Inkypanda

☆𝔸𝕝𝕨𝕒𝕪𝕤 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕝𝕨𝕒𝕪𝕤☆ falling back into fandom after 6 years• Not just an aphblr I swear* please note this blog is to indulge the ramblings of a madman

[inky-rosepanda]

Can we talk about how much of the "discourse" around the MCD Aphs ships borderline on sl*shaming?

"Oh she slept with a random man in the woods." Or "She should have told them," but also, "she should have never done that." And "She had no right after to go after Aaron when she promised them."

Like come on

Firstly these are fictional characters but also who are you???

Firstly Aaron was not a random man. He saved her (and people important to her) on multiple occasions, and they were literally raising a child together. Also, how long have they been traveling together atp. He is literally helping her build a village from scratch.

But sure, he's a random

I saw a comment that she banged a man who's entire family died. Like, huh, what was this comment supposed to be? His family died so that means he can't build any meaningful connections ever, that she doesn't mean anything to him?

Now I am overexaggerating and I don't think they meant it maliciously. I do think they were just pointing out the humor in it-a little jokeie joke. But that's what a lot of people give when talking about Aaron.

(On a side tangent, I saw a post that said Aaron and Aphmau had a turma bond, and I completely agree - this still does NOT invalidate their relationship. I just wanted to acknowledge a theory that I enjoyed)

She should have picked Laurence or Garroth. She owed it to them!

WRONG!

She should have done exactly what she did, which was chose whoever she wanted cause she was a grown woman and could make her own choices. Mind you they weren't promising to get married or anything, they had sex (and a emotional connection but yeah). Like God forbid a girl get dicked down after years of absolute craziness.

Her chosing someone else was wrong. They did so much for her!

So? They were her guards, half of the stuff they did were their jobs, that doesn't mean she owes them a relationship. She at best owed them the favor returned.

"She should have told Garroth and Laurence!"

Yes!

I agree no notes on that point. I believe she owed them honesty and a verbalizeation of her feelings, both as her friends and people she was romantically interested in-but that's it.

She did not owe them a chance, she did not owe them a relationship nor did she owe them exclusivity. Even if she told Garroth she would wait, she's allowed to change her mind-again the only thing she did wrong in that situation was not talk about Aaron to them or anyone really.

If you take nothing else from this, read the last paragraph again.

That it thanks for coming to my Ted talk

But on a serious note. It's disappointing to see these talking point being recycled again and again over the last 9 years. Now I wasn't big into fandom when I was younger but I did see some post and comments and so much of it is the same.

And I am not any moral authority to tell anyone anything on how to feel- these are just my opinions but I will say

It is one thing to not like where a creator went with their story, and express that. It is an entirely different thing to tell them they wrote THEIR story wrong?

Crazy work

[inky-rosepanda]

The one thing fantasy writers really want is for people to be able to get lost in their world and live a life outside their own with their art.

[inky-rosepanda]

Love to see people coming around to what we Rook enjoyers have been saying.

[inky-rosepanda]

Yall

1. They are calling Jennie, lazy, entitled, and a bad person

2. Saying the girls (bp) are untalented

3. People are arguing over Visuals vs. Talent

4. Once, Blinks, and Army's are at each other throats

We are officially back

[passionfruitswirl]

Based off some jokes me and my friends made when i forced them to watch mcd

[inky-rosepanda]

This is hilarious please don't play in traffic

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Just made a long-ish post of my interpretation of Mcd Aaron and why I like him so much

Here's the TDLR

1.He showed up

2. He served Cunt

3. He died

[inky-rosepanda]

If it's not obvious by now, MCD Aaron is very special to me

I know not a popular sentiment but stay with me

Just imagine, you have a wife, a son, a village, a beautiful life despite the hardships and duties that come with being a lord.

Then, one day, it's all ripped away from you. An act of protection-contorted in to one of dammation. An instant less than a blink of an eye, everything is gone.

The life you painstakingly cultivated snuffed out like a flickering candle left to the wims of the unforgiving wind.

You have to bury not only your family but friends. Your people - the very ones you swore to protect.

In response, you dedicate the rest of your life to revenge. Trying to take down the one man who destroyed your life. You don't even try to dispell the rumors that float about you, that condemn you for the cruelest actions and as such the cruelest fate. They are inconsequential to who you are now.

You vow to never become close to anyone again lest they be taken from you. Yet you still save some pieces of yourself- your not nice, you were never that, but you were a protector, and you still serve as one.

Saving those you see as innocent and in need of help.

In what is both a stroke of luck and your own dedication paying off you get the opportunity you've been waiting for. You don't get to kill the man but it's close to it, and the best you'll get for now. Still has it is now there's nothing left for you to do, nothing to live for now that your objective is semi-complete.

You kinda just drift and in doing so you are given a new purpose. Or at least something to do. Still you try to keep to you distance, refrain from getting to attached so that it does not harm you or them.

It doesn't work.

You start to come to genuinely appreciate this woman who is kinda the reason for your revenge, her and her crew. Her guards who are fiercely loyal and dangerous and in love with her, but that's not your business. Her acquired demonic travel compain who you do not train but come close to it. Then, the sporadic researcher who is more of a liability than anything. And a dog and more.

A new purpose a new start. So you help build a village and raise a daughter, having been the only person to really have any experience in both of these things.

In doing so, you start to care, mayhaps even fall for this woman, whom you see so much of yourself in, by nature of your occupation, of course, but there's more.

You see a similar struggle and appreciation and pain, not the same but close enough; it is one of lost, of a entire future being ripped away by the selfishness of one man the same man.

You get along just fine, more than fine, and you start to think maybe you could live life a little.

But just as you see the same pain, you also see the same stubbornness. The same drive and need to reciprocate what was lost, but this time for her it's more attainable. More dangerous.

More to lose

So you take it upon yourself to do what she cannot, what very well may kill her- kill you. Isn't that what you promised yourself, that you would never fail anyone else, yourself again?

This time, it's different. You had a new lease on life, and this time, you used it not as an act of revenge but one of protection. Doing what you could not do before, taking care of the people you love. Protecting your child and her mother.

A worthy, damning, heartbreaking sacrifice.

Then after it's all said and done you're not even allowed to move on to the afterlife- to see your people, your wife and child because you are being used as a vessel, as weapon against the very person you gave your life for.

Now imagine all of that, then imagine some 14 year old complaining about not liking you because "You ruined their ship"...

Lol, someone give this man a break.

TLDR;

This man is tragedy personified and the fandom reaction to him is kind of funny in that aspect

[inky-rosepanda]

As my pervious post said I think Aphmau forgave Garroth to quickly.

Now Im not going to pretend like this is something completely exclusive to Garroth. One of Aph's best(and worst) characteristics was being a caring, and forgiving person. An example being trying (in vain) to help northern werewolf tribe and taking Yip.

But this was a different. This wasn't a bad experience with strangers/enemies it was a betrayal from one of her closest connections, her guard, and one of her best friends.

That's to say my opinion on why he did it aside I believe in 2(ish) different reasons as to why Aphmau forgave Garroth.

1. "His sacrifice" (please note that sacrifice is said with the biggest air quotes.) Her last living memory is one of Garroth is of the person she knows, her head guard. Staying behind to protect her and her people. She probably sees this as a redemption and getting her person back

2.1 The fact that he's not there and she can't process that. This is more of an emotional aspect, less than her being forgiving and more forgetting.

Simply put, it's easier to blame a physical thing, a person when they're in front of you. The fact that he wasn't there and was in noteable danger prevented her from processing her emotions about his betrayal properly.

2.2 She dealing with the lost. Of him for sure but of time specifically. 15 years have passed, and Phoenix Drop is is ruins, her friends are old, her boys grew up without her. The world has changed, and she has not seen any of it. Those are hard emotions in themselves, but she also embarking on a journey of (other) self-discovery. She does have significantly fewer responsibilities (for some time), but her physical distress is only taken over by her emotional one in season 2 as opposed to season 1.

This is just to say that she doesn't process her emotions as she should. To focus on nothing and everything at the same time. So when a piece of old comfort comes, she grasp on and doesn't look back(this is exaggerated by Laurence leaving and her falling pregnant)

A small note kinda 3rd part- Aaron tells her not to. He tells her to keep smiling and move forward and how can she do that if she holding on to old grudges?

Note that this is just my interpretation, and nothing that I say is set in stone. This is just how I see it

[inky-rosepanda]

Drag me if you must but to me garmau is a non-starter in season 2 cause what do you mean I lost 15 years with my children (and the village WE built up) because of something that Never even happened?? And had you talked about it to anyone who wasn't a stranger, it would have immediately solved the situation??

So much time wasted for nothing

On the same note, I see so many people equate Garroth staying behind to Laurance, and I just feel that's not fair comparison. At the very least they are completely different circumstances.

Laurence stayed behind to help not just Aphmau a woman he just met but also one of his close friend and Cadenza who is like a sister to him. He does this not knowing what will happen. He is tortured and is turned into something different and inhumane completely out of his control.

Sure, this isn't an act of complete selfishness, but it is an act of care and protection and shows what type of person Laurence is.

Garroth staying behind, on the other hand, is him fixing a mistake he made. Remember, Zane would have never been able to open the portal had he not gotten the amulet. This is meant to be a mini-redemption for him. Fixing his mistake while also falling back into his role of a guard.

Now, this is not to say that Garroth is a bad person, but I am saying he does not deserve all the props yall give him

Also Aphmau forgave him way too quick for me.

Im gonna make a separate post on why I think that is.

[inky-rosepanda]

Outside of Kalim, Leona is the kindest Housewarden

Need I elaborate?

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I don't even watch Alien Stage and I cheered

[inky-rosepanda]

I'm not gonna hold your hand when I say this- but an author writing a character in a way YOU don't like or feel is unsupportive of their arc is not bad writing or destroying a character.

[inky-rosepanda]

I enjoy 'Lover boy' Aaron as much as the next person but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss 'Nonchalant' Aaron

[inky-rosepanda]

Stop I'm finally getting to the TWST novel after having it for like 6 months and I love Yuya so much- he's literally just some guy

[the-trashcan-studios]

Every one in MCD has poor skills in communicating, and it stresses me out to a ridiculous degree

[inky-rosepanda]

Again with the re-watch and knowing Brian was the traitor hurts. Like he was so kind and his love and worry for his sister and the village ugh my heart

I wonder what happened to him like we never hear of him again after s1- obviously he ran away but where did he go? Especially after Zane was gone. How did Dale and Molly continue after knowing it was their child who betrayed them.

In my head, he was hurt and vulnerable being sent to guard school as soon as he was of age, and then jealous when Dale and Molly had Alexis but I don't know.

[plutoonwheels]

hilarious part of garroth lore is that while aphmau and the hoes were fighting for their life in 15 year time-shifted home world trying to save him for 6 months he was there for like. 30 seconds. you're telling me he could not hold it for 30 seconds. qualified jury replacement garroth. power scaled garroth. "you were the one thought in my mind fending off zane" for the 30 seconds?? the extra 30 you were there?? like hey maybe the dream hill visits were throwing off his game but jesus fuck. those had to be milliseconds to him. just run dude. go hide or something

[inky-rosepanda]

Omg I literally made a comment about this on a tik-tok video.

Like looking at his actions in cannon he is so dramatic

1a. He sees his friend/brother and woman he has feelings for kiss so he becomes evil??? Where was the train of thought in that

1b. It takes a 30 sec pep talk to snap him out of that state. Like we could've that earlier it save alot of people alot of time

2. You were left behind for 30 secs and that drained you? The two swords swings it took before you were rescued took a lot out of you huh?

And let's not forget the other little stuff like giving her a ring after a week of knowing her, staying in the mines after the battle with Zenix(understanble) and running away from his marriage (also understanble)