#that seems out of character from the background we've been given about them

[edenpoise]

the biggest reason why i believe eve has taken over lilith's spot is because she would have every reason to want to go to heaven while lilith doesn't. let's headcanon/theorize bitches-!

think about it. lilith had willingly gone with lucifer in either support or dedication towards his dreams and ideas ( even if falling wasn't planned), wasn't someone that follows/nor enjoyed authority very well, and thrived in hell. why would lilith, someone who thrived in hell along with having everything she could possibly want- wish to go to heaven? what was there for her that she would willingly abandon everything she had worked towards before? not to mention any deal she struck with either adam or lute doesn't seem likely, she didn't like adam! and i cannot see her typically liking lute from 'their' brief interaction.

from what we've seen with pictures and portraits of the morningstar family, lilith looked extremely happy with her family throughout a majority of these pictures. we can see her face, the ring on her finger, and the clear love she has for her family. and while i'm not dismissing the idea that love can fall apart, that wouldn't justify lilith ultimately leaving charlie ( and seemingly creating a rift between charlie and lucifer if she was ultimately going to leave charlie as well )- of course we could imagine lilith looked down at lucifer for losing his sense of dreams and hope, but that would've happened before charlie was born. and the only time we see 'lilith' before the finale is in the flashback, and her hair plus with the lack of a drawn face makes it seem like they are trying so hard to hide someone who we already know, not to mention her trading card.

but who would have the ambition into getting into heaven? eve! eve was the first sinner, the one that ultimately created the original sin and allowed evil to fester on earth. she would be the first human soul in hell, just as adam would be the first human soul in heaven ( which we now know a majority of the population doesn't know what gets someone into heaven or hell )- eve would of course be bitter over this! in her eyes, she was tricked and was blamed for everything- basically robbed of a paradise after her death because of a single action. she would have every reason into wanting to get into heaven and absolutely do nothing but relax on a beach.

ultimately if the lilith we've been shown turns out to be just actually lilith, i would be very interested to know the reasons why someone who thrived in hell and gathered hellborns under her rule would willingly abandon that and her family for just sitting on a beachside in heaven. of course it could be a lot more than what we've seen and s2 is apparently going to have some more lilith content ( seeing as the creator seemed excited to explore lilith's path ) so just have to wait and see! personally however, i do believe eve or someone else has taken lilith's appearance and has manipulated everything into what it is now.

[futurehunt]

"You're not the person I want to explain myself to." -Eris Vanserra and his hidden motives

The story of Eris Vanserra haunts me. At this point, most of the characters in ACOTAR are an open book in terms of their backgrounds but Eris's is still so shrouded in mystery and I have to know more. Consider this the inspiration for my following lengthy analysis of all the Eris Vanserra scenes we've been given. Additional inspiration being this clip of SJM from a since deleted live stream on Instagram (still available on YouTube) :

Love that SJM says that Eris is her favorite Autumn Court character but more importantly she spills a little detail about Eris having a secret history and a secret motivation behind his character. I think most readers assumed by now that Eris is primed for a redemption arc but this simply could've been reserved to him making amends for leaving Mor injured in the woods. No, this is something more than that- something significant that affected his actions back then and is still influencing them now.

Let's start breaking everything down:

Everything starts with: Eris found and left Mor in the woods at the Autumn Court border after she was tortured dumped there by her father, Keir.

Why did he do this?

“I knew why you did it... So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms" - Eris in ACOWAR

After Mor slept with Cassian, Eris knew Mor did it because she wanted out of the engagement (for a secret reason- on her end- that we'll touch on in a bit) so he ended the betrothal as she wished.

But why did Eris leave her there, injured with fatal wounds? This is still the biggest point of hostility between him and the IC.

"There were forces at work that you have never considered," Eris said coldly. "And I am not going to waste my breath explaining them to you. Believe what you want about me" - ACOWAR

What are these forces?

We're given an answer to this question during a scene in ACOFAS when Mor is recalling the memory of that day at the Autumn Court border.

“No one touches her,” he said. Eris. “The moment we do, she’s our responsibility.” Cold, unfeeling words. “But—but they nailed a—” “No one touches her.” - ACOFAS

If Eris or his men provided aid to Mor she would've become their responsibility, implying that she would've become a ward of the Autumn Court essentially. This is probably why Keir even dumped her on the border in the first place, because he knew that if the Autumn Court provided her aid they would have to assume responsibility for her. It was created as a lose-lose situation for Mor: get help from Eris and be trapped at the Autumn Court or be refused help and left to suffer and potentially die in the woods.

“I take it you do not wish to live here, Morrigan.” She would rather die here, bleed out here. She would rather die and return—return as something wicked and cruel, and shred them all apart. He must have read it in her eyes. A small smile curved his lips. “I thought so.” -ACOFAS

He knew she'd rather die than live there so he acted according to her wishes, even though it was done cruelly. This scene, which we're given from Mor's perspective, shows that she heard the true reason why Eris refused to provide her aid but because of the trauma of the whole situation she likely never put two and two together.

But the situation is a bit more complex than that. There is more to the reason that Eris left her in the woods to have her freedom.

“Eris nodded to where Mor watched them from beside Feyre and Rhys, her face neutral and aloof. “She knows the truth but has never revealed it." “Why?” “Because she is afraid of it.” - ACOSF; dance scene between Nesta and Eris

Eris knows something about Mor that she's afraid to reveal. What's the only fact we know about Mor that she's been hiding her entire life? That she's queer. It seems somehow Eris was aware of this.

“Eris looked between them, smiling faintly. Secretly. As if he knew something that Azriel didn’t. "I knew why you did it" Again that secret smile that had Mor shrinking." -ACOWAR

Later on in ACOWAR, we find out the big secret Mor is hiding is that she's romantically attracted to females. Alright, so somehow Eris knew Mor was queer back when they were betrothed. It seems that this was part of the reason he left her to her freedom.

Despite the cruel nature he's described to have, Eris keeps the knowledge that Mor is queer to himself. Eris left Mor in the woods because he knew she wanted her freedom and the reason she wanted her freedom was because she is queer. Out of some uncharacteristic kindness, Eris won't share this information with the rest of the IC because he seems to not want to out her because he knows she's afraid of the truth. Refer to the quote between Eris and Nesta above for proof of this.

But what are Eris's own secret motivations in all of this?

“So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms.”

“And what happened next,” Azriel growled.

A shadow crossed Eris’s face. “There are few things I regret. That is one of them. But … perhaps one day, now that we are allies, I shall tell you why. What it cost me.”

This is such an important line and one that if you don't dissect it properly, you won't understand it's real meaning.

"What it cost me". The cost that Eris is referring to is one that he suffered as a result of leaving Mor unaided in the woods. NOT from breaking the engagement, from leaving her. "The cost" is something that would've been unaffected by breaking the engagement (because Eris has no remorse over that) but affected by abandoning an injured Mor (because this is what Eris labels as one of the few things he regrets). Mor being left in the woods was, in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential for the rest of Prythian. The only people negatively affected by it were Mor and the rest of the IC.

"Perhaps one day... I shall tell you why" when Eris says this, he means: perhaps one day he'll them why he regrets it, NOT why he did it. It's important to read this quote in the context of its surrounding passages because you'll see that he had an opportunity to explain why he left her but he instead tells Mor he's not going to "waste his breath explaining it to her."

So after breaking down those lines we know: Eris regrets abandoning Mor because of something it cost him in relation to the IC now hating him after the events at the border but "the cost" is something he's hesitant to reveal to them.

For the sake of the analysis, let's go over a few things we know Eris does canonically care about and why they are not the cost he's referring to:

His father's throne: It's not secret that Eris wants to usurp his father. Feyre even notes how startled she was to hear Eris discuss killing his father so blatantly. Also, if the marriage to Mor would've aided Eris in taking the throne then Eris would've expressed remorse at ending the engagement but he didn't. He only regretted leaving her injured.

His mother, Lady of Autumn: The text shows us that Eris is concerned over the welfare of this mother when he angles his body to protect her during the High Lord meeting scene. However at the time of Eris's betrothal to Mor, his mother wasn't miserable in her marriage the way she's described now. It wasn't until LoA's affair with Helion was revealed, which happened decades after the Eris and Mor situation, that Beron began abusing his wife. Of course, Eris undoubtedly wants his father dead because of this but we know it's not "the cost" that Eris references since it wasn't a factor at the time.

“Helion shrugged. “On and off for decades. Until Beron found out. They say the lady was all brightness and smiles before that. And after Beron was through with her. You saw what she is.” “What did he do to her?” “The same things he does now.” Helion waved a hand. “Belittle her, leave bruises where no one but him will see them.” - ACOWAR

Lucien: Eris has a soft spot for Lucien but he wasn't born for decades after everything happened so he can't be a factor in why Eris regrets his actions.

His father tortures him: It's revealed at the end of ACOSF that Beron tortures Eris after Cassian realizes Eris is injured after returning back from Autumn. We're not told how long it's been occurring and Eris is extremely reluctant to speak on the matter. However, if this was the big secret Eris has been hiding there'd be a bit more emphasis placed on the reveal. In fact, Cassian pushes him again after that to tell him the true reason he left Mor on the border (keep in mind Cassian doesn't know Mor is queer and Eris is refusing to reveal that information to others) and asks Eris for the real reason he's back the Night Court trying to make amends.

Why is Eris back at the Night Court after everything that happened, pushing so hard to build an alliance?

When pushed for the truth, Eris tells Cassian:

"You're not the person I want to explain myself to" - ACOSF

Cassian assumes Eris means Mor and tells him she won't want to hear his explanations anyway. But is Mor really the person Eris was referencing. I think not, given we've been given these lines:

Eris nodded to where Mor watched them from beside Feyre and Rhys, her face neutral and aloof. “She knows the truth but has never revealed it." -ACOSF

"There were forces at work that you have never considered," Eris said coldly. "And I am not going to waste my breath explaining them to you. Believe what you want about me"- ACOWAR

Eris says that Mor already knows the truth and has explicitly said he doesn't care what she thinks about him. He has nothing to explain to her. And aside from those two facts, which already make it clear enough that Mor is not the person Eris meant, what more would Eris gain from speaking to Mor? Assuaging his guilt? That could be a reasonable explanation if it weren't for Cassian already asking Eris if guilt is what was motivating him, Cassian realizing it's not and pushing for Eris to "give me a damn answer".

"You're not the person I want to explain myself to"

So, who in the IC does Eris want to explain himself to?

Mor? No, for reasons stated above

Cassian? No, they're speaking in that scene and if Cassian were the person then Eris wouldn't have said that

Feyre? Nesta? Elain? Weren't alive so aren't applicable

Lucien? Wasn't alive during the incident and is thus unaffected

Rhysand? We're told in ACOSF (Chapter 7) that Eris already has Rhysand's trust and allyship

Amren? I guess I can't necessarily eliminate Amren as the person Eris wants to explain himself to but let's be real, it's not her.

Azriel? Hmm....The person who arguably hates Eris more than even Mor herself. Who has such a burning passionate rage towards Eris that he attacked him during a High Lord meeting, yet also dropped everything to fly to the Continent to save Eris when he was abducted by Koschei.

Conclusion and remaining questions

Let's put everything together:

Eris is back at the Night Court attempting to smooth things over, make amends, and build an allyship. On the surface, we're told it's all because he wants the throne. But what we now know from SJM (in her interview) and our textual analysis is that Eris paid a big, deeply personal price due to the fall out of leaving Mor injured at the Autumn Court border. This cost was directly tied to the IC's perception of him. Eris lost something or the chance at something when the Night Court began to hate him. So he's back, 500-ish years later, attempting to make amends because of the same problem that plagued him all those centuries ago. We also know there's only one person he's interested in explaining himself to- and that person interestingly seems to be Azriel. Why would Eris want to explain himself to Azriel? Why go to these lengths to make amends with him? Was "the cost" Eris paid 500 years ago tied to Azriel?Is this all tied to Eris's "secret history and secret motivations" that SJM referenced? Crack theory time: What if Eris and Azriel are mates? If they are, it would seem maybe Eris knows about it but Azriel isn't consciously aware? It could explain Azriel's extreme and passionate reactions to Eris. What if when Eris became an enemy of the Night Court he lost his chance at having a connection to his mate. It would also explain why Eris is so tight lipped about his secret motivations. We know that Beron tortures Eris as he is now, imagine what he would do to Eris if he found out he was queer. If Eris is queer it would also explain his empathy to Mor and his reluctance to tell her truth to other people. This could also explain why Azriel is the one person Eris wants to explain himself to, because Azriel is the only person whose opinion he cares about. AND this would also provide an answer to the great "Azriel mate debate". I know Gwynriel is a popular theory but the text has not given us any indication that they are (yes, bonus chapter included) and Azriel had never displayed any mate-like behavior around her. Eris and Azriel also provide interesting foils to one another: flame and shadow- which is a theme that's mentioned in both of SJM's other series. We also know how much SJM loves her enemies to lovers.

"There was an icy rage in Azriel I'd never been able to thaw" -Rhysand in ACOMAF

Azriel is routinely described as icy and frozen, physically and emotionally. What better to thaw ice than fire!

If you read this far- thank you and ily.

Feel free to let me know if you have any critiques to my reasoning!

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 13/05

@garnetduodecim asked: I always assumed jack spent the first 4 hours in the troll session, before destroying prospit, destroying Aradiabots, there were A LOT of them.

Maybe one of the Aradiabots got in a lucky shot, and was able to tag him with a weaker, non-God Tier variant of her freeze ability. That'd certainly at least delay him.

@morganwick asked: So, you were talking about Aradia "injuring" Vriska (post/704357246751113217) and comparing Vriska to a fairy godmother character (post/722100305374986240)?

@manorinthewoods asked: Serendipity Gospels is by Tamsyn Muir??? Really? Um, that's… hoo. That was one of the fanfics that I didn't end up liking. Might need to revisit that. Side note: 'Doc Scratch's School for Supernaturally Gifted Adolescents' feels more like something Locked Tomb-esque to me. So that's really… ah. ~LOSS (3/5/24)

I do wonder how similar the Gospels are to TLT's writing style.

Actually, can anyone confirm at what point the fic will be safe to read? I could just wait until I'm reading panels from after its publication date, but if I can check it out before, I will.

@abysswarlock asked: Ooh I’ve had this hypothesis for a while now but you just said something that made me lock in my guess that your classpect is Prince of Doom

The classpect wheel continues to turn!

I'm married to Doom for at least one of my 'sonas, but my Class is still up in the air, since we know even less about them than aspects.

@manorinthewoods asked: As a sort of Part 2 to that sylladex comment - how do you think the Sylladex works? Do you think that Homestuck will go into more detail about Sylladices, or do you think they'll fade into the background as different aspects of the magic system come to the fore? ~LOSS (24/4/24)

I think the latter is a lot more likely. Most aspects (lol) of Homestuck's magic system are there to serve the story first and foremost. As much as I'd love the comic to turn into a treatise on Sburb deeplore, it really doesn't feel like something Hussie would be interested in doing.

The story won't really suffer without, say, a detailed explanation of every facet of alchemy - I just really like speculating, because I'm all about shit like that.

@heliotropopause asked: What are your thoughts on Homestuck's translation convention(s)? As an example, take page 2251, line "Arrivederci, Megido.": Is she writing in something close enough to Earth English to scan as such to the reader, no translation necessary? Is Vriska saying a word in Troll Italian, which gets translated to Earth Italian? Is she expressing a sentiment in her usual language that's best translated as the word "arrivederci" as it's used in English? Has Doc Scratch secretly been translating all cross-species communication we've seen so far?

Vriska's arrivederci seems diegetic to me. If we inherited English from Alternia, it makes sense that some of our other languages might come from there too.

tl;dr: Troll Italy is real 🇮🇹

Anonymous asked: im not one to dip my toes into The Vriscourse but this one piece of analysis i really liked is that vriska is jealous of tavros, that hes had a much easier life compared to her and that hes allowed to be more of a wimp while she has to be the toughest fuck alive or else shell die

It's only one piece of the Vriska-Tavros puzzle, but it's an important one. She'll refuse to acknowledge it to the end, though, because the idea of being jealous of Tavros is disgusting to her.

@obscureaeguran asked: Are there any current theories of yours that you want to be wrong about?

Confident as I am in my Vriska death theory, I don't actually want to be right.

I really like Vriska's character, and I want to see her grow past the worldview that's preventing her from finding peace. I just don't think that's likely, given her current trajectory.

Anonymous asked: 'In what universe are 13-year-olds the people most qualified to make universes?' well per the beta version of homestuck (when hussie wanted to make the whole thing in flash before deciding against it) they were all going to be 10 instead, i think this is the much better option!

How young can we go, anyway?

AU where the Homestuck Babies aren't sent to Earth at all, and just start playing immediately.

@manorinthewoods asked: Have you played Deltarune? ~LOSS (9/4/24)

I have! I was actually replaying it on day one of the liveblog - hence the several references I made to it at the time. That feels forever ago, now.

@bladekindeyewear asked: Jade changed pretty drastically as a person after her dreamself died, if you think about it— demanding Feferi stop using her quirk in chat, standing up to the trolls for the first time, getting angry, to such an extent that Karkat was so surprised that it turned his opinion of her around completely in a single conversation. Even forcing a password system to keep talks linear instead of using cloud visions to do everything out of order. This doesn’t just feel to me like dream Jade being a “different individual”, it also feels like a metaphorical confrontation between her NEW self and her OLD self…

I think it's both.

Jade's been through a lot in the last couple of hours, and she really isn't the same girl who died on Prospit.

Being an oracle of Skaia's visions led to disaster. They showed her that John's Dream Self would awaken, leading her to believe she was finally going to meet him, but neglected to mention that she'd die the moment he opened his eyes - or that Prospit would die alongside her.

As a result, the new Jade seems to have made a decision to completely reject all prophetic information. She'll supply the minimum possible intel to her past self, and no more.

It's clear her Dream Self's death was a catalyst for a pretty dramatic shift in her worldview. She's angry - at the trolls, at herself, and at the world that betrayed her trust. She's tired of being jerked around, and her tumultuous emotions are making her rather testy. Basically, she's sick of all the bullshit, and she won't take it from anyone anymore.

Jadesprite has experienced the same catalyst, and has also come to mistrust the clouds, but for different reasons.

Jade rejects prophecies, in part, because she doesn't want to be deceived - but Jadesprite rejects them out of sheer hopelessness. She just doesn't care anymore.

They both have the same trauma, but they're dealing with it in very different ways - and at this point, I really do consider them to be different people.

And then on a metaphorical level, Jadesprite represents the 'silly', absent-minded childhood self that got Jade into this mess.

I think this taunt from Karkat hit very, very close to home for her, and I'm sure she associates the traits he described with her idyllic days on Prospit. It's part of why Dream Jade is such a perfect target for her fury.

@spyril4132 asked: i beg to differ on the entry item similarities only applying to prospit. iirc, rose shatters a bottle, and dave hatches an egg; both involve breaking open some sort of "shell", and neither are associated with a larger object, which could be seen as similar types of items. (while jade does break a piñata, she does so by shooting it, not by splitting it apart)

It's true that Rose and Dave's object's have some physical similarities, but John and Jade are both summoning the same tree, which feels like a much stronger connection.

Rose and Dave's entry cards also summoned auxiliary items, but they were different - a cabinet and bird, respectively. From where I'm sitting, the link between the two Prospit items does seem unique.

@skelekingfeddy asked: what herptiles would sally and sahlee have as their consorts? i feel like a monitor lizard would fit for one of them…maybe losas has like, turtle or tortoise consorts, what with their long-livedness and the wise sagely vibe and all.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing for Sahlee. Let's say they're Galápagos tortoises, because the Sage gives me Oogway vibes.

For Sally's Consorts, I'm going to get really funky and say they're a type of pterosaur.

@sparten4ever92 asked: The HS version of Megalovania is slept on way too much, the Vriska guitar adds so much to it that the UT version just doesn't have. @sanctferum asked: Finally, MeGaLoVania by Toby Fox (feat. Joren "Tensei" deBruin on guitar)! Would you say that Tavros had an…unpleasant chronological progression? (btw I do love the bit of Spider's Claw that plays during the Vriska segment, which is (obviously) unique to this Megalovania) also, the audiovisual style of homestuck flashes is just really cool imo @mimescantscream asked: You have no idea how long we've waited for the Megalovania

This version of Megalovania was a great choice for Aradia's finest hour - or at least, her finest hour so far.

It's moments like this which are why I decided to stop listening to the albums in advance. If I hadn't first heard Aradia's Megalovania in this flash, it wouldn't have hit the way it did.

@elkian asked: MEGALOVANIA TIME BAYBEEEE! Also, let's go back to that theory you had about Aradia getting more alive, because you NAILED it. @iris-in-the-dark-world asked: i am so excited to see aradia again and finally as herself :33<

She's fucking BACK, baby!

Seeing Aradia smiling for real after all this time is genuinely heartwarming - and with her time-stop attack, she's almost unkillable. It'd take some absolute nonsense to take Aradia out of the picture again, and I think she'll be sticking around for a long time. Hopefully forever.

@grippingtraverse asked: notice any similarities during megalovania between aradia vs. jack & sans vs. player? 0u0

The best I can come up with is that Aradia and Frisk are both time travelers whose signature color is red.

Or maybe Jack is the Frisk analogue, since he's the one wiping out all life in the session, and Aradia is the last foe he faces.

@captorations asked: please consider, with this new information about aradia, what it could mean for her literary descendant dulcie septimus. please also keep considering this as you continue and see more of aradia. i am very normal about both of these characters

Ooh, they do have similar vibes, don't they? They're both doomed, they're strongly associated with death, and they both have a cheerful side that comes out when you don't expect it to.

@duorogue asked: "You have to give Nepeta some credit. The literal first thing she did after this traumatic murder was log into Trollian and report on Jack’s activities." To be fair to her, when I have a bad nightmare the first thing I do is log onto discord

nepeta hopping on mic at 2am to complain about the hat man (the hat man is doc scratch)

@absinthe-and-alabaster asked: when the writ keeper was introduced as fifth exile you mentioned that it was a little fucked up how the king was the only prospitian that was preserved - i just wanted to remind you that no, he wasn't ! on page 1974 we see all the other prospitians that were exiled with the white queen on her ship (including ms paint!) WQ just left them to go wander the desert

I'd actually forgotten about that. So much happened during the Act 4 ending that it completely slipped my mind. I even missed Ms. Paint!

Anonymous asked: Hey, as you noticed, the Dave Coin Split is a plot hole. We've never seen the timeline split because of someone's choice before. Compare to John flying to the seventh gate, there weren't two timelines based on his choice, the timeline only changed because Dave came back from the original timeline and changed it. And of course, like you said in the tags, Terezi shouldn't have been able to communicate with Doomed Dave, including to tell him the result of the FL1P. Have you noticed any other plot holes or things that don't seem to make sense?

While I see what you're saying, it might not necessarily be a plot hole! Certainly the Dave Coin Timeline was created in a different manner to Davesprite's - but that might just mean there are multiple ways to split a timeline, or that there are certain requirements that must be fulfilled for a decision to spawn one.

Because of things like that, it's hard to tell whether something's actually a plot hole, or if it'll eventually make sense in light of later reveals.

This is particularly true for aspects of the plot involving time travel, like the one you just described. Like, remember before I learned about Doomed Timelines, when I thought Davesprite broke Homestuck's predestination rules?

Anonymous asked: You said "God Tiering is just another way to inhabit your Dream Self," so do you think the things that Dream Selves can do (such as Jade growing extra arms) can be done by God Tiers?

I never really thought about that!

I think it's definitely possible. God Tier bodies can fly the same way that Dream Selves can, so other powers might transfer, too. Maybe the only reason Vriska, Aradia and John aren't shapeshifters is because Jade hasn't taught them to how to dream up extra limbs.

She might be one of the only Dream Selves who've learned how to shapeshift this fluidly. Logging thousands of hours on Prospit has its perks!

[dutchdread]

“She is is envious of the bond Cloud has with Tifa”

Genuine question here because I see a lot of CloTi discourse talk about how Aerith is envious of Cloud and Tifa’s bond, but is this ever mentioned officially or explained? I can’t find one single inference or implication that she is, only that one could argue via subjective interpretation that she maybe wants to try to learn Cloud for who he is and not who he reminds her of.

Arguably, one could say that this interpretation is inherently describing an envy, but I’m looking at it from the perspective of Aerith wanting to learn who Cloud is in an effort to like him for him and not Zack.

(Full disclosure: I’m actually a huge CloTi, but I’ve been out of the fandom for a decade+, and I’ve been reading a lot of discussions on the LTD, and while my personal opinion is that CloTi is more or less canonical at this point, the nuance that they’ve developed with Aerith that just wasn’t there in OG is interesting/perplexing to me because I don’t have a full scope of info. And I like it when things are proven by the devs. It’s possible that there’s information I’m missing or have missed, but otherwise what I have consumed doesn’t seem to indicate she’s envious of Cloud/Tifa’s relationship specifically.)

The idea that Aerith is envious of Cloud and Tifas bond became a thing mostly after Rebirth. Before that it was also put forth at times when someone did a character study of Aerith and the evidence back then was mostly just that it fit and made sense. In essence it was an amateur diagnosis. We saw in Remake that Aerith had unresolved issues concerning her childhood during the Eligor scene, that combined with what we learned about her childhood in TotP made it so that a lot of her outgoing "life affirming" behavior made a lot of sense if she was, in essence, trying to catch up for lost time. She's enthusiastically, perhaps even desperately, trying to have the same experiences everyone else has, to have a normal life. This is also congruent with other parts of the story, like her seeing Zack in Cloud. If Cloud reminds her of Zack, and she had a bond with Zack, then watching Cloud and Tifa express that same young love that she once felt would naturally lead to her wishing she had that. After all, we've known for a long time that Aerith still isn't over Zack, so her being slightly envious of that is natural. And that doesn't have to be a bad thing. You can be happy someone has something and because of that have a positive longing to experience something similar. But where this was really made explicit is in Rebirth, where there are multiple scenes that hint or outright state that Aerith wishes she had something like what Cloud and Tifa have. The main two being the Kalm "date" and the watertower discussion. In Kalm Aerith takes Cloud on a date as a pretense to talk about the prior night, and almost the first thing she does is mention Cloud and Tifas friendship and mention that she'd have given anything to have a friend when she was growing up. As soon as she thinks of their bond her first thought is to link it to her own desires.

She continues by saying to not take Tifa for granted. Since this is something Aerith lacked she thinks it's important, and the idea of it being sullied or undermined instinctively bothers her. She wants them to value it as much as she would value such a thing. This is not her living vicariously through Cloud and Tifa or anything, but just a small nuance that paints the picture of a girl who yearns for these bonds herself enough that she is hyper aware of them with other people. All this is then stated explicitly on the water tower, where Aerith states: "Must be nice..."

She generally willfully daydreams about how nice Nibelheim is. It all paints the same picture, a girl without a childhood who never got to experience the things that Cloud and Tifa had and lost, but wishes that she did. This is a huge part of her character and establishes the background needed to understand stuff like "no promises to keep". Some people are upset that NPTK is not a love song from Aerith to Cloud, but a deeper look into Aerith shows why it would be weird for it to be one. Because Aeriths journey isn't about romance, it isn't even just about Cloud. It's about her experiencing and developing the bonds that she felt she was denied for so long. The song is "even about Tifa and Barret" because it's about all the precious bonds she made on her journey. It's one of the things that makes Clotis version of Aerith superior to the Clerith version, because we give her so many more layers.

[tenebrous-academic]

I think starting off with bucktommy having so many scenes focusing on them just made us greedy (Understandable, how could you get enough of them?😭). Like I'm mourning tommy's scene with henren. It's already established that chimney is bucktommy warrior but I really wanted to see how things between hen and tommy are. Like damn, there's no way we're finding out huh?

But considering how short the season is I think tim is doing a good job at establishing bt. We've seen tommy in many 118 important moments (the rescue, madney's wedding, the ceremony, even mentioned in Bobby's goodbye 😭, and the hospital). It's safe to say that tommy is like no other love interest. And buck already knows/feels that much. We only need the little nudge that makes him go: "yes, he's is the one for me". Could be in the hospital scene, could be not.

But the desperation is felt and REAL, like it's our last chance to get any substantial bt scenes to live off during the hiatus. It's gonna be wild out there

Anon, we were given a FEAST at the start of this season. The soft conversations, the chin grabs, the promise of something more beginning to blossom???? We had everything we wanted in the start of their relationship. The queer awakening of Buck was given so much attention and screen time (as it should) and, once the storyline focused on other characters (as it also should because this isn’t just the Buck show), we had to make do with small interactions and background scenes. But oh my, what we were given to begin with was almost too good to be true. It was such an authentic start to a relationship. The chemistry, awkwardness, earnestness, and desire was so amazing to witness because it felt so real and lasting. And it’s created such a believable couple that we’re still here, even though we’ve basically had nothing else to go off of since the kiss in the hospital.

It absolutely makes sense that people are saying it doesn’t feel like we’ve been shown enough of an established relationship because we were given so much of the start of the relationship. There seems to be a disconnect now where, if people aren’t shown it, then it just doesn’t exist. I don’t agree with it, but I understand why some fans are upset or are claiming it’s not there.

And, because this fandom is amazing, we’ve thought of all the scenes and interactions we want to see. Just look at A03 for the sheer untapped potential of Tevan content. But we’re not getting them because this show already has so much to showcase. RIP Hen and Tommy discussion scene, RIP Hen and Buck heart-to-heart over Buck’s newly discovered bisexual identity.

I completely agree that Tim is doing his best to give everyone equal screen time. We already know he’s returned from his Lone Star vacation with a determination to bring Buck back to former glory and I think the journey he’s on now is going to be incredible to witness. Tim is laying a foundation for Tevan in a way that isn’t monopolizing the screen (which we know Buddie fans would also complain about if that were happening) and he’s giving us just enough crumbs to keep us fed. The scenes you highlighted are so important and it’s weaving Tommy into the fabric of the 118. You’re so right that it’s unlike any other love interest. Taylor was there but we know she was there for the stories and the exploitation. Tommy is there for Buck.

Depending on what we get next episode for the finale this hiatus is going to be so wild. If we’re lucky, we’ll get some truly sweet moments between Tommy and Buck. If we’re not lucky, Tommy will only be there briefly (or maybe even only mentioned) and we’ll have to rely on fanfics to sustain us with codas and AUs.

Either way, what a way to go.

[room-surprise]

Dungeon Meshi Anime Review, Season 2, Episode 17 review

OH GOD OKAY here we go...

Once again, I am a broken record: good episode!

My two major complaints: The bit where Laios and Kabru stand around talking next to an off-screen, roaring, screaming monster seemed kind of silly in animation. In a comic it works, but they really should have animated them walking or stumbling away while delivering those lines, having them just stand there until the monster attacks them again is really goofy.

ALSO, something Trigger keeps doing that I am NOT a fan of, is throwing animated speed-line backgrounds behind characters when they're reacting to something. Sometimes these were in the original manga, other times they are NOT... and they break the immersion of the anime completely IMO.

The coloring in DM is so moody and wonderful, the aesthetic is generally grounded, so when suddenly the background is bright blue or lime green or pink and strobing, it's VERY jarring... and the joke DOES NOT NEED these effects in order to be funny! In fact I think it leeches some of the humor out of the jokes. Imagine if every time someone had a strong emotion in a classic Disney movie you'd get this:

This type of sudden background color change, strobing and speed lines are artifacts of older, cheaper anime, tricks that used to be done to hide the lack of budget, as a way to make a quick joke. It's now used as a shorthand to tell people a joke is happening.

But Trigger doesn't NEED to use these tricks, they're using them because "that's how you make sure the audience knows a joke is happening", but the jokes in Dungeon Meshi are so well written, you don't need to cue us with a visual laugh-track, Trigger!!!! ESPECIALLY when Kui didn't do it in the manga!!!

They've done it in other episodes, but I felt like they were particularly noticeable and bad in this one. Makes me sad because I feel it's dragging the anime down from the genuine peak of artistry that it's otherwise achieving.

As always, animation is fantastic. The stuff with chimera falin is obviously top notch, brutal and fast and amazing... But I also have to say that the Toshiro and Laios argument was animated INCREDIBLY well, with a lot of loving detail given to what is, ostensibly, just talking, something Trigger normally hates to animate.... But they put movie-quality work into that argument and it really paid off.

Honestly can't think of much to complain about. It's a solid adaptation of this part of the story, one of the biggest, coolest action sequences that we've all been waiting for.

Vocal performances were all great in both English and Japanese. Kabru's English voice actor did a great job, despite my misgivings about him in previous episodes. I hope he continues to improve.

A dub script change had Kabru think "He's excited" about Laios instead of "his pupils are dilated"... This isn't a terrible change, but a bit baffling. Saying his pupils are dilated tells viewers HOW Kabru knows Laios is excited, and indicates that he is using some kind of scientific criteria to measure it, it makes him sound smarter and more detached from what he's doing. Just saying "he's excited" doesn't tell us how Kabru knows... and it's a thought, not dialog, so it's weird for them to change it in the script, since there's no need to match mouth-flaps.

The sequence where Kabru strips off all his armor and does a surprise attack on Falin is still fantastic in this, though I am a little bit sad that they didn't find any ways to add any extra emphasis for it - in the manga it's drawn out a bit, to the point where you might miss what was happening on your first read... I think the amount of shots we got in the anime was the same as in the manga, but somehow it felt less impactful to me. Maybe pacing?

At any rate, it was an incredibly solid episode.

I already liked Toshiro, but seeing this part of the manga animated really made me like him more, I hadn't realized in the past just how damn romantic the twin bells thing was, but damn. Toshiro really has forgiven Laios by the time they part ways here, it's easy to forget that since Toshiro very much takes a back seat after this.

[alphacentaurinebula]

WOT - Lan's storyline

I have been loving WoT s2 and feel like overall the changes they've made have been for the better. But of course I'm now going to spend ages talking about the small bit of it I DON'T like (cough, fandom), because there is one element I am really not enjoying and that is Lan's storyline.

I really like Alanna and her warders in the show (she was very much not my fav character in the books) and I enjoyed the chance to see into their world more in Ep 4 (when we saw their lives together, their relationship, Alanna's family...). I liked the insight into this different warder dynamic. And i just super love Maksim. If we had 15 episode seasons, this would feel like a brilliant way to enrich the storyworld and secondary characters.

But given how much story they are packing in for everyone else, and how little time we actually HAVE in 8 episodes, this whole plotline has just felt like treading water/wasted time.

I don't feel like we've learned anything interesting about Lan, in the way Moiraine's storyline has been filled with both character revelation and backstory. He's broody? I think we knew that already. He's not into threesomes? Disappointing for Future Nyneave, but not exactly crucial information here!

And also Lan is just like...so dumb? Everyone and their mother understands how Moiraine got around the 3 oaths to say she didn't see them as equals. I get it, he's hurt, but...dude! And I've seen complaints (from book readers) that it was wrong of Alanna et al to accuse Lan of being a darkfriend because of his background, but that is rubbish. This world is set up so that literally no one above suspicion of being a darkfriend. It makes sense they'd be suspicious of him.

Which makes it even more ABSURD that he isn't suspicious of them, and instead just blurts out this MASSIVE secret about the Dragon Reborn. I know the Alanna squad set themselves up as not dark friends by accusing Lan, but that could have been manipulation! He's ridiculously trusting to tell them about the dragon reborn.

I know he's pissed with Moiraine and doesn't understand her plans or trust her as he once did...but this revealing of a secret they'd worked 20 years for, just seems...really flipping DUMB!

I know loads of people love Lan in the books but I find him super boring and basically only care about him and his fate because I love Nyneave so much. I really wish we weren't wasting screen time on him and a pointless plotline in a season where everything else is working so well.

[animehouse-moe]

GUND-ARM: A Ray Of Hope

So, definitely a lot going on with the episode, but I've got to start off with the little promotional video they did for the new company. Incredibly cute and actually impressive how well they animated it. The tine of green around Aerial from the green screen. The slight desync between Aerial and Suletta. The off-key singing, the background noise from animals. There's a lot of effort put into making the quality of the video seem low, which is pretty impressive in a way.

A quick interlude before the meat of the episode however, featuring Suletta and her mother. I do feel really bad for Suletta, because she just wants to feel safe and loved, rather than discerning the truth from her mother's words.

But unfortunately Prospera and Suletta are on different wavelengths, as is evident in Prospera's comment about people attacking Gundams.

There really is something that feels sinister to Prospera's words. She's taking Suletta's passion and desire for love from her mother and twisting it to the benefit of her plot, which is hard to experience when viewers get to see it as that rather than how Suletta is processing it.

As a side note I feel like that's something they've done really well. Typically it can be hard to understand things from the perspective of a character when you see them as something else entirely, but I feel like GWitch has done a really solid job with that, though I can't quite put my finger on why.

Anyways, the real content of the episode starts as Shaddiq begins his attempt to schmooze the girls to get in on GUND-ARM, and overall I think it's a compelling piece to the story that works. Sure, it's already happened twice in different capacities, but Miorine is Delling's daughter, and Suletta has the best and potentially only "accepted" Gundam currently. It's a gold mine that everyone wants a piece of.

What I find interesting though is he's the first with agency out of all the contenders. He goes against his adoptive father's ideals and provides a fresh angle in the contention of Gundams in this world.

And I mean, it both fits his character and works. He's been passive the entire time we've known him as character, letting everyone else do the heavy lifting. And at the same time, trying to seize Aeriel through direct means has proven to fail countless times, so Shaddiq is certainly finding himself on the right track.

I do enjoy this final scene with Shaddiq though, as once more he allows others to do the work for him. He has an interesting emotion lingering on his face though. It's a bit hard to put into words, but to me it feels almost like rumination. He's definitely deep in thought because he doesn't move the cup anywhere, and casting his eyes downward make it feel like a more negative thought process. He talked about a prior business affair with Miorine when they were younger, so it could be that he's lamenting over what could have been since she denied his involvement. Regardless, it's a nice touch, and presents an interesting tidbit, all the girls have strongly isolated personalities. The smug "you get what you deserve", the empathetic "I feel bad for her", the enthuastic "don't worry we'll cheer her up!", and the cold and calculated business personality.

The other bit from this episode was the politics of the Earth house. I really, really enjoy the different perspectives and worldviews that this small little group possess. They've all been exposed to varying influences and challenges, so they all come out with different opinions and ideas. Yeah, they definitely have overlap, but at the same time, an Earthian that doesn't want to stand out and is somewhat placative to Spacians is in direct opposition to another Earthian on the same issue. It's not a black and white image made by these characters, nor is it really even that gray. There's lots of approaches and understandings that sell the politics and ideals of the world incredibly well. Given how some series handle the concepts of racism/xenophobia/etc, The Witch From Mercury really is proving to provide a great measuring stick for other storytellers.

I just really love it as an emotional piece to the story. It shows how prejudice and war has fractured communities and peoples, without getting into traumatizing or terrible actions to prove it. It's a rare case of words speaking just as loud as actions, and I think it works great for kids that are trying to lead a normal life at school. They're not trying to delve deep into painful memories, but rather make the most of the present and provide change.

All that said, I'm really curious to see where this next episode takes us. There's potential for Prospera and Bel to play more active roles since they're under Suletta and Miorine now, but that all depends on the outcome from the changes Shaddiq made now.

[writeradamanteve]

Lucy Carlyle & Holly Munro

I want to talk about this dynamic as it’s truly one of the most polarizing relationships in the book, for various reasons, and yet it’s really one of the best written ones, also for many reasons.

So, sit down and grab a cup of tea. This will take a while, and Reader, I don’t plan on holding back.

Race and Diversity

Let’s talk about diversity for a moment. For those of you who’ve read the books, you know that until Holly made an appearance in the series, the Lockwood & Co. books were lily white. It was so white. There wasn’t a whisper of there being any people of color.

I cannot claim to know Jonathan Stroud’s values, but having watched the show before reading the books, it was clear to me that Stroud, at least, wasn’t consciously or maliciously being racist when he first wrote these books, and that he did, in fact, acknowledge the lack of diversity by Doing Better, first by introducing Holly in The Hollow Boy, and then ultimately, while collaborating on the TV series, readily allowing for a wealth of diversity, even going so far as giving one of the lead roles, which was canonically white, to a man of Iranian ethnicity.

So whatever prompted Stroud to introduce a person of color in the Lockwood & Co. book series, he clearly wanted to do it right. He didn’t retcon existing characters like other writers I know (looking at She Who Must Not Be Named “He’s Actually Totally Gay! Even If It’s Not In The Books!” ~ugh~), nor did he tokenize them like Ms. Voldemort over there (“All The People Of Color in My Books Are Sidelined and If They Have a Speaking Part, Either Stereotyped or Tends to Be Mostly Unbearable.” ~what a cunt-). Holly was a real, fully fleshed out character, who had a positive, and/or complicated, impact in the story.

Now, if I didn’t read the books and just went by all the posts about Holly’s relationship with Lucy in my Tumblr stream, it would seem like a simple case of opposite personalities clashing, at best--jealousy at it worst, but this relationship is not simple like that. I don't want to call it complicated, either. What it is, is nuanced. There is a lot of nuance to Holly & Lucy.

"Welcome, Holly!" Said Lucy, Never

With Lockwood & Co. all narrated from Lucy’s POV, we are introduced to Holly with Lucy’s reactions, perceptions, and biases.

It is clear, then, that Holly’s sudden appearance in what Lucy considered her Safe Space was jarring and intrusive. Lucy was neither consulted on this nor forewarned, but in a world of landlines, archives, and dewey decimal shelving, there is no way to contact a person in transit, there is no instant messaging, and I don't even know if there are answering machines. In this case, Lucy was traveling to her rural hometown which was hours away, for a couple of days, for the obligatory visit to the family she had left behind.

Consider for a moment: Lucy’s trip home was not a leisure vacation by any means. In fact, it only cemented Lucy’s resolve that she belonged in London, and that she missed being in 35 Portland Row, her found family (a.k.a. Lockwood and George), and her independence—all of which Lucy fought HARD to attain and preserve. None of these things came easy for her, but she did earn it, and she was assured enough in her accomplishments to pay a visit to her hometown voluntarily. We all know how it is--when we're not in a good spot in life, we generally don't feel like reconnecting with people like former classmates or family we left behind. It's too humiliating to tell them that we aren't doing so well, but if we've been successful in our pursuits, those class and family reunions are So Welcome, like--"Sure! I'd love to see you all!" In Lucy's case, she wasn't terribly enthused to see her family again, but she felt strong enough to weather the doldrums of it, knowing full-well that she could tell her mother to Shove It.

So given all that background, Lucy is understandably pissed that Holly comes sashaying into Lockwood & Co., highly recommended, with Lockwood hastily making space for her and keeping her comfortable. Not to mention George instantly liking her.

Holly seemed to have effortlessly settled into Lockwood & Co. without the trials and tribulations Lucy had to endure. It probably didn’t help that by all appearances, Holly’s had it easy most of her life.

Holly was beautiful, refined, classy, and educated. We don’t know much about Holly at this point, but it is implied she is possessed of a pedigree equal to Lockwood, except that she wasn’t orphaned at a young age and that her parents were there to nurture her talents.

It absolutely did not help either that Lucy, as a person, has zero social skills. She, with her Blue Collar upbringing, was not raised to make nice or be diplomatic. We hear her thoughts because she is the narrator, and we think her thoughts judgmental, but thoughts, by their nature, are unguarded. If we’re being completely honest, we all make snap judgements about the people we meet. Some of us may be snarkier about it than others, but a lot of our thoughts are not always positive. I wouldn’t call non-positive thoughts negative, just stripped of the diplomacy and niceties we were taught worked best in social settings.

So Lucy does tend to sound a bit nasty sometimes, but is she, really? Or is it just that we see into her mind without the filter of social norms. The show portrayed it perfectly--Lucy is an observer, and some of those snap judgments make their appearance in her words and actions, but is it more extraordinary than some of ours?

So Lucy, for her part in the introduction of Holly, did pretty well, and her thoughts were quite straightforward: She was pissed about the whole situation with Holly, hired without a proper heads-up to her, without the hoops that Lucy had to jump through, and both Lockwood and George appeared to like Holly better than they ever did Lucy. That was Lucy’s knee-jerk reaction.

In the coming weeks, we see how Lucy fully acknowledges how beautiful and fashionable Holly was, and how efficient, doing exactly what she was hired to do with breezy, confident ease. She cleaned their disaster house, organized their schedule, fielded nuisance inquiries, and booked them profitable, resume-padding jobs. Oh, she can be a field agent, too, but she was a bit rusty, so it was the least of her talents.

Lucy clung to that last bit as her security blanket—something she had over Holly, who otherwise seemed so aggravatingly perfect. So when Lockwood, like the good boss he was, was very much willing to reignite Holly’s skills on the field with gentle support and enthusiasm, this again, made Lucy simmer in resentment.

Keep in mind that while all this was happening, Lucy was trying her best to make it work. She hated that Holly was trotting around like a responsible adult, cleaning and trying to make everyone eat healthy. But Lucy was mostly civil.

The tension between Lucy and Holly was palpable, but you can tell that Holly wasn’t trying to annoy her. They were both trying to make it work, and that Holly was sensitive to Lucy’s triggers.

Lockwood & George

Most of Lucy’s resentment stemmed from how much better Lockwood and George treated Holly than they did Lucy—at least from Lucy’s perception.

So I examined that. Is that true? Did they treat her so much better?

The immediate thought is that yes, they do treat Holly with a level of reverence and care that wasn’t exactly there with Lucy, but if Lucy thinks it’s because they liked Holly better, that would be an oversimplification of how Lockwood and George regards Lucy.

First of all, Lucy and George butted heads immediately. Lucy’s lack of social skills and George’s lack of filter was just an inevitably tumultos brew. They did eventually grow to appreciate one another, deeply and sincerely, but that's because they both saved each other's lives. That's what it took. They love one another now, but they had to go through a lot to get to that point. Also, they never stopped being snarky to each other, so there's that.

Lockwood, however, treated Lucy with respect. He was confident of her abilities and he made space for her, too. He offered her his room, for God's sake, and he didn't think twice about her missing 4th levels. He trusted in her skills well enough to bring her along for jobs, immediately. He was impressed by her Listening talent, and was even excited by how, with her, the agency would thrive.

So it wasn't that Holly was treated better; she was treated differently. Lucy is an field agent. By all appearances--her short brown, low-maintenance hair, her practical clothes, and the rapier at her hip, she was ready for action. She did not sweat details. She did not bother with the tidiness of her room. She certainly wasn't the type to pick up after the boys. Why the hell would she? She wasn't their mother. And she gave as good as she got. She didn't appear shocked or stymied by course language or behavior. She was not a delicate flower, so George and Lockwood treated her like the tough cookie that she was.

Lockwood and George respected Lucy this way, just as they respected Holly that way.

So while we understand Lucy's resentment, we have to keep things in perspective here.

Lucy vs. Holly

Lucy felt that Holly was patronizing, that she looked down on Lucy, and that Holly could do no wrong. It did not help that Lockwood was not acknowledging Lucy's feelings.

To Lockwood's mind, Holly was a godsend (she was), and that Lucy can try a little harder (she couldn't--that was truly the best she could do), and he seriously had very little time to make Lucy feel better about the entire thing. His patience was wearing thin.

Was it all Lucy's fault? No. Was it Holly's? No, but while Lockwood was making all the right moves for the agency as its founder and CEO, Lucy was not only doing her best to make her relationship with Holly work, but she was also grappling with her growing Talent and the use of it. Lockwood did not approve of what Lucy was trying to achieve with her Listening talents. It was dangerous to both Lucy and the rest of them--so much so that he threatened to fire her if she didn't stop.

We all know that Lockwood's threats of termination were empty, because in The Creeping Shadow, we were told that Lockwood did not want Lucy to leave and that he did everything to get her back. This threat was more a desperate attempt to curb Lucy. He is perfectly aware that Lucy cannot be stopped by normal means, but he needed her to stop, because what she was doing was risking her safety, and he would not have her killed because of it. Lockwood believed that by withholding his warmth, Lucy would realize how serious he was and come to her senses.

Because of all this, Lockwood grew distant and Lucy felt that keenly. That Lucy was turning to Skull as her confidante showed how lonely she grew in the midst of it all.

As we come back to Holly and Lucy's relationship, we begin to see that whatever Lucy's feelings for Holly were, they were being processed amidst all this upheaval, so Lucy was not having an easy time of it.

When we truly look at Lucy's and Holly's interactions, both of them were really doing their best, and they carried on well enough, but there was an inevitable breaking point.

Things would eventually come to a head at Aickmere's, brought there by the Chelsea Outbreak. Lucy and Holly would have it out, stirring the poltergeist.

From their argument, we find out that Holly was just as insecure about Lucy's gifts as Lucy was of Holly's. They both thought the other was being patronizing, and that neither of them actually looked down on the other. They picked a bad time to have this discussion, but it was had, and while it stirred the haunting to disastrous levels, it DID give Lucy and Holly a better understanding of one another. It was Growth at a Time of Poltergeist.

In Lucy and Holly's brief time working together to stay alive, we saw exactly how they would get along, how intuitive they were of each other's strengths and weaknesses, and how amidst the arguing, it was totally conceivable that they could come to like one another.

At the end of The Hollow Boy, when Lucy comes to the decision to leave Lockwood & Co., we know for sure it isn't because of Holly, even if everyone thinks it is.

Holly & Lucy

I am still absolutely tickled by the fact that Holly actually tells Lucy in The Creeping Shadow that she misses her, and that Holly wished Lucy had stuck around so that she would have someone to talk to. I did briefly, actually think that Holly might have had a crush on Lucy, because Lucy gives out bi-vibes (or maybe that's just me, Idon'tknow), but as I thought about it more, that would be a pretty annoying trope, where everyone falls in love with the heroine, so no. I think Holly was actually setting her sights on someone else, though Holly absolutely did miss Lucy, and she genuinely wanted to be besties with Lucy, especially because Holly thought Lockwood and George were so hard to crack (and by the way, this is so telling. Again, more proof of how differently George and Lockwood treats Lucy and Holly--not better, but differently. They are at their best behavior with Holly and as a result, they aren't vulnerable with her. The boys, however, treat Lucy like one of them, so she knows them the way Holly couldn't).

Holly's contributions to the narrative of The Hollow Boy were significant, in the same way that Kipps's contributions were significant in The Creeping Shadow. The Empty Grave treated us to the dynamic of having Kipps and Holly round out Lockwood & Co., fully entrenched into its maverick ways and the secret of the Whispering Skull.

Lucy and Holly's relationship found an easy cadence, and I especially loved how Lucy and Holly banded together instinctively to comandeer the two-bed room at the inn, leaving the boys to grapple with the second bedroom arrangements.

I cannot stress enough how well Holly and Lucy's relationship turned out, and how I will marvel at its development. I will always think of this relationship as well-earned. It was a journey, human and interesting. Stroud did a marvelous job forming it.

[alteration-au]

I am rambling a lot in this post. If you see this because I tagged you, I just wanna tell you that you and your art, be it writing or drawing, is amazing so you don’t have to read through this entire thing.

As of the 25th of December 2023 this AU is three years old

(Well, to be 100 % accurate it was the 20th with a little oneshot)

Putting it all together (according to AO3 statistics and excluding all the tumblr post on the @traitor-on-board story blog and the very few on @adventure-time-alterationau) I've written 126,855 words for this AU in the past three years.

According to my word document I have for ToB, that Blog has additionally 46,258 words alone.

The whole Henry Stickmin fandom is special to me. It's unlike any other fandom I've ever read comics and fanfics, admired fanart and animations or created content myself for.

It's fun to create for this fandom.

We've been given so many characters with so little background information and one of the things I love the most is seeing all the different designs, backstories and characterizations of the same characters. Be it the ones in the background with only a bio with a single sentence, the references to other games like Mario and A hat in time or the main characters like Henry, Charles, Ellie, Reginald and so on.

And I've barely seen people argue about their different headcanons.

Granted, I've grown past the part of my life where I actively seek out drama and noone is obligated to publicly or at all answer rude anonymous asks, but I haven't really seen anyone make a post about how a certain character can't be trans or gay or have a certain type of backstory that they do not agree with.

We can all be peaceful and appreciate each others creativity and love for the fandom and characters. Even if that love means to put them through hell and back and traumatize them beyond belief. (I've never written so much angsty stuff in my life...)

So... in celebration of me not having abandoned any of my stories yet and me roping my friend into this fandom to the point where they share their work with this fandom (btw. "Rare Hearts" on AO3) a thank you to all the blogs / people, aside from every single Kudo, Comment and Star on Wattpad, AO3 and here, who inspired me in the first place and keep my love for this fandom alive. And if you've made it this far I highly encourage you to check them out.

@ending-the-cycle-ask (Which is one of my favorite comics of all time. Is it a comic? Ask-blog with drawings? Comic with reader-input?)

ask-crashed-copperright and run-away-toppats (Which sadly doesn't seem to exist anymore...)

@sir-subpar and @jazzstarrlight (Who both seemed to have moved on from the fandom. But it doesn't change that they're both talented artists and are still doing great work)

@ask-thsc-blog (Who has so many posts that I'll just finally need to take an entire weekend off to scroll all the way down to catch up with the story again)

@unicwolf (Who I am constantly bothering to beta-read my stuff or help me with color theory. And just art in general)

@capturecharlesau (Whos' Terrence (and entire AU) will never leave my brain again because of his story and the similarities and differences he has to my Terrence. And my Terrence would try to murder CCTerrence)

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

Baby (11x04)

Okay, so this is my favorite episode out of all 327 episodes of Supernatural, and here's why...

The cold open is a perfect teaser. There's no score or music playing, it's just the ambient sound of what seems to be a train passing nearby. We get all those wonderful details that were called out in Chuck's narration/monologue from Swan Song (5x22), the ashtray with the little, green, plastic soldier jammed into it, the legos in the heating vent, Sam and Dean's initials carved into the panel back by the rear window. But there's also so much broken glass and blood, and Dean unconscious and handcuffed in the backseat.

The lack of a musical score (non-diegetic sound) is actually a feature of the entire episode, the only songs heard are ones that are actually being played within the universe of the show (diegetic sound), either on Baby's radio or from nearby, as is the case, I believe, in the beginning of Act 1 where Sam joins Dean in washing Baby in the bunker's garage and Dean is listening to "The Guitar Man" by Bread. But while normally the lack of music would make it feel like something was missing, the ambient sounds in this episode are so rich and detailed, they just pop so beautifully and it adds to the feeling that you are in the car.

While the case in the episode is interesting and gives us a new kind of monster to add to the show's lore, what really makes the story great are all of the casual interactions we are given between the brothers. The quiet little glimpses of "normal" life in the Impala. The boys at ease with one another and there are lots of comfortable little moments that give a day-in-the-life quality to the episode. Sam having green smoothies in the green cooler instead of it being just stocked with beer. The great roadhouse scene that has Dean going into the bar at night and then coming back out in the morning only to happily find that Sam had hooked up with a waitress named Piper in the backseat over night. I love that they had obviously not only had sex in the backseat right in front of the bar, but had fallen asleep naked back there. But we also get, a little later in the episode, a glimpse of Sam flirting with a cashier while he's looking for old pennies and having two scenes involving a flirty, smiling Sam is a precious gift indeed. We get laughing, smiling Sam and Dean, just enjoying each other's company, such a rare treat. The episode also gives us the return of Matt Cohen playing young John Winchester, sort of, which is sweetly ominous, not a common combination. The "Winchester Hotel" scene of the boys spending the night in the car is great, giving us a heart-to-heart talk with some new background details about their lives, and an iconic shot of them laying down, Dean across the front seat and Sam across the back, that begs the obvious question of where are their lower legs and how do they fit in the, admittedly roomie, interior of the car like that?

We even get to see Baby have a little adventure away from the boys, courtesy of Jessie the valet, who picks up a friend and takes the car on a brief joyride before returning her to Dean. Piper and Jessie's presence in the car introduce props that become instrumental in the plot, an element that I love, from Piper's hairpin that allows Dean to escape the cuffs we saw him in during the cold open, to the pennies that Dean finds in Jessie's joyride friend's lost purse. If these other characters hadn't been in the car, Dean likely would have met a gruesome death, and we wouldn't have been given the phenomenal fight sequence in the car or the following Sexiest Scene Ever™️ of Jensen doing a perfect reverse 180 as Dean drives Baby away from where she'd crashed. Finally, a bloody and battered Sam is retrieved, equally beat up as Dean and the car both are, and he declares the car as home.

For having been shot entirely from within the confines of the car, as roomy as she may be, the episode never feels small or claustrophobic. We feel like we've had an adventure, been on the adventure with Sam and Dean, met some new characters that broadened the overall world of the show, while getting to touch base with old friends (Cas' phone calls are wonderfully and hilariously done). And while I do wish that we'd gotten more of these sorts of little, mundane aspects of Sam and Dean's life, this entire episode feels like a goddamn gift that was wrapped with utmost care and exquisite skill. Seriously, the cast and crew of Supernatural were/are insanely talented and Baby, directed by Thomas J. Wright, is just a masterpiece.

[luna-rainbow]

(Source)

So I just read an anti-Peggy meta on a Chinese blog which I can't verify (and I'm not sure whether any English comics readers have summarised these), but basically Peggy is a Frankenstein of all three of Steve, Bucky and Sharon's characteristics and storylines but without truly reflecting their values, which is why her characterisation is a mess.

Her character background is taken mostly from Sharon: "secret agent, kickass, independent, self-assured". Sharon was the original female Cap America.

Stuff her character took from Bucky (I have no way of verifying this but this seems like a lot more than I expected, also this is translated back from Chinese so there's going to be differences to the original words): (Source)

Peggy walking in on Steve/Lorraine -> Bucky walks in after a French spy forced a kiss on Steve, Bucky apologises while Steve goes all flustered and runs off, "You don't believe in me!"

Steve and Peggy's talk before diving into the ocean -> all of Steve's thoughts pre-dive was about Bucky, "Bucky's figure is like a windswept rock, carved into my mind."

Steve thinking about the date with Peggy after waking up -> the first thing Steve says upon waking is Bucky, and he then searches the world for Bucky

Steve staying in SHIELD because Peggy found it -> Steve stayed in SHIELD because one of the founding members looked like Bucky

Steve carrying Peggy's photo around -> after waking, Steve got some of his belongings back, but along with it Bucky's uniform and photo, which he kept with him everywhere. He'd often take out Bucky's photo and caress it and weep.

Steve seeing Peggy in Wanda's illusion -> Steve always sees Bucky in his dreams

Steve's "dance" promise with Peggy -> Steve and Bucky's Grand Canyon promise, and Steve went there by himself to draw Bucky's picture, pretending they came together.

Steve going back to the past to be with Peggy -> Steve went back to the past to find Bucky, but when he did Bucky died, and the Bucky in his own world disappeared too. When the SHIELD director who looked like Bucky contacted Steve, in a moment of confusion, he agreed and returned to the present.

The "no, you move" words was a climatic scene for Steve in the comics, but was taken from Steve and given to Peggy (via Sharon). As we've discussed elsewhere, this never worked because we have not, demonstrably, ever seen Peggy plant herself in the face of overwhelming pressure and refuse to compromise on something.

I really like this next bit, so I'm going to translate it word for word:

You think it's a tragic love, but it was stolen from Cap and Bucky's relationship. That is Captain's "right partner", that's his insurmountable love from WW2, his 65 years of pining, the existence that he can neither let go nor speak about, he's the quiet grief in his dark nights, he's the exhilaration of their reunion, he's the heartbreak in his every almost-found but repeated disappointments, he's his exhausting search. And someone stole everything from the original, except the suffering.

And I think that's my biggest issue with this character, because she's been written as a Mary-Sue of sorts, with a whole bunch of retroactively added privilege -- which, I dunno, maybe made her feel more appealing to some of the audience, but widened the gap between her and Steve. Steve, who has not lived amongst privilege, and whose whole being is around not letting privileged folks take advantage of others -- against her, a highly privileged woman, who used that privilege to gain more privileges, who then used it to take advantage of others. They are so diametrically opposed in their motivations that I just can't see them working out without either of them breaking character.

Apparently in House of M, she and Steve married, but she could not fathom why Steve continued to oppose unfair policies from the government. Steve lamented only Bucky understood him, but Bucky died during a mission, and Steve stepped down from Cap and divorced Peggy. At the end, an aged Steve walks beneath the streetlights, mourning the words Bucky once said to him. This is a much more likely outcome for their relationship if both remained in character, than whatever EG was.

[td-frog]

okay i'm not done talking about this. i want to highlight again the all stars couples from previous seasons and what direction they seem to be heading in (and why i think it's a good narrative choice)

jaiden:

they had a whole arc throughout their season with loads of conflict. it went back and forth a little bit, but in a way that made sense for the characters, and it felt like it resolved really nicely by the end.

because of that, it would be really disappointing if they just brought the conflict back now that they're on a new season. they put in the work on the show and all signs pointed to strong, healthy relationship when they left off (having already had the experience of working through problems).

and so far, that's exactly what they are. the drama of the past season is resolved, they're still super close, and the conflict now is not within their relationship, but who they are outside of it. first with being on different teams, and now with james being out so early.

i really really like that james immediately shut jake down with the accusations of cheating. it was very much an opportunity to reintroduce relationship conflict, but the show said "no, they're happy together."

i also like the choice to have james leave and aiden stay: first, james is a stronger competitor (explicitly why he got to go for the win in s2), second because aiden is less confident about being on his own and we get to see that, and third because of what's going on with tom/jake

i think at this point jaiden seems super solid and it doesn't look like they're planning to change that. which they shouldn't, these guys have had their drama and deserve to be happy.

tomjake

they also had a lot of back and forth in their season, but the key difference is that nothing was really ever fully resolved? there were mini resolutions, where they agreed to communicate better (and then failed immediately) but it didn't have the finality of "we've worked through the misunderstandings and are stronger for it" that jaiden had.

like, their issue has always been being Terrible at communication. tom because of the secretiveness of his spy background, and jake because of his gullibility and tendency to jump to the worst conclusions. so the fact that their plot this season seems to be Bad Communication turned up to 11 is perfectly in line with what we've seen before.

it's also a nice contrast to jaiden- they both have the "on separate teams" problem, but while jaiden have the trust and strength in their relationship to handle it, jake's insecurities cause him to fall back on old patterns with almost no prompting at all (and tom's not entirely innocent here either- i fully believe his friendship with aiden is just friendship and there's nothing wrong with that, but his avoidance of jake is absolutely feeding the problem and he should know that)

based on s1, it really doesn't seem like they'll make the relationship work unless some major conflict forces them to actually deal with their problems (and then they have to Actually deal with them), so i'm expecting it to get worse before it gets better. they both need to grow as people before the relationship can work, and until then they can suffer.

(also: removing miriam from the picture by putting her on the third team is key- she's the voice of reason for jake that he desperately needs, so taking that away rapidly accelerates the Problems)

hunterally

they're kind of an in-between case. we saw a little bit of conflict on the show, but they didn't actually get together until the very end (counting them resolving their friendship problems in the finale) or after (start of the actual relationship). so we haven't actually gotten to see how they work as a couple.

similar to miriam, tess seems like she is a key part of keeping the relationship together (given that the problems seem to have started after she left, and she seems to be the most chill and rational at this point), so distancing her is good for seeing how the relationship plays out.

as far as hunter and ally's conflict, it's interesting how it follows from their characters in s2. hunter seems like more of a jerk, but not in an ooc way- literally the first thing we learn about him is he's not big on socializing, so it's not surprising that he might not put much effort into a relationship. meanwhile ally always seemed a bit more invested in their relationship on the show (partly because she had a crush on him), so it tracks that she could be putting more into the relationship and get frustrated with him when he didn't.

like from what little we've seen so far, the conflict they're having feels very realistic for "we became friends on a reality tv show and started a relationship after"- they don't really know each other that well by the end, and they might not be as compatible as they thought (and regardless, need to work to make the relationship succeed)

also, another note on tess: while i am a little disappointed that it's not the poly throuple i expected, i don't hate it. tess's relationship to the other two was more "the first people to try to help her out of a very dark place" which can be romantic (and especially at first is likely to feel that way) but it doesn't have to be. i would be very disappointed if they weren't still friends, but that's not the case.

i also think there's a possibility that the resolution is their relationship doesn't work without tess. i don't know if this is the direction they'll take (and i don't need it) but i think it'd be super cool if it ends in a poly relationship that isn't romantic on tess's end but is no less important (possibly more important).

gabellie

shoutout to these two. i don't have much to say, mostly because their relationship has never been the source of drama in the same way as the other three.

i do like how they've almost kind of switched roles since s1? at the start of s1 everyone hated gabby, and ellie wasn't super popular but liked well-enough. now ellie's the one everyone hates and gabby's still not the favorite but is doing fine.

i think they're really cute together and i love how they support each other. and it's really nice to have a relationship that's almost fully outside of the drama of the show, like it's formed in response to individual drama (ellie being the only person to stand up for gabby) and it affects the drama (gabby saving ellie even though it could (and did) cost her a chance at immunity later on) but it's not dramatic itself. i hope that lasts.

as for other couples: i have some thoughts on connoriya but they're kind of separate from this. yulgrett is new this season so that's also a different thing. there isn't really anything to say about ashwill given that he was out first and didn't return. and i think that's it for all star couples so far.

[merchantarthurn]

can we see the agott/oru parallels pinboard material? your insight on characters is always so spot-on and entertaining to read! (if you haven't already posted about them ofc)

I have to admit it's so much vibes and headcanons that I can't really point at anything concrete (especially since Olruggio's past is kind of a mystery) BUT... there's something about their dynamic (which is notably abrasive compared to other relationships in the atelier - and it doesn't feel like it's been truly resolved in the same way Qifrey-Riché and Coco-Agathe has been) that I've got some nebulously-connected dots on so I'll try and lay that out.

So... we know a tiny bit about Olruggio's life outside of/before the atelier - mostly that he's from a snowy town in the north and that he's got a pretty long-standing reputation as a prodigy (presumably from even back in the north given Utowin specifically needles him about it) and a witch of the people (known by sight even by the region's monarchs?? fucking hell Oru). He is... literally actually famous. Which is absolutely wild to think about but there we go.

Agathe, conversely, is more... infamous. Bless her she's been through it - getting kicked out of her family for not being talented enough, rumours that it was due to plagiarism flying around (which it wasn't, I believe her on that one). She's known for her name rather than her magic - and she's desperately trying to change that.

But, and here's where the projection/headcanons come in, I always got caught on Olruggio's way of handling Agathe and her desire to be praised by others... It's particularly harsh at the river and she responds with stubborn anger, and he dismisses her in a similar way before her revelations re: her magic at the Silver Night Festival. He picks up that her magic is self-centred and accuses her of trying to show off rather than thinking of others - which in both contexts makes sense, since they're meant to be helping people immediately and long-term with their magic there - but... he never seems to reflect on her background in the same way that Qifrey seems to and speaks to her with the vibe of "you should be smart enough to internalise this without me repeating myself", rather than with empathy for her motivation.

(As an aside, his body language in this scene is so dismissive it makes me laugh in a sort of 'bro she is thirteen at least pretend like you're not fed up with her' way.)

Which strikes me as rather odd for Olruggio. Yes, Agathe does act like she's just being a stubborn little prodigy-brat - but we know, and so should both her professors, that she's trying to reach someone with that show-off attitude. Qifrey knows!! It doesn't excuse the hurtful ways she externalise it, but it's still important to consider. Given that she's essentially trying to prove her family wrong, a family that kicked her out as an even younger child than she is now, it seems honestly cruel of Olruggio with how snappy he gets - like he has almost no patience for this flaw of hers (which is also hurting her). We've seen him click with the other girls at various times, or its implied by how at ease they are around him, and it's not like he's unable to be kind to Agathe either - it's this particular thing that's a sticking point for him.

And so...... I propose based entirely off headcanon that he sees his past self's behaviour in that "selfish", show-off magic. Maybe it's even what lead to Whatever That Dream Was About - being too busy showing off for attention, praise, Prodigy Points, could he have been delayed in getting to people who sorely needed his magic and the worst happened? To me it seems implied that whatever occurred there is something he very deeply blames himself for and the only explanation text we get from it is basically linked to his current work ethic and saviour-complex... so it likely marked a turning point in his character, rather than simply a deepening of an existing sense of purpose. Utowin's jab at his moniker makes me believe that even more - like Olruggio might genuinely have seen "less talented" witches as beneath him at some point.

Then from that, wouldn't it make sense for an external behaviour he associates with people dying (and if I had to guess, also some embarrassment for how he used to be) to illicit such a snappy, harsh response from him? One that's not considerate for Agathe's context because the context doesn't matter really, because that's not gonna affect the outcome of that behaviour.

But... yeah that's the main thing!! It's interesting that we're also seeing Arkco and Orufrey parallels now too - with Agathe firmly in Olruggio's spot in the dynamic (and not just because of the dark hair thing lol). This is very much based on extrapolation from the little we have about him though soooo pinch of salt!! I find their dynamic super interesting though since there's this obvious friction that marks a lot of their one-on-one interactions, but she still seeks praise... gee I wonder if Agathe has a complex that leads her to seek praise from people who are unduly harsh with her-- and it's a kind of ugly side to Olruggio's character we don't see much so it's like... kinda wild, aNYway sorry for the essay

EDIT: Okay since Sean is a genius who remembers things, he pointed out Olruggio is actually the one who takes Agathe to the river - which really delights Agathe!

But then... he says this in response to Qifrey’s worry

Hm... now we know he’s not talking about drawing in front of Unknowings because 1) he doesn’t let her do that and 2) she’s meant to pass the second test before she does that regardless. So... it’s possible he’s literally talking about a witch using their magic for the sake of others, and proposing a practical lesson. Qifrey is pretty aware that she’s rushing ahead and isn’t lingering on the satisfaction of Olruggio bringing her along which is why he’s bothered. Olruggio seems to be testing her here - and notably without Qifrey around, who she’s already rebuffed the teaching of in this instance by literally slapping his hand away. 

It’s not until she’s incredulous about what he asks her to do that he gets harsh with her - here:

He’s doubling down Qifrey’s lesson but without Qifrey’s kindness, so they both clearly see the same flaw in her. But Olruggio has taken her to a scene where people are injured and in danger of drowning and she’s STILL thinking of getting to show of, and he’s angry. That she didn’t get the picture when it’s right in front of her. Man. She’s just like him forreal.

[p5x-theories]

With what's been revealed so far of the new playable characters, has there been any theories on what type of rebels they are? (I actually made my own little list of them so far tbf)

I haven't seen much in the way of theories for that yet, but I can take a stab at it. Would love to see your list as well, if you're comfortable with sending it in!

Not sure if you're including Soy and Leo in the "new playable characters", since they're newly playable in the second beta but we've known about them for a bit, but Soy's almost undoubtedly a cowboy theme, and Leo's likely a superhero given the look, Persona, and the few voice lines datamined from the first beta. That probably goes without saying, but just to cover everything!

As for the new new playable characters (haha)...

Since we have this one's full All Out Attack finisher, we have the best idea of what's going on with her right now. She seems to have a traditional Chinese vibe going on (haven't seen any translations around of what the text is yet, though), and the creature in the background sort of resembles a Chinese guardian lion/lion dog, though at least as far as I can find on Wikipedia, that horn on its forehead (and her mask) are maybe more something attributed to the Japanese equivalent, the Komainu? Not sure I can narrow the theme down more than that right now.

As for Tomoko:

Her hat looks like a bycocket, which given that style's association with Robin Hood and by extension medieval archers in general nowadays, makes me think she might have an overall medieval archer theme going on? What looks like a flowy shirt that she's wearing could support this, though admittedly my first thought with that sort of attire is pirates, so it's possible (if the hat is just cut off weird in this image) that she's actually more of a swashbuckler or even leaning towards a medieval fencer? But if the hat's a bycocket, I'd be surprised if she's not an archer, haha.

And last but not least, this guy:

With that pose, most of the outfit's blocked, and I'm honestly not really sure what to make of it. There's something around their shoulders, which could be armor (especially the higher up silver bit behind their hand), but also could be something like a short shawl, or even just part of a jacket. There appears to be something red on their head that's cut off, which I'm inclined to guess is a hood given the shape and shadow? But as Closer already has a hood, another hooded teammate might be a little redundant, so I'm not entirely sure.

[lutethebodies]

LTB Tav Tuesdays: Qiranna Jasti, the Raven's Right Hand

My sixth Tav is another work in progress, literally and figuratively, because she's only ever existed in homebrew 5e. Qiranna's first incarnation was one of my DM-run NPCs, a young Seldarine-like twilight cleric who took my players on a hallucinogenic ceremonial trip into their individual mental Feywilds. She was also on tap as a backup character in my brother's second homebrew campaign, in case my first-choice character died—which never happened, so Qiranna never saw play.

Twilight clerics are powerful, but her warlock build felt more compelling. At the time (2021) I was interested in the non-PHB backgrounds, so in my brother's campaign Qiranna is an Archaeologist—a young and ambitious drow who accidentally dug up artifacts containing the spirit of a powerful shadow sorceress. Since I'd once played a Ravenwitch-like sorceress in that same campaign (albeit in a one-shot set 10,000 years in the past), this set up a cool situation where my character's warlock patron was the ghost of another older character!

Qiranna also comes from a time in my 5e history where I'd churned out umpteen dozen Charisma-based characters, and hers was the only Warlock build I liked. I don't usually play mages, so that's why I went with Hexblade—because I thought it might not be as squishy. Her motivation is for the kind of power granted by knowledge, but she's more seeker than scholar, so the cheat-code method of "magic via otherworldly patron" feels correct—a particular flavor of impatience fueled by ambition.

That also fit well with the archaeologist background, because one of my inspirations for her was Vash, the roguish artifact hunter (and Picard's frenemy-with-benefits) from Star Trek Next Generation. However, that archetype got a bit too close to another of my previous beloved characters, so I shelved it. Qiranna was set up to be a fun and interesting character, but I never actually got to play her much in tabletop, and I never really cracked the nature of how Warlocks and their pact magic worked—at least until BG3.

In BG3 Qiranna is a noble archfey-warlock with Pact of the Blade, which is about as close as I can get thematically to a shadow-sorceress-possessed hexblade. She's also notable as my first Tav whose appearance changes as the game progresses. At first that was just superficial stuff like hairstyle and subtle face ink, but now that I know how the game's gear works, it'll also work for RP. She could lean into the surface-mage role, getting further and further away from her Underdark roots.

Qiranna is currently camped in Rivington at the start of Act 3—the stereotypical unfinished BG3 playthrough. I'll probably go back to an old save to re-start her, and not just because I know more about the game than I did when first playing her. Qiranna's first run fell into the easy cliché of "let's romance Minthara because drow lesbians I guess", which now strikes me as needlessly tropey and utterly boring. So Qiranna may go a romance route I haven't explored yet, like Gale or Wyll, though neither seem to fit her character.

I might even wait to replay her until I know her better, because she feels like a mishmash of several of my other characters (with a bit of Minthara veneer), and that's not fair to her or them or anyone. But I will replay her at some point, because I want to master all the Charisma-based classes and I remain fascinated by the new flavors of drow we've been given by 5e and BG3. Also my 5e portrait of her (seen in this montage) looks like Vanessa Kirby as a drow and honestly, who wouldn't find that person compelling?