#wheel of time ideas

[farmergilesofham]

On Halfmen

So, Myrddraal.

The way they're technically described in the books is as 'eyeless' in the sense of 'there is naught but skin over where eyes should be', but I don't like that.

Don't get me wrong, in the 90s that was a (reasonably) novel monster look, but nowadays it's been done to death and back - and besides that, even with the mentions of "pale skin where eyes should be", it is not what I imagined the first two times I read the series.

The Fades/Myrddraal/Halfmen/Eyeless/Lurks/Fetches/Nightrunners were made through human experimentation using the extra-dimensional magic of the Dark One, and it would be far more fitting if they more obviously looked like tortured corpses - grim, yes, but accurate to the books (Lan says at some point that in making Fades, the human strain and Dark One's magic are both made stronger).

The way I imagined them then, and belligerently continue to imagine them now, is as otherwise-ordinary-looking humans, with the signature waxy skin, but with tar-spattered hollows where eyes once were. It adds, in my opinion, to the body horror of the Wheel of Time when the monsters don't just look like generic monsters: looked at intently for a few moments they, instead, begin to look a bit too human. Also, a bit easier on anyone trying to adapt them to screen.

The same goes for Daghkar - they're often shown in art as these quasi-vampiric creatures, but I always saw them as oversized, pale dimorphodon/toothed pterosaur looking things, except that they look more like something out of All Tomorrows, as the only genetic material being used to make them was that of regular humans.

Trollocs are already described as well as they could be, with their grotesque, twisted features framing too-human eyes and their animal calls being twinged with the flavour of a human scream.

As for Shaidar Haran, I thought it would be extra neat if, on top of just being a Very Tall Halfman, it also had tiny points of white light fixed just in front of the ruined eye sockets, never moving in any expressive manner in order to highlight that yeah, those probably aren't eyes the way we understand them.

[illuminchim]

MDZS Kingsman AU.

Is Wen Ning third wheeling? Yes, of course… someone save him

[egophiliac]

I can't believe the next Sentai is about FAMILY

this is the fast and furious/speed racer crossover we never knew we needed. do you think their wheels spin? I hope their wheels spin.

[halcyon-autumn]

Suian thinking they’d be better off if the Dragon were a girl is so funny. Like Suian, babe, I love you wholeheartedly but you would not have an easier time with EGWENE AL’VERE as your prophesied savior I promise. Sure you don’t have to worry about her going insane, but Egwene is so stubborn she’s resisting an empire that’s spent a thousand years perfecting indoctrination. Egwene once threatened a full-fledged sister because she blamed her for Nynaeve’s death. Egwene would say “I am going to get a good grade in ‘being the prophesied savior who will either save or destroy the world,’ something that’s normal to want and possible to achieve” and then start fucking the shit up of everyone she doesn’t like - INCLUDING everyone she doesn’t like in the White Tower. And keep in mind, her best friends are 1.) Nynaeve al’Meare, human embodiment of the “I’m a healer but…” meme, and 2.) Elayne Trakand, the heir to the throne of the most powerful country on the continent who knows Egwene for two days and then is so ride or die for her that she tries to follow her out of the Tower and then starts attacking the “women who enslave channelers” crew with a stick. You would not have a chill time with a Dragon!Egwene au I promise you that.

[imgonnaeditstuff]

I have to remember her name, not the name they've put on her.

[commanderwindy]

Swap Au but Linked Universe :D

credits to the wheel for choosing it not me. Love you wheel

[mariyekos]

Can't remember if I've talked about it here or just in fic wips, but I like to HC that Dante is Actually Cursed levels of unlucky. Like, it isn't just that he *seems* kind of unlucky based on his circumstances, he's "loses 85% of the time on a 50% chance" kind of unlucky. He *will* consistently get tails 8 or 9 times out of 10 when flipping a coin and trying to get heads, or rolll a 1 or 2 five times in a row when playing a game where you want to high roll (reasons to destroy the DMC4 Dice, anyone?)

Lady and Trish actually discretely kept track a few times and did the math to come up with this number before telling him. They noticed it mostly applied to things that depend on pure luck/random chance like games with draws and rolls and so on, but he's had enough weird cases of being dealt a bad hand by fate that they're pretty sure it impacts everything to some extent. Dante mostly takes it in stride though, deciding that there's nothing he can do about it so he'll just do as he pleases. So what if he has crummy luck; he'll make up for it with skill. Or just take advantage of it. Maybe at some point he and the ladies go to a bar where they egg him into joining a game where they bet against him because it's pretty much guaranteed he'll lose and they'll profit big time. (Unless of course the "bad luck" comes in the form of him doing uncharacteristically well to the point that Lady and Trish lose their money because Dante suddenly couldn't stop rolling 6s. Bad luck comes in many forms, and some of them can seem good on the surface!)

Nero, on the other hand, is a "wins 70% of the time on a 50% chance" kind of guy because a ton of his skills are named after gambling stuff. Yes Dante has the Jackpot phrase, but otherwise he doesn't have the same sort of skill list so I think it would be hilarious if both Dante and Vergil have terrible luck while Nero's somehow wraps around to being pretty lucky. I think Dante would find it funny while Vergil would (not-so-) secretly be jealous.

[ace-and-ranty]

The fun part about being a show only is that, if you are even a little bit chill with spoilers, you can just read everything the book fans are saying in the tags. I do it all the time. It's fascinating. I have no idea what the FUCK y'all are on about.

[kiddoblues]

I had this little doll of Moiraine made last year but never posted her because fandoms intimidate me, but I thought I might as well post her now because I love her and I want people to look at her

please also appreciate the lengths I went to to set up the tea party picture. I'm an adult I swear

She was made by LittleNerds who was super nice and I totally recommend her 💙

[zei-ord-art]

Make no weapon with which one person may kill another

[markantonys]

the implications that show!mat being a hero of the horn has on cauthor have not yet been fully explored! because i'm 90% sure the dragon is also a hero of the horn or hero-adjacent, which would mean mat's and rand's souls are eternally linked to each other in that way. do they get to hang out together in TAR between lifetimes? at the very least, mat would be hanging out in TAR so even though he has a normal non-channeler lifespan and will die before his channeler loved ones, the wondergirls can still visit him in TAR after he dies (rand too if he retains his channeler long lifespan post-TLB idk) and tell him all about how the avimatrandlayne great-grandkids are doing. mat can protect the great-grandkids and all their descendants in their dreams like birgitte does!!!!

also, maybe mat and rand have been born at the same time in other lifetimes too, and will be again! maybe they've saved the world together infinite times! maybe when it's amaresu's soul's turn to save the world, she will call the heroes to fight with her and mat's and rand's souls will show up together as a Battle Couple! maybe the first time mat talks about rand to birgitte in this life she's like "oh i see nothing's changed" "what?" "you're in love with the dragon in every lifetime" "WHAT"

in conclusion, move over birgitte and gaidal, we've got a new pair of Hero Of The Horn Soulmates in town.

[asha-mage]

[jaqobis]

[twicetolivetwicetodie]

This is about comics, but the way people act about book adaptations literally drives me insane

[flo-n-flon]

"Moiraine could not help smiling back. Siuan had that gift, making her smile when she wanted to frown and laugh when she wanted to weep."

— New Spring, Robert Jordan

[total-drama-brainrot]

This Alenoaheather AU is bringing me an unholy amount of serotonin and I love it- I’m still just now discovering it and I wish I knew about it sooner😭😭 But question if I may!

So, by the time Noah gets eliminated, where would you say his relationship lies with Alejandro and Heather? Like, does he leave the competition like, “You both tried to play each other, but I ended up playing the both of you, L” Like does he just think that Alejandro and Heather only romantically like each other, and he was just their attempt at emotionally manipulating one another, or does he at least have an idea that they potentially may feel romantically towards him? Honestly I’m just curious about how his elimination would play out between the three of them-

I'm glad other people are enjoying this AU as much as I am. Me and Perp are slowly spreading our Alenoaheather propaganda and it's working.

It's been established that Noah's elimination in this AU will take place at some point in the early post-merge game, probably either China or the Serengeti (though Niagara Falls might work too. We haven't exactly touched on how each challenge can/will play out since this whole concept has been put on the backburner), which gives his dynamic with Heather and Alejandro time to blossom from the initial double fake dating ploy into something more genuine.

Well before his elimination, Noah's been caught in his double-crossing ways; or to be more accurate triple-crossing, since Noah initially decided to play along with both Heather and Alejandro's schemes with the intention of throwing them both under the bus (or at least reaping all of the benefits for himself). But, by the time his ploy is figured out, the three of them have developed genuine feelings for each other.

As such, Heather and Alejandro are hesitant to have him eliminated; sure Noah somehow managing to pull the wool over their eyes for as long as he did was infuriating, but it was also impressive. Like recognises like, and the two biggest schemers in the game can appreciate when they've been outplayed, aggravating as it is, especially when the person who bested them essentially used their own trickery against them. Also, though the two of them would never admit it, both Heather and Alejandro know that they'd honestly miss Noah's caustic company.

Of course, at this point in the competition Heather and Alejandro are still deep in their "rivalry" phase, so it takes the two of them a very convoluted and overcomplicated conversation to figure out that they both share the same sentiment concerning a certain cynic- since every encounter they have with each other is practically a game of backhanded compliments and dancing around the true meaning of their words. It takes even longer for them to come to an agreement, given how stubborn the both of them can be, but eventually they manage to co-operate.

Which is what leads to The Confrontation, the point in the story where the two fake dating plots merge into Heather and Alejandro putting aside their differences to rule the game together, utilizing Noah as their shared right hand man since he's shown a knack for strategy and subterfuge. After all, why would they want to get rid of the one person on the jet who's able to go toe-to-toe with them in terms of scheming, when they can instead keep him around as an accomplice?

At least, that's the excuse they both use. But the two of them internally can't deny that, even if it was all pretend, Noah wasn't a bad "boyfriend" by any means, and they genuinely enjoy his company. In turn, Noah's accepted that neither Heather nor Alejandro are as insufferable as he initially assumed, and that playing along with their grand plots is actually really fun. (And maybe he also likes the two of them, but Noah would never admit that.)

But there's a a whole cast's worth of people on the jet who the trio also have to consider in their plans; it would be super suspicious of all three of them if the flirting and Aleheather's animosity suddenly ceased. No matter how oblivious the rest of the competitors are, a sudden public change in their dynamic would be the equivalent of waving a huge red flag and screaming "hey, we're in an alliance, vote us out!" Very counterintuitive to their goal of winning the competition.

So the three of them resolve to act as they have been during challenges, and sneak off to the confessional when it's most convenient/feasible to do so, where they can plot and scheme away from the rest of the cast.

This means that, at least to everyone else in the game, Noah's still in this weird grey area where he's actively flirting with both Heather and Alejandro. Or, well, "flirting", since I imagine most of the advances would be initiated by the other party and Noah would play the part of the blushing damsel- or more accurately the begrudging but highly amused recipient, since I just can't conceptualise snarky, stoic Noah being the type to get flustered easily.

I imagine The Confrontation would happen somewhere around London timeline wise (it just feels like the most appropriate place to have a major shift in the plot happen, for obvious reasons), which would give the initial fake dating aspect of the AU time to run it's course without getting stale, and allow the three of them to establish their dynamic as a trio before the merge hits. It'd give Alenoaheather around five or six episodes worth of time to grow closer as a trio (from Greece's Pieces to Niagara Brawls, at least) and have their feelings grow and develop at a natural pace, to the point where they acknowledge that, perhaps, not all of the romantic tension between them is fake.

And then, of course, the Fake Cheating Arc happens. Noah's elimination is the catalyst for this section of the plot, which Perp and myself touched on pretty heavily in one of our reblog chains, and at this point in the story Alenoaheather are in a sort of vague kind-of-dating situation; the three of them know there's feelings there, but they're all more invested in the competition (and their manipulation of such) than trying to figure out what exactly is going on between them. Plus, World Tour takes place in 2010- concepts like polyamory weren't exactly common knowledge back then, so the three of them wouldn't have any basis of comparison for what their dynamic is/would be.

That, and the three of them are all fairly emotionally closed off, so getting them to admit genuine feelings for each other and show vulnerableness to anyone would be like pulling teeth. As it stands, they're fairly content to continue acting as a Trickster Trio, contented to leave whatever's going on between them unlabelled for the time being in favour of focusing their time and energy on winning the million. There's an unspoken understanding between the three of them; what they have is special, inconceptual and indescribable by mere words... which is mostly just an excuse for the three of them not to breach the subject, since they have the collective emotional intelligence of a spork.

That doesn't mean they don't love each other. Because they do, even if some of them (Heather and Alejandro) aren't exactly familiar with concepts like "unconditional love" and "loyalty/compassion for someone besides yourself" and "lowering your emotional walls and being the most genuine version of yourself in front of the people who care about you". It's a steep learning curve, but they're doing their best.

But that's besides the point; at this point in the plot, the trio are essentially a throuple in all but name at the point of Noah's elimination.

That's why his suggestion of playing off of his "cheating" is initially met with hesitance on Aleheather's part- they don't want the one person on the jet (besides each other) they actually care about to risk his reputation, but they also know that it's a strategically sound idea. There's a conflict of interest between their desire to win the competition by any means necessary, and the budding sense of empathy they've both began to develop as a result of their situationship.

Of course, they eventually agree to his plan, and then the whole Cheating Arc plays out as it's been explored previously.

Which means Noah's actual elimination ceremony is a very tense affair.

He's intentionally playing himself up as kind of a scumbag during it, since he wants both Heather and Alejandro to appear as sympathetic as possible to the remaining competitors, so the three of them stage an altercation during that day's challenge where Noah's caught out in his "cheating", and consequently "admits" that he's been playing the two of them and it's all ingenuine on his part, to direct the majority vote against him. It'd kill two birds with one stone that way; Noah gets himself eliminated without having to do much out of the ordinary, since he's already kind of an asshole so all he really has to do is play up that aspect of himself a little and lie about manipulating his partners, meanwhile Heather and Alejandro can reap the benefits of whatever brownie points they gain from being his "victims" by using their own manipulative prowess to adopt the role of the ex-villains, redeemed by their shared heartbreak. Or something equally melodramatic.

Noah doesn't really care about the specifics of it, he'll be long gone before his partners can start playing up their "betrayal and heartbreak", and then soon enough one of them will win the competition. And spoil him rotten with their money.

So, during the actual ceremony, Noah becomes persona non grata. No one wants to sit anywhere near him on the benches, and the remaining cast members form a protective wall between him and a distraught Heather, who sniffles back quiet tears every time her eyes wander too close to the cynic's slouching, impassive frame, and Alejandro who's sat eerily still and taut with disgraced fury, who's fiery green eyes haven't strayed from the burning glare he's shooting towards the bookworm.

Not that Noah's a stranger to receiving glares; the rest of the cast are also shooting him some downright murderous looks. Though he is impressed by his partners' acting abilities. He's also physically biting back pearls of laughter- the gritting of his teeth only serves to make him look unapologetically indignant, and thus more irredeemable in the eyes of their company- because every time Alejandro knows that no one's focus is on him, he sends his cerebral partner a cheeky wink and a smirk. The smug bastard.

Unsurprisingly, the vote is fairly unanimous. Chris doesn't even bother trying to raise suspense or tension by counting the votes, since the result is inevitable. That, and the atmosphere is already so tense and dramatic, the host is revelling in it. Chris even goes so far as complimenting Noah for outshining Duncan's cheating fiasco, showing the audience "what real relationship drama looks like", and maybe even congratulating Noah on almost being as heartless as he is.

He's escorted to the Drop of Shame, parachute backpack in tow, but before he can take the plunge he glances back at his audience. A raging sea of hostility greets him, but within the depths of animosity two shining beacons of light greet him. Alejandro and Heather shoot him a fleeting wave, the ghosts of smiles flickering across their features before they continue their flawless acts, but it's enough to reassure Noah that everything will be fine.

(Spoiler alert, things don't end up being fine for Noah.)

Of course this is all just an idea I'm spewing out. Nothing in this AU is set in concrete and it's always open to peer review or change. That's the beauty of public AUs; you can do whatever you want with them!