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renegadewangs · 3 years

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Van Zieks - the Examination, Part 1

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I'm outlining stems from my own views and experiences. I am a 30-something European woman, and therefore may not view the matter from certain angles. That said, I'm always open to more input from others. If you believe that I've missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. If we can make this a team effort, I would love that.

The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. I am of the firm belief that characters are no more than a tool created to serve a narrative purpose, therefore the question I'm posing is whether or not Barok van Zieks serves this purpose. That's all I'm doing here.

I'm using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what's said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent.

It doesn't matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. He's not real anyway, so he can't suffer from it. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people. If you know you're morally in the right, there should be no need for insults to begin with. Let's keep this conversation civil and constructive! As the first post in a series, let’s first start by examining the expectations we would have for a character like this. The purpose he was meant to serve.

1: Expectations

As I said in a different Barok-related essay, the main prosecutor of any Ace Attorney game has been, and always will be, an antagonistic force. Not a villain, not even necessarily someone who exhibits immoral traits. (Hi Klavier!) Just someone who impedes the protag’s goal of getting a not-guilty verdict. In order to have an effective antagonist, they need to mirror the protag's weaknesses back at them. Ace Attorney does this quite well, as the prosecutors represent the obstacle/turmoil that the defense needs to overcome. Often times, the prosecutor is also tied to a pivotal moment in the attorney's past, making sure the strife is quite personal.

Considering the game's plot and settings, it would've been difficult for Barok to be tied to Ryunosuke's past. (He is tied to Asogi's past, funnily enough, but that's a matter I also addressed in that other Barok essay.) So instead, Barok represents Ryunosuke's struggle in more of a figurehead capacity. I've seen people dub him the 'CEO of Racism', and I'm not gonna lie, in a way that's correct. Barok was designed to be the mouthpiece of the harmful sentiments Japanese exchange students would have encountered in the 1900s. By extension, since Ryunosuke is an exchange student unfamiliar with the British courts (or even courts in general), the prosecutor would target the fact that Ryunosuke 'does not understand how things are done here'. Which he does- a lot. This makes it all the more satisfying when Ryunosuke proves him wrong by outsmarting him and using Britain's own laws (such as the closing argument) against him. So yes, you may hate Barok for uttering racist sentiments and dismissing Ryunosuke's abilities, but the ultimate goal here is that Barok's defeat is made sweeter as a result. The narrative end-game is Ryunosuke's triumph and validation in the courtroom.

Was there a different personal struggle Barok could have represented? Yes, but also no. Sure, his vendetta could have been strictly with the Asogi family and Ryunosuke could have admitted to carrying Asogi's resolve, not knowing what it meant. Though that would’ve implied very early that Asogi had a history of sorts in Britain and would’ve destroyed some of the surprise we experience in game 2. Alternatively, there was also the 'parallel' antagonist angle. The sort of villain who says the line “we're not so different, you and I.” The antagonist who shows what happens when someone with the same skills or motivations follows the wrong path, which emphasizes the right path for the protagonist. However, I can't see that working in the plot of this game.

A purposeful decision was made by the writers to have prejudice be a central theme of the plot. This is the matter that hits the hardest in an emotional sense. Therefore, having Barok be the centerpiece of this prejudice ensures he leaves the biggest narrative impact.

---

However, another long-running aspect of the AA prosecutor is the redemption arc, so let's turn our attention to that!

I'm not going to put too much effort into explaining this, I just want to talk about the requirements of a redemption arc. We all know these types of arcs, a lot of Ace Attorney prosecutors have them. We see them in fiction all over. Noteworthy examples of redemption arcs done well include Zuko from The Last Airbender, Michael from The Good Place... For argument's sake, let's toss Edgeworth in there too. I'm not saying Edgeworth's arc is done well, but at the very least it is accepted by most as something that served its intended purpose. I've never seen anyone question Edgeworth's transformation.

See, what we have here is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to what people expect to get out of these types of arcs. Redemption in itself is only 'deliverance from sin' or 'being saved from evil'. It's the thought that a horrible person can still see the error of their ways before it's 'too late'. However, when it comes to absorbing media, often a character gaining knowledge that they were in the wrong isn't enough to satisfy the audience. Would Edgeworth have had a satisfying redemption arc if he'd acknowledged his arrogance and dirty tactics, only to retire as a prosecutor? No way. We needed him to return in the following games to give us an update on his status. Standing in court as a defense attorney, at the risk of damaging his reputation, was the moment we knew he'd grown for the better.

What we require for the arc to come to a good conclusion is atonement. The character in question must not only apologize for their actions, but repent in a more active manner to show that they've changed their ways. Following that, the atonement must be acknowledged by others. So for example, Zuko joins the ATLA gang to help them in any way that he can until even the most skeptical of the group, Katara, acknowledges his transformation into a better person. Now add to this the notion that the character's atonement must be virtuous and sincere. The Good Place is a fascinating look into the debate of 'is it ever too late for a person to change?' and the moral complications of changing in the first place. If you're only doing good things because you want to be saved from damnation, are you being a good person or are you being selfish? There's such a thing as corrupt motivation; only doing good because it is expected. For example, does sponsoring a library make Magnus McGilded a good person? It does not, since he's only doing it to boost his own reputation and have people believe he's selfless.

As a final note, I want to ask: Does a redemption arc require a backstory to justify the character's immoral ways? Personally, I don't think that it does. It's good to have, since it allows an audience to empathize with the character and give them more of a reason to root for them. It turns the redemption arc into a tale about overcoming past trauma. However, it can backfire when done badly and lead to frustration. (I'm looking at you, live action Disney movies!) Some characters are evil just for the sake of being evil and even then, they can turn over a new leaf because they realize it is just so much more rewarding to be good. Just look at Michael from The Good Place.

What's more effective than a backstory, in my opinion, is smaller details to humanize a character. Humanization can also lead to empathy, perhaps even relatability, and helps us believe that they're capable of change. We need to be told that a character has their own fears, their own flaws, their own odd little habits which deviate from the norm... Again, I'll point to Michael from The Good Place for this. Another humanization tactic, which we see employed often in Ace Attorney, is to display a prosecutor's likes and hobbies outside the courtroom. Edgeworth's fanboying over the Steel Samurai, Blackquill's love for birds, Nahyuta's willingness to stand in line for hours to get his hands on a delicious burger... I've feel ya, Nahyuta. This tactic is more readily employed in Ace Attorney because it's difficult to place a prosecutor in a position of weakness before the final showdown. You can show them tending to hobbies during Investigation segments, but you can't show them waking up from a nightmare or wondering whether their father loves them. Well, not until case 5 of that game, anyway. By then, it's too late to serve as the sole humanization factor. Did Van Zieks need to be redeemed at all? The way I see it, the only correct answer is yes. What do we want to see in our world? Do we want people who hold racist prejudice to acknowledge their faults and become better, or do we want them to die clinging to their shitty moral compass? Do we want a world where everyone learns to get along, or do we want a world where people continue to be in the wrong and act like assholes until they inevitably get punished by law for something or another? Van Zieks needed to be redeemed in order to teach that valuable lesson that it’s never too late to be a good person and that it pays to be a good person.

So to summarize, what we needed from Barok van Zieks was the following:

1) Present an antagonistic (possibly immoral) force who personifies Ryunosuke's biggest personal obstacle/weakness, in this case racial prejudice. 2) Humanizing traits begin to show. OPTIONAL: A backstory to justify any immorality he has. 3) Over time, Barok has his realization and sees the error of his ways. 4) Barok atones for his immorality, not simply through apology but by taking decisive steps. 5) The cast around him acknowledges his efforts and forgives him.

This leaves us with the question: Does the game deliver on these points? Well, let's boot it up and find out! Stay tuned for The Adventure of the Runaway Room! (as a warning, it’s gonna be LONG)

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #barok van zieks #oh god here we go #i actually already finished Runaway Room but I need to let it sink in #it was a doozy

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korra-the-red-lion · 3 years

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Unnatural Affairs. Chapter 23: And So It Went

Hey everyone, this is the last chapter of the first series! I do have plans for a sequel in the works, however! Thank you for anyone who has read it this far!

(Ally)

Surprisingly, I didn’t fail all my exams.

Actually, I did pretty well on most of them. I somehow passed Drama with a good mark. The sub who took over was pretty chill during the exam and let us bring all of our notes. My other exams weren’t too bad either. All and all, a pretty successful end to term.

I was just about finished with my packing when I got a text from Lyn. Sarah had already gone home, since her last exam had been two days ago. I took one last look around the room before heading out. I could finish packing later.

The weather outside actually wasn’t terrible today. It was a pleasant sunny day with barely any wind chill. I tucked my chin into the top of my coat as I walked across the campus to meet up with my girlfriend. A happy tingle went through my body as thought about that. It was a little silly to still get excited about the thought, but hey, why not be happy?

Lyn stood in the archway that connected Harper and the library together. She was leaning against the wall when I got there, scrolling through her phone. The bandage was off her face now, only faint lines to show where she had been cut. Her eyes lit up when she saw me and she gave me a quick kiss.

“Hey.”

“Hey to you,” I said back.

“Ready to go?”

I nodded. She held her arm out and I looped mine through it. Together we walked over to the big tree in the middle of campus, where Michael was waiting for us. His plane left tonight but he wanted to be here for it. He waved when he saw us, and he laughed when Lyn held her other arm out with a smirk. He wasted no time on grabbing a hold of it, Lyn laughing along with him as he did.

I knew Dahlia was intrigued by what we were doing as we walked together down the path to where the Swan Pond was. I waved to her with my free hand, and she ended up trailing after us, curiosity bright in her eyes.

When we got there, we all untangled from one another and got to work. Dahlia sat on the bridge nearby and watched as we cleaned away snow and ice from a spot under one of the trees that hung over the pond. After all the snow was gone, Lyn put down a bundle of flowers. Michael tucked a stone with a beautiful design cut into it in front of the roots, making sure it was secured. I hung one of our old amulets over the stone and gently nailed a wooden plaque onto the tree. We stepped away and admired our work.

Here Lies The Forgotten Students

We remember who you are, and what you did for us. We know that society failed you when they stopped asking questions. No one should have given up on any of you. To David, we know your story. To Amelia, we know your truth. To Jamieson, we know your tale. To Fiona, we know your reality. To Fredrik, we know your narrative. We’re sorry that it took this long before someone finally learned what happened to you all, but at least you can rest easy now, knowing that the person who did this to you has met his justice. All we can hope for you now is that your next chance at life is better than this one was.

With all our love,

Spook Searchers.

“We really need a better name,” muttered Lyn.

“Hey, we’ve been through too much for us to change it now,” said Michael with a waggle of his fingers. “That would be like, sacrilegious.”

“Besides, it’s a fun name. It hides away all the horrible truths and traumas that were inflicted on us,” I pointed out.

Lyn shrugged indifferently. “I just hope we never have to do something like this ever again. I need it scrubbed from my mind.” We both nodded in agreement.

Dahlia drifted over and knelt in front of our makeshift grave. I could see her mouthing the words as she read along. Her fingers ran over the names of the departed, her eyes sad. She dropped her hands and sat there quietly for several minutes without saying a word. When she looked back at me, she was smiling through her tears.

“This is quite lovely. I’m glad you all did something nice for them, they deserved it.”

I nodded at her. “Of course. And we intend to figure out who caused your death as well. We haven’t forgotten about you either.”

Dahlia’s eyes went wide before she looked away. I saw her brush away the tears from her face and nod slowly. “Thank you. It truly means a lot to me.”

We left her alone after that. I spared a look back as we left and saw her kneeling in front of the grave, her head down and hands clasped in prayer. We walked back to the library together and decided to get one last warm drink together. Lyn paid for all of us, even though we both argued against it. The lady behind the counter laughed as we both tried our best to push Lyn out of the way, which ended in absolutely failure.

“You can’t beat these gains,” Lyn said with a wink.

We sat down at the table in the back and looked out the window. I thought about what a crazy 3 months this has been. I couldn’t believe how so much had happened in such a short time. Not only solving all those murders but dealing with all the school crap on top of it all. I felt like I was the same person I was at the start, but more mature now. Someone who liked who she was, someone who liked that she wasn’t ordinary.

“You’re gonna have some crazy jetlag, you know,” Lyn said to Michael as she sipped her hot chocolate.

Michael sighed. “Yeah, probably for a day or so. It’s not like, a terrible flight but it’s bad enough. What are you doing for the holidays?”

I saw the twitch of Lyn’s eyes before she looked down at her drink. “I’m gonna stay with Olivia for the first bit of the break, but after Christmas I’m heading to Florida for training camp. I’ll be back like, 2 days before the new term. So, not the most relaxing break but it’ll be fun.”

Michael nodded as he looked at me. “What about you, Al?”

“Going home,” I said with a smile. “I’m going to sleep for the entire break. Maybe watch some movies and TV. But me and this brain deserve a big break.” I poked at my temple.

“Yes, it does!” Michael slapped his hand against the tabletop.

We chatted for a little while longer before Michael had to head back to grab his things. His buddy offered to drive him to the airport, but it was a bit before his flight. Still, better to wait in the airport than spend money on a taxi. Lyn gave him a hug and slap on the back. I gave him a big hug and kissed him on the cheek.

“Have a good flight, I’m going to miss you,” I said.

“It’s only for a few weeks,” he said with a smile. “Plus, you can always call me. You know where I am.”

I nodded as we embraced one last time. Michael waved to us as he walked backwards. I gasped when he tripped over his own feet and nearly landed on the casted arm. Luckily, he caught himself and shouted, “I’M OKAY!” before racing back to his room.

I chuckled to myself with a shake of my head. Michael was so chaotic at times. But that was something that I loved about him. He was authentic. I wasn’t lying when I said I would miss him. There was something calming about his presence. He was a good friend, and I was glad to have met him.

Lyn and I walked back to Lukas hand in hand. I noticed she was getting a bit of a far away look in her eyes again, so I squeezed her hand to bring her back. She blinked and looked down at me with a smile.

“Sorry,” she said with a shrug. “I was just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

Lyn worked her jaw as she chewed on her thoughts before answering. “Lots of stuff, I guess. Training camp, Christmas with Liv, shit in general. It’s gonna be nice to have a break from it all. Then we’ve got the big championship meet to worry about when I get back. Just tryna make sure I’m organized because there’s a lot to remember.”

“It’s going to be fine,” I said soothingly.

“I know, I just like to be on top of things, you know?”

I laughed. “Nope! I’m pretty sure I only passed some of my classes by sheer luck. I handed in something for Anthro a week late, but I think my prof forgot I was even in the class, so she didn’t take points off.”

“Jesus,” Lyn shook her head with a playful smirk. “I can’t imagine being that disorganized. How’d you get through this term, let alone solve a crazy case? You’re something else, honestly. Like Wonder Woman or Supergirl.”

I blushed deeply. Lyn was always saying these really nice things about me and well…I wasn’t really used to them. I pressed up against her and buried my face in her arm, causing my glasses to go askew. Oh well, it’s not like I could see all that well anyway. Cold weather plus warm breath equals foggy glasses. Also, being compared to one of my favourite superheroes? I’m slightly dying of happiness on the inside.

When we got back to Lukas, Lyn helped me pack the rest of my things. It probably took the same amount of time that it normally would have because we kept stopping to kiss, cuddle, and I even got Lyn to watch an episode of Stargirl with me. It was really peaceful. A much better date than nearly getting killed by an out-of-control spirit. Hours passed by like seconds, and the next thing I knew, we were in bed sleeping.

The room was nearly pitch black as I stared up at the ceiling. Lyn was sleeping beside me, her arm tossed over my waist, snoring softly. I had been sleeping, but it came in fits right now. After everything we’ve been through, especially with that horrible horror realm or whatever the hell that had been, I’ve been having more difficulty sleeping through the night. I mean, I was sort of used to it, but not to this extent. My therapist and I were going to have a field day when I saw her next.

I turned my head slightly to look into the face of my girlfriend. I just wondered how it was all going to turn out. By some strange twist of fate, we got together because of my moral compass and curiosity. Lyn stuck around because she wanted to figure out what happened to her friend. I sometimes wondered what would have happened if she didn’t believe me that day in the café. Would I have gone through with it anyway? Would Michael and I have done it alone? I lightly traced my fingers across the scars of her arm, the ones she got because she protected me. It probably would be a different story then, huh?

All I know is this is how it turned out, and I don’t think I would have done anything differently. We got hurt, we got physical and mental scars. But I really think it was worth it to help those people. They were crying out for so long, waiting for someone, anyone, to hear them. I feel lucky in a way that I was the one who answered.

Finally, I felt my drifting off again. I closed my eyes and let sleep take me away, hopefully to a dreamless land.

XXX

Lyn helped me shove my last bag into the trunk of my dad’s car. I told her she didn’t need to stick around and help, but she told me it was no big deal. My dad nodded his thanks at her, and she nodded back. I stood by the car, fidgeting with the bottom of my coat. Lyn glanced at my dad one last time before she gave me a massive bear hug.

“Have a great break, Ally. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”

I squeezed back as tightly as I could. “You too. I hope everything goes well with your sister.”

Lyn nodded, her cheek brushing against the side of my face. “Me too.” And even though my dad was still there, she cupped my face between her hands and kissed me. I blushed from the intensity of the kiss, feeling all the unsaid words. When she pulled away, I could see the emotion shining brightly in her eyes, her cheeks and ears bright red.

I kissed her cheek one last time before we untangled ourselves. I got into the passenger seat and waved to Lyn as we pulled away. She waved widely back the whole time, never stopping until I was out of view.

My dad instantly started to tease me the minute we were on the highway. I moaned and made a big show of telling him off, but I was really happy. It felt good, talking to my dad like this. As long as the topic of ghosts wasn’t brought up, we were good.

I didn’t know what next term had in store for us, but I was looking forward to it. We had to solve Dahlia’s murder, but at least we could take our time with it. There was no time limit, and hopefully no creepy murderer. There was a lot about this university, heck, even this town that was hidden beneath the surface. I wanted to learn so much more about it all. Sure, it was bad this time, but usually the ghosts are just lonely people who want to share their stories. I had this special gift, and it was about time I used it, instead of being ashamed of it.

After this winter break, I wanted to see what the future had planned for us.

#unnatural affairs #ua #ally holland #lyn hart #michael yamamoto #dahlia cressman #paranormal #murder mysteries #romance #wlw romance #ghosts #sapphic lead #original story #orginal writing #writing #final chapter

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tes-trash-blog · 4 years

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So, uh, a while back you mentioned making a post about how Prisoner McNord might affect the player experience/perceptions of the "default" and I would be super interested in reading that

So!

I have a few thoughts already on what is considered “default” in Skyrim to be expanded upon in a future shitstorm rant (it’s on the list, between Almalexia Is Interesting Actually and Even More Crying About Snow Elves Part 17: My Tears Have Become Sentient And Are Also Crying).

And as always, keep in mind that Skyrim is coming up on 9 years old, elements of it have not aged well, and this is in no way, shape, or form meant to be a “If you like Skyrim then you’re Bad” rant. In case you haven’t noticed, I kind of love that game. It has flaws; all games do, and frankly it’s a miracle this game is as solid as it is. The writers are that, writers. They had deadlines to make, hardware limitations to consider, and above all else, worked for a company that wanted to make money.

To keep this relatively short I’ll focus on how your perception of Skyrim is influenced by the first few minutes of the game via Ralof, the Nordiest Nord to Nord since Ysgranord, and how the writers really, really really wanted you to hold on to that perception.

Overanalysis and spoilers (Metal Gear Solid, Borderlands, and Bioshock respectively yes this will all make sense in context) under the cut.

Part 1: How To Make A Perspective In Three Easy Steps

As the saying goes, first impressions are lasting impressions. This is evident in.. well, every bit of media you can find. The first chapters of a book, the first episode of a show, the first 15 minutes of a video game, all as a general rule:

1.) Introduces the setting, a part of the main plot, and with these two, sets the tone of the medium (high fantasy movie, light hearted TV show, mystery series, horror game, etc.). Exceptions exist, especially in horrors, mysteries, and certain visual novels, but even these exceptions rely on setting a tone so they can subvert your expectations later on.

2.) Give you an idea of what is going on. This is normally accomplished with exposition of some sort; Star Wars had its famous screen crawl expositing the dark times in the Galaxy, Borderlands literally begins with “So, you want to hear a story..”, Metal Gear Solid briefs Solid Snake (you, the player character) on a vital mission to save two hostages and end a terrorist threat, so on and so forth. And again, there are exceptions: Bioshock purposefully disorients you with a plane crash in the middle of the ocean so you’re inclined to trust the first person who talks to you.

This all serves to suspend disbelief, immerse you, and earn your trust. This is a new world, you have no idea what’s going on, so you’re gonna take cues from someone who does. Combine points 1 and 2, and that..

3.) Gives you an idea of what is “good” and what is “bad”. Damn near every story has a central conflict, you gotta pick a side, and there’s gonna be a bias as to which one is superior or morally just. Using Bioshock again, this mysterious man named Atlas guides you through the first level, and tells you how to fight and survive in the hostile environment of Rapture; meanwhile, Andrew Ryan taunts and belittles you, and also has a giant golden bust of himself. The shorthand is: Atlas is humble, helpful, and good, while Andrew Ryan is a megalomaniac who wants you dead. Leaning on Borderlands again, the first voice you hear is literally a guardian angel telling you not to be afraid, and that you are destined to do great things. Once more with Metal Gear: Your organization and your commanders are good, you are good because you’re saving innocent people, and FOXHOUND is bad because they’re terrorists who have the means to launch a nuclear warhead.

Keeping all this in mind, let’s do a quick runthrough of the first, let’s call it 15 minutes of Skyrim. No commentary on my end, just a play by play of the beginning of the game.

Part 2: First Impressions In Action

You wake up on a cart. Your vision is hazy, and you are clearly disoriented. You see a man bound and gagged, another man in rags, and several men dressed like soldiers. Everyone on the cart is tied up, and the people driving the cart are wearing a neat, vastly different uniform.

Then comes the famous line: “You! You’re finally awake! You were caught trying to cross the border, got caught in that Imperial ambush same as us, and that thief over there!” The thief bitterly remarks how these damn Stormcloaks had to cook up trouble in a nice and lazy Empire. The Nord who first spoke with you nobly says that we’re all brothers and sisters in these binds.

The presumed Imperial tells you all to shut up. Undeterred, the thief and the Stormcloak provide more exposition: The gagged man is the leader of the resistance, is supposedly the true High King, and since he’s on the cart, it’s clear that everyone on board is bound for the executioner’s block. The thief is terrified; the Nord accepts his fate, but takes a moment to opine on better days when he flirted with girls and “when the Imperial walls made him feel safe.” There is also a remark about General Tulius and the Thalmor agents; the Nord, in a rare bit of anger, damns the Elves and insinuates they had a hand in this capture.

It’s execution time. General Tulius gives a speech about how Ulfric started a civil war and killed the former High King; Ulfric, being gagged, cannot say a word in defense. A Stormcloak is executed to mixed reactions (“You Imperial bastards!” “Justice!”, etc.). The thief runs away; he is shot by Imperial archers, demonstrating the futility of escape. It’s your turn. The Nord in Imperial armor states you’re not on the list; the Imperial captain doesn’t care and orders you to the block anyway.

You see the headsman’s axe rise up when, as if the gods intervene, a dragon appears and interrupts your execution. In the chaos, you run with the Stormcloaks. The game does not give you the option to run away alone, or with the Imperials; until you meet Hadvar again in the fire and death, you take orders from Ulfric.

Part 3: The Crux

A lot happens in the first few minutes of Skyrim. You’re disoriented from being unconscious, and that’s compounded by your two near death experiences (point 2), the first person you meet is a calm, almost reassuring mouthpiece of exposition while the other side, at best, doesn’t care if you die (points 2 and 3), one major aspect of the plot is revealed (point 1, and the tone is that this is a classic Rebellion story).

And people love rebellion stories. Americans especially; we spend billions on the day when a bunch of white guys said “fuck you” to a bunch of other white guys. With the additional layer of when Skyrim was developed, by who, and in what landscape it was written.. Yeah. There may be two ways to go for the Civil War questline, but for most players (myself included!) their first gut instinct is going to be “side with the guys who didn’t just try to kill me.”

It’s the same song and dance. In Bioshock, your instinct is to trust the Irish guy who wants to help you get out of Rapture alive, but he needs your help first. In Borderlands, your instinct is to trust the woman who is literally called a guardian angel, and she shows her compassion by asking you to help the people of Fyrestone and the poor robot who got hurt in a gunfight. In Metal Gear, your instinct is to shut down the threat because terrorists are evil and these ones are not just terrorists, they’re deserters. Hell, even in other Elder Scrolls games the plot is laid out by helping hands: you’re a prisoner being contacted by your murdered friend, and given the goal to stop Jagar Tharn (Arena), you’re a Blades agent tasked with putting a vengeful spirit to rest that leads you to a weapon that can secure the Empire’s power (Daggerfall), Azura literally tells you not to be afraid, and that you destined to stop an old threat (Morrowind), and a soon-to-be-assassinated Emperor voiced by Actual Grandpa Patrick Stewart recognizes you in a prophetic dream (Oblivion).

Where Skyrim departs from these games, and even the other Elder Scrolls titles, is how much it enforces the first thing you see as solidly good and evil, and how little it tries to subvert that perception. Remember point 2, when the game makes it clear that this person is trustworthy? Therein lies the bread and butter of psychological horror, mysteries, and heart wrenching plot twists: that trust gets tested, and often broken.

The rebel leader Atlas? He’s somehow more evil than Andrew Ryan, and has subtly controlled you the entire time with a command phrase (“Would you kindly..?”). You are unable to stop yourself when you bludgeon Andrew Ryan to death at Ryan’s command. “A man chooses,” he tells you. “A slave obeys.” His final words are him telling you that you are a puppet, only able to obey.

The end of Borderlands reveals that “Angel” was watching you the entire time.. from a Hyperion satellite. You were tricked into opening a Vault holding back a dangerous monster, and you don’t even know why. Borderlands 2 goes further into just what (or rather who) Angel is: a teenage girl and a powerful Siren, used by her own demented, evil, father, Handsome Jack, to manipulate the Vault Hunters and gain more power for himself. Her final mission given to you is simple: she wants you to set her free and end her father’s mad march to power by killing her.

Metal Gear Solid ultimately plays it straight in that you stop the terrorists and disable the nuclear threat, but you don’t emerge from the rubble as an action hero; you’re forced to kill your own brother, the terrorist cell is revealed to be composed almost entirely of people exploited by your organization, and you secretly carry a virus designed to kill the people you were trying to save. War, as it turns out, is not as clear-cut as “we good, they bad”. The people you’ve killed without thinking are your genetic brothers. Sniper Wolf, the assassin who shot your commander’s niece, survived a genocide and has never known a life outside of war. Psycho Mantis’ telepathic gifts were exploited by both the KGB and FBI until he lost his mind. Ocelot is Ocelot.

Oh, but those are other games. What about The Elder Scrolls? Well..

In Daggerfall, your search for hidden correspondence leads you to finding the Mantella, a sort of soul gem that can power the superweapon everyone wants: The Numidium. There are six entities total who want the Mantella, some for their personal gain, one to make a home for his people, and one so he may finally die; the Underking’s soul is in that gem, you see, and he’s been trapped in this misery since the days of Tiber Septim.

In Morrowind, Dagoth Ur recognizes you not as a schlub with a dummy thick journal, but as his oldest and dearest friend. The Empire who guided you for so long? They’ve manipulated you into taking down the Tribunal, destroying the one weapon that could stand against their might, and depending on your interpretation of “then the Nerevarine sailed to Akavir”, have possibly killed you.

And what of everyone’s favorite game in the series to mock? Surprise! Oblivion isn’t even about you, hero! It’s about the actual chosen one, Martin Septim! Sure you can join the Thieves’ Guild and cavort about as Grey Fox, or uncover the traitor of the Dark Brotherhood, or run off and become the Mad God.. but none of those events actually acknowledge you. To be the Grey Fox is to literally be forgotten, by the time the Dark Brotherhood questline is complete there is effectively no more Dark Brotherhood, and to become Sheogorath is to lose yourself entirely. The Hero of Kvatch is one who is ultimately forgotten. Your actions were important, have no doubt, but such is the fate of the unsung hero: they’re not sung about.

Even Arena plays a little bit with your expectations in that the Staff of Chaos alone isn’t enough to stop Jagar Tharn; you need friendship (just kidding it’s a magic gem in the Imperial Palace). Skyrim.. kinda glosses over that. They land a few punches, but for them to stay with you, you have to keep an open mind.

Part 4: Why does that matter?

Because if your expectations are never subverted, your trust never tried in any meaningful way, then your perception of a very specific, spoon-fed worldview is never challenged. The trust you build with a group that is, in essence, a fascist paramilitary cult is never shaken in any way that’s meaningful. You get some lines intended to evoke sadness when you sack Whiterun, but by then it’s too late. Not that it matters; at the end of the Stormcloak questline, there’s not much question about who was in the right. You never lose friends or allies; the Jarls in the holds change, but is there much difference between Idgrod Ravencrone and Sorli the Builder? You might feel a little guilty when you see the Dunmer forced to live in the slums, but then the haughty High Elf says that she didn’t laze around and instead made a name for herself, or the Dark Elf farmer who complains about his snowflake kinsmen harping on about “injustices”. The Argonians seem decent until you meet the skooma addict/thief, and the Khajiit.. let’s just say that even if we disregard the two Khajiit assassins sent to kill you, there exist a lot of extremely harmful stereotypes that none of your friends dispel. They commit no horrific war crimes in your presence, the worst you hear is a Nord (normally a bandit) yell “Skyrim is for the Nords!”, or the clumsy Welcome to Winterhold script where a Dunmer woman is harassed by two Nords; one’s a veteran, by the way. Got run through the chest by an Imperial craven, or so the story goes.

Your only chance to rattle the Nord-driven story is to go against your gut feeling and side with the Imperials (the plotline is pretty weak, not gonna lie), or complete the optional quest No One Escapes Cindha Mine where you see what a Stormcloak sympathizer does to the Forsworn. Even if you complete that quest, the Forsworn still attack you. “They’re savages,” say the Nords, and the game isn’t too inclined to say otherwise.

When it comes to portraying the Nords in any light that’s not negative, Skyrim doesn’t deliver like it did in other games. You saw what life is like in Morrowind under Tribunal rule; it’s not great. The Houses are almost universally awful and they have slaves. You see the destruction in Cyrodiil and hear the rumors on how much the Empire is flailing with the Oblivion Crisis. Hell, even Arena tells you that life in Tamriel kind of sucks, but it’ll suck a little less when Tharn is dead.

That doesn’t happen in Skyrim. You are encouraged to join the sympathetic Stormcloaks, you find out your destiny as Dragonborn, and you set all these things right. Of course you do. You’re a hero, baby. Others have gone on about how storybook the Dragonborn questline is so I won’t go too much in, but that’s it exactly: Storybook. You’re Neutral Good. You’re going to kill the bad dragon that wants to do its job and eat the world.

And that refusal to really examine the nuances and horrors of war, to consider what it means to be a hero that is never morally challenged or forced into a Total Perspective Vortex, to never challenge an extremely biased perspective or even explore its “logical” conclusion?

It leads to extremely dangerous ways of thinking if unchecked.

#lore overanalysis #about my favorite subjects: media studies and skyrim #this is another long one #good god it's long

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the-blind-assassin-12 · 4 years

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Core Drive - Clean: 1.03

A/N: Um... I really don’t know what happened. This is the single longest chapter that I have ever written. and I even cut some things for later use so it was supposed to be even longer but that’s crazy (And it took me forever and a day to get through because writing Logan in any amount of distress or pain is very difficult for me.) ANYWAY. There’s A LOT in here, but I think it’s all important so I hope you agree. Every few steps forward comes with a little bit of a backwards glance, right?

Warning: this series will deal with drug use, depression, addiction, violence and other such topics. *please read responsibly*

Word Count: 9,030 (H O W?)

“Shiiiiit.”

Logan hissed the word, grimacing as sweat beaded on his forehead to run down his temples. The rest of the air in his lungs rushed out in a burst through his teeth, narrowed eyes focused as his shaking arms extended to a locked position. He could feel blisters peeling at the first few layers of his palms, lactic acid building up in his biceps. Shit.

“C’mon man, you got two more, I know you got ‘em let’s go.” Miguel’s fingers hovered just beneath the bar, ready to catch it and keep it from crushing Logan’s chest should he slip and drop it.

I’m not gonna drop it. Three months and four days in recovery had brought change and progress in spades. Medically, his body had snapped back like a rubber band, heart rate returning to a more normal pace with no signs of long term damage. He’d gained almost twenty pounds thanks to the return of his appetite, and he’d been sleeping better ever since he’d started opening up more in both group and private sessions. Mentally, he still had a long way to go, but he was resolved to get there. So don’t drop it.

“Two more, c’mon.” The younger man’s face came into view, upside down from Logan’s position on the cushioned black bench, his light brown eyes full of encouragement. As much as the constant support of the staff of counselors, nutritionists, trainers, therapists and techs had been instrumental in the growth Logan had been able to achieve, he knew that he wouldn’t have done so well so quickly without Miguel’s influence. From the very first night, all he’d done was offer a hand to help Logan pull himself up. Two more reps and he’d have a new personal best. That’s Miguel’s doing, too. Logan nodded. Two more. No problem.

Swallowing, Logan regripped the bar in his hands with a tight squeeze. He took in a breath and slowly bent his elbows, controlling the motion of the weights until the angle of his arms reached 90 degrees. The burn that spread through his muscles was an entirely different kind of pain from what he’d experienced in the desert- determined, not destructive- and he welcomed it. Pushing hard, he brought the bar back up, letting out another hiss of breath followed by a grunting growl as he locked his arms out again.

“One last one man, you got this, you got to dig, c’mon now.”

Dig. That’s what it was all about. Digging just that fraction deeper, pushing just further than the previous day. Logan had been excavating the surface layers, exploring and sharing and exposing more of himself than he ever had. It hadn’t been easy, but it hadn’t been nearly as raw or impossible as he thought it might be. It was time to dig a little deeper, he knew, time to get closer to the roots. He had a one-on-one with Zeke later that afternoon, and he’d been thinking more and more about the question he’d still been unable to answer: What was his goal for recovery? What did he want? It’s gotta be… I’ve gotta be close. Just gotta dig.

He fought through the last press, gritting his teeth as he hit the climax of the lift. Miguel swiftly relieved him of the bar, setting it noisily into the rack above the bench as Logan carefully sat up. “Nice fuckin’ work, man, you crushed it.” Arms aching, chest and shoulders heaving with labored breaths, Logan let a tired smile curve up his cheeks, allowing himself a moment of triumph. I did. A burst of sound, almost a laugh, came from his mouth then as a light feeling filled his heart and head. I didn’t drop it. “You really been killin it, man,” Miguel waited for Logan to stand before smacking him lightly with the back of one hand. “This stuff, yeah,” he waved at the weights and equipment that surrounded them, “but I mean with everything. Shit, what you talked about today?” Logan’s eyebrows flew up as Miguel nodded. “You’re gettin’ there, man.”

Logan cleared his throat as the two men headed for the showers. He hadn’t wanted to work out after the morning’s group session had left him emotionally exhausted but Miguel had talked him into it, promising that he’d feel better afterwards. He was right. It was a heavy morning, and with what he had in mind to bring up to Zeke, it would be a heavy afternoon, too. But at least I know I’m stronger now. “Hey, Ortiz,” Logan jutted his chin out just as they were about to split up into separate stalls. He knocked on the wall twice with his knuckles. “Thanks. For spotting today.” He was thanking Miguel for more than his help in the gym, and Miguel knew it.

He grinned, looking even younger than his 24 years. “You got it, brother.”

As Logan let the steam and warm water soothe his sore muscles, he thought back to the morning’s session and what he’d shared. Combing his wet hair back with his long fingers, he let the full memory surrounding Juliet’s wedding come back to him.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Bright afternoon sunlight poured through the tinted panes of the towering stained glass window, painting the floor, the pews, and the faces of the people sitting in them in swaths of green and yellow and red. Thick lead piping cut through the glass to depict various saints and Biblical scenes throughout the church. Logan stared at the image of a snake, it’s scales a bright emerald in contrast to the ruby toned apple that it was curled around. It’s never just an apple. One garnet eye gleamed maliciously as the creature’s forked tongue flicked from between it’s fangs, suspended in a tempting dance to lure its prey. He tore his eyes from the glass, blinking before returning them to the front of the room.

He sat in the fourth pew from the front. The first three had been adorned with elegant white ribbons, designating special seating for family members and those who would take part in the ceremony. The entire third row on their side was empty. Delos may have become a titanic name, but it was a small family. No room for me though. He recognized the back of his father’s head, visible between the necks of his cousins that were seated in the second row. Logan was more familiar with the palette of yellowish whites and peppery grays that ran through the sparse wisps of hair beneath and around the balding dome than he was with the man’s eyes. Easier to walk away when you don’t look back.

As though you could feel the acidic sting in his chest through your joined palms, you squeezed his hand where it rested in his lap, your fingers woven through his in a show of support. He doesn’t matter though, not why I’m here. He returned your squeeze and tilted his chin down to look at you. You were facing straight ahead, focused on the couple seated up near the altar, but you turned to face him as he let out the stale breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Your eyes locked onto his immediately, full of compassion and strength and all of the things that he was missing but couldn’t muster up for himself. I don’t need him. I have her.

Punctuating that point, you leaned into his side. You didn’t ask if he was alright because you knew that he wasn’t. “I’m right here, Logan,” You whispered low, only for him to hear.

I know. He inhaled through his nose, eyes slipping closed as he nodded. I know you are. Pulling his hand free from yours, he wound his arm around your waist to grip your hip, turning to press a quick kiss to the crown of your head. There was no way that he would be there, sitting on that hard wooden bench if it weren’t for you being right there. Not after last night, not after what Jules said… what Willi- Logan swallowed, wincing. What he made her think. A friend of Juliet’s was reading a passage listing the attributes of love- patient, kind, without envy. He opened his eyes again, lips still buried in your hair. He knew that you loved him; you’d made it abundantly clear without ever speaking the word. I have nothing for her but she… The readings faded away, the previous night filling his mind instead…

“I’ll see you after the dinner.” Your voice in his ear and the promise of being able to crush your chest close to his sooner rather than later made him feel sturdier, more solid. “Just let me know when to head over, okay?”

He licked his dry lips, pressing the phone to his ear. I wish you could come with me. You’d be there at the wedding tomorrow as his allotted plus one, but the non-existence of your relationship excluded you from an invitation to the rehearsal dinner. “Yeah.” As soon as I leave. “You remember the code? ‘Case I’m...in case you get there before me?” He’d never given anyone a key or a code, never trusted anyone to be inside his walls with or without him. I hope you get there before me.

“I remember,” you assured him. Good. You paused before saying anything else, and when you did you couldn’t keep the concern from tinting your tone. “Logan?” Waiting another beat, his silence ensuring his attention, you continued. “It’s going to be… no matter what happens tonight, it’s going to be alright. You know that, right?” No. He cleared his throat but couldn’t form words. Is it? I don’t know. “Logan?” This time he hummed a response. “You’re doing the right thing. You’re trying to protect your sister. If she can’t… if your father can’t see that… I just,” You sighed. “You’re doing the right thing. And no matter what happens, I’ll… you have me. I need you to know that.”

Your name came out with a breath as he combed the fingers of his free hand through his hair. I know… “I-”

“Logan! Come on, we’re starting soon!”

His sister’s call from the hallway cut him off and he swore under his breath. “Look, I have to go… get this shit over with, right?” He tried for sarcasm and fell about a mile short as you muttered a ‘right’ half-heartedly. “I’ll see you soon.” Not soon enough.

He’d ended the call and gone out to appease Juliet, though he was uncertain as to why he needed to be there; after the desert some adjustments had been made to the wedding party and assigned readings, removing Logan from both. We just don’t want to make things too stressful for you. It’s only been two months and we don’t want to overwhelm you, Juliet had told him. Sure, we. Logan knew exactly who we was.

The rehearsal was relatively quick, the wedding planner that had been hired buzzing diligently around, making sure that everything ran according to her strict schedule. Logan eyed his father from across the room as the woman took Juliet by the elbow, whisking her away to inspect some small detail. Jim took a sip of his beverage, leaning back casually in his chair as Logan stood to confront him. Last chance. He hadn’t had anything to drink, wanting to hold on to as much credibility as he could. It’s not even about me, it’s about Jules. I need him to believe me. She can’t... His eyes swept the room and found William, his whole body stiffening. She can’t marry that fucking monster. He’d waited until things had died down, until most of the guests had already left, before approaching his father to implore him one more time to hear what he was saying about the man he was so eager to welcome into their family. The man who tried to kill me. Logan had tried with Juliet, but his relationship with her was already on thin ice and each time he brought up his objections to her fiance that ice threatened to break. She won’t listen to me. But maybe she’ll listen to him.

He’d gone over what he wanted to say to his father, repeating it over and over until it was ingrained in his memory like a monologue. But he never got to deliver it. Halfway across the room he was stopped in his tracks, William’s blue eyes suddenly appearing as he stepped into Logan’s path. Get out of my way, asshole.

“Logan.”

He bristled at the malice that the other man covered with a sick grin, the same one he’d given him when he’d sent him off to die like a beast. Top lip curling, Logan ignored him, looking over William’s shoulder to keep his father in his sights. He was still in the same place, though now he was speaking with some staff member. Just need to talk to him before-

“Aren’t you going to say hello, Logan?”

He snapped his attention back to the man in front of him, sneering. Is he fucking serious? “Fuck off, I need to talk to my-”

“Your father’s a little busy right now.” He tilted his head, shifting his weight and widening his smile. “Lots to do with the wedding tomorrow.”

We’ll see about that, you son of a bitch. “You are not marrying my sister.” He growled low, nostrils flared and eyes wild as desperate anger spiked his bloodstream with gasoline, ready to ignite. He can fuck me over. He can fuck Jim over. But he’s not taking Juliet. He’s not taking Delos. “You get nothing, you piece of shit.” Not if I can help it.

William’s eyes narrowed. “But I already have everything, Logan.” He gave a slight shake to his head, sandy blond hair falling out of place. Why does he look so fuckin’ cocksure? Before he could say anything else, something cracked through William’s cold blue eyes like a fissure through an iceberg. He changed the tilt of his head by an almost imperceptible degree as he stepped closer. What the fuck is he- “Juliet is happy with me, Logan.” William smirked as he raised one hand to place it on Logan’s shoulder. “Don’t you care about your sister’s happiness?”

Red hot disgust erupted into flames in Logan’s stomach the second William’s palm made contact. He reached across his body to shove the other man’s hand away as he gave a harsh shrug, top lip curled and eyes wild with hatred. “I don’t give a fuck if she’s happy, you crazy prick. All I fucking care about is getting her away from you, and I-”

“If you don’t give a fuck,” His sister’s voice cut through the air to hit him like a dart from behind. Oh, shit. He could hear the way that she was trying to hide the hurt. He spun around to see her stepping through the open patio door, wiping at her eyes to stem the flow of mascara tinted tears.

“Jules, you know what I-” Logan sighed and reached for her as she walked past, but she drew her arm back in the exact motion that he’d used to escape William’s grasp, her top lip curling in the same way he knew that his own had.

She dodged his hand, instead taking William’s as she came to stand by his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she continued. “If you don’t give a fuck, Logan, then don’t come tomorrow.” Juliet’s eyes, just a half shade lighter than Logan’s and almost identical in shape, were focused on his lapel instead of his face. She won’t even look at me, she- He looked up and was met with William’s smug grin. Motherfucker. That frigid flash from before suddenly made sense as Logan realized that William had baited him to say something that would hurt Juliet, knowing that he was unaware that she’d been standing in the doorway.

That was that. Juliet’s tears caught Jim’s attention, and Logan’s last chance to get his father to see the truth about his new son was gone. He’d been told to leave and had been given a stern warning about his behavior at the wedding, assuring him that tossing him from the event wasn’t off the table, that he should consider himself lucky to still be welcome. I’m not though. It hurt to know that he was only still on the guest list so as not to raise questions about why the bride’s brother was absent. But I have to...for Jules. He knew there wasn’t much of a relationship left to salvage there, but he wouldn’t just walk away from it, wouldn’t quit until he’d exhausted all of his options.

Before he’d even set foot outside of his father’s house, his phone was in his hand, letting you know that he was on his way back to his place. You responded quickly, saying that you’d be there as soon as you could. Still numb from the way that his plan had backfired, the drive home seemed to fly by in a matter of seconds and before Logan realized it, he found himself walking into the cool water of the infinity pool. His palms cut through the calm surface as the floor sloped lower until he reached the clear acrylic barrier that separated him from plunging onto the beach dozens of stories below. He’d found himself out there more and more, the moonlight on the ocean and the breeze off the shore cooling the pool water enough to soothe the phantom burns that still tingled all over his body. The encounter with William had thrown a lit match into his mind, and he let out a shaky breath as he leaned his elbows on the pool’s edge. Burning and dousing, lighting and stomping out- there wasn’t much left but ash. Soon even that’ll be gone.

The sound of rollers sliding along a track joined the crush and crash of waves as the patio door opened. She’s here. Logan turned his head, chin parallel to his shoulder as you slid the glass closed. From that angle all he could see were your ankles and calves, bare in the fading lavender light, but it was enough to make his breath catch. He watched as you rose on one foot, then the other, your muscles contracting as you elevated to your toes in order to remove your shoes. You bent to move them to the side, your hair falling down your back, one hand coming to sweep it up, gathering the long strands to pile them atop your head as you stood. Your shins replaced your calves in his view as you twisted and took a step towards the edge of the pool. Wordlessly, you crossed the white stone slab, shedding the loose-fitting coverup you had over your swimsuit before lowering yourself down to slip into the water in one smooth motion.

Logan turned his eyes back to the breakers, frothy white over the slate blue sea, cresting and spilling over to beat against the hard packed sand, but they slid closed as the rippled surface licked at his back. The water, displaced by your movement, spread out in circles to extinguish the fires that still tore through him. Releasing a slow breath through his nose he allowed the relief to flood his system. You still hadn’t said anything when he felt your touch, palms cool and fingertips dripping as one pressed to his spine, the other starting near his left shoulder to travel down his bicep and into the bend in his elbow where it rested along the ledge. He sighed and swallowed as you inched closer, hips and chest and lips making contact, right hand sliding around his body to wrap him completely in your arms. You left another delicate kiss along the plane of his back before turning to lay your cheek there, flexing your arms as you did.

“What happened?” Your voice was quiet, consistent with the gentle breeze that ruffled the palms, soft but unwavering. Logan looked down to see the fingers of your left hand curled around his wrist.

She’s here, I have her. He brought his right hand through the water to cover yours, sandwiching your arm between his and his body as he squeezed lightly. “I tried to talk to my…” he winced, “to my father again but he...William, he,” Fuck. The smouldering coals of the fire cracked back to life, stoked by the utterance of the man’s name. Logan blew out a shaky breath, the cold, cruel look William had given him flashing through his mind. Your thumbs moving over his skin and your whispered assurances drew the rest of the words out of him. “He stopped me, he knew what I was doin’. Used Jules against me, he-” a sick feeling swam through his chest, encircling his heart like the tentacles of some creature hell bent on dragging him to the bottom of the sea. Anger and frustration, hatred and hopelessness bubbled up to drown him. “He tricked me...” Again. The tide was changing, churning now as the moon climbed in the sky and pulled the waves up higher and harder to swallow the shoreline. I underestimated him… and now he’s taking everything.

He thought at first it was just about proving a point for William; proving that he could play the game the way Logan wanted him to, that he wasn’t the sniveling little beige toned coward that Logan had him pegged as. But it quickly became apparent that it was about much more than that. William didn’t care what Logan thought of him. In fact, the character that he had created for himself had been designed to suit multiple purposes: presenting as a cautious, capable set of hands for James to pass Delos and its fortunes to, appealing to Juliet as a charming, reliable albeit quiet and passive gentleman, and combining both of those traits to ignite some of Logan’s more volatile and less desirable behaviors. There were no points to be made other than that Logan, like the rest of his family, had been fooled by this con man. Divide and conquer, start with the weakest link.

“It’ll be my word against yours, Logan.” He sneered down from his saddle, the thick rope twisted twice around his fist. “When all of this is over, if you make it out-”

Logan seethed silently up at him. Even his voice sounds different now. He never imagined that all of this was what William was keeping so tightly wrapped when he told the man that he wanted to see who he really was. They’d gone roughly eight miles in the sweltering heat without stopping and Logan was exhausted. It was the second day of this, hands bound, trailing behind the horse, stumbling every so often either over the terrain or due to an impatient tug from his captor.

William took a long pull from his canteen before wiping his mouth on his sleeve. “If you make it out, who do you think they’re going to believe?” He cocked his head to the side, watching the way that Logan was eyeing the canteen. Lips curling into a devious grin, he handed it over, taking pleasure in the desperate way that Logan fumbled to relieve his thirst from the empty container. “You know, you really made this easy for me.” A slow spreading realization trickled through his tired, dehydrated brain. Shit. “You live so close to the edge that all you need is a little push,” he sighed and tilted his head in the other direction. “After a few days out here?” He gestured vaguely at the sweeping landscape with the hand that he’d wrapped the rope around, jerking Logan by the wrists and causing him to drop the canteen. “No one will believe a word you say.”

He was right, Logan knew it was true. He was the boy who cried wolf with risky investments and drug dependencies, crude, attention seeking behavior and seemingly unwarranted judgements against the kind, moral man that William had convinced everyone that he was. He’d fucked up ten too many times in their eyes. It didn’t matter that he’d more than made up for what he’d lost the company monetarily, or that he hadn’t used in almost a decade. His father had told him that he was hardwired to fail, but it seemed just as likely that it was a flaw on James’ end- that the man could only look at his son and see wasted potential, a junkie, scrutinizing him through a filtered lens that blocked out anything worth celebrating. He won’t listen. Juliet won’t either, not after...

William tugged the rope again and clicked his tongue, giving the horse a kick. Logan’s arms were yanked sharply, straining at his shoulder joints as his feet hurried to catch up with the horse’s momentum. Sweat ran in dirty trails down the bridge of his nose, cheeks and forehead already starting to redden along with the back of his neck over the top of his collar. It was the most physical agony he’d ever been in, and he knew it was only going to get worse with every step he took. What the fuck did I do to deserve this? As though his body could spare the water, reluctant tears sprang from the corners of his dry eyes, rolling down his cheeks and into his beard.

The second the first tear fell, your face filled his mind. “No one will believe a word you say”, William had told him through a pompous grin. Not no one… she will. He focused on the way you looked waking up tucked against his side as bright, clean light pushed through the cracks in the curtains, remembered the way you smiled against his lips as he kissed you. She will.

It had been nearly two months to the day that he’d had that thought- that he’d have your support and yours alone- when he found himself standing at the edge of the pool, wrapped in your arms, telling you how again William had sabotaged him. I was right. But it was a bittersweet comfort because he knew that he had nothing right now to give you in return. You had never once asked for anything, and maybe that was why he wanted to give you things, wanted to give you more of himself than he’d ever given anyone. He was almost ready, before his trip, almost ready to give you all of his trust, all of his secrets, his dreams, all the parts of himself that no one cared to see. He was almost ready to let you love him, to tell you what he already knew that he felt. But now? He couldn’t tell you now. He wouldn’t heft that obligation on you now, not when he was already depending on you as a life raft.

Before he could get too lost in what he couldn’t do, he felt your cheek and chin move against his back as you spoke. “We’ll do whatever you want to do, Logan.” You straightened up and laid your lips to his shoulder blade before maneuvering your body around him, fitting yourself between his chest and the ledge of the pool. He looked down at you through his lashes, his hands falling to your waist, yours landing on his chest and the side of his neck. “If you want to go, we’ll go. If you don’t, we won’t.” What? He hadn’t even considered not going. You pressed your hand against his heart and shook your head. “Whatever you want to do, Logan, I’ll be there with you. There’s no wrong answer, you just do what you need to do, what you feel is right for you, and it’ll be okay, I promise. Maybe not tomorrow, or right away but… ” He gripped you more tightly as you slid the hand on his neck around to toy with the longer strands of hair there. His eyes fell shut at your touch, but he opened them again as a sigh left his lungs. “But you have me, Logan. So if that means you want to stand up and object tomorrow, I’ll stand up with you.” You would. You tilted your head to the side and in the silver light of the moon he watched your eyes gleam, watched a small smile brighten your features. His heart thudded hard and even as it beat against his ribs, your smile took some of the pain from it. “And if you end up getting pushed into a pool,” you rose on your toes to drag your lips from his cheek to his ear. “I’ll jump right in with you.” You will.

A jolt of warmth spread through him as he ran both of his hands up your back, wet palms sliding over your smooth skin to get you as close as he could. He knew it was temporary, that feeling. It was real, and it was strong, and it amplified as you wove the arm that was trapped between your bodies under his to hold him more tightly, but he knew that it wasn’t enough to keep everything else at bay. But it’s enough for tonight. Logan brought one hand up to cradle the back of your head, fingers threading through your hair as he recalled the night he’d met you, wishing he could go back instead of forward into tomorrow. The tide swept even higher up the sand, foam reaching for the dunes, and he let the sound of the waves and the rise of your chest against his carry him into the memory.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

“You’ll like Dana, Logan.” Doubtful, Jules. “And I think she’ll be good for you.” So, boring. Great. Juliet assured him that the friend of hers that she’d set him up with for a co-worker’s wedding was a “nice girl” that she could “see him with.” He sighed, fixing his hair in the mirror as she sat on the bench at the end of the bed to put her shoes on. He’d been working hard over the last few years to repair the shaky relationship he had with his sister, and he’d go out with as many of her painfully dull single friends as he needed to to make her happy. Just don’t expect any of ‘em to stick.

Within minutes of meeting Dana he knew that he’d been right about her. She was attractive and friendly, had a kind smile and said all the right things. Boring as fuck. Not even halfway through the ceremony, Dana had her arm looped through Logan’s as he scanned the crowd looking for anything or anyone to distract him. That was when he saw you, your profile bathed in a purplish blue light from the stained glass that you sat beneath, a quirk to the set of your lips that told him that you wanted to be there just as much as he did. You must have felt the weight of his gaze because you turned your head and caught him looking, sending a smirk through the air before turning back to face the front, your hair bouncing in a soft bologna curl as it fell over your shoulder. Bingo.

Logan’s attention snapped back up to the officiant as they asked those gathered if there was any reason that the couple should not engage in matrimony. Maybe because I fucked the bride last night? He snorted to himself, clearing his throat as Dana threw her eyes sidelong at him. The woman in white stood in front of the room clutching the hands of her intended, makeup professionally painted on to hide the hangover and regret. He couldn’t help but wonder how many guests at this wedding knew what she looked like under all that tulle and lace. His eyes flicked to the man she was pledging her undying love and loyalty to, nearly choking to keep another snort from interrupting the moment. And the groom two weeks ago. All around him hands dabbed at teary eyes and heads tilted at angles emoting warmth and adoration for the lovestruck pair. Eat it up, assholes. He smirked silently, enjoying the fact that he knew Mr. & Mrs. Whateverthefuck better than, better than she knows him, that’s for sure. He pulled his sleeve up to check his watch as they shared a screen worthy kiss to join their souls. Less than an hour until the open bar. Glancing around he noticed that everyone else had stood to applaud the newlyweds, and that he and the disturbingly geriatric grandfather of the bride were the only two who remained in their seats. He sighed and stood, smacking his palms together apathetically, Dana gripping his arm and grinning up at him in a way that sent up red flags.Thank fuck.

Two drinks into the cocktail hour Logan caught your eye again as you picked up a drink at the bar. You smiled, swirling the straw in your glass before bringing it to your deep purple lips and taking a sip, eyes never leaving his until you turned back to the bar. Why doesn’t Jules have any friends like that? He sighed. He’d tried to care about literally anything that Dana had said, hoping that he’d be able to figure out why Juliet thought that the woman might be someone that he’d be interested in, but he realized that “she might be good for you” was just code for “she’ll keep you out of trouble.” At what cost though? He finished his drink and turned to Dana who was still talking about… something.. Sorry Jules, I can’t do another minute of this.

“Dana?” She turned her face up hopefully. Shit. He preferred honesty and didn’t mind bluntness, but he hated when they didn’t see it coming. “I uh,” he cleared his throat. Just rip the bandaid off. “Listen, you’re really nice, but I am bored as fuck. I’m gonna go get another drink, talk to people and…” he gestured with his hand, twirling his wrist as he watched you walk out through the billowing curtains of the french doors and onto the patio. And follow her. “You have fun, Dana, I’ll see you later.” He strode away before she could respond, but she didn’t seem the type to make a scene, surely another reason why Juliet was trying so hard to pawn her off on him.

He’d grabbed another drink and headed in the direction that he’d seen you go, and after assuring you that Dana was just the result of a failed blind date and that she and he had gone their separate ways for the evening, you assured him that you could tell that was what was going on from a mile away. Smirking, you asked him if he wanted to take a walk, “to get away from all the stiffs.” He couldn’t remember agreeing to anything more quickly, feeling a magnetic pull towards you that had been absolutely absent with Dana. Before he knew it, the two of you had walked the entirety of the grounds, just talking. Logan hadn’t even noticed when you’d reached the patio again, blinking at you when you stopped walking.

“So,” you pushed a piece of hair back behind your ear, Logan’s eyes following your fingers before flitting to your face. You smiled and he felt his own lips quirk upwards. “Do we go back inside, or do we stay out here?” You looked out over the patio, the shimmering water of the swimming pool illuminated by candles and lanterns, too cold to swim but too scenic to cover up.

Well we definitely don’t go back inside. “Back in there? You mean with all the stiffs?” He stepped closer to you, setting his empty glass down on a lounge table and you nodded. Your confident smirk fell only for a second, your breath catching as he placed his palms on your waist, closing the distance even more. You don’t want to go back in there. “Nah, I think we stay out here and-”

And she is nothing like Dana.

At least that was the first thought he had after you’d taken him by surprise, capturing his lips in a kiss that tasted like whiskey and champagne. He’d wasted no time in kissing you back, biting loosely down on your berry toned bottom lip before pulling back with a low rumbling breath in his throat. “Yeah, I think so too, Logan.” You sat down on one of the lounges as nonchalantly as you’d kissed him, crossing your long legs and waiting for him to make a move.

Removing his jacket, he straddled the end of the lounge, picking up your legs and setting them back down on his thigh, thumb running along the underside of your calf to pull a breathy sigh from your lips. He groaned to himself, imagining what other kinds of sounds he could get you to make, and what hearing them would do to him. The wedding went on inside, but you and Logan saw none of it, missing the toasts, the dances, the cake- all of it- in favor of sharing that cushion, some more conversation, and another kiss, this one more heated than the last, hands and hips getting involved in a way that was difficult to stop once it had started.

Until Dana had made her way outside to find her date with his hands on your body and your tongue in his mouth. Apparently, Logan hadn’t been as explicit as he thought he was being when he’d told Dana that he was bored. “I thought you were just going to talk to some people you know, not, not…” her face scrunched up as she gestured at the two of you, cheeks going red with embarrassment and anger. “Not this!” He bristled at the implication that he’d done anything wrong by spending his time with you.

“I told you I was bored, Dana.” She still seemed confused. Guess I have to make it simpler. “I get bored, I don’t stay bored.”

While it seemed that he finally got his point across, perhaps he’d gotten it across too well. Shocking Logan with the amount of expression on her plain, quiet little face, she launched herself at him, hands out in front of her, giving him only enough time to realize what was coming, not enough time to stop it. Oh, shit. “Logan Delos, you are deplorable!”

“Oh, shit!” He heard you exclaim through a laugh as you jumped aside, Dana’s palms contacting his shoulders and giving him a backwards shove to send him tumbling into the pool before spinning and practically running back inside.

Logan sputtered as he popped up from the water, a string of choked curses coming from his lips as he coughed and found his footing to stand. Squinting his eyes, he wiped his face to dry it as much as possible, dragging his palm down over his dripping beard. He wanted to be mad, but as soon as he opened his eyes and saw you still standing there, laughing from behind the hand that you’d clamped over your mouth, the anger vanished. “I’m glad you think this is so funny,” he stepped closer to the edge of the pool and scooped a handful of water up to splash you with. It is kind of funny.

You smirked at him, the golden glow of the lanterns and candles dancing on the rippling surface and reflecting in your eyes. He watched you bite your bottom lip and groaned to himself knowing exactly how it felt to sink his own teeth lightly into that soft, berry stained flesh. Drenched strands of hair were plastered to his forehead and he brought one hand up to push them back, water dripping from the elbow of his soaked sleeve. The small group of partygoers that had followed a disgruntled Dana out to the patio dissipated, heading back inside for cocktails and gossip, leaving just the two of you. You took a step closer to the edge of the pool, your heels clicking against the wet pavers as music spilled from the open French doors. What is she doing?

You bent one knee, slowly bringing your leg up behind yourself, and whatever questions Logan had died on his tongue. It flicked out to lick at his lips as the curve of your calf kissed your thigh, exposed below the hem of your skin tight dress. Reaching back, you curled your fingers around the heel of your stiletto. Logan’s eyes narrowed as he watched each digit bend, thinking about how it would feel to have those fingers wrapped around him instead. You seemed to read the intent in his expression, your smirk shifting to something more self-satisfied as you peeled your shoe from your foot. He hadn’t realized that his mouth had fallen open until it snapped shut, your shoe clattering to the ground. You removed the other more quickly, kicking it to the side to join it’s mate. Despite his situation, excitement quickened his heartbeat and he felt himself grow hard. Is she really gonna… He didn’t have to wait long, his hands coming up to receive your hips as you slid into the water, bracing yourself on his shoulders.

You sucked in a breath that was as much a laugh as it was a gasp, clearly unprepared for how cold the water was. The sound drew his lips into a grin. Bold move. You gripped his shirt and pulled yourself closer, water sloshing between you until your hips met his. Logan let out a laugh of his own, fingers digging into the material of your dress beneath the water. When you looked back up at him, the shock from the cold and the shine from the lights were gone. It was replaced with a cocktail of mischief and desire that had him feeling more intoxicated than the champagne. Oh, shit. “What are you doin’, huh?” He asked, voice low as his palms traveled to the small of your back, spreading wide so that his pinky and ring fingers followed your curves. A breathy sound came from your lips even as you kept your eyes trained on his, raising one eyebrow as though challenging him to get you to crack completely. Gladly. “Didn’t you hear?” He leaned in to drag the tip of his nose along the side of yours, wet beard brushing your cheek and pulling another little hum from your throat. “I’m deplorable.” He dragged the word out, hands squeezing the flesh beneath them. “Disgraceful.” Speaking low as his mouth hovered over your skin, Logan walked you backwards until you were up against the ledge of the pool.

You inhaled shakily as he tilted his head to nip and suck at your throat, your pulse racing against his tongue one hand twisting even more tightly in the wrinkled material of his shirt, the other climbing up the back of his neck to clutch a fistful of his hair. Turning the tables, you tugged lightly to pull his head back and he groaned. Fuck that’s… He looked down through his lashes at you as you kept him in your grasp. “I don’t think you’re so bad, Logan,” you released his hair, letting him straighten up as your fingertips slipped through the one wet curl behind his ear. Shrugging, you let go of his shirt and pressed that palm flat against his chest. He swallowed, unprepared for the rush of warmth from your simple touch. Huh. “Besides. I don’t stay bored either, and-” your smile climbed one side of your face, lips following to quirk into a perfect little bow. “And I was having fun with you.”

Two hours ago you were a stranger across the room. Now here you were, standing in 50 degree pool water, ruining your dress and shivering under the moon just to be with him. “Were you?” He asked, bringing one hand up to rest along the slope of your shoulder, thumb pressing gently into the skin beneath your collar bone. He grinned at your reaction, at the way your eyes snapped shut, a wrinkle in your eyelid and a rush of air from your lungs. You nodded as your eyes opened again, bringing a smile with them. “So was I.” A lot more fun than I thought I’d have at this damn thing. Logan let his hand slither slowly up the side of your neck until your earlobe was between his fingers. He stared at your lips as his thumb swiped over the bottom one to leave beads of water behind. “And we’re just gettin’ started.” He crashed his lips to yours then, leaving his thumb where it was, slipping it into your mouth as you whimpered. Your body went slack for a second as he caught you off guard, and you melted against his chest. Got you. He smirked to himself as you recovered, pulling at his hair again and winding your other arm around his body to bring yourself impossibly closer. Letting himself get lost in it, he replaced his thumb with his tongue, deepening the kiss as your hips rolled into his. He sighed into your mouth at the sensation, enjoying the way you were both trading who had the upper hand. My turn.

He pulled back suddenly and you fell forward, chest heaving as you steadied yourself against him, a dizzy haze clouding your eyes that wasn’t there before the kiss. If possible, it made you even more enticing. He inhaled through his nose, shoulders lifting as he took a breath, and fingers trailing back down your neck to your shoulder again. “We should get outta this pool.” And outta these clothes. You nodded, pressing your lips together as you tried to regain your composure. “You stayin’ at the hotel?” He pointed his chin towards the illuminated building behind you and you nodded again. He smiled and flexed his fingers around your shoulder and hip. “Good. C’mon.” The hand he had on your hip dropped away from your body and he used it to grab yours, reaching for the palm you had pressed over his shirt pocket and pulling you away from the ledge, your lower body cutting through the water so that he could switch places with you. Without letting go of your hand, he planted his free one on the concrete and hopped up to sit on the rounded edge. Water splashed and dripped, running down his wet clothes and back into the pool. He tugged you towards him and bent down to place both hands on your waist. “Ready?” You placed your hands on his forearms and looked up at him, nodding for a third time. “Hang on.”

You sprang off your toes and he lifted you from the water, a laugh slipping from your lips as he helped you up onto the ledge with him. It changed the shape of your mouth, pulling it open into a wide smile that made your eyes brighten and gave Logan a little rush. He realized he couldn’t remember the last time that he’d felt that, the last time he’d really had fun with someone. Your thigh bumped into his as your hands fell from his arms to yank your dress down, the material suctioned even more tightly to your body now. He watched your fingers bunching in the deep purple fabric and imagined his own, pulling the hem in the opposite direction, over your head and onto the floor in a saturated heap. When your eyes lifted back to his, that spark was back, and depending on how he tilted his head it was as innocent as it was intentional. How the hell is she doin’ that?

You cast your eyes down through your lashes as he let out a heavy breath, hands moving down from your hips to the smooth skin of your legs, wet beneath his palms. Can’t wait to… he groaned, swinging his head downward. With a smirk, you blinked and smiled sweetly, leaning in slowly to capture his lips in a kiss that rattled his thoughts, shifting again from lustful to playful. He gave you the reins, and as soon as he did you broke apart and stood, laughing as you wrapped your arms around yourself, your whole body shuddering in a sudden shiver. “Holy shit it’s cold!” ‘Course it is. You bent your knees and let out another burst of laughter, as though that could fend off the chill.

Logan stood, pulling one leg and then the other up as water sloshed out of his shoes. He took a step towards the lounge chair you’d been sharing when Dana had stalked outside in a fit of rage, to retrieve his jacket, glad he’d removed it long before taking an unexpected plunge. It wasn’t cold before, but now it’s freezing. “You regret gettin’ in that water with me now?” He looked over his shoulder at you while you picked up your discarded shoes, one eyebrow raised as he grabbed the garment and turned back to you.

Lips trembling slightly and cheeks rosy red, you locked your eyes with his and shook your head from side to side. Droplets of water flew from the tips of your hair as you moved closer to him. “No.” You said it simply. “Not even a little bit.”

That rush hit him again. She means it. He narrowed his eyes and stepped closer, draping his jacket around your shoulders and pulling you into him by the lapels. “Good.” Dipping his head down, he sought out your lips for one more brief kiss, waiting until he could feel you lose your breath to pull back. “Let’s get inside, huh?” You nodded, slipping your arms into the sleeves of his jacket which fell just below the hem of your dress, a sight he instantly knew he’d have a hard time forgetting. I like that. You weren’t the first woman to wear one of his jackets. But he liked how it looked on you more than he thought possible.

You reached for his hand, fingers notching through his as he spread them to accommodate your hold, and pulled him toward the building, not another word spoken until much later that night.

.. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Logan gripped the tap and twisted it, the shower pipes shuddering in the wall as the water stopped abruptly. Drying off, he felt the grit of the morning session and his workout fall away, and he took a deep breath of the warm, steamy air as he prepared to do more digging. He wrapped the towel low around his waist and pulled open the stall door, more steam billowing out with him as he crossed to the sink. Wiping the meat of his palm against the mirror, he cleared the fogged glass enough to see himself.

You don’t really think all of this, his reflection rolled his eyes around the seafoam and white tiled room, and gestured with his glass in a wide arch, is going to do anything, do you?

Logan gripped the sides of the sink and shook his head. Shut the fuck up.

I mean, sure, you’re clean now, but so what? He narrowed his bottomless eyes and pushed off from the wall he was leaning against to move closer, until Logan flicked his eyes up to see them staring back, full of contempt. His top lip twitched in a sneer as a precursor to his next words. You have nothing left, Delos. You lost it. All of it. You have nothing. No one. He shook his head then, giving a frustrated huff through flared nostrils.

You have me, Logan.

Your words came back to him as his eyes slipped closed, and he could feel your hand resting on his chest, solid and sure as if you were right there with him. Do I? Do I have you still? But the second that he questioned it, he knew it was true. He had you in every breath and beat of his hard-worked heart. He had you in every happy memory, in every moment of triumph no matter how small. He still had you, even if he’d let you go. I have her. He opened his eyes, releasing the grip he had on the sink to stand at his full height.

I told you to just give up in the desert. I gave you two more chances after that. The man in his reflection clicked his tongue. The longer you draw this out, the messier it is. Gotta know when to leave the party, and you’ve worn out your welcome on this one. Just do yourself a favor and-

“No.”

Logan turned sharply and stepped away from the mirror, shutting out his demon. Later that afternoon, he met with Zeke on the deck that overlooked the Atlantic. His first answer to Zeke’s question had been simply that he wanted to get better. Inspired by his recent progress, and introspection, he thought that he was ready to edit that statement.

“I want to get out of my own way,” he said proudly at the end of the meeting. “That’s my goal.”

Ezekiel nodded, leaning back in his chair. He reached up to remove his glasses, fixing his greenish brown eyes on Logan as he cleaned his lenses with the hem of his shirt. “To do what?”

Logan blinked, stunned. He was sure that his new answer would have satisfied Zeke’s assignment, certain that he’d reached the conclusion that his counselor had hoped he’d come to. He wants more?

“Logan,” He let out a breath as he perched his glasses back on his nose and brought his elbows to the table between them. “You’re getting another chance at life. It’s true, you can’t get anywhere if you don’t let yourself, but it’s not enough to have a clear path to walk down. You have to have somewhere to go, something to do. You deserve more.” He stood. “So think about that; now that you’re out of your way, what are you gonna do?”

@something-tofightfor @its-my-little-dumpster-fire @suchatinyinfinity @gollyderek @thesumofmychoices @lexxierave @belladonnarey @ymariejp @obscurilicious @songtoyou @traeumerinwitzhelden @drinix @jigsawlover10 @getlostinyourparadise @nananananananananananabatman @malionnes @bicevans @qhostboyyy

please let me know if you you would like to be added or removed! (and if you already have and i have not done it, it’s me, not you so don’t feel bad about asking again, i am just forgetful!)

#core drive #clean 1.03 #logan delos #logan delos westworld #logan delos x you #logan delos x reader #logan delos law school au #law school logan #please read the warnings #fuck you william #and you too jim #and ya know what fuck you also juliet #lol dana honey you're in over your head #miguel you are my sunshine my only sunshine when you're not with me my skies are gray #ezekiel is not going easy on logan #he's gonna make him work #and that's what he needs #logan delos deserved better #and he's giving it to himself

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starberry-cupcake · 4 years

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bewareofitalics replied to your post “My mom bought me my first His Dark Materials book in 2001. It was a...”

Oh wow, it never occurred to me that the golden compass referred to anything but the alethiometer, since it looks like one and kind of points to truth like an actual compass points to north. Do you know if there were alternate names for the other books? It sounds like the titles were chosen to match The Golden Compass.

This is going to be a long af answer, I apologize beforehand.

Curiously, they were not chosen to match it, Pullman wanted to persualde the US publishers to change it, but it didn’t happen and he settled with it. Little did he know that the movie would influence the title in many other countries later on. Here’s a quote from Pullman himself explaining the title thing and how the three being named after objects in the US version was a coincidence:

The trilogy known as His Dark Materials didn't have that name in my mind from the start. In fact it didn't have a name at all; it was just 'the big book'. When I'd finished the first volume and was talking about it with David Fickling, my British publisher, we tried various names and couldn't find one that worked. I knew that the trilogy needed a name, and that each of the books needed its own separate name too (I don't like numbers in titles: THE GODFATHER PART TWO, and so on. Just a fad. But it's my fad). So: what should they be called?

My first discovery was the phrase The Golden Compasses (plural, note). This comes in Milton's Paradise Lost, a poem which inspired me a great deal. The line refers to the Son of God taking 'the golden compasses, prepared / In God's eternal store, to circumscribe / The universe, and all created things."

In other words, these were compasses to draw a circle with, not a compass to find your way with. I liked the phrase, and the trilogy became temporarily, during the publication process, The Golden Compasses. And we finally settled on Northern Lights for the title of the first book.

Meanwhile, in the US, it was being read by the editors at Alfred A. Knopf. Someone decided (mistakenly, but firmly) that the title referred to Lyra's alethiometer, which could be regarded as a sort of golden compass, but of the direction-finding and not circle-drawing sort. So the same someone or another someone decided to refer to the first book, for their own internal discussing-a-forthcoming-book purposes, as The Golden Compass.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, I had found the much better phrase, His Dark Materials, for the title of the trilogy. I quote the passage from which it comes at the very beginning of the first book. Better, because it's more atmospheric, and there's the uncanny resemblance to 'dark matter', which figures largely in the story. So out went The Golden Compasses, and in came His Dark Materials.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the publishers had become so attached to The Golden Compass that nothing I could say could persuade them to call the book Northern Lights. Their obduracy in this matter was accompanied by such generosity in the matter of royalty advances, flattery, promises of publicity, etc, that I thought it would be churlish to deny them this small pleasure.

So that's it. The fact that all three titles refer to an artefact is no more than a coincidence, though it does make a nice pattern. Before I'd finished the third one, the artist Eric Rohmann, who drew the wonderful covers the books had in their first Knopf editions, asked what the third book would be called, and before I could tell him, volunteered The Sophisticated Monkey-Wrench.

One tiny final thing: my first suggestion for the third book was The Lacquer Spy-glass. My editor at Knopf, Joan Slattery, pointed out that this might be misheard as LACK OF, and that made sense to me; so it became AMBER instead.

Source: Bridge To The Stars, helping out fans since days of old :’)

Since Pullman and the UK team never re-named Northern Lights (the closest it’s got was the tie-in edition of the movie having BOTH NAMES in the cover), I’m gonna assume they didn’t prefer it, even if it made the titles “match”.

With the US market, things were like that since the start and there was no change in the name (there are also some censorship instances in US editions, but that’s beside the point). So, the readership never got an opportunity to get as confused as other markets.

The biggest problem was on how that influenced the non-English speaking markets.

In Spanish, for example, like I said, the movie was called “La brújula dorada”, a literal translation of The Golden (navigational) Compass (as opposed to compás being a drafting compass), so all further editions of the book post movie changed their title, and considering the series has had SEVERAL publishers through the years, it’s a goddamn mess.

For example, you have these three pre-movie editions calling it Northern Lights: this is the one I have, this is the next edition from which I have the 3rd book, god knows when this one was released, maybe before mine. The movie tie-in edition was, like the UK version, the one with both titles on at the same time, and sadly, the latest edition made by the publisher who is translating The Book of Dust, went with the US/movie title of navigational compass, but uses the cover design of the UK Northern Lights latest edition.

As a side note, in Spanish, The Amber Spyglass kept the initial title Pullman wanted for it, it’s called El catalejo lacado, just like he wanted.

To add to that, they translated His Dark Materials as “La materia oscura”. In-book, Dust is referred to as “Polvo”, which literally means “dust”, but with the translation of His Dark Materials to La materia oscura (which is a literal translation but loses the Paradise Lost reference), the Book of Dust was translated as “El libro de la oscuridad” which literally means “The Book of Darkness”. So, yeah, wow, what a journey.

Spanish editions are divergent because the books came out at a time in which publishers were being absorbed by larger corporations in many Latin American countries during the early 2000s, so HDM (much like Harry Potter and other late 90s/early 2000s series) went through several publishers.

In my collection I have the first two books from one edition, the third from another, Lyra’s Oxford in English (it was never translated, or at least not for Latin America), The Collectors in English and digital (ugh), La Belle Sauvage in Spanish and now I will have for Christmas The Secret Commonwelth in English. Once Upon A Time in the North, just like Lyra’s Oxford, was never translated in Spanish, or at least not for Latin America, but differently from Lyra’s Oxford, I could never buy it here, so I’m waiting for the moment when I can finally buy it from abroad, because that’s kind of a mess.

You might be wondering, why if there’s a publisher doing The Book Of Dust and re-editing the trilogy, they haven’t translated Lyra’s Oxford, Once Upon a Time in the North and maybe The Collectors as a bonus (like other publishers did for soft released companion stories in book series). The answer is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯

This was the longest response ever, I’m so sorry, I just thought it was all interesting information.

#bewareofitalics #reply #his dark materials #hdm #AND I HAVEN'T EVEN TALKED ABOUT WILL #we had a conversation with Anita about how Will looks INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT in covers depending on which edition you have #when the book literally describes him #it's insane #long post #publishing stuff #this falls into my venn diagram of knowledge of latin american publishing and his dark materials so I'm sorry for the lenght #philip pullman #books

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airlock · 7 years

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oh, by the way! the other day I actually finished that affinity list for FE15 characters but I’ve been forgetting to post it so I hope you’re all ready for a whole shitton of “you know what this character is a lot like that one other character from a game that has canon affinities”

Alm - Light y'know, part of my exercises in attempting to make a regular FE cast out of a series-wide arrange of characters with the best FE Heroes poll results was in workshopping affinities for the characters that made the list. when I started attempting this, Echoes wasn't remotely out yet. I've since discarded the progress I've made on that front, due to the recent changes in the roster as per the link I've just shared and also because when that happened Echoes was much closer to being out. regardless, I'll probably end up bringing up the initial affinity impressions I've had at that point for the Gaiden characters who made it to the initial roster, even though I've (rather predictably) doubled back on most of them this side of Echoes being out. Alm is a big case of this happening. when his sparse characterisation in Gaiden coupled with his Awakening lines made it popular read him as the genocidal scourge of Rigel, I had a good time chucking him into the Ice affinity where not one other FE protagonist would fit. well, for better or for worse (and mostly for the better), those times are now over. Alm in Echoes is not without compassion for his enemies or with a very strong impetus towards revenge; he's just young, in over his head, and a little too eager to please, and that eagerness took him in a questionable (if not necessarily wrong, per se) direction when he felt that pushing back against Rigel is what people wanted. he actually hits many of the same notes as Seliph, although his discomforts with leadership seem to be less inherent (as with Seliph) than they're just naturally stemming from the fact that he's a young boy who just keeps suddenly ending up with more responsibility than he thought he was in for. and he ultimately grows into the roles he keeps being given with little further complaint, and it's all because he enjoys the upshot of it all: getting to help more people. and for someone who's always so inclined towards doing right by others, almost unidirectionally, I can't think of a better affinity than Light.

Celica - Thunder unlike her co-protagonist, Celica doesn't require any sort of analysis to be read as having a Light affinity; I'd expect that this is would be most of anyone's initial impulse. but she's, ah... not nearly enough of a pushover for that. when she talks about her mission, she does so with a kind of steely resolve that can only run much deeper than just a desire to do the right thing; each of her decisions mean something important to her, and for that, she's ever glad to take matters into her own hands, even those closest to her desperately wish she'd be more willing to let everyone else lift some of the load as well. and just like Alm sometimes risks everything out of his unwillingness to disappoint, so Celica's weakness is not listening to other people's thoughts when she's made up her mind, which is how she ends up handing her soul over to Jedah despite as many people as possible telling her not to do it. this principled, yet stubborn attitude is definitely the way of Thunder characters like Selena and Jill, and we can only be very relieved that Celica's tendencies mostly pointed her in directions unlike the sorts those two have ended up in.

Gray - Fire this guy has so much in common with Sain, I was this close to calling it a Wind, but there's an all-important difference: where that affinity's crowd tends to be more dreamy and detached, Gray is actually pretty down-to-earth in spite of his rather humorous openness. his flirty side strikes me as more a social butterfly thing than Sain's floweriness, for one (at least, well, in any context but his supports with Clair). overall, he's more than anything else friendly and easygoing, the way of a Guy or a Ross.

Tobin - Anima/Earth painfully awkward, but level-headed, observant, and clear in his ways of thinking -- this one's pretty straightforward, the way Anima characters can often be.

Kliff - Wind OR Ice so this one is also one where I had a pre-Echoes assignment for Poll Heroes. at that point, whatever little character he had seemed pointedly Wind, being the right amount of free-spiritedness and, as per his ending, dreamy wanderlust. this side of Echoes, those traits were kept and driven in further, but at the same time, he also gained a new and very marked personality trait: a mean, haughty streak that would really not land him out of place with the likes of Raigh and Raven. and I kind of wanted to think that this isn't entirely out of left field for a Wind character either, but there isn't anyone quite that mean on the canon listings; at worst you get some lighthearted snarkers like Haar and Bastian. still, it's not as if pushing the frontier is enough reason to demand a change in affinity... so it's honestly easy to argue either way for him. and to make matters worse -- he's very withdrawn and his ch3 base convo implies he has something of a history with secrets, so he wouldn't be out of place as a Darkness character either, although at this point I'm still feeling Wind and Ice more strongly for him.

Faye - the shit writing affinity it speaks vollumes that I feel like I can only possibly ground her primary characterization on anything that makes sense if I review her lines from the prologue and/or in battle situations. this is also something I don't feel like doing.

Lukas - Anima/Earth with his whole "cold observer" thing, Ice is a mighty tempting affinity for him, but Anima/Earth fits that bill just as well and also works for Lukas in a number of ways that Ice doesn't. he's not quite mean, aloof, or detached enough to really seem like an Ice; his quiet is more poise than lack of concern or dismissal. all in all, Anima/Earth is a solid affinity for the character who silently yet gladly takes on the role of Team Babysitter, the way Oswin, Oscar, and Nolan are all known to. that said, there's also that whole other way to read his character: for those whom Lukas strikes as being much more stirred than he ever lets on -- between Clive/Lukas B and the way he's deadpan about his awful backstory -- the obvious affinity would be Darkness.

Silque - Ice I'll freely admit she's a hard one to read whatsoever -- and maybe I'd have more material to work with if Faye hadn't fucked this one up for us all -- so the most I can seem to observe in her character is this aloof elegance. and maybe it's just par for the setting, but there are some precious few moments when she shows something of a lowkey judgemental side... but really, this is not one of the assessments I'd be very attached to; if you've got a better idea, you can probably argue it better

Clair - Thunder proud and stubborn and- you know what, I could just copypaste my rationale for making Lachesis this affinity when I was analyzing FE4. in fact, I'm gonna do that. I’m kind of tempted to put her down for Thunder just because she’d match Clarine that way, tbh (sic)

Forsyth - Thunder being as square as he is, Forsyth could've easily ended up on the Anima/Earth bin, where he can be in the company of such spoilsports as Kent and Oswin -- but it's actually not that simple. for all his veneer of orderliness and properness, this is still a guy who gave up on a quiet and safe life to run after a goose chase of a dream that never had a chance to come true, and only got anything remotely close to that as a result of plentiful fortunate circumstances. besides, when he's trying to whip Python into shape, he doesn't resemble, say, Kent trying to whip Sain into shape -- whereas the former pair's dynamic sounds more "ugh, please stop being an idiot and do this properly", Forsyth's beef with Python is over a lack of commitment. because that's what's really Forsyth's primary characteristic: the kind of commitment that can only stem from a Thunder-affinity character, even if he's basically committed to becoming what an Anima/Earth character might just naturally be.

Python - Wind in his own words, he lives carefree, which is exactly the way Wind characters are when they're left to their own devices. he's certainly got a combination of Ranulf's sense of humour (or even Wil's loose tongue) and Haar's boldfaced laziness.

Clive - Light he's idealistic enough for the part -- to the point that what keeps bending him and bringing out some of the worst in him over the course of the story is that not all things play out like the pretty design he had in his head. to name one, he's fine with putting some farmboy climbing the social ladders as the leader of his resistance band so as long as it makes him feel good for being so nice to peasants and giving the common soldier a leader they can identify with, but it’s rougher on him when Alm starts talking back to him and making decisions he doesn't agree with.

Boey - Anima/Earth there's something that keeps showing up in his lines, that I kind of get but can't seem to describe... but in any case, he's pretty much the Tobin of Team Celica, as someone who tries to keep it real but tends to come off more as the short-sighed comic relief than the shrewd realist.

Mae - Thunder I can just say it's Serra's affinity and leave it at that, that should explain everything

Genny - Wind OR Light we're not offered much in actual characterization for her other than shyness, a dreamy, story-loving nature and a dash of helplessness... it's hard to make anything deeper, least of all considering she's pretty young. Wind works with her detached, "this would make such a cool saga" ways, and also with the fact that her ending will show she's willing to troll people about her choice in romantic partners; Light would reinterpret her love of stories as a sort of idealism, and also focus on her helpless but earnest side, where she's similar to characters like Florina.

Saber - Ice aloof, gruff, and with a bad reputation to boot -- even if we know that Saber gets to be much more attentive and supportive than he seems to be, or frankly wishes he were, his nurturing side still tends to be more like "that sounds stupid but I'm here for it" than anything warmer and more earnest.

Valbar - Fire this is another one I had a pre-Echoes take on, and that one was Thunder -- it made perfect sense, since Gaiden doesn't give you anything more on the guy than the fact that he's willing to all but suicide attack a whole bunch of pirates in the name of revenge. this side of Echoes, though, that part of his characterization now seems to be more of an understandably extreme reaction to grief, while his natural disposition is just friendly and charmingly boisterous in a way that strikes me much more as Fire.

Leon - Light deep down under all his quirks, there seems to be something idealistic, even childish at times. if he can fall in love with someone just because that person was nice to him at a difficult time, that's -- at least, by his own admission -- because he appreciates the beauty of the world; and if he can spend half his dialogue talking about Valbar -- I swear, sometimes he almost annoys me as much as Faye does -- that's because he's sporting this mental checklist of things that make someone The Ideal Man and Valbar has yet to fail any of it. plus, well, for better or for worse, this is also Kyza's affinity.

Kamui - Wind aloof, but dreamy, more than anything else helplessly driven by his wanderlust; and on top of all that, just slightly snarky. Kamui is a very straightforward Wind character.

Luthier - Ice also a pretty straightforward assessment: haughty, but awkward; aloof and a little too focused on something that interests him; Luthier is pretty much a living checklist of Ice traits, although he doesn't quite cover the stricter and meaner end of that spectrum (except in that he's almost strict enough when it comes to Delthea -- definitely "almost", though, he's nonwhere near Marcus-level strict). one amusing way to think of it is that Luthier is the exact kind of guy who Pent only barely avoided becoming.

Mathilda - Light time and again she's regarded as being the voice of reason -- and I think that's less in the whole Lukas-esque "cold observer" sense and more in the sense that she's sensible and doesn't lose sight of what's important. it's also worth noting that, unlike Celica above, she's prone to giving others a little too much credit and yielding to particularly persistent characters; from the third Rise of the Deliverance map, plus some of the base game, Clair in particular can play her like a piano just by being very stubborn. maybe that's also how she ends up with that awful ending... (can I go this long without drawing parallels to characters with canon affinities? naaaah. sometimes she's kind of like a Lucius who actually enjoys fighting.)

Delthea - Fire it's rather clear that when Delthea thinks of her dreamy city life, she's thinking of a place where she can go be a social butterfly -- or, as it were, fall in love with someone suavacious. I've also considered Wind as a strong possibility for her but ultimately I get the sense that she's less lashing out against restrictions or being expected to work hard and more against being judged for not really wanting to be a mage. I'm very probably splitting hairs there, but we'd have more established character to build upon if folks would just let Delthea say "fuck" every once in a while.

Palla - Anima/Earth I'll have to admit that Akaneia characterization isn't fresh in my head at the present moment -- however sparse it can be -- but most of what I remember about Palla is her just incorporating that whole The Big Sister (TM) Archetype without a complaint, which is just another way of being the Team Babysitter as Lukas above is.

Catria - Ice this one's also gonna have to work off her FE15 characterization primarily, but anyways! as affecionate as she is deep down, she's pretty aloof and she'll be curt and critical sometimes; this bill probably suits her fine.

Atlas - Fire a big-hearted guy of very simple ways, to the point that even directly befriending a queen-to-be won't draw him away from going back to his village and becoming a simple lumberjack. he's really like a bar-brawling, trash-talking version of Dorcas.

Jesse - Light he just loves playing the hero, right to the point that he'll bog himself down doing it (like, say, by trying to take on a horde of desert bandits alone and ending up captured by them). he's also got the idealism to boot, what with this whole idea for a mercenary's country. and I mean, really, I shouldn't need to argue very much to say that Jesse would have the same affinity as Gatrie.

Deen - Darkness full disclosure: I did not pick him on my first and so far only Echoes run, so there's every chance I haven't seen the full picture yet. still, as far as I can see, this guy just drips with Darkness, hitting much of the same edgelord tunes as Rutger does. that said, for all I know he could be more of a Jaffar-type Ice affinity, so maybe I'll really have to see yet.

Sonya - Darkness full of secrets and unwilling to let anyone in for real, but she can't help but let off a glimpse of her truths if it might just help someone she can see herself in -- yeah, she's right at home with Calill and Micaiah, to say the least.

Est - Fire lively and straightforward -- to the point that, at least here in FE15, her sisters seem to enjoy just completely reading her -- she's not very difficult to regard as a Fire. although, between the way she does her unreliable sales pitches (in her support with Catria) and certain Akaneia things that hint at some severe commitment issues, it's tempting to keep Wind in consideration, too...

Nomah - Wind if Bastian should live to see old age, then he'll become the exact person that Nomah is. ... well, a more long-winded version of him, at least.

Tatiana - Fire I've dithered a fair bit here, because for all her ostensible cheeriness, she's got a lot of insecurity and fright in her. as soon as you rescue her, the first thought in her head is "oh god they're going to kill me", and the second thought is "oh god they're going to kill my boyfriend". there's also how she's terrified of her beloved's memories returning, and how she wastes no time in beating herself up over it, and she's even got a base conversation where she expresses her self-doubts about being a good cleric. I couldn't help but wonder whether all this wouldn't make her a surprising Darkness character, really. but it seems like the precedent for having a Fire-like personality and a crushing load of insecurities is still remaining in the Fire affinity (cfr. Nino, Neimi), so dredging all of that up may not have been the best use of my analytical energy after all. harrumph, I say!

Zeke - Thunder OR Darkness between his characterization here and in other games that he totally isn't in, we know exactly two things about our amnesiac knight: that for better or for tragically worse he's loyal to the bitter end, and that he's definitely not a big fan of solving things through normal people communication.

Conrad - Thunder frankly a very tentative assessment since, seriously, for a new character who's meant to be central to the plot, this guy seriously got awful little development, probably being that IS decided to save up all of his big reveal quality for the most obvious detail about him and decided to leave us in the dark about all his other secrets. he's not even really hiding them himself -- no moreso than the plot demands at least -- so I can't just blame it on a Darkness affinity. all I really have on this guy is that, for all that he's ostensibly soft and sensitive, he's mighty stubborn, enough so that 50% of his interactions with Celica, especially as his masked knight self, are just him and her being very stubborn at each other. he's pretty much the only one that won't shut down and back off when Celica pushes back -- kind of gives me the awful impression that maybe he just doesn't listen to her very much, on review. maybe. but yeah, on the one hand he honestly doesn't /really/ sound like a Thunder type, but on the other hand, there are two different people he sounds like, and he won't drop the masked knight persona entirely even after he's stopped hiding his true identity, so I can't think of anything ostensible enough to draw my analysis from. but here's an amusing thought: a couple lines back there I did a typo and noticing I'd written "when Celice pushes back" was freaking hilarious l m a o

Mycen - Ice it's hard to pin down Mycen's true personality, since he's always so busy doing as the plot demands. at least, Clive (in one of the DLC memories) implies that he was already a notorious stoic even before he ended up in a situation where he's always having to put his own feelings aside, but it's hard not to think that he must've already had some façade going on by the time he turned into a Rigel-born Zofia knight. that said, even if it's what the plot (or, as it were, the bizarro alternate reality that a tutorial tends to sound like) demanded, this is a guy who yelled at a bunch of children because they were crying about having to fight a bunch of actual knights. so yeah, I'm not too hesitant to pin him down as, at the very least, the hard taskmaster who still gets his pupils' adoration -- you know, the Marcus way. that said, what wouldn't I give for some additional DLC that delves more into his actual character, and specially into that sweet, sweet Mycen and Nomah backstory...

Totals

Fire(6): Gray, Delthea, Tatiana | Valbar, Atlas, Est Ice(5~6): Silque, Luthier, Mycen, [Kliff?] | Saber, Catria Anima/Earth(4): Tobin, Lukas | Boey, Palla Wind(3~5): Python, [Kliff?] | Kamui, Nomah, [Genny?] Thunder(5~6): Clair, Forsyth, [Zeke?] | Celica, Mae, Conrad Light(5~6): Alm, Clive, Mathilda | Leon, Jesse, [Genny?] Darkness(2~3): [Zeke?] | Deen, Sonya shit writing(1): you know who | N/A

#my stupid text posts #Fire Emblem is tagged in this post #Valentia FE is tagged in this post #I'll probably have to evening reblog this bleh

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thelarryrec-blog · 7 years

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All the fics I read in...April!

I definitely didn’t realize how much I read this month, despite being out of town 3 out of the 4 weekends. What can you say? I always make room for fic. Hope you enjoy! I really loved the new ones that came out this month! -a

A/B/O ‘Verse by sarcasticfluentry (Tumblr)

you burn with the brightest flame

first time catching fire

river flows in you

one day

your hand in mine

bite me II by happilylarry

Part 2 of bite me series

Be My Little Good Luck Charm by 100percentsassy (Tumblr)

In which Harry is a promising amateur golfer making his debut at the PGA Championship, and Louis is a Sky Sports anchor who would really rather be commentating on footie.

The other boys are around too: caddy!Niall provides victory pints, Liam is Louis's Very Serious co-anchor, and poor Zayn just gets his face drawn on.

Before They Turn The Lights Out by lizzieemariee

Harry feels like he’s absolutely gagging for it and that’s probably because he is, he needs Louis, needs to fuck him, and soon.

both your hands in the holes of my sweater by hilourry

Part 2 of football/designer Series

After ten years together, Harry gets injured on the football field, forcing him to retire, and Louis and their kids are there to help him out.

bulan dipagari bintang by snsk

right now this is his pack, the vampire harry's burning his scent into, murmuring nonsensities about the stars and their stories.

// or: harry is sixteen when he comes into his werewolf form. louis is terribly, wonderfully ageless, and still, always a vampire.

By Your Side (That’s Where I Have To Be) by LithiumCrystal (Tumblr)

“What is it like then, Louis?’ Harry asks, voice quiet and eyes dark “why’d you come to tell me?” It’s a good question. Louis’s not even sure what he’s feeling, really. The man who gave him half his genetic coding is brain-dead on a slab somewhere and he’s standing in his… In Harry’s hotel room with no idea what he’s supposed to be thinking or doing.

Or, in which Louis's bio-dad dies suddenly and Louis and Harry have a lot of baggage.

Call Me Shallow But I’m Only Getting Deeper by Lis (domesticaharry)

Harry gripped the back of Louis’ chair and rested his left hand against the table’s surface. He slowly arched his back and let his lips hover just above the shell of Louis’ ear. Louis instantly reacted to Harry’s change of demeanor, his shoulders subconsciously pulling back. A smirk twitched the corner of his mouth when Louis’ thighs slightly parted.

“You want to keep acting like some bratty princess?” Harry quietly asked, lowering the tone of his voice. He slipped his hand from the back of Louis’ chair and clasped it around the nape of Louis’ neck. “Fine,” Harry gently squeezed, “That’s exactly how I’ll treat you, Baby.”

The one where Louis is a brat so Harry spanks him with a riding crop.

Change In Pressure by LithiumCrystal (Tumblr)

It’s been over a week since they’ve had sex and maybe Louis is kind of fucked up for latching onto that right after a big fight and nearly dying, but he’s never been particularly good at thinking the right thing with Harry this close to him...

Louis and Harry argue. Louis and Harry also fuck on the stage. Somehow it manages to be kind of romantic.

come away with me Series by suspendrs (Tumblr)

come away with me

in the night

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First Dates by taggiecb

Harry and Louis meet for the first time on a reality dating show called First Dates. It doesn't exactly go as either of them had hoped.

Gazed by justgotowisharder

“Open your eyes, Louis,” Harry asked softly. “I can’t,” Louis said. “I’m so sorry. I can’t risk your life, I don't want to hurt you.” “Lou, please.” “I can’t. You’ll never meet my eyes, Harry. Never.”

(Or the one where Louis Tomlinson is cursed and he can’t look anyone in the eyes, and Harry is just Harry, too curious to avoid wondering why Louis always wears sunglasses)

How Much For A Dozen and You? by SS98

Harry parts his lips with words at the tip of his tongue. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his coat and fights with himself mentally on what to say next. “Do you…- Do you like Italian food?”

“I haven’t really eaten much of it.” Louis admits, clearing his throat. “W-Why do you ask?”

The question seems to catch Harry off-guard even though he opened up this path of conversation. In addition, everyone seated around them seems drawn to their awkward communication; even the ladies who conduct the actual baking in the kitchen are peeking through a slot in the wall.

“Well, would you be open to being convinced?” Harry asks, wincing when he clumsily steps around the table and ends up kicking it an inch to the left.

Or, Louis works in a bakery and Harry doesn't. They fall in love through a series of awkward events.

I’ll Be There by allwaswell16 (Tumblr)

Louis is less than thrilled to find out his roommate has coerced his nemesis to check on him whilst he's sick in bed. However, Harry seems to take great pleasure in taking care of Louis. Maybe this green smoothie drinking, hot yoga instructing, hair in a bun wearing, pretentious art history studying wanker isn’t so bad after all.

On Monday, Louis thinks Harry's a twat. By Friday, he's thinking of reasons for him to stay.

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Part of the 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names Fic Challenge

If I Was Your Vampire by highlinson

His neck was exposed, and it was pretty clear Louis was waiting for Harry to claim the naked skin as his. When there was no reaction, however, Louis opened his eyes and looked up at Harry from a somewhat awkward angle. The wide, downright hungry stare he was receiving from Harry who seemed like he was in an entire other universe kind of scared him, and when he didn’t see Harry blink for several following seconds but his tongue continued to wet his lips, Louis, now growing afraid, asked, “Harry? Are – are you okay?”

Just another Vampire AU

if my heart was a compass, you’d be north by cheekiestcheeky (Tumblr), heartsoftlouis (Tumblr)

All Louis really cares about is his skateboard, tattoos, football, and his family. He has a job that he (mostly) loves and a (small) handful of good friends, and at 24 he is pretty content with his life... until he nearly crashes into a boy with wild curls and cratered dimples, he begins to think maybe he's been missing something he never knew was missing. That missing piece is apparently big enough for two.

[Or the one where punk Louis likes to think he’s not clumsy, but he suspects he’ll have to accept it when he falls face first into a relationship with a head full of curls and his tiny human.]

kings of the castle by eversincewefellapart

harry is the son of architects who bet on horse races and louis is the prettiest jockey he might've ever seen in all his betting years.

As soon as they get into the car, Louis’ stumbling over the armrest of his seat and pressing his lips to Harry’s jaw. Harry presses the key into the ignition to start the car up and let it warm before turning his head more accurately and attaching their lips. Louis tastes like chocolate and sugar and strawberry ice cream and rain and everything Harry’s ever fucking wanted.

Kiss me on the Mouth and Set me Free (but please don’t be bite) by seducedbycurls

Harry is the CEO of Flora Corp, Louis is his new secretary.

"...Louis wanted him so badly. Wanted Harry to pick him up, bite him, and break him. Make Louis his, make Louis cry, make Louis a beautiful, plump, pregnant omega..."

Know It All by kikikryslee (Tumblr, Twitter)

“Are you watching Jeopardy?” Niall asked. “Shhhh!” Louis hissed. “Niall, come on. I just missed the question.” “Since when do you watch Jeopardy? Is this about the guy from trivia? What do you call him? T-Shirt?” “V-Neck,” Louis corrected. “Oh, right. V-Neck. Is this about him?” “No.” “You’re a terrible liar. You know that trivia is supposed to be fun, right?” “I am having fun! Now leave me alone! I need to learn more about the people who signed the Declaration of Independence.” --- Or, the one where Louis just wants to win Trivia Night so he can get some free food, but he can't because a certain guy with fluffy hair takes home the prize every week - except for one.

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Part of the 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names Fic Challenge

Like Me by Star55 (Tumblr, Twitter)

Part 14 of Shades of Pink (Crazy in Love) Series

“Alright,” Jennifer nods. “It’s gonna hurt.” “I can take it,” Harry replies.

A Shades of Pink story where Harry gets her first tattoo and realises that it turns her on more than she ever would have realised.

Louis by jacinth (Tumblr)

After five years as a personal assistant to the man he's secretly in love with, Louis is prepared for just about everything... except a cup of coffee and a marriage proposal.

my sins i’ll claim, i’m not immune to shame by jaerie

It's been two years since their break up and Harry still hasn't been able to completely move past the day that things ended between them. When he gets a chance at a big fat "I told you so", his reaction isn't exactly what he expects. He finds himself hard from some inappropriate thoughts and, well, sometimes even the best of us succumb to the darkest emotions.

Part of the 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names Fic Challenge

Night Changes by colourexplosion (Tumblr)

Harry slips and nearly knocks his head on the tile wall. The bottles of shampoo and bodywash that line the shower tumble down as he catches himself, one of them managing to land right on the top of his foot. Fuck, that hurt.

Fuck, he loves Louis.

Wait, of course he loves Louis. What’s not to love? He’s kind and he’s funny and he’s patient with Harry always and he’s always been there when Harry needed him. Well, not tonight, but Harry hadn’t specifically said to him that he needed him and whatever — okay. Of course he loves Louis. That doesn’t mean he’s in love with Louis.

But I am in love with Louis, he thinks, and curses as his shampoo runs into his eyes.

Or, Louis and Harry are soulmates. (With a twist.)

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nothing else but us right here by supernope (Tumblr)

Louis sighs and gives himself a mental pep talk as he smooths his jumper down over his hips. He can do this. He can resist the draw of Harry Styles, because he is a responsible, mature adult, and as much as he wants to tangle his fingers in that mess of hair and map those ridiculous tattoos with his tongue, he does not want to get his daughter’s favorite teacher fired.

Open Your Eyes And See The Way Our Horizons Meet by highlinson

Louis takes a deep breath and tries to calm his beating heart, and get rid of the, to be honest, pretty slim chance that he’s either getting raped or kidnapped tonight. He is snapped out of his thoughts as a huge hand is held out in front of his face, and he quickly gets up and shakes it.

“Nice to meet you, Louis”, Harry says, and Louis has to admit that his voice is pretty attractive in its slow drawl that rolls like melting chocolate over his words.

// Or, Louis is 18, and Harry is 31. Featuring Liam as the worrying best friend, lots of kisses, a little bit of angst and a fair share of buttsex action.

Our blood is boiling by twinks

“I can’t believe you’re making me this angry when it’s almost midnight and I’m not even drunk. You know what? I could take you down right here, right now—”

“You’re red.” Harry interrupts, his lips curving up into a smug grin. “Am I making you red?”

Louis purses his lips and absentmindedly brings a hand up to feel his cheek. It’s definitely warm. God, how can he even come back from this?

[Louis meets indie singer Harry Styles, otherwise known as the bane of his existence, at a pub.]

Our Hearts Burn So Bright by SS98

Part 1 of Burning. Series

“Well, well, well.” The monotonous beckoning was accompanied by a clicking heel of undoubtedly ridiculous leather boots. Louis was putting his away his textbooks in exchange for his sketchpad in this ominous section of the school hallway until the voice of someone who drove unsettling chills down his spine interrupted him. “If it isn’t the fairest princess this old fuckin’ town ever did see.”

Around this moment the sound of others followed the first and Louis released a tired sigh, slamming his locker door shut. He remembers the first time this estranged other cornered him and seemed to preen at the sight of Louis’ fear, when the psychopath became known as Harry Styles. Laughter used to follow any odd comment until Harry put a stop to it; none but he was entitled to the privilege of passing a remark towards Louis.

“And the outlaw who defiled him.” Louis was ready when Harry turned him around, pressing the former’s back against the steel lockers with a smug grin.

Pour Yourself Over Me (Until There’s Nothing Left To See) by patdkitten

Louis receives a strange invitation to a masquerade ball from a stranger who offers to pay for everything.

rather be sad with you (than anywhere away from you) by ohsailor (Tumblr)

A Unversity AU where Louis battles his mental health while struggling to become the lawyer his family hopes he will, pre-med Harry gets three new roommates, Niall loves dentistry, and Liam is a future aerospace engineer. Featuring: long-haired Harry AND Louis, lots of rom-com lad nights, and matching Fleetwood Mac tattoos.

So Baby Say You’ll Always Keep Me by EmmyLouWho

Today, Harry was baking triple-chocolate brownies, because they were his husband’s favourite. It was an old family recipe, one Harry had made dozens of times before, and it was always a crowd pleaser. He measured out the chocolate into his bowl with even more care than usual, because he needed these brownies to be perfect. He needed them to be so amazing that maybe they would give Louis reason to pause when he came home tonight and inevitably demanded a divorce when he found out the awful thing that Harry had done. Although, he thought, that did seem like a lot to ask from a brownie, even a really delicious triple-chocolate one.

Or: Harry stress-bakes. Louis loves him.

So Much We Didn’t Say by whyidontknow1

Harry’s near fatal accident exposed the cracks in his and Louis’ eleven year marriage. A serious error in judgement by Louis shattered it completely.

Take A Bite Outta Me by LithiumCrystal (Tumblr)

Louis truly resents the implication that he is basically Harry’s own version of Bella goddamn Swan, because seriously, no. Just no. But the issue is that even this stupid Meyeresque revelation has done absolutely nothing to dampen his attraction to this weirdly charming vampire man who dresses in 8000 pound coats and hangs around in dilapidated buildings with his merry band of ethical bloodsuckers.

Louis is a slightly inept vampire hunter. Harry is a slightly unique vampire. They meet.

Taken Over By The Feeling by whyidontknow1

After almost a year of increasingly troubling behavior, Louis agrees to let his sister live with him. It's a last resort before more drastic measures are taken by their mom.

Harry Styles runs Given A Chance, a program for troubled and disadvantaged teens out of the bakery he owns. He offers the kids in his program what he believes they need to start on a different and better path for their lives.

Louis learns all too quickly that Harry's goodwill does not extend to him. Only because he happens to remind Harry of an ex he'd rather forget. It's not the smoothest of beginnings, but in the end Louis' own issues might be the real problem.

these sweet thoughts by adelagia (Tumblr)

When Louis has the worst day of his life, it's only because Harry hasn't accidentally walked into it yet.

Featuring Louis as Ariel in a production of The Tempest, Harry as a happily overworked pastry chef, Niall their cheerleader, Zayn their less vocal but equally enthusiastic cheerleader, Kinder Surprises, stiff peaks, and someone getting punched by mistake.

Tugging On My Heartstrings by FallingLikeThis (Zayniam) (Tumblr)

“Almost there, babe,” he reminds Louis as they get ever closer. He sees Louis’ leg start moving faster out of the corner of his eye and bites down on a smile. It’s cute that Louis’ so anxious to get there, sort of makes Harry’s heart flutter happily.

When they finally pull into the drive, Louis barely lets the car stop before he’s throwing open his door and speed-walking to the house in front of them.

The door opens right when Harry reaches the front steps, just in time to see it all go down. He sees Niall’s knowing grin just before there’s a happy squeal and a little bundle of limbs and energy tosses itself at Louis.

“Uncle Louis!” Niall’s son cries as he buries his face in Louis’ neck.

Tumblr post

Part of the 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names Fic Challenge

The Undesignated by CrazyLaughter

Moon Styles always knew that her father and three others were in band together called 'One Direction'. What she didn't know was that, in fact that the band had five members and the fifth unnamed member other than Harry- is her undesignated father.

There's nothing more dangerous than a curious little girl.

Where Your Heart Is by antihetharry (Tumblr), tvshows_addict (Tumblr)

Louis is ready for his brand new adventure. So what if he suffers from a genetic condition that prevents him from being touched? College is going to be awesome. It has to. Karma kind of owes him right now. Forget about his overprotective mother, or Liam-- his entirely too chipper step brother-- or his mess of a roommate. Forget about the gloves he has to wear at all times. He’s here to expand his knowledge, write and drown himself in books -- No matter how distracting ‘Hallway Boy’ may be-- The obnoxious, flirty frat wannabe determined to become the bane of Louis’ existence.

Or, a college AU set in San Francisco where two lost boys who seemingly have nothing in common find inspiration, each other, and themselves in the process.

Wherever I Go (I Go With You) by phdmama (Tumblr)

Harry reaches out and pats Louis. Sometimes, late at night, lying next to his husband of twenty years, he can’t help but feel a little lonely. It’s a good life they’ve built for themselves, he reminds himself, an incredible life. They’re both blessed to be working in their fields, they’ve got three amazing kids, they’re both still healthy and active with very little lower back pain, but late at night, deep in the dark, a still, small voice from somewhere inside of Harry wonders if this is really as good as it gets. But then, the fates conspire in Harry's favor, and provide him with the perfect opportunity to help Louis and him get their groove back. Copley Square is never going to know what hit it.

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Part of the 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names Fic Challenge

#Larry Stylinson #Harry Styles #Louis Tomlinson #fic rec #larry fic rec #ao3 #thelarryrec #Apr 2017

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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The 5 Most Loved and Hated Animal Ears in Anime

Animal ears. The anime trademark. In no other genre do you see more characters with wildlife features that aren’t straight up animals walking upright. They’ve launched a million online debates regarding the coexistence of human ears hidden under anime hair that few anime are brave enough to tackle head-on. Turns out they’re also a great predictor of love/hate relationships, although that shouldn’t be much of a surprise for anything resembling a cat.

Love them or hate them they’re a mainstay of the genre. Our friends over at Anime-Planet spend day and night cataloguing these unique features and leaving it to the fans to vote on the best and worst ears of all animal varieties. A note before we again, these are the result of popular votes that I can and will disagree with. Only your democratic will can determine who makes it on this list. With that out of the way, below are the 5 most loved and most hated anime characters with animal ears!

Loved

5. Black Rabbit - Problem Children are Coming from Another World Aren’t They?

I’d make a No Game No Life comparison for Black Rabbit but the list kind of beat me to the punch. Happily surprised to see she made the list given the difference in visibility between the two titles, especially since the whole experience of Little Garden is a... bit... more innocent. Changing hair color is neat. Anyway, Black Rabbit does her best and, at the end of the day, probably really needed this win.

4. Jibril - No Game No Life

I know the dog ears were temporary, but I was honestly expecting to see Steph here over Jibril. Black Rabbit fills a similar role, so I’m gonna assume you all just felt guilty about stacking NGNL in the Loved category. Admittedly Jibril has one of the coolest games against the siblings, taking shiritori to a ridiculous extreme ending in the destruction of the universe (temporarily). But this is really about her wholeheartedly embracing servitude and her on-and-off sadism? That’s it, isn’t it? Do bird wing ears really count? If they do, then where is Mavis Vermilion?

3. Tomoe - Kamisama Hajimemashita

Ah yes, the world famous silver-haired wolf spirit that falls in love with a mortal girl, Tomoe. Who doesn’t feel an instant pang of of compassion when faced with a stray dog? To be honest he’s pretty cruel to Nanami so I’m a little surprised to find him on the hated side of this list, but I’m just now realizing that animal eared characters seem to fall into either servile or tsundere categories and even when he’s being evil, Tomoe’s got a look. Like a classy Inuyasha.

2. Inuyasha - Inuyasha

Speaking of. Wolf boy was destined to show up on this list. He’s got one of the most popular anime franchises in history named after him. Maybe the most famously tsundere male characters ever penned. He’s got a tragic backstory, a big sword, and even his brother is cute. He’s awkward and gullible but, at the end of the day, just wants to be loved. Pretty adorable for a 200-year-old. You can even make him sit.

1. Holo - Spice and Wolf

While Inuyasha is half wolf spirit, Holo is a wolf god, so this arrangement makes a great deal of sense. You have to hand it to her, she made a unlikely hit out of a light novel series with a pretty inauspicious premise. It takes a lot of personality to make medieval trade so fascinating but Holo pulls it off even without the personal drama between her and Lawrence. While another god may be the most famous apple fanatic, she’s definitely cornered the animal ear market.

Hated

5. Hatsuse Ino - No Game No Life

Surprised at this one mostly because Ino even got the votes to place him anywhere at all? I guess he didn’t leave a big impression on me. He didn’t exactly do anything that I could imagine inspiring such ire, at least in the context of all the other stuff going on in No Game No Life. The polygamy thing is weird but pretty low on the totem pole of that series. He even invented the popular game Gal Gun. He plays dirty, but that’s nothing new either.

4. Nashetanya - Rokka -Braves of the Six Flowers-

Ok, she’s definitely evil, but why? Great character design, great personality, and an awesome power. Think about it, if she hadn’t set up the locked room mystery, we wouldn’t have even had Rokka at all and it was a great series! She didn’t hurt any of her companions (directly) and she’s trying to stop an endless cycle of sacrifice meant to safeguard the world from horrible monsters. She’s like Yuna in FFX! Yuna got a sequel and Nachetonia gets this disrespect?

3. Catherine - Gintama

I know she used to be a career criminal but she’s a whole new catgirl now. You can’t hold her past against her. Or is there some other reason you don’t like her?

2. Inuyasha - Inuyasha

I get it, Kagome and Inuyasha got off to a bit of a rocky start with all of his death threats and calling her his dead girlfriends name. In fact a lot of the trouble with their developing romance can be blamed on him, from being caught up on his memory of Kikyo to being the one to snub most of their potential kisses for literal years of our lives. I start to get annoyed if it even takes until the end of a 24 episode series. I’ll give him this, though. He only said “Kagome!” name 568 times while Kagome belted out “Inuyasha!” 971 times. Maybe she’ll be on some future list.

1. Toby - Fairy Tail

I don’t care if saying this makes me a hypocrite but putting Toby here is totally fine. Just looking at the guy gives you a feeling of mild discomfort. Mashima created the perfect uncanny valley between man and dog. No amount of personality could save him from the curse of his physical appearance. He even gets outsmarted by Natsu. I can’t think of a single nice thing to say about him. Sorry Toby fans, if you even exist.

For those keeping track, that's four dog boys, one wolf girl, two bunny women, only a SINGLE catgirl, and a birdy lady. Most of these characters seem remarkable for being overly affectionate or your archetypal tsundere, but the cats and dogs are all wrong so I'm not sure if there's any important patterns to be found.

Didn’t see your favorite on this list? Want to know where they appear among the most loved and hated on their kind? Head over to Anime-Planet’s list of characters with animal ears to see where they rank or comment below with your most favorite fang. Tune in next week, where the subject will be the most infamous of hairstyle, the pompadour!

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 6 years

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Girls’ Last Tour 1 - 2 | Juuni Taisen 4 - 5 | Ancient Magus’ Bride 2 - 3 | Idolish7 1 - 2

The only one I’ve properly kept up with out of my 5 shows this season is Juuni Taisen, so I’m going to roll out the tag for that show first. Also, the Idolish7 first two episodes became free recently so I cover them here too.

Girls’ Last Tour 1

Pipes…grunge…hey, doesn’t this look familiar? *glares at Princess Principal*

I’ve only seen one episode of Made in Abyss but I get a bad feeling about these character designs…

I’m worried about this falling into the Yuri Divide. Sure,the fandom can do what it wants, but please don’t ship the lolis.

Oh right. Wind, meaning there’s an opening somewhere.

That dramatic eye opening made the outside world seem like an anticlimax. C’mon, show. You can do better than that.

I feel like Chito says “shut up” a lot, even though she’s only said it twice. I get how she’s kind of relatable, but this show’s not on the level of MMO Junkie or even Juuni Taisen. It’s just kinda…average.

Did Tangled ever teach you how to use a pan, Yuu?

Everything’s kinda WWI-esque. It’s kinda unsettling for a person who’s never properly seen war.

Even in this snowy world, you could still learn to hunt and cook, right?

If you kill your friend in a post-apocalyptic world, you’ll be lonely by war. Don’t kill each other, kiddos. Lives are precious.

This is serious, kiddos! C’mon!

Eating snow is meant to quench your thirst, but it’s not any good for hunger. Apparently.

Well, I’m quite lukewarm on this. I’ve already found my seasonal hits and I study globalisation, so it’s no surprise I find this stuff a lot like my weekly content. Nonetheless, whoever decided to put Classicaloid behind a paywall’s gonna have to pay (pun not intended)!

Girls’ Last Tour 2

I half expect a “hey you!” joke but they don’t work in Japanese…

What are the wiggly things on the ground next to Chi and Yuu in the OP??? Leeches???

Oh geez. Now they even draw cleavage on the lolis. Meaning these guys are just drawn young. That’s both a good and a bad thing.

Those letters seem to be…no language in particular.

Book burning. What a thing to throw in.

Oh. The blocky writing is actually hiragana or katakana. You just need to look at it closely.

I think that was meant to be comedy…but it was so cruel. Poor book.

I think what they’re saying is “don’t burn history”, but I think we learnt that a long time ago when the Chinese burnt books.

Maybe if these gals had Bear Grylls they’d survive a bit longer…?

Lemme guess: either Yuu burnt them all, destroyed them all or read them all.

The original joke was gomen wa, where ne is similar to wa. At least, I think it’s a wa. It could be a re.

The red circle said Yuu wrote the me wrong, so it’s actually probably gonun ne.

Well, someone funded a sakuga ending. Like the one from ACCA with dancing Lotta.

Juuni Taisen 4

I find it heavily symbolic that Nezumi likes eating eggs. Eggs represents chickens…and conundrums…

Ooh…bam. Nisio Isin’s going the Middle Eastern proxy route.

Hmm. Interesting, it’s basically Bystander Effect: the War.

The anime’s currently ahead of the manga, so I got slightly startled by Boar’s appearance. However, I’ve read some spoilers elsewhere, so I knew she was going to be in Monkey’s story somewhere else. I just didn’t think it was this soon.

Recycled footage…bad show! Bad!

LOL, CGI tank. Sorry for ruining the mood, but that stood out a bit too much for my liking.

“…participation is mandatory…” – Huh. I never saw that detail coming.

“Ow. I thought you were against violence.” – (LOL.) Yeah, but apathy isn’t good when something’s coming to get you in the sewers, so I’m with Monkey on this.

Wa-wait! Y’mean, Rabbit can use Chicken to use Eye of the Cormorant…so Monkey will die this ep??? [Monkey dying]’s exactly what I’ve been fearing for the duration of this episode. Update: If you want the spoiler version from the end of the ep…she didn’t die.

Notice Monkey uses moves that use the strength of her opponent against her. It’s a very pacifist touch, so to speak.

There are a series of images that flash by before the casual clothes part of the ED. If you observe them closely, you’ll see a lot of them involve the number 12. (Example: the cubes have lines on them that read “12”.)

LOL, I think I only just now spotted the bodyguard behind Boar. He’s hard to spot behind all the splatter.

Home boy and his T-bars make me laugh every time. Then of course, there’s Mr Floofy Jacket.

Oh, it’s Duodecuple who’s doing these next ep previews. I couldn’t figure out who it was last time I tried.

Juuni Taisen 5

Genius, with a capital letter? They keep calling him the Genius of Slaughter in his backstory, so I guess that’s where it’s from.

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing is the same in Japanese as it is English, so at least the pun is there.

LOL, this episode is pretty much all “stuff goes kaboom!”, and that’s pretty much the way of the Sheep. Haha.

Of mice and men, eh??? (I read enough spoilers to know who the victor is…but I don’t know how they win.)

Whoa, yeah, baby! Bring that action! (That happens to be exactly the way I imagine my own action stories – from the front seat, so to speak.)

The snake’s winking! So cute! I want me some plushies like those!

Old-Timer. Haha, great pun on so many, many levels.

Ancient Magus’ Bride 2

I started doing a productivity blog and got caught up in it so much, I neglected anime! Imagine that – me, neglecting anime!

Oh, there’s a little “open” sign near the door.

It’s anime Hogwarts! Only the train is more colorful…LOL. (Actually, Little Witch Academia is anime Hogwarts, so scratch that.)

Ooh, Elias has a good taste in faces. Not that I’m complaining or anything. (Looks like En-chan, to boot.)

Elias is like the NEET genius of the magic world here. It’s kinda funny.

What’s a Gem’s Bee? (No spoilers, I’m not a manga reader!)

Angelica’s like her (Chise’s) mother, LOL. Seeing Elias properly emote is hilarious, hilarious! (Why I procrastinated on this show? Because it’s a slow mover that should be appreciated in its own time, but I’m not good with binging so…that’s why I’m only watching it now.)

Oh! No wonder Angelica seems like a mother. She is a mother.

Ooh! Ice flowers. Pretty. I’ve already gotten way too many screenshots for my own good out of this show…As a writer, I feel like I could never make a story like this.This is a story best fostered under someone else’s hand.

Poppies, eh? To me, poppies symbolise war and sticking out, but that’s just a product of where I was born. In the case of war, poppies represent the blood of the fallen and those who rise above that.

Speaking of stories I couldn’t write, I’m currently bringing Next to Me to a close. I feel like that’s my best match to AMB, which is why my thoughts dwell on stories so much right now. Next to Me is one of those stories where the world matters just as much as the character building, if not more, which is why the understated majesty of AMB is a good match.

Seeing a blonde Englishman use –kun like a Japanese is a bit disorienting.

Simon really treats Chise like a child, eh?

The “open” sign now says “close”. What is this house, an apothecary?

The CGI door was a bit weird…

Whoa! That was a bit of a fast approach into the dragon scene, but apparently the dragon part of AMB was really hyped…

Ancient Magus’ Bride 3

How does skelly-man see like that?

The dragons look like…Pokémon! (That was my first thought, LOL.)

This blonde is Lindel from the promo material I’ve read. He looks like zaShunina (Kado), so it’s best to be wary of him.

Ooh, now there’s an application of shadows I’d never be able to think of!

Holy flame spirits, Batman! Elias has a tongue! (I got spoilered on that by ANN, but it’s crazy seeing it in context.)

Ancient mages shouldn’t be hot like zaShunina! Where are the real old fogeys like Kiku(hiko, SGRS)?

Uncle Nevin! I found it extremely charming this uil has a name beyond “Uil”.

Can these dragons read minds? Or is it just the power of Dragon Knowledge (TM)?

When they say “Anime saved my life”, I guess they never meant it this literally…or at least, Chise never meant it this literally.

That dragon has way too many eyes!!! Yipes.

Huh. I haven’t felt this feeling since SGRS. The feeling of a masterpiece on my eyeballs.

羽鳥チセ <- That’s how you write Chise’s name, so they did another “Western creature uses Japanese knowledge” thing…

D’aww. That was beautiful! No wonder people like it, now I like it too. Nothing short of majestic, guys, nothing short of majestic.

Hey, the guy who voiced Nevin is called Ryuuzaburo. Ryuu means dragon in this case. (Meta pun!)

Idolish 7 1

Crunchyroll really tried to hype this thing up! Wow. So, here I am at what could pretty much be called a premiere event of the simulcast commentary. Enjoy, friends.

By the way, I’ve tried a bit of the Idolish 7 game (but since it was on BlueStacks, I couldn’t do the “rhythm” part of the rhythm game very well and subsequently couldn’t get too far) and of course, there’s a vested interest through Shirai, Masuda and Nishiyama. Update: There’s no Nishiyama in sight. Sorry, guys.

Oh wow. This is exactly as I remember it in the game, right down to the word!

Yay! I was looking forward to seeing the basketball scene adapted, since it’s possibly the only scene I got to experience in the game in its (Japanese) entirety. Bring the dang game to the Western world, Bandai!

Riku is such a pure cinnamon bun when he gets the basketball back.

LOL, Nagi is such a flirt, kyaa~ (semi-sarcastic).

I don’t remember them dropping Trigger’s name so early…geesh, my memory must be sketchier than I thought it was.

Just as a reference, Iori (black) is 17 while Riku (red) is 18.

Ooh, I just spotted a Trigger ad on one building during that cut.

Ooh, good sense of drama these guys have got going.

Idolish 7 2

Expressiveness for a grump like Yamato, LOL.

LOL, there’s a shark in the back…

Iori has a cat shirt, hahaha.

Cool and sharp…stationery? Like a compass?

Iori’s so sarcastic, I can’t tell f he’s ever being serious or not.

I don’t know who’s my favourite so far out of these i7 boys. Probably the one similar to my husbando, Tamaki.

Ahh, gotta love me a good, honest hardworking anime gal. You don’t see them very often, y’know. It’s refreshing.

That was a great Iori impression Mitsuki did, even visually (note: I didn’t listen to Mitsuki do the impression, I only read the subs…hence my comment). Troyca really captured the style of the game, to boot, which is another cherry on the cake.

Notice Iori stands in front of the D.C. (da capo) and leaves to reveal it.

I researched who Riku’s brother is while I was watching ep 1 and…(spoilers for the uninitiated!) the brother is Tenn of Trigger!

There was a soba ad in the back in one lingering shot…

Hey, I get the feeling there’s CGI involved in this dance segment, but it’s…hardly detectable! Amazing! These guys seem to have gone a long way since the horribly animated Monster Generation MV.

Notice they (Troyca) only use CGI in (mostly) shots which don’t involve closeups.

Of course Nagi winks in the middle of his performance…

Whoo, yeah. That was a bold move by Crunchyroll, and of course that would grab me more than just leaking the first ep. I wonder if any critics covered this on their blogs…? Or would it not matter, since critics wouldn’t cover this “uncritical slop” anyway? Nonetheless, I covered it, and that’s what matters! (Update: Yeah, all the critics – Frog-kun, Lauren in Space, Mage in a Barrel etc. - passed on it. As expected of those critics…)

#simulcast commentary #girls' last tour #ancient magus bride #juuni taisen #zodiac war #idolish7 #shoujo shuumatsu ryokou #Chesarka watches Juuni Taisen #mahoutsukai no yome #Chesarka watches MahoYome #Chesarka watches Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou #Chesarka watches Idolish7

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