#asksolotl

But of course I ship!!

What made you ship it?

As I recall it was Izzy of @flowers-of-io fame who was my first exposure to the ship, and I must say her arguments were very convincing

2. What are your favorite things about this ship?

In Destiny fandom, anyway, Zaiatl holds the distinction of being probably my most "normie" ship. I like relatively normie things about it: there's a Victorian romance novel kind of excitement in repression, of two people with Duty and Honor and Obligations coming together to find comfort in each other. I like the clash of cultures they represent as they learn about each other. Height difference. Ough, awa, you get it

Besides that, though, there's a kind of constant deescalation about them that I enjoy. They are constantly teaching each other how to live in peace, even in the midst of war. Yes they have Responsibilities, but in each other's presence they can set them down.

I also think the contrast between Zavala's personality (straightforward, military, kindly dad) and Caiatl's (extravagant, imperial, firm but with good humor) is fun to play with

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I do ship!!

What made you ship it?

YOU GUYS. Broadly speaking. I believe the first fic I read of it was from @eri-223 and the goth4goth dark wizard rivalry (gone wrong)(gone sexual) did the rest

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

Sometimes I think about the theory that the quote "In that last moment, she was as wholly luminescent as the sun, and I wished to be so brave" was from Toland about Eriana-3. I tend to think of Toland as being drawn to Eris as a moth to a flame, with an air of pretension and lofty detachment to disguise the fact that he really really really wants to be like her. I also think there is a fascination on Eris' part, where she is so chained down by duty and grief that the utter freedom of Toland is tempting to some degree. So there's, I dunno, a romance born of other things, a yearning that goes deeper than wanting the person near you (although there is that) but wanting them within you, wanting to remake yourself in their image, and also there's the talking about it in deeply dramatic and ominous pronunciations and asides. Codependent CHAMPIONS

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I could certainly be persuaded! I think there's a lot of interesting things goin' on there.

What made you ship it?

I hadn't really considered it before, but you're a good ambassador!

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

Truly, you can't find "Regent Pope of a dying theocratic empire dating the unhinged atheist chief of secret police" anywhere else so kudos to RuneScape for that. Their personalities bounce off of each other well. One of them is certainly doomed to kill the other in a fit of rage at some point which in my book is always an ingredient for a good ship! (Let's be honest, Azzanadra will probably snap first.)

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

Honestly, roughly around Forsaken era Aryn's inner motivations were slightly the opposite of what they are now. I used to think of her as a wholly selfless character, whose danger was in pursuing the salvation of humanity at any cost to herself, but I eventually realized I didn't like that very much. Over time, I started recontextualizing her story and eventually realized I made a hard pivot to the other way around lol. It's better this way, I think, although maybe not for Aryn or her friends or anyone else in the whole world

23. What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Hmmmmm I thiiiink Aryn's problem is less in expressing emotions, and more so in expressing them in ways that are healthy. She does that thing where she makes her feelings everyone else's problem, throwing her grief and anger at anyone in range, and then crying about it when people do anything other than just meekly accept that the conversation is now and forever about her.

I would say grief. I don't think Aryn has the tools to process everything she's lost in a healthy way, so she projects it all onto this heroic fantasy where she's the center of the universe and everyone who lost or suffered or died were ultimately side characters there to advance her character development. It's the only way it makes sense to her.

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they made those choices?

Being honest. I think the alternate universe where Aryn would be happiest is the one where she WASN'T the Hero of the Red War and maybe Knot had that job. In THAT timeline I think Aryn could have theoretically been convinced to go to therapy :D

The character everyone gets wrong

Can I just say, the Valar as a whole for this? Lol. I'm generally tolerant of different perspectives on characters and "what-if" scenarios, but it feels like fandom as a whole has this sort of enduring fixation on the Valar being horrible or at least incompetent tyrants who cruelly *checks notes* um, allowed Fëanor to keep the Silmarils even when they were direly needed for the good of the whole realm and despite the fact that the Silmarils would not even be possible without the creation of Yavanna and Nienna. Those bastards!

(I tend towards "The Valar did not want to go to war with Morgoth during the First Age for fear of wrecking Beleriand", personally, but I don't think it's impossible to read some fault into them for that. Being too passive, even (as Ulmo accuses them of during a much earlier draft iirc) too fearful of Melkor. That being said, though, my patience for Valar bashing is very thin and while I'm good with reasoned critique of their actions (especially from characters who have a right to be angry at them (aka NOT FEANOR)) I'd rather read them as well-intentioned but flawed beings with massive amounts of power they're learning to use through trial by fire, which imo is borne out by canon. And in any case I think their refusal to go to war to not wreck the whole continent, currently populated by lots of Elves and lots of the newly awoken Second Children, is very reasonable!)

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Is it too obvious? Fëanor. Truthfully I think he's a well-written character and obviously one of the most important ones in the Legendarium, but the insistence of fandom that he's done nothing wrong makes me want to be mean to him just as a contrarian. Also, through no fault of his, the "impressive lone genius" character just is not really my cup of tea to begin with

17. There should be more of this type of fic/art

Oryx is not my Most Favorite of the Hive gods but he is up there! Mostly I spend time thinking about how he is the most ardent believer of the Sword Logic of all of them, so much so that he died believing his death was good because it served the Logic, which drives me insane. I also really want to write a fic about him and Rhulk having a conversation where Oryx's faith in the Sword Logic astonishes Rhulk to the point where even the Disciple of the Witness and the guy who INVENTED the Sword Logic wonders, for just a moment, is HE more right about the Witness than I am??

IT'S FORERUNNER TIME <3

3. A character I want to carry around in a little jar and study like a bug

I would LOVE to study the Primordial in a little jar honestly. I think I would do really well at surviving the horrors and when I learn about the forbidden knowledge I would definitely not go mad

Other than that... maybe Mendicant Bias

8. The character with the greatest wasted/unexplored potential

THE DIDACT OF COURSE. Epitaph MIGHT rectify this amazingly but I'm very nervous ):

Oh, and also... I'll bend the definition of "character" here to say that I have always thought the Domain being revealed to be a Precursor creation is kind of anticlimactic. The greatest mystery of the cosmos, and it turns out it's just a super-super-computer built by the even older aliens for data storage. It feels, to be honest, very underwhelming

16. A scene/moment that makes me really emotional every single time

There are so many of these...

"You have come to remove me. Please do. I have been so long with the Domain I shall quickly pass into it - I can think of no more suitable fate for Haruspis." Is a line that has stuck with me, despite the fact that it comes from a character we barely know lol. I think it's just a good encapsulation of the feeling of Silentium. Also, somebody quoted it on Reddit when Greg Bear died and it made me cry. ;_;

The scene with Bornstellar at his family's planet also just feels so melancholy to me. Knowing what happens next to him hurts, but the whole thing just screams that something is coming to an end and it will never be this way again. (Also when Bornstellar says "I never saw my family alive and free ever again" like alive and free? ALIVE AND FREE??)