#the mage meta

[saltyfinalboss]

i wanted to draw some of my less-appreciated blorbos, emphasis on some because there are so many! it was really fun to doodle them and i will likely do it again!

[icedragonlizard]

Kirby characters ranked by how much they need therapy

[possamble]

a few intensely angry/tired marcilles just because

[fumifooms]

"Marchil? I guess I can see it on Chilchuck’s end, but what about Marcille’s? What makes you think she could develop feelings for him?" I’m glad you asked!

The first thing to note is that she does think highly of him

In the page on the right, literally defending his virtues and literally comparing him to Dalclan. And oh…

She does love a brooding mysterious guy who closes himself to love. But surely, Chilchuck isn’t her type at all, right? He’s not princely or knightly at all. In apperances certainly not, both looks wise and demeanor wise, but then that’s why she seeks to know him on a deeper level, to not only look shallowly.

And hmm. Chilchuck really is quite selfless isn’t he? Always looking out for others, and saving specifically her often, always making sure himself and, staying in or even running towards danger for her sometimes. Modesty is often considered heroic…

And can we talk about that drowning one… You can definitely frame the special attention as him knowing she tends to hesitate or be clumsy, and then his insistance on pulling her out of danger that she’s the healer aka the most important to keep alive, but. From the one who says that he just keeps his ass out of fights and won’t help this is a lot of risk to take, and he does die trying to pull her to safety in the dungeon rabbits chapter. And the drowning bit??? That’s when the dungeon collapses. The only reason they DON’T die of drowning here is that the water then gives way to outside. There was NO hope of pulling her to safety here and resurrections would likely not work either, he truly preferred to die with her than try to survive himself.

Sit your ass back DOWN you are in no state, self-sacrifical hero much damn

And Marcille definitely noticed this imo, after all she loves learning all she can about him, remembering things like how he hates waiting on people too. She pays attention to him and what he does and what he says. This to say that it’s notable, whatever reason for it you may think (though we know by this point at least she was already aware he was an adult though it wasn’t internalized), out of everyone it’s Chilchuck’s bed that she wants to sleep in during the Golden Kingdom stay. He’s safe and comforting to her: dependable, the defining trait in her view of him as is shown by the relationship chart in the Adventurer’s Bible.

^ Lending handkerchiefs is a romance trope btw and handkerchiefs have irl history of being used for courting. Especially in old English literature and plays like Shakespeare’s Othello, and personally I do see a lot of Shakespeare in Dalclan (nobility political drama with some romance). There’s how his cowl is a dearly beloved souvenir from his family too, there’s a lot of aesthetic tropes you can apply to him.

All this to say you can 100% romanticize Chilchuck into a princely noble guy if you try and that’s exactly what Marcille does with the wife roleplay. She doesn’t need much in the first place, she latches onto crumbs and makes aesthetic narratives out of details, give her an inch she’ll take a mile.

But what’s interesting about the shift throughout the arc of her and his relationship is that she starts out idealizing him into a little angel of a kid (shapeshifter), and she ends it idealizing him as a virtuous husband and family man instead.

And what’s doubly interesting is that in the former, she’s actively warping who he is personality and demeanor wise to fit the aesthetic, he doesn’t have that bitter pride of not asking for help and the edges have been smoothened. But what she does during the wife roleplay is something else, she acknowledges the flaws and just… Accepts them, rolls with them. She’s aware of his flaws and implements them into the narrative, but the reason why his wife left doesn’t capitalize on them even, rather Chil is chilblivious and his wife loves him very much still, she’s just testing him after having had a night of feeling out of place at his side.

And this is what separates the idealization vs romanticization, she’s not twisting him into someone else she’s just uplifting what he is and focusing on the good sides.

Marcille: "he has a shitty personality sometimes but if he was my husband I’d still cherish him" "If I were your wife I’d be overjoyed to go out with you and would get myself prettied up while you complain about me taking a long time, your friends would tell me that I’m nice and that’d make me happy, but I’d also be sad because you wouldn’t tell me that you love me enough"

He’s angry and his wife left him, he’s *flawed*, but he’s still worth hyping up, still worth having his own romance story, still has a shot of winning back his beloved. She sees him for what he is, human and real and not a carefully scripted character that fits an aesthetic, and she thinks it’s still worthy of love and admiration and fighting for

And what’s funny too is that you might expect her to cool down on him once she learns more about him but actually she only gets increasingly into his business. You tell her your age and next thing you know you promise to introduce her to your family. Give her an inch she takes a mile. And too the thing is, Senshi is equally mysterious but she doesn’t pester him like at all, asks him ONCE about his succubus and he doesn’t even answer and that’s like… It. With Chilchuck it starts off innocently enough with her wanting to know his age, hometown, the stuff she mentions having asked pre-canon. But it just keeps and keeps going and escalating. Think she’ll be satisfied now knowing you have a wife and kids, maybe she’s disillusioned now? Wrong! She wants to know their names and ages and occupations and hey how did you propose to your wife? Do you think she’ll stop after meeting them? What’s next? What will she want to know next????

She’s… Like it’s not a reach that Marcille is all over him. Like it doesn’t mean it’s romantic but she just is. She is not normal about him idk. Can you not ask him about what tongue technique he used when first kissing his wife, give the man breathing room

Marcille could literally go "if I was Chilchuck’s wife" having deeply pondered and thought out the hypothetical and people would still ask where anyone sees any romantic potential between them. Oh wait

There’s a platonic explanation for everything (almost?) in Dungeon Meshi don’t say I’m saying otherwise, but it’s definitely not like there’s nothing here to read into lol

Going off a bit more under read bc it’s my fave topic

Marcille has a whole theme with the charming prince trope with her idealization and storybook motif and Chil is kinda the "Well someone perfect like that isn’t very realistic and romance is usually more complex and that’s ok and good and flawed people can still be ✨virtuous✨" catalyst

Do you see do you see she starts canon thinking the most romantic thing is a prince charming but her arc in the end has her romanticizing an average, flawed, real and realistic family man, who’s on the poorer side and is on the verge of divorce. And that’s what he needed, too, seeing the positive of himself and the situation instead of focusing on the negative is explicitly what inspires him to hope that he might be able to reconcile with his wife, gives him the courage and self-esteem to shoot his shot.

He IS a prince figure instead that now it’s not about idealizing the grand and overt it’s about romanticizing the small things in real life!! About finding joy and beauty in things that seem normal or mundane and uplifting them to make the world feel kinder!!!!

He’s the devoted virtuous man that she wantsss not the storybook prince that’s unrealistic and could crumble like a script at any time. He’s the perfect example of a flawed realistic but virtuous & devoted & loving man. Far from a prince charming, but not fully detached from it either. Something worth fighting for despite the flawed cracks. Like literally, flawed romance being worth fighting for is literally the finale of Chilchuck and Marcille’s arc on the matter, where their separate arcs and issues intersect at the most crucial moment.

Marcille is important to Chil’s arc not only because of her optimism, but also because of her interest and knowledge in romance & matters of the heart, and that’s what he needs to both open his heart up to hope and to try to reconcile with his wife, like idk sounds gay

Their arc together is literally learning to 1) see each other for how they are and not undermining their qualities capacities etc etc while still not leaving flaws unchecked either and 2) opening up to people. Marcille LITERALLY makes Chil open his heart up to hope like idk man. What do you want from me. He’s literally the guy helping her through deconstructing novels and fantasy and rose tinted glasses and like. Deconstructing the prince charming figure into something more real but still romantically beautiful like KUI KUI STOOOOP STOP I’M ALREADY HOOKED I’M ALREADY-

 Ok fine that’s me reading into the tropes too much forgive me for being storybook brained but like. Speaking his heart out to a lone woman on a balcony, Romeo and Juliette shit, asking if she, too, doesn’t want to meet his family, madly blushing. And like she’s learned with Chilchuck it’s all in the little things, all the implications he cannot speak aloud. She does reciprocate, does blush madly back, and the first thing she does is shower him in flowers and jewelry and what in her heart is coded as romantic gifts

A lady, stashed away in a high tower by her lonesome, waiting for someone to call out to her from below… Romeo courting type shit with an offer, a heartfelt spiel, implicit confession from underneath her balcony. Offering him flowers because he succeeded in calling out to her heart…….. And they have to climb to her too…. Crazy

Doesn’t it sound like a proposal. One that’s both so storybook-like and not, contrastedly real and grounded, all about the implications rather than in your face grand gestures, "Don’t you want to meet my family?". They literally have an arc about the topic of romance and this is the climax/pinnacle of it like god?? This is @ the woman who said "Chilchuck is a shy/bashful man so I know he wouldn’t tell me he loves me, but…" btw

To quote a friend, truly the shiny secret unlockable dating sim capture target : THE DUNGEON LORD BIT WAS SO FUNNY BECAUSE HE KNEW SHE'D TAKE IT HOOK LINE AND SINKER HES THE ONE WHO GOT HER TO TURN AROUND COMPLETELY SHES LIKE. WIDE EYED FLAG RAISED???? FLAG RAISED WITH CHILCHUCK 👀👀👀‼️👀👀‼️👀

And the way that this is the culmination of their arc together… Like people are not ready for the ‘Chil calling out to dunlord Marcille on the balcony has Romeo and Juliette romance novels imagery’ take. Or the ‘their arc is about growing to see beauty even in the non-idealized, in the flawed and in the real’ take which makes it so so perfect if she were to lower her ideal from a charming elven prince to a virtuous halfling man (which she does end up romanticizing)

So there, you got to witness in real time what happens when I think about marchil for longer than 2 minutes, there are so many layers it’s a deranged rabbithole. I saw the necronomicon of subtext and it’s driving me to madness with forbidden knowledge that no one else sees

……. Like what if I told you she implicitly picked Chilchuck over a "unrealistic prince charming who’s actually disingenuous" much earlier in the story already. If she was given the choice to think through going with a guy that seems perfect and chivalrous like her succubus she’d pick Chilchuck over the other actually. If I sound insane rn tune in for my full analysis on them coming this month hopefully thank youu. Interwoven arcs of fantasy vs reality and idealization vs pessimism I love youuu

So now you know the general thesis of my planned analysis about the importance of the prince charming figure in Marcille and Chilchuck’s arc, where she romanticizes things to a sometimes worrying degree or idealize people into something easy and digestible and poetic (like Chil being a kid, and then him being a virtuous ✨✨✨husband), and how she needs to value aesthetics less and actual acts and facts more, be more grounded (like seeing people for what they are flaws and all, and accepting that people need money and not pulling through on principles of honor or unity shouldn’t get Namari shamed) and a part of that is accepting that Chilchuck is BOTH flawed and virtuous, a loving husband that still has shitty moods and fumbled his marriage so bad etc etc. So it’s like, her image of perfect prince charming that will whisk you away on an ethereal romance -> realistic flawed middle aged dad with personality issues and a failing marriage but he still is worthy of love and having his cute grand romance story and his happy ending. Ik I keep repeating the same point through this but I need it to be burned into everyone’s brains it has its grip on me I can’t do this. They are so special……

[probablybadrpgideas]

Gain EXP if you defeat a powerful enemy, demonstrate your character's personality, or explain the lore of Mage the Ascension in a way that makes sense.

[wesslesprout]

Wynne being named after Langwynne in Bannorn and Anders from the Anderfells has me emotional in a certain sort of way because these mages are taken away so young, given a name of a place they can never remember, a home they never had and its almost cruel mocking that their identity is taken from them and then given back as their most identifiable feature.

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

[wet-bed]

white and blacke

mmmmnmnmnnnmnnmmnmnnn colour lines in the dark

[knife-eared-jan]

Lowkey losing it, bc how does that differ from what southern Templars do again? Oh yeah, it doesn't.

It's nothing new (at least in supporting DA media) that phylacteries are a form of blood magic, but it really drives home the hypocrisy to see the Venatori - you know, the worst case scenario mages that the Templars cite as the reason why mages can't be treated like people - use the exact same thing, where it's clearly addressed as a form of torture.

[dumblefork]

I feel like we all underestimate just how important a role Callum's interest in the ocean arcanum played in their fight against Finnegrin.

Because we all know that Finnegrin is a calm, evil psycho. He thinks all his plans out. In that context, Finnegrin scares me so much more than Aaravos.

So it was not an accident that Callum had that magical grub near him after that fight on Sea-legs' deck. It was because Finnegrin wanted that grub to be near him.

Finnegrin had been egging Callum on to do dark magic ever since he learned that Callum had done it once. He saw that if he could just make Callum do dark magic once more, his resolve would break.

So first he tempted him to do dark magic by offering him that choice of choosing which one of his friend's hand Finnegrin will cut of. He gave Callum the second option of breaking free of his chains and escaping, using dark magic. Rayla did not let that lane continue, as we all know. But because of Rayla's move, and Callum's reaction, Finnegrin figured out exactly who Callum cares about the most.

Which is why after that incident, Finnegrin told Callum that he was going to feed his elf girl to a leviathan. And maybe he was going to.

But he knew that this particular threat will force Callum to do dark magic. And Callum did.

And Finnegrin's plan was successful. All then Callum had to was get out of his prison and show up to save Rayla.

Which Callum did.

Then all Finnegrin had to do was use his ocean spell to freeze up the blood in Callum's veins and subdue him. Which Finnegrin did. That would have stopped Callum and showed him just how powerless he was.

But Finnegrin had no idea that Callum was trying to unlock the ocean arcanum.

Literally the only reason Finnegrin failed to achieve what he wanted was simply because of Callum's interest in the ocean arcanum.

Finnegrin could have succeeded in his plans, if Callum chose to study any other arcanum.

[raayllum]

I can't believe you used dark magic again. So why? Why would you do it again? / Enough. I told you that staff must never be used again.

[mollysunder]

For now, it's about 50/50 for whether or not these mysterious people that were included in the new trailer are members of the Gloriously Evolved. For fun, I'm going to break down why these people might be entirely unrelated to Viktor.

First, their bodies are clearly inlaid with gold, which does not replace their flesh. In the brief scene we get of these people the gold works as a conduit between their melodies and the magic around them. Meanwhile hexcore has entirely transformed Viktor's hand and leg into metal.

We know that Viktor's entire hand and leg have turned completely into metal because not only do his limbs make metal clinking noises and conduct electricity, but the animators on Bridging the Rift confirm it.

I've also seen some mention that the markings on the faces of these unknown characters represent Viktor's touch when he "healed" them. Upon closer inspection each character does have a five markings on their face, but they're detailed runes rather than Viktor's hand print, implying this may be related to a more intricate ritual rather than Viktor simply laying his hand on them and transforming them with the hexcore.

Really, these people have magic more similar to Mel Medarda. Mel is the one who appears to wear magical gold embedded in her skin to serve as protection magic. What Mel is doing with magic is likely far more simple compared to these people, but it's in the same vein. And that may be the entire point.

Viktor and his cult are the outliers. Whatever Viktor has done in season 1, and what he will continue to do in season 2 is a divergence (possibly perversion) of how magic should work/be treated in the rest of Runeterra, which makes sense! Viktor literally said he doesn't know what he's doing, he just keeps going.

What's likely happening in this scene is that some sect of mages, maybe they're acolytes of the mage that saved Jayce have become aware of the magical shenanigans in PnZ... and it's bad.

Then again, I haven't seen the leaks. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is all worth pointing out. (This is not a solicitation to tell what happens in the leaks).

[cringefail-clown]

so ive been writing out a more indepth analysis of TB!Hal for an ask and its,,, long, but i wanna share this one tidbit about the mage class ive got cooked up on its own:

I’ve got an ask once where someone concluded that Mages are the pathfinders of Homestuck classes, and I really like the implication of it. In the same ask, they summarized that Seers, as the passive counterpart, understand their aspect and steer others with that understanding, while more active Mages experience their aspect and steer others with that experience. (Slight tangent but fr if you’re the person who send this ask (sadly it was from anon) i want you to know that it’s been such a based take i think about it daily, and also i’m kissing you on the lips rn.)

When i was doing research about the classpects, people often concluded that Mages must suffer from their aspect and gain knowledge through that suffering. While both Mages we were introduced to in the original comic, ie. Sollux and Meulin, could steer people into believing that to be the case, i want to propose a different explanation: Mages job is to experience their aspect, and through experiencing it they gain a vast understanding of it. A big part of learning about a new subject is the act of failing at it.

Let’s make an example: if you pick up a pencil and decide to learn how to draw, you won’t produce the next Michelangelo masterpiece on your first try. Or your ten, or one hundredth. But, if you fail and identify why you failed – your proportions were wrong, your shading didn’t match the lighting scenario – and start to consciously avoid making those mistakes again, you’ll start to see the improvement. But the process is slow, and the results often don’t meet our expectations, which is what makes people give up and decide that drawing is just not their thing. Or sometimes people get stuck, frustrated with the lack of improvement, because they haven’t identified what mistakes they’re making and simply keep on making them again and again, instead of steering away from them, which also drives them into quitting.

The art of learning about any subject is a steady stream of constant failures, identifying what went wrong, remembering to avoid it, and at last realizing that you’ve improved and succeeded, and this is what the Mage experience is about. We keep on seeing miserable Mages because they either get overwhelmed and give up on learning about their aspect, instead avoiding experiencing it at all costs, or they gain the knowledge of why they failed and try to guide others with it, but they themselves are unable to apply that same knowledge to their own life, instead falling into the same fucking potholes again and again.

[icedragonlizard]

Headcanon: Kirby hugs everyone

Kirby is a very huggy boi. He loves giving hugs.

Pretty much anyone that is Kirby's friend is going to get hugs from him.

Hugs is one of Kirby's ways to try to provide comfort for someone. He's not good with words of encouragement as he's kind of nonverbal a lot of the time anyways. He'll give you a hug to try to make you feel better, and he also does it just to make you appreciated and cared about, since he wants that for pretty much everyone more or less.

Generally, this works out very well. Even people such as Meta Knight, Magolor, and Daroach that generally aren't huggers on their own are glad to accept hugs from Kirby. It's the least they can do after how lovable and endearing he is, and after everything he's done as a hero.

Every dream friend has received hugs from Kirby. Even Dark Meta Knight, who is generally the most reluctant out of them to accept a hug, has relented to Kirby hugs. Nobody can deny Kirby his hugs.

A lot of Kirby's friends love to return the favor and give him hugs! The most prominent examples of this are King Dedede, Adeleine, Ribbon and the animal friends. Out of the animal friends, Rick, Nago and ChuChu are the most happy to have hugs with Kirby any time. Nago in particular is just a straight up cuddlebug, he's a big hugger too!

ChuChu, Kine and Gooey may not have great skin texture for hugs, but does Kirby care? No. He gives them hugs anyways! Even though Kine and Gooey aren't able to hug back, it's not like they care, they enjoy getting hug by Kirby regardless! They appreciate him so much.

Marx rarely gets hugs in his life. Generally, he doesn't really care for hugs. That being said, Kirby has given him hugs... and he appreciates it! There's a part of Marx that does think it's rather amusing that Kirby chooses to give him hugs considering what happened between the two before, but he figures that the least he can do is accept those hugs! Kirby caught him by surprise one time by hugging him while he was bouncing on his beach ball, which then caused him to fall.. Marx ended up laughing after that because Kirby sure got him there!

The mage sisters normally aren't suited for hugs considering their elements cover their bodies (i.e. Francisca feels icy to touch, Flamberge feels very fiery hot to touch) but I headcanon that they're capable of turning off the elements inside their bodies to where they're capable of giving hugs. And they do that for when Kirby asks to give them hugs. They love hugging with Kirby! They owe it to him after he saved them and Hyness, who likes to hug him as well!

Out of all of Kirby's friends, though, the two that are definitely most needing and deserving of hugs are Taranza and Susie, considering the things that have happened in their lives. After Kirby reconciled with them, he's sometimes been going out of his way to act as emotional support for them. He's made sure to give them both tons of hugs... their grief makes him sad and he wants to them to still feel cared about and appreciated despite losing the people they loved.

Taranza needs hugs for obvious reasons. Dude is just heartbroken from all the things that happened to him. He's so grateful to Kirby whenever he gives him hugs, it often makes him cry happily. Kirby is effective at acting like an emotional support dog for him sometimes.

Susie has gone a very long time without any hugs. When she got banished to Another Dimension, she didn't have anyone that she could've given hugs to, and when she finally returned to her mind-controlled father that forgot her existence, he refused to accept hugs from her... tragic. The first hug that she's gotten ever since the Another Dimension incident was from Kirby when they reconciled.

Because Susie went so long without hugs, it's made her not used to physical affection for the most part. When Kirby hugged her the first few times, it made her flabbergasted, and it even made her cry when she tried figuring out how to respond to it. But eventually as she got more used to it, she really likes Kirby's hugs! Even if she's still not really one for physical affection otherwise, she's glad to have hugs with Kirby any time... she's grateful for it, as it's indeed helpful for her.

That's basically all I have for this post! As this post highly establishes, I headcanon that Kirby loves giving hugs, and will give a lot of hugs to those that need it. It doesn't really get more huggable than Kirby.

Kirby is such a softie. He has so much love and care in his heart. He cares so, so much. Whenever he befriends someone, he's going to act like a real friend to them. He might not talk very often, but it usually doesn't even matter because of how endearing he is. He wants his friends to feel cared about and appreciated, and giving them hugs is probably his best method of making them feel cared about.

Thanks for reading! More Kirby headcanon posts will come later!

[littlelordalphinaud]

So I think one of the most underutilised thing in FFXIV canon is that the WoL, if they play specific classes, are channelling large amounts of magical energy through themselves.

(I'm mostly thinking of casting classes here, along with WHM/AST)

And, like, even with Hydealyns blessing, human bodies were not designed to channel such energies. That's why you get things like 'Hey if you try and be a BLM without the soul stone, you WILL burn from the inside out!'

And I know it's because they want you to be able to play every class, but just imagine if your class DID effect your character physically.

I was inspired to make this post because I saw a video of someone repairing a small vase via Kintsugi. Which in turn reminded me of the Gabrielle Aplin song of the same name. Which contains one of my all time favourite lines:

All my scars are golden.

See, scar tissue is already modified. I'm no biologist and it's been a while since I properly looked into scars, but scar tissue is different to regular skin, that much I know.

So imagine that being where it's obvious. Your WoLs scars.

A White Mage who emanates this soft white glow from their scars as they cast.

Astrologians that glitter and shimmer and glow as they pull the stars into themselves.

Black mages who's scars darken and seem to be collapsing as they draw on the void.

Red mages who are a mishmash of glowing and collapsing.

These people are pulling powerful forces through their body and you can see it. Even if you know nothing about magic, even if you're just a spectator, you can see how their journey has shaped them, has changed and effected them.

Everyone has scars, after all!

[probablybadrpgideas]

Get in the headspace for Mage the Ascension by taking 30 tabs of acid before making your character