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autumnslance · 3 months

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Normally I'd agree many Final Fantasy games have rather young protagonists. It's because they're usually single-player JRPGs made with the assumption of younger players, and like most Young Adult media, create characters that cater to that, even if it ends up with teens running the world and fighting in wars. And for many players, the first time playing these games is in childhood/adolescence/very young adulthood. So it's YA anime.

Final Fantasy XIV does not fall into that same mold, despite the "Teen" rating for legal and distribution purposes.

The majority of the FF14 cast, including the bulk of the main characters, are between 20 and 40 years old (the Scion Archons, Ishgard Elf Husbands). Many other characters are between 40 and 80 (Ishgard's Counts are all late middle aged to elder dads/grandpas, Gaius is mid 50s, Jehantel and Ran'jit are elderly, all still active). The younger characters (especially with any authority or special position) like the Leveilleur twins, are actually outliers. And the youth of the characters between 16 and 20 years old tends to be plot relevant, where that inexperience and naivety causes problems and drives story (Nanamo's arc at the end of ARR into HW, Alphinaud and the Crystal Braves, Ryne's determination of self in ShB, etc).

Characters have a variety of appearances; some characters in the same age ranges look very different. Varis is only 4 years older than X'rhun but Varis's model shows the stress and disagreeableness of his life a lot more than the RDM trainer's. Cid's in his mid-30s but with the beard looks older--and without it he has a baby face (hair color doesn't matter, cuz they do keep the anime trope of "everyone's got white or silver hair"). Lalafell are designed to be anime-cute halflings so it's hard to tell their adult ages even if they've got facial hair like grandfatherly Papashan. The pad'jal of course look like kids, but the youngest main pad'jal is A-Ruhn in his late teens; all the others are adults stuck in adolescent bodies. E-Sumi is a few hundred years old. Kan-E uses various methods to look older so other leaders and people from outside Gridania will take her seriously as an adult. The padjal introduced in the StB WHM quests is a child, and that's the plot; she's not in charge of anything, or has any particularly advanced-for-her-age skills. She's just a kid having a really rough time.

This inability to determine age by looking and assuming isn't just due to limits of the game engine and character creation options; it reflects real life. I met my work team for the first time in person recently; one person looked older than I know them to be, thanks to months of stress and health issues. While all of them were shocked to remember I'm in my 40s as according to them, I "look much younger". Most people are actually pretty bad at guesstimating ages based on appearance, due to the variety of folks' lives.

Speaking of kid characters, many of the children we interact with, like the Doman Adventurers, are between 12 and 14 and act much younger. Khloe has this going on too, with her age "corrected" to 13 (when previously listed as 10), but she acts way younger to me. Most of the actual child characters are treated like children, and it's not until they get to 14-16 (Honoroit, Leveva) that we start to see them treated like maturing adolescents and having some rsponsibilities, but still young and prone to the kind of choices one expects of less experienced and more emotional youth.

As a MMO, FF14's primary audience is actually adults; teens do play the game, but also age up with it if they keep playing. If a 15 year old began playing with ARR's release, they're in their mid-20s now. Having a primarily adult cast, and treating child characters like children, and adolescents like young people figuring out how young adulthood works, makes sense for this game.

FF14's time bubble is also part of the issue; a developer tool to keep it so they don't have to worry too much about character ages, new models so often, or how long things take in game. Timelines are then intentionally left malleable for the players' benefits, to create our own stories and determine how long things take for our WoLs and their tales. Some folks have their stories pass in real time, some compress it to a year per expac, some expand it out even longer. So the ages the characters have listed in the lorebooks and rarely in game (which is then reflected in online resources), is a starting baseline. Personal headcanons as always should be applied (including changing around some character ages to fit one's own story if necessary).

Also, FF16, made by the same team, has a brief prologue/tutorial section where the main trio is between 10 and 15, guided/trained by adult characters, experience the inciting incident trauma--and then we spend the majority of the game with the main cast in their 20s and 30s. The game also has a mature rating, featuring some sexual situations, lots of violence, and stronger language than other FF games. It's made for adults, and its cast reflects that.

So it is a matter of audience expectations; for a MMO, you're going to have an older and aging player base, and the varied ages of the cast reflect that, as do their varied appearances and experiences as adults. The young characters are treated closer to how their youth should be; still with respect for those in positions like Nanamo, but also prone to errors due to inexperience that drive story. In other FF titles, which were made to be more YA-focused, a teen and young 20s cast were treated much differently. But even in the single-player FF titles, if they are made with adult players in mind, their cast and stories likewise reflect that.

#final fantasy xiv #audience #time bubble #ages #aging #cast #gang's all here #literary analysis #I agree most FF games don't have main casts outside the teens but there's reasons for that #and one can't really fit FF14 into that same mold when the cast is this large and varied #yes this is kinda in response to another post but not putting them on blast

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katakaluptastrophy · 5 months

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So, it's the last days and a weird-looking guy called John is yelling about the end of the world.

AKA, it's Advent and we've reached the stage of Alectopause where I'm apparently writing Bible studies for the weird goth teens that hang out in graveyards... So let's talk about portentious guys called John and why a nun might have joined a necromancy cult.

Anyway, you know Advent, the cheerful and cozy time when we all think about cute baby Jesus as we get ready for Christmas, right?

WRONG

It's currently the second Sunday of Advent, and in lots of churches that follow the liturgical year, people will have been hearing about John the Baptist today (Me: "John". My phone: "Gaius?". Me: "John the-". My phone: "Necromancer?").

Without going into too much detail, John the Baptist is important because he's a prophet that points to the coming of Jesus. He first does this rather impressively in utero, but is probably best known for wandering the wilderness wearing camel hide and eating locusts, shouting about how the end is nigh and, hence the name, baptising people to cleanse them from their sins. People are pretty impressed by all this and start asking him if he is the promised messiah or one of the great prophets come again. He answers no, his job is to point towards one greater than him. He baptises Jesus, the heavens open, and not long afterwards John annoys the authorities and ends up with his head on an ornamental platter.

Now John the Baptist obviously isn't the main Biblical John evoked by John Gaius. That dubious honour probably goes to the beloved disciple John the Apostle, also known for The Gospel According To and The Apocalypse Of, aka the Book of Revelation, the Bible's account of the end of the world.

But John the Baptist (no, autocorrect, not "John the Necromancer") is relevant too, and not just because he's a guy called John, chosen by a higher power to lay the groundwork for better things to come and who falls afoul of the authorities with dramatic consequences.

Let's cycle back round to Advent for a moment. The reason Advent can both be aww cute little baby Jesus and also WHERE ARE YOU GOING WHEN YOU DIE?! is because in Christian theology, Jesus' birth and the end of the world are linked: the first and the second coming of Christ.

In Nona The Ninth, we learn that John and his friends are living in a world on the edge. Without some incredible plan - the cryo ships, the promise of FTL - everyone is going to die. Humanity has rendered the world uninhabitable. Although we get very few details of the broader geopolitical situation, we have to assume it's one rife with natural disasters and conflict.

In the Bible, Jesus talks about a world with famines and earthquakes, wars and rumours of wars, where to find yourself in those days with children would be a tragedy and to be pregnant even worse (maternity problem, anyone?). Specifically, this is when he talks about the signs of the end of the world and his second coming.

So what about M-'s nun? The first time we meet her is when she's advising John against his all-day Jesus Christ Superstar healing ministry.

And John's anxiety about meeting her is pretty apt. He says: "I was worried I was going to get the Antichrist bit from her too". Note the "too" - by this point, John has already been accused of being the Antichrist. Why? Because alongside those rumours of wars and earthquakes, Jesus gives another sign to watch out for: false prophets.

But M-'s nun saw John and his powers and - for reasons we never learn - believed they were miraculous, a gift from God. She appealed to the Vatican to investigate and recognise this. And her presence and this campaign apparently made a significant impact in reducing some of the issues they were facing. Somehow, she met awful, smarmy John and his corpse buddies and thought she was seeing the hand of God miraculously at work in the last days.

This bears repeating, because I've seen suggestions that she believed he was God, or was somehow converted to the cause of necromancy, but at least by John's narrative it's much simpler than that: right to the end she's praying for him in very Catholic terms to find clarity in his purpose.

This is the last we see of her:

She just smiled at me. She said, John, don’t misunderstand. I want to help you. I truly believe that in our most terrible hours we don’t instinctively reach out to God; we push ourselves away from Him. Don’t feel bad for not rising heroically to the occasion right now. Fear doesn’t help us achieve a state of grace; it deafens the heart. John, I truly believe you can save everyone. So concentrate, please. She said, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. And she shot herself.

While obviously you are probably not walking a straightforwardly orthodox path if you're shooting yourself to help the leader of a self-proclaimed necromancy cult locate the soul, her language here is very focused on the Catholic understanding of sin and death. A "state of grace" refers to the condition of your soul when it's not burdened with serious sins. It's the state you're in after you're baptised or after you've been to confession. Being in a state of grace is one's soul being on a wavelength with God; it's the necessary state to enter heaven.

And the Hail Mary? Catholics believe that Mary has the power to intercede for them with God. And the most important moment at which she could intercede would be at the point of death where the state of your soul determines your eternal destination. This isn't a wacky necromancy cultist talking. I suspect she sees this less as a suicide (which the Catholic Church has historically not had the most nuanced views on...) than a fulfilment of Jesus' teaching to keep his commandments and that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.

We're not privy to exactly what she thought, and I don't think anyone's suggesting her approach was entirely orthodox, but if he's not the Second Coming, and he's not the Antichrist, and there are wars and rumours of wars and floods and earthquakes...did she see him as a prophet of the apocalypse? A sort of John the Baptist of the end times, who in demonstrating the reality of the soul would bring people to Christ before He came again?

Unfortunately for M-'s nun, John was not what she fervently believed him to be. And unlike John the Baptist, who said no when asked if he was something he was not, John used M-'s nun's death as a springboard to claim the trappings of both divinity and Catholicism for himself.

Unfortunately for John, judgement is coming in the form of an angry teenager Harrowing Hell and the very power he usurped, armed with a very big sword.

#the locked tomb #tlt #tlt meta #john gaius #cristabel oct

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liesmyth · 2 months

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top 5 TLT fic recs

OK, I've been very bad at keeping up with the fic tag so all my recs are a bit old but listen. they fuck.

the soul that seeketh him by bittybelle — Ostensively a fic about John Gaius's slut era but one of THE definitive fics in the fandom to me. I want to eat it I want it tattoed over my ribcage.

People, it turns out, are horny for depression. Or maybe it’s that people are horny for depressed gods. Or maybe enduring betrayal on a literally cosmic scale makes people hotter. Or maybe the death drive is real, and the many-tongued abyss’s breath is still thick in your hair, and it makes everyone want to move closer and take a big, deep whiff. Or maybe you’re God, and they’re scared. Or: John Gaius meets his daughter, remembers the women he left behind, and deals poorly with being the male god of a universe in which the divine is essentially feminine.

crawl home to her by Raxheim — I'm limiting myself to one Rax fic only, because this is a top five, but it's a struggle. Highly rec their whole account

In which Gideon the First finds Wake, kills her, and then absconds with her child. And in the shadows of his soul, Pyrrha and Wake fight for control of the bomb.

and my mouth isn't filled with blood, it's victory wine by arbitrarily — also known as the fic where Ianthe gets her eye smashed while roleplaying as Alecto during sex, and it's not even my favourite thing about the fic. It's unhinged (complimentary)

You like forcing yourself to do gross things. This is called having character. Ianthe gets haunted, makes a power play, and smokes a cigarette.

High But Very Drear by honorarycassowary — this is such a lovely look at the Ninth after Harrow's departure. It's slightly canon divergent (written pre NtN) but I'm obsessed with Aiglamene's portrayal in it

Aiglamene and Crux receive the five hundred ancient dead gifted by the Emperor for the renewal of the Ninth, and also do something that could be construed as mourning.

and I'll leave once I figure out / how to pay for my own life too by oriflamme — multichapter Harrow Nova AU that remains one of my favourite chaptered works in the fandom. I'm absolutely obsessed with the Harrow & Pyrrha and Harrow & G1deon dynamics in it

Harrow Nova wakes up haunted. That's not the problem. The problem is that her dead necromancer won't stop narrating their life for five minutes.

#Anonymous #askbox games #tlt fic #fic recs #tlt

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thisisjustmefangirling · 1 month

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Merlin rewatch : 2x09 "The lady of the lake"

Freya must have been so cold wearing these rags…

Gaius, your acceptance/resignation towards people being sold for a price if they have magic freaks me out.

As if Merlin was going to let a defenseless looking girl stay in that cage… Especially someone with magic. He feels empathy for them.

Is that the first time we're seeing the Rising sun tavern ?

Oh Merlin is using so many spells in a few minutes, I'm loving it…

"Here, I thought you might be cold."

"I just saw you and… It could have been me, in that cage".

WHY is Merlin not stealing from the kitchens instead of bringing Arthur a rotten apple and a stale piece of bread ? The NERVE ?! I wouldn't have given this to anyone, even less my BOSS, a PRINCE.

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Arthur's indignation : "I am fighting fit!"

I think this is where we're getting started with the fatphobic jokes…

Arthur has scratches/scars on his chest ? Where did he get that ?

Merlin giving Arthur "Sire" because he knows he fucked up…

Oh Freya was a druid ?

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Merlin !!!! How did you not realise that that bathwater was BOILING and could COOK ARTHUR TO DEATH ?

"You need to warn them, Sire. The girl is dangerous. My informer told me she was cursed."

"How so ?"

"He didn't know. But he said even the druids were frightened of her. They cast her out of their camp."

So Freya is an outcast. Just like Merlin, in some way. Merlin is so powerful it'd be easy to be afraid of him once he's mature enough. He's not part of the druids. Neither is Freya.

Add butter to that bread and cheese and you get un jambon-beurre haha.

"Believe me, it's fit for a prince" hahaha no shit Merlin !

"He knows but I'm not sure he understands". => Merlin about Gaius knowing about Merlin's magic.

"Magic is not a curse. It can be a gift!" Oh baby in 1x01 you feared you were a monster ?

Merlin is lying to Gaius' face and his very inquisitive eyes…

Merlin stealing Arthur's food is supposed to be a joke, okay, but I'm not sure I like it now. Arthur is being deprived of a good breakfast and lunch. He'll be cranky come evening. Give him food.

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"Merlin is my servant, he has my absolute trust. If you have a problem with him, you come to me. Do you understand ?"

This line is doing things to my heart, oh la la…

The fact that Arthur doesn't question Merlin AT ALL about his strange behaviour, they just bicker about the stolen sausages and Arthur's weight and then Merlin just… leaves. And goes straight to see Freya.

"I scare most people away" Freya you deserve better…

"You can't always trust people."

"I know. That's why I left home."

Merlin :/ Babe <3

Let it be remembered that Merlin can make flowers appear, but not food.

"With you, I can just be who I am. We don't have to hide anything. I don't have to worry."

"Being different is nothing to be scared of".

AND THAT SINGLE TEAR ROLLING DOWN HIS CHEEK !

Awww Merlin behaving like a lovesick puppy <3

This is the first time Merlin even THINKS about leaving Camelot. He's known Freya for two days. He's just really desperate to be known for who he really is, and to be free…

Moths and woodworms : the "reasons" why Merlin is snooping into closets and bedside tables he should not be touching at all.

"Running an errand for Gaius" : excuse number 1 for weird shit and secret missions Merlin is doing.

Arthur not giving a fuck about Merlin possibly crossdressing for fun in his spare time : "As long as you do a decent day's work, Merlin, that's all I care about. […] What a man does in his spare time is completely up to him". And then the compliment : "colour suits you Merlin".

This is day three now.

"We can leave tonight, as soon as it gets dark, and we can be together".

Horses, blankets and food and they won't need more. A second kiss, and goodbye. Freya doesn't have the heart to tell him.

"There was a time when you thought twice about lying to me".

Yet Merlin said "Of course not!" which such an air of sincerity… Oh yeah, he's turning into a really good liar…

Mais Gaius t'es tellement une grosse balance, t'es là à lécher les pompes d'UTHER au lieu de régler le problème avec Merlin !

"You can never understand. Do you know how it feels to be a monster? To be afraid of who you are ?"

"Freya is very different from you. She's dangerous."

Oh I didn't remember Arthur saw her in her human form ! Lol he's just there blinking as she's turning into a bastet…

I can't freaking believe Arthur's guards and knights are running away while Arthur is trying to fight the bastet !

MERLIN ! You almost crushed Arthur to death !

He's petting her head ???

OH is Freya a rape survivor, forced to kill people by the mother of her rapist ? That's so fucked up…

"Please go."

"No. I'm not leaving you here".

The PARALLELS with Arthur's dying moments !

"One day, Merlin, I will repay you. I promise". Okay but do we actually see that happen in the next seasons ? I don't remember her.

What I do remember from years ago is directors saying that Colin held that level of intensity and sadness for hours in the rain for those lake scenes.

It's the first time he has to light a funeral pyre for a friend and it sadly won't be the last…

That last scene with Arthur always gets to me. Arthur might be oblivious to a lot of things but he pays attention to Merlin more than Merlin might think, I'd say.

"Something's been upsetting you, hasn't it ?"

Arthur has seen Merlin doing the weirdest things in the past four days or so : stealing his food, calling him fat, giving him stale food to eat, stealing a dress, being accused of hiding a druid… And he doesn't accuse Merlin of anything himself. He thinks "Oh, Merlin has been upset. I must find out why. Maybe it's because of me." and then he sort of apologises and when words fail him, he uses action to make Merlin smile again. Because seeing Merlin smile, as we'll learn in the next seasons ("I haven't seen you smile in the past three days") is important to Arthur. Because he cares. Another thing that gets to me is that when Merlin is sitting upset doing his chores, Arthur usually comes to sit next to him, at his eye level, or even UNDER his eye level sometimes. Yet, a Prince should never be sitting at a lower level than a servant or any lesser noble. He gives himself the look of a listener, and he's bad with words and feelings (because of his father's shitty education) but he TRIES.

Last episode was Arthur centric, with Arthur showing his most intimate thoughts and feelings to/in front of Merlin : his grief and guilt about his mother's death, his rage at the idea that his father was responsible for her death, that he was a hypocrite and a liar... This episode was Merlin centric. I wonder what next episode will be like.

This episode was really good at exploring Merlin's feelings about his magic, his identity as a warlock, his sense of loneliness at the heart of Camelot. Gaius cares about him but is still loyal to Uther, and Merlin is not sure Gaius really understands him and what it's like to be a warlock. Arthur... Merlin cares about Arthur and Arthur cares about him, but Merlin knows that he could end up in a cage just like Freya. And I think a part of him might resent Arthur for it. Or at least, at the end of the episode, he's tired of his chores... But no wonder. Your crush is killed by your soulmate, and you still have to show up at work the next day and shine his boots ?

#bbc merlin #merlin rewatch #the lady of the lake #freya #Youtube

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nonsensical-axobott · 21 days

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Season 2 thoughts and notes. Part 1. Now with pictures!

• There's a whole dungeon under the castle, that the royal family is not fully aware (they're still exploring those). With tombs, jewelry and artifacts.

This can be useful for plot ideas

• This season start strong with Arthur being a jerk towards Merlin. We went from "you have to polish my armor" to "I'm going to literally step on Merlin"! ?!?

Arthur is brutal

• Anyone can infiltrate the castle with enough luck. They give a job there if you save someone important. They don't even ask twice.

• Gwen sleeps Morgana's next room, to be there when she has a nightmare.

• Forget the pacing with Gwen, in chapter 2 they kiss. It still seems like they developed feelings for each other, but my bloody heart, that was fast.

Still, it's nice to see that he's becoming a better person and a better king thanks to her.

• A freaking camera is what Merlin needed to solve almost any problem.

• In this season Merlin knew that it was a bad idea to tell things to Uther. He also developed some brain, and he actually started to make plans

• Merlin eye's are brighter this season when he uses magic.

• People can send a missive to the castle saying that a beast is attacking a town from Camelot (on Camelot's domain), and the King will send some Knights or Arthur itself to solve the problem.

• Season 2 is way funnier and more entertaining.

• I hate the beauty and the beast.

• Merlin has 2 and a half jobs. Gaius assistant, Arthur's servant and dealing with everything related to magic and destiny. It's not weird that he was seen as a poor servant and that he was tired all the time

• Uther gives reward if you offer a sorcerer/magic creature. He was going to buy Freya ಠ⁠︵⁠ಠ

• When I was young I always thought that it was a cute romance/something between Merlin and Freya. I just rewatch the episode.... It's still so cute.

Freya was a cursed druid, rejected by her own kind. It's so cute to see that Merlin didn't just try to help her, but showed his magic to her without a second thought. It always felt like love at first sight. THEY EVEN KISS, I DIDN'T REMEMBER THAT PART. He was willing to leave Camelot and Arthur. This hurts so much.

• Freya and Merlin's mother are the only things that made Merlin consider leaving Camelot and never came back.

• Arthur reached Merlin, and comforted him after Freya, not as a King, but as a friend. He sat on the floor next to him, asked what was going on and tried to cheer him up (it actually worked). I'm not going to believe that he's a prince with no emotional intelligence whatsoever, that's baloney.

You cant tell me that even if he was a men that wouldn't accept a hug from another men, he still have some men ways to confort his friend

• Also, season 2, EP 9 has the first joke of fat Arthur that Merlin ever did.

More thoughts soon, once I finish season 2.

#merlin #merlin bbc #arthur #arthur merlin

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barbwritesstuff · 7 months

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Help with character names.

I'm having some issues with Gaius and Lee's names between games.

In Blood Moon Gaius was Gaius instead of Dominus because Gaius liked the wolves enough to give them his name instead of his title. But, as a vampire, the protagonist of Thicker Than would know Gaius primarily as Dominus, so I'm having to remember to call him Dominus, which is hard because in my head he's very much Gaius.

Same problem with Lee. He was originally a minor character in Blood Moon and went by his surname because that's what I did for both the hunters. But, now that I'm planning on making him a romance option I'm going to have to start thinking of him by his first name.

So, if you guys find any cases where I use the names Gaius or Lee when you think I should be using Dominus or Nathan, let me know. I know it's not a major bug, but it might be confusing for players who haven't played Blood Moon, and I want people to be able to play Thicker Than without playing Blood Moon if they want.

I hope that makes sense.

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just-1-scorpio · 4 months

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A second look and later look at the second story mod

So. Now after some time has past, seince we seen the second story mod. I think more of us started to see more of it's flaws. I started viewing it defenetly seince then. Now this is a sort of second look at it, after seeing what other people writing, about it, it actually helped me a lot to put the things into words.

I start with the few positivs.

I like the fect that they tryd to show off more character. We will talk about the execution of it later. Some comadic screens legitemitly made me laugh. MC. I personaly found him intresting, and I liked him for the most part, even though I will write a section about him. MC and Sachiko's friendship was nice, even if it can feel rushed at places. There were some good moment, that I still like, and remember.

Spoiler warning! And long post.

Now. Let's talk about the rest.

The characterisation of the characters.

It's rather mixed in my openion. I will leave the elephants in the room out of this section. We will get to it. Raven was rather nice actually. She had little screan time, but it was still good. The screan before the boom sets off is good, and if you don't really know anything about the devs, you can think that she got killed. We know Lilith Games would't dear to kill off a character who is used in promotionals often.

I liked Trevor here, he was legitemitly funny.

Trkiki, Xuan Pin, and Xiaon Yin were also there. I'm saying this like this, because they were fearly stayd on character, whaile also having less of a screan time. So really nothing to say here from my part. I will not mention the cameos.

Freddy, Leon, and Anesidora present here was welcomed from my part. I liked them.

Abigail, and Alexa, were out of character, especially Abigail. I think it could have been better if Abigail did not give them the snow war mobile thing so soon. It was too soon in my openion. And I would't really involve her with the final. It could have been better if she stayd natural. Or at least they could have made getting her apruval a chalenge in the story.

And Yamato. I think we know the problem. I like the fect that he disgaused himself as Leon, but it just feels as if they noticed how popular he is, and put him in there in order to get a positiv reaction from the players. This was pointed out before me, so I'm not the first one who thinks this. I'm not ageinst Yamato being in there, but it's done not the best way.

And to close this segment, let's talk about the character who was introduced to us in this story. Sachiko. She is nice, she has a cute design, and a few cute moments. Nothing really. I don't blame the people who don't really care about her.

2. Gaius, Hyde, aka why don't you use your already established villians Lilith Games you cowerd?

Yeah. Let's talk about that elephant in the room. The fect that the game doas not uses the already established villians, and forget about some. This was pointed out before me.

And we all know the problem with the Gaius twist.

If they did a better job, the twist still would have been bag, but not this bad. They could have made a comperison, between them. They could have had a monolog where the two try to reason with the other by talking about Hannah, and her death. Gaius tryind to live up to her memory, to be the person she can be proud off, whaile Hyde tryind to manipulet him, buy using Hannah, in a "She would want you to be more powerfull", "This could bennifit this works, Hannah would agree with this!". This are just my ideas, so they might be bad, or cringe, or clishe, but it still doas sound better then what we got.

3. So I gues this game is an isekai now.

So I don't really feel really positiv, about the isekai stuff here. I think there could have been better execution, then him coming from an another world posably sent by truck-kun. We don't even find out about what his life was like in the other world. Which could have been be able to make the end of the story, of him deciding to work in the Esper Union more emotionaly, affter all MC is basicly giving up an entire life.

And let's not forget that, they could have made ways to write it with the isekai thing. I will say a few ideas that come to my mind.

Him coming from a small isoleted community, whit little to no conection to the outside world, and fearing it, because the community is made up of people who were experuented on, and meneged to escape from the labs. He lives there until one day they get attacked by eather miramon, or the Shadow Decree, or someone else. And eather MC being the only survivor who is now forced to leave what he called home, and face the thing he fears the outside world. Or the other survivors from the attack having been kidnaped, so now he is forced to go to the outside world to find them.

For this next idea, I would like to put out, that abuse, manipuletion, and gaslighting from a parent is mentiond.

Like he could have been a test subject, a lab rat, from a lab similar to the one Farrah was in, which would explain the reason why he is half human half miramon. If they want this could be a reason to not wanting to work with the Esper Union, with a "They didn't helped me, so why should I work with them", then with the help of Sachiko, and maybe even Gaius if it's a good idea to give him more screan time, slowly starts changing MC's openion. Or he was experiented on growing up, in the Shadow Decree by Hyde. Which could open up the option of him being Hyde's son. Eather blood releted, but I think him being a "adopted son" could be a better option. Eather by adopting him from an orphanige, kidnaping him from eather his family, or combining the two, him being kidnaped from the streets as an orphan. Hyde doing experimences on him, and being a gaslighting, manipuleting him. MC meneging to escape from him, and not trusting at first in the Esper Union, but in the story he slowly starts to trust develop an adoptive sibling realetionship with Sachiko, and an adoptiv father son realetionship with Gaius, aka finding an actually loving family. And in the end MC would stend up ageinst Hyde.

Are thise ideas posably bad, cringy, or edgy? Yes, but I think those are still more intresting. Are they recvaird to add to the already existing lore, or redcon and rewrite elements of it? Also a yes, especially in the last exemple.

And now, the end. If anyone read this through I'm sorry for waisting your time. I might do a rewrite or something (I originaly wanted to do a rewrite about Cellblock Chaos, but never actually ended up doing it). I know that the last I know it's darker, but Dislyte is not strangers to being darker, as we seen in Farrah's event, and in Hilda's event.

Thank you for reading it.

#Dislyte #Dislyte MC #dislyte sachiko #dislyte gaius #dislyte hyde #Should I tag it with all the characters mentiond?#I will might delet a few tags later #dislyte raven #Dislyte Abigail #Dislyte Leon #Dislyte Freddy #I think this much tag will be enough I won't write more

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theladyragnell · 1 year

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Hello! I'm jumping on the chance to request a ficlet, and since I'm in a bit of a nostalgic mood : Merlin/Arthur ! And for a trope... Truth spell and declarations? Sending lots of love your way 💞

(Wrote the first bit of this from Merlin's POV, hard drive crashed and I lost it, now finally back to it and reconstructed from Arthur's POV. And also it's 3k because I was having some feelings. Set in a sort of nebulous AU-post-s3 situation.)

When Merlin finishes talking, Arthur is silent for a long, long time. He has to be. He’ll scream otherwise.

“What do you expect me to do now?” he asks at last. “I can’t very well kill you, not when I’ve just gone to all this trouble to legalize magic.” And then, spitting out the beginning of the bitterness he knows will twist him up for a long time, “Coward.”

“I don’t know.” Merlin shrugs, so hapless, as though none of this is his fault. Still playing the bumbling servant when he’s just told Arthur how many deaths can be laid at his door. Arthur respects killing, when it’s necessary, but the lying rankles. “I just had to tell you. I should have before.”

“Yes, you should have.” Arthur runs a hand through his hair and wishes for simplicity. “How am I ever supposed to trust you again?”

Merlin shakes his head. “You’ve heard all of that. What more do I have to lie about?”

“If I’d told you for five years that I’d never so much as held a sword and then won a duel while you watched, wouldn’t you wonder if there were other lies along the way?”

“There may have been,” Merlin admits. “It sort of got into everything, the big lie. But as I think of truths, I’ll tell them.”

“There’s still the problem of me believing them.” Arthur waves Merlin silent before he can continue. “Get out of my sight. Don’t let me see you again until I send for you.”

With honesty, it seems, comes obedience. For once, Merlin does what Arthur tells him to.

When the door is shut behind him, Arthur sits down at his table, stares at the stupid bowl of apples Merlin caused to float in the air, his declaration when words failed him. There are a hundred thousand problems with all of this, but perhaps the worst is the knowledge that he’s been giving unreturned trust for years now. His closest companion, the first person he sees every morning and the last he sees at night, may as well be a total stranger.

But Arthur doesn’t have so many allies, particularly so many magical allies, that he can simply send Merlin away and have done with it. He’ll have to learn to live with this, but he still can’t see how.

I have an idea, Merlin sends in a note two days later, having become so close to invisible that Arthur wishes he could make a joke about Merlin’s sudden skill in being a servant. The trouble is that he wants to make the joke to Merlin, and jokes between them will cut, he thinks, for a long time.

Arthur goes to Gaius’s rooms instead of summoning him, and sits in frosty silence with Gaius while they wait for Merlin to return from an errand in the forest before dismissing him while Merlin is still gaping in the doorway with a bag of useless mushrooms that make Arthur suspect he’s still lying.

Of course he is. Arthur knows, but Merlin hasn’t made a sign to Camelot as a whole what he is. Nobody trusts Arthur repealing his father’s laws.

“What were you doing in the forest?” he asks when they’re alone.

Merlin frowns. “Meeting with one of the druid leaders. He wanted reassurance.”

“Did you give it to him?”

“Yes. I’ve got no reason to believe you’ll kill others when you didn’t kill me.”

Arthur isn’t the noble king Merlin thinks him. He knew that even before he started repealing his father’s laws. If Merlin had told him a year ago, or two, Arthur would have let him live and sent him away and continued killing other sorcerers. He hasn’t earned this faith. “You said you have an idea.”

“A truth spell. I’ll cast it on myself, and it will last as long as I want it to. I won’t be able to lie to you or to anyone.”

It’s a pretty offer. There’s just one problem with it. “And how am I to trust that you’re casting the spell you say you are?”

Merlin reels back a little. Arthur won’t feel guilty for that. “I could,” he says after several soundless seconds, “I could cast it on someone else you trust? Someone you choose. You’d hear me say the same words.”

“And subject Leon or Gwen to magic to assuage my worry?” They would do it, and he won’t abuse their trust for just that reason. There’s one answer, and if it’s the one he hates most, it’s the one that will set his mind most at ease. “No. You’ll cast it on me.”

“Why would you do that? I could, I don’t know, I could cast a spell to control you so you’d think you were telling the truth, or something else awful.”

To his own relief, Arthur discovers that he’s found the limits of his own distrust. “I think if you were going to do that, you already would have. No, you’ll cast it on both of us, and when I find that I can lie again, I’ll know that you’ve let the spell lapse so you can lie.”

“You want the spell on us forever? You’re a king. Kings have to lie.”

“That’s not the kind of Camelot I want to build. And no. I just want to know you’re telling the truth until I can believe it.”

After a long moment, Merlin nods. “I don’t know a spell that will compel an answer to a question, and for the sake of Camelot and your advisors I wouldn’t cast it even if I could. One of us can always choose silence. But if we speak out loud, it’s going to be the truth—and if we try to lie, the truth comes out too.”

Arthur would be less angry if Merlin had chosen silence, at any point in these last years. At least he hopes that’s true. Maybe he should speak it out loud when he’s alone, once the spell is cast, and know for sure. “I’ll take that. When can you cast it?”

“Let me practice the incantation. Tomorrow, but I haven’t cast this one before. I don’t want to do something I can’t undo, or that will go wrong.”

Arthur nods sharply. “Tomorrow, then.”

He doesn’t linger. Merlin’s hunched posture and obvious misery are making him want to reach out in comfort and he can’t give either of them hope like that.

Merlin comes to his room the next afternoon and pulls his previously-very-illegal spellbook out of a satchel. Arthur despairs of his attempts at secrecy and hates himself a little for not guessing before. “Are you sure?” Merlin asks.

“Just do it. I’m not the one who has trouble with the truth.”

After a shaky sigh, Merlin reaches out and says a few words in that half-familiar language. He gestures at himself first, and then repeats the words and gestures at Arthur. Nothing seems to change, at least not that Arthur notices, though he’s busy being disconcerted at the way Merlin’s eyes go liquid gold when he does magic. “It’s done,” says Merlin. “Try to lie.”

My shirt is green, Arthur tries to say, but somewhere between his brain and his mouth, it comes out “My shirt is red.”

Merlin’s mouth twitches with what would have no doubt been a tease if everything hadn’t changed between them. “Safe one. Mine’s blue.” His expression of faint surprise is a comfort. “My hair is black.” More surprise.

Arthur can’t help responding with a glimmer of humor. “What color are you trying to say?”

“Pink,” Merlin admits, and Arthur has to swallow a smile. There’s a moment of awkward silence where he would have filled in a tease of his own a few days ago before Merlin forges on. “Is there anything you want to ask, now that you know I can’t lie?”

Arthur considers his options. “Do you regret telling me?” he finally asks.

“Yes and no.” Arthur glares and Merlin shrugs helplessly. “It’s the truth! I’ve been wanting to tell you for years and I was too scared, and I hate you being angry at me, so I wonder if I should have stayed scared. But I think in a while, when you’ve decided how much you do or don’t trust me, I’ll just be relieved that I can finally stop lying.” He hesitates. “Do you regret being told?”

Arthur could choose silence, but it’s not going to help either of them to do that. “I wish you weren’t a sorcerer,” he says after thinking it through. “But seeing as you are, no, I don’t regret knowing. Only what we’ve lost through all the lies.”

“Do you think we can regain any of it?”

He can’t imagine a “Yes” coming out, under the strictures of this spell. He can’t imagine a “No” working either. It would be so much simpler if he could say either. “I wish I knew,” he says instead, and then, before he can be dragged into saying anything else, “You’re dismissed.”

Arthur wakes every morning and tries to lie. For the first few days, it’s stupid factual information, and it’s pure comfort when he can’t say it’s raining on a sunny day, or that he’s going to wear one of Morgana’s gowns to a banquet, or that he prefers the bow to the sword. After that, he starts testing the limits of the spell. He can’t, he discovers, say outright that he’s the best swordsman in Camelot, but finds he’s saying “I believe I’m the best swordsman in Camelot” instead, and other opinions or facts he can’t know for sure come out in similar ways.

He tests his own opinions too, and fails at it. He can’t say “I believe magic is good” any more than he can say “I believe magic is evil.” The answer to both is “I don’t know what I believe about magic anymore.” Embarrassingly, the truth between “I trust Merlin” and “I don’t trust Merlin” is “I wish I trusted Merlin.”

He doesn’t recall Merlin to his service, but he doesn’t avoid him either. He suffers through the quiet and competent service of various palace servants and watches Merlin out of the corner of his eye. He’s quieter than usual, which isn’t surprising. He’s also good at lying without lying, which makes Arthur angrier for a few days, realizing how many times Merlin just led him without adding more outright lies to his conscience.

“You seem upset,” he overhears Gwen say to him in a corridor one afternoon. “Are you and Arthur still fighting?”

“I don’t know,” says Merlin, sounding exhausted. “I was never fighting with him, anyway. I made a mistake and he’s angry. He’s right to be. I don’t know what to do about it.”

Gwen makes soothing noises, and Arthur slips away to spar with anyone who will agree on the training fields.

The next day, he summons Merlin for dinner.

“Details,” he says when Merlin sits down. “You gave me broad strokes, and I can fill in some of it, but I don’t know what magic can do, aside from evil. Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

“That’s a lot for one dinner,” Merlin warns him.

“Start somewhere.”

After a bewildered little silence, Merlin does. He wanders terribly, and sometimes stops and grimaces and says “This is someone else’s secret, so I’m going to change the subject,” but he explains how often he’s been pulling strings, saving lives and hurting other ones. He doesn’t pretend, to Arthur’s relief, that everything he’s done was good, only the best he could do with the knowledge he had.

When he drifts to a stop, with much untold but more truths told between them, Arthur leans forward and meets his eyes. “Now try to lie to me,” he says.

Merlin winces, but he doesn’t look away. “My mother’s name is Hunith. I know you hate duck eggs and that you ordered them because I like them. I’m still sorry.”

I believe you, Arthur tries to say, and is relieved when it comes out “I want to believe you.”

Arthur is the king of Camelot. He can’t dine with a servant every night. Still, in the weeks that follow, he sets aside time every few days to invite Merlin to disgorge more secrets.

Some of the stories are awful, and Merlin doesn’t try to pretend that they aren’t. Others, to Arthur’s surprise, are funny, and Merlin’s obvious disgust at everyone treating him like some legendary figure goes a long way to earning his sympathy. He’s spending some time with the druids now, and he doesn’t like the way they talk about his future either. At the end of every meal, he asks Merlin to lie to him, and Merlin tells him the truth.

It’s been easy, for five years, to dismiss Merlin’s importance. Princes rely on servants to do things for them, but they don’t rely on the servants. The gaps in his life and his conversations where Merlin might have filled in seem constant and unbridgeable, and Merlin’s stories make it obvious that whatever they are, prince and servant isn’t it.

“I miss him,” he says one morning. A bare and simple truth, not qualified as an opinion.

It’s not surprising.

Merlin tells Gwen, and tells Leon and the other knights who don’t know. Arthur has a fight with Gwaine and with Lancelot about things they’ve known without telling their king, in his turn, but after that, when those closest to him know what Merlin can do, he invites him to council meetings and forces himself to ask Merlin’s opinion on how to bring magic back, how to convince Morgana that he’s in earnest and wants her help.

Gwen and Gwaine both lobby privately for Merlin to be named court sorcerer, but there’s not enough trust for that yet, and anyway it’s something he’s hoping to dangle to tempt Morgana home, a position that’s likely to matter more to her than being a princess or even a queen, if she’ll only trust him.

“Maybe I should tell her I can’t lie right now,” Arthur muses over dinner with Merlin one night. “It’s helping us.”

Merlin beams at him, knowing that’s true, before returning to a troubled frown. “Maybe. I’m not sure if she’s ready.” He hesitates, but he doesn’t choose silence often. Arthur isn’t sure how much of that is penance and how much of it is relief that he can finally speak. He’s not ready for the answer to that question. “I would do it. Everyone says I should, druids and dragon and all. Have I really ruined things that much?”

“You’re very bad at politics,” Arthur says. “I don’t know what you’ll be in my court, but not that, not unless Morgana turns me down.”

“I could learn,” says Merlin, scowling, and Arthur teases him about it, learning how to talk around the lies that teasing so often requires, and the next morning, when he tries to lie and say “I trust Merlin” it nearly comes out.

They have a stupid fight. Merlin mentions Arthur’s mother, Arthur gets a refusal of parlay from Morgana, and they both shout unforgivable things at each other that are, unfortunately, still true.

“What kind of legendary king do you think I’ll be,” Arthur yells when he’s had enough, “when you don’t even trust me to make my own choices with full knowledge?”

“Because you do make choices that make you a good king every day! And you wouldn’t accept full knowledge about magic until you came to it on your own!” Merlin shakes his head, visibly calming himself. “You are my king, Arthur. You have been for a long time now. I want to be at your side.”

The affirmation of his loyalty feels like a knife in the back. It would be easier if Arthur thought he were trying to lie, but he’s not. After weeks of being unable to lie, Merlin still looks startled every time he fails at it. “I don’t know why,” he says, exhausted. “You’ve told me all these things, and I still can’t understand why you’re loyal. You thought I would have you killed for having magic, but I’m still your king? Tell me it’s not just destiny. That’s not what I want from you.”

“Of course it’s not just destiny. If some prophecy had told me your father was a legendary king who should have my full loyalty, I’d have run off to live in a cave. But you … I trust you. I trust your heart. I trusted that once you understood, you would do the right thing.”

Arthur swallows. “And have I lived up to that trust?”

“Nearly every day.” Merlin gives him a thin smile. “Whenever you’re not being a prat.”

It’s answer enough, and it’s the truth. Arthur kisses him, and in a whirlwind of arms and legs and startled noises, Merlin kisses him back.

“I love you,” Merlin says in bed later, intense and, somehow, true. “You don’t have to try to say it if you don’t think it will come out.”

Arthur could say it, he thinks. It’s not, though, the thing that matters most now. “I trust you,” he says instead, and he doesn’t have to qualify it. It’s just true. And, while Merlin is staring at him with wide wet eyes, he continues. “Take the spell off.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“What’s the point of it? I trust you,” and it’s easier even to say the second time, “and that’s what this exercise has been. Surely you’ll be relieved to go back to fibbing about where my dessert has gone.”

“And this has nothing at all to do with you panicking when that ambassador offered you a marriage,” Merlin says, but he’s already taking Arthur’s hand, saying a few words with his eyes flaring gold, and then saying them again, removing the spell from himself as well. There’s a long silence. Eventually, Merlin clears his throat. “My hair is pink.”

Arthur chokes on a laugh. “And my bed hangings are made of spiderweb. Which might actually be true, come to that, given who my manservant is.”

“I haven’t cleaned your bed hangings in ages, blame your temporary servants for that.” Merlin hesitates, smile going softer. “I do love you.”

“I believe you,” says Arthur, and kisses him again.

#fkyb #answered asks #sometimes i write stories

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noxitsnox · 6 months

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I'm going crazy so here me out: Zosan Ancient Roma AU (death and sucide are mentioned)

It's setted after Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus but before Caesar

Zoro's family was a family of farmers, but they were forced to sell their lands to afford food and stuff

The Senate couldn't care less about people like them (populares) and every time someone tried to propose laws in favor of the plebs it always found a way not to implement them

Zoro was tired of it

He managed to get elected consul having the full supports of the populares

Sanji's family was part of the senatorial aristocracy (optimates), obviously they did not support the populares, they were only interested in maintaining their position in society

Sanji didn't agree with their idealogies, he actually wanted to help the populares

That same year he managed to gain the support of the populares and equites (another social class made of rich merchants and artisans) become consul

Now there was a problem for the Senate: both of the consuls were supporting the populares and not them

Also Sanji's family couldn't let him just go around and support the "enemies"

Sanji was disowned and all

Now getting on the zosan part

Zoro at first didn't like Sanji, he didn't trust him

Sanji... he didn't really have a problem with Zoro, but he didn't like the fact that Zoro didn't like him and so his mere presence annoyed him

They started to get along after the firsts military successes

So it was a difficult time for Rome, there were civil wars in both the eastern and western provinces

Sanji went to Gaul to sedate the riots

Zoro went in Asia to do the same

After he was done in Asia Zoro was returning in Rome when some barbarians went and attacked the Gaul

And so he decide to take his army and went there to help Sanji

In short time the riots were calmed and the barbarians were defeated

After this experience they become closer and closer

Sanji admired Zoro's bravado and how good he fought

Zoro admired Sanji's leadership and technique, not just his strength

They tried to elevate the position of the plebs but the Senate slowed down all their attempts

And just liked that in Rome a climate of tension arose and within a couple of years a civil war broke out

During one of the battles Zoro died gloriously

Sanji was devasted

He retired from public and political life completely

He kept one of Zoro's swords until the day he died

A couple of years after Zoro's death he took that sword and killed himself

#and then they met again in the Underworld #i wanna elaborate more on their reletionship here #i might write a one shot #zosan #vinsmoke sanji #roronoa zoro #one piece #ancient rome au

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wine-dark-soup · 12 days

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opinion on your ff14 woman you know the one

i think i can safely bet this is about kan-e-senna.🤡

so without furder ado:

listen to me. listen. i love her. all the criticism she and gridania get is warranted and was largely covered multiple times by people more eloquent than me so i'm not gonna talk about it here.

but. i feel like players are exaggeratedly mean about kan-e-senna sometimes

"she's a passive coward" she founded the eorzean alliance. and because i just did it again and have the screenshots on hand, here's her final decision concerning gaius' ultimatum before he invades eorzea:

she's the FIRST LEADER to (in a decisive moment where she gets up and grabs her staff, reassuming her role) admit surrendering to the empire is a bad idea. most of all, she interacted closely with the previous warriors of light; and after carteneau, SHE was entrusted with their legacy and louisoix's. she CAN'T surrender if only for that.

i don't think she's meant to be an *active agent* in the sense she will never be raubahn running through a battlefield (although from what i've heard she WILL throw herself in the melee in the EW master rolequests). but throughout the game she has a catalyst role. she creates the alliance. she invites the other leaders to continue the fight when faced with an ultimatum. she is the first character to somewhat read what's going on with thancred's soul which will launch the events of shb. it's her who welcomes fourchenault in gridania, which will launch the events of endwalker.

but she *wants* to be an active agent in the story, because she DOES want to act when needed. whether she actually can or not is another problem and the root of many of gridania's issues.

she wants to help the people, but is completely blind to their problems because she spends her days in the lotus stand. she wants to travel, but she can't, because she has to help her people, by... spending her days in the lotus stand. there's an irony here that i absolutely adore.

the EW tank rolequests really highlighted this contradiction in her character imo. she's supposedly a good orator and kind leader, with a voice clear as day, but it doesn't show. so the people and the forest suffer more than they should and so does she - because of the pressure she's under. the very stupidity of gridania's immobilism (caused in part by kan-e's inability to act) manifested in the form of her childhood best friend turned beast (who, btw, should have become the elder seedseer. sudden pressure put on her after his disappearance) and the illusion of a plague spreading through the forest. it doesn't get more straightforward as a metaphor.

#kan-e-senna #lore #ask #thank you!!!#sorry as i said. i'm normal about her

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just-late-roman-republic-things · 1 month

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ave, jlrrt! soy el anon que preguntó sobre el libro de emma southon hace unas semanas. muchas gracias por los heads up que me dieron usted y erin de theromaboo sobre el libro. ya que me interesa mucho agrippina (+caio y sus hermanas) he estado buscando libros sobre el tema y encontré los de anthony barrett y me gustaria preguntar si ha leido algo suyo antes y si son buenos. espero que esto sea una molestia, muchas gracias :)

¡Hola! No he leído nada de las obras de Anthony Barrett, ni nada después de la vida de Tiberio. (Puedes encontrar todos los libros de la historia romana que he leído y recomiendo en mi página de favoritos.) Pero @sforzesco ha creado algunos cómics magníficos sobre Calígula con libros y artículos citados, ¡y puede que te resulten útiles!

No soy académico, pero cuando considero un libro de historia, siempre busco citas para todos los párafos. Incluso si no quieres leer las fuentes, es importante poder encontrar de dónde el autor obtuvo sus afirmaciones. Idealmente, el libro debería tener fuentes antiguas y modernas, y mencionar cuando los eruditos actuales no están de acuerdo, lo cual es muy común. También un autor debe explicar cuál es su propia opinión y qué hay en el registro histórico. Si un libro presenta los datos como si solo hubiera una interpretación, es probable que sea un problema, especialmente para la historia antigua.

Si buscas estas cosas in tus libros, creo que podrás juzgarlos por ti mismo/a. ¡Buena suerte!

/ English:

Hi jlrrt! I'm the anon that asked about Emma Southon's book a few weeks ago. Many thanks for the heads up that you and Erin @theromaboo gave me. Since I'm really interested in Agrippina (+Gaius and his sisters) I've been searching for books about the subject and found those of Anthony Barret and I'd like to ask if you've read anything of his before and if they're good. I hope that this is [not] a bother, thanks a lot :) Hello! I haven't read any of Anthony Barrett's works, nor anything after the life of Tiberius. (You can find all the Roman history books I've read and recommend on my favorites page. But @sforzesco has created some awesome comics about Caligula with books and articles cited, and you might find them useful! I'm no academic, but when I consider a history book, I always look for citations for all the paragraphs. Even if you don't want to read the sources, it's important to be able to find where the author got their claims from. Ideally, a book should have both ancient and modern sources, and mention when current scholars aren't in agreement, which is often. An author should also make clear what is their own opinion and what's in the historical record. If a book presents information as if there's only one interpretation, that's likely a problem, especially for ancient history. If you look for these things in your books, I think you´ll be able to judge them for yourself. Good luck!

#just roman asks #anthony barrett #agrippina the younger #caligula #jlrrt essays #my toxic trait is that i notice the difference between ' and ´ and it distracts me EVERY time

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redrikki · 3 months

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Battlestar Galactica Rewatch: Mini series

You can thank @beatrice-otter for this. Her recent bsg fic had me reaching for my dvds when I realized how much I'd forgotten.

The mini series introduces the titular Battlestar Galactica, a 50-year-old ship under the command of Bill Adama, just as it is set to be decommissioned and turned into a museum. His estranged son Lee and Secretary of Education Laura Roslin are both in attendance. Then, everything changed when the fire nation, er, cylons attacked. Laura becomes president, assembled a fleet of civilians, and they set of with Galactica in search of earth and safety.

Initially airing in 2003, the show often gets described as post 9/11, but on rewatch it feels more cold war nightmare scenario to me. The visuals are mushroom clouds, not crashing jets. Laura's swearing evokes LBJ's and the scene with the little girl on the ship is basically a Barry Goldwater commercial. The only things that really scream 9/11 is the memorial wall and the planes halted in transit.

In my first watch, I remember being moved, but on rewatch I'm not feeling it. The problem is that it's so fast paced there are really only two quick moments with Dee in the hallway and Billy talking about his family where you get a hint of the weight of it. The show gives more to the ship board deaths. Over all, the show is so focused on the fight for survival that it never lets the characters or audience really sit with the grief.

Mini series does a good job introducing the various characters: Laura, Bill, Kara, Lee, Saul, Gaius, Boomer, Tyrol, and the rest of the gang. The fact they shoehorn Tyrol and his deck gang into everything that requires non-coms makes sense in terms of managing casting, it does get ridiculous.

The problems of Bill Adams's leadership which will haunt him throughout the show are on full display. He plays favorites in ways which undermines unit discipline and cohesion and ignores problems until the day comes he can't hide from the things he's done.

Laura's leadership strength of ruthless, clear-sighted pragmatism are also on display. Her flaw of riding roughshod over everyone is there too, but since everyone who fights her in this is clearly wrong, it's easy to miss.

From a Doylist perspective, having Leobin as the only one in the station makes sense as a way to introduce Adama to human-form cylons, but from a Watsonian perspective the fact the station is in-manned makes the Colonial Fleet seem dumb and incompetent.

This has been much debated, but I think Caprica killing the baby was an accident. She is fascinated and it's all an experiment. She doesn't care she killed him, but she didn't set out to do it.

Bill gives a great speech. So say we all!

#battlestar galactica #bsg rewatch

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racefortheironthrone · 10 months

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Hey there,

So I read the Locked Tomb series a few months ago and one thing that occurred to me after reading Nona the Ninth was that the John Gauis’s account of the end of the world could not be fundamentally trusted. While I believe that Tamsyn Muir intended for these passages to be “true” or “Accurate” to what happened I found unable to accept the chapters due to the number and severity of lies told by John. It also led to me notice any inconsistency, irregularity, or any implausible scenario and to see it as evidence of another lie by John.

My question I suppose is if an author uses an unreliable narrator when (or if) should the audience trust said narrator again.

In part my extreme skepticism started when John mentioned the oxygen crisis, that such a scenario would be so sever and immediate that there would be little time for John’s necromantic schemes. It was further stoked by John’s impractical cryogenic plan (why would you send frozen people to the Kuiper Belt), and later on John’s mis-remembering when and how original-Gideon died and that he was telling this story to Harrow hark trying to convinced her to join him.

I am quite certain that my extreme distrust is unwarranted and that Muir intended for us to believe John’s tale but I cannot help but notice the inconsistencies and find John utterly dishonest and unbelievable.

I'm glad you asked this question, because it allows me to talk about how to apply historiographical methodology to literary analysis.

One of the terms that I was exposed to during my training as a historian is the "hermeneutics of suspicion" - the practice of reading texts such that the on-its-face meaning of the text is false and that you have to read the text solely for its deeper, hidden meanings. The problem with the hermeneutics of suspicion is that, taken to a logical conclusion, all texts and meanings become false, and for lack of evidence, all academic inquiry shuts down and we wind up sitting on the floor with our hands over our mouths.

Now, this doesn't mean that you have to take texts as 100% valid either, but rather that good methodological practice requires a careful weighing and balancing of bias, rather than simplistic binaries.

So in the case of John's narrative in Nona the Ninth, is John meant to be an unreliable narrator? Yes. However, because Tamsyn Muir does actually play fair with the readers, she makes it quite clear when John is lying to Harrow/Alecto:

"I said I made a mistake. She let it go eventually because the others were telling her to lay off. Just said Guys as careful as you shouldn't have accidents. If you've got a gun learn how to aim it. This is too big for fuckups now... "Did you ever find out what happened? With your accident?" He turned to her and he smiled a funny little smile. It only used one half of his mouth. In the dream his new eyes did not show happiness or unhappiness. And he said, "Come on, love. Guys as careful as me don't have accidents."

And here again:

"I did need to do it, Harrow. There was no other way. Once those bombs were going off, there was no hope for Melbourne anyway-- G- was dead meat." She said-- "You said that G-'s bomb went off first." "Yeah, it did," he said impatiently. "Of course it did...Look-what does it matter? In the end, why the hell does it matter?"

Unfortunately for John Gaius, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is smarter than he is when she's in her right mind and she catches the discrepancies in his story - just as we are meant to do.

So what I would say is that, unless it's something where Tamsyn Muir gives us clues like this where other characters are calling John out on his bullshit, you should treat worldbuilding issues like the population of Earth, or the logistics of cryocans, or the speed of shuttle transports in the Nine Houses, etc. as either mistakes on the part of the author (when they actually are mistakes) or just part of the overall willing suspension of disbelief that comes with speculative fiction.

#the locked tomb #tlt #john gaius #nona the ninth #ntn #historiography #hermeneutics of suspicion #world building #sci fi #science fiction

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