#:) we love some arrogant royal suffering
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cw: aftermath of whump, implied abuse, fantasy slavery, violence, manhandling.
based on this prompt by @howls-ghost
"Trite details bore me. I'll leave it to you to complete, and complete quickly," said Prince Acacius.
"I've had enough of your dimwitted blathering. See yourself to the door," said Prince Acacius.
"Remember your place," said Prince Acacius.
Laith was sick of it. Sick of the arrogant little brat prancing around the palace like he was already king. They hated Acacius and his cold, dismissive attitude. The spoiled twat didn't know a thing about running a kingdom, and wouldn't know humility if it bit him on the nose.
The only reason the country wasn't already in ruins was due to the competence of Laith and the rest of the high council. Even the regent, as good a man he was, was taken out of commission by Acacius, forced to keep the aloof young man at his side at all hours for supposed education. Not that Laith believed Acacius absorbed any of it. He was a horrid prince, and he'd make a horrid king.
And Laith intended to do something about it.
It started as something small and reasonable; a daydream about teaching the prince a lesson, of having him whipped for insolence, or beaten in the streets, or simply pushed off the balcony.
But none of those were realistic dreams, and none of those were enough. Acacius needed a punishment that would stick, something scarring, something humiliating.
The thoughts danced across Laith's mind through all their waking hours, turning sharper and more creative with every insult from the rotten prince.
But then, they thought, why bother with a mere punishment? Why not be rid of the arrogant heir for good? Death was too quick for his poisoned heart, but there were alternatives. Slavers in the West and enemies in the North, and either faction would jump at the chance to own the pretty prince. Should Laith's goal be realized, it would do more than sate their need for justice; it would spare the kingdom from a heartless ruler.
They'd lock him in a cell with no sunlight for a year. They'd remove his acrid tongue, put out his disdainful eyes, somehow they'd hurt him in a way that mattered.
They took their time making the arrangements; letters delivered in secret, coded messages, quiet plans and plots to cover the prince's upcoming disappearance. At last, the hour was drawing near. At last, Acacius would get all that he deserved.
But of course, Laith would have their fun with him first.
They came upon the royal in the dead of night. Laith had been making note of Acacius's movements, and by now they knew to expect the young man's midnight journey to the library. Too good to be seen there in daylight hours, when servants were dusting and lesser lords were reading. Too good to even peruse the shelves alongside those he deemed as unworthy.
Laith fell upon the prince as soon as he reached the library doors, wrapping their arm tight around a torso clad in a loose silk shirt, their other hand clamped over Acacius's mouth to dampen his startled cry. The prince made fearful noises beneath their hand, but there was no time to savor the sound. Laith knew they must move swiftly or risk alerting the night watch.
They slammed the prince's head into the heavy oak door behind him. Once, twice, and then their royal prisoner's struggling lessened. Laith forced him to the ground, stuffing a wad of cloth into his mouth and tying it in place with a cord. That same cord trailed down from the prince's head to wind around his wrists, then back up again to circle his throat, forming a makeshift collar and leash to better Laith's control of him. He tugged harshly at the rope, and the dazed prince stumbled to his feet, whimpering softly from behind the gag.
There was no haughtiness in his eyes, only something meek and fearful. It was nearly enough to make Laith second-guess their plans, but their memories of the man they knew Acacius to be strengthened their resolve.
They would not fall for this docile ruse. They knew the truth.
Laith delved deeper into the castle, making for one of the secret passages in the stone that would lead them outside the keep. There was a cottage at the edge of the woods, overlooking the river that ran alongside the castle's walls. A peasant girl had sighted it after Laith offered her a penny to find a covert location. It was perfect; well away from anyone who could hear them, and the river would make an easy path for the slavers' skiff.
They hauled Acacius into the cottage, unable to resist giving the prince a sharp kick in the back that sent him tumbling to the ground. The slavers weren't set to arrive until just before sunrise. Laith had nearly an hour to get revenge for every petty insult that had ever been flung their way.
Laith dropped a knee into the prince's chest, holding his head in place while he removed the gag.
Acacius's eyes were teary and pleading, but Laith refused to let the act sway them. If anything, it only fueled their fire. How dare this impudent brat act like this was unearned? Now safe behind a closed door, Laith let their fury burn, raining fists and kicks down on the prince's helpless form, relishing every muffled cry. No, they shouldn't be muffled. They wanted to hear Acacius plead for mercy.
"N-nnh please... Please don't," the shaky words left Acacius's throat with the balled-up cloth. Laith answered him with another blow, and the prince squeezed his eyes shut. When they opened again, there was a distant look to them, tears trickling from the corners.
No matter. Soon they'd be rid of him for good.
Small whimpers and gasps left Acacius's throat as Laith continued the beating, but aside from a few weak pleas, the prince didn't speak, or even look their way. Like he was only waiting for it to end. Their blows slowed, the enjoyment fading as the royal seemed to detach himself from the moment. Laith huffed. Even bound and beaten, Acacius was still ruining their day.
Ignoring the blank look on the prince's face, Laith drew their knife, cutting away Acacius's clothing. Even if that didn't get a reaction, it served the practical purpose of making things a shade easier on the slavers.
The prince lay very still, his breaths small and shaky as Laith removed the ruined clothing. And underneath the silk... Laith was unprepared for what was underneath the silk.
Old bruises covered Acacius's torso, scars layered beneath, some fresher than others. The wounds didn't stop there; more scars scattered the prince's legs, some framed in a sickly yellow-green.
"What is this?" Laith whispered, the question half-directed at themselves. Acacius didn't answer, staring up at the ceiling with eyes that looked glazed over.
Seeing another wound on their prisoner's shoulder, this one oddly shaped, Laith grabbed Acacius's upper arm and rolled him onto his stomach. The prince answered the action with a startled cry.
"N-no, please, please don't---"
"Shut up," Laith hissed, taking in the prince's back. It seemed the brat had been whipped before, and on more than one occasion by the looks of it. They couldn't say whether the dark feeling welling up in them was more akin to pity, or bitterness that they hadn't been able to witness the lashings themselves.
Starker than the whip scars was the image burned into Acacius's back. An intricate pattern, asymmetrical and varied in color, like its artist had begun months or even years ago and was still perfecting it. The newest mark was still a bright, skinless red, as if it had been smouldering mere hours ago.
Laith let out a disgusted sigh, turning their back on the sniveling prince. It seemed Acacius had been getting what he'd deserved for some time now, but it had done little to improve his attitude. Who had done this to him? Could it have been the regent? Why was pity seeping into them, like poison from a soured wound?
Acacius didn't deserve their pity. Wounded or not, he still paraded the palace ground like a bejeweled goose, hissing and biting at anyone he seemed lesser.
But why? came a small voice inside them. Why put on such an arrogant mask?
It didn't matter. Wounded or not, the prince should have better respected Laith and their peers.
There was a sharp rap on the door, and Laith pushed it open an inch to peer out into the darkness. A pale woman with a shaved head stood on the other side, wearing clothing that was clearly foreign, despite its simplicity.
"Here to collect your gift?" they said, and the woman smiled.
"Aye. The North'll pay a pretty penny for your little heir."
"Wonderful," Laith said, but the word felt insincere. They couldn't let themselves doubt their plans now, the deed was nearly done. They opened the door further. "Take him then. Let's have this over with."
Acacius lay still on the ground, though his hands were trembling. He'd ceased his begging and was now crying softly and hells, Laith couldn't stand to hear it.
They bent over the prince, grabbing a fistful of his hair and roughly stuffing the gag back into his mouth to muffle that damned pathetic noise.
"Take him," they said again, more insistently. "Take him and be gone."
"S'wrong with his back?"
"I don't know." Laith shook their head. "Take him."
"Not a word of me," they said. "You'll make a fortune off him, all I ask is my name and face remain unknown."
"Alright, alright." The woman seized the rope, the leash Laith had formed, and tugged on it, forcing the prince to his feet. Acacius's eyes were teary and pleading, but Laith turned their back on him.
"Your wish is my command," the woman chuckled, leading the prince towards the rocky shore, where her boat lay waiting. A sob escaped Acacius as he passed the threshold.
"Wait." Hells, what were they saying? They wanted nothing more to do with the royal. They needed him gone, but when the prince turned back to look at them, the flash of hope in his eyes wrenched in their gut.
Those damned eyes. Those haughty, arrogant, judging eyes.
"Remember your place," said Prince Acacius.
"Nevermind," Laith said quickly. "Go. Get him out of here."
The woman tugged on the leash, nearly causing the bound royal to stumble. Fresh tears wet Acacius's cheeks, but Laith looked away, pretended not to see.
They could pretend a lot of things. Surprise at the prince's sudden disappearance, sorrow and outrage at his captivity in the enemy North. For themselves, they'd pretend they were satisfied, that they'd never seen Acacius's scars.
And as they watched the skiff disappear on the dark waters of the river, they pretended they had no regrets.
#:) we love some arrogant royal suffering#royal whump#anyways i can no way afford to make this a series lol so it'll probably sit at a one-off for a very long time (if i even write more at all)#ooh honestly if we wanna play a game of 'whump telephone' or pass the page or whatever someone else can write the next part#and then another person can write the next part#and so on#those are fun i do them with my sister sometimes#anyways GREAT prompt thank you howls-ghost#royal whumpee#captivity#past torture#whump fic#fantasy whump#beating#begging
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types in tension: kit tanthalos as royal and skeptic
a lot of people have pointed out how archetypal and dnd-esque the characters from willow feel - and I agree! they're absolutely tropey and built to serve very clear, specific functions within the ensemble. willow is the wizard and the mentor. elora is the sorcerer and the chosen one. boorman is the rogue/barbarian and the sixth ranger.
but I want to talk about my favorite example of this: kit. kit has her own clear place in the ensemble - but the archetypes she's made up of are ones usually in tension. this gives her a fascinating kind of depth and motivation - and is, perhaps, reflective of similar tensions in the rest of the characters. let's discuss.
kit as the royal
kit is introduced in contrast to jade, her humble, dutiful, long-suffering knight. this highlights all of kit's opposite qualities: her relative arrogance, rebelliousness, and desire for adventure over duty. when she conflicts with her mother and makes a scene at the party, we understand that she's feeling constrained by the arranged marriage and dreading a future stifled political life like her mother's. but the narrative also makes it clear that this is a selfish thing to do; kit clearly hurts jade, graydon, and airk, who haven't done anything wrong.
so kit is set up as a rebellious/spoiled royal: she chafes against her responsibilities and her sheltered life, not knowing the full extent of her privilege. she wants to go into the outside world but underestimates how dangerous it is. her arc should be about getting thrust into those dangers and balancing her headstrong, cocky independence with a dose of humility. she should come back stronger, but with more respect for duty and the difficulty of leadership.
basically, kit should be kind of like merida. which makes a lot of sense, given the very merida-like speech kit gives during the party.
but then airk gets kidnapped, and kit is thrust into the outside world, taking her place in an ensemble of other characters. and something interesting happens: kit becomes a skeptic.
kit as the skeptic
to balance the group, they were always going to need a skeptic - someone more invested than boorman (the apathetic) but not falling over themselves to save the world like willow (the mentor and true believer in elora danan, at least as a concept). with jade sworn to the queen’s (and thus elora’s) service and graydon falling in love, they needed someone who could/would consistently challenge elora; who could suggest practical courses of action against high fantasy wish-wash; and whose narrative arc toward belief would be, essentially, the show's ideological argument for hope and idealism.
so it's kit. kit wants to keep them on track. she doubts magic and the idealistic plans the others have for elora. not only is she aware of the practical concerns of the quest, she's often the one reminding the others of that. while it may be out of jealousy, the kinds of questions she asks - “is this really working?”, "how long until elora can do magic?" - are things that the party has to consider just...logically. will it significantly slow their travel if willow has to teach elora for an extended period of time? will they need more rations? when will elora be able to contribute to potential combat?
skeptics on magic shows like this often get a bad rep (except when they get a very good rep because they're hot and sad), because we know the show's overarching philosophy is one of belief. there's a combination of out-of-universe impatience, waiting for the skeptic's narrative arc to catch up, and in-universe - well, arcing, where the the events of the story prove the skeptic wrong and the other characters (the believers) right.
here's the thing, though: skeptics have usually come by their cynical realism after a hard, unfair life. they've seen some shit. they've got a tragic backstory. they’re your han solo from star wars, eretria from the shannara chronicles, cara mason from legend of the seeker. we understand their abrasiveness and accept their position as a legitimate argument because it's born from experience - experience that the idealistic heroes don't have yet.
so here's an interesting tension: how is kit both royal and skeptic?
because the arc of a rebellious/spoiled royal hinges on the fact that they don’t have experience. they don’t know how tough the real world is, and they haven’t thought through the practical considerations. and where the royal is the one who needs to be taught these things, the skeptic is usually the one teaching.
I suspect this is the crux of some people’s annoyance with kit - she’s taking the place of the skeptic in the party, rough-edged but logical, but her introduction indicates she doesn’t have enough experience for that. so instead of going, “you know, even if that wasn’t the nicest way to put it, that’s a good point. in-universe, it doesn’t seem like elora is going to learn magic very fast, and that might be a legitimate liability to the party,” the response is, “what do you know? you grew up a spoiled brat!”
why is this happening?
before I discuss the implications of kit’s character as both royal and skeptic, I want to take a moment to talk about why it’s happening. I think there’s lots of factors - well-written characters often involve things in tension, and there’s a whole layer of kit trying to imitate the seasoned warrior type of her father - but I think there's one main reason: elora must displace kit as the royal in the ensemble.
elora isn’t spoiled, of course. but she starts out pretty naive and chases after airk without practical consideration to her actual abilities or (later) her duties as the chosen one. she is the one that everyone has sworn to protect and save, sometimes from problems of her own making. elora must learn to lead, master her powers, and make hard decisions in a messy world.
the switch is clear even in the very first interaction kit has with elora. when kit asks if dove has any battle experience and dove snidely reverses the question, it’s establishing kit as the more practical, skeptical, and indeed, experienced, voice. kit has, actually, had more real-world battle experience than dove.
so while we were initially introduced to kit as the hero and royal, in the party, elora is the hero and royal, with kit falling to the lancer and the skeptic. this neatly dovetails into kit’s feelings of abandonment and jealousy over everyone choosing elora. even the framework of the story, the meta functions of the characters, have placed elora over kit.
the implications
so why am I even talking about this? why does it matter? after all, despite her function in the party, large parts of kit’s arc follow the rebellious/spoiled royal’ arc. kit is constantly getting knocked down a peg, losing what she thought was hers; this follows the general arc of spoiled royals losing everything and then rebuilding themselves as stronger, kinder people. but I do think the royal-skeptic tension adds another layer, and here are three thoughts as to why:
1) I said that viewers might feel that kit’s royal background makes her “unqualified” to be the skeptic; I also think this is an interesting lens to apply to the characters. graydon dismisses kit’s irritation with elora as “she’s just jealous.” jade and boorman say that kit could never do the dirty work of killing a corrupted graydon, with the implication being that kit can’t take the reality of it. are these lines just excuses for the writers to tell us with 100% certainty what kit’s motivations and limits are? maybe. but it’s more interesting to me if these characters are interpreting kit through their experiences of her - as a royal who graydon barely knows and who jade has spent years protecting - and missing some stuff.
2) it adds a cool dimension to kit and elora’s relationship. we’ve talked about the rebellious/spoiled royal’s arc as one of learning humility, and that’s one kit’s definitely going on. but at the same time, kit must complete a skeptic’s arc: learning to believe in magic and idealism, learning to believe in the chosen one/royal - which means the story is just as dependent on elora proving herself to kit as it is kit yielding to elora. a lot of kit’s other relationships center on kit humbling herself (kit has to apologize to jade and graydon, kit has to learn to respect willow). but kit and elora’s dynamic - and their whole arcs! - require both of them to make an equal effort.
3) the royal-skeptic tension just...adds all sorts of possible motivational layers to kit’s actions. there’s the jealousy underlying kit’s questions to elora, which we’ve talked about: it’s both a royal’s discomfort with losing privilege and a skeptic’s practical logic. but there’s also kit’s name-dropping; it seems like a classic royal move to get special treatment, but two of the three times she does it, she’s doing it for pretty practical reasons. she’s identifying who sent them to the nelwins - not trying to pull rank - and she’s proving to the bonereavers that she can get them money - a pragmatic offer to get the party out of trouble. how much of kit’s friction with willow is royal naïveté, ignoring the words of a more experienced mentor, and how much of it is an equal competing philosophy, a skeptic’s real-world practicality against an idealist’s grand plans? it’s both. kit is always both.
(note: I feel like this reads as favoring skeptics over royals, which is not the case; they’re value-neutral narratives. however, as this is, at least in part, my attempt to figure out why I've felt so bothered by people interpreting kit as simply a “spoiled princess,” some of that frustration may have leaked in. though I think even if kit had followed the royal arc to a T, with none of this archetypal tension, I still would have been frustrated by, like, misogyny and people not letting characters go on an arc. you can’t win, I suppose.)
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ohhh about that scenario where MC ran away while pregnant, imagine if she tried to explain to Malleus that she never stopped loving him but he refuses to listen bc he’s so angry and threatens to execute her for leaving with his son. MC then goes cold and angry and tells him that she doesn’t recognize the man she fell in love with anymore, that her running away was to protect herself and her baby, that he’s arrogant and selfish for thinking everything is about him. aaand Mal is shocked about getting yelled at, but still angry so obvi he keeps MC locked up buuut their son HATES him for making MC so sad. he’s a powerful kid and burns everything down when they try to separate him from MC and Mal can’t do anything bc the kid doesn’t consider him as his father. MC is scared and gives Mal the silent treatment, their kid is angry and attacks everyone that moves or threatens his mom, Mal is distraught but refuses to apologize bc he was hurting for so long, Sebek and Silver have no idea what to do (imagine Silver tries to comfort MC and Sebek comforts Mal), and Lilia is tired of everyone’s shenanigans. like, where do they go from there??
referring to this post
fem reader ahead!
i think mc and the kid would probably stay in briar valley for awhile. after all, the kid has draconian blood. there’s no way that the queen will let the kid off as he is part of the Royal bloodline.
i feel like lilia would really just… go with the flow. silver will try to talk things out with mc, trying to understand how she feel, what’s her struggles and etc. i can’t really see sebek as someone who is good at talking things out, i think sebek will just let malleus know that whatever malleus do, sebek will still support him.
the main problem between mc and malleus is lack of communication and trust. if mc told malleus about her feelings from the start, things would have changed a little. similar to malleus, he shouldn’t have to tank all the burden alone (as you can see from him trying to dispose the threats, by himself). being a couple is not just about “i can do this myself”, is “we can do it”. is a teamwork that requires collaboration and communication; something that is lacking between mc and malleus.
mc and malleus will probably need some time alone, to digest and reflect on the actions that they have done. for mc, is cause she ran away instead of actually solving the problem. for malleus, is cause he is too “independent”. both parties are at fault, and now they are suffering from the consequences of their own actions; but malleus kinda suffers more since he was “hidden in the dark”.
eventually, mc and malleus has to come together and talk things out. the problem is still there, aka the threats. but the main thing that mc and malleus should be concern about is the kid. the kid absolutely knows nothing about this matter, he could only throw a fit and breathe fire when someone threatens his mother.
i think mc will approach malleus first; malleus is kinda stubborn ngl. from there, they will talk things out and clear up the misunderstandings. from there, is a relief for both mc and malleus to finally clear up this shit that they have always been feeling. the relationship gets better; cause they both still love each other.
it will be hard to explain to the kid, and even harder to get the kid to accept malleus. but malleus will do anything to protect the kid and mc. he failed them once, and there won’t be a second.
as for the mysterious man, let’s just say that he has been paid a heavy sum to keep his mouth shut. malleus will do everything in his power to shut off any rumours about you, will make announcement to the world that his lost bride and son has been found.
of course, all of these doesn’t happen within like a week. is probably like a month later or so.
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distraction
dorian havilliard x reader
word count: 1.6k
dorian just wants to be what you need.
warnings: it’s very chaotic lol. starts off enemies to lovers, discussion of trauma, mentions of bruises, infected wounds, scars, mentions of physical and mental pain then transitions to sub!dorian, smut, grinding, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap, dorian isn’t real but pregnancy is), dorian has a praise kink, kinda denied orgasm but not really. please let me know if i’m missing anything!
a/n: well. it’s miss @oliviajdjarin’s birth month (livtober, as one may say). yes, this is late. yes, i feel bad. but i hope it is still enjoyable for everyone! i had so much fun writing a sub character (who would’ve thought lol very uncharacteristic). as always requests are open and lmk if you want to be added to a general or specific tag list! i’m always happy to add! i do not own this gif! anyways, happy late birthday liv, love you bunches. hope it was as special as you :)
“oh fuck you dorian,” you said, unable to keep it to yourself any longer.
“don’t you wish you could, my dear,” he said with arrogance that was larger than life.
it had been an exhausting journey from morath. dorian was both the savior you were looking for, someone who stood up for you and helped you out of that horrendous place and also the biggest pain in the ass that ever did exist.
you would have pummeled him to the ground, maybe even stabbed his stupid stupid stomach lined with his stupid stupid abs if it weren’t for the lingering sense of gratitude you held toward the man.
“can we rest here for the night?” you asked, physically and mentally whooped from your situation. your mental scars from morath were just as prominent as the cuts that were turning a sickly green and your purple bruises.
“cmon, just another mile. we’ll be closer to the stream then,” dorian responded.
you knew there was no way you could make it. you’d already been dragging him down because of your lingering injuries. but there was no way you could tell him this. you refused to show weakness in front of anyone, especially the entitled asshole of a king in front you.
dorian had to have noticed your rapid decline in speed. you couldn’t help it, the pain truly was becoming unbearable. but he couldn’t know that. no one could know that. if anyone knew-
no one could see that-
it would be too vulnerable-
too raw-
“y/n,” he said in a firm tone, almost sounding annoyed.
“we haven’t got all day do we? do i need to carry you?” he teased.
“i’m moving as fast as i can,” you grumbled.
“if that’s as fast as you can go, i have some concerns,” he said with a joking tone.
“well dorian no offense. i know it’s hard for you to understand and all but i’m struggling right now. i get that you don’t really know what that means, but for some of us, it means we walk a bit slower than usual because our bodies can’t fucking take it. so kindly, or not so kindly, leave me alone,” you said with force.
because honestly, what did this spoiled royal bastard know about pain and suffering?
he only chuckled in response, which somehow frustrated you more. how dare he laugh?
you were so distracted in your haze of anger that you didn’t notice he had slowed down to your speed. he slipped an arm over your shoulder to steady your form.
you silently walked the next mile with him, every step more agonizing than the last. when you finally reached a spot he deemed acceptable, he dropped his arm from your figure. you nearly collapsed without his support, which made you realize how reliant you had been on him for the last chunk of your trip.
“thank you,” you said hoarsely.
“what was that?” he prodded, wanting to hear you say it.
“thanks,” you said a bit louder.
“i’m sorry, i still can’t hear you,” he said with a grin.
“i said thank you,” you announced loudly.
dorian chuckled. “oh it’s my pleasure. really strengthens my arms when i have to carry you a mile through the forest.”
“alright, would you-“ you started.
“i’m kidding,” he said, “i’m just messing with you. i’ll carry you wherever i need to if it means we will stay safe.”
you nodded your head slowly and whispered another soft thanks.
the pack that had been on dorian’s back contained a thin tent which he pitched while you walked a few yards to the stream to gather water. night was falling, and with it the temperature.
as you walked back to the tent, you realized dorian was no where in sight. you gently laid the water you collected in the canteen on a rock and peered inside the tent.
there he was in all of his beauty. he no longer had his collared shirt and thick coat covering his magnificent upper body. his legs were bare besides a pair of boxers and you couldn’t help but stare. even though he frustrated the ever living hell out of you, he was gorgeous. you noticed a white ring around his neck before he turned to see your face poked in through the tent flap.
“like what you see?” he said with a sly grin.
your face heated at the implication.
“sorry… i- uh… i was looking to find you. i gathered some water,” you stuttered out, flustered by his appearance.
“mm thank you. i am quite parched,” he replied.
you grabbed the canteen and passed it to him.
“goodnight,” you said as you walked away from the tent, trying to find a spot to sleep on the ground next to the tent so the wind wouldn’t blow directly on you.
“and just what do you think you are doing?” dorian said as he poked his head out.
“um.. looking for a place to sleep?” you said.
“y/n. we have been traveling together for a week. what makes you think you can’t be in the same tent as me?” dorian asked.
“we’ve only slept in separate rooms through those port towns. i just assumed it would be uncomfortable for you,” you said with a shrug.
“what would make me more uncomfortable is you out there completely alone with no warmth or company,” dorian said, “get in the tent now, please.”
you nodded and mumbled a quiet okay.
the tent wasn’t very large, just enough room for a few blankets. you slowly crawled under one as dorian sat down and did the same.
once you were both settled, you sighed deeply and let the events of the past week come over you. so much had happened in so little time.
you attempted to close your eyes, if only to stop yourself from processing your time at morath, the rescue, and your complex feelings toward dorian. but before you could fall asleep, he spoke.
“i know that i’m not… easy. or probably the best person to be accompanying you right now. but i want you to know that i’ve felt your pain,” he said.
“dorian just… don’t. i don’t want to hear about the pain of stubbing your royal pinky toe, or the pain of attending too many fancy dinner parties. it’s different, okay?” you said, trying your best not to sound too irritated, but closed off so you wouldn’t have to hear his nonsense.
“we are not as different as you think,” he said.
even in the dark, you could seem him scratching at the scar on his neck.
“what is that?” you asked, pointing to it.
“what makes us the same,” he said with a sad smile.
“what do you mean?”
“the valg, y/n. i felt them too. they hurt me and infested me too,” he said softly.
your face fell. by no means had you expected that.
“dorian i am so sor-“
“no, don’t say you are sorry. i don’t need to hear that. i just need you to know that i’m trying to be what you need right now. so tell me what that is. i can be your punching bag, i could build you up, i could make you laugh, or i could be whatever else you need. i just want to help,” he said, his eyes staring into yours with intent.
somehow, you were closer than before. close enough that you could feel his warm breath. close enough that your mind wandered-
“how about a distraction?” you said with a small smile, letting the feelings of gratitude for the rescue and appreciation of his beauty take over your mind and body.
“a distraction?” he grinned, “how so?”
“lean a little closer, dorian. i’ll show you how,” you responded.
within a second he was on you, mouth meeting your own.
you were hungry for this, hungry for this crumb of normalcy that he could give you. you needed to feel someone.
you pushed his shoulders back to the ground, straddling him. your tongue dominated his own, and he couldn’t have been happier based on the moans slipping from his mouth.
you felt him stiffen in his boxers below you.
“dorian,” you moaned, “please.”
“take what you need. i’m here to be what you need,” he said.
and so you did. you pulled your own bottoms off, then quickly followed with his. you stayed on top of him, grinding into his erection.
“y/n, if you keep doing that i’m not going to last,” he said in between broken moans.
you reached between your bodies, grabbing hold of him and lining him up. you ground down on him and released a gasp as he groaned.
“that better, prince?” you asked with a slight tease.
“so good, y/n. so good,” he said.
“good boy. you feel so good dorian,” you said while pushing his hair off his forehead and leaning down to suck a bruise onto his collar bone.
eventually, his hands found their way to your nub. the second he touched your clit, you jolted.
“dorian,” you groaned, “faster.”
“anything,” he said, looking to you with glassed over eyes.
you could feel the coil tightening in your core as you squeezed around dorian’s cock.
“i’m going to-“ dorian started.
“hold it,” you said, “wait for me.”
“okay,” he responded and leaned forward to kiss your breasts, continuing to stimulate your clit simultaneously.
“i’m right there baby,” you said, “cum with me.”
and he did, spilling into you with a violent groan. you were a mess on top of him, crying out in pleasure.
as you came down from your high, you rolled off of him.
“that was incredible,” he said, reaching into his bag for a cloth to clean you up with.
“so good,” you said.
after he wiped you down, you turned to him.
“thank you,” you said, snuggling under his strong arms.
“of course,” he said, “i will happily be a distraction whenever you need.
taglist:
@oliviajdjarin
#dorian havilliard#dorian havilliard x reader#dorian havilliard fanfiction#throne of glass universe#throne of glass#sjm fandom#sjm multiverse#sjm books#azriel x reader#aelin galythinius#chaol westfall#throne of glass fanfiction#tog fic#throne of glass fic
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Langris for the "Penny for your thoughts" 🥰
(I might just drop by again for something self-indulgent, but you should also get a treat 😤❤️🔥 (chance to talk about your faves))
Aww thank you so much, Laura! You're so sweet, and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about my faves! 💖 (And yes please feel free to drop in anytime with self-indulgent asks. I'm always happy to get those as well! 🥰)
(Warnings: Vague discussion/mention of childhood trauma & toxic home environment)
Goodness where I do I even begin with Langris? He is just such a complicated character. I absolutely detested him in the beginning--just couldn't stand him. My sister and I used to make insulting jokes about him whenever he appeared. (My favorite was he had some line about a competition, and my sister basically screams at the tv, "Your face is a competition!" 😂 Clearly, we had way too much fun watching this...) Anyway, as much as I really didn't like Langris at first, I always got the feeling that he was also a victim. The bits and pieces of what we saw of House Vaude and the lord and lady were just so toxic that I knew there was no way that Langris didn't also suffer from growing up in that hellscape. And I like that the story actually went into that and established that Langris also suffered in House Vaude just in a different way than Finral.
On the surface, it might look like Ledior and Liliane loved Langris, but they didn't. They withheld their "love" on the condition that he live up to their unrealistic expectations of perfection, so in response, Langris began looking for his entire self-worth in being the "perfect son" and this powerful magic knight when actually for all of his bravado surrounding his successes and this arrogance with which he carries himself masks the fact that he is deeply, deeply insecure. What's so interesting is that he has been told his whole life by his parents that he is the superior brother because he has the more powerful magic and is more ambitious, successful, and responsible ect., but on the inside, it's almost as if Langris knows that he isn't successful in the things that really matter: being personable, making friends, and building meaningful relationships. These interpersonal skills are things that Finral has always really excelled at whereas Langris is more awkward and it doesn't come easily for him to open up to people. And I think we see in his flashbacks at the Royal Knights' Exam especially, that this weighs very heavily on him.
I think there's definitely a part of Langris that is still this sad little boy who just wants to be unconditionally loved. It's like an empty space in him that he tries to fill with accomplishments and achievements hoping that someday he will finally be enough. When the real tragedy is that, I think, deep down Langris feels that he'll never be enough--that there's something wrong with him that makes him unlovable, so he kind of closes his heart off to others because he's terrified of what he considers inevitable rejection. I really think that one of his biggest fears is that if he let someone close enough to him to see who he is beyond his achievements, they won't like what they see.
And to me, this is one of his main issues with his brother--he can't wrap his mind around how Finral could love him with no conditions and no strings attached. It's almost like he's closing the door to building that sibling relationship because he's waiting for the other shoe to drop and for his brother to leave again. (A/N: Of course, Finral leaving had nothing to do with Langris in the first place but that's another discussion topic).
I really think that Langris is very tortured emotionally, but what I love about him is that in spite of all of that, he has such a deep capacity for love. He is willing to sacrifice everything he worked for his entire life (and on a certain level his entire sense of identity), so that his brother and Lady Finesse can have the chance to be happy. He can really be such a tsundere about how much he cares, but I think you'd would be hard pressed to find another character who has shown so much selfless devotion. And I absolutely love those moments where he shows his softer, gentler side, though I wish there were more of them. 💖
As for songs, I have a lot that make me think of Langris, and I think I may have talked about this one before but I've picked the song "Three" by Sleeping at Last because it's just such a Langris song to me. I mean the first lines are literally: "Maybe I've done enough, and your golden child grew up. Maybe this trophy isn't real love, and with or without it, I'm good enough." I think it also just perfectly encapsulates how I personally see Langris as a character. He is this overachieving perfectionist who is secretly deeply wounded and insecure because he fears he will never measure up not only to the expectations of perfections others put on him but also to the expectations he puts on himself. I think that as hard as Langris can be on other people, he's even harder on himself, and he is really on this great character journey where he is beginning to realize that with or without his accomplishments and achievements, he is worthy of love. [Also, I just want him and his brother to get along! Come on boys! 💚💙]
Sleeping At Last - "Three" (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube
Thanks again for the ask and for playing my Penny for Your Thoughts ask game! 💖
#langris vaude#my boy 💙#yes i am a langris vaude sympathizer#thanks for the ask!#laura 🧡#feel free to stop back by friend ❤️🔥#penny for your thoughts asks
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Love is Enough: Patroclus in “The Song of Achilles”
Note on the text: I used The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller as published in 2012 by HarperCollins
Madeline Miller has crafted a near masterpiece here. Not quite as good as Circe but how many books are. And at the center of this one is another great protagonist, Patroclus, who learns how to truly tap into his potential and become the best version of himself.
When we first meet Patroclus he is just a little kid craving for his father’s love and attention. His mom has passed away and it is clear that he is nothing but a “disappointment [to his dad]: small, slight. I was not fast. I was not strong. I could not sing” (1). He knows deep in his bones that he is unloved and unwanted: a failure. This not only affects him psychologically, but stunts his growth as a human being. Love is the most important thing for a child to experience. More than anything else he needs to know that he is loved and accepted if he is to become who he is meant to be. That is why Patroclus isn’t able to grow while living with his father, but Achilles is. It’s obvious from the beginning that King Minoetius despises Patroclus while King Peleus loves Achilles.
When he goes to live with King Peleus, Patroclus is something of a disappointment, and runs a real risk of being just another royal brat who never met his potential. In fact he is being sent away because he brought shame on his family name, but the moment King Peleus sees him he tells Patroclus that he is welcome to stay and that he may “still make a good man” someday (29). It’s Peleus’ belief in Patroclus that starts Patroclus on the path to becoming the hero that Briseis will later say is worth 10 of Achilles. Achilles also loves Patroclus and even from the very beginning treats Patroclus with a respect that his father never gave him. When he and Patroclus are learning to play the lyre, instead of simply mocking Patroclus he encourages him to keep practicing. Similarly, when Chiron decides to take on Achilles as a pupil, he also teaches Patroclus everything he knows about medicine so that he can become the best doctor the world had ever seen. The love and acceptance that Patroclus experiences here is what allows him to evolve into the man that he later becomes.
In some sense you could say that Patroclus becomes doubly great. Not only because what he himself accomplishes as a doctor and a soldier (he kills the renowned Trojan warrior Sarpedon) but because of the way that he influences and changes Achilles.
Achilles has been told all of his life that he is destined to become a great warrior, a hero. Odysseus himself says that Achilles is “a weapon, a killer. . . . The best that the gods have ever made” (207). Achilles believes that with such conviction that it has blunted his ability to really empathize with other people. He thinks he’s above it all. That’s why he tells Patroclus again and again, when he begs Achilles not to kill Hector because the prophecy says that Achilles will die next, “why should I kill him? He’s done nothing to me” (171). It is the statement of an innocently arrogant person who has never experienced any major pain and believes that he is above it all. He’s struggled to really empathize with others which is why he’s willing to let all the Greek suffer and die while he looks on from the sidelines when King Agamemnon insults him by taking away all of his war prizes. The degree to which Achilles is able to have any kind of compassion is directly a result of his relationship with Patroclus. There is a scene where Achilles approaches Patroclus in the aftermath of a battle. Now just prior to that battle, Patroclus chided Achilles for being an unfeeling, ruthless killing machine. This time however when he approaches Patroclus it is to tell him that he
left one son alive. . . . The eighth son. So that the line would not die’
Strange that such kindness felt like grace. Yet what other warrior would have done as much?. . . . The surviving son would have children, he would give them his family name, and tell their story. They would be preserved, in memory of not in life (254).
Patroclus is the one who is able to give this “Tin Man”, this unfeeling war machine, a heart, and the value of that is so high that Achilles later admits that he would give up everything to have Patroclus with him again. More than that, he agrees with Briseis when she says that she hopes Hector kills him. Without Patroclus and his love, life, for Achilles, isn’t worth living.
The beautiful thing about this book is how it really is all about love. We all need love, in all its forms, to become the best version of ourselves. Patroclus was only able to become the best version of himself because of the love of people like Peleus, Briseis, Chiron, and Achilles. Even Achilles was only able to be the hero that he was because of the love of people like Peleus and Patroclus. Love is so important. It is the soil in which we grow, and what plant doesn’t need the right kind of soil to flourish. Love really is the answer.
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xie lian thoughts?? i just finished the novel and i can't stop thinking about him!!! best boi oh my god. i need to read long long metas on him (and hua cheng) to stop hyperfixating. if you ever have the time and wish...please? meta more on him? 🥺 i just LOVE your metas on cql so 🙏
anon you’re in luck that I managed to scrape together the remnants of intelligent thought in my brain to come up with this
we talk all the time about Hua Cheng being Xie Lian’s most devout believer, but what we often overlook is that Xie Lian himself is a profoundly devout believer as well
it’s just not as obvious as the depths of Hua Cheng’s love (which, thanks to a nifty trick of worldbuilding, translates directly into Xie Lian’s power), but Xie Lian is as fervent of a believer as Hua Cheng--he simply places his faith in the inherent goodness of humanity
part of the reason why I find Xie Lian’s character arc so compelling is that his story grapples with the tangled issues of privilege, power, and morality. in his youth, as the beloved Crown Prince of Xianle, of course Xie Lian can afford to compassionate and charitable, because he wants for nothing and can infinitely provide out of the coffers of the royal family. He has a simplistic, black-and-white view of the world. Just do the right thing, he says, as if it’s obvious, as if it’s easy, as if it’s that simple
when faced with the thought experiment of the two people dying of thirst in the desert, and the single cup of water--if you were a god, asks his teacher, who would you give the water to?--a young, arrogant, undefeated Xie Lian, a Xie Lian who has yet to come face-to-face with a power greater than himself, flippantly chooses a third path of impossible optimism, and while it’s admirable, it’s also aggravating, naive, and impractical
this of course, comes back to haunt Xie Lian in book four, dogging his footsteps as he crawls his way through the mortal world, hemmed in on all sides by the strictures of conduct, the incessant demands of survival. we see Xie Lian pushed to and past his limits; we see the way his vaunted morals crumble in the face of hunger and desperation and need. where is the third path, when you are one of those people dying in the desert, and there is only one cup of water? what is the point of being a god if you can’t even save the people you love?
we see Xie Lian’s belief in goodness and righteousness stretch and bend under the pressure of everything he’s put through--and we see it shatter.
Xie Lian loses faith. Xie Lian has his belief in the worthiness of morality and compassion crushed to smithereens, left smeared across the floor of an abandoned temple in his own blood and viscera. after chapter 190, we come to know a terrifying Xie Lian whose heart has frozen over, who will lie and cheat and steal and kill without batting an eye. this Xie Lian dons the mask of his worst enemy and does it justice
there is a dead space, a blank space, an unwritten space in the narrative following the immense trauma of chapter 190. two months go by after blood spills onto the floor of an abandoned temple and flame chars the corpses inside to ash, and we don’t know what happens to Xie Lian in those two months, except that Bai Wuxiang is there, and Bai Wuxiang is watching over him, and Bai Wuxiang sends Xie Lian off down the mountain with the black sword that was both agent and accessory to his suffering
but. but. even after all that--even after all that--there is still some of that old Xie Lian left, an ember not gone completely cold. he leaves the door open. he gives humanity another chance
and humanity nearly fails that second test, that last test; that ember of hope, of belief, of faith comes so close to being snuffed out, but all it takes is a straw hat in the rain, a single moment’s kindness, unasked for, freely given, even if it’s accompanied with grumbling and insults and no shortage of cursing
the full force of Xie Lian’s belief comes surging back, and even though he is still fettered by the cursed shackle around his throat, Xie Lian is back, once more full of the power and agency and divine goodness that makes him who he truly is, the beloved taizi-dianxia of Xianle, whose beauty was matched only by his goodness, whose power was only matched by the depth of his benevolence
it is the strength of his belief in what is good and right and worthy that carries him through the end of book four, to a battered and bruised and dearly-bought victory snatched from the jaws of despair and disillusionment and destruction, and it is this same ironclad belief that leads him to scattering his allotted luck, carries him through another seven hundred and seventy years of unending misfortune with, impossibly, a smile on his face and laughter on his lips
Xie Lian’s faith is tested, and Xie Lian’s faith fails him. but faith isn’t something that, once lost, can never be restored. faith is forgiving, faith is enduring, and sometimes all it takes is for one brief moment, one tiny action to restore it to full, blazing glory
we first meet Xie Lian, eight centuries into this life, and he is still travelling, still doing good deeds. one would think, after a few centuries, after book four, that Xie Lian is entitled to a retirement, or at least a vacation
but when people cry out for help, he goes to them. when a traveller stops by his temple with news of vanishing caravans, he doesn’t hesitate, journeys to distant Banyue to investigate. Xie Lian doesn’t stop, doesn’t give up, because he’s found his calling and harmonized it with his being
so of course Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are perfectly matched for each other, and not just because Hua Cheng refashions himself to perfectly complement Xie Lian, but because the two of them are both devout believers of their respective faiths--Xie Lian in the worthiness of the world, and Hua Cheng in the worthiness of Xie Lian
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The Hogwarts Express scene in Prince's Tale: A Sirius and Snape analysis
I really, really enjoy Sirius and Snape as characters and their respective narrative functions in story. But what gets me most about them is how much Rowling hints about their backgrounds and so much of it makes sense with regard to who they are as adults. So I am going to be breaking down a very small scene from Prince Tale and getting into long winded hypothesis about their respective childhoods.
So, let's start with Snape. The scene begins with Snape rushing to find Lily, already in his Hogwarts clothes. Harry notes he must have been eager to get out of his clothes - ones that look like he borrowed from his mother, as Petunia spitefully pointed out. This has always been a very interesting detail to me - first off, it indicates how poor Snape's family is. Second, this indicates his tiny rebellion from his father - he refuses to wear clothes of the abusive man, and prefers his mother's. I admit, I am partial to the reading that Snape refuses to associate with his father in tiny ways, rather than Tobias refusing to hand his son clothes.
(I have seen readings which say that it is also a sign of neglect - perhaps his parents bought clothes that simply don't fit him, but I am more inclined to think it's a hand me down, simply because Harry identifies so strongly with it. Because Harry knows what it is like to wear a hand me down that don't quite fit, that are too big for you, or the ones that make you look ridiculous.)
Lily and Petunia's relationship is fraught with Petunia's jealousy. And young Lily is upset over it when Snape meets her. "I am not talking to you. Tuney hates me" she tells him. "Because we saw the letter from Dumbledore". Young Lily shows signs of being extremely emotionally reactive and this scene is one of them. It's easier for her to deal with Petunia's rejection of her by telling Snape she doesn't want to talk to him. It's a childish displacement of her hurt over her sister's rejection. (I am genuinely baffled by interpretations that Lily and Hermione are similar. Hermione is very cognitive person, Lily, as we have been shown repeatedly in memories, is not).
Snape, however, with his bad history with Petunia and his inability/ poor social skills to understand why this matters to her, goes: "So what?"
Lily, who throws him a look of deep dislike, says "So she's my sister". This seed is important because this is what develops into "he doesn't get me" feeling she later displays in her teenage scenes with him. Interestingly, most of Lily's personal relationships have deeply interwined love and dislike - Petunia (whose rejection bothers her but she cheerfully informs Sirius that Harry nearly broke a vase her sister sent - which means there is resentment on her end too), James - who she was attracted to even before 7th year but also disliked at one point, and Snape - again, a contentious friendship filled with love and distance.
"She's only a -" we dont get to hear what Snape intended to say. And given his own acrimony with Petunia, it could be anything. However, I read it as "She's only a Muggle" because it ties into his feelings about his father. Snape, who is proud of being half a Prince, emphasizing his magical lineage from his mother's side, his refuge in a violent, neglectful home. (Barty Crouch Jr and Snape with their disappointing fathers - I imagine Voldemort is supremely attractive leader to people with broken homes like this)
Snape, by all accounts, shows a disorganised attachment style. His caregiver, his mother - and perhaps the only parent he seems to have regard for, is too preoccupied by her own abuse to be there for her son - we see this in glimpses Harry sees in OOTP: " woman cowering" where a man shouts at her, and a young, neglected Snape cries in the corner. Children born in homes like this have trouble regulating their emotions, simultaneously displaying tendencies to aggressively lash out or show disassociative symptoms. Both of which Snape displays. Statistically, this is also seen more in low income households where economic instability and resulting domestic instability creates an unsafe environment for the kids to safely form ideas of their identity, or express emotions in healthy ways, modelling instead out of behaviour seen at home.
Then, Snape reminds her that they are going to Hogwarts. He is already in his Hogwarts clothes - now, Snape gets to be the impressive figure. The one who told her about magic, who theorised about how Muggles get letters from magical people, the one who told her about Dementors and Azkaban. He has already left behind the Spinner's End version of him, he wants to bigger than that, and is keen to be in place of magical learning and to join Slytherin. Essentially, he shows signs of unstable identity, insecurity - all prime for grooming into a cult.
And here comes along James Potter, who looks around at the mention of Slytherin. James's comment uses Snape's line and directs it to Sirius instead and it becomes a conversation between them, as a way to bond more with a fellow "rowdy boy" Sirius. Effectively ignoring the other two.
Sirius as we see here, "does not smile" when James talks about Slytherin. He essentially says something that can be construed as a way to nip that conversation in bud: "My whole family has been in. Slytherin". This suggests to me that there is some loyalty to his family there and his disillusionment with them isn't entirely fixed yet. After all, Sirius's intense loyalty to his friends, more specifically James, did not come out of thin air. It is reasonable to suggest that he felt some loyalty to his family at some point and the intensity with which he regards his friends is a reaction to burned off and being a "displaced person without a family" as Rowling put it.
Interestingly, while his reaction to his mother and Bellatrix are obviously sore spots, his response to Regulus is comparatively quite soft. ("Stupid, idiot" - something he calls James later on in the same book, OOTP). I imagine Sirius has quite complicated feelings about his brother and he is capable of nuance (when the person isn't Snape, where his dislike seems to be borne of an intense projection): "The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". As someone who is grown up among them, Sirius would understand that.
His framing of Regulus's need to please his parents also further highlights what exactly is the source of disillusionment. He calls Regulus "soft enough to believe them" - which means he is crediting his own intelligence to see through his parents bigoted world view. Clearly, bigotry is not something the Blacks explained in a way that Sirius, eldest of their male line and their heir, bought it. It also probably didn't help the Blacks case that Grimmauld Place is in a Muggle neighborhood and that their eldest son is a bit of a wild boy with interest in pushing boundaries. His intellectual disconnect leads to the righteous rage he later feels but it began there. (Boy, it must suck to discover that everything you have been taught to value in the world and in yourself as the heir is essentially rubbish). Since his differences with his family began with seeds of intellectual disconnect rather than on intense empathy with downtrodden, it makes him, as a pureblooded privileged boy, unable to truly understand Lupin's fears regarding his lycanthropy. Hence, the Werewolf prank (I am not getting to the Snape bit, just the Lupin bit). To James' credit, he does understand what that means for Lupin and saves all three of them from different set of consequences.
Anyway, back to the scene. James, who has made an ass of himself in front of his new friend, who he was getting along with fine until now, then goes "Blimey, I thought you seemed alright". (Btw, I find James wildly large ego kind of hilarious here, especially in light of Snape's comment about him to Sirius in OOTP: "You will know he is so arrogant that criticism simply bounces off him"). Sirius, who I believe has been raised like "royalty" as Blacks would, has good enough social skills to defuse a situation. He grins and says: "Maybe I will break the tradition".
This line is an indication of Sirius's desire for independence, an identity seperate from his family. The use of the word "tradition" is interesting. It sounds like Sirius is expected to behave in a certain way, the heir of Black family whose parents thought being a Black "made you practically royal". Adult Sirius is contemptuous of this, or their "valuable contribution to Ministry" which means they just gave gold - it tells me that any and all conditions put on him by his family were to fulfill tradition that is either worthless or holds no meaning in his eyes. The root of the emotional abuse Sirius suffers from his family is this - realising his parents love for him is conditional on him being a certain way. (In fact, you can read Regulus desire to emphasise his connection to the family as a reaction to what he sees with Sirius - Sirius does not behave, Mum and Dad don't love him). As a child with unconscious knowledge of lack of love, Sirius then acts out, they react, rinse and repeat "until he has had enough". Sirius chafes against boundaries well into adulthood and doesn't react well to people enforcing it on him, even if it is out of love for him. Cue the fire scene with Harry where he behaves as if Harry is rejecting him instead of protecting him.
Sirius asks James about where he wants to go, and Snape, who is incensed about James being insulting about a House he put stock in, which he made part of new identity (so that he is no longer that Snape boy from Spinner's End) and was in general trying to be impressive about in front of Lily, "makes a disparaging noise" once James talks of Gryffindor. Snape's response to James' : "Got a problem with that?" is interesting. He says: "If you'd rather be brawny, rather than brainy-"
This is an important value for Snape. He knows he is clever and values it. He spends his spare time inventing hexes, making great shortcuts to Potions. He has genuine thirst for learning and he hones it. In SWM, we see that he has written far more longer answers than anyone else, he is poring over his paper after exams. He even mocks Hermione's lack of inventive answers: "Answer copied word to word from the textbook, but correct in essentials". He values originality. It may be me stretching this, but I am partial to the reading: this is his way of rejecting his father once again, who is implied to be a violent man. (in other words, someone who is hypermasculine - "brawny". In fact, Snape's rejection of hypermasculinity is a huge post on it's own - Potions (brewing, cauldrons - coded as feminine arts), the doe Patronus, his proficiency in Occlumency and Legliemency (intuitive mind arts, again seen archetypically feminine) etc).
"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you are neither?" - Sirius is quick with emotionally cutting insults. Snape hasn't even finished his sentence, but Sirius is already on his case. Which suggests growing up in a household with sharp tongues. It's a fair assumption, given Mrs Black's half mad portrait. It also tallies with Sirius's talking about his mother: "My mother didn't have a heart Kreacher, she kept herself alive out of pure spite" . The wounds are fresh enough on this. (Another interesting way Snape and Sirius act as inverse mirrors - Snape rejects his father, Sirius rejects his mother. Sirius acts as proxy for James for Harry while Snape takes on Lily's role of protecting him). However, you know who else is spiteful? Sirius.
While James is the physical bully (the tripping Snape, doing most of the bullying in SWM), Sirius attacks emotionally. ( Sample the one about Snape's appearance - "I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment, there will be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word" or even the carelessly vicious- "Put that away, before Wormtail wets himself in excitement"). Curiously, with all that talk of how his mother being spiteful, it's her room he spends time in when he is depressed. (Again, in inverse mirror way, we can talk of how Snape looks for a father figure in Dumbledore - craves his validation and is proud of Dumbledore's trust in him). We could argue it's also because Buckbeak is there, and perhaps it's the largest room in the house, but it's very telling that's where Sirius spends time when he is "in a fit of sullens". Sirius's sense of abandonment from his family, makes him look for family connections with friends - a trait he shares with Harry. Interestingly, the first time he glimpses Harry in Privet Drive, Harry is also running away from home - just like he did. Anyway, I could go on.
#harry potter analysis#severus snape#snapedom#sirius black#Sirius black analysis#snape analysis#padfoot#lily evans#lily potter#hp snack#the black family#walburga black#Tobias snape#deathly hallows chapter#the prince's tale#harry potter and deathly hallows#harry potter#meta#pro snape#hp meta
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come here often? - n. lantsov
pairing: nikolai lantsov x healer!reader.
genre/warning: fluff. mentions of injuries.
words: 1.6k
summary: in which nikolai and you aren't really close, until he falls on his face and you fall in love.
It was a rather slow night considering you were working as the main healer aboard a ship that had the prince of Ravka as its captain and also counted the three leaders of the grisha triumvirate as part of the crew. Night after night, people would come in though the makeshift hospital David had built into your room for you, injured by the weirdest things you would ever imagine, and go back out to no doubt keep endangering their lives on behalf of their country. Now, you were not saying that fighting for your country was an dishonorable thing to do, the opposite actually, but for the life of you, you just couldn’t seem to understand how someone could possibly willingly jump off a ship and into an ocean filled with monsters and mythical creatures, and not expect any injuries.
Speaking of, as of right now you found yourself attending the injuries of none other but the captain himself, he looked like he hadn’t slept in ages, and reeked of sea water and sweat. The first time you had met him you had been extremely nervous about actually using your powers on him, after all, you didn’t wanna be known as the healer who had permanently injured the future king. That day you had learned that Nikolai became pretty delirious every time he was suffering from physical pain given as he had had a broken nose and damaged rib, but he had claimed that ‘the other guy had it worse’. This would’ve be a normal enough to say, except in this case, the ‘other guy’ was an ancient mythical being that has been believed to only exist in Ravkan’s passed down stories. Ever since then, he has been ending up in your room almost every night, and with your unfortunate luck, he always seemed to arrive right in your shifts.
His face was framed by messy strands that had fallen from his red tailored hair, and on his chest were displayed a couple of gold necklaces that matched the buttons of his red coat. He had been talking to you and distracting you from your work ever since he arrived, and to make matters worse, he had to rest on one of the beds in your room all night just in case the fall he had taken on his face somehow caused more damage than you had originally thought.
“So, you come here often?” he asked with a crooked smirk and wandering eyes.
“You mean my room? Where I work?” you answered, rolling your eyes when he nodded his head and raised his eyebrows, implying it was a totally logical question. “Yes, I come here often. Not as often as you it would seem. Quite prone to hurting yourself, aren’t you?”
“Maybe I just like to visit my favorite healer.”
Ah yes, the flirting. It seemed it wasn’t enough for him to already bother you with his presence, but he also made it his mission to flirt with you as much as possible during his stay.
“Firstly, I’m the only specialized healer you know, so that line isn’t as smooth as you think it is.” you started, continuing to work on his nose. “Secondly, I would appreciate it if you could keep your advances to the minimum. We don’t want you to damage your brain trying to come up with more pick up lines, seeing as it requires a lot of effort for you to even get coherent sentences out.” you said sarcastically and watched his smirk grow.
“What is it going to take for you to finally admit you actually really like me?” he asked, and for the life of you, you could not understand how he’d come to that conclusion when all you’ve ever done is turn him down. Nonetheless, you figured you’d follow his game. If you were going to spend your whole night by his side, you could use some fun.
“Well, for one, I have never seen you not beaten up, or showered for that matter, so that would be a great start.” you said, tailoring his nose to look like Sturmhond’s crooked one after you finished tending to it.
“It’s not my fault I always end up here in the nights when we get ambushed.” he said in a voice that could almost be considered as a whine, and you found yourself smiling at how cute he sounded when he wasn’t being an asshole. Still, you furrowed your brows in response to something he’d hinted at.
“Ambushed? What, like by other crews?” you asked and he nodded. “So, you tailor yourself to not get ambushed for being a royal, but we still are ambushed even when you look like Sturmhond? What’s the point then?”
“It may be kind of useless now that everyone in Ravka knows us, but I like pretending to be someone else sometimes.” he shrugged, a look that you’d never seen on his face appearing. “It’s stupid, i know” he snorted, trying to shake off the weight of his sentence after you remained quiet for a few seconds.
“It’s not stupid.” you were quick to deny. “I get it, believe me. Growing up as a grisha in Fjerda, I wished every night before bed to have the ability to simply be reborn as someone else.” you admitted, missing the shocked look on his face.
“You are Fjerdan?” he asked.
“What? That’s not in my file?” you answered with a question of your own and he rolled his green eyes.
After you accused him of violating your privacy for reading your file and he defensively said that it was his job to know his crew, you spent a few minutes teaching him Fjerdan words and took advantage of the little knowledge he had about your native language by making fun of his tailored face, knowing he couldn’t understand what you were saying.
“So, how come you praise yourself so much about your aim but seem to get beaten up every night?” you asked.
“Hey! I am actually an incredible shot, thank you very much.” he replied, offense clear on his voice, making you snort.
“Can’t be any good if the only times I ever see you is when you are injured.” you said sarcastically, and he made a face that seemed a bit dramatic in your opinion.
“Not my fault you are trapped between these four walls every night.” he replied, and now it was your turn to act defensively.
“Excuse you! I have a life outside of the hospital.” you said in a light tone, to let him know you weren’t truly offended.
“People who have lives don’t need to remind other people that they do.”
“People who are great in battle don’t need to remind other people that they are.”
“Touché.” he said with a smirk.
You spent the next couple of hours talking to Nikolai about random topics, him not failing to deliver a pick up line from time to time, and the night was slowly but surely starting to slip out of your hands. Right now, you were back to him being the topic of conversation after you had ranted for a couple of minutes about how hard it was to have to grow up in Fjerda hiding who you were. As you teased him telling him he had to settle for captain of a ship because he wasn’t a good enough royal (a claim he denied thoroughly), he looked like he wanted to say something else, before Genya entered the room with a smirk on her face.
“If you two lovebirds are done flirting, you are needed up on the main deck. Sparring session gone wrong - again.” she informed you, rolling her eyes at the usual recklessness of the crew.
“Yes, ma’am.” you saluted sarcastically, before turning back around to face Nikolai again and check his injuries one more time.
“You should actually stay upstairs with us sometime, that way I can prove to you that I'm actually good.” he suggested once Genya was out of the room again. “Plus, the day should be sunny today so we’ll probably spar a lot.”
“You’ve flirted with me every night you’ve been here and the answer’s always been the same, what makes you think tonight is going to be different?”
“Oh, come on. I promise I'll shower and I will try to not get punched in the face. That way you get to see me showered and not injured, it’s a package deal you can’t just ignore.” he pleaded, in reference to your words from earlier.
“All right, maybe I'll stay upstairs after I finish fixing the crew up, and if I catch sight of a certain arrogant royal I know, I might stick around to watch a sparring session or two.” you gave in with a smirk, leading him to the door so he could leave you alone to fix your room up a bit before you went upstairs.
“I’ll see you when I see you then.” he said while bowing his invisible pirate hat, and walked away with a wink.
He left you standing at your desk watching as, just like every other night, he slipped past your door and out onto the main deck again. You watched as he caught up with Genya and said something to her with a smirk, though you couldn’t quite catch the words the spoke, and turned back around to tidy up your room with a stupid smile on your face.
bonus:
“Did it work?” Genya asked him with raised eyebrows and a smile, her question in reference to the plan they had come up with to get Nikolai to spend more time with you. It consisted of Genya tailoring his face to look like he had fallen on his face and busted his nose open.
“Like a charm.” Nikolai nodded, a smile similar to the one you were wearing back in your room appearing on his face.
a/n: making fun of sturmhond's nose is a personality trait and it's mine (and alina's)
#nikolai lantsov#nikolai lantsov x reader#nikolai lantsov imagine#nikolai lantsov fic#nikolai lantsov fanfic#sturmhond#nikolai#x reader#imagine#fic#fanfic#shadow and bone#grishaverse#the grisha trilogy#nikolai duology#rule of wolves#king of scars#siege and storm#ruin and rising
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8 Anti LO Asks
1. as a mythology buff, i honestly think it was really weird of rachel smythe to take Hecate, a goddess who helped Demeter search for Persephone after she vanished and heard her screams and shared in Persephone and Demeter's joy after reuniting... and then just make her into Hades's like... total bro who plays aggressive matchmaker to h/p to the point of trying to break up Hades's current relationship. but honsestly i refuse to believe rachel smythe did literally any research before making this comic judging by how she depicts the mythology she's taking inspiration from so honestly im not suprised
2. I don’t know if anyone on here has discussed this, but LO very much plays into the idea of “good victim vs bad victim”.
A “good victim” has suffered many things, but despite it they still remain cheerful and happy and pleasant, they do not put others out or lash out at them even if they are triggered, they do not become petty or angry or hold onto negative emotions. They, in essence, “get over it”. Thus, the narrative rewards them: they get many friends, a love internet they’re happy with, and a happy ending. This is what Persephone is. She’s the “good victim”. Despite her many hardships, we know she will not suffer in the end. She will get everything she wants and more.
Then there is Minthe, the “bad victim”. They too have gone through many hardships, but they’ve become cold, angry at the world, they lash out and have trouble opening up and connecting to others, they even hurt others, themselves victims to the toxic pain they can’t get rid it. They do not and have not “gotten over it”. Thus, the narrative punishes them, even when they try to better themselves. It’s never good enough. These characters often are lonely, the cast are large do not like them if not outright hate them, and they more often than not end up dead. This is what Minthe is. She is not a pleasant person, she’s a victim of a manipulative older man and a cruel, unjust society and system, and we know how her story ends. It’s in pain, her maiming/possible death framed as a joke and not even a genuine hint of sympathy towards her fate. She was a “bad victim”, she “deserved” what she got.
Now, you only often see this in fandom, since the actual works that deal with victims of trauma and how they react will often try to give more nuance to every shade of victim they may have on cast, but it’s very disturbing to me that Rachel seems to eagerly play into this idea, like she gets joy out of punishing a victim she created and watching them suffer even more at her hands. It’d be one thing if she kept Minthe a shallow, one dimensional character who was just evil for the sake of it, fine, but her showing us her actual complex nature and the very real struggles, trauma, and manipulation she went through, especially at the hands of our supposed “heroes” of the story, just to have her demise framed as a win for Persephone and a joke for the audience to laugh at? That’s highly disturbing to me. It’s one thing for fans to act that way, but the writer themselves? It’s very dark, to say the least.
3. "I'm invested in working with fairy tales and folklore for my next project" oh no no no oh god please no. Fairy tales have been through enough hot takes and modern "betterments", they really don't need Rachel "Apollo is bad, actually" Smythe to add to it
4. Quick question
Greek Mythology is mostly incest.
So what if someone who is actually good at writing and storytelling and consistent artwork
Kept it in
For example Zeus and Hera arguing like the married couple they are
And Hera uses older sibling card
With Zeus dumbfounded face
I don't know why but I want it but would it be weird since it's incest
Most fanfics always keep it out. Just keep it in if you want it to be closer than the actual methods you know
Hera is youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea and older than her brother Zeus, who was also her husband.
I want to do it but like I have no clue how to start a webtoon so you know💀
5. Oh god, Hades not needing therapy because Persephone's "love" is enough? To quote my lord and savior Kennie JD: "not the p*$$¥ being therapy!"
6. uuuuuh sexual trauma warning.?
So I was writing a comment on the "Re: bpd" ask and i had a realization about persephone
She reminds me of how I was about the idea of sex
I'm demisexual and have sexual trauma and the idea of sex excited me but I wasn't able to like, do it. Me and my partner would mess around but because Mctrauma i couldn't do it cuz I hadn't exactly worked through my trauma and i wanted to get through that because i was finally experiencing sexual attraction.
Kinda reminds me of Persephone. The problem is at that point it had been 6-7 years since my trauma occurred and persephone's happened like last month.
Considering how everyone talks about persephone being a self insert i think Rachel has some things to work through
Also made the realization literally as im typing that Rachel's attitude towards asexuality could be because she's demi and doesn't fully understand what that is or means
becuase if you're ignorant enough you can 100% end up describing demisexuality as "being asexual and then like, slowly turning gay."
this ask weirdly personal so fuck it this is gonna be anonymous feel free to delete if it makes u uncomfy
7. That’s also a part about Hubris Rachel clearly doesn’t get: it was always committed by rich, often people in high authority, NEVER lowly farmers or the poorest of ancient society. They always knew better. Niobe was a queen! Minos was a king! Arachne was the rich, spoiled daughter of a really successful merchant. Sisyphus was a cunning king. The trojan war was kicked off by royal drama. The list goes on and on. You have to notice these things and genuinely study the myths or you become like Rachel, who seems convinced the poorest people would be stupid enough to not only defy their bosses, but the gods themselves? They would be the last people to do such a thing! They don’t have the ingrained sense of entitlement and arrogance like the rich and powerful to even dare act like that towards the gods, as is the case with hubris. Because of this, Rachel ends up creating a narrative that the rich and powerful (literal GODS) are the real victims to those cruel, uppity poor people, going as far as to say in comic they deserve to be slaves for hades’ benefit and they’re wrong for ever hating Persephone for, you know, murdering them because she had a bad day! They should know their place! It’s absolutely insane that she doesn’t actually seem to realize what she’s writing. Unless she does, which is an even bigger issue, and shows a really dark look into how she views the world and society and how it should be run. It’s all a bad look.
8. Have you seen the "The demon, is here in the room right now?" meme
Welp, that's literally Persephone and her "feeling"
I legit saw that video about a dude faking a mental illnes (and seeing a demon that made him do bad things) after he commited a crime and that was so cringy and I can't stop thinking about Persephone confessing her AOW like that
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Prince Jackson Wang~ Royal!AU
WARNINGS: Narcissistic Parent, Angst, Fluff, Jackson Being A Brat, TW Violence. (I’m probably forgetting something)
A/N: Don’t ask me why this one is so long, I couldn’t stop writing for this one haha, although I feel like it could be better. I hope y’all enjoy it!
Prince Jackson was snobby, conceited, and arrogant.
Prince Jackson is brave, wise, and gentle.
He thought he was the best, and he only cared about himself.
But he humbled himself, and he is more caring towards his people now.
His mother was a very gentle woman, and she was able to keep the King from neglecting the Kingdom.
She wanted to teach Jackson how important it was to be kind and considerate.
Unfortunately, the Queen had died when Jackson was a child, leaving him to be raised by an egotisical man.
His father had spoiled him and imprinted a God-like complex in his mind.
He had made Jackson think that he was above everyone else, even their own people.
Jackson had grown up watching his father push around their servants and thought it was okay.
The King didn’t care for the Kingdom, even though there was a rising in crime.
The King let the Kingdom come to despair when the Queen died, for he did not care.
The King was obsessed with war and being the best, so Jackson was taught how to fence, handle a sword, spar, etc.
Jackson is very strong because of this; he can handle himself very well.
Fortunately, Jackson had never fought in a war, for others had managed to steer clear of his father.
The way Jackson was raised is something he is ashamed of, even if he is no longer the man he once was.
He changed a lot of his ways after getting his portrait painted by you.
Crime, poverty, and pain was something his Kingdom no longer had to suffer.
When you had been requested to paint a portrait for the Prince, you were nervous. You had always wondered what the Prince was like. Was he noble and sensitive? Or was he just like the King?
You had silently hoped it was not the latter, but to your displeasure, it was, you could tell he didn’t care about anyone except himself.
As you sit on a stool with a canvas in front of you, Prince Jackson sat proudly on a throne encrusted with jewels, you would’ve thought he was so dreamy...if he didn't have an annoyed look on his face.
“How much longer is this going to take?” he asks you, the insolent tone in his voice had you irritated. “Well, if you would have quit moving and just shut up, I would’ve been done by now.”
Jackson looked taken back by your words, it was clear no one had ever talked to him like that before. He squinted his eyes towards you as your paintbrush softly glided on the canvas, “Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?” he scoffed, “I am the Prince, and you will treat me with respect.”
You put the paintbrush down and stood up in a huff, “Respect, huh?” you begin while taking your art smock off, “You don’t even care, let alone respect your own people. Do you even understand what we all must go through while you live carefree up in that palace? No, you don’t, you’re just a spoiled brat who only cares about himself. Don’t you dare talk to me about respect, your Highness.”
You felt your blood boil as venom dripped from your words. You threw your smock over the stool and began walking towards the door, Jackson furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to process everything and quickly stood from the throne, “Where are you going?” he asks confused.
“I have been painting you for hours, I am hungry. You can either wait here for me or come back later,” you sighed.
Jackson followed you out the door but turned and started walking back to the palace.
The rest of the day your words replayed through Jackson’s mind, it distracted Jackson and made him mess up a few times while sparring. He felt guilty, no one had ever scolded him like that, he began questioning himself.
Was he truly so self-absorbed that he didn’t see how much their people were in need?
Why would his father tell him to not worry about the Kingdom?
He decided he needed to talk to you, so the next day he readied himself and started walking to your art studio, as he started walking up the few steps that lead to your door, he heard a noise coming from one of the alleys.
Curiosity got the best of him and he went to investigate, when he turned the corner, his eyes grew big. Some man had you cornered and was trying to rob you, “Come on, I know you have money, I saw the Prince leave your workshop yesterday, he must have paid you.”
���Please, I don’t want any trouble! Just let me leave!” you pleaded while slowly trying to move past him, you felt very intimidated by the man and knew that you were going to be beaten, if not killed, if you didn’t get out of there.
The man harshly grabbed your arm and slammed you against the wall, “You’re not going anywhere,” he growled and raised his fist.
You closed your eyes and braced yourself for the impact about to come but instead heard a grunt from him, you opened your eyes and see Prince Jackson fighting with the man, Jackson was dodging swings and skillfully landing his own, the man knew it was a losing fight, so he quickly took off.
Jackson wasn’t even panting, but his heart was definitely racing; along with yours. You stood there bewildered about the entire situation, “Are you okay?” he concerningly asks you.
You simply nod, “Thank you,” you softly let out.
“Can we talk?”
You agree and lead him into the Tavern you often go to, you ask the Tavern Keeper, Martha to bring out two orders of your usual and then sit at a table in the corner. Jackson looked tense; it was his first time in a place like this.
“What did you want to talk about?” you asked curiously, you could see something in his eyes but couldn’t make it out.
“I don’t know anything about what goes on in the Kingdom, my father had told me to not mind anything that happens to our people. Please, tell me what is going on, I need to know.”
You were taken back, he sounded sincere. He was no longer sitting proudly like he was the day before; and you could see what was in his eyes now, it was remorse.
“Well...as you saw before, crime is the biggest one, a lot of people have lost their home or their shop because they were robbed, trade caravans have stopped visiting here because they’re afraid, so we can’t even trade,” Jackson intensely listened as you explained, mentally taking notes of it. “Poverty is the second one, but I’m sure you can guess why. Everyone is in pain; people have died because they were too poor to afford food or medicine when they were sick,” you tell him with a heavy heart.
Jackson, who was clearly upset, grabbed your hand from across the table and held it in his own, his eyes locking with yours, “I promise you, I will do everything I can to make things right.”
Before you could respond, a servant had walked up with two plates, you pull your hand back and thank her as she places the plates down, then she quickly excuses herself to let you eat.
Jackson curiously looks at the food, he was so used to extravagant meals and wasn’t sure if he would like the food in front of him, “Just try one bite, if you don’t like it, I will gladly eat it,” you chuckle at the last bit.
He grabs his fork and takes a bite, he was delightfully surprised at how amazing the food was, it was enough for him to start devouring the meal, leaving his taste buds satisfied, “That was incredible, I’ve never had something so flavorful before!”
Martha walked over to you both and you smiled, “Hi Martha! How are things?” you greet her as you pull out a few coins for the meal. Her smile was sorrowful as she stopped you, “It’s on the house, consider it a ‘farewell’ gift,” she informs you, you could hear the pain in her voice, as well as Jackson.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to lose this place tomorrow because I can’t pay it off.”
You furrowed your brows, “But you told me the other day you were about to fully pay off this place?” you reminded her, not wanting to hear what she was about to say.
“I was, until someone broke in last night and stole all of my money. I can’t make it all back in a day, it took me months to save it all up. I have no choice but to go back to my parent’s farm,” she explained with her head hung low. You stood up and hugged your friend tightly, “I am going to miss you so much. I’ll visit you tomorrow before you leave.”
Suddenly, something hit the table with a small thud, you both look and see that Jackson had pulled out his coin pouch, “Will this be enough, or do you need more?” Jackson asked with a serious tone.
Martha realized who he was and stood there in shock, trying to find words before giving up and nodding. “Okay, wonderful! I would’ve hated to see my new favorite place to eat go so quickly,” he tells her with a smile.
Jackson took the throne as the rightful King very quickly and kept his word, crime vanished almost overnight, people had their homes and shops back, and trading caravans started visiting the Kingdom again.
Everything was as it should be.
Jackson had invited you to the castle to help him make decisions regarding the Kingdom, it wasn’t long until you both fell in love with each other. He loves you and always aims to be a better person because of you.
The portrait of Prince King Jackson hung in the great hall; showing a man who truly is the best.
#jackson wang imagine#jackson wang imagines#jackson wang headcanon#jackson wang headcanons#jackson wang scenarios#jackson wang scenario#got7 scenarios#got7 imagines#got7 scenario#got7 imagine#got7 headcanon#got7 headcanons#got7 au#got7 royal!au#got7 prince!au
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I realise that I’m speaking to a very small, hyper-specific group of mutuals here, but I can’t stop thinking about this.
Amara/Chuck Parallels with Loki/Thor
The dark, misunderstood sibling that’s always been cast as the villain by essentially everyone, when- despite their cold, ruthless exterior- all they ever really wanted to do was exist as an equal to the other, and as the conflict escalated, they ended up alone, afraid, suffering, and locked away, all while the golden child prospers. And then there’s the golden child- everyone’s favourite- who (outwardly) seems to be the most benevolent and righteous of the two, but internally has a massive sense of entitlement, moral superiority, and a major violent streak. The golden child still loves their dark sibling, but not enough to acknowledge how they were wronged or allow them a sense of equality at the risk of lessening the golden child’s own standing.
Here’s some great Amara quotes (surprisingly profound considering they came from S*pernatural) that resonate with Loki, just- so much.
1.) “That’s your story, not mine.
Most of these quotes work best if you look at them from the perspective Loki would’ve had in the first Avengers film. This one, however, can be applied to just about anytime in their thousand-year relationship. Thor, if asked, would most definitely describe life in Asgard as wonderful and his relationship with Loki as perfectly good. Although Loki himself could be a bit unusual and troublesome at times, Thor would say things were mostly peachy. Whereas, if you asked Loki, he would have a completely different opinion. He’s been ostracised and villainised and tormented and made to feel inferior pretty much his whole life, and his brother is a huge part of that. He’s constantly compared to Thor and found lacking, and the fact that- even when Loki finally snapped and went off the deep end- Thor still doesn’t seem to understand that… well that certainly just throws gasoline on Loki’s Anger Fire.
2.) “The real reason… why I couldn’t be allowed to exist? You couldn’t stand it. We were equals.”
This is mostly looking back on the earlier parts of Thor 1. Thor seemed to genuinely love Loki, but almost in a way someone would love an extension of themselves (a weapon or a car or a pet or something). He likes Loki’s company, but only if Loki goes along with what Thor wants to do. He wants Loki’s advice, but only when he asks for it. He values Loki’s magic, but only to the extent of its usefulness. He loves Loki, but he loves the way Loki assists and elevates him even more. Odin isn’t as obvious with it, but there are hints that he is more interested in how Loki can improve Thor than how Loki can improve himself. He was never going to make Loki king of Asgard, but he had every intention of Loki being there for Thor once he was crowned. The people of Asgard- at least the royal family- never cared to validate or support Loki’s individual identity (especially considering it deviated so far from the asgardian norm), because he wasn’t meant to be an individual. He was meant to be an extension of his brother. And, in the end, he violently refused to do that, and that’s part of the reason he was so strongly condemned for actions that Thor and Odin were guilty of themselves.
3.) “I’d die a million times and murder you a million more before going back there!”
I know this is super controversial, but I don’t think Loki was 100% mind controlled like Selvig and Barton. I also don’t think he was 100% a terrible evil villain who planned everything extensively and gladly did Thanos’s bidding. I think, during the movie, his mind was just all over the place (“a bag full of cats” indeed). At times, he probably just wanted it to be over so he could get away from Thanos and go home. At times, he probably felt good about being The Big Badass and have people be intimidated by him after so long being intimidated by others. At times, he’s probably genuinely appalled by all the carnage he’s causing. At times, with the sceptre fueling his rage, he was probably genuinely pissed at Thor and the rest of his family and wanted to cause trouble and make him suffer. I think, in part of his mind, he’s just so done with the position of inferiority he’s occupied his entire life that he’s almost willing to go back and be tortured by Thanos again, or go to prison, or suffer a humiliating defeat by The Avengers, or cause Thor all the pain in the world, as long as he doesn’t have to go back to living in Thor’s shadow.
4.) “Sorry? What’s sorry to me? I spent… years crammed into that cage, alone and afraid, wishing- begging- for death, because of you. And what was my crime, brother?”
This could be in reference to the years Loki spent in a metaphorical cage- the second prince, in Thor’s shadow, constantly trying to get Odin’s approval- or the literal cage he probably got thrown into at some point by Thanos and his minions. I like to think of it as Option B, just for the added whump. In Avengers, or TDW, or Ragnarok, Thor expressed at least a tiny bit of regret for how things went wrong between them- and despite the fact that he never actually said “I’m sorry”- I can see Loki encountering Thor’s attempts at reconnecting and feeling entirely empty about them. In his mind, Thor was the reason Odin neglected him, Thor was the reason his plans in Thor 1 failed, Thor was the reason he felt inferior in the first place. All he ever wanted was to be Thor’s equal, and striving for that led to his fall, which led to him being put through hell by Thanos and Co. And for what? Why was he forced fo compete with his brother for his parents’ love? Why was he made to feel lesser? Why was he even put on the throne in the first place? None of that was his fault. What was his crime, really, in the beginning? Being different? Not being Thor? I think it would take a lot more than a little regret on Thor’s part to fix all that.
5.) “Tell me. If you won’t change, why should I?”
This is my favourite one! Because it’s sooo accurate. Everyone- Thor in particular- is always trying to get Loki to be less deceptive, to stop betraying people all the time, to stop scheming and causing trouble, to stop going against his family and Asgard, but no one ever acknowledges that- even as far along as Ragnarok- Thor is just as entitled, arrogant and violent as he was at the beginning of the first movie. He literally tortures Loki with an obedience disk all while giving him a self-righteous speech filled with moral superiority and judgement. So, yeah. Again, from Loki’s perspective, if Thor has consistently clung to his immaturity and refused to grow into a better person, how the hell does he have any right to tell Loki to change and be better?
6.) “It didn’t have to be like this. I loved you, brother.”
Less infuriating and more heartbreaking than the others. When everything is said and done, Loki always loved Thor. Not just that, but his one true desire was to stand shoulder to shoulder with him and be comrades, equals, brothers… rather than a royal stepping stool. The tragic thing is that, while Loki has done a lot of wrong, if Thor had- at any point before Loki went crazy in Thor 1- genuinely acknowledged Loki’s pain and apologised to him, Loki 100% would’ve stood down. He would’ve been willing to works things out and do everything he could to repair their relationship- but because Thor never did that, because he treated Loki so terribly for so long, Loki ended up hitting his breaking point and becoming malevolent. He killed tons of people, caused all kinds of damage, and ripped the family even further apart. And it’s so sad because it’s obvious that Loki is just as miserable as everyone else, and this outcome was never what Loki wanted.
Anyway, I’m done meta-ing for now. I just find it fascinating how two of my favourite characters have such similar relationship with their brothers, and how things that Amara said could’ve very easily fit into Loki’s script. Which is, you know, heartbreaking. Cause pretty much all of Amara’s lines were heartbreaking. Sigh.
#loki meta#Amara meta#amara I love you#frosty bby#brodinsons#Chuck and amara#loki laufeyson#amara spn#supernatural#Thor#long meta is long#and quotey#but hey#the mood struck#topic: Loki + Amara#fandom crossover#I really really wish I could add a cut but I’m on mobile and idek how to add one anyway so lmao
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What do you think Shaw's fairytale could have been, had he been included in the "Wonderland after Dark" event?
First and foremost, now that I’ve written my response, I went way over the top with this idea. Was originally going to just summarize this idea and maybe slap Shaw’s face on Disney’s “Robin Hood” fox as a shit edit for funsies yet here we are with a whole HC. Anywho, I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment what other fairytale stories you guys think Shaw would’ve been good for!
Honestly my first thought was Aladdin or Robin Hood. I’m trying to think what best goes with his personality and how you could twist those stories into something new like they have with the other boys. I honestly feel like Robin Hood fits his personality especially with his latest event where he basically pulls a Robin Hood move, stealing from an antique store that was trying to sell fakes for the price of authentic pieces. He “took care” of the owner and people who were involved with this shameless exchange and by took care I mean beat them to a pulp in the alley, stole the items, and even got the shop closed down. While he didn’t necessarily steal valuable items and distribute the wealth to others like what our known Robin Hood does, what he did still protected many people without them knowing. Shaw has that sly, fun way of living life and really does help others without their knowledge. Even if it’s in his own dumbass way which can be selfish at times, I think he could’ve had a pretty good Robin Hood story in this event.
Robin Hood Shaw
Here’s your shit edit that took a total of 4.6 minutes to make
I imagine it would’ve gone something like this:
Shaw as Robin Hood would never settle in one place for too long. He enjoys adventuring around and would often be found visiting many different villages.
There were rumors in nearby villages of a vigilante who would supposedly ambush criminals, bandits, and even rich folks in the nearby villages who were involved with some sort of dirty business.
While he is a stubborn moron who does stupid things and can be selfish at times, he’s never once harmed or stolen from innocent people. He finds it thrilling when he’s able to let loose and be on the verge of getting caught, so fighting criminals/bandits/bad people within the village was how he enjoyed living life.
While most of his reasoning behind it may be selfish, the people of the nearby villages still considered him a hero.
He enjoyed taking out the rumored bandits outside of the village, getaway criminals within the village, and most of all, he enjoyed stealing from tactless, arrogant “royals” is what these people call themselves who used dirty tactics to gain the wealth they had.
Shaw loved the thrill of sneaking in and stealing their valuable belongings that were acquired unjustly with the chance of getting caught. And what he loved more was seeing their infuriated expressions after realizing they had been robbed.
To cover up his tracks, he would distribute the wealth among the good people of the village. He insists his good deeds are nothing more than him wanting some good entertainment and only gives the villages the wealth to cover up his tracks but we all know he’s secretly soft. Under all that bitchassness ofc
He would, however, always keep one item for himself. Whatever seemed to have caught his eye in that moment. The items he collected varied. He didn’t always care about their worth and would often take whatever seemed interesting to him.
Most of the money he used to provide food, clothing, and shelter came from the bandits and criminals. He had plenty of money to get around.
So in this date, I imagine MC going around village to village looking for this vigilante so called “Robin Hood” to help her village. Similar to Disney’s “Robin Hood” film, the people of the village are forced to pay an unfair amount of taxes to the people in control who then use those taxes for their own selfish desires, leaving the people of the village to suffer.
MC uses Robin Hood’s latest sightings from different villages as clues to where she may be able to find him, but many villagers tell her it’s hopeless, that he never shows himself as Robin Hood in public.
While asking around in a nearby village, Shaw overhears her conversation and catches her outside the village during her departure back home.
He asks why she’s looking for Robin Hood so she explains her village’s current situation vaguely to him.
Without explaining himself, he joins her on her journey back to her village.
She was uncertain about him tagging along without an explanation but soon had some friendly banter I say friendly but this man is just annoying as hell and we love it with one another. Y’all know how friendly Shaw is. Annoying but good at making conversation. Ya know... like his usual self.
Anywho, they come across some bandits on the way back where *enter Robin Hood Shaw*.
While Shaw fends off the bandits, MC also joins in and surprises him with some fighting skills of her own which ya’ll know damn well he’s gonna like.
MC was able to piece things together after seeing his fighting style and capability in which she asks if he’s Robin Hood.
He chuckles and responds with a simple “let’s go” as he continues towards the direction of her village.
She follows suit with way too many questions like mood mc, I wanna know what life is like as a bitch vigilante too but you also gotta remember he’s an annoying asshat
To be honest, her first impression after realizing he was Robin Hood was something like “wow wasn’t expecting him to be a dumb bitch” after all that friendly banter. But then again what do you expect from a man who purposely gets himself into danger?
Her questions included those as such: Why did you become Robin Hood? Have you ever been caught? Why do you always keep one stolen item from each place you rob?
His response was a question of his own “Why do you need the help of Robin Hood when you are capable of fighting, yourself?”
She pauses and explains she isn’t capable of helping the village all by herself and thought if she could find Robin Hood, the village would have hope.
Shaw pauses and states his own desires, “I’m not the person people make me out to be. I don’t do these things for the people, I do them for myself. Whether or not you want to believe I help people, in the end, I’m only doing this for myself.”
With that being said, MC suddenly felt a wall being built between them. Not that they had a well developed relationship beforehand
Still, MC explains her village’s situation in much more detail in hope of coming up with a plan.
MC throws out a few ideas while Shaw asks questions about her village and the men in control and then offers his own ideas.
After a lifetime of teasing and bickering, they come to a conclusion.
Once again bringing in Disney’s classic “Robin Hood” film, I thought it would be fun to include a fox in this story and even did some research on Chinese mythological creatures.
Huli jings are fox like mythological creatures that have the capability to shapeshift.
So to add a little twist in this story like the rest of the boys, MC’s village just so happened to be guarded by a huli jing spirit, or so the legends within the village say.
Shaw, with his sly, sneaky Robin Hood persona decided to use this to his advantage.
For days after returning to MC’s village, they gathered materials for their plan for the next time taxes would be collected.
With Shaw’s skills, he would dress as the huli jing spirit shapeshifted as a human wearing a fox mask and fight those who come by to collect taxes, threatening them to leave the village and never return while MC was in charge of special effects to make the “performance” seem more realistic.
He thought the idea of these awful villagers being frightened half to death by a “spirit” was rather entertaining and would make this mission much more satisfying in the end after everything going according to plan. Basically his thought process was “imagine pulling something off so ridiculous yet so incredible”
Slowly driving one by one out of the village, Shaw continued to “haunt” and threaten anyone involved.
However, it was only a matter of time when one of them realized it was all staged after finding MC off to the side, helping Shaw with his “performance”.
MC was then taken to the person in charge and held captive.
Once Shaw realized she had gone missing, he suspected the remaining few caught on and had her as a hostage so he finished his job more quickly and efficiently. Mr. iM dOiNg ThiS fOr mYsELf
Being stuck with the man in charge who was responsible for the village’s suffering, MC began asking why he did everything he had done, why he doesn’t help the village like one should. Oh MC, sweet sweet MC, there are some terrible people in the world and you should know this
After talking with the man for some time, there was a loud crash following the man being knocked to the ground by a powerful force.
“I’ve come to steal you away” is all MC hears before being swept up into Shaw’s arms.
With the man on the ground letting out painful cries, Shaw reveals himself as Robin Hood, receiving an appalled gasp from the man lying on the floor as he demands him to leave the village for good and never return.
The man refuses to give up, calling for backup only to be met with silence.
Shaw: Oh? You haven’t heard? They all fled the village. The remaining ones have been dealt with as well. It’s best you do the same if you value your life.
With this being said, the man got up and frantically stumbled out of the building.
As Shaw carries MC outside, the villagers thank him as they distribute the wealth found within the mans home among everyone, now safe from their continued suffering.
Enjoying her embarrassed expression, Shaw quietly teases MC while continuing to carry her away from others.
MC: You can put me down now, Mr. Every man for himself.
Shaw: Oh? I guess I found that time spent with you is utterly amusing and would be a shame to lose such entertainment.
MC: Well if you don’t go back soon, everything will be taken and you won’t be able to get your reward.
Shaw: And what reward would that be?
MC: The one item you choose to keep from every theft you’ve ever done.
Shaw chuckles while leaning close, whispering in her ear, “I’ve already taken my reward”.
Bye, I’ll be suffering while wishing we actually had Shaw in this event because he would’ve been 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
#mlqc#mr. love queen's choice#mr. love#mlqc shaw#asks#mlqc halloween#what have you done#I feel like this HC just got more and more ridiculous as I kept writing#I should’ve just stopped at ‘he would’ve made a good Robin Hood’#he would’ve made a good Aladdin too but I didn’t know how to create that story in MCs pov#I only have limited braincells#and all of those are borrowed from my friends#brain go brrrr#but yeah I hope maybe possibly hopefully you enjoyed this because my brain really do be dead right now#also feel free to comment what fairytale stories he would’ve been good in for this event!
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Casualties of Perspective: An Analysis of Díthorba
Introduction to Díthorba
Díthorba is an enemy boss character in the fourth game of the Fire Emblem series, Genealogy of the Holy War, recently added to the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes. She is a Heavenly Knight of Silesse, an elite pegasus knight. She is most often portrayed as something of a mustache-twirling villain, comically evil; however, the truth of her character is a much more complex one. Kaga told me so. I’m writing this essay because I got her in Heroes and I have ADHD. It’s a love story for the ages.
Context: Politics of Silesse & The Heavenly Knights
Silesse is, in general, a neutral country; during the game, it does not serve as a power, but a battlefield, suffering its own civil war rather than taking part in the larger battle. The history of Silesse is sparse, with its characteristics centering on the fact of its foundation being by Crusader Ced: as such, it is principally peaceful. The martial strength attributed to the characters from Silesse lies in their association to wind, whether that be through flight (in pegasus and falcon knights) or magic (in wind mages).
Among the pegasus knights, there are four elite warriors who are considered the best in the country. These are the Heavenly Knights: Annand, Pamela, Erinys, and Díthorba. Annand is the captain. Both Pamela and Díthorba express jealousy toward her that borders on hatred— and toward one another and Erinys, as well. The Heavenly Knights, despite being the crown jewels of a country which values peace, are thus shown to be an order constantly at one another’s throats. This may be because of the intense stress that they must have undergone in order to become as skilled as they are, or it may be because of the competitive nature of their stations. Regardless of the origin, however, this tension makes the eventual shattering of the order understandable.
During the events of Genealogy of the Holy War, the conflict in Silesse revolves around an attempted coup d’etat. The queen of the country, Lahna, is not of Silessean royal blood, having married into the royal family, and was therefore seen as not capable of holding the throne after her husband passed. Her son, Lewyn, was meant to take the throne, but his uncles, Lahna’s brothers-in-law, saw him as weak, and together they attempted to take the throne. Díthorba held these views as well, stating in her Heroes lines that she believes Lahna “invited crisis to Silesse”.
The coup was eventually settled by Sigurd’s army, and both of Lewyn’s uncles were killed, along with Díthorba and Pamela.
Motivation and Morality
In the context of the political situation in Silesse, it becomes easy to discern Díthorba’s motivations, although her morality is still gray at best. Unlike her counterpart Pamela, who fights in the name of her own lust for power, Díthorba seems to have some desire to see her country changed for the better. When speaking on her hopes in Heroes, she remarks that her two greatest wishes are to see her country thriving and her daughter happy.
Díthorba does express a desire to become the captain of the Heavenly Knights, actively competing with Annand and Pamela while dismissing Erinys as an “amateur”. She is consistently portrayed as ambitious and proud, and only seems to question herself when she is defeated and killed: unlike Pamela, who is proud to the end, Díthorba’s dying line is “What have I done?”, implying at least a measure of self-awareness. Extrapolating from this quote, it may be assumed that Díthorba genuinely did want what was best for Silesse, and it is only upon seeing her own pride disproven, her arrogance torn open and her weakness exposed, that she recognizes the reality of things. In this we see the keystone of her moral code revealed: to seek strength and success both in herself and in her country.
Ambition alone does not make a villain. In different circumstances, Díthorba may have been a great servant to a better cause. Her desire for power, though a factor in her choices, is peripheral to her actions in the civil war. Serving Myos does not actually further her in the Heavenly Knights. By shattering Silesse, she does stand a chance of becoming the new commander, but the order as an order does not exist thanks to the civil war; therefore, she cannot be acting in her own self-interest. She provides a contrast to Pamela in this respect.
Despite this, Díthorba is by no means a good person. She may be serving a cause that she believes to be right, but her methods are terrible, and she is not an honorable knight, threatening extreme violence to Erinys when confronted and failing to show her basic respect. Though from her own viewpoint she is doing the best thing for Silesse, she does not present her side of the conflict to her enemies— although, again, since the enemy she has dialogue with is Erinys, this may be due to the deep antipathy that the Heavenly Knights hold for one another. It is next to impossible to judge Díthorba’s morality from the player’s perspective. She is shown through a lens that does not allow her to be good.
Relationships, Attachments, & Misha
Díthorba has very few attachments. Her only known associates at the time of her death are the Heavenly Knights, who— as stated above— do not act as friends or even allies. This is likely why she is defined as a traitor: although she may have technically been “allied” with the Heavenly Knights, they provided no reason for her to consider them her friends. Her duty was never to the other Knights, but to Silesse, and she did attempt to fulfill it in her own way.
The only loving attachment Díthorba has is found in her daughter, Misha. She never mentions her in her battle quotes— again, this is an issue not with her character but with her framing as an enemy— but does mention her in Heroes, as referenced above. Misha, who is a playable character in the intermediary game, Thracia 776, references Díthorba not only in her quotes but in her personality. Misha expresses great affection for her mother, and resembles her in being a pegasus knight. When she is captured, it is said that “The Pegasus Knights of Silesse value honor above all,” further shining a light on not only Misha’s but Díthorba’s actions.
Furthermore, Misha is serious and proud, similar to her mother, but is presented as a hero, not a villain. Although her morality is also questionable, her cause (feeding the orphans of Silesse) is unequivocally good. Misha fights in a war she knows is wrong in order to save innocents, and when her actions lead her own soldiers to their deaths, her honor demands that she die with them. Like Díthorba, she is complex, and they seem to be very similar in many respects; the difference between them is that in Thracia 776, Misha does not have to be your enemy. The picture this retroactively paints of Díthorba is a tragic one. A person with a cause she thought to be just, fighting on the side of someone she thinks to be the best choice for her country, never given the chance to see the truth of it— Díthorba is not a villain, but a flawed hero whose heroism only exists in her own warped view of the world.
To redirect back to the relationship itself, Misha’s unquestioned love for her mother (and the same affection from Díthorba in Heroes) provides a softer facet to the broken image we receive. It can be assumed that Díthorba treated her daughter with love and kindness, and fights for her future as much as for Silesse, but we are never allowed to see any of Díthorba’s warmth. In including this detail, Sigurd’s action of killing Díthorba— thus orphaning Misha— becomes a tragedy, not a victory.
Conclusion
Díthorba will always be an incomplete personality. General ideas may be extrapolated about her, but she is a casualty of perspective, unable to be shown in her entirety simply because Sigurd’s army does not have the luxury of coming to understand her. However, enough of her is revealed that her relative honor becomes painfully apparent. In different circumstances, or in a different story, she could easily have been something more than just more meat for the Sigurd grinder.
Also, she’s a lesbian, because I say so. Thanks for reading!
#my writing#fe4#genealogy of the holy war#fire emblem#feh#i do what i want#dithorba#silesse#pegasus knight#she is so important. you dont understand#fe
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FEH Book V, Chapter 11: Deceit
Part 1: Desolation
MID_SCENARIO_OPENING:
Reghin: Ur...rrgh...
FighterAX_M: ...cess Reginn! Princess Reginn!
Reghin: Hmm? ...Wh-where are we?! What happened?
Sharon: We're at the Emblian imperial villa. You were struck unconscious and have been asleep for days… I'm so happy to see you awake! I was so worried about you!
Reghin: I-I'm sorry. I feel all right now! Wait—I've been asleep?! I have to go after my brothers!
Sharon: No, wait, Princess Reginn! You still need to rest. You shouldn't be up and moving yet! Besides, my brother and the others are following up on what your brothers are doing!
Alfons: Ah! We've just returned! ...I see Princess Reginn has returned to us as well.
Sharon: Oh! Welcome back!
Reghin: Can you tell me anything about the situation with Niðavellir, or my brothers?
Alfons: The truth is...we have no answers yet. But when you feel up to it, I do hope you will join us as we venture back into Niðavellir.
Reghin: Niðavellir...
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_BEGIN:
Reghin: *gasp* Wh-what happened here? The capital is a smoking ruin!
Sharon: There are bodies everywhere… H-how awful!
FighterAX_M: Is that you...Princess Reginn? H-have you returned?
Reghin: Yes, I'm here. Can you tell me what happened?
FighterAX_M: It was...a monster. A ghastly thing I've never seen before in all my life attacked as if from nowhere… Please... Princess Reginn… You must...save Niðavellir.
Reghin: H-hey! Stay with me! ...Stay with me! … I don't understand. Who could have done such a terr—
BATTLE_STING
FighterAX_M: GRAAAGHH!
Sharon: What is that?!
Fafnir2: RRRAAAAHHH!
Alfons: The monster—it's back!
Anna: It could destroy all of Niðavellir! Not even the capital was safe...
Reghin: Wait... Brother? That… That's Fáfnir!
Sharon: What?! How is that possible?
Reghin: What happened to you, Fáfnir? Brother, please!
Sharon: Wait—don't get too close, Princess Reginn! He's dangerous!
Alfons: Oh no! Princess Reginn!
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_END:
Fafnir2: Unngh...
Reghin: Fáfnir! Get a hold of yourself! It's me, Reginn—your sister!
Fafnir2: Re...ginn?
Otr: GET AWAY FROM HIM!
BATTLE_STING
Reghin: Ó-Ótr?!
---
Part 2: Nowhere Left
MID_SCENARIO_OPENING:
Otr: You've come to kill him, admit it! TRAITOR! Please, Brother, do as you please. You are king, after all. I will handle this rabble.
Fafnir2: Urrgh... Uuwagh!
Reghin: Fáfnir, no! Wait! Why, Ótr? Why aren't you trying to stop him?!
Alfons: Explain this, Ótr! What has become of Fáfnir? What did this?!
Otr: This is one of the gifts of the Crown of the Dvergar. It possesses any who wear it—any who it judges unworthy. The crown makes a ruin of their mind and body, protecting the kingdom from would-be usurpers. That fact is what allowed the royal family to rule for generation after generation.
Reghin: Y-you knew this would happen?! Why didn't you stop it?!
Otr: Stop it? ...Why would I? Without the Crown of the Dvergar, my beloved brother might have regained control of his mind. And then...then he might remember where he came from! He'd seek out the summoner for help, and—
Sharon: How does this have anything to do with [Summoner]?!
Alfons: ...No. It can't be! But if— Hmm… Aha. I see... Then Fáfnir is—
Otr: He was summoned during one of Eitri's experiments.
Reghin: Fáfnir is...from another world?! Like...a Hero?
Otr: My brother is everything to me, you see. I cannot live without him! And yet...he still searches for the home he should have forgotten long ago… I hope to make something clear to him. No matter what he does, he has no other place to go. He is already home—with me.
Anna: What are you talking about?! He has to get back to his world as soon as possible! Let us help!
Otr: ...Have you not been listening? Fáfnir is not going anywhere! Look for yourself! He's finally forgotten about those things that matter so little. Like where he's from—and who you are, Reginn. Isn't that wonderful?! Finally, I am what matters, and I alone!
Reghin: Ótr, no...
Otr: Heh heh heh haahhh… Ah, but I mustn't let my guard down just yet… First, I need to make sure everyone but me—you all, that is—is dead. Of course you understand that I cannot rest easy while the summoner still lives. I have no need of a weapon that can destroy gates if I destroy the source of the gates themselves!
Alfons: ...It seems the time for talk has passed. Princess Reginn, are you prepared for what comes next?
Reghin: ...I'm ready!
Alfons: Let's go, [Summoner]!
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_END:
Otr: Urgh... Not done...yet. I can...still fight!
---
Part 3: Fallen Noble
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_BEGIN:
Constanze: Though House Nuvelle has fallen, it is still every noble's duty to provide for the commonfolk.
---
Part 4: Ashen Valiant
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_BEGIN:
Euris: I don't even know much about where I come from—or why I have this Crest.
---
Part 5: Everything, Lost
MID_SCENARIO_OPENING:
Otr: Damn it... This is it, then...
Reghin: W-wait! Or Ótr will die!_
Alfons: Step away from him, Princess Reginn...
Reghin: No! I won't let you kill him! Just...give me time to talk to him!
Otr: Reginn...
Reghin: Give Gramr to me, Ótr! There's still time. We can return Fáfnir to normal, and the three of us can live together again… Don't you...want that?
Otr: Reginn… Heh... Haha— *cough* You really do not understand, do you... Hahahaha...
Reghin: What are you talking about?
Otr: It doesn't matter what you do now, I'm going to die here—so I might as well let you in on a little secret… I killed your parents.
Reghin: Wh-what?! But they— They were your parents too!
Otr: No. I simply let you and Fáfnir assume, as you were happy to do... You are no family of mine.
Reghin: I... I don't...understand.
Otr: My parents lived inside the walls of Niðavellir's castle. My father lived as a distant relative of the king. Only...the truth was, he was nothing more than a commoner with a face the nobles found pleasant. A face, they thought, that looked so much like thiers. The royals were eager to claim him as their own... The sheer arrogance… Laughable, isn't it? So, I was born and raised in the castle. One night, my parents opened the rear gate for some new visitors… They told me to show them how to find the king without being noticed. For me, it was literal child's play. I did as I was told without question.
Alfons: Then...that means, Niðavellir's coup was—
Otr: My parents were used by the people who wanted to kill the royal family… I'm sure they told my father they would make him king. It only took an instant for the hall to be awash with blood. I had no idea what was happening. I was confused, but I knew it was dangerous to stay where I stood… In the commotion, I took the king and queen's crying baby from the cradle and ran away. ...That baby was you.
Sharon: So, Princess Reginn has always been a princess of Niðavellir, from the very start?!
Reghin: That...that can't be true. I don't believe it.
Otr: Why would I lie? You were able to enter the Tower of Niðavellir. What more proof do you need? The gates there never opened for either of us.
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_BEGIN: $WmMPID_アルフォンス,ch00_01_
Alfons: Take Gramr from him now, Princess Reginn.
Reghin: What? Now?
Alfons: Yes. Fáfnir's rampage has already destroyed much of the kingdom! Recovery from this disaster will take a long time as it is. With you, their princess, returned, the people will have something to rally around—to hope for. Then the work of rebuilding can truly begin. But first, Fáfnir has to be stopped. And you have to be the one to do it. If you defeat him, no one will argue your right to the throne.
Reghin: You want...me? To defeat...Fáfnir?
Otr: No! You can't! I won't allow it! You were never anything more than a sniveling crybaby! ...I hate you! You get everything I ever wanted, all without ever lifting a finger! And now... Now you want to take my brother from me too?!
Reghin: Ótr…
Otr: Just go! Leave us! You and all your little friends. Leave this kingdom now!
MID_SCENARIO_MAP_END:
Otr: Just...go...
Alfons: We will be taking Gramr from you now, Ótr.
Otr: Damn it... Why...why don't you just...kill me already?!
Reghin: Ótr, don't say such—
Otr: tried, you know... To get rid of you... All this time. I wanted to kill you. Because of you...I've only known...pain and suffering… I lost my mother and father...was chased out of the castle...forced to dig through garbage to survive… But then...then Fáfnir came… And he saved me… I knew that...if he was king...I could be happy...and I would never have to worry again… And yet you managed to ruin even that... Again, you take everything from me… Everything but...but... Hngh! B-Brother?! ...Brother, where are you?
Reghin: Ótr, wait! Don't— _
Otr: STAY AWAY FROM ME! I won't let you take my brother from me!
Reghin: ...Ótr. ...You were my brother too, Ótr. You were always so kind and did so much... I always admired that. I loved you for that...
Otr: ...
MID_SCENARIO_ENDING:
Fafnir2: Unnnghh... Aaa-AARRGH...
Otr: Bro...ther... I am so glad you've come… I promise... to never leave you. Just... Hold me close… Like when...we were younger...
Fafnir2: Ghhnngk... Auogh… AAA-AAUUOOOGH!
BATTLE_STING
Otr: ...Urk! Bro...thh-hhh… … ...
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Oh my goshhh!!! Loyalty is frigging amazing!!!! That fic is so beautiful.. I just... there's no words, man. What happens next? How do they plot? Does he kill Odin and Thor? Can you please tag me when you write the spin off (not to be rude but how long will that take? I am just soooo excited) ❤❤
Gather round children! I am not going to write any story of how Loki’s story matches up with the MCU, and while the sequel I’ve plotted will feature bits of this, it will really only hint at what happened to Loki. So, because I think everyone deserves an explanation, here is how Loyalty!Loki progressed through the movies.
Loyalty post-story explanation:
The plot continues up to Thor as you’d imagine.
Brilliant actor that he would be, Loki pretends to be absolutely fine with all slights and fakes that he has gotten over his lost love. Because no one in his family pays attention to him, no one at court notices anything is wrong with Loki or that it’s odd that he got over losing his soulmate so quickly.
Loki spends more and more time in the lower districts of Asgard, doing everything in his power to support the people and keep (Y/n)’s memory alive.
The people loved her, were loyal to her, and still are. Naturally, Loki receives much of this loyalty through his relationship with (Y/n) and more importantly through his insistence on keeping her memory alive.
All the while, Loki is plotting Thor and Odin’s demise. He knows he wants it to be at the hands of the Frost Giants who killed (Y/n), and it’s Narfi who gives him the chance.
Now on the Council for himself, Narfi is ordered to plan Thor’s coronation, and he and Loki plan out how the Frost Giants might ruin his big day.
They use (Y/n)’s old family home for their preparations. Most nobles consider the outer rim of fishers near (Y/n)’s childhood to be insignificant. So as long as Heimdall doesn’t watch Loki enter the house or know he’s going there, no one cares to look at what’s happening in (Y/n)’s old room.
Thor movie
On the day of the coronation, Loki has doubts. He knows this is not what (Y/n) would want him to become, and he questions whether they should follow through.
Then, one last time, Thor slights him before the coronation by talking about Loki’s conquests as though they were his own and by mentioning the attack by the Frost Giants as if it were a success even though (Y/n) died.
(Insert the deleted scene of Thor and Loki together waiting to enter the throne room)
Loki makes up his mind then and there that Thor must lose everything, as he once did.
The Frost Giants come and Thor shows his true colors.
He demands a raid on Jotunheim, and though Loki publicly denies it, he is seething inside.
Thor demanded justice for a stupid ceremony and thought that was worthy of Laufey’s head, but Laufey killing (Y/n) wasn’t even worth a second thought to Thor.
After Jotunheim, even Odin can’t deny what Thor has done, and Loki relishes watching Thor cast away from everything he’s ever known.
In the vaults beneath Asgard, Loki argues with Odin on the steps only for Odin to tell him the reason Frost Giant’s don’t affect him is because he is one.
Loki watches Odin collapse and the guards take him away, leaving Loki to think.
Loki is horrified. This whole time he’s been on a quest of vengeance against the Frost Giants, and he is one of the monsters who killed (Y/n).
He determines that his best plan would be to kill them all, take Thor and Odin’s life himself.
He sends the Destroyer for Thor and is only incensed more when Thor appeals to him for mercy for Midgard. After everything, Thor still doesn’t understand why Loki is in a rage.
The fight happens as it did, and Thor destroys the Bifrost to save whatever is left of Jotunheim.
Odin is holding Thor who is holding the spear with Loki.
Loki: “Vengeance, that’s all I wanted for her, but you wouldn’t even give her dignity.”
Thor looks confused for a moment before he realizes who Loki’s talking about.
Odin just stares on emotionless as always.
Loki: “We’ll see.”
Loki falls.
Between movies
Loki falls to Thanos.
Loki is worried over what Thanos’ plans to do, to destroy half the known universe.
He wouldn’t mind watching half of Asgard burn or all of Jotunheim or even parts of Midgard which Thor had come to care about, but he knows that isn’t what (Y/n) would have wanted, that many innocents would die in the crossfire, that some of those may even be his own, his real, family.
Using the mind stone, Thanos finds the rage and anger within Loki, and there’s a great deal of it after millennia of being slighted by his father and brother and pitied by his mother, and after a century of suffering the loss of the only person he ever loved.
Thanos exploits this and draws it out, sending the mind-controlled Loki to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract for him.
Avengers movie
Everything happens as made, save that one conversation between Thor and Loki.
Thor: “I thought you dead.”
Loki: “Did you mourn?”
Thor: “We all did. Our father...”
Loki: “Your father. He did tell you my true parentage did he not?”
Thor: “We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?”
Loki: “I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. You speak of togetherness because every time you needed me I was there, but every time I needed you I was alone. I remember studying magic, alone. I remember defending myself against the Warriors Three, alone. I remember standing up to Father, alone. I remember being punished for our tricks, alone.”
Loki: “I was alone until (Y/n) came, and then you took her from me. You made me alone again. Not just for being the cause of her death, but for not caring that you caused it at all. I was back where I began. I mourned her, alone. And when I finally came out of my chambers, I sat, alone, robbed of the only real family I ever knew. And you’re surprised that after millennia of suffering your destruction, I plotted vengeance alone?”
Thor: The Dark World
Loki faces Odin’s punishment for Midgard alone.
He rots in the dungeon until someone tells him Frigga has been killed.
Loki wants to hate her like he hates the rest of them. She was never a good mother. She clearly preferred Thor and pitied Loki. She let Odin run rampant over Asgard and his sons, and she never once defended Loki.
But Loki can’t bring himself to hate her because: for one at least she tried, but more importantly she gave him (Y/n).
Loki goes with Thor because if he can’t avenge (Y/n) then at least he can avenge his mother.
He watches Thor’s love for Jane and can’t decide if he despises it or not. He wants desperately, to watch Thor suffer; but he isn’t sure if that is how. His pain is the sort of pain he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy, and his worst enemy was his brother.
In the ship, they talk about it.
Loki: “The only woman who’s love you prize will be snatched from you.”
Thor: “And will that satisfy you brother?”
Loki: “No, but perhaps in a few years, when I get to watch you become me; perhaps that will satisfy me.”
Thor: “This was all about (Y/n)?”
Loki: “That feeling you have for Jane, that love; imagine if it were the only love you’d ever felt. Imagine if Odin despised you and Mother ignored your suffering. Imagine if I spent my life beating you into submission. Imagine if the Warriors Three and all your friends didn’t care about you. And imagine if the Nine Realms never noticed you existed. Imagine the only person you love being the only person who loved you, then imagine my arrogance, after years of cruelty and incompetence, finally ripped it away.”
Loki retreats and sits back down. Loki: “It was always about her. It will always be about her.”
Between Movies
Loki avenges his mother and fakes his own death to rule Asgard as the King they always deserved.
He puts the people first, shares his wealth and power, he rules with a firm, justice hand and doesn’t play favorites like his father.
The people all begin to realize that it isn’t Odin, that Loki has replaced him, when Loki orders a giant statue to his soulmate built in front of his extension to the palace.
No one says anything. They prefer this happy peaceful life Loki’s given them. It’s the life Frigga promised they would get with soulmates, but the life Odin was too warlike to let anyone actually have.
Thor: The Dark World
The movies plot passes pretty much the same, but Loki’s character is more in keeping with his development and style. It isn’t the sort of sniveling, whiny, weak creation Taika came up with.
Loki comes at the end of the movie, not to help Thor, but because he realized Thor was going to have it out with Hel on Asgard and put the people in grave danger, including his real family.
He arrives and sees Delling and Dysis helping their daughters and grandchildren onto the ship he brought.
Loki: “Where are the others?”
Delling, heartbroken: “Gone. They died with the army.”
Loki, discouraged: “And Narfi?”
Delling just shakes his head.
Loki roars out into the battle and ends up fighting side by side with Thor and the Valkyrie.
As he brings about Ragnarok, Loki takes the Tesseract. He knows that even the blast of Ragnarok won’t destroy the Space Gem, and he can’t very well leave it floating in space for Thanos to just casually pick up, so he determines to find somewhere to hide it forever.
As the battle rages on between Surtur and Hel, Loki heads for the Royal Family’s tomb and takes (Y/n)’s crypt, using the Tesseract to port it onto the ship. Everything else is going to go up in flames, and Loki refuses to let that be her legacy.
The end of the movie, onboard the ship, Thor throws a thing at Loki to prove he isn’t there.
Loki catches it. Loki: “I’m here, brother.”
Loki turns and leaves the room, finding (Y/n)’s family and sitting with them. He’s given up vengeance on Thor because he’s finally realized (Y/n) died to save his brother, not so Loki could kill him later. But he knows now that this is his real family.
Thor is off to the side, watching them. This time he’s the one standing alone.
Seeing their interactions, their mourning Narfi and his brothers, their talking with Loki, Thor realizes that Loki was right. They never really treated him like family
He realizes that Odin, with his help, robbed Loki of everything. A normal family, a happy life, his one true love. They even took the family he made for himself.
Thor decides to leave Loki in peace with his family and leave on his own.
Avengers: Infinity War
Loki watches Thanos ready to kill Thor and realizes what Thanos means by half. He’s going to kill half of each group, and that means half of the sons of Odin.
Loki knows that Thor with his Avengers stands a better chance than Loki, and if Thor dies Thanos may well succeed.
More importantly to Loki, if Thor dies, then (Y/n) died in vain.
Loki rushes Thanos and dies so that he is the half of the sons of Odin that Thanos kills. He dies for Thor the same way (Y/n) did.
The rest of the movie happens.
Avengers: Endgame
Finally understanding what Loki felt, finally understanding what it’s like to lose everything, Thor picks up Loki’s quest for vengeance and takes off Thanos’ head.
Then, with no real purpose, Thor mourns, alone, like his brother did.
Movie goes as planned mostly.
When Hulk snaps, he doesn’t just bring back the half of humanity that Thanos snapped out of existence. Thanos had been roaming the galaxy slaughtering half of every inhabited world he encountered, and Hulk (knowing this from watching on the ship) thinks of them too and brings back the millions who died before the snap.
Asgard’s army was killed by Hel before Thanos ever touched them, but Loki is brought back in space and roars into battle to help protect his family.
When the war is finally won, Loki watches Cap disassemble the infinity gauntlet with envy.
The rest of the Avengers are wary that he will try to steal it, but Thor knows what he’s thinking.
Thor: “Perhaps the soul stone might bring her back.”
Loki: “Let her rest brother. I have kept her alive through death for far too long. She deserves peace.”
Loki leaves. No one knows where he’s gone, and no one ever sees him again.
Loki returns to the wreckage, retrieves (Y/n)’s crypt and disappears forever.
I plotted this out when I plotted out the series, because I believe you have to know the whole story to write a story well.
But as you can see, there are huge chunks where the story just overlaps with the movies, so I didn’t think it would make for very good reading.
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