#how many childhood characters does he have to half ass
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#mod post#garfield#this is the only time bullying is okay#how many childhood characters does he have to half ass
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Watershed Moments || part I
Masterlist Part II || ao3
Eddie Munson x Reader || E 18+
[demi!Eddie x 'tomboy'/gender-nonconforming!bi!reader]
childhood best friends to lovers, no Upside Down, canon divergent
Words: 3.8k
Series Summary:
Watershed Moment is a term most people use for big events. Such events that mark historical turning points of great significance and shape the course of humanity; events that cause the printing presses of the world to run hot and make it from the front pages of newspapers into history books for the following generations to study.
Opening the passenger door of Eddie’s van on a rainy Friday evening is exactly that.
You're in love with your best friend.
How many of those pivotal moments have there been in the past decade that have led you to this point? And what happens now?
Themes/Warnings for this chapter | pls check Masterlist for general tags:
||fluff, pining, angst, hurt/comfort, implied/non-graphic domestic abuse, child abuse: physical and mental, child neglect, dysfunctional family dynamics||
large parts of the fic will take place in the characters teenage years
A/N: I wrote this almost a year ago then got very precious about it and stopped in fear of fucking it up. I've decided to release it into the world before the layer of dust gets so thick that I can't find my way back to it anymore. Around half of it is already written in various states. This is a queer story at heart, even though you might not find it in explicit terms we'd use today to label and describe things.
Friday the 8th of May 1987
The music announces his arrival.
It always does.
It’s the reason you leave your window ajar whenever you’re expecting him; no matter the time of day, no matter the weather.
The faint notes of shrieking guitars slowly turn into recognizable music as you slip on your shoes and look for your keys. Going by his choice of song, he must be in a good mood and so you descend down the stairs in a hurry to meet him.
He’s picking you up to go see a movie like he had done countless times before.
You hook your fingers under the door handle, the metal smooth from years of doing so, and pull, rousing the familiar creeeeek of the hinges, expecting to get into the car with the boy who had been your best friend for over a decade, and suddenly find yourself staring into the face of the man you love.
Just like that.
There is a dip in the cushion of the passenger seat, perfectly molded to your ass and right there, he had placed a gift for you.
“Surprise,” he says with a smile that melts the sidewalk under your feet, gesturing at the book that’s waiting for you but there is nothing on this planet, or any other, that could bring you to pull your eyes away from his at this very moment.
You see him almost every day, had seen him not quite twenty-four hours ago, had talked to him on the phone this morning and it had been the same as always; he was Eddie.
Your Eddie.
And as you hold on to the door, waiting for the world to stop spinning so violently that you fear it could launch you into outa space, you realize that nothing about that had changed and still nothing was the same.
Just like that.
Eddie tilts his head, one hand still gripping the steering wheel, the other waving.
“Squash calling pumpkin, do you copy?” Eddie says in a deep, silly voice and the sweet sound of your childhood nicknames brings your realization full circle.
You are in love with your best friend.
“A-affirmative…”
“Ah, there you are. Will you get in here now? You’re getting wet.”
Oh, if you only knew.
Heat rises to your cheeks as you climb into your seat, carefully taking the book into your hands like it held the secrets to the universe between its covers. You yank the passenger door close absentmindedly, the slam echoing as loud in your ears as your own heartbeat and you wait for Eddie to complain about it but he doesn’t. Instead, you can sense him looking at you while you stare at the book in your lap.
And that really had been it, right?
What had made the truth about your feelings for Eddie hit you like a load of bricks; it was in the way he looked at you. In his giddy excitement to make you happy, his confidence that he absolutely would because he knew you so well and in the fact that you would look at him the same way if your roles were reversed.
That you do it all the time.
And just like that, it scares the shit out of you.
“H-how…” you start, but fail to find the right question. Your voice sounds brittle to your ears.
But Eddie chuckles, moves in closer and puts his chin on your shoulder, just like he always does. As if his silly little gesture hadn’t just changed both of your lives fundamentally and irrevocably.
“You mean,” he clears his throat and puts on an impersonation of your voice that’s infuriatingly remarkable. “Oh, Eddie, my precious Eddie, how did you get your brilliant and highly skilled hands on the new Stephen King novel that came out just two days ago?” His breath against your neck is warm and you just know that he’s pursing his lips in a silly grin.
“Yeah, that,” you swallow and then you give him what he’s after. A smile. Because no matter how flustered you are, you just can’t help it. “And I don’t sound like that.”
“Oohhh yes, you do,” he croons and the bass in his words vibrates through your bones where it’s already part of your marrow. You want to turn your head and kiss him. “It’s adorable,” he says and sits up, leaning back into his seat.
You huff out a laugh. “Do you compliment yourself in my voice a lot when I’m not around?”
“Something has to get me through the dreadful hours of the day where I have no access to your praise.”
It’s casual when he says things like that, and while Eddie starts the car and pulls into the street, you try to remember if it ever made you feel like combusting before.
Of course it had. All the time.
“Rick had some business in Indianapolis and I asked him to get me a copy,” Eddie explains into the silence, glancing over at you. “Seatbelt, pumpkin.”
“You… you didn’t have to do this…” you say instead of Thank you, Squashboy! instead of You’re the fucking best, Munson! instead of any of those soft things you would have thrown at him without hesitation just ten minutes ago and put on your seatbelt as he ordered, hoping he wouldn’t smell your confusion like the emotional bloodhound he was around you.
But Eddie laughs. “And listen to you whine about it until Hawkins’ dusty ol’ bookstore catches up with the modern world? Yeah, fat chance.”
“It would just have been a few weeks… tops…”
“A few weeks too many of seeing you mope. I’m not strong enough for that shit.”
You open the book on the first page to occupy your hands, which are begging to be buried in Eddie's hair, with something safe but, oh, the endeavor fails horribly because, of course, he left you a note inside and you should have expected it. Your fingertips trace over the familiar flow of Eddie’s handwriting with an infinite tenderness that’s meant for his cheeks.
for my little monster,
can't wait for you to read this to me.
- your doctor
E.
“If you want to,” he adds softly.
I want to whisper every word of it into your mouth.
“This is the second book of the series, remember?… You wouldn’t understand a thing.”
“Incorrect,” he says solemnly, stops the car at a red light and almost jumps into your face with an open, all-teeth smile. “Surprise!”
“You… you read the first book?”
“Correct!” he bites his lip, excitement tugging at his cheeks. He’s so close. You could just lean in to taste him and for a moment you think that maybe he’s waiting for you to do so as he hovers there, big brown eyes roaming your face until a cacophony of horns pulls him away from you. “Fuckers,” he mumbles as he starts the car again and picks up the conversation where he’d left it: “And lo and behold: I liked it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he chuckles. “I know, I know… I’ve given you speeches about why King doesn’t do it for me and all but you kept gushing about this Gunslinger book and how different it is and…” Eddie shrugged, “I thought I should give it a chance aaand it turned out you were right about it.”
You’re everything.
How did I miss this?
And what does it mean that I did?
“Hey, uh, are you alright?” he throws several quick glances at you, brows drawn together; all the joy, all the mirth gone.
Just like that.
Don’t you fucking hurt him!
“Why?”
“Why?” Now it’s a full-on frown. “Well, you’re… quiet. Which, you know, is totally fine with me generally, but I just told you, uh, that I read your favorite book and liked it after being a grump about it for months and—”
“Eddie?” A sigh.
“Y-yeah?”
“Wanna skip the movie, go to your place and start this?” you say softly, holding up the book. “Maybe get some snacks on our way?”
No hesitation.
“Hold on!” he cheered and you know that voice and that frantic look over his shoulder and—
“Oh no!” you huff as you scramble to clutch at something. “No nono no…”
—then the U-Turn thumps you against the door while Eddie laughs like he’s fueled on pure adrenaline.
“Fucking hell, Munson, slow down,” you shout over the wild cackling and he does. “If you kill us before I finished that series I’ll whip your ass!”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, sweetheart,” he says with a grin and your pulse speeds up; eight little words and your rabbit heart races faster than from the prospect of possible death caused by Eddie’s poor impulse control. You watch him in awe as he forces himself to calm down, fingers drumming on the steering wheel, head bopping to their rhythm. “That was fun.”
“Yeah,” you try to sound distraught. “Such fun that you’re taking years off my life every time you do shit like that, you maniac!”
“But I’m giving them back to you by making you laugh. So it doesn’t count.”
***
1976
It was the October of your eleventh Halloween when the Munsons moved into the ground-floor apartment.
You just bought the first pumpkin of the season and couldn’t wait to spend the rest of the day drafting out a spooky design to carve into the tough orange flesh.
Impatient to start, you burst through the door and were halfway up the first landing when you saw the skinny lanky boy fumble with a box that looked way too heavy for his frame if the strain of the muscles in his arms was anything to go by.
Spinning around, his eyes were wide and alert, maybe even afraid, before he saw you on the stairs, relaxed a little and turned away to get on with opening the door.
“Here, I’ll help you,” you said, placed your pumpkin on the floor and rushed to his side.
“N-no, t’s alright, I'm… I got it—“ His words were swallowed by a loud thump as the boy swayed, barely saving the box from tumbling to the ground by wedging it between the door and his skinny chest.
“Don’t looks like it,” you quipped, ready to snatch his key to assist when—
“What the fuck are you banging against that door?“
— the door disappeared in a blur and a big angry man appeared in its place. The boy barely caught his balance before the box could slip again.
“Sorry Dad, sorry I didn’t—“
“Inside, Eddie!”
Eddie’s head whipped around to you, face scrunched in worry, his skin had turned a pale grey and you were sure to see the faint yellow remnants of a bruise high up on his cheek.
“Eddie!” he snarled and without another word Eddie pushed past his father, his backlit silhouette vanishing through a door on the left in a small hallway.
“Who are you?” the man almost barked at you.
Refusing to sound afraid, you introduced yourself. “My family lives on the second floor - welcome to the neighborhood, Mister…?”
“Munson,” he said briskly, but less angry and held out a large sweaty hand for you to shake. You did with reluctance. “Polite of you to swing by and say hello but we’re busy here, so if you don’t mind.” And with that, he closed the door.
You didn’t mind. You didn’t mind one bit.
Well…
“Oh,” your mother said when you told her everything, still heaving from running up the stairs like you were on fire. “But the boy probably just fell off his bike. You know how boys are, honey, don’t you?”
Suddenly, there was an itch in your own scraped knees; somewhat of a guilty sensation that added confusion to the upset.
„I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about,“ she added with a thin smile.
And you wanted to believe her, wanted to believe her so badly but your mother hadn’t seen the look in the boy’s - Eddie’s - eyes when you startled him.
--
Those same eyes were faintly red and a little puffy when you answered the knock at the door half an hour later.
“Hi,” Eddie said in a jolly tone that only increased your confusion. “You forgot your pumpkin.”
“Oh shit!” You hugged the pumpkin to your chest like you were reunited with a friend and glimpsed a first faint preview of that blinding smile you would eventually come to love so much on Eddie’s face. “Thank you, Eddie.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Your, uhm, father called you that.”
“Right,” he swallowed, smile snuffing out like a candle. “Right.”
There was a silence filled with a thousand questions your mother would deem inappropriate to ask a stranger so you settled for an apology.
“Sorry, if I got you in trouble.”
“What?” Eddie drew his head back, frowning. “No, no. You didn’t, no trouble at all. Dad ’s just— you know, stressed with the moving.”
“Oka—“
“Have to get going now,” he laughed hollowly and backed away, “so much left to do.”
“See you around, Eddie,” you could only call after him as he hurried down the stairs, his reply echoing back up to you.
“See you around, pumpkin.”
But you didn’t see Eddie around much. Not at home and not at school either. He was a year above your grade - you figured that out soon enough - but it almost seemed like he was skipping about half the week on a regular basis. The few times you met him sneaking through the house like a shy cat, he was covered in grease or paint, carrying himself like a man who came home at the end of a fifty-hour workweek. He never talked much, never asked for your name, always called you Pumpkin.
You, however, saw a lot of Mr Munson; going in and out the building several times a day, often in the company of equally grim-looking men, sometimes with a woman with big brown eyes which gave her away as Eddie’s mother even before she introduced herself to you. She had wonderful long brown hair and you asked yourself if Eddie’s buzzed scalp would sprout in this deep wavy brown or his father’s dirty blond if he was to let it grow out.
You also heard Mr Munson. A lot. Especially at night, and a few weeks in, your parents started to doubt that Eddie and his mother were simply on the clumsy side.
--
Halloween finally arrived and you proudly placed your final piece of fine pumpkin craftsmanship out the front door, waiting for your father to come down to light the candles like you did every year.
“Hey, Wednesday.”
You turned towards the open door and Eddie slowly peeled out of the shadows of the hallway, hands behind his back and a careful smile on his face. His voice was soft and timid. The next time you would hear him talk, it had already started to break.
“Eddie,” you smiled and tilted your head. “You watch the Addams Family?”
“Duh,” he said and fully stepped into the beam of light falling into the hallway. “Looks, uh, nice… the costume, I mean… self-made?”
“Yeah, my mother helped me make it. What are you going as?”
One hand left his back as he bowed his head and scratched his scalp. “M’ not… allowed to. Dad thinks it’s… a waste of time… and silly.”
“Shit,” you mumbled, an awkward silence fell between you. “Uhm, what would you choose? If you were allowed?”
“Huh?” his face lit up slightly as he entertained the thought. “Frodo, I think.”
“Who’s that?”
“Who’s… who’s Frodo?” The disbelieve in his eyes was comical, almost theatric. “That part of your Wednesday act? Making cruel jokes and shit?”
“What are you talking about?” you chuckled and raised your hands to the sky in an equal amount of theatrics.
“The Lord of The Rings? Never heard of that?”
“Oh, yeah, but never read it or anything... my mom thinks it’s not appropriate… for a girl.”
“Shit,” he huffed. “And I thought my life was sad…” And what was meant as a joke, darkened his face like an eclipse, pulled his gaze away from you and into the distance before he shook his head to chase it away. “I, uhm, was wondering… I made a thing? For, uh… you know?” he pointed his chin at the decorations lined up beside the doorstep.
“Oh!” you called out in excitement. “That’s what you‘re keeping behind your back?”
“Uh, yeah…” he pinched his eyes shut. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
“No,” you said and Eddie cracked open one terrified eye. “If it’s funny, I’ll laugh! You’ll just have to join me…”
“Uhm, uuh…”
“Let’s seeeee!”
“Okay, okay, Jesus…” Eddie took a deep breath and revealed his work with slightly trembling hands you chose to ignore for his sake. It was a butternut squash and Eddie had carved a swarm of bats into the surface.
“Oh!” you said again but this time in awe.
“I know it’s not… good or anything, not like yours and I think I got the wrong kind of, uh, pumpkin because, like… you can’t get a candle in there— stupid thing ‘s like solid fucking concrete and I get it when you don’t want it out here—“
“Are you insane? This is so good!” you stopped him and snatched the squash from his hands.
“Wait, really?”
“Uh-hn,” you turned it around to take in every little last bat. “Must have taken you forever… butternut squash really is tough!”
“That’s what it’s called?” he said, rubbing the back of his head, a deep blush tinting his whole face bright red. “Had no idea…”
You stepped to the side, already busy figuring out how to rearrange the display to integrate the squash. “We just pick one out together next year… if you want. I can show you the right ones.”
“Nah, don’t want to bother you… it’s fine.”
Hunkering on the ground, your white thighs forgotten, you paused and looked up at Eddie in genuine confusion. “Why would you bother me?”
“I… don’t… dunno…”
The squash was in the perfect place and you stood up, dusted off your hands on the back of your black skirt and put a careful hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “It’s cool, Squashboy, really.”
“I…” Eddie’s face went through a plethora of emotions in seconds but he settled on a silly grin. “Did you just call me, Squashboy?”
“Would you prefer your Squashness? Or… uhmm… Lord of the Squash?— t’s a bit of a mouth full but if you insist…”
“Shut up,” Eddie threw his head back and laughed; it was loud and wild and echoed through the staircase. “That’s sooo stupid.”
There were footsteps coming from inside as someone was descending the stairs and next to you, Eddie turned into cold hard stone.
“T’s probably just my dad,” you tried to comfort him, sure you knew what this meant by now. “He’s coming to light the candles.”
The steps grew louder and Eddie’s skin was this awful shade of grey again.
“Eddie? Are you o—“
“I have to go,” he gritted out through his teeth, turned and hurried down the street in jerky steps.
“Hey honey,” your father said, appearing in the doorframe but you were still looking after the skinny boy in the too-big clothes rushing down the street, a thick knot in your chest. “Is that the Munson boy?” your father’s voice was casual, but not casual enough.
You looked up into a frown. “What’s wrong?”
“Hm?… Oh, nothing. Just got lost in thought for a second.” He finally looked down at you again, clapping his hands together. “I’m here to light some candles.”
What usually was one of your favorite rituals on Halloween was clouded by that awful shadow that kept creeping over Eddie’s face again and again. You decided to share your loot of candy with him when you came back; it wasn’t much but it was something. You’d just have to wait until Mr M was out of the house or whatever, but you could think about that later.
But when you came back home, Eddie was gone.
Nobody was telling you anything but after one week of lurking around adults when they didn’t pay attention gave you enough to piece it together.
There had been a fight. A bad fight and your father finally called the police. It took two deputies to get Mr Munson out of the house and into the back of a police car. Deputy Hopper gave him a good kick in the back of his knee to help him the rest of the way. Nobody on the block had seen that occur though, should anybody come around to ask. When the dust had settled down a little, Mrs Munson was nowhere to be found, so Deputy Hopper came back to collect Eddie.
The Munson’s rent had been paid for all through the next week and in the middle of that week, you saw a tall man whose features reminded you of Mr Munson carrying a big box out of the front door of your building. He crammed it into the back of a car already filled with other stuff and drove away before you could take a look at the front to see if Eddie was on board.
A few days later, men in blue overalls came to clear the rest of the ground-floor apartment. You lingered on the first-floor landing, observing a family’s life getting ripped out of this house like a rotten tooth from a jaw. When the blue men went outside for a smoke, you slipped inside. There wasn’t much left of what made a home a home; a potted plant, some kitchenware and— a breeze moved the curtains in the main room ever so slightly but enough for you to spot a little figurine hidden in the far corner of the windowsill. A small man with a knobbly nose and dirty feet.
You took it home with you.
And when one day you saw the tall man who looked a little like Mr. Munson from your window, you almost jumped in front of his car to make sure Frodo finally made it back to Eddie. That was what the other Mr. Munson called the little guy.
“I can’t believe it,” Eddie’s uncle rasped, “been lookin’ for this guy all over town… thought the clean-up crew dropped it off at some thrift store or church with the other stuff or somethin’. Thought he was gone for good.”
“Tell Eddie I said hi,” you beamed. “And that I saved him some candy.”
general taglist:
@bettyfrommars @dr-aculaaa @deathbecomesthem @songforeddiemunson @raccoonboywrites
@jo-harrington @lunatictardis @skrzydlak @moonbeamsandmayhem @slutforstabbings
@eddieslooneymoonie @chaoticgood-munson @storiesbyrhi @mrsjellymunson @the-unforgivenn
@thecapricunt1616 @allthingsjoeq
#eddie munson#eddie munson x reader#eddie munson x you#my writing#watershed moments#Eddie Munson Angst#Eddie Munson Fluff
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Hob Gadling - the absolute maddest of immortal lads
One of the things I love most about Hob Gadling as a character (and as a result, do my best to capture in fic) is how unique his reactions are to immortality and to Dream, and how he so often does the opposite of what one would expect from the genre of "humans granted immortality" but also what the average person and most of the audience expects that they would do with immortality, lending well to the concept that Hob is, genuinely, unhinged and a truly supernatural creature in his own right, which is often lost when the character we see him most often juxtaposed against is Dream, who is even more odd and unhinged if in very different ways
(I've decided to be systematic about this and go through meeting by meeting so strap in, folks it got long, as usual!)
1389 - First of all, Hob simply bragging at all that he doesn't plan to die. OG hipster right there, loving life before it was cool. But also, ok, loving life after being born less than a decade after the Black Plague ended. And in the midst of a great many Black Plague aftershocks! The latter half of the 1300s was a truly abysmal time to be alive, with huge social upheaval, war, plagues, "two bloody Popes fightin'" and in the midst of all this is Hob motherfuckin' Gadling, cheerfully announcing that death is for suckers and he doesn't intend to ever do it.
The man is a soldier! You'd think he'd be more accepting and philosophical about his inevitable death given the time he lives in, the profession he has chosen, the fact that most young men his age were wiped out at age 9 by the second wave of the Black Death, and just, in general, doing all of this while having the misfortune to live in England at the time.
And then when Dream comes up to him, like a complete weirdo, and challenges him on this, Hob is actually pretty nice to him! He gives him a side eye but he also goes along with the question, tells him to ignore his friend's jibes, and cheerfully accepts the wager! I cannot express to you how many turns in the road there are between what a normal person would do and what Hob Gadling does in that moment.
1489 - This one bugs me because the most unexpected thing Hob does is seemingly regress in maturity despite now being 100+ years old.
Now, I'm a huge fan of the theory that he's conning Dream right now and putting on the innocent chucklehead routine to put Dream off from kidnapping him to Faerie Land in exchange for his immortality. HOWEVER, since that's just a headcanon, let's take Hob as he is on the page!
Hob has a job. A Freaking Job. He used to be a bandit and a soldier, things that kind of make sense to do as an immortal (like The Old Guard) when you can't die! You could theoretically make BANK there just by taking dangerous jobs. But Hob doesn't?? He gets a normal-ass job, though in that day's equivalent of getting a job at Microsoft or Apple before they became big, Caxton is like one of the first modern startups in essence, a new technology that made TONS of money once it was imported, and Hob was on the ground floor. Still. HE GOT A JOB as an IMMORTAL. He doesn't seem to have this immortality thing figured out yet? And he doesn't ask Dream hardly any questions about it either! You'd think he'd be frothing at the mouth to better understand wtf happened to him, but once Dream clarifies that he's not the Devil and Hob's soul isn't in danger, that's it! No further questions, your honor! WHAT??
Also, just when you WOULD expect him to beg for death (that IS the genre savvy thing to do, Dream's not wrong!) he DOESN'T. He's more in awe than ever, he seems to be experiencing a second childhood over the fact. He's just vibing and living life. That's so, so unusual in this genre.
Hob also hasn't done any of the savvy things an immortal might do after 100 years! He doesn't actually seem all that angsty about why is he immortal, beyond a bit of fear he might need to pay the piper (Dream) now for this gift. Most vampires in an Anne Rice novel would have gone through about 20 stages of grief after they dealt with the first 100 years of everyone they know and love dying but Hob seems to not only be unbothered but actively gearing up for the next century. It's so bizarre. IT'S SO BIZARRE and I love it because I LOVE characters who DON'T do what you'd expect!
1589 - Hob has a family. HOB HAS A FAMILY. Who in their right MIND would start a family, knowing you'd have to bury your spouse and your children? HOB MOTHERFUCKING GADLING that's who! It's incomprehensible! He does it anyway! It's why I headcanon that he planned to support and nurture his family throughout time, like it was all very deliberate to found a dynasty, but it need not be! Knowing him, he just saw a pretty girl and married her! He didn't even CONSIDER his own wife and children getting angry and jealous with him for having immortality he can't share with them? He didn't even CONSIDER the heartbreak?? WHAT?! Who knows! He just did!
Now, this Hob HAS begun to do SOME of the things one would expect of an immortal - like build up generational wealth, BUT he has a KNIGHTHOOD. What immortal in their right MIND would draw that sort of attention to themselves?? HOB, THAT'S WHO. What are you ON, man, that's INSANE! No wonder he got drowned as a witch the man had ZERO CAUTION AT ALL.
1689 - the man is destitute. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN IF YOU'RE AN IMMORTAL? This is AS puzzling as anything else. Theoretically, Hob could just take a dangerous job with a high fatality rate for quick cash and rebuild his fortune pretty quickly, but he DOESN'T. What went wrong? The possibilities are tantalizing and painfully human that maybe he did do that and failed anyway, or hit even WORSE strings of truly abysmal bad luck.
But somehow, at 300 YEARS OLD it's not until 1789 that we hear Hob has begun socking money away for a rainy day! How does it TAKE YOU that long, sir?? How is that NOT something you figure out in your first century? I've seen a lot of fan writers ascribe a certain amount of immortal savvy to Hob but it's REALLY not there on the page! The guy is NOT genre savvy about immortality AT ALL he doesn't do ANY of the things one would expect, it's absolutely WILD that he falls this low after 300 years after completely failing to, theoretically, CONSIDER this possibility! And then, AND THEN, the guy STILL wants to live. I mean, this one hardly needs saying, that's nuts after what he went through, it's on the page that he's NUTS for this. But the guy is literally in the gutter dreaming of the stars, he is unstoppable I love him so fucking much what a force of nature.
1789 - OK, we've already mentioned that it took until 1789 for Hob to start saving money for a rainy day but let's talk about the fact HE'S NOT ACTUALLY CAREFUL ABOUT BEING CAPTURED?? Again, least genre savvy immortal EVER. You can't die so you'd THINK that being captured or imprisoned or god forbid, thrown down a mine shaft would be the SCARIEST possible fates when you don't have death as an escape, but the guy doesn't even blink at the thought of getting captured by an occultist like Johanna Constantine, dude's totally unbothered! DREAM has to tell him after 400 YEARS that maybe he should be worried about this? THE GUY GOT DROWNED AS A WITCH, picked himself up, dusted himself off, got into some crimes against humanity, and MOVED ON apparently without learning a single goddamn lesson he hasn't had since 1389 which is how to kick ass and look good doing it BUT HE'S NOT EVEN A PROFESSIONAL FIGHTER AS A CAREER, he's just a gentleman of means!
He just... lives a normal human life and seems to expect weird things like being kidnapped by occultists to not happen so long as he stays within those boundaries and you know what? IT SEEMS TO HAVE WORKED! Because to be fair, how many of us outside the bounds of fiction would ever expect the wild stuff like kidnapping to really happen? It's statistically quite vanishingly rare! And that's been all Hob has needed, presumably, to not need to stress since the damn witch trials about his immortality! So yeah, I read fic where Hob is like this very savvy immortal but by 400 YEARS he's BARELY learned to have a savings account under a different name and he STILL doesn't seem too bothered by the possibility of getting hurt or captured! Like, AT ALL?! Absolutely class act right here, top lad, unbelievable, no notes. HOW do you SURVIVE like this as an anomaly, Hob?
1889 - By now, it SEEMS like Hob has bought a clue. He's pretty understated, he's made some amends, SEEMS to have resolved to be less of a shithead, and he's got this immortality thing figured out. It only took him 500 FUCKING YEARS. But again, Hob ISN'T fabulously wealthy as far as we can tell. He's not a megalomaniac and he STILL seems to be vibin' as just a dude doing Just A Dude things like HAVING A JOB and if we borrow from Hob's Leviathan a bit, he's STILL just jumping between industries, just living life down at the normal human level. He hasn't detached from humanity, he lives in the day to day on a level that's just INCONCEIVABLE for a being that's 500 years old.
1989 - Ok, moving on a bit from Hob being an immortal, because getting excited about technology like his brick phone is absolutely so charming I want to squish his cheeks, but he's hardly the only immortal to get excited about that. What I want to talk about is how HOB FORGIVES DREAM for 1889. Because, look, Dream is a prick there. Hob could have been more diplomatic but Dream could have waited for the apology and he didn't.
I have seen SO MANY TAKES where Hob would be MAD after 1889 and RIGHTFULLY SO. But he's NOT. He's not! There are so many fics where he has lingering hurt over it but that's just NOT what the character does! He blames himself! Guy did pretty much nothing wrong except maybe choose his words poorly, but he's blaming HIMSELF for making Dream uncomfortable. Absolute legend. Saints have nothing on this man, that is saint-like behavior. I'd be furious. Hob just misses his friend and BLAMES HIMSELF that Dream isn't there. Not an a single, microscopic trace of anger in sight.
2022 - And then, AND THEN, when he has EVERY REASON to flip out when Dream shows up, finally, after 133 YEARS, after Hob has APPARENTLY stuck around the area just in case, WAITING for him, what does this fucking legend say? "You're late."
THAT'S IT! He's not mad, he totally has a right to be! He doesn't jump out of his chair in shock, that would be a totally expected reaction to! He glances up! He acts like Dream is 5 minutes late instead of over a century WHAT IS THAT?? WHAT IS THAT?! HOW?!! They just settle back with a pint after that like it's nothing. That's not what I would do. I don't think that's what almost any human would do after a shock like that. I still can't wrap my head around it.
So anyway, Hob Gadling, absolutely FASCINATING character from the perspective of just not doing a single fucking thing you'd expect an immortal Just A Dude to do. Goddamn legend right there. Worth remembering for those like me who are obsessed enough to write this guy in fic. He is just so... opposite of everything you'd expect and that is so fucking sexy of him wow
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why? please explain the soldier, port, king in excruciating detail PLEASE
EDIT: ITS FINALLY DONE i'm so sorry this took me like six months I got really busy with school work and I wanted to make sure I wasn't half-assing this anyway thank you for asking please enjoy
For reference I will be quoting the “Poet Soldier King” test on uQuiz as I feel they summarize each role most succinctly.
"You wonder, sometimes, if anger is the only thing you can feel. Remember: love is passion too. You made your own rules and will follow them to death. You try and forget that there is only one rule, and that it is "FIGHT". You are tired of fighting. You try to forget that, too, and keep going. You dream of quiet. Your love is where you heal." -Soldier
It's a subtle element but Vylad’s entire character/existence is about enduring conflict. It's an easy thing to forget due to his calm demeanor, but Vylad has been fighting since the moment he was born (hell, even before). Fighting the ill-contrived gossip of being a bastard son, fighting to prove himself a genuine Ro’Meave, and fighting against Garte and Zane’s abuse over his childhood. It’s a subtler form of conflict, but it’s very interesting to imagine how he was able to put up with all of it (I’ve planned so many prequel fics about the Ro’Meaves you guys). Then there’s the whole shadowknight topic that really is indicative of itself. Vylad's whole arc was based upon leaving behind the violence of his past as a literal soldier within the Shadow Lord's army. Again it’s really easy to forget but this is someone who was revived to burn the world to the ground and slaughter any and every man, woman, and child that got in the way of it. He told Aphmau himself in season 2: “One good deed does not fix a thousand wrongs done. I'm not a good person, let's just leave it at that. Please.” We may not have seen it on screen, but who knows how long Vylad was traveling with Sasha and Gene. I doubt Phoenix Drop was the first village they targeted, and I doubt Gene or Sasha or even Zenix were ever like “oh yeah you can wait outside while we commit atrocities on this Lord and his family and burn the whole village to the ground.” Vylad has a very practical mindset (another trait indicative of a good soldier), and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was purposefully good at his job so it would land him more opportunities to get out of the nether now and again. He enacted violence well enough that he was trusted to be sent outside the nether to go fuck up the overworld. Vylad is a man thoroughly haunted by war and the violence he’s committed against others in a way his brothers just… aren't. Sure, Garroth knows fighting and violence as a means of protection and ensuring the safety of others, but he doesn’t know war. He’s never had someone he cared about die in his arms. He’s never seen a whole village burn to the ground and see innocent people slaughtered left and right. He’s never seen a child screaming at their dead mother to get up. He may use violence, but he was never a violent person. Zane, on the other hand, most definitely was, however, but he hardly ever enacted any of the violence himself. 90% of the time it was jurors or guards he’d given orders to. And while he was more than happy to get his hands dirty every once in a while, he never felt genuine consequence from it.
Continuing on Vylad’s inner psyche, we see after he still keeps a very practical, soldier-like mindset out of the nether in company with Aph and Co: He gets annoyed at Aphmau when she puts off telling everyone about the Tuu’la invasion. He surveys Laurance from a distance and does not interfere even in danger because he’s aware of the long term effect of distrust it would cause him. Upon the chaos in Narhaka, he immediately goes to burn books that have important locations the enemy could use against them. This is actually one of my favorite scenes because of how subtly status-quo breaking it is. Tell me right now of any scene involving book burnings done by a guy the audience is supposed to root for. Vylad’s view of the world makes him incredibly pragmatic and able to calculate the win-loss ratio of his actions and let that decide whether or not he will go through with it.
Vylad may not have the typical surface-level look of the characters often put into the category, but if you really dive into his past, his mindset, and the way he views the world, he easily fits into the role of soldier; with the final line “Your love is where you heal” setting him on the path of redemption we see throughout the whole series.
"Loneliness. Strength. Joy. You are powerful, but struggle believing it. You think you're not enough. Here's the truth : you are. You sing songs and hope they carry faith, because you have run out of it, and yet you still throw your heart out to the world and hope it makes it through. You convince yourself that pain is art because at least then, you will always have something to create. You are tired of stumbling through life. You dream of a ground you can stand on. One day, you will dance. Your love is where you feel - without fear." -Poet
Now I admit for Zane it does require a more particular perspective to place him as poet, but I’ll start simple and slowly transition to red string and corkboard. Firstly, from the original song lyrics, “He will slay you with his tongue” applies in at least two different ways. The first being obvious: Zane is incredibly charismatic- you don’t just make it to High Priest without a certain degree of people skills included but not limited to negotiating, preaching, and being able to reason your way through any theological question a questioning sinner could ask you. It’s a shame we don’t see it put into use very often throughout the series, but I think his position gives enough testament to his people skills. The second way this line applied is a bit more literal and a bit more dark, which would be the sheer amount of people who were murdered not by his hands directly, but on mere orders. He can quite literally have people slain in just a few words to the right people. Moving to the more esoteric; the line “You are powerful, but struggle believing it. You think you're not enough.” seems like it be a hitch to his characterization, as it first invokes the idea of someone who lacks self-confidence, which is FAR from what we see Zane characterized as in the story. However I see this from the lense of artists becoming blind to the depth of their own skill. Zane is powerful, but it’s not enough for him. He’s become so accustomed to the level of influence he holds he’s become desensitized to it, like how you stop feeling the cold of the water once you stay in it long enough.The power he’s been swimming in his entire life no longer brings that vitalic shudder of control he craves. Thus he seeks power that goes beyond mortal influence to raw, unchanneled divinity, as that’s the only thing that he has ever been told is above him. He hungers the same as any artist— to be something greater than they already are.
“You convince yourself that pain is art because at least then, you will always have something to create.” The idea of creation draws back to Zane’s relationship with control and divinity. I think it's highly debatable as to whether or not Zane has actual “faith” in the divine (i.e, seeing them as gods he wishes to emulate or simply as extremely powerful beings minus the religious element), but in either case it again leads back to desire for more. (sidenote: Zane’s fatal flaw being lust is such a delicious piece of irony and I could make an essay of its own on it). Anyway, back to the point I was originally trying to make: Zane sows pain and destruction as a means of asserting his power/importance both to others and himself. The “pain” spoken of would normally belong to the poet themself— but this is no ordinary poet, and there is no specific indication where said pain emerges from.
"Duty. Strength. Resignation. You were told to do things and you did them. The world is something that was put into your hands and that you must deal with - so you will. You have a rigid back and steady hands, either metaphorically or physically. Is it nature or nurture ? You don't know. You are tired of being steady. You dream of feeling alive. Not that you aren't, but, sometimes, it's hard to remember that there is a heart between your ribs. Your love is where you breathe." -King
God where do I start. “Duty. Strength. Resignation” It’s like someone just said ‘describe Garroth in three words’. Duty has been his entire life, wanted or not, which leads directly into resignation. “You were told to do things and you did them.The world is something that was put into your hands and that you must deal with - so you will.” He learned his history. He learned the politics. He followed the dogma. He believed in Irene and his father and the glory of O’Khasis and his divine duty to lord over its people. His people. He said it himself in episode 68 he wanted to be exactly like his father, and that he thought to be lord was an honor and a privilege. To him, the weight of the world has rested upon his shoulders for so long that he becomes accustomed to each additional hardship quickly and quietly, never kicking up a fuss about his growing stress and dissatisfaction, like a frog in a pool of water that is steadily increasing in temperature. He locks his festering disdain for glorification of leadership away from his father, his family, and the rest of the world because he cannot show that he is anything but the Atlas of duty he was born to be.
Until, one day, he has enough. He saw what happens to his dear little brother, likely the only person he felt he could truly bond with, and despite everything he still dealt with it, for the sake of the people around him, but when his father commands him to marry a girl he has never met (likely while he is still processing his grief) in the name of ‘duty’, it is the straw that breaks the camel's back. He sees that everything he has worked towards is meaningless as he will never reach a point where his father will be satisfied with him. That his father will continue to take and take from him until there is nothing left but a soulless puppet that will continue to speak his words even after his reign has ended. Every burden he has carried, every grievance he has hidden, every struggle he’s overcome and the hard work he’s put into building himself a true heir of O’Khasis— it all amounts to nothing.
So he leaves.
Now, let me ask you: what would you do if you were a runaway prince escaping the crushing weight of expectation? Take a bunch of money from your no-good dad? Buy a boat ticket and live a new life in luxury on the other side of the world? Never work a day again and dive head first into careless relaxation? Surely, you wouldn’t look twice at a dilapidated little village on the coast. Wouldn’t bother to stop by and lift a finger to help it. You're free, you have a whole life of sweet exemption to look forward to. You wouldn’t give it the time of day.
“You have a rigid back and steady hands, either metaphorically or physically. Is it nature or nurture?”
Garroth finds himself in Phoenix Drop— a rickety dead-end little town as far away from home as possible. He stays, and he helps. He keeps the village running, he helps the Lord wherever he can. He takes in the broken, starved boy he finds in the woods. He does whatever he can to improve the lives of the people around him. Why? He owes them nothing, he’s spent a lifetime crushed under the weight of people's expectations and he turns around just to find himself carrying the weight of more lives on his shoulders. He is doing everything he was taught and everything he ran away from.
But this time it’s different. This time, he sees how he’s helping. There’s no more grating voice telling him none of the effort matters. He has a rigid back and steady hands, metaphorically and physically. For the first time in his life, he can see with his own two eyes that his effort is worth it. There isn’t doubt and lies and corruption floating in and out of his mind. Just the warm, honest smiles of the people he helps. He feels it and it is real. The question “Is it nature or nurture?” is genuine: Is Garroth helping these people out of the kindness of his heart or because it was what he was always told to do, and now that he is without the purpose he was assigned he’s leaning on something familiar? Personally, I think that’s for the audience to decide. I myself would say a mixture of both, leaning more so towards nature. But I digress.
It’s better then, when he helps and can see that he is doing good, but of course, that peace is not to last him. With the Lord’s death and impending turmoil of Phoenix Drop, Garroth’s role in the village shifts drastically to closer resembling the role he ran away from. People are treating him with near as much kindness anymore, no. The most forgiving are losing faith and the least are blaming him. Blaming him for failing to meet their expectations. Now, as things are deteriorating, he has more than enough reason to leave. He gave it the good ol’ college try, and he failed. With the sentiments of the village becoming scarily familiar to that of his father, he should just say “fuck it” and head on off to that faraway land where no one will know his name.
But still, he doesn’t. We see him in Rebirth and how desperate he is to fix the village, to make it work. Even when everyone else is telling him to give up, he refuses. Even sinking, a captain stays on his ship. (Side note: it’s scenes like this that cause me to start tearing up people’s lawns whenever I see takes that label Garroth as having a “fear of responsibility”). And he is completely ready to either make things work or die trying, regardless of what stands in his way.
‘You are tired of being steady. You dream of feeling alive. Not that you aren't, but, sometimes, it's hard to remember that there is a heart between your ribs.’
Aphmau wasn’t the first person he saved. Zenix had likely been around for at least a year beforehand. However Zenix was a hothead teenager in need of guidance, which simply made him become another responsibility Garroth set upon himself. Don’t get me wrong, he definitely cares for him, but their relationship is far different than the one he has with Aphmau.
With Aphmau, he finally has someone who shares the burden. Not only that, but sharing it willingly and with a smile on her face. He’s not used to having a person who presents themselves as an equal sharer of responsibility. Much less, someone who is willing and wanting for him to put his burdens on her (At least, that’s how he sees it). He can’t remember the last time he truly allowed himself to be vulnerable with someone. All the desires he’s pushed down start to bubble back up again, and he starts to imagine things he’d long tried to do away with. He sees Aphmau as a strong leader, one whose idealism is a strength and not a weakness, and how she accomplishes things he never quite got around to doing. An admiration grows for her, yes, but that’s not what makes her different. The difference, he sees, is her vulnerability. How she allows herself to be vulnerable around him. How despite the brave face she puts on, she has just as much fear that she isn’t enough. And she tells him this, directly, because she trusts him. And all of a sudden he realizes that if she can be strong to the rest of the world, and yet still let him see her weakness, her softness, then maybe, just maybe
“Your love is where you breathe.”
He can take his armor off, too.
#zane ro'meave#garroth ro'meave#vylad ro'meave#minecraft diaries#aphmau garroth#mcd#mcd garroth#aphmau mcd#aphmau#mcd zane#mcd vylad#stelli rants#also just as a sidenote that you don't have to take seriously#i tried taking the quiz as I think each character would and got the same results#mcd aphmau#mcd rewrite#minecraft diaries headcanons#garroth#garroth romeave#vylad romeave#vylad mcd#zane romeave#soldier poet king
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I have a thing to say about Bakugo's "apology" that many haven't noticed, or at least I don't see any people discussing it.
You see, not only is his apology backhanded, but it's also...kind of manipulative? We're shown time and time again that Bakugo is intelligent and that he knows how to play mind games. Has anyone stopped to ask why ha was apologizing in front of others? Wh didn't he touch the surface of the bullying he made Izuku go through?
Why, it's to force Izuku into a corner and accept his apology, of course! By leaving out any details about the abuse, Bakugo can brush off any objection from Izuku about him lying. And since Hori likes to warp class 1A's personalities and morals when Bakugo breathes, it puts Izuku into a lose-lose situation.
Does he apologize his abuser and face the fact that no one is going to understand the depths of what happened other than himself? Or is he going to fight back and potentially face judgment from his classmates.
This could've been a great narrative point if canon just ALLOWED Bakugo to be a cunt, making the fans question if he's even capable of becoming a hero. You could even have Izuku struggle to come up with a reply, his thoughts diving back to his traumatic childhood, realizing that either way he's screwed.
What did we get instead? A half-assed apology that Hori haphazardly put together to give Bakugo fans a free pass for his continued abuse.
Gee, great writing amirite?
Yeah it's why I like to call it the Apology-But-Not-Really-Apology.
I think the reason why is because since it's shown Bakugou is kind of a prideful kind of character where he hates it when others are watching him doing something good, that him apologizing in front of them is like him swallowing his pride and actually admitting he was wrong.
But too bad it was all done poorly!
And since the apology itself was vague at best, it's missing the VITAL key points of what he's even apologizing for in the first place! And him saying that nothing much would change just invalidates it all together.
Hori! My guy! Can you PLEASE just acknowledge Bakugou's shitty character and express that in the narrative so Izuku can FINALLY get his say and development he desperately needs!
#bnha critical#mha critical#anti bakugou#anti katsuki bakugou#anti bakugo#izuku deserves better#bakugou critical
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I’m in Love with the Villainess Reaction
Episode 7
How could I have forgotten about Lene’s teachings on “the Way of the Maid”. This should be good.
I see the other Knights showed up this time. I’m sure at least some of them are regretting not sitting on the last meeting when Rod pushed his proposal.
I will say this about Rod, he doesn’t half-ass things. If he’s going to do something, he’s going to put the effort in, hence why he is one of the top students.
Okay, with the glasses, she reminds me of the François Head Maid. I suppose it makes sense she is to blame for this.
Even as a child, Lene had mastered the art of manipulating Claire.
Hmm, I think Misha wears it best.
Also, putting lipstick on Lorek is just adding insult to injury.
Oh, no, Claire as a butler is more dangerous than I thought. I saw that shot in the preview but hearing her speak is doing something to me. And now I know why so many girls ended up falling for Claire later on in the series.
If Rae didn’t take this opportunity, I’d have been disappointed in her.
Claire, don’t threaten her with a good time, you know how she is by now.
It’s that guy, whose name is not really worth remembering. If it weren’t for the momentary focus on him, he’d blend in with all the background characters.
Hello? That person is here, lurking ominously in the shadows.
Now isn’t that interesting. During an “event” where one of the three love interests shows up, it is actually Claire to the rescue. I mean, if we are talking about the LI with the highest affection level, who else would it be?
I think that covers the Lene-focused flashbacks from Claire’s childhood. We did the ones focused on her mother last episode. I wonder when they plan to show us the rest.
You doing okay, Thane? Sounds like you’re losing the will to live.
This is the closest to courtship that Rae has actually done since she met Claire. To put it another way, Rae finally (kind-of) asked Claire out on a date.
Claire, you really set yourself up for that.
This Haunted House gets an A for atmosphere, and an F for costume design.
Does that boy have a permanent blush, or is he that into Yu and Rae?
Rae may understand and agree with the Commoner Movement, but making sure Claire gets her “happy ending” is her priority. If, hypothetically, the Movement ever became a threat to Claire, Rae would not hesitate to show them what a dualcaster can do.
Seriously, Rae, how do you not get it yet? The first time you properly ask Claire out on a date, which she willingly agreed to, and you close it out by wishing her luck getting with someone else. No wonder the poor girl is so confused and not sure whether to believe in your love or not.
I do get to a certain extent what Rae means when she says Claire saved her. I had a similar life-altering experience playing a certain game. It had such an impact on me, that when I changed my name, I took that character’s name as part of my new one.
Rae doesn’t realise the opportunity she let slip by. Still, Claire did hold on to the necklace.
I see Claire’s ED song has changed, just like Rae’s, which I still haven’t found a translation for, yet.
Guess we’re skipping the shopping encounter with Dole, Claire’s father. I suppose that’s fine. Unless we get a second season, there’s not much point teasing the audience too much if there’s no guarantee of a payoff.
I figured if we had the extra time this episode, we’d have that as a cliffhanger.
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back on my bullshit y'all. implausible historical scenario: southern alexander hamilton (pt 1: lavien & laurens version)
Part 2: Washington's son dramatic-ass version
my favorite hobby is shoving historical figures into impossible scenarios so i can get them to do what i want. once again made up some convoluted series of events just to create a hamilton wildly out of character- god forbid, a southerner who might even get along with thomas jefferson. here's the first implausible scenario that make it possible.
Alexander goes to live with his half brother Peter Lavien.
Peter Lavien was the legitimate child of Rachel Hamilton’s first marriage. He moved to Beaufort, South Carolina in 1764 at eighteen and became a prominent merchant and member of the church. However, he returned to St. Croix in 1769 to settle his mother’s estate, aka get everything that she had wanted to go to James Jr. and Alexander. In 1769, the two boys were taken in by their cousin Peter Lytton (who died), and then Lytton’s father, who also died a month later. Probable that this happened after Lavien had once again left St. Croix, but let’s just imagine that he for some reason takes pity on the boys - and takes them with him. Nothing makes sense here, roll with it.
It would be even sadder and morbidly funny if he only took Alexander. I say this because in his 1778 last Will and Testament Lavien left “Alexander Hamilton and his brother Robert Hamilton” a fairly substantial amount of money. One brother must’ve left a greater impression on him and maybe poor James Jr. hears this half brother who took his inheritance say “Alex and Robert can come with me” and goes “Who tf is Robert, fuck this” and peaces out.
Now, politically: Extrapolating since I’m not sure how prominent “prominent merchant” is, but maybe this means that Alex has the chance to meet prominent southerners early on, who like many others, are charmed by his energy and precocity. Does this mean he has more affection and allegiance for South Carolina than he did in real life for St. Croix? Does his politics and economic experience change? Assuming that like Washington, wartime experience is enough to make him a nationalist and he still had some experience at Cruger’s (and maybe helping Lavien) and thus does not have differing economic beliefs, his enemies would lose out on a major attack: perceived bias to the North. His connection to the Schuyler family would still serve, but maybe without as much weight, since he has those southern connections.
I love the idea of a South Carolinian Alexander Hamilton who grows up in a fairly secure American home with a steady guardian. The personal implications! The family drama of being forced to rely on a half brother who resents you for taking his mom, and who you resent back for taking your inheritance! Does this give him more issues, less issues? No idea! Even worse, Lavien was apparently a Tory, so there’s that. Two brothers who perhaps got closer over the years, split apart again by political differences. “I take pity on a bastard brat and you repay me with this?” type shit. Lavien moved out to Georgia in 1777, and apparently died in 1780 or 1781 which means Hamilton would’ve been a prominent aide de camp to the commander in chief, and potentially married into a great New York family when it happens. How would he react to that?
And I can’t give up the idea of Colonel Alexander Hamilton of South Carolina meeting John Laurens of South Carolina. Maybe I push it further and say they meet early on and become childhood friends, even.
This is really stretching it but idc, they get to be childhood friends and Hamilton gains the favor of Henry Laurens. Maybe they even go to Europe together, wreak havoc on everything, and then disobey both Laurens' worried father and Alexander's Tory brother to join the army as aide de camps.
Maybe in this universe, Hamilton is chosen to go to South Carolina instead of John Laurens and their fates are switched. Maybe Henry Laurens who still wants to keep his kid out of danger asks Hamilton to go in his stead and pushes Washington about it, and Hamilton, wanting a command, readily agrees. Maybe that continues on after Yorktown, when Hamilton returns to South Carolina. Maybe Laurens has to learn that Hamilton died in a skirmish through a letter from his father and vows to continue on their shared dreams and Hamilton's plans, becoming the influential but even more abrasive leader of the federalist party. i want to see the switch, where it's the more idealistic laurens who isn't a good politician either (the two of them are a disaster) enters the public arena to be slandered and corrupted - laurens who is isolated from his fellow southerners and who seems to be mourning someone constantly and washington knowing exactly who it is. a laurens who looks back and yearns for a promising, brilliant young man who could've done so much more if he only had the chance WAIT WHO SAID THAT-
#i'm sorry but this has been rotting my brain for days#i don't care if it would've never happened it's real to me#and i need to get the roadtrip across europe with lams and the homies coming of age movie#and then i need to see the utter tragedy afterwards#alexander hamilton#peter lavien#john laurens#historical hamilton#amrev#lams#historical lams
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So, About Spirit of Justice…
I've been loving that game since I first played it back in 2017-2018, and at times, I wish to do a review for Spirit of Justice, at least the story aspects, because I consider it to be a game that not only isn't as bad or as incoherent as many people try to argue, but that actually made something while carrying the burden of trying to do a lot in a little time, even when we consider that it has one of the longest (if it isn't THE longest) final cases/chapters and pushed a lot of the mechanics and effects for a visual novel.
If anything, the worst sin committed by AA6 is being its own thing (same as Dual Destinies, but that's a different conversation….)
But idk, lots of personal observations under this.
Of course there are things that make me raise my eyebrow and that could've been done better, but if anything, I applaud the fact that the game has that replayability factor to it which is such… an AA thing, to keep the player interested and entertained, even when considering its downfalls. Like, talk about the little details that aren't explicitly said, but that were put in the script and manage to convey so much of what the characters and story have to say. If anything, SoJ is GOOD at the storytelling factor, at switching the setting and making it compelling.
It's visually engaging and the script is just so good (I wish to play the Japanese version one of these days, because I enjoyed the translation and I bet the og is as enjoyable.)
Then there are the characters... Which I don't know how people can't get out of their usual comparisons with other installments and ignore that the characters, their motivations, and even their emotions and inner lives are not as half-assed in this game as some people would like to say. Again, most things get insinuated between the lines, which I don't think it's lazy, rather is interesting instead of seeing a character blurting out everything, but that's a personal choice. I could have a whole field day with the whole royal family and the many things they represent or couldn't say explicitly.
Even though I agree that Apollo's backstory doesn't click as well (we can see it was a last minute thing) I don't believe it takes away from what his past was. From his rather tragic origins, and the charm of the strong familial bond he has with Dhurke, neither the care and wish to reconnect with Nahyuta and protect him, who's either a dear childhood friend or a brother (depending on the version) but still, both are part of the childhood Apollo thought as lost, and who then forced himself to forget. If you ask me, it's of my favorite parts of the game, and I wish that if we get AA7, we get a passing comment about the family Apollo now has in Khura'in.
I simply like Spirit of Justice a lot. It's not the best AA installment objectively, but it is my personal favorite for the ambience, the build up, the characters and script (I feel only the amazing AA4 wins over AA6 in the script department but come on... It's AA4, ofc it wins.) and the over the top story that somehow makes sense within the universe. It is such a joy to play and get invested in everything that's going on, to laugh and to cry, and that makes to me a wonderful game.
It doesn't deserve much of the hate that it gets or to be the butt of the joke (neither does Dual Destinies, but AGAIN, a different conversation) however, every time I see complaints against the game I feel like most people just had a different experience than me.
At least I enjoyed it!
#Had some found feelings after seeing a rather misguided take on Dhurke like two days ago#so I came here to babble I guess#Spirit of justice#aa6#ace attorney#gyakuten saiban#nahyuta sahdmadhi#apollo justice
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Hey again 😼 maybe another idea for you? Maybe Gorillaz members w a trans ftm s/o who’s insecure about being trans; like they don’t like that they still have feminine bits ig lol
Hope you’re having a slaytastic day
-🍜
FTM S/O dealing with dysphoria from their appearance
WRITERS NOTES: Hey great to hear from ya again 🍜Anon. And Y E S i love this idea, i think your talking about body baised gender dysphoria, which i can relate to hugely- that shit sucks ass. I think I got outa had with Murdoc's hc, and I had more ideas for some then others. And with that I hope you slaytastic day yourself. And honestly no to sure how I would go about writing this, so if this isn't exactly what you wanted sorry. And sorry if they aren't as long as usual, but like I said I lacked Ideas for this sadly
[ANOTHER NOTE: eh... sorry this took awhile I won't be posting at my previous pase due to the fact a lot of life stuff has been happening recently, and I just don't have as much time as I would like, though I hopefully won't be this slow at writing but just working at a more comfortable pase.]
Edited: fuck no
All art in this post is mine
TW:Curssing, gender dysphoria, transphobia, Implied drug uses, Murdoc being drunk, T, Murdocs dad, Murdocs childhood, ahhh- theres probably more but I can't think of it- so tell me if ya think of anything
Characters:
/Gorillaz/
2D
What?
What do you mean you don't like you body?
What is there to not like?
Huh- specific parts you say?
He still doesn't understand- I mean he understands that the fact that you are trans which means your body is not exactly your favorite part of yourself due to the lack of matching you identified gender but he does not understand the depth of upset-ness his boyfriend feels- but like I said he tries his best
So S/O would have to try and explain it 2D
And in the end 2D does understand more but he still doesn't fully grasp everything so 2D turns to google for answers
When 2D woke up at night again from his migraines and couldn't go back to sleep he decides this is the best time to do his research... at 2:00 AM, so 2D goes on insomnia fulled google spree
And my dear fucking lord satan does he go down a rabbit hole
2D can hardly process half the shit he reads
And by the end of it his head is spinning and he's so fucking exhausted
But at least he grasped some stuff and understands even more now, and he knows what he should do!
But first he needs a little nap he earned it
When he wakes up the the first thing he can remember it binders- so his scowers the internet and orders everyone he sees- good and bad quality, I mean its not like 2D's reading the reviews he's just ordering ever single one he stumbles upon
Then he goes to the store and buys even more
It's moments like this he's glad he remembers he's got a shit ton of money
And one day when S/O comes over to vist 2D- 2D tells his boyfriend to stand there for a second
"Hun- do'ya mind stand'en dere fer sec"
He giggles to himself as he runs in the other room, leaving S/O concerned and confused
Next thing you know- your on the floor after what feels like who knows how many binders have been flug/dumped on you
It takes a silent minute for 2D to process that you may be stuck
In which 2D freaks and digs S/O and explains to him that he was trying to my S/O feel better- which touched S/O that 2D cared this much about him
And then S/O had to explain that he didn't need this many binders
So the two of you spent the next two hours picking out what binders work best
S/O was modeling each one- and figured out which one fit best(because 2D didn't really check sizes either), and were as comfortable as possible
And the whole time 2D was praiseing and tell S/O he looked amazing
After S/O picked thw ones he liked, both decided to donate the remaining binders
Its was really sweet of of him
But either way 2D will in any way possible try and make S/O feel better about himself
2D is just as physically affectionate with his S/O in this as as he would be in any other
Though he can get a bit anxious about touching S/O since his dysphoria was body baised- and was scared of triggering a bad reaction
2D has a big thing for words of affirmation, but due to S/O's body baised gender dysphoria- he tends to praise his boyfriends body spisificly, and it's very obvious what he's trying to do when he says it
"Ya' know I' didn't tink I could be attracted to someones frame... iz... broad.... and manly..."
"Your face is soooo handsome-- oh!.... an' guy-ish..."
It's not like he's lieing he's just kinda shit at subtly tell his boyfriend about it
Either way- while he can be a bit ignorant at first he tried his damn best
"Why trans people need'a binder? Are they going to school?"
*S/O facepalming*
Murdoc
Ok before we can start we need talk about transgender stuff in general and Murdoc did that make sense?
In the 2D x Male S/O x Murdoc, 2D x Male S/O, and Murdoc x Male S/O I had briefly mentioned Murdocs dad being homophobic- well that doesn't even scratch the surface of Sebastian's asshole-lery
Sebastian was a dick queer/LGBTQIA+ people, not like "FUCK THE GAYS- THEIR DELUSIONAL" more like "I talk a bit of shit about queer people behind peoples back, don't be like them son" -ish way
In which he instilled those trashy views on Murdoc as a kid, as when I said 'talk shit behind people I meant he "talked" about it to Hannibal and Murdoc, and randos he hung out with at the bar(I might do a separate thing in the future on how I think murdocs childhood went down, and what kind of person Sebastion was, cuz theres A LOT I could say)
And due to his fathers ways being imprinted in his head as a kid, Kid/Teen Mudz was not exactly found of queer/LGBTQIA+ people in general either
Well it's not like society liked them at that time either: Murdocs year of birth 1966, The year Britain legalized gay marriage 2014
So at that time no one was exactly fond of them
But either way Kid/Teen Murdoc fond of them either
And because of his wasn't fond of them- Murdoc Bullied/teased any one of the queer/LGBTQIA+ community... like a lot... yeah lets just say his sense of humor wasn't exactly nice..
These actions and old views still haunt him to this day
Russel's the only one who knows the full extent of his behavior as a kid because while drunk Murdoc confessed this to him, and 2D over heard a bit- but was swiftly bunbarded by Murdoc once he noticed 2D, Mudz begged them to not tell Noodle
And most of this shit is internalized so if you can't rip open Mudz chest with your love and affection- then good luck getting a straight answer from him
This guilt didn't bother him as much in earlier phases(before plastuc beach).... though thats not saying much
But when the later phases arrived he started drinking tiny bit less, which made memories resurface.... and my god he felt guilty
Ok Fuck- on to the actual hc now...
Wether its phase 1 or phase 7, Murdocs anxious as hell around his S/O, because of the fact they are trans- and this is true before they even started dating- if learned that info before dating
I mean it's nothing to do with his S/O and the fact he's trans- in the sence of his S/O's physically body he does not care you bits you have man- he can work with either...
But... he can't stop thinking about the way he treat trans people in the past- he feels soooo guilty(which he should, he acted like a dickwad)
And what worries Murdoc the most is... he's scared his new boyfriend that accepted him for his flaws and failures, and never looked at him like was worthless.... was gonna leave him because of how he acted when he was ignorant and young
One day when he's drinking alone in the Winnebago he's hit with a overwhelmed wave of guilt, that almost felt suffocating
*BUZZ*
*Phone call from ❤️Mudzy❤️*
You pick up the phone
All you hear is Murdocs indisputable sobs of apologies- while simultaneously saying something about his dad, Trans, he was young and dumb- wait did he say something about you breaking up with him?!? What the hell is he on about?
It was obvious to you he was absolutely fucked up... like even worse the usual?
You told him to sit tight and you'll be there as fast as he can
You arive and he is absolutely fucking all over the place
The Winnebago is more trashed then then usual and he's in the center of it alllll messed up
H looks like he wants to hug you but he pulls back like if he did you would hate him
To sum it up- you two spent the next 3 hours talking about his past and how you still love him, and he could not control how he was raised
Holy fuck uhhh nevermind... NOW on to the ACTUAL hc :b
He has a hard time understanding your insecurities about you body but he tries- he just thinks you too hot
So you have to like sit him down and try and make him understand- cuz otherwise he clueless- which would make worry cuz he doesn't like not knowing whats going on
So google this shit he will
Google leeds him to some interesting things... like he learns about T(testosterone hormones for transitioning)
And after siting on the idea for a bit, when he got drunk Murdy kept trying to order T, but he couldn't cuz you need a note from a doctor/therapist/psychologist to get that shit
And you found him throwing a tantrum- screaming at his computer. Fun fact this happens pretty often, because he's really bad with computers...well except for when it come to the sketchy part of the internet, Mudz knows a lot about that stuff. I swear he's on a FBI watch list
When S/O asks whats wrong murdoc spouts on about how he FUCKING can't get T for his wonderful boyfriend- *sniff* to make him feel better- *sob* make him feel better
Yes Murdoc starts to have another drunken break down
And again you have to sit him down and explain the complex process of getting stuff like that
"Well thats stupid... I've always been able to get prescription drugs without a a prescription- I used to know a guy actually, you could get anything for the right price-..." Murdoc mumbled to himself
"What-"
"Nothing..."
But in then he understands a little more, and this time please explain what he can do to make you feel better about your dysphoria, cuz he will continue to do weird shit
Murdoc's no Shakespeare, he isn't great with words or with expressing shutters feeling, so he isn't the best at comforting but he tries his best
But something nice is, when Murdoc gets really high or reallyyyyyyy drunk he tends to be more touchy and more truthful, so he'll just randomly start praising S/O, even if its a the worst time- Like:
"...S/O"
"Yeah?"
"...dove- your the most beautiful, handsome, and stunning thing ever... no one can say otherwise- your perfect from head to toe...."
"Thats nice and all but hun this really ain't the time..."
*Murdoc looks at S/O very confused then looks at the toilet he just was hurling his guts up into*
But don't worry he doesn't always dish out his best compliments in the loo
At the end of the day Murdoc really love his boyfriend no matter what they look like.
"....I Love you..."
"Huh?"
"NOTHING!"
Noodle
Probably understands the most out of the 4
Noodle is the youngest meaning- she's 'more with the times' I fucking cringed so hard writing that for some reason-
She will try to distract you in any way to get her boyfriend to feel better, and stop thinking about it
Noodle doesn't exactly a big fan of talking that much if she doesn't find the conversation meaningful, but if needed she will spend as long as her S/O needs siting there tell him how much she loves him- and his body doesn't make him any less of a man
"Don't let anyone else tell you- who you are, ok?"
"I don't know about what you think, but what I do know is that your my lovely boyfriend!"
Noodle LOVES clothes shopping- scratch that just shopping in general
So she loves takeing her S/O to shops that can get that clothing that can make him feel more comfortable in his body
She does a bit of googleing but not like a deep dive as the guys
Noodle will round house kick anyone who dares to be transphobic to S/O
Along with Noodle screaming every curse word she knows at them in every language she know
No one fucks with Noodle's boyfriend- or I swear to satan when Noodles done with that knob- they won't even be able to look you in the eyes in fear of evoking Noodles rage once more
If Noods notices her boyfriend going through a bout of of depression due to his body based gender dysphoria(fucking hell- I'm tired of typing this out if I will now refur to that as BBGD) and she will decide to plan a date for her and S/O
She does this often- but the kind of date varies based on S/O's preference
When Nood complements S/O and his body she's very blunt, abd it's very obvious what she's doing- and knows that just doesn't give a shit
"Did I ever tell you how handsome you are?"
I can't think of any more quotes sorry
She makes sure everyone gets S/O pro-nouns right, incase that makes S/O more inscure she back handed murdoc once become he misgender S/O once- on accident and 2D told you she lecturerd him later when you left, whether it was an accident or not he never did it again and Mudz shutters at the memory-
If S/O has a melt down/panic attack due to BBGD if S/O is ok with it, Noodle will hold him and juat let him get it all out, till he's ready to talk, and if S/O just wants to sit there then thats fine to
She once teasingly called you baby boy, take that for what you will
"THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO MY BOYFRIEND!!!"
"Noodle- please calm down-!"
Russel
Ok... he's probably the second best at understanding your sercumstance
But that does not make it any less awkward
Russel isn't exactly a conventionalist but he tries to priase/give words of affection/affirmation to his S/O to make him feel better
I wanna say S/O is the first transgender person Rus has dated- but thats not saying much as Russel was never that big in the dating world, so his knowledge on dating in general is not that vast
So like the other guy's he does research-
And was very thorough, and comes out pretty successful in his endeavor
And before Rus decides to make and drastic decisions like a shopping spree or or almost buying T *cough* 2D *cough* Murdoc
He communicates with his S/O about what they want
And the root of his insecurities, as Rus wan't S/O to know that your body does not define you and just a bunch of really sappy love crap
"Honey, your body is not what makes you- you, it's whats on the inside, you get what I mean?"
"There's nothing to be ashamed of, it's natural to feel this way, in this kind of situation."
"I would love no matter how you looked"
And then after talking about how S/O feels on this situation
Rus then will get really serious and ask S/O if he wan't to get medical procedures done and if he did Rus would him pay for the surgerys and crap
Or he may suggest seeking professional help with you BBGD
But if S/O says no- Rus is completely fine with that he just wants his S/O to know that he loves him
If S/O is going through a especially bad bout of dysphoria, Russel will make him their favorite comfort food
Like Rus isn't great with words and depending on where you are in the relationship physically affection can be a bit stiff with him- But one thing is he's a Great Fucking Cook
Ask for any comfort food it's yours
He's a big thing for acts of service- like Noodle oftenvdoes things to distract S/O from his unpleasant feelings
Russel's a big boi with major RBF so when he's around there is less likely someones gonna say/talk transphoic shit to/about S/O
And if they do... well I hope they like confrontation, becuase Rus will not yell at them but, his words will make just about anyone shit their pants
Like 2D, Rus complements S/O that could makes S/O feel better about his BBGD- but un-like 2D he's really good at being subtle about it.
"I made you your favorite, *insert fav food*."
#2d x reader#gorillaz x reader#stuart pot x reader#noodle x reader#russel hobbs x reader#russel x reader#murdoc x reader#ftm reader#murdoc niccals#2d gorillaz#noodle gorillaz#russel hobbs#stuart pot
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I want this shang but only the version in my head. Only the version i handcrafted away from the narrative and the hype schlock that was mk12/mk1. The version that is his humble beginnings,freshly cursed by the gods,former warrior of earthrealm,having a falling out with his former friend and mentor lord raiden and cohersd by shao kahn to serve under him thus betraying earthrealm. The version i handcrafted and carefully made with love. Tho it can apply to any and many of the various iterations of shang tsung over the years. I feel a young shang's misadventures is long overdue or at least a proper backstory that isn't overtaken and overshadowed by corporate meddling. (I would absolutely love to have mr.tagawa's input more on this personally,and his opinions and thoughts on my backstory for shang. But alas maybe some day)
But anywho. A young shang tsung would be nice but better written or given at least a better script.
Because mr. Alan lee is such an amazing talent. And i feel he deserves so much better as shang tsung,one of THE if not THE MOST iconic antagonist of the mortal kombat series. (As with many other actors and VA for said character.)
Like this shang's aesthetics(minus the claws gauntlets tho they are growing on me but they could look better. Maybe more snake or dragon motifs?),the charm is there,the feeling,the attitude,the actor does an amazing job,but the problem is....legitimately....everything else. When your "antag" is better than everyone else,and i mean that genuinely. Better than the script and plot,better than the protags,better than the other antagonists,etc. Then....it's not good. Of course i love shang and want a win for him once. Especially now he has legitimate reasons why he does what he does,why he is how he is,and you genuinely feel sorry for him,and want to hug him,give him a friend,ffs you just go "ah fuck man, you good?" Yeah. He actually has something shown at least. Not my personal flavor. However for canon to be bold enough to do so is shocking. But what pisses me off as a fan of both mk and shang tsung. Is that...
1. It took them waaaaay too long to make that happen.
2. It doesn't feel sincere even when they did.
3. It feels rushed and plot convenient. And centering shang's whole backstory around liu kang instead of well....shang tsung. At least it feels that way. It doesn't feel like the character has agency. So it feels like a half assed apology for doing shang dirty.
So that's why i don't like the story that shang is centered around. Now if we take the character,the concept of a shang tsung down on his luck,barely surviving off of scraps,even tho he serves a powerful kingdom and emperor with a cushy job as a court mage. That i would love to see. That's exactly how i always saw his og backstory, if you want him to rectify mistakes ACTUALLY FUCKING DO IT AND NOT BACKTRACK FOR STATUS QUO FOR YOUR "PROTAGS OR HEROES" TO WIN!!!! Like holy shit dude. Like crap,the Fanfics are better than canon writing and nrs knows it! They seem to even try to copy what we as fans to but fail so hard. But it's sad it feels so half assed when a "professional gaming company" is supposed to make this. But i feel its corporate meddling,and Hollywood greed that prevents this series,at least storywise and narratively from reaching its true potential.
Sorry for this vent. But this character I'm very very passionate about. But mostly this game series. I love this game. I love playing it. Almost all the games. It's my childhood as many others. And I'm not gonna stand for mediocrity and slander to one of my faves.
But anyways. Enough rambling. Back to shang.
Like mk12/mk1 shang tsung isn't bad at least looks wise. No more different than anyone else. But it still bothers me they all look "samey" and not in a memey,jokey,fun way. It looks sloppy next to him. Ignoring everyone else around him,looking at shang individually. Omfg he's a cutie. He's smug,he's the shang i know n love but just....younger. like in His 30s or so. Around my age. Which is cool. But....i still kinda wish his old man shang wasn't a ruse. I ignore it was a ruse tho so it doesn't count. In fact like i said. I'm rewriting the whole thing period.
Will it be kinda self indulgent? Maybe a bit self inserty,Yes. But i don't care. Because he deserves better than that.
We owe it to mr.tagawa. to shang's character. To all the voice actors and actors and amazing talent over the 30+yrs mk has been around. We deserve a good story,a better story,and even more so,a better fucking game. To play. To learn. To have fun with. Without paying and arm and a leg to even access it. Period.
Shang tsung baby you deserve better. So so so much better.
#mortal kombat#shang tsung#self ship#self shipping#💚heart and soul🐍#shang tsung mortal kombat#mk f/o#antagonist f/o#villain f/o#villain/antagonist f/o#vent#sorry for this but srsly i deeply love and appreciate the character and he deserves only the best#apologizes for the vent#mk12/mk1 shang tsung#mk1 2023 shang tsung#my version of mk12/mk1 shang tsung is the only one I'll ever accept of a young or babyface shang tsung#i can't really ever hate any version of shang tsung this man has me in a vice grip of death lovingly of course#that's my curse of the gods tho to never escape shang tsung's little claws around my heart n soul oof
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Alright so, hear me out, locked tomb/doctor who crossover
(my original thought was Ten and Donna at the start of Gideon the Ninth, but it could probs work other ways)
(like Canaan House would probs make more sense plot wise, bc that's a whole ass haunted house castle, but also "hey let's go check out Pluto! Wait what's w the skull cult? I wonder what's in this locked tomb in the depths of the planet?")
(continued under the cut bc I ramble a bit)
Anyways! Gideon would jump at the chance to get the hell off the Ninth (tho I'm not sure as of yet how Harrow would be persuaded to go with them)
Time travel besties adopt a couple of plutonian goth teens
The various interactions between all four of these characters is also really fun to consider
(Ten and Harrow: two scrawny mfs studying each other like bugs, Ten and Gideon: for the love of God please stop chucking yourselves onto the railing, Donna and Harrow: tempted to throw hands w this 17 year old bone nun, Donna and Gideon: red head squad :) (what do you mean you've never had tea?))
Also, new outfits from the tardis's wardrobe (aka Gideon somehow makes an outfit gaudier than Six's lmao)(also, Harrow (begrudgingly) in five layers, including an oversized nine inch nails hoodie she can hide bones underneath (the face paint stays on tho))(also also! Gideon picking a less gaudy outfit, and coming out in Nine's leather jacket (and Ten winds up explaining regeneration earlier than he canonically did lol))
Also, based on Harrows first night at Canaan, she tries to map the TARDIS, and it doesn't make any logical spacial sense. (She hates this, vehemently.) (Welcome to non-euclidian geometry, Reverend Daughter.)
Ten mentions his Christmas sword fight, and Gideon asks him to spar ("and if you get injured, you can patch yourself up, since you're a doctor and all!" "Weeelllll...") (Anyways, predictably, Gideon "best swordswoman the Ninth has ever produced" Nav immediately disarms Ten and decks him. Bitch went down lmao)
(also Gideon and Harrow doing their normal trying to beat the shit out of each other thing, Donna makes an aside like hey should we break this up or? And Tens like, nah, that's just, normal childhood best friendship, ya know? And Donna's just like, mate wtf are you on about???)
Basically, just a whole lot of Harrow and Gideon getting to be somewhat normal teens (or at least pretend for the most part)
(also, fun whump consideration: Ten (post Journeys End) 🤝 Harrow (post gtn/during htn): what losing your ginger better half does to a mfer (´;︵;`))
I have so many thoughts on this but I need to go to sleep gn
#doctor who#dw#the locked tomb#tlt#gtn spoilers#htn spoilers#thought i should collate my thoughts on this matter somewhat#(and also somewhere where others could possibly see lmao)#all of this brought on by me binge watching through nine and tens runs and procrastinating on finishing ntn#as well as waiting for both the new series to come out and any alecto news lol#long post#daughters of pluto au
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FFXVI Rewrite
Read this in one long post
Read this in parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 .
.
FFXVI Rewrite Part 1: Introduction, Prologue, and Return to Phoenix Gate
I decided to rewrite FFXIV and point out some of the game’s more glaring flaws, play with some ideas. In addition to plot changes and overhauling the lore, some of the general changes that should be made include tighter more efficient writing, fixing the pacing, and cutting most of the filler and fetch quests and focusing in on the main plot. There are a lot of words used to say a whole lot of nothing and it sounds nice because the voice actors do a good job but the dialogue lacks substance. At the same time players aren't given crucial story information in the main story leaving many important plot points under-explained to the point of audience confusion. I also want to improve character writing and develop inter-character relationships. For Jill as a character, It feels like the writers just forget about her. Not that Clive gets much good development either, he gets some in the first arc with Cid and then stagnates afterwards. And then the writers had the bad idea of starting a half assed character arc about Clive trying to do everything on his own at the same moment they take away Jill's agency and sideline her for the rest of the game.
FFXIV's prologue also acts as its demo, as such it is not only the first chapter to the story but also a piece of advertisement, and it is incredibly successful in being an advertisement. The FFXIV prologue is a hypebeast, it's a spectacle and one of the most exciting things I have seen in a long long time. However this strategy of front loading the game and making the best demo comes at the cost of later story and pacing. We don't get to see much of how 13 years of military slavery has affected Clive. The end confrontation between Ifrit and Phoenix means that Joshua re-entrance to the plot and his reunion with Clive must be pushed further back in the story. With the prologue FFXIV wrote itself into a corner and the story only continued to fall apart more the further the game progressed.
Such is the difference in medium between short form stories like the prologue, movies, OVAs, animated shorts, and so on, and long form stories like JRPGs, books, tv shows. That different format of stories makes different characteristics more successful in one over the other. Short form by nature must be compact and efficient, it is structured to be quickly complete both in story arc and emotional payoff. Long form is about the build, slowly weaving many things together, setting things up early to pay them off later. When you apply the strategy and mindset of one form of story to another, it tends to fail. Take BBC's Sherlock which attempted to use short form format for a longer series, this is why the first few episodes are quite good but as the series goes off the story falls apart, you all these teasing plot threads that go nowhere because the whole show is written like it’s a one off. The problem with FFXVI is that it tried to have its one shot and then attach a full game to it, and that can work but in XVI's case it made a lot of the story beats in the first half of the game clunky. A common problem with the buildup strategy is that instead the beginning of a story can end up slow and boring, the anime Tatami Galaxy is an example in that when it all comes together at the end its great but the beginning is real slow. So I started thinking about how to fix these problem and rewrite FFXIV and sadly I cannot think of a solution that does not cause additional problems.
Starting the game with Phoenix vs. Ifrit in the Fallen ruins is fine but have the first chapter of the game follow Clive's day to day life as a slave to the imperial army. Make it dull, strip him of dignity, make it bleak, make it miserable. Interspersed with the bleak reality of his life are snippets of the joy and liveliness color of Clive and Joshua's childhood telling the events leading up to Phoenix Gate. Through these two stories establish the setting, the nations, the politics, the balance of powers of Valisthea. The game already does a good job of establishing Joshua and Clive's relationship so all that is added here is the contrast between the lively teenager Clive was with the worn-down man he is now. At the end of Chapter 1 Phoenix Gate happens, and Clive wakes up still an assassin, still a Branded, still fighting a war with a knife at his throat, still not having achieved his revenge.
The game handles timeskips poorly, neither the 13 year nor the 5 year timeskips feel that long, time doesn't feel like it is passing during those times. Very little changes during the 5 year timeskip from the relationships to the politics to the characters as people. I'm shortening the timeskip from 13 years to 10 years which makes Clive 25, Joshua 20, and Jill likely somewhere in between. I'm doing this because it never felt like 13 years to begin with and to better explain Joshua's lack of involvement in those years. Joshua probably took a year or two to become a functional person again after his mother betrayed his nation, killed his father, and his dear older brother tried to kill him. Afterwards he's still just a kid what can he do and I think it takes him years of introspection and research into eikon and Ultima to come to reconcile a berserk Ifrit mauling him with his loving brother Clive. At 20 Joshua is only now capable enough, knowledgeable enough, powerful enough, and mature enough, to try and save Clive. To make it more interesting Joshua on some level still fears Clive and Joshua feels immense guilt over this and that he hasn't saved Clive earlier. This nicely ties into the themes of guilt and justice present in other characters often over those they could not save, like Clive, Dion, Harpocrates, Jill, Otto, Theodore, Isabelle, Quinten, etc.
I'm cutting out most of that mysterious hooded figure in Clive's head, it’s just confusing and it adds nothing Just have like a shadowy figure with glowing blue eyes and keep the glowing blue eyes be a consistent part of Ultima's every character design or something.
Beginning of Chapter 2 is where the original game starts with Clive on a mission to assassinate Shiva. Now because of a different Chapter 1 the round table scene actually makes sense because the player knows who these factions are. In my rewrite however not only is Cid looking to interfere, Joshua is using this as an opportunity to free Clive as well from afar. Throughout Chapter 1 build up Clive's discontentment as he remembers his past, so that in Chapter 2 Clive isn't just committing mutiny because he maybe saw his childhood friend, he was already planning on leaving and that he's not killing a single person more for Sanbreque and Jill is the last straw. Also have Jill represent an act of free will and also all his yet unfinished business. The drawn-out Chapter 1 also allows Clive's assassination unit to be humanized to drive home the brutality of his life and the injustice of the Branded system. If he's going to fight Clive is going to fight because he chooses to not because he's part of the same war machine that occupied his home and branded him. Instead of Cid it is Joshua that saves Clive and secures his retreat although Joshua keeps himself hidden from both Clive and the audience not ready to face Clive and using a nondescript flame. It is as Clive is running and encountering more Ironblood that he runs into Cid.
One thing that should have been explained better was Clive's status as a Bearer. During the prologue and during his childhood we see no hint of Clive being a Bearer, it is only after being enslaved by the Sabrequois army that he receives a Brand. It is strongly established and mentioned many times that one is born a Bearer. Which raises the question, was Clive ever a Bearer? I also wonder what the mechanics/magical physics difference there is between a Dominant and a Bearer, it seems to be that there is little objective difference as both are magic users without a need of crystals. Instead "Bearer" is a class term as Dominants are too militarily/culturally important to be branded. This also implies that Rosaria is a holdover of the older magocracy that used to rule Valisthea. I suspect that although he was a hidden Dominant Clive would never have been considered a Bearer especially since the Active Time Lore states that it’s common practice in Valisthea to test babies at birth for being Bearers. Rosaria and Archduke Elwin seemed more tolerant so maybe he wasn’t tested but I think it is more likely he just wasn’t born a Bearer. This would help to explain Clive's behavior in the game, he might have been branded but he never really acts like he sees himself as a Bearer. If the Bearer test just tested for magic Clive’s Dominant status might have caught him, but it is even more likely that either Anabella had him branded just to make his life even more miserable or that the imperial army didn't care that his fire magic was from The Blessing of the Phoenix as the First Shield of Rosaria, Clive could use magic thus he was a Bearer, they certainly didn't care. I wish the game had added a line or two about this to clarify the situation.
Which brings us to the next question I had about the game, how eikons and transfers of eikonic power worked. The game establishes that both eikonic power can be shared (Joshua and Clive, Barnabas and Sleipnir) but also that power shared means the Dominant will die or go berserk if they prime (Jill, Hugo, Dion (although he didn't go berserk either)). The game is wildly inconsistent about the mechanics so I'm going to overhaul this all so that there's some internal logic. First change is that sharing eikon power is not a death sentence for the Dominant but it does weaken them. Honestly this was just done as an excuse to take away Jill's ability to fight and be an active character and I will always resent this (doesn't even make sense since Dion does it anyways), and Torgal could absorb eikonic aether just fine. Dominants can usually share their power with one person though many choose not to for various reasons, I'm going to call these people who share power with Dominants "Vassals". A line should be added in-game about how it is Rosarian tradition for the First Shield to receive the Phoenix's fire and be their Vassal because that's a little detail we were missing and players only learn about this by reading the Active Time Lore. Although this is complicated by Clive being Ifirt's Dominant and Phoenix's other half so Clive isn't quite actually Phoenix's Vassal it's more complicated than that. Leviathan doesn't have a Vassal because their Dominant went rogue. Jill does not share her power until after she has come to terms with her past and realized that she does not have to shoulder her burdens alone that she shares her power with Clive. Cid wants humanity to be independent of magic so I can understand why he didn't share Ramuh's power (if it was anyone it'd probably be Dorys except that the cursebreakers seem to have formed because of the destruction of the original Hideaway). Due to changes in Waloed's writing Barnabas inspires actual loyalty in his soldiers and Sleipnir is his vassal. Another change I am making is that Terrance is Dion's Vassal in this rewrite. Benedrikta and Hugo both love their own power so they aren't sharing with anyone.
As per an overhaul to the Waloed section later, Benedrikta's characterization is altered so that power is her primary motivation. Her desire for Cid's love remains and it is tied to her desire for power but Cid is no longer her primary motivation. I'm not sure what to do with her. I think her having a breakdown and going berserk could still happen even with the lore changesjust because of the emotional stress. Benedrikta staked a lot of her identity and self-worth on her power and Clive defeating her ripped that all away from her. In addition, this is the first time Clive unknowingly absorbs an eikon so that could have affected her ability to summon Garuda, add to this the threat of being raped by bandits and sold as a slave and I’d say that’s enough for most people to go berserk. Another idea is that the Garuda fight happens because Benedrikta decides to hunt Clive down because she cannot live with the dishonor of losing to some no name Branded and she would rather die giving it her all than lived and lost.
Clive's fights against Benedrikta and his traversal of the Fallen ruins of Phoenix Gate happen mostly the same. This part of the game of pretty good so I see little reason to change it, Clive struggles with the realization and crushing guilt that he is the Dominant of Ifrit, he was the one that killed Joshua and all the people of Phoenix Gate, and how in his quest for vengeance he has been unknowingly chasing his own shadow the entire time. In the dungeon scene Clive can keep his underwear, and afterwards Cid, Jill, and Clive and discuss eikons, how odd it is more Ifrit to exist, the other mysterious Dominant of Fire that they are chasing.
With Clive's acceptance we are switching PoV to a Joshua playable section as he seeks to stop the end of the world, setting up Ultima as well as the worldbuilding and mechanics of aether and eikons. This part is optional I like the idea of it but I don't know if I like the idea so much as to include it. These will be a series of short playable segments as Joshua explores ruins and tries to piece together, aether, eikons, history, Ultima, Mothercrystals, Bearers, Dominants, and why the world is hurtling towards disaster. This is also to set up the red herring of how the Mothercrystals might be feeding Ultima so that when Joshua rejoins the party he will corroborate Cid's hypothesis.
FFXVI Rewrite Part 2: Jill, Clive, and Joshua, Changing the Timeline
I want to continue Jill's established character as someone who gave up everything from her dignity to her morals to protect the women of Rosaria. She too is being crushed under the weight of her guilt of what she did under the Ironblood but she would still be determined to protect the people she had sworn to protect. While Clive is running around chasing Joshua and coming to terms with himself, Jill is plotting a rescue effort to Iron. This then comes to an intersection with Cid's plans to destroy the Mothercrystals. For Clive, he has just seen first hand what a decade under imperial rule has done to Rosaria, he sees its people standing up for their nation, and so him contacting his uncle Byron isn't only reconnecting with the only family he has left, it’s not only about stopping the Blights, it's about Rosaria and reclaiming for Rosarians the lives and freedom they had lost. I also do want to add to this section a quest where Cid tests and confirms that crystals are leeching aether from the land and causing Blight. Clive and Jill can also open up and bond over their shared crushing guilt. Both of them have killed large amounts of people with their eikons (though more deliberately in Jill's case), both of them of have been exploited as tools of war by their conquerors/captors. So while Clive is running around, at some parts Jill is pursuing her own agenda.
The next chapter is the assault on Iron and emancipation of the Rosarian women at Drake’s Breath. Clive is still the player character; it is plot important that Joshua and Clive are the only playable characters because Ifrit and Phoenix were once one eikon. However, while Clive might be the player and perspective character, Jill is the main character for this section, her actions drive the plot here. The party splits with Jill securing an escape route for the women with Torgal while Cid and Clive cut a path for the Mothercrystal and cause a distraction for Jill. They meet back up at the Drake’s Breath and Jill kills the priests like she deserves. During the boss fight Clive has to run around stabilizing the area and escape route while fighting off minor enemies while Jill fights the boss in the background. Additionally, Jill is the one to strike and break the Mothercrystal. Iron makes better sense at a first assault because the main power struggle in the game is between Dhalmek and Sanbreque, with Waloed waiting for a hint of weakness in Storm. Meanwhile Iron is more of a side player and so their weakening does not affect Valisthea's power balance as much as going after any of the other Mother Crystals. Jill reminds me of one of those bulls that been raised in iron shackles, the adult bull is more than strong enough to break free but because it was too weak to do so when it was younger, it stopped trying. Likewise, Jill's shackles are not of iron but they bind her all the tighter and this arc is about her breaking free and remembering that she is powerful both literally and metaphorically.
I'm changing the Mothercrystal lore in the game. Ultima came into conflict with the dragons in ancient times. In a last bid to stop Ultima, the Eldest Dragon shattered their body into the Mothercrystals to act as a seal on Ultima. The Mothercrystals drain aether from the land in order to power the seal on Ultima, but as the land is running out of aether the seals are weakening. The Blight was an unforeseen side effect of the seals. When Ultima breaks free, they then repurpose the accumulated aether from the crystals to power to their world creation spell. There used to be 8 Mothercrystals total. Now there are just 5: Drake's Breath in the Iron, Drake's Head in Sanbreque, Drake's Fang in Dhalmek, Drake's Tail in Crystalline, Drake's Spine in Waloed. Even on the map on the official FFXVI website other unknown structures can be seen in central Ash for example, 3 Mothercrystals have been lost to time. The Ten Thousand Tomes confirms Dzemekys Falls is the former location of a Mothercrystal, Drake’s Eye in the Northern Territories, Drake’s Horn in Southern Ash. The relatively recent fall of Drake’s Eye in addition to the spread of the Blight is what drove the Northern incursions into Rosaria, resource scarcity driven conflict, the exact same conditions that Elwin used to justify his proposed invasion. For Dzemekys I’m keeping that humanity angered Ultima and were smote but I’m changing that it was a Mothercrystal and changing the location of the last Mothercrystal (Drake's Wing? Drake's Claw?) to perhaps eastern Ash, islands off the coast of Ash, or central Storm near where the original Hideaway was.
When Drake's Breath is destroyed the first of the seals on Ultima is released and the beginning of the doomsday apocalyptic phenomena start happening although slightly differently in this rewrite. First is the activation of Fallen ruins, second the activation of the robots, third the wraiths, fourth more and stronger fallen and aether creatures as well as the beginning of aetherfloods. Then finally when the 5th and final Mothercrystal is destroyed and the final seal broken, all hell breaks loose and the apocalypse is unleashed upon Valisthea, aetheric storms cloud the skies and aetherfloods spread across the lands. Unlike in the game where the sky changes and the aetherfloods appear after the 4th Mothercrystal (Twinside), here the changes happen after the 5th (Waloed).
Like in the actual game when the First Mothercrystal's heart is destroyed, a portal opens with a partial Ultima that the party fights. As the party is overpowered but before Cid can go sacrifice himself, Joshua intervenes saving them but is unable to kill Ultima. I am dropping Joshua sealing part of Ultima inside himself because that had no effect on the story, that plot thread went no where in the end. Joshua as well as the Rosarian women are returned to Rosaria where they are reunited with their families, Joshua and Byron included though Joshua hides from the other Rosarians. This furthers the Rosaria subplot we seen in the game with Martha and Eastpool and the Guardians of the Flame.
A change I am contemplating is reinstating a party system into this story. This game doesn't feel JRPG enough, where's my party system? These would be AI controlled characters but players would be able to choose how many characters besides Clive are active at once with a maximum of 3. Some characters will be unavailable for certain parts of the game like Jote would not be available for eikon fights. Clive is your classic JRPG sword boy the main damage dealer. Jill is the true all-rounder with physical and magic attacks. Joshua is the healer and he's like wet tissue, he has decent magic. Jote is the tank with some support abilities but little offense. Cid is another damage dealer with big hits. Torgal is the only character that can't be incapacitated, he attacks, he heals, but most importantly he's a good boy (unlocks magic later in the game). I never said the party was balanced. Or maybe not, implementing this would be a pain as FFXVI isn't character focused so explaining why party members aren't there sounds annoying.
In this story the brothers are reunited much earlier so that their relationship can develop. Clive and Joshua's relationship is the core of the game The game starts and ends with them. Their relationship is what kicks off the plot of the game from Ifrit berserking to Clive seeking revenge unknowingly against himself. They are plot critical with plot critical powers, that Ifrit and Phoenix are the eikon of Fire split into two beings and the intended vessel to cast Ultima. And yet despite the relationship being at the center of the game, so little is done with them. Joshua is away for most of the game with Clive not knowing he survived and after they are reunited nothing is done with them. The earlier reunion gives time for Joshua and Clive to reacquaint themselves with each other. The last time Clive saw Joshua he was a 10 year old boy, the Joshua before him now is a man and in many ways a stranger. Clive never got to be there as Joshua grew from boy to man, he will have forever missed that part of his brother's life. And not only did Clive think he has lost Joshua, he thought that he was the one who killed him. The same murder against whom his quest for vengeance has been his sole reason for living for the last decade.
Another reason for the added time before the timeskip is to develop Jill and her relationships. Jill is also weighed down by massive guilt over the things she has done for Iron. Before Drake's Breath she is much more closed off and her arc with Clive is mostly about lost childhood friends because just like Joshua she and Clive are now very different and very traumatized. So pre-Drake's Breath it is about stumbling when this didn't before because they don't fit together like they used to and learning to reacquaint themselves with each other. After Iron, Jill finds closure in dealing a massive blow to Iron, killing the zealot who tortured her and enslaved the Rosarians, and freeing the enslaved Rosarians. She begins to open up after this and bonds with Clive over their shared experiences. In many ways during the missing years Jill and Clive's experiences have been similar though Jill's have been worse. Both were kidnapped as children and enslaved as weapons of war, forced to fight for the very people who enacted violence against them. To both their masters Jill and Clive were expendable tools to be exploited until no more use could be squeezed out of them and they died of overwork. Both of them see themselves as monsters over the many deaths they have caused as Dominants. The difference being that Clive fought to stay alive so that he could complete his revenge against Ifrit while Jill fought in what was probably a futile effort to protect the Rosarian women and children she had sworn to take under her wing. Jill also killed on a much larger scale in eikon battles and was likely treated worse given she was given no armor or equipment and her clothes were in tatters. Clive and Jill were also treated as subhuman by their oppressors. For a decade Jill shouldered the role of protector and champion all on her own, but through Clive and Joshua and most importantly Cid she comes to terms that she need not fight on her own, and with that realization she makes Clive her Vassal because together they can do more than each would have done alone. So before the timeskip Clive gets Phoenix as a teenager, Ifrit when he returns to Phoenix Gate, Garuda after defeating Benedrikta, Leviathan after proving himself worthy to its Dominant, and Ramuh at Drake’s Head as Cid’s dying wish. One place to put Shiva would be at the end of the first part of Jill’s arc here during the lead up to Leviathan, but there’s another place I am considering.
The next arc I am completely making up because not having Leviathan in the game throws off the elemental balance on a meta level and having all 8 would be significant in Gnosticism. Joshua is following a lead on someone who might know of Ultima, the Dominant of Leviathan and semi-rogue champion of the Crystalline Dominion. I am making this arc for several reasons. The unexplained absence of Leviathan/Dominant of Water while also establishing 8 eikons and elements was always strange, why bothering establishing 8 elements and corresponding eikons if its never explained what happened to Leviathan, and Leviathan is a classic Final Fantasy staple so it's strange that it is missing. I also always found the Crystal Dominion's neutral zone reasoning to be a bit weak, for example in real life Switzerland has a reputation of neutrality because of its difficult geography and history of shooting down all aircraft regardless of affiliation, there has to be something to back up the Crystaline Dominion because just crystal export. Giving them a Dominant gives them the military power to back up their sovereignty, and their Dominant flying the coop also significantly weakens their position and further explains Sanbreque's later invasion. Leviathan's Dominant of Water is hanging out in the Southern Isles fighting sea monsters for fun and so this offers the opportunity to introduce Cid as a master engineer as well as introduce Mid and the Enterprise. The game never establishes Cid as an engineer, we only hear about it after he's dead from Mid and that is such awkward storytelling as well as a missed opportunity. The build up to Leviathan is Joshua tracking down the precise location while Cid and Mid build the Enterprsie together. We only meet Mid after the timeskip in the actual game and we don't know how old she is. Aso, she's adopted so getting the ages just right isn't that important, and kid genius is already an established character archetype so what's one more. This would necessitate a younger model for Mid but I think it is worth it. In this story Mid builds the seaship the Enterprise here with Cid to create a callback in the final arc when she builds an airship of the same name this time without her dad. Leviathan's Dominant couldn't stand the Crystalline Dominion but is the opposite of cooperative and things escalate to a fight with Clive at severe disadvantage since priming puts the ship in danger of burning and sinking. I'm not a fight choreographer I don't know maybe they evaporate all the water in a shallow sea and then beat up Leviathan. However, she would rather die than stand down, but as she dies she spits they are fools if they think getting rid of crystals will solve all their problems. With Leviathan’s fall, Twinsides’ position weakens as they can no longer pretend to have the protection of an eikon.
Next is Oriflamme and Drake's Head, things happen similarly to in the game with Sanbreque breaking treaty to invade the Crystalline Dominion and abandon Oriflamme. This is Ultima's second appearance as another of their seals is released and they grow in power. Stronger now Ultima makes a bid to take possession of Clive and Ultima, once again he is stopped but this time at the expense of Cid. Cid dies later in this story than in the actual game because he's a great character and I wanted more time with him, to build his relationship with Mid, to show his engineering prowess instead of just being told. Since Joshua joins earlier in this story the more time allows Cid to help mentor Joshua too, in reckoning with his father's dream and legacy and how despite Rosaria falling, Joshua can honor his father's work by helping the Hideaway and Bearers. This extra time before the timeskip has also allowed Clive and Joshua to reconcile with each other. They have each lived 10 years apart from each other with only their memories, they are both changed men and it would have taken time to reconcile the old and the new and form a new relationship. The sovereignty of Rosaria is no more, both of them are nameless outlaws out against the world, and they have both seen much of the world. The children they were no longer exist and now they have to stumble through all that together.
In the game, the 5 year timeskip was mostly pointless, it had very little effect on anything, so little changed that a lot of things felt frozen in time. Thus, I am greatly reducing the timeskip to about 6-12 months. The expansion of the pre-timeskip period was partly to establish Clive's major relationships like Jill and Joshua so then when the timeskip happened change could be seen. In this story whereas before the timeskip those relationships were just starting and we see the first few steps of development, after the timeskip they have solidified, Clive has settled into the new Jill and the new Joshua. Removing the 5 year timeskip also removes Joshua's inexplicable avoidance of Clive which happens in the original game. So sorry no dilf 30 something Clive, or at least not in the main story. Clive is about 26 by this point. Despite aging the characters down especially after the timeskip I think the story still works partly because most of the characters are adults already but primarily because the amount of trauma and hardship these characters have gone through would have aged them.
FFXVI Rewrite Part 3: Rosalith, Dhalmek, and Twinsides
Hugo Kupka's destruction of Rosalith happens mostly the same as in the actual game. It is the parts before that have slight changes as the Rosalith storyline was developed a further by this point in story. The original game never goes all the way to do anything with the Rosalith situation. The game establishes that despite the many long years, people still hold Elwin's reign as a golden age and have rallied around the symbol of the Rosfield Archduke as a symbol for all they have lost. The subplot I want continues what is already in the game with Rosarians rallying with this attack and then later with the further erosion of the Empire of Sanbreque. They take Elwin as the symbol not that Rosaria is the Phoenix or Archduke but take his philosophy to heart that it is Rosarians that make up Rosaria. So as Sanbreque falls apart after the destruction of Drake's Tail, Rosaria revolts and takes control of its own borders, setting up its own defenses against Akasha in the absence of imperial soldiers. Of the nations shown in the game Rosaria seems like the most receptive to Cid's ideologies so in the game I would have like to see a closer working relationship between the Hideaway and Rosarians, like real progress being made, especially after the timeskip and Hugo's death. There was also a real missed opportunity in the actual game with Clive here in not making something of the fact that the invasion of Rosalith is the first time in over 18 years that Clive has been back to his hometown (that we know of). Does he feel guilty or responsible for their suffering under Sanbreque and now Kupka? In this rewrite, this moment means something to Clive, Joshua, and Jill. For Clive and Joshua this is the moment they can no longer look away from Rosaria, they cannot out run their pasts or its people, even if it’s from the shadows they will fight for Rosaria's people.
Having Jill be inexplicably unable to resist Kupka who she fought on equal grounds with during the start of the original game, was extremely contrived and a terrible blow to her agency as a character, it was done for the sole reason of making it a plot point that she needed to be saved. I don't see why they couldn't have fought there and skipped the whole dungeon and rescue the damsel section. Even better since Kupka's goal is to have Clive watch his loved ones die, have Kupka ambush and capture Clive first since Clive is the bigger threat and it works for Jill's character since it is established that she will surrender to save another even when she is strong enough to save herself just like she did with Iron. Really the original scene would have been fine if they're framed it differently as a well coordinated surprise attack immediately putting eikon suppressors on Jill or had her prime only to be outnumbered by a unwearied Kupka and battalion. I haven't quite decided what to do with Joshua here, I think he would stay with Clive so perhaps as bad as his health is he did less fighting, stayed to the sidelines, and slipped away with Gav. I do like the idea that Clive doesn't fight Kupka alone and that Jill beats Kupka up too. In the original game it should have been Jill since Joshua hadn't joined yet but here Joshua got to know Cid too. With everyone exhausted from the battle Sleipnir can fend off a tired Jill.
I also think the Invasion of Rosalith is a good place for the conclusion of the next piece of Jill's established character, that she was taken as a child from her family and kept as a political prisoner in Rosaria with the possibility of being shoved into a marriage alliance with a Rosfield. In the original game no one would ever know that she isn't originally Rosarian because the game never does anything with this aspect of her backstory. Really except for one line in a end game quest with a lot of requirements, there is no hint of greater complexity to her childhood. Jill was wasted on FFXVI. Jill should be allowed to resent Rosaria and Elwin who took from her the sovereignty of her nation, her family, her people, her future, her political power. So how to reconcile what Rosaria did to Jill with the Jill willing to give up everything to protect Rosarians? One way to revolve this is for Jill and us to not treat this as a problem of factions and retribution but of justice and protection. Jill sided with the Rosarians because even if they had invaded others they did not deserve to be invaded and enslaved, no one deserved to be invaded and enslaved. This is a question of universal justice not of nations or politics. This poses Jill as somewhat as a savior which complements her in game actions, Jill's goals are to stand against injustice, protect the weak, and fight for those who cannot. This also aligns Jill's goals with Cid's ideology and provides reasoning for why she's committed to Cid's and the Bearer's cause. This also sets up Jill and Clive as foils in that both are pursuing ideals of justice but Clive is focused on revenge and punishment and Jill is focused on protection of the weak. These themes of justice are developed as early as the Rosaria sections of the game but are brought together here. While justice played a part, Jill protecting the Rosarian women was also probably a coping mechanism, doing so gave her a role and a reason to live. Seeing Kupka's invasion reminds her on the Ironblood invasion of Rosalith 11 years ago and of Rosaria's invasion of her homeland though she was too young to understand it. And in seeing the violence, her belief is cemented in the commonality of humanity, that all people are deserving of justice, and that no one should be invaded or enslaved.
Jill seeking universal human rights and justice regardless of faction also puts her at an interesting contrast to much of Valisthea which widely xenophobic. In the actual game Clive got absurdly lucky pre-timeskip that he met Cid and his network, friends of friends of friends who all want to help him and let him into the network. He’s out here collecting pokemon badges and those badges really do make the difference between night and day. Clive would have gotten nowhere without Cid and his network or network of favors. Part of it is the widespread and open bigotry against bearers but a lot of the towns just hate anyone who isn't a local in general. I find it interesting how local politics and the favor of local leaders (the tokens) are more powerful than many townspeople's bigotry against bearers. And then Jill through her character arc here begins seeing beyond all this to the greater picture.
I’ll be honest I forgot that in the actual game there was a section where Clive couldn’t summon Ifrit because he could still use the Ifrit abilities in gameplay so this really only affected cutscenes and really this had little plot impact since the writers didn’t want to ever portray Clive as weak or helpless so I only remembered that this happened at all when I read through my notes. That would be one change I’d make to the game, during the Ifrit-less section don’t allow Clive to use any of Ifrit’s abilities or maybe not any of the eikon abilities so that the players can experience what it means to live on stripped of a power you once had. Let’s say that Ultima’s possession attempt partially succeeded at the confrontation at Drake’s Head, taking away Clive’s ability to prime and leaving him helpless and Clive being powerless was why Cid felt the need to step up and defend him even if it cost him his life. This also better explains the power dynamics in the Rosalith invasion rewrite since Jill is the actual powerhouse during this confrontation because Clive can’t prime. Here Clive really is once again playing back up to Jill while she fights and he would love that.
In the actual game Clive gets a mini character arc later on about how he’s been pushing himself too hard, sacrificing himself too much, and been trying to do too much by himself and its poorly done and comes off as cheap especially since this is the same point in the plot where Jill gets permanently sidelined and Clive immediately goes off to continue doing things on his own. If there was any place to do that it would be here in the Dhalmek arc, about accepting that weakness isn’t failure, that relying on others isn’t weakness, that no one can no it alone, and that we are all stronger together. If Clive is going to regain Ifrit here it is only going to be through Jill, Joshua, and all the friends he has made along the way. This is the other point at which I was consider having Clive gain Shiva’s power in a literal case of regaining his power through his friends to parallel his emotional growth, in that the addition of Shiva and maybe a little help from Phoenix is what jumpstarts Ifrit and allows Clive to once again prime. It is only through Clive accepting his own helplessness and the help of others that he regains his power, the power to help them in turn.
The next arc is the Dhalmekian infiltration to kill Hugo Kupka which turns into also destroying Drake's Head. Aiming for Dhalmek's Mothercrystal instead of Waloed's is a terrible political decision as it radically changes the power balance of the region, making Sanbreque the only major player left on Storm. In this rewrite this is a purposeful mistake to contrast the more calculated, wiser, and more strategic choices my Cid to Clive's more thoughtless choices. This is Clive's first Mothercrystal without Cid. Jill will also be priming and fighting Titan Lost because she deserves more action time, having her be in recovery after would explain her absence in the next eikon fight, and because Jill has as much a bone to pick with Kupka as Clive does. Ultima doesn’t show up here since they’ve figured out the party is destroying the Mothercrystals and that only helps them.
In the lead up to Twinsides there is still a bit of Mid's ship adventures though less than before since her arc will be concluded at Origin. I like the idea of the Mid section but its execution was slow and painful. the idea was to characterize Mid and give her closure over the death of her father after all she has had to lose her father not once but twice in her short life. However, in this rewrite Mid was introduced before the timeskip and the Enterprise already built with Cid, so here Mid is struggling with what to do now and through the efforts of Clive and the rest of the Hideaway they inspire her to seriously look into a pipedream she had daydreamed about with her father, that of airships. Mid comes to realize that Cid's legacy isn't one concrete thing, it isn't the Enterprise, its all the people of the Hideaway, its every Bearer they've helped, Mid realizes that Cid's legacy is also her and so she shouldn't be afraid of changing the Enterprise because using the Enterprise as a platform for new technological innovation is exactly what Cid would have wanted.
A major lore change is that the Fallen weren’t modern humans like the party created by ultima and gained sentience after ultima went to sleep, in this story the Fallen were the society ultima was a part of. The lead up will also include more Ultima archeology and history with Joshua as the party seeks to understand why the Fallen ruins have awoken and become aggressive with aether wraiths. They find writings that tie Greagor to Ultima as well as research into transforming draconic aether into eikons.
I rather like the Twinside arc, it helps that the lead up includes the most political intrigue in the game which I think the game could use more of, and that this section focuses on Dion arguably the best written character of the game. Maybe some earlier scenes in the game with Terrance and Dion discussing the geopolitics of Valisthea, Terrance badly need any characterization. The Bahamut fight is also my favorite fight in the game so I would mostly like to keep it the same. The only thing I’d change here would be changing Zettaflare to like Exaflare or something, keep the attack the same but change the name, Bahamut isn’t even the final boss it doesn’t deserve something that should be as plot central as Zettaflare. The first major change is that since Joshua will be a party member through the Twinside section, it will be made to shown how Clive and Joshua's relationship has changed. Joshua is also the one to know Dion, in the game Clive was ready to leave him for dead, so Joshua will play a prominent role is this arc between Dion and the Mothercrystal being central plot elements here. The brothers are in need of some more heart to hearts. So far their relationship development has been about them reacquainting themselves with each other after a decade apart but now they can move towards true friendship and brotherhood. And so, this emotional connection strengthened here parallels the fusion of Phoenix and Ifrit into Ifrit Prime in the Bahamut fight, the emotional narrative and plot enhance each other. I would like Clive and Joshua to begin confiding in each other and understanding the guilt and burdens the other carries.
Clive and Joshua have such an interesting dynamic and it’s a shame the game sets up something so interesting only to do nothing with it. Clive and Joshua are both very similar and very different and act as character foils to each other. Their personalities are wildly different but their goals and burdens are very similar. Even from childhood the two brothers are tied together by strong mutual admiration and jealousy. Joshua thinks the world of his older brother, that Clive is the coolest, Clive is strong and brave and everything Joshua is not. He thinks Clive is more deserving of Phoenix and Dukedom because everything Clive has he earned of his own merit. Joshua has the open affection and love of both their parents, Joshua is the one that is doted on and cared for. Clive loves Joshua, but Joshua is also a reminder that he's been passed over as firstborn because he does not have Phoenix. Clive loves his brother but their relationship is not only that. Joshua is the lord his has sworn his life to serve and protect so their bond is not only that of brothers but of lord and knight, and this is one of Clive's core motivations throughout the game. In the actual game too, we see that Joshua has thar exact same core motivation as Clive, throughout the game his main goal is to protect Clive from Ultima's machinations.
In this rewrite as a furthering of the themes of guilt I am adding a further parallel. We see in the actual game that Clive is crushed under the weight of his guilt because he thinks Ifrit killed Phoenix at Phoenix Gate, in the dungeon cell he begs Cid to kill him because he cannot live with it, the whole story arc leading up to Clive gaining control over Ifrit deals with this. I do like how through the game Clive learns of even more people he's killed like Lord Commander Murdoch trained him and taught Clive what it meant to be a Shield of Rosaria, he might even think he killed his father since they separated before that point and everything was incinerated. Unlike in the game, here Clive isn't magically over it even after he comes to terms with being Ifrit's dominant and going berserk. To parallel Joshua is weighed by a lot of guil. Joshua on some level still carries the trauma of Phoenix Gate which included the beheading of his father as he tried to protect Joshua, the betrayal of the nation to be his responsibility at the hands of his mother, and his brother going berserk and almost killing him. Joshua feels responsible for his father's death. Joshua feels responsible for Phoenix gate. Joshua feels guilt over his abandonment of Rosaria in favor of pursuing Ultima and protecting Clive. Lastly without the the special regenerative abilities of Phoenix anyone else Dominant or no would have died, and that first death experience never left Joshua, on some level he is still afraid of Clive and Joshua hates that part of himself and feels immense guilt over it, blaming himself for not saving Clive from the Sanbreque army sooner. In this new timeline Joshua is about 20 here so most of this really is just in his head because what was some kid going to do against the Sanbreque Empire.
As mentioned previously, in this version of events the apocalypse with the eternal dark sky and the aetherfloods do not begin with the fall of Drake’s Tail, the 4th Mothercrystal, instead the fall of Drake’s Tail has a lesser effect with an increased number and appearance of stronger Fallen enemies and aetheric enemies (wraiths, etc.) as well as more recorded aetheric instability. Like in the original game Twinsides wipes Joshua out for like a month, that fight likely did permanent damage to him and his health suffers for it.
FFXVI Rewrite Part 4: Overhauling Waloed and Barnabas
I was dissatisfied with Anabella's character in the original game. She's built up as this greater antagonist on par with Barnabas and implied to have a connection to Ultima and the greater working of the plot and then all this comes to nothing as Ultima has possessed Olivier and is the actual mastermind. Additionally, Anabella highly parallels Ultima as they are both the demiurges of Gnosticism, evil and controlling creator figures that see their creations as wholly belonging to and existing for their sake. To Ultima and Anabella their creations are not independent of them, their creations/children should have no independent will, they are the ones who make decisions and their creations obey. This like all the themes in FFXVI is underdeveloped and I intend to change that by deepening the themes of free will, creation and creator, master and slave, existence before essence, and the weight of choice.
In this rewrite I'm going to keep Anabella just as reprehensible and classist as she is in the actual game but I'm going to give her more agency as a character and this is where things really change. Here Olivier has not been possessed, Anabella think him Greagor a god incarnate and convinces the Emperor but he's really just a spoiled dependent boy. In the scene where Dion goes berserk it is Anabella that triggers it not Ultima. Anabella goads him and Olivier not really knowing or caring what is going on but of course his mother is always right joins in and goes a step further. Dion kills his father just like Anabella plans and as she plays victim screaming that he's a kinslayer she hurls an Ultima imbued shard of the Mothercrystal at Dion. The crystal connects Dion with the Mothercrystal and floods him with aether with combined with his instability causes him to go berserk. As the city burns there's a scene of Anabella riding off in a carriage holding Olivier and smirking. Then Phoenix flies overhead locked in battle and we see Anabella falter as she stares up at Phoenix.
During the first week of the game’s release, I was speculating whether Anabella was Clive's biological mother at all (or if Elwin was Joshua’s father) given the strange and tense family dynamics of the Rosfields as well as how dissimilar Clive and Anabella look. However, since finishing the game and coming to understand that Anabella was designed as a foil character to Ultima, it does make more sense that Clive is her biological son. For both Ultima and Anabella Clive is their failed creation, the one that went astray. They are both interpretations of the Demiurge which in Gnosticism is the creator of the material world, the material world being fake and an evil prison to keep people from the true holy spiritual world, so the Demiurge is the evil controlling god trying to keep humans from true existence. In this rewrite I want to enhance the existing themes in the game from its Gnostic symbolism, to that of the relationships between creator and creator, master and slave. Making clear that Clive is Anabella’s son enhances these themes. Anabella doesn’t hate Clive because Elwin cheated on her and is forcing her see proof of their unequal status and powerlessness every day, Anabella hates Clive because she feels she owns him as his mother and that he has failed her arbitrary and impossible expectations by daring first to not manifest the Phoenix and then to dare have positive attributes and overshadow her younger son who did manifest the Phoenix. Anabella hates Clive for incredibly stupid, self-centered, and petty reasons.
Now comes the hard part where I break the original FFXVI’s plot across my knee and throw the whole thing out the window because the Waloed section through to the end of the game was a mess. First let me discuss what the writers tried to do and how they failed. King Barnabas was intended as Ultima’s successful creation to foil Clive as the failed creation. Clive asserts his independent will, his desire to live on his own terms, and that he will throw down all shackles forces upon him. Barnabas has forfeited his will and individuality for a life of religious devotion as Ultima’s puppet. Conceptually this isn't bad, the problem is in execution. Barnabas ended up being incredibly disappointing and boring as a character. For all Ultima and Barnabas' discussions of severing the ties of consciousness between Clive and his companions, they don't do anything or pose any sort of narrative threat. There are no stakes to this arc beyond a distant feeling that the world might end. Ultima shows up and has pointless conversations with Clive that go nowhere, establish nothing, and do nothing to progress the plot or stakes. From a character motivation standpoint at this point of the game Clive is doing exactly what Ultima wants so there’s no reason for Ultima to keep talking to Clive either. FFXVI tries to portray religious extremism and fails miserably. The game does little to establish religion and belief as a main theme in the game despite it being present in the background, the says nothing meaningful about religion and the only thing mildly interesting to happen, happens in an easily missed sidequest for the Undying.
Originally, I did consider trying to build off of this foiling of the slave to religion vs. the free man but to make it work actually involves changing more of the plot than the alternative and it just kept writing itself into a corner. A lot more would have needed to be done with religion earlier in the game, perhaps exploring how the different culture’s in Valisthea had different belief systems and interacting with how their various beliefs, theologies, and philosophies play out. They also could have had a story arc about how religion is used to subjugate, indoctrinate, and control people. More could have been done tying Ultima to the major religions of Valisthea like how Greagor is actually Ultima. Ultima and Barnabas should have followed through with those threats to sever the bounds of consciousness and started killing off the entire cast. The Hideaway should have been invaded and destroyed and the hub area lost. Otto, Mid, Vivian, Harpocrates, and eventually Gav, Jill, and Joshua. This would all have had massive gameplay and story implications and at that point I thought this was too much work for something I’m doing for fun, it’s not like Squeenix is paying me to fix their writing problems.
The solution I decided on completely flips Barnabas’ character and ideology, and ironically that changes less of the story than trying to stay true to the writers’ intentions. In this rewrite Barnabas still foils Clive but in the completely opposite way he does in the actual game. Here Barnabas is also a proponent of free will but in contrast with Clive’s more community minded approach to raising people up, Barnabas’ meaning of free will is the ability for him to impose his will over other people. Cid and Clive respect the rights and wills of all people while new Barnabas only respects his own will. Because Waloed no longer serves Ultima, the invasions of Dhalmek and Kanver here are due to Tharmr’s global conquest ambitions and to a lesser degree him shoring up resources to take on Ultima.
Barnabas here is in some ways a Übermensch, he is someone who has transcended all measure of human morality to create his own values to live by, someone who commands, creates and strikes his own path instead of obeying or following, someone powerful who’s power comes from them and not society. This new version of Barnabas has ironically cast aside religion and gods much like an Übermensch who Nietzche’s speculated would rise in the void of faith after the fall of Christian morality, to rise above humanity and gods both as a new being. As a critique of the concept, this Barnabas is also a self-centered and violent tyrant with no care for others, delusions of grandeur, and dreams of conquest and subjugation to bend lesser men to his will in a might equals right world. Benedrikta found Barnabas’ veneer of power alluring as she too desired power while Cid initially optimistic of the new world order Barnabas was trying to forge eventually grew disillusioned and bitter at his disregard for other people. Of note is that Barnabas does not have Ultima’s magic anti-aging serum in this version of events, the similar lack of aging was why I suspected Anabella to be similarly involved early on but that just ended up being a plot hole in the original game. There are two options to deal with this, first that Barnabas is an old man in his 60’s adding a layer of desperation to his conquests though that would not explain the lull in activity in recent years in in the actual game is explained by his contact with Ultima. The other option is that the timeline is changed so that the conquest of Ash is more recent.
Similar strongman archetypes to this new version of Barnabas can be found in the Chaos Heroes of the Shin Megami Tensei main games especially the early games, and in Walhart from Fire Emblem: Awakening. I want to discuss Walhart further because this Barnabas has ended up being a very similar character. Both are ruthless dictators seeking to take over the world who will destroy all opposition with force, they see themselves as the strongest, both refuse to bow to or worship anything. They would both unite the armies of the world to destroy the evil gods who would seek to end the world and the party defeating them ironically makes it easier for the evil god characters to destroy the world as the party just removed one of their obstacles for them. This focus on power and individual merit while deemphasizing position and background likewise justifies Waloed as the only nation accepting of beastmen into its military ranks. Barnabas doesn’t care who you are he care what you can do, it’s how outlanders like himself, Cid, or Benedrikta rose so high in the ranks.
The next arc will be Waloed and the destruction of the 5th and final Mothercrystal, Drakes Spine. With the nations of Storm in shambles, the war machine of Waloed rumbles and they prepare a full-scale invasion of Storm. The party must scramble to unite factions that were just at war with each other to prepare for the full-on invasion. They aim to strike the heart of Waloed before the war ships launch hoping to throw Waloed into disarray. The plan is to split the party with one group rallying around Kanver to make a stand while another infiltrates and destroys Drake’s Spine. By this point Clive and Ifrit have gotten famous or perhaps infamous as the most powerful man on Storm and Barnabas is coming to challenge him directly as such Clive will be at the front of the defense hoping to kill Barnabas and dissolve his empire. Joshua will be leading a small party into Waloed and the one with the most experience with Mothercrystals. Joshua will then become the main playable character during this section with cutscenes showing Clive organizing the people of Storm and forming a rapport with Dion as another man who’s eikon went berserk and destroyed the people he’d sworn to protect they are both knights who failed. The rest of the party hasn’t quite been set in stone but I think Gav and Jote would go with Joshua and that Clive would send Torgal to look after Joshua. Ash isn’t quite as desolate as it is in the actual game but between the conscriptions, the heavy taxes, the blight, and the increased monster activity (Fallen, spectres and wraith type enemies) it is still pretty bad in Ash. As such getting to Drake’s Spine will involve a lot more stealth than it does in the real game but they get there as its garrisons have emptied for war and make their way to the heart of the Mothercrystal. This section of the game introduces the Circle of Malius which worships Ultima and part of exploring Ash is Joshua going to those ruins and learning how their teachings say that Ultima created humanity and that humanity should serve because it is their destiny and purpose. During the Waloed section there’s a brief cutscene of a pan shot of Anabella and an escort party walking through Fallen architecture.
While Joshua makes his way through the fortress to the Mothercrystal, the fight for Kanver begins and at the climax of both events Clive faces off against Barnabas at the same time that Joshua meets Sleipnir in Drake’s Spine who was ordered to stay behind because Waloed suspected something like this might happen. Gameplay then switches between the two battles with eikonic titans Ifrit and Odin clashing and splitting the sea, while contrasted to Joshua and Sleipnir dueling with rapiers across the crystal floor. As the Vassal of Odin Sleipnir is more than enough to hold off Joshua and Joshua is forced to semi-prime to stand a chance, further risking his health. Sleipnir here is not an egi and extension of Odin, instead he is a normal human man who believes in new Barnabas’ ideals and is loyal to him. Eventually both Joshua and Clive manage to kill their opponents, on screen it should be a split perspective for the final blow with both Joshua and Clive striking down their opponents at the same time.
The Barnabas and Clive fight is a battle of ideals. Both characters are proponents of free will and that people should be able to live on their own terms but they have wildly different interpretations as to what this looks like implemented in the real world. Inevitably some person’s terms will clash with another person’s terms. Barnabas sees this as a matter of individual strength, that one must be strong to be able to decide their own life, to rise beyond the masses and take life by the reins. The rule of the jungle where the strong have the power to do whatever they want, and if the weak want change than all they have to do is become stronger. Clive is more cooperation and community minded; it is about everyone lifting each other up to a better life. There’s the paradox of tolerance in that if a community tolerates intolerance for certain people that community will become as intolerant and bigoted as possible, so to maintain tolerance and equal rights intolerance must not be tolerated. To ensure the rights of all, some times limits need to be put on people, especially limits on the rich and powerful. I do wish the actual game had engaged with Clive’s life experiences more because he’s seen first hand the social determinants of health and how society treats those it doesn’t care about, the least protected. Another change is that I would make the Barnabas Clive fight much more exciting. Anticlimactic fights are fine but they have to be done with purpose (as I intend to do later), a fight is anticlimactic to contrast it with other fights or to drive home an emotional point in the narrative, but the lack of excitement in the original fight serves no purpose, its just boring. Some ideas I have are for the fight to be over the water with Odin cleaving the ocean into several parts and Ifrit hoping between and boiling away parts of the ocean to clear a path. I’m not a fight choreographer but this fight needs to be big and as flashy and impressive as the others in the game.
FFXVI Rewrite Part 5: Origin, Ultima, and the Ending
With the last Mothercrystal destroyed and the final seal on Ultima broken, the apocalypse begins. The sky breaks apart into dark roiling aetheric stormclouds casting the world into eternal gloom. Aetherfloods spill across the lands poisoning all life and turning it akashic, the remaining crystals fail. There is no nation left standing in Valisthea. The one force that would have fought against Ulima’s rule Waloed is in disarray. The greatest champion fighting for free will was Banabas who is now dead. Congrats on making things worse! Isn’t free will and making choices great? The party much now scramble to figure out what is going on, all the while the realization of how badly they messed up slowly dawns upon them. Like in the actual game’s post Twinside section, the party scrambles to recover from the Waloed attack while also fending off compounding problems of starved beasts, Fallen machines, akasha, and wraiths. Now though Origin has also risen into the sky destroying all hopes of salvaging Twinside. The party travels around Valisthea piecing together the deteriorating situation with the destruction of the Mothercrystals and wonders if this is what Ultima wanted since they stopped bothering them several Mothercrystals back. Doomsday cultists start popping up. In particular will be the savior cult the Circle of Malius who are much the same as the are in the actual game striving to make all people akashic as they see it as the ultimate pure state free of mortal burdens. This formerly suppressed underground faction now runs free now that Barnabas is gone.
I really do like most of the sidequest storylines especially Dion and Harpocrates’ quest, however a complaint I had was that their placement right before the final boss dropped the pacing off a cliff. In this rewrite the last section is being expanded so there is time added here for Clive to rally people and finish their storylines so that the finale can be uninterrupted. This includes the final part of Jill’s character arc where she reckons that for all that she has talked big and tried to help people, she herself still does not quite know what it means to live on her own terms, but she thinks she is finally starting to understand. Jill wants to travel the world, to help the people out there who don’t know how to fight for themselves yet and to find herself. In the actual game the Jill-Clive romance is primarily hindered by Jill’s poor writing having tried to fix her writing here I have no objections to the romance anymore. However, I was never a fan of romances and am of the mentality of that if it isn’t needed it shouldn’t be included. For example, in Tales of Arise the relationship between Alphen and Shionne is the center point around which the rest of the story revolves and while it could have been a friendship instead of a romantic one, there is no Tales of Arise without Shionne and Alphen’s relationship. This is not the case for FFXVI, even in this rewrite Jill is not the deuteragonist (if anyone it’d be Joshua), as such Jill and Clive’s relationship is not central to the story and really while I’m not opposed, I feel a romance just gets in the way of the story, if there’s to be any romance I would rather it just be implied or optional. Dion and Terrance should still kiss because that is bold and revolutionary in a way the portrayal of any straight couple isn’t, also they’re side characters so it doesn’t matter this story isn’t about them. Before the final dungeon is also the time to show how life without magic sucks. FFXVI sort of glosses over this very briefly but I think this point should be integrated into all the final storylines, without magic people have no safe drinking water or fire, disease begins running rampant, industry grinds to a halt, and food production halts so people begin starving in the streets in mass, and Clive has to see all this knowing this is what he’s done to people.
The party eventually learns of Ultima’s plans to destroy the world and enslave humanity by flooding them with aether and turning every living thing akashic. At the same time, they record increased aether concentrations gathering around Origin, as the Blights worsen as Ultima repurposes the same draining mechanisms as the Mothercrystals, He turns the very chains that bound them into his servants. Instead of loredumping via a ten minute monologue at the end of the game, now would be a good place to drop bits of lore and worldbuilding like how in this version dragons, frostwolves, and such were the original inhabitants of the world. Ultima is the last surviving active member of the Fallen whose ancient civilization made all the ruins encountered across the game. Ultima and the Fallen brought humans to Valisthea and created eikons by enslaving the power of the land’s original inhabitants. Eikons are a phenomena of the recent centuries and a sign that the seals were weakening.
As a lover of JRPGs I found it immensely disappointing that Origin was just some cutscenes and not a full dungeon so I’m making it a full dungeon in this rewrite. Ultima is trying to draw in Clive and possess him anyways (as well as the combined Ifit-Phoenix fire eikon) so they would try and cut off the rest of the party. Dion is able to break a hole in Origin that Clive enters into with Joshua, however Jill is cutoff, and under constant assault she seals the hole after them to stop pursuit. In addition, the Fallen forces are marching from Origin to turn every person akashic and Dion and Jill are needed to hold them back. As such Dion and Jill as the two that can fly stay outside to stop pursuit of Joshua and Clive, as well as to try and contain Ultima’s forces from murdering and or turning everyone on the continent into akasha. This would be a nice scene to show all the factions of Valisthea that Clive has met and negotiated with coming together to ward off extermination. Like the Trinity Accord can actually be something meaningful as a defense accord rallying humanity’s last remnants. Origin will be a classic final dungeon boss gauntlet with no way to exit until the player beats the game. Every set of floors (5? 10?) will be a boss as Ultima seeks to weaken Clive.
During the ascent to the top or Origin the final secrets of the game are revealed and the lore scattered throughout the game brought together. To reiterate, the Fallen drained the resources of their homeland and turned it into a wasteland, their civilization collapsed and the survivors fled upon the mothership Origin to a new world. Coming to Valisthea, they came into contact with the native lifeforms such as the dragons and began a war of conquest for control over Valisthea. The Fallen made eikons out of draconic aether to use as war weapons against the dragons themselves thus why eikons are elemental themed. Eventually the Fallen with their eikons and advanced technology kill most of the dragons but not before most of them were killed as well. As a last resort the last remaining dragons sacrificed themselves to seal the last Fallen away the Eldest Wyrm’s body fragments, becoming the Mothercrystals. The Mothercrystals much like dragons themselves have a strong connection to the aether of the land and while not ideal, a side effect of the Mothercrystals is that they feed off of the land’s aether to power their seals. Because this was a last ditch effort it’s full of problems including that the seals take an unsustainable amount of aether and after the land is drained of aether the seals begin to fail. Mining and using crystals sped up the breaking of the seals as well as the spread of the deadlands as the Mothercrystals drained the lands to fuel the seals. Ultima is the last active Fallen who awakened as the seals weakened. The reawakening did not go as he hoped as the other Fallen only remained as aether. Ultima seeks to flood all of humanity with Fallen aether made of his people’s souls to truly reincarnate them, replacing the original aether of the world with Fallen aether. Origin now acts as the focal point amassing aether and releasing Ultima’s forces.
At the top floor of Origin Clive and Joshua find not only Ultima but Anabella and Olivier. Anabella and Olivier transport to Ultima’s eden space ship which is revealed to be the red star Metia; Origin acts as the connecting point between Valisthea and Metia. Ultima reveals that the Fallen are the true humans of this setting. The original humans created soulless shell or dolls for them to later fill with their own aether, reincarnate, and thus save their civilization. All the characters the player has met were these husks created by the true humans, the people of Valisthea were never meant to be people on their own with wills and thoughts. Similarly, Mythos like in the actual game was the chosen vessel for Ultima to fill with the eikons, ascend to godhood, and power the casting. But like most plans, things have gone wrong and now created fights Creator. Ultima tells Clive and Joshua that they and their brethren were only ever imposters wrongfully claiming the title of humanity their masters: the true humans. As creations of humans, they belong to humans, their wills exist only as an extension of the true humans’ wills. “In Ultima's eyes, mankind's greatest sin is the awakening of free will—his servants straying from the path their creator laid out for them and forging one of their own. However, Clive contends that this is a sin by which Ultima is equally stained—and indeed, if humanity is indeed Ultima's creation, does not their every action, every emotion stem from him?” (Mysteries of the Realm: Sin).
Clive and Joshua face Ultima in his Ultimalius form as in actual FFXVI for stage 1 of the final boss fight. After beating Ultimalius, Ultima transforms Stage 2 is a giant kaiju eikon battle is space. Like in the Bahamut fight, Ifrit and Phoenix combine, however where Ifrit Prime was an incomplete fusion, this time the fusion is in full and the true Eikon of Fire emerges: Adonaios v2.11 (other possible names are Sabaoth and Belias). Ultima uses the beta testing version Adonaios v1.8; 1.8 comes from the incorporation of all 8 elements plus Ultima, 2.11 comes from Adonaios having to be split into two but left unfinished by Ultima for Clive to collect the remaining eikons. In game Ifrit Prime just looked like the Ifrit model with 2 feathers glued on, Adonaios v2.11meanwhile looks like a 50:50 fusion a molten red eikon with wings, horns, a feathered tail, and a jagged beak. Adonaios is slimmer than Ifrit but overall bigger with the feathers. Adonaios v1.8 meanwhile looks like the figure on the murals, a fusion of all 8 eikons and elements however it is falling apart at the seams even as Ultima fights with it because it’s an abandoned draft version. Late in the stage 2 fight Clive and Joshua are losing and draw upon the remaining power of the eikons of whom only Bahamut and Shiva are left. This drains the remaining eikonic power from Jill and Dion, grounding them and making the Valisthea fight hopeless, the Ultima fight now all or nothing. Stage 3 of the final boss fight takes place aboard Metia. Metia was an alien spaceship all along, but more accurately it is a control satellite from which to coordinate the revival of humanity. Clive, Joshua, and Ultima have all mostly used up all their power in the previous stage. In this final stage of the fight Ultima transcends and returns to his original appearance that of a human, Clive and Joshua are no longer fighting some strange monster but someone they would recognize as human. In stage 3 Clive cannot semi-prime. In the end Ultima is killed and his species is now extinct.
Joshua and Clive are exhausted from climbing Origin as well as the consecutive boss fights but begin to relax with Ultima dead, and then Anabella steps out. Anabella thought she could outplay Ultima by siding with him and then taking over, and now she sees her chance. She steals all the power that Ultima had been siphoning into himself to cast the spell, and redirects it all into Olivier to turn Olivier into a god and who will rule the world, doing what Ultima failed to do. It fails because playing god is a bad idea, Olivier’s body cannot handle the power and it begins mutating him into a deformed humanoid abomination with multiple arms and eyes, bodies seemingly trying to grow out of him. So, the true final boss is mercy killing a child who is falling apart and turning into an abomination but doesn't know it, as he cries that it hurts and begs you to stop. Olivier cannot be allowed to live as they will destroy the world. and the aether is warping his mind and he becomes less coherent as the fight goes on, regressing from full sentences to just screams. Ascended Olivier doesn’t really fight back, he flails around and lashes out when attacked but attacks aren’t particularly aimed at the player and he’s mostly crying and shaking on the ground in pain. Ascended Olivier has a very large health bar and the story will not progress until he is killed, the last save point is before reaching the top floor or Origin. In a game full of epic boss battle, the last is anticlimactic by design, there is no epic music just silence, there is no challenging gameplay, only attacking a child. The gameplay is boring, its grueling, and that’s the point. Clive kills Olivier and then there’s just Anabella.
Much like the Fallen were the creators of modern humans who sought to control their creations and saw them as an extension of themselves, creations that deviated and refused to submit to their will and thus were failures. So too is Anabella a controlling creator who deemed her children failures for not advancing her goals, hating and discarding them to try again with a new child. Olivier was supposed to be her ultimate creation, perfect and subservient to her with no will of his own. The parallels between Anabella and Ultima exist in the actual game so it was disappointing her role ended so early and nothing was done with this parallel. Here is this rewrite, the large-scale destruction of the world by Ultima is paralleled with the destroyed Rosfield family and this final confrontation with Anabella. Anabella is not a warrior, without her soldiers and pawns she doesn’t have and martial power, she is more or less powerless to her fate at this point having discarded all her cards and bet everything Olivier. Clive (and the player) are then given the choice to “do nothing”, “kill”, or “spare” Anabella, Clive after all was the one who suffered the most from her. If “kill” is chosen, then Clive kills Anabella. If “spare” is chosen, Clive walks away but not before Joshua steps in and kills Anabella because even if Clive can forgive her Joshua can’t. If “do nothing” is chosen Anabella kills herself unable to reconcile with a reality in which she has lost.
Clive and Joshua use the last embers of the eikonic power remaining to shut down Primogenesis and Ultima’s plans, landing the Metia at the base of the crumbling Origin. The closing shot is of gang standing together overseeing a ruined Valisthea as the camera pans showing the aether storm clearing, wraiths evaporating, and fallen machines deactivating permanently. The deadlands are still around but a new sprout is seen growing. The credits sequence plays over a scene of Mid yelling to hurry it up she wants to see stoves and water purifiers in every village by the end of the month, shots of people is Valisthea figuring out how to live without magic using technology and innovation, the main characters are seen helping repair efforts. The end card says 4 years, meaning FFXVI takes place over a total of 16 years, from the beginning of the game and Phoenix Gate to the end of the game and Origin. Sun light is streaming through a window as Clive writes in a book which he closes to the title “Final Fantasy XVI by Joshua and Clive Rosfield”. As the timeline is changed here so that Clive is younger for the duration of the game than he is in the real game, his older model can be used here. Clive is using his non-dominant hand here as his dominant hand has been partially petrified from his fight with Ultima. On the desk is a photo of Clive and a bedridden Joshua.
The game’s themes could have been better integrated into the final section of the game. If FFXIV wanted to tell a story about choice, then they should have made Clives’ choices have weight and consequence. If he wants a society free of the Mothercrystals then the game should have showed how he ruined the lives of many many people by destroying them. FFXVI would have benefited greatly from more moral dilemmas like that. There should have also been exploration of the concepts of creation, ownership, makers, what makes someone human. One missed opportunity was not bringing up the relationship between art and artist, is art an extension of the artist or its own thing. The references to Gnosticism were fine but the concepts could have been clearer. There are also just a truckload of small problems and inconsistencies in the game like how Charon is said at one point to have a wide variety of customers across the continent while at another point is said on exclusively trade to the Hideaway. There’s a sidequest about how Murdoch’s nephew joins the Hideaway because he admires Clive and then the game forgets about him (just like they forget about Jill) and only remembers him again to put him on a bus, thus having no interaction with Clive. A lot of worldbuilding is just badly done. I love mysteries but making things misleading and obscure for no reason is not how to do it. So much of it was unclear or convoluted or just pointless even after reading the completed The Thousand Tomes that I just threw the whole thing out and wrote new lore for this reimaging of FFXVI. If a change is not specified than it is the same as in the actual game. I wrote 85% of this in Jun-Jul of 2023, then stopped for lack of motivation. I only finished this for the sake of finishing it because I don’t care anymore. I’m done with FFXVI and it’s poor writing.
It says something that it ended up being easier to throw out the later 1/3 of the game. In earlier drafts I did originally try to make canon work like Barnabas being one of Ultima’s devout and purifying Waloed by turning it all akashic, or Joshua’s probable death at the end of the game. Like it would have made more sense for Barnabas and Ultima as they are portrayed in the actual game to methodically hunt down and kill every person or named NPC Clive has ever talked to, slowly isolating him from his humanity by breaking every connection he’s ever tried to make. But of course, this removes the cast from having a role in the rest of the game and makes it impossible to keep the rest of the game the same. This rewrite ended up being pretty happy and optimistic because that’s the spirit of the original game. FFXVI in the end is pretty optimistic, which I have mixed feelings about. FFXVI tries have an upbeat uplifting ending and message while also wanting to be a dark, gritty, edgy Game of Thrones knockoff, and while this is very possible for a work to do, FFXVI did not succeed in meshing these aspects into a consistent whole, XVI ends up feeling inconsistent or disjointed. So while I did eventually decide to uphold XVI’s optimistic spirit I did consider another possibility leaning into more of the darker ambience. With the rising of Origin and fight to climb the tower, every major character either is killed or sacrifices themselves for Clive to reach the summit. The Cursebreakers buy time of the ground with their lives, Dion finally gets the absolution of death he has been seeking for Sanbreque, Jill joins Clive and Joshua in the tower but sacrifices herself to hold back the tower bosses and all of Ultima’s forces chasing them up the tower. During the second stage of the final Ultima fight to turn Ifrit Prime into Adonaios v2.11 and truly fuse Phoenix and Ifrit, Joshua who is already dying burns himself away allowing Clive to have all of Phoenix’s power. Clive thus kills Olivier alone, and faces Anabella alone, his fate left ambiguous.
#ffxvi#ff16#final fantasy xvi#clive rosfield#jill warrick#joshua rosfield#barnabas tharmr#anabella rosfield
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so uhh, how about a Ben 10 and Twisted Wonderland crossover where either Ben ends up in Twisted wonderland(either as his 10 year old self or as a teenager[ps I’m talking about prime Ben]). Or somehow one of the twst cast finds the omnitrix and they get to somehow turn into one of many aliens(I personally one to see either Idia or Kalim or Epel heck maybe even Riddle or somehow Ortho get the watch). I just hope you at least know about Ben 10 :[
Ben 10 was my cHiLdHoOd :3
Tbh, the most interesting cases would be Idia and Epel to have the omnitrix. But I will try to shortly expand on all 4 scenarios :'3
Epel because at first he would think he could use it to try and beat Vil, only to have his ass kicked again and resolve to only causing some mess by just experimenting with it. He would absolutely have a long time coming in terms with the risks and responsibilities that come at the package. And it's that balance in between fun shenanigans and angst for the sudden weight of the omnitrix.
Or Idia, who would absolutely want to dissect the whole thing, but realises that 'oh shit, this is apart of me now'. He would probably stay on the side at first, not wanting to use it in fear of accidentally causing some damage. But he would most likely have a spur of the moment revelation and as such throw himself in the front of a dire situation, most likely to save someone dear to him(Ortho would be my main pick because soft family fluff :3)
For Kalim, he would probably immediately tell Jamil and boy will Jamil have a field trip with this. Man is not paid enough for this fuckery. Kalim would be introduced to the notion of 'this is serious shit' quite early, through Jamil, so that's why it would cut a lot from the self growth aspect. :'3
If it was Riddle, he would absolutely freak out at first. Man would probably not try to use it at all, unless situation calls for it. And he would also do absolutely ANYTHING in his power to hide it from anyone, mainly his mom. Thing is, he is proficient in magic so in any dire situation, using the omnitrix would be Riddle's least concern as he would view it as a drawback and nothing else.
But also a funkier thing would be that since the omnitrix is basically sci-fi alien science, it means little to no magic involvement, therefore there is a big change that the magic does act up in the for of mayhaps half transformations from time to time. Maybe the full transformation occurs when thetwst boi in question reaches a dire point, a limit of sorts, when magic has to retreat and leave them with the raw power of the omnitrix.
Now I don't have a great overarching plot for now... Guess it follows some of the early og Ben 10 episodes, where man just messes up with his new powers and fights generic villan of the week type of shit. :3
But it has that potential too be great character exploration while also having some shenanigans. :3
#twisted wonderland#asks :3#The idea of a Ben 10 au is fun#But it's also late when I write this so most likely I didn't conjure even half of what I had in mind#ben 10 au
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Okay, since I had a ton of fun with the last ones, some more headcannons of characters from my fic series! <3 This time we're going to focus on Lir Tam-Lin, with some facts, headcannons, and background info.
* He started off as a little bit of a one-off joke I made with a friend who is a FREQUENT head cannon buddy of mine, and I love that for them. Literally just something along the lines of "wouldn't it be funny for Rocket to be walking down a hall at Nova Corps and seeing someone who looks like Meti??"
* His last name, "Tam-Lin," is from an old Scottish ballad that is strikingly close to "Beloved and the Bastard". His first name, "Lir," is that of an Irish sea god. It was kept because it is also the name of Elphaba's son in the "Wicked" series, and that was too much a coincidence to pass up since Meti has basis from this story (down to his mother's voice claim is Idina Menzel!). This is all a loving homage to my headcannoning friend too, since they've been so instrumental in how this series has turned out.
* Speaking of voice claims, his is Timothy Omundson, who played Lassiter on "Pysch". When I write a character, it helps me to have a voice to work with in real life, and Omundson hit a lot of the marks for me with how tense he could sound but also how warm he could be.
* Omundson is a stroke survivor, and while this initially wasn't part of Lir's character, it quickly became one. Anyone who's read at least a little bit of my stuff probably has a handle on the fact showing those with disabilities is a big thing to me. While I have some disability issues of my own (with learning, a few other things), I also have a disabled parent. Seeing things through her eyes made me want to write more characters who were disabled, yeah, but also bad ass.
* Lir is from the planet Hill Temar, is another Celtic reference, this for the Hill of Tara, which factors in a lot of Irish mythology.
* His ship is named the Bán Pangar, which is yet ANOTHER Celtic callout. This is a 9th century Irish poem about a cat.
* Lir is really into Gundam models and mecha anime. His favorite is Gundam Wing, since it was his introduction series, and he is also a fan of things like Big O and Neon Genesis Evangelion
* He also has a soft spot for magical girl anime but would die of embarrassment if anyone found this out
* He was a fan of mecha things from childhood. He grew up in a very pastoral home world, and moving to Xandar was a shock to him. He didn't have many friends, but he always loved going out to watch machines or see ships fly
* Some of his favorite activities when he was a child was bow hunting, fishing, and collecting pebbles by the stream
* He has crow brain, much like Meti does, and loves collecting things
* He may be a little terse with Richard Rider and Sam Alexander, but would also take a bullet for either of them
* His mother is an Eternal. Being part Celestial as well, he has the potential for a lot of power
* While it hasn't been stated in text yet, his mother's name is Morga
* He loves music from anime and JPop. He's stolen away to more than one concert on Earth and watched from a distance
* He credits his dexterity to building models. While he does have exosuits that allow him movement with both hands, he still prefers using one hand to work. It's mostly out of habit now.
* Loves his weapons. Being a sharpshooter is what initially got him noticed by Nova Corps. Being a natural tacticle genius is what got him thrown into the position of Nova Prime. He actually has a lot of respect for Rocket, even if they butt heads a lot.
* A bit lonely and has trouble expressing it! His wife is also the only woman he ever dated, and he was about 27. He has a hard time opening up to people, but really wants to make a connection
* Loves kids and babies and is a natural with them. This is something he gets from his mother
* Owns about ten different outfits. Wants to branch out in his style currently, but doesn't know where to begin. With being half Meti, there is hope for him.
* A hopeless romantic at heart and a bit shy about it. Poor guy. <3
#rocky raccoon and the knowhere man#rocket raccoon#meti geer#dr. meti geer#gotg rocket#gotg#guardians of the galaxy#fan fiction#lir tam lin#lir tam-lin
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Is it limiting to write TFMO after already posting TOO, is there any struggle to build the characters up to how they were in the beginning of The Whispers of a Snake?
I've been loving the younger Pax brothers and newer characters like Lou Ellen and Mercedes. It's also cool to see small differences like Pax playing more with gender which wasn't as present in TOO.
(Hi btw, glad to see you back after so long.)
HI JACE! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE ASKS! you have no idea how much they mean to me and how much they encourage me to keep at this!
*rolls up my sleeves*
*puts on my nonprescription glasses for effect*
Let's fucking GO--
Yes.
Yes there is.
Because of this-->
stoic piece of--
(I know. this is an old picture. He should have a combo of dreads, braids, and quarter shave in the old school version. And WAY less facial scars. I told myself to make drawings. one d a y.)
In my main series, you might notice that Axel....
Can be comically useless. Don't get me wrong. He's meant to be a bad ass and have so much complicated turmoil to work through. But, keep a counter on how many times he gets taken out of a final fight before he actually gets to fight. Or gets his ass kicked.
Book 1: Aphrodite kneecaps him. On a sinking ship he didn't want shipped.
Book 2: Brothers being Brothers, blasting Axel's bluster with a bullet
Book 3: he gets to fight. But. Almost dies by praetor. Almost drowns by human fire hose.
Book 4: Almost dies by childhood fear of water puppy. Almost dies by half-brother's mom's parental skills.
Most of Riordon's plots revolve around a Hero's Journey, often times. His characters are normally rising bad asses. Axel already had his hero's journey when you meet him in Traitors of Olympus. It is well established and agreed upon by the other characters that Axel is a bad ass, even though you rarely see him win a fight outright. I get a certain amount of pleasure from the "oooOoooo, he's a bad asssss, when he's fighting oversized pidgeonnnnns with a frying pannnnn--"
My secret with Axel is he spends more time In Need of Rescuing than doing the rescuing. This works (oh gods--it does work? Right? Right guys? He seems cool--please--) because he has the presence, both in how he acts and how others react, of someone who is used to being in command and can command well. People respect him because of past heroics, even if you're not seeing him kick ass here. (How many of his fights has he won against Reyna, hrm?) Otherwise, I spend four books emotionally had physically kicking the cho out of him.
..... then comes the prequel
"Oh, fuck, I need to make Axel ACTUALLY cool--"
Axel is meant to be many things. In the first four books, he was meant to be
I wanted to take figure that looked like he would embody everything of toxic Hispanic Machismo, and then make them a hyper-feminist, social justice warrior that super supports their nonbinary little siblings, someone to fight a nasty stereotype from when I was growing up
Worthy of Reyna. Yes. Axel was made for Reyna, and they STILL SCREWED IT UP--GSDI REYEL, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO--
But in the prequel, he's meant to be the parallel to the Greek's Percy and Rome's Jason. Lord knows (hail Kronos) that Riordan didn't set Luke up well for that. (I can do a different deep dive into this.) That means, not only does Axel need to progress, but he needs to rise above those around him. And he's surrounded by titans, mythical monsters, and serial killers like Jack and Flynn that can alter people's wills and health with words and songs. I'm going to end up truncating Axel's character development more than I want to, but, by all rights, he should have his own series-worth of adventures, and I believe he does.
It's just freaking HARD to go from humiliating and crushing someone for four books and then be like, "oh.... you need to... win here..."
Otherwise, Pax is relatively easy. Oh, except the Lamia thing. I might be, um, skipping over the Lamia thing. That is the one thing I just can't fit (we'll see) but the Trauma from--ehem, I mean the Massacre of Mount Othrys is more important to his character development. He has more pivot points, whereas Axel has long progression.
Jack was always meant to be a sweetie church boy that's got just a smidge of serial killer problem. Just a lil.
I'm SO freaking happy you like Mercedes and Lou Ellen. Mercedes is one of my favorite characters in Tales From Mount Othrys. <3 Her dialogue and scenes are tricky to write, but she's SO much fun to bring to life!
THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ASKS!
#asks#jacereaal rocccckkks#I CAN'T BELIEVE ALL THE FREAKING BEAUTIFUL ART YOU HAVE DRAWN#I WILL BE RESPONDING WITH PROPER COMMENTS SOON I HOPE#Axel is a coatimundi's butt#But I still love him even if he has to be cool for real now
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7 12 and 21 for edo phoenix perhaps? :3
hehe yay
7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?
I don't look for a lot of stuff on him but... I really like when I see people use very different character to serve as his trauma-processor? Like Judai and a few others are classics but when I see development on his dynamic with Echo, or him hanging out with Johan, it's fun like. He has very unique dynamics with many characters so I'm glad it's a bit exploited.
Also i really like that everyone agrees schmaden schmuki is in top5 yugioh moment. I really want to make a compilation across languages someday.
12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?
His father was huge into nerd non-video games, board games, rpgs, tabletop games, just all kinda stuff. He's a tcg designer after all. So this kinda of highly nerdy stuff is a deep part of Edo's childhood and connection to his father (and i have my little general GX AU where they're practically a group of board game nerds I can place them on the rpg-board games-figurine trium virat it fits every character so well).
BUT he's more particularly into figurine stuff. As in Warhammer. Listen Warhammer is prime smart-ass edgy nerd with lots of money to spend hobby. He spends hours painting each of his mini and he has lore for each unit. Has very expensive table and decor and somehow look down on players (marufujis basically) who have more homemade stuff. He won't play against you if you don't know the exact timeline of war between X and Y faction. He's that kinda guy.
21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?
Most fun and embarassing Edo writing moment to me is when I get to the part where he thinks how much he loves Saiou and like. it's all projection. Half of my love toward my friends half of my love toward Saiou. He's so fun to write for real i can spend an hour describind Saiou's hair and yeah it's in-character. Also I love showing bits of his issues poke out here and there. Like being a little scared of opening door.
For the part I don't like... I guess when I need to write him be a bit of an asshole to others? It's a bit hard writing characters being mean but it's kind of necessary for pre/early-s2 Edo.
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