#I have been sitting on the idea of the Beast being just a normal turtle with a knife for ages. Years in fact. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-crows-typist · 3 years

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riddle and floyd ficlet please! doesn’t need to be romantic. the word is “spoon”!

The Possibilities Are Endless

“The rules are meant to be broken.”

CW: potential OOC and discussion of medicine

“That’s not the right way to use a spoon, Floyd.”

Octanivelle and Heartslabyul had gotten closer, its students growing connection between each other and forming bonds of friendship and friendly camaraderie. One could say that the two dorm were alike, very goal oriented and hardworking, very cunning and observant. While Riddle was happy for this growth, there was a part of him that loathed the fact that he had to spend time with some less than savory company.

“Eh? It makes cake easier to eat!”

Floyd Leech was an enigma, an unknown, an annoying unknown to be exact. There was never a time Floyd and he were running after each other nor was there any time that Floyd would leave him be, it was nothing but chaos around him.

“It still isn’t right.”

Riddle was very uptight no matter what the situation may be and no matter how plain or how extravagant the event was. To Floyd, Riddle was too serious, too angry. He was his polar opposite and boy, was it fun to see what buttons can be pushed to see that normally calm and collect face heat up and turn the brightest of reds, like the goldfishes he needed to often get rid of. “Does it really matter, goldfishy? I’m still gonna eat it anyway.” Floyd took a spoonful of cake and shoved it into his mouth, letting out a hum of satisfaction at the sweet taste.

“Sea turtle’s cakes are always so good! We should have added him as an employee a long time ago.”

“Such slovenly manners.” The dorm leader muttered under his breath, bringing the teacup to his lips to drink his tea with brows furrowed in frustration. Eating with one’s mouth full was an incredibly big no-no and Riddle felt annoyance bubble in the pit of his stomach. There were stains on Floyd’s cheeks and the spoon, a soup spoon, was used as means of picking out the cake. That goes against every rule taught in etiquette! Riddle couldn’t stand it.

“I’m glad you like it.” Trey jumped in, letting Riddle calm himself and breathe. “Though I appreciate the gesture, I might be accused of moonlighting if my family found out I was working for someone else.” He was always so patient no matter who he was dealing with, Riddle guessed it was because he had siblings to take care of. “Eh? I’m sure your family will understand if you needed money for school.”

“I’m fine, really.”

“Boo…Boring!”

Jade raised his plate to Trey with a pleasant smile. “Seconds, please.”

“Azul, you can eat my share. I don’t want it anymore.”

“Finish it yourself. I already ate my share.”

Floyd never liked to be held down, he hated the feeling of walls around him. He hated the way rules would hold him back and he absolutely hated those who tried to enforce it to ruin all his fun. Riddle Rosehearts was exactly that, he was uptight and brash, he was a goody two shoes and by-the-book. Floyd relished in seeing that face heat up, it was gratifying to go against someone like Riddle.

“Don’t run in the halls.” He would say to him. “It’s improper.”

“You don’t know how to have fun don’t ya, Goldfishy?”

His words were harsh and blunt that not even someone like Riddle is immune by them. Riddle was silent and his shoulder hunched defensive. “The halls are not a place to do that, if you want to run then use the school’s field.” Floyd stuck out his tongue and ran away. “The field is boring!”

“Hey, I just told you—! Agh, what’s the point?!” Riddle stomped off, muttering about how there was no getting through to Floyd otherwise.

Floyd hated authority; he wanted to run as he pleased whenever he wanted to and where he wanted to. To be held down like a beast was like torture to him, like the weight of the shackles once put on his wrists.

Tea parties were not an uncommon thing between dorms, Azul knew that but to have the opportunity to have one with Riddle was quite rare. “It is only right that I expand on the relationships of our dorm, Azul. Knowing you, you would be quick to take advantage of that.”

Jade and Trey stood beside each other and pouring their respective dorm leader a cup of tea. “Indeed, Riddle. When an opportunity presents itself, I take what I can get my hands on.” Azul sips his cup of tea. “Rest assured that this is nothing short of a pleasant visit, we just want to see Heartslabyul for what it is since you’ve been running it since your first year as well as further tightening the bonds of our members.”

“I must say, they’re like a well oiled machine.” Jade commented, Riddle took his cup of tea specifically brewed by Trey. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Jade’s tea making skills but that Trey’s skills were enough for him. “It is to be expected of Riddle that he runs such a flawless system.”

Riddle set down his cup with a small huff. “I am only doing what is right to further the teachings of the Queen of Hearts.” He looks to the two visitors with a practiced neutral face. “I don’t see the need to praise responsibility. The rules were put into place to ensure that that a group thrives under discipline, without it there will be chaos.”

“It seems you have to take a page off his book, Azul.”

“Now, now Jade. No need for the pleasantries to be aimed at me.”

Floyd huffed, sitting improperly on the chairs; this talk was boring and dumb and he just wanted to eat something to take his mind off this. The group let out a hum or approval when Trey set down a cake in front of them. White cream, the smell of vanilla, the accenting fruits glazed with water and sugar. It looked wonderful. Trey was a good baker and there was no doubt about it. “The offer still stands, Trey. You’re always welcome aboard the Monstro Lounge any time you feel like coming.” Azul tactfully slid his cake to Jade. “I’m sure that your cakes will reach bigger audiences through us.”

“I’m flattered, really I am, but I’d rather stay here. If my dorm enjoys what I make then that’s good enough for me.” Trey sets begins cutting the cake and handing it over to different people with the last being Riddle. “Besides, I’m sure a certain somebody will miss my cooking while I’m away and I can’t let that happen.”

Riddle sipped on his tea, eyes closed and posture poised. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, it’s not you Riddle.”

The two laughed among themselves all so prim and proper, Floyd didn’t like it.

“Sea turtle and goldfishy have been friends since childhood, right?” Floyd said, a few grains of chocolate stuck on his face. “Woah, that’s amazing. You lasted that long with goldfishy.” Trey smiled at him as he poured another cup of tea while Jade helped himself to another piece. Riddle’s fingers shook for a moment but that soon calmed. Aww, he thought to himself, he didn’t react.

“That’s right; it was like us and Azul but a little less consistent. We did lose track of him at the start of middle school.”

“Yeah, he was always hiding in that pot of his. I didn’t know he was in there until I saw his pop out.” Azul grimaced at Riddle. “I nearly threw some seaweed in it too.”

“Yes, I remember that very well.”

Riddle set aside his used plates. “Floyd, elbows off the table.”

“Huh? Oh—.” Floyd pulled away from the table, Jade coming to him with some tissue paper and wiping his face as if he were a child. “I’d appreciate it if you would learn some manners for this kind of event, Floyd. Your slovenly ways don’t do well with it.” Riddle commented as he pat his lips with a napkin.

“Aw, come on Goldfishy don’t be like that. This is just a small tea party.” He said with a tone on edge, leaning towards Riddle to wrap his arm around his neck.

“I told you to stop calling me that.” Riddle slapped the hand away with a huff.

“Why not? It’s a cute name.” He brought a spoon to his mouth, a soup spoon with lots of cake.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s cute. It’s not my name, respect that. And the proper utensil for eating cake is a fork. You’re not supposed to eat it with a spoon.”

“I’ll eat the way I want to. You’re just too prim and proper to try it out.”

“Settle down, you two. That’s enough.” Jade and Trey pulled the two away from each other. “Why are you always like this, Floyd?” Riddle demanded, his snarl was large and hand set down harshly on the table making the plates jump in place. “I’ve done nothing to you and you treat me like this! You’re uncouth, you’re rude! You’re everything the rules go against!”

“Huh?” The aura around him changed, the glare in his eyes was dangerous and his voice husky and low. “What did you say to me?”

“Floyd.” Jade stressed his voice, brows furrowed while Azul held his arm.

“What about you, huh?” Floyd shrugged off Azul in annoyance. “You’re always about rules and it’s no fun.” He pointed a finger at Riddle accusingly.

“I only enforce the rules because I’m supposed to. Without it, this dorm would be in chaos!”

Floyd scoffed eyes now slits and anger pushing through his veins in a fury of hot blood. “I’d rather see place in chaos than some stuck-up system being run by somebody like you. You wanna know why you overblotted that day?” Riddle’s eyes widened and his shoulders squared, his brows furrowed and lips tightened. Trey took to his side, arm out to protect Riddle and stop Floyd from coming any further.

“If you’re not allowed to have fun then no one’s allowed to. You got jealous cuz’ people stepped out of line and you couldn’t. If you can’t have it then nobody can. That’s what you are, goldfishy,” his finger pointed at Riddle.

“You’re just a jealous, small, stuck-up goldfish.”

There was panting, Riddle’s body shaking and eyes blown out in anger. His face didn’t heat up nor did he point his scepter at them. Instead, tears had begun to form in his eyes. Ones that were threatening to fall any moment.

“Get out.”

“Riddle,” Azul tried to reach over to the other dorm leader but was only met with the business end of the Heartslabyul’s scepter. “I said get out! I will not tolerate this kind of behavior. Take your things and get out!”

Azul sighed, standing up after and fixed his hat nodding to the two to follow him out.

“We’re having a talk later, Floyd.”

“Whatever.”

Riddle relaxed into his chair, leaning back against the plush cushions with hands over his eyes and soon his façade began to crack, his lips trembled and his teeth were bared, his shoulder shook and his voice was no longer controlled.

The overblot was still fresh in his mind, the days spent trying to gain back his dorm’s trust, the talks he had with the woman who raised him to be this way, and the times he question himself and his magic while holding his pen close.

Trey knelt down, bringing him close to a hug. “Come here.” He looked to the path the trio had used to exit the dorm and then back to Riddle. “It’s okay.” He stroked the red hair with his fingers, his lips pressing a kiss to his head.

“It’s okay. It’s over now.”

“Deuce, what is all this?”

“Well…”

“Riddle, wanna eat some lunch together?”

“Ah—I suppose I have some time to spare.”

“They have some nice sweet bread you might like too!”

The two never crossed paths after that day, Floyd never once approached Riddle once after the small insult throwing match they had during the disastrous tea party. It was probably because of the fact that the group that followed Riddle, his friends, were always by his side and not once leaving him alone.

Floyd had been given a stern talking after the party, Azul putting his foot down on his behavior suddenly growing a heart. “I don’t need to list off the reasons why I’m upset with you, Floyd,” He said, arms folded and eyes in an angry expression. “This is the closest our dorms have ever been in years and I am not willing to let this connection go to waste just because you and Heartslabyul’s dorm leader can’t get along.”

“You two are different, I understand that.” Jade said, his arms folding in place and eyes closed as if in thought. He was equally as upset but he knew how to hide it. He and Trey had begun a friendship of sorts after spending time in the botanical gardens and he feared that Floyd’s constant teasing would put a foot in the mutualism like friendship he had formed. “But what you did was out line and uncalled for.”

Jade’s patted his brother’s arm. “I know you’re frustrated, I don’t need to strain my eyes to see it. You hate people like Riddle…” He looked down, thinking about his words carefully. “But Riddle is not like those people.”

There was a smile; Jade’s comforting smile and he pat his brother’s arm again. “You’re smart enough to know what I mean but while you contemplate what I said, I suggest you cool off. Azul and I will take the shift this afternoon. I’m sure some students are free to take your slot.”

Azul adjusted his hat and nodded his head. “I’ll go ahead and make some calls.”

“Come on, you can’t stay in the library forever.” Cater pulled at Riddle’s wrists while Ace pushed him from behind. “Yeah, no wonder you’re so tiny.” There was a small growl and the twitching hairs that made up Riddle’s signature heart-like hairstyle. “W-what I mean is that lunch time is a time to eat, not study. You can do that during study hall.” The younger first year backtracked at the sign of danger and Deuce as well as Trey couldn’t help but let out a small bout of laughter.

“At least let me walk on my own.”

“Nope. You’ll just run off to the library again!”

“Honestly…”

Floyd watched him basically get pulled into the cafeteria by his group, his friends, and his eyes saw something he never got to see when they were together. Riddle’s smile.

“You hate people like Riddle…But Riddle is not like those people.”

“You’re smart enough to know what I mean.”

He never once doubted Jade’s observations, Floyd knew better than to doubt his brother but those words caused a rift in him so much that he didn’t see the basketball flying towards him while his teammates yelled and screamed “Look out!” Floyd fell onto his back, his forehead sore and red. It was Jamil who pulled him up from the ground.

“Fucking hell,” The eel cursed. “That hurt.”

He was brought to the benches and Vargas inspected it with a huff. “What wrong, Leech?” He asked, putting his hands on his waist and expression serious. “You’re out of your element.” Floyd didn’t answer and only looked away with a huff. The swelling of his cheek was large and Vargas knew it needed medical attention. “Viper, Trappola, bring him to the infirmary.”

“Thank you for your help, both of you.” Said the nurse with a smile disarming and kind, “We’ll take it from here, the both of you can go back to class now,” The two students nodded and said their goodbyes and ‘see you later’s’ to their fellow team mate.

“Ace?” Riddle’s familiar voice was soft against the hum of the ceiling fans that swirled air within the large room. “What are you doing here?” The dorm leader asked, clearly concerned. “Did you get hurt?”

“Floyd got hit pretty bad during practice so we brought him here. What about you?”

“Just the normal check-up. You know…”

“Ah, right. I’ll leave you to it, then. See you later, Dorm Leader Riddle!”

“Take care.” While Jamil and Ace walked away, Riddle continued walking in. There was a pause when Floyd and he met, the same sense of dread he saw in his eyes appeared in an instant but this didn’t spike the thrill he’d feel when he had the upper hand instead an awkward pit formed in his stomach and his senses seem to be aware of everything around him.

“Mr Rosehearts, right on time. Have a seat and I’ll be with you soon.”

“…Thank you.”

Riddle sat on one of the chairs behind Floyd, looking down and playing with his pen. The bright red crystal still slightly dirtied with ink blots, Riddle was still recovering after the incident in his dorm. While he was still able to stand on both feet, his pen said otherwise about his ability to produce magic. The ink blots were a reminder of what it felt like pushing himself beyond the limit of what was acceptable.

It was quite embarrassing to think but if it weren’t for the instigation of those four juniors of his he wouldn’t have noticed the bars of the cage he was staying in or many years that he put a leesh on himself, a limiter to what he can and can’t do.

If it weren’t for those four, he wouldn’t have been free for a very long time. Perhaps, he wouldn’t be free at all.

“Ah, I ran out of medical pads.” Said the nurse, pulling back after swabbing Floyd’s cheek with a special numbing brew and some cream for the sore skin, they smiled at the two students sheepishly. “I’ll go get some from the storage, you two stay put. I’ll be right back.” The nurse left and soon, the two of them were alone in the silent room.

The ceiling fans were loud in his ears and sounds of the field busy with activity reached their ears like whispers. Riddle closed his eyes and sighing in a way to calm himself down. Floyd had always annoyed him but the small argument they had was what cemented the growing fear that had been growing in him.

He, like many other students before and after him, was scared of the Leech brothers.

“What are you here for?” Floyd asked, breaking the silence between them.

“Medicine and check-up.”

“For what?”

“My blot.”

Even during the elementary school, Floyd had been taught that using too much magic is bad and can cause an overblot which was even worse but as he grew older, he learned that it wasn’t only magic that contributed to the overblot but emotional fatigue thus there was a simplified point he stuck with: the bigger the fatigue plus the more magic used equaled to a very big overblot. While he knew treatment for it existed, he had yet to see firsthand.

But what baffled him was that the blot took a few days or weeks at best for it to subside. And yet here Riddle was, his pen still dirtied with ink and needing to take medicine. Was Riddle’s blot that serious? “I didn’t know blot needed medicine.”

Riddle set down his pen, eyes still down on his lap. “They only give medicine to those who have had a bad case of it.”

“Like you?” Floyd asked suddenly, his eyes angled to look to the boy behind him, one that stayed silent for a minute. “Yes,” he admitted. “Like me.”

The chair creaked as Floyd moved to sit the wrong way on the chair. Both of his arms resting on the backrest and his chin snug between them. His eyes drooped but held no malice but a form of curiosity.

“Why?”

It was a question Riddle couldn’t answer immediately. Why was he a bad case? Perhaps it was the amount of magic he used in one sitting? It was a factor of it, yes, but there was another underlying factor that led to his blot being bad, so bad that he needed to undergo medical intervention. During his mother’s numerous lessons, he was taught that the heart of a mage is the real powerhouse of magic, it is what differentiates one’s magic to the next and it the origin of one’s unique magic. While it was a very powerful tool, it was also one of the most sensitive. Emotions can greatly affect how a mage’s magic manifests and his overblot in the Heartslabyul garden was a manifestation of what could happen to a mage when the heart goes out of control.

Years of resentment and fear, of anxiety and jealousy, and all the other emotions he couldn’t think of at that moment piled up and had been pushed down for so long only for it to gush out of him like a broken faucet and unleashing all the pent up feelings he’d been storing for the years he’s been alive.

“Because my case is serious.” Was his only answer and Floyd had seemed satisfied by that.

“For someone who says a lot of stuff about others, you don’t say a lot when you’re talking about yourself.” Floyd commented, leaning on his good cheek while the other still stung. “It’s pretty ironic.” Riddle smiled, laughing to himself. It was different to see it for himself, in fact, there wasn’t a time that Floyd could remember seeing him smile at all. Before the overblot, that is.

“It is, isn’t it?”

“You know what I think?”

Riddle’s face then morphed to one of confusion and curiosity. “What?”

“You hate people like Riddle…But Riddle is not like those people.” Jade’s words echoed in his mind as he carefully put his thoughts to words. “You were taught to love the rules. You don’t follow them because you want to, it’s because you have to.” He began and he saw there was no trace of discomfort so he continued. “I don’t know what you’ve been through but it seems to be that it would have been real bad for you if you broke one even if there was no punishment for it.”

“There are.” Riddle chimed in,

“I know but it’s not that bad once you get used to it.”

Floyd looked to the pen on Riddle’s side. “It must have been tough.” Was his final comment on the matter and Riddle took the said pen into his hand with a sigh. At the moment, remembering his mother running towards him and screaming his name. For all the years he had been with her that was probably the only time he really saw his mother for what she was, overprotective and far too concerned.

There was no excusing how she raised him, there was no excusing what damage had been done to him but looking back on it Riddle began to understand why she was like that. He knew parents can’t be perfect; they are just as damaged and just as flawed as any other person was but there was a fine line between what was acceptable and what wasn’t for a parent to do for their child.

So, Floyd was right. It was tough.

“It was.”

Another bout of silence passed before Riddle laughed again. “What are you, some psychoanalyst?” There was a teasing tone Floyd had never heard coming from him and that was enough to keep the ball rolling between them. “I can be. Wanna see me predict the future with your star sign?”

“That’s astrology, Floyd.”

“I foresee that you’ll be treating me to a meat bun from Sam’s shop!”

“I am not going to do that. You have your own allowance.”

“Eh? But it tastes better when people buy it for you.”

“I am not buying you a meat bun.”

The two laughed among each other before Floyd chimed in again.

“It’s not too late, y’know?”

It was a statement that confused Riddle initially. “What do you mean?”

“You can always start breaking the rules now if you’d like. I don’t expect a goody like you to get right off the bat, though.”

He saw the way Riddle’s eyes widened at the mere idea of breaking the rules and he couldn’t help but smile at the way he thought about it. He thought back to Jade’s conversation with him and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself, he couldn’t wait to tell Jade about the day Riddle finally breaks a rule.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Eh? Why not now?? We can skip class.”

“I’m not doing that!”

“Octanivelle’s purples and Heartslabyul’s red do have a nice accent to one another, don’t you think?” Another tea party had been planned right after Floyd had fully recovered from his sports injury and this time with a few changes to the décor, a break away from the white table clothes and red roses. “Indeed,” Riddle said as he brought a tea cup to his lips to sip at the tea that Trey had prepared.

“I had to take a few of your students aside to study the fabric and to see if we had some in storage.” There was a smile against his cup. “Luckily my students have perfected the color changing spell.”

Jade chuckled, his finger against his own lips. “As always, with Riddle as the dorm head, Heartslabyul is a well oiled machine.” Setting his cup down, Riddle smiles at his classmate, “I am only doing what is best for my dorm. That is all.”

Trey set down the cake by slice, giving it to each person at the table. Floyd and he exchanged looks and reach over for the utensils. At that moment, Jade, Azul and Trey watched as the two ate their cakes with their spoons. It was a confusing time for the trio, one even thinking he was dreaming.

“Hm, I suppose eating it with a spoon is easier.”

Floyd giggled, leaning back on his chair. “Right? The bigger the spoon, the bigger piece of cake you can eat!”

“That’s quite sinful, honestly.”

Trey chuckled, scratching his head in confusion.

“What in the world happened to the both of you?”

Riddle’s pen sat against his coat pocket, the medication in the other. The ink blots fizzling out little by little and he too, little by little, began living the way he wanted to.

#works from the typewriter #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #twst #riddle rosehearts #Floyd Leech #twst riddle #twst floyd #riddlexfloyd #riddle ficlets #floyd ficlets #character x character

47 notes · View notes

colour-outside-the-liness · 3 years

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Hey, I'm doing good too. Just normal amounts of stressful stuff right now. Just moved to a country I've never been to before but can't complain, things are not as hard as the last time I did this so. Thanks for asking! Yeah, I saw you posting about some pretty scary health issues before, I'm glad you came out of that alive and hope you're healthier now!

The nerve some people have! Haha I know I would be pissed if people were questioning my intelligence like that especially after a couple of drinks in haha. Though I do like taunting people when I play group games, I'll be like "don't need to try that hard guys, you're gonna lose anyway" just to mess with them or just call people sore losers if they accuse me of cheating haha (they're probably right on the accusations tho). People get real mad sometimes it's kinda funny. 😂

Omg literally laughed out loud reading this! Hahaha, how did you manage to fall over a road sign then end up in a ditch? lol omg hope you didn't get hurt too bad 😂 I was trying to downplay my drunken escapades but since you shared yours I should tell you my worst one:

I was at this summer street party at night and got drunk on something made out of tropical herbs and cachaça (which is about 48% alcohol), drank 3 and a half bottles of that like it was apple juice, made friends with a bunch of strangers in a bathroom queue (who tried to talk to me weeks later but I had no idea who they were), had to be held by my best friend while I peed (mostly missing the toilet), fell in the middle of the street and scraped my knee, threatened this boy who was helping me walk and told him not to try anything funny or I would beat him up, then dragged my friends to the beach and left them shortly after to go make out with my ex, came back with lipstick all over my mouth and chin and when my friends asked what I was doing I said I was just talking to my ex and they were like NO YOU WERE NOT, hahaha then I kissed all my girl friends on a dare and we danced under the full moon, then I told my best friend I had to puke so she took me to the ocean but I changed my mind and happened to step on a dead turtle on the way back and started crying bc of it, but last month my best friend told me it was a rock I had stepped on (I believed it was a dead turtle for 7 years!). Had the worst hangover of my life the next day. ✌️✨

Ah I'm happy you liked it! I've never listened to Six musical before but it sounds fun! I can see why you like it haha made me want to dance around my apartment 💃. And hey if liking musicals is your thing then it's great, I'm sure Hozier will understand if he's not your top artist of the year. 😋 Here's my "damie" Pinterest board if you or anyone else wants to check it out, totally recommend making one if you're a visual person like me!

https://pin.it/UcHVlkq

Oh I could talk about Dani and Jamie forever I think. I love the beast in the jungle speech too and it's so painful to watch, VP delivered that beautifully, but I have to admit I'm always a crying mess from episode 1 when older Jamie starts reciting that song about being sad while waiting for her lover to return, this show is fucking cruel I hate it and love it at the same time hahaha. Omg your mom 😂 but I mean it's truly an honor to be compared to someone like Dani, no? She's really great even if she needs a little help haha (don't we all).

Aaah you're amazing! Thank you so much, I'll read this pirate AU soon!

I used to draw a lot, really loved doing it when I was a kid as I said before, and all throughout adulthood too but I haven't done that in almost a year now bc I've got a bit of a case of burnout I guess, it just takes a lot of effort to do it when it shouldn't be like that at all. I used to do fanart too, for other fandoms. Even made one for Dani x Jamie but ended up not liking how it turned out haha. I've got a lot of respect for writers and fanfic writers also! Yall can make words make sense in really interesting and beautiful ways, build worlds so enthralling I can see them vividly in my head. Writing is such an incredibly fascinating skill to have! And I guess the most important thing is that we enjoy doing these things right? Even if we think we're not particularly good at it.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend! 👋✨

Good I'm glad you're doing great but sorry you're dealing with stressful stuff!! Hope living in a new country goes well for you I'm so jealous that you've lived in different countries I'd love to live somewhere else even if just for s few years!! Awwh thank you so much I definitely came out of it alive and am feeling so much better now thank you I mean I do some pretty ditzy things so when people say it to me it's pretty deserved sometimes, I'm secretly smart and people just don't expect it so I never mind too much haha I might have to start saying the things that you do and just taunting them over it I mean, I usually do win even when they make me answer different questions so I will definitely have to start saying things like that to them Haha I love that you're just like "yeah they're probably right in their accusations" I agree seeing how mad some people get over games and stuff is funny (it's me I'm people I hate loosing games depending on what it is and I am very competitive) So it was very dark and all we had for light was my roommates flashlight on her phone but while we were walking home a friend of ours that lived else where kept texting her to make sure we were still safe (my phone as dead at this point) so while she was texting him her flashlight was facing down and someone had moved this road sign to the footpath and it was on that sits on the floor so while I couldn't see it I walked into it and fell over it but while I feel I grabbed hold of it and flipped with it and fell in a ditch with it on top of me... I was fine and was just laid laughing while my friend looked down at me and in the most northern accent ever just said "get up you dickhead." and helped me off of the floor and then asked if I was okay... and I was so it was all good!! Haha 😂 I love this drunken story that sounds like one hell of a night and is a roller coaster from start to finish!! I'm sorry you thought you had stood on a dead turtle for 7 years though, someone really should've told you that it was just a rock!! But that sounds like my kind of night!! I love nights like that... stories that will last a life time... the only down side is the hangover... luckily I have only ever had one hang over in my life and it wasn't the morning after the road sign fiasco... I felt surprisingly good the morning after that haha 😂 It's such a good musical it's about Henry VIII wives and I just love everything to do with his wives and that musical is so much fun and actually gives a little insight to the lives the six Tudor queens had away from Henry and with him because at school we're mainly just taught about him which sucks!! I loved the Hozier song and am definitely gonna have to listen to more of his stuff!! I love musicals so much I mainly listen to musical soundtracks at the minute- usually, Legally Blonde and Six on repeat haha 😂 Ooo thank you I will definitely check out this Pinterest board thanks for sending it to me!! I could talk about them forever too... since watching Bly Manor my niece has been asking me so many questions about it and I am more than happy to talk to her about it haha!! The beast in the jungle speech just breaks my heart every time I relate to it so much and VP just delivers it so beautifully!! Oh yeah now I know at the beginning that it's older Jamie I am just a wreck the whole show is just so beautiful and heart breaking at the same time I LOVE IT!! Even though it makes me sob- I keep putting myself through it!! I mean, yeah I was happy that she said it Dani is great but it was the way she said it... my mum can be something else sometimes... she said she thought Dani was like me the first time she does the accent when she says "I've fallen quite in love with London" because I just randomly do accents a lot too but it was the way she was like "She needs help... but I like her she reminds me of you" I was just like... "Should I go get help?" I still don't know the answer to my question about if I need help or not but I mean I probably do need it You're welcome I really hope you like it!! It's a

great fic I love it!! Yeah I get that if stuff starts taking too much effort and burns you out you're not gonna wanna keep doing it so it's understandable that you stopped!! I think fan art is great and I really would love to be able to do it myself but I just don't have the skill it takes!! Awwh it's a shame you didn't like the Dani x Jamie one you did I would've loved to have seen it!! Honestly there are so many talented writers out there and when I read their fics I am just in awe of the worlds they have built and the stories they have created we are so blessed in this fandom to have so many amazing writers and so many amazing fics out there Oh yeah definitely its important to enjoy what you do!! I know I love writing and love writing fics for Dani and Jamie so I think I'll be doing it for a while even if I'm not great at it haha Awwh thank you very much I hope you have a great weekend too!! ☺️

#lib3rtin33

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cyb-by-lang · 4 years

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Phone a Friend

A drabble based in that one OSF AU called All The Little Children. You know, that huge one-shot where all the Tailed Beasts are the size of cats and also the ASL bros are kids. This is the start of Side B, like on a record. At least it’s not broken.

With all the chaos that the kids got up to last time, I figured there was still a bit of space to insert yet more shenanigans.

I’m also thinking of having the Kiddie Crew have their own series of drabbles and one-shots, but we’ll see how that works out~

“I wanted to ask you something,” Ace said one day, in Kei’s clearing with his pipe slung across his back and his arms crossed, more defensive than trying to start a fight.

The turtle-toting woman still wasn’t in Fū’s good books, but Naruto and Gaara loved her. Luffy would latch onto anyone who lived on Mt. Colubo for long enough and wasn’t cruel to his brothers, so his judgment was definitely in question. Especially when food-based bribes were so close at hand all the time. Sabo was more cautious, but it’d been a whole month without unwarranted punches to the head from an adult and he’d started to drop his guard. He wasn’t as wary as Ace was, ever, but he was closer.

Ace wasn’t sure what he thought. The first adult to brush off his concerns about being Roger’s son was still a bit of a mystery, even now, but not so much that Ace couldn’t come up here alone while the others kept Luffy distracted. With that bloodthirsty first impression well out of the way, and the second one knocked out of reality by someone who could take Gramps’s punches, that just left this awkward, intermittent caretaker.

“Okay,” said Kei, up to her elbows in what’s going to be their group’s dinner tonight. Under the work table, Isobu lurked like a grumpy footstool. “Do you mind if I keep working?”

According to Naruto, the vaunted Kei didn’t spend much of her time dressing wild game before arriving on Dawn Island. The huge alligator lying in fifteen pieces all around the clearing would beg to differ, probably. Sabo even made a deal with her a while back for all the pelts and skins of the beasts everyone hunted, just because it never seemed like she had any use for them. The ASL brothers got money and fed, and Kei got…to not deal with animal skins?

It was probably a win-win situation, somehow.

“Go ahead,” said Ace, and just made sure he was outside of the potential splash zone. “You might wanna keep chopping anyway. Fū promised to keep Luffy running around all day. You know how they are.”

“I’ll take your word for that, then.” She slammed her cleaver down on the stump she’d been using as a knife block. “Go ahead and ask whatever you need to ask, Ace.”

“That thing you did with Bluejam and Sabo’s dad.” Ace paused as Kei’s swings slowed for a moment, watching her reaction with ice rolling down his spine. Then, as the tempo of butchering returned to normal, he said, “I want to learn how to do it.”

Kei scooped the hash she’d made out of alligator tail into a waiting bucket with the flat of the cleaver. Then she said, “I’m not sure you can.”

“What?” The flat, unfeeling tone to her voice set Ace’s temper flaring, just like it always did. It was the same tone shitty adults used when they said things they thought were true, and that kids didn’t need to know about.

“I’m also not exactly sure what you’re talking about,” she added, tilting her head curiously at him. She rubbed idly at her face with the heel of one hand, then grimaced at the blood streak left across her cheek. She looked like a murderer, except for the confused tilt of her head. “Sorry, are you talking about the fighting part or…?”

“I meant the thing you did to make everyone afraid of you!” Ace bit out, desperation getting the better of his self-control. His fists clenched, though he didn’t go for his pipe.

In some ways, Kei’s patient listening face was worse than being laughed at. Even if no one saw what happened in Gray Terminal, Bluejam disappeared. Sabo’s shitty dad never bothered them again. Ace knew this woman was strong enough to protect his brothers when he wasn’t. The difference between their strengths stuck in him like a thorn in his sandal. Nothing helped him dig it out, no matter how hard he trained or how many people he fought.

Ace snapped into a bow, though maybe not as good as the one Makino tried to teach him. “Please tell me how to do that.”

Thunk. Thunk. Then there was a sound like a flag flapping, but heavier, as Kei tossed the alligator skin over the drying rack.

“You don’t need to bow to me,” Kei said, already making her way to the pump on the side of her little cabin.

“It is an interesting thing to ask us,” said Isobu, dragging himself out and into Ace’s eyeline. “Sit down.”

Ace did so, because he’d been doused by Isobu’s weird water gun mouth about fifteen times by now, and the sixteenth was not the charm. While the turtle-thing stared him down with his single unblinking eye, Ace fidgeted a little. Sat with his legs under him and listened to the sound of the pump working, nervous but not like actually afraid. Not like with Gramps.

“Killing intent is what it sounds like,” Isobu explained, tucking his leg-arms under his belly. “It is not precisely a skill, but instead a matter of the sheer will to do harm to people.”

“Kinda figured that from the name,” Ace said, in a slightly sullen mutter.

“It is self-explanatory,” Isobu agreed, curling his tails as well, “but for that reason, I do not know if you have the capacity for it.”

At this point, Kei returned while flicking water from her hands. She sat in the grass across from Ace, just far enough away and with her legs crossed, so that Ace’s nerves settled a little. Though he wasn’t sure how, she always tried to do little things like that to help Ace and Sabo feel a little safer around her. Sure, they both knew she was faster and stronger than anybody else on the island, but not showing it off was a sign she at least cared about their impressions of her.

It only helped so much, but it was noticeable.

“Like Isobu was saying, killing intent is…not really something I thought you’d want to learn,” Kei said, scrutinizing him with her eyes barely peeking out past her bangs. “What brought this on?”

“I’ve fought a lot of people before,” Ace said, staring back as steadily as he could, “but I couldn’t do anything against Bluejam. None of us could do anything until Gaara and Fū showed up to save us.” He gripped his knees hard enough for his knuckles to go white. “I need to get stronger.”

“Does that remind you of anyone you know, Kei?” Isobu’s voice asked, but when Ace looked up in surprise, the turtle pointed firmly at Kei with his left tail.

“Only everyone,” Kei sighed. She rested her chin on her hand, elbow on knee, and finally said, “As violent as you and your brothers can be, Ace, I don’t know if killing intent is ever going to be your thing.”

Ace wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or an insult. “Why’s that?”

Kei glanced at Isobu. Ace did, too, and the little turtle wiggled his tails. “I don’t know you that well, but I do know you’d do anything to protect your brothers. That sound right?”

Ace nodded firmly. “Duh.”

“So would I.” That gave Ace pause. Kei had brothers? Since when? “But I was younger than you when I decided that anybody who hurt Hayate would die. I’ve had a long time to just…” She waved a hand as though searching for a word. “To just hone that feeling. It’s not a healthy state of mind, carrying murder around like that. Isobu makes it worse.”

Isobu’s tails wiggled like seaweed in a current. “I would argue—”

“No.”

“But—”

“We’re already bad influences. Don’t push it.” Kei stared at Isobu until the little monster rolled his eye and subsided with a grumble. She then turned her attention back to Ace. “It’s not just about wanting to kill someone. It’s… I hate to make moral judgments like this, but it takes at least a little evil to get the raw power for it. When you’re using killing intent, any ideas about the value of life just don’t exist. ”

Ace opened his mouth to protest. He’d wanted Bluejam dead. He’d been out killing wild animals since he could walk away from the Dadan pirates and explore the island. He fought everything, stole, and lied and cheated and—and he was Roger’s—

“You’re not evil, Ace,” Kei said sharply, cutting across his thoughts like one of her swords. She peered at his expression with too-knowing eyes, folding her arms over her chest. “You’re a kid with issues, but you’re nowhere near as bad as you think you are. That’s why I don’t think you can fuel an attack like that through sheer malice.”

“Like you said, you don’t know me that well.” Ace glared down at his knees.

Kei made a noise that sounded like agreement, but with strings attached. “Tell you what—there’s probably a better route, and it might be something your brothers can learn with you.” When Ace looked up in surprise, Kei went on, “It’s called haki. It’s a power that’s rare before you get to the later parts of the Grand Line, but it’ll save your life.”

Ace stared at her. “I thought Naruto said his thing was called ‘chakra.’”

“His is, but he was born with the potential to use that. Haki can be learned by anyone.” Kei’s eyes rolled skyward for a second as she thought that over. “Mostly. Keep in mind that I don’t use haki, but I’ve known people who do. Their lessons may still help you.”

Isobu swatted Kei’s leg with one of his tails. “I was also listening, thank you.”

She paused for another one of her awkward stretches, staring her little monster friend down. Ace was never sure what went through Kei’s head when she zoned out, but all of the kids Ace knew had tried attacking her during those silences just to see how she’d react. Mostly, she snapped out of it instantly and sent people flying over her shoulder or straight into the dirt.

The second one was mostly for the FNG gang. She was gentler with Ace and his brothers, as weird as that was.

Kei said at last, “I can teach you what I know. My first true demonstration was when a guy kicked me through an island, so I’m sure it’ll help you punch above your weight class.”

It wasn’t what Ace asked for. Even so, the idea of being able to knock someone like Kei around was a tempting one. If Gramps had trouble getting Kei out of his face when he showed up to visit, then Ace aimed to be even stronger. Chasing One Piece demanded no less.

“If you want to stick around and help me prepare all this, I’ll try explaining as we go,” Kei offered.

There was still an awful lot of alligator lying around. For some reason, Kei almost always turned this kind of meat into tiny stew cubes and cooked it with vegetables instead of just letting the kids eat everything immediately. When Ace wondered about it aloud, Sabo said something about “food poisoning,” but none of them knew what that meant unless there were weird mushrooms involved. Meat didn’t go uneaten around them long enough for it to go bad.

Ace was tempted—he’d learned cooking meant snacking while they worked—but finally said when Kei went to retrieve her cleaver, “Do you have anything I can just take back to the others right now?”

“The usual lunchboxes are in the cellar,” Kei told him, already getting back to work. She had big butcher’s gloves and everything. “Door’s open.”

Ace left his pipe stuck in the turf as he headed into Kei’s little cabin. It was pretty bare, aside from cooking utensils and the kind of stuff even Dadan had—bed, storage trunk, and so on. She hadn’t even really decorated. Ace already knew from previous visits that Kei didn’t store treasure here or really anywhere, and so Ace pulled up the hatch and hopped down into the cellar without bothering to snoop.

A minute later, Ace had dragged all of the lunchboxes—really medicine boxes with straps for carrying—out the front door. Between the ropes left at the front of the cabin and the length of his pipe, he tied all of them together in a huge stack and hauled them onto his back. The fact that the burden was bigger than he was didn’t slow him down for a second. He and Sabo had carried whole jungle beasts around for years, so the lunchboxes were barely noticeable.

“Remind the others that dinner is at sunset,” Kei called as he left, still hammering away at the alligator’s tough ribs. “And tell Luffy that he needs to eat all the vegetables this time, or he might get scurvy.”

“…What’s scurvy?”

“A disease that makes your eyeballs bleed and your teeth fall out.”

Ace froze.

Kei didn’t smile when she looked up, blood splattered across the front of her rubber apron. Her panda eyes were flat and serious. She even managed to hold that expression on her scarred face for a full five seconds, then shrugged and turned back to her work. “Anyway, have fun adventuring today.”

Isobu’s high, croaky laughter chased Ace all the way down the mountain.

This probably had something to do with the fact that the turtle rolled most of the way after him, but, regardless, there was still no way Ace would forget that lesson anytime soon.

Unbeknownst to Ace, Kei spent the bulk of the afternoon after he left on a snail call. The eventual alligator stew components were cleaned, stored, and marinating in the largest vat of soy sauce she’d ever gotten her hands on, which gave her a little time to shore up one teensy little problem in her lesson plan.

"This is Thatch's Pancake House! We slap ‘em, you stack ‘em! How can I take your order?"

“It’s Kei,” she said, and waited for the sound of several pirates falling over to come to an eventual stop in the background. Before Thatch could yell at her for being out of contact, Kei said in a rush, “So, I offered to teach a bunch of kids how to use haki, except I don’t actually know how it works. How did you learn?”

“THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE FINALLY CALLING FOR?!” demanded several people at once. Thatch was just the loudest of the kitchen crew.

“You what,” said someone else. Sounded a little like Teach, actually. Kei had never liked him much.

“I need to teach a bunch of kids how to use haki,” Kei repeated, with a little more impatience.

“WHY?!”

“Because they’ll get themselves killed otherwise,” Kei said. “Again, a little help?”

“You—ugh, I’m taking this snail to Pops.” Thatch sounded exasperated at best. “Stay on the line!”

“Can do,” Kei chirped, and listened to several pirates on the other end crash to a halt at the sound of her voice using that tone. They were too far away to retaliate.

“Quit sassing us and explain where you’ve been, you brat!”

#all the little children #ocean stars falling #portgas d. ace #keisuke gekko #isobu #thatch #one piece #naruto #crossover #catch your breath fanfic

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aboveallarescuer · 4 years

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Daenerys Targaryen in A Storm of Swords vs Game of Thrones - Episode 3.3: Walk of Punishment

In this series of posts, I intend to analyze precisely how the show writers downplayed or erased several key aspects of Daenerys Targaryen’s characterization, even when they had the books to help them write her as the compelling, intelligent, compassionate, frugal, open-minded and self-critical character that GRRM created.

I want to make it clear that these posts are not primarily meant to offer a better alternative to what the show writers gave us. I understand that they had many constraints (e.g. other storylines to handle, a limited amount of time to write the scripts, budget, actors who may have asked for a certain number of lines, etc) working against them. However, considering how disrespectful the show’s ending was to Daenerys Targaryen and how the book material that they left out makes it even more ludicrous to think that she will also become a villain in A Song of Ice and Fire, I believe that these reviews are more than warranted. They are meant to dissect everything about Dany’s characterization that was lost in translation, with a lot of book evidence to corroborate my statements.

Since these reviews will dissect scene by scene, I recommend taking a look at this post because I will use its sequence to order Dany’s scenes.

This post is relevant in case you want to know which chapters were adapted in which GoT episodes (however, I didn’t make the list myself, all the information comes from the GoT Wiki, so I can’t guarantee that it’s 100% reliable).

In general, I will call the Dany from the books “Dany” and the Dany from the TV series “show!Dany”.

Scene 3

BARRISTAN: The Walk of Punishment is a warning, Your Grace.

DAENERYS: To whom?

BARRISTAN: To any slave who contemplates doing whatever these slaves did.

In the books, the context in which we first see the Plaza of Punishment (yeah, the type of building was changed) is very different:

The Plaza of Pride with its great bronze harpy was too small to hold all the Unsullied she had bought. Instead they had been assembled in the Plaza of Punishment, fronting on Astapor’s main gate, so they might be marched directly from the city once Daenerys had taken them in hand. There were no bronze statues here; only a wooden platform where rebellious slaves were racked, and flayed, and hanged. “The Good Masters place them so they will be the first thing a new slave sees upon entering the city,” Missandei told her as they came to the plaza.

At first glimpse, Dany thought their skin was striped like the zorses of the Jogos Nhai. Then she rode her silver nearer and saw the raw red flesh beneath the crawling black stripes. Flies. Flies and maggots. The rebellious slaves had been peeled like a man might peel an apple, in a long curling strip. (ASOS Daenerys III)

As we can see:

In the books, Dany goes to the Plaza of Punishment because she's going to buy save too many Unsullied and the Plaza of Pride wouldn't fit them all. The names are very appropriate: Dany is going to undermine the pride of the slave masters (the absence of bronze statues of harpies reinforces that fact) by punishing them for what they did to the slaves (which feels like a sort of karmic payback, for she begins a successful anti-slavery rebellion in the very place where the slaves were punished for rebelling) and showing them that they are just as mortal and vulnerable as the people they were oppressing. In the show, all of this significance is lost because show!Dany goes to the Plaza Walk of Punishment before she even makes the deal.

In the books, the slaves are racked, flayed and hanged for disobeying their masters. In the show, they are whipped and then strapped to a cross until they die.

There is a reason why the place was changed from Plaza to Walk: the shooting location in Essaouira had a line of cannons that couldn't be moved, so they decided to build "cannon covers" with the crosses of the dying slaves.

I don't mind that the method of punishment itself was changed (from flaying to crucifixion) or even that the Plaza of Punishment was turned into the Walk of Punishment, only that the location was shown in the inappropriate moment. I can't see any reason why the Walk of Punishment could not have been where the deal was about to be finished only for show!Dany to rebel against the masters and free the Unsullied (like how it happened in the books in the Plaza of Punishment).

Another change in the context of the scene taking place in the Plaza/Walk of Punishment has to do with who is talking to Dany and what is the purpose of the scene. I will quote again both the show dialogue and (parts of) the book passage to emphasize my point:

BARRISTAN: The Walk of Punishment is a warning, Your Grace.

DAENERYS: To whom?

BARRISTAN: To any slave who contemplates doing whatever these slaves did.

There were no bronze statues here; only a wooden platform where rebellious slaves were racked, and flayed, and hanged. “The Good Masters place them so they will be the first thing a new slave sees upon entering the city,” Missandei told her as they came to the plaza.

[...] One man had an arm black with flies from fingers to elbow, and red and white beneath. Dany reined in beneath him. “What did this one do?”

“He raised a hand against his owner.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

In the books, Missandei (a former slave) explains to Dany why the Plaza of Punishment exists. That makes their interaction more powerful, since we're listening to someone who, at some point, likely felt the urge to run away only to see these slaves and realize that it would be more sensible to resign herself to the misery she was in. Also, Dany instinctively understands why the Plaza of Punishment exists before Missandei tells her ("a wooden platform where rebellious slaves were racked, and flayed, and hanged"). In the show, show!Barristan is the one who explains to show!Dany why the Walk of Punishment exists, which is less meaningful in comparison. Also, D&D have show!Dany ask him to whom the Walk is a warning, implying that she can't think of any ideas on her own and making this another case of her being dumbed down in comparison to her book counterpart.

In the books, one of the purposes of the scene is to call attention to the unfairness of these punishments - no person should be "racked, and flayed, and hanged", especially not for a reason as relatively trivial as "rais[ing] a hand against his owner". However, because the level of oppression and social inequality is so high in Astapor and Slaver's Bay as a whole, it's normal procedure to torture and kill someone for insubstantial motives. In the show, since show!Barristan was never a slave like Missandei was, he can't possibly know why they were punished ("doing whatever these slaves did"). Now, of course, one might argue that the scene still causes outrage because no one deserves to be subjected to that level of torture, but it's still quite a shame that the reason why the slave was punished was cut - not only that would have made the point even more explicit, that only happened because they erased the perspective of a former slave.

DAENERYS: Give me your water.

JORAH: Khaleesi, this man has been sentenced to death.

DAENERYS: Here, drink.

This series has a habit of framing acts of compassion and kindness as meaningless ones - as @turtle-paced reminded me, examples include show!Ned's trying to save show!Joffrey (how his attempt was framed in the show, in particular), Talisa's kindness to the Lannister squires who got murdered in S3, the old lady who tried to help show!Sansa in S5 only to get murdered by show!Ramsay and show!Doran's efforts to make peace. @secretlyatargaryen also called attention to how show!Meera was callously dispatched after multiple seasons helping show!Bran to go back home. I would also add how no one in Braavos was willing to help show!Arya after seeing her stomach wound (and then the one person who helps her is assassinated) or how show!Arya's attempts to save a child and her mother in "The Bells" led to naught.

This scene is another clear example that fits the pattern. Instead of creating a scenario in which show!Dany tries to give water to a dying slave only for him to refuse:

Why couldn’t the show writers have had Dany explaining what, in her perspective, makes her worthy of being considered a queen?

Or why couldn’t they have kept Dany’s anger at seeing Jorah talk about the Unsullied as if they were objects to be sold?

Or why couldn’t we have had Dany saying that a queen must listen to all, highborn and low?

All of these examples were entirely cut from the series, which is a shame because they signal that the books are ultimately validating Dany’s efforts to help the oppressed (while it is true that they don’t shy away from the negative ramifications at the same time, her attempts are no less justified and necessary). This scene doesn't convey the same message.

BARRISTAN: Leave this place, Your Grace. Leave tonight, I beg you.

JORAH: And what is she to do for soldiers?

BARRISTAN: We can find sellswords in Pentos and Myr.

JORAH: Is it "we" already, Ser Barristan? If you want to sit on the throne your ancestors built, you must win it. That will mean blood on your hands before the thing is done.

DAENERYS: The blood of my enemies, not the blood of innocents.

JORAH: How many wars have you fought in, Ser Barristan?

BARRISTAN: Three.

JORAH: Have you ever seen a war where innocents didn't die by the thousands? I was in King's Landing after the sack, khaleesi. You know what I saw? Butchery. Babies, children, old men. More women raped than you can count. There's a beast in every man and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand. But the Unsullied are not men. They do not rape. They do not put cities to the sword unless they're ordered to do so. If you buy them, the only men they'll kill are those you want dead.

DAENERYS: Do you disagree, Ser Barristan?

BARRISTAN: When your brother Rhaegar led his army into battle at the Trident, men died for him because they believed in him, because they loved him, not because they'd been bought at a slaver's auction. I fought beside the last dragon on that day, Your Grace. I bled beside him.

JORAH: Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, and Rhaegar died.

I'm quoting the entire exchange to highlight, again, how much the show overfocused on show!Jorah's opinions over show!Dany's or show!Barristan's.

Let's separate his arguments:

1) JORAH: And what is she to do for soldiers?

2) JORAH: Is it "we" already, Ser Barristan? If you want to sit on the throne your ancestors built, you must win it. That will mean blood on your hands before the thing is done.

3) JORAH: How many wars have you fought in, Ser Barristan? [...] Have you ever seen a war where innocents didn't die by the thousands? I was in King's Landing after the sack, khaleesi. You know what I saw? Butchery. Babies, children, old men. More women raped than you can count. There's a beast in every man and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand. But the Unsullied are not men. They do not rape. They do not put cities to the sword unless they're ordered to do so. If you buy them, the only men they'll kill are those you want dead.

4) JORAH: Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, and Rhaegar died.

Now let's separate show!Barristan's arguments:

1) BARRISTAN: Leave this place, Your Grace. Leave tonight, I beg you.

2) BARRISTAN: We can find sellswords in Pentos and Myr.

3) BARRISTAN: When your brother Rhaegar led his army into battle at the Trident, men died for him because they believed in him, because they loved him, not because they'd been bought at a slaver's auction. I fought beside the last dragon on that day, Your Grace. I bled beside him.

Finally, what does show!Dany have to say?

1) DAENERYS: The blood of my enemies, not the blood of innocents.

The protagonist of this storyline is also, sadly, the one who least expresses her opinions on the matter of buying the Unsullied or not. (She also asks for show!Barristan's opinion and asserts that she is the last dragon, but these are not arguments/thoughts that add to the discussion)

Before I examine each line (which I will do in a sec), I want to pay close attention to the direction (which, let's have in mind, was solely Benioff's). The camera barely focuses on show!Barristan's face while he makes his first two arguments above, making them seem like an afterthought:

But it always focuses on show!Jorah's face when he is talking:

And while the camera does focus on show!Dany's face when she reiterates the importance of sparing innocent lives:

It's also true that the show erased too many of her opinions/viewpoints (as I will show below).

In terms of screentime, show!Barristan's first two arguments receive 6 seconds. Show!Jorah's first two arguments receive 12 seconds. Show!Dany's sole argument receives 3 seconds. Show!Jorah's third argument receives 39 seconds. Show!Barristan's third argument (which is actually a line from Dany in the books) receives 18 seconds. Show!Jorah's fourth argument receives 6 seconds. Approximately, then, we have: 57 seconds for show!Jorah, 24 seconds for show!Barristan and 3 seconds for show!Dany.

Now I'm going through each of these characters' arguments.

1) JORAH: And what is she to do for soldiers?

The first point is actually one that Dany is shown onpage bringing up in the books:

“When I leave Astapor it must be with an army, Ser Jorah says.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

“Yet I must have some army,” Dany said. “The boy Joffrey will not give me the Iron Throne for asking politely.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

It isn't out of character for Jorah to make this argument - in fact, he does so in the previous chapter when he proposes that Dany changes course to Astapor. However, since they are adapting events from ASOS Daenerys II (when they are already in Astapor), it's another instance in which the show writers would rather have a supporting male character have his voice heard rather than Dany's.

Also, more importantly, Dany is not making this argument to justify slavery like show!Jorah is:

“Even those who bent their knees may yearn in their hearts for the return of the dragons.”

“May,” said Dany. That was such a slippery word, may. (ASOS Daenerys II)

“My brother visited Pentos, Myr, Braavos, near all the Free Cities. The magisters and archons fed him wine and promises, but his soul was starved to death. A man cannot sup from the beggar’s bowl all his life and stay a man. I had my taste in Qarth, that was enough. I will not come to Pentos bowl in hand.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

The reason why getting an army before she gets to Pentos is so important for Dany is because she lived in poverty before and knows that she can't rely too heavily on anyone - she learned that when no one would help her brother, she learned that again when no one would help her in Qarth even with her dragons. She doesn't want to be powerless, but, at the same time, she doesn't want other people to be powerless as well. Having show!Jorah say these things doesn't have the same significance because he didn't have the same experiences that Dany did nor does he care about the slaves' plight.

So, yeah, that change is doubly awful: it prioritizes a male slaver over a female revolutionary.

2) JORAH: Is it "we" already, Ser Barristan? If you want to sit on the throne your ancestors built, you must win it. That will mean blood on your hands before the thing is done.

Show!Jorah's second and third arguments are actually one and the same and are expressed by Jorah in the books as well:

“Your Grace,” said Jorah Mormont, “I saw King’s Landing after the Sack. Babes were butchered that day as well, and old men, and children at play. More women were raped than you can count. There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs. The scent of blood is all it takes to wake him. Yet I have never heard of these Unsullied raping, nor putting a city to the sword, nor even plundering, save at the express command of those who lead them. Brick they may be, as you say, but if you buy them henceforth the only dogs they’ll kill are those you want dead. And you do have some dogs you want dead, as I recall.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

However, there are still issues with how they presented his argument in the show.

One, the show writers interspersed Jorah's argument in the show scene, which shows how much they want to reinforce it.

Two, they have show!Jorah undermine show!Barristan (who is anti-slavery) three times:

JORAH: Is it "we" already, Ser Barristan?

JORAH: How many wars have you fought in, Ser Barristan? [...] Have you ever seen a war where innocents didn't die by the thousands?

JORAH: Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, and Rhaegar died.

Look at show!Barristan finding no response to these points and his expressions indicating that he lost the argument:

By the time of this particular scene, show!Barristan had joined show!Dany's entourage one day ago (we know this because Kraznys said that show!Dany only had one day to decide if she would buy the Unsullied or not). Even if it's understandable (on a Watsonian perspective) that show!Jorah would distrust show!Barristan for that reason, it's less understandable (on a Doylist perspective) that the writers would use this reason to undermine show!Barristan's anti-slavery arguments or that they would write show!Jorah being distrustful of show!Barristan for that reason rather than the actual reasons in the books (i.e., Jorah being constantly disrespectful of Dany's boundaries and trying to isolate her from any man who, in his mind, threatens their relationship).

In contrast with the show, Dany has been with Barristan for enough time to trust him to be her sole companion when she meets Kraznys and the Unsullied. In fact, she brings him partly as an excuse to avoid to be alone with Jorah again after he kissed her without her consent:

He has a good face, and great strength to him, Dany thought. She could not understand why Ser Jorah mistrusted the old man so. Could he be jealous that I have found another man to talk to? Unbidden, her thoughts went back to the night on Balerion when the exile knight had kissed her. He should never have done that. He is thrice my age, and of too low a birth for me, and I never gave him leave. No true knight would ever kiss a queen without her leave. She had taken care never to be alone with Ser Jorah after that, keeping her handmaids with her aboard ship, and sometimes her bloodriders. He wants to kiss me again, I see it in his eyes. (ASOS Daenerys II)

And then there is the fact that the show writers have show!Barristan find no counterargument to show!Jorah's point below, as if that meant that it is too good to be questioned:

JORAH: How many wars have you fought in, Ser Barristan? [...] Have you ever seen a war where innocents didn't die by the thousands?

This happens because this moment was taken out of its original context in order to present show!Jorah as the "realist" one. Let's look at how the scene (which is only between Dany and Jorah) goes in the books:

“When Aegon the Dragon stepped ashore in Westeros, the kings of Vale and Rock and Reach did not rush to hand him their crowns. If you mean to sit his Iron Throne, you must win it as he did, with steel and dragonfire. And that will mean blood on your hands before the thing is done.”

Blood and fire, thought Dany. The words of House Targaryen. She had known them all her life. “The blood of my enemies I will shed gladly. The blood of innocents is another matter. Eight thousand Unsullied they would offer me. Eight thousand dead babes. Eight thousand strangled dogs.”

The Usurper’s dogs. “Yes.” Dany gazed off at the soft colored lights and let the cool salt breeze caress her. “You speak of sacking cities. Answer me this, ser—why have the Dothraki never sacked this city?” (ASOS Daenerys II)

Dany doesn't offer any answer to the question of innocents dying by the thousands, but that's because GRRM writes it so that Jorah ends his line of reasoning with the argument that buying the Unsullied will cause less deaths in her war in Westeros. Right after that, GRRM shows Dany making good observations and gathering more knowledge, which showcases her intelligence. The show, on the other hand, hammers home one particular perspective in a way that the books didn't in order to make show!Jorah look "realist".

Also, while we don't see Barristan explicitly replying to Jorah's arguments in the books (because, again, the context was both a) altered so that that would happen in the show and b) manufactured so that he would lose the discussion), I imagine he would remind Dany of this very important bit of information if he were to have a discussion with Jorah in front of Dany in the books like they did in the show:

“When I leave Astapor it must be with an army, Ser Jorah says.”

“Ser Jorah was a slaver himself, Your Grace,” the old man reminded her. (ASOS Daenerys II)

Which, conveniently, the show chooses to ignore entirely.

I spent a lot of time talking about show!Jorah's second and third arguments, their context and their framing because they undermine the original takeaway of Dany's storyline. I'm going to talk about show!Jorah's fourth argument later.

Now, let's move on to show!Barristan's arguments.

1) BARRISTAN: Leave this place, Your Grace. Leave tonight, I beg you.

2) BARRISTAN: We can find sellswords in Pentos and Myr.

All of these arguments are expressed in the books, but the context is, once again, different:

“Bricks and blood built Astapor,” Whitebeard murmured at her side, “and bricks and blood her people.”

“What is that?” Dany asked him, curious.

“An old rhyme a maester taught me, when I was a boy. I never knew how true it was. The bricks of Astapor are red with the blood of the slaves who make them.”

“I can well believe that,” said Dany.

“Then leave this place before your heart turns to brick as well. Sail this very night, on the evening tide.”

Would that I could, thought Dany. “When I leave Astapor it must be with an army, Ser Jorah says.”

“Ser Jorah was a slaver himself, Your Grace,” the old man reminded her. “There are sellswords in Pentos and Myr and Tyrosh you can hire. A man who kills for coin has no honor, but at least they are no slaves. Find your army there, I beg you.”

“Better to come a beggar than a slaver,” Arstan said.

“There speaks one who has been neither.” Dany’s nostrils flared. “Do you know what it is like to be sold, squire? I do. My brother sold me to Khal Drogo for the promise of a golden crown. Well, Drogo crowned him in gold, though not as he had wished, and I ... my sun-and-stars made a queen of me, but if he had been a different man, it might have been much otherwise. Do you think I have forgotten how it felt to be afraid?” (ASOS Daenerys II)

In the books, we are privy to Dany's perspective all the time. This scene (as I said both in this post and here) displays how her empathy for the slaves is informed not just by her moral principles or cultural values, but also by her own experiences as someone who struggled with poverty and was a slave herself.

In the series, show!Dany's voice is almost entirely erased and show!Barristan's is undermined to enhance show!Jorah's (as I showed above). Also, even if some of Barristan's points are also added in the show, we don't see him realizing how the rhyme he learned was accurate in more ways than he expected, we don't see him reminding Dany that Jorah was also a slaver and we don't feel his outrage at seeing the Unsullied's training (because, in the show, they had show!Jorah accompany show!Dany rather than him):

“You have lived long in the world, Whitebeard. Now that you have seen them, what do you say?”

“I say no, Your Grace,” the old man answered at once. 

“Why?” she asked. “Speak freely.” Dany thought she knew what he would say, but she wanted the slave girl to hear, so Kraznys mo Nakloz might hear later.

“My queen,” said Arstan, “there have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination. Evil. If you should land in Westeros at the head of a slave army, many good men will oppose you for no other reason than that. You will do great harm to your cause, and to the honor of your House.”

“Yet I must have some army,” Dany said. “The boy Joffrey will not give me the Iron Throne for asking politely.”

“When the day comes that you raise your banners, half of Westeros will be with you,” Whitebeard promised. “Your brother Rhaegar is still remembered, with great love.”

“And my father?” Dany said.

The old man hesitated before saying, “King Aerys is also remembered. He gave the realm many years of peace. Your Grace, you have no need of slaves. Magister Illyrio can keep you safe while your dragons grow, and send secret envoys across the narrow sea on your behalf, to sound out the high lords for your cause.”

“Those same high lords who abandoned my father to the Kingslayer and bent the knee to Robert the Usurper?”

“Even those who bent their knees may yearn in their hearts for the return of the dragons.”

“May,” said Dany. That was such a slippery word, may. (ASOS Daenerys II)

This scene accomplishes a couple of things - not only it reinforces to the audience that what we are seeing is wrong, it also sets up Dany's conflicting feelings about her father and establishes, again, that Dany's decision to go to Astapor is shaped by her past experiences (namely, as I already said, that she's already struggled too much to not have a healthy dose of skepticism with regard to how much help other people are willing to give her). Basically, the scene emphasizes the anti-slavery messages of Dany's storyline and services Dany's characterization.

The show's scene accomplishes none of that.

Show!Barristan's third argument is the most explicit example of the show writers being uninterested in Dany's perspective:

Let's look at the context of this line in the books:

“Viserys would have bought as many Unsullied as he had the coin for. But you once said I was like Rhaegar ...”

“I remember, Daenerys.”

“Your Grace,” she corrected. “Prince Rhaegar led free men into battle, not slaves. Whitebeard said he dubbed his squires himself, and made many other knights as well.”

“There was no higher honor than to receive your knighthood from the Prince of Dragonstone.”

“Tell me, then—when he touched a man on the shoulder with his sword, what did he say? ‘Go forth and kill the weak’? Or ‘Go forth and defend them’? At the Trident, those brave men Viserys spoke of who died beneath our dragon banners—did they give their lives because they believed in Rhaegar’s cause, or because they had been bought and paid for?” Dany turned to Mormont, crossed her arms, and waited for an answer.

“My queen,” the big man said slowly, “all you say is true. But Rhaegar lost on the Trident. He lost the battle, he lost the war, he lost the kingdom, and he lost his life. His blood swirled downriver with the rubies from his breastplate, and Robert the Usurper rode over his corpse to steal the Iron Throne. Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

In the books, this line is not about Rhaegar at all! This is about Dany projecting her own values and ideals on Rhaegar because she wants to find a way out of the slave trade and thinking about what her biggest inspiration might have done (though she later admits she doesn't really know what he would do) would help her be more sure about what to do. This line is all about Dany!!!! By transferring her line to Barristan, not only the show writers are prioritizing a man's voice over hers, they are also making it about another man when it should be about her.

And now we get to show!Jorah's fourth argument (which is a response to show!Barristan's third argument), which I said I would comment later:

4) JORAH: Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, and Rhaegar died.

To quote myself on the significance of his advice,

Jorah didn’t really know who Rhaegar was, so I don’t think this sentence is necessarily reliable. The spirit of his advice is simple, however: Jorah is trying to normalize the training of the Unsullied and the existence of slavery in general as necessary evils if Dany is to win the game of thrones.

On the other hand, these words were also useful in another sense: sometimes you can’t play by the rules if you intend to succeed, especially not if these rules and conventions and institutions treat other people as interchangeable objects to be sold and invalidate your sense of morality. Barristan’s advice was also helpful, not in the sense that she should leave the city, but rather that she should not be a part of the slave trade. And so, like with Viserys and Drogo, she will find a solution that was informed by both of these men’s advice while also being her own: by refusing to view the slaves as objects to be traded, Dany considered the deal illegitimate and sparked an abolitionist campaign that would influence an entire continent. In other words, Dany did not play by the rules (like Jorah advised), but not by compromising her moral principles, but because of her moral principles (like Barristan advised).

However, because show!Dany's voice and motivations are so blatantly disregarded, the show can't develop her character in the same way.

Speaking of show!Dany, here's the one thing she has to say in the discussion of whether or not to buy the Unsullied:

1) DAENERYS: The blood of my enemies, not the blood of innocents.

This doesn't really say anything new about her line of thought that we didn't already know from episode 3.1, in which she agonized over the thousands of babies that would be (and would continue to be) killed if she became complicit in the slave trade. Show!Jorah, on the other hand, gets brand new arguments here.

By comparison, here are the arguments that Dany gets to make in the books (that are either erased or given to someone else). I'm not counting her reactions while she witnesses the Unsullied's training:

“Even those who bent their knees may yearn in their hearts for the return of the dragons.”

“May,” said Dany. That was such a slippery word, may. In any language. (ASOS Daenerys II)

Would that I could, thought Dany. “When I leave Astapor it must be with an army, Ser Jorah says.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

“Better to come a beggar than a slaver,” Arstan said.

“How many men do they have for sale?”

“None.” Was it Mormont she was angry with, or this city with its sullen heat, its stinks and sweats and crumbling bricks? “They sell eunuchs, not men. Eunuchs made of brick, like the rest of Astapor. Shall I buy eight thousand brick eunuchs with dead eyes that never move, who kill suckling babes for the sake of a spiked hat and strangle their own dogs? They don’t even have names. So don’t call them men, ser.”

“Khaleesi,” he said, taken aback by her fury, “the Unsullied are chosen as boys, and trained—”

“I have heard all I care to of their training.” Dany could feel tears welling in her eyes, sudden and unwanted. Her hand flashed up and cracked Ser Jorah hard across the face. It was either that, or cry.

Mormont touched the cheek she’d slapped. “If I have displeased my queen—”

“You have. You’ve displeased me greatly, ser. If you were my true knight, you would never have brought me to this vile sty.” If you were my true knight, you would never have kissed me, or looked at my breasts the way you did, or ...

“As Your Grace commands. I shall tell Captain Groleo to make ready to sail on the evening tide, for some sty less vile.”

“No,” said Dany. Groleo watched them from the forecastle, and his crew was watching too. Whitebeard, her bloodriders, Jhiqui, every one had stopped what they were doing at the sound of the slap. “I want to sail now, not on the tide, I want to sail far and fast and never look back. But I can’t, can I? There are eight thousand brick eunuchs for sale, and I must find some way to buy them.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

“The blood of my enemies I will shed gladly. The blood of innocents is another matter. Eight thousand Unsullied they would offer me. Eight thousand dead babes. Eight thousand strangled dogs.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

Everything that show!Dany has to say on the matter is concentrated on the last passage quoted, and its points are scattered across 3.1 and 3.3.

If the show writers cared about Dany's characterization, we would see how she presents different arguments to Barristan (that she needs an army because she has been poor before) and Jorah (that buying the Unsullied is immoral) at the same time and that both counsellors influence her decision to rebel against the masters in their own ways, as I explained in the quote above.

If the show writers cared about Dany's characterization, we would get hints that she feels that it is her moral duty to stay and help the Unsullied ("Would that I could", "There are eight thousand brick eunuchs for sale, and I must find some way to buy them", etc).

If the show writers cared about Dany's characterization, we would leave this scene with the impression that she already knows what she will do by the time she decides to trade one dragon for all of the Unsullied and the untrained boys. Instead, while we know that show!Dany wants to spare innocents and only kill her enemies and their soldiers, there isn’t enough evidence hinting at her eventual rebellion against the masters. In fact, she is still asking show!Barristan what he thinks, making it seem that she is still unsure of her plan or that she is more reliant on their viewpoints than she is in the books. That's the problem of interspersing lines and plot points between episodes: this discussion could have served for episode 3.1 (in which, if they were faithful to the books, show!Dany would have still been concocting her plan), but it doesn't for episode 3.3, in which they have it happen minutes before she makes her fateful decision.

So, in this exchange, we get very, very little about what show!Dany thinks. Show!Jorah is the one in favor of buying the Unsullied, show!Barristan is the one against it. One could argue, like @rainhadaenerys said to me, that show!Jorah is portrayed as the devil and show!Barristan as the angel on show!Dany's shoulders, similar to how show!Davos is the angel and show!Melisandre the devil on show!Stannis's. The show's influence may explain why some people think that Barristan is the one who motivated Dany to begin her anti-slavery rebellion. The books certainly don't allow that interpretation because Dany's voice remains front and center in the discussions, but the show is dead set on erasing it.

We end the exchange with this:

JORAH: Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, and Rhaegar died.

DAENERYS: Did you know him well, Ser Barristan?

BARRISTAN: I did, Your Grace. Finest man I ever met.

DAENERYS: I wish I had known him. But he was not the last dragon.

It's not true in the books that Barristan knew Rhaegar well:

“Did you know my brother Rhaegar as well?” 

“It was said that no man ever knew Prince Rhaegar, truly. I had the privilege of seeing him in tourney, though, and often heard him play his harp with its silver strings.” (ASOS Daenerys I)

I've already talked about how the show writers gave Dany's lines to show!Barristan, so I won't belabor the point. What I will say is that Benioff's emphasis on show!Dany's awareness that she is the last dragon is very questionable in its intent/framing. In and of itself, that original line is okay - women are often looked down upon if they express confidence both in Westeros and in our world, so it can be refreshing to see show!Dany claiming that Rhaegar was not the last dragon because she knows that she is. It can be refreshing to see a woman whose pride is depicted as a positive trait rather than one that propels her downfall. I'm sure that's the takeaway that what many viewers got from that scene and from show!Dany's trajectory in general in season three.

However, let's see what Benioff says about her in interviews:

Benioff: Dany is so defined by her dragons, they're so much a part at this point, they define her so much that when they're taken from her, it's almost like she reverts to the pre-dragon Daenerys, you know, everyone is a bit defined by who they were when they were an adolescent, you know, no matter how old you get, no matter how powerful you get, and Daenerys was a scared, timid, abused adolescent and I think when her dragons are taken for her, all those feelings, all those memories and emotions are triggered and come back and all the confidence that she's won over the last several months, it's as if that just evaporates and she's back to being a really frightened little girl. (D&D's Inside the Episode 2.6)

Benioff: Dany has her lovable side, but she is also ruthless, and she is also fiercely ambitious and, funnily, like a Littlefinger style ambition where she's trying to climb this, you know, the social ladder. It's almost like a Joan of Arc kind of ambition where she feels like she has this almost divine mission and nothing's going to prevent her from achieving it, and that might mean sacrificing those who are closest to her. (D&D's Inside the Episode 3.3)

Benioff: I think she becomes harder to dismiss, you know, for a long time people have been saying, even if she was alive, you know, really, the only threat she poses is her name, she's a Targaryen, great, but she's a little girl in the edge of the world, so she's starting to knock on people's doors a little bit. (D&D's Inside the Episode 3.4)

Right from the beginning, we can see that Benioff didn't really see show!Dany's pride and confidence and ambition positively. Not only does he think those aspects are dependent upon her dragons and her family name, he also thinks she has a "Littlefinger style ambition" and an "almost divine mission" that she will embark while thinking that "nothing's going to prevent her from achieving it". All of these statements mischaracterize Daenerys Targaryen, so I end up looking askance at the end of the scene for knowing that he's the one who wrote and directed it.

(Also, now that we know in hindsight that the show writers are not just going to strip show!Dany of many characteristics of her book counterpart, but also villainize her and kill her for the very confidence she is displaying here ... I can’t give them any credit.)

Dany does assert her identity and titles in a chapter that they are adapting in this episode, but the context (as usual) is entirely different:

Dany knew she would take more than a hundred, if she took any at all. “Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him.”

Yet her words did not move the plump perfumed slaver, even when rendered in his own ugly tongue. “Old Ghis ruled an empire when the Valyrians were still fucking sheep,” he growled at the poor little scribe, “and we are the sons of the harpy.” He gave a shrug. “My tongue is wasted wagging at women. East or west, it makes no matter, they cannot decide until they have been pampered and flattered and stuffed with sweetmeats. Well, if this is my fate, so be it. Tell the whore that if she requires a guide to our sweet city, Kraznys mo Nakloz will gladly serve her ... and service her as well, if she is more woman than she looks.” (ASOS Daenerys II)

First, in this quote, we get a hint that Dany is intent on either freeing the slaves or not being complicit in their oppression ("she would take more than a hundred, if she took any at all").

Second, we see that Dany reminds Kraznys of her identity after she spent a very long time being belittled and mocked and ridiculed due to his fervent misogyny and xenophobia. Unlike show!Dany, she is bringing up her titles because she was being disrespected, not because she wants to bring them up for their own sake. In other words, the book's scene doesn't intend to frame Dany as arrogant, though it seems that the show's scene does.

I have thoughts about the show's change of Dany's dress, but I'll leave them to the section about her clothing.

So, to begin talking about the negotiation scene on a positive note, there are some aspects that the show remained faithful to the books to.

The first is that show!Dany is explicitly shown to be doing what she is doing because she wants to help the slaves:

It's funny to gif this scene as if show!Dany were rolling her eyes, but that's not what she is actually doing in the scene: she looks above, at the slaves, and then decides to risk one of her dragons for them. That much is unambiguously clear.

The second detail in common is this:

MISSANDEI: There are 8,000 Unsullied in Astapor. Is this what you mean by all?

DAENERYS: Yes. 8,000. And the ones still in training as well.

Show!Dany wants to free all of the slaves, so she asks for the eight thousand Unsullied and the untrained boys, just like Dany:

“Of thousands, there are eight. Is this what she means by all? There are also six centuries, who shall be part of a ninth thousand when complete. Would she have them too?”

“I would,” said Dany when the question was put to her. “The eight thousands, the six centuries ... and the ones still in training as well. The ones who have not earned the spikes.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Unfortunately, this is all there is in terms of similarities. There are far more differences.

MISSANDEI: Master Greizhen says they cannot sell half-trained boys. If they fail on the battlefield, they will bring shame upon all of Astapor.

DAENERYS: I will have them all or take none. Many will fall in battle. I'll need the boys to pick up the swords they drop.

First of all, unlike in the show, there is a master willing to sell the untrained boys to Dany:

“We cannot sell half-trained boys,” one of the silver-fringe Grazdans was saying to the others.

“We can, if her gold is good,” said a fatter man whose fringe was gold.

“They are not Unsullied. They have not killed their sucklings. If they fail in the field, they will shame us. And even if we cut five thousand raw boys tomorrow, it would be ten years before they are fit for sale. What would we tell the next buyer who comes seeking Unsullied?”

“We will tell him that he must wait,” said the fat man. “Gold in my purse is better than gold in my future.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Second, while Dany makes the argument that show!Dany is seen making:

“In a year I shall be in Westeros,” said Dany when she had heard the translation. “My need is now. The Unsullied are well trained, but even so, many will fall in battle. I shall need the boys as replacements to take up the swords they drop.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

They cut what Dany says right afterwards:

She put her wine aside and leaned toward the slave girl. “Tell the Good Masters that I will want even the little ones who still have their puppies. Tell them that I will pay as much for the boy they cut yesterday as for an Unsullied in a spiked helm.”

The girl told them. The answer was still no. 

Dany frowned in annoyance. “Very well. Tell them I will pay double, so long as I get them all.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Because the show writers chose to only have show!Dany say that she will “need the boys to pick up the swords they drop”, it makes it seem that her request to get them is more strategic than empathetic. It's not; as we can see above, if they had added the bolded parts above, it would have made it even clearer that she is doing what she is doing solely because of her altruism.

MISSANDEI: Master Kraznys says you cannot afford this.

KRAZNYS: Her ship will buy her 100 Unsullied, no more.

MISSANDEI: Your ship will buy you 100 Unsullied.

KRAZNYS: And this because I like the curve of her ass.

MISSANDEI: Because Master Kraznys is generous.

KRAZNYS: What is left will buy her 10.

MISSANDEI: The gold you have left is worth 10.

KRAZNYS: I will give her if it stops her ignorant whimpering.

MISSANDEI: But good Master Kraznys will give you 20.

KRAZNYS: Her Dothraki smell of shit ...

MISSANDEI: The Dothraki you have with you…

KRAZNYS: ... but may be useful as pig feed.

MISSANDEI: The Dothraki you have are not worth what they cost to feed, but Master Kraznys will give you three Unsullied for all of them.

KRAZNYS: So, ask this beggar queen, how will she pay for the remaining 7,877?

The show also decreases the value of Dany's goods a lot.

In the books, Dany is willing to sell Illyrio's three ships (rather than one):

“...But my ships you can have. The great cog Balerion and the galleys Vhagar and Meraxes.” She had warned Groleo and the other captains it might come to this, though they had protested the necessity of it furiously. “Three good ships should be worth more than a few paltry eunuchs.”

The fat Grazdan turned to the others. They conferred in low voices once again. “Two of the thousands,” the one with the spiked beard said when he turned back. “It is too much, but the Good Masters are being generous and your need is being great.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Have in mind that 2,000 is their worth after Dany chose to pay double for the Unsullied and the untrained boys. Normally, they would be worth 4,000. But let's be generous and use 2,000 ... This means that each ship is worth around 666 Unsullied.

And yet, in the show, her ship is worth 100 Unsullied.

In the books, this is how much Dany's gold and trading goods inside the ship are worth:

“Your men have gone through my ships and tallied every bead of amber and jar of saffron. How much do I have?”

“Sufficient to be buying one of thousands,” the Good Master said, with a contemptuous smile. “Yet you are paying double, you are saying. Five centuries, then, is all you buy.”

In the show, however, show!Dany's gold is only worth 10 Unsullied.

As for the Dothraki, before the slavers make an offer, Dany makes it clear that she will not sell them (or any of the people in her retinue, or any of their possessions):

“My crown is not for sale.” When Viserys sold their mother’s crown, the last joy had gone from him, leaving only rage. “Nor will I enslave my people, nor sell their goods and horses.[”]

Do I think leaving this part out means that show!Dany would be willing to enslave the Dothraki? Absolutely not, it wouldn't make sense with her characterization (watered down as it is). However, would it have cost much for the show writers to have her make it clear that she won't enslave them? Doesn't seem so.

Why is the decrease in the value of Dany's possessions important to have in mind? Because, in the books, it matters that she had other choices rather than the one she ultimately makes:

Two thousand would never serve for what she meant to do. I must have them all. Dany knew what she must do now, though the taste of it was so bitter that even the persimmon wine could not cleanse it from her month. She had considered long and hard and found no other way. It is my only choice. “Give me all,” she said, “and you may have a dragon.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Dany "found no other way"? If she just wanted an army, she had plenty of other ways:

If she just wanted an army, she could have offered all the trading goods in the ships and gotten the 1000 Unsullied that Jorah advised her to get (unlike show!Jorah, Jorah explicitly recommends a specific number of soldiers - "a thousand swords")

If she just wanted an army, she wouldn’t have offered to pay double for the untrained boys.

If she just wanted an army, she could have given the trading goods and the ships and left with 2000 Unsullied.

If she just wanted an army, she wouldn’t have thought that she must have them all" and that “[i]t was [her] only choice” to offer them a dragon.

By stripping show!Dany of these options, the show writers undercut the extent of her altruism, for they erase the fact and Dany had other alternatives and still chose the moral one. In the books, it was never necessary for her to risk her dragon, but she did it anyway; in the show, 123 Unsullied was not enough to form an army, so one could, on a superficial read, argue that she's only doing what she's doing out of convenience.

Then, we get to the part in which show!Dany actually offers a dragon to the masters:

MISSANDEI: Master Kraznys asks how you propose to pay for the remaining 7,877 Unsullied.

DAENERYS: I have dragons. I'll give you one.

BARRISTAN: You will win the throne with dragons, not slaves, Your Grace.

JORAH: Khaleesi, please.

KRAZNYS: Three dragons.

DAENERYS: One.

KRAZNYS: Two.

DAENERYS: One.

MISSANDEI: They want the biggest one.

DAENERYS: Done.

KRAZNYS: Done.

Before I talk about how her advisors react, let's talk about how show!Dany's sacrifice is being undermined again: in the show, instead of being shocked that show!Dany is willing to sell even one dragon, Kraznys thinks he is entitled to ask for more of them. Let's see the masters' reactions in the books:

“Give me all,” she said, “and you may have a dragon.”

There was the sound of indrawn breath from Jhiqui beside her. Kraznys smiled at his fellows. “Did I not tell you? Anything, she would give us.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

“Tell them I await their answer.”

She knew the answer, though; she could see it in the glitter of their eyes and the smiles they tried so hard to hide. Astapor had thousands of eunuchs, and even more slave boys waiting to be cut, but there were only three living dragons in all the great wide world. And the Ghiscari lust for dragons. How could they not? Five times had Old Ghis contended with Valyria when the world was young, and five times gone down to bleak defeat. For the Freehold had dragons, and the Empire had none.

The oldest Grazdan stirred in his seat, and his pearls clacked together softly. “A dragon of our choice,” he said in a thin, hard voice. “The black one is largest and healthiest.”

“His name is Drogon.” She nodded.

“All your goods, save your crown and your queenly raiment, which we will allow you to keep. The three ships. And Drogon.”

“Done,” she said, in the Common Tongue. 

“Done,” the old Grazdan answered in his thick Valyrian.

The others echoed that old man of the pearl fringe. “Done,” the slave girl translated, “and done, and done, eight times done.”

As we can see, the masters are shocked that Dany would think that it's reasonable to offer even a single dragon. They can't hide how eager they are to control one (especially considering their past history with Old Valyria, which is another observation showcasing Dany's intelligence that the show erased). Their only request is to choose the biggest one, not to take one or two more. What's more, having show!Dany assert that she will only give one dragon makes it seem that her selflessness only goes so far, which is not at all what the purpose of the original scene was.

Now, on to what show!Dany’s advisors think of her trading one dragon for the Unsullied ...

DAENERYS: I have dragons. I'll give you one.

BARRISTAN: You will win the throne with dragons, not slaves, Your Grace.

JORAH: Khaleesi, please.

JORAH: Khaleesi, a dragon is worth more than any army.

BARRISTAN: Aegon Targaryen proved that.

DAENERYS: You're both here to advise me. I value your advice, but if you ever question me in front of strangers again, you'll be advising someone else. Is that understood?

In the books, Jorah never questions Dany's decision like show!Jorah is seen doing in the scene. In fact, he is the one who takes Barristan away from the negotiation scene (likely because he wants to get back into Dany’s good grace after he forced a kiss on her and she avoided him and later (rightfully) slapped him in the face):

“Give me all,” she said, “and you may have a dragon.”

[...] Whitebeard stared in shocked disbelief. His hand trembled where it grasped the staff. “No.” He went to one knee before her. “Your Grace, I beg you, win your throne with dragons, not slaves. You must not do this thing—”

“You must not presume to instruct me. Ser Jorah, remove Whitebeard from my presence.”

Mormont seized the old man roughly by an elbow, yanked him back to his feet, and marched him out onto the terrace. (ASOS Daenerys III)

Also, as I said here, I’m pretty sure Dany shared her plan to revolt against the masters with Jorah and her bloodriders.

Another reason why it bothers me to see show!Jorah reacting so negatively to the exchange show!Dany just made is that ... What else could she have done to get the Unsullied? Obviously, 123 of them wouldn’t be enough to get an army. In the books, before they sail to Astapor, Dany questions how she is going to buy the Unsullied and Jorah shows what she can do to buy them:

“That is what you will find in Astapor, Your Grace. Put ashore there, and continue on to Pentos overland. It will take longer, yes ... but when you break bread with Magister Illyrio, you will have a thousand swords behind you, not just four.”

There is wisdom in this, yes, Dany thought, but ... “How am I to buy a thousand slave soldiers? All I have of value is the crown the Tourmaline Brotherhood gave me.”

“Dragons will be as great a wonder in Astapor as they were in Qarth. It may be that the slavers will shower you with gifts, as the Qartheen did. If not ... these ships carry more than your Dothraki and their horses. They took on trade goods at Qarth, I’ve been through the holds and seen for myself. Bolts of silk and bales of tiger skin, amber and jade carvings, saffron, myrrh ... slaves are cheap, Your Grace. Tiger skins are costly.” (ASOS Daenerys I)

As we can see, Jorah is able to roughly estimate that Illyrio's trade goods will guarantee one thousand soldiers for Dany because "slaves are cheap". In the show, he either made a wrong calculation or neither him nor show!Dany thought of making one in the first place, which dumbs both of them down.

Now, I have a guess as to why show!Jorah is made to disagree with show!Dany's decision - that's, again, because Benioff empathizes with him over Dany. I've already showed above and in episode 3.1 how show!Jorah's viewpoint is consistently prioritized over show!Dany's or show!Barristan's and how he even receives new arguments that make him seem "realist". We should also have Benioff's statements in this interview in mind:

“It’s a hallmark of a number of scenes in [A Storm of Swords] where, in retrospect, I should have seen it coming because George laid out all the pieces, he had given you all the clues,” Benioff said. “The best kind of surprises aren’t the ones that come out of nowhere. The best ones are where after you see it you’re asking yourself, ‘Why didn’t I see that was coming?’ I remember reading [Dany planning to give up Drogon to the slaver] and thinking, ‘Oh, this is kind of disappointing.’ When the real plan was revealed I think I even called [Weiss]. This was before we had met with George, when we were still trying to figure out if this show was possible. The culmination of that scene was one of those moments when we were like, ‘We got to make this f–king show.’ It was very gratifying seeing that wish fulfilled … I think it will be one of the most staggering things ever put on television.” (x)

To be fair to him, at least he acknowledges that GRRM left many clues that that was going to happen (though he didn't add them in the show). But my point is that he was disappointed at Dany when he thought she was giving Drogon up. Since show!Jorah's perspective has been prioritized over the other characters' to the point of the audience being made to empathize and experience the events with him rather than with Dany, it only makes sense that he has the same feelings that Benioff did when he first read the book.

Another thing I want to mention is how Benioff is motivated by the spectacle rather than how the culmination is tied to Dany's characterization. This is partly why, I suspect, so many of Dany's words and thoughts were erased - he prioritized the viewer's shock rather than allowing the viewer to see where she is coming from. (That's similar to the buildup - or lack thereof - to Littlefinger's trial in season seven, when we ended up seeing the events from his perspective rather than the Starks' because they would rather shock us than make us empathize with the actual leads)

As for show!Barristan, some of his book counterpart's arguments are kept in the show - namely, that Dany should win the throne with dragons rather than slaves and that Aegon proved that a dragon is worth more than an army in the Field of Fire. Even so, Barristan's moral outrage has been erased, as I already showed with the book evidence quoted above (here are some examples).

And then there’s show!Dany’s reaction to their dissent:

DAENERYS: You're both here to advise me. I value your advice, but if you ever question me in front of strangers again, you'll be advising someone else. Is that understood?

Look, I have no problem with this scene in and of itself. Show!Dany makes it clear that she’s willing to listen to them, but that her authority can’t be undermined in front of other people (even more so when these people are already prone to underestimate her).

However, some crucial details are missing in this scene compared to the books:

Arstan Whitebeard held his tongue as well, when Dany swept by him on the terrace. He followed her down the steps in silence, but she could hear his hardwood staff tap tapping on the red bricks as they went. She did not blame him for his fury. It was a wretched thing she did. The Mother of Dragons has sold her strongest child. Even the thought made her ill.

Yet down in the Plaza of Pride, standing on the hot red bricks between the slavers’ pyramid and the barracks of the eunuchs, Dany turned on the old man. “Whitebeard,” she said, “I want your counsel, and you should never fear to speak your mind with me ... when we are alone. But never question me in front of strangers. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Your Grace,” he said unhappily. 

“I am not a child,” she told him. “I am a queen.”

“Yet even queens can err. The Astapori have cheated you, Your Grace. A dragon is worth more than any army. Aegon proved that three hundred years ago, upon the Field of Fire.”

“I know what Aegon proved. I mean to prove a few things of my own.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Unlike in the show, Dany is shown empathizing with Barristan ("She did not blame him for his fury. It was a wretched thing she did."). She doesn’t want to be complicit in the slave trade, and she certainly doesn’t want to sell one of her children, but it’s still the moral duty of a queen as she sees it.

Unlike in the show, Dany is the one who takes the initiative to make it clear to Barristan that she wants his honest advice, just not in public. Unlike in the show, she never threatens to send him away.

They also cut the part in which Dany says that she knows what Aegon proved and that she means to prove a few things of her own, another hint that she will forsake the deal because it should have never been acknowledged as one to begin with.

Before I talk about show!Dany's first one-on-one interaction with show!Missandei, I have to comment on this part:

DAENERYS: I'll take you as well, now. You'll be Master Kraznys' gift to me. A token of a bargain well struck.

MISSANDEI: She asks that you give me to her, as a present. She asks that you do this now.

In the books, Kraznys voluntarily gives Missandei to Dany:

“The Unsullied will learn your savage tongue quick enough,” added Kraznys mo Nakloz, when all the arrangements had been made, “but until such time you will need a slave to speak to them. Take this one as our gift to you, a token of a bargain well struck.”

“I shall,” said Dany.

The slave girl rendered his words to her, and hers to him. If she had feelings about being given for a token, she took care not to let them show. (ASOS Daenerys III)

Now, does this change mean that show!Dany sees show!Missandei as an object to be sold? No. For one, as Emilia Clarke says:

Clarke: Dany sees a lot of herself in her and can kind of see that it's a young girl who's capable of much more than the position she's in.

If show!Dany is able to empathize with show!Missandei on that level, it's much more likely that show!Dany asked to have show!Missandei so that she could free her from Kraznys (who is unabashedly cruel and misogynist). That being said, it is still an unnecessary deviation that can lead to pointless misunderstanding from the viewers.

While show!Dany and show!Missandei discuss some of the same issues that Dany and Missandei do in the books, their first one-on-one meeting is very condensed and altered in several key ways.

DAENERYS: Do you have a name?

MISSANDEI: This one's name is Missandei, Your Grace.

DAENERYS: Do you have a family? A mother and a father you'd return to if you had the choice?

MISSANDEI: No, Your Grace. No family living.

DAENERYS: You belong to me now. It is your duty to tell me the truth.

MISSANDEI: Yes, Your Grace. Lying is a great offense. Many of those on the Walk of Punishment were taken there for less.

Show!Dany begins asking if show!Missandei had a family that she would like to return to, which implies that show!Dany would let her go if show!Missandei had one (again, this is another moment challenging the idea that show!Dany only saw show!Missandei as an object). Show!Missandei replies that she doesn’t, however. This leads show!Dany to remind her that she needs to tell her the truth, which doesn’t make sense. Why would show!Missandei lie about it? Especially since, in the books, Dany doesn’t outright say that “it is your duty to tell me the truth”, merely that “you serve me now” when she wants to confirm with Missandei information that she got from Kraznys about the Unsullied:

“Are these Unsullied truly fearless?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“You serve me now. Is it true they feel no pain?”

“The wine of courage kills such feelings. By the time they slay their sucklings, they have been drinking it for years.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Dany is not reminding Missandei of the need to tell her the truth because she is mistrusting Missandei right off the bat like show!Dany seems to be doing with show!Missandei, she is asking that question because confirming these details will be crucial if she means to turn the Unsullied to her side when she risks both her life and those of her retinue to free them. But the show beats on that dead horse and even has Missandei answer that she wouldn’t lie because to do so would lead her to the Walk of Punishment. It decontextualizes why Dany reminded Missandei of the need to tell her the truth in the books.

Missandei is treated differently by Dany in the two mediums in other ways. In the book, Dany is shown onpage freeing her right away and names her one of her handmaids in case she decides to stay with her:

“Missandei is no longer a slave. I free you, from this instant. Come ride with me in the litter, I wish to talk.” Rakharo helped them in, and Dany drew the curtains shut against the dust and heat. “If you stay with me you will serve as one of my handmaids,” she said as they set off. “I shall keep you by my side to speak for me as you spoke for Kraznys. But you may leave my service whenever you choose, if you have father or mother you would sooner return to.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

In the show, they have show!Dany say that show!Missandei can’t lie because “you belong to me now”, which makes it seem like a master talking to a slave. However, we know that show!Dany frees show!Missandei at some point as well (the latter says so in season seven), the show writers just didn't bother to show it onscreen because, as this meta is hopefully showing, they don't care about Dany's characterization. In any case, show!Dany doing anything but that wouldn’t make sense neither with how she reacts to the Unsullied’s plight nor with Emilia Clarke’s interview. If they had followed the book’s exchange more closely rather than invented new dialogue, there wouldn't have been any confusions.

They have show!Dany confirm with show!Missandei the information she got from Kraznys about the Unsullied:

DAENERYS: Is it true what Master Kraznys told me about the Unsullied? About their obedience?

MISSANDEI: All questions have been taken from them. They obey, that is all. Once they are yours, they are yours. They will fall on their swords if you command it.

However, they forgot to include the most relevant part of exchange, plot-wise: Dany asking Missandei if the Unsullied could be used against her if Dany were to resell them.

“If I did resell them, how would I know they could not be used against me?” Dany asked pointedly. “Would they do that? Fight against me, even do me harm?”

“If their master commanded. They do not question, Your Grace. All the questions have been culled from them. They obey.” She looked troubled. “When you are ... when you are done with them ... your Grace might command them to fall upon their swords.”

“And even that, they would do?” 

“Yes.” Missandei’s voice had grown soft. “Your Grace.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

Dany is making this hypothetical question because she wants to know if there’s any way that the Unsullied can be turned against their previous owner, which is what she intends to do in order to rebel against the masters and free the soldiers.

Then show!Dany reminds show!Missandei that, by following her, she might be vulnerable to many possible misfortunes:

DAENERYS: And what about you? You know that I'm taking you to war. You may go hungry. You may fall sick. You may be killed.

This does happen in the books, but the context is different.

“This one will stay,” the girl said. “This one ... I ... there is no place for me to go. This ... I will serve you, gladly.”

“I can give you freedom, but not safety,” Dany warned. “I have a world to cross and wars to fight. You may go hungry. You may grow sick. You may be killed.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

In the books, as I said, Dany frees Missandei right away, says she might leave her service when she wants to and then warns her of the harsh conditions she will face if she remains with Dany.

In the series, show!Dany reminds show!Missandei of the obstacles she will have to face if she remains with her primarily because she wants to know if show!Missandei is as obedient as the Unsullied, not because she is primarily concerned about show!Missandei’s safety and free will. Again, I don’t mean to be critical of show!Dany here - I do think she had show!Missandei’s best intentions in mind (and that she freed her afterwards offscreen). I’m only saying that the writers could have conveyed that in a more unequivocal way ... like how the books did, y'know.

Like in the books, show!Missandei also says valar morghulis when show!Dany warns her of the dangers of staying with her, but her answer is different from Dany's:

DAENERYS: Yes, all men must die. But we are not men.

“All men must die,” Dany agreed, “but not for a long while, we may pray.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

I don't think this is the worst line ever made for show!Dany, but I definitely prefer the book one and it's sad to revisit that quote now that we know that both show!Dany and show!Missandei will be dead by the end of the series.

Show!Missandei also seems to become fond of show!Dany way too quickly. That line “but we are not men” seems to have the intent to build a feeling of solidarity between these two women (and this is corroborated, again, by Emilia’s interview quoted above); indeed, in the next episode, show!Missandei will give Kraznys a smirk when show!Dany admits that she was fooling him all along. In the books, however, not only we never see Missandei’s reaction to Dany’s rebellion, but her feelings about being given away to Dany seem much more complicated - understandably so.

“I shall keep you by my side to speak for me as you spoke for Kraznys. But you may leave my service whenever you choose, if you have father or mother you would sooner return to.”

“This one will stay,” the girl said. “This one ... I ... there is no place for me to go. This ... I will serve you, gladly.” (ASOS Daenerys III)

She looked troubled. “When you are ... when you are done with them ... your Grace might command them to fall upon their swords.”

“And even that, they would do?” 

“Yes.” Missandei’s voice had grown soft. “Your Grace.”

Dany squeezed her hand. “You would sooner I did not ask it of them, though. Why is that? Why do you care?”

“This one does not ... I ... Your Grace ... ” 

“Tell me.” 

The girl lowered her eyes. “Three of them were my brothers once, Your Grace.”

Then I hope your brothers are as brave and clever as you. (ASOS Daenerys III)

Even if Dany has noble intentions and frees her right away, where would she go? What would she do? How would she survive? Does she have a better option? These are questions that Dany will only directly confront in the next chapter, when plenty of Astapori freedmen will choose to follow her instead of staying in the city. In Missandei’s case, she seems more resigned than anything else in the books.

Also, even if Dany freed Missandei, it doesn't prevent the latter from looking "troubled" and seriously consider the possibility that Dany may order all the Unsullied to kill themselves. Her former master had no problem humiliating and torturing her, why would Dany be any different?

The show could have acknowledged these complications, but it didn’t - that’s why it sucks so much: it pretends to be telling a morally complex tale (see Benioff saying how hard it is for Dany to choose between violence/"realism" and idealism) while it actually undermines the anti-slavery viewpoints (especially Dany’s) and oversimplifies the (positive and negative) ramifications of Dany’s crusade. If it actually intended to be a morally complex tale like it pretends to be, we would see the Astapori refugees in the show. Instead, they would rather overfocus on how show!Dany is becoming “more violent” as her crusade continues (see this).

My comments on the Inside the Episode 3.3

Weiss: Giving away one of the dragons seems like a completely insane thing to do, especially the biggest one. I mean, we know that, historically, the biggest dragons were bigger than school buses and they were weapons of mass destruction and able to lay cities to waste in minutes, and no matter how big or effective your army of 8,000 soldiers is, taking even a small city is going to be a kind of a dangerous prospect for them, and the idea that she's going to give away what they see is her real future for a chance at a small army now seems insane to them.

Benioff: As @rainhadaenerys already said in her tags here, Benioff's comments make it seem like Dany's "lovable side" is secondary to her ruthlessness or her ambition or her "almost divine mission". Check out my list of passages showcasing Dany's moments of empathy and compassion VS in which ways the prophecies drive Dany's story (and also this meta) VS the moments in which Dany uses/considers using violence. The former obviously outweighs the latter two. I also recommend reading this meta debunking claims that Dany is "entitled" or "arrogant", for these false accusations are related to the mischaracterization of Dany as someone who is "fiercely ambitious" (that's because they are all tied to her heritage and her goal to take back the Seven Kingdoms). Finally, I don't know why the heck Benioff is saying that she might sacrifice "those who are closest to her". Time and again we see that she is not willing to sacrifice people for her personal goals - she won't sell anyone from her retinue or any of their belongings nor will she leave the slaves behind at the mercy of the masters. Her risking one dragon is an action that's supposed to highlight how far she is willing to go to "protect the ones who can't protect themselves". Why doesn't he ever bother to talk about her selflessness? Why is it always about her ambition or a "divine mission" that is nowhere to be found in Dany's consciousness in the books?

Weiss: It's annoying that he's talking about show!Jorah as if he were against show!Dany's decision to trade a dragon for the Unsulllied (which he never was in the books), but I've already written about that extensively in this post. His description of the dragons as being "able to lay cities to waste in minutes" is questionable, as well as his description of 8,000 men as "a small army".

Show!Dany's clothes

This episode adapts events from ASOS Daenerys II (which has no description of her clothes) and ASOS Daenerys III, in which we see her wearing this dress for the negotiation scene:

She had chosen a Qartheen gown today. The deep violet silk brought out the purple of her eyes. The cut of it bared her left breast. While the Good Masters of Astapor conferred among themselves in low voices, Dany sipped tart persimmon wine from a tall silver flute. She could not quite make out all that they were saying, but she could hear the greed. (ASOS Daenerys III)

This scene exhibits Dany's political skills - by using a dress that calls attention to her body and arouses the masters, she disarms them and potentially makes them more amenable to her offers.

I also think it's significant that the dress is Qartheen, for their culture (as seen through Dany's eyes) is marked by flattery and adulation and politeness and dishonesty.

In the show, however, show!Dany is still using the blue dress:

Unlike in episode 3.1 (which adapted a scene in the docks in which she was using Dothraki clothing), now I can't say that the dress is spiritually faithful to the one from the books. It's another opportunity that they missed to highlight aspects of Dany's characterization that tend to be overlooked (in this case, her intelligence).

There is a 2012 interview in which Emilia Clarke addresses the matter of the Qartheen fashion:

FaB: Some fans were irked at the news that the Qartheen fashion of leaving one breast exposed was not being adhered to, as it was in the books. And speaking as a heterosexual male, I suppose that’s a shame… yet I also think, visually, it would have been extremely distracting to the eye. Was this ever discussed?

EC: This was indeed discussed! I remember when I was filming in Croatia seeing a copy of book 2, and the front cover picture was of Dany in the ‘traditional Qartheen fashion’ and you could say that I was rather taken aback. There are lots of things to bear in mind when adapting a book for the screen, and yes we all agreed that if this was kept as a visual reference, it would take away from the drama and integrity of Dany’s storyline as she grows into such a strong Khalessi.

Emilia's thoughts must be respected, especially considering what she's been through on set. Also, have in mind that I'm a gay man speaking about the issue of female nudity in media, so I don't have the full awareness to discuss it like women do because I'm not a victim of the male gaze. If I'm being callous, please let me know.

With this caveat in mind, I don't think having show!Dany wear a Qartheen dress in this scene would "take away from the drama and integrity of Dany's storyline". In fact, it would have been an example of nudity being used to display Dany's shrewdness rather than to sexualize her. It would have been an example of her nakedness being normalized rather than fetishized (like it will be in episode 3.7, when she stands up naked to show!Daario just ... because).

#daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta #valyrianscrolls #a storm of swords #missandei #asoiaf vs got #asos vs got #barristan selmy #jorah mormont #s3

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keysszz · 4 years

Text

Battle Scars

Rottmnt Fanfiction

He slashed through his machines like nothing,

He kept going,

Kept smashing,

It was over for the young turtle.

Would he die from this?

He was definitely gonna die from this.

Their arms got close to him,

Shredding, soon coming for his face-

Donnie woke up in a cold sweat, glancing around his room. His eyes were wide open as he tried to focus on something that would reassure that he was ok. His breath was going by quickly, and his sheets were just about thrown off the bed.

His eyes darted around the room, his body soon becoming stable again. His breath was still wild, and he tried to make it go back to normal, but he couldn't. It kept going up and he felt like air wasn't coming to his lungs and he felt like he couldn't breathe. He told himself that he was in his room, that everything was fine, but he soon began to get hot from the hyperventalating. He tossed the covers off of his legs to try and get cooler, his breath trying to come back and why couldn't he breathe?!

He remembered the breathing exercises he had seen online since he had been doing this for many nights now. His breath slowly went back to normal, his eyes lowering from knowing that he was safe. He sighed a shaky breath, sitting up on the bed with his knees up and his head resting on them.

It has just been another nightmare; another one of many. He sighed again as he got out of his bed, grimancing as he felt the pain spring back up again from his shell.

The purple genius walked over to one of his mirrors and looked at his shell with a small frown. Three identical scars seemed to stare back at him as he looked, shuttering as he stared. They were still a dark red color, but no more blood was coming out.

A nightmare. A dream. A figment of my imagination, he told himself over and over again. Except it wasn't a dream. He had experienced it. It had been months since the fight with that beast, but it replayed in Donnie's mind like a never ending movie. The Shredder was way more powerful than him, and he was terrified. The thing had torn apart all of his inventions in seconds. All of his hard work, all of his possesions. Gone. His progress was gone. Years of work that he'd put into those machines, and he got destruction as a response.

If it could do that to his machinery, what could the monster do to him? He'd already experienced what the Shredder could do to his shell, but what if it had done more? What if the beast went farther then his shell?

His brothers had already told him that he was fine, that it was ok. But that's kinda hard to agree with when your shell was literally cut open. They hadn't seen how deep the wounds went, and they seemed to go way deeper than the shell (both physically and mentally speaking).

Sure, he was fine now; safe in the comfort of his home. But because of what? A stupid handkerchief? That's what prevent the Shredder from coming further, from doing more, and it frustrated him. He could have landed a hit on the beast, done more than just scream, and a stupid handkerchief saved him?!

Donnie didn't know how to take it. He didn't know how to feel about it. He had to be the weak one, didn't he? He had to be the softshell, the one that everyone looked down upon. He hated it. He hated everything about this, not like he could do anything about it though.

Donnie sighed as he walked to his lab, making sure not to hurt himself in the walk over. He didn't put on his battle shell; why should he? It would just remind him of the fight, and it wasn't in good shape anyway.

Once he had made it to his lab, he walked to where his drone was decked. Shelldon had been one of the few machines that hadn't been destroyed in the fight; Donnie just couldn't risk him. Shelldon was different from the other machines Donnie had created. He had life, emotions, feelings and... The softshell didn't want to see him hurt. Or what if more than that happened? What if...

Donnie shook his head. He couldn't think like that right now, what mattered was getting some of his inventions fixed up. He didn't know what to start with, but he had to do something to make himself feel better.

As Donnie got close, Shelldon opened his eyes slowly from hearing movement in the room.

"What... Donnie?" The drone pondered as he opened his eyes fully. "What are you doing up so early?"

"It's not that early," Donnie said with an emotionless tone. "It's only 1:30."

"Uh, I'd say that pretty early," Shelldon replied.

"It doesn't matter," Donnie told him. "What I need is for you to help me with fixing my inventions."

"Again?" Shelldon asked. "We've been doing this for the past five nights now."

"I'm sure its only been two nights," Donnie rolled his eyes. The drone could be so dramatic sometimes.

"No, its been five," Shelldon remarked. He began to hover over to one of Donnie's computer screens and plugged himself in, showing the softshell the progress they have been doing.

"See? We've worked almost every night this week, and its all been around this time too."

"Huh..." Donnie said as he looked at the data. "I guess I must have forgotten..."

"Are you getting enough sleep?" Shelldon asked as he unplugged himself and hovered over to his creator. "You don't look so good..."

"I'm fine," Donnie told him, waving off the drone's question. "Just do another body scan on me."

The drone hesitated before doing so. He flew around Donnie while he scanned, finishing with a frown.

"The scars don't look to good..." Shelldon said with concern. "Are you treated them like you should be?"

"I assure you, I'm fine," Donnie told him. "I'm sure they'll be fine in a couple of days."

"You said that last week," Shelldon replied. "And the week before last, and the week before that..."

Donnie stared at his robot. He could tell that Shelldon cared about him, and the drone was pretty worried. Donnie sighed as he looked in the other direction.

"I'm really really worried about you Donnie..." The drone said as he looked down at the softshell.

"Yeah yeah, I hear your two reallys," Donnie remarked. "But I'm telling you, I'm ok."

"You're not ok, Dee," Shelldon said. "You gotta treat those scars. If you really need help, ask your brothers. I'm sure they would love to help."

He did try and treat them. But everytime he did... He just couldn't do it. The memories, the nightmares, they just kept coming back to him.

He walked out of the lab, the drone glancing at him before he went back on his charging deck.

~~~~~

Every day the scars would bleed a little.

He didn't know why. He wasn't doing anything to them. It might have been because of him putting on his battle shell again and again, trying to get some kind of protection. Or maybe it was because he would touch them everyday, just to see if they were still there. But what ever the reason, he was losing blood, and that couldn't be good for him.

One day he passed out from it, and his brothers weren't too fond of seeing there genius brother like this. Especially Mikey; who was the one to find him lying on the floor of the kitchen when he was going to make himself a snack. He screamed once he found the purple turtle unconscious on the floor, cause what else do you do when you think your older brother is dead on the ground?

Donnie didn't remember much, but he could make out voices as were talking to one another.

"Is he gonna be ok?" He heard one say; assuming it was Mikey.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Leo said right after. "I'll look him over once we get to the Med Bay."

The Med Bay? Donnie pondered. Where was he right now?

"That's sound good," Raph replied. "Once I set him down, hopefully he'll wake up a little while after."

Was Raph carrying him right now? That would explain how he seemed to be moving without his legs being physically on the ground. He wanted to open his eyes, but they felt so heavy. All he really wanted to do was sleep, but he tried to at least stay conscious so that his brothers didn't worry.

He assumed they had gotten to the Med Bay, since it felt like he was being lowered onto one of the examination tables. It soon got quiet for a couple of seconds; and they felt pretty relaxing to the softshell. But it soon got interrupted by Mikey cries of fear.

"What if he dies from this?" Mikey exclaimed. Donnie could hear the fear rising up in his voice.

"Mikey, he'll be fine," Leo told him.

"You don't understand," Mikey said right after. "You didn't see it... The amount of blood, Leo... It was pools full..."

He was bleeding out again? Pools full of blood, according to the youngest. It had only been drops of blood the last time he remembered, but they must have gotten worse.

"I know you're scared, Mike," Raph remarked. "But he'll be ok. This is Donnie after all, nothing like this can break him."

"But..." Mikey said. His voice got louder as he argued. "He was unconscious, Raph. I have no idea what he was doing before I got in there, but there was blood! Lots of it! I... What if I didn't..."

Mikey's voice started to rise up in fear and sorrow, and it had begun to make the softshell's head hurt. He moved around slightly, opening his eyes slowly as he did so. The three other brothers looked at him, eyes wide with concern.

"Look, I know you're worried about me," Donnie said as he tried to sit up, but got pushed back down by Raph as a response. "But can you stop yelling? It's making my head hurt."

Pain sprung up from Donnie's shell again, making him wince. His brothers saw this, and they instantly got worried.

"Ohmigosh Donnie," Mikey said in fear. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Michael," Donnie said to reassure the youngest; mainly saying it to reassure himself.

"You're clearly not," Leo said with a frown. "We took your battle shell off and..."

"The scars..." Raph finished. "They're so deep."

Donnie sat up slowly; despite his brothers pleads to stay laying down, and glanced at his back. The scars were clearly red with blood, but they seemed to have been messed with. He assumed his brothers must have put something on them to stop it from hurting, but it clearly wasn't working.

He looked back at his brothers and frowned. They cared about him, and he loved them for that. He clearly needed their help, but he didn't know how to ask.

"We'll help you," Leo said, seeming to read the softshell's mind. "Even if you don't want us to. We're worried about you Dee."

Donnie sighed. "Yeah, I kinda want you to help..." He said quietly. "I just didn't know how to ask."

He then looked at Mikey, his eyes lowering in concern for the youngest. The box turtle's eyes were full of tears, and he was trying his hardest not to show that he was hurt.

Donnie sighed again, his voice shaking as he spoke.

"Was there... Was there that much blood?" He asked his orange brother.

"Yeah..." Mikey whispered. The tears started to flow from his eyes as he sobbed uncontrollably into Raph's plastron. Donnie felt bad for the young turtle; he'd be crying too if he thought his brother had died on the floor. And the blood.

"I'm sorry," Donnie said as Mikey looked up. "I should have said something. I didn't mean to make you worry Michael, or any of you for that matter."

"Don't apologize Donnie," Leo said with a reassuring smile. He also looked like he was about to cry, but he tried everything in his body to act cool for his brother. "We'd probably do the same if we were you."

"Its just," Donnie began; feeling as if he should let his true feelings out. "The Shredder... I've had nightmares for a while now, a-and... The memories... They keep coming back... I just-"

He felt someone hugging him from behind. He looked back and saw Mikey; still crying, but he was smiling.

"Its ok Dee," he whispered. "You're safe. We wouldn't have let that monster do anything to you."

That was it. That was enough for him to lose it. It had been so long since he cried, and he had to let it all out. He began to cry, sobbing quietly as Mikey hugged him tighter. Leo and Raph came along and hugged him as well, both of them crying too.

They stayed like this for at least five minutes until Donnie stopped crying. They let go of him slowly as Donnie's crying began to turn into sniffles.

"So..." He said after a while. "That happened..."

"Yeah," Leo smiled softly. "It's been a while since I've cried like that, let alone seen you cry."

"Yeah," Donnie chuckled. "It felt nice."

"Alright, enough sad talk!" Raph said as he clapped his hands together. "I'm officially calling a pizza and movie night, and no one can back out."

"So that means no inventing 'Mr. Genius'," Mikey said as he tapped Donnie's head.

"Yeah, yeah," Donnie chuckled. "I'm calling off working tonight. I'm not really in the mood anyway."

"Tomorrow though," Leo added with a grin. "We're working on your battle shell's blue prints. You gotta have something to protect your shell."

Donnie smiled; a genuine smile, something he hadn't done in a while. He needed this; to cry, to show that he could get emotional at times. His brother's couldn't understand him all the time, but they cared. They cared about his inventions, his emotions, and most importantly, they cared about him. That's what he needed throughout these times; he needed their love. He could invent some other time, but right now, he's gonna enjoy his brothers. The nightmares would soon stop, and he could go back to normal, no acting involved.

#rottmnt #rottmnt stories

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lizzy-frizzle · 3 years

Text

Here’s the second piece! It stars one Deidre Hunt from @smallest-turtle

Lizzy was walking around the ishgard markets, looking for anything interesting.

[Hmmm. No, no, that’s gaudy, no, ew do people wear that?]

She sighed, exasperated, “Nothing. Nothing is good enough to get for Sadu. Maybe I should just make something?”

There was a light commotion as the most horrendous shroud accent tears through the scuffle, “I didn’ do anythin’!”

Lizzy, having spent most of her youth in the shroud, recognized it immediately, but to ishgardian ears it must’ve been gibberish.

Lizzy steps toward the noise, and pushes her way through the crowd, the source of the commotion was a young hyur woman was grabbed by the arm of an ishgardian market guard.

“Um, hello, is there a problem?” Lizzy asked the guard.

The guard takes a step back, “I, uh, oh Lizzy. I caught this one stealing from the stall.”

Lizzy looks at the woman, then back at the guard, the guard was easily twice the height of her, “Mhm. Well, I can take it from here.”

Lizzy stares the guard down, knowing the guard doesn’t want to just let this go.

He takes a moment, and begrudgingly throws the arm down, “Fine.”

Lizzy takes a breath, “You know, I’m just saving you.”

The guard looks confused, but waves it off, and walks on.

The woman turns to Lizzy, “I had it und’r control!”

“Well, I don’t think a person with the echo should be composing themselves like that.” Lizzy measures the woman with her eyes, “Wait, how old are you?”

“18, why?”

[This is a child.]

“What’s your name?” Lizzy asks, as gently as possible.

“Deidre.” she starts analyzing Lizzy, “Who’r you?”

Lizzy shudders, [This child speaks like my grandmother.]

“My name is Elizabeth Frizzle, but you can call me Lizzy, everyone does.” Lizzy stops for a second, “Wait, Deidre, that name...Aren’t you the one the scions have been getting to curb the primal threats recently?”

Lizzy knew that there had been others, and honestly was happy to let them take over while she focused on her more romantic endeavors.

“Ye, ‘ave you any idea ‘ow frustrat’n it is?”

Lizzy parses the information on her ears, “Uh, yea, the scions had me take down a couple primals, then I was pulled away by some issues elsewhere, then more issues, and I suppose you took up my responsibility.”

[If I had known they would make a child…]

Lizzy continues, “Hey, would you wanna come with me while I shop around?”

Deidre was about to turn and run.

“Hey, I’m not going to force you to fight anything, I just want some company while I shop, my chocobo isn’t allowed in the city, so I don’t ge-”

“-Chocobo?” Deidre perked up.

“Oh? Yea, her name is Valerie. I’ve raised her forever, I don’t leave home without her.” Lizzy looks at Deidre, “Would you like to meet her?”

The hyur nodded, and started following Lizzy.

Lizzy begins to talk as they walk through the market, “I’m looking for a present for my girlfriend.” she stops to check out some jewelry in a stall, “Normally these kind of markets can have hidden gems, but I haven’t found anything today.” she holds the focus of her necklace out to show Deidre, “Sadu got me this necklace, and even got it engraved, and I can’t find anything nearly half as meaningful for her.”

“Wha’ kind’o girl i’she?” Deidre asks.

“She loves to fight, she challenged me to...7? Or 8, fights before she accepted my date proposal.”

Deidre nods knowingly, “Why’nt get’er a new weap’n?

Lizzy stops, shocked, “Why didn’t I think of that...”

[Sadu has always used that staff though, I don’t know if she’d like a new one. Maybe the gesture is enough though?]

“Ok, let’s go somewhere else then, you can teleport yea?” Lizzy looks at the scars on Deidre’s arms.

“Ye!”

“Alright, let’s go to Gridania then. They make the best staffs.”

With that they were whisked away.

~New Gridania~

“So, I think a staff with this one tree...” Lizzy trails off, half-talking to Deidre, half-thinking of what she needs.

“Do y’always talk t’ yourself?”

“Well,” Lizzy starts to defend herself, but alas, “I guess I’m so used to traveling alone I do...huh.” Lizzy thinks about it for a moment, “Well, anyway, I got the wood I needed.”

With a flash, Lizzy starts carving the wood into a staff right there. The movements being rapid, but carefully calculated, the form of a beautiful staff forming. A thin pole, with the focus point having wings and twin serpents coiling up to a slot where a gem should go.

“Now I just need to get a special type of diamond.” Lizzy stops, “Hey, I’m gonna go fight a god real quick, can you stay here for a moment?”

“Uh, sure?” Deidre sat down on a log.

“Alright,” Lizzy disappears.

Deidre notices the dark blue chocobo standing there, waiting for her owner to return. She beckons her over, and the chocobo gently sits down and rests her head across Deidre’s lap.

10 minutes later, Lizzy re-appears. Now she’s holding a pristine looking diamond.

“Wonderful.” Lizzy takes out the rod and inserts the gem.

“Who’d y’fight?” Deidre asks.

“Kefka, that stupid clown always uses diamonds in some of his attacks, so fighting him allows me to get them for weapons.” Lizzy stops, feeling nearly insane, “They’re really good weapons.”

“Ah, can I meet y’girlfriend?”

“Uh, sure, I don’t see why not. Have you been to the Azim Steppe?”

~Dotharl Khaa~

As soon as Lizzy spots a specific Au Ra, she leaps into her arms.

“SADU!”

The smiles on both their faces is near infectious, and Deidre can’t help but smile at the sight.

Sadu let’s Lizzy down, “I wasn’t expecting you to visit today!”

“Well! I made you something!” Lizzy notices the standalone hyur among everyone, “OH! This is my new friend, Deidre. She’s from the Shroud too.”

Sadu looks at her, “Are you strong?”

Lizzy begins to scold her, “Sadu, she’s a child.”

“And children can’t fight? She looks like she can topple some beasts.”

Deidre confidently says, “I bet ah’ve kill’d more than y’have!”

Sadu nearly steps back, “What.”

Lizzy translates, “She thinks she’s killed more creatures than you.”

Sadu nods, “See? That means I should challenge her.”

Lizzy gets a worried expression, “Can I at least give you your present first? I think you’ll love it.”

“You got me something?” her eyes flicker with excitement.

“Yea! Actually, I made it.” Lizzy takes out the diamond infused black mage staff, “Here!”

Sadu takes it, and examines it. Carefully tracing the notches and patterns in it. After a moment, she casts a spell on a nearby shrug, igniting it instantly.

“Ooooo, I like this! The magic flows so easily, and so potently!”

Sadu hugs Lizzy again, this time punctuating it with a kiss.

She let’s go of Lizzy, “Thank you so much!”

Lizzy seems lost in a daze, cheeks flushed.

Sadu turns her attention back to Deidre, “Ok, so about that fight then?”

#ffxiv #Lizzy Frizzle #Sadu x Lizzy #Sadu x WoL #Deidre Hunt #my writing

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thecomicsnexus · 4 years

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TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #48-49 JUNE - JULY 1992 BY KEVIN EASTMAN, PETER LAIRD, JIM LAWSON, KEITH AIKEN AND ERIC TALBOT

SYNOPSIS (FROM TURTLEPEDIA)

The TMNT are preparing to go on a mission in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Donatello bows out of the exercise so he can debug his latest project, and thus Splinter sends the three remaining Turtles to the city. Their goal: find Casey Jones and return to Northampton before 1 AM. April drives the guys to town and drops them off - if they can't find Casey and get him to take them back home, they'll have to walk... all 20 miles.

Raph comes up with a plan - "an immobile object is easier to find than a mobile one," thus the TMNT decide to find Casey's car so they won't risk missing him. After all, Casey can't get back to town without his wheels. So the Mutants head off to find Jones' Chevy.

Meanwhile, Casey is spying on the guys and heads off in the opposite direction. He enters a playground where he's accosted by three young punks, who insist he pay a toll. A fight breaks out and Jones accidentally kills one of the boys.

From the rooftops, we see the costumed clad vigilante Nobody (from Tales of the TMNT #2). Nobody, although being an ally of the Turtles, doesn't know who Casey is, and attacks Jones for committing the crime of homicide. A battle takes place, and Nobody tries to handcuff Casey and take him in.

The Turtles spot the two remaining hoods fleeing and figure that the boys must have run into Casey, so they double back. The TMNT arrive in time to prevent Nobody from taking Jones to the police, but the crime fighter is angered by the situation.

"You realize this makes you accomplishes." the costumed cop states.

"Casey will answer for whatever he is guilty of. Justice will be served." Raph replies.

As the Turtles and their shaken friend depart, Nobody mutters, "Yes... I'll see to that."

April is talking to her sister Robyn on the phone. April is worried about starting a relationship with a man who helped her out of a jam, and Robyn is trying to figure out why her sister has been so mysterious about her life the past few years. Before any resolution is reached, Robyn has to hang up to attend to her baby. As April puts the receiver down, Master Splinter walks into the kitchen. O'Neil explains her dilemma to the wise old rat.

"Ever since I met you and the Turtles... and Casey... my life has been so secretive and strange. I mean... how can I get to know this guy - or any guy - if I can't let him get to know me? 'Cause getting to know me means learning about you guys... and that... geez! Sometimes I just wish I had a normal life. Splinter... what should I do?"

The Sensei thinks for a moment and then responds, "Leave."

This was not the comforting solution that April was hoping to hear.

Casey wakes up and quickly remembers what happened the night before. He hurries to the bathroom and retches. April walks by and calls out to see if he needs help and Casey orders her away. The bemused O'Neil dejectedly walks off.

Casey gets dressed and has an awkward silent moment with April in the kitchen before he takes off running into the woods. As he burns off his energy, Jones laments all of the "if only" scenarios that would have kept him from killing the young thug in the playground. Eventually Casey comes to a waterfall that has a fallen tree spanning the ravine, creating a bridge to the other side of the river. Donatello is sitting on the tree observing the stream in attempt to "understand the fractal structure of natural patterns," an element of Chaos Theory that Donnie is excited about.

Don's explanation irritates Jones and he blasts the Turtle for using big words and acting better than everybody else. Casey than demands to know why Donatello hasn't spent any time with him.

"Well" the perplexed terrapin begins, "We don't exactly share a lot of interests..."

This reply only angers Jones more and Don asks him if they can take up this conversation at a later time, when Casey is sober. Jones pushes the issue and gets more and more agitated and threatening until Donatello is forced to draw his bo and teach Casey a lesson in manners and humility. In short order, Donnie sends Casey careening into the water waiting below. Perhaps Jones also learned a thing or two about fractals while he was in the drink.

Meanwhile, Raph, Leo and Mike are training in the barn while the news plays on a radio in the background. Leo beats Raph in two out of three falls when a report comes on regarding gang-related slayings in New York City between warring Asian factions. Upon hearing this story, Raph walks out of the practice session.

Later, Casey is back at the playground where he accidentally killed the teen. The man called Nobody shows up, only this time he's wearing his police uniform rather than his super-hero costume. Nobody tells Jones that the three other hoods turned themselves in and their story matched Casey's, thus making it apparent that Jones was acting in self-defense.

"You sound disappointed." Jones remarks.

"Do I?" the vigilante cop inquires, "Well... I do prefer an open and shut case, and you seem guilty as Hell. But... facts are facts. As much as I live to bring criminals to justice, I have to face those facts. Besides... the courts are full of poor jerks like you, ingested and spat back out, guilty or innocent, it doesn't matter."

"Wow," observes Casey, "At least you're not bitter."

Nobody then relates his philosophy to Casey about the state of the world, a Yin-Yang theory that revolves around the idea that the further man advances, the more he regresses. The policeman then wonders how much longer the fabric of society can be stretched before it tears.

Casey states that he doesn't know, and Nobody then says that when he first met the TMNT he felt that they were an omen.

"I thought that it might be a sign... a sign that the end was near... you know, 'The Beasts Rising Up', that sort of thing." the cop states.

"Uh... yeah." Jones answers, "Look... I gotta go..."

"I won't stop you." replies Nobody.

Casey then heads off in silence towards downtown Springfield.

REVIEW

This is a good TMNT story, and it is written by their creators as well.

It’s been a while since we focused on Casey Jones and April (most guest writers used them as plot generators but didn’t invest much time in making them real).

And this was bound to happen, in fact, I would have assumed that something like this already happened to Casey, after all, his methods are quite aggressive.

Nobody came back for this story (to be honest, I didn’t really miss him), and we also got to know Robyn O’Neil.

The story seems to be pointing at a certain climax (the volume is getting into a final 12-issue saga). Between the gangs in New York, Splinter’s moods and April’s needs, something has to happen.

The art is also very good. Sometimes Jim Lawson can be a bit too angular, but the backgrounds look amazing.

I give this story a score of 9.

#a c farley #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #mirage studios #comics #review #1992 #modern age #indie #casey jones #nobody

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mathiaskillmaster · 5 years

Text

TITANS: The Queen and the Beast (Elsa / Godzilla - Disney Monsterverse) - Chapter 3: Unexpected Situation

Elsa, closely followed by Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf, hastened after the call of Commander Ulrik as soon as possible, indicating that a survivor had been found. In the midst of the smoking, black ruins of what looked like a warehouse, five soldiers were busy removing the heaviest debris, while two others were helping a figure to rise up by supporting his arms and shoulders. The survivor was a young man between twenty and twenty-five years old, a fisherman in view of his outfit. His face was covered with dust and some minor wounds, but he was breathing, emitting groans, and looking half-conscious around him. One of his legs seemed more seriously injured, dragging on the ground without any reaction.

- "He was stuck under big wooden planks. Maybe a beam collapsed on him." Ulrik said as a option.

The two guards helped the young fisherman to sit on a rock, as he slowly regained his senses. Anna rushed to put a blanket of fabric on his shoulders to warm him up a little.

- "You're lucky to still be alive." said the princess to reassure him. The man seemed suddenly to emerge from a terrible nightmare. his eyes exhumed, breathing very hard, he looked around him with a frightened face. He screamed in fear, agitated like crazy despite his bloody leg.

- "NO, I DON'T WANT TO DIE! NO! HELP!" he cried like a madman. Anna and Elsa were surprised by this sudden reaction. Ulrik and Kristoff rushed to restrain him and try to calm him down. The young survivor was struggling, frightened by these two strangers who wanted to master him. He bit hard at Ulrik's hand, who gave a little cry of pain and stepped back, the mark of teeth on his reddened flesh. The survivor then kicked Kristoff's knee, who also pulled back, kneeling with pain.

"Kristoff, are you okay?" Anna asked, going to him, her fiance biting her lip and nodding.

- "Maybe he needs a warm hug?" Olaf suggested. It was an interesting idea, but Elsa wanted to try something else. The queen stepped forward, kneeling beside the survivor, and gently cupped her hands, forcing him to look at her in the eyes. Sensing the icy, soft hands of the queen on her cheeks, the man suddenly seemed to calm down, taking a breath gradually normal and stopped any nervous movement. All around, all seemed to admire the speed Elsa had had to calm him down.

- "There is no need to say, your sister will never stop to surprise me." whispered Kristoff to Anna, who agreed with him. The young survivor looked into Elsa's eyes, and in a flash of lucidity seemed to recognize her.

-"Ma....Maje.....Majesty?" he stuttered in his trembling voice.

- "You are saved now and under my protection" she replied reassuringly "Can you tell me what happened here?"

Despite his traumatized face, the young man seemed to think for a moment, biting his lips nervously, and the body trembling under his blanket of survival.

- "I .... It was a day like the others ...... We were about to go fishing ...... And suddenly ..... A huge shadow has hidden the sky and the sun in a few seconds ..... Then a deafening scream, straight out of a nightmare .... And then ..... hell fell on us ..... "

He spoke more and more with difficulty, at the end of his nerves and undoubtedly seeing horrible images come back into his mind, he collapsed in tears, his head hidden in his lap. Everyone had listened carefully to this description which did not really make much sense. Hell fell on them? A huge shadow hiding the sky and the sun? Just these words made the small group quiver with anguish. Ulrik was less convinced.

- "Come on, he's probably delirious. We should look around, the culprits may be hiding in the forest."

Elsa had a bad look on her commander in the face of his condescension to this young survivor, but on the other hand, looking for clues in the ruins might be useful. Having heard the captain talk about staying here, the survivor suddenly raised his head, his cheeks red and wet. Eyes shot with blood and fear, he grabbed Elsa's arm roughly.

- "No, we have to leave from here, right now, or he'll come back!" he cried with despair. Ulrik immediately removed him from the queen. Elsa pulled back, more surprised than hurt, and joined by Anna and Kristoff who made sure she was fine. Olaf watched all that, sitting on Sven's back.

- "He seems to have lost some neurons." said the snowman by scratching the back of his head. The reindeer answered with a small nod. Ulrik and another soldier mastered the man on the ground and tried to calm him down, unsuccessfully.

- "He'll kill us all! He'll kill us all!" repeated the survivor on the edge of madness.

- "Who will kill us all?!" Anna asked insistently.

Suddenly, the earth was shaken by a violent tremor, which almost made everyone lose their balance. Kristoff grabbed Anna in her arms, while Olaf clung to Sven's woods, as surprised as the others. The tremor had been accompanied by a dull and terrifying rumble, seeming to come from under the sea. At the edge of the crumbling harbor, the ocean seemed suddenly agitated with waves and waves crashing against the ruins. A strong wind got up without warning, as if a storm was coming and the air was getting colder, this time without Elsa having anything to do with it.

-"What was that?" Kristoff said in a tone not very reassured.

The others did not even have time to answer that the answer came from itself. The ocean suddenly seemed to explode, literally lifting a mountain of water and foam up to a hundred meters in the air. Elsa, Anna, and all the rest of the group, taken by surprise, stepped back a few steps. When the water and the smoke dissipated, everyone looked horrified, as if they had seen their worst nightmare come to life.

A dark, menacing form stood in the water. A body nearly 278 feet tall, very massive and slightly leaning forward, supported by two huge arms like those of a gorilla, and a back slightly carapaceous like a turtle. A scaly blue-green skin and covered with glistening veinlets. And a nightmare head, with six blue reptilian eyes, a jaw filled with sharp teeth and a crest on top of the skull. The body dripping with sea water, the enormous thing took a step forward, still shaking the ground, and emitted a loud, bestial roar. The inside of his mouth shone with the same phosphorescent light as his veinlets.

- "Oh gods..... It's .... It's impossible ...." stammered Anna, paralyzed by fear. Around her, everyone stood in the same way, without moving, staring at this thing that should not even exist. All had felt their bodies paralyzed at the sight of this creature. Elsa had never felt so much fear in her heart. Kristoff tried to pinch his cheek to wake up, but it was not a nightmare. Sven felt his four paws slamming like castanets and Olaf didn't dare to say a word.

The huge gorilla-turtle creature seemed to sniff the air like a hunting animal, and suddenly turned its gaze to the middle of the ruins. A small group of humans standing there looking at him with horror. New preys! Emitting another roar, the giant monster began, like an angry gorilla, to charge towards the small group. Out of the water, he crushed everything in his path under his huge fists.

- "Run!" Elsa ordered on the spot. Anna and Kristoff immediately obeyed and ran as fast as they could towards the forest, helping the survivor by taking him by the arms, and followed by Sven and Olaf. Most of the soldiers panicked and ran in all directions. Ulrik and some of the more courageous soldiers, took up their weapons and seemed ready to fight with this imposing enemy rising from hell. His sword in hand, Ulrik, ignoring the fear, pointed his blade towards the creature getting closer and closer.

- "Soldiers! Fire at will!"

Aligned and in firing position, the soldiers obeyed. The canons of the rifles spit out their bullets in an immense sound of detonation. But for this huge creature, rifle bullets were like mosquito bites. Feeling the projectiles bounce against his thick scaly skin, the monster roars even louder, continuing to charge and shake the entire area under its enormous weight. Elsa had not fled and made sure that her friends were fleeing as far as she could, took her courage in both hands and headed back in the opposite direction to help her soldiers. To face this thing was madness, they had no chance against it. Ulrik and his way of wanting to play the heroes. Elsa cursed him inwardly. Looking over her shoulder as she fled, Anna saw her sister go towards the creature. The princess's heart leaped in her bosom.

- "ELSA!" Anna shouted, trying to join her, but quickly restrained by Kristoff's arm.

- "Anna, it's too dangerous! We have to leave, now!" Kristoff told him insistently, though seeing Elsa moving toward danger also made him panic. Tears ran down the princess's cheeks.

- "I can not leave her!"

The gorilla-turtle creature was only a hundred meters from its preys, and at that distance, it seemed even more massive in their eyes. Raising his fists above his head, the creature lowered them and hit the ground hard. A powerful and violent shock wave occurred. The strength was such that Ulrik and his men were thrown several meters back as if they weighed nothing. Elsa too had suffered the full wave and rolled back, completely dizzy. Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf also felt the impact from their position. What a devastating strength! And it certainly was not the only thing that this creature could do.

Three soldiers headed for the monster, firing again with their rifles towards his head, but again without any effect, if not to annoy him even more. The monster stared at them angrily, and crushed them without mercy with a monstrous punch. Ulrik, on the ground and regaining his senses, saw his three men being reduced to dust by this blow. Elsa too had witnessed their death, helpless. More shots came from another group of five soldiers, standing a little further. In response to their attack, the monster grabbed the remains of a house in his hands, lifting it up like nothing and threw it at the soldiers, who even while trying to escape, were crushed by the ruin that fell on them from the air. Striking his chest like a gorilla, the giant roared with all his ferocity. Desperate by the carnage that was taking place before her eyes, the queen got back to her feet.

-"Soldiers! Save your lives and go away! This monster is too powerful!" Elsa shouted at her men, wanting to save the lives of those who were still. Most have obeyed their sovereign and begin to run to the forest. Ulrik, although reluctant, had to resign himself and helped by two of his men, quit the fight. He was surprised, however, to see Queen Elsa stay behind and standing before the giant creature.

- "Majesty! Come with us!" shouted the commander. She did not listen, too focused on the monster. She was the queen, and had to protect her people from threats. The giant grunted at the sight of its preys running away. Oh no, he was not going to let them go like that.... BAM! A huge block of ice hit the monster on a side of his head, without him seeing it coming. A little stunned by this shock, the creature grunted furiously and looked down. Elsa stood there, her hands outstretched. She had created this block of ice and sent it with all her strength. Surrounding her hands with ice energy, the queen began to create another. She showed in her gaze that she was ready to use all her power against the monster. This one at first seemed surprised by such power coming from what he believed to be a banal human woman. Elsa created the second big block of ice and with her power, threw it towards the monster. But this time, he grabbed the block and crushed it between his powerful hands. Elsa had foreseen this and threw a powerful torrent of gel from her palms. The monster lowered his head, emitting a groan of perplexity, seeing his legs cover up with ice slowly.

BAM! Another block of ice again hit the monster's head violently, who looked up at the young queen. She had taken advantage of his attention turned to his legs to attack his head again. The monster's eyes filled with black fury. How did this little human dare to do that?

Effortlessly breaking the ice on his legs, the monster prepared to strike with all his strength with one of his fists. Aware of the danger, Elsa knew she could not avoid such a big fist just by running. Caught unawares, she created a wall of ice in front of her as protection. The fist hit violently, blowing the ice wall into pieces. Elsa was thrown back by the shock wave of the blow and rolled several meters back. At least the wall of ice had absorbed the full impact.

Nevertheless, Elsa had not emerged completely unscathed from this shock. Stunned, she barely managed to get back to her feet. Moreover, she was out of breath. Further back, on the edge of the forest, the others watched the fight, hearts beating. Anna, in the grip of the greatest fear, saw her sister in great difficulty facing this colossal monster.

- "Elsa is in danger!" Olaf said worriedly, although everyone has already noticed this detail. Sven gave a groan of fear in response. Unable to stay longer without doing anything, Anna ran to her sister, under the stares of everyone.

- "Anna, no!" Kristoff shouted trying to hold her back, but this time he could not. The ball in his stomach, he saw his fiancee go to the place of the fight, and ran after her without waiting.

- "Come back here you both, immediately! You're crazy!" Ulrik shouted, wanting to chase after them, but with an injured leg, he could not get very far.

- "Let's go, Sven!" said Olaf, slapping the back of the reindeer, who immediately obeyed and galloped.

Elsa's vision was troubled and her ears seemed clogged. Around her, the ashes, the smoke ..... And the giant figure of this infernal monster emerging from the fog and heading towards her to finish her. In a desperate move, Elsa threw a new point-shaped ice projectile toward the monster, but he easily destroyed it with a setback of the arm. Elsa tried again and again, but each time the attacks were easily parried. She did not see what spell to use to try to stop it, or at least slow it down. A feeling of defeat overran her, and a tear ran down her cheek.

- "Elsa!"

The sudden voice of her sister took Elsa out of her torpor. Anna arrived like a rocket and fell on her knees to her sister, clasping her arms around her as she was reassured to see her still alive.

- "Anna, do not stay here, it's too dangerous." Elsa asked her almost like an order, but mostly worried about her little sister. The earth trembled beneath them and the huge shadow of the monster covered them. He was scarcely twenty yards from them, and looked at them with his six horrible eyes and a carnivorous smile. Kristoff, Olaf and Sven joined the two sisters, to see the huge monster standing in front of them, dominating them all the way up. Elsa, helped by her sister, got up and wanted to act as a shield with her own body.

- "Put all of you behind me." she said, wrapping her hands again with ice energy. If she were to die, it would be in fighting. Anna stayed with her, determined to support her sister, until the end. Faced with the determined look of the young queen to want to block the way, the monster groaned with anger, salivating at the idea of devouring her as the prey she was at his eyes.

Suddenly, the monster seemed to change its attitude and sniffed the air around him, before turning towards the ocean. Perplexed by this sudden change in behavior, the small group also looked in the same direction. On the ocean, two long rows of huge rocky peaks protruded from the surface, tearing the water in their wake and seeming to be getting closer and closer to the mainland. The gorilla-turtle monster stared at these things and uttered a furious roar.

-"What is it?" Anna wondered.

-"I don't know." Elsa answered frankly. Deep inside her, Elsa felt a curious sensation. An immense power had just arrived. A power that goes beyond any possible imagination. A power much older and powerful than hers. And it was coming from the ocean.

The rocky pikes suddenly stopped their advance and for a few seconds nothing happened. Then, the ocean water rose again as if a mountain emerged. Elsa and the rest of the group remained speechless, once again divided between fear and fascination with what they saw.

This form was much larger than the first monster and rose as high as the surrounding mountains. A body as massive, but straight and humane, 355 feet of height, and supported by two large and thick legs. 547 feet of length, including the thick lizard tail. Along the body, two powerful arms and armed formidable claws. A back covered by these strange dorsal spines resembling rock. Scaly and black skin with a very solid appearance. And on the upper body, a reptile head with short muzzle and jaw filled with sharp teeth. Two yellow eyes, almost golden, showing a deep anger and above all a force out of the ordinary. He seemed omnipotent. At the sight of this new creature, the group of Elsa felt crushed by its mere presence, as if the presence of God himself had been felt. Anna took refuge in Kristoff's arms and snuggled against him. Olaf and Sven retreated, frightened. Elsa did not move and stared at this monster. She understood now. That power she felt deep in her heart came from that other monstrous colossus.

- "By the gods ...." she whispered.

The gorilla-turtle monster had turned away from its initial preys. Now facing this intruder, and even if he was dominated by the larger size of the other creature, he uttered a loud roar to make him understand that he was not welcome here. The reaction of the gigantic humanoid reptile was not long in coming. Frowning, his fists clenched and emitting a growl, he gave a roar as an answer. A roar even more deafening, which shook the surroundings and made vibrate the mountains and the ground. Elsa, Anna, and the others all had to cover their ears so they would not be deafened by that all-powerful and indescribable roar. A sound that would remain engraved in their memories, forever.

SKKKREEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOGGGGHH!

#Elsa #Queen Elsa #Godzilla #godzilla 2014 #anna frozen #frozen #titansdisneymonsterverse #Disney #monsterverse #CrossOver #Kaijus

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jenovahh · 3 years

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Wild Greens Choke Tended Gardens - Ch. 2 - Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)

This...dream again.

A sky of fire and brimstone.

The air is naught but ash.

Robed figures run for their lives.

A terrible beast lands before him, its many eyes staring him down.

He is without a weapon. Always has been when he dreams of this place.

The beast roars, the people scream, and yet he remains still.

Not out of fear.

Not out of bravery.

“Zenos!”

Someone takes his hand.

It’s so warm in his, so soft.

The monster bellows again, charging an attack.

The hand pulls him out of the way.

“Don’t be so stupid!”

Suddenly he is nowhere and everywhere, time and space stretching out before him in a sea of white. He stands on his feet, dressed in leisurely attire instead of his full regalia.

“What were you thinking?!”

Zenos can’t help but smirk, watching as the dream warps into a lush garden, filled with plants of all kinds, ones certainly not native to Garlemald. The dreamscape tantalizes all of his senses. The vibrant green of the many trees, the feel of the lush earth beneath his feet. The sound of a bubbling creek reaches his ears just as he can taste the freshness in the air.

“I was thinking of when you might show up to rescue me as usual, my friend.” He smiles. Only here would such an action be normal.

“By the gods, you’re so reckless…” his friend sighs, exasperated.

“It is hardly reckless when it has been the same song and dance since childhood.” Zenos murmurs, beginning to walk through the garden. “You know this.” He doesn’t bother to see if his friend follows. He knows they will.

“Careful; one would think you enjoy my heroic efforts.” Their voice is teasing yet...sweeter somehow. More feminine. That's strange, he thinks.

Though he knows it will do him no good, Zenos turns to gaze at his friend, unsurprised that all he sees is mist.

It has always been this way, since childhood as he had said. He would have dreams of the end of a star, of rivers filled with blood, people dead in the streets. Even as a child he had been afraid, unsure what to make of such visions, until he had seen something else like him.

“Don’t be afraid!”

They took his hand then, too.

“I’ll be by your side so it won’t be scary!”

Faceless and formless, he had known this friend since the first time they appeared in his dream, providing him his one and only companion even if it was in his mind. He liked everything about them.

They liked to spar. So did he.

They liked to wrestle. So did he.

They liked to learn about magic, and all kinds of things. So did he.

It was the only piece of childhood Zenos had, born and bred to succeed his father on the Garlean throne.

He chose not to overthink their presence, not wanting to acknowledge whatever implications that this constant mental companion entailed.

Especially when they started being...affectionate.

His mother had passed before he was given the chance to know such comforts, and his father was too busy ruling to do something as simple as give his son a hug. He had known solitude the majority of his life, except for these dreams where he...craved their touch.

As children it had been innocent things such as holding hands as they frolicked through the fields to bone crushing hugs when he would tell them of their accomplishments. Only as he approached adulthood did the tone shift, holding a heated edge he was unfamiliar with.

He hated to admit the fact, not sure when things changed or why they changed. He knew such desires did not come from within; his friend was not a representation of himself. It was almost as if they were their own person, learning and growing with him.

“My friend,” Zenos begins, still staring at their incorporeal form, “what are you?”

It is silent save for the sound of water racing over riverstones, of the wind whistling through the leaves of the trees.

“What do you want me to be?”

The question throws him off kilter, not expecting a question in turn. Pursing his lips for a moment, he thinks of his answer. “You have been my friend since our youth. You are everything I could possibly ask for in a companion, even if you exist only in my mind.”

Their form shimmers for a minute, almost solidifying for a moment. “But what if you have a soulmate?”

He frowns immediately at that, a sense of betrayal weaving through his chest. “You would have me believe in something so preposterous?”

Their form shimmers once again. The dream space begins to warp and tremble, his body feeling heavier.

“Would it be so wrong to be happy?”

He opens his eyes slowly, body feeling heavier than usual. He’d dozed off at his desk again, grunting as he sits up straight, twirling his wrist to release some of the tension.

It is another sunny day in Kugane, able to see the elite walk through the streets below from the comfort of the Garlean consulate. While he had plans he wanted to tend to in Ala Mhigo, his father requested him to be present in the East, and so here he was at the behest of his father. It wasn’t like he had a better way to spend his time.

He hadn’t meant to drift into dreams, lips pulling downward as his sky blue eyes scans over paperwork upon the lacquered table. Sighing, he begins to actually read the documents, seeing more trade routes, more night watch reports, but even then his mind begins to drift back to his dreams.

The concept of soulmates was not new to Zenos. He had heard of it, mostly from savage races, as it was not a common occurrence in Garleans, for they spat at the concept. No amount of destiny could override the value Garlean society held for matches of power, of blending strong, affluent families together. His role as the prince would be no different. His father is sure to have a slew of women of his choosing prepared for him, all of them wealthy, pure blooded, and able to sire an heir.

Zenos was ever grateful for his sire’s continued good health. It delayed the eventuality of having to rule his homeland.

He was thankful he did not have a soulmate, not wanting to be bound to some weakling that was meant for him and him alone. This empty world had already disappointed him enough. Whatever bride he was given could be ignored, much like how his father cast his mother aside. Such a line of thinking filled him with dread and bottomless loathing for the day he would no longer be able to roam the lands in search of worthy prey, forever tied to the cold halls of the imperial palace to rule from a throne.

Something in the reports thankfully catches his eye, leaving him to abandon such a dismal line of thinking. Officers have received word from scouts that the Warrior of Light is making trouble in the Ruby Sea.

The Warrior of Light… he muses. He had heard of them. The one who ended Gaius’ reign thus dumping his occupation in his lap. Savior of Eorzea, ender of the Dragonsong War.

Eikon Slayer.

Already he could feel his blood rush at the thought of meeting such a powerful foe. Could they be the challenge he had been waiting for?

He had to go and reprimand the Doman wench anyway. He had tasked her with keeping the regions subjugated beneath her heel, only to have the Warrior of Light come and disrupt their hold on the Confederacy, and the Ruby Sea by proxy. If he was quick, perhaps he could even make a slight detour and put himself in the path of this supposed legend.

Standing from his desk he summons a servant to set the preparations of departing for the Ruby Sea in motion. More servants arrive to help him dress in his armor, his thoughts focused on meeting this Warrior of Light. Already he anticipated their duel, impatience sinking its claws into his very being until it became a singular thought.

Unfortunately as the prince, he was required to have an entourage of guards to “protect” his person. He would love nothing more than to track down this legend himself, to enjoy their duel freely. They were more for show if anything, or at least from his perspective, a way to see if those who attempted to approach him would be good sport. Anyone who could be cut down by his guards certainly was not worth his time.

His presence is immediately felt as their ship sails across the sea, but it is not the only thing he feels. The usually radiant ocean is overtaken by a sudden storm, clouds darkening unnaturally, the seas churning fiercely. His eyes turn to the Kojin island where the eye of the storm stares back peacefully, even as his soldiers yell over the winds for him to go back inside. Their intent was to dock at Onokoro, news of the prince surely being enough to squash any potential uprisings, but those clouds...

“Change course for the isle of the beastmen.”

The soldier next to him sputters, surely seeing the storm as well. “M-My lord,”

“I would not question my motives, lest you desire to show how well you can swim in the open ocean in full armor.” Zenos drones, not even bothering to watch as the soldier frantically apologizes and makes their way to the control room to do as he was told.

The rain pelts against his armor, rolling off the polished metal as they draw closer. The ship is big enough to dock at the raised cliff, knowing that the primary method of entrance is via an underwater tunnel. The beastmen he sees already appear frantic, some of them unconscious upon the ground making him wonder if it was the Warrior of Light’s doing. The eye of the storm is calmer as expected, but as he turns his gaze to the sky he notices it is because the clouds begin to part.

The guards deter any Red Kojin from getting any ideas, enabling him to look around the isle for the Warrior of Light. That storm was not natural by any means. He knows they are here.

As he crests the slight incline, they find the responsible party for the defeated beastmen. A young girl and a woman stand surrounded by the turtle-like creatures, the girl with her rapier drawn and the other with her fists upraised, the two of them ducking and weaving through their seemingly endless numbers.

One of his guards moves to draw his sword and with an outstretched hand, he ceases their movements. “Hold your fire.” He orders, feeling as if he’s seen these two before. “I believe the guest of honor will not show if we kill them.”

“Of course, my lord--”

“S-Susano is slain!”

He turns as one of the shelled beasts comes running as fast as he can, not even caring that he nearly bursts through the imperial guard. “S-Susano is slain! Slain by the shell-less one!”

The Kojin all give worried and angered mumbles, the two females eyes finally taking notice of him. “Is that--”

“Zenos?” The blonde one snarls, immediately turning her attention to him. “What are you doing here?!”

While loath to waste his time with this riff-raff, perhaps they can provide him some answers. “The Warrior of Light. Where are they?”

The two women tense immediately, shooting him distrustful glares, immediately going on the defensive. “And what do you want with her?” The younger one hisses, already turning her rapier to him. While weak, even he could admire her tenacity.

“I would be willing to forgive this uprising you’ve started if you can deliver her to me.” Zenos hums, watching as their scowls twist further. “It would be no problem for me to squash this little rebellion underfoot. However, I find myself amenable to cutting my losses, if you can bring me the Warrior of Light.” To help the message get across, he rests his hand upon his revolver. “Something tells me you know her.”

“Because we’ve already met, you fool.”

Attention turns to the newcomer, her blue eyes blazing unafraid as she steps forward. With her robes drenched and her wavy hair all over the place, she looks even worse than he saw her last.

But there is a fire in her eye that confirms his suspicions.

“I’m A’yana Salvia, the Warrior of Light.” She huffs, her tail giving an angry flick. “And you are going to let my friends go, peacefully.”

Zenos can’t help but stare blankly for a moment, unused to the notion that someone felt they could order him around. Especially someone who he had defeated before, granted he also wasn’t in the habit of leaving them alive for them to be so bold a second time. “Oh?” He chuckles, turning to face her fully. There’s not an ounce of bravado in her voice, her stance showing she intends to back up her unspoken threat if he doesn’t release her friends. “Such bravery from someone surrounded by imperials and beastmen. What leads you to believe I would allow your friends to walk away?”

Her eyebrows pinch together as she crosses her arms across her chest. “You had come looking for me, have you not? Sorry to disappoint you once again, but I am the Warrior of Light and the Warrior of Light is me.” She tilts her chin up, looking down her nose at him. “You are strong, but I am willing to lay down my life for my friends. I would do whatever it takes to allow them to escape.”

She is still weaker than him, this he can tell, but there is no denying the set of her jaw, the resolve in her eye. “Tell me then, hero,” he drawls, more interested than he’d like to admit. “The storm that was here but a moment ago. Were you the cause?”

Just as distrustful as her friends, he watches her eyes narrow at him, deciding on whether to tell the truth. “No. It was caused by their primal which I defeated.”

He senses no dishonesty from her, piqueing his curiosity. So, she did live up to her title, the Eikon Slayer. She did not have the strength to best him in battle, but held the power to vanquish a primal…

Smirking, he prepares himself for what he hopes will be a mildly entertaining show. Turning to the beastmen, his tone promises retribution should they fail. “Beastmen. Unless you would have us raze your home to the ground for your failure…” he can’t help but grin as he faces her once again. “....kill them all.”

Hell breaks loose as the beastmen begin to move toward her, the Warrior of Light drawing her globe and beginning to move. Her friends move as well, fighting off the beastmen that begin to attack. His eyes never leave her, observing her each and every move. She is clearly untrained in combat, relying on instinct and adrenaline to keep her head from being cut off. He begrudgingly has to admit that she moves well, moving as if she were a step ahead, confidence in every step she makes as the beastmen fall to her one by one.

Like this, it is easy to see why Eorzea has championed her as such, the Warrior not even breaking a sweat as she fells the Kojin as if they were insignificant obstacles, unworthy of her time.

Is this what he looked like in battle?

“Lyse, Alisaie, run!”

Jolted from his thoughts, he barely moves in time to dodge a spell of hers, though it catches the majority of his soldiers, clustering them together before launching them in different directions. As they gain their footing, he’s surprised to find she’s set her sights on him, knowing just how well their last battle went, and how poorly it could end this time. She seems no less deterred, astrolabe twirling as she slowly dispatches his soldiers.

Such selflessness is wasted on her abilities, he muses, finally drawing his sword. Distantly he hears cannon fire from the North, her friends shouting that the Confederacy has begun to take back Isari. Though obviously reluctant they make a break for it, high tailing it out of the beastmen’s compound.

“Are you so eager to die?” He questions, taking slow measured steps toward her.

“Who said I was going to die?”she sneers, dodging another blow from his men, sending them flying. “All I needed was time.” With an elegant twirl, bright stars blind his vision momentarily, his soldiers groaning in pain. Gritting his teeth, he opens his eyes just in time to see her running away, annoyance hurrying his movements as he takes off after her.

His long strides allow him to catch up effortlessly, drawing his sword to summon lighting that will block her path. Sparks fly as lightning tears through the ground before her, erecting a wall she cannot get past. Her face betrays her feelings, her ire clear on her feline features as he slows to a stop. “I did not think you the type to run.” he calls out to her, enjoying the familiar weight of his sword in hand. “Though I suppose that is the natural instinct of cornered prey.”

“Why are you even here?” She asks, astrolabe still drawn, ears pinned back.

“I had come having heard reports of the Warrior of Light’s presence in these parts…” he hums, watching how her chest rises and falls. Taking a closer look he can see her exhaustion, most likely having used the bulk of her energy subduing the beastmen’s primal. “As I had not read any descriptions of their countenance, I would not have thought a weakling such as yourself could hold the title.”

Her eyes flash dangerously then, and something in him burns bright. He doesn’t know what it is, but he can’t help the smile on his face.

“The Warrior of Light...it makes sense you would run. Surely after being used to vanquishing whatever an enemy sets in your path, you would find yourself lacking after defeat at my hand.”

“Be quiet!” She snarls, tattoos glowing for the briefest of seconds and he hears something snap behind him. He barely dodges a broken piece of coral meant for his head. That’s all the distraction she needs to finally get one spell off on him, the magic nicking his skin uncomfortably before dissipating.

A temper… he ponders, shifting toward her again. “So the Echo isn’t your only blessing...you also have the ability to control vegetation, but not without cost to yourself as I had observed at our last duel.” he muses aloud, giving a swing of his sword. She dodges the wave of magic he sends at her, allowing him to close the gap. She dodges sluggishly, his blade barely slicing the first layer of skin. With a solid kick to her stomach she stumbles, but does not fall. “With blessings such as these it is easy to see why you would struggle against me. You are used to overwhelming your enemies with nothing but pure luck.”

“Shut up!” She roars, tattoos glowing brighter this time as more coral sharpened into knife-like points attempt to skewer him, quick on his feet to evade their attacks. Her eyes shine as he takes in the determination in her eyes, an elation filling him at seeing how desperate she is to kill him.

Her assault doesn’t last for long, her markings ceasing their glow as she collapses to the ground, eyes rolling back in her head. The coral falls to the ground limply, nothing but useless husks without her magic flowing through it.

He moves to see if she’s truly unconscious, until something wet trickles down his neck. Reaching up he removes his helm, the leathery pads of his gauntlets swiping across his skin. Bringing it to his lips, the familiar tang of blood coats the tip of his tongue, the raising of his eyebrows barely perceptible.

Perhaps our gap in power is narrower than I first thought.

His feet move on his own accord, until he stands above her, taking in her fair features. She breathes normally, and while he is no medicus he can still see the exhaustion in her bones. He wonders at her power; what is it’s source? Surely that savage god Hydaelyn cannot bless her with such ability, an ability that seems to take so much out of her. A mystery...

His soldiers finally reach him, having pulled themselves together. “My lord! The savage, have you--” they stop their prattling as soon as they spot her still body on the ground. “Is she,”

“She lives.” he murmurs, eyes not having left her prone form for a second even as he returns his helm to his head.

“Do not bother to sully your hands, my lord. I shall finish,” the soldier doesn’t even get to finish his sentence before he’s slit their neck in a single swipe of his blade, their blood dripping down the metal.

“Pick her up and bring her with us.” He drones, and he can hear them shuffle behind him as they decide who he was speaking to. “Quickly.” he sighs, sheathing his sword as his men move to pick up the unconscious savage from the ground.

He can’t explain his actions.

He did not enjoy killing; it was merely a by-product of battle, a way to punish those who failed him. Such incompetence was not fit to live.

But her…

His eyes have yet to leave her still, blue eyes following her as his subordinates pick her up rather roughly. They split the task between two of them, somehow unable to manage to carry one small woman. It bothers him for some reason.

“Give her to me.”

The two soldiers shuffle back over, one holding her by the legs and another by her arms. He can’t help but roll his eyes even if they won’t see it, stooping to take the woman from their hold and carrying her in his arms. A hunter should shoulder his kill... he thinks, turning to leave the isle.

“M-My lord?”

“Silence. Carrying this savage, this...beast, does not require usage of both of my hands. It would be nothing to sling her over my shoulder and slay you for your ineptitude.” He barks, quieting the soldiers immediately. “I would question Eorzea’s savior-- take her measure.”

Not wanting to be killed for doing something as bold as to question his reasoning, the soldiers all mumble their affirmations and quickly get in formation, making their way back to the docked ship.

His heart feels as if it is racing.

It is a strange feeling, given that even during most of his training he doesn’t even become short of breath. He is in peak physical form, and yet…

He cannot stop himself from clutching the woman in his arms a little closer to his chest.

Even when they board the ship, it is hard to shake the discontent of putting her down in a cell, unsure what to call this magnetism he feels deep within. He deposits her in the holding cell with deceptive gentleness, seeing no need to bind her in chains. They’ve already confiscated her weapon, and there is certainly no plant life for her to manipulate down here.

The Warrior of Light, A’yana Salvia…

Even if uttered within the confines of his own mind, something within him begins to change.

#zenos #zenos yae galvus #FFXIV #ff14 #Final Fantasy XIV #WGCTG

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