#tdp ask part 1

[raayllum]

What do you think it means for corruption to overwhelm someone? Do you think Callum will die or will something else happen to him? Also I thoroughly enjoyed the podcast! (This is theinnermechanismsofmymindtdp but I refuse to link my main blog….)

That's a good question, and one I've spent time thinking about in terms of what a Corrupted S7 Callum would look like. (I lean towards something that directly changes his outward appearance during the possession, which is also a convenient short hand for stakes and thereby recovery when it fades.)

Part of the reason this is somewhat tricky is because there's roughly three Versions of what TDP considers to be 'Corruption,' and because the series makes all of these things regularly overlap with one another.

1) Emotional corruption

This is evidenced by someone who is changing for the worse, which is mostly tethered through Soren's dialogue. This can involve becoming a 'monster' (as seen through Viren and Runaan in S6) due to the weight of their 'sins'.

This of course ties into the series' most consistent form of corruption, which is Literal

2) Corruption through dark magic use.

Viren and Claudia get their literally corrupted faces (similar in nature to Runaan's in the life and death portal) and what made the turning point happen in Lissa and Viren's relationship. This is also symbolic of what scared Callum straight in 2x08 and what continues to scare him in 6x03 ("I did it, I'm ruined, it's too late for me, who cares?"). As Soren notes, continued and regular dark magic usage can change people, even if Claudia insists otherwise ("But I'm not evil, it's me, you know me. I'm still the same person"), but that Viren and most likely Claudia successfully come back from said corruption (and in Viren's case, that's not exclusive to never doing dark magic again, either).

I think it's worth noting that thus far the corrupted face (Viren's from coining Kpp'Ar, and Claudia's in killing Sir Sparklepuff) has come from using a combo of deep and dark magic through the staff, and directly out of acts of love (at least in theory for Viren).

Soren also asks for and/or sees his family members change away from this form of literal, physical corruption as well, and we see that Callum's love for Rayla literally helps heal this corruption in him in S6.

3) Dark magic corruption through infection.

This is arguably the one where the previous notions of corruption are brought together, as Janai explains in 5x03:

Nearly a year ago we tried to reclaim Lux Aurea, but the dark mage's corruption was worse than we realized. It is like a plague. Dark magic infests the city. What life remains there has been twisted into monstrosities. [To Callum and Rayla] You don't get it, do you? We had to kill the infected! Our own people.

There's a few things to unpack here.

Dark magic corruption is being compared to a sickness and plague that infects and festers within. We also see this compared to Kpp'Ar's arm wound and other old wounds ("It is a wound that has been festering for a thousand years" 5x04).

Emotional corruption, bolstered by dark magic use, and corruption through infection can both turn people into "monsters". Both forms strip you of your perceived free will: the corrupted through usage monsters increasingly don't perceive their choices as choices ("I did what I had to do" / "I had to save him, I had no choice!" / "Finnegrin was going to kill you, I didn't have a choice!"). The corrupted through infection monsters are seemingly mindless killers, as Zubeia describes an increasingly complete loss of self (which is also what possession is):

Tis a scratch. A mere nothing. Oh, but it festers. Corrupted. Infected. Oh! I can feel my very being shattering from the inside out. I fear I'm losing everything.

Her love for Avizandum (and Zym), signified by a glowing chest heart, also helps her come back to herself and leave the nightmare (Janai describing things as a nightmares, Aaravos using nightmares to manipulate Callum) behind.

Under duress, you can be forced to kill these monsters in order to protect yourself, even if that means killing your own people / people you know and love.

And last but not least, Amaya also tethers all this back to the idea of change (as we saw most prominently under emotional corruption).

Janai wanted so badly to cleanse Lux Aurea, but we failed. The shadow monsters are dangerous killers. But even worse, just a single scratch

The infected became corrupted shadows in a matter of days.

This consequence of "just one scratch and it's over" is now, of course, the exact same set of stakes Callum has been presented following the successful Star-light truth ritual if he ever does dark magic. If he uses it one more time, it's 'over,' and he knows that, in addition to knowing it'd open back up Aaravos' ability to possess him.

But beware, if you ever use dark magic again, the darkness and corruption will overwhelm you.

(Because I have followed a dark path. I had become a monster. I'm a monster. I fought you, I tried to kill you! He's leading an army of darkness. It's not every day you have an army of 10,000 monster soldiers. The human mage, already tainted by darkness. What if I'm on a path of darkness? Shadow monsters. What life remains there has been twisted into monstrosities. You keep calling it a monster.)

Much like how dark magic corruption through usage isn't exclusive from emotional corruption (they have a tendency to go hand in hand, but it's not synonymous because thus far Callum has been our exception), I don't think dark magic corruption through infection is exclusive from dark magic corruption through usage dark magic. All of them are associated with darkness; all of them can turn you into a monster; all of them are tied to losing your identity and your free will.

This is basically a very long winded way of saying I think Callum being overwhelmed with darkness and corruption may look like a combination of all three of them. While there could either be an instantaneous flip (which works well for drama and potential time crunch), there could also be a slow build (more similar to Zubeia, which could offer up more hope for a fix before it happens fully, even if I think the dragang would ultimately be too late because... it's more dramatic and we gotta get the possession fight, don't we?).

At the very least, physical appearance wise, I'm expecting a corrupted face, if not a fully corrupted form like the Banther. (Partially because it matches up with how the dark magic rune glows red, rather than purple, in Callum's dark magic 2x08 dreams).

Post-corruption / possession / ordeal, Rayla (and/or Ezran) will somehow find a way to get him out of it and bring him back to himself. This is bolstered by her literally being his light to Aaravos' darkness in 4x02 framing wise, 4x07 dialogue wise ("Then take another path, dummy"), and 6x06 literally wise.

If he does die / Rayla kills him, I think it'd be temporary at best as while it'd set his slate clean, I don't think they'd do that a second time, and given that Callum now has to Make a Choice in order to be possessed, that works perfectly fine as him turning himself over to metaphorical death (Aaravos stripping away his identity) and literal in his mind (banking on Rayla fulfilling his promise). I don't think he needs a literal, physical one on top of it, but who knows.

If dark magic is a wound, it can be healed.

If corruption is a sickness, it can be cured.

If possession is a lack of agency, it can be restored.

And if it's darkness, you can find the light.

After all:

(Looks pointedly at mutual salvation theory from Aug 2022)

[thrandilf]

You know what

In all seriousness

The TDP crew's proximity to fandom has always been closer to us than other fandoms where we have an official server, we get little impromptu Q and A stuff sometimes, the promo art and short stories which we are confirmed getting again, interviews to the level we get them, none of this is required for anyone to do

And I feel like I see the TDP crew get shit on the most when they're like. Doing the most compared to other creators with their fans

Leaks getting out is inevitable but I have 2 things to say

1. Conventions have always had exclusive stuff. Maybe cons that were livestreamed set unrealistic expectations for cons going forward but it's just true. I went to a live show for LAVA Live which is a trio of voice actors who do live shows at conventions all over and they ask for no photos or content online so it always stays a surprise. For those, if you don't go to the con, you never ever learn what they do during the live shows if people keep their promises, and I haven't seen complaints about that within my con/those fan circles even though it's Very much so more exclusive. TDP has early but not exclusive info at cons. It isn't unreasonable or an act of hate against fans.

2. Leaks are maybe inevitable, but to me the worst part is publicly leaking. There's a difference between dming a friend or having a little group and posting in the main tags on social platforms not even under a cut when you were asked not to, and particularly in areas where said creators do reside because then it's just outright disrespectful. That's where it feels personally out of line, and people don't seem to get it

Off of point 2, your other fans maybe wanted to know the stuff that could be shared and didn't blacklist spoilers so again, there wasn't defense for that tagged or not

I just want to remind people to please view creators as human beings and even if you disagree with a choice, understand where it comes from, that it was yes a request that couldn't be enforced, but that you hit a point where it feels like disrespect to both the creators and your other fans if they had wanted a specific surprise

Signed, someone who's alpha tested the Xadia game and had an Actual NDA to sign about game info you will never get from me lmao

[imminent-danger-came]

hi. mentally ill about soren and claudia. the siblings in tdp all make me insane but soren and claudia are so. viren's daughter claudia and her brother soren (he doesn't like soren). the fact that at first claudia seems like the nice one but soren questions when he's doing the wrong thing and claudia digs herself deeper every chance she gets. that one scene where to protect ezran (?) (it's been a while since i watched this bit) he threatens claudia and she just looks so heartbroken and determined. they both do. because they still do care so so much about each other, it's just that they've taken such different paths and neither of them is willing to bend, not even for the other. <- not normal

OMG A TDP ASK FOR ME??????????????

Who doesn't love Soren and Claudia.

Like, Soren was willing to kill his father in the name of what was right, and Claudia was willing to bring her father back from the dead ignoring what was right ("I did things...I never imagined I would be able to do"). Claudia in s2 wants to "use [her] words not [her] muscles" but when it comes down to it, she's always going to use the strength dark magic gives her to get what she wants, and Soren has since learned that forgiveness and friendship are powerful things. Claudia has only distanced herself from the personhood of the creatures/people around her further and further (which is part of the danger of dark magic), while Soren has only become more and more aware of it.

Soren would jump headfirst into the sea in heavy armor to save an innocent baitling, whereas Claudia would try and squeeze her former friends to death for the sake of her goal. They both have a completely different understanding of the value of life, at all different levels, with Viren learning that value later:

And I think Soren learning to value life more and more over the course of his arc 1 er, arc, only adds to the fact that he's willing to kill his father at the end of s3.

Had Soren been down in the ocean with the rest of the gang in 5x09, I think he wouldn't have hesitated in killing Claudia either, despite how much he cares about her.

While Claudia's followed the dark path of her father ("Daddy look! I'm following in your footsteps!") Soren's been trying to walk a different path. To follow Ezran and his efforts for a brighter future.

I just think they're neat!

(For context, these scenes take place right after one another. Soren staying on the surface to look after their creature friends VS Claudia who sinks bellow to the ocean floor using the corpse of a pentapus)

Bonus "My eyes for truth" and seeing personhood comp:

[viravos-simper]

Aaravos/the merciful one theory

TDP - Aaravos/The merciful one theory

Part 1

We’ve all been asking ourselves the same daunting question, who are they?

They’ve only been seen twice; in the statue with Aaravos, and a leaked image from s6 ep1. Known by the tital ‘the merciful one’, we know nothing about this seemingly important character, who may be a significant part of Aaravos’s backstory. I have some thoughts in which I am here to share.

At this point in time, I'm sure everybody has seen a glimpse of these leaked season 6 images floating around the internet; and everyone can't help but wonder what may be happening in this scene. While there are so many thrilling possibilities to what is amidst, I have crumpled together bits and pieces of engaging ideas and intriguing thoughts to form my theory on who this mysterious person might be. A daughter; specifically Aravos's daughter.

Let's start our story here, with this picture:

In this image, it looks as though Aaravos is pleading with someone. Asking, or perhaps begging them for/to do something. Seeing as though the other person is referred to as 'the merciful one' maybe he's asking them to spare the humans, saving an enter race doomed to be disposed of seems quite merciful.

My reasoning for saying Aaravos's daughter instead of a lover, friend, or possibly another leader, is because of this:

This post does say 'the' elven leader, and not 'an' meaning it could refer to someone such as Aditi. As well as the fact that this passage only refers to this person with the pronouns she/her, while the merciful one is confirmed non-binary and uses they/them. Still, we do not know who the writing was talking of before this part; meaning if they were speaking of Aaravos, the term 'the elven leader' still stands.

So even with new information that might prove this theory false, it still provides some interesting ideas.

------------------------------

Part 2

My friend (@6coco_nut9 on tiktok) originally thought of some of this, luv ya brah <3

If you look at the pictures at the top of the page, you can see that Aaravos is in fact NOT crying in front of the merciful one, as the silhouette in front of him has long hair and tmo has short hair.

If you look closely at the silhouette with Aaravos, you will notice some things:

Similar colors in different lighting

Same ear placement

And the gold accent on their clothing next to the hair (which Aaravos has in the same spot)

This leads me to believe that Aaravos is looking at a reflection of himself (this is where Coco's idea comes in); and that maybe Aaravos is having a flashback to this moment:

He's looking at his reflection in the water when tmo comes into play. This ties into the 'tmo is Aaravos's daughter theory' as maybe he is crying because he is asking for help.

-------------------------------

BONUS THEORY!

(For context, this is Aaravos’s voice actor)

Leola is Aaravos’s mother. Change my mind.

[thedeductionpage]

WHAT PRACTICE MAKES

The good thing about being in robot mode is you get to channel all that into things like old hobbies. Let’s be honest, I’m probably not gonna post in a long time, after this.

So, everyone knows the saying: “practice makes perfect”, and if you hadn’t heard of it, there you go. When it comes to deduction and most things, practice is essential. What you practice is nearly irrelevant. When you practice, getting warmer— consistency is key. However, I wanna talk about how you practice.

If you’ve circulated the deduction community, you’ll see all these pioneer deductionists who have years and years, maybe even decades of experience. Are all of them good? Not really. A person doing it for 6 months could get better results than them, but why? Why, after all these years are some deductionists still inadequate after so much experience?

The truth is, practice does not exactly make perfect, it makes normal.

These deductionists are practicing incorrectly. They go on reddit or facebook and deduce people, maybe go out in real life and get their material there and simply assume they’re right. They have no confirmation. Now, this may seem a little ironic, but I don’t believe in people getting involved in your process. You only need yourself, and whoever your deducing (or the extension of them, like their belongings). Unfortunately, this means you have to socialize and do research.

Don’t just assume you’re right.

Whenever you’re deducing someone, make sure you have them there, available to confirm and deny.

Don’t just ask what you got right and wrong. Try to explore why it is you were wrong, what set them apart from the baseline.

When you get a lucky, improbable deduction, still ask which factors contributed to this phenomenon. Ask, ask, ask.

How do you ask? Just be as mysterious and ominous, then direct as possible. That’s the 1-2-step. Be enticing and mysterious, then tell the truth. I go on whisper or reddit. I make a post that goes: “I bet you I could tell you who you are by seeing a picture of you or anything you own. NO NUDES OR FOOT PICS.”

Just being honest about that last part. People get confused.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Practice makes normal, perfect practice makes progress. I am coining that and you all have to monetarily compensate me whenever you use that, thanks. This is a pretty short post, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I’ve got nothing going on in my life and I may just throw myself into deduction, who knows? This may be my renaissance, or something.

TDP

[t-n-c]

The sexual/sensual coding in Aaravos and Viren's interactions: The Sequel

Also known as "Why I don't like the revelation in s5."

Trigger warning--This discussion is going to mention manipulation/coercion, homophobic stereotypes, and sexually-charged abusive/invasive behavior under the read more so please proceed with caution.

Alrighty so before I start talking about tdp s5's major reveal in the Viren + Aaravos relationship I'd like to discuss the interactions they had with each other before and after the reveal and my thoughts on them. Here we go:

First thing I'd like to note is that Aaravos is still showing the creepy, invasive behavior that concerned me in my original post. Throughout the scene he and Viren share he:

Touches Viren

Invades Viren's space

And manipulates/controls Viren's body

And in addition to controlling Viren's body, we've also find out that Aaravos can straight up move Viren's very soul if he wants.

And like I addressed in my previous post, he does all of this without asking for Viren's permission and/or showing any care for Viren's wishes--hell, he explicitly ignores Viren when the latter says he doesn't want to be in the prison with him.

That being said, these actions alone aren't the most concerning issue for me; that isn't to say that they're not concerning to me all, but it's nothing that hasn't been done before in their relationship--it's nothing new is what I'm trying to say.

However, the revelation about Sir Sparklepuff being their child is new--and imo it adds a whole new level of creepiness to the relationship.

Allow me to rehash what went down a bit:

Aaravos reveals to Viren that in order for his resurrection to be permanent, he needs to preform a spell that requires the "blood of his child"--Viren protests and claims that he'd never sacrifice his children.

Aaravos responds that he never expected him to hurt Claudia or Soren and reveals that he has a third child he can use--

Viren is confused and claims he doesn't have any other children--then Aaravos reveals that Sir Sparklepuff is his and Aaravos' child

He tells Viren that Sir Sparklepuff is there for him to use for the spell and that he will teach Viren how to use his "living essence" to reclaim both his life and his "future."

There's a lot (and I mean A LOT) of things about this scene/reveal that worry me; I'll try to sum it up neatly, but it's probably going to be pretty lengthy regardless. Here we go:

Concern 1) Viren had no idea that Sir Sparklepuff with his child, but Aaravos did

No matter how many angles I try to see it from, this feels violating to me; considering how Viren didn't know what the spell would do and how desperate he was at the time, his willingness to perform the original spell is dubious enough already--to then have it revealed that the spell produced a child that's biologically his really disturbs me. It might just be my opinion, but I feel that it adds a level of predatory to Aaravos that's unnecessary at best and horrifying at worst.

Concern 2) The lengths Aaravos has gone to keep Viren alive (and presumedly on his side).

This includes:

a) Telling Claudia the spell that would resurrect Viren.

b) Preserving Viren's body for 2 years while Claudia gathered everything necessary

c) When they first met, he chose a spell that would create a being that would not only allow them to communicate, but could also be used to resurrect Viren if the need arose.

Now assuming the writers planned this all from the beginning (I have my doubts, ngl) this shows a great deal of effort and premeditation on Aaravos's part to make sure Viren sticks around--whatever his plans may be, Viren must play a pretty big role in them or else he would have just moved on when Viren died the first time. (It's either that or he has some strange sort of fondness for Viren, which leads me to Concern # 3)

Concern 3) As of now, we have absolutely no info about how their relationship is going to be portrayed going forward

While Viren's fate is a bit ambiguous at the end of s5, I'm 90% confident that he's going to live through s6 in one way or another and assuming I'm right and that happens, there are a few paths the writers could take in how they depict the relationship

Option A) They sweep everything under the rug and pretend the sexual coding in the relationship never existed.

Option B) They portray Aaravos as a complete monster who was just using Viren for one thing or another and has now discarded him since he got what he wanted from him.

Option C) They portray Aaravos as having some dark sort of attachment to Viren--one that won't allow him to let Viren "leave him"

All these possibilities are iffy imho, but I'm honestly not sure which would be worse.

Going with Option A feels lazy--like the writers don't want to deal with the dark themes they chose to put in and decided to take the easy out.

(Granted, it wouldn't be the first time the show has dropped important plot points/developments--no one seems to have found out that Viren and Aaravos sent the assassins at the end of s2, for example--but it would still feel cowardly to me)

Going with Options B or C both feel gross--with Option B it feels like Aaravos would be the epitome of the Predatory Queer-Coded Villain--he would have effectively used and abused Viren in a violating way (i.e coerced/forced him to bear their child) and abandoned him once he was done with him. It would be pretty hard to make a case for him having a "kind side" after that.

That being said, Option C isn't really any better--Aarvos would still be following the "Predatory Villain" stereotype, the only difference would be that he'd fall more into the role of an abusive partner than the "pure evil" role that some older queer-coded villains were placed in.

TLDR: I don't like the revelation of Sir Sparklepuff being Viren and Aaravos' child because I feel it follows the reoccurring theme of possessive/violating actions from Aaravos toward Viren that I've worried about all the way back in s3.

[koheletgirl]

1-3 and 8-10 for the violence ask game or whatever it's called

for you i'll try to make this about atla/gomens/tdp

the character everyone gets wrong

big hot take from me but nobody gets azula. her haters don't get her and her stans Definitely don't get her. only i get her but i'm not allowed to speak about her bc i took a vow of silence

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

my compelling argument for why crowley would never top or bottom is that in a world where aziraphale would want to exclusively top or bottom crowley would exclusively do the other thing.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

let me see if i can dig up a screenshot.

ok this one isn't the worst but it's definitely up there

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

claudia isn't evil :( i know you think she is but you're wrong :(

9. worst part of canon

the legend of korra

10. worst part of fanon

fanon zuko

choose violence ask game

[dykevirgo]

1 12 22!

for you my darling i'll keep it atla/lok/tdp related

1: the character everyone gets wrong

god um. probably korra or mako. i just don't think people get it.

12: the unpopular character you actually like and why more people should like them

so here's the thing: most unpopular characters are also usually characters i don't like. the only one i can think of is piandao. i love his episode with sokka. he's so wise and he teaches sokka so much. what a great man. that is all.

22: your favorite part of canon that everyone ignores

the fact that humans in tdp can just like. teach themselves magic? how fucking cool is that.

send me asks so i can choose violence <3

[strscrossed]

hi there ~

this is a sideblog for my writing/resources/memes etc. this is exclusively focused on fanfic and fandom related writing. i will sometimes share my thoughts and ramblings here as well. wips as well as drabbles will also be found here. this blog is 18+ 🖤💜

this post will be updated as more comes.

rae late 20s bengali american american southwest

i'm juggling fandom along with working and other adult responsibilities in addition to writing, i love reading and as long as i'm not in a slump, i'll devour a book relatively quickly. i'm a granny and i love knitting as well. and yes i constantly have ideas for wips and only maybe 1% ever actually gets written.

fandom interests: currently obsessed with aot (for the second time) and i pretty much write eremika and jeanpiku but i'm not picky at all! i'm open to writing any ship so long as i have an active interest in it. in the past i've been in the naruto, bleach, fairy tail, death note, vld, tdp, castlevania, yoi, hq!!, and banana fish fandoms. my current hyperfixations are aot and hotd.

tags

answered

raembling

each ask or wip is tagged by au.

my fics can be found on my ao3. but here's a list of my aot ones. these do not include drabbles or ficlets.

ao3 fics

i killed the sun for you [rated e / in-progress] - the warlord au where eren is a warlord and mikasa is his childhood sweetheart/eventual favorite wife. [eremika]

there's beauty in your beast [rated e / in-progress] - the royalty au where eren becomes king via a bloody civil war and mikasa becomes the queen of hizuru following a blood coup and they end up in an arranged marriage. [eremika]

a losing game [rated m / in-progress] - canonverse au where pieck comes along with RBA and becomes part of the 104th. told in a dual timeline format where jean and pieck have to come to grips with their relationship and, ultimately, the consequences of being in love with the enemy. [jeanpiku]

and then the sea swept in [rated m / in-progress] - modern au where jean returns to paradis after four years abroad. he's come back to face his past and finds himself getting involved with eren's widowed sister-in-law. [jeanpiku, eremika, past jikupiku]

to another place and time [rated t / complete] - 123 au where eren and mikasa elope to their cabin. all fluff. all sweet. nothing goes wrong. [eremika]

i know your devils by name [rated e / complete] - jeanpiku week 2022 role reversal au. all interconnected one-shots. [jeanpiku]

unpublished wips~

virgin sacrifice au - something of a mix between beauty and the beast/cupid and psyche au where mikasa is an orphaned girl who is sacrificed as a "bride" to a monster that's terrorizing her kingdom. medium burn, slight monsterfucking au for my soul. [eremika]

modern, cheating au - mikasa is a member of the hizuran royal family who doesn't like her arranged fiance very much so she puts off the wedding for two years to do her masters. along the way she meets a eren, a med student from a solidly middle class family and it's a romcom/drama of sorts. [eremika]

au of the lost girls/everything goes right au - happy little au set in the lost girls world with the added benefit of no walls so eremika meet normally, fall in love normally, and have a fluffy, happy existence. [eremika]

ares/aphrodite au - au where eren is the literal personification of violence and mikasa is the literal personification of love and beauty. [eremika]

sequel to the 123 au - comedy/drama with em's happy existence in the cabin. sequel to "to another place and time." [eremika]

titanic au - rich girl mikasa, poor artist eren and falling in love on the ship of dreams. and naturally, it ends in tragedy. told in dual timelines. [eremika]

[apophisdaughter]

hi Evelin :3 just wanted to ask how would you personally rank each season/part of the Mythos including the 3 main seasons, the 2 spinoffs with Nixonverse and Modern Day and other stuff like THITO, Perfect Youniverse and og TDP/American Anatomy? interested to hear your thoughts

Hm. Okay.

GREAT:

1. The Absolute Nixonverse

2. The Monument Mythos Season 2

3. The Modern Day

4. The House in the Ocean

GOOD:

5. The Monument Mythos Season 1

6. The Monument Mythos Season 3

7. Screamo’s Revenge

8. The Perfect Youniverse

MID:

9. The Trinity Desk Project

10. American Anatomy

[raayllum]

the four ancient gifts, huh?

thoughts? furthermore: prayers?

I've been wanting to do a bit of an update to this meta about Gift Giving in TDP (written pre-S6) as a few different things (mostly as a goodbye in arc 1 and about magic in arc 2 thus far) that I think S6 contributed to our understanding of. For example, I'd speculated in that meta that due to the language used by characters, Archdragons were contemporaries of the First Elves back in the day (post-S6 followup here), and that possibly all forms magic had been a gift from the First Elves to the 'Primal' elves, with dark magic being Aaravos' to Leola's primal magic to humans. (If you want more details on this I'd rec reading the meta in full itself.) It seems like Something of that sort is roughly what happened

However, my old meta about deceptive gift giving in Greek myth / TDP means that gift giving doesn't necessarily have a positive connotation, particularly because in giving a gift, you're deciding what someone needs (even when they don't or don't want it). Callum doesn't want the gifts Rayla gives him in leaving; dark magic has ruined a lot of human lives and caused immense suffering; Rex Igneous asks for worthy gifts of sacrifice in exchange for knowledge; the cube was given to Callum as a gift, but clearly has a more complicated past / connection to Aaravos.

I do think in TDP that the world is ultimately better off with Primal magic than without, which is why Callum Exists in the narrative to create an actually fair system where everyone can access primal magic.

However, at this point in time, primal magic but be another deceptive gift given to the elves from the First Elves, and was clearly a part I'm of their Cosmic Order (destiny and all that) with also interplays with thoughts Rayla has that Callum/humans can change their fate, but she (elves) can't. Four Gifts is a weird number — if it was 5 or 6 it could be all the primals or all the primals except stars — but there Are four members of the Cosmic Council, and those gifts were ancient, so...

I'm assuming that it's one Gift from each of them, tbh. Whether those gifts are good or bad or both, we'll have to wait and see

[spaciousreasoning]

Running Around Tuesday

This morning’s blood sugar was back up a couple of points to 165. After our coffee and brain games, Nancy and I took a quick walk of about 1.35 miles, which included a circuit of the magnolia garden. There’s a house in the neighborhood north of Thurston that we pass through on the way to the garden which already has some big balloon characters out on their lawn for Halloween. Which is more than a month and a half away still.

We got back in time for Nancy to call Peggy, her spiritual advisor, and while they were talking I took the car to get washed nearby. It was the first time for our new car, and the windshield especially needed some cleaning. So did the front end, which picked up quite a few bug parts during our Saturday trip to the coast and back. The outside was cleaned well, but an inside cleaning required an appointment, which we did not have. So we likely will not go to that car wash again.

For our breakfast brioche sandwiches, we cooked up some Jimmy Dean sausage we bought recently. They tasted pretty good, but the cooking smell lingered for several hours.

Nancy had an appointment for her TDP shot at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon at the Target on the west side of Eugene. We stopped by Costco on the way over to check up on getting our next COVID booster. We can make an appointment via Costco’s web portal, but we might wait until our Friday appointments with the new PCP to see if they can give us the shots.

We also got gas at while we were at Costco. At just after 1 p.m. there was no waiting on the self-serve side. The price was down to $3.15 per gallon, more than 30 cents lower altogether over recent weeks.

While we waited at Target for Nancy’s appointment time, we wandered about, getting in a few more steps, and also looked for another bathroom shelving unit to go over the toilet. The one we bought at Jerry’s not long after moving here is too flimsy. We did not have any luck at Target, but we found one on Amazon after getting home. It is supposed to arrive Thursday.

When we got home, we finished off the last of the delicious birthday pie. I immediately tried to think of a reason to ask Kathleen to make us another one, but she might do it if we simply ask politely.

For dinner we made a salad with some of the leftover Greek chicken. We chopped it into small pieces to make it easier to chew and threw in more feta cheese along with the lettuce and tomatoes. It went down easier than it did in bigger chunks yesterday.

I picked up Henry and went to men’s recovery meeting. The reading covered the topic of “thrill-seeking and adventure.” There was some good sharing, but I did not connect with the subject because I have not been one to seek thrills since getting into recovery. It’s not that life is boring, but I am not one who needs to sky dive or bungee jump to appreciate recovery.

After the meeting, Nancy and I streamed Colbert’s Monday night show, glad to be able to avoid the live debate between the presidential candidates this evening. We’ll get enough feedback on that from the usual media, including social. It’s not like we don’t know who we support. Then we wrapped up the evening with the newest episode of “Only Murders in the Building.”

[the-unified-programs]

Hey, Wings of Fire fandom portion of Tumblr (and anybody else who cares to look at this), we have a question to ask you. Basically, we plan to reread the entire series once we find out where our TDP copy went off to and we want to make bookmarks to use for each of the three arcs (we already have plans for the Legends books). We also technically didn't even finish reading the series. We stopped halfway through Poison Jungle because school got really hectic and we ended up abandoning the book midway through. But... We can't decide who or what to put on this bookmarks. We would put the dragons featured on the book covers, but we highly doubt that'd look good (would likely be too cluttered), so we're asking for help deciding. We've set up a poll for the first time ever with the ideas we came up with that we liked the most. There's also some extra info about what each option would entail for each bookmark (basically with what dragons will be featured on each one).

Explanations for how each option will likely be carried out:

Option 1: Favorite Protag and Villain from each arc.

Dragons chosen for this one will be as follows:

Arc 1 will get Glory and Scarlet OR Burn, depends on who want to draw the most at the time we draw it. You can also put who you'd like to see most in comments or reblogs.

Arc 2 will get Winter and Darkstalker, potentially Chameleon instead of Darkstalker, though, since we plan to make a separate Darkstalker bookmark for his book.

Arc 3 will get Blue and Wasp, but we might do Willow instead of Blue, depends on if SilkWing anatomy plays nicely with us.

These bookmarks will likely be double-sided, with the Protag on one side and the villain on the other just to give them more space to be shown off.

Options 2 and 3: Just Favorite Protag or Villain.Basically the same as option 1, but we ONLY do the protags or villains. These bookmarks will likely not be double-sided unless we decide to make some sort of design or pattern on the back.

Option 4: Try to incorporate every protag featured in some way.

We try to find a way to neatly showcase every protag featured as the main characters in every book in some way. Ideas we had involved sectioning the bookmarks equally into five parts and doing some sort of drawing of just their heads, eyes, or even scales or wings. This one's really up in the air for us right now, but our personal favorite idea for this one is the scales/wings, as we feel we can actually differentiate between the dragons nicely based off scales if we do it right. They'd also be in the order of their books from top to bottom (for example, arc 1 would go Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, Sunny). These bookmarks will also likely not be double-sided unless we do a design or pattern on the back.

Option 5: Favorite Tribe of each arc.We know what you're thinking. "Arcs 1 and 2 use the same tribes!" We know. That's why we'll either use our top two favorite Pyhrrian tribes for 1 and 2, OR use a hybrid for arc 2. The designs we use will just be based off general color schemes for the tribe and not one particular character (or we might base them on OCs, who knows) and if we use a hybrid, it will likely not be any officially mentioned one. The tribes we will be using will be as follows:

Arc 1 will get NightWings

Arc 2 will get either SkyWings OR a hybrid. Hybrid will likely be a SkyWing/IceWing hybrid, because we've always wanted to design one.

Arc 3 will get HiveWings

Will more than likely not be double-sided, but maybe we'll add extra dragon designs on the back of we feel like it.

Option 6: Other.

If you have any other ideas not listed, feel free to throw them at us. Maybe we'll make another poll with those ideas included and the highest voted option on this one to find a true winner.

We will be posting these bookmarks when we finish them, as well as potential work in progress shots. These will be fully traditional for those wondering, but we might make digital versions of the linearts for free use if we remember :) We've been wanting to make some bookmarks for a while because we're constantly grabbing a sheet of notebook paper and tearing a rough rectangular shape to use as a bookmark and it's about time we made something nice. And for those wondering what our style looks like, we'd say our style is like a simplified version of Joy Ang's style. It's similar, but we typically don't add the really fine details. Also, talons will more than likely get hidden because we suck at drawing them and will avoid drawing them at all costs. Anyways, this post's gone on long enough, so we'll just let this poll run for the whole week.

Oh yeah, and the options are for every bookmark. We want them to be pretty consistent, so all three bookmarks will have roughly the same style to them. So please don't say anything along the lines of "this option would be cool for arc 1, but you should do something else for 2 and 3." We want them to look alike :)

Also, if you could reblogs for a potentially larger sample size so it isn't, like, three people choosing options, that'd be wonderful :D Don't have to, but we want as much input as possible to help with the indecisiveness.

[tindogpodcast]

TDP 1130: #DoctorWho Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Connections

https://bbvproductions.co.uk/products/Faction-Paradox-The-Confession-of-Brother-Signet-AUDIO-DOWNLOAD-p389922366

  This title was released in December 2022. It will be exclusively available to buy from the Big Finish website until 31 January 2023, and on general sale after this date.

The Doctor, Liv and Helen are out in the universe, picking up missing pieces, and finding lost connections.

After a package entangles them with shifty Time Lord Drax, the TARDIS crew are haunted by past loves on a space station, before Helen encounters somebody she believed long gone...

Here Lies Drax by John Dorney (1 part) The Doctor, Liv and Helen are surprised to get a letter delivered to the TARDIS from the Doctor’s old school friend, Drax.

They’re even more surprised when it’s followed by a parcel also sent by the intergalactic con-man, asking them to keep its contents safe. Contents that seem to be a lot of worthless junk.

And their surprise gets even bigger when this parcel is itself followed by an invitation... to Drax’s funeral.

And that’s just where the surprises start.

The Love Vampires by James Kettle (1 part) Regret can follow people everywhere - even out into deep space, in the shadow of a dying star.

When the Doctor, Liv and Helen meet the terrified crew of a space station, all are haunted by faces from the past. But these lost loves are more than mere memories - and they want to feed...

Albie's Angels by Roy Gill (1 part) When the Doctor and friends hunt down time anomalies in 2020s Soho, Helen steps into the past and meets the brother she thought she’d lost forever.

But there are Weeping Angels in London - and one of the stone assassins wants something from the Doctor and Liv...

A new Tin Dog Podcast

[irate-pirate-bi-27]

I posted 12,692 times in 2022

8 posts created (0%)

12,684 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@jewish-harley-quinn

@bisexualr2d2

@spongebobssquarepants

@aromanticgoldfish-deactivated237

@vaguelyprolific

I tagged 1,122 of my posts in 2022

#wwdits spoilers - 375 posts

#our flag means death - 159 posts

#tdp spoilers - 39 posts

#toh spoilers - 30 posts

#dracula daily - 24 posts

#kenobi spoilers - 12 posts

#derry girls spoilers - 10 posts

#prev tags - 4 posts

#literally tho - 4 posts

#ask - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#and it’s a bit of a problem because they’re everywhere in my country so i basically can’t go outdoors at night without my heart rate spiking

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Baby girl i respect women so much i don’t even know how to spell myssojiny

1 note - Posted October 9, 2022

#4

I had unfollowed you for some reason?? So that's why I haven't been seeing you around! (Sometimes I do an unfollow spree on blogs I don't have an interest anymore and probably unfollowed you by accident, did you know tumblr only allows you to follow 5000 people?? Absurd, right?)

Anyways, that's not why I'm here rn. I know I'm late but I didn't want to not wish you a happy birthday 🎉🎂🎉

So yeah, happy late birthday 😅 hope you had lots of fun and may good things come your way✨

Omg thank you so much!! I’ve had a great birthday weekend so far and this just made it even better <3

And don’t worry, I’ve changed my username a couple times this year so you probably unfollowed me by accident because of that. I wondered where you’d gone lol but I’m glad your back now

1 note - Posted July 31, 2022

#3

What is wrong with my country

1 note - Posted May 31, 2022

#2

Hey just wanted you to know your posts cheer me up and make me smile thank you for being a part of this hellsite

Omg thank you this is so sweet <3 <3

1 note - Posted January 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Are you a Gold Star lesbian? (Just in case you don't know what it means, a Gold Star lesbian is a lesbian that has never had the sex with a guy and would never have any intentions of ever doing so)

Nah I’m bisexual. Big fan of lesbians tho

1 note - Posted January 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[solitae]

Fandom Tdp! Obly if you want to ofc.

I got 2 asks for TDP, so I’m gonna split it in half to make it easier on myself.

Top 5 favourite characters: Amaya, Sarai, Gren, Janai, Ezran

Other characters you like: Rayla, Callum, Harrow, Soren, Zym, Bait, Ethari, Runaan, Nyx, Aanya, Corvus, Kazi

Least favourite characters: Viren, Aaravos

Otps: Amaya/Janai, Harrow/Sarai, Runaan/Ethari, 

Notps: Viren or Aaravos with anyone but especially Amaya

Favourite friendships: Amaya & Gren, Soren & Ezran, 

Favourite family: Katolis royal family, especially Amaya’s relationships with Sarai and Callum

Favourite episodes: Ghost (S3, Ep 3) and Hearts of Cinder (S3, Ep 7)

Favourite season/book/movie: Season 3

Favourite quotes:

Best musical moment: The really somber music when Harrow is going up to the tower to wait for the assassins

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: Amaya and Janai holding hands at the end of S3. The whole interaction there was perfect. (And the she thinks I’m cute moment is a close 2nd)

When it really disappointed you: Giving me lesbian queens then promptly killing them off

Saddest moment: So many. The look between Amaya and Janai when Amaya tackles her. Soren being glad that no one will expect anything from him after he’s paralyzed. Sarai saying “I’ll see you on the other side.”

Most well done character death: Khessa’s (It still gives me chills)

Favourite guest star:

Favourite cast member: Ummm, Soren’s VA seems really cool, and so does Gren’s. I don’t know enough about most of them really.

Character you wish was still alive: SARAI

One thing you hope really happens: Amaya and Janai kiss on screen and they spend the rest of the series together

Most shocking twist: Soren killing Viren and it ending up being moon moths

When did you start watching/reading?: As soon as it came out. I’d heard about it and was excited

Best animal/creature: Bait, Zym, Phoe-Phoe, Ava, ALL OF THE ANIMALS

Favourite location: Silvergrove

Trope you wish they would stop using: Bury your gays. Unbury Runaan, and if they even tease at killing off Amaya and/or Janai, I will riot. Also I’m over the dead mom thing too.