okay I am a huge sucker for all the "Adrian finds Simon before Rocky&Grace even show up and they bond" AUs I've been seeing going around lately, they are all fantastic. But you know what would be even more interesting?
If Simon is discovered by a completely different Eridian all together.
I mean, Erid is a big planet! It is totally reasonable that someone completely unrelated to Rocky would be the one to find him! Let's say he gets spit out into orbit above Erid on the other side of the planet from where Adrian/Rocky lived. It's far enough away that no one on the Adrian side knows anything about him.
Oh, oh. Wait. Even funnier. He's somehow discovered by an Eridian pebble.
This little pebble is basically living their own little E.T. story, trying to take care of their new best friend, who is essentially a strange alien that landed in their backyard, while hiding it from their parents because they're scared that the alien will get taken away to a lab to get experimented on. Simon absolutely gets stuffed into the Eridian equivalent of a closet and hidden under the pebble's stuff to hide him at some point. Maybe an Eridian lampshade is thrown over his head. There are shenanigans.
(Let's just say that either this little pebble is a genius even by Eridian standards and was able to create some sort of survival suit for Simon. Or maybe Simon's mutations have changed him enough that he can survive in Erid's atmosphere. Just. Work with me here. For the cute.)
The kid, wanting to be all responsible and take proper care of their new alien friend, also manages to find something safe for Simon to eat. It's mostly through trial and error. There's a lot of feeding Simon stuff, and recording what does or does not make him throw up. The pebble is taking judicious notes for science. Simon is unamused.
Anyways, the little pebble is keeping Simon safe and hidden and basically becoming best alien friends with him. Simon is very confused, but at least there's no more blood everywhere and nothing is trying to kill him? The weird rock alien who found him is kinda cute too. He can deal with this. They bond, it's super adorable, everything's going okay.
And then Rocky shows back up with the solution to the Astrophage problem that has been plaguing their entire planet. It's a big deal. All of Erid knows about it. Which means all of Erid knows about the person Rocky brought back with him. Another alien!
The pebble and Simon are both shocked, because damn. That's not just another alien. That's a human. Like Simon is. And to the pebble's surprise, he's not being shoved in a lab, or locked in a cage by Eridian scientists. They're actually trying to help Rocky's human stay alive, though they're struggling with the food thing.
And the pebble and Simon hear this and think, '...hey. We know what food he can eat.'
The pebble finally comes clean to their parents about the alien that's been living in their closet. After much surprise and shouting, the pebble's parents are forced to reach out to the team working on Grace's survival and sheepishly admit that they may have had another human here all along, and he might be able to help them.
And so Simon has to pretty much travel across the planet to try to get to this new human in time to help him survive. The whole time, he's excited and nervous, because damn it's been a while since he saw people. He's pretty used to Eridians now, but humans are a whole other story. Thankfully his pebble friend is coming with him.
The pebble is having a blast by the way, this is all very exciting.
Thus Simon rolls up to meet Grace for the first time with a small pebble essentially tucked up in his arms.
Grace takes one look at this big buff guy carefully cradling what is obviously a small Eridian child in his thick, beefy arms, and immediately melts.
it's interesting to me that whenever Gwi-Ma pulls Jinu down to the demon realm, Jinu stays in his human form. It seems like an intentional choice on Jinu's part--all the other Saja Boys transform back, for instance, and seem to do it because they're tired of acting human--but Jinu stays looking human. I don't think it's Gwi-Ma forcing him to stay human, either--not just because I don't think it'd fit any of his goals. But I kind of get the vibe that Jinu is working to stay human. In the places where Gwi-Ma's light hits most directly, you can kind of see the shimmer of patterns underneath Jinu's skin. Or, you see his patterns creeping up his neck. You get the sense that Jinu's putting in an effort to stay looking as human as possible, that he's resisting the pull of transforming back into his true self.
his eyes are also halfway between human and demon form in that first image. closer to human in the second. he seems more human overall in the second image, which is right after Free, which is interesting
I really do think that part of the reason Jinu put together the plan he did was because it would allow him to go up to the human world and act like a human again. I think he misses it a lot.
Humanized versions of the Mikes haha💜... Or uh... Gijinkas? Is there a difference??? Well, they're not really fully humanized, so I guess "gijinkas" may fit better.
Btw, these are versions of them that turned into humans (and so did everyone else in CastleTown), I think I would design them differently for an actual human AU.
But idk, it's cooler to turn them into humans instead... I mean- look at how much fun they're having!!!!
amid ai slop and garbage remakes, i do think its cool that the two best movies of the year so far are painstaking labours of love with original narratives about how authenticity and passion in art (especially music) can be healing and nurturing forces that evil will seek to corrupt and replicate and steal.
Just watched one of these humanity first youtube bs videos out of sheer curiosity where a guy deadass argued that JAKE is the sole reason for the Na'vi-Human conflict. Saying that he is the only reason they cannot peacefully co-exist because he simply hates the humans soooo much, and uses the Na'vi to fight against them. Essentially painting him as the evil mastermind pitting the poor innocent humans who only wanna save their homes and the clueless dumb na'vi against eachother.
Which is, obviously, a completely asinine take to have. But also- ngl I may steal this for an RDA!Spider AU.
Just imagine: Spider raised by the RDA as Miles Quaritch Junior. Taught to hate and despite their enemy, made to be their perfect little soldier. All his life he was bombarded with the worst of propaganda they had to offer, turning him into their loyal good little pawn.
But also, that is still Spider. And his love and respect for Pandora is simply not something you cannot take from him without him stopping being Spider.
So what's the logical conclusion of his world view with these things combined? Jake Sully is the devil incarnated who is using the Na'vi to fight against and exterminate humanity. And once they got this evil race traitor tied down and executed, they'll finally be able to show the truth to the Na'vi and build the peaceful co-existence they were always supposed to have. Humanity and the Na'vi are both good and were harmed and betrayed by a heinous villain.
