Bonus following the previous post !

The idea comes from @UnaNoir (Twitter)

If Shinonome was here maybe she'll scold her brother for his behavior sometimes (or maybe will be like him)

The siblings ever!!!!

They literally carried s4😭 I need more interactions between these three so bad but Ankama straight up ⚰️ one and put the other in cryosleep😀

Ankama better cough up an apology real soon

This scene keeps bouncing around my head like a cheap rubber ball you got at the local fair

What is he talking about???????? Why did he call her “Queen of the Sadidas” when she was still only their princess?? What does “artificial flower” mean????! Is it foreshadowing or some weird French insult I don’t know about?????!!!! Is it just character filler that doesn’t actually hold any significance???? And if it does all means something was Qilby just conveniently clairvoyant this entire time??????!!!!! WHAT IS THIS

Ankama really gotta stop dropping these mind-screws and disappearing like

Qilby season 4 redesign cause he's so... blank space looking

Whatever he says...

He cares

The hesitation to start a new life

Inspired by this art!

The Great Wave - Chapters 9 + 10 Review

‼️SPOILERS FOR THE CHAPTER‼️

I've actually been working on this reply all day lol. But now seriously...

You know a character is only there for cheap drama when you take them out and the story either doesn't change or it actually improves.

In season 3, we didn't need Aurora's introduction to highlight how Amalia felt out of place in her own home. Just keep her father's failing health and Armand's bitterness towards her and you get the exact same thing. After all, there was no sign of Aurora during Amalia's vision in Oropo's Time Trap, not even of her attempts at marrying her off. That all just showed how Aurora is actually meaningless in Amalia's life.

In season 4, her and her father's relevance hinged precisely and entirely on the fact that they abandoned the Sadidas to the Nécromes. Which, in turn, is only important because it was the event that would lead to Amalia's arc and her animosity towards them in this first volume.

What happens if you erase their "arc" in the webtoon? Well, this is all speculation on my part, but perhaps we could have dealt with actual political intrigue if Amalia had been forced to face the other rulers and their reaction to seeing her welcome the Eliatropes.

What did we get instead? A weekly migraine from having to deal with the franchise's most insufferable characters for about two months straight.

As for the reason behind Aurora's own animosity towards Amalia, I'd say it is, once again, a result of her being nothing but Armand's trophy wife, rather than his actual partner and queen. As we've already discussed in length, Aurora seems to have no depth or opinions of her own, and what little we've seen of independent thought coming from her was just pitiful, if not plain hubris.

Gotta hand it to him, the Osamodas King might be an asshole, but it's clear he's the one holding all the braincells in this family. Not like even that's saying much...

But I'm getting sidetracked. The point is, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Aurora hates Amalia, not because of anything the princess actually did, but because of Armand's own bitterness towards her. In other words, he probably "connected" with Aurora by ranting over his sister and how she's their father's favourite despite always running off to travel the world, and she just took it at face value. It's just much easier agreeing with one side without bothering to listen to the other. After all, it's not like Amalia can ever be more than the spoiled brat her insecure, jealous brother accuses her of being, right?

In a way, both sides of this were a missed opportunity, for they could have given Aurora some much-needed depth.

On the one hand, there isn't a worse "villain" than the one that hates you "just because" and acts accordingly, with no other traits than a nasty personality and a bone to pick with you. None of the previous antagonists held a grudge against the Brotherhood just because.

Aurora and her father... They don't have that. At all. And it's a pity, because it would have made them far more palatable if they had at least shown some genuine respect for Amalia, for her heroics and loyalty to her people the way the other nations respect Yugo. As they are right now, they're not actual antagonists, but a case of Obnoxious-In-Laws taken to the extreme.

(Just look at the completely disinterested way they're looking at her even when she comes bearing grave news! No respect whatsover.)

And on the other hand, they're trying to have Aurora's love for Armand be her one redeeming quality, but as I have mentioned countless times now, I don't buy it. As with everything about her character, there's nothing deep about Armand and Aurora's marriage that could make me believe they were ever truly in love.

Honestly, what were they thinking, expecting me to believe they love each other because of barely a minute of screentime portraying them as a couple rather than two people who just so happen to be standing in the same room after they gave us Tristeva and Yumalia? Literally, Ruel and Arpagone's relationship is far more interesting in comparison. There's no indication of why I should care about them in the first place, nothing that makes me look at them and think "Huh, they make a good couple."

So, even if it would have still been unfair to Amalia, if instead of having them say they fell in love despite everything and expect us to believe it, I could have actually bought their marriage if they'd showed those two bonding. As I said, if Aurora's hatred of Amalia is because of Armand, then show it! Have him vent his insecurities with his wife and the two bonding over not being their father's favourite or having more accomplished siblings (Aurora seems to have a lot, and it's clear one of her brothers is the actual heir instead of her). That would give her some depth.

But no. She hates Amalia because she can. Wonderfully complex and compelling. 10/10 would not recommend.

Then again, it's plain to see ToT didn't create Aurora and her father with the purpose of being deep, but so they could be, ironically, a thorn on Amalia's side. After all, like I said back in the day, Nice to the Waiter is a trope for a reason: a character who mistreats the people at their service was never intended to be sympathetic.

However, what makes them truly despicable is, as you mentioned, their sheer hypocrisy and refusal to take responsibility for their actions.

In their eyes, their actions, no matter how horrifying or hateful, are perfectly excusable because it's them doing them. But if somebody else gives them a taste of their own medicine? Then they react poorly and you're the dishonourable monster.

This behaviour applies to both big to small things, really.

The Osamodas King blatantly insults the Sadida Kingdom? No problem.

Armand turns the tables on him by pointing out his kingdom's weaker? Aurora chastises her husband.

They leave the Sadida Kingdom and possibly the whole world to die, essentially betraying their allies and, hence, breaking said alliance? Things happen, what can you do about it? *Shrugs*

Amalia calls them out on it right after they shamelessly proclaim they intend to steal the throne from her? She's nothing but a selfish brat.

And speaking of leaving people to die... Surely that's okay because Aurora is pregnant, so she should be forgiven for putting her kid first. Doesn't change the fact that she willingly endangered the child nonetheless because her ego couldn't take Amalia putting her in her place, much to her father's horror.

They make no point in even pretending they don't intend to kick out the only person the child actually needs by their side to teach them how to rule the Sadida just so they can be in control and scheme unimpeded. But  when Amalia has them against the ropes, suddenly they're family and she's attacking her nephew, so she should back off.

Amalia is the hot-tempered one who can't stand to be contradicted, yet it was Aurora who constantly went from condescendingly smug to craving violence and insulting others the moment things didn't go her way.

Aurora is an Osamodas who had an arranged marriage to a Sadida and clearly places her own customs over her late husband's despite being nothing but his consort, living with his people, and she doesn't even care about the kingdom and its people enough to protect it from enemies or even treat them decently. But sure, clearly it's Amalia who's disrespecting Armand's legacy by marrying Yugo, the person she loves and trusts the most and who values her just as much, and rewarding the Eliatropes for their help against the Nécromes, even though they objectively were the only ones who could have tried to escape.

As for their fighting prowess, I've talked about this in length as well, but had ToT tried to have Amalia do anything but utterly curb-stomp Aurora, I would have been severely disappointed, not to say furious.

Because if Coqueline, a centuries old demigoddess capable of controlling legions of imposing animals, turning others into animals, and even shapeshifting, was five levels weaker than Dathura, whom we have yet to even see in action, then there's no way someone who's always been heavily implied to have never seen combat once in her life could have realistically stood a chance against a seasoned warrior and adventurer like Amalia.

Especially with the "reveal" that the royal Osamodas' powers seem to be limited to turning into one animal each or developing its features, and communicating with animals. And even that isn't nowhere near impressive.

No, seriously. Coqueline has an entire sanctuary dedicated to countless animals and even a legendary, near-extinct creature. The Osamodas have only ever been seen around bats, and even that's nothing more than a prop, since they disappeared the moment the real fight began. While I'm happy it didn't happen, I was honestly half-expecting them to summon their pets at some point but... Nope.

Let's face it, that's an incredibly weak powerset, which shows very little connection to wildlife for the supposed rulers of the beast-taming race of the World of Twelve...

Whelp, this got incredibly long, so I'll just sign off saying that, while I'm surprised they actually ran away when Amalia told them to and I know my girl will have to face consequences for "wrongly" assaulting them (queu eyeroll), I sincerely hope we won't be seeing much of them (preferably nothing at all) from now on. Goodbye and good riddance.  

magical girl eliatrope designs i did for fun :)

"Reincarnated somewhere else ☀️" [post S4]

I know this idea has been done before with younger Yugo, but with the new concept of Yugo having the eliasphere- well- it’d be interesting if the same thing that happened to Qilby happened to him.