I just read you have alternate au endings in mind and I’m VERY curious!! Do you have any posts abt them??

Hi !!!!

No, I probably don't... I can't say for sure but I doubt I have any specific posts about it. I talk a bit about some ideas here and I rant in general about the ending so much that there's a subsection in my table of contents (pinned post) about what I don't like.

Under the cut is a mishmash rambling of ideas lol...

So I guess I'll give you a brief run-down on what should change for me to be more on board with the ending. I hate Mikan having the stealing alice with a passion. I know that shows up pretty early, but I hate it and I usually forget about it because of how much I hate it so if I ever wrote a canon-verse fic (which I'm nervous about because of this very thing), she probably wouldn't have it, which would require me to shift a lot of other elements in the story. I just think it kills the importance of her nullification alice. She had a "useless", understated, subtle alice that could easily be taken for granted but that was actually super cool and useful in its own way, and the stealing alice is... not helping that issue. The stealing alice is immediately and clearly useful and showy and impressive, if a bit taboo. But that taboo element is rarely touched on with Mikan because she doesn't even know she has it for a while and she's immediately pretty okay with it when she does find out about it because it never really does wrong... Meanwhile, Yuka's story with the stealing alice is so much more meaningful because we get a deeper look into being outcast for her alice and how much of a burden it can be. Mikan doesn't have that relationship with the stealing alice, but its arrival undercuts her nullification alice and as a result her arc suffers.

I also think Persona took up way too much time. I don't really care if he has a redemption or not but the "We have to forgive everyone so we can all move and be happy now" message is so aggravating to me and not a lesson you should be giving a young audience so, I would get rid of that, or at least undercut it. (My issue with Persona's redemption is more about Mikan than him, actually.)

AND I HATE HOTARU SAVING NATSUME. I hate it so much. It's my least favorite part of the story, no contest. I'd delete that right away. Additionally, Mikan losing her memories has potential but none of it is used and then all of her relationships in the last chapter are minimized to elevate Hotaru, to the detriment of every other character on that beach, which pisses me off so much...

So I usually like an ending that looks like this: Mikan only has the nullification alice (and thus Yuka wouldnt have died, but would maybe have been put in a different bad situation, like maybe Mikan is still in the labyrinth as collateral over Yuka... that could be cool), and Natsume still dies (I love him dying) but Mikan saves him, and a huge help is Ruka. Maybe Mikan still loses her alice, and still loses her memories. In that case, the amnesia thing should be stretched out and actually used, instead of lasting a chapter because then it's just stupid and feels pointless. In this case, Hotaru should play a more subtle role (which is what she does best) and be the main one to chase after Mikan. That way the manga can still have the bookends of the best friends chasing each other, only this time it feels more equal. OR maybe Mikan doesn't lose her memories but since Yuka is still alive, she leaves the academy with her mom and they start some new life together for a reunion with friends later on.

OR she keeps her memories and doesn't lose her alice and instead everyone is happy at the Academy, particularly because Shiki is now in charge without the interference of the ESP so there's much-needed structural change that makes life at school a lot better and less prisonlike. TBH, I genuinely can't stomach the idea that the Academy doesn't undergo structural change because 1. That's such a cop-out and 2. It makes Shiki look bad and 3. It makes the whole story seem a lot more like child abuse apologism... which it isn't doing on purpose but OOF it is not a good look.

I also hate what was done with Goshima at the end there, so I would completely discard that.

Anyway, I actually do have plans on writing ONE idea of an alternative end at some point, but it'll require some thought and care so that fic will need some time to be written. If you have AU endings, please share because I hate the end we got and I don't think a lot of us actually like it, in the end.

oc time babey

so @commander-daine told me i should write out the stuff about my human commander and his sylvari husband so HERE WE GO (it’s all under the cut)

OKAY so there are two babes here: Eridunis and Arkus Hypericum

arkus is a sylvari whose dream consisted of the white stag, red lightning, and the shadow of the dragon ofc; he awoke in late twilight and instantly began training as an Elementalist with a staff

he really starts to live by the “all things have a right to grow” aphorism (which is important later), and of course Caithe starts to help him find the white stag

eridunis is a human man who grew up in the orphanage, made friends with quinn and probably alice, and got to know logan a little kind of through logan’s seraph brother (eridunis was always a huge troublemaker, and he was hauled into the seraph office a lot; logan probably visited and got to know a lot of the orphans), so by the time he was 18, he was thrown out of the orphanage for not being able to hold a job and taking up space, so he lived on the streets for two years

at 20, he falls into the shaemoor situation, saves the town, and logan--who’s a seraph by that point and has already had enough direct interactions with eridunis over the time period that he took his brother’s place--takes eridunis into his office one more time after eridunis is (again) caught stealing from the rich, but instead of arresting him proper, he essentially tells him that if eridunis can help the seraph with a couple jobs, he might be able to solidify him a position in the guard--so eridunis joins the circus and also investigates the treason rumors around the queen.

eventually, we hit the chapter where caithe invites the surviving members of destiny’s edge to lion’s arch, so she brings arkus along, and logan brings eridunis; the two get to chat for a bit--all small talk, right--and they both Definitely think the other is cute but they aint gonna say it, but eventually they have to separate again because logan and rytlock start arguing, and zojja and eir start arguing, so they part ways

arkus joins the priory and starts researching hylek and environmental geology and of course starts to learn about zhaitan’s influence on the world--also he makes friends with sieran and sees her as a semi-mentor, semi-acquaintance

eridunis joins the order of whispers and starts helping the quaggan village, and he himself learns about zhaitan and all that--also he becomes absolute best friends with tybalt and eventually demmi

somewhere in that time frame, eridunis is roaming around lornar’s pass and “accidentally” finds his way into the underground priory library and finds some nice books to read--books about hylek culture and environmental geology

someone catches him and locks him up in like a makeshift jail, tells arkus that his research was being read by some outsider, and gixx is away on some retreat so you know, arkus decides to handle it on his own

the two meet for the second time, and have like a mutual “you!!” moment, and eridunis is just so flirty and schmoozey, and arkus sees through the whole thing and hes like “alright lets just wait a couple days for a whispers agent to come get you, how about that” and to make a long story short (too late) arkus watches over eridunis to make sure he doesnt escape, and in doing so, they get to know each other a little more

a whispers agent eventually picks him up, so they part ways again--both kind of mutually feeling annoyed by the other--and they won’t meet up again until their orders send them to claw island. there, eridunis meets trahearne, and trahearne kind of brushes him off because he knows arkus more anyway, but once again they have a mutual “you!!!” moment, very classic

of course, the tragedy strikes, and theyre both sort of left to feel their mutual loss together. trahearne goes with both arkus and eridunis to take care of lion’s arch, and of course they help their orders, and they retake claw island. eridunis is really taking into a leadership role during this, and arkus really notices--the two start to respect each other a little more after fighting side by side, even if they still kind of have an impatience about each other, but eventually when trahearne offers second-in-command to one of them, arkus tells eridunis he should take it, so eridunis becomes the Commander.

then i imagine they travel together and start solidifying a friendship--it starts at that kind of mutual annoyance, still, but as they realize theyre more similar than they both expected--with eridunis at some point saying sort of offhandedly “every living thing deserves to live” or something along those lines, and arkus realizes that’s basically the same thing as the aphorism he’s lived by his whole life, so he starts falling for eridunis; meanwhile, eridunis is realizing that arkus is also very cute, and he can see that arkus’s “stuck-up”-ness really just comes from his passion for his work, and lets be real, a lot of people dont consider sylvari wise or capable of leadership because their species is so young--and like we see in heart of thorns, that kind of implicit bias is pretty rooted in the xenophobia displayed by pretty much everyone non-sylvari--so he really starts to respect arkus and starts to fall for him too

they start smooching just before we get to the level 80 missions, and by the end of it, theyre totally solidified as a couple and bingo bango bongo, gays

also they dont get married until like living world season 3-ish but thats for another post

i hope you enjoyed