#they are actually very similar at the core but the way they react to things and express themselves are pretty opposite

[haunted-xander]

The scene w the twins held hostage in Tertium is probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire game (which says a LOT). It's a very good portrayal of their characters and their dynamic to each other.

The scene starts with Alisaie trying to kick the door open, despite knowing she's better off staying put until we get them out. Point 1: Alisaie is reactive. Alphinaud then responds to this by explaining that, while he also hates this situation, they're better off staying put like we told them to. Point 2: Alphinaud internalizes.

Alisaie walks to sit by the wall like he is, and then kinda shyly scoots closer to him after realizing she's sitting too far away and he's not moving any closer, and puts her head on his shoulder. Point 3: Alisaie displays affection more freely (if a bit embarassed by it sometimes lol) while Alphinaud is a bit more reserved with it, typically waiting for others to initiate.

Alisaie starts to vent about her frustration regarding both the current situation in Garlemald and with Fourchenault(and the Forum as a whole), while also understanding where it all comes from. Alphinaud responds by looking at the people in questions views and feelings on the circumstances, while still agreeing that yeah, it sucks. Point 4: Alisaie is openly emotional (frustration being her typical form of expression) and tends to personally involve herself with most things, while Alphinaud takes things from a more distanced and factual point of view (while still expressing his own thoughts in a polite and professional manner).

After this they start to discuss the focal points of their respective characrer developments. Alisaie remarks that one's will and wants should be their own and not an extention of anothers, in the same way her character arc revolves around her finding her own reason for wanting to help the people of Eorzea, which she later admits that she has found. Alphinaud talks about how Varis' ideal of a single, united nation bereft of dividing factors was similar to his own ideals in the beginning, which he now admits is pure ignorance and will solve nothing but doom everyone to misery.

They make affirmations of their shared conviction and such, but the part that really hits this whole things home, is Alisaie asserting that she will stand by Alphinaud as he takes the lead. Because she has her role as an activist, she is the one who acts on what needs to be done and does it, whereas Alphinaud's role is as a leader and politician, to make it so that what needs to be done can be done. Alphinaud is a bit unsure if he can do it, because he's already failed so many times, but he won't give up and neither will Alisaie let him. She states as much with her typical dose of gently scolding love sprinkled in there.

The scene packs in so many details of them in such a nice way. Alisaie is outwardly emotional, typically unleashing her feelings in the moment and then calms down afterwards, while Alphinaud internalizes everything, holding on to his feelings for a long time and let them simmer down to a more managable level. When Alphinaud expresses his feelings more clearly, Alisaie is typically the more collected one(this is shown a lot in stb, like when we first meet Hacock and Alphinaud is instantly defensive, while Alisaie is the one to suggest at least hearing him out) and vice versa.

[kaidatheghostdragon]

Starefire is liminal

Correct me if im wrong, but she got her starbolts from unethical alien experimentation, right? What if the experiment was exploring ectoplasm and liminality? Ergo, starfire's starbolts are actually ectorays.

There are so many possibilities to explore. Does she know she's liminal or the nature of her starbolts? Do the GIW clock her as a ghost instead of an alien? Do they hunt her down or monitor from a distance because she's too high profile?

Does the justice league learn about the giw through their interactions with starfire, and only discover phantom as a side effect? Here we can run the full gamut of possibilities, from phantom just starting out, or phantom successfully protecting an entire off-the-radar city (not something ive seen very often), to phantom post-capture, or bad reveal and in hiding.

Also, when i first thought of this idea, i immediately considered the similarities between starfire and jazz, especially if jazz is a fire core liminal with flight and ectoblasts. I was kind of considering a plot where a video of the giw hunting jazz is released on the web, but the video goes viral with the title of "fashion police attack starfire" or something. Jazz deliberately played up the similarities she has to starfire (makeup, costume, and everything) and tucker deliberately released the video in a way that would get past the censors and catch the justice league's attention. It was a desperate ploy that the entirety of team phantom was in on to get help when the giw escalated to hurting civilians, or captured phantom, or some other emergency.

Then, as the league investigate the starfire impersonator, they discover all the monitoring the giw have done on the real starfire (that team phantom might or might not know about) to confirm that she's liminal, and the plans theyre devoloping to quietly capture her.

It would be equal parts angsty and hilarious if the Justice League destroyed the GIW without ever identifying the impersonator or discovering amity park and phantom. Maybe batman only discovered them months later while trying to close up loose ends? Idk, its an idea. (I kinda wanna avoid the whole "summon the ghost king" subplot, if for no other reason than the fact that its been overdone?)

OTOH, the league could be doing a very thorough internal investigation to figure out how many of their members are "ecto-contaminated" according to the giw's tech, and the magic users would have to step in and explain things if batman tries to take the "contamination" at face value and try to purge it. Once they explain the concept of liminality and how they can sense it from most members, batman is simultaneously unsurprised that most of the league is "death-touched" and nearly having an aneurysm because they never thought to explain this sooner.

To add a bit of crack at the end, after the justice league has thoroughly destroyed the giw and figured out all their own existential crises (and still havent discovered who the imposter was), THAT'S when "perpetual pot-stirrer" Phantom shows up on the watchtower all like, "yes, you have passed all of my tests and reacted appropriately to the information of liminality. I will now deign you with my presence and give you many blessings of the ghost king. You are also now allowed to visit amity park. Treat these privileges with wisdom and temperance." (As if he's NOT a superpowered teen desperately looking for like-minded peers and unconditional acceptance.)

[that-ari-blogger]

A Parody Of A Parody (Any Sport In A Storm)

One of the foundational parts of The Owl House is that someone looked at a magical otherworld story and thought “what would I do in that situation?”.

As a result, you get Luz, someone who is creative to the point of breaking the plot, who understands the mechanics of stories so well that she can call things out before they happen. Someone for whom the realisation that its ok to be unique and stray from the path comes easily. Luz doesn’t resist the story at all, she embraces it with open arms.

She is, in that way, a parody of certain other characters, most specifically Monkey D Luffy. She actively seeks adventure because it’s fun to her rather being obligated by revenge or duty or a desire to protect those she cares about. She has that range, but it’s not her core motivation. She’s heroic, but she’s not coming at it from a particularly stand out motivation. She’s just kind, and that leads her to being the hero.

So, what happens if we reshuffle our hands and play with something new. What if we had someone else go on the same journey as Luz, in their own way? Someone else parodying her.

Then you get Hunter, and Any Sport In A Storm.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (The Owl House, One Piece, Lord Of The Rings)

Monkey D Luffy is a good person naturally. That’s why he will topple governments and fight gods. But fundamentally, his motivation is selfish. He wants to be happy and free. I’m not saying that’s villainous; I’m saying its amoral. You apply it in context.

Case and point, a key villain of the story, Blackbeard, has the exact same motivation. The difference being that Blackbeard has no care for anyone’s life except his own, and Luffy cares deeply about everyone else; his personal happiness cannot coexist with letting people get hurt. The character is kind, the motivation is not. Kindness is a characteristic not a goal.

Luffy’s and Blackbeard’s motivations both lead them to Impel Down, but Blackbeard’s character caused the Ace’s death, while Luffy’s made Ace’s life meaningful. Motivation is a big part of who a person is, but it’s far from the whole picture.

It’s almost as if people are inherently complex. I wonder if that’s important to the series’ theming.

"You're very good at doing exactly what you're told" accompanying a symmetrical shot with Hunter in front of an empty throne room that is too big for him to fill. I wonder if there's any symbolism there.

Hunter is not Blackbeard. He’s not a villain, most importantly. This is why he doesn’t actually get redeemed, he just switches sides, but that’s an argument for another day. He’s also doesn’t share a motivation with Luz.

Except he does, except he doesn’t. It’s complicated, and this gets granular.

Ok, the symbolism behind this. Hunter doesn't have the practical skills required for anything beyond following orders. He can read and learn, but that came from his need to read instructions. When it comes to putting something together, he will try, but he is in way over his head. This is part of the episode's setup, establishing the conflict to come. Here, that is being reshuffled. Hunter can do heroic stuff, it's the mundanity that's a problem for him.

Luz seeks to be accepted; Hunter wants to fit in. These are both facets of a desire for belonging, but their differences are more important. You could argue that they are effectively the same, but that restricts everyone into about three categories, those seeking belonging, safety, or comfort. The Owl House is fundamentally opposed to categorisation in this way, and the point of these two protagonists is that the two things are not equivalent.

This episode highlights that, showing how two similar characters react in wildly different ways.

It's not important, but the fact that the Crow Phone line is like torn paper makes me smile. It's a medieval aesthetic take on a modern visual.

Most notably is in their personalities. Because while their aims are similar, these two characters are opposites. Hunter isn’t curious, he’s wary. Hunter is constantly strategizing, paranoid that something might hurt him, Luz has zero impulse control at the best of times. Also, Hunter actively resists the plot at every turn.

The brave new world in this case is the opposite of Luz’s in a way. Where Luz went from mundanity to adventure, Hunter has gone from questing for the emperor to school drama.

The lessons here become the same as those that Luz learns day one. It’s ok to be different. Hunter just has a hard time learning that because he isn’t willing to look past what he thinks he already knows yet. He has blind spots, and he isn’t willing to examine them.

A good example of this is the contrast between the details that terrify our protagonists. I can’t exactly point at “everything”, so something specific. Luz freaks out when Eda loses her head the first time, Hunter barely flinches at Bellos’ transformation. Instead, Hunter is terrified by someone saying that they want to change the system.

The question then becomes: how do you get someone this resistant to change to undergo character development? Incongruity. Make his motivation clash with his blind spot and force him to operate in that unknown territory.

Hunter gets told to recruit the best and brightest, and to do that, he has to get unconventional. He has to learn that greatness comes in many forms, and if there was that useful piece of information to be found, what else could be hidden in places he has avoided looking?

At the moment, we’re setting up for bigger things down the road, and to do that, we need to get Hunter ready to accept some big changes.

So, we bring him into direct conflict with an authority figure, twice. We give him a support group that encourages him to think differently. We give him a way of using his skills that isn’t as a tool.

But more importantly, we mess with his idea of what people do and don't deserve.

"Where I come from, even chances have to be earned."

That's a pretty fundamental part of Hunter's character. He says the word "earn" so many times in this episode alone that it becomes a mantra. He believes you have to work to receive basic human decency. Willow shows him that that's not the case, and that he can chose to open himself up, if he wants. The emperor's way is not the only way.

He doesn’t pick any of these options yet, but we’re widening the scope of his character, letting him know that those other options are available. We’re setting up a Chekhov’s gun in the form of the power of friendship.

On the note of skills, has anyone else noticed that if it wasn’t for Willow, Hunter would unquestionably be the team powerhouse? Like, Luz is creative, she can take down stronger foes than herself through tricks and clever uses of magic. She’s not overtly powerful, she’s clever. Gus is similarly an illusionist; he can’t directly stand against anyone. Hunter, without magic, and with a new staff that he doesn’t understand, can hold Amity to a standstill.

Eclipse Lake was, so far, Hunter’s worst day, and he was still a physical and tactical threat. Which is why he’s not the main character.

The Owl House is heavily inspired by One Piece, but it throws in references to a ton of different anime, mostly shonen, and part of that is the power system. A core tenet of shonen is that raw power isn’t everything, and clever tactics can often lead to a victory despite that. Luz is the underdog, outclassed in raw magical talent, and yet she succeeds with tactics. Hunter is outclassed in natural magic, yes, but he punches far above his weight class with martial talent to make up for it. He’s a knight, an epic fantasy archetype.

Luz, with her grand dealings and evil emperor shenaniganry, is a shonen protagonist in an epic fantasy story. Hunter, with his discovery of the power of friendship and school drama, is an epic fantasy protagonist superimposed into a shonen story.

But epic fantasy is built on a dynamic with power in a different, hierarchical way. Lord Of The Rings has a reputation for a view on monarchy that I don’t think it actually features.

Tolkien definitely had some ideas that later audiences will find iffy, but his view on leadership was pretty iron clad. A king in Lord Of The Rings is a servant of the people, and those who use the people to serve them are portrayed as villainous. The people come first.

Even Aragorn’s destiny as the one true king isn’t characterised as accepting power, it’s accepting a duty to protect. In Lord Of The Rings, there is an idea of the good king, and he doesn’t have wealth or a kingdom. He has a sword.

Which, yeah, Tolkien was a soldier in WWI. And a soldier believing that a leader’s duty is to protect those under him isn’t that hard to believe.

Later authors have focused on the idea of real-world monarchy being inherently unjust, which I can’t say I disagree with, but the aesthetics of Tolkien have remained in epic fantasy. Knights loyal to kings, etc.

Which brings us to Bellos, and we see The Owl House’s view on unwavering loyalty. This is a series about understanding and engaging with the world around you. Hunter is loyal uncritically, which puts him as an antagonist in the series so far.

We’ll see how that goes for him.

Final Thoughts

The side plot of this episode isn’t really plot relevant. It’s another dead end. But its thematically quite interesting.

Luz and Amity go seeking someone who has paved their way before them and find out that it was a lie. They’ll have to make it up as they go, just like everyone else. But they take comfort in doing that together. They write their own stories.

But also, the Hexside crew other than the main five got a ton of characterisation here. Bosha got moved past, and Viney and Scara are finally in the same place at the same time, which means shipping.

I have speculations about a possible season three, and what I would like to see explored, and part of that would be a spiral from Bosha while Skarney becomes an actual thing. I think those three would make a phenomenal trio to base that series around while the actual protagonists are in the human realm. It would be about what happens when the characters with actual plot armour aren’t here, and the story needs to progress anyway. Essentially, the first scene in For The Future expanded. Throw in Mattholomule and the Blight Twins, and you have a story begging to go haywire.

Nex time, I’ll be covering Reaching Out, my favourite episode of television full stop. So, stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[winters-rose-daughterofcain]

Okay It's no long 2AM so Everlark and their mommy issue lets go lol and how their parents have impacted them and their relationship but the first one has a better ring. (This is actually part one it got too long so this is just Katniss sorry Peeta)

First, Katniss. Now I'm not here to just shit on Mrs Everdeen, I think my final opinion of her falls in the 'good person but bad parent' category. She was never malicious or cruel and would never do anything to intentionally hurt her children, she feels awful about how she reacted after Mr Everdeen's death and actively makes strides to improve and work on her and Katniss's relationship. Depression and grief are not pretty and as Katniss says, sometimes things happen to people and they're not quipped to deal with them. She even grows to empathise with and understand her mother eventually.

However her children were still starving, an eleven year old Katniss was still forced as her families main provider with no resources and no help, she was still parentified at a very young age and that had had a great effect on how she forms relationships and how she trusts people. The main way being that she doesn't, not without work. It takes her and Gale months to years of mutually beneficial back and forth and a foundation of a transactional relationship for her to allow him in, and even then never in a way in which she was relying on him for something she couldn't do herself. Mrs Everdeens kindness was a detriment in some ways, as Katniss has now internalised that people still have to capacity to hurt and leaver her no matter how much kindness and softness they show. Kind people are still a weakness to her she says it herself, but I think subconsciously she's a little wary of them. It takes work for Katniss to trust someone, they need to prove themself to be dependable and consistent, and I think that is a core value she looks for in a partner.

And with Mr Everdeen, Katniss has nothing less then positive memories of him, obviously coloured by her losing him as a child and that loss potentially erasing certain flaws in her memory, but regardless it's clear they had a very positive relationship. He taught her to hunt, to provide for the ones she loved and to keep herself alive, he was kind and strong and a man not unfamiliar with sacrifice, but he still retained the fundamental joy of music. He still retained this creative, useless to survival skill because he wanted to, because he valued it as something important to him and even if Katniss dismisses music in the beginning, it clearly holds great value to her as well.

The relationship between her parents before her father's death was honestly quite a good example for her. She grew up in a home where people loved each other, in a house of poverty yes, but a home where her mother lit up whenever she called her farther name, a home where her parents clearly adored each other and her and Prim and made no pretence of hiding or dimming it. The story of her mother's abandonment by her own family showing her early on however that this has not come without sacrifice. I think, due to her limited interactions with other people she internalised this version of love and relationships as the only true one, further confusing her later on when the messy situations she finds herself in and feeling love for do not match this image exactly, even if she's drawing similarities.

We as people are drawn to familiarity, it's the reason why a lot of people from abusive homes end up in abusive relationships, a burnt child loves the fire and all that. When we love, we intrinsically seek out things that feel familiar, because with familiarity comes a sense of safety whether or not that is actually the case. Katniss is drawn to Peeta partially because of the ways in which he reminds her of her father, she draws the connections constantly this isn't even speculation. She describes her father as strong, as kind, as a person who left her feeling safe, a feelings no ones arms have ever given her again until Peeta, again something she explicitly says. He also has the softer, more creative side that her father did, with art and painting instead of music yes, but he still holds room and importance on something seemingly useless and impractical at first glance.

With her mother I think is where Peeta's dependability come into play. Katniss longs for stability, she was never given it with her parents, and while not their fault or something they could control was damaging to her. She wants something unmoving something stable and dependable and reliable, someone who, while she's busy taking care of everyone else will take care of her, the role her mother should have taken. And who fills that for her? Peeta. His love for her, she admits in Mockingjay, was something she had as a given, as something unmovable, dependable. He is stability for her, he's strength and reliability because from the moment she stopped second guessing his intentions him and his love for her has been a constant.

She also draws parallels between her relationship with him and her parents relationship with each other a lot and narratively they parallel each other a lot, but other people have already talked at length about that. Their love may not be as uncomplicated as she remembers her parents being, but the similarities are there regardless. When Peeta is taken by the Capital Katniss loses it. She finally understands her mother. She doesn't say it explicitly, never actually says 'I love him' but it's excruciatingly obvious she does. The Katniss in Mockingjay in a girl in mourning. This also comes with her understanding her mother more, the comparison between Peeta and her father are not for lack of want, but Katniss resents the similarities between her and her mother at first, many girls do especially when their mother has let them down in some fundamental way. The wretched mirror of mother and daughter a curse as old as time. But the more Katniss lives, the more she understands her mother's life, the less she resents being similar to her, the more she grows to forgive her, allowing certain comparisons to come thought even more.

Her parent's and upbringing have played a big role in how she loves and who she loves, and it's so obvious in the progression of her and Peeta's relationship. Her initial distrust, her wanting to like him inspire of herself, their slow growing together, the absolute certainty she has of her care for him, how utterly destroyed she becomes after almost losing him, the fact that after everything, they were able to grow back together and find something worth having. Katniss choses Peeta for a lot of reasons, honestly there was never even a choice, but I think her upbringing and the ways in which she saw or didn't see her parents and their love in him definitely played a role.

[total-drama-brainrot]

I'll be honest all I can think of is P!Noah's family react to his tv persona.

Like, they know the littlest of their family is a little unhinged but they know he's not bloodthirsty so they're just a wee bit confused.

(And since Noah has, like, 8 sisters I just like to imagine the rest of their giant family is COMPLETELY normal. Like, they have their own individual quirks like anyone else but they're just normal people.)

If you can't tell one of my favorite dynamics is gremlin x just some guy but in this au it's multiple "just some guy“s and it's platonic.

And they've never actively troed to real P!Noah in either btw. They're perfectly content with their little adrenaline junkie baby brother.

Though it does make me wonder how they react in the P!Noah getting stabbed ask

No, see, this is a part of the AU that I actually have some thoughts for.

P!Noah's whole schtick wouldn't be achievable without the showrunners being aware that he's not really gonna do anything to permanently harm the other competitors- it'd be a PR nightmare to justify having an actual loose canon on the show risking the safety of the other teens. So, at the very least, the producers would know that a lot of his threats of violence or otherwise concerning behaviour are an act. (Or an exaggeration of his wilder tendancies.)

Thankfully, canon has its' own subtle little explanation for keeping someone so 'dangerous' around - Izzy's audition tape(s). In those, Izzy states that she'll do her best to "not be boring", which is probably the line that cemented her inclusion in the show. She's kept around as a conflict starter and an audience engagement device, since her antics are so entertaining to watch.

In a similar vein, in p!Noah's audition tape he explains that he's only auditioning for the show out of boredom, and he mostly sees the whole experience as a relatively quick cash grab - after all, he's wicked smart and plenty talented; it'd be child's play to outperform the other contestants (keep in mind, pretty much all of the OG cast were under the impression that Total Drama was going to be something more akin to a talent-based competition at an island resort). He explains that he's not really interested in the show itself, but it could be fun to spend his summer somewhere new where people don't know him or his eccentricities.

At this point in time, Noah's already got his gameplan planned and set; he's already presenting himself as the stoic and somewhat egotistical bookworm, which honestly isn't too far from his actual personality. Save for his psychotic tendancies, that is. Of course, Noah really is smart - smart enough to know that if he came in guns blazing to an audition tape for what is at it's core a social game, he probably wouldn't be picked.

And then the video is interrupted by one of his siblings, who points out that Noah's idea of "fun" generally consists of tormenting the people around him, providing examples of his more daring pranks from a seemingly endless list.

Then more of his siblings join in, all the while Noah stares towards the camera with a smug smile, which only grows wider - unnaturally wide, with hints of unusually sharp teeth poking from stretched-thin lips - as they share transgression after transgression. The tape ends without elaboration, nothing but a still frame of Noah's sinister smirk.

These pranks themself start off pretty tame sounding, like rigging water balloons full of vinegar above doorsteps. They quickly devolve into Noah cutting the breaks on his teacher's car after recieving an unfair grade, mowing down his classmates on a renegade bumper cart during a school trip to a theme park, and things along those lines. Chris, and more importantly the producers, feel a sense of sadistic kinship with the little psycho after hearing about his dangerous endeavours, and cast him on the spot.

So he's chosen to compete for a similar reason as Izzy; to wreak havoc in an entertaining way, and hopefully to kickstart drama.

His family are fully aware of this, though they don't fully anticipate the gleeful sort of vigour Noah has towards tormenting his castmates whilst remaining undetected... by the castmates. They do, however, expect Noah's sly grins and menacing smirks he throws towards the cameras before each successful prank he pulls off with Izzy. And the blank, uncannily empty stares he fixes towards the audience from the background of challenge footage - as if Noah himself can see through the lens into their souls.

After all, they've dealt with him for his whole life. They know his tricks, they've lived his tricks. The whole family has become accustomed to their baby brother who doesn't fully understand concepts like morality and empathy and, as such, can be a little silly sometimes. And they all know just how committed Noah can be to things he finds fun and interesting.

Their first bout of genuine surprise is during one of his later confessionals, when Noah gets too into the persona he's cultivated and starts portraying himself as violent and out for blood.

In Noah's head, he's just upping the ante of his metasocial game. For his family? They know he isn't nearly as violent as he's portraying himself as.

Sure, he's a little impulsive and thrill-seeking, but he's never had a fascination with blood or sharp objects of whatever else he tries to claim in the confessional. When Noah gets home from his stint on Island his siblings are lining up to berate him for his act - doesn't he realise how dangerous portraying himself as an unstable lunatic for the world to see is?

He justifies that anyone who believed his act is an idiot. It's reality TV - anyone with half a brain knows that things are exaggerated for entertainment purposes. He was just giving the editors something good to work with.

Noah is promptly dogpiled by eight irate older siblings.

(I'm also a big fan of "gremlin & just some guy", in this case it's gremlin & many exasperated some guys who aren't afraid of the gremlin. The rest of his family are perfectly normal people who just so happen to know how to deal with somewhat morally bereft hijinks and tomfoolery thanks to their youngest member. P!Noah has an incredibly healthy home life, he's just like that by design.)

As for the stabbing ask; I'm not sure if I want that little scenario to be "canon" to this AU, (and if it is, it'll be re-written with things like context in mind, as opposed to the shitty sleep-deprived drabble I wrote way back when) but if any of his family witnessed Noah being stabbed on international TV the whole brood would be storming the network's headquaters and/or chasing down the Jumbo Jet to get to him. He's The Baby™, you can't stab The Baby™. (Though, inwardly, they'd all agree that it was karma in action. Noah was tempting fate by playing around with knifes for so long, it was only a matter of time before someone got stabbed.)

[sneezemonster15]

I wonder why do you think Megumi and Itadori are portrayed as romantic, but not Suguru and Satoru? Sincerely I want to see your thoughts about it, since to me, Satosugu akways appeared as more ambiguous than Itafushi

Ah. You are right, SatoSugu is more ambiguous than Itafushi. But I really want to finish reading the manga, at least the currently available chapters before I write a comparison. I will though. I promise.

But see. A writer needs to establish certain things before he can establish a romantic dynamic between two same sex characters, to make it believable. It needs to be strategic to be believable in a seamless manner. If two men love each other in a generally heteronormative world, then the writer will definitely establish their sexualities because it's an instinctive response, the audience will wanna see it to believe it.

If two characters are gay, or not straight, the writer will show it. And Gege does. He makes Todo ask such a question to Megumi. He makes Megumi think about it. Megumi says - 'person' when he was specifically asked about a girl. Look at the specific choices the writer is making. He says he only cares for compassion in his prospective mate, and what is Yuuji's USP? Compassion. Yep.

Not Nobara.

Yuuji.

Anyway, from that, we are able to glean information about Megumi's sexuality. And it certainly doesn't look straight. This is all very strategic and deliberate. Megumi is characterised as a self assured person, a thoughtful and introspective person, who knows what he likes and dislikes. In fact, if anyone had bothered to ask Sasuke about his preferences, he would have answered similarly, with a similar attitude too. Hehe.

With Itadori, Gege makes it a point to talk about his sexuality as well. So Itadori is shown as a person who is indecisive. Gege describes him as indecisive. Of course if he is made to be in a position where he needs to think, he will. He is a bit slow, but not a complete idiot. He has a decent learning curve.

He likes tall girls, this is what is told to us. But we are SHOWN something else. When he is asked what girl he likes in his class, he says Ozawa, who was neither tall nor pretty at the time. Isn't it contradictory? Didn't we see the same kind of contradiction with Naruto? Like one would have expected a straight boy to react, he didn't. He didn't objectify girls, like most straight teenage boys would do without a second thought. There is so much conversation about what type of girl her likes. But when finally a tall Ozawa comes along, Yuuji isn't interested, not romantically. Todo asks him the same question and he is baffled so he says something he has been saying for a long time.

People get curious but you wouldn't wanna say something private like this to just anyone no? Especially when you are yourself confused about it. Yuuji is also not like Megumi.

So what you are getting from this is Gege is establishing their traits and sexualities without being too explicit. And we know writers can do it, we have seen it with Naruto. Sasuke and Naruto's sexualities are also questioned and established as not straight, not explicitly but it's clear to perceptive fans, no?

There is a lot of other stuff that confirms ItaFushi.

The characters of Yuuji and Megumi are influenced by Naruto and Sasuke, Gege has admitted it. And I am ready to bet that Gege knows what Naruto the story is truly about.

Gojo outwardly seems like Kakashi but he ain't in the most important way, he isn't a slave to the system, he wants to change the obsolete ways of the system, he is the protector of his students, someone who actually understands them. Sasuke and Megumi are quite alike but Megumi doesn't have Sasuke's conflict. Yuuji is like Naruto characterwise, but he doesn't have Naruto's insecurity. Nobara is like Sakura on the surface, hot headed and loud, but at her core, very different from Sakura.

JJK is like Naruto 2.0. I am not saying it's better or worse. They are two different worlds. What I am saying is that Gege is sort of correcting everything that went wrong with Naruto, in his own manga. Things that fans like us hate. There are a lot of notes I have made about this, but I want to finish the manga first before writing in detail.

I updated my stance on SatoSugu when I got a bit more into jjk. But the reason I am not sure is because we don't see their relationship with the same kind of development like Megumi and Yuuji. Yuuta makes a joke about Gojo finally getting a gf, which he dismisses. And I noticed. But we didn't see Gojo and Geto's relationship being developed from the beginning. By the time Amanai incident shows up, we see them as best friends, they are obviously very close. But it really doesn't seem romantic at that point of time. They mirror each other, they roughhouse, they fuck around together and then find out lol, but they really do seem like good friends. However, I noticed some things with grown up Gojo and Geto, which could indicate a romantic attachment.

The markers I need to see to believe Satosugu is definitely a romantic relationship aren't as established as Megumi and Yuuji's relationship. If it's romantic, the writer will give us this information for sure, one way or the other. But there is a lot to be seen yet. Gege's non linear storytelling will certainly come in handy.

[pom-seedss]

On being “afraid of pain”

It can be very frustrating when people, especially doctors but people in general too, assume that I’m ‘afraid’ of doing things. If I hear one more person talking about how I must be “afraid of pain” I am going to start sobbing.

First of all, I have a pretty good grasp on my capabilities and limitations. I know what will cause me more pain not because I am anxious, but because I have done these things before and experienced the fallout. I am not afraid that I will be in more pain if I do this activity, I know for a fact I will be in more pain if I do this activity.

Choosing not to do an activity that I know will cause me more pain isn’t anything more than choosing not to touch a hot stove because I know that will cause me more pain. It has nothing to do with fear, it’s about knowing the consequences of an action.

Second of all, I have an excellent grasp on how my body is feeling at any given moment. Because 1. I live here, I’ve lived here for 34 years and counting and 2. I have been consistently told throughout my life to chart how I am doing, so self-reflection and self-assessment have been drilled into me from almost every health professional I have had contact with.

Doctors who work with me, rather than just on me, consistently confirm I know what I am talking about. When I say “x is feeling tight, but I think the problem actually stems from y”, I am usually right. At least as far as muscles and such, internal organs are out of my league and usually need more in depth tests to know what’s wrong anyway. But as far as the basic mechanics, first aid, general fitness acumen, I know how my body works and how things are connected.

Third of all, I bare more pain on a daily basis than most of these people will feel in a lifetime. I do not care that there is no ‘objective’ measure of pain, no way to really say what is painful because one person will react differently to stimuli than another. But I know what pain feels like because I am in it constantly. From the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, there is never a time I am not in pain. It ebbs and flows, of course, and sometimes I ignore it or can flood myself with endorphins on a really good day so i don’t feel it, but it is never not there.

It becomes quite insulting how people infantilize disabled folks who have chronic pain. Especially fat disabled people.

When non-pained folks work out they experience some pain, soreness, aching and eventually healing. They assume that this is the kind of pain that will be felt and they tend to encourage people passed the aches and pains because their bodies will heal and be better for it.

For a lot of people with chronic pain, however, the cost is much higher. It’s not just ‘regular soreness added to our existing pains’, it’s less a simple addition and more a multiplication. 

The general ache and soreness of working out may tip an already tired muscle over the edge into constant clenching. It might pull the joint out of place because there was too much tension on something already near the breaking point from strain. It can mean your core muscles tighten up and make your stomach clench and disrupt your food intake and cause bouts of nausea. It could mean having to take more pain medication that can have other adverse side effects like acedominaphine being hard on the stomach, which can cause long term digestive issues and further pain and complications.

So when all these factors and considerations and extra risks are all chalked up to “being afraid of pain” it really makes me feel like no one is ever actually listening to people in pain. Not just me, but any one of us.

When we say “that won’t work, I’ve tried it” or “that won’t work, I’ve tried something extremely similar to it” we are told we are just afraid to get better, that we’ve built an identity around our pain and we have to stop. I just want to scream at them that nothing is 100% effective for 100% of people and that people with adverse reactions to this thing that might help most people still exist and deserve to be treated as well.

I am not afraid of pain. I can and do deal with more pain than most people can even fathom. I can deal with more pain on top of my daily pain.

But only I get to decide what is worth the pain and the risks.

Just because I do not choose to spend my ability on whatever you think might help me does not mean I fear pain or am identifying too much with it.

It just means that I don’t find touching a hot stove to be worth it.

[dreamii-krybaby]

Ok ok buckle up bc I think I have smth

So like, we know that Yeva was 100% involved behing the gravitational forces that where detected at site-48, right?

And I theorized that what happened is that she created a black hole and had a similar situation to Uzi in EP6, got momentarily possessed and created a black hole.

Not only that her orange eyes and yellow chest light back up the idea she was gonna get possessed soon.

So maybe, the interview happened before the site-48 incident

I think the site-48 incident was actually the AS first attempt to create a core collapse, but didn’t work very well.

I mean, in comparison to Nori, Yeva might have been the better candidate since her mental and emotional stability was probably all over the place. So it was easier to manipulate and take over (Like Cyn) but Yeva perhaps could have fought the AS or her body wasn’t very compatible with the AS which caused problems to the AS.

Tho Alice (she legit went berserk during that EP6 interview) could have also be a good candidate, but we never see her use the AS, but we know she has it bc of the ID card not only saying “AS” and showing that she originally had green lights unlike her orange lights she was introduced with.

So maybe her AS can purely affect her psychologically or Alice herself refuses to use it. Tho am more inclined she can’t actually use it bc her body being fully “incompatible”

So this leaves Nori, who seemed to have no problems in reacting to the AS, and if we assume she used it constantly, that would have definitely give the AS a window to possess and cause the core collapse. Or simply her body was much more prone to lose control unlike Yeva, whose process was much more slower.

The thing is, I think Yeva was the first candidate for a primal host simply because she was in way worse mental state than Nori and probably other factors played.

Then there’s Doll, who is definitely in a worse or equally bad mental state as Uzi is, had the AS active for much more longer and the AS seems to be spreading much more slowly on her. (Bc how her lights went from red to orange and not immediately to yellow like Uzi)

And I think why she hasn’t got possessed yet is because she can handle the horrors around her much more better than Uzi can. Perhaps she became numb to it

Unlike Uzi, who is definitely having a way harder time handling the horrors.

It’s just like their mother’s situation, but on reverse.

Yeva and Uzi = cannot handle the horros that well

Doll and Nori = can handle the horror decently

[thetruearchmagos]

Dunking On Some Fools

In Which I Whine About Star Wars, And Talk About Multi-Role Platforms (Mostly The Latter)

Yes, the none-awaited sequel to this post a few days ago has arrived! If no one reads this, I don't think I'd mind, but I am tagging @coffeexafterxmidnight since you asked and @theprissythumbelina because I vaguely recall you reacting positively to something star wars related a while ago.

Anyhow, more below the cut;

Now, the way I see it, a lot of the pro-LAAT arguments come from the perspective that using 'multi-role' vehicles, or 'platforms' to be technical, is inherently better than splitting those roles across multiple platforms in unison. These two comments, for example;

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Now, I'm gonna start by saying that while I am a very big fan of most multi-role platforms (F-35 my beloved I never doubted you), I am of the opinion that the 'Low Altitude Assault Transport', or LAAT, is absolutely not a good example of one, and I'm here to explain why.

"Multi-Role' VS 'Multi-Form'

Basically, the way I see it is that it's a good idea to design one or a small number of platforms to be able to conduct a variety of missions as long as the ability to actually do that doesn't require making absolutely detrimental sacrifices in that platform's ability to fulfil its core functions.

Now, what does that look like?

This is a Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, and in my opinion such platforms are an excellent example of what it means to be multi-mission right.

The base, structural form of aircraft carriers is basically a flat deck, a hangar beneath it, and all the engineering, navigational, and communications gear needed to make it go places and do things.

And what can an aircraft carrier do? Anything, depending on what you put on it.

Fight for and win air superiority? Launch fighters.

Bomb something? Send up some strike aircraft.

Hunt submarines? Sic anti-submarine helicopters on them.

And you don't even need to change the ship itself! There's not really a structural difference between a carrier that can 'do' air warfare VS one that can fight surface targets, and the same hold true in other domains. Modern missile cells on ships, or launch rails / bomb bays on aircraft, can store and fire many types of ordnance (if you've designed them to), allowing the platform with these systems to be easily re-tasked between various missions.

The exact opposite of this fortunate state of affairs can be seen when improving a platform's ability to do A actively weakens its ability to do B. This often happens when the structural components needed to carry out one task take up weight or volume while providing nothing to the platform's ability to do another.

Such as, say, having to have both a large transport compartment and all the lasers in the galaxy.

Where Does The LAAT Fit?

Now, to return to the vehicle that started all this.

I believe the LAAT is a flawed concept, and my proposition to replace it while retaining a similar level of 'orbit to surface assault' capability would be to divide the roles of 'fire support' and 'troop transport' between two separate platforms. Frankly, I'm more than a little sceptical of this whole doctrine to begin with, but I'm not gonna get into that.

The main problem here is weight. It shouldn't be controversial to say that in the air more than any other domain, weight is at an absolute premium, and speed is often your best protection. Just by stripping the basic hull of either the armament or the troop bay would give the resulting craft a good boost to speed or range, especially if you take the effort to make a more aerodynamic hull form. Alternatively, you could use the saved weight to cut back on thrusters / repulsors, or boost carrying capacity, armament (as if it isn't already armed enough), or shielding / armour.

A second point that I think is also relevant is that, by splitting these two conflicting missions and design requirements into different aircraft, you can now get away with adapting the new platforms into even more roles which their now non-contradictory frames might be better able to handle. The troop transport can also haul cargo or vehicles without wasting capacity on weapons, and on the flip side the gunship can carry out independent attack missions without subtracting from the transport fleet.

With these arguments made, though, I'd like to take some time to properly shoot the two YouTube commenters who started this right between the eyes. Their takes, I think, are dumb.

Take 1; 'Sequencing Bad, Actually'

Okay, well.

First of all, surely the idea of 'easily anticipated stages' applies equally to the approach best described as 'mass identical waves coming right at you'? Like, just using the LAAT is no less predictable the split idea? Military operations are always broken up into clearly defined stages for a reason, which brings me to my next point.

Let's say you send in the LAAT in your first, second, and third waves, as you'll need to because there's no way in hell you're getting a 'large' amount of troops down at once. The first wave will take the most fire since the defenders haven't been suppressed yet, and since the troop transports and gunships are the same, losing gunships while attempting to clear defences also condemns their passengers to dying with them.

Unless you mean to tell me you intend on dropping troops while the enemy's guns are pointing right at you. In which case, please watch Saving Private Ryan Opening Beach Scene on Holo-Tube.

On the other hand, breaking up the mission into discrete and sequential stages, and splitting attack and transport craft into separate roles, allows you to cut back on risk massively. Take the LAAT hull, leave the droops on ship, and replace all that weight with even more lasers (but preferably rockets or something), and now you have a craft for that 'first wave', which can hit defences with speed and firepower without risking a single ground trooper's life. Then, once and only once the Landing Zone is ready, you can send in the ground pounders to do their work.

Take 2; Muh Multi Role

Ah, screw me I guess.

Look, first of all, who the hell 'needs; to do so? Like, the video and commenter made a point of saying that there very much was no need to slap weapons on the blackhawk or Mi-8, so what exactly are you trying to say??

Also, the point about multi-role fighters is so stupid it spawned this whole post. In the modern day, where the divide between ground attack and air combat capabilities are summed up quite well by 'stick the bloody weapon on a launch rail and chuck it from beyond the horizon', the structural concessions you need to support both roles are much lower than having to accomodate, I don't know, a vacuum pressurised passenger compartment, and a absolute crap ton of lasers. So, yeah! You can't compare the two!

And with that... I don't feel like trawling through the video for more dumb takes. So, Arch out.

[trainsinanime]

The Movie - The Bad Parts

Based on discussions with @emsylcatac earlier today, let's talk about Miraculous Ladybug & Chat Noir - The Movie (also known as Miraculous Awakening), and specifically what sucks about it. I want to clarify that this post is meant to be unfair on purpose. It's all about complaining because complaining is fun! Overall I think the movie was perfectly fine, I had fun and I recommend watching it on a big screen because it is really pretty. This post is full of spoilers, and I'll put it in the queue for the 29th so people who watch on Netflix can see it then.

Let's get to it. There are a number of different directions from which you can criticise the movie. Too many fart jokes. Too many Volkswagen cars. Not enough metro trains. Uninspired songs. I'd like to pull it back a step, though, and ask fundamentally: What was the movie trying to do, you know, as a story? Because I don't think it knows.

About something

The movie has set itself a fairly difficult task, trying to fit a monster-of-the-week show into a single cohesive narrative. This isn't impossible, other superhero movies from Marvel and sometimes Sony and even the odd DC one do that all the time. They do that by finding a core story to tell about the people involved. Tony Stark goes from war profiteer to taking responsibility. Shang-Chi fled his father and must now face him. Jessica Jones faces her trauma. Kamala Khan must figure out who she wants to become and what it means to be a hero. Hawkeye must shoot an arrow out of a bow. Stuff like that.

As a show, Miraculous Ladybug doesn't really have that. Marinette isn't standing on the wrong side of a central dramatic argument and must learn to find and believe the correct answer. Her only real problem is that she isn't kissing Adrien right now. Similar things go for Adrien, who has plot attached to him, but not really any arc beyond going from not kissing Marinette to kissing Marinette. And that's perfectly fine for a show like that, there are plenty of arcs for each individual episode. And sometimes you don't even need that and can just save yourself with twenty minutes of being fun.

The movie is exactly like the show in this regard, and in my opinion, that's a mistake. Marinette is clumsy and afraid of being awesome, but that is just basic hero's journey stuff, that isn't a real character arc. Adrien doesn't have an arc at all. So really, there is nothing here, no theme, no arc. Stuff just happens. The stuff that happens is very adorable in my opinion, but most of it doesn't mean anything.

And really, that seems to be the main point of the movie: Have adorable stuff happen. There are a lot of great trailer moments, but then if you see how they fit together in the movie, well, they mostly don't. There are some cute Adrinette scenes, but they are just here to be cute, they don't actually matter. There's some excellent Ladynoir banter, but it doesn't actually change anything or tell us anything about the characters, it's just here.

The movie certainly pretends that there's an arc here. Marinette gets an "I want" song that tells us she's unhappy about being clumsy, and she'd like to design clothes. We have a bit of a hero's journey. We have a tiny bit of a conflict when Chat Noir is in love with Ladybug, but she can't be in love with him because she's in love with Adrien, and he reacts poorly to that (oh god, are we going to get Adrien discourse again? Please, anything but that!). We defeat the villain, and Marinette learns the "Miraculous Ladybug" healing power. It feels like an arc, but the things don't connect to each other in any thematic way.

And sure, the movie pretends there is a theme here, which is "we're stronger together". Except being together is not really that relevant for the conclusion, and besides, nobody ever said they weren't stronger together.

Weirdly enough, there is one character who gets an arc, which is Gabriel, who realises his mistakes when he sees that Chat Noir is his son. That's nice but comes a bit out of nowhere. And the way Adrien forgives him that easily also feels unearned to me. If you go strictly by which character learned the most and changed the most, you could technically argue that this is Gabriel's story more than anyone, which is just silly.

So it all feels a bit lifeless. Many subplots start and stop at random, and many scenes in between the trailer moments feel too short and lifeless.

The Changes

The other thing that feels weird is all the ways that the lore was changed. I'm totally okay with changing the lore to fit into the movie, but so many of the choices just feel less interesting.

Most crucially, when Marinette falls in love with Adrien in the show, it's the culmination of a mini-arc in which she was wrong about him, and he was bad at social interaction, which they resolve with a ritual umbrella exchange. That is really meaningful. In the movie, Marinette falls in love with Adrien because he's handsome and he asks her if she's alright after she drops some books. That's less interesting.

A smaller detail, but in my opinion even more important, are the Akuma villains. There's no doubt that the gargoyle looks great… but it's a random person who we don't know. We certainly didn't know Ivan that well at the end of season 1 either, but we had at least some connection to him. Most importantly, Marinette had a connection to him, and so her fear for this guy she knows felt real and important. That's gone here. Same for the other villains. They're all just some guys Hawkmoth found somewhere. They don't matter to us or to the heroes, they're just around. In their fight for great visuals, they made the story less interesting.

There are plenty of other examples where the show weirdly forgoes personal moments. The Adrinette montage, for example, is sweet, but it passes by way too quickly. And it's not like the movie didn't have the time, I mean, have you seen these fart jokes?

When it comes to the superhero fights, I am mostly stumped. The movie invented completely new rules, but these rules are for the most part not better or worse, just different. It feels like they feared they'd infringe someone's copyright, but doesn't Zag own the copyright? I think the lack of insane plans prompted by a lucky charm was a bit sad, but I wouldn't call it a dealbreaker.

The Music

I think the songs were alright, I'm just mentioning them here because I know others hated them. My main issue with them is that they felt so unmotivated. It felt like someone had said, "this is where a Disney movie would have a song, so we'll put one here as well".

The Ending

Cutting there? Come on. Not gonna lie, that part got a big groan at my cinema.

The Nachos

Mine didn't taste that great.

In Conclusion

I really should have written this Sunday or Saturday when my memory was still fresh. But I think you get the gist of it. It was a fun experience, but I think it squandered most of its opportunities. There were fun moments, but the connection between them wasn't really there. Most importantly, the movie just didn't really have any story to tell other than "that Ladybug one". But while that is a fine story to have as the premise of a show, it doesn't really work well for a single movie.

[instructionsnotincluded]

I love how compelling you made all the characters in True North, especially the original characters! I love how all of us are so excited for George (even tho we’ve only seen him briefly) and the girls and Helen. Despite there being so many people, you made all of them distinct and special and really just unforgettable! It makes it so interesting to follow the stories not only of Frank and Bucky, but also of everybody else and I think you did a brilliant job of fleshing them all out! How did you go about creating all the characters?

OMG this has made my Friday! Thank you!! I'm so excited you all are excited about George! Hahahaha. I knew when I created him that he'd have a bigger role towards the end of Act II and getting Frank to where she needed to be for Act III (so that she can be reunited with Bucky exactly where I need her to in Act IV) but I didn't expect for everyone to love him as much as I do.

I'm so glad you all love these characters. They mean so much to me and I'm so glad that they all have their own voices and personalities, sometimes I worry that they're too similar, so this is wonderful feedback!

When I started outlining True North, I originally just had it with Frank and Dorothy as my main characters, and everyone else was just there as needed. But after writing the first interaction with Rose and Amelia, I knew that I wanted it to be a much stronger friend group, revolving around the four girls. And the ATA was so diverse, I really wanted to sprinkle more supporting characters as we go to show how many different cultures and people really were part of it.

I'm trying to base the minor characters off of real people who actually served in the ATA, I think we saw that a little bit when Frank went to Maidenhead, all of those people were real people. George is a combination of a handful of people I read about in books written about the ATA and female pilots. Faye, while she wasn't with us very long, was based off of my own personal experiences and feelings in a similar situation, so she'll always mean a lot to me.

Our core girls were flushed out early on. In my very first draft, Rose was actually Frank's sister, but I moved her out so she can be the person who really keeps Frank mentally well after Bucky goes down. Dorothy is Frank's pillar of support, best friend, and CO, but Rose just has a way of getting into Frank's head better than the other girls and knowing what she's thinking before she does anything dumb, where as Dorothy's really good at reacting and helping after the fact and working behind the scenes. Rose is outspoken, Amelia is focused, Dorothy is strong, and Frank is determined, and putting them all together is my favorite thing to do, and once I started doing that it was really easy to continue writing their personalities, and I can't wait for us to get further in too!

[mdhwrites]

Is Hunter a Good Foil?

Short Version: Not really. Even in the case of Amity, the foiling there isn't actually very deep and a lot of the foiling is what makes the character feel as inconsistent as he does. An inconsistent character can't properly foil or say anything but instead just act as a mirror to the other character. A mirror is not a foil though.

And let's piggy back off of the short version to talk about what a foil is. They are meant to reflect and CONTRAST another character in some way. They share a similarity that hits to their core but the two have in some way reacted to it differently, or had their circumstances altered, in a way that caused their characters to diverge. Most foils are effectively the question of "In a different timeline, could this character have ended up this way?" And by asking this question, they challenge the other character in some way.

One of the great movies in animation that you all had better have seen that can showcase this is, of course, Megamind. BUT it actually is useful both to talk about shallow foiling and deeper foiling. I'm sticking to just the beginning of the movie so while I can't talk about every way in which the foiling happens, I won't spoil it either: At the beginning of the movie you actually get what feels like the core foil. Both Megamind and his enemy Metroman came from doomed planets that were being sucked into a black hole but while Megamind's ship crashed into a prison and he was raised by inmates, Metroman is sent into a rich family's house where he can have everything he wants. Pretty classic but fun where one grows up in poverty and turns evil while the other grows up in luxury and becomes good.

But that's kind of shallow, isn't it? These weren't based on choices the characters made but simply the opportunities given to them. For a movie about choosing your own path, about how being good and bad isn't something you are born to be, your destiny, but your choice, this isn't actually very interesting. It sets up the conflict... But if this were all of Megamind's backstory, it'd be a little lackluster.

No, instead... We get the evil of the kids. Not like pure evil but Megamind genuinely wanted to fit in. To be accepted. He makes really cool inventions to impress the other kids but, well, they don't always work, he looks weird and he's just not as impressive as Metroman. He CHOOSES to engage... And is rejected. Meanwhile, Metroman chooses to engage and is accepted. Because of this, Metroman went on to be their hero while Megamind decided to lean in and become the villain that others treated him like. This is their true foil. This divergent moment where humanity appeared to choose one lost kid from a doomed planet over the other, despite both having genuine good in their hearts. One never had to make a choice about being the good guy while the other HAD TO. And he chose to be cold to a world that was cold to him which is important for later in the story for what makes him start re-evaluating why he is evil and how he views the world.

Megamind is REALLY FUCKING GOOD. I know we're all burnt out on superheroes, let alone things that think they're being clever with superheroes, but the movie is still absolutely worth your time.

So of course... What the hell does this have to do with Hunter? Well, you can thank my Discord like so often for it. Someone brought up the concept of Hunter foiling most of the other main characters and my brain rejected that almost immediately. I then had to ask... Why?

After all, pretty much every episode Hunter has being introduced to another character (And Hunter, not the Golden Guard so Stranger Tides doesn't count) makes some sort of really pointed connection between him and the other lead of the episode in some way. It's almost impossible to not call him a foil of some sort. So... Why did it upset my brain?

Well... Because only Amity even SLIGHTLY has something to say and, well... None of these matter. How Hunter foils other characters is very superficial.

With Luz, it's just that they're both into wild magic. That's really it. It's not that they both have deeply held, strong ideals shaped by how they view how the world should be but one thinks that is effectively through anarchy and self expression while the other is authoritarian and through conformity. We know that's not the case because Hunting Palisman literally starts with Hunter talking treason. To doing wild magic. So... Yeah, it's only that they're both interested in wild magic and both for somewhat selfish reasons, though Luz's are actually worse because she's into it to be cool and powerful while Hunter is into it to help his uncle not DIE. It's shallow, it doesn't say anything good and it hardly matters for either character because all it's supposed to do is reveal a weakness to be exploited to make Hunter a good guy but they never do anything with it nor does it really tie into the themes.

Skipping Amity for now just because she is the most complicated and obvious to talk about. We will get back to it, I promise.

Willow is by FAR the weakest. The foiling is meant to be that both suffer prejudice of a sort for their lack of magic but while one is good, the other is evil. As I said before, that's actually a really shallow way to do it because it says little about the character. Worse yet, Hunter barely cares about his lack of magic. In the show's eyes/narrative, it's just a character quirk that Willow cares about more than he does. And mind you... Willow always had magic and is now mostly defined by being SUPER strong with that magic. She actually leaned harder into the identity, though this episode is starting to get away from it, and yet is the one on the side of good? If TOH is about embracing yourself regardless of society, shouldn't the one who cares less about those weaknesses that society ascribes upon them and they overcome by things they chose to focus on instead be the one lauded more than the one who felt the need to lean into society's prejudice and have to meet them in the field they forced the character to be judged by? Worse yet, even as a one off foil, it doesn't do anything. Hunter still tells Willow to piss off and has to be abducted in order to listen to the lesson of "Don't judge a book by it's cover" (which this episode does... Not great.) So yeah, again, not really foiling anything, how it does highlights the weaknesses of the show and what is there is exceptionally shallow and actually says little about the characters.

Is Amity any different? Well, it's interesting because Amity is doing with a main supporting character something that usually happens with a one off side character for an episode. They are getting to demonstrate their growth as a character by facing a shadow of who they are and imparting the lessons they've learned. That's... Actually good. It can be really satisfying to watch a character who has come into their own put their own twist on the lessons they've gained so as to be able to pass them on anew but also potentially also more effectively. There's a risk though of feeling like that's the whole point. Just a victory lap.

And Amity is running in circles around herself. See, when all the foil is is a mirror to your past self, it can feel blunt to put it mildly. Worse yet is when you could probably replace the character who is at the end of their arc with whoever taught them the lesson in the first place. TOH literally calls out that Luz would have done this too... and probably in the same way. Not literally the same words but the same points. There's no new insight into Amity, how she looks at her redemption, how she looks at the lessons she learned, besides "Isn't it nice to be a good person?" But like... That's why Amity rejected her arc at first, weak as it was. This isn't going to jump ahead a few steps... It's just her arc.

And that also minimizes Hunter's character. Suddenly, he looks like he's just an Amity clone, not helped that the pacing is dead on the SAME as Amity's. Not even just in feel but quite literally in episode count. One episode of being being a complete asshole, one of still being antagonistic but seeing the humanity in the other side now, and then by the third we're already supposed to be sympathizing with him and see him as effectively a good guy who just needs his sweet center exposed. It is one for one how Amity went, just that the one episode not mentioned that both show up in, Amity gets a bit larger than a cameo in and gets backstory exposition while Hunter is just an end of episode stinger.

This doesn't make the story deeper, it just highlights how S2 of TOH introduced a new character... Just to redo Amity. That's not interesting for anyone in the cast because they've all done this before. Of course he can't challenge any of them because any challenge that was had, should have been with Amity. So instead of a foil, we get a really ugly mirror with tin foil around it.

And like a mirror... It doesn't show anything that isn't in it. This need for foiling each of these characters inherently changes not just Hunter's character but even his relationship with the world. In episode 1, he's some hotshot, big name in the Emperor's Coven who's youth is known and he's a die hard loyalist, to the point where he is very clearly happy and comfortable with killing people who disobey. Then at the start of his second appearance, he is talking treason and is clearly much more motivated by care for his uncle than anything else. He also appears to have a good enough relationship with Belos to feel comfortable voicing treason around him. Then in his third appearance, he's suddenly paranoid about being kicked out of the coven and being seen as useless and so explicitly goes AGAINST his uncle's orders in order to prove himself, despite the fact that he should know better than anyone that doing so will piss his uncle off. But without the theoretical pressure of being kicked out of the coven and abandoned, he can't foil Amity. Then of course, for the sake of being rejected by society, all of Hexside suddenly hates the Emperor's Coven and it is a blessing that this rockstar figure of the Golden Guard can't come down and suddenly be the highlight of the entire club fair. Just so, you know, Willow won't reject him for being part of the EC.

(Quick note: Kikimora and Hunter are dumbasses in S2 when it comes to Belos' standards. Lilith fails like a half a dozen times in S1 alone before being given an ultimatum that is honestly pretty fair at that point with how pathetic she's been. Even S2 isn't consistent though. We get two different people (Cute cat coven lady and Steve) who ditch the EC and act like there are literally ZERO consequences for it. Both of these paint Belos as a weirdly reasonable boss for a tyrant and makes the world building worse.)

All the while... We've spent no time establishing a base for Hunter. There is nothing for these characters to challenge about him besides the fact that nepotism is why he's in the EC because there is nothing else to challenge about him. The Golden Guard we saw for a single episode is only there for one episode and isn't indicative of him outside of that episode except MAYBE for half of Hunting Palisman depending on how you see that. Otherwise, his personality is... Madlibs. Just choose whatever you want because it will make about as much sense as what he actually got in the show.

And something that warped and malleable is going to be a pretty shit mirror, let alone a foil.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[running-with-the-feels]

Just a thought but like, what if Frost hadn't been kicked out of the Lin Kuei for attacking Hanzo? What if she ran away?

Frost and Kuai Liang are very similar characters at their core. They both grew up as weapons in other people's hands (Frost in the Black Dragon fighting pits and Kuai Liang in the Old Lin Kuei) and had very few people around them they could trust or confide it. They both spent most of their lives fighting to survive and becoming monsters because there was nothing else for them to be, there were no other options.

And then Frost joins the Lin Kuei, and it's implied that there's a tournament/try outs thing to determine who he teaches and who he doesn't, so this is also a thing she Fought for. It's something she Wanted.

And then Kuai Liang looks at her and just sees so much of himself in her (though her anger is something he struggles to understand) and makes her his apprentice (I hc that he only found out about her powers later on and pls someone ask me about that I am Dying to talk about it, pls give me an excuse) and suddenly she has a connection to another person.

Kuai Liang is the first person in her entire life to treat her with any sort of dignity or kindness and though she rails against it at first, she also settles into it pretty quickly. After like, three months of training, she is Very Attached in a way she has never allowed herself to be.

He is literally the only person besides herself that she has ever cared about, and the closest thing to a parent she's ever had.

So of Course she panics when he tries to make peace with Hanzo, bc as far as she knows, Hanzo will take the first opportunity he can find to run a sword through Kuai Liang's heart. Hanzo has never kept his word as far as she knows, he swore not to kill Bi-Han and then did it anyways, he attacked Kuai Liang while the cryomancer was possessed and then left him to die slowly, nothing about him is exactly screaming "you can trust me" to her.

Based on the information she has, making peace with Hanzo is a bad idea! It will get Kuai Liang killed!

And she tells him that, but he isn't bothered by it, just tells her to have faith, that it will be okay, but she can't be calm bc He Could Die and then she'll be alone again and that terrifies her.

She is so scared that she stops thinking clearly, she's terrified at the prospect of losing the only person she has that actually cares about her so she lashes out. She tries to fix the problem the way she always did as a child in the fighting pits, by punching it until it dies or goes away.

She's panicking and traumatized and trying to protecting the only thing she cares about and she does something stupid! And it goes badly! That's a very human reaction!

And then Kuai Liang stops her, and he's angry with her for jeopardizing the peace so maybe he grounds her, or sends her away to her room so they can calm down and talk about it later bc he Knows why she reacted the way she did. He's upset and disappointed but he Understands and wants to work through it.

He's been trying to teach her throughout her apprenticeship that she doesn't have to lash out, that she isn't a dog and doesn't have to bite, she's just not fully there yet. So he sends her to her room, gives himself some space to calm down and figure out how to talk to her without making her. lash out again, bc clearly his reassurances didn't work.

Only she panics again.

The only person she cares about is, as far as she knows, angry with her and she doesn't know what to do with that, doesn't know how to cope with his disappointment. She's never cared what other people thought before, when all that mattered was surviving until tomorrow, but she does now and that terrifies her.

She's terrified that he will send her away for good, and she's even more scared of how much the idea of that happening bothers her.

So she packs her shit and leaves, doesn't leave a note or a message and just runs as far as she can to escape it, to go back to how she used to be bc at least that she understands.

And Kuai Liang is understandably panicked, bc that's his apprentice, that's his kid, even if he hasn't said it yet for fear of spooking her. And now she's just Gone. Vanished into the ether and He Can't Find Her. He ends up sending every Lin Kuei he can spare on the hunt to track her down, doesn't sleep or eat either unless he's forced to bc he thinks she's been kidnapped somehow, that something has happened to her.

She thinks she's being hunted so that she can be punished and he thinks she's been stolen and is in danger and its a mess for both of them.

idk, I just think that would have been a much better story than the one NRS gave us.

[chalkrevelations]

Oh. Oh.

Oh my god.

So, I have some feelings about the possibility of SA as part of Jiang Cheng’s POW experience once he’s taken back to Lotus Pier by the Wen soldiers - particularly given the way they seem to have played the aftermath of the core melting in CQL.

And I. I also have some feelings about why Mama Lan might have done what she did that got her locked away in the Cloud Recesses. As well as some definite feelings about That Fucker Qingheng-Jun and the fact that an effective captive, who he was apparently fixated on, ended up pregnant - TWICE - while being held in seclusion in the Cloud Recesses.

And now I’m just wondering what happens when Lan Wangji, who hates Jiang Cheng, starts recognizing behaviors from him that are oddly reminiscent of LWJ’s mom’s behaviors. Including things like not wanting to be fucking touched without warning.

Does LWJ even know what was actually up with his mom? How in the fuck does he parse the similarities? (And how does this effect LWJ’s behavior toward JC, even if - especially if - LWJ can’t figure out why he’s reacting in the ways he is? Because, let’s face it, i love LWJ, but his emotional intelligence quotient is in the cellar. That dumbassery is part of what I love about him. That and seeing him get punched in the face by that very dumbassery.)

(ETA: Oh my godddd. Also the way JC would chafe at any weird protectiveness from LWJ. And freak out in his asshole prickly way about the possibility that someone might have figured out what happened ot him. (As if LWJ would actually be able to figure any of this out, lol. JC has convinced himself that LWJ understands anything about what’s going on, and meanwhile LWJ is super clueless about his own emotions and responses, my shocked face, let me show you it ...)

ANYWAY. I want desperately to read this. Particularly - if I’m just going to open the container of cake frosting and eat directly out of it - as Zhangcheng. But I suspect I am nowhere near being able to write it.

: (

[allyricas]

oh my god i could write a whole fucking essay on why both jon x nancy and steve x nancy should not be endgame! and it's not about disliking any one of them, rather seeing the various reasons each pair shouldn't stay together.

okay, come here: jon and nancy are very cute together. they have a lot of undeniable chemistry and similar interests and goals at the start of season 1. it's pretty clear that despite being with steve, nancy is attracted to, or at least intrigued by, jonathan from the start. he fucking took inappropriate pictures of her and she was not offended.

(we could argue this is because the duffer bros are men thus do not really understand how a teenage girl would react to this but that's a rant for another day)

i think jon and nancy are right-person-wrong time-terrible situation. despite the mutual attraction during season 1, they truly fall for each other during all the drama of will being possessed and the mind flayer. there is genuine love, but also trauma bonding.

the issue arises in the core of who they are and what they want out of life. nancy does not understand jonathan very well. jonathan does get her, i think, but doesn't necessarily like her priority on her career. we see this with the whole newspaper dilemma/argument. nancy is headstrong and determined, both good qualities, but she struggles to see how it could affect others at times.

jonathan might feel pressured to take care of will and stick by his family, but he cannot bear to lose them either. he needs will and his mom close after everything that's happened over the years. this means the idea of going away to college sounds terrifying to him at this point in his life. i also think the way he met argyle and went stoner boy is a huge relief for him. he can relax and get high, but wants to be with his family.

oh, but nancy. nancy wheeler. for all that she seems dainty and soft, she is truly a fucking badass. she is not afraid to fight for what she wants or what she believes in. she sees her traditional, nuclear family and she wants so much more. she wants a successful career. she wants to investigate and know the truth. she does not want to be in hawkins. she wants to rise above what society says a girl can be.

she doesn't want to break the glass ceiling, she wants to fucking shatter it. she is nearly cutthroat in her pursuit of what she wants and thinks is right.

she lost her best friend on the night she was losing her virginity to a boy she didn't love. i do not think nancy loved steve, sorry. i think she wanted to and thought she was supposed to but didn't. and this is not meant in a derogatory way towards nancy. she never had to love steve.

so I think there is an element to nancy where she feels she needs to be in a relationship because she's supposed to be, it's what girls should want. she should be jealous of robin because steve used to be her boyfriend. she should stress over her relationship with jon even though he's in california.

i think it's why we see her side of the weird energy with steve in season 4. she is very analytical with things, and she's considering what she is supposed to want, not necessarily what she actually wants which very well could be neither of the boys if she was honest with herself.

nancy needs a partner who is okay with her prioritizing her career, who has their own career, and is okay with needing personal space and not necessarily wanting a family. someone who understands nancy's desires and dreams, recognizes how she needs to find the story and investigate and reveal the truth, that she will do whatever it takes to be successful and she deserves to! that she can have all this and love, but that it won't look like what society said was acceptable for a women in that time.

nancy would be so, so unhappy with steve. she was unhappy with him the first time they dated. she stuck it out it because it felt like a slap in the face to losing barb if it didn't work. but nancy knew deep down it was bullshit. she might have drunkenly spewed those words to steve, but they were just as much about her.

so yeah, nancy and jon without all the trauma, could have been happy. and who knows, maybe in the future they could work out. nancy and steve, trauma or no trauma, would not work. he straight up said he wants a big family. he wants the house, the kids, and a partner to come home to. that is a nightmare for nance. her face said it all in the rv.

“It’s silly but I always had this dream that I’d have this really big family. I’m talking like a full brood of Harringtons, like five, six kids. And every summer I figured all of us Harringtons, we would pack into something like this and just see the country. You know, the Rockies, Grand Canyon, maybe Yellowstone. End up in some beachside town in California, spend a week parked in the sand. Learn how to surf or something.”

we can argue whether steve's parents are just a little absent or like fully negligent assholes but either way, he wants what he didn't have. wants to create his own family and do it the right way. he wants a big family with lots of people to nurture and love. i don't even think nancy would necessarily want to take her spouse's last name whereas steve would very much want that.

steve's desire for family is intrinsic to who he is. it's why he carts around dustin and the kids. why he worries for them and throws himself into danger for them despite barely knowing them in season 2. it's why robin made her way into his heart so easily. steve wants to be loved, wants to be needed and does want to love others in return.

he may not seem to have big aspirations in terms of college or a career but what he does aspire to is just as important as any other dream.

it's interesting that he doesn't just say he wants a big family but instead, makes sure to emphasize that he wants a big family that are close and spent time together. he wants to cram the whole gang in a damn winnebago and travel together. his dream is no less important than nancy's but it is totally incompatible.

i think steve regressed in season 4 because he was scared. the idea of fighting vecna and not having someone to love romantically made steve fall back on his old feelings for nancy. because steve said himself he was over her. he'd been dating. actively trying to find someone.

it was the circumstance that led to the weirdness between them.

if you follow me, then you know steve harrington is like my ride or die. i think he's maybe my favorite character of all time. so true, i do not want to see him with someone who called him bullshit and was obviously moving on emotionally with another guy while still dating steve.

(i personally don't think she cheated on him, but considered that moment the break up. even if it she did cheat on him, i love nancy. she was a teenager who'd lost her best friend and was dealing with a ton of shit and it doesn't make her bad even if she had cheated.)

all three deserve happy endings that suit who they are and where they are it. i really hope that we get to see that reflected in vol. 5.

[twidash-ftw-blysse]

Time is Losing His Shit and Malon is Confused.

3.1k words

In which Time is losing his shit and Malon is confused! Malon goes on a journey to understand the conflict surrounding one of Wild's very peculiar sets.

An AU where the Fierce Dadity- uh- I mean- Deity is stuck in Wild's head.

CW for panic attacks and mental breakdowns.

Wild was wearing that damned set again. While Time normally didn’t mind Wild’s casual shift of clothes every once in a while, this set in particular bothered him.

Time sat next to a river that was located near his house. He watched as his boys cleaned off in the small river. They had decided to take a small rest before they made their way towards his house. Time, while he was excited to see his wife, recognized his boys deserved a bit of a break after all the fighting they had done in the past few hours. Time sighed as he noticed a few of his boys’ eyes landing on him after they noticed what Wild was doing. Time glanced at his reflection in the water, his tattoos and eye stood out starkly on his pale skin.

He glanced back at Wild who wore the face of the deity who tortured him and who wore a face similar to his now. Though this was not actually Wild in their presence. Wild was wearing a set in the image of the Fierce Deity, but not only was it in the image of it, it was also possessed by the deity itself.

When they first met Wild they had been begging him not to listen to it, but each plea seemingly fell on deaf ears. Time worried he was far too late for reason, but then Wild had taken the set off and he seemed like a completely normal kid. Time tired to address it, but Wild just stared at him and then turned away and he was honestly too scared to interact with the deity. In fact any time it was in control of Wild’s body Time glared at anyone who thought it was a good idea to approach the god.

Wind and Twilight were the only ones who seemed to completely ignore his concerns which was not unlike Wind but was definitely unlike Twilight.

Time remembers the night they argued over it…

“Twilight,” Time greeted his student curtly. He had been waiting to he the other alone for weeks now.

Twilight glanced towards Time with an unusually dangerous glint in his eyes but did not answer. Time took this as a que to keep speaking.

“You keep talking to it,” Time said coolly, leaning against a tree to try to hide his trembling limbs.

“You mean the deity?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Twilight be careful. It’s dangerous. It might be trying to trick you too-!” Time refused to let himself cry. “I can’t let it hurt TWO of my boys.”

Twilight’s brows lowered into a grimance.

“Time... I know what happened to you was traumatic,” Twilight started, “but he seems harmless. He’s only been of help to us. Even when nobody was looking.”

“Can you not see how it’s trying to manipulate you!?” Time let his anger and panic slip his perfect façade, “it is just trying to make sure it has someone to protect it so that it can keep using Wild!”

“Time. Wild has told me that he is a good man.” Twilight stated calmly.

“Man!? It’s not even Hylian!” Time was started to spiral, and his trembling became visible. He hasn’t felt this vulnerable in a long time.

The world faded into swirls and blurs and his senses dulled until he felt strong hands pull his mind back into focus. As he became aware again the first thing he realized was that he was crying and the second thing he noticed was his student’s arms around him. Gentle, but firm. It was an odd feeling being held like this when he was a grown man and hadn’t needed grounding like this since he was small.

“That’s it, Time, Breathe.” Twilight rumbled, “I’m not letting nobody trick me I promise you.”

…

Time came back to reality as his eyes shifted to the deity practicing with its cursed double helix sword. Time grimaced as he worried how his wife might react. She knew all of his adventures and how this deity traumatized him to his core. This new hero bringing the same deity to his own home would no doubt terrify her, not for her sake. She was strong and could likely take down a god if she had to, Time had no doubts, but she would be terrified for Time and for Wild. Time couldn’t have that. So, with his mind made up he approached the deity, limbs shaking, but face stone cold.

It stopped its sword practice as he was only a few paces away. Time stopped a with a good safe distance between them.

“What is it you wish to see me for little one?” It asked, sugary sweet in a voice not unlike Wild’s but still incredibly wrong.

Time ignored it and looked into its eyes, trying to find Wild in the ocean of milky white.

“Wild I don’t know if you can hear me. You know I don’t interfere much with the wearing of this set,” though he’d wished he could. Wild was adamant in wearing it and every time they tried to steal it from him, Wild was quick to react. “But please we are returning to my home and my wife knows all about this mask. Please I beg of you to refrain wearing this set around my house as to not terrify my wife.”

The body of Wild seemed to still for a few moments.

“Very well, sweet child,” it said. Then Wild was pulling off the set and changing into his usual clothes.

Not another word was said as they set off for Time’s house, but Time’s hope for helping Wild reignited after that show of clarity from Wild.

***

Time sighed as he sat on his bed. His very comfortable and inviting looking bed, but his mind was crowded by thoughts of Wild and the deity. He had hope that being at the farm would allow Wild’s head to clear as he seems to respect Time’s wishes over whatever sugary lies the deity is feeding him. Still, he is scared for his boy, even if they had only known Wild for a month. He sees himself in Wild, so dependent on it that he feels the need to wear it even outside of battle. Though Time had never let it get that far.

A tear escaped his eye as he crumbled under the pressure and was in a safe place. He allowed himself the silently break down over this poor child.

“Link… What’s wrong, sugar?” The voice of his wife drifted into his crumbling world, and he felt her arms circle around him. He leaned into her as he cried.

Eventually when he was calm enough, he explained the story of their newest member, which Malon had taken a quick liking to. She looked horrified as she heard the details.

“He really wears it for no reason…?” She asks breathlessly. Time nods silently. “Poor sugar baby. Perhaps we can help?”

Time sighed, “he seems to respect my wishes not to wear it in my own home, so I’m hoping if we can stay here for a few days some clarity will return to him.”

Malon rubbed his back. “Oh honey… Maybe I can ask him why he wants to wear it, maybe that can give us clues as to what it is telling him?”

Time had honestly been too scared to ask Wild, but he also doesn’t want his wife to do it.

“Oh no! I know that look!” Malon crossed her arms and pouted.

“What?!” Time out his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t even say anything,”

“I lnow how you think. You don’t want me to because you think it will lash out at me,” Malon said. Time went silent. She wasn’t wrong.

“I can handle myself, sugar. You know that” Malon assured him as her hand came to rest on his and she looked him in the eye. “But Wild is a good kid and if he respects your wish to not wear the set around the house, then he will not let it harm me.”

That was a lot of confidence in someone she had just met, but he did have a great judge of character, Time thought to himself.

His muscles relaxed as she rubbed gentle circles on his back. “Okay Malon, I trust you.”

With that settled, the two lovers settled into bed. Though Time tossed and turned the whole night despite being in his own comfortable bed.

***

When the morning came, Malon was surprised to see Wild already up.

“Oh, good morning sugar baby!” Malon greeted as she saw him upon entering the kitchen.

Wild preened under the nickname and Malon’s clear love.

“Morning miss.” Wild replied in kind.

“Mind if I ask you for a helping hand for making breakfast?” Malon began to busy herself pulling pots and pans from the shelves and wall hooks. Wild nodded eagerly.

“Can you cut the potatoes, dear?” Malon handed him a knife and cutting board and then began to pull out eggs from the ice box.

Wild quickly began chopping a few potatoes into squares. Malon hummed as she prepared the kitchen to cook eggs.

“So…” Malon trailed off, “Link told me about the Fierce Deity set.”

Wild’s eyes met hers, but they were not unkind. Malon took this as a sign she could continue.

“I just wanted to ask... What made you want to wear the set?” Wild’s eyes widened.

“None of the boys have asked me that,” was the first thing out of Wild’s mouth.

“Well, I’d be delighted to listen sugar baby!” Malon beamed as she cracked the eggs.

“Well... it’s a long story,” Wild said quietly.

Malon laughed a hearty laugh, “please you could talk my ear off no more than my husband could. He may seem like a closed book, but he does indulge in his adventures to me. I have all day to listen.”

Wild hummed.

***

‘Are you stupid?’

Link ignored this voice of reason as he lined up his arrow with a bomb barrel.

‘You’re going to explode yourself.’

Link huffed and rolled his shoulder as if to shake away this annoying sense of self-preservation. He loosed the arrow shortly after and lo and behold the next thing he remembers is seeing Mipha above him. He groaned.

‘I told you little one.’

Link tried to glower at his forehead, but he couldn’t do this simply for the fact that it was part of his face. Not that it would have helped.

‘Please don’t embarrass yourself.’

“Just shut up already!” Link shouted, finally tired of this tireless voice. It had been hounding him since the start of his adventure and honestly, he was starting to think about jumping off a cliff.

‘Quiet down little warrior! The monsters will...’ A horn bellowed from below Link’s perch. ‘…Hear you…’

“No shit.” Link growled as he jumped into action, slaughtering the beasts with practiced ease. It did not take him long before the camp was taken out. “Look I don’t know what or who you are, but you need to get out of my head!”

‘I am just as much unwilling as you are little one.’ The entity said calmly. This jolted a small realization into Link.

“Are you trapped like Zelda is?” Link asked sympathetically.

‘You could say that… Though it seems I am tied to you rather than that beast.’

***

“And that was how I realized the deity wasn’t just a voice in my head,” Wild summarized. “I figured he must be like Zelda if he was speaking to me in a similar way. Though I had no idea he was attached to me.”

Malon gaped, “so that means you can hear him even without the set on?”

Wild nodded, “but our connection is stronger with the set and with the set, he can take control of my body and experience sensations again.”

Malon grimaced but tried to hide it with a weak smile. So, this boy was always under the influence of it? Link would not be happy to hear this, but it was important to know.

Thankfully Wild, did not seem to notice her grimace. “But then how did you discover how it could use the set?”

Wild hummed in thought. “It’s kind of funny actually.”

***

Link admired his reflection in the surface of the lake. He looked super cool! The facial markings along with the white outfit made him look ethereal. Not just that, but Link could have sworn he heard Kilton say something about a massive power up.

‘This is me, child.’

Link looked on in awe. His friend truly did look like a true warrior god.

‘Though the features are sometimes dependent upon the wearer.’

“Does it actually have a power boost?” Link asked in curiosity.

The deity sighed in his head. ‘I feel if I tell you this you may do something stupid, but yes it does.’

Link got a shit-eating grin on his face as he looked at his reflection. The deity groaned tiredly.

‘Little one, no.’

Link shrugged and opened his map.

The inseparable pair soon found themselves near a large monster camp with explosive barrels. Link knocked an arrow, but suddenly he could not move to release the arrow.

“Huh…” His voiced hummed, even though he made no move to do so. Link felt his body get pulled along with the actions of someone else. His body pulled out the double helix sword from his slate, that the deity cherished so much.

“Even though this is a replica, it will do for now,” His voice rumbled, but it was not his. It was deeper and more guttural. Warmth spread through Link, but his own warmth as he suddenly and delightfully realized that the one controlling his body was the deity. It lifted a weight of fear off his chest as he trusted his friend. He let his body be pulled into a swift and short-lived fight. The fighting style was like nothing he had ever seen, and the god seemed to take down multiple monsters at once.

When Link regained movement to his body and all the monsters were slain, he felt a rush of adrenaline that was not there before. He laughed giddily.

‘I... I apologize, Link.’

Link had never heard the deity sound so serious. He felt confused by the apology, He knew that before the deity had taken over previous heroes’ bodies. He did not understand the problem.

‘I didn’t mean to take control of you like that. I didn’t know I could, but I was overwhelmed by the urge to protect you from your stupid childish behavior and then… I could suddenly feel again.’

“It’s okay… You didn’t know,” Link reassured him, but even as he reassured him a thought occurred to him. Just how long had the deity gone without feeling any sort of sensations or experiencing the nature of the world. In that moment Link made up his mind.

“What if… I just let you have control when I wear the set?” Link offered. The deity was seemingly stunned into silence. “It’s not right that you are just trapped there.”

The Fierce Deity seemed to smile, ‘I think that would be nice. Thank you for offering little one.’

***

“And ever since then I’ve let Deity have his deserved time in a real body.” Wild said firmly.

Breakfast was almost fully made as Malon started setting the table.

“That’s quite a lot…” Malon said.

“This is what Time does not understand or does not want to understand,” Wild looked into Malon’s eyes, still kind but firm. Seems he’s known from the beginning this was a ploy to get more information on the Deity.

“I know he was traumatized by his use of Deity’s mask, but truth be told… Deity is unsure what happened with Time. He thought he did good, and he feels terrible about it,” Wild sighed. “Deity views all the Links as his children, and he’s never done anything to harm me.”

“In fact, he’s stopped me from being reckless more often than not,” Wild grumbled.

Malon was miffed at theses admissions. She wasn’t sure what the think. She wanted to side with her husband, but everything from Wild’s posturing and expression screamed the truth. It could also be that Wild believed this to be true to his core even if it wasn’t. She needed a second opinion.

“Hm... Wild could you wake the boys up? Breakfast is ready.” She ended the conversation there.

***

Malon approached Twilight as he tended to the horses on his lonesome. She figured Twilight would be a good bet. He was honest, nice, and close to Time and Wild. Though the biggest plus in talking to him was that he was NOT Time or Wild. He could give an entirely unbiased opinion.

“Howdy ma’am,” Twilight smiled as she approached.

Malon smiled. “Hello sugar baby.”

Malon grabbed a brush and started to brush on one of her dearest horses. “I have a question.”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “And what might that be?”

“It is about the Fierce Deity set and Wild…” Malon admitted hurriedly. “Link had a breakdown over it last night, my poor darling, and I resolved to speak to Wild this morning. Both stories are very opposed to one another.”

“I’ll admit even I never asked why Wild decided he needed to wear the set, but I reckoned he had his reasons,” Twilight started to free his brush of horse hair.

“Well Wild is insistent upon his usage of the set as a way for the Deity to be connected with his senses again, but I have my doubts.” Malon relayed. “Wild is being completely honest.”

“But you’re worried he is just being manipulated.”

Malon nodded curtly.

“Well, I can ease your mind right quick.” Twilight assured. “I thought this too as that is what Time and Warriors told all of us, but I observed the Deity and even when he had no eyes upon him, he never did no harm.”

Malon felt tension release in her shoulders. Her boys appeared to be safe.

“I never did have any problems with the guy. He seems more like an overgrown puppy than a god,” Twilight proceeded to grumble the last part, “and I would know.”

“Well then what do we tell Link…?” Malon wondered aloud.

Twilight shrugged. “One day he’ll come to terms with it. No reasoning will get through his trauma fogged mind.”

Malon felt he was saying this from experience, and she knew her own husband well. He could be VERY stubborn.

Yet, she still couldn’t let this go without trying.

Time had no idea the storm that was about to hit him.