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#which like. is it for everyone? obviously not. is the creator good? Obviously Not.
garden-of-seraphim · 8 months
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fuck it im gonna be brave and share some of my secret blorbos. i (unfortunately) have fallen victim to h*zbin h*tel (censored so it won't show up in searches and shit) (also thats partly a lie i liked the pilot when it first came out then promptly forgot about its existence) and have like 10 goddamn f/os from it
now. to be clear. i do *not* support or like v*vziepop (censored again for the same reason). idk all the details but ive heard a handful of loose things and i want it to be known that i don't like *her*, just the shows she's made. i am capable of being critical of the art i consume, god knows HH isn't the only rough media im a fan of (rough both in terms of the show itself and of the creator(s)), so it's not like im ignoring the flaws of this show. im just a sucker for a lot of the tropes and a majority of the cast for this show and also the music fucks hard.
it's not like this show is much different from or worse than other kinda shitty media ive f/o'd from, but due to its current popularity its gotten a lot more hate than. like. r*d dw*rf or 3 bl*nd sa*nts (censored part 3 same reasons sorry) (also if you know those things holy shit hi).
anyways. yeah. not gonna be upset if anyone unfollows over this i get it i have media id do the same over. just like. don't be a dick and send me hate over it or accuse me of shit, it's a dumb but interesting show, there's not anything more to this. the only tag i have for any of my f/os from this show so far is ×deerly beloved so if you wanna avoid me talking abt or thinking abt this show that's the tag to block.
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i do see a lot of interesting takes on here about other social media which i feel are heavily influenced by the fact that lots of people on this website maybe don't have many friends
#if ur perception of instagram is just 'influencers' and 'content creators' then i'm sorry for you#obviously i'm not saying it's without problems but#using instagram as a way to stay in contact with and keep up with your friends is really no different from doing that on tumblr#and if u think it is then either you don't use ig at all or you just don't have any friends on there#there's this odd sense of superiority these kinds of posts often espouse#that the poster is better than people who use social media (apart from tumblr which we all know has no problems whatsover...)#i feel like a major part of any social media is curating your own experience#and people know how to do that on tumblr (which why i'm usually blissfully unaware of insane discourse happening elsewhere on this site)#but for some reason think they don't have to do that on other social media sites and then complain about their experiences there?#if you don't want to see posts from influencers on ig then........ don't follow influencers?#just follow your friends and only let your friends follow you and post whatever you want#ik this is coming across as mean and i'm obviously not saying that you *have* to use ig or that you should#but to post unironically and uncritically about how *everyone* on *every* social media other than tumblr#is a clout-chasing ungenuine idiot who lives only to follow trends create content and lie about their life online#is being completely ignorant about the way most people use other social media sites - as. you know. SOCIAL media#which there is nothing wrong with#anyway i basically just saw a post abt this that pissed me off sorry for the rant lmao#but i do have a lot of thoughts abt this topic and about the good uses of social media in society in general#🧃
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tunafruitt · 8 months
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--> ||❝ The Creator has a.. LOVER?! ❞
SAGAU || Warnings: fluff, gender neutral reader
[ The people of Teyvat find out their grace has been romantically involved with someone for a while now.. what do they think about it? ]
Character(s): NEUVILLETTE, ZHONGLI
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-> [ NEUVILLETTE ]
“Oh, the Iudex of Fontaine is the creator’s chosen suitor? Okay.. He’s a qualified and accomplished man. I can see why the creator chose someone like him.”
With the one and only hydro dragon sovereign stuck to your side at all times, it was no surprise to anyone that the two of you had gotten close. But the creator falling in love with him?? That’s different.
Of course, the people of Teyvat had all wished to have a chance with you. And of course, everyone knew it was impossible… but hope is a good thing right? They knew the day would come though, just not so soon..
When the people found out that the Creator had someone they loved more than the usual “I love all of Teyvat equally and platonically.” EVERYONE WENT CRAZY. What do you mean the creator has a LOVER? What do you mean they’ve probably kissed. WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS THE IUDEX OF FONTAINE????
Nevertheless, no one was actually disappointed. They had heard you talk about him through the screen even before you descended to Teyvat. They were glad you were happy… I guess (though they wish it was with them.) Fontaine obviously took pride in having the creator spend a lot of their time residing there, even more pride in the fact that you were romantically involved with a citizen of Fontaine.
─━━ ꯭  ───ׂ─ִ─  ͜͡✿͜͡  ─ִ──ׂ──  ꯭  ━━ִ─
Neuvillette wasn’t quite sure how to react to all of the publicity the news had gotten. Every time the two of you go out together he feels the stares coming from the people around you. The stares weren’t the usual stares he got when he was doing a court trial.. they felt new to him. He was glad that he was at least able to say more affectionate words to you out in public though!
“Monsieur Neuvillette! I’ve heard the recent news.. haha.. so, how’s it being with the Creator? Bet you feel real lucky, huh.“
“I would consider myself lucky to be with Y/N. I feel that no amount of love give—“
“Y/N???? I-I MEAN— YOU’RE ON A FIRST NAME BASIS WITH YOUR GRACE?!”
“I am. Now, if I may continue…”
When he’s not actively working and someone asks him about you, he could yap about you for HOURS. So much to the point people avoid bringing you up even in non-professional events. He’s literally lovestruck. Heart eyes when he looks at you and everything. (everyone’s secretly side-eyeing him… out of jealousy.)
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-> [ ZHONGLI ]
“Hm.. The Wangsheng Funeral Consultant..? He is quite a handsome man, but is that all? Of course we respect him! It’s just that.. I expected the Creator’s suitor to be an Archon or something. But if that’s what the creator wants, we should respect their choice right?”
The people of Liyue had begun to put the pieces together. No wonder you were always visiting the Funeral Parlor.. wait, were the times that the both of you were spotted together at Iron Tongue Tian’s Stall listening to the telling of old stories.. DATES?? How could they have only just now realized…
Well, now that the news is out at least you can comfortably hold his hand outside of the Parlor! Not everyone is completely happy with this though.. Who might that be? The other archons of course! They all took pride in being among some of the closest beings in Teyvat to you, but now that they weren’t all equally close to you, feelings of jealousy began to rise.
Zhongli secretly felt smug about that though. I mean, of course anyone would. Being the Creator’s lover is probably the biggest flex in all of Teyvat!! Only certain people are able to even be close to the Creator, not to mention TOUCH them. (which are the playable characters.) Oh, and doing affectionate things like lovers do WITH THE CREATOR?? The things people would do to be in Zhongli’s place.
─━━ ꯭  ───ׂ─ִ─  ͜͡✿͜͡  ─ִ──ׂ──  ꯭  ━━ִ─
You and Zhongli were taking a walk in the city of Liyue as you always do. There was a cool breeze and the orange lights coming from the food stalls gave the atmosphere a comfortable, warm feeling. You looked back at Zhongli who had already been staring at you. He’s about to put his arms around you when out of nowhere—
“Your Grace! Fancy seeing you here.. ehe. Are you here for the Lantern Rite? Oh! You should come to the Windblume Festival again! We’ll make sure to make it extraaa special, just for you. Speaking of special— There’s a new wine back in Mondstadt made specially from the freshest dandelio—“
“Hello, Venti.”
“Oh. Hello Mr. Zhongli. Are you busy right now? If not, the Funeral Parlor is calling for you. You should probably go.”
“The Funeral Parlor is closed today, Venti.”
lmao archons actively trying to get you to spend time with them instead of Zhongli. (They can’t stand to see you hugging, holding hands, and doing all kinds of sappy activities with him)
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AGHHH SECOND WRITING EVER!! Had fun ^_^ might do a part 2 with Itto and Xiao (or other characters) feel free to leave recommendations for any other characters!! Likes nd reblogs are much appreciated ^_^
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vigilskeep · 3 months
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now that you finished inquisition, what did you think of it? like favorite things, least favorite, etc?
oh man okay
things i love about dragon age inquisition:
capturing the specific feeling of bonding with a group of people you have absolutely nothing in common with because u all had to go through something long and specific together
the maps can be so pretty and in places really calming and lovely to spend time in. it does make me want to explore and i have no explorer’s instinct
i love the war table and judgements i think those are really fun features
i like that approval for many major decisions applies to everyone regardless of who you bring to specific events/quests. it feels a lot less like you have to manage that really hard, as you sometimes do in the other games and also really noticeably to me in something like baldur’s gate 3. it’s irritating when i have to plan ahead and can’t take who i want to hear from
i like how attached you can get to little npcs who wander around
i loveeeee fighting dragons and how beautiful they all are
little puzzles <3
the collectibles are also mostly fine by me i am a magpie by nature. as long as i can find them, obviously, bc if i can’t they suck and this whole game sucks
the templar specialisation is fun and i enjoyed that part of combat a lot. wrath of heaven/spell purge combo is a power trip
i thought my character was pretty :) i defeated u in the end dai character creator. may you be as merciful when we meet in battle once more
i’m not a huge crafter but being able to tint things is rlly nice
blackwall’s romance is good
vivienne is there
they let me briefly tame a dragon at the end there
things i don’t love about dragon age inquisition:
some genuine cruelty in writing the dalish in a way that feels shockingly callous to the real world cultures the writers took inspiration from
never giving the dalish or the rebel mages any kind of voice of their own and making the player do all that work if they care, which i also feel limits my roleplaying creativity
refusing to let you challenge any of the often overwhelmingly conservative views expressed by other characters without receiving only derision and disapproval. inquisition is a game that punishes you at every turn for having your own opinions, in a way that could be interesting if it was willing to truly let you develop complex or antagonistic relationships with those characters, but ends up mostly just feeling mocking when nobody ever even tries to see your side, while simply agreeing with these people always rewards you with content. origins was capable of letting you engage in discussion, and da2 let you form rivalries that mattered; inquisition, despite starring some of the most intentionally controversial characters, does neither
the game engineering conflicts against groups like the freemen of the dales or the avvar that mean nothing to the player and range from vaguely to seriously upsetting in their assumptions about who it’s normal to just start killing en masse. it’s both boring and distressing
odd, for lack of a better word “casting choices”, like having the fantasy impoverished racial minority all be white within the party while the wealthiest and most privileged are characters of colour, or for a more in-world example having the elves express the most distaste towards elves and the mages express the most caution about mages. i don’t know that i quite have the vocabulary to fully discuss why these weird me out, but it all feels... disingenuous? and chosen to forestall criticism based on real world comparisons in a game series that i wish had the nerve to openly confront what it’s talking about if it’s going to try to make any of its conflicts feel relevant
most of the companions, and indeed most of the quests and time spent playing the game, feel disconnected from the main plot. it’s hard to feel any pressure when the game tells you we need to deal with the main plot “right now!” and “get there before corypheus!” when the bulk of the game is doing other things while you’re supposed to be doing that. the majority of companions could be cut without changing anything. and when you finally want to deal with the main plot you just click to start it. it’s not engaging
the game fails to fully expand dialogue for the player character options it provided, particularly notable with its confusing chantry focus when you’ve said for the dozenth time you’re not andrastian
the 2-handed weapon whirlwind ability sound effect is an exercise in creating the worst and most grating sound effect for someone to constantly hear
they didn’t let me romance vivienne
they killed my dragon :(
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stromblessed · 10 months
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Mizu's spectacles, and the levels of her disguise
In drafting some more Blue Eye Samurai meta posts, I find myself writing out the comparisons between what Mizu can and cannot hide about herself, and how that affects how she moves through the world.
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Like, I get the jokes about Mizu's glasses, if only color contacts had existed back then, etc. etc., and I think (hope) that most viewers don't take the glasses jokes seriously, as in "I don't care about the suspension of disbelief because BES is a cartoon." But I wanted to write these thoughts out anyway without burying them in a text post about something else.
I think the points I'm going to lay out here are viewed very differently by different people, so please feel free to add to this post, reply, or put your thoughts in the tags!
Not only do Mizu's glasses not actually help her that much, there's surely more to Mizu's mixed race appearance than just the color of her eyes.
In my view, this was pointed out in episode 1:
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I'm willing to bet most of us were expecting young Taigen to say "blue eyes," not "ROUND eyes."
Obviously this is still about Mizu's eyes, but not even spectacles can hide their shape.
I don't think the show is obligated to point out everything about Mizu's face that isn't quite as Japanese as the people around her expect. Though the creators have said that they specifically designed Mizu - and her clothes - to read both as "white" and as "Japanese," as well as both male and female. I think there's more about Mizu's features that read as "white" than just her eyes.
This is where my own headcanons start entering the picture, but it's my impression that people can just tell that Mizu looks different, whether or not they can put a finger on exactly how.
There's the little girl who looks at Mizu and then hides on the way into Kyoto:
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When there's more to your face you'd like to cover up than just your eyes, big hats are a big help!
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By the way, most of these examples have to come from the first half of the season, since by the second half, either Mizu is too preoccupied with fighting henchmen, or everyone Mizu is facing knows who she is already, and she therefore has no reason to hide her mixed race identity.
It's worth mentioning that the mere fact that Mizu has to hide multiple aspects of her identity - her mixed race and her sex - results in her having to choose clothes that really, really cover her up, which doesn't win her any favors either:
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(Zatoichi reference, anyone?)
If it were as easy as, for example, tying her glasses to her head and wa-lah, nobody would ever know she was half-white - then (1) Mizu would've just done that long ago, and (2) Mizu wouldn't be so on guard and on tenterhooks 100% of the time the way she's depicted in the show, even when her glasses are on.
Her spectacles sure don't help her in the brothel, which is full of observant women who are trying to seduce her, meaning they get good long looks at her:
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Mizu never takes her glasses off, but they still send a woman to her who has light eyes, thinking that must be what will interest a blue-eyed man:
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No wonder Mizu gets mad after this, lol
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So Mizu never takes her spectacles off in the brothel, it's dimly lit inside, and the women can still tell that she has blue eyes. I'm getting the sense that Mizu putting on her spectacles isn't a guarantee that people suddenly can't tell that she looks different.
And yet no one spots that she's female.
Mizu can hide her breasts, can wear her hair in the right style, can hide what's between her legs, can walk and talk and behave like a man - and she's been doing it for almost her entire life, to the point that not only is she very good at it, but the threat of being found out as female is deadly, but isn't presented in the show as omnipresent.
Let me explain.
She threatens Ringo for nearly saying the word "girl" out loud, because while she's constantly ostracized for being mixed race, being a woman traveling without a chaperone, carrying a sword, and disguised as a man will get her killed or flogged or arrested or some combination of these things.
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But in addition, it's been drilled into her since she was a child that if she is discovered as female, the combination of her being mixed race and female will identify her as someone extremely specific, someone known to some bad people, and she will be killed:
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I think of it as Mizu thinking to herself, "Being found out as mixed race means I'm treated badly. Being found out as mixed race and a woman means I'm dead."
Mizu's hair is cut as a child. But she isn't made to wear a big hat, or cover her eyes somehow, or anything like that. Because hiding her sex is a more successful endeavor than hiding her race.
Ringo finds out she's female by accident, but once Mizu accepts the fact that he won't rat her out, she relaxes pretty early on in the season. Because the threat of being found out as female is mitigated pretty much 99.9%, since Mizu has gotten so good at being a man. And also, because most of the time, people see what they want to see. Even if Mizu's face makes her stand out as "not 100% Japanese," no one in the world of BES looks at Mizu's clothes, her bearing, her sword, hears her voice, and will ever in a million years conclude that she is a woman, because expectations around gender roles in the Edo period were so rigid and so widely enforced.
One detail that proved this to me is after the Four Fangs fight:
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Ringo takes off Mizu's clothes so he can stitch her up, then leaves her clothes off even after he's done. He doesn't even throw her cloak over her as a blanket or anything. There's a little a straw (pallet?) as a divider there on the left, but anyone could just peek around it and see Mizu and her chest bindings. (I think it's mostly there as a windbreaker.)
And Taigen is right there, but he doesn't give a shit:
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Opinions probably vary hugely on this, but my impression is that because the show doesn't make any kind of deal about Taigen being in the room with Mizu here, my guess is that Mizu isn't in any danger of Taigen thinking she's female. Even when I watched the show for the first time, I assumed that Taigen had seen Mizu out of her clothes here, and that he thought nothing of it.
Eat your heart out, Li Shang (Mulan 1998). I actually do think that this scene is a direct and purposeful side-eye to that movie, lol
There's obviously some nuance to how "severe" being mixed race is compared to how "severe" being a woman is for Mizu:
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After all, Swordfather can't bear to listen to Mizu confess to being a woman.
So a Japanese man can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants in BES. A Japanese woman has limited options: marriage, religion, or a brothel. A mixed-race man is an eyesore in this story. A mixed-race woman is a death sentence.
May as well eliminate the female aspect, and do what you can about the mixed-race aspect. Because that's just realistic.
Meaning Mizu can avoid the strictures Edo society places on women. But she can't avoid the repercussions that come with being mixed race. And I truly don't think that it's just because "there's no brown contacts yet."
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vampyresovereign · 3 months
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TWISTED CHARACTERS AND THE MUSIC I THINK THEY'D LIKE! (savanaclaw ver.)
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the part two i promised for no one specifically. i'm mainly doing every dorm because i want to -isa<3
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LEONA KINGSCHOLAR
I actually think Leona would listen to music fairly frequently. He's a rich kid, I def headcanon he got one of them expensive ass sports cars and probably speeds on the highway blasting music, pissing off literally everyone else tryna drive home from work. His music taste would be surprisingly diverse, too. He'd probably like a mix of 2000s rnb which includes like Rihanna, Ne-Yo, AALIYAH SO OBVIOUSLY, Akon, and he'd be a (not obsessive) Beyonce stan. He'd listen to NYC and UK drill, and since I headcanon Sunset Savanna to be an East African inspired nation, he'd probably have some Kenyan/Tanzanian/Ugandan/Rwandan artists on his playlist too (since those countries are where Swahili is spoken widely.) I don't have any artists to name but if yall know some put me on.
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RUGGIE BUCCHI
Ruggie, similar to Leona would have diverse music taste. Probably grew up surrounded by music, listening to whatever was on the radio while cooking sum for his grandmother, and now he uses one of Leona's ten credit cards to pay for his Spotify premium. He def listens to albums when he's chilling on his bed, studying/trying to unwind after a long day of running around. Though he grew up on similar traditional East African music, his favorite genres (IN MY OPINION) would be alternative hip hop and indie music. He LOVESSSSS Kanye West (tcd to yeezus), Tyler the Creator (and honestly all of OFWGKTA), Gorillaz, Childish Gambino, Vampire Weekend, and early alternative hip hop artists like the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Cypress Hill, etc. He was also probably put onto Britpop through Gorillaz, and likes Blur, Oasis, and (it's a secret tho) he fucks with Radiohead's "ok computer" album.
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JACK HOWL
Jack is a canon gym rat. we already know he listens to music like HELL while he's bench pressing and doing pushups. I think he'd have similar music taste to Ruggie, excluding the "indie" part. (and he probably uses apple music, too.) Jack enjoys alternative hip-hop, and west coast hip-hop. He'd like Kanye and some of Tyler's popular songs, but he'd REALLY enjoy early 90s west coast rap like N.W.A, Dr. Dre. 2PAC ESPECIALLY, KENDRICK LAMAR ESPECIALLY. His favorite album is probably good kid maad city.
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period -isa<3
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wildmelon · 1 year
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well, it finally happened, a big cc creator told me not to put their cc in my sim dumps... it's a creator i couldn't find tou for at the time (and still can't now, just tried for research purposes) so i went with common sense rules like "don't include cc that's in early access" and "don't paywall other ppl's cc" which i obviously would never do. i did change the dl to appease them, but...
i'm feeling torn between wanting to be considerate/understanding and absolute irritation at what this community has become, especially in light of the absurd influx of brand new cc creators who aren't part of the community paywalling their very first posts. i'm thinking about the text post that was going around recently that said something like "imagine if the simblr community was actually collaborative and we shared creations openly" instead of this for-profit entity it's become.
this creator's been nothing but polite so i don't want to seem like i'm after them but they're also making so much money monthly off cc that you'd think it'd be ok to use that cc. bc literally what else is a sim dump. i use a bunch of cc and it's included in the download for convenience, then people put the cc in their own game and everything is exactly the same from there-- your name on the file, your name on the cas preview.
except, of course, the downloader didn't visit your page in the first place, so you missed out on another potential patron/click (never mind the fact that the creators i use for sim dumps are intentionally bigger so people are more likely to already have the cc/know who the creator is, so you probably didn't miss out anyway).
the other thing is that anyone who won't let their cc be used in sim dumps must understand that if everyone else followed that rule, sharing sims with each other would pretty quickly become way too tedious and that entire way of engaging with the community would fall apart. how can you justify a rule that would unquestionably harm the community if every creator followed it? it's both unsustainable and ungenerous.
the bottom line is we need to reconsider how we approach creations made for this game. if you're a creator and your goal is not for your creation to be used, shared, and enjoyed, why are you even making cc? (& money is not a good answer 😀)
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loserboyfriendrjl · 1 year
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marauders era unpopular opinions, once more
i really don’t like fanon regulus. i don’t like him being helpless and kind and a sirius variant. he’s morally grey, leaning towards morally dark, he’s selfish, he agreed to his parents’ and voldemort’s ideologies, having joined the death eaters most likely by his own will (unlike draco malfoy). but obviously, everyone is allowed to characterise characters the very way they want to
and while we’re on it, i don’t like evan and barty either, for the same reason. maybe i would, if they were realistically characterised (i LOVE reading morally grey or morally dark(er) characters), and once again, i believe that just because one likes a character, that doesn’t always mean that the character is a good person
and continuing on the same topic, the sunshine james potter, although being a topic that i like and delved deeper into myself, is nice, but i would also love to see more of arrogant, spoiled james potter, too
not liking severus snape and peter pettigrew but liking evan, barty and regulus is kind of hypocritical
i don’t like jegulus
i also don’t like the casanova, bad boy characterisation of remus, and the helpless, needy characterisation of sirius either. to me, they’re out of character, overly done and absolutely not enjoyable
and because i earlier mentioned severus snape, i think he’s an interesting character, actually. that doesn’t make him a good person (once again, i believe him to be morally grey, too) and i can’t call myself a lover of his, however i find his story and character very interesting and compelling
i don’t like a lot of the wolfstar dynamics in current fandom
“we need more content about the girls!” literally do it yourself. please. whenever i write content about the men, i get a wave of new followers, and whenever i post about the non-men, suddenly i have tebs of people unfollowing me. oh, and my posts about the men have twice or thrice the notes of the other ones
sirius > regulus
and speaking of which, sirius is such an interesting character, and he was reduced by many people to nothing, or whatever is relevant to the plot
james would pick sirius over regulus any time, with literally no hesitation
i don’t care about popular fics (read or don’t read, i generally don’t read popular fics to be honest), however i do care about the way creators, especially writers, are treated in this fandom. i made a few posts about this topic, feel free to ask me to link them to you, but the way some people feel entitled to fic and fandom content is horrible
“x is the female version of— !” please stop. i’m going to stop you right here.
stop tagging jegulus and wolfstar and other mlm ships with wlw and nmlnm tags, for god’s sake. you’re just clogging the tag, and if i came looking for a certain ship, that’s what i’m going to expect to find. besides, why would you tag jegulus with, say, pandalily, when jegulus is by far more popular?
jegulus < jily
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raayllum · 11 days
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Transcript of Aaron Ehasz Interview (Sept 2024)
Podcast link here. Transcript down below with bulk under a read more.
R: Alright so welcome back to the Wordswithdragons podcast, and today I’m joined by a very special guest, the co-creator of The Dragon Prince, Aaron Ehasz. 
A: Hello, thank you for having me today. Glad to be here.
R: Thank you so much for being here. Um, yeah, so, as we semi touched on, it is the 6 year anniversary of The Dragon Prince this September 14th.
A: Yeah.
R: Do you have any thoughts, reflections, feelings about the show having gone on for this long and being such a big part of people’s lives?
A: I mean for starters, it’s really hard to believe it’s been on for six years. Like that seems insane to me. Cause it seemed like we had — Justin and I had been working on it for so long before it finally came out because we had worked on the story and then gotten feedback, and help in improving that pitch and bringing it out and we had it set up at Netflix, and we had to — we wrote the pilot obviously, and we didn’t know where we were gonna produce it, and found Bardel. So there was so much time between even just starting to think about it and when it came out.
R: Yeah, cause that was like 2015, right?
A: Yeah, I guess we started the journey in 2015 and we got with Bardel by the end of 2016, and it got released evidently in 2018, so... Yeah, yeah, cause I remember even we were writing kind of the end of season 3 when we had that panel with Marco and named the character after Marco.
R: Oh yeah.
A: The character [chuckles] from the first episode, we only had an opportunity for him to say his name out loud in that last episode because we were writing the ending while we were showing the episodes for first time, so. Anyway, that’s my reflection, it’s great it’s been six years.
R: Yeah. I know The Dragon Prince has been a really like — both life changing and I think, like, life affirming experience for a lot of people, myself included. So we just really appreciate everybody’s hard work on the show and are very excited for season 7 and hopefully beyond as well. As well for any future projects that Wonderstorm comes out with, like Bonders sounds amazing.
A: I feel — well first of all, thank you for saying that it’s life affirming, that’s such a nice thing to hear about something you’ve worked on, but I also agree that Justin and I feel a ton of gratitude for the whole team and the work and heart that everyone put into making this. I think people wanted it to be meaningful and special and that takes a certain kind of energy and vulnerability to build something like that, that you share, and our whole team really did give that in building the show.
R: Yeah. I think for sure. I think that’s like, um, I was even — I was rewatching some of the show earlier for — for a parallel, and it was the scene between Avizandum and Zubeia when she goes to him in like her kind of corruption dream semi-nightmare, and obviously that’s such a heartfelt, touching scene, and it’s always so strange. Because on the one hand, you should hate Avizandum, he killed Sarai and Rex Igneous has rightful criticism of him, but then you watch that scene of him and he really did love his family, so I think the show being able to draw out those strong, conflicting emotions for so many of the characters is one of the reasons why it connects with people to the degree that it does.
A: And that’s one of the themes you probably see in the show — just gonna make a quick —
R: Yeah, yeah for sure. 
A: Avizandum, which is that being a good dad can make up for awful lot of [R laughs] monstrosities, as long as you’re doing it in the name of being a good dad. I’m joking, uh. Of course, yeah, Avizandum was always meant to be a complicated figure like many of our characters. 
R: You mentioned that you guys have been working on — I think season three during this panel with Marco, or Marcos, and I remember, I think you’ve said before that the seasons get worked on concurrently, that there’s a decent amount of overlap.
A: Yeah.
R: I’ve always wondered, because we know — obviously, I’m a big Rayllum fan — but I’ve always wondered, cause I know they weren’t originally planned, and then you guys were boarding season two when you were like, “Hey, maybe this should be a thing,” and then probably like shifted and tweaked things or changed things to write more towards that in the future... Um, I’ve always wondered, if there was time, like at that time, to go back and change anything in season one for them, or the season one that we see was just like that?
A: I don’t recall there was time to change season 1 — that does happen because we are working on things in parallel because we are working on something in the script and then some time later we are working on the later stage of production, like an animatic, and we’ll be able to kind of give notes or even make changes with the knowledge of what’s coming, so that has happened. But in the case of Rayllum, I don’t think so. I mean, I think — again, I remember...
R: It was a while ago, yeah.
A: We were rekindling, or when we were realizing that something was being kindled between them, it was watching an animatic so that shouldn’t have informed our writing of season one, but our later stage stuff. But we weren’t trying to force anything so it got in there naturally and I don’t think we went back and changed anything.
R: Yeah, that’s what I’ve always — they had those kind of vibes to me from like episode two and three, obviously season two brought a lot more people on board, but I was always curious. Cause in season one, like, I think, it feels so natural, it feels so organic, and like I’ve shown — one of the things I love about Dragon Prince is it’s a great way to connect with friends and family and you kind of catch up with each other like through the show, of “oh have you seen the new season yet?” and that sort of stuff. And so when I’ve shown the show to like my brother-in-law, who is not plugged in at all, he also kind of picked up on it in season one, so I’ve always been curious. 
A: You know, what else, I’ll even say, I think we initially, intentionally planned they weren’t going to be a couple. We were like “Oh yeah, no, they’re—”
R: Friends, yeah.
A: Friends, with different views of the world and they journey together, and we don’t want them to be a couple. We’re not — we’re definitely not targeting it. I think we were intentionally not targeting it, and then it was “too bad creators! [R laughs] We’re going to fall in love despite everything you’re planning.”
R: Well, that very much I think even fits what they represent to each other, of like you don’t have to do this path that you think you have to do...
A: Yeah.
R: You can be something new. I always kind of felt like Ezran and Zym were — felt very kind of like designed as foils, as like a pair, of like through Zym, Ezran learns more so like how to grow up, and they’re both like the princes who will be king, and then Callum and Rayla also kind of felt sort of like developed as a pair, in terms of like — he needs to gain more confidence, she’s pretty confident on the surface.
A: Yeah.
R: She needs to learn how to open up, he’s really good at being open especially in the beginning.
A: Right. 
R: So I was always like...
A: He needs to be murdered, she needs to learn how to murder someone.
R: Yeah! They complete each other, yeah. Uh... Some other questions that I had [rapid typing]. So I guess, maybe, I have some questions that are more season specific, in respect to time, but I also had like more general questions. 
A: Okay.
R: So, one of the things I’ve always love in general and really love about The Dragon Prince is its like use of philosophy and like its deeply interested in ethical and moral questions, and presenting some answers for some of them, but like are those the right answers? We don’t know. 
A: Right.
R: So I know King Harrow’s choosing of Lady Justice’s blindfold is a pretty apt comparison to John Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance—
A: Yes.
R: Of, you know, you strip away everything that you could have, like advantages, disadvantages, and think, would the system work for me? Which has been useful when I’ve like, had to tutor students in philosophy actually, but I was curious, were there any like philosophical concepts or ideas that people really, or you really, wanted to work into the series? ‘Cause we have a lot of trolley problems.
A: Right. Um, probably. I mean like, I should say, I was a philosophy concentrator in college so I absorbed a lot. Things like  Rawls, I had a class with John Rawls, and thought that was a really interesting concept and I liked including it, and I thought we can include it in a fun way, the idea of justice. So other philosophy probably makes its way in, it can makes its way in accidentally or subconsciously, so nothing specific right now comes to mind. I will say, as with kind of Avatar before this, I don’t like to have — I’m not trying to have a right answer, ever. I’m trying to have the characters have a deeper understanding of what they’re struggling with, and y’know, move in a direction of deeper understanding, so if anything, it’s more interesting to me to see conflicts between maybe philosophical approaches that are different and see how — Oh well, this has these kinds of results, and positives and negatives, and this has... so that the audience can have a chance to say, “Oh well okay, I have some thoughts on that,” or “here’s what I feel,” and that’s why sometimes I think we see the fandom actually kind of go back and forth—
R: Yeah.
A: On — around characters and people’s choices, and things like dark magic or Viren, which are controversial, are things where like, I do not have a strong point of view on... the kind of binary right or wrong of... Viren in the long term. He’s made a lot of wrong choices and he’s made a lot of choices for good. 
R: Yeah.
A: He is an arrogant and power hungry person and he’s also a caring and loving father and someone who wants to have a positive impact on the world, right, like?
R: Yeah.
A: So those conflicts play out in him. But similarly, I think with maybe most of the philosophical ideas I can think of, I’d rather get to like a place where everyone just has a chance to entertain those thoughts and ideas and struggle with them, or hold them in an authentic way, and then can come to their own conclusions and feelings. I mean, I have some deep feelings about like, the world, and how can people be optimistic or not pessimistic or—y’know, what it means to hold onto hope or what it means to try to move past conflict, and I have beliefs that there are conflicts that get so you know, kind of sewn in, that they feel they are impossible to untangle, and especially if the game you’re playing is who started it, or who did the worst thing, where you can’t just ever untangle it. You can’t ever find a right or wrong, so how do you get past that? That’s one of the questions I was hoping Rayla, Callum, and Ezran would try to—
R: Figure it out.
A: Struggle with. Anyway, I’m giving a very long winded answer—
R: No, no.
A: That’s the philosophy that comes to mind. If something comes to mind for you, you can bring it up and I can go, “Oh yeah, that was probably influenced by so-and-so.” [R laughs] Or maybe not.
R: Well, one of the things I loved about season six was kind of — you see, even... One of the things I thought was really interesting was we see, not quite like that return to trolley problems, but we see Aaravos at the end of season 5 is telling Viren you have to make the sacrifice so that you can live, and then we see Rayla tell Callum, “Hey, if the choice ever happens, you also have to sacrifice me,” for — so Callum can live, but also for like the greater good and that sort of stuff. And then you have Kpp’Ar, who — I love Kpp’Ar, I think he’s terrible and interesting and I love him.
A: Awesome. He is — we’ll learn a little more about him in the future, but yes.
R: And obviously when Viren’s like, “A child will die,” and this is a kid that Kpp’Ar would’ve known, and we see in The Puzzle House that he loved these kids, and whatever is up with the Staff is bad enough that Kpp’Ar’s like, “Okay. I’ll make that sacrifice.” Which feels very much in a way like he’s given up on dark magic, and to a certain degree he’s both given up on the mindset of dark magic, and maybe also hasn’t given it up in the same way. Like I love that — Claudia, you know, obviously, puts Viren above all else, is she always right to do so? Maybe not, but we get why she’s doing it, that’s a hard thing to say. And then we have Callum, who also seems inclined to put Rayla above all else, and because we like Rayla more, we’re like “Yeah, he can do that, it’s okay for him to do dark magic for her, that’s fine,” even if there’s also like, consequences. Cause most characters in the show, like you said, everybody kind of wants the same thing, they wanna have a positive impact on the world, they want to protect their loved ones, but what constitutes that world, what they think is a positive impact, or who they want — how they protect those people, that’s all very malleable and can fluctuate. Viren says “Claudia, you’re on the wrong path,” and we’re like yeah, he’s right, and Karim says the same thing about Janai, like the exact same thing, and we’re like, well he’s wrong.
A: Yeah. I mean a lot of things come to mind when you’re talking through that, but one is there’s often a conflict between rigidity and rules and some kind of compassion, or emotional decision, and those decisions are hard, right? Like I dunno, maybe Kpp’Ar should’ve said, “Okay just this once, it’s Soren,” or not, I don’t know. I mean obviously Kpp’Ar had taken himself to some deep horrible place and he really had, actually. And was like, “Okay, dark magic is just corruption when you start and keep going down this path, but this Viren’s kid so I don’t know.” One of the things here, I think there’s a relationship between — you know, sacrifice plays a role here. Sacrifice and thinking about generations and generational conflict and thinking you know maybe in a way I think is interesting. I think about the beginning of season 6 when Claudia has done all of this and sacrificed another life but also sacrifices some of her soul or whatever to save her dad and he’s like “No no! This is not the way! A parent is supposed to do this for a child but never the other way around,” right? And there’s something to that I find interesting which is — it’s almost the inverse of children having the opportunity to start anew and break cycles, parents potentially have the opportunity to make sacrifices that don’t pass by burdens onto their kids, but sort of like that’s the mirror I see a little bit, in terms of how do you have generational change and evolution? It’s somewhere in younger generations being able to not get stuck on conflicts and burdens, but also the older generations recognizing that they may have to be the one to take the — and this is I think a natural... I dunno, it’s something I think about a little bit and came to mind when you were talking. So we’ll see more about what is the meaning of sacrifice and when — when do you... trade? Yeah.
R: Yeah.
A: Side note on sacrifice. You’re familiar with Game of Thrones? You’ve watched all of Game of Thrones?
R: I’m decently familiar, yeah.
A: Okay.
R: And if not, I can have Kuno explain it to me later, so.
A: One of the things I love about the sacrifice Ned made, that we didn’t realize he’d made until I think the very end of the series, we realize — a sacrifice to his kind of reputation, right? And I’m talking about him representing Jon Snow as his bastard to protect him, right? Think about that, that’s a sacrifice, he had to go through the anger — he didn’t tell his wife the truth, he didn’t tell anyone, because it was the only way to protect the child, and as a result he lived with — even though the truth is that he was a really honest, good, or evidently he didn’t go cheat on his wife, he sacrificed that part of his reputation to protect Jon, at least how I see it. I think things like that are kind of interesting. I dunno.
R: Yeah. Yeah, I think it speaks to that idea of — one of the things I love about Dragon Prince is it’s so much about choices.
A: Yeah.
R: Like one of the things I really really liked about season 6 was that, you know, Callum is like, “Okay, I’m going to get myself purified, healed of dark magic,” and Rayla was his light, which was very validating, cause I had noticed in season two there was like some framing so I was like well “Maybe, maybe” you know? And then slowburn buildup but it was — I think that was a great moment that really paid off. And he’s told “if you ever do this again, it’ll corrupt you completely.” And whether he will or won’t — I personally think that he will, but spoilers, you know — but whether he will or won’t, I think it’s really nice because now whatever choice he makes, he’s making with the full context, of what this would do to him.
A: Yeah.
R: Whereas in season two, yes he was making his choice to do dark magic then, and I don’t necessarily think he would make a fundamentally different one if he had known what it would lead to, but there’s a different kind of awareness. Like I always of it would’ve been so easy to have Harrow not know that Viren was going to kill Zym, cause that’s such an easy way to kind of let Harrow off the hook of well Viren went off and did this on his own, and Harrow had no idea, and blah blah blah, right? Cause we like Harrow, he’s a — again, he’s a good dad, we’ll forgive a lot. And instead, it’s not his idea but he’s fully aware, he signs off on it. And I think constantly pushing characters to make hard choices — kind of like what Ezran says, “these aren’t dreams, these are choices.”
A: Yeah.
R: You can choose love, you can choose to make... It’s something that makes all the characters feel so fully developed and interesting, so I always appreciate that you guys push them to make the hard choice. 
A: Yeah. Cool. Thank you.
R: One question I did have is, uh, Karim is one of my favourite characters.
A: Okay. Unusual person. A lot of people hate — or love to hate...? I love him too. 
R: I also love Kasef, so I think I just kind of love everyone, because I’m like well, they’re really interesting. I feel like [Karim’s] arc was one of the things I loved most about season 4 because you can see him really wrestling with his choices and I love watching him fail, cause that’s kind of all he does, so that’s always fun. But I am really curious obviously now he’s been betrayed by Sol Regem, Katolis is in ashes and maybe they’ll blame Karim for that cause Sol Regem is like — dead, and now, presumably his only hope is going to be that his sister doesn’t execute him on the spot? 
A: Yeah.
R: So is there anything you can tease about Karim’s arc in season 7?
A: Yeah, so — so it’s not just Karim, there’s an army of people who betrayed Janai, and — and...
R: What do we do?
A: Yeah, what do we do? That will be something we’ll have to see them grapple with pretty much right away in the season. Especially cause [Karim’s army] showed up for this battle where they were never even — they were just planning to sweep up the ashes afterwards, so when they didn’t get the dragon support they needed, I suspect they lost really quickly. 
R: Yes, yeah.
A: So uh... Yeah, but basically as of the start of season 7 — all of them are prisoners of Queen Janai and the question is — what do you do with that? What do you do when you have an entire army and your own brother who betrayed you? And so that’s — we’ll find out.
R: Yeah. [Laughs] 
A: But yeah.
R: Yeah. Another question I had going forward was Terry and Claudia obviously I thought had a really beautiful relationship arc, particularly in season 6, and we saw in season 4 the lengths he’s willing to go to for her, and how Terry, I think, is a great example of how there’s a lot of character traits where we think “oh, if you’re a selfless, helpful, accepting person, you’re a good person,” and I feel like Dragon Prince does a really good job of how, Rayla’s selflessness can be great but it can also be kinda bad, or, um, Terry can be super accepting, maybe a little too—
A: Yeah.
R: —accepting sometimes, right? So I feel like at the end of season 6, it will presumably be him, Claudia, and Aaravos for a little bit now that he’s out of the prison. And it feels like maybe Terry might hit a breaking point?
A: Here’s what I will say — Terry is a really special character and if you watched him, he’s so good, and what we’ll find out is, he is — there is an episode called TRUE HEART and he is someone who has a true heart.
R: Oh that’s so sweet.
A: It’s very impossibly rare and special — but also we all understand what a true heart is in some way and we’ll learn a little more about that. But yeah, the question of what will Terry do, what can he do, is difficult because he has a very strong sense of right and wrong, but he has a very deep capacity for love and he loves Claudia with all of his heart. Where does that present an impossible conflict, it may... we’ll see a challenge.
R: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
A: I’ll also throw in like I sometimes see some parallels between Terry and Uncle Iroh—
R: Yes.
A: Though Uncle Iroh I think has a very different journey. Iroh is kind of a recovered problematic person who now has some wisdom and enlightenment, so in terms of the difference between the purity of a true heart versus where Iroh is more of a later stage enlightenment, the love that they have for the kind of complicated person that they are with is similar to me. And the way that they both sometimes have to, or don’t have to but...
R: Choose to?
A: You have to give that person the space — you can’t force them to choose right or wrong, you can be there with them, you can try to guide them, you can — but ultimately you have to give them the space to fail, and eventually, you may have to turn your back on them. 
R: Yeah.
A: At some point. I don’t know. But um yeah — I still see them as connected characters in my mind. 
R: I think I can even see some of that with even the way Callum is with Rayla, like season five onwards, of like “I’ve hit my turning point, I’m not mad at you anymore, and you can steal my key, you can lie to me, and I’m not going to have you open up to me out of guilt or obligation, I want you to tell me what’s going on when you want to tell me what’s going on, and I’m going to give you the space for that.” So I think it speaks to that unconditional love that I think—
A: Yeah.
R: —a lot of the characters are blessed to have. But I do see the Terry Iroh connection. So another thing that I thought was really interesting was — obviously next season is dark magic, and I’m very hopeful that maybe we’ll learn more about the origins of dark magic or Elarion, even. 
A: Great.
R: Because I know when I was watching Sol Regem burn down Katolis, it made me think of what might’ve either happened or almost happened to Elarion in the past, you know? 
A: Yeah.
R: Even down to Ziard and Viren both die, kind of deflecting and trying to save people, with the same staff, you know, and how the cycle continues to just always repeat itself over and over again. And if there was like — yeah, cause burning down Katolis was a massive shakeup, you know?
A: Yup.
R: And what maybe the process was there, with the — Aaravos seems like he’s trying to repeat the cycle of like “Oh I’m going to take down the dragon monarchy or I’m gonna use that vacancy to my advantage, and mess with the Sunfire elves.”
A: He has a specific vendetta against Sol Regem, obviously, but it’s one where he has played it out in... What’s certainly meant to be implied, even though we’ll find out more later, is that one of the great mysteries of Sol Regem’s life is that his mate disappeared and he never found her. He’s the freaking Dragon King, and she disappeared. And though we don’t know how or what happened, while she was buried alive. He killed her. He didn’t even realize it, somehow. Somehow, Aaravos manipulated him into killing her, and he doesn’t — I dunno, I assume Sol Regem does understand when it must have happened, but that moment, it’s like an impossible — it’s meant to be just...
R: Awful.
A: He’s tortured him for 1000 years or whatever, without him knowing he was being tortured by Aaravos, and now he’s given him the mercy/cruelty of knowing the resolution to the mystery was that he killed her. And one of the things that worked well with that was that, we had sort of said Sol Regem can smell the truth from a lie, so he has the horrible curse of being able to know this is the deep dark truth. So I dunno, I think um, are we going to find out more about that? So, if we can eventually get the Book Three novel out [R laughs], we will find out more about that.
R: I did wonder, I was like “Maybe this is something that was gonna be in the book three novelization.”
A: Yes, we will find out more in the book three novel, it may be a year or so before unfortunately. And then I don’t think we’re gonna get too deep into that in season seven, that’s part of — it is involved in what we’re thinking about as the third arc, understanding and resolving the third arc, is gonna go a little deeper into...
R: Some of the history, yeah.
A: Some of the stuff that happened with Sol Regem. But yeah, no, I — it’s enjoyable to have these figures like Aaravos and Sol Regem who are ancient and operate over the course of centuries and are incredibly powerful, yet they can’t — or at least Aaravos,  they can’t conflict directly as easily, and so Aaravos has played this really complicated game. Anyway, but yes Sol Regem is part of that, but there’s — there’s more, there’s more people who — beings that took from him. He feels that Leola was unfairly punished and that that was — you know, he sees a future and he has something... All this time, a burning — it’s the twisted form of his love, in which he’s full of hate right now to the beings who brought this about. Obviously, Sol Regem played a role because he’s a rules dragon.
R: Yeah, yeah.
A: He is the one who betrayed her to the Cosmic Council ultimately — but how do you punish the Cosmic Council? That’s a bit more complicated.
R: Yeah. No, I remember finishing season six and just being so impressed with the story. Like, taking that direction, and almost doing a lot of recontextualization, because it’s one thing to have like your worldbuilding where “magic in the story works like this” and it’s just very kind of like hand of God, you know? Like oh — cause the magic system has always been unfair, that’s why we have Callum, you know? It’s another thing to say we’re going to have characters in the story who are responsible for it being unfair. And now we’re just going to have that in terms of conflict and themes of destiny. We have about seven, ten-ish minutes left I think.
A: Probably seven, if that’s okay?
R: Yeah. Of course. 
A: I’ll throw one other thing in there, which is that — cause characters experience things that change them: has Aaravos experienced — I’ll phrase it as a question, even though probably the answer is here, has Aaravos experienced much that has changed him in the last — since the death of Leola? I mean certainly some things, and is what’s happening now changing him in any way? Is it satisfaction, is it the relationship with Claudia, and what does that mean to someone? That’s a question that I think we’ll have to watch play out a little bit.
R: [Intrigued] Okay. Yeah. One thing that I really liked about Leola’s character was I felt like she had pieces of each of the main trio in her? Of this very helpful innocent well meaning child, kind of like Ezran — and I have also always seen Ezran as autistic as well cause I know that Leola canonically is — and then you also kind of have the whole oh she gave  / helped humans have primal magic, which obviously Callum has. And even just being this young elven girl punished for her compassion and mercy, that felt a lot like Rayla. And when making the choice for Leola to be Leola, was that something intentional or like the choice for it to be a child rather than another loved one?
A: It was very intentional that it was a child... And we talked through other versions of Leola that could’ve been, in other ages, genders, relationships with Aaravos that an important person was lost. Some of the things I liked about the way, Leola both as a child, children are the cycle breakers.
R: Yes, yeah. I think it was the strongest choice.
A: And in particular also, the idea of coding her autistic was a little bit like not as cued to kind of accept the social order and the order of things, but actually more open in a way to in what some people see as like — something that’s broken which is not taking those cues, something else about that — not being bound by it that allowed her to have compassion that crossed the line in terms of the perceptions of what the Cosmic Order needed to be in it — but it made her more, both as a child and an autistic person, to make that choice and do what she did that changed everything.
R: Makes a lot of sense.
A: [Her being a child] also frames it with some innocence obviously right? It’s not calculated, it’s kind. 
R: Yeah.
A: So I dunno.
R: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve been curious about how Ezran might be challenged now that Runaan is back in the picture.
A: That’s a great question. That’s a great question. I mean, it’s so weird, it’s like no one even asks that, it’s like “Cool,” Rayla’s like “I’m gonna go get him. Awesome! Runaan’s back.”
R: Yeah I’m like either — either Callum is like “Ezran will be totally fine with it,” and Ezran  is probably not going to be fine with it, or maybe Callum knew that maybe it wouldn’t be great, and kept it under wraps. Yeah, I’m so excited for that like trio, potential broyals conflict, so...
A: Well, I mean, Ezran is a very special kid and he’s very positive and kind and forgiving and all of this. But we’re talking about, Runaan is back.
R: Castle’s destroyed.
A: Katolis is rubble. Where does that leave him?
R: Yeah.
A: You know? I mean — so I’m excited about that part of Ezran.
R: I know the fandom is really, really excited for Ezran to get to be — not that he hasn’t always been complex, but to get to be like messier, of letting his emotions maybe get the better of him and that sort of thing. So people are definitely hype for that, for — cause I feel like season six really brought home a lot of things for Soren, and it seems like season seven is going to do a similar thing for Ezran, so that’s — that’s really exciting. Um, with our final couple minutes, I wanted to see — do you have any questions that you want fans to ponder or to be thinking about?
A: Um... Gosh. I don’t think I have anything specific that we haven’t talked about, but you know. On some level, like, you know how do you take the tragedies and conflicts that we all inevitably face repetitively and relentlessly and kind of learn to move forward in hope and optimism? I think that’s more of a question of like how do you personally learn to process — all the kind of bullshit in the world, and process it, and still move forward as a kind, connected—
R: Measured person.
A: —hopeful person? That’s a challenge we all face in our lives, so that’s like...
R: Yeah. Well, I think the show does a good — really good job at asking and challenging that — that question. Uh, yeah, I think — I think that’s our time for today, uh. Thank you so much, this was... 
A: It was my pleasure. 
R: This was a lot of fun.
A: It’s always my pleasure reading your theories and your—
R: [Gasps] Oh my gosh.
A: Honestly, I came on today and to tell the truth [R laughs] a little bit intimidated.
R: Oh my God. 
A: You’re so—
R: I also felt intimidated [laughing] so don’t worry.
A: You’re so insightful and articulate, that I almost am like [R laughs] what if they catch me that there’s something not as smart in the show as I thought it was?
R: Oh my gosh, no, you’re fine.
A: [Overlapping] So anyway, I really enjoy what you write—
R: [Overlapping] I’m also a writer so I know what it’s like to be like “I did this subconsciously,” it’s — yeah.
A: I love what you instigate in the fandom and the kind of conversations you support and engage in. I’m a huge fan of yours, so.
R: Oh! Thank you so much, that’s so sweet. Um. And I am a huge fan of yours.
A: Yay. That’s a great way to end a podcast.
R: That is a great way. Okay. Alright, well thank you so much, hope you have a great day, great week, uh, and — yeah. Okay.
A: Alright, and I’ll see you soon, we’ll do this again sometime, I hope. 
R: Yes! Yeah. Okay.
A: Alright. Thanks again. Alright, bye.
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phanchester · 5 months
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i think one of the reasons why we didn't go higher in the fandometrics is yes, because no new video, but also because our efforts weren't organised. we just started tagging everything with phan which is a good start obviously because there was a stigma around that before this but it ended up being more like spam and not phan content everyone could reblog
not this week but maybe in the future we should do a "phan week" like we've done in the past where we make specific phan content, like gifs, edits, fics, spreadsheets, etc. so everyone can reblog that. imo i think that would be better than just tagging everything phan so we can promote phan content. also maybe have a specific phan ask game floating around because i think the asks tagged with phan was definitely a good idea but we only did that near the end of the week
i think our goal was a bit ambitious because although we are a very passionate fandom we are relatively small compared to others on this site but i think our target for this week was tagging everything phan which we definitely reached. in the future we should def continue that but maybe with more focus on rebloggable creator content next time ALONG with the general spam we were doing because not everyone in the phandom is a creator.
GO PHAN!!!
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elfboyeros · 2 months
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Things in TDP that surprised me but I'm not mad about
The title is a bit misleading because I could never be mad at The Dragon Prince but I'm specifically talking about season 6 because I think Aaron, Justin, and everyone that worked on this show infused this season with drugs because this is so fire they fucking cooked with this one.
Soucering: most of the gifs used in this post are from this post  by celestialowlryx unless stated otherwise! (I am not in the business of stealing people's shit)
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Blood on the Beach!
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There was a lot of blood on that beach like the blood that you could tell was blood on that beach in the first episode, and I know this show doesn't shadow away from death but THAT'S A LOT OF FUCKING BLOOD IN THE SAND! Not to mention, CLAUDE IS COVER IN BLOOD! Plus the whole Claude amputated her own leg, and her fucking voice actor during that scene, oof my heart!
The Bathing Scene
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I'm very surprised that this was allowed dispute knowing nothing about TV rating (I mean obviously it was allowed it's in the fucking show!) But that scene is silence, besides a backing track, and you have a Terry bathing Claude in the ocean! That scene is so fucking intimate, especially for what is supposed to be a children's show and it makes me go insane!
Rayla and Callum's Bed Sharing Scene
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Yionked from this post by rayllurn 
I'm looking at this in part from the eyes of a parent dispute not being a parent and just being a 23-year-old fucker that watches children's cartoons they have a weird obsession with, But this is another scene I'm a little surprised was allowed. Although I love that it was allowed! I can see from the eyes of a parent this scene be too "raunchy" because "What happens when two be people share a bed... sex!" but Fuck you this scene was great!
Viren and His Wife's Backstory
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Yoinked picture from this post by Kilfeur
Okay fucking attack me in the internet town square if I'm wrong, but Viren described abuse... right!? Like that was Spousal Abuse right!? Because if it wasn't it was so fucking close! And where the scene wasn't animated in the traditional sense respective to The Dragon Prince, that whole sequence is insane!
All the Kissing Scenes
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Damn, there was a shit ton of PDA this season, Specially thinking about the one scene with Rayla and Callum on top of the Starscraper, THINGS ARE GETTING FUCKING INIMATE FOR KIDS SHOW! I fucking love it! I love when we can do Romance like this so no complaining here there was just a lot, or many in the scope of the series as a whole this seems like a lot, I don't know, but regardless a win for romantics everywhere!
Viren's Sacrifice*
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Yoinked from this post by madou-dilou
This one is more of an honorable mention, was it surprising, fuck yeah, but it didn't surprise me in the way everything else did. I did think Soren was going to be murdered for a hot second, which was shocking but fuck this scene had been balling like a God damn baby!
Janai and Amaya's Wedding*
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Another Honorable mention because it's not shocking that it happened The Dragon Prince has not strayed from representation and the longer it continues the more representation we seem to get, although queer representation is still always shocking to get especially in children's cartoons, so it's going on this list for all the creators that have wanted to give us queer rep but couldn't and to those that have paved the way for us to get here!
Allen
Couldn't find a picture of Allen lol
Okay, you may not get this if you haven't read the graphic novel Through the Moon but Allen is a minor character way back from season one that Lujanne couples up with and I was surprised to see especially because the day before the season came out. I had read the graphic novel and cackled at his presence! So I freaked the fuck out when he was just there, at the moon nexus!
Rayla and Her Parents*
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I'm adding this because it was another scene that had me balling (I think mostly because I have a good relationship with my parents and I couldn't imagine losing them) Knowing Rayla's character it wasn't surprising but I respect everyone who made that scene possible because, brother, that's emotional!
Finally Leola
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*sigh* Leola's existence in general is a shock, and to me changes Aaravos completely! That purple motherfucker created the Sea of the Castout with his own tears, then got imprisoned in a pearl in a calm in his daughter's bones in the same sea he made with his own tears of grief! In addition, THEY FUCKING ANIMATED CHILD DEATH! THE ANIMATORS ANIMATED A CHILD DYING ON SCREEN! I don't give a fuck if there wasn't blood, THERE WAS CHILD DEATH ON SCREEN IN A CHILDREN'S SHOW! HOW HEAVY METAL IS THAT?!
Honorable of the honorable mentions: Big Aarvaos
Fuck he's huge.
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Alright, I'm done.
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soraya-snape · 2 months
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There was this HP creator on TikTok that I was starting to really like. But then she said that “Snape is not a good guy (OK kinda agree but the way she said it sounded more like “he is a bad or even really bad guy” which is obviously not true) and that he only tried to save Harry which was the least he could do” and this is the part where I was like?!?!?!
He might have started off only trying to save Harry (actually Lily at first) but then he actually tries to save the whole wizarding world. Like remember that time he told Dumbledore “Lately only those I couldn't save.” or when he tried to save Lupin at the beginning of DHp1 or told Phineas Niggelus Black to not call Hermione a mud blood. And let's not forget how he spied for Dumbledore during the first and second war, which is definitely more than the least he could do. I could go on but I think people with enough braincells get that he was not just trying to save that one boy but actively going against Voldemort's values and also kinda his own (or at least the once he was taught as a kid/teen). And like the example with Lupin shows also protecting those who, from his perspective might not deserve his help (considering Remus was a bystander at his bullying who actually had the power and the duty to stop it and also while mostly being civil towards Snape in later years still made his life extremely hard [I still love Remus but let's not ignore his flaws]).
Yes maybe he was a cruel teacher even bully to some of his students (we actually canonically only know of the trio and Neville) but at the same time also beloved and admired by some (mainly Slytherin but considering how badly they were treated by almost everyone else I actually think it's good of Snape to favour them especially considering what he went through during school simply because he was Slytherin. If you have a problem with that, perhaps you should complain first about everyone mistreating the Slytherins before complaining about someone treating them nicely, even if it is unfair). 
But besides that his position in the second war (and also the end of the first one) on the good side is clear and not only to save Harry but also everyone he simply could save. And if you don't see it, maybe you should get your eyes checked, or I don't know...
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wonderfull-star · 1 month
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Peri’s character analysis
I ABSOLUTELY like the fact that so many people like the concept of Peri as a villain. And I like it too. Why? I adore morally gray characters who sometimes make mistakes. I was always annoyed by super mega good characters with no brain cells. Because of this, many people developed a disgust for good characters as such. It's pleasing that starting in 2018-20, the concept of a "brainless hero and smart villain" was put on the back burner. For example, Varian. This is probably the ONE of all the cases when the creators decided to make an obviously GOOD character not just an antagonist, but a real villain. This makes the character alive and not some kind of sickeningly kind Mary / Marty Sue. It becomes interesting to watch the character, thereby revealing his darker side and all his hidden feelings and experiences. Therefore, for me, Varian is probably the most unique character I have ever seen.
Peri is also quite a unique character. He is more of a "neutral hero" type, who also puts on a mask of a confident guy to seem better in the eyes of others. However, later this character appears in a different beauty, showing himself to be insecure, nervous and under constant stress. And no! I am sure that this is not because of Dev, as many thought. Most likely, Peri has always been like this. Think about it yourself. We do not know a LOT about his life, only him as a baby and a small fragment of his adult life. We do not know what happened with him after having to leave Timmy (and I think this is already the starting point of his first and main trauma). We also do not know what happened in Peri’s teenage life. And I am sure that then in his life there were many turning points that are probably related to his magic and an unusual wand, which may have made him so obsessed with the rules. So at least a BIG part of what we saw Peri as in the new cartoon series is most likely his fake personality that he shows to everyone and maybe even his parents. I'm sure this dude is definitely intentionally holding back his emotions and his real self after all the 20 years he's been through.
Therefore, it is not surprising that many think of idea of Peri as an antagonist. Since he himself as a character is quite two-faced. And definitely such characters as Peri are unstable deep inside and even sometimes become antagonists in the main story (as I mentioned earlier, Varian who was also quite nervous and could not cope with his emotions)
So I think Peri’s potential as an antagonist could be very real.
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kiwioala · 11 months
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since early day lore keeps being referenced, here are some good early qsmp lore vods to watch if you're ever curious about what all went down:
any day 1 pov: really good introductory content (obviously), even for the lore. there’s a lot of cutscenes from that specific day iirc as well which i always think are beneficial to watch! also everyone’s first reactions to cucurucho/osito bimbo are fucking hilarious
roier, day 4: explains his and osito bimbo’s dynamic, they spend a large part of the day together.
roier, day 5: the betrayal the day of spreens betrayal, self explanatory. this is also the day we get the book from osito bimbo where it calls roier "0037"
any day 7 pov: egg's introduction morse code transmission about an “experiment,” the day the original eggs got adopted, shows how the attitude toward the eggs has changed since then, possibly could help explain some of the family dynamics?? at least how they function and treat the kids
roier, day 10: osito bimbo makes it's return but now it's different, (sort of) the day cucurucho officially takes osito bimbo's place
slime or roier, day 16: tilin's death the day of tilin's death, ultimately had a lot of impacts on various characters on the island like slime, roier, and quackity, for example.
slime, day 20: avenging juanaflippa slime tries to get flippa another chance at life by forcing a reset of all the eggs lives, meaning he goes after and targets the other player's eggs.
day 21: "save the baby" quest aka the first egg kidnapping/disappearance (continued in day 22 due to server maintenance). a rescue mission given to the islanders via egg tasks to go retrieve their eggs!
day 22 (slime, mariana, roier, bbh, quackity, foolish, jaiden, philza): juanaflippa's custody trial and revival really fucking funny but also a part of the servers history that i feel like got brushed over too fast. confirms the federation can give extra lives to the eggs if they are so willing and some other stuff.
luzu, day 24: final (physical) arin appearance explains why arin was there, what his purpose is, and how the codes are related to him. can also been seen in foolish and bbh's vod from this day.
foolish, day 26: introduction to leo’s “friends” and a few island entities, the founding of the theory bros (now ordo theoritas) which can also be seen in max and bad’s pov that day!
day 27: the funeral a funeral is held for all the dead eggs (trump, tilin, and flippa) and i believe it's the first time the federation allows parents to talk to their children after their death. for this day, most pov's do go to the funeral service, but only parents of the dead eggs (quackity, slime, mariana, and maxo) get to see their children.
anyones pov, day 34: “the countdown begins, 6 days left.” codes intercept the ducks transmission (again?) and alert the parents that the eggs will die/disappear in 6 days. we know now this obviously isn't true but still a lore-ish day
roier, day 34: even more osito bimbo content! the day when osito bimbo tells roier more about the federation, such as the existence of the "host" and how it has a specific set of duties it must follow/complete.
quackity, day 36: quackitys interrogation & las casualonas debut disguised, roier and vegetta interrogate quackity about his plans regarding the eggs (which iirc was a rumor started by roier saying he was going to murder them) and the island.
maxo, day 50: sofias creator visits maxo important for current lore seeing as the person who gave him said instructions is now known to be a part of the revolution etoiles was recruited into.
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moneymartin · 5 months
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・❥・- after the storm
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summary: you meet kate at a bar after you get stood up on a date ♡
warnings: none rlly. more fluffy than smutty. also rlly awkward kate cuz shes nervy :( use of y/n if that counts???
rpf. dont read if ur uncomfy
a/n: this has been in my fucking drafts for a week. also thank god i revised cuz this thing sucked before i proofread it 😭 same like every story every divider is a skip. also sorry for ending it like that i jus like leaving it up to everyone’s imagination 😇
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you sit quietly at a table, a drink in your hand and at least 4 empty beer bottles in front of you. drunk and somewhat confused after some stupid guy stood you up on a date here. at least 3 hours have passed since he was meant to come, but you couldn’t suck it up and leave the club without the embarrassment of coming in alone, and walking out alone. it was fucking embarrassing and that always made you wanna hurl. everything did now.
everyone was meant to find someone or do something with someone tonight but you were certainly checked off of that list. things haven’t gone your way in forever and this is probably the worst one. now you’re just drowning yourself in alcohol and digging a deep hole you probably won’t be able to get out of. scanning around for a way to get your butt out of here, or just find a waiter, you’re suddenly stopped when you make eye contact with a girl. she’s got the prettiest blue eyes you’ve ever seen, and she’s coming your way.
“hey,” she spits out and smiles, taking a seat in front of you. it makes you a little nervous and frankly, you’re quite scared. “i’m kate…” her hand extends outwards towards you, expectantly waiting for a handshake and an introduction back. the fear you felt when she sat down just a moment suddenly dissipates and is replaced with a feeling of relief when your hand meets hers. “y/n.” you slur out, breath slightly reeking of alcohol. it doesn’t reel her away but makes her grow a little bit worried.
“thats um.. a lotttt of beers.” kate laughs, hoping to bring up the mood and energy that surrounds you. you’re obviously not happy, but she’s trying to make it seem like whatever happened isn’t as bad as you think it is. “y’know, being all drink and alone in a club like this isn’t very safe,” she starts and shakes her head slightly. “especially when it’s a pretty girl like you.” your eyebrows raise at her slip in of a compliment, face flushing and your lips pursing. she’s already incredibly bold, but there’s a glint in her eyes that shows how shes really feeling about this interaction.
you notice that she’s slightly nervous and that her movements and small jitters make it known that she is incredibly awkward. when you don’t answer back to her compliment, she smiles weirdly with her teeth and looks around the club, then at your face again. theres a pause as you let out a breath and just stare. “i’m sorry, what?” your voice is raspy still, and the music is straight over your voice which makes it harder for her to hear you. but the way your eyebrows raise and your eyes nearly pop out of your head makes her put the pieces together about what you felt about her ‘boldness.’
“it was nothing! i didn’t mean that…” she laughs and rubs the back of her neck and then digs her nails into her arm. kate’s teeth grind together and she inhales a deep breath, trying to play it cool when she knows deep down she’s dug herself into a big stupid hole she can’t get out of. “i’m just saying it isn’t safe, y’know!! not a good idea to be alone.” her voice goes up an octave and her body tenses up when you lock eyes with hers. yikes. “i can take you home to like.. help you sober up?”
her proposal makes your face scrunch at the thought of it. a stranger you met not even 10 minutes ago offering to take you to your home so you can sober up. really? “you’re not some serial killer, right?!!! i really don’t wanna end up in a ditch tonight cause that’d make everything worse!!” you blurt out just a little bit louder than you should’ve. kate gets the sudden urge to just smack her hand right over your mouth after you two get looks from people inside. “oh, god, no! what the hell?! i’m just trying to help you. so, please let me.” she begs and grabs your hand, locking her fingers with yours to calm down the drunken nerves in your system.
“okay..” you sigh, realizing just how desperate she is to talk to you. that is what it is. she just wants to talk to you, and shes trying her absolute hardest to make it seem like shes just going to help you out. kate pulls you up from the chair and wraps her arms around your waist, steadying your drunk and wobbly body. “i got you, alright?”
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your body sinks into the couch after you somehow managed to guide her to your place. it took a little longer than it should’ve. the club was only 5 minutes away from your place but the whole trip took about 20 minutes. different streets and different roads and different alleyways.
“how’d you end up alone in there anyways?” kate asks, dabbing the back of her hand against your face to feel for a fever. your face is flush and you feel the rush of embarrassment coming back when her question finally registers in your head. it was the one thing you didn’t wanna talk about with her tonight. not because it was bad, it was just the fact that it was incredibly embarrassing. “got stood up.”
her eyebrows scrunch at the reasoning you give her while a pit grows in your stomach due to the look on her face. she looks like she wants to leave all of a sudden but its quickly replaced with a soft smile when she sees how you feel talking about it. “things happen for a reason, no?” kate says and smirks. she has a point though. maybe you got stood up on that date because you were bound to find her? that was dumb to think about. but it might’ve been true.
“yeah, i guess.”
“guys come and go. its not like it’ll happen again too. you’re very pretty.”
“you think so?”
“i know so.”
kate’s bold statements and words make you wonder if she really does mean them. and for some reason, you’re hoping that she does. her hands are shaky against your face and she shifts around the space on the couch to keep you comfortable instead of herself. she’s putting your needs in front of her own needs. you take in a heavy breath, looking up at kate while she stares at you longingly. “there’s obviously a reason why you wanted to help me.” you giggle.
her jaw slacks at your accusation, her face suddenly becoming a deep red. “no, c’mon! t- thats not true!” kate stammers over her own words and turns her head to the side to hide her face from you. you reach out to grab her wrist and tug her down towards you. her eyes look like they’re about to pop out of her skull and shes got a nervous frown on her face.
the confidence she manages to build up always crumbles in just a matter of seconds after you say something back. she likes that, and it makes her nervous in such a good way. “oh yeah?” you question and slide your hands up to her shoulders. your fingers wrap around her hoodie neckline, gripping tightly. “yes!” you know that she’s lying. theres an obvious reason why she offered in the first and you know exactly what it is.
“then show me why you really wanted to help.”
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primus-why · 10 months
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Another A/B/O AU...
... this time TFA!
Okay some rules this time are:
Alphas can mate with Betas to produce offspring-- with the exception of cross-factional pairs. And you will only ever produce the same frametype as the creators.
Betas and Betas can mate to produce offspring-- but again, they have to both be civilians or both be warframes. They will only produce offspring of the same frametype.
It's very rare for Alpha pairings to reproduce. Same rules above apply concerning frametypes.
Omegas are rare in that anyone can reproduce with them, and thus their offspring can be any frametype. Contrary to a popular myth, the sparkling's frametype is random and not automatically based on whomever the sire/carrier is.
Generally the majority of Decepticons are Alphas, and the majority of Autobots are Betas. A Beta!Decepticon or Alpha!Autobot is not rare but still pretty uncommon.
Omegas have not been seen for generations, and it's believed they've been wiped out. The deaths of Omegas on both sides is partially what kicked up the war, as it now became much more difficult to procreate. Especially for Decepticons, being mostly Alphas.
All mechs regardless of secondary status go through a reproductive receptivity cycle-- the horny time we usually call "heat" or "rut". (But since I couldn't think of a 3rd word for a Betas cycle, we'll call it "RRC" or just "cycle" across the board lol)
Surprise, surprise! Optimus Prime is, in fact, an Omega. He doesn't know that, though...
See, Omegas have been out of the picture for so long, they don't really teach about them anymore in the Academy. Obviously some folks like Ultra Magnus and Ratchet are old enough to remember, as are many of the Decepticons. But generally speaking, Optimus believes he's just a Beta with an abnormally persistent cycle.
Optimus' status is only known to a few-- thanks to the standard examination all new recruits undergo, only some of the older medics and Ultra Magnus himself were aware. The Magnus took great care to not place Optimus on the front lines whenever possible, as he did not want to risk the Cause losing something so precious as an Autobot Omega.
However, at the same time he did not disclose Optimus' status to anyone else-- he knew it would likely result in his peers treating him differently, or worse, the Council might vote to sequester him to a breeding center. No, Optimus himself couldn't even be aware-- Ultra Magnus was worried he'd fall prey to the old stigmas which claimed Omegas were inherently weaker or incapable. Perhaps that was hypocritical of him, since he had been avoiding using Optimus in battles, despite the young Prime being one of the most skilled and capable Bots at the Academy...
Perhaps that's why when the incident on Archa-7 happened, he took the opportunity to all but banish Optimus from Cybertron. Repairing space bridges kept him out of the direct line of fire; nothing ever seemed to happen all the way out there. What's more, Ultra Magnus wouldn't have to continue fabricating reasons why one of the Academy's top students was not being placed in more active roles. Optimus would also be spared the scrutiny of re-evaluation, wherein his status would likely have been disclosed to the Council and everyone in the upper ranks... as well as Ultra Magnus' favoritism.
Yes, Ultra Magnus had thought he was in the clear. The young Prime still had a part to play in the Great Autobot Machine, but not until things had quieted significantly. One day, Optimus would have the chance at a normal civilian life while their planet rebuilds, and Ultra Magnus would have the medics disclose his status so he could decide his own future without the pressures of wartime. For now, all he needed to do was ship the Omega somewhere, far away from prying optics, with a medic who could be discreet and a parting reminder to not be a hero.
... A lot of good that did him.
Some additional notes of who-is-what:
Alphas include*: Megatron, Sentinel Prime, Lugnut, Strika, Ultra Magnus, Bulkhead, Starscream, Blitzwing, Drift
Betas include*: Shockwave, Blurr, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Jazz, Blackarachnia, Prowl, Jetfire and Jetstorm, Rodimus Prime
*but are not limited to
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