#( it was a big big world but we thought we were bigger ‣ v. modern )
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( ❛ ╾ @bonmal )
"Let me buy you a drink." Presley offered with a small smile towards him. Memphis had brought him - friends from the country music industy. Presley wouldn't complain. Not when he was the prettiest person she'd ever laid eyes on. "What's your poison?" Her ordering wasn't legal, nor would be serving any of them - but money spoke louder than laws sometimes.
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Hi! I hope you're not getting sick of my requests... v.v if I'm bombarding you too much please ignore this!! Otherwise, I'd ask for the other Halloween prompt: 9 and K with Zoro (it just fits so well!!) or Thatch please? :) Have a great day! 😘
I had fun with this one, I was hoping I could make this a little longer but.
Zoro x GN Reader
MODERN AU
Prompt: Lost in the middle of nowhere
SFW
HORROR THEMES
Word Count: 712
“Your so stubborn.” You whispered as you clutched his hand tighter, giving it a death grip as you heard the leaves crunch under your feet, walking deeper into the forest, wanting it to be over, wanting to see a light through the thick trees, a house, a car, a road sign, anything.
“Look, it’s not my fault my phone died, you didn't charge yours before coming out either,” Zoro said with a snort as he stepped over a log, helping you to jump up and back down, a tree that had fallen somehow, your racing thoughts paused a moment to consider the possibilities of what had knocked it over so flawlessly.
You were shaken out of your musings as Zoro let out a sigh and gently pulled your hand, lagging behind as you stared around the seeping darkness. When you and Zoro had first set out the sun was gracing the world, leaning into early evening, shedding its brilliant golds for tinged pinks, but still, you had light.
Now the sky was inky, the last slither of blues far in the distance. At least your eyes had adjusted enough to get your bearings a little bit, see enough of the leafy forest floor to know if you were about to trip on something and eat ground.
Silence surrounded you, eerie and still out here in the middle of nowhere, you’d have expected the sounds of animals, the flapping of birds returning to their nests, and the calls of other creatures starting their evening hunt. All that could be heard was your feet, twigs snapping underfoot, and the sound of your increasingly frightened breathing.
“It’s alright.” Zoro’s voice cut through the chill air and brought you back, blinking you looked at him, able to make out his face, he gave you a reassuring smile. “If we don’t make it to shitheads' party they’ll look for us and we can’t be too far off.” He mumbled and kicked a stone, hearing it ruffle the crinkled and fallen leaves.
“Yeah, your right.” You said with another sigh and jumped over a few bigger stones, making sure your hand never slipped from his strong grip.
No phones, no watch, no concept of time other than the night got colder and colder, darker and darker, if you didn't have Zoro you would have laid down on the cold wet ground and sobbed into your hands but with him here you could cling to hope, he might have gotten you lost but he was calm and knew how to survive.
You knew your friends wouldn’t let you down though, they were more than likely already looking for you.
–
Your feet hurt, they were soaked from trudging through the cold wet grass, falling into puddles that lay in wait, all small traps that couldn’t be detected, the only light you had from the moon was now selfishly hidden by the thick branches and leaves from the tree’s above.
Another splosh and another freezing cold jolt as you landed in something deeper than just a puddle, up to your knee this time, Zoro pulled you out and held you close to his chest, neither of you retaining warmth as your ill-fated trek marched on.
“Your shivering.” He mumbled, feeling your icy fingertips, you just nodded and then yelped when he lifted you into his arms, prompting you to wrap your arms around his neck as he carried you.
The body heat helped you feel a little less scared, a little less chilled to the bone. You tried not to let your eyes close, the temptation to nap in his big strong arms was almost overwhelming. As you lost the battle with keeping your eyes open there was a bright shining light, right across your face, you moaned and raised a hand to shield your face.
A flashlight, maybe this was one of your friends! You felt Zoro keep you clutched to his chest, the voices that called for you weren’t ones you knew, with no warmth in their tones, and as you squinted past the light you noticed something in the person's hand.
“I'm going to put you down and I want you to run” Zoro whispered in your ear as your eyes focused on just what the object was…
#zoro#zoro op x you#zoro op x reader#zoro op x yn#zoro x reader#zoro x you#zoro x yn#zoro x y/n#one piece x reader#one piece reader insert#one piece x you#sfw#gender neutral reader#horror themes#halloween#spooky
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spring gale
Summary: Spring means new beginnings but a gale (a storm more like?) in the name of Shinazugawa Sanemi blows your plans out and throw your once peaceful life into the winds.
Pairings: Shinazugawa Sanemi x Fem!Reader // future Shinazugawa Genya x SisterFigure!Reader
A/N: this,,, is v impromptu. i literally got out of my bed bc it has been bugging me with how little sanemi fanfics there are, esp modern aus. tbh, there have been plenty of fics brewing in my mind and tell me if there’s any you’d be interested in and maybe i will return from my hiatus hah:
- zhongli modern au: adepti babies being your adopted children and navigating parenthood
- unknown pairing as of now but travelers being your kids so transporting yourself into the world to find them after 500+ years of not returning home
- etc involving atsumu, diluc, childe but if you have any requests, feel free to drop it in and maybe i’ll consider them
Warnings: Some cursing (I mean it’s Sanemi lolol)
“Shinazugawa-san?” Sanemi glanced up, his hands continued packing away his things into the bag, an eyebrow raised. You smiled, hands folded over the other in front of you, as you continued to speak after gaining his attention. “When would you be free to do the project?”
He sighed, throwing his bag over his shoulder, while making his way out of the classroom - tone and body language showing his disinterest in the conversation. “We can just do it in class.”
You jogged to get into step next to him, “Well, it is for the bare minimum. I’m sure we can do much better than that.” You observed his side profile to see if any emotion could give way to what he was thinking. You frowned, frustration creeping up on you, “I understand that we’re not each other’s first choice in partners but that’s not an excuse to not do our best.”
“Are grades and studying the only thing in that airhead of yours?” His eyes flit towards yours for a moment before returning its gaze forward. “I don’t fucking have as much free time as you.”
You stopped following him. A bolt of anger and disbelief had your mouth dropping and hands curling into shaking fists. You scoffed, voice raising with each word, “I believe you need this more than me, Shinazugawa-san. Unless you want to continue being a pain in everyone’s ass and eventually not even graduate, then be my guest.”
He swiveled towards you. You flinched reactively. He faltered, face momentarily flitting from anger to surprise back to annoyance the moment his eyes scanned you. One step, two steps. He was in your space, breathing in and out to you, with his strikingly cold eyes and thin eyebrows furrowed. “Say that again, I dare you.”
You closed your eyes before releasing a deep sigh, muscles easing from the hold of your anger. “We don’t have to do it after school or on the weekends if you are that occupied. We can do it before school or during our breaks and even before our clubs start.” You grabbed one of his wrist, turning his palm upwards, shoving the crumpled paper with your number into it while fixating your glare on him throughout. You refuse to back down but you will be the bigger person. Forcing his hand to a close, you narrowed your eyes for good measure while trying to control the smirk from overtaking your face when his frown further deepened in distaste. Taking a step back, your hands returned to the usual folded stance, you forced an amicable smile to replace the smirk - although you have a feeling that he could still see the smirk from how his eye twitched, “Of course, it’s really up to you, Shinazugawa-san.”
Turning on your heel, you headed back to the classroom with your head held high and a full-blown smirk on your face while your peers watched with stolen glances and whispers behind hands or under breaths. The clicking of his tongue echoed in the corridor and in your head all the way back to the classroom.
“Ara, ara, should you really do that (Y/N)-chan?” Shinobu greeted you by your desk, eyes filled with mirth from the free entertainment.
You laughed airily, eyes not meeting hers but focused on clearing the messy table, “I wouldn’t have to if he wasn’t that difficult.”
“Not many survive Sanemi you know?” Shinobu followed you to the student council room. “One must use their life's worth of luck to crawl out from his bad side.”
A bark of a laugh escaped you from her exaggeration. “Shinobu-chan ~ I thought you wanted to get into medicine and not theatrics?”
Her eyes met yours, a smirk tugging on her lips, eyes shifting precariously into ones when she knew something the other party doesn’t and in this case that was you. A shiver ran down your spine. You’ve been in the spot only a few times but still a few too many with most of them ending up jerking your view of the world down a path you’ve never considered. You gulped, hands itching and playing with themselves.
“Did you not hear about how he got into a fight with some university boys down at the park?” She leaped into your space, voice dropping into a whisper in your ear yet head tilted to ensure a front seat view to your reaction. “He came out with a couple of scratches and bruises but…” Her small hands encircled your upper arm. Your eyes dropping to them before returning to her face - surprised to witness your shock colouring your face white as it was reflected in those big eyes of hers. “The boys said to be much bigger than he is, had to go to the hospital.” Her smile bordering on unhinged glee, she drawled, “They were so scared they didn’t sue him.”
She immediately returned to her spot beside you, a foot away, while her shoulders and arms lifted in a form of a shrug nonchalantly. “Apparently, when questioned, the boys said something about them being the ones out of line and they have worked things out.”
Being close friends with Shinobu and Mitsuri meant that you were privy to the latest gossip and news but you always took it with a grain of salt seeing firsthand how some things were purposefully voided or added for the enjoyment of teenagers. You smiled unsurely, “that’s just a rumour Shinobu-chan.”
She pouted, invisible to those who didn't know her well enough or who weren’t keen enough, “You can ask Akio. He was a witness.”
Your eyes widened before blinking in incredulity. “What.”
She giggled, hand raising in a wave before dashing down the corridor. “Do share with me if he tells you more!”
It took you a few seconds to regain your bearings, even a shake of your head to rid the mental image of Sanemi punching away on people bigger than him for his amusement. He was by no means a small person shown clearly with the muscles seen even through the school uniform - a testament to his achievements as one of the greatest fighters in the taekwondo club despite his lacklustre participation of actually attending said club practices - but there were certainly bigger and taller people in your school, much less university.
“Hashimoto-san!” You snapped out of your musings.
“Tanaka-san.” You greeted back. The black haired guy chuckled, “I told you to call me by my first name. After all, we’ve been working together for 3 years. Unless, you don’t see me as a friend? Damn, it must hurt to only be seen as a student council partner even after winning the presidential election together.”
“Stop being so dramatic.” You huffed, plopping down into the chair and hands gravitating towards the papers on the table before being stopped by a hand on your wrist. Raising an eyebrow, he returned the gesture indicating there’s something he was expecting you to tell him. He released the grasp on your hand the moment you were falling back onto the back support of the chair with a sigh. “How may I help you Akio?”
“On the way here, I heard an interesting piece of news.” He sat sideways on the table, the leg on the table folded over the leg still standing. You folded your arms over your chest and hummed. “You and Shinazugawa were fighting?”
“It was just a talk that got a bit heated. I was trying to get a hold on him so we can do our project for literature together.”
Akio’s eyebrows shot up and disappeared under his bangs. “Wow, what luck. First, he somehow got into your class through that stupid maths shit and now you have to deal with him.” He smiled in assurance, eyes crinkling close and a hand over his heart. “Be careful but if anything happens, I’m here. I’ll come running to save my beloved president.”
You mouthed a wow. Silence blanketed the both of you as you nod in understanding - lips trying to contain the smiles and laughs - as he continued to express his devotion through his hand gestures - hand flying to point at you before returning to over his chest, patting it, then forming into a prayer of sorts - all the while mouthing his loyalty to you.
With a shake of your head and hands indicating him to leave as you pulled yourself closer to your table, “Thanks but I doubt I need it.”
Instead, he tilted his head backwards and narrowed his eyes on the ceiling. “If you see what I saw, I wouldn’t put too much faith in him.”
Blood freezes over while questions overwhelm your mind. You gulped and licked your lips to get rid of the sudden dryness, “And what exactly are they?”
“He didn’t stop beating them up or screaming at them even when they were down. Three policemen had to pry him off and restrain him.”
Your heart dropped.
#sanemi#sanemi shinaguzawa#sanemi x reader#sanemi imagines#shinazugawa sanemi#shinazugawa sanemi x reader#shinazugawa sanemi imagines#demon slayer x reader#demon slayer imagines#kimentsu no yaiba#kimetsu no yaiba x reader#kimetsu no yaiba imagines#spring gale
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So Street Fighter 6 was recently announced, and it appears they're going for a more realistic artstyle this time around. So I was wondering if you had any thoughts about Stree Fighter's artstyles/ visual design?
I guess they're using the RE engine for a Street Fighter game? I mean, I loved how RE: Village looked, but there's a pretty big world of difference between the art styles for Resident Evil and Street Fighter, the contrast may only make the SF designs look even more ridiculous. Ryu looks so fucking funny in the trailer that I'm dying to see what goddamn monstrosities they are going to make out of characters like Zangief or Blanka or Bison.
I definitely didn't have a super great impression at first for this. The reactions to this trailer seem to be mostly mixed, with a lot of complaints regarding that cheap-as-shit NFT-looking logo, and most praise being towards Ryu's depiction indicating that they're finally progressing his character past the IV/V state he was in. I disliked Luke and I still do, but I dislike his design a lot less in this new trailer, if only because he no longer looks like Logan Paul as much and they trimmed down a lot of the garish nonsense of his V design, now he just looks like an average fighting game white dude. Now that I've had some time to think about the trailer a bit more, I think my overall impression is
"I get what they're going for. I'm not a fan of what that is, but I get it, and if nothing else I appreciate that the series has a clear vision now of where it wants to go and is taking steps to modernize itself."
I think what Street Fighter 6 is doing, is sort of what the franchise did when it first launched the SF3 line-up, specifically in the contrast between the Alpha games and Street Fighter III: New Generation. The Alpha series retooled the series’ aesthetic and characters to be much more cartoony and expressive, added plenty of new characters (and retooled existing ones), but without moving the timeline past SF2 or removing central characters like Ryu, Chun-Li and Bison from their respective roles, playing it slightly safe by just giving people what they liked from prior installments, but bigger and better. By contrast, SF3 came out of the gate with a different intent. It’s graphics were more elaborate, it’s characters slimmer, younger, more modern when compared to the World Warriors and Alpha characters. It modernized the series with a 90s urban aesthetic and a hip-hop inspired soundtrack, and it scrapped all familiar faces sans Ryu and Ken, who were now older and no longer the “face” of the series.
And although this tends to go unnoticed nowadays to people unfamiliar with the SF3 series outside of Third Strike (or, to be more blunt, that EVO moment), SF3 was really, really not that popular, partially because of said decisions turning off established fans and/or new ones alike, and it would take quite a while for Third Strike (and Third Strike only, nobody cares about the other titles and, yeah they are very crude to play, by comparison) to be vindicated. This is why it isn’t particularly surprising that SFIV and SFV both took an approach that was much, much more in line with the Alpha series in playing it safer, with the only elements from SF3 carrying over to IV initially being some of it’s most popular characters like Ibuki, Makoto, and Dudley. SFV was the one to bridge that gap between IV and SF3 and include characters like Alex, Oro and Gill in the blend, not with any particular importance, but as part of the “greatest hits” approach and a reminder that, although it seemed that way for over a decade, SF3 has not been forgotten.
(Art on the right by WZ)
And now we get to SF6, which right off the bat establishes that, yes, MMA dudebro Luke really is gonna the next protagonist (at least in theory), and more importantly, it seems that are finally doing the one thing with Ryu that fans have begged them to do forever now, which was to give him a beard and make him hotter finally let him grow out of his classic design a little and ascend to the position of Boss. Ryu looms large in the trailer with hardly a single gesture, looking as big and imposing compared to Luke, as Sagat or Akuma once did compared to him. The choice to move him away from his gi top and to have him shirtless with slippers also calls to mind the idea of making him more alike the designs for Boss characters like Akuma and Gouken. It’s a decision I’m very happy with because it indicates a willingness to move forward the stories for these characters in a way that IV and V weren’t willing to, as the cast in IV stayed identical to their prior appearences, and most of the changes made in V were superficial changes in costume.
The caveat, of course, is that this shift in tone and artstyle is stated by Capcom themselves to be specifically geared towards the e-sports scene, and everything indicates that, with the focus on Luke and even that shitty logo that looks like what you’d find at a local gym advertising whey protein, the goal is to make Street Fighter more similar to MMA, which is the most popular form of combat sports entertainment and, I’m sorry but that sounds unspeakably boring to me. I’m not a wrestling fan but I’m familiar enough with wrestling to understand why every wrestling fan recoils with disgust when hearing it described with the words “sports entertainment” and I get why, and that’s what kinda what this feels like to me.
I’m not an “esports” fan, I don’t follow any of them, I don’t like MMA in general, and while I don’t mind the idea of Street Fighter dialing down on some of the cartoonier nonsense that’s marked the recent titles and going back to the basics a little, putting a little “Street” back into the Fighter, I’m not exactly optimistic about the series announcing from the get-go a focus on appealing to the MMA and esports consumer base. I’m not gonna call that a bad decision, maybe the series needs that, maybe that’s a consumer base worth focusing on but, again, really not my thing.
I’m not gonna say I dislike what I’ve been shown so far, I think it’s nice that the trailer already shows that they really want to do something different compared to Street Fighter V and IV, and that they are serious about pushing the series forward with an eye to what modern audiences like and want to see. I’m honestly glad that Street Fighter is getting a kind of drastic shake-up at all to maybe deliver surprises that aren’t reliant on character announcements. I really do want to be optimistic for this, and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the upcoming news on this.
(...They really should scrap that logo though)
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Hi Dr Reames, I hope you're well! I think I might have asked this before, so sorry if I'm being obnoxious, but do you think there is very much studying left to be done in regards to Alexander/Macedonia? Looking at the field from the outside, it seems a little bit like all that can be said, has been. Would you recommend studying Alexander specifically as a prospective academic path, or would you advocate pursuing other areas of classics?
The problem with studying ANYthing in the ancient world is always a problem of the sources. Unless there’s new material, then we’re all just doing ring-around-the-rosie with what we have. That doesn’t mean new things can’t be said. I’d point to my own work on Hephaistion, or for that matter, Alexander’s bereavement. I wasn’t looking at anything new, just looking differently at what we already had. As someone who’d done bereavement counseling, Alexander’s mourning of Hephaistion didn’t strike me as particular unusual, except in the amount of money he had and power to have his desires put into practice.
Also, scholarship tends to go through “fads,” like anything else. That is, someone makes a splash with a new approach, one that can be applied more broadly, and suddenly, a lot of people jump on board. That’s not necessarily bad, but it can result in oversaturation. Right now, one of the big fads is “reception studies.” So the rise of new directions in the study of old fields can offer alternative approaches to familiar material.
Another thing that can happen is for old fields to give birth to new ones. E.g, Charles Edson, Harry Dell, and then Nick Hammond all started asking questions about the country that produced Philip and Alexander, instead of writing just about them. Edson’s 1939 dissertation at Harvard, “Five Studies in Macedonian History” widened the lens but things really began to churn in the 60s and 70s. In 1972, Nick Hammond published the first volume in that massive A History of Macedonia, after having done Epiros earlier. He got Griffith to work with him on vol. 2, Griffith writing much of the material on Philip (which is still, btw, a pretty damn good summary of Philip’s reign, if you allow for material discovered since), then Walbank, already well-known as a scholar of Philip V, worked with Hammond on Vol. 3, which is the Hellenistic period.
Macedonian Studies was born, and by 1990, 3 different histories had appeared: a short version by Hammond on Macedonian Institutions called The Macedonian State, Gene Borza’s (still) excellent In the Shadow of Olympus, that goes up to Philip II, and Malcolm Errington’s A History of Macedonia that included ATG and the Hellenistic period. What followed (and was in between) involved numerous articles, then companions and conference proceedings. Alexander (and Philip) were still hot property, but many articles had nothing to do with them. New direction had been found.
Yet notice most of those early scholars were English-speakers. Partly, that owed to where it got started: Edson and Dell were Americans. They trained students who were also Americans. So Bill Greenwalt (Dell’s student) would go into Argead Macedonia with an interest in Illyria (and Thrace) because Dell had the same. There were some Greek scholars, such as Miltiades Hatzopoulos and Argyro Tataki doing a lot with epigraphy, and Manolis Andronikos himself, but the field was dominated by English-speakers for a while.
One of the bigger shifts in the last 20-25 years has been an expansion into other languages, plus the Greeks dominating the archaeology. When you take up high-level scholarship, there’s an assumption that you will read material in languages besides your own. When I got my PhD, aside from the ancient languages, common wisdom dictated I learn German and French.
BUT my NUMBER ONE piece of advice to anybody who wants to do ancient Macedonia today is LEARN MODERN GREEK.
Why? Because, as I said, the Greeks have taken back their own archaeology and most of their reports are in Greek. They’re talking to each other, and most (non-Greek) scholars don’t read modern Greek [that well]. That’s not entirely accidental, and some payback for the colonial dominance of the late 1800s and 1900s. (Elgin Marbles anybody?) The best way to keep out “interference” is to write mostly in a language few other scholars read well. That keeps Macedonian history in Greek hands. I would now advise young scholars that modern Greek is more important than French. Just as, if you really want to do Thracian history, learning Bulgarian and/or Russian might be a good idea.
It’s getting increasingly hard, as scholarship expands, to keep up with all the languages one needs. Current work is being done on Macedonia, as well as Alexander and the Hellenistic world in English, Spanish, Italian, German, modern Greek, and even Russian, and that doesn’t look at the wider world outside Europe (and colonial states). We’ve got a ton of talented young scholars on the continent, while jobs are lacking in many English-speaking countries, meaning students just aren’t going into it. English still remains a major language, largely because Americans and Canadians suck at learning other languages while the Europeans might speak 4-5. But English is becoming less relevant. As a grad student, I couldn’t have guessed I’d need Spanish and Italian more than French.
But LEARN MODERN GREEK, as that’s where the NEW stuff is. I doubt we’ll get much (if anything) new in textual evidence. By contrast, archaeology is rewriting what we thought we knew about north Greece. E.g., Methone now vies with Pithokousai for the earliest Greek script. Think about that a minute. Euboian Greeks and Phoenicians weren’t just hanging around off the coast of Cumai in the late 8th century, they were poking about the Thermaic Gulf, too, interacting with whoever the hell was at Pella before the Macedonians moved in (Bottaians, Paionians, somebody else…?). Who [what people] were buried at Archontiko between 650-450 BCE?? What was happening tradewise between Aiani in Elimeia and Corinth? That, to my mind, is where scholarship is going: or it should be. The Early Iron and Archaic Ages…periods before Macedonia even shows up in the written record with Herodotos.
Sure, I love Alexander, and I write about him a lot here, or Hephaistion, but I’m really an Argead specialist. I’m just as curious about how Alexander I used Persian power, then Persian absence to consolidate his own power and create Macedonia as we know it. When I first got to UNO, the Hellenistic Era was the “happenin’” place, but there are now a number of Macedoniasts doing that. Pat Wheatley (Brian Bosworth’s student) and Charlotte Dunn just (2020) published a new (probably definitive) book on Demetrios Poliorketes for instance (I’ve been waiting to see that for years). And there will always be Yet Another book on Alexander or Philip, but the place that is WIDE OPEN for research is the archaeology of Archaic and Early Iron Age Macedonia. That shit is interesting.
Go to Macedonia. Drive around and visit the museums (not just the big ones in Athens and Thessaloniki, or even Vergina). Go to Veroia, go to Pella, go to Aiani, go to Ioannina, go to Florina. See what’s up there. It’s COOL.
#Macedonian Studies#ancient Macedonia#Macedonian archaeology#Alexander the Great#Philip II of Macedon#ancient Greece#Classics#Classical archaeology#directions in new Macedonian research#asks
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‘Surprise HH Q&A!’ Part 2
Hi guys, happy 2020. Sorry for posting the second part a bit late. Enjoy.
- Sinners in hell can “level up” and that’s very related to the villains of the show
- Viv will look if any company/channel is interested in continuing Hazbin Hotel. If nothing happens, she will look up for every option to tell the story, like a kickstarter.
- Becoming a demon with animal form could be a shock or could be great for a sinner. For example, Angel likes his demon form because of the extra arms and other abilities but Husk, on the other hand, doesn’t get used to being a giant cat.
- Razze and dazzle are goat/dragon demons, they are pets and bodyguards of Charlie who can take a bigger form if she is in danger.
- 3:12:05 advice if you want to be an artist just as a hobby and/or self-thought
- A friend of vivzie recommended her some time ago to not describe how powerful alastor is and leave that as a mystery. So viv decided to be a characteristic of Al to not caring about how powerful he is.
- Viv decided Vaggie to be the one who tells Alastor’s story instead of the radio demon himself because she is a storyteller who takes Alastor’s existence seriously.
- Vivzie have seen the doom guy memes and is ok with them (I think someone of the crew bought her the game as a joke, I dont remember).
- The perfect candidate for Lucifer’s voice actor would be "Weird Al" Yankovic but that’s just a dream of Vivziepop. There is no confirmed voice actor for Lucifer at the moment.
- 3:33:22 What was the most challenging topic of making hazbin? AKA advise about being a good director of an animation project.
- Because Hazbin is an adult show, vivzie doesn’t want children in it unless is for a quick joke. For example there are cannibal children, but their participation is only a visual.
- Sinners cannot have kinds, that’s part of the punishment. Families do not exist for sinners, they do not deserve that. Only Born in hell demons are able to have kids.
- Niffty is 22, she is only tiny
- There is a limbo? That’s spoilers
- The character’s personalities are based on their goals and who they are, not in the tags society puts to them. For example, Charlie could be seen as the typical “Disney princess” but she is the daughter of Lucifer and she wants the hotel to be successful no matter what so she curses and fights if necessary as we saw in the scene with Katie killjoy.
- There is rain and snow in hell, there is a desert zone too
- There are places in hell that look like different periods of time. This happens because when exterminators can’t kill sinners from different eras and they manage to survive long enough, they create their own kingdoms that look similar to how was the world when they were alive (for example there is a western zone, an 10’s zone, and so on).
- Alastor doesn’t like modern stuff, at all. Like the internet or cellphones, he is like “meh” to them. He thinks the 20s was the best decade and the peak of entertainment. For him, nothing can beat the radio and that’s why he hates vox. He thinks television is just another modern device that will never be better than the radio.
- Designing Angel plush was a challenge because his cartoon shape is difficult to do in 3D
- Viv is half Salvadorian but she doesn’t know Spanish.
- Viv would want to make the characters speak a second language in the future, because in the canon Husk can speak 5 languages, nifty Japanese and Alastor a bit of French.
- There is a video of the premiere in LA that we could maybe see someday
- All the huge buildings of hell belong to Lucifer and all of them have the same thematic: as circus and carnival as possible, but the hotel thematic is now a bit changed because it has Alastor influence on it
- When is episode 2 coming out? Vivzie and the crew are looking out the best way to produce it and that could take some time
- Does the static dies when Alastor is being honest or genuine? Viv can’t answer that
- Biblical characters related to Lilith like Adan and Eve are part of the story so talking about them would be a spoiler
- Will the story explore the nine circles of hell? Hazbin takes place in only some locations of hell, not all of them, but vivzie has in mind to create more series in the same universe which means there could be a different story with different characters happening in locations that are not covered by Hazbin. (as an example, helluva boss is about the human world and the imp world, two parts that are not explored by Hazbin).
- Vivzie has thought in creating 3 arcs for hazbin but it depends on the resources and budget the project gets. Each season would have a “satisfying ending”
- 4:59:00 advice on how to do your own show
- Hazbin Hotel was Viv’s Plan B and she cant believe the great success it has got. Her plan A was to do a big musical Broadway’s style about Alice in Wonderland but something happened and that project got canceled.
- There could be new stories happening in the Hazbin universe but with “different flavors” like Helluva
- 5:25:00 how to be a good boss in your projects (a hell of a boss :v )
- They did a giveaway of signed posters, huh…did someone here won one?
- Viv got Maxwell Attoms because she has been in contact with him since long ago. She volunteered for a project he was making (that didn’t turn out, unfortunately) and since then they have been talking. Viv says that Maxwell is such kind and reachable person, they sometimes have lunch together.
- 5:38:40 Advices on how to be persistent but not annoying when you want to participate in a project.
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We’ve gone from Self-Isolation to Quarantine and in some places to gradual relaxation phases, but that doesn’t stop the need for more nonsense you can watch on youtube while you wait for things to get back to normal. And recommending things and making lists are some of my favourite things to do but I have not yet figured out how to start or structure a video myself, you guys get another rambling tumblr post of things you can watch on youtube.
This time I’m once again just gonna recommend individual videos rather than full channels like I did in part 2.
Part 1
Part 2
In no particular order;
LOCAL58: The Broadcast Station that Manipulates You
I recently started watching the Nexpo channel when I went on a binge of creepy youtube videos. Most of his videos are really good although the ones where he himself goes into theory crafting can be a little asinine. However, this video is REALLY good. And before you get nervous, LOCAL58 is not a real TV station. LOCAL58 is a youtube channel created by the same guy behind the Candle Cove creepypasta. This video by Nexpo covers the various episodes of LOCAL58 and discusses them. Just be aware going in that this is abstract horror, and will probably get under your skin regardless if you’re unaffected by certain topics or not. although cw for suicide mention.
I also recommend most of the rest of this channel, although be careful where you tread. I don’t recommend his series “Disturbing things from around the internet” as it can sometimes include real life crime, abuse and such caught on security cameras. Everything else is really good tho. (although I was really annoyed by his 2 videos on KrainaGrzybowTV)
The Search for D.B. Cooper
LEMMiNO has a new video out covering one of the most unexplained crimes in the past century of the US. LEMMiNO is the guy I’ve recommended before who did videos on the Universal S. He is very down to earth and not someone prone to conspiracy or even really that fanciful of thinking. (He’s like the one person I feel covered the Dyaltov Pass incident and was confused by why this was even a mystery because if you read the Russian Autopsy reports and documents associated with the case it’s all pretty logical and easily explained)
D.B. Cooper is the name given to a man who, in 1971, hijacked an airplane with a bomb, asked for a large sum of money, and after receiving it, parachuted from the plane and was never seen or heard from again.
The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole
Down the Rabbit Hole also has a new video out, this time covering the Austrian Wine Poisoning event from 1985. A scandal that involved literally the entire country of Austria, affected multiple countries, and forever changed the way wine was made world wide. As someone who is generally pretty allergic to most artificial substances this one made me personally very angry. But luckily, it has a happy ending and a better world for us all... if I could drink wine which I can’t do anyway.
The Turbulent Tale of Yandere Dev - A Six Year Struggle
The Right Opinion is another channel I only recently subbed to after watching his cover on Onion Boy. I put off subbing to him simply because of his channel name and I thought it meant he would come across as smug and elitist. Luckily this seems to merely be one of those “I chose a bad channel name and now I’m stuck with it” type of situations. (IHE has a similar problem).
Anyway, I have a weird interest in bizarre internet personalities, so I’ve been enjoying his channel as he simply discusses and presents a timeline of events of certain individuals. In this video, he covers the developer behind the much maligned Yandere Simulator. It’s a tale of hubris, arrogance, immaturity, and an unwillingness to accept your own shortcomings due to ego.
Oh and there’s a meme game about Japanese school girls with anime tiddies in there as well.
The Most Relaxing Anime Ever Made | Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō
Kenny Lauderdale is a youtube channel which is slowly becoming bigger which I’m very happy to see. He exclusively covers anime and live action Japanese television no younger than the mid 90s (as is the case with YYK) and which usually never saw a release outside of Japanese Laserdisc. I do wish his videos were a little longer, but if nothing else his videos serve as an excellent starting to point to find some older and underappreciated shows... or hot garbage fires. In this episode he talks about the 2 OVA episodes made based on one of my favourite manga, Yokohama Shopping Log. A Post apocalyptic anime about an android who runs a coffee shop outside of her house, and the quiet solitude of living in a world of declining human population, brief encounters with travelers and other people, and just... existing. The anime was never released outside of Japan and is only available on Japanese VHS and laserdisc.... but hey guess what!! Somebody uploaded both episodes, subbed, to Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2HCVOH6DtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqSTwfkobME
YMS’ slow descent into madness as he uncovers just how bullshit the Kimba Conspiracy is
I’m linking a full playlist for this one.
YMS is busy planning his review on the “live action” Lion King remake as the original 1994 movie is probably his favourite movie all time (and also self declared what made him a furry). As part of the 2 hour review, he decided to what all 2000 hours of Kimba the White Lion just to mention how The Lion King potentially stole the idea. ....until he actually watched all 2000 hours of Kimba and realised that if you actually WATCH Kimba, it has VERY little to do with the Lion King at all apart from having the same animals in them because AFRICA. Watch as one man slowly loses his mind as he realises just how stupid this conspiracy theory is, just HOW DECEITFUL and straight up LYING people can be. People who write BOOKS. People who teach LAW AT UNIVERSITIES. Because NOBODY bothered to actually watch the entire show and just parroted the “Disney stole this” lie which got started by like 2 salty fans on the internet.
The man set out to just mention how Disney stole an idea, and uncovered one of the most infuriating rabbit holes on the internet. Screaming for SOMEONE to provide him with sources or evidence.
YMS will be publishing his full Kimba documentary this month which he has said is around 2 hours long before he continues to work on the Lion King one.
Science Stories: Loch Ness eDNA results, Poop Knives, and Skeleton Lovers
TREY the Explainer has a video giving us some updates in Archeology from 2019. In this video he discusses the findings of the eDNA results conducted on the Loch Ness to see what animal DNA the lake contains which will tell us what living animals currently inhabit the lake, ancient knives made of poop and if this is a real thing that could have existed, and a skeleton couple found buried together which were at first thought to be lovers, then revealed to be both male, and then how in this instance we cannot let our modern sensibilities dictate what we WANT this burial find to be, but to look at the evidence as presented to us and place in context finds of this nature. The worst thing an archaeologist can do is look for proof to a theory they already have.
The Bizarre Modern Reality of Sonic the Hedgehog
Super Eyepatch Wolf is back and he’s here to talk to us about the very very strange existence of Sonic. a 90s rebellious “too cool for School” answer to Mario, a lost idea as the world of video games changes and culture shifted, a meme and punching bag amplified by a unique fanbase and poor quality games, a transcendence into a horrific warped idea of what he once was, and modern day and where Sonic and his fans are now. As usual Super Eyepatch Wolf knocks it out of the park.
Kokoro Wish and the Birth of a Multiverse: A Lecture on the Work of Jennifer Diane Reitz
I don’t even sub to this channel as I’m not entirely sure what Ben’s usual content is about. But every now and then he has a “101″ class, where he explains to a room full of his friends in a classroom setting (complete with Whiteboard) an internet artist and oddity, the timeline, and what it is they have created. (wait... didn’t I say this already?). Unlike TRO however, the 101 classrooms are not a dark look into disturbed individuals (although the CWC 101 is debatable) nor is it a “lol look at this weirdo” dragging. Instead, of the 3 he’s done so far, it’s usually a rather sympathetic look at some of the strange artists on the internet who through some way or another, left a very big cultural impact on the internet space through their art. Sometimes they may not be the best people, but their work is so outside of what we’re used to seeing that just listening to him run you through these people’s internet history is fascinating.
In this episode he talks about Jennifer Diane Reitz. And although it is titled Kokoro Wish, the lecture is more about Jennifer’s larger work back in the early internet when being a weeb was unheard of, how being trans influenced her stories and characters, and her world building that is so rich and in-depth with it’s own ASTRO PHYSICS it puts any modern fictional world found in games or movies to shame.
Jennifer is not exactly a nice person... and in many ways can be seen as dangerously irresponsible, but she created something truly unique in a way that you kinda struggle figuring out if it’s terrible or a work of genius.
Anyway I think that’s enough for now
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How do you feminize you? I've tried many times without success :/ so sad
I will tell you it was not an overnight thing, and it did take some work. In fact it took me years to get to this point. Somethings were certainly easier than other. These are the things that I did and if you are able to, I would suggest the same. Being a sissy is all mental, so much that I still have so much to learnFirst and foremost go at your own speed. Don't rush into anything that you are not comfortable with. Treat this like yoga, push yourself, but if it is too much take a step back. This applies to everything I mention below. There is still so much I have to experience but I am going at my own speed, and that's ok.Next thing is CHASTITY!!! I cannot stress this enough but take that little clitty of yours and lock it up 🔐 It intensifies the feeling by sooooo much. If you are new to chastity then start off slow. It may feel a little uncomfortable at first, so take it an hour at a time, and work your way up. When I started I had no interest in chastity, but after hearing from so many to try it out, I finally did, and it I haven't looked back. Best purchase for any sissy. I doubt you will find a sissy that has tried chastity that will say otherwise. These days chastity is my natural state, and couldn't be happier 😄 How deep you want to go is up to you, but be careful you may find yourself at the mercy of merciless key holder 😧Another thing that helped was filling my sissy hole. If you are new to this, take this slowly, do research, do not be stingy with the lube, start small and work yourself up. I started with a finger, then got a butt plug, then bigger butt plugs, then dildos, then... we'll see lol John Mulaney does a great job describing the first time something goes up there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNlyZSvsNjw The first several times I put things in my bum, it was not comfortable, butt after a little bit it starts to feel pleasurable. Thanks to toxic masculinity, a male experimenting with anal pleasure is less than man, great for a sissy mindset, but horrible for society. You don't have to be a sissy, gay, you can be a 0 on the kinsey scale and enjoy some ass play, and it certainly won't make you any less of a man. I do remember the first time I used a butt plug I was a little sore the next day, walked a little different, and couldn't shake the thought that my bum has been filled. Don't focus so much on having the elusive sissygasm, and just enjoy the feeling. Besides sissys don't always get to cum.Speaking of cum, EAT IT. That is one of those barriers a sissy needs to break. Start with your own cum obviously. It is something that all of sissys want to do while we're horny and touching ourselves, but once we blow our load we feel super deflated and lose our nerve. I started with lifting my legs in the air and trying to shoot it in my mouth. I got some in my mouth, but a lot on my face, I had to scoop the rest off my face and eat it. I went from finding cum to be 🤢 to 🤤🤤🤤Go smooth. This one took me longer than it should of. It is not weird to be male and be smooth. I get advertisements on Hulu about manscaping. If nothing else shave your clitty. Even if you want to be the manliest man, or whatever, anyone sucking your cock and balls will appreciate not getting hair in their teeth. I certainly don't want to deal with an amazon to suck cock lol As far as legs, arms, torso, arm pits, tell everyone you think it is disgusting, because it is. Steve Carrell or check out Hugh Jackman's legs when he's deadlifting vs any movie with Ryan Gosling, Matt Damon, or any other modern sex symbol topless. What I'm getting at is you can be smooth and manly in public, yet also get the wonderful feeling of being smooth as a sissy. The feeling over anything over freshly shaved legs feels amazing, you would be surprised on how much feeling hair interferes with. Once I put stockings on my freshly shaved legs, I never wanted to be hairy again. Get and wear clothes that make you feel sexy and cute. This seems easy, but is super tough. At least for me it is. I don't know fashion at all, and I am learning that what is amazing on the model will not work for me, so much wasted money lol #sissy struggles The important thing though is that it makes you feel sexy. A good wig also helps, anytime you can look in the mirror and see the sissy you envision the better. But do not be critical. Every sexy photo, or even unsexy photo you see of mine is picked from a lot of really bad pics. There's angles and lighting and things I don't know 'cause I'm not a photographer. Practice giving a blowjob. You don't have to buy a dildo, though you should lol but go to the vegi department and pick up some phallic veggies treat it like a cock. Suck it as if it were a cock, I learned from Fast Times at Ridgemont High https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ-MY6zjRHU you don't have to deep throat, but learning is such an accomplishment, certainly has made me hungrier Exercise, being a sissy should be a motivator to exercise. Exercersing isn't the funnest thing, it's tough to do, and really hard to keep up with. A sissy needs to take care of themselves, there are so many programs out there and gyms, and ways to keep in shape. I am a bit of a fitness person and so it is certainly easier for me. There are a lot of programs out there, but what you need to find is something that you can reasonably do forever (insert for-ev-er meme). It doesn't have to be anything super cazy, but if you can find 20 minutes 4 times a week to workout than you will be on a great path. Working out is exausting, you will sweat, you will get sore, you will feel discomfort, and at times it is not fun. Fight through those down swings, think of your goals. Having a sexy body does take work. Anyone that you idolize online, or invision yourself is probably someone that takes care of themselves and spends time suffering at the gym. I say suffering, because sometimes it is, but find an exercise routine you like. And do not worry about gaining muscle and being unsexy with muscle. First you need to gain some muscle, muscle is healthy and burns fat, and is sexy. You can have muscles, be a sissy, and be healthy at the same time. I am 130.8 and I do all types of exercises. I did and still do have to work on having this weight, at one time I weighed 160lbs. There are plenty of exercises out there, most important is to find one that you can foreseeably doing for the rest of your life. But all your exercise is nothing without the next part and that is. If nothing else, do some yoga. The benefits to a sissy should be pretty obvious lolLearn to cook and diet: Out of everything in the world, not just sissy, but the world, well not the whole world, actually the first world this should be done. Only in the first world do we have these problems, but that is what you eat. They say "abs are made in the kitchen" for a reason. You can't reward yourself from a hard exercise with a double cheese burger, large fries, and a beer. Find a diet that you can sustain for the remainder of your life. There are so many amazing recipes out there that are healthy and delicious. Stay away from refined sugars, simple carbs, and all those bad foods, use a food app, don't cheat yourself, because that's the only person you are cheating. And learning to be a good cook will certainly make you more desirable for any mate.Celebrate the small victories. Progress can be slow at times, but it is still happening, be sure to acknowledge and internally celebrate. If you see any progress be it lb less on the scale or taking that bigger plug, be happy about the progress, and do not ruin it. Start Today. Anytime I want to make big change, I like to say things like "tomorrow I will", "after this last ...whatever", "when the universe gives me a sign." Those are only excuses I give myself to not do something. You don't have to do everything today, but start with something. Got super high and mas drunk sense I started so this may not make sense nos more
I also used sites like these which were super helpful http://sissy-university.com/ and https://sissylover.com/sissy-school/
My Goddess thinks I may be over explaining lol
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King of the Castle
Every character, every line of dialogue, every plot twist in Downton Abbey has come from the mind of Julian Fellowes. As our favourite British aristocrats and their hardworking servants prepare for their big-screen debut, the Oscar-winning writer talks about reuniting the cast, creating complex characters and returning to Highclere Castle, Downton Abbey’s real-life setting
BY MARNI WEISZ [AUG/SEPT 2019 CINEPLEX MAGAZINE 28-31]
Downton ABBEY IS GETTING THE royal treatment. It’s 1927, two years after we last saw the aristocratic Crawley family and their steadfast servants at the end of Downton Abbey’s sixth and final season. Now, for the movie of the same name, King George V and Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth’s grandparents) are coming for a royal visit.
The principal cast has all returned, including Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern as Cora and Robert Crawley, a.k.a. the Earl and Countess of Grantham, Michelle Dockery and Laura Carmichael as their daughters Mary and Edith, Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess, and, of course, the down- stairs floor full of servants, including Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Hughes and Jim Carter as Mr. Carson.
Highclere Castle is back, too, as Downton Abbey itself, which stands tall, cool and imposing as the world around it hurtles toward modernity. And, as if there were any alternative, once again the story comes from the mind of Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning writer (for Gosford Park) who penned every single episode of the series. They did experi- ment with using other writers during the first season, “but I ended up rewriting both episodes because it was very difficult for them to get the kind of rhythm of the show,” Fellowes explains over the phone from his London flat.
He’s sitting at the very desk where he wrote many of those episodes. It was his mother’s desk, Regency Revival with five drawers, a kneehole and a glass top.
How did it feel to have the gang all together again?
Actually, it was quite strange, really. I went down very early on to Highclere. I parked my car in the same place, I walked down the drive and there everyone was. They were all in their costumes and we’d go into the same rooms and there was something quite sur- real, really, because when we finished there we all thought that was it, that was the end.
The trailer is lovely with the household preparing for a visit from the King and Queen but there’s no death, no war, no murder trial, no car crash. Are we being set up here? In your words, tell me what does happen in the movie.
I can’t really say what does happen beyond the fact that the royal visit affects everyone, because it affects how the downstairs people get involved in it and how they’re treated, and the upstairs people, how they get involved and how it takes over their life for a period, and while it’s taking over their lives all the other stories in the movie come out of that. So, in a sense, that is the kind of trunk and the other stories are the branches.
How do you make a movie like this different than just watching a few episodes back to back?
Well, I think that is an interesting point because people differ when they make films out of televi- sion series. Sometimes people make them entirely different, and the whole cast goes off to Hawaii or something. Whereas others, they try to make a bigger, brighter, better version of the TV show that is more suited to the big screen and I would say of those two options we went with the latter. Far from anything else, we couldn’t really change the principal location because the house is one of the main characters in the show, and I can’t imagine making a very significant episode or movie without the house.
You hadn’t shot at Highclere Castle in a few years, the last episode aired in 2015. What happens when you’re not there?
Well it has its life, you know. The Carnarvons live there and they have various exhibitions and shows and demonstrations, and they also host a lot of charity functions and there are weddings. They are certainly a very hardworking family and they keep it turning over brilliantly.
Do they have Downton tours there now?
Oh yes, yes. I mean, you have to book in, but you can go and see it, yes.
The film’s director, Michael Engler, helmed four episodes of Downton, but his résumé is largely made of American comedy series — 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sex and the City. Would you say he brings more of a comic eye to the film?
I think he has a very good comic eye, but I wouldn’t really say he altered the amount of comedy in Downton. It was always a reasonable slab and Maggie always had a few laughs in every episode. I mean, he did also direct my script of The Chaperone with Elizabeth McGovern, the movie. Again, it had some funny moments but it’s not a comedy in that sense. I think he’s quite at home in non-comedy.
I read that one of your peeves with American cinema is that characters tend to be good or bad, black or white. It made me think of Mary in particular, who is such a great character, bouncing back and forth between the two.
You’re right, I like to mix up people and give them sympathetic and unsympathetic things to do so you can’t make your mind up about them easily. I always get a little bit bored when you’re told this is the hero and that is the heroine and they are the baddies… [With Mary,] I’d like to think she’s human. She’s snobbish and rather self-important at times, but at the same time she has a reasonably kind heart and a reasonable sense of honour and wanting to do the right thing. I think you see all sides in the film.
Do you ever wonder who their grandchildren and great-grandchildren would be these days? What sort of lives they’d be living now?
Well of course it slightly depends on whether they’ve hung onto the house and the estate. I mean, quite a lot of families did, more than a lot of people think, and they are still in their houses, living differently, of course, calling their servants by their Christian names and being called by their Christian names in return. Not everyone, actually, there is still a bit of “my Lording” going on. I think now, to keep the houses and estates they must work harder at them. They must take it seriously and find out how to make money from them and what will be profitable, and so on. So in a sense they are living a much more hardworking life than their forebears.
That’s interesting.
But really we’re going into that time in the ’20s and really Mary is quite a hard worker, she’s no slouch. She and Branson work pretty hard to keep the estate going. So I think we’re already seeing that transition that Mary works harder than, for instance, Robert ever would have done at her age.
I’m curious what you watch on TV. When Downton ended, The Crown came in and filled a bit of a void. Did you watch The Crown?
I did watch The Crown, but I also love American series. I watched Mad Men, which I absolutely loved. I watched West Wing, I watched The Good Wife, I watched Scandal, and I am currently working my way through Grey’s Anatomy.
For many years you were a prolific actor, but you haven’t acted since 2005. Why is that?
Well, at first, I just found it was too difficult to find the time because I had a lot of writing work. I couldn’t fit them both in. I did the odd presentation of docu- mentaries and things and I did a series about English country houses and I went to Burghley and Goodwood and places. But in the end it was a question of the time, really.
Were you tempted to give yourself a small roll in Downton, as many actor/directors do?
[Laughs.] No, I’ve never done that. I feel that Alfred Hitchcock did that, he did it for all of us, really.
Any chance that if this one does well there will be another Downton Abbey movie?
Well there’s always that chance.
Marni Weisz is the editor of Cineplex Magazine.
DOWNTON ABBEY in Theaters Sept 20!
youtube
#michelle dockery#matthew goode#henry talbot#jim carter#downton abbey#downton abbey movie#hugh bonneville#elizabeth mcgovern#phyllis logan#laura carmichael#allen leech#joanne froggatt#rob james collier#michael c fox#brendan coyle#lesley nicol#sophie mcshera#harry hadden paton#maggie smith#penelope wilton#imelda staunton#raquel cassidy#kevin doyle
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MORE BIG SCREEN ANIMATED COMIC-BOOK SUPERHERO MOVIES!?
Should there be more big screen animated comic book superhero films… What would it take to see big screen animated superhero movies? Why aren’t we seeing more animated films? Why is it only just live action stuff? Superheroes are really big right now. We are seeing live action stuff all over TV right now, we are seeing obviously tons of great stuff going on in The Marvel Cinematic Universe and it looks like finally DC is getting there ducks in a row finally. It’s a really good time to be a superhero fan for the screens. On the other hand we have seen many animated superhero shows not making people as happy as they used to. Where really cool you can take it pretty seriously pushing envelopes kind of shows got cancelled in fair of more least common denominator type stuff.
However with the success of Big Hero 6, which was at the time a really obscure property that I myself didn’t know much about. It was super neat that Disney was mining other Marvel properties that don’t have to be in the MCU and I want more of that and that is very, very possible. With the success of Into The Spider-Verse there are now unlimited possibilities of where to go from here and to take chances with different properties on the big screen.
You may wonder why aren’t there as many? The problem is there are a majority of people too thrilled with the novelty of seeing things recognized in live action. *Which is in a way kind of total proof with the live-action Disney films* Because studios or even the public feels live-action is more legitimized for an adult audience. Which I find to be extremely annoying, because what it’s really telling us is that it’s more about spectacle than it is about the story. Because it doesn’t matter if it’s animated or live action, story is king. You can do a much cheaper movie in animation and do a much bigger show.
Look at Warner Bros. they were the first to dabble in this realm with their cult hit Batman: Mask of The Phantasm. A film that came out Christmas of 1993, which wasn’t a financial hit but it is perhaps legitimately one of if not the best theatrical Batman movies ever made. A big thing with these animated films is bringing it over to a house that understands how to market it. The only reason Mask of The Phantasm didn’t perform because no one knew it was in the theater. Batman: The Animated Series was a hit they had every reason to put it in the theater I think Warner’s at the last minute said make it for the theater instead of direct-to-video but they didn’t do anything to market it. Meanwhile Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns were both really successful movies but why the hell couldn’t they sell this!? Mask of The Phantasm was not a kiddie-film it was a perfectly reasonable film to try and sell to adults while still being completely appropriate to kids. There is also some horror imagery in that film with some cool fantastic stuff that felt even a bit more for adults than the show did while still being good for kids.
Fast forward to now, If they made Mask of The Phantasm now they would aim it at adults because superheroes are in and for everybody. Look at Into The Spider-Verse that is a film doing really well at the box office, was extremely well marketed, and was most importantly a good film. With this film although it is Sony, the success of this film would catch Warner and Disney’s eye. So far from Warner’s you are getting things like The Lego Batman Movie or Teen Titans GO! To The Movies which is more kind of like fun aimed at kids comedy stuff. Now with the fun comic booky-ness and was a film mature enough to handle death and violence.
This could pave the way for more good animated films and some serious stuff like taking animation more seriously. By that I mean doing these superhero films in the Pixar method. Where they are most importantly good films that have a wide appeal. Pixar has always had a great track record and is able to make thought provoking animated films that are relevant and appeal to audiences and like Incredibles 2 proving they are capable of being blockbuster hits. Now with Disney acquiring Fox properties they have a lot of different things they can plumb the depths of and they have the money to take the risks (Fantastic Four and X-Men). Also even though Warner’s for direct to video has been making various direct to video animated films there have been hits and there have been misses maybe Warner’s will compete with the success of Into The Spider-Verse.
These could be sophisticated feature-length animated superhero movies that could appeal to all ages or we can have ones geared towards more adult audiences. Maybe Warner’s and Disney will experiment by making theatrical animated films that span from PG-13 to R-rated. How about they can push the envelopes of what can be done with these animated films and try to make solid movies. Back then, it would be either “Nobody is going is going to watch it. WHO CARES!” Or “It’ll do the numbers it’s going to do regardless.”
What these films need to find is a writer that is out there who will work for fair money that is really excited to get to work on these characters. (PLEASE HIRE ME Warner Bros., Sony & Disney) Instead of in-house people that kind of phone it in and who are drawn to a paycheck. There needs to be more people like Lord & Miller who worked on Into The Spider-Verse these are passion projects. Where these are labors of love and should be treated that way. Maybe do a modern noir detective definitive Batman film that everyone will pay attention too and it just happens to be animated. I just want good theatrical animated films.
Maybe a great emotionally resonant iconic Pixar-style Superman film that happens to be animated. Would be awesome. It would be the perfect response and juxtaposition to the gritty darker less fun Superman of Man of Steel or Batman V. Superman. Doing something with a lot of heart maybe get a great Superman writer or even someone like Genndy Tartakovsky creator of Samurai Jack and Hotel Transylvania and his team to bring back their unrealized project and make the film and allow that team to tell a great original story.
That being said I want a theatrical film by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in that style of animation and perhaps set in that world of the DCAU giving them one last chance to do the theatrical project they always wanted. Anyway that is all I have to say on this subject, I would love more theatrical animated comic book superhero films.
THAT’S ALL FOLKS!
- Lil Bit Writer
12/15/18
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( ❛ ╾ OPEN && CLOUD WOLFF )
“I just wanted you to know that this is me trying. At least I’m trying..”
#( itll be iconless after this but here have my boy )#( thread ‣ cloud. )#( it was a big big world but we thought we were bigger ‣ v. modern )
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How can teachers promote safe and effective use of technology in the classroom?
When first wondering about this question my main focus was on how teachers can make sure students have all the support that they need to use technology as an important tool especially because of how important the fluent use of technology is becoming. Also, to make sure students are using it safely in terms of who they are talking to and the websites they are going to online. As I looked more into my research though I found myself focusing more on the physical effects technology can have on young developing minds. To use technology safe and effectively is to make sure that students are using it when needed and not when it can be harmful. I looked at a lot of research from psychologist, educators and even parents who talk about the pros and cons of technology being used in the classroom. My initial goal for this article is to find that middle ground between the pros and the cons. There is no doubt positives to using technology in the classroom but the negatives need to be assessed and talked about so that there can be a middle ground use of technology in a way that is effective yet safe on young minds.
The first article I want to talk about is by Amanda Ronan and from edudemic and her article is a very clear and concise list of the pros and cons of technology in the classroom. A big theme for her pros are the inclusion of students that technology allows. Technology is great for differentiated instruction and being used in a way to assist special needs children. These are both great modifications that can be used to help not only the teacher with students at different learning levels but it is a great way for students to also find different ways of learning that work for them. These were two of the major pros that I thought Ronan talked about in a great way. Now, her cons list was longer than her pros but after reading over a lot of them I found myself thinking about how much some of these just don’t really make complete sense. There was really only one con from her list that struck me as something that is a huge factor in how effective technology can be used in the classroom and it was when Ronan talked about access of technology outside the classroom. “Assigning technology use in the classroom is fine if all students have access to the device. But when edtech programs are considered for homework, at home intervention, or even flipped learning, student access to the Internet must be considered (Ronan 2017)”. This is a huge problem, much larger than the other cons she talked about like distraction, replacing teachers and concern with plagiarism, and one that often times may be overlooked my teachers. The use of technology in the classroom is great but if you have students who don’t have access to it at home then you have to think of modifications for homework or unfinished class time assignments. This leads me to another major con of technology in the classroom and it is one that scientists and psychologists have been doing studies on for the past few years more heavily because of the increase in technology in children’s lives.
So while the pros of technology are ones that certainly make a classroom more efficient there is one striking con that may make teachers think differently about heavy use of technology in the classroom. Victoria Dunckley, a psychologist, has been doing research on how screen time affects the brain. Over her years of observation she’s found that children exposed to even a ‘regular’ amount of screen time suffer from sensory overload, lack of restorative sleep and an over aroused nervous system and it is something she has called ‘electronic screen syndrome’. She states that the average child clocks in about seven hours a day with screen time. If a child is in school for roughly eight hours a day and then goes home and rather than interacting with family members or friends is instead given their ipad or laptop and sits and uses that for another 5 or so hours that is about 12 hours of screen time. Granted, not all of their school day is using technology but a majority of it, in a technology heavy classroom, is. Dunckley has found that these children are impulsive, moody and have a hard time paying attention. These are three things that can have a major effect on a child’s learning. Dunckley then shares some of the findings that researchers have had when looking at the neuroimaging of developing brains and screen time use. Just a few of the findings are reduced cortical thickness, impaired cognitive functioning, cravings and impaired dopamine functions and compromised white matter integrity. “Much of the damage occurs in the brain’s frontal lobe, which undergoes massive changes from puberty until the mid-twenties. Frontal lobe development, in turn, largely determines success in every area of life—from sense of well-being to academic or career success to relationship skills. (Dunckley 2014).”
So, these first two articles were one very much against heavy use of technology and one that leaned more towards the positives that technology has on the classroom. My last article is one that is able to combine both of these views. Brian Braiker weights out the good and the bad of technology but more than that, he finds the middle ground between the two. “Are we replacing puzzles with pixels, wagons with Wi-Fi, blocks with bytes? Or are they simply merging? And the bigger question is: Is this such a bad thing?” He asks these important questions before diving into a couple tough, important topics like addictions versus engagement and something he calls ‘swiping sooner and tying shoes later’. A quote from his section on ‘swiping sooner and tying shoes later that I really loved was, “Such concerns may be valid, but has anyone met a college student who couldn't tie his own shoes? And although kids may be riding bicycles later, they're also designing computer programs earlier.” In a world of growing technology and jobs that require these new skills that you were not required to have 15-20 years ago should the way we teach our children not begin to adapt? This reminded me of an article I read about maker education. ‘What is the point of a MakerSpace?’ by Jennifer Gonzalez talks about the importance of makerspaces and she interviews John Spencer who shares something I think is helpful when thinking about the importance of technology use in the modern day classroom.
“There was a time when you could follow the formula: Work hard at school, go to college, and climb a corporate ladder. But because of the complex global economy, because of the creative economy, the information economy, our students are going to have to navigate a maze. The ladder is now a maze. And because it’s a maze, what do they need in order to navigate that? They need to be able to engage in iterative thinking, creative thinking, critical thinking, they need to know how to pivot, how to change, how to revise, how to persevere. They need to solve complex problems. They need to think divergently. All of those are involved in that maker mindset. And so if you can embed that maker mindset inside of the curriculum, and you tap into the standards that you’re teaching, then they’re able to develop that maker mindset. The space is just the platform that facilitates it (Spencer).”
The way we need to think is changing. There is no longer a simple ‘formula’ as Spencer says but rather a maze that students need new skills to be able to navigate and work efficiently.
To wrap up all of this back and forth of the pros and cons of technology, technology is an extremely strong and effective tool to use in the classroom and a tool that should be used in the classroom but teachers need to be aware of the ‘side effects’ that too much technology can have. Working with students and parents to make sure students are getting that break from the screen is important in ensuring their bright and effective futures. Making students aware of the consequences of too much screen time and working with them to set boundaries and have self control when it may be too much. Through research and help from other educators and parents, teachers can promote safe and effective use of technology in the classroom by making students aware and responsible and teaching not only themselves the pros and cons technology has but also their students and parents as well.
Sources:
Ronan, A. (2017, January 16). The Pros and Cons of Technology. http://www.edudemic.com/technology-pros-cons/
Braiker, B. (2013, January 17). Technology in the Classroom: The Good and Bad. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/technology-in-the-classroom_b_2456450
Dunkley, V. (2014, February 27). Gray Matters: Too Much Screen Time Damages the Brain. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-wealth/201402/gray-matters-too-much-screen-time-damages-the-brain
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Final Fantasy XV theories: Connections to the world of Final Fantasy VI –Part 1: The Astrals and the Espers..
An early warning to readers, this is all theories and only hypothesizes based on strong guesses and a lot of research. I cannot at this time confirm that any of this is cannon and until we have all of the game including the four new episodes, not everything is cut and dry. I’m going to date this though so that I have a time line of information and I will be using information dug up by others who I will list in the credits. Please note, again this is just my theories, and I’m hoping for it all to make sense.
7/18/2018
Introduction:
So let me begin this by putting out that I’ve been a fan of the idea of FF XV way back when it was first brought to light as Verses. What’s interesting is that the new episodes are having those aspects coming into play here as well but we’ll get into that later on. So naturally, I wanted to dive into this world, and the lore of it. However, something kept nagging at me, like I’ve been to a place before but it’s been drastically changed. With that in mind, allow me to walk you through my thoughts and reasons as to why I honestly think that XV is the world of Gaia from VI, only more modern and changed over the centuries that happened between the fall of God Kefka and the rise of the Starscourge.
I know it sounds crazy, VI related to XV, how, given that there’s so many allusions to the others games, why would VI be the one that is the direct connection to XV? What reason would there be? Well from what I can gather there’s a few. First off, there’s the fact that both of the Directors for XV are fans of VI, and Tabata himself said that it is his favorite game. (We’ve seen him include illusions to VI in Type 0 even). Second is the fact that Nomura not only worked on the game, he directly affected several key characters and story elements in the creation of vi and it was his first major work for the company following some of his lesser work for V. Lastly, and I think this is sort of the most important factor. Final Fantasy XV’s finale (all episodes, etc. in regard to the game) will be out in the year that Final Fantasy VI celebrates it’s 25th anniversary. Final Fantasy VI came out in April of 1994, and in 2019, during the spring season, it will be 25 years old. The fact is, Square is not going to just ignore this, given it’s considered one of the best of the series, and outside of seven, has become a fan favorite and is now getting to be played more by people due to the SNES remake as the game is on that system.
With that said, I’d also like to add that there’s a similar theme between the two games. There is no lead in VI and while XV may have Noctis, as with Terra in VI, as the main over all character, the story, as with VI, follows the pattern of having all characters play a larger role and the band of Brothers each has a significant arc told through both the main story and their own episodes. On top of that you have the idea of love, duty, devotion and other themes connecting the two.
But what about a more physical and realistic connections? Well that’s what I want to explore in these different parts of this over all larger theory. I hope all of it makes sense as you read it and I hope I offer up enough explanation and details to show the reasoning behind each of my conclusions.
So without further adieu…let’s begin.
The Astrals and the Espers…
The reason I started this thought process was actually way back when I first got a glimpse of the Prophecy painting, and the image of the supposed Eos reminded me a lot of Terra from VI. This I believed was just an allusion, like the name Niflheim was to VII. However, after seeing the female statue in the Pitioss dungeon, I began to suspect something different. You see the more I played the game the more I started to notice things that just didn’t sit right with me. For example the world map, and certain characters and locations that seemed very off in regard to the story that they were telling.
So what are the Astrals?
According to the lore of XV, they are gods that were created by the Goddess Eos to protect the Star.
“The Astrals are said to be physical manifestations of the star's power——in other words manifestations of the planet Eos itself. They were each "ordered" to protect Eos in their own way. Due to their immense power, they are worshiped by the people as deities. According to Shiva, mortals were created in the Astrals' image. They are intelligent immortal creatures who have their own agendas, speak a unique language only understood by those touched by their power,[1] and play an integral role in the Final Fantasy XV Universe. Usually indifferent to human affairs, Astrals' behavior cannot be interpreted because their thought patterns transcend the comprehension of mankind.[2] Some of the lore concerning the Astrals is written into the Cosmogony books found around the world.”
This is really important here because of where I’m going with this.
In addition to this we know that:
The Astrals are depicted as Humanoid in the prophecy painting.
We also know that they do appear in human form, as we see with Shiva.
According to the Cosmogony book, all the Astrals save Bahamut are sleeping... now isn’t that convent.
Further more we know that the Astrals tend to stay out of the lives of human affairs.
They also seem to exist in two places the mortal realm and the Astral Realm.
They can forge covenants with humans to support them, as seen with Noct during the game.
And they put people through trials before they give their powers away, depending on the Astral involved.
They will come to the aid of the King if they want to.
Soul crystals appear around them when they are summoned and the summoning takes a lot out of the King.
Even if they are defeated in the mortal realm it doesn’t kill them.
So why did I list all this…Well if you look at the Espers from VI…there are way too many similarities.
“Espers were created as a result of humans coming into contact with magic and the Warring Triad during their war for dominance. The gods realized what they were doing was wrong and sealed themselves away in the forms of statues. They returned the espers their free will, and asked to be protected by them. A second war began between espers and humans seeking to use their powers, beginning the War of the Magi. At the height of the war the espers created a new realm where they escaped with the Warring Triad's statues.”
Again keep this in mind those two bolded areas. Sound familiar? Well they should because they are quiet similar in tone. Eos created the Astrals, the Espers were created by the Waring Triad, and it’s an interesting thing because, Eos’s design is connected to the Goddess of the Waring Triad. (We will be getting into that.)
So why were the Esper’s created in the first place for Final Fantasy VI. Well according to the Lore, the three deities (Goddess, the Fiend and the Demon ) all came down to Gaia and were having a big old battle (more on that later). This battle raged over the world of Gaia, and during this time, rather than fight themselves, they created Espers, beings of great powers that were gifted to them by the Gods. (Again…sound Familiar? It should.)
These Espers could do a number of things:
They can make themselves look human or inhuman
They can grow to huge sizes
They lived in their own world, one that they made called the Esper World which is a Realm of it’s own.
Espers have tremendous powers and abilities, enough to wreck a whole party of enemies if called upon.
They are summoned via crystals that contain their soul called Magicite
In order to receive said Magicite from the non-dead Espers one needs to be tested in some way.
An Esper can form a crystal like cocoon around it’s body for protection prior to becoming magicite.
Normally Espers want nothing to do with humans as they are not to be trusted.
They even sealed off their realm at one point to keep humans from attacking them.
When you summon them what appears to be crystal like balls appear around the summoner and they also take a lot out of your MP in game. (Again Sounds familiar doesn’t it.)
Espers can live in the mortal realm, and, more importantly, Espers can have children with humans.
Espers can live a very long time and are practically immortal, as far as we know.
There’s a lot more there, but I’ll point out the bigger ones here. The reason why I made these to list is to show the connections here and there’s a hell of a lot.
Both the Astrals and the Espers have their own worlds that they can go between. Both have powers greater than that of a normal human. Both were worshiped as divine beings until things got screwed up (more on that in a minute), and both can be summoned via the draining of magic (and causing the summoner to feel like they just got hit by a truck in the process). On top of that, both would rather not deal with humans, both were tasked with protecting their gods.
Then there’s the fact that when both rampage it’s a mess for the humans. During VI at one point the Espers are freed from their seal and take off to destroy this one location where they believe the Emperor is…he’s not there…but they wreck the city anyway. Leviathan doesn’t care about harming others and wrecks half of Altissia because she’s a brat. Both cases show that the Astrals and Espers have huge amounts of power that can level cities if they want to.
So how does this connect VI and XV? Well, what if we’ve been looking at the Astrals wrong all this time. We’re assuming that they’re gods, that they’re being’s of power, and yet according to the book they were “ordered” to protect the Star. Again that sounds familiar, and it should, because that’s the same story that we’re told in VI about the Espers.
When the Espers were created they were to act as a force for the Gods, when the Triad put themselves to sleep, they specifically left the Espers around to protect the statues. This unfortunately after a long time lead to a situation where the humans became jealous of the Espers and their powers and lead to the War of the Magi (again coming to that). You see the Magi were people that could use magic that they learned from the Espers. (Again sounding familiar? You know kind of Like Solhiem.) This war lasted about a 1,000 years leaving devastation on Gaia, and causing the world to regress and the Espers to place the Triad high on a floating island (this will become important later!) and hide themselves away in their own realm. Meanwhile the Magi were attacked and killed by non-magic users and hid on a small island called Crescent Island. Thus the Espers protected the Triad and the humans went on to live normally in a world that had fallen into the dark ages for another 1,000 years.
By the end of Final Fantasy VI we see the Espers leave and return to their sealed world, locked off from humanity and once more causing magic to vanish from the world. The thing about the Espers is that we don’t know what happened to them after. Given that they could be summoned and that they were not dead when a majority of them were turned to Magicite (save for Muduin and we will get to him later), we can assume –given their powers et all, that they could reform themselves and rest.
Now how does this connect to XV?
The Astrals were supposed to have come from another realm, in this case coming from what the people in XV think of as the Afterlife. And yet, we only see images of Bahamut in that existence, floating there for Noctis when he’s in their world when he went into the crystal (again we’ll be touching on this). Given the fact that this place looks more like an in between or a connection between worlds, I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t what we think it is.
During another part of Final Fantasy VI, we see the character of Madeline fall into the Esper world. The weird thing is that she’s exhausted from this, and needs to rest up and be healed before she can even move again. She’s gifted a pendent (more on that later) which is there for protecting the Esper world, and keeps her safe. It could very well be, since we didn’t get to see how she fell into the realm, that she, like Noctis, had to travers through a very weird place that looked much like the water world we see. So if this is a gateway, much like the gateway in VI (again more on that later), it’s not hard to see the Espers, now called Astrals, traveling between the realms through that gated seal which was made to keep out the humans in the mortal realm. (We also see water play a part in the Phantom Train area of the VI story.)
So if we make the leap that the Astals are actually Espers, what is the connection there?
Well in XV we are introduced to 6 main Astrals:
Titan, the Archaean, steadfast as stone.
Ramuh, the Fulgurian, sharp as lightning.
Shiva, the Glacian, gentle as snow.
Leviathan, the Hydraean, relentless as tides.
Bahamut, the Draconian, unbending as iron.
Ifrit, the Infernian, fickle as fire.
Since time immemorial, they have watched over Eos.
—Cosmogony
Now these characters are actually important in VI because of the role that they play…
You see Ramuh was the character that actually helped Terra out of her Esper state (again more on that in another post) after she had entered it connecting with another crystallized Esper. Being a halfbreed –her father was an Esper –means that she can switch between human and Esper forms at will. Problem was that due to the schemes of the Empire she was unable to control her powers, and thus Ramuh sent out the Returners (her friends) to gather up the Espers and find her father to help her remember the truth about her life.
Ramuh, as with XV, shows kindness towards humans and even lives as one in a town of thieves called ZoZo.
Both Shiva and Ifrit are found together and actually fight you together in VI, and Ramuh knows Ifrit and is the reason he calms down and agrees to work with you.
Leviathan is also a Esper that you have to fight near a city on the water in VI.
And then there’s Titan, who, for better or worse, has the same sort of attacks that Golem, and every other version of him (save for a handful including vi that has him as a more robotic machine) has him looking like Titan.
But then there’s the painting that depicts more than the six we’re told about.
(I outlined the various characters in stone and the ones in the painting)
In the painting showing the war of the Astrals, we see an image of Ifrit, but he’s not alone, and there’s more than just the six main Astrals there.
So in regard to the painting From the top Right we have:
A Strange set of hands on top hear the top of the tower that looks a lot like the arms of the Esper Phantom.
A wolf or dog like face that has an area for a stone and markings on it’s face. This dog looks a lot like the Wolf like Esper in VI, as well as Fenrir the Esper from VI and very well could be connected to Umber and Pyrna.
Then you have a man that I’m still trying to find but his one eye seems to have a set of make-up that shows it running down his cheek.
Beside him is a creature’s face that has no nose but looks to be a bit designed after Zona Seeker the Esper, as you can see the ribcage below and the face looks very much like Zona Seeker from VI.
Midgardsormr is right below them very similar to the design done by Nomura for VI,
Next you have what looks like Ramuh with his robes, but the colors are not green, they look more purple in nature.
Continuing down you see a red wing next to Shiva, that looks very much like a birds.
Next to the red wing is Shiva.
Before Shiva is a woman with a winged head dress that is sitting on something, with her hand up under her chin. The design is a lot like Nomura’s version of Siren from FFVII, and her updated form. Siren was one of the Espers as well.
Next to the woman in the headdress, is another woman who is looking away from the group facing Ifrit. She has her hair up and some sort of item cuffed around her ear, as well as a wing behind her. She looks a lot like the updated form of Seraph.
Beside the woman is Ifrit, holding a sword very different than what we see him with later (we will get back to that…)
Beside Ifrit there looks to be a Unicorn, with wings, which I want to talk about in more detail in the Ifrit section.
Then you have below Unicorn, what could either be two or one creatures. The head looks more like that of a rabbit, but with a weird jawline. So either that’s some weird version of Carbuncle, or it’s Carbuncle and some other esper.
Below the weird head is Probably Lakshmi who is off to the side looking down, as the headdress matches the updated form of Lakshmi.
Go down and past the body of Midgarsormr and you’ll see the form of a man with weird horns coming from what looks like smoke.
And Below this man is possibly Phoenix , or one of the other bird Espers, but it’s hard to tell if it’s one or two bodies due to the way the rocks are shaded.
Next to the weird smoke guy you have three strange insect looking creatures, that seem to have human and bug like designs.
Then you see Titan
Below him you have Bahamut
And below Bahamut you have what looks like a woman with four wings. In VI there is a Pixie like Esper that has a similar shape but no name.
Beside her and by Shiva’s knee, we clearly see a man in a winged suit brandishing a sword and he looks a bit like an Odin except more bug like. Amano’s painting shows at least two forms of Odin like creatures and one guy that seems to have the same look as the man in the painting that’s floating on the bottom.
The only one I don’t see is Leviathan.
Also by the man that may or may not be Odin there is a weird looking shell like shape that’s clearly round with a hole like design in it indicating a body…could that be Bismarck?
What’s bugging me about this situation is that the Cosmogony book said that there are 24 messengers, and only six Astrals.
So I counted the number of beings on the stone tower, that totals to 11, and the beings that are around the painting, that’s 12, totaling in 23 beings shown in the Astral war painting. Just shy of the 24 messengers that you would need to have for a set. My only thought is that maybe the dog being is two, so you would count that twice, thus making 12 and 12, and so 24.
If that’s the case…well…seems like the story that the humans are being told isn’t exactly the truth.
So Let’s jump over to the Messengers, and I want to bring them up because of how they’re presented. We’re told in the story that there are a total of 24 messengers, and it’s a static number meaning that they never change, and, given what Ardyn said, he’s met Shiva’s messenger before in the same face, meaning that Gentiana probably is the human form of Shiva. If this is the case then each of those 24 messengers are the human form of twenty four espers.
Which, if you count the number of Espers in Final Fantasy VI, and take out four specific ones: (Ragnarok can become a sword, Maduin is Terra’s father and unable to come back, Raiden is Odin’s upgrade, and Crusader is the “Esper” manifestation of the Warring Triad-which really doesn’t fit into the story proper and is a rare esper to collect in the game after defeating eight legendary dragons –kind of a side quest thing). That gives you a total of 24 Espers that you can collect in Final Fantasy VI. Which is the exact number of Messengers in Final Fantasy XV.
Keep in mind that every Esper was once human and can retain their human form due to what the Triad did to them, so they can weave in and out of the form if they so choose to. Astrals can show up as human’s via Messengers, which seems a bit of a sketchy since we know that, thanks to Ardyn’s one line, the Messengers don’t age. So why would the “Gods” need 24 of them, if there’s only six? It would make more sense if there were 24 Astrals and each was its own Messenger.
There’s more to this to in regard to the situation in game.
So when you go running around the world of XV, you’ll notice that there are a lot of monsters out there with names that seem weird, and to me they caught my attention since a good deal of them, especially the bosses, seem to be named after Espers of VI.
Phalaris looks exactly like Kirin from VI,
down to it’s horns. While it has a different name, there’s no mistaking these two.
Bismarck, the whale god (and I have more to say about him) is also an Esper from VI.
Unicorn is on the painting (and more about that one too)
Catoblepas is one of the monster bosses in XV is also an Esper in VI.
Lakshmi is the painting that’s possessed that you fight. Is also an Esper in VI.
(Also more on this in another theory)
Quetzalli is a monster boss that you again fight and looks a lot like his previous design, and is only in here and
Esper in VI.
Ragnarok is a sword, though another sword with a different name bears striking resemblance to the original one.
Midgardsomr is a monster and on the tower it looks like
Nomura’s concept for the Esper.
Cactaur and Gigantur, both added
Espers in the GBA version of VI are in here as bosses.
Bahamut, Levaithan, Carbuncle, Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Gilgamesh, are all in the game in forms similar to the VI counterparts.
It seems to me, if I was Bahamut, and a good portion of the group sided with Ifrit over this war, I would find a way to either imprison them, or take them out of the equation, and making them into monsters would make the most sense as a means of hiding them from the humans as an option.
There’s more to this too and one weird thing that stood out to me that would make sense for the characters to be former Espers is the markings on Titan and Bismarck.
Let me explain, during the story of Final Fantasy VI, the Returners (our heroes) go around collecting Magicite –the remains of the Espers. During this game you get Golem via an auction house, and Bismarck from the MT Facility. This is important because Both Titan and Bismarck share the same markings that the other Astrals do not have. I looked, and double checked over all their bodies (the only one that I couldn’t really check was Shiva as it’s hard to find a picture where I can clearly see her skin), and Bismarck and Titan are the only two that have this.
So what does that mean?
Well in VI, you Get Bahamut by saving him from Doom Seeker (a kind of demonic being), Shiva and Ifrit, willingly give their Summons to you, Leviathan you fight and when you beat it you get them, Ramuh gives himself to you. None of these characters were held by anyone save Bahamut, and were only used by the heroic Returners. On the other hand Golem and Bismarck were both held by other groups, and it would make sense that they were then marked to show who they were owned by.
I do think there’s a connection between them, seeing as Bismarck is known as the Sea god. But more on him later.
I wanted to also talk about the fact that the Astrals and Messengers seem to have things in common with their Esper counterparts.
Let’s start with Ramuh.
Ramuh in Final Fantasy VI is human looking, with a long beard, green robes, and a staff with a red orb on it. After the War of the Magi (which seems to be a lot like the War of the Astrals) Ramuh decided to live in the human world (as did other Espers) and was eventually captured and taken to the MT Facilty where he escaped with three others. He later helped out Terra’s friends when they found her in Zozo where he was taking care of her. The Returners were given a trial by him, get into the MT Facility and free the other Espers, and then Terra could be helped by him.
Ramuh can speak through dreams, and he’s seen as very sage, empathic and wise. He feels the most for the humans and is willing to help them fight against the Gestahl empire. Oh and he throws out lighting and so forth.
Meanwhile you have Ramuh of the Astrals, who acts as a judge on Angelguard Island while it was a prison. He passes Judgement on those who have not repented for their crimes and will smite them for the more malicious actions. After the battle with the other Astrals at an unknown time he fell to sleep there and was woken by Luna. He tests Noct and co. by having them run a mission to find ruins and that are guarded by Griffians. He’s seen to be understanding of the plight of the prince.
One of the key factors in VI and may be the case in XV is that Ramuh knows Ifrit and Ifrit actually describes them as brothers from different elements. The one reason why the Returners are able to obtain Ifrit in the first place is that he and Shiva feel Ramuh residing with the Returners and halt their battle with them.
If this is the same Ramuh from VI, (and part of my theory regarding Nocts’ line is right), then it’s not hard to see why Ramuh probably gave him an easier task. Also it again shows that Ramuh is one of the kinder summons and points to the fact that, given Zozo was a hive of thieves and the like, Ramuh would have a keen sense of person knowledge about those that are being honest about repenting and those that would not. It would take someone who had lived among those that were seen as the lowest of the low to know if a person was indeed being honest about changing their ways and was sorry for their actions.
Titan is a weird one. So Titan in XV is this giant Rock person who has brown skin and white patterns on it’s body. He’s shown to be very loyal to Noctis, and can create tremors when he sleeps. When he calls to Noct he gives him headaches, and in order to beat him, you have to freeze him. Also there’s the crystals that are growing on his body.
Then you have Golem from VI. Now this is the interesting thing. Golem is a brown robot looking Esper in a human form. He will block any physical attack, the same way Titan came to block the attacks of the rampaging Leviathan, till his Hp is depleted equal to that of the person casting him. Normally Golem is shown to be made of Rocks and Titan to be made of Flesh, but here Titan is Rock in human form.
Now one may say, “But Titan isn’t Golem.” Well no and yes. See there’s one big thing that I have to point to. On top of Titan bearing a lot of resemble to Golem from other versions of FF, in Tabata’s own Type 0 you have Golem and Titan as one being. A rock machine that has Titan as one of it’s forms and Golem as another. This mean that the two are equated to one another within at least one other version of the Directors games and in his mind.
Also Titan’s actions in the game are a lot like Golem’s in VI. Titan is protecting people and taking the hit with the Meteorite. Meaning that like Golem’s Earth Wall and his block ability, Titan is losing HP and keeping the area of Lestallum safe. The same as Golem does in VI to it’s Summoner.
Leviathan is a special case…So in XV we meet Levithan when Luna wakes her from her slumber in the sea. She’s called the Tide mother and there are angel like depictions of her, which contradict her actual behavior. She’s looked upon with fear and respect by the people and shows up as a blue Sea Serpent with multi-appendages. She can appear as a liquid form and come out of any pool of water, and manifest as such. However she’s shown as a mermaid in the Prophecy painting, and she seems to think Humans should worship her. She’s also doesn’t think much of humans and wrecks the city, as I noted above during her trial with Noctis. However she seems to respect resolve, is seen as wise and knowledgeable and close to God.
Leviathan in Vi is said to be male, but “he” never says as much to the Returners. Rather the Returners are sent out on a quest in South Figaro after learning about Leviathan from another person in the city. They travel via boat to find it, and here as they are traveling to the location where Leviathan slumbers in an underwater cave, it attacks and you have to fight “him”.
Now two important things about Leviathan, first is the fact that as with it’s form in VI, this sea serepent lives under the water and is hidden. Another thing is the naming of this one as a She vs. the male he in VI, and that can be explained, given Levi’s personality, that most thought of it as male, and well who’s really going to look to see what gender a giant sea serpent is in the first place.
The second important thing is, I think Leviathan may have taken over the role of an Astral at the Behest of Bahamut.
We know that there is a Monument to Leviathan, but there is a small problem with it. The monument is that of Bismarck, and we know that Bismarck exists in XV and is said to be a sea god that Noct has never heard of. Isn’t it sort of odd that both Bismarck and Titan bear the same markings, and that there’s a monument to Leviathan there but with a Bismarck Statue, and Bismarck has shown to be kinder towards humans. To me it seems like someone was trying to replace the whale with the Sea Serpent, and, if I may so humbly point out, that’s kind of what happened in VI where Bismarck was the main water Esper until Advance gave us Leviathan.
So small theory here, Leviathan may have shared this duty at one point with Bismarck then, if Bismarck sided with Ifrit over things, it’s not that hard to see her taking over as the water person. This is also shown in the painting that Leviathan seems to be connected to Bahamut, and the other three are on the opposite side of them.
Shiva, the winter goddess, is seen as the most compassionate of the six Astrals, or at least as far as the stories go. She used to dislike humans due to how short their lives were and them clinging to dreams and hopes. Ifrit and the compassion and benevolence warmed her to them. She’s seen as the smallest of the Astrals, and has a human sized form. She has pale blue skin, elf ears, icicle horns, purple eyes. Her Messenger “Gentiana” stays by Luna through her journey, and she seems to coexist in more than one body. (Again, as I stated above with the Espers, they can take on human or nonhuman forms and can move about via magic in general.
So she fell in love with Ifrit, and then lost faith in humanity after the Astral war, but Luna gets her to feel compassion again and she tends to refer to herself in the third person. She tends to like people who are modest and selfless and is willing to protect those she cares for even when she was “killed” by Niflheim. What’s interesting here is that she created a snowstorm with her body that screwed up part of the desert area of Niff.
Shiva in Final Fantasy VI seems to be very similar to this version of Shiva. She shares the same color palette and is seen as human size to the Returners. Her clothing is similar to the one Shiva wears in XV, except that it’s pink rather than blue or white. When the Returners find her she is with Ifrit as the two were captured together, and sent down below the facility to die in a hole by Kefka. What’s important here is that she’s the one that calms Ifrit down, again, and basically tells him to listen when she and he both sense Ramuh.
Shiva is the most like her Esper form in VI. It would make sense that she may be distrusting of humans after the situation with the Empire, but if Ifrit was willing to trust them, then she would have been too as they were close even in VI. And the same sort of thing happened in VI as XV in regard to Shiva trusting Ifrit and making the call to allow the Returners to use their powers to save the other Espers. The fact that they used these two in this way calling back to VI is just a bit more than coincidental.
Bahamut is considered the leader of the Astrals, and said to have given powers to the Oracle, and also is the one that gave the crystal to Somnus and mankind. (Although personally I think there’s more to it than what the book says.) He physically looks like a dragoon and also, more importantly, looks like the design that Nomura created for the Fiend from FFVI. Importantly enough he is large enough that Noctis can fit in the palm of his hand in the Astral world, and his armor very much resembles the winged Dragon form he has in various other titles (but the design seems to have been heavily inspired by VI’s design for him). He is supposed to be the holder of light and energy. During the war Bahumt killed Ifrit during their battle.
Here's the funny thing, he supposedly picked the King and the Oracle to stop the scourge. He also resides in the crystal, and was shown giving a crystal to Somnus (more on that later in another theory). He also supposedly gave the Ring of Lucii to Somnus as well. In his “messenger” form he looks like a man with black hair, wearing armor and dragon wings. Apparently, Bahamut resides inside the crystal, which really gives me pause, but more on that later. I should note he’s the only one that calls Ardyn a Usurper and even the voice that talks to Iggy doesn’t call Ardyn that at all. (So what is up with Bahamut and Ardyn then?)
Bahamut in VI plays an interesting role there. His armor in XV does call to mind his dragon form here, seeing as he’s a steal gray dragon, with a bronze chest, red eyes and blueish wings. He’s held onto by a being called the Death Gaze and the Returners have to fight it to free him. In VI he’s kind of chill save for when you use him and he devastates the field.
The weird thing about XV Bahamut is that a lot of his looks seem to call back to his VI design. The painting does especially when it comes to the dragon form. What’s also weird is that he clearly clawed the hell out of Ifrit, meaning that he fought him in his Dragon form, but why? Something about his story doesn’t add up. What’s interesting is that if this is the same Bahamut as VI, it would make some sense for him to be very much the heavy hitter against anyone that was causing issues due to what happened to him and being trapped by a monster.
Ifrit is another hard one to talk about. He’s smaller than several of the other Astrals, and very Human looking in XV. He still has his horns and can hold a person in his hand. He has long brown hair, orange eyes, and no eyebrows. Consequently, in the form that he does take, and the one that we fight against, he’s way more gaudy looking than what he appears in the illustrated art. He has a crown of red and white stones on his head, some sort of bangles attaching his two horns, bangles on his wrists and ankles. His demonic form has a vastly different sword than the one we see in the pictures as well.
The one he’s fighting with us against is one blade, with yellow and purple scarves wrapped around the hilt and a green and blue necklace with what looks like square jade pieces or stones. That sword has some sort of engraved etching on it, and a vastly different hilt and pummel than the one we see him with in early depictions of his life.
The one that is earlier is a three bladed deal, with a simple grip and a big red jewel on the top of it. XV says that Ifrit gave mankind fire, and it’s implied that this is knowledge. He may have become king of Solheim but then something happened and he became angry and felt betrayed and said he was going to destroy all of Eos along with Solheim. The other astrals came and fought him, and Bahamut killed him an labeled him a betrayer. It’s believed that Ardyn woke him, but when you look at the depiction of him waking up, it’s clearly coming from the ground below him. It’s also believed that Ardyn corrupted him, and apparently in the Japanese version of the text his people didn’t rebel against him. What’s also interesting is that in a lot of ways he resembles Nomura’s design for the demon from VI.
For Ifrit in VI he looks like a green human with two large horns and purple hair. Again as noted with Shiva both were nearly killed and dumped down a hole, then fought the Returners who were trying to help them. During this time he senses Ramuh and stops, noting that he and Shiva were both taken as prisoners, drained and then dumped by the Empire. After hearing the Returners story, he agrees to help out, since Ramuh trusts them. He sees them as compassionate beings wanting to help others, which matches how XV’s Ifrit sees things.
That being said, I’d like to draw attention to Ifrit right now and his story…
Okay so, according to the lore, Ifrit was an Astral that loved humans, and he brought Fire down to the humans and became their King in Solheim. Shiva fell in love with him, but something happened and Ifrit felt betrayed by the humans and started a war:
“The war was started by the Astral of fire, Ifrit, who ruled over Solheim but was betrayed by his once-loyal subjects who began to spurn their benefactor and sought new heights of power. Ifrit sought to destroy Solheim as punishment for their betrayal and hubris, but as the Six are sworn to protect Eos from all harm, even from each other, the other five turned on Ifrit. In the German localization [1] and in Final Fantasy XV: Official Works [2], Ifrit is said to have wanted to destroy Eos itself along with humanity.”
So according to the book, Ifrit got mad because his subjects sought new heights of power. (Again sounds a lot like the Geshalt Empire in VI) but that’s not all. Se the thing is here, we’re not given a reason why they supposedly betrayed him or how. And again the war picture got me thinking.
Given what we know about Astrals right now, that they would rather not deal with humans, why would Ifrit, even with all his love for humanity, want to rule as a king? He’s a god, it doesn’t quiet fit into this story if you take a moment and think about it. Unless we don’t have the whole picture here.
So that really got me thinking. What would piss someone off so much as to feel betrayed by his own people? There are only a hand full of things that I can think of…
Either they were screwing around with him somehow…or…this maybe a case of a father going on a rampage.
Here me out…and I’ll get more into this in the Eos section.
During Final Fantasy VI there is a point where you go underground with Figaro Castle, during this moving around you’ll discover an Ancient Castle where the people are frozen and the King there is petrified along with his Queen.
This King…is the Esper Odin. As you search out the castle you learn that a wizard came to the castle during the Magi war, and turned Odin and his bride to stone.
At one point Celes Chere, one of VI’s main characters, discovers that the Queen was in love with Odin and this was taboo. Espers and humans are not supposed to mix, and certainly were not during the war. Once you fight Odin, you can turn him into Magicite and bring him to the Queen who will cry on him to upgrade him to Raiden.
Also in Final Fantasy VI you learn of Maduin, Terra’s father, who tried to save his daughter but was captured and later sacrificed himself to become magicite to help her out, after her mother was murdered by the Emperor.
Why did I bring up both stories? Because I have a theory on why that Unicorn is beside Ifirit in the painting.
So to explain this we have to get to know what Unicorn is in the game and the best place to start is to understand a bit of the legend about them. A Unicorn is “a symbol of purity and grace”, and would only go to those that shared the same values or ideals. So why would it go to someone like Ifrit? Well we know that he loved Humanity and that he willingly gave Solhiem fire and knowledge, so assuming that that’s true, then if the Unicorn here is a lot like the one in legend, that means that it saw someone with the same ideas. In addition in the world of Final Fantasy, Unicorn is considered a light-element in other games, and in VI it has the distinction of being the healing Esper in the group, as all it teaches is White Magic.
Unlike Ifrit and Shiva in VI, Unicorn has no sex mentioned, so it could be either female or male. (Keep this in mind.)
What’s weird about the comment from Ifrit is that he, according to the German version, wants to destroy Eos along with humanity. But if Eos is the heart of the world, as per Bahamut and the others insisting, why would he want to do that? Why kill the planet? And why would someone like Unicorn ally themselves with Ifrit if that was how he felt?
There’s also one other thing about the image that’s bothering me and we have to look to the Rock of Ravatogh there is clearly the remains of Ifrit there, as per the lore of XV. There’s also a ridge sticking up, which a lot of people thought was Eos’s body. But that was shown to be not true, so far. So what’s the additional wing like structure…well, that could be the remains of Unicorn’s wing.
Hear me out, Unicorn has the same wings as the shape of the jutting out rock so this could be where they perished along with Ifrit rather than submit to the will of Bahamut.
There are three options here that keep fighting in my mind, and hopefully we will get more details in regard to the back story more of Ifrit and the War, but for now I only have what I have to go on.
See, we know the Shiva loved Ifrit, but we never got a confirmation that he loved her back. We saw the picture, but that was it. So that leaves us with a huge question of was the feelings she was giving him mutual? If not…well there adds a new layer to the story of Ifirt.
As I said above there are two stories that could be the case here for Ifrit’s feelings of betrayal by the humans.
Option 1: As with Odin Ifrit fell in love with a human and decided to rule Solheim in that form.
Option 2: Ifrit was in love with Unicorn, another Astral, and the two ruled as King and queen.
Option 3: Ifrit is just a jackass and his ego got inflated and he took over as king.
Honestly I’m thinking one or two is the real situation with this story. And both actually fit the situation with the story that we have seen thus far.
Option A: Unicorn is a loyal friend of Ifirt’s. As such they became rightly furious when they saw their friend betrayed and felt that they had to help him in his quest. This would mean that Unicorn was just a partner with Ifirt and had no connections to the situation with Eos. The thing is…I don’t think that’s the case here.
Option B: Ifrit fell in love with a Human woman, as with Maduin and Odin in the past. As such he took her as his queen in Solheim and the two spawned an heir. During this time it was discovered that the Astrals were not gods, and as such, due to Solheim unearthing possible records of the Gesthal Empire (more on that soon with Solheim) and learning how the Espers powers worked, their scientists either killed or wounded the Queen and captured Ifrit and his child. More than likely they began to experiment upon her to use the powers and Ifrit broke free to tear apart the labs, only to find his child either was dead or near death and thus, put her soul in the crystal or had her become a crystal like stone (More on that in the Eos Section). Thus he was aided by his friend Unicorn to wreck Solhiem and the others came to stop them, both being killed by Bahamut.
Option C: Same story as above with B only in this case Unicorn is the child’s mother and was willing to war against her own to punish those that killed her child. It would explain the female voice in the crystal that we hear with Ignis…
Option D: Unicorn is the Child, rather than the mother and was willing to fight with their father against Bahamut and the others for the people that may have killed it’s mother. Again if this is a female then it would explain the voice.
Oh but there’s more in Regard to Unicorn. In the main games Unicorn is a strong healer and uses it’s magic to teach various skills to cure and heal the party members, as well as having the Healing Horn option in VI. And Healing Horn, cures everything! It’s a get out of jail free sort of ticket if you’re screwed over in VI. To add to that, Unicorns are known for being able to cure plagues and other illnesses with it’s magic.
On top of all of that, because it also resembles a Pegasus, there’s more to the story. See Pegasus is known for being the horse in Greek myths that helped Perseus. But it’s also known for being the horse of Eos as well, and is connected to the stars as it’s part of the heavens. Yeah you heard right Pegasus is connected to Eos, the dawn.
So if Ifrit had a connection to Unicorn that could be the connection to Eos that we’ve been looking for.
So we have a unicorn pegasus…who is either connected to Eos, could be Eos, or there’s more to that story…but moving on…
Four other important characters that are not Astrals but are key to this story.
Umbra and Pyrna. Both of these dogs are messengers. We’ve seen them in the book with wings, they can be wherever they need to be, and something that connects them to being Espers themselves, in the original concept these two were ninjas that could shape shift into their messenger dog form. We’ve seen art depicting Umbra with Noctis. These two are brother and sister and the idea of a dog connected to a ninja goes all the way back to VI and Shadow with his dog Interceptor. Both don’t age, both seem to have greater understanding of what’s going on, and I think that Pryna was trying to warn Iggy.
Bismarck. So we have a monument that is supposed to be dedicated to Leviathan, and yet it’s designed to look like Bismarck. Seems a bit odd that people are not equating the more gentle whale to Leviathan, rather than the angry sea serpent in this case. On top of that the monument allows you to make a wish by flying a piece of paper into it’s mouth. Given that the main attack of Bismarck is Sea Song and it has the ability to help your party by pretty much teaching them raise, it would make sense that the wishing aspect is connected to it.
But it does bring up the question of why Bismarck is there, given that Leviathan is supposed to be the ruler of the seas. Again, I suspect that, Bismarck may have been the patron before the war of the Astrals and Leviathan took over his job, removing him, much like Ardyn being removed, from most of history save for those in Accordo who recalled him and keep him in their memories there. It would explain why Noct wouldn’t know of him, and also may explain why there are these other creatures with the Esper names running around. Given Leviathan’s personality it’s not a stretch to see her doing this to a weaker Esper (or Astral). Prior to Leviathan showing up in VI, Bismarck was the ultimate water element, which again, it seems like the developers are hinting at the idea that Bismarck came first. There’s also the fact that both Bismarck and Titan have markings that the others do not, which is also something that stands out in this case.
Carbuncle. Now this one is very interesting. Carbuncle shows up as a totem that is next to Noctis’s bed when he was in a Coma. During the prelude story demo we got to see the creature in action, and he seems to be a healing and protecting creature, much like his VI counterpart. The fact is both version of Carbuncle have the same color hair, eyes and the red gem on it’s head. It can strangely appear in Battle or in photos in XV, and seems to be Noct’s guardian. In VI after Carbuncle is saved in the lab, when you use him, he uses a lot of protect and reflect spells. The fact that the creature look the same, down to the blue fire is an odd choice if they weren’t going to connect VI to XV.
Again this is all Hypnotical, but if I could hazard a guess here about what is up with the Astrals and Espers…
I would think that there’s a large possibility that the Astrals are restored Espers who returned to Eos from their realm to help out. Hear me out, I’m going to include some info that I’m going to cover in a later part, it might seem weird but it fits within the story that we got. (Warning spoilers for a 25 year old game and some spoilers for XV.)
So here’s the way my thoughts go. After the Returners and Terra defeated Kefka and turned the World of Ruin back to the light (more on that in another theory) the Espers (in their Magicite forms) returned to the world of the Espers, save for Maduin who used up the last of his magic to protect his daughter so he’s gone for good. The Esper Realm, sealed again, was cut off from the human world. Over time new Kingdoms sprung to life, and Ifrit and the others watched this happen through their own magic. Feeling that things had changed, Ifrit convinced several of the other Espers to return to the Human world and help them out, seeing as the world was now trying to rebuild after the hell that had happened in VI. Ifrit’s reasoning for breaking the seal and coming back was because of the fact that A. he saw how the humans were behaving and realized that there were good people out there like the Returners, and B. he recognized why Maduin, his friend, and Ramuh, his brother, saw humans as good.
The Espers came back but by this point in time they had become whispers and no one knew exactly what they were. Bahamut, being as he was, sort of took command, while Ifrit went and helped out a smaller growing kingdom named Solhiem, and gave them magic knowledge. Something happened during this time and that caused the Astral War to happen. (My own guess is that those in a position of some form of power or wanting power of their own realized that the Astrals were not gods but Espers and did something to someone that Ifrit cared about causing him to attack them, as the memory of the Gestahlian Empire probably was something that stuck with him.)
Bahamut killed him and possibly Unicorn (Either Eos or that Unicorn goes by another name) and the others fell to sleep, or were put to sleep, and the ones that sided with Ifrit may have been punished in some way, possibly becoming the boss creatures that we have to hunt down during the game. This of course is all speculation until we have more info on the Lore of the world.
But there’s more for the connections in this world…and next I want to talk about the Waring Triad, Eos, and the world of Gaia…
#final fantasy xv#final fantasy vi#final fantasy xv theory#final fantasy xv theories#astrals#espers#ffxv#ffvi#ramuh#ffxv ramuh#bahamut#ffxv bahamut#shiva#ffxv shiva#ffvi ramuh#ffvi bahamut#ifrit#ffxv ifrit#ffvi ifrit#eos#ffxv eos#ffvi warring triad#ffvi espers#ffvi bismarck#ffxv bismarck#carbuncle#ffxv carbuncle#ffvi carbuncle#ffvi golem#ffxv titan
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the dragons on the map: v
Rating: M
Summary: After the Lifeboat is nearly destroyed, the Time Team ends up stranded in their strangest and most unfamiliar destination yet: 1195 France. With Rittenhouse to stop, medieval adventures to be had, and a pair of rival kings at war, it’ll truly be a miracle if they ever get home. (Garcy/Lyatt/pre-Garcyatt, Flogan, Rufus Is Judging, general Time Team relationships and bonding. Guest appearances from the Plantagenets, for reasons.)
Available: AO3
The training yard is a square of roped-off mud, about twenty feet by twenty, decidedly at odds with what Wyatt was expecting. To be fair, he doesn’t know what he was expecting (motto of the entire trip, and frankly his damn life in general) – the fancy grandstands from A Knight’s Tale, complete with blasting Queen songs? No, probably not. There’s a weathered scarecrow thing with a padded crossbeam, which Flynn says is called a quintain. When Wyatt skeptically asks if they’re supposed to be hitting it, Flynn informs him that he’s welcome to. It’s jousting practice, actually. For twelve-year-olds.
“Jousting?” Wyatt repeats. “That’s the thing where they ride at each other with lances, right? Big tournament, fair maidens? That doesn’t sound that hard.”
Flynn carefully does not look over his shoulder at the fair maiden sitting on the steps of the bailey and watching them both, but Wyatt still senses the way his head wants to turn. Then he says, “Yes, something like that. But they aren’t quite the lavish chivalric spectacle that they turn into in the thirteenth century and on. They’re war games, training for real battle, and you’d be smeared into a pulp if you went against a squire, let alone a knight. They’re also a public attraction – Richard just licensed them to be imported into England for the first time last year, in order to raise revenue. Popular sporting events.”
Wyatt blinks. “So, Sunday Night Jousting, then? Something like that?”
“Yes. They have football too, actually, though not in any way you’d recognize it. The teams are entire villages, the games can go on for days, and there are definitely no rules.” Flynn pulls his sword out of its sheath, tests the edge with a thumb, and licks the small cut. “Right, we can’t train with these. I’d kill you. And that would be very enjoyable, believe me, but right now, it would also be a bigger problem.”
“You’re a riot.” Wyatt does not want to admit it, but he is somewhat relieved that Flynn and bladed weapons are not going to be paired against him. “So what?”
Flynn nods to the rack of blunt-edged practice swords. But as Wyatt starts toward them, Flynn says, “No, not that one. Take a wooden one.”
“Let me guess,” Wyatt snaps. “Because that’s the one for kids?”
“Well, it is.” Flynn’s voice is still level, but there’s a sharp anger underneath. “But maybe if you stopped being an arrogant ass for two seconds, realized that you don’t know this world or how to fight in it, and if we’re going to keep Lucy and Rufus safe, you might want to learn. Now what’s more important to you? That, or your pride?”
Wyatt stops short, cheeks flaming. There’s an awkward silence, he resists looking around to see if Lucy heard that, and then finally, nods once. Bends stiffly and gets out a wooden sword, which is heavier than it looks, tapered and fullered to match the weight and heft of a real one. “Okay, fine,” he says. “Are you going to teach me, or just snark?”
“Do you want to be taught?”
“How the hell do you know how to swordfight?”
“I’ve picked up a few techniques here and there,” Flynn says. “The first war I ever fought in, we barely had any guns. And I’ve been in my share of guerrilla campaigns where the best weapons we had were knives. It’s not quite the same thing, but I can adapt.”
Wyatt pauses. Then he nods again and lifts the sword, as Flynn goes over to get a practice one for himself – made out of metal, but without an edge. The first lesson is how to hold it, which is apparently not self-explanatory. Flynn spends ten minutes critiquing Wyatt’s grip, before he moves on to critiquing Wyatt’s footwork. It would probably be similar to fencing, if Wyatt had ever done that (he’s not a rich prep school twit, obviously he has never done fencing) but the technique is entirely different. Fencing is all about control, about grace and skill and poise, elegantly striking blows in targeted spots, with a lightweight rapier that doesn’t have an edge. Maybe if they were still in the eighteenth century and Wyatt was going to have to pull a sword-cane and duel a cravat-wearing rogue in a back alley, that style might be applicable. Here, however, it’s not. This is (or will be) a heavy broadsword. You are not trying to tap your enemy to score aesthetic points, you are trying to kill him, while also preventing him from killing you. You have to be conscious of where you are leaving yourself open for him to get in over or under your guard, how to deflect his attack and turn it back on him, and what parts of you will or will not be protected while doing this. Some knights fight with a shield, but Flynn thinks they need to get the sword down before they try adding that. Likewise, if this was going to be accurate, Wyatt should be wearing a thirty-pound chainmail hauberk. Try jumping and skipping around in that thing. You’ll be winded (and dead) in five minutes.
It only takes about twenty minutes of this, not having gotten anywhere close to an actual sparring match, for Wyatt to begrudgingly realize that Flynn’s plan for them to start at the bottom was a good one. He’s trained Delta Force, he’s not exactly coming at this from scratch, but it’s an entirely different range and focus and engagement with your enemy when you can’t just point a high-powered automatic rifle at them from however many yards away. Wyatt is also realizing that Flynn was not exaggerating at all when he said that real knights would wax the floor with them. These guys are stronger and tougher and better-trained than 99% of modern men, don’t have any of their coddled comforts, and the sword is only one of the weapons they can use. There are also longbows, crossbows, lances, axes, morningstars (the club with a spiky-ass ball on the end), daggers, and God knows what else. Basically, Wyatt thinks, the rule is simple. Do not fight a knight. You will get fucked up, and die.
He's valiantly reminding himself not to check for Lucy’s reaction every two minutes, especially since it’s probably better if she’s not paying close attention to his humiliation, when there’s a stir at the courtyard entrance, and the next second, Richard blows in like a hurricane. Wyatt’s getting the distinct sense that this guy never just walks anywhere. He always has to enter as dramatically and dominantly as possible (has that in common with Flynn, really) and expects to be the absolute center of attention when he does. Flynn breaks off from their lesson at once and turns to incline his head, so Wyatt does the same, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Lucy scramble to her feet. Gotta make sure you look sharp when the big boss strolls into the room, after all.
Richard comes to a halt and eyes them appraisingly, as if he’s pleased that they took his advice to hit the gym. He and Flynn exchange a jocular few words which Wyatt, yet again, can’t understand (this is really getting old – do they have a crash course or whatever? Because he’d take it). Then Richard raises an eyebrow at them in an expectant fashion, nods at Wyatt’s wooden sword, and asks Flynn something else. Flynn answers with a succinct few words that, Wyatt has no doubt, are casting all kinds of shade on his sword-related abilities, then turns to him and switches back to English. “He wants to know if we’ll give him a demonstration. Wants to see how we do.”
“What, so you have the chance to beat me up in front of Richard?” Wyatt is at least under no illusions about how that would go. “Look, man, you’re right. I suck at this, okay? You don’t need to keep rubbing it in.”
“King’s orders.” Flynn looks at him goadingly. “And the one thing Richard hates the most, on any side and any stripe, is cowards.”
Wyatt grits his teeth and swears inventively. Mostly under his breath, but he does as ordered. Backs up ten paces from Flynn, as Lucy gets to her feet and takes a few steps closer. It’s not clear whether she thinks she has a shot at stopping this, or she’s preparing to administer emergency medical intervention once it goes horribly wrong. At least without edges on the swords, they can’t do each other too much damage, but being whacked at full force over the head with a heavy blunt object is never exactly therapy. Lucy does her cute little awkward curtsy to Richard, who nods back regally, but it’s clear where his attention lies. Flynn raises his sword into a loose guard, and Wyatt does the same. They eye each other up and down. Then, on Richard’s command, they charge.
The only thought Wyatt has time for is that it is, in fact, really a good thing he’s not doing this while riding a horse, wearing a shit-ton of armor, and trying to control a ten-foot-long stick with a piece of very sharp iron on the end, and he will definitely apologize to any jouster he meets for dissing them. The next second, there’s no time for thinking at all. It becomes clear at once that yes, Flynn was setting it on beginner level for him (and Wyatt doesn’t honestly think that he should have acquired years and years of hard-won competence in one brief lesson, but still). Flynn himself isn’t a world-level expert, maybe, but that doesn’t matter. In fact, Wyatt realizes after about two excruciating minutes that Flynn is still pulling his punches, just a bit. Maybe to make this take longer, since he can’t keep hitting Wyatt at his leisure if it’s all over in an instant, or maybe (much as Wyatt disbelieves the possibility) not to completely destroy him in front of Richard. Flynn has even tilted his head once or twice, or hissed at him through his teeth, as if to hint to him where to hit or how to move. Wyatt sometimes gets these clues, and sometimes doesn’t. Mostly the latter.
The end result is that after about five minutes, Wyatt pretty sure he will have more bruises than skin tomorrow, and well aware that Flynn allowed him to get in the counterattacks that he did, he is smartly disarmed by Flynn and his sword goes flying. Oh God, and Lucy’s standing right there, because this just needed to get worse. Wyatt raises his hands. “Yield,” he growls. “That’s what you say, right?”
“Yes.” Flynn looks extremely smug. Of course he fucking does. Then he turns to Richard, who has been watching with an extremely critical air, and remarks something in a tone that does not need much translation, though Flynn provides it anyway. “He says that I’m bad and you’re terrible, and he really hopes we didn’t come here intending to be soldiers.”
That rocks Wyatt, given that he and Flynn are soldiers, and by the standards of their own time, pretty damn good ones. He wipes the sweat off his brow and realizes that an audience of about a dozen castle retainers and servants and so on have trickled in while the fight was going on; the king rarely goes anywhere by himself, after all. Great, more witnesses. He finds himself actually hoping that Flynn told Richard that he was in fact a manservant, so his general ineptitude can be forgiven. You know what, screw swords. If it’s necessary, he’ll just throw it away and punch someone in the face. (This plan will backfire if they have a sword, which they undoubtedly will, but Wyatt’s frustrated. Sue him.)
Wyatt wipes a trickle of blood from his nose and glances around, realizing that Rufus isn’t among the onlookers. That’s not entirely weird, since he said he was going off for a nap, but given as it’s the longest time they’ve been apart since landing, and there’s still the strong possibility of a Rittenhouse assassin lurking around a corner to do in Eleanor, it makes Wyatt nervous. He’s about to suggest that he go off to look for Rufus when Richard says something that makes everyone’s heads swivel around. Flynn, for the first time, looks unnerved, and Wyatt abruptly changes his mind. Rufus is probably fine. If Flynn is going to get pantsed, he wants to stick around and see it.
Whatever Richard has said, it also makes Lucy look a little worried, and she opens her mouth as if to say something, before clearly remembering that this is not a situation where she will have any influence whatsoever. Wyatt glances at her, struggling to repress the usual prickle in his stomach that she seems more anxious about Flynn possibly being hurt than about him. “What did he say?”
“He wants to spar Flynn himself,” Lucy supplies, after a pause. “With real swords.”
Oh-ho. This just got interesting. Wyatt supposes it’s too much to hope that Richard will flay Flynn to a pulp, though he knows that they can’t actually let that happen, and Richard probably won’t do it anyway. (If nothing else, because it shuts off the possibility of anything else later.) “Is he allowed to do that?”
“He’s the king,” Lucy says wryly. “He can do whatever he wants. And he was – is – known for his bravery, it’s how he got his nickname, and a total disregard of danger. He always fought in the front lines in all his wars and he loves getting his hands dirty, he’s not some modern royal who waves from a balcony and cuts ribbons.”
Wyatt knows a little of this. He read a book on the crusades while he was in Afghanistan, because there was not a lot else to do in the desert and because a lot of people kept saying the post-9/11 War on Terror looked like a modern one, and he wanted to know if that was true. He still isn’t sure, though he remembers the parts about Richard kicking a lot of ass. The siege of Acre, the battles of Arsuf and Jaffa, the siege of – Wyatt can’t remember the name, but it started with D – and a few others. This guy can take on half a dozen fully trained knights at the same time, he’s legendary for a reason. Oh please, oh please, oh please make Flynn fight him. Even he is going to have his hands full and then some.
There is a brief move among the retainers as if someone should probably discourage Richard from doing this, but it’s clearly part of his daily schedule anyway, and nobody wants to take on that thankless task. Richard shucks his cloak, rolls up his sleeves, and ties his thick red-gold hair back, then steps into the ring with a quick, agile motion. He’s just as tall as Flynn, and in an age before protein shakes, there is still a lot of lean muscle. Wyatt finds himself looking a little too long, in fact, and glances over at Flynn instead. He looks intimidated, if only briefly. Better you than me, pal.
Flynn changes out his practice sword for the real one he wore from Paris, and Richard draws his own. Wyatt thinks that if by some mad fluke, Flynn is the one to hurt and/or kill Richard and that’s the reason history gets fucked up, Rittenhouse is really going to have a nice long evil chuckle later. Even he can’t do that. Right?
The combatants pace backward, as before. Lucy makes a brief, nervous sound in her throat and clutches at Wyatt’s arm, and he refrains from voicing his desire that Flynn comes out of this with an equal number of injuries – it’s only fair, after all. Still, any substantial medical care is going to be a bitch in the twelfth goddamn century, and Wyatt doesn’t want him dead. (Well, that’s still up for debate, but anyway. Certainly not before they get home. And besides, nobody gets to kill Flynn apart from him. It’s a very confusing relationship.)
Richard nods at Flynn, who nods back. With that, and no further preliminary, the fight starts.
Contrary to Flynn and Wyatt charging each other like a pair of maddened warthogs, neither Flynn nor Richard moves to close the gap immediately. They circle instead, deliberate and consideringly. Flynn, who is not an idiot, is not about to race headlong at Richard the goddamn Lionheart, though Wyatt still kind of wishes he would. Both of them feint briefly, as if trying to draw the other into an attack, but neither of them falls for it. They step closer, and then closer, as the crowd seems to be holding its breath. Annoyingly, Wyatt is too.
There is a final instant, and then Richard spots an opening. He goes for it almost too fast to see, as Flynn is forced to duck rather than try to block it, and this puts him off his footing for Richard’s next attack, which whistles through the air sharply enough to make even Wyatt wince. Flynn manages to get off half a parry, as the swords tangle and screech with a flash of sparks, and Lucy’s grip tightens on Wyatt’s arm. Under other circumstances, this might be more enjoyable, but his attention is too fixated on the fight. He can’t help it. It’s… a lot.
Flynn twists his head out of the way of another series of surgically precise blows, finally gets his feet under him enough to try a proper counterattack, and Richard flicks it off like a man swatting a fly. He is holding his sword easily in one hand, while Flynn is using two, and after a pause, as if to make it more sporting, Richard shrugs and switches it to his left hand. Flynn backs up and considers him, breathing hard, a small nick in one eyebrow that is bleeding down his face. Wyatt feels an absurd urge to do the wave, which he suppresses. He’s also pretty sure you’re not supposed to cheer for anyone except the king in this situation, but he finds himself raising his voice anyway. “Hey, come on, Flynn. Come on, Flynn!”
Lucy gives him a surprised sidelong look, though she seems too nervous to actually say anything out loud. There’s a few-second interlude as Flynn catches his breath, which seems as graciously allowed to him by Richard as his hints were to Wyatt. It’s clear that the possibility of hurting Richard and pissing him off is also on his mind, though Wyatt’s realizing that the only way Flynn could kill him is if Richard dropped his sword, stood dead still, and let him do it (which seems, to say the least, unlikely). It’s almost vindicating to realize that even Flynn has met a historical figure he simply cannot brush out of the way, as he has done on noted occasions before, and that indeed, said historical figure is whupping his ass. Wyatt knows that Flynn is a machine. Someone this much better than him is scary.
After a final moment, Flynn apparently decides to hell with it, and closes in for an all-out barrage. Now they are really going at it, Richard’s sword flicking and flashing and scraping up and down and side to side as none of Flynn’s blows even get near him, though it looks like it’s taking slightly more of an effort than before. They end up briefly almost nose to nose, then Richard does something very fast, Flynn’s arm gets twisted behind him, and his sword goes flying. The next instant, the tip of Richard’s is at his throat, Flynn is on his back in the mud and breathing like he’s been chased by a train, and raises his hands. “Je cède.”
Richard pauses, then grins. Sheathes his sword, offers Flynn a hand up, and the two of them slap each other’s shoulders and pound each other’s backs in the time-honored tradition of men everywhere. Watching it, and having the distinct impression that Flynn has just earned Richard’s respect, sends another strange twist through Wyatt’s chest. God, this… happens all the time, doesn’t it? All the time. Reflexive as being sick. He doesn’t even like Flynn, but he also doesn’t like it that Flynn seems to be getting so chummy with Richard. And for Richard dismissing Wyatt in one word as “terrible” and not paying him a single bit of attention since… it’s not that he wants Richard to notice him, at least maybe not in the same way he’s clearly noticed Flynn, and yet…
Wyatt swallows, not even sure what’s lodged in his stomach, other than it feels cold and heavy and he is only now wondering how long it’s been there. Is it the scrawny kid who grew up in a West Texas double-wide where everything was always broken, they were so poor that they ate off reused paper plates, and whenever he went to school, he was consumed by jealousy for the kids with their fancy clothes and backpacks and parents who picked them up in gleaming SUVs? Hell, those kids weren’t even rich; there wasn’t exactly Dallas oil-baron money where he grew up, though there were plenty of the stiffs who worked the pumpjacks. But everyone was rich to that angry, dirty kid who got C’s in class, hid his bruises from the teachers, and went to Bible study for three years before they cottoned on that he was only there for the free food and none of the Jesus stuff had stuck. Wyatt spent his entire childhood being madly, soul-deep, burningly jealous of the whole world, and maybe the habit has stuck far deeper than he ever realized. Anything that anyone else has, he wants it, no matter how many problems it’s caused him as an adult. It’s how he lost Jessica the first time, and arguably the second time as well. It’s how he’s fucked things up with Lucy. And now, it just hits automatically because of course it does, and he can’t tell if it’s aimed at Flynn or Richard or both of them, and…
Wyatt turns away, staring up at the castle walls, which have gone dark as the sun has vanished behind them. It’s close to sunset, it will be dinner soon, with whatever they’re supposed to do at identifying and catching the Rittenhouse bastards. God, how the fuck has a white-trash gearhead poor boy from West Texas ended up in this job? Standing in medieval France before the great-great-great-great-granddaddy of America is even invented, let alone most of the modern world, with his time-traveling companions, trying to wrap his head around him being more jealous of either his nemesis or Richard the Lionheart. God, this is too much. It was supposed to go away when he drove his dad’s car into the lake and rose up from the water, the closest to a baptism he was ever going to get. It was supposed to go away.
“Wyatt?” They might be estranged, but Lucy has still sensed his distress. “Are you okay?”
“What?” Wyatt harrumphs, clears his throat, and forces a smile. “Oh yeah. Fine. I gotta say, that was pretty good. Watching Flynn get his tail whipped for a change.”
It was, at that, though it feels more artificial than he might have expected, and she glances at him for a moment longer, with some concern. Then she glances back at Flynn, who is still breathing hard, but grinning, as he talks to Richard. Richard claps him on the shoulder again, then goes over and climbs out of the ring, putting back on his cloak and striding out of the yard. The coterie hurries after him, and the bells from the church just down the way start striking the evening hour – which, Wyatt remembers, is Vespers. Supper will be soon.
He turns around to see that Lucy has gone over to Flynn and is checking if he’s been any more hurt than a few gashes and bruises. Wyatt’s first impulse is to make some sort of passive-aggressive comment to her later about how she didn’t do that for him, but then, she did just ask if he was all right, and he deflected. Jesus. Maybe try something different, for goddamn once? So he awkwardly crab-walks over and clears his throat. “I think you took it way easier on me than he did on you. That was pretty hardcore.”
Flynn’s mouth twists up wryly, as if understanding that that is close as Wyatt can presently come to a compliment, and they nod at each other again. Then Flynn says, “No, he definitely took it easy. If he was actually trying to kill me, I’ve have been dead twenty minutes ago.”
“So, moral of the story, don’t give him any real reason to kill us.” Wyatt wonders how well that would concord with Richard finding out that they’ve been sent by his mortal enemy to spy on them, and decides that the answer would be: hella not. Great. “He seemed to think you didn’t completely suck, though? Right?”
“He said I fought well,” Flynn acknowledges. It’s a small but genuine smile that pulls at his mouth this time, and it does further unwelcome things to Wyatt’s insides. “Anyway, we need to get changed for supper. Where’s Rufus? We should probably find him.”
“I’ll go look for him.” For once, Wyatt doesn’t feel the need to hang around to spy on Lucy and Flynn, and would welcome some time to gather his thoughts. “Go and see what – whatever we’re staying. Do we actually know that yet?”
“I don’t think so.” Lucy glances at Flynn. “Come on.”
With that, they head off, and Wyatt goes in the opposite direction, where they last spotted Rufus. Part of him wonders if it was really a great idea to let Rufus wander off by himself, and his anxiety is humming in his chest as he speeds up (well, so much as one can speed up) the tower staircase. Reaches the top, starts out, and –
It’s really an unfortunate thing for Wyatt that he just got beaten once, and hence is already in less than tip-top shape, as he catches a whirling shadow out of the corner of his eye. The next instant his head is cracked hard against stone, he sees stars, and flails out to punch wildly, thinking that he really was not counting on having this makeshift theory of self-defense tested so soon. At least his opponent does not seem to have a sword, not that that’s really a fucking comfort, and as his spinning vision resolves to see a long, thin dagger at his throat (did Flynn call that a poniard?), the person holding it is absolutely no comfort at all. She is grinning in a satisfied manner, red wisps of hair escaping from her braids. “You know,” she says. “I guess some things just never change no matter the century, huh? Like you getting your butt kicked by absolutely everyone.”
“You.” Wyatt grits his teeth. “Great.”
“Me.” Emma sits a little more solidly on top of him, green skirts flooded on the floor, as she twists the poniard leisurely into the hollow of his throat. “Had a nice view for your Braveheart session earlier. Very. . . stirring.”
“Where’s Rufus, you bitch?”
“Oh, look. Nobody’s ever called me that before. Really original.” Emma grins, canines sharp and white. “As for Rufus, I don’t know. You tell me.”
Wyatt considers the odds of knocking her off without getting stabbed in the neck, which at the moment, look bad. Besides, it sounds as if she hasn’t actually seen Rufus yet, and therefore is trying to get him to cough it up. Maybe Rufus saw her, but was hopefully smart enough to immediately hide, or at least stay out of the way until she was gone. Trying to keep her talking, Wyatt says, “So is that your big plan, then? Turn up here and what – convince Richard to marry you? Get knocked up, hope it’s a boy, then kill him?”
Emma makes a scathing noise in her throat. “God. Me? Are you crazy? Do you think there was ever the tiniest chance that I was going to settle down as some submissive, wimple-wearing, embroidering little medieval dormouse to pop out royal babies? Like I got through Caltech for that. Besides, aren’t you the one who should be more concerned about that? Jessica misses you, by the way. She thinks I don’t know, but I do.”
That catches Wyatt more solidly between the eyes than any of either Flynn or Emma’s blows. He tries to summon up something snarky, but it gets lost. “Oh?” he says at last, as coolly as possible, which is not very. “Does she?”
“Yeah. Couple months along now, she’s getting a little poochy. And probably broody too.” Emma shrugs. “Like I said. Misses you.”
“Look.” Wyatt hates hearing the pleading note in his voice, but he can’t help it. “You did whatever you did to Jess, and – fine, just – just don’t hurt her and my kid, all right? Please.”
“Why would we have to hurt her? As long as she’s a loyal member of Rittenhouse, she doesn’t have anything to fear.” Emma is clearly enjoying this, stringing him out, taunting and testing him. “In fact, you’re the one who’s hurting your presumable unborn child more, trying to stop what we’re planning. Then again, Wyatt, really. When do you ever make the right call? Jessica’s useful, sure. And like I said, she thinks I don’t know that I’m on to her. But if she steps too far out of line, well. . .”
“Please. Jesus, please!” Even as he begs, Wyatt knows that it’s not going to do any good, that Emma can and will kill Jess and the baby too if she poses too much of a threat. Maybe they can keep her delayed in the past somehow, but as long as she has control of the Mothership, she could still transmit the order. “You bastards brought her back as some version of herself that always remembered being one of you, and then you’d just kill her?”
“You got her killed last time. Remember?” Emma raises both gingery eyebrows. “Or is that something else you’ve selectively forgotten?”
Wyatt doesn’t know what to say. He clearly cannot in good conscience endanger his own child, especially when he’s just been thinking about his own upbringing, how his father failed on every level. Nor can he agree to endanger Lucy, Flynn, Rufus (again), and all of history, either, especially when it’s already been a clear struggle to build back what he’s blown. There’s another queasy pause as they stare at each other. Then Emma says, “I’ll make it really simple for you. You don’t tell your friends that I’m here for, oh, another twenty-four hours. Or, if someone has tragically already spilled the beans, you divert or deflect or whatever else. One more day. Easy, huh? Then Jess and Wyatt Junior are safe. You know, I really hope it doesn’t take after you. That would just be depressing.”
“One day, huh?” Wyatt tries to sound offhand. “So you can get your evil ducks in a row?”
Emma shrugs. “The idea is that you don’t interfere for that time, yes. Your call. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to change.”
With that, she slides off him, gets to her feet, twirls the poniard away, and strolls down the corridor and out of sight. Wyatt lies there for several more stunned moments, before gathering the wherewithal to pick himself up and stumble in the other direction. It’s dark enough now that torches and lanterns are starting to be lit across the castle, and he emerges into the courtyard, into the cool spring evening, and follows the crowd across into the hall. It’s loud with talk and laughter, though it doesn’t look like the meal has started yet, and he spots Lucy, Flynn, and – thank God – Rufus seated at the high table. If there is royal favor to be had, it appears they’re in it, and Wyatt squirms through the crush to the empty chair at their side. “Hey,” he says weakly. “Rufus, looks like you’re fine after all, huh?”
“Yeah, though that was in doubt for a little while there,” Rufus says. “I gotta tell you, I just told Lucy and Flynn. Emma’s here, I saw her in a corridor earlier. Obviously, I hid from her like a sane person until she was gone, but – ”
“Are you. . .” God, Wyatt hates doing this. “Are you sure it was her?”
Rufus gives him an odd look. “I’m pretty sure I recognize the woman who shot me, yes.”
Wyatt grimaces. Lucy and Flynn are also staring at him as if wondering if he’s all right, and he really, he really needs to try to not totally blow this. Finally he says, “Fine. Yes. I just saw her too. That’s why I’m late to the party. She jumped me back there.”
“So you just tried to get in some bonus gaslighting?” Rufus shakes his head. “Man, you know we’re mostly friends again, but what the hell?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. She. . .” They’re gonna take this really well, by which Wyatt means they’re not. “She threatened to kill Jess and my kid if we didn’t let her have free rein for twenty-four hours, all right?”
There’s a communal grimace and wince visible on the other three, which all things considered, is fair. “Great,” Rufus says. “Another award-winning episode of Wyatt Screws Us Over, now available on – what’s even more prehistoric than VHS? Betamax?”
“It’s my kid, all right? I know none of you trust Jess, and yes, I know I messed it up, but – what was I supposed to do, just agree to it?”
“No,” Flynn says, which is an unexpected choice of ally. Then again, he is obviously sensitive to the idea of Rittenhouse murdering people’s children. “And I’m surprised you told us, though I don’t think you would have if Rufus hadn’t first.”
Wyatt winces. Cruel, but again, fair. “I know we can’t let Emma just do whatever for a day without trying to stop her, but – guys, can we just. . . think about this?”
“Sure,” Flynn says. “We find her tonight and kill her. Problem solved.”
It’s on the tip of Wyatt’s tongue to say that there’s no guarantee this will keep Jess safe too, but he knows he can’t push it. Just then, there’s a stir and a fanfare, and everyone clatters to their feet, pulling off caps and hoods, as the hall doors swing open and Richard and Eleanor enter, arm in arm. They’ve both changed for dinner into matching green velvet that sets off the fire in their hair, tall and stately and beautiful, and the torchlight catches on the gems and gilt. They clearly enjoy looking good for the masses, and process up to the dais, where two servants, tabards emblazoned with the twin lions, pull back their chairs for them. They graciously sit, and Richard waves a hand, beckoning everyone else to do the same. There’s a clatter and a scrape as they do, and Richard says grace in Latin. After the murmured “Amen,” hands move to cross themselves, and servants enter with the food.
Despite Wyatt’s brief panic that this was going to be some big fancy feast, it’s not actually that formal, and after the day they have had, they’re starving. It’s definitely the best they’ve eaten thus far, as is only fitting at the king’s table. There are small roast birds in rich creamy sauce, seasoned with exotic (and extremely expensive) spices like saffron and pepper. Shellfish soup, venison boiled in almond milk, mutton and onions baked into flaky pastry shells, meat and mince pies, and more. There’s also some kind of tender white-meat fish in butter and garlic that looks very appetizing, until Flynn informs them that it is lamprey, aka a kind of small blood-sucking eel. Big delicacy. No one’s sure they feel up to trying that (Rufus snatches back his knife in a hurry). But there’s a lot to sample instead, it’s all very tasty, and there’s also plenty to drink. The servants are keen to keep filling their goblets, and have to be firmly discouraged. They need to keep clear heads.
Flynn gets distracted in talking to Richard, and Lucy is gazing adoringly down the table at Eleanor. Wyatt and Rufus sit side by side rather awkwardly, until Rufus mutters out of the corner of his mouth, “Mind not trying to make me look like a liar and/or an idiot again?”
“I’m sorry.” Wyatt stares down at his plate. “Emma just – caught me off guard.”
“Yeah. She’s good at doing that. You can’t still keep trying to play both sides, remember? Jessica chose Rittenhouse, not you. She’s not going to care if we die, and let me remind you that some of us already did, so. . .” Rufus hesitates. “Maybe we don’t have any responsibility to care whether she does. I know it’s complicated since she’s pregnant and all that. But if we still can’t trust you to pull your weight, or actively go against us – that’s going to be a problem. I’m not gonna pussyfoot around.”
“I know.” Wyatt blows out a bleak breath. “I’m going to be there for you, for all of you. I want to do better. I swear.”
“That’s nice,” Rufus says. “I mean it. I really hope you will be. But you know that I’m with Lucy and Flynn on this. There’s gonna have to be more than just talk.”
Wyatt looks at him, trying to think what else to say, when he’s distracted by a movement at one of the nearby tables. One of the noblemen, moving as if to scratch his nose, then dropping his hand out of sight. There’s something about that which seems off. Or rather, Wyatt knows exactly what it reminds him of, but it’s not something that you’re supposed to see here, not when they’ve spent the afternoon with the weapons of choice, not when –
“HEY!” Wyatt jumps to his feet, rocking the trestle table and startling everyone. He whirls toward Eleanor, who looks (understandably) startled. “MA’AM, DUCK!”
Obviously, she doesn’t understand him, she’s staring at him like he’s lost his mind, and Wyatt’s pretty sure that tackling the queen is going to get him beheaded pronto. But he doesn’t have time to waste, and he doesn’t know what the bleeding blue hell Rittenhouse is playing at, trying to assassinate her with a modern weapon in full sight of everyone. Not to mention her legendarily talented-at-kicking-ass son, who will tear the killer literally limb from limb the instant he gets his hands on him. This seems wrong, this seems very wrong, but they still can’t take that chance. Otherwise –
Wyatt launches himself at Eleanor –
– just as, all the more shockingly given that pistols won’t be invented for oh, another five hundred years, the shot goes off.
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Damali Genisa
(Is Troll Buzzfeed a thing? Well, if it isn’t- she’s gonna MAKE IT HAPPEN)
Buzzfeed has 8 letters, so what if Buzzfeed was just one troll, out there in space, posting about space cryptids?
Universe: Alternia!
Name: Damali Genisa
“Damali” comes from Hydrodamalis gigas, the Steller’s Sea Cow, an extinct animal often reported to still be alive somewhere out in the ocean, a reference to this one’s love of possible mysteries. “Gensia” comes from “genesis” the creation of something. In her case, she’s more generating stories about Trollfoot and The Helbeast than anything substantial.
Age: Roughly 7 Sweeps
Theme/Story: Damali is, in the most basic sense, a naturalist. Her focus just happens to be on what many consider to be “chasing myths” and “writing clickbait articles about Troll Bigfoot” instead about like, moths or plants or whatever. The public just doesn’t understand what she understands yet! They will in time, with enough proof…
Okay, I’m gonna get this suggestion out of the way early on because I thought of it earlier and it’s been eating my brain… You talk a lot about how she’s more gullible than she’d like to admit and how she just wants to BELIEVE in the options!!! And so I… I have to suggest… maybe she’s also super into multi-level-marketing/pyramid schemes. She keeps getting suckered into these scams. She’s out here taking part in scams where she purchases content online and then attempts to resell it for a commission. Self employment rules! (Until you lose all your merchandise in a river while cryptid hunting and have to pay back SO many beetles).
Strife Specibus: Camerakind
Damali’s main way of showing The Truth is through her camera, which she keeps on her person at all times. Shaky video, blurry images, ominous sound recordings- these are the weapons of the modern era, she thinks.
Fetch Modus: Enhance
Ever see one of those crime shows where there’s a blurry image and they’re like “Zoom. Enhance, zoom again!” And they’ve magically upped the resolution? Damali’s modus is like that- she has to try and ID the item she wants before she runs out of Enhances.
That’s so funny I love it.
Blood color: Teal
Tealbloods are relentless idealists, and Damali takes that to almost ridiculous extremes. She’s someone who wants to believe in even the slightest possibilities, and she makes others believe them through sheer force of personality. To her, to simply GIVE UP on something because the evidence isn’t there is wrong. It’s out there, we just haven’t found it yet.
Symbol and meaning: Fitting.
LIBNIUS, THE CERTAIN
Trolltag: [GA] gnomicAuthentic
Both words in her tag relate to The Truth in different ways, “gnomic” in a more moral or religious sense, and “Authentic” in a more social or material way.
Quirk: YOU WON’T BELIEVE THESE REAL PICTURES OF THE HIGHLAND NECKBEAST! Damali likes trying to grab attention by starting her dialogues off with a title that relates to what she’s about to say. If she drops it, you know she’s serious.
CONVERSATIONAL CLICKBAIT…. I Love it….
Special Abilities (if any): Besides a camera, wilderness knowledge, and a willingness to ignore anything that doesn’t conform to her worldview, nope! She’s your average high-midblood.
Ancestor: The Geometer [Ferrei Genisa, The Witch of Hope]
The Geometer was a visionary at the side of a powerful Noble who wanted more power than she knew what to do with. The Geometer was her closest companion (some even say her beloved), the one who sharpened her plans with strategy and mathematics, who manipulated the battlefield and the castle storeroom with equal ruthless efficacy. She made one fatal error however- designing a weapon that could not be contained. In her hubris, she turned it on her enemies, but it also turned on herself, annihilating her carefully made plans in mere moments.
Damali tries to pretend none of that ever happened, really! World domination isn’t really her thing, and she inwardly feels bad when she finds evidence of the destruction her Ancestor caused. She sometimes wonders how many cryptids are out there that her Ancestor created…
I love this… I wonder if part of her interest in cryptids Could be her wanting to like, provide restitution to any that her Ancestor made? Maybe not even consciously, but y’know.
Lusus: Damali’s pine marten lusus has been by her side since she was a wriggler, and there’s nobody better she’d want by her side on her adventures! The two have dug out a kind of den for themselves, deep in the wilderness. It gives Damali the kind of hands on access to her subject material that she craves so much.
Interests: Cryptid Hunting, Photo Manipulation, Photography and Filmography, A Good Ghost Story, Folktales, Wilderness Survival Tips, Fun Clickbait Articles
Because of the recommendation I added I’m… not sure there’s really many additional necessary interests. Maybe like, Self Dependency? It’s always good to stash up money to transfer into resources for long RESEARCH TRIPS… Though she usually ends up having to scrounge supplies together anyways because of the nature of pyramid schemes.
Appearance: Damali’s a practical kind of gal, so most of her shoes are boots and most of her jackets are plastic and waterproof. Her hair is a bit wild, but she tries to keep it tucked behind her ears and under fishing hats so it’s not always in her face. But those curls always end up directly in her eyes at the worst times! If only she could remember where all her hair ties went.
Personality: Damali’s always been a big dreamer. When a vision gets into her head, there’s no stopping her. She’ll hold onto whatever her thought is until she’s made it a reality or it’s killed her. So far, she’s survived everything the world’s thrown at her. She often gets ragey at people online who dismiss her research as chasing fairy tales. For her, they’re as real as the air she breathes and the earth she walks on. She’s gone to the ends of the earth to prove herself right, and she’ll do it again in a heartbeat if it means not having to admit defeat. She’s a master at making excuses, and she’s often charming enough that people don’t get on her case too much. She’s got a bad habit of taking everything at face value and not fact checking, so she has a lot of spacey beliefs about the world and how it works. She’s been swindled more times than she’ll ever admit.
I… adore her.
Title: Mage [¿¿] of Hope
Active Classes That Remain: Maid, Mage
Passive Classes That Remain: Sylph, Rogue
Damali is a classic Hope player, even if she’s a bit over the moon about it. For Hope players, belief IS reality much of the time. Hope is about widening horizons, expanding options, and having the choice to pick what you desire. Damali’s obsession with cryptids comes from wanting to have options, wanting to know that other things are out there, still waiting to be discovered. She wants a brighter, bigger and wider world to call her own.
I feel like she is a Mage because she’s a shepherd; she wants to tell and guide people towards the world she just KNOWS is real, but everyone says just isn’t so. She can’t really PROVE or EXPLAIN it, but she KNOWS it’s out there. She tries! She writes clickbait to draw attention and sometimes just… makes things up, but she’s no Seer. The Mage Knows and Guides through Action, not through Teaching.
I think this is definitely really fitting for her. Her inverse is also Heir of Rage with this which means she passively changes the restrictions. Those rules and limiters that exist in a logical reality? She just eschews them, places them wherever she pleases. Can a dinosaur live for millions of years in a tiny lake? It’s possible in her world, now.
Land: The Land of Cold and Marble
Damali shudders as she steps out into her Land. The ground is polished to the point where she can see her own reflection in the stone. There isn’t a tree for miles in this blue moonlit wasteland. The wind blows cold and hard with no resistance, and Damali is instantly miserable. Braving the cold alone was never something she thought she’d ever have to do. And yet, here she is.
Statues of gods long forgotten lie still and alone, unmourned and uncared for. She sits at the feet of them and feels a power still within them. Perhaps these were the gods of this land, before their people perished in this endless cold. Maybe, if someone believed in them just a bit, they’d come back, and thaw this planet back out once more…
L o v e
Dream Planet: Prospit
You don’t get more flexible and emotional than someone willing to ignore reality because it doesn’t jive with her. Damali’s all about going with her gut, doing what feels right.
Design:
Hat: Look at this fun wavy fishing hat that gave me so much trouble but here it is. It’s here.
Hair: A big messy disaster. But it’s definitely theoretically tucked behind her ears.
Face: Obviously the eyes are the same, but I added a pop of eyeshadow as a joke about how many pyramid schemes revolve around makeup. I also gave her a wider and more genuine smile.
Top: Black shirt with a mildly transparent and shiny teal rain hoodie over top.
Pants: Edited from fan-troll’s sprite sheet, because it’s just a good template for the kinda Cryptid Huntin’ aesthetic.
I love herrrrr
-CD
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Did Republicans And Democrats Switch Names
The Party Of Kennedy V The Party Of Nixon In The Civil Rights Era
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Two things started happening at the same time:
Racist Democrats were getting antsy
Neither party could afford to ignore civil rights anymore
In 1960 Kennedy defeated Nixon. At the time of his election, the both parties unevenly supported civil rights. But President Kennedy decided to move forward.
After Kennedys assassination in 1963, Johnson continued Kennedys civil rights focus.
As you can imagine, that did not sit particularly well with most Southern Democrats. This is when Strom Thurmond flew the coop for good.
In fact, a greater percentage of Congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Democrats. Support for the Act followed geographic, not party, lines.
Photo Credit
Soon after, the Republicans came up with their Southern Strategy a plan to woo white Southern voters to the party for the 1968 election.
The Kennedy and Johnson administrations had advanced civil rights, largely through national legislation and direct executive actions. So, the Southern Strategy was the opposite states rights and no integration.
As in the Civil War, the concepts of states rights and tradition, were codes for maintaining white supremacy.
Starting with Thurmond in 1964, and continuing throughout the Johnson and Nixon administrations, Dixiecrats left the Democrats for the Republicans.
Photo Credit
The Parties Change Course
After the war, the Republican Party became more and more oriented towards economic growth, industry, and big business in Northern states, and in the beginning of the 20th century it had reached a general status as a party for the more wealthy classes in society. Many Republicans therefore gained financial success in the prosperous 1920s until the stock market crashed in 1929 initiating the era of the Great Depression.
Now, many Americans blamed Republican President Herbert Hoover for the financial damages brought by the crisis. In 1932 the country therefore instead elected Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt to be president.
The Democratic Party largely stayed in power until 1980, when Republican Ronald Reagan was elected as president. Reagans social conservative politics and emphasis on cutting taxes, preserving family values, and increasing military funding were important steps in defining the modern Republican Party platform.
Chuck Cooper Becomes First African American Selected In Nba Draft
The Dixie Democrats seceding from the Democratic Party. The rump convention, called after the Democrats had attached President Trumans civil rights program to the party platform, placed Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Governor Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi in nomination.
Up until the post-World War II period, the partys hold on the region was so entrenched that Southern politicians usually couldnt get elected unless they were Democrats. But when President Harry S. Truman, a Democratic Southerner, introduced a pro-civil rights platform at the partys 1948 convention, a faction walked out.
These defectors, known as the Dixiecrats, held a separate convention in Birmingham, Alabama. There, they nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a staunch opposer of civil rights, to run for president on their States Rights ticket. Although Thurmond lost the election to Truman, he still won over a million popular votes.
It was the first time since before the Civil War that the South was not solidly Democratic, Goldfield says. And that began the erosion of the southern influence in the Democratic party.
After that, the majority of the South still continued to vote Democratic because it thought of the Republican party as the party of Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction. The big break didnt come until President Johnson, another Southern Democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
The Parties Did Not Switch Platforms
From a business perspective, Rauchway pointed out, the loyalties of the parties did not really switch. Although the rhetoric and to a degree the policies of the parties do switch places, he wrote, their core supporters dont which is to say, the Republicans remain, throughout, the party of bigger businesses; its just that in the earlier era bigger businesses want bigger government and in the later era they dont.
In other words, businesses needed things that a bigger government could provide, such as infrastructure. Once these things were in place, a small, hands-off government became better for business. The parties did not switch in the 1960s either. The changes started decades earlier.
When Did The Democratic And Republican Platforms Switch
As noted above, the planks, platforms, ideologies and even the names of the American political parties switched often, and at many different points. We call these changes: the first party system, second party system, third party system, fourth party system, and todays fifth party system .
Some changes stick out like a sore thumb, but most of the changes between party systems happened slowly over time. Its hard to summarize or detail every issue, but the keys are names like Free Soil, Free Silver, Bourbon Democrats, anti-slavery Republicans, Stalwarts, Half-Breeds, American Independent, and other telling titles of factions or third parties whose members inevitably have gravitated toward a major party over time.
When we cant cut through the rhetoric, we can look at voting records to see which party favored what.
Its important to note, that the current parties werent established until the 1850s . From this point forward is when the major switching happens, but it is also when issues we consider important today take center stage for the first time. When Lincoln takes office, the Republican party is only a few years old, prior to this the ideology is roughly the same and they are called Federalists, and then Whigs. The same is true for anti-Federalists, Democratic-Republicans, and Jacksonian Democrats.
Perhaps the best answer to, when did the platforms switch, is: under Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and LBJ.
An Overview Of Platform Switching Between Republicans And Democrats
Above we gave a summary of the party systems, below we will look at key changes, key voter issues, and provide more details and justifications .
With the above said, there isnt one change that results in the political realignments and platform switches that define the Party Systems; instead, there are many.
Below is an overview of the most important changes alongside a quick history of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Why Did Parties Switch Platforms And Members
The common thread of each major switch, aside from war, was civil rights. Or maybe we could more fairly say, state-enforced social and economic justice versus individual liberty as is illustrated by the charts on this page.
Civil rights aside, since before the first party was formed, our founding fathers have fought each other tooth and nail over the direction of the country. The biggest issues have been: big business versus small business, big government versus small government , big government versus small government , whether or not to have a central bank, and how much local and foreign credit and debt was the right amount.
We can see how some of the above values are consistent for a given quadrant of the political sphere, but not for a specific party in a two party system or even a faction or member of a party at a given time! We can also see how specific groups have shifted their interpretation of these things over time, and how some groups simply pay lip-service to the overarching ideals.
The planks and platforms of each opposing group have changed over time, as specific stances on these issues were taken, and as public opinion changed with the times.
A Response To The Claim Welfare Is Equatable To Slavery
In the 1850s, inequality in the Northern big government cities, northern immigration in the big cities , and African slavery in the small government south all existed side-by-side. and in ways, so it is today . Northern cities still favor bigger government, and they still have problems of racism and inequality, Rural South still favors small government . This does not make the North of today equatable to the slave economy of the South of yesterday however.
There is this idea that welfare is equatable to slavery in this respect, as in both cases a societal structure is providing basic essentials for a class of people . This argument, often presented in tandem with the claim the parties didnt switch/change is essentially a red herring that misses the nuances we describe on this page .
The southern conservatives who held slaves and fought for the Confederacy essentially switched out of the Democratic party starting in the 1960s, and even continuing to the modern day , in response to LBJs welfare programs . In other words, if the southern conservative had wanted to oppress a class of people with welfare, one would logically assume they wouldnt have switched out of the Democratic party over time in response to welfare programs.
Today it is a Southern Republican who flies to Confederate flag, today it is a Republican who champions small government in America. Yesterday, it was a Southern Democrat.
The Third Party System: Reconstruction And The Gilded Age
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Post-Civil War era politics in the United States can be understood by examining the Third Party System factions of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age.
In the Gilded Age things change in a major way due to both parties embracing cronyism but before we get there we need to understand Reconstruction.
The changes in the Republican party in this era are best explained by looking at the conservative, moderate, and radical Republicans of Reconstruction . Meanwhile factions like carpet baggers and ex-Southern Unionist scallywags are illustrative of different reconstruction Democrats.
Here it is vital to note one of the hardest things to talk about in American history, but Ill say it plain. The South didnt want to lose the war, they wanted to win, they didnt want to stop slavery, they wanted to continue it. They did not respond well to losing the war. Lincoln was immediately executed, Andrew Johnson took over, he was impeached, and the military had to occupy the south while the KKK committed what was frankly genocide against Freedmen.
As noted above, Reconstruction was part rebuilding, part Civil Rights , part enforcing actual law and order and preventing forced slavery under different names and murder , and part .
The Redeemers completely changed the Democratic party by unifying the non-racist factions and moving the Democratic party toward business interests .
What Year Did The Democrats And Republicans Switch Platforms
4.4/5DemocraticRepublicansRepublicansDemocratsDemocrats
After the end of Reconstruction the Republican Party generally dominated the North while a resurgent Democratic Party dominated the South. By the late 19th century, as the Democratic and Republican parties became more established, party switching became less frequent.
Beside above, when did the South become Republican? Via the “Republican Revolution” in the 1994 elections, Republicans captured a majority of Southern House seats for the first time. Today, the South is considered a Republican stronghold at the state and federal levels, with Republicans holding majorities in every Southern state after the 2014 elections.
Similarly one may ask, when did Republicans and Democrats switch colors?
Since the 1984 election, CBS has used the opposite scheme: blue for Democrats, red for Republicans. ABC used yellow for Republicans and blue for Democrats in 1976, then red for Republicans and blue for Democrats in 1980 and 1984, and 1988.
What were the views of the Democratic Republican Party?
Democratic–Republicans were deeply committed to the principles of republicanism, which they feared were threatened by the supposed monarchical tendencies of the Federalists. During the 1790s, the party strongly opposed Federalist programs, including the national bank.
How Republicans Gave Up On Reforming The South
University of North Carolina
As mentioned above, Republicans had done a lot to help former slaves in the South, but many of the gains they had made existed more on paper than in practice, and others were in danger of being rolled back.
And indeed, the backlash soon arrived. In the South, whites were dead set against what Radicals had done, and were willing to use violence to fight it.
In the North, whites essentially thought theyd done more than enough for black Southerners at this point. Businessmen wanted their own interests to take center stage. Some intellectuals worried about the federal government squelching states rights.
And public opinion turned there was little appetite among white Northerners for an indefinite violent federal occupation of the South.
But most Republicans no longer cared. The party had achieved its founding aim and had gone quite a bit further, since the Slave Power was now a thing of the past, and that provided a handy rationalization for not doing more. The cause of equal rights for black citizens would now essentially vanish from national American politics for decades.
How The Democrats Became Socially Liberal
The Third Party Democrats began to change from social conservative to social progressive in the 1890s at the end of the Gilded Age under the progressive populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Under Bryan, the Democratic Party became increasingly socially progressive and necessarily authoritative. From Bryan to Wilson, to LBJ, to Clinton the Democratic Party increasingly favored progressive social liberalism regarding government enforced social justice and economic intervention over governance, this attracted progressive Republicans and drove social conservatives from the party over time.
TIP: See History of the United States Democratic Party.
Third Party System: Republicans Versus Democrats The Battle Begins 1854
The Democrats of this era were against big government telling states whether or not they can own slaves, and they dont want big banks. See the Democratic Party Platform of 1856. The Democrats still saw themselves as the Liberal party of Jefferson and Jackson, the small business farm owning libertarians. Meanwhile, the Republicans were a new iteration of the parties of Hamilton and Clay, but with different factions supporting them then when they were Whigs.
The Republicans are for modernization. They are against slavery, for central banks, and for bigger industrialized business. They embrace ideas of taxes, credits, and debts in the interest of prosperity and social justice. They embrace many of the economic policies of the Whigs, such as national banks, railroads, high tariffs, homesteads, and aid to land grant colleges .
The Republicans also become known as a pro-business party at the time . The Republican coalition consisted of businesspeople, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, and professionals who were attracted to the partys modernization policies.
Meanwhile, the race issue pulled the great majority of white southerners into the Democratic Party as . The Republicans want a more northern style of commerce and banks, and Democrats want a smaller farmer-based economy, with less government and no central bank. See the Republican Party Platform of 1856 here
The Switch that Starts With Civil War
The Republican Sixth Party Strategy Where The Tea Party And Alt
Everything noted so far leads up to one other thing that needs to be discussed on its own .
After Voting Rights 1965 it wasnt just a matter of switching the South, it was a matter of taking that 1930s conservative coalition to the next level and the Republicans switching themselves .
No social conservative faction was strong enough on its own to win an election, not after Voting Rights, but together, under a strategically planned big tent, the social conservatives and establishment conservatives could create a siren-like Frankensteins monster to push for free-enterprise and socially conservative values against the progressive state an increasingly progressive Democratic Party .
This story involves:
The Powell memo, the southern strategy, the John Birch Society, the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, Norquist, Roger Aisle, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Fox News, Reagan, Right-Wing Radio, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, and a vast right-wing conspiracy aimed at getting the many different social conservative and establishment conservative factions to adopt each others ideology .
Essentially, the Conservative Coalition in their fight against Communism and liberal democrats since WWI, but especially when their hand was forced post 1965, have created the modern right-wing populist political machine to counter the lefts own political machine .
Neither Party Is Completely Blameless
The political history of African-Americans is often proved Douglas right. Yet, no one from any background whether a political, religious, or racial background should ever love any political party above principle. Although, history is clear that there have been major differences in how political parties treated black Americans. Neither party is completely blameless in all of its actions, nor have all the leaders in a party always been good or always been bad.
Understanding this truth, Representative Robert Brown Elliot, even though he was a strong Republican leader in his day, wisely advised, I am a slave to principles. I call no political party master. I have ever most sincerely embraced the democratic and representative ideal. Not indeed, as represented or professed by any political party but by its true significance, as transfigured in the Declaration of Independence and in the injunctions of Christianity.
Elliots admonition is wise. A line with political candidates that conform to what he called, The Injunctions of Christianity.
Those Racist Dixiecrats Create Mainstream Republican Policy
But their ideas formed modern GOPs core platform.
In a campaign ad, Democrat-turned-Republican Jesse Helms said racial quotas prevented white people from getting jobs. The lie of racial quotas persists in the GOPs rejection of affirmative action. Racial quotas are illegal.
Take the idea of special interests. Heres Helms view, as a Republican:
Are civil rights only for Negroes? While women in Washington who have been raped and mugged on the streets in broad daylight have experienced the most revolting sort of violation of their civil rights. The hundreds of others who have had their purses snatched by Negro hoodlums may understandably insist that their right to walk the street unmolested was violated. Television commentary, 1963, quoted in The Charlotte Observer.
But you would think that Ted Cruz would have a clearer understanding of the connections between the Dixiecrats and the Republican Party.
He loves Jesse Helms.
Looking to do your part? One way to get involved is to read the Indivisible Guide, which is written by former congressional staffers and is loaded with best practices for making Congress listen. Or follow this publication, connect with us on , and join us on Facebook.
The Myth Of The Republican
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When faced with the sobering reality that Democrats supported slavery, started the Civil War when the abolitionist Republican Party won the Presidency, established the Ku Klux Klan to brutalize newly freed slaves and keep them from voting, opposed the Civil Rights Movement, modern-day liberals reflexively perpetuate rather pernicious myth–that the racist southern Democrats of the 1950s and 1960s became Republicans, leading to the so-called “switch” of the parties.
This is as ridiculous as it is easily debunked.
The Republican Party, of course, was founded in 1848 with the abolition of slavery as its core mission. Almost immediately after its second presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won the 1860 election, Democrat-controlled southern states seceded on the assumption that Lincoln would destroy their slave-based economies.
Once the Civil War ended, the newly freed slaves as expected flocked to the Republican Party, but Democrat control of the South from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Era was near total. In 1960, Democrats held every Senate seat south of the Mason-Dixon line. In the 13 states that made up the Confederacy a century earlier, Democrats held a staggering 117-8 advantage in the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party was so strong in the south that those 117 House members made up a full 41% of Democrats’ 283-153 advantage in the Chamber.
So how did this myth of a sudden “switch” get started?
It would not be the last time they used it.
Did The Democrats And Republicans Switch Parties
The US political parties, now called and , switched platform planks, , and many times in American history. These switches were typically spurred on by major legislative changes and events, such as the Civil War in the 1860s, and Civil Rights in the 1960s. The changes then unfolded over the course of decades to create what historians call the Party Systems.
What Does Democratic Mean
Starting alphabetically, the word means pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
Simply put, the lowercase democratic is a word used to refer to anything that resembles or has to do with a , a form of in which the supreme power rests with the people and is exercised by them directly or by politicians that they elect to them. In practice, this is usually accomplished through a fair, organized system of voting, in which or cast votes in support of political or societal issues .
So, the word democratic is used to describe government systems that are or resemble democracies and the people that run these types of governments. The United States of America is a representative democracy in which the people elect representatives to perform the demands of politics on their behalf. This is why we say that the US is a democratic country or that we have a democratic form of government.
The English word democratic dates all the way back to the late 1500 and early 1600s. It is derived from the Greek word dmokratía . The government system of the ancient Greek of Athens, in which the people held the power , is considered the worlds first democracy. Considering that Athens was a slave-owning society, its form of democracy was much different than the democratic governments of today.
The South And The House Go Republican
Jonathan Davis, Arizona State University
I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come, President Johnson said shortly after signing the Civil Rights Act, according to his aide . And indeed, Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican specifically for this reason.
Yet party loyalties take a long time to shake off, and the shift of white Southerners from being solid Democrats to solid Republicans was in reality more gradual.
And while race played an important role in this shift, other issues played roles too. White evangelical Christians became newly mobilized to oppose abortion and take stands on other culture war issues, and felt more at home with the conservative party. There was that suspicion of big government and lack of union organization that permeated the region. And talented politicians like Ronald Reagan promised to defend traditional values.
Still, Democrats continued to maintain control of the House of Representatives for some time, in large part because of continued support from Southerners, as shown in this map by Jonathan Davis at Arizona State University. But in 1994, the revolution finally arrived, as Republicans took the House for the first time since 1955. And many of the crucial pickups that made that possible came in the South.
Understanding The Basics: How The Parties Changed General Us Party History And Why The Big Switch Isnt A Myth
Above we did an introduction, this next section takes a very general look at how the major parties changed and how factions changed parties.
To sum things up before we get started discussing specific switches, both major U.S. parties used to have notable progressive socially liberal left-wing and socially conservative right-wing , and now they dont.
Originally, like today, one party was for big government and one party was for small government .
However, unlike today, party lines were originally drawn over elitism and populism and preferred government type more than by the left-right social issues that define the parties today, as the namesake of the parties themselves imply .
In those days both parties had progressive and conservative wings, but the Southern Anti-Federalist, Democratic-Republican, and then Democratic Party was populist and favored small government, and the Northern Federalist, Whig, and then Republican Party was elite and favored bigger central government.
However, from the lines drawn during the Civil War, to Bryan in the Gilded Age, to Teddy Roosevelt leaving the Republican Party to form the Progressive Party in 1912, to FDRs New Deal, to LBJs Civil Rights, to the Clinton and Bush era, the above became less and less true.
Instead, today the parties are polarized by left-right social issues, and each party has a notable populist and elitist wing.
source https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-republicans-and-democrats-switch-names/
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