What it says on the tin. My favs are Hannah and Adam and it's gonna be really clear.
The banner's from Kaji's translation of Tales of Nui
(Follows/Likes from end-orfino)
really small detail but i was looking at my recent screenshots and i really like that they're commiting to and keeping the worldbuilding in mind so much that it's called a "monkeyrell wrench" instead of a monkey wrench
im gonna put this whole thing under cut bcs i dont want to make this post too hard to scroll by
To start I think in this AU Art of Illusion would probably go differently in other ways aside from the obvious thing of Corto switching to Teach Tech - like for example I don't think Mouse would have succesfully sneaked into the Mirages honeycomb? Maybe she'd try but it'd be locked, or maybe they'd catch her before she'd find the coral and in that case just kick her out - we can imagine a lot of things, but my main ideas for this AU aren't focused on that, they're about what would happen afterwards. Also tbh this whole AU kinda relies on a suspension of disbelief over Corto actually switching techs to me bcs Canon Corto absolutely would not do that but. That's what the AU is for I guess
After the Tikis failed to find a solution for Oro's "glitch", once the race would be done, I think Wyatt would take in Oro in order to help him. He'd figure it out and heal him, but not fast enough - after the succesful race, seeing how weakened Oro is, and some more convincing from Gavinda, Corto would make up her mind and decide to switch techs.
The Tikis would def split up over this. While Enki worked with Corto in AOI I can't imagine him and Mouse agreeing to make this change permanent (esp after Enki would see how it affects the environment). Because of this, they drop out of Whale Cup, but since Gavinda's offering Corto similar tech support to the one she tried to win the tournament for, she's not as bothered about this as the others.
I can see Gavinda offering her the trade of a new energy generator in exchange for Taoraa again. Even if Corto would agree (after some empty promises from Teach that Taoraa will be fine), I don't know how that would go bcs of the rest of the island. Option 1.: The rest of Nui somehow agrees, and along with the new generator they maybe even get a different way to slow the rising sea levels installed after some time (either as a part of the trade deal or it would be smth they would have to actually buy from teach, since she's not exactly too generous), but because of it being Teach Tech it poisons Nui's environment and they go from one bad situation to another. Option 2.: The rest of the island doesn't agree, so Corto still has 'saving Nui' as her goal in the back of her mind, but right now Teach is pushing her more towards making the most of her support and eventually (we'll get to that in a sec) becoming her main representative. Also, since she split up with the Tikis, Teach would find her a new team, so she's now working with some strangers.
Team Mirage sees all of what's happening. Hannah's seeing red the whole time, the same way she did during AOI, feeling replaced and disrespected, THEY'RE Gavinda's team, SHE'S her top pilot, why did she put so much effort into swaying their opponent to her side and paying more attention to her? Adam also starts to get worried once it becomes apparent Gavinda's plans don't stop at just getting Corto to use her tech, but surely, she's just trying to get more power overall, right? They're still the ones she trusted with a secret mission, she can't just drop them.
They stay at the Whale Cup, trying their best to continue the espionage but not making any significant discoveries (there is the question of how kami's race would happen - maybe Whale, after what happened, decided to focus more on the rest of the tournament and the droners, didn't go on that trip, and thus they didn't even get that opportunity?) and still qualify for the finale. Because of Oro not being in the picture, Gavinda's plan isn't even thought of, and without her involvement, Hannah wins.
While Gavinda's angry at Team Mirage for not achieving anything during the entire tournament, she realizes them winning gives them one of possibly the best opportunities at their espionage yet - officially, she drops them as their sponsor, and they join Whale as his apprentices, still secretly working for her with the same goal as before. Technically, they could probably dip the second Whale gives them a genie of their own, but this isn't a time-limited tournament anymore, they have this position for as long as they maintain Wyatt's trust, and they are much closer to him than ever before, so Gavinda instructs them to play the long game instead until they learn as much as they possibly can. After all, even if she would get her hands on a genie, there's no guarantee that examining it would give her all the answers she needs to bring Whale down.
This is when Corto takes the spot as Gavinda's official #1 representative, since Mirages aren't officialy affiliated with her anymore. Hannah's FURIOUS. Adam's not happy about it either, but thinks that they'll get back into Gavinda's good graces once they succeed in their espionage.
This plan of a long-term espionage goes decently well for some time, but it's a double edged sword, as team Mirage slowly but surely gets somewhat attached to the new G.En.I.E. (Kami, ofc) Whale gave them as they joined him, and they also start to get used to Whale, who appreciates Hannah as a pilot, and even though Adam initially leans into the role of being his apprentice solely to get info out of him, turns out to be just a genuinely good mentor. He treats them better than Gavinda ever did, and this isn't something that disappears once they mess up here and there. It's not immediate (Adam especially takes more time), but both of them are eventually starting to get the thought that maybe taking part in destroying all of this isn't as good of an idea as they initially thought.
Meanwhile, working for Gavinda pushed Corto to obviously double down on all of her flaws and then some - she's meaner to her peers, more ruthless, self-centered, and even somewhat willing to use violence. Not all of her good side is gone though; she's still kind of goofy and cheerful when she can be, she still doesn't like to cheat, and even if she's not as much of a pacifist she still won't go out of her way to destroy someone's drone, especially if it's powered by a G.En.I.E. Speaking of, while she would claim that switching to Teach Tech made her a better pilot and that she doesn't regret it, she really misses Mouse, Enki, and Oro, even if she tries to not focus on it. Additionaly, she doesn't have as close of a bond with her new team, even though she did try to befriend them. She generally tries to approach people she considers her now-allies (be it her new teammates or other teach-using teams) similarly to her old friends from the Whale Cup, such as the Tao Twins, Bees or Pirates, but it doesn't really work - they're obviously not as friendly as her and their dynamic is, at best, similar to what the antag teams of S1 had - allies when it suits their interests, hanging around with her when there's no better option, but they don't actually see her as a friend and aren't expecting her to do the same. It takes Corto some time to adjust to this, and they see her as kind of dumb and naive because of it.
She obviously falls into Gavinda's trap - she's dependent on her technology and support, and realizes this once it's too late to back out, with the double feature of being sure that her old friends wouldn't want to associate with her anymore. And just like Team Mirage before her, this is what makes her stay in line and listen to Gavinda more, feeling like it's either that or going back to Nui with no team, no support from anyone, having no other way to be a pilot anymore. Because of this control Gavinda has over her Corto's chaotic side is a bit toned down… though she's still Corto, so she's not immune to getting too wrapped up in her pride or way of handling things and going off on her own against her teammates' or Gavinda's wishes.
As an aside, honestly I'm frustrated at the fact that I can't think of a way to really include Mouse, Enki and Oro here. I want to, but without their pilot and Wyatt's official support, there's not much they can do. After Corto joined Teach they went back to Nui, and the three of them are still friends. Whenever Corto's around, they avoid her. If I'd come up with any way to make them be more relevant I'd change it to that probably.
All of this would come to a head during this AU's version of S2. Wyatt was aware of the rising sea levels, but seeing Team Tiki's fallout and thus failure to reach their goal of truly protecting Nui, which he blames on Gavinda more than on the kid she swayed over to her side, reminds him of this, of his old project that he can't fullfill without the crystals, and he confides in his apprentices about this. Team Mirage - who at this point haven't gotten through the entirety of their redemption arcs, but have grown kind of fond of Whale as their mentor and have mixed feelings about Gavinda and the espionage they're still begrudgingly, technically, though not really effectively doing - push him to go to Tortuga to ask Scarlett about the crystals, or to at least let them take part in the Rotor Punch, and he agrees. Asking Scarlett didn't work, but they do qualify for the tournament… just as Corto does, as a representative of Teach. Gavinda doesn't trust her enough to let her in on her goal of taking Wyatt down yet, so she doesn't know of the Mirages' espionage and believes Gavinda really did drop them because of her being simply better. She taunts them with this, which aggravates them both, especially Hannah, and a more hostile & more personal rivarly starts. On the other hand, Corto sees that the Mirages are actually doing pretty well as Whale's apprentices, seemingly acting less mean (at least to other people than her), and are even maybe improving their relationships with Corto's old friends (the Tao Twins, Bees, maybe they'd even get onto more peaceful terms with the Pirates somehow), which would, in turn, aggravate HER, and make her question if what she chose and what she's doing is actually right. Other teams aren't blind to all of this either, Corto's ex-friends are disappointed with her, for example, there'd probably be some sad drama between her and Sun especially, and there's a lot of mixed and negative feelings everywhere.
This Rotor Punch definitely goes differently than the canon one in so many ways that I won't get into them here. What's relevant to this AU is that Corto eventually, gradually, realizes that joining Teach wasn't a good idea, and gets swayed back over to the good side. Alongside this, Corto and Hannah go from hating each other to gaining each others' respect and realizing their situations aren't really too different, especially in regards to Gavinda and how she treats them. At the same time, Team Mirage's redemption is finalized, with them deciding to actually leave Teach for good.
I'm not sure how or why but both these character arcs would culminate in the 'finale' somehow. I'm guessing Team Mirage's secret of being spies would come out, either through them being forced to confess it to Wyatt or by Gavinda outing them to him as payback for ditching her. He would forgive them, and they'd probably have an opportunity to prove their loyalty to him and not her, but there would be some drama tied to it all. Corto could also learn of Teach's more sinister plans here, and this would lead to a turning point to her, deciding that she's had enough and doesn't want anything to do with Teach anymore. She could possibly also have something similar to Hannah's redemption here, with betraying Gavinda in a way that would help with stopping her. After all is said and done she'd probably reunite with the Tikis back at Nui.
Was thinking about my idea for the Empress and reminded myself of my old. idk can i call this a theory? Even if it's more a collection of vague ideas? About how the Empire is called the "Solar Empire of Aton" on the map and how Aton/Aten was the focus of the more monotheistic religion that the pharaoh Akhenaten tried to introduce during his rule instead of the typical polytheism they had.
I don't know much about Ancient Egypt or its history and religion (not my area of expertise. i got most of my info about Atenism from Wikipedia), but Droners really likes borrowing elements of various cultures, so I find the idea of it hypothetically taking inspiration from this specific and kind of odd episode of Egypt's history interesting. Maybe. If that's what's happening. I mean, they had to choose to put THAT god in the empire's name for a reason.
I also generally have this idea of the Empire maybe serving as a contrast to Polaris in a sense? The two seem to be one of the biggest Terra settlements on Terraqua according to the map. So maybe Polaris', or more specifically, the Academy's heavily militarized society that doesn't seem to have any cultural traditions tied to it could be put in contrast with The Empire being very tied to its traditions/culture (and maybe even religion?), so much so that it's in the country's name.
I don't really know about the religion part. I'm a huge sucker for religious motifs in media, so I'd love to see it, but I'm not sure if the show would go beyond the mentions to the gods it has in its naming conventions for...almost everything. But I think if there's any land where it could have those explored then the Empire is probably my top pick. If we'd go with the Atenism inspiration then I'd probably guess it's some kind of henotheism, considering that there's a lot of mentions of Horus too, not just Aton, so he's clearly not the ONLY god they have.
realized this reminds me of that one urusei yatsura trend... i could make it with them but that wasn't the intention i just like the idea of them plaguing each other's mind
I drew the lines for this yesterday at night when my tablet's drivers were fucked for some reason so every line was a struggle and this was meant to be just a concept doodle, but honestly I think there's some charm to how it's a bit wonky...
Im not the best person to talk about the role of sun's disability here. but it's. really something.
Like it's clear that whoever's taking care of them (the monks from their island? Their parents?) paid more attention to sun because of his disability ever since they were young. While right now we see him as the 'golden child', very capable and stuff, it's clear this started because of their caretakers seeing him as not capable to handle things himself, as needing help every step of the way, Monk says it out loud here.
And their caretaker's way of... frankly ableist thinking affected them BOTH. Sun got attention and support, got everything he asked for, yes, but it was caused, at least in part, by pity over his blindness. And I'm sure it's something he noticed, at least subconsciously, you can tell the idea of having everything handed to him on a silver platter because of it (and thus not having truly earned it on his own) is something that cuts deep for him. And Monk got relegated to supporting his brother, and didn't get as much attention because there was nothing "wrong"(these are INCREDIBLY strong quotation marks) with him, so he doesn't need it as much in the eyes of their caretakers. All of his life started circling over supporting Sun because 'he needs him', both disrespecting Monk as his own person AND disrespecting Sun through seeing him as helpless. I know I'm practically just rephrasing exactly what they say in this ep with little new but it's just. This situation treats BOTH of them wrong.
I like the fact that while Monk helps them win in the end with his technical knowledge and stuff, the thing that actually snaps Sun and Lotus out of it isn't them being dependent on Monk knowing how to fix their connection, but more like. Remembering what it's all about for them. They were lost without him not because they needed him as their tech guy, but because the conflict took a toll on them and they missed him. It's great.
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