other in the context of the Syndicate, OR gone against any of the Syndicate's core principles.

That, said, holy shit are they the baddies.

Listen, there's trying to telegraph a meaning or message to the audience and then there's having your logo be wither skulls on blackstone. That is straight out of the skit I keep referencing, seriously.

Okay, but, they laughed at it! It was played as a joke, just like the Ranboo thing!

The Ranboo thing was improv, the Syndicate's headquarters were planned – the artistic choices that they made reflect on what role they want the build and the organization inhabiting it to play in the future storylines.

Wither Skulls kind of have some CONNOTATIONS. Techno is an English major, I don't think he chose the most threatening imagery possible on accident, and then joked about the way people would interpret it just to stir the pot. This reads as hugely intentional.

And beyond that, the jokes they make during this part aren't “haha yeah, we look bad but we're actually good!” they're “you can tell by looking at these that we're the good guys wink wink, this is good guy stuff right here :)” It is a joke about how they are definitely not the good guys. This isn't even a case of unreliable narrators, this is one step down from flat out saying the meta intent.

But okay, I hear you, I'm talking about things that haven't happened yet. The Syndicate hasn't used any Withers, they could be an aesthetic choice.  Lets look at what they do in practice.

So, they barge into private property, assess Snowchester's right to continue existing based entirely on their own ideals of what Freedom is, and then only once Tubbo assures them that they have no standing leader do they grant the place their approval to, and I gotta stress this part, continue existing.

 In my Quackity meta, I already talked about how Government in the context of a M1necraft RP cannot be compared to IRL Governments on a one-to-one scale. They don't serve the same purposes or have the same type of power. What I didn't talk about was Agency in the context of m1necraft governments.

In an irl government, if you are born into one, you can't really leave without committing a massive overhaul on your life, which can be expensive and difficult, if not impossible for many people. Even in a “benevolent” government, the simple physicality of where you were born can prevent you from leaving it easily.

The same hurdles do not exist in the Dream SMP. People who join M1necraft governments choose to. They want to, either at the beginning when they form one, or later on when they join up. So far, no Government has just Sprung Up and forced the current residents of an area to become dependent on them, except maybe the Eggpire, who's status as a government is... shakey.

And even when people want to leave or separate from the government, they have been historically able to do so without any trouble or any effort from said governments to stop them. Jack Manifold emancipated from Manberg. Fundy and Quackity both left to start new nations. In all cases they were allowed to do so without any attempts on the part of the governments to stop them, either through force, or institutions preventing them from doing so.

The most anyone has lost when leaving a government is their house, which is still usually their property anyway, and is something that is easily rebuilt elsewhere and is inconvenient to move anyway.

The only exceptions to this might be Schlatt exiling Wilbur and Tommy - but even then, they weren’t trying to leave, they were trying to get back in, and of course the original L’manberg revolution, where Dream attempted to force L’manberg back into the Dream SMP, which wasn’t even a government at that point in time.

I don’t consider Phil’s house arrest an example of a government forcing someone to stay a citizen - that was treated less as a matter of a citizen wanting to leave the country and more as a threat to national security. Still pretty fucked up, but it’s a different issue.

What I'm saying is, If Tubbo wants to create a government out in the middle of nowhere, threatening no one, forcing no one to join either through force or desperation, and allowing people to join willingly because they want to, then he should be allowed to do that.

The Irony of the Syndicate, a group of people consisting of some of the richest, strongest people on the server, going around and enforcing 'Freedom' that entails no one person having more power than any other, is absurd. 

It shows an extreme lack of self-awareness and/or self-righteousness, as they seem to think that they deserve to be the ones who decide what constitutes a government.

Snowchester is a small independent nation - they shouldn’t have to live in fear of being obliterated if they don’t walk on eggshells to meet an arbitrary standard decided by people who’s only authority on the matter COMES FROM THEIR PERSONAL POWER. No one elected them! No one chose them! They were not “approved” by the server at large to enact this kind of law.

The Syndicate are not a government, but they are an unsupervised power structure exerting their ideals on a land that did not ask for them. Like, These people have invented an actual Authoritarian-Anarchist faction. How the hell did they manage this?????

Back on topic.

Tubbo shows them the crater left by his nukes. The reaction is oddly positive – the nukes are fine by the morals of the Syndicate, apparently. I'd argue that they come across as more impressed than anything else; they seem to respect Tubbo for having gotten ahold of “real” power.

(There's a few good memes out there about “We can excuse nuclear weaponry, but we draw the line at Government!”)

So. By the Syndicate's standards: A single person or group of acceptably equal persons with weapons of mass-destruction are only worth “keeping an eye on” because they might provoke other people.

Like, I consider Project Dreamcatcher to be one of, if not the most morally ambiguous thing Tubbo has ever done, largely because it was all on his own initiative. He holds some culpability for The Butcher Army and Phil's house arrest, but they weren't his ideas and he was mostly following Quackity at that point.

And Phil tells Tubbo, IMMEDIATELY AFTER SEEING THE NUCLEAR CRATER:

“Looks like you've reformed a little bit Tubbo, I'm proud.”

And it's fine. Crimes against nature? Fine. A sign of healing in fact!! Tubbo is having a sweeeelll time and he definitely didn't make these nukes specifically in fear of being attacked by these exact people! Tubbo is doing great. Tubbo is doing fine. Tubbo. is. FINE.

Anyway.

I don't think this presentation of the Syndicate was an accident. Looking at the greater lore of SMP right now, after the Egg is done, their list of enemies is slim, and considering that they seem solely invested in taking down governments, that leaves maybe Snowchester, Kinoko Kingdom, and Eret and the greater Dream SMP.

Snowchester has not been shown to be corrupt, evil, or have any intent to go down that route. The most ambiguous thing they've done is, again, is the nukes. Other than that, it's pretty much your average cottagecore snow village.

Kinoko is presented in an even more morally 'good' light, Karl having founded it specifically for his Time-travel library purposes, which are currently being treated by the narrative as a selfless act, if not downright heroic.

Eret is also a fairly 'good' aligned character atm. He's been on that redemption grind since the og betrayal, and doesn't seem keen on backtracking. He's actively tried to leverage his position as king to make things better, and hasn't been quiet about that. He was also 'validated' by Tommy*, a character who has been described both by his allies and enemies as “the hero,” so take that as you will.

What I'm getting at is, all of the current potential enemies for the Syndicate aside from the Egg, are currently being cast as 'good,' and if they were to be attacked, they would undoubtedly have the moral high-ground, unless something drastically changed.

The only potential shakeups I can think of is are a Dream escape and/or a Wilbur revival, both of which could draw the Syndicate's attention and ire, depending on how things go. That said, it's just as likely that either or both of them would join the Syndicate – Dream still has that favor, and Phil and Techno both seemed to think Wilbur would've agreed with their blowing up L'manberg.

Both of those characters are currently **villains – the fact that they're both prime candidates for the Syndicate is a huge indication of the direction it's going to go as the plot moves forward.

((*I know some people are gonna come at me for painting Tommy as the “deciding factor” of what is morally good, so lemme just stop you there. I'm not talking about Tommy somehow having the 'right' to decide who is and isn't good, and definitely not the right to decide who should and shouldn't be king. I'm saying that Tommy, a character who the narrative treats as, if not a good person, then a person who is trying to be good, was in support of Eret, a character who has also been trying to be good.

Eret doesn't gain the moral highground because Tommy said so, he gets it because a character who the narrative treats as trying to do better, acknowledged Eret's earnest attempts at doing the same.

**I'm referring to Wilbur here as a villain because Tommy seemed convinced he would be if he were to be brought back. There is always the possibility that he's wrong.))

So, to summarize this: I read the Syndicate as being intentionally positioned as future antagonists, if not outright villains of a future arc. They are NOT a Government but their goals are contradictory with their means, and it is important to keep in mind that they plan to enforce their own brand of freedom on people who did not grant them either the authority or permission to do so.

So, uh. Can you tell I loved these streams? They were seriously so good. I kept switching between Ranboo and Techno's POV's trying to keep up with everything. I still have to watch Niki's!

All in all, I'm super, super excited for whats coming next, egg stuff, Syndicate stuff, Tommy stuff, all of it.

[ailydawn]

The finale of Arcane has been amazing and pretty mind blowing! So I wanted below to share my opinion on certain topics that I keep seeing in discussions. Please feel free to ignore my rant, I just wanted to get things off my chest.

Recently I’ve started seeing a lot of praise going towards Silco and a lot of hate towards Vi for not accepting Jinx. What frustrates me is how fast people turn to extremes by saying that Vi doesn’t love Powder/Jinx anymore or that Silco was the only one that did. I’m sorry but that’s just not true and totally unfair to Vi.

Vi always loved and supported Powder in their childhood even when she kept jinxing their raids. She never lashed out the way Mylo did and was always supportive of her by saying that Powder is strong (but in a different way). The only time she (understandably) lashed out was when Powder by accident killed their whole family, and even then she still tried to run back to her but was stopped by Marcus. People seem to keep forgetting that Powder wasn’t the only one that suffered that night. Despite her grief from losing loved ones, her sister was the only person Vi thought about while in prison and the first person she tried to find once she was free. When she did, Vi hasn’t blamed Powder for the earlier mistakes no matter how literally deadly they were because she knew that Powder’s heart was in the right place and it was just a terrible mistake and accident.

To people saying that Vi only cares about Powder and not Jinx I want to say that Vi overall in the show wasn’t given much time to understand the new Powder and the extent of her mental trauma. Because honestly, not much time was given to her by the show to even get to know Jinx since getting free from prison. Also accepting Jinx with all her traumas and accidental mistakes is one thing, but another is accepting that Jinx enjoys killing and causing destruction. That IMO might be the main point of conflict for them and why they’re now following such different paths.

Because of Caitlyn, Vi saw enforcers and people from Piltover from a slightly different point of view. She saw that good people can exist on both sides, that there’re people willing to help Zaun. Unfortunately, Jinx wasn’t given this opportunity, partly due to Silco’s brainwashing. She has seen Vi change her stance on Piltover/enforcers and ironically ALSO couldn’t accept Vi for the way she is. “Here’s to the new us” she said at end of 1x09. Their ideologies now became quite different. Last advice that Vander has left to Vi was to “have a good heart”, hence Vi wouldn’t be able to force herself to accept unnecessary violence and deaths of innocents. While Silco taught Jinx that she has to fight against Piltover with any means necessary. “We’ll show them all” was the motto that she is now following.

Also it’s easy for us to praise Silco for being such a “good” father and for accepting Jinx the way she is when he was the one who encouraged her to develop her most destructive side, indulged her madness. He loved Jinx for sure but it didn’t contradict his morals. For him it was beneficial, cause overall her actions were fitting to his agenda. Both the revolution and keeping Jinx to himself. If we think about it, he never actually accepted the Powder side of Jinx. He tried to erase it with that lake scene because keeping it meant a chance of losing Jinx to Vi, and to Vander in some way.

I guess I just want people to cut some slack to Vi (who I know made a few mistakes of her own) and not to idealize Silco now. The show is about shades of grey and not just things being black and white. Vi most likely still loves her sister, but now because of the violence and destruction that she has caused and would keep causing in the future, Vi will feel like it’s her responsibility to convince her to stop. Sad thing is that Jinx doesn’t want to stop, so it’ll keep being a cat&mouse chase. Their lives are a Greek tragedy, where things could have been resolved and prevented but weren’t due circumstances or simple human flaws. I still really love both Jinx and Vi and grateful that a show like Arcane exists that makes me feel for characters so deeply.

Ooof, I’m done 😅 If you’ve read this wall of text, I wanna say thanks for sticking with me.