#the friendship is gold

[miss0atae]

We Are is a series featuring friendship as well as romance.

At this point of the story, we all notice that "We Are" isn't only a romance story, but it is also giving a large part of his viewing experience to appreciate the beauty of friendship. Like any one else, I really love a good romance. I believe it's a positive experience to watch romance. It brings me happiness and a good escaping. You can live or re-live the feelings of love. It also can be a learning experience.

However, romantic relationship is just one part of what is love. Maybe it's because in my first language there isn't a difference between love and like, but I always believe friendship is just another form of love. It's as important as romantic love (if you're into being romantic and even more if you're not, I guess). Usually, when you watch a romance, the series or the movie don't feel the need to give too many screen time to the friendship. The main characters may have friends who support them, but they are just here to comments or be here for a scene or two.

In "We Are", I really appreciate how we spend a lot of time with the group of friends. We see them sharing activities, helping and supporting each other. I feel like we get as many scenes with them being with friends as we get about each couple (except my favorites Chain and Pun, but that's another story). In the latest episode, episode 6, we got several scenes to display how beautiful is the friendship between all these characters.

Q is the friend you can turn to, when you want to talk about your feelings and how to deal with them. He didn't judge Peem and gave him some advice.

Peem is always complimenting his friend for his work. He is not envious or jealous. He wants his friend to do well.

And it's quite the same for Q, of course. They may tease each other, but deep down, they just want the best for one another.

Tan, Pun and Chain offered flower bouquets to Q to congratulate him and I found that really endearing. It's just to make him happy.

Sometimes Q and Peem are bickering, but it shows how close they are and the fact it doesn't bother the other one is a good sign. They allow this to happen. No one is breaking the boundaries.

This group of friends spend a lot of time celebrating. You know, spending together is helping tight the bond of friendship between them.

I also like how, when they learned about the secret crush of Toey, they all decided they will help me, know if he has a chance to get with Q.

In short, I really like the friendship display in this series. I hope we'll continue to see them enjoying this time with their friends as well as experiencing romance with their future significant other.

[carouselunique]

Here’s Ginger Gold (aka Apple Cobbler) finished and ready to show off! Part of my Swap Six where I’ve turned Background Ponies into the Mane Six!

[ninjautizm]

I don't remember this but HOLY FUCKING SHIIIIIITT LLOYD WAS CONFIRMED TO BE AT LEAST 9 YEARS OLD HERE AND HE WAS ABLE TO DO THAT??? JESUS FUCK

[qalrey]

my take on rarity! the gems represent bursts of motivation/inspiration :3

[lichenbug]

..can you tell Cadance is my favorite princess??

[demigod-shenanigans]

Jason thinks love needs to be earned. The only love in tiny Jason’s world that ever came without strings was Thalia’s, but he was so young when they got separated that he barely remembers her. His mom abandoned him but surely she had her reasons. Maybe he just wasn’t a good enough son.

So he tries to be a good strong wolf and then a good little soldier, for Lupa’s approval and Camp Jupiter’s approval and because maybe if he earns enough points on the achievement scoreboard his dad will come see him. Maybe his dad will love him. If he hasn’t yet, it’s just because Jason hasn’t tried hard enough.

And his friendship with Reyna feeds into this mindset. It’s not anything Reyna says or does. But Reyna is guarded—understandably so, considering she’s extremely traumatized and lived the first ten years of her life knowing love mostly as a thing that could blow up in your face at any given moment. Of course she’s slow to trust and even slower to love.

It takes time for her to let herself love Jason.

And she doesn’t love him because of some achievement scoreboard, or because he’s a good soldier, but Jason doesn’t know that. Jason just sees that Reyna is his friend now, so apparently he’s gotten a good grade in being a friend through his achievements. His dad may not love him yet, but Reyna loves him, so clearly it’s possible to earn love and the world works exactly how he always assumed it did.

And then he meets Leo and Piper. Leo and Piper who love each other without terms and conditions. Who get in trouble together and make fun of each other and would die for each other in a heartbeat. There were no grand gestures or heroic achievements that caused that love to happen. It just did. They just looked at each other and knew they were meant to be friends.

And they love Jason, too. Even after they realize their memories of him aren’t real, they stick with him. Even when he keeps messing up, which in his world should get friendship points docked and make their love go away, they keep loving him anyway.

Jason sees Leo make his little pipe cleaner helicopter and immediately asks if they’re actually friends, because he may not even remember who he is, but surely he hasn’t done enough to earn the friendship of someone that cool. In MoA he talks to Piper about how he keeps being knocked out and having to be saved and how that makes him a terrible hero. He tells her he doesn’t deserve her when she tries to reassure him.

But Leo and Piper keep loving him anyway. They met the version of Jason that’s a mess before they ever met the Jason that’s capable and heroic and they still love him. Leo loves Jason so much he dies to keep him safe.

Leo loves the Jason that laughs at his stupid jokes and plays video games with him and gets stupid competitive about it. He loves the Jason that’s a nerd about Ancient Rome and the Jason who is kind and the Jason who’s unsure what the future holds and what he wants it to look like. He loves the Jason who’s a bit childish and cannot cook to save his life and has a terrible taste in movies.

When Piper is trying to comfort Jason when he almost dies, she doesn’t talk about his heroics. She talks about Jason when he was happy, with a goofy grin on his face and marshmallows stuck in his hair.

All his life Jason thought there was a certain version of himself he had to be in order to earn love. A mold he had to somehow fit himself into, no matter how uncomfortably it fit. And here Leo and Piper are, loving him even when he’s not exactly the fearless hero leader everyone’s expected him to be all his life. Even when he doesn’t know who he wants to be, or what he wants to do with his life. Even when he tells them that maybe he hates being a leader.

And Jason wonders if that’s what love is supposed to be. If he’s been doing it wrong his entire life. If maybe Reyna could have loved that version of him, too, if he’d let her see it.

But he’s so afraid of the answer to that question—so afraid that the girl he considers his platonic soulmate won’t like who he is now—that he never lets himself find out.

[blighted-lights]

@novafire-is-thinking gave me the idea of glit hanging out on pharma's engine nozzle and i decided to draw it <3

pharma is SO hard to draw for no reason, forgive me. this is pre-war so i wanted to make pharma look a bit softer but i think it backfired 😔. anyways will b drawing much more of these two soon, i think of them so much.

[me-beef]

horses can be sisters too??

[tenaciousgeckos]

The other crows: Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way

Kaz: No, I want my fucking gold

[whumpypepsigal]

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024): “I’m no expert. But you’ve got a big old hole in your shoulder, Haysey.”

[rfswitchart]

Amity Blight and Her Broken Strings

So, on Twitter, I saw someone say something about Amity and Hunter's relationship (obviously platonic. People who ship them romantically are gross.)

Naturally, I agree with this, as you've seen in my fics Kindness and Forgiveness as well as Road Trip. I feel like they share a best friend/basically sibling sentiment towards each other, and that Amity wouldn't bare ill will towards Hunter having been through the same things he has... HOWEVER, this also brought me to another thought, and it begs a question... Why was Amity, out of all of Hexsquad, able to move when she was turned into a puppet?

Simply really, she was already someone's puppet before and she broke free of their control...

Much like Hunter was because of Belos, Amity was being used, lied to, manipulated and controlled by Odalia. And think about how awful Odalia was to her. Forcing her to break her friendship with Willow, threatening to expel her friends from Hexside, coming between her and her girlfriend. Using her to test weapons and humiliating her publicly. And all so Odalia could have a 'perfect little girl' who was just like her. Amity never understood that things could be different, that she could choose her own destiny. In the care of her mother, she was little more than a puppet...

And of course, we know that Amity's friends helped her realize that. Especially one who kinda became a little more than a friend...

And of course, her understanding and realizing that her dream and goal being that she "wanted to choose her path herself" was what awakened Ghost and gave her a staff. Being able to control your own life, as a victim of child abuse, is so important, especially when you've gone through as much as Amity and especially Hunter. And that's why I think she was able to move on her own, because she is no one's puppet, not anymore. Amity Blight broke free of her chains and she is never, EVER, going to be shackled and puppeted again...

[mustbebunnys]

Well, you look amazing! And you should want the whole city to see it. STATION 19 | s03e13, Dream a Little Dream of Me

[carouselunique]

What does applejack look like as a city pony? Did she grow to like the big city or does she still feel like she doesn't quite belong?

Here she is! City cousin AJ!

Oh, in Swap Six AJ thrives in the city.

See I always thought it was kind of a copout for her to not like the city and that be what guided her home - it is easy to follow your heart if your dream wasn’t for you at all. I think theres more emotional stakes in her decision if she actually loved her life, if she actually fit in and her country charm made her quite the little charmer, if she took to the hustle and bustle of Manehattan and it was everything she wanted. And she still felt herself guided home. Because a home can be any place as long as your family is there. And even if she one day dreams to come back she can still right now want to go back home.

And then one day, you realize that yeah, home IS the ponies you love. And sometimes you can leave a place you love, and still have that place to come back to but you actually feel ready to leave and go out on your own for a while. So that’s Swap Six AJ for you! Home will always be there if you need it, you can go anywhere and you’ll have a place to eat a family dinner.

So AJ is city cousin AJ, and luckily Sweet Apple Acres is in the capable hooves of Ginger Gold, Granny Smith and Big Macintosh, who always welcome her home happily when she visits.

[elizaisdunn]

wotcher!

[ink-stains-and-constellations]

Sooooooo I couldn't resist drawing Kore with his braid from the latest episode of Fool's Gold Sands.

Kore belongs to Avery / dynabeez (I think that's how you spell it?). Rooster belongs to @dingodoodles.