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bookyeom · 3 years

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(I’m sorry that this is a literal Christmas in July fic, but Joon in the P2D reaction video has got me feeling all sorts of ways so enjoy this very self-indulgent little drabble!!)

pairing: namjoon x reader / word count: 2.5k / genre: holiday au, roommates/friends to lovers

summary: Would kissing your best friend under some mistletoe really be the worst thing in the world?

tags: mild angst but mostly bc of misunderstandings, reader and Joon should have probably just talked about it, Vmin are obnoxious and meddle as a plot device

Thankful for @tae-bebe (in general but particularly for always reading every stupid fic I come up with). Tagging @taehyungsupremacy @taejinnies @hazeltae @jinjagi @flowerkth just in case u wanna read but u don’t have to!!

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“Joon.”

She knocked softly on his bedroom door at first, then knocked a bit harder when she didn’t hear any movement from the other side. She finally turned the handle, pushing it open a crack.

“Joon, get up,” she called into the dark room.

She stepped back, leaving the door open in hopes that he’d wake up enough with the hall light shining through, but she didn’t have high hopes. Namjoon was a deep sleeper. Despite being friends for years, she hadn’t known that about him until they’d moved in together for money’s sake a few months prior. She’d been surprised about it, actually, because he was the only person she knew who got everything done that he wanted to do in a day. She’d just assumed he didn’t sleep at all.

When a few minutes passed and she heard no sound from the direction of the hall, she let out a heavy sigh. It wasn’t his fault - they’d both been up late the night before. It had been their turn to be the hosts for their friend group’s annual early December Christmas party, and while the night had been fun - it always was - she was exhausted. She hadn’t drank too much, so she wasn’t incredibly hungover and for that she was grateful, but cleaning up bottles and garbage at 7am still wasn’t high on her list of things to do on a Saturday morning.

She forced herself to stand up from where she’d practically sunk into the couch, empty garbage bag clutched in her hands. She supposed she could have started cleaning up without him, but she really had no motivation. She needed him for that. She knocked on his bedroom door again before opening it even more, slowly, and was surprised but pleased to find her friend in a vertical position.

“Come on, Joon. You promised you’d help.”

She ignored the way her heart fluttered in her chest as he nodded, shooting her a thumbs up with one hand and rubbing the sleep out of his eye with the other. God, she’d never get over how good he always looked, even first thing in the morning. She stopped herself from letting her eyes wander downwards, to where his upper body was on full display. She’d seen him shirtless many times before, but she still had to stop herself from ogling every time. Especially when he’d just woken up and looked like everything she’d ever dreamed of. She’d been in love with him for a while, and living with him while they both tried to save up money had not been her greatest idea.

He slid his legs over the side of the bed, turning to grab a shirt from the floor. She quickly turned around, hearing his footsteps as he followed. He suddenly groaned from behind her, and she turned back to face him, eyebrows raised in slight irritation. He had promised to help her clean up - why was he complaining? She almost bumped into him as she spoke.

“I know you’re hungover, Joon, but so am I. Everyone else left, and I really need your help-“

Namjoon shook his head, cutting her off. He motioned upwards, and her rant was cut short as she looked up in surprise to find a very familiar green plant with red berries, with a white note attached to it, hanging above the two of them in Namjoon’s bedroom doorway.

Her heart skipped a beat. How had she not noticed it before?

Namjoon had pulled the note off in a flash, catching it between his fingers. He read the words, and she could have sworn he was blushing. He handed it to her wordlessly, and she furrowed her brows at his reaction before reading it for herself.

For the lovebirds. You’d better actually do it this time. - Jimin (and Taehyung!!) xxxxxxxxx (for all the kisses we hope you’re getting)

She rolled her eyes before tossing the offending note into the garbage bag in her hands.

“They suck,” she said, as casually as she could manage for how much she was internally freaking out.

Their friends had been leaving mistletoe everywhere for the entire beginning of December, and it was always conveniently placed near her and Namjoon. At Jungkook’s place during movie night, a magical piece of mistletoe had been spotted on the back of the couch where she and Namjoon were sitting. (She’d hastily snatched it away and thrown it directly at Taehyung, who had spent the next week whining about his sore eye.) At Jin’s “Bougie Christmas Cocktail Smackdown Eve” (where they’d all been required to dress up and Jin wore a name tag that said “Gin” while he served obnoxiously named Christmas-themed cocktails), sprigs of mistletoe had been dropped in their drinks (and only theirs). (She’d asked Jin if that was safe to do that and he’d brushed her off, saying love would save her if it came to that. She’d told him that her drink tasted awful and that he should stick to his day job.)

Each time, she tried to pretend her heart wasn’t racing at the idea. She’d long since accepted that being in love with her best friend was unrequited. She just really wished their friends would stop. Her heart couldn’t take much more of Namjoon brushing off the idea of kissing her so easily with a laugh or a shake of his head.

She had tried so hard not to love him, but it was impossible. When he was… him. It had already been hard, but it was extra hard when she saw him everyday. When he was currently in their shared living room in a t-shirt and sweats, his reading glasses perched on his nose as he helped her clean up from the Christmas party they’d thrown the night before.

She watched as he grabbed a couple of empty bottles from the side table by the couch before turning back to her own task, and it was silent between them until he spoke up.

“I’m sorry.”

She knew exactly what he was referring to, and she inwardly groaned. She really didn’t want to talk about it.

“I don’t know why they keep doing that,” Namjoon continued with a frown.

Y/N had to force herself to ignore the way her heart sank at his obvious disapproval of the idea. They’d never spoken directly about it until now, but she supposed they had to at some point. Why not now, when she was hungover and wanted nothing more than to curl up in his arms for a cuddle? Sure. As good a time as any.

“Yeah, I don’t know.” She shrugged, continuing to collect empty bottles. She tried to straighten her shoulders as she felt the quiet settle around them, trying to act as normal as possible. She could feel Namjoon watching her, and she suddenly wished he wasn’t able to read her as well as he could.

“Are you alright?”

A warm hand found her shoulder, and she could feel the emotions beginning to boil over. Not now, Joon, please. She wracked her brain to try and figure out a way to ask him to stop - to stop touching her, to stop comforting her, to stop caring about her the way that he did. She didn’t know how much longer she could handle it. Not when he so obviously didn’t know how she really felt.

His fingers began to gently massage the crook where her neck met her shoulder, an action that was so natural between them at this point. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m fine, Joon.”

She moved away, his hand falling as she headed into the kitchen. She could imagine the hurt on his face as she did, as she brushed off his attempt at comforting her, and she hastily set her collection of bottles on the counter. She’d hoped, prayed for a breather in the kitchen, but she’d known it wouldn’t work. He’d followed her in like she’d known he would, and as he moved to lean against the counter beside her, she busied herself by reaching under the sink to grab the recycling bin. His eyes followed her every movement, and she wanted to dissolve into the floor. He watched her, careful, before he finally spoke up.

“Y/N, again... I’m sorry that the guys won’t stop-“

Her fingers tightened around the bottle she was placing in the bin, and it was then that she finally allowed her eyes to squeeze shut. It was no use.

“Namjoon.” She cut him off, her voice barely above a whisper. She felt him turn his head abruptly at the use of his full name, and she could picture his face even with her eyes closed. Head tilted, arms crossed, eyes soft… always ready to listen to whatever she had to say. Her heart broke a little. “Please.”

He was quiet for a second, and she turned to him now, eyes open, gathering whatever courage she had left. His eyebrows were furrowed, unsure, and she cursed the confusion she found on his face. Namjoon was never a man lost for the right words, but she could tell he was absolutely at a loss now as he stared back at her.

“You’re telling me it’s fine,” he said slowly, “but I can tell it’s not.” She looked down then, and he took a step forward. “Seriously, I’ll tell them to stop. They know that we’ve never, that we would never-“

“Why do you make it sound like kissing me would be the worst thing in the entire world?”

Her words hung between them as she let the recycling bin hit the floor, a dull thud echoing throughout the room. She could feel her lower lip trembling, and she wanted nothing more than to leave, to pretend this had never happened. But she couldn’t. She’d gone there, and she couldn’t take it back.

“What?” came Namjoon’s dumbfounded response, and she knew that she needed to leave. Now. She didn’t know where she was going, but she needed out.

“I’m gonna go,” was all she managed, turning on her heel. She’d made it about two steps towards the living room when his hand found her wrist.

“Y/N,” he pleaded. He tugged her back around, his eyes widening as he saw the tears welling up in her eyes. His thumb brushed against her skin. “I’m so confused. I never… I didn’t say that! You know that I think you’re beautiful. I didn’t mean to...“

It was her turn to be speechless, eyes wide as she watched her eloquent, well spoken best friend struggle yet again with his words. He dropped her wrist, fingers lifting to run through his hair frustratedly.

“Joon,” she finally said. He looked so confused as to how he’d offended her, and so pained thinking that he had. Her heart swelled.

She didn’t know what she’d been planning on saying as they stared at one another, but as usual, she’d done what she had to do to calm him down. Normally, his nickname coming softly from her mouth worked, and this time was no exception.

She watched his face as his brows furrowed again, his eyes searching hers. She offered him a tentative smile, a peace offering, and the look of relief on his face was enough to calm her down, too. They could get through this. They could move on, and chalk this conversation up to the two of them being hungover and tired of their friends’ bullshit, and he’d never almost find out she was in love with him ever again.

“They’re dumb, Joonie,” she offered. “They just want to use us for their entertainment. I know you don’t actually think I’m repulsive,” she added in an attempt to lighten the mood.

At her words, he was suddenly squaring his shoulders, the look on his face a determined one. Her breath caught in her throat.

“Trust me,” he began, his voice low. “I really wouldn’t mind kissing you. I think I’d rather enjoy it, if I’m honest.”

Her lips parted as all of the breath left her lungs.

“What?”

He smiled a soft, shy smile then, and she suddenly realized that he was nervous. He inhaled a sharp breath before he continued, “I think about it all the time, actually.” He bit his lip as he finished, keeping eye contact though she knew he was embarrassed, for whatever godforsaken reason. “I’m sorry if that’s news to you, or if that’s weird to hear. The guys know how much I like you and they were trying to help, I guess, but I-“

“Kim Namjoon,” she finally managed to breathe out, “I am head over heels for you.”

The silence was deafening, and she watched a million different emotions flicker across his face.

“You-“

“I love you, Namjoon. I’m in love with you.”

“Oh,” came his response, and she couldn’t help but laugh. She looked down, her cheeks flushed, and she couldn’t stop smiling.

She suddenly felt his hand on her face, fingers gently brushing her chin as he tilted her face up to meet her eyes again. He was smiling, too, and she couldn’t believe this was happening.

“If it wasn’t clear, I’m in love with you too,” he said, voice soft. She let out a breath, and his gaze was fond as he pulled her close. Her hand moved to curl around his where it rested against her face.

“Wait.”

He paused, mouth inches from hers, and she was shocked she had the strength to pull away. She grabbed his hand and pulled, leading him back towards the door to his bedroom. He let out a laugh as he realized where she was taking him, and it took all but two seconds of being under the mistletoe for him to pull her in. His arms were around her, his mouth finding hers as he pulled her impossibly closer, and closer, and closer.

He kissed her, warm and soft and full. She was completely dazed as he moved, her mouth finally opening against his as he pressed against her, and her hand moved to find his face. He pulled away first, and it made her heart flutter when she realized how reluctant he was to do so, his grip on her remaining just as firm. He let out a breath, his forehead falling to hers, and neither of them could speak for a moment until he finally let out a, “Wow.”

She couldn’t help but burrow her face into the crook of his neck, suddenly feeling shy, and her entire body fell against his as he moved to hold her against his chest. She could practically feel him beaming as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head before he spoke again.

“I refuse to thank Jimin and Taehyung for this, even though they were right.”

#namjoon x reader #bts x reader #bts fluff #knj fluff #knj fic #namjoon fluff #namjoon fic #bts fic #bts angst #knj angst #oh god i'm nervous #my writing #w: wake up call

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veilchenjaeger · 2 years

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back at you: MINGLING

MINGLING!!!!!! (for this)

I love them, I adore them, I have a playlist for them, I want 200k word epics written about them (and I count making you ship Mingling (apparently!) amongst my greatest achievements).

1. What made you ship it?

Initially, the fact that Mingling is the only MXTX F/F ship I've encountered that has legitimate canonical tension. (I just want MXTX to write a baihe so badly.) I was sorely disappointed that their fight wasn't described in the novel, so my lesbian heart fucking soared when Sha Hualing ended up ripping off Liu Mingyan's veil and had a visceral reaction to how fucking hot she is. Excellent vibes. What a homoerotic scene.

Still, my Mingling love lay dormant for a while, until I ended up analysing Sha Hualing's character for some reason and went, "...wait. She's pretty complex and I really think falling for Liu Mingyan would challenge her in a constructive way." Around the same time, I saw a post on Twitter (sadly now lost due to the fact that I didn't bookmark it) pointing out that the "righteous cultivator defiled by a demon" vibes of Resentment of Chunshan really do go very well with Mingling. That took care of the Liu Mingyan side of things and now I'm a Mingling truther.

2. What are your favourite things about the ship?

I am extremely into ships where the characters challenge each other and make each other grow, and I see a lot of potential for that in Mingling. Sha Hualing imo has a pretty weird attitude to attraction and love that is very tied to her ambition, and Liu Mingyan (the righteous and not unusually powerful human cultivator) might challenge that. On the other hand, Liu Mingyan writes a lot about demon sex but is also stuck in the role of the perfect saintlike innocent girl, and Sha Hualing as her ambitious, confident, sexualised opposite might inspire her. They could fix each other. It's just so soothing to have a ship like this where the characters are women, too.

Also, the more I think about it, the more I am stunned by the amount of Mingling vibes I get from canon?? The scene where they're described as natural opposites destined to face each other! Their Wangxian vibes! Resentment of Chunshan! The fact that Sha Hualing is the only one who has canonically seen Liu Mingyan's face! Mingling canon

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I have an endless supply of unpopular opinions about everything, but I'll pick one. (Although "unpopular" is relative when it comes to Mingling bc it's just not a ship that gets a lot of attention. I'll consider the things "popular" that I personally see the most, so I might be biased.)

I see a lot of Mingling where Sha Hualing pursues Liu Mingyan and is aware of and confident in her attraction to her, and I enjoy that a lot, but... I think it would be funnier if Liu Mingyan developed her crush way before Sha Hualing ever thought about Liu Mingyan twice. Think about it! Sha Hualing played an actual memorable role in Liu Mingyan's life, while Liu Mingyan is just a random disciple who lost to Sha Hualing once, completely forgettable when compared to Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe, who ruined her Cang Qiong Mountain expedition. My favourite Mingling vibe is "Liu Mingyan had her sexual awakening during her fight with Sha Hualing and has since thought of her as something between 'the evil seductive vixen whose charms I have to withstand/who I am NOT INTO AT ALL I SWEAR' and 'hhggnghgh hot demon'" + "Sha Hualing had no strong feelings towards Liu Mingyan except for a vague bitterness regarding anything Cang Qiong Mountain-related, until she kidnapped her and found out she's A) frustratingly cool B) extremely attractive". They'd both need some time to come to terms with their attraction to each other, and Sha Hualing might catch up even if Liu Mingyan did get a head start, but the point is that I think Liu Mingyan is WAY hornier for Sha Hualing than vice versa for a pretty long time.

#[epistulae ad atticum]#mingling #/thank u for enabling me to speak about mingling #/even more than i already do

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craigslistdiavolo · 3 years

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Okay so the Brothers + Dateables reacting to MC who has soulless dead eyes but she’s the sweetest thing. Her eyes are scary and she’s been self conscious about them since she can barely make friends but her actions are so cute and sweet that it juxtaposes her expression (baking with Luke and giving it to the Demons, being polite to everyone, and enjoys cuddling). She has a beautiful smile if they make her happy enough too

omg this is so cute 💖

Warnings - Language

Genre - Fluff

A/N - Luke is platonic bc he's a child

Lucifer

Being 100% honest, you freak him the fuck out at first

He doesn't like that he can't see what you're feeling all the time

"I'm going to string you up from the ceiling"

👁️👁️

*angrily walks away while his cape (coat? cloak???) thingy catches the wind making it more dramatic*

However 😳

The first time he sees you doing something very sweet, he just melts

He'll try not to make it obvious, but you can clearly tell by the blush on his face

AND IF YOU SMILE FOR HIM

He's gonna have a heart attack you're just too sweet

From that point on, his goal is gonna be to make you smile as much as he can

Also, if you cuddle him, he's gonna die

He loves you so much smhhhhhhh

If you start to feel self-conscious about your eyes, this man is gonna sit you down and give you a lecture about how amazing you are

Mammon

F E A R

He's really mean before he gets to know you

The first time he sees you being really polite to someone, he has to walk away to compose himself

You're just too cute, goddamn it!

And he definitely finds Luke kind of annoying but like if he sees you baking with him, he will cry because omg you're so precious

He loves you so much and he makes sure to remind you of that all the time now

Cuddle him, now!

Bonus points if you smile while cuddling him

He might cry because he just loves you and how sweet you are, and he's upset with himself for judging you at first before getting to know you

Leviathan

He's gonna think of you like some cool anime protagonist who hides who you really are or something like that

He honestly thinks your eyes are really cool

Literally passes out the first time he sees you being sweet

His mind couldn't handle the overload of sweetness he just saw

Rip Leviathan ????-2021 gone but never forgotten </3

Omg and if you cuddle him, he absolutely dies

This man loves you so much omg

He knows about you being self-conscious about your eyes, so he always tries to compliment them every time he sees them :)

Satan

You remind him of one of his favorite book protagonists

He makes you read the series so that he can point out every similarity between you and the protagonist

He thinks your eyes are just neat :)

Heart starts racing the first time he sees you doing something sweet

Loves how polite you are because people in this house need to learn manners smh 🙄💅

If you bake with Luke and give him some of it, he'll be really happy and appreciative

If you feel self-conscious about your eyes, he'll probably remind you that your eyes are like the one book protagonist, and that no matter he'll always care about you :)

Asmodeus

He thinks your eyes are pretty interesting but he doesn't really like how dead they look at first

He'll give you some makeup tips to help brighten up your eyes a little because he knows that you're self-conscious about them

Now speaking of the self-conscious part, after he learns that you're self-conscious about your eyes, he's gonna do everything in his power to make you feel good about them >:)

If he sees you being polite or sweet, he'll probably tackle you and hug/cuddle you be you're so cute

The first time he sees you smile, he's just like (✯ᴗ✯) because your smile is so amazing

"MC~ smile for me more!"

When you're feeling self-conscious, he'll remind you that your eyes are really unique, and unique is good :)

Beelzebub

He thinks your eyes are a little creepy, but he honestly doesn't care

MC: 👁️👁️ Beel: "cool :)"

If he sees you baking with Luke and then you give him some, he's just 😳🤩

Just make sure he doesn't eat raw batter or ingredients while you're baking

He really enjoys how polite you are because a lot of demons can be mean to you, but you still stay polite to them, and he admires that :)

Literally loves to cuddle so much, so as soon as he finds out that you look to cuddle, "it's free real estate"

If someone makes fun of you for your eyes, he will destroy them 💖

Also if you start feeling self-conscious about your eyes or appearance in general, he's gonna do his best to remind you that you look great and he loves you for who you are

Belphegor

His eyes are kinda dead looking too, so you guys have that in common

Really doesn't care that your eyes are like dead and souless

He thinks it's kinda cool

This man is a cuddling master, so if you have desires for cuddles, they will be satiated :)

He's also really clingy though, so you could be trying to bake with Luke, and Belphie will just have his arms around you and be sleeping against your back while you're baking

If you give him something you baked with Luke, he really appreciates it

If you're feeling self-conscious about your eyes, he's kinda just like "don't 💖"

He's not the greatest at offering comfort, but he'll try for you

Diavolo

"WOAH COOL"

Diavolo is like an excitable puppy, so he thinks that your eyes are really neat because he's never actually seen a human with eyes like yours

Loves your manners because people in the Devildom need to learn respect smh

MC: *is polite* Diavolo: Here's my list of reasons that MC is in fact the best exchange student, number one-

If you bake something with Luke and give it to him, he gets really excited about it because people don't give him things that often

This man loves to cuddle so much and will cuddle you anytime that you want

At some point he probably gets in trouble with Lucifer for putting off work to cuddle with you

It's hard to feel self-conscious when Diavolo is literally breathing down your neck telling you about how cool your eyes are, but if you do start to feel self-conscious, he's gonna tell you that he doesn't care that your eyes are dead looking because he thinks that they're unique and cool

Barbatos

Never makes a comment on your eyes

If you ask him about it, he's kinda just like "they're just eyes, what's the problem with them?"

He really enjoys the fact that you're polite

Finally, someone who can show some goddamn manners for once 🙄💅

He doesn't get to cuddle you often because he's so busy, so when he does finally get the chance to cuddle you, he's gonna give you best cuddles he can

If you and Luke bake something and give it to him he's so soft because Luke is like a son to him and you're his lover, so he really appreciates it

After that he wants to bake with you when he has the chance

If you start to feel self-conscious about your eyes he's still just like "they're eyes, I don't understand what the problem is." But he'll do his best to comfort you

Simeon

Simeon is another one who doesn't really make a comment on your eyes

He just doesn't think it really matters that your eyes are dead/souless looking because everyone is unique and special in their own way, and your unique thing is your eyes :)

He likes to cuddle you while he writes because he enjoys the feeling of you being so close

And if you bake something with Luke and give it to him, he'll absolutely just die, he appreciates you so much

He's happy that you spend time with Luke :)

Some demons can be assholes, but he's glad that you're still polite to them

If you ever start feeling self-conscious, this is the man to go to, because he's gonna make you feel so appreciated and loved omg

Luke

At first he thinks that the reason your eyes are like that is because the demons did something to you, but he soon learns that is not the case

He feels bad for jumping to conclusions at first

He's so shocked by the fact that you're polite to demons

"MC, you do realize that you don't have to be nice to those mean demons, right???"

Please teach this boy some manners smh

If you bake with him, he'll be so happy

He's gonna give you all of his tips and tricks for baking, so hopefully you don't mind talking constantly lol

If you feel self-conscious about your eyes, he'll promise to beat up any bullies that are rude to you because of your eyes

Please keep this boy out of trouble omg

Solomon

"Oh goddamn bitch!"

At first you thought he was afraid of your eyes because of his reaction, but no, he actually finds them quite interesting

This motherfucker asks if he can study your eyes 😐

Please, don't let him.

If you and Luke bake him something, he'll be really touched

However, he's also gonna ask if he can bake with you guys next time and for once you're gonna have to be impolite because this man should not be allowed into a kitchen

He likes to cuddle you while he reads up on some magic stuff and studies

He will 1000% have study dates with you all the time :)

If you start to feel self-conscious about your eyes, he's gonna tell you about how unique your eyes are and why he loves them

A/N - Tysm for reading and omg I'm literally about to turn 16 in a few minutes >:)

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pynkhues · 2 years

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Hi!! i really wanted to know your thoughts on the culmination of romans arc!! i definitely didnt expect him to stick with his siblings even w logan staring him down and promising a place for him in the company after selling. Even though logans never gonna choose his children over himself, i think him trying to get roman back on his side, demonstrated that ultimately he favored roman and it was never gonna be kendall or shiv. Or it could just have been that logan thought roman was easier to crack lol. I really liked the romangerri bit at the end with gerri essentially siding w logan bc it was best for her and the company, w no loyalty to roman (as she should) and his reaction was very interesting. Also what did you think abt the conversation between logan and roman on the way to the reunion w matsenn, could that have alluded to at the very least non straight roman? I also feel like that conversation and shivs comments leaned very heavily on his mommy issues and could also explain his mountain of sexual issues and his fixation and relationship w gerri. i’ve been dying to know what u thought!!

Hi! Thank you, anon, and oof, I loved Roman's arc across the season and especially I loved how different it was from Kendall and Shiv's fall from grace in s1 and s2 respectively.

I think the show does an incredible job generally about the different ways the Roy siblings have internalised and externalised their father's abuse, while still allowing for certain similarities. In so many ways, s3 re-emphasised that with Kendall and Shiv being a sort of dark mirror to each other, and I think it had this wonderful effect narratively of while the two of them were so fixed on reflecting each other, Roman and Connor both got to grow and contort and really develop and regress in their siblings' blindspots.

By that, I mean there was this sort of space opened up by Kendall being ousted and Shiv being on the backstep and both of them still only viewing each other as competition. That newly opened space gave Roman and Connor the room and the opportunity to step up. I think s4's likely to really drum that home with Connor, but for s3, I think we saw what Roman's capable of (for better and for worse) when he's given both guidance and room out of his siblings' shadow, something he hasn't had since - - well. Maybe ever (or at least since Kendall was in rehab).

I was so nervous going into that last scene in the finale, because I was the same as you! I thought there was a risk thatt he'd betray them (especially with him and Kerry being colour-matched!), but I actually think it makes a lot of sense that he wouldn't. Jesse talked a bit in the Controlling the Narrative segment that it was feeling the weight of support from his siblings that let Roman stand his ground, which I think you can really feel in the scene, but I also think there's this interesting layer to it too where the show's really established two things about Roman. The first is that Roman has really good intuition in a way that none of his other siblings do, and the second is that Roman learns in a way that none of his other siblings do.

Roman's greatest strength is his ability to - - mmm, not shapeshift exactly, because I don't think that's what Roman does, but read people enough to know how to accomodate them and play to their personalities and their interests. He does it with Lawrence as far back as 1.06, and it's a skill we've seen develop across season 2 and season 3, but, importantly, one he really grew confidence in over the back half of s3. He's learnt to trust his instincts because he's increasingly realised his instincts are right.

Add that to the fact that Roman takes away lessons when things blow up in his face (which hilariously neither Kendall nor Shiv do), and I think that final scene felt so authentic to who Roman is. He had both gut instinct telling him not to trust his father, and the benefit of hindsight. He's seen exactly how Logan's gone back on his promises to Kendall and Shiv, he's seen that Logan's word only holds it's meaning in the minute he says it. That it doesn't hold under it's own weight, and when faced with Logan's dishonesty, Roman had instead this immediate and brutally naked honesty between him, Kendall and Shiv to fall back on, and right then? There? That mattered a lot.

And as for Logan and Roman's conversation on the boat heading to Matsson – yeah! I actually kind of love how ambiguous the show is being about it, haha, and I think Shiv hit the nail on the head in the car where she said Logan thinks there's something wrong with Roman. I don't know if Logan even necessarily actually thinks he's gay, especially given what just happened with Gerri – in fact, I think there's probably an argument to be made that Logan's latched onto homophobic insults because at least being gay is something he understands over not being able to have sex. If Roman's fucking men, at least he's fucking, and there are ways around it. Not being able to have sex at all, especially to a guy like Logan, I think signals to him that Roman's effectively broken, something put into even starker relief when compared to his other children who have all got very active sex lives (albeit all of them with uhhhhh dysfunction / baggage / manic obsessive issues attached to said sex lives, haha).

As for Roman himself, I do think he's not straight, but I think it's really open to interpretation at this point what that means and I don't expect the show to ever clarify. I do think a lot of his issues stem though from a mix of insecurity and inadequacy complexes, anxiety and being desensitised to sex acts (and as a result attracted to more extreme things) as a side effect of being terminally online. What do you guys think?

#it's such a huge topic to talk about!#i was a bit nervous about his arc in the first half of the season because it seemed to be chasing it's own tail a bit #but i think it ticked up in 3.05 and kept growing through the finale which is great #i can't wait to see what happens in s4 now that he's been brought crashing back down #roman roy #logan + roman #logan roy #succession 3.09 #hbo succession #succession meta #welcome to my ama

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ohmy7hearts · 3 years

Text

spring gale

Summary: Spring means new beginnings but a gale (a storm more like?) in the name of Shinazugawa Sanemi blows your plans out and throw your once peaceful life into the winds.

Pairings: Shinazugawa Sanemi x Fem!Reader // future Shinazugawa Genya x SisterFigure!Reader

A/N: this,,, is v impromptu. i literally got out of my bed bc it has been bugging me with how little sanemi fanfics there are, esp modern aus. tbh, there have been plenty of fics brewing in my mind and tell me if there’s any you’d be interested in and maybe i will return from my hiatus hah:

- zhongli modern au: adepti babies being your adopted children and navigating parenthood

- unknown pairing as of now but travelers being your kids so transporting yourself into the world to find them after 500+ years of not returning home

- etc involving atsumu, diluc, childe but if you have any requests, feel free to drop it in and maybe i’ll consider them

Warnings: Some cursing (I mean it’s Sanemi lolol)

“Shinazugawa-san?” Sanemi glanced up, his hands continued packing away his things into the bag, an eyebrow raised. You smiled, hands folded over the other in front of you, as you continued to speak after gaining his attention. “When would you be free to do the project?”

He sighed, throwing his bag over his shoulder, while making his way out of the classroom - tone and body language showing his disinterest in the conversation. “We can just do it in class.”

You jogged to get into step next to him, “Well, it is for the bare minimum. I’m sure we can do much better than that.” You observed his side profile to see if any emotion could give way to what he was thinking. You frowned, frustration creeping up on you, “I understand that we’re not each other’s first choice in partners but that’s not an excuse to not do our best.”

“Are grades and studying the only thing in that airhead of yours?” His eyes flit towards yours for a moment before returning its gaze forward. “I don’t fucking have as much free time as you.”

You stopped following him. A bolt of anger and disbelief had your mouth dropping and hands curling into shaking fists. You scoffed, voice raising with each word, “I believe you need this more than me, Shinazugawa-san. Unless you want to continue being a pain in everyone’s ass and eventually not even graduate, then be my guest.”

He swiveled towards you. You flinched reactively. He faltered, face momentarily flitting from anger to surprise back to annoyance the moment his eyes scanned you. One step, two steps. He was in your space, breathing in and out to you, with his strikingly cold eyes and thin eyebrows furrowed. “Say that again, I dare you.”

You closed your eyes before releasing a deep sigh, muscles easing from the hold of your anger. “We don’t have to do it after school or on the weekends if you are that occupied. We can do it before school or during our breaks and even before our clubs start.” You grabbed one of his wrist, turning his palm upwards, shoving the crumpled paper with your number into it while fixating your glare on him throughout. You refuse to back down but you will be the bigger person. Forcing his hand to a close, you narrowed your eyes for good measure while trying to control the smirk from overtaking your face when his frown further deepened in distaste. Taking a step back, your hands returned to the usual folded stance, you forced an amicable smile to replace the smirk - although you have a feeling that he could still see the smirk from how his eye twitched, “Of course, it’s really up to you, Shinazugawa-san.”

Turning on your heel, you headed back to the classroom with your head held high and a full-blown smirk on your face while your peers watched with stolen glances and whispers behind hands or under breaths. The clicking of his tongue echoed in the corridor and in your head all the way back to the classroom.

“Ara, ara, should you really do that (Y/N)-chan?” Shinobu greeted you by your desk, eyes filled with mirth from the free entertainment.

You laughed airily, eyes not meeting hers but focused on clearing the messy table, “I wouldn’t have to if he wasn’t that difficult.”

“Not many survive Sanemi you know?” Shinobu followed you to the student council room. “One must use their life's worth of luck to crawl out from his bad side.”

A bark of a laugh escaped you from her exaggeration. “Shinobu-chan ~ I thought you wanted to get into medicine and not theatrics?”

Her eyes met yours, a smirk tugging on her lips, eyes shifting precariously into ones when she knew something the other party doesn’t and in this case that was you. A shiver ran down your spine. You’ve been in the spot only a few times but still a few too many with most of them ending up jerking your view of the world down a path you’ve never considered. You gulped, hands itching and playing with themselves.

“Did you not hear about how he got into a fight with some university boys down at the park?” She leaped into your space, voice dropping into a whisper in your ear yet head tilted to ensure a front seat view to your reaction. “He came out with a couple of scratches and bruises but…” Her small hands encircled your upper arm. Your eyes dropping to them before returning to her face - surprised to witness your shock colouring your face white as it was reflected in those big eyes of hers. “The boys said to be much bigger than he is, had to go to the hospital.” Her smile bordering on unhinged glee, she drawled, “They were so scared they didn’t sue him.”

She immediately returned to her spot beside you, a foot away, while her shoulders and arms lifted in a form of a shrug nonchalantly. “Apparently, when questioned, the boys said something about them being the ones out of line and they have worked things out.”

Being close friends with Shinobu and Mitsuri meant that you were privy to the latest gossip and news but you always took it with a grain of salt seeing firsthand how some things were purposefully voided or added for the enjoyment of teenagers. You smiled unsurely, “that’s just a rumour Shinobu-chan.”

She pouted, invisible to those who didn't know her well enough or who weren’t keen enough, “You can ask Akio. He was a witness.”

Your eyes widened before blinking in incredulity. “What.”

She giggled, hand raising in a wave before dashing down the corridor. “Do share with me if he tells you more!”

It took you a few seconds to regain your bearings, even a shake of your head to rid the mental image of Sanemi punching away on people bigger than him for his amusement. He was by no means a small person shown clearly with the muscles seen even through the school uniform - a testament to his achievements as one of the greatest fighters in the taekwondo club despite his lacklustre participation of actually attending said club practices - but there were certainly bigger and taller people in your school, much less university.

“Hashimoto-san!” You snapped out of your musings.

“Tanaka-san.” You greeted back. The black haired guy chuckled, “I told you to call me by my first name. After all, we’ve been working together for 3 years. Unless, you don’t see me as a friend? Damn, it must hurt to only be seen as a student council partner even after winning the presidential election together.”

“Stop being so dramatic.” You huffed, plopping down into the chair and hands gravitating towards the papers on the table before being stopped by a hand on your wrist. Raising an eyebrow, he returned the gesture indicating there’s something he was expecting you to tell him. He released the grasp on your hand the moment you were falling back onto the back support of the chair with a sigh. “How may I help you Akio?”

“On the way here, I heard an interesting piece of news.” He sat sideways on the table, the leg on the table folded over the leg still standing. You folded your arms over your chest and hummed. “You and Shinazugawa were fighting?”

“It was just a talk that got a bit heated. I was trying to get a hold on him so we can do our project for literature together.”

Akio’s eyebrows shot up and disappeared under his bangs. “Wow, what luck. First, he somehow got into your class through that stupid maths shit and now you have to deal with him.” He smiled in assurance, eyes crinkling close and a hand over his heart. “Be careful but if anything happens, I’m here. I’ll come running to save my beloved president.”

You mouthed a wow. Silence blanketed the both of you as you nod in understanding - lips trying to contain the smiles and laughs - as he continued to express his devotion through his hand gestures - hand flying to point at you before returning to over his chest, patting it, then forming into a prayer of sorts - all the while mouthing his loyalty to you.

With a shake of your head and hands indicating him to leave as you pulled yourself closer to your table, “Thanks but I doubt I need it.”

Instead, he tilted his head backwards and narrowed his eyes on the ceiling. “If you see what I saw, I wouldn’t put too much faith in him.”

Blood freezes over while questions overwhelm your mind. You gulped and licked your lips to get rid of the sudden dryness, “And what exactly are they?”

“He didn’t stop beating them up or screaming at them even when they were down. Three policemen had to pry him off and restrain him.”

Your heart dropped.

#sanemi #sanemi shinaguzawa #sanemi x reader #sanemi imagines #shinazugawa sanemi #shinazugawa sanemi x reader #shinazugawa sanemi imagines #demon slayer x reader #demon slayer imagines #kimentsu no yaiba #kimetsu no yaiba x reader #kimetsu no yaiba imagines #spring gale

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bbodysnatchers · 3 years

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Tbh if you actually like answering early fandom questions I have like a million (btw it’s me again from the last 2)

You mentioned before that you were kind of out of the fandom by Danger Days but do you remember what the reaction was when Gerard talked about drinking again?

Did many og fans stick around or did they really turn on the band? Like I know you said bullets ppl hated revenge but did it grow on them eventually?

What did ppl think when Gerard and Lynz married???? That one I really want to know bc when I was newer in the fandom everyone kissed her ass like crazy and it seems like ppl have only recently realized she and msi aren’t the greatest.

Ok! Hey!!!! I kind of love you for all of these btw. this is gonna be LONG. SO yes, I was totally out of fandom at that point. However, I do follow a few blogs and I remember when the article was posted where he talked about his struggle with an ED and starting to drink again during DD. Personally, I was kind of. In shock? I didn't realize how much he was struggling at the end of it tbh. I think it also took a lot of older fans out a little bit too. It kind of made him a tangible human being rather than this formative icon we idolized. Saying that sounds awful. But at the beginning, because there was no social media, we had NO idea what the guys were actually like irl. They were human, obviously, but they were people we had put on a pedestal and we could project onto them, y'know? We had interviews and such, but the first glimpse we got into ~the real them~ was LOTMS, which was a highly edited version of the truth that fell into the stereotypes we kind of built. It glossed over Gerards addiction pretty rapidly. Reading his struggle at the end of MCR and DD broke my heart. This band did SO much for me, and a lot of us, but we never took into account how much it was taking from them or Gerard. That's all I can really say about it? Like I said, I wasn't in the fandom. So this was mostly my perspective. No one turned on the band. I think we just kind of grew up and started experiencing new things. Our interests change and merge as we get older. Some things I got from being an MCR fan stuck with me forever - i.e, my love of horror films and graphic novels, as well as my forever love of the guys. But the music wasn't what I needed anymore, yknow? I have diagnosed avoidant personality disorder, and severe depression as a result. My Chem helped me feel seen when I felt totally fucking invisible. It helped me form lasting friendships. I'm still friends with people I met in line to their shows in 2005, and on myspace. As I turned 19-20, my sadness started feeling more melancholy rather than anger. I listened to a lot of The National around then, and started getting seriously invested in film as a way of escapism. In regards to people hating revenge - I think a lot of people either left or stuck around for good. You can go back on old lj entries on the chemicalromance comm and read peoples reaction to Revenge songs. They hated how manufactured it sounded, hated how clean Gerards vocals were, HATED I'm Not Ok - thought it was too commercial for what they were prior. As someone who got into the via Revenge, it actually took some time to get used to the sound of Bullets! ALRIGHT. Ok. GERARD MARRYING LINDSEY. I wish I could figure out how to add a cut to tumblr now but IDK OK. SOOO. Some background that y’all know but is needed for context. Gerard was in a LONG TERM relationship for YEARS with someone named Kat. No one has ever EVER seen her. Gerard only talked about having a girlfriend, thanked her in notes, and she is mentioned by some reporters sometimes (as goth looking). They break up. Gerard is ~technically~ single for like. a fuckin MONTH. then Eliza shit starts up (even tho she was alluding to being with him for fukin EVER). She fakes a pregnancy, they get engaged (around I Don’t Love You), shit was WILD. like BALLS TO THE WALL INSANE. I can go way way way more into this if y’all are interested just lemme know. THEY BREAK UP around the beginning of Pro Rev. Ok. OK. Within like. another fukin MONTH Gerard is seen MAKING OUT WITH LYNZ FROM FUCKIN MSI. They go to each others shows, seen holding hands ETC ETC. LIKE. THIS DUDE. This dude who had a LONG TERM GIRLFRIEND WE NEVER EVER SAW suddenly has had TWO PUBLIC RELATIONSHIPS IN THE SPAN OF NOT EVEN A YEAR. also btw. We ALL thought he was gay, no fukin joke. Like I was saying earlier about not having any social media. We had an idea of what the guys were like from their stage personas and LOTMS. And like. Gerards Stage Persona is Loud. We thought Eliza mightve been a beard? Idk it was a weird time tbh. BUT THEN THEN T H E N G AND L GET MARRIED????>>????? THEY HAD BEEN DATING A M ON TH. a MONTH. and they got fuckin MARRIED. The conspiracy theories, y’all, I can’t. IT WAS INSANE. SO DUDE GETS ENGAGED TO SOMEONE, BREAKS UP, MAKES OUT WITH BASS PLAYER FROM MSI AND GETS MARRIED TO HER. ALL WITHIN T H R E E MONTHS. goddamn. So, ok. Last bit. Unfortunately the attitude towards language and WAS different back then. I know a lot of younger fans shit on older fans for saying so, but it WAS. It was totally different. MSI were seen as ~too cool, and their fans were pissed they went on tour with My Chem, etc. I wasn’t a fan, but I had seen them live a few times with a friend who was (not on Pro Rev). They just weren’t my thing and I hated Urines face. My friend who was actually a huge fan of BOTH msi and my chem separately was SHOCKED that G and Lindsey got together because their band and their vibes were so different. People mostly thought Lindsey was hot at the time but didn’t know anything about her, cuz again, no social media. Like, I cannot stress enough how much about these people we did not know. No one cared about their social lives or what they were like irl so we DIDN’T know how gross Urine and crew were. Like. A Huge factor as to why people were pissed and mad at Eliza was because she was making something Gerard obviously wanted to keep private into a public thing for attention and clout. Also, when he was being SO public with Lindsey it was shocking. Anyway I h8 msi.

#LONG POST #LOOOOOONG POST #old bandom

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julia-drusilla-xii · 3 years

Note

- What if Caligula defeated Apollo and became the new sun god?

- What if Nero managed to convince Meg in betraying Apollo once again?

- What if Commodus managed to destroy the Waystation?

- What if the Triumvirate won the battle against Apollo?

I got extremely carried away since I've thought about this for a long time. Everythings under the cut not only because it turned out to be long, but also so I can warn you that it gets pretty dark.

Caligula defeating Apollo

Medea successfully took Apollo's immortal essence.

With her fancy spellwork, Caligula now has the combined powers of Apollo and Helios.

Ave, Neos Helios!

And history repeats itself- the Triumvirate goes to civil war.

Commodus allies with Caligula

Python switches sides from Nero to Caligula

There was a scene in the book where Python was all "if there's a new sun in the west-" to Nero and that basically implied Python would no longer support Nero if Caligula succeeded.

New Rome would've fallen, either the same way as it did in Tyrant's Tomb or by the sheer power of Caligula and Commodus' army, money, weaponry, you name it (bc tbf they could've won if Rick didn't hold back). And possibly sooner than in the books unless Caligula still wants to slow his arrival and drink his Shirley Temple.

Any survivors are now on Caligula's side.

Meanwhile, Nero's desperate although he's hiding that desperation as much as he can.

Meg's no longer in control of Apollo and MIA over in California.

But, she has the Meliai.

Nero knows the reason Meg and her father ended up in New York. Because Caligula burned their home down. Because of how her father was working on something important and powerful, Caligula viewed that as a threat. He probably knew about the seeds and what they were, same as Caligula.

And Caligula knows that Nero knows.

Meg McCaffrey is the one who can change the odds, even slightly.

Realistically, she'd never want to go back to Nero or help Caligula. But Nero might be able to talk her into his side. She could equally decide to help Camp Half-Blood.

Caligula, Medea, Commodus, Python vs Nero vs CHB

Assuming Caligula is in control of Herophile, Harpocrates, and the Oracle of Cumae, then not only does he still have the power of prophecy but also the communications are still down for the demigods.

No matter how you want to dice it, Caligula wins overall by the sheer amount of power and resources on his side.

What would stop him from ordering to kill Meg on sight, simply firing an onager at camp (and it working bc Octavian isn't there to catapult himself to the sky), and winning against a full-fledged fight against Nero?

Maybe the gods but that's on if they decide to work with Camp Half-Blood to begin with. Rick's characterization via reactions on Apollo's return makes them iffy, but I'd really like to believe they at have a heart for their children, Jason, and Apollo. They stand a good chance if they side together in the end and it shows they actually learned the message of not letting the kids do all the work and appreciating them.

Maybe even the Waystation could help, provided that Commodus doesn't destroy them first.

If Caligula won, then it's just taking out Commodus and Python if he wants sole power.

If he lost, then there's a lot of mourning, the numbers of survivors are small, but there's a new appreciation and a better environment for the demigods.

Meg betraying Apollo

At any point in the series, Nero could have convinced her to betray Apollo but the two more likely times are in the Dark Prophecy- before she escaped to find Apollo and at the end of the book when after everything they've been through together all it took was being back in Nero's environment to get her back into being his pawn.

And as Apollo mentions multiple times in the series, Meg has the power to command him to kill himself. So, it wouldn't end well for Apollo.

If it were the first one, then it would be less emotional and painful on both parties, but it would still hurt.

The only person on Apollo's side from the beginning turned out to be a traitor. He'd have support from his children, but that doesn't change how she helped him.

The only escape from Nero that Meg had was no longer beside her and there was enough convincing to happen to convince Meg it was for the better.

Apollo still has a chance of restoring his immortality, especially if Lityerses became his companion in replacement so Apollo's not alone.

Meg would just be out to get him throughout his trials.

If it were towards the end, it would be more emotional.

Both lose their friend, ally, and their greatest supporter.

Domino effect to Nero's favor. Camp Half-Blood falls first. The rest of New Rome and the Waystation is next. Possibly Olympus if he wanted to go that far but if he doesn't want to push his luck then he still is powerful and the Olympians might be content that at least they are still standing.

Nero gets a swifter rise to power because Caligula and Commodus are already eliminated and Nero has their combined powers.

And Python rules from a backseat.

Ave imperator! Ave Caesar!

Commodus destroys the Waystation

Unlike before, Commodus has proven he could be a threat.

Especially if Apollo never got the chance to blind him.

There isn't much seen with him being someone who plans ahead and willing to just fight without the flashiness so I'm not entirely sure if being the sole ruler is in his favor.

He does, however, turn the tides in either Caligula or Nero's favor depending on who he decided to support. He still is part of the Triumvirate with wealth and resources, regardless of his want to provide a show and have fun.

If he sided with Caligula, then after the demigods and Nero are taken care of, Commodus would be next on Caligula's list.

Same if he sided with Nero.

The only real chance Commodus has of winning big is if he destroyed the Waystation before Apollo destroyed the oracle and if Commodus manages to capture Apollo first.

Apollo and Commodus seem to both at least remember how they were before Apollo drowned him.

Maybe manipulation via that way?

Either way, I can't say much for Commodus so this one's shorter than the rest. I can see anything happening, from him achieving co-emperor at best to still losing everything at worst.

Triumvirate vs Apollo

This one entirely depends on which battle.

Assuming that all the three emperors are alive, then the story changes at the latest in the Tyrant's Tomb. Specifically, Caligula and Commodus are actually still alive despite Frank's sacrifice.

And they show up at the end, weak, but alive.

Because unless you count that picture Rachel got of them in a penthouse that was blurry, there was never a scene where all of them were together which isn't fair. Then again, Rick was the one who invented overpowered emperors in the series so that was probably a conscious decision to make it easier for Apollo.

The soonest would be immediately after The Hidden Oracle, where Nero could supply help to Commodus since he would know that would be Apollo and Meg's destination.

This one would be short because this is an equally open-ended question.

But if they actually helped each other first, things don't look good for Apollo or the demigods.

They might spare the demigods for the specific purpose of ruling over them.

If they continued to share their victory, then their empire is still split three ways.

If they decided to go all civil war, then as the first two triumvirates of Roman history went, the weakest go down first and the main two hash it over a lot of battles.

Caligula would still have Medea, so he has the means of magic.

And Nero would still have Python. Tbh, not sure if that snake even has powers of prophecy. But either way, Python was Nero's ally from the beginning.

I'd say the only thing stopping the triumvirate from complete control is once again, Olympus itself.

Especially if Meg's alive and inspires everyone to avenge Jason and Apollo.

Bonus~

Caligula as the sole emperor includes paranoia that someone betrays him since he was originally killed by his own guards. He might be able to rule the people as well as he did when he first became emperor (back in ancient Rome, the first few months of his rule he was well-loved until he became ill). If anything else, you can count on the yachts being his palace. Incitatus might be by his side because they might part ways since Incitatus wants horses to rule the world in the books. Caligula might renovate New Rome to his liking and upgrade it with his personal wealth.

Commodus as sole emperor involves Commodianapolis and a football stadium where he can host games. A lot of wealth being poured into grandeur, parties, and Commodus' name and likeness everywhere.

Nero as sole emperor means the Imperial Household is there to stay. From what I gather, there are twelve children to replace the twelve Olympians. I don't they're exactly all are children/legacies, but I could be wrong. Either way, Nero has them to help him enforce the rules. He has his tower and he's conveniently near Olympus and Camp Half-blood. He could decide to expand in Manhattan and Long Island.

#these were all scenarios I thought about when the books were released #great minds think alike #not sure if this is what you wanted but hope you liked this anyways #tw mention of death #tw mention of suicide #trials of apollo #caligula trials of apollo #neos helios #nero trials of apollo #commodus trials of apollo #meg mccaffrey #lester papadopoulos #python

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illyrian-lover-flower · 3 years

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What are your top 10 and bottom 10 ACOTAR characters?

Hello sweet anon, I first wanted to thank you so much (you brightened my day with that😊) and before we start I just thought to tell you that this turned out rather long, so I summarized it at the top and put my whole reasons under the cut😄

Positive:

1. Elain/ 2. Azriel/ 3. Nuala & Cerridwen/ 5. Lucien/ 6. Amren/ 7. Alis/ 8. Nesta/ 9. Cassian/ 10. Feyre

Negative:

10. Morrigian/ 9. Graysen/ 8. Rhysand/ 7. Cauldron/ 6. Attor/ 5. Amarantha/ 4. Ianthe/ 3. Luciens Brothers/ 2. Beron Vanserra/ 1. -

+ 1. Elain

Ok, so I just love this female. I love how Elain is not portrayed as the type of woman who does need a weapon to get what she wants. It is true that one might take her outstanding beauty as a weapon (it sure is) but she can achieve a lot of good things by just using her words and charisma, letting peace remain, before one might do the wrong step and start a war.

Elain is in my opinion though not only charismatic, but also really … yeah silent and well behaved. She does not need to be the centre of the party or a conversation, we have learned she enjoys the company of silence too and her language or the way she is, just speaks on another level. One might say she has a stick shoved up her ass, but I don’t think that this is the case, simply bc we have seen Elain act on her own emotions as well, she just seems to prefer to hold up that mask of her human days around her family, she can use curses too and also have dirty thoughts (her reaction to Azriel on solstice (this was no shock, fear or whatever one might claim!)) god forbid!

Something I also love about her is her seer ability, I am most of the time really intrigued by the future, so seeing her look into the still foggy realms of what is to happen, is really interesting.

+ 2. Azriel

This boy just deserves all the love this world has to give! One of the reasons probably bc dark and broody males with a whole wall of mystery build around them are my typ. But no, seriously – I think Az is one of the most misunderstood characters, mostly by his family.

Bc even though he has known the greatest part of his family for 500+ years, no one seems to understand him, his feelings or his wishes (Thank you Rhysand!) as everyone just assumes Azriel is Azriel and is just ok with being where his family is( Obligated to be the fifth wheel for the rest of eternity!😭)

Something which I also think the IC mistakes is his silence. It might seem as if Azriel barely has anything to say, but I guess it is more the other way around, as we have figured out that if he talks it is always well thought with deep meanings, at times even poetic from the bottom of his heart and often used to motivate or encourage someone. I just think he picks his words so carefully bc he is afraid to give away too much of himself and that everything he might say, or every thought he harboured, could be used against him, so that he would be wounded (THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THAT RHYSAND!)

+ 3. Nuala & Cerridwen

I just love both of them, so I was not able to put one of them on a fourth place.

Anyway, Nuala and Cerridwen are two characters who are also majorly underestimated. Those two have a quiet side which makes most of the people around them forget that they even exist, which is pretty noticeable from Feyres, Rhysands and even Nestas pov (though I am not gonna lean too wide out of the window with her since I haven’t read Acosf yet) Those two could literally plan to overthrow an High Lord and we would only know the moment it is too late,bc everyone seems to forget about their existence. Something I also love about them, is their whole character. We don’t know much about them now, but it already is noticeable that they accept people like they are, for they have no fear of Azriel, nor do they act around Elain as if she were made of glas.

+ 5. Lucien

Lucien is just an innocent bean who deserves all the love in all of Prythian! I might be an Elriel stan, but you might want to address the fact that not even one rooting for Elriel is oblivious to the shit show which took place in Luciens life. Undermined son, lover killed in front of his eyes, abused/used by his best friend and on top of that practically homeless. He knows that he can’t go back to the spring court yet, for things with Tamlin did not yet settle down, he also knows he isn’t also really home at the Night Court and god forbid if he ever thought of entering Autumn again! If it wouldn’t be for the Band of Exils (Thank god they exist) he’d be all lonely and without a roof over his head.

And this is something our sassy, witty fox does not deserve.

+ 6. Amren

Amren is just a character I identify with. She seems like as if she is only caring about her own stuff and only mind her business, while in truth she just doesn’t know how to express the love she feels for her family, as we know from her former past she did not even receive love, and just cares the most about her family.

Something I also love about her is her whole behaviour if one is to doubt her size. In my country I barely scratch the minimum of average height, so a friend of mine likes to make jokes about my size (much like Cassian about Amren), so seeing how she just shows him his place with a glare or some sharp words is just satisfaction to me.

+ 7. Alis

The kindness with which Alis treated Feyre in Acotar just sort of stuck to me and as I did not really find a character in Prythian, who was born there, who had the same kindness as her – she just stayed.

+ 8. Nesta

Nesta is a character I absolutely love, in Acotar I do admit I did not pay that much attention to her or Elain, but I just love how strong minded she is. She had been fighting for her own goal the moment she got spit out of the cauldron and she did not particularly stray from that. I also adore her for her strength – she wouldn’t even have been in the need to learn combat in order to hurt someone, as Nesta just analyses the people around her so much, so that she’ll know exactly what would feel to them like a gut stab.

The fact that Nesta is a huge bookworm and a dreamer in her own way makes her even more awesome.

+ 9. Cassian

Now you can just love this guy! He might have his ups and downs, but in the end he always worked his way out of them. Cassian just has such a big heart, that much like Nesta, he would do anything in order to protect his family and loved ones.

And while he is great to cheer one up, he might not be the brightest candle on the cake, but he would still go to the end of the world if it meant he could fight and protect those he loves. Something I also liked was that he is practically the one who started this whole thing with the females training while Rhysand just let the Illyrians do like they please.

+ 10. Feyre

As the main character we had learned a lot about her and I am happy that she is alive, has her freedom, is in love with her mate, has a child, a loving family and a really high title (*cough* High Lady). But what I think she could have done different was the way of how she treated both, Elain and Nesta, during their traumas.

Even though Nesta might not have shown her trauma that clear in the beginning, she could have still looked over the plates rim once it was almost tearing through one’s ears in a painful scream of help that Nesta was not fine. And judging someone straight out mad or considering it while you yourself have not even a real clue of how this whole Prythian thing works is just a big no-no. Elain doubted herself already enough, Feyres fear that she might have gone mad was not helping the situation.

And well Nestas story is one I can’t particularly dive into yet, but from what I have read (Acofas) she dealt with it the wrong way. It might have been that she and Nesta did not have the best relationship and she might have even wondered if she was entitled to bound with her sister on such a topic, but when Nesta pushed each of them away Feyre should have not moved away from her.

Feyre already did a lot for her, true, but Feyre knew herself how it was to have a trauma and she herself had pushed help, in the first months, away, but however I am overall just happy she got her happy ending.

- 10. Morrigian

I have criticized Morrigian already a lot, but I will just say it again.

First of, I don’t hate her. Morrigian is a character who I think has a lot to tell, as we know she kept the biggest part of herself a secret until now, but I just don’t like how she claims to trust the IC while in truth she refuses to tell them of her sexuality (the thing she seems to be afraid? of the most.)

I know the Azriel pining after her for 500+ years, was a lot of pressure on her back, but she could have also just told him she wasn’t interested or loved females (if she wouldn’t have been fine with telling Rhys). However I think she is going to be one of the more important side characters as I think her situation and everything that follows, pretty much sums up how gays/lesbians and other LGBTQ members feel now a days. And I think her journey is sort of supposed to help to overcome those struggles.

I at least hope she gets her journey.

- 9. Graysen

Graysen was an ass for breaking the engagement of like a toddler, that’s it – end of the song. If he would have told Elain he couldn’t trust her bc she lied to him – ok.

But the tune makes the music! Keep that in mind,Nolan!

- 8. Rhysand

Now Rhysand is to me a character who tip toes on a two sided blade.

I normally do like him, he is kind and caring and no doubt would die for the people he loves, but he has a very, very hard time separating work from private life. The example I’ll go with is the big bad magical solstice. He might have claimed that the kiss between Elain and Az could have invoked a blood duel, if Lucien would have notice, possibly even provoking a war between Night and Autumn (work) but his ulterior motive were Feyre and Nyx, no one blames him for that, but it is a private reason and excuse he should not use while speaking as the High Lord.

And again, when Az starts doubting the Cauldron with choosing the wrong mate for Elain, Rhys assumes it is just lust speaking from Az and commands him as the High Lord to stay away from Elain (low blow of assumption, but not my point) while he then offers to pay for the pleasure halls Azriel could possibly seek out (according to him). With what money would he have paid it, his own (private) while he was speaking as the High Lord, or the exchequer (work)?

You see my point? Anyway Rhys is a loving character, but he is just a bit troubled ruling an entire court (this huge) and having a family to take care of. Perhaps he is having it settled in a few years, but until then we will just have to wait and see.

- 7. Cauldron

I don’t really know if you can call the Cauldron a character, but I just placed it here as I hated how it had humiliated Nesta and Elain.

The bloodshed it caused was also nothing I ever want to mention again.

- 6. Attor

Now just the Rainbow and the attack on Velaris, just this, nu-uh man.

- 5. Amarantha

I hated her for killing innocent fae, enslaving High Lords or in general and setting up ‘riddles’ (games) in which the life of helpless fae was depending on a human who could barely safe herself with a bargain. Something I also kind of take personal is how she treated Jurian, I mean ok – he deserved a punishment, but like setting him in chains and having him barely at the minimum of survival would have been also fine.

- 4. Ianthe

Just the Suriel! This was when I took things personal! (I’ll add an 11 to the list above – I loved the weaver!)

- 3. Luciens Borthers

Luckily, most of those little shits got what they deserve.

I don’t grow up in a family very high in statues, so I don’t know how it is, but no matter if poor or rich – siblings should fight together instead of against each other! And most definitely not kill the female their brother loved!

- 2. Beron Vanssera

I hate him for having hesitated saving Rhys, watching how his sons treated Lucien and how he could possibly let anything as terrifying, as what had happened to Mor, happen. Also – it’s just the way how he treats his wife!

Someone really hadn’t drunken his ‘respectful juice’, for the last fucking Millenia!

- 1. /

I don’t really despise a character entirely, as I know each and every one has a bright and dark side of the coin (Still trying to find the bright side of Luciens father and brothers though)

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ephemeralgalaxies · 3 years

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Loki Ep4 Spoilers below (once more bc I just can't help myself, can I?)

It's been a while since I've had a character as interesting as Mobius to analyze and I have no chill. Spoilers start below:

Also some spoilers for WandaVision but it's been months so hopefully y'all have seen it

TL;DR Mobius really trying to connect back with Loki in order to try and bring the TVA down (and also bc "oops, Loki was right, guess I gotta own up to that bitterness") and it works but it hurts so much. Also see: I can't stop watching this scene over and over trying to understand Mobius' subtle actions bc his reaction here is so different than in all other scenes where he's usually calm or trying to delve deep into Loki's mind for information. Now he's just desperate.

Ok so I know I made a post talking about Mobius' jealousy in that interrogation scene but I also want to touch on when he comes back again after seeing the footage from C-20's interrogation scene bc man is so desperate here and I'm crying

(I'm sorry, I can't get gifs to work for me today so we just using images. But I got these from this post)

Mobius was so hurt last time we saw him, Loki being thrown back into the time cell with Lady Sif, hitting our dear agent with "out of all the liars in this place... you are the biggest... for the [lies] you tell yourself." Mobius has been pushing down all these doubts, hiding all his questions and curiosities of the TVA for a while. He's teased Ravonna, but could never really get anywhere. Then after speaking with Loki about Sylvie, about "you're all variants", Hunter B-15's suspicions, the oddness of C-20's "death" (M:"she was just fine before." R:"well, then she suddenly wasn't fine."). Mobius is finally allowing himself to realize things, to question truly what is going on. (R: "Is that what you wanted to hear?" M: "Yeah, if that's the truth." R: "You've been around Lokis too long.")

In this scene, when he comes back to the time cell for Loki, he's frustrated, he's angry, he's desperate. Everything is a lie. He can't pretend anymore. Loki has bonded with Sylvie (actually caring for another human being without the trauma of Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok) ((I'm begging you, pls let him see a variant of Thor in this series and get to bond again, I miss them)). C-20 is likely pruned and gone forever with no answers. B-15 is getting anxious and unfocused. Ravonna is snapping at him and manipulating him with those long speeches (please, Mobius has heard enough from Loki's videos to know when he's being manipulated by fake sentimental words). He's tired, no longer patient enough for all the little quips-- he just need answers. For once in his "life" at the TVA, he just wants the truth. Something to safely hold to.

He's just put Loki through this timeloop of Lady Sif, of someone from home someone that could've been close to him under different circumstances, someone his brother cared about, kicking him/slapping him/ berating him with "you deserve to be alone, and you always will be." Loki's whole "Sacred Timeline Life" marks him to "always be alone", to finally get close to people before being torn away (whether in his own volition or by someone/something else). But with Loki caring for Sylvie, maybe even loving her, this changes everything for this Loki. He could finally care enough to save someone, to go out of his way in order to help others at his own cost. And Mobius knows this.

He asks again, desperate, pleading, hoping. Loki has to believe in himself, has to love himself enough to think to believe that he deserves a family, love, security from his greatest fear. He has to have changed because if not, then he'll either get pruned or wind up just like Mobius. Either way, gone from existence-- life erased, precious memories of "what if", "what once was", obliterated. He has to believe, or it'll happen again and again and again. To everyone, to the whole universe, unless something someone could do the impossible and shatter all reality.

With Wanda (specifically in WandaVision, final episode end credits), with her searching for her children and Vision, attempting the impossible and blending her realities in order to give them life because she needs them, she loves them. (M: "If you really care about [Sylvie]..."). This threat to the Sacred Timeline, pushing closer and closer to the MCU Multiverse, because they have to, because they want to.

(sorry again for bland picture, I love his expression in this gif but it wont load)

Mobius knows Loki is hurting-- from Lady Sif, from his past, from failing to protect Sylvie on his own, from Mobius not believing him and calling him "just a bad friend". He knows Loki could learn to believe, but he doesn't yet. Only Frigga ever told him she believed in him, he needs to hear it again. He needs to know he deserves love because he is loved. Mobius does, "believe, stupidly" (ep2) that Loki has this potential.

When I first saw this scene in the trailers, I was nervous it would be in the context of Mobius trying to get Loki on the TVA's side, "someone good". But here, this is so much better-- he knows the TVA is lying, is manipulating, is destroying lives. (L: "No one bad is every truly bad, and no one good is ever truly good" ep2 again lol). Loki knows he's not "truly good", that he's hurt people-- whether he planned to or not. But he can still be good. He can still choose to love, to care, to believe.

He can be what he's always wanted, what Frigga promised him, what he's always feared. He can be known, be loved, be safe-- Loki doesn't just fear being alone, he fears people choosing to leave him. That's why the memory of Lady Sif instead of Thor reaching for him on the Rainbow Bridge or Thanos threatening the Asgardian refugees or even Odin trying to explain why he "saved" Loki when he fought Loki's homeland. This memory was casual, simple, unnecessary. But it's always the smallest moments that truly impact us the most-- the slight changes.

When Mobius says this to Loki, he freezes-- he's confused, hesitant, scared. No one tells him this, why is someone telling him this, how can I believe this?

And then:

.And the little shrug Mobius gives here

It's so casual, so simple, so nonchalant. He just wants to reassure Loki that he still cares. He just spent a whole interrogation hounding on Loki for finding love with Sylvie, for changing with her (jealous boi be jealous), for lying to him and betraying him (M: "You don't do partners... unless ofc it benefits you and you intend to betray them at some point"). But now, now he's stopped lying to himself. He knows he cares, that Loki has a chance, that they have to burn this place down. Mobius wants stop this from ever happening again, from someone ever having to go through what Loki's gone through, being told they can never be loved because that's just how the Timeline goes. That a kid would be taken away from their family (probably because Sylvie presents feminine?? Idk, feel like MCU Odin wouldn't be so good with that). He has to reassure Loki, he wants to, because no one should ever feel that way again.

(and frick I really hate this, please look at the gifs from the linked post above, u gotta see his precious smile grow)

LOOK AT THIS SMILE, LOOK AT HIM HE'S HAPPY. And it was such a small, subtle apology from Mobius but it made all the difference bc he told Loki that he believes in him. And then they walk back out of the time cell, side-by-side, looking at each other. Content, safe, prepared to face the world together. He's no longer alone.

... And then ofc this happens...

*cue my heart shattering* (bless Hiddleston's acting).

The fact that you can even hear the hitch in Mobius' breath as he realizes this is the end of the line for him, that Ravonna knows and there's no going back--he's not making it out of this.

"One last desperate trick from the desperate trickster."

He talks about the jetski, about what his life might have been, he knows this hits Loki, being ripped from your timeline, losing all that potential. More importantly, it gives Loki a reason to fight. A silent, "Don't let this happen again. Don't let them get away with this. Please, remember me, don't let me disappear." But it doesn't work, because the one thing Mobius didn't account for, is that Loki cares about him. That now, the fight drains out of him. They pruned Mobius, ofc they'll get to Loki and Sylvie. They didn't even hesitate. Loki just lost, once again, the only other person who ever told him they believed in him. "You can be whoever, whatever..." "She told me I could do anything..."

Loki is less of a narcissist and more of a person desperate to fill that hole inside-- he's been neglected, cast aside, told he should want this and then never getting it. A "Glorious Purpose" to always hide in the shadows, to cause suffering, to give others a reason to unite against him. But for once, just once he hoped that he didn't have to do it alone-- that he could unite. And then they crushed those beautiful few seconds of hope like it was just another tedious, burdening purpose of the TVA.

(credits of images/gifs to the original posts linked, none were mine as I can't figure this out at all lol)

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firelxdykatara · 3 years

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P1: The rwby fandom is being really weird about that scene with ironwood shooting slate huh? Cause it’s like you said: he doesn’t have a history of reacting violently to situations up until the very end of v7. Actually i remember ironwood being the one to stop winter from killing? (idk if she actually had the intent to kill but her blade was at his neck) Qrow in a fit of rage. And now you’re telling me Winter is terrified and shocked by ironwood killing slate. Idk i guess you could argue that

P2: that what ironwood did was a cold-blooded execution but still WHY? That still isn’t in-character for him from what we’ve seen so far. Maybe crwby realized that being afraid of salem doesn’t make james paranoid bc she’s a real threat so they decided to make james see threats everywhere. Threats that he desperately and “robotically” tries to eliminate. This would solve some problems with the writing while creating a whole lot of other problems that i don’t even want to get into

Honestly, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

For whatever reason, the writers/showrunners (is there a meaningful difference for a show like RWBY? genuine question, I’m not sure how the production is structured) decided they needed another villain. I’m not sure why, since they have a whole slew of villains and more than enough obstacles to throw at the heroes by keeping Ironwood as a morally grey ally with an opposing viewpoint, meaning he could very well have become an antagonist without getting yeeted over the moral event horizon on a rocketship. But whatever the reason (his heart or his shoes wait wrong show), they wanted to add to their cast of card-carrying evil villains, and picked Ironwood, and by extension anyone following him.

Rather than setting this up volumes in advance, though--for instance, by showing him reacting irrationally, with unnecessary violence, and these reactions getting more extreme despite not having concrete evidence that Salem was acting--what they did was have Ironwood act as a rational, reasonable man, who had to make some very tough choices. He never reacted with unwarranted aggression to any situation before volume 7--again, his ‘I’d have you shot’ comment was delivered with sarcasm in a moment of irritation, but there was no heat behind it, and he certainly wasn’t threatening to actually shoot Qrow--and he had very concrete reasons to set up the embargo and close Atlas’ borders.

He knew about Salem--he knew everything the heroes know, except the fact that she is immortal and can’t be destroyed, a secret which Ruby chose to keep and which, in the long run, did more harm than good (and yet none of them reflected on why Ozpin might have been keeping that secret in the first place, but I digress)--and he knew that her agents were acting in Remnant. He knew they were behind the Fall of Beacon, and he knew they all remained at large. Not a single one of the instigators of Beacon’s fall was captured in the aftermath. For all he knew, Atlas, the greatest remaining bastion of military strength and the only kingdom that might have a chance at defending against her if she chose to make her move (which he had every reason to believe she soon would, since this was the first time in centuries that she had acted directly to anyone’s knowledge), was going to be their next target. While global communications were down, he had no way of getting fast and reliable information from the other kingdoms. He could not risk spreading his forces too thin in an attempt to protect them without that knowledge--which is why his focus was on Amity Arena.

Get global comms back up and running, talk to the other kingdoms, warn them about Salem, and then they might have a chance. This was a plan, by the way, that team RWBY was all for, even though it meant that he would be setting up the entire world to fail because they knew Salem couldn’t be defeated. Ruby encouraged him to keep diverting resources from Mantle to finish the tower as quickly as he could. No one so much as mentioned the fact that if he did, and he told the world about Salem, they would be gearing up for a fight team RWBY&Co knew they would not be able to win.

Not until after James told the people of Atlas about Salem--again, without the crucial knowledge that she was immortal and they could not fight her.

So, notably, the entirety of volume 7 we see James Ironwood reacting reasonably, and rationally, to very real threats. We know Salem is a threat, we know the world is in danger--shit, we know Atlas is in danger, because Watts and Tyrian are there causing chaos. We see him take in the news that Salem is immortal much more calmly than I think the situation warranted--I would not have blamed him for exploding then, because the fact is that they didn’t give him this critical information until after it was nearly too late to act on it. And now he had an entire kingdom of people who likewise are laboring under the false belief that they have a chance against Salem, that she can be defeated, if they stick together. Which the protagonists know to be false, because if that were the case, then Jinn would have said as much to Oz when he asked how she could be destroyed.

(Which doesn’t mean that RWBY won’t pull some sort of ‘actually she only said Oz couldn’t, because he didn’t have the ability to unite the world [even though that’s bs], so team RWBY can kill her with the power of friendship actually’ ending out of a hat, but still, when it comes to characterization, we have to go by what the characters know and what they might reasonably believe based on the information they have--not meta knowledge we have as an audience because we’re genre savvy and can see the writing on the wall.)

None of his behavior throughout volume 7 indicated that he was on the verge of a complete mental break with reality that would lead him to start shooting people, including a child containing the soul of his best friend, in cold blood let and right. But I suspect that the crew was relying on the fandom having decided that James must be a bad guy, because he’s a military leader and military = bad, and the Ace Ops are effectively cops and cops = bad (even though if we’re going to call the Ace Ops cops, then we need to be calling all huntsmen cops, including Weiss, who performed a legal arrest on screen; if huntsmen have the authority to act as law enforcement officials, they are cops, period), and since they are already mostly bad, performing (and condoning, since there were six witnesses, four of them armed with auras, who just stood there and looked at each other after watching Ironwood gun a defenseless man down) cold-blooded murder is just the next logical step. Of course James would just murder a guy standing in between him and power, he’s a military leader, they’re all evil!

Nevermind the fact that Salem is literally right there, and if ever there was a situation that called for martial law to be legally enacted for the continued safety and protection of the kingdom (there’s a reason martial law exists, and there are reasons it can be justifiably enacted and enforced!!!!!) this is it.

Anyway.... yeah. I am unsurprised by the general fandom reaction--nevertheless, I’m disappointed by it. And I hope for the day in some nebulous future where the very idea of nuance and gray morality doesn’t just make a majority of them break out in hives.

#rwby #rwby meta #james ironwood #rwby v8 #rwby spoilers #rwby critical #rwby salt #asked #Anonymous

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masterhandss · 4 years

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WATCH ME RAMBLE ABOUT THE HAMEHURA SPINOFF

My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom! have officially taken over my headspace, and I really want a platform to talk about it. I’ve read the manga and novels over and over again, and I’m so happy to seeing the reactions of everyone to each anime episodes.

Though surprisingly, other than obviously the original novel, what actually piqued my interest in the series is actually the spinoff manga for hamehura, “I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags... In a Dire Situation!? Verge of Destruction Arc”. Yes, it has a spinoff.

(This might be considered spoilers for the spinoff and anime, be warned!) I just want to ramble about it and give my critiques, opinions and expectations. My words might not make sense if you haven’t read the spinoff, but I think having a general gist of the events of the original anime/novel/manga is enough to read through my vents and rambles. also there’s screenshots here so there’s that.

It’s basically the same plot as the anime, but if Katarina regained her memories of her past life during the events of Fortune Lover, within the school year, instead of when she was 8 years old like the original novel.

I don’t even really know if I’m in the right place to comment on it, considering it only has like 6 chapters (with the 7th one still being a month away) anyways and has a lot of time to expand and grow it’s concept, but gosh darn it, I want to talk about it!

I really really love the premise of the spinoff, and i think it’s much more compelling than the original novel. The novel wins by being more wholesome and heartfelt, but with the spinoff, we get to see Katarina play this “game” in hard mode” where she doesn’t have the connections that she would’ve had if she remembered sooner. There’s a sense of urgency in the plot that you don’t really have in the novel because she had already won everyone over before the game even begins. Both premises are charming, but this one really lifts up the concept of the title.

While I’d love to say that i’m excited to see this alternate version of the plot and find out how Katarina would solve herself out of her destruction, sadly the spinoff still follows the original material very religiously, preventing the spinoff as really coming out into its own (again, I could be wrong, there’s only 6 chapters so far after all but from what we have so far, it’s practically identical to the manga/novel).

I think one of the greatest strengths of the spinoff is that it would take it’s time in the Magic School because Katarina only has one year to put the odds in her favor, instead of years, so it means we wont speed through her school life like the novel/anime/manga did.

This is why my favorite part of the spinoff is Sienna, Katarina’s main underling when she was still the villainess of Fortune Lover. I love her because her existence provides a reason for the writer of the spinoff to find ways to insert her into the original plot, or to write new ones altogether in order to include what I imagine to be Katarina’s new best friend in this timeline.

Sienna’s existing can also be a sign of a possible future conflict regarding Katarina’s behavior post-accident. In the original novel/manga, it was okay for the snobby and spoiler Katarina to suddenly become dense and gluttonous, because she was 8 years old, and thus in the eyes of the adults, still had a lot of time to grow and develop her character. It’s still weird of course but it can be written off as such. With the event happening during the events of Fortune Lover, characters such as Maria and Geordo are obviously confused but her change of heart. Personally, I’d love to see her underlings and other students call her out on her behavior (especially since we are about to see the dynamic of Keith and Katarina in this timeline) because of how abrupt and sudden this change was. The spinoff tries to run away from this problem by writing off Mary and Alan as “not knowing much about Katarina other than rumors” but I doubt it, considering how much they would probably encounter each other in social gatherings and such. For them to not have an independent impression of her seems lazy to me to be honest, because not having an opinion on her means that she can act in any way that she wants and it can be considered as her being normal to them.

Because of how faithful this spinoff is to the original material, the banter that characters would have about Katarina feels undeserved, such as Geordo being possessive of Katarina during her interactions with Alan, despite not being interested in her until now. Bare in mind that at this point, Geordo had already met Maria (who piqued his interest during their first encounter, according to Katarina in the original novel) and only just gained interest in her fiance because of her out-of-nowhere change in personality. the banter between the twin princes doesn’t feel right when you factor in that he doesn’t care about Katarina enough (yet) to find his brother as a threat. To be honest, I wouldn’t even have this problem if the spinoff wasn’t so loyal.

This also opens up the question of how she will gain rapport with the characters in Fortune Lover. The spinoff pulled off Mary and Katarina’s friendship through their similar interests in gardening, but without the mistake of taking Alan’s in game dialogue, Mary has no reason to be attached to Katarina at all, and is definitely in love with Alan.

I mean i’d be okay if the spinoff writes off their relationship as just friends, but then again that ruins the charm that the original novel had (which is that Katarina catches love interests like she does with pokemon) which can be both a good thing and a bad thing (I don’t mind if they don’t have the harem, but maybe that makes it too far from the source material idk)

This is why I don’t want the spinoff to be religiously loyal to the source material! Keith’s introduction makes me nervous because there is absolutely no way that the spinoff can follow the original method of winning him over without making it look ridiculous, so obviously his route will have to be written from scratch. It’s not the rewrite that makes me nervous, it’s how similar it’d be from the original novel. The same would have to happen with Sophia (who has probably lived in fear and isolation without a real friend FOR YEARS), Nicol (who is intertwined with his sister), and Alan (depending on how far Maria is into the plot). From what i’ve seen from the spinoff so far, Katarina can still realistic gain the character’s of Fortune Lover as her allies, but they won’t be (or atleast might not be) as attached to her as they do in the original novel (like Mary and Sophia maybe)

My only biased exception to this is her and her maid Anne, because it’s pretty endearing to know that even the spoiled version of Katarina is still attached to Anne, so as long as they are together, she doesn’t really mind the difference.

I would really love it if Katarina could gain allies outside of the established cast, to emphasize how different her situation is now that her circumstances are different due to the time of when her memories return. I just don’t want the spinoff to suddenly make the characters interested in Katarina, even though she’s lived her life until now as a spoiled and selfish noble.

This brings me to another concern of mine: Maria, the protagonist of Fortune Lover. So far, Katarina has already won over her friendship and has forgiven her and Sienna for their actions against her after seeing their efforts to fend off other harassers. My problem isn’t really how quickly she got won over or anything (despite this already solving her problem of being accused of orchestrating her bullying that could cause her end just before the final graduation event of the game), it’s more of what she represents.

You see, what made all the characters of Fortune Lover so attached to Katarina is that she lacks the outlook of a noble, being someone who lived as a normal school girl before being reincarnated. She is a very empathetic person who is able to sooth the worries of the characters but literally not seeing it at all (examples being Alan with his rivalry with his twin, and Mary & Sophia with their appearance). She alleviates the pain and worries of others by being what they need. In the original novel of My Next Life as a Villainess!, the readers/viewers already know that her villainess fate is already thwarted because she had already accomplished what Maria was supposed to do during the events of Fortune Lover (befriend Sophia = gain Nicol’s affections / interest Geordo = gain his affection / differentiate Alan & Geordo = gain Alan’s affections / be a first real source of comfort and company = gain Keith’s affections etc.)

I can’t really speculate on much of the plot of the game, but luckily the anime dvd box comes with the actual Fortune Lover game routes of the 4 boys so I might be able to comment on this better in the future.

Maria is basically the same as Katarina (or Bakarina, if its less confusing); both characters are outsiders to the world of nobles and royalty, and it’s through their own personal outlook that they help and befriend the characters of the game. The spinoff would probably stick the two by the hip now that they’re friends in order to solve this problem, but it’s basically a race between the two of which of them can apply their personal quirks in getting the characters to ally with them. Again I can’t really speculate bc I don’t know the actual routes of the boys, but yeah.

For example, Geordo has met the heroine while she was trying to climb a tree with a skirt, which he has never seen before, while her also being the pretty light-magic user commoner, and this definitely made her interesting to him (Note: this is an event that occurs canonically within the events of the game, Fortune Lover, but is not presented as something that had occurred in the manga).

Now we have Katarina acting out of character and eating tons of sweets, while trying to salvage the dress of her peer after she spilled a drink on it, and this character change made her interesting to him as well. Katarina, considering her actual personality as time progresses in the story, is definitely much more interesting than Maria’s (I say that with biases of course) so Geordo would most likely find her to be the more unpredictable and interesting out of the two, but it looks like the only way (or what seems to already be the chosen way??) of writing the spinoff out of this mess is to make it appear like the Maria event didn’t or hasn’t happened yet, because while the original novel does state that Geordo would have fallen for Maria if he wasn’t already inlove with Katarina before they entered the Magic School, Geordo has yet to address his relationship with Maria. (yeah I get it there’s only 6 chapters yet jhgsdgfjsdg BUT STILL IT’S A LOT TO THINK ABOUT)

I don’t know what kind of dynamic Maria and Katarina would have in the spinoff, especially since you need to factor in Sienna, but in the original novel, Maria was pretty submissive to Katarina and would mostly just follow her lead. Maybe with this new friendship, Maria might not actively approach the main love interests (unless it’s by accident, since they don’t have to always save her from bullying Katarina and Sienna already try to solve that themselves) which gives time for Katarina to win them over with the quirky personality. At least, this is what I hope the spinoff goes for lol. (side note, it’s actually interesting to see what it’s like when Geordo literally only uses Katarina as a shield from other women, so when the shift from tool to romance occurs, i think it’ll be pretty nice to see)

To be honest I don’t even know what I’m rambling about, I’m sure I’ll love the spinoff regardless of what direction it takes lol. I’m just nervous because I really really love this concept an I want it to be different from the source material because it literally has the potential to be its own story (idk if this spinoff is even official at all, like I think it has the permission of Yamaguchi Satoru, but idk if its licensed)

Before I end this long ramble, I just want to note that i actual like the art style of the spinoff (illustrated by nishi) more than the original artist nami. I feel like this more simple artstyle captures the shift between Villainess Katarina and Bakarina more smoothly, while the original illustrations kinda makes it looked forced (mostly the manga tbh, the novel covers and art is fine). With nishi’s art, you can easily grasp that these two personalities are both Katarina.

Anyways that’s it, my hands hurt lol. Might edit this in the future.

#hamefura #hamehura #My Next Life as a Villainess #destruction flag otome #Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta #Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shite shimatta... Zettai Zetsumei!#I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags... In a Dire Situation!? Verge of Destruction Arc #My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom!#Bakarina #Bakarina Alter #sorry if this is random and dumb #i wanted to vent lol #mh talks #Maria Campbell #Katarina Claes

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literally-magnus-bane · 4 years

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look, I know I should be working on my book or re making my bed but instead y’all are gunna hear my takes on last airbender cus that show is god teir and I love it

first a disclamer I have seen the hole show but never all in one go so if my time line is fucked or I miss a point sorry, secondly I should mention I have never seen kora so keep that in mind.... I have no idea if that will actully be aplicable but what ever here we go, oh last thing I’m not really spell checking so sorry in advance

lets start with Iroh, he is such an important charicter, one cus he’s like one of two mentally stable people on that show, and two because hes hella powerfull, this man taught our king Zuko everything he knows pretty much was the crown prince growing up is actually leavel headed and you know can BREATH FIRE, honestly hes just like the best and like whenever I need some good advise I just try to think of what Iroh would do, like this man didn’t let the fire nation corupt him, like yes he was a very promanet and powerful general, yet we never see him ecxibit the same type of coruption that his brother does also he is the main reason that Zuko is able to see the coruption of the fire nation himself as well as how Zuko is able to see that his place is as the avatars teacher and not as the exiled prince, Iroh is literaly the only man I will ever love hes like the father I never had, not that I have a bad relationship with my dad, its just that Iroh is the man I look up to he is able to do so much for those around him with out sacrificing his charicter or his own morals and I think we can all learn something from Uncle Iroh even if its just to have a nice cup of jasmin tea

next I’ma talk about Ozi I don’t have much to say other than that he is the reason I have trust issues with my country well him and living in the states

Azula honestly I know shes suposed to be a villan but what can I say shes hot also her flirting skills are honestly about as good as mine I also really love that we get to see more than just one out come of having an abusive parent because of her, now I’m not going to diagnose Ozi but if he were to have narssasistic personality dissorder I would not be suprised I mean its supper clear that he uses Zuko as a scapegoat and that Azula is the “golden” child I will say that even though Azula has her issues they are born of her trama I mean she thought her mother didn’t love her the only prase she gets is from Ozi and only if she acts how he wants her to, I think the best example I can think of is when she Mia, Ty lee and Zuko are at the camp fire sharing trama (which like mood) she acts like everyone is just puting on a show to earn sympathy bc she only got love or attention if she put on a show for Ozi if she made sure that she was exactly who he wanted his child to be, you also see this when she is trying to capture Zuko and Iroh she eassaly is able to act like the loving welcoming baby sister Zuko wants she is extreemly skilled at making people see what/who she wants them too, I think its also important to keep in mind when we talk about/think about Azula to remember she was 14, and who knows how young she was when she started being a part of councel meetings, I mean she saw her father burn half her brothers face off at...12? I think

now to touch on Mia, I personaly wish I had a better grasp of her personality bc she is defenatly someone who has a lot to say, I mean that hole “no you miss calculated I love Zuko more that I fear you” like DAMN that was amazing, she is amazing! yet the thing is I really never saw her love for Zuko other than in that one seen like yeah they dated but it was like how kids date in middle school for the title of boyfriend/girlfriend I also feel like she and Zuko only brought the worst out in each other, all I’m saying is that that relationship was bad for her (also I ship her with Ty lee but thats a diffrent convo) all in all I think that she is a very powerfull woman and I think that she sould have gotten more screen time, also as for why I ship her and Ty lee is i mean I couldn’t have been the only one who saw her reaction to Ty lee being with Azula right?

Honestly Ty lee deserved better than she got with her friendship with Azula she was just trying her best to be her own person yet insted she was made to be Azula’s play thing esentally she was since childhood made to follow Azula’s wishes without complaint and when she finally gets herself on a path to happyness Azula comes along and rips that from her, and I jusr want her to be happy like actual real happy

ok an honerable mention before I finish my fire nation post, I will be making a post for every one else as well, that one fire sage who helped Aang he is the real mvp of the fire nation, as well as the poor fire nation teacher who had to teach Aang i have no clue what she is being paid but having to put up with Aang as a student she deserves a rase

and last but definetly not least my favoret, Zuko now I’m not gunna say much on him cus everyone have probably already said it and better than I could, but like his charicter development is some of the best writing ive seen also the fact that we get to see a teen just trying his depressed sleep deprived best is the greatest thing on that show, I just really love that even though his allyances changed his character didn’t he was still just a teen tramatized by war and working towrds peace and prosparety and that is something I can relate to, hes a fuck up but hes doing his damn best

@alfredhoe420 heres some avatar content for you

#fire nation #avatar #character analysis #atla iroh #zuko #atla mai #ty lee #princess azula #ozi #fire sages #mai x ty lee

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friftar · 4 years

Text

The Performance

A lost child of the Netherworld returns to what was once home by chance and witnesses the local culture.

Word count: 5964

Set before the events of Rumo by at least 20 years and definitely before the Copper Killers arrive in Hel.

Warning for violence

Author’s Notes:

Not the Magnum Opus of my personal Netherworld Not-So-Cinematic Universe but a part of a larger WIP that will always stay a WIP.

I could write out a whole paragraph about the OC that appears in the story who plays a big part in the story I’ll most certainly never complete but I wanna keep it short. All you need to know is that she is a Helling but grew up in Zamonia after being adopted by a demon family and became a soldier in service to the ruler of Florinth. For context, briefly before the events of The Performance, a group of “terrorists” - who are the actual protagonists of the story! - attempted to kill a prominent Florinithian noble and Angava swore to hunt them down. One group member used to work with the Murkholmers and thus they took refuge in the Netherworld. I might write down how exactly that revelation happened, if anyone’s interested in an OC’s story, but that’s for another day.

Fun fact: not only was this fic originally in German (preferred language for the obivous reason that 1. native language 2. language of the source 3. Gornab’s spech impediment is much easier to write in German) but it is very old - it was originally written BC (Before Corona) 4 in August 2016.

Without further ado, enjoy!

Angava stood in the hall that led to King Gornab’s throne room and swallowed. It had been quite a while since she had an interview, at least some decades. For how many years had she been a guard under the service of the Florinthian Zaan now? Time had gone by so quickly. She looked down at herself, got rid of some invisible wrinkles on her trousers, wiped at an unclean spot on her silver chestplate and readjusted her trousers. Everything had to look good for when she talked to the ruler of Hel.

No, she wasn’t really nervous about not being good enough - she wasn’t arrogant but she was well aware that her years of experience of guard and then captain of the guard wasn’t just chicken feed - what frightened her was for her to not be rejected by her fellow species. She had to admit as much as she hated it that this was what it was really about, to not be a true outsider among the Hellings.

Ever since she had set foot in the Netherworld, she couldn’t help the uneasy feeling that crept up on her whenever she thought about her situation. The others thought of her as an oddball, a Helling who had spent their life in the Overworld far from the customs of their home and among outsiders, what a complete nightmare. It seemed that one half of the Hellings thought of her as a pitiable victim who through events beyond her control was separated from those like her and hadn’t enjoyed the privileges of growing up in their glorious city, while the other half met her with disdain and contempt; the Netherworldian who fled, a traitor to their species raised on other traditions and principles.

And yet, Friftar had said that for the people of Hel it was as if a lost child had finally returned to its home. Angava thought better to take the adviser by his word, after all he was a politician and she knew enough about those: pathological liars who as soon as they earned the people’s trust didn’t even bother to keep their promises. It’s the same everywhere, be it over or underneath the ground, Angava thought and took a deep breath.

She would prove to the Hellings that she was neither a damsel in distress nor a treacherous serpent. She was Angava: Captain of the Zaan’s Guard; she had trained the soldiers of the Florinthian Army; had prevented several attempts on the Zaan’s lives; for the love of everything, she had walked through the Netherworld, the most dangerous place on Zamonia! The king’s guard was the only job that fit her high demands.

The door to the throne room opened and a Helling in a black servant’s uniform stepped out.

“Milady, King Gornab Aglan Azidahaka Beng Elel Atua the Ninetyninth is now ready to see you.”

The servant bowed as she walked past him and into the room and Angava could have sworn she saw gleaming beads of sweat on his forehead. Was she projecting her nervosity onto him? Before the door closed, the servant slipped through the door and left her alone in the throne room.

Like all rooms in the palace this one was made of black stone, similar to marble, but with no wallpaper. The high ceiling was sustained by various pillars and the room was long, at the opposite wall there were a few steps of wide stairs to what had to be Gornab’s throne. Along the walls pots were positioned and out of each a flame spurt that bathed the room in warm light but didn’t manage to get rid of the room’s cold atmosphere. The throne room of the Zaan didn’t have fire, it was full of golden decorations instead. And other than the Zaan’s throne, which was a complicated designed golden armchair, King Gornab’s was more akin to a four-poster bed with a dark metal frame and many, many cushions and pillows on it. On one such pillow sat a creature who surely had to be the King himself.

King Gornab was with no doubt the most disturbing creature Angava had ever laid her eyes upon. If she had been forced to describe his appearance in detail and only use positive words, she would’ve been silent as a grave. Ever since she had come to Hel she had always found a certain similarity between herself and the other Hellings, one that she had missed back in Florinth where even the demons looked at her as if she was an outsider to her and she wondered how she had ever managed to pass for one. None of the Hellings looked the same obviously, but they all shared some key features: the pale skin with a cold undertone that had made life tough on sunny days in the Overworld; the thin silvery hair she grew to her ears and the hornlike excrescences on their heads. King Gornab also possessed these traits but it was as if someone had added them to him in the aftermath in order to not make him look too odd among them. His horns though were covered by a headwrap, which supposedly was a symbol of the King’s power.

Everything about him caused discomfort in her but she didn’t move a muscle in her face and approached the throne with sure steps. Friftar was standing next to the throne; almost as if he didn’t really wish to be seen by her. His eyes were on here but there was no warmth in his look; it was only cold indifference. Her eyes went back to the king and she almost flinched when she saw him looking directly at her with a piercing look. She forced herself to remain as unbothered as she could and stopped at the foot of the first step.

She bowed her head and went down on one knee, hoping that this would be considered appropriate behavior of warriors towards their lieges everywhere including here.

“Greetings, my King. I thank you from the depths of my heart that you have given me the great pleasure of allowing me to stand before you.”

She looked up and noticed how Gornab was looking at her with unbidden fascination and his mouth was pulled into a broad grin.

“And? Twah do you nawt? Who do you kinth you are that you nac plysim walk in rehe and mande an encediau?”

Angava blinked. No one had bothered to tell her that the king’s speech impediment was that severe. She bit her tongue and didn’t show any outward reaction, who knew what impression it would make if she were to do so?

“Your king is asking you for the reason as to why you are here, what you want from him and why you are demanding his precious time.”

Angava gathered herself. “I am here for a request, my liege. During my time in the Overworld I have enjoyed a most extensive training as a fighter and military strategist; I have trained the guards of several cities, was the guard of the Florinthian Zaan for almost 50 years, I prevented the Ornian Duchess from besieging Florinth by shooting a crossbow bolt through her heart from a tower of the outermost city wall as she was giving a pep talk to her troops.” She briefly paused for a moment for Gornab to absorb what she said. “I want to resettle in Hel, and I need an occupation that fits my standards and I already realized that guarding you was not only the job most fit for me but would give me the greatest joy - to protect the ruler of my people, whom I have been separated from for so long with my own life. You can rest assured that in my hands, your life is bound to be safe.”

She bowed once again and then was silent.

“Hmmm. You omec to me and just nawt me to kema you my guarddibo? I lion do taht with orsriwar who are jallo to me and you, Dianworlvero, enthav woshn me any tijallo.”

“You come into front of Our Majesty and just want him to employ you based on your word? This only happens with warriors who have earned King Gornab’s complete trust and whom he feels at ease with being his protectors and until now you have given him no proof of your loyalty to the Gornab family.” Friftar translated swiftly.

Look at that, he didn’t expect the Overworldian to have such ambitions, it almost charmed him! What an eager person was standing in front of them!

He thought about how to proceed with her. According to his spies, a noblewoman from a duchy of Ornia had indeed been killed by a high-ranking member of a ruler’s guard, a warrior woman of demonic origin… but that had been many years ago and the spy might be dead or senile. So, if it was true… she sure had potential and could even turn out to be a valuable pawn. For that he could simply make her a palace guard; to earn a spot in the Hellian royal guard one had to be in the Gornabs’ service for years and not muck up a single time, but to just waste such immense potential? He just had to keep her chain short enough, and work towards her not falling into the king’s favor too much, otherwise she could gain power. If she was around the whole time it would be an easy thing to keep her in check, much easier than having her run up and fro in the Netherworld.

“What do you want me to do, your Majesty, so I can prove my loyalty towards you and my people and show my desire to be your servant?”

Instead of answering her, Gornab merely waved her away as if she was a bothersome fly. She merely nodded and took several steps back. Gornab gave Friftar a sharp look and instantly the adviser was at his monarch’s side.

“Twah do you say, Tarfrif? I’m not lirea cedvincon. Could be a pis of hist ‘Zaan’, or bemay just a off-show.”

“Ah, you could be very right, your Majesty. If you allowed me to state my thoughts: I do believe her about her credentials. But being a spy, that’s a wholy different matter indeed; sadly I cannot read her mind.” Friftar made a thoughtful face and put his hand on his chin.

“I isa we lushod not keta any kris: let her fight in the Terathe of Fultibeau Death, there she will vepro selfher.” Gornab stared at the Overworldian.

“She would surely not strike a bad figure in the arena, if what she says is true she could have the chance to become a fan favorite, especially since she is a Helling.”

Gornab groaned, obviously annoyed and fed up. “Can’t we just reclade her a tortrai and tececuex her callilipub?”

Both Friftar and Gornab threw a look at the Overworldian Helling. She was still standing with her back straight like a rod and while she looked distant enough as if she was trying to remain ignorant of what was being said about her.

“There is a saying among the Overworldians that is very common, your Majesty: keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”

“Endsfri seclo, mieseen serclo?”

“Exactly! Do you believe it to be for the best? To make Angava the Overworldian your personal guard?” Friftar gave him a questioning look. “Here we would be able to observe her… and your security would be guaranteed.”

Gornab blinked. “Deterangua tiricuse?”

Friftar laughed gently. “If you say so, your Majesty, it surely has to be true! I will keep myself from doubting your word.”

“As you lushod!” Gornab snarled and laid down on his pillows. “Rihur up now. I don’t veha meti to tenlis to this berbla.”

Friftar cleared his throat, which brought back Angava’s attention to them.

“In the name of my king I can congratulate you, Angava of the Overworld! I am sure you will live up to the task of protecting King Gornab’s life with your own, and that you will leave your mark on Hellian history.” He said with a grand gesture.

Angava’s eyes widened and she smiled. She bowed deeply in front of Gornab who was back in his pillows.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart, my liege. There is nothing that could sweeten the day even more for me than knowing that you see me as worthy of guarding you. I will not disappoint you, that I swear by-” she paused, as if she was thinking on what to swear what was accepted in Hel “-the gods we both worship.”

Friftar gave her an amused look but Gornab merely groaned. “Verewhat. Now go and don’t turbdis me.

The adviser approached Angava. “If I might have the honor of accompanying you to the door, dearest Angava.” He put a hand on her shoulder and led her back to the door. On the inside he also took a deep breath of relief. How lucky that the king had been way too apathetic and didn’t even need a lot of convincing for him to get what he wanted.

He opened for her and to her surprise joined her in the corridor.

“Truly, from myself my most earned congratulations. This warrants a celebration, eh?”

Angava blinked at his words. A celebration? She was not in the mood for this, not at all, she wanted to relax and then find the terrorists - they wouldn’t be able to hide from her and with now being formally employed by the king she could function as an extended arm of his power. Or… there had to be birth records among the people of Hel. Maybe she still had a living family here who didn’t even know of her existence.

“Actually, I already had different plans, milord.” She admitted as Friftar’s eyebrows shot upwards.

“Oh, is that so, just fresh off the vrahok and already in such high demand? You truly are full of surprises, my dearest. Might I ask, both as the king’s adviser and a curious acquaintance, of what said ‘plans’ consist?”

Angava wanted to sigh. That Friftar certainly was a pushy fellow, she was used to politicians being prone to snooping but it would never not bother her. Before she could open her mouth, he spoke next.

“But I suppose you can tell me of it later, when we are relaxing at the Theater of Beautiful Death. Today there will be a show, planned by none other than me, its artistic director, and just a word from me and today’s fight is fought in your name. Think about… when was the last time she saw the theater? It’s a most impressive building.”

Angava tried to remember. The Theater of Beautiful Death, the name certainly rang a ball and she had seen the massive arena from afar but as a child… there was nothing. A vague memory as if she was looking at it through milky glass, seeing high black walls… but that was it. She probably had never entered it.

“It is indeed. I do think I remember, but it has been many, many years.” Like everything that has to do with my life in Hel, she added in thought.

“Then let us refresh those memories, shouldn’t we? I will send for a soldier who escorts you to the theater from your inn. You will be assigned quarters in the palace so best if you gather any belongings of yours and hand them over for the servants to stow them away. I’m sure King Gornab will be delighted and very much at peace knowing you will be by his side with your sword at the ready.”

Angava hesitated. If it helped her in getting the king’s favor it could be quite useful. Besides, she could personally ask Friftar whether a list of all Hellings born in Hel existed, as a high-ranking member of the royal court and chief adviser to the king he was bound to know. For the other matter… that warranted a little more delicacy.

“I feel honored but you do not have to let the bloodshed occur in my name. I will surely attend. It would be an honor to join our majesty in such a spectacle.”

It was evening - or at least she assumed it was evening despite the fact that there was no sun in Hel and thus way to tell the hour unless she had a watch with her - when there was a harsh knock on the door of her room in the inn. A bluddum soldier in dark steel armor stood in front of her door which he could’ve most likely filled out.

“Lady Angava?” He asked in a gruff voice. She nodded slowly, feeling slight unease at being referred to as a ‘lady’ - such nobility titles were usually reserved for Florinthian nobles back on the surface world. “I’m here on Lord Friftar’s demand. We are supposed to escort you to the theater.”

“We?” She raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked behind him. Five more mercenaries, one more of a barbarian than the other, stood behind him in the corridor. “I think Friftar is more than mistaken. One soldier would’ve been enough, I didn’t bring many belongings with me and I don’t need an escort to protect me.” She put emphasis on the last sentence and raised her head proudly. The bluddum merely grunted. “The chief adviser’s word is our command.” He made a step towards her to grab her by the arm but Angava pulled back and gave him a scorching gaze. “I’m coming with you willingly, don’t even think about using force on me.” Her tone was icy and she tried to bring as much authority in it as she could. Did they not know yet about her being the king’s bodyguard? And maybe even if they knew, they didn’t care - or rather, Friftar didn’t seem to care. If this was supposed to be a little show of his to demonstrate his power, well, he’d be smart and think of something better.

The bluddum murmured something to himself, then turned towards his colleague and said: “Well then, boys. The lady has a performance to attend.”

Angava frowned; for years she had been ‘Captain’ or various other military titles - , here everything was set back to zero.

They reached the theater, on the way to which the soldiers had shielded Angava from the looks of the civilians on the streets or also on the way to the theater but before the majestic building they dispersed slightly to get through the throbbing masses of people. The captain was taken by awe at the sight of it but also the strange feeling of unease crept up on her. She had guessed that this theater didn’t exactly work like the one in Florinth; manuscripts for plays weren’t written with ink.

They didn’t enter the theater through the main entrance used by the vast majority of visitors, most of which being Hellings and the bizarre hybrid creatures she assumed to belong to a sort of servant caste and a smaller percentage of Overworldians, but through a side entrance frequented by much fewer people, all of which Hellings, most likely members of the royal court and high-ranking nobility. As they passed through that gate, Angava felt every single gaze on her person. Most of the observers looked at her and then at each other, began whispering behind a held up hand and some of those didn’t even bother to pretend. Others stopped dead in their tracks to stare at her as if she was a curious animal in a cage. Angava kept her head held up high and kept on walking without throwing them a single glance.

She didn’t know that the news of the Overworldian Helling seemingly having caught a job in direct proximity of the king mere days after arriving in the Netherworld had already spread around like a wildfire in the few hours since her appointment. There were many rumors, one of them being that she happened to be a powerful sorceress who had bewitched King Gornab and turned him into her puppet, lacking any free will, another one that she had seduced the king and he fulfilled every single wish of his new mistress. All sorts of theories ranked around her - the Hellings’ paranoia knew no bounds, especially since it concerned a stranger who at the same time couldn’t really be considered a stranger.

“Angava!” The chief adviser exclaimed joyfully and approached her. He had changed out of his humble black robe and into something a tad more extravagant, a shimmering costume of burgundy red so dark it was almost black and adorned by delicate silver necklaces, on one of which hung a shimmering opal the size of an eyeball. Silver bands gleamed on the fingers of both hands with which he clasped Angava’s own ones. She wore no such accessoires but the same clothes from earlier that day. In fact, she felt as if she would need a bit of variety from now on.

“Welcome to the Theater of Beautiful Death! It is so good to have you.” Friftar briefly turned his attention from her and told the soldiers with a gesture to leave, and so they did; they didn’t hesitate a second in fact. Friftar led her up a flight of stairs.

“It would have been ridiculous if we hadn’t found our way here, with five soldiers in tow.” Angava said dryly. Friftar merely let out a light laugh in response.

“Pardon me being careful. I simply wished for you to not run into any unpleasantries on your way here.”

“Thank you very much for your consideration, but I don’t think I know what unpleasantries I could run into and not handle.” That was the truth; she could easily take on a bluddum and the likes of other Overworldians.

“I’m not worried about you, but rather those who would stand in your way. I am after all responsible for maintaining order in Hel. Ah,”, he stopped in front of an arch, his voice lowering to a whisper, “the king’s box. He is very relaxed, but once we get started, that will change.” He giggled. “After you.”

Gornab was lying on his stomachs and picking out cut pieces of fruit out of a bowl to put into his mouth and loudly chew on. Angava stood next to his throne and took a deep bow.

“My liege; I would like to thank you for allowing me to join you in this spectacle.”

“Huh?” Gornab threw her an irritated look and when he saw who had spoken to him, he merely waved her away and turned his attention back towards the food. Angava, who had spent decades in the presence of entitled princelings, dukes and other nobles and was thus used to utterly ungrateful behaviour (it had never changed despite her status as a high-ranking military as she had never been officially granted a title or lands by the Zaan), didn’t show any outward dissatisfaction and stepped aside to let Friftar pass by so the adviser could take care of the king. Once he was finished, he stepped to the edge of the box and the full house that had filled the seats and rows and until now had been having loud conservations, a constant background noise, grew quiet.

“My dear fellow citizens of our beautiful city, Hel, most precious gemstone among all in the Netherworld,” Friftar spoke into an apparatus and his voice boomed over the crowd, instantly drawing all attention, “thank you for gathering here in our beloved Theater of Beautiful Death where over the duration of tonight, we will see upon a performance unlike what you have seen before! None of this entertainment could be provided without your monarch, your king, Gornab the Ninety-Ninth. Rise from your seats, people of Hel, to applaud your sovereign!” The claps coming from the crowd were deafening, Gornab jumped up and down on his throne and laughed as his people cheered on him.

“Sei, sei, erche for me, santspea!”

As the adviser continued his speech, Angava looked over the seats and at the crowd. The Hellings were seated closest to the arena, definitely separated from the two other groups which mingled on the seats further in the back. She tried to see if there was any face in the crowd she could recognize but despite the general diversity of the Overworldians, there was not a single human to be found. She curled her lip in displeasure. Not a single one of the terrorists was here, she was wasting her time! She tried to tame her rising fury, after all they were the reason why she was even here in the first place, this is where they had fled to, she knew it to be sure! But… she had a part to play now. After all, this was also where she belonged to, technically more than she belonged to the Overworld, and to do anything to earn either Gornab’s or Friftar’s ire could potentially prove fatal.

“The first fight is going to be between one of our newcomers, you will find her,” the adviser laughed sardonically, “quite charming, and one of the most terrifying creatures to look upon that we have to offer. You may decide which description refers to which combatant.” The crowd responded with joyous laughter.

“But, before everything, I would like to dedicate today’s battle to one person - besides the obvious that is, as all our performances are fought in the name of our most beloved king, as we all know.” He turned to bow at Gornab who wore a smug vapid grin on his face.

“The new first bodyguard of Our Grace; Angava of Florinthia, after many decades finally having returned to her true home.” Friftar made a grand gesture into her direction. Phenomenal, Angava thought. At Friftar’s gesturing that beckoned her to join him at the balustrade, she stepped closer and next to him.

“You don’t need to say anything, captain… just show your loyalty to them,”, he whispered through gritted teeth. Angava nodded. She put her right hand over her hand and took a deep reverent bow beyond the crowd. Clapping didn’t exactly erupt but could be well heard, as hesitant as it may be, from various ranks, more among the Overworldians than the actual Hellings. Angava felt her face heat up and her cheeks turn light pink.

“Very well! Now, enjoy yourselves!” The adviser clapped his hands and the chatter picked up again, with many looks being thrown at the box. Everyone had a slight air of agitation around them and seemed to tense up.

“Was that really necessary?” Angava asked the adviser who had stepped back and leant against the throne in a relaxed manner. He regarded his manicured bony hands and adjusted one of the rings.

“Well, you want them to respect you, don’t you? Consider this a favor I’m doing you.”

“Tarfrif, who gets ledkil dayto?” Gornab tugged on Friftar’s arm and the adviser’s body shook like a brittle leaf in an autumn storm. He smiled and made a calming gesture.

“Patience, your majesty, you will not be disappointed.” He turned to Angava and smiled. “Neither will you, hopefully. Enjoy yourself.”

Angava gave him a small nod and turned her attention back to the arena. Something had happened because the visitors were so silent, one could’ve heard a pin drop.

One of the various gates was opened and she squinted to be able to see a creature that still lingered in the darkness. She could see very well in the dark, she assumed it to be a trait of her species, but nothing but a vague silhouette was visible to her until the fighter stepped out into the area. It was a trembling uggly who was holding a medium-sized crossbow in her hands. Angava threw a look at the chief adviser but his attention was on the newcomer.

The uggly walked into the center of the area and a closer look allowed Angava to see the streams of sweat that were running down from her face and neck into the plain garb she wore. As soon as she came to a stop, the gate opposite from the one she had entered was opened and a creature jolted forwards, a creature of which Angava could’ve never even dreamt of if she wanted.

It was a giant lizard with scales that reminded her of polished onyx, it possessed three heads, each with a broad jaw full of long needle-like teeth, big red eyes shimmering like rubies and a vibrant blue head crest. It had eight legs as a whole with sharp claws the same hue as the crest and at the end of its long tail thorn-like appendages grew. One of the heads snapped in the air, the other looked around, probably for its prey and the third one sniffed in the air. Then all three were thrown back into its neck and the creature let out a piercing roar which caused all present to twitch and covered their ears - with the glaring exception of King Gornab who had leaned forwards with an expression of unabashed glee on his hideous face.

This was none of the creatures the little entourage from Murkholm had encountered on their way to the city, or one of the beasts that had ripped the bluddum’s throat out; those had been fright-inducing already but they didn’t compare to the terror this one inspired.

The uggly was equally paralyzed at the sight of it, she had stopped shaking and stood like a salt pillar tightly holding the crossbow. The lizard hissed, it was a noise that raised the hair on the back of every attendant in the theater. The creature stalked around the uggly, its crests raised and seemingly indecisive whether to attack or not.

“What kind of beast is this?” Angava murmured to Friftar, who was fluffing up one of the pillows on which the king rested his feet.

“A siren monitor. The soldiers caught it in the echo caves, its kind occupies the top of the food chain in its habitat-”

“Tush up!” Gornab hissed and waved Friftar away to once again focus on the events down in the arena. The adviser took a few steps back as he bowed in reverence and continued in a hushed tone: “They are known for their ability to paralyze its prey in their immediate proximity with a scream for a short amount of time.”

Angava didn’t nod in acknowledgement.

The uggly, or rather the monitor’s prey, seemed to awake from her initial shock and blank horror was written all over her unpleasant face. She stumbled backwards and almost fell due to her legs being wobbly. The crowd erupted in laughter. Angava’s mouth was dried out, she wished to turn her gaze away or shove Friftar aside to leave the box but it was as if she was also frozen to the spot.

The monitor hissed again and ran at the uggly, who let out a fearful scream, raised the crossbow and fired a shot. To the surprise of everyone, be they spectator, king, adviser, bodyguard, monitor and especially uggly, it hit the creature in its side. The crowd screamed, equally in excitement as in disappointment and the uggly, finally having regained some sense, ran past her opponent to a safe distance at the other side of the octagon. The monitor turned around itself a few times like a dog chasing its own tail, one of the heads tried to reach the steel arrow while the other looked out for the uggly. When the uggly reached the wall of the arena, the monitor managed to grab the arrow and ripped it out of its skin, dark blood squirting from the wound. With not little force it threw the arrow as if to answer the audience’s reaction into the row of seats which parted under screams. A blurr, and the bolt parted a seat. Gornab let out a delighted cackle.

The monitor was approaching the uggly once again and let out another one of its paralyzing screams but the uggly seemed to have figured out the creature’s method because she put her fingers into her ears and thus rendered the scream meaningless. The monitor seemed to realize that too and ran at her with ferocious speed, spit dripping from its gaping maws.

Angava’s hand wrapped around the hilt of the dagger on her waist belt, she wanted to take it out and throw it at the creature, maiming it and giving the uggly at least a chance of winning this fight, but she was cursed to remain a mere watcher in this stadium full of… she refused to continue her train of thought.

Just before the monster reached her, the uggly jumped aside and with a crash the monitor ran into the wall, the Hellings that were sitting behind it screamed both in delight and fear. It laid still for a few seconds and when it got up again, all three heads seemed to have momentarily lost their bearings. One of it was snorting with rage and turning violently from one side to the other, as if it had to pick up the uggly’s scent again.

As the crowd laughed it stumbled away from the wall and into the center of the area with the loud noises irritating it even further as the heads shook in rage and confusion. A loud roar, and with a raised crest it crept upon its opponent. The uggly merely stood there, waiting for the right moment - and it came when the siren monitor raised itself on four hind legs, spread the other four and prepared to fall upon her, with sharp claws and snapping jaws. The light underbelly was at display and the uggly shot once, into the chest, shot twice, into a leg, and three times, into the stomach. The beast screamed, lowered itself again and let out a heartbreaking howl.

The uggly hurried to reload the crossbow with the only bolt left and moved to point it at the middle head, ready to give the final strike under the screaming and cheering crowd - but before that had a chance of happening, the siren monitor’s tail twitched like a whip over its head and found its mark. The uggly gasped as the thorns pierced through her body, as did the spectators but for completely different reasons. Like a puppet the uggly was thrown to and fro until the monitor, having regained a bit of its strength, let it dangle over its heads and each head pulled on its prey until it ripped with a stomach-revolting sound like a toy that had fallen into the hands of a particularly aggressive child.

The audience was beyond itself, it stampeded with their collective feet on the floor and screamed. Gornab let out high and joyful laughter which transferred into gasping and coughing when an unchewed grape got stuck in his throat. While Friftar helped his sovereign, Angava still stared into the arena. She had shown no reaction, hadn’t screamed in delight or horror, not covered her mouth or her eyes. The only thing she had done was holding the dagger in a vice-like grip with such force that her knuckles were burning. It was the only thing that might have prevented her from doing something stupid she would surely come to regret.

But especially because she had been thinking of another place, a place far, far away from where she was right now, where there were no such things as what she just witnessed and that she would do everything just to be at this place right now.

#zamonia #zamonien #gornab the 99th #friftar #netherworld #friftarwrites #zamonia fanfiction #i'd like to think that this is pretty decent despite being old as hell #reblogs are very welcome!

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kendrixtermina · 4 years

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The "waifu bait" criticism of Edelgard is so dumb given that most of the cast is technically waifu/husbando bait in one way or another, they're all meant to appeal to players as romance options, and she's the only one getting flack for it. (Well, not the only one, there were some people giving Dimitri shit too for being "wish fullfillment for stupid teenage girls who think they can fix a man," but I see the complaint most often with Edelgard.)

Yeah. I mean, you can boink Rhea and Jeritza!

It’s not like satelite love interests aren’t a plague onto anime and fiction in general, but I only ever hear this “you only like them because they’re waifu/bishie” thing directed at characters who very much DO have personality, unique compelling features and plot relevance.

I’ve also seen this thrown at, say, Evangelion’s Miss Ayanami, as if all the fascinating sci-fi concept stuff and compelling narrative about finding your own worth and making a connection in a cruel lonely world wasn’t there - and at least we do see her through a “main character’s love interest” sorta lens. (I was thinking about how Byleth is actually quite similar, except more proactive with more of a dorky side, and less philosophical/reflective, but because Byleth is the MC we come off with a fairly different impression. )

Meanwhile with Edelgard they really didn’t pull any punches, the whole story is set in motion and dominated by her active choices, most the unique designs/outfits she gets are geared to look elegant/powerful. (Apart from the usual ‘individually wrapped boob armor would break your sternum’ thing but you’d really have to know physics for that/ could be fixed easily by making the fit more sweater-like), she has a specific discernable philosophy and makes impactful choices, that can genuinely be agreed or disagreed with.

You can’t swag her into your way of thinking - you can only ally with her under the presupposition that you already actively agree. (See all the people complaining that you cant “criticise her more”, expecting her to be like Dimitri basically even though they are exact opposites. You can only get on her route by making two deliberate choices. I mean they wrote this with your first playthrough in mind, in-universe you’re not there because you wanna complete all aroutes but because you actively chose to join her after she spent a year unsubtly trying to recruit you to her cause)

You don’t talk Claude out of his tactics either. (and forcing it all into this comparision often leads ppl to overlook that he has ambiguities or character development at all, maybe he isn’t vilified but he gets simplified and therefore wronged just as much in the end. They’re not all Dimitri. The whole point of having three or four different potential deuteragonists to choose from is that they’re different)… heck, even if you look at Dimitri, you only get him back to what he really wanted to do back in part I before his black-and-white thinking and exaggerated sense of duty got the better of him.

With all three, joining them eventually just enables them to get closer to their actual vision. Back when you meet her in Remire, Edelgard outright tells you that “with your power on my side, we could courttail the slitherer’s atrocities much more efficiently”. You don’t change her mind at all; You enable her to use “Plan A”. Same with Claude, who otherwise plains much more defensively both because he has less support and because he’s more jaded. And Dimitri essentially pulls a Sayaka, ie being unable to live up to his own unrealistic standards drive him to lose all hope and become the very opposite of the hero he wanted to be, but you do help him get back to that, or to a more balanced mature understanding of that.

The best proof of that is that the popularity poll numbers actually went down after the release, ie a lot of ppl who liked her just bc they liked her design were turned off that there’s a specific personality there that isn’t necessarily their type/ a MO they don’t necessarily agree with. Or all those peeps complaining that the S-support was too understated for them. Claude got that too - They’re just not the most open/expressive people in the world, one would think that after playing through their routes you would know and understand that. Whereas Dimitri has been super emotional from day one (which is both his greatest strength and greatest weakness), so it figures that he’d be more conventionally romantic.

- Hardly things that would happen if she were written to be “blandly pleasant”. I mean generally speaking she’s not the best as showing her feelings and when she does she’s often pretty blunt at it even with her closest friends (El: ”Hubert! I order you to tell me what it is you’re not telling me!” Hubert: [elegantly weasels out of answering] El: [after he’s left the room] I’m worried about him tho. )

Seems senseless to claim that she’s blandly pleasant when she’s absolutely gotten a love-it-or-hate-it-marmite-reaction all across the board. It also seems to go along with the implicit idea that everyone who likes her is heterosexual boys. I’m neither, and it’s not like heterosexual boys aren’t ever interested in “plot” or “writing” I mean geez. Though I would resist the temptation to fully ascribe it to things like that.

To an extent it’s simply confusion. “How can they like this thing that obviously sucks? Must be an ulterior motive”, whereas in reality ppl who like her have probably parsed what happened here differently to begin with (It depends greatly on how powerful you concluded Rhea was, ie, wether what Edelgard is doing is a conquest or a revolt. She certainly sees it as a revolt. Even today in the modern day most of us see revolts as legitimate, or at least, if they get overly destructive, as a fault of the bad government. Heck, there are many on this very site who would label all revolts legit by default (”eat the rich”, the more ‘original sin-like’ variants of privilege theory) which is further than I would go )

There certainly are a bunch of ‘cute’ scenes post holy-tomb scene and under the assumption that Edelgard is this my-way-or-the-highway type of person that many have her pegged as I can see how they might think that it “makes no sense” but that’s really down to wanting her not tp step outside of that idea they have of her. I mean even supervillains have silly everyday situations. Bin Laden loved Disney Movies, Hitler loved his dogs. By itself that has nothing to do with morality or likeability. It’s just being human. Supervillains blush, not because they’re not villains, but because they have blood vessels in their faces. It’s only logical that once you get close to someone and get them to trust you, you get to see more of their silly or vulnerable sides. It’s the same with Rhea. (except that the same people argue that having personable vulnerable sides at all makes Rhea good s of course it causes some cognitive dissonance when Edelgard also has them. I’ve yet to see ppl calling “waifuism” on Rhea (whom I would consider a full-fledged villain), and they shouldn’t - it’s characterization.) Same with ppl calling Edelgard a “manchild” for liking stuffed animals and sweets. She’s actually very mature and adult for her age, having some interests that aren’t super high-minded is just realistic and if you looked at her as a full 3D person who can have more than one trait you’d see that.

This also goes with that tendency of holding up AM as the gold standard complaining about the lack of AM-like plot that they completely miss the different but equally compelling character arcs in VW and CF. That’s not a lack of arc, that IS the arc, it’s just a different arc: We get to see this tough, in-control high-minded character who’d completely given up on the normal life she wanted so much and resigned herself to never being understood finding out that she is very much still capable of normalcy and humanity and finding friendship and love and I think that’s beautiful. It’s my jam.

And it’s meaningful precisely because it’s a change from only seeing the tough leader guise otherwise. Complaining about that is like complaining about getting to see Claude’s more wistful, dreamy, benevolent, not-entirely self-interest side in VW or claiming that the writing would be better if he were just a straight-up selfish trickster. Actually, if you removed their heroic traits you’d end up with a lot more generic characters. You’d simply get every wild card trickster ever, and every “Nietzschean” villain ever. It’s the fact that they’re unconventional heroes that makes Claude and Edelgard so unique, compelling and interesting. If you like conventional heroes, Dimitri is right here. Your basic heroic fantasy ‘rightful king returns/ soft peace loving hero’, plus your basic jrpg guilt-ridden angsty protagonist. I mean there’s good reason that these character archetypes are popular. Plus he’s especially well-executed and recontextualized by the contrast to the others, but there he is, enjoy him! We’re not stopping you.

It’s really Seteth who came up short arc wise. You could have given him an arc, the potential was there, he essentially transistions from protecting himself and his family to taking on his family’s heroic quest and rising up to that, but he doesn’t get like, a scene reflecting on that. Or you could’ve sent them on some mission to actually curb some corrupt cardinals etc, shown them actually reforming the church and realizing that it wasn’t all perfect, after all he very much knows that Rhea herself wasn’t all perfect.

For all that much of media is obsessed with making characters “hot”, the truth is that if people like them for any reason, they will find them hot anyways, regardless of whether that was the intention. (unless the people in question are aroace, or the character is a literal, realistic prepubescent child)

You don’t have to “make” a character hot for ppl to find them so.

#fire emblem: three houses #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #edelgard von hresvelg

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thiscrimsonsoul · 3 years

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Does Wanda like movies about witches? Like Hocus Pocus, The VVitch, The Witches, The Craft... (with the last two I'm talking about the originals, not the new bad remakes bc I'm super tired of remakes, at least they could remake movies that didn't get enough recognition back in their day) I'm really curious about the way Wanda feels about witchcraft-themed movies because she's an actual witch, I know there are a lot of modern witches today, but Wanda has literal magic powers

{out of paprikash} Oooh, this is an interesting question! And honestly, it has a very boring answer, haha. Wanda probably hasn’t seen a single one of these movies because she doesn’t watch television very often, and when she does it’s usually the news. But for the sake of argument, I’ll tell you what her reaction to each of them might be… with the exception of The VVitch, as I have not seen than one myself.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

I think Wanda would like this movie… if she could get past the first ten minutes of it. Watching anything bad happen to a child is very disturbing for Wanda, and I think Emily’s death would have bothered her a great deal. She probably would cry. But assuming she could get past that part, I think she would find a story about children taking matters into their own hands and being brave in the face of evil to be very uplifting. And I think she would appreciate the humor. She would very much like and root for the character of Thackery Binx. What’s not to love there? Wanda had her own protective big brother, so she would feel an affection for Thackery trying to save his little sister and wanting to protect Dani. And she loves cats, so he’s doubly a cool character. I think she would also feel a lot of sympathy for Billy, heh. So I think that, assuming she sticks it out past Emily’s death, Wanda would like this movie a lot.

The Witches (1990)

This movie has the same problem that Hocus Pocus had… a child dies right in the beginning of it, heh. And the manner in which Erica dies… being trapped in a painting and forced to live out her days getting older and older alone until one day she just disappeared… That would bother Wanda soooo much. Being left alone without any loved ones is one of her greatest fears, so I think she would feel a lot of sadness for this poor little girl who fell prey to an evil witch and had to live her whole life alone. She definitely would cry. But then assuming she didn’t turn it off right then and there, I think she could really get behind the story of a boy being so brave, even in the face of being turned into a tiny mouse, to go up against so many evil witches, cats, cooks with carving knives, and a rather irritating and meddlesome hotel manager to do the right thing for children everywhere. I think she would have actually liked the character of Susan Irvine, an evil witch who defects and changes her ways, becoming a good one. Most of all, I think she would have really loved the grandmother, because she would have reminded her of her own grandmothers, both of which she remembers fondly from her very early childhood. So yeah… I think she’d like this movie too, if she kept watching past poor little Erica’s fate.

The Craft (1996)

This movie… would have pissed Wanda off, frankly. And scared her a little. Magic isn’t something to play games with, and neither is invoking the assistance of lesser deities. And they certainly should never be used to harm others unless it’s a dire, life or death situation. Getting back at other kids for teasing you… is not a good reason. However, she would have had a lot of sympathy for Nancy, because it seems like she was really going through some bad things. But using the power of a god for evil because you feel powerless in your own life is not the solution. She would want to see Nancy get some counseling. Wanda would also identify a lot with Sarah and her feelings about losing her mother. Wanda’s been there and she knows how rough that is. She would also applaud Sarah for ultimately not falling into the power-craving traps that the other girls did and for trying to oppose her wayward friend. Overall, I think this movie would have given her a lot of things to think about, such as the grave consequences of misusing magic, what can happen to you if you rely on the gods to solve your problems, and the huge responsibility it is to be a natural-born magic wielder.

#tw: child death mention #tw: child harm mention

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peachesandfiction · 4 years

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Red Velvet’s reaction to their princess! girlfriend choosing them over their betrothed on the wedding day

A/N: this was actually kinda cool to write and would be down to write out out a fanfic for it if you guys wanted me to. Although for a fanfic I would do a lot more research than I did for this bc it would be hard to keep it as vague bc I was already having difficulty keeping this vague.

Irene:

You looked longingly at Joohyun as you were led down the isle. She tried her best to ignore your stare while she helped situate the rest of the band to start playing the melody in time with your steps. Finally pulling away your stare, you focus on the alter in front of you that was growing closer and closer with each step, your betrothed smiling at you, but your lips quivered. You were released into their hands as they led you to the alter.

The man standing before you two, called out, “speak now or forever hold your peace.”

With your heart racing, you push back from the alter. “I object,” you sternly stated, despite your hands shaking. Without letting anyone speak, you hurry over to Joohyun, who stood there shocked. She had been ready to sing once you kissed your betrothed, but she wasn’t prepared when you threw yourself into her arms, causing the two of you to stumble and fall. Ignoring the gasps of the crowd, you pressed your lips onto Joohyun’s and at first she tried to push you away, “you’re making a mistake,” her lips clumsily said as your continued thematically against hers, but then she felt the hot tears that dripped from your cheek to hers. Not being able to hold back any longer, Irene pulled you closer.

There was a loud commotion behind you two, but neither of you listened to it. Instead, you pulled Joohyun’s arm before she took the lead and hurried away with you. Your feet pulling you to the secret location the two of you met for weeks when it was announced who you would be betrothed to. Once there and out of breath, you still continued to kiss Irene.

In between kisses, she breathed, “you are- fucking- crazy. I- love- you,” until she finally melted into the kiss, her hands pressing into your cheeks to wipe away the tears as some of her own rolled down her cheeks.

She had accepted that you two would never be able to be together ever again, and despite not knowing where you two would go from here, she decided that it was still worth the fight.

Seulgi:

You two stood in the empty corridor before the huge set of doors that will lead you to your betrothed. Seulgi smiled sadly at you, twirling your hair between her fingers. You reached up and stilled her hand, pressing it against your cheek, “I wish I could be marrying you right now.”

“Either way, I’ll always be yours and be here for you.” Seulgi pulled her hand away, making a last few adjustments to you, “there we go, ready to make your way down that aisle and to becoming the greatest queen of the decade?”

You shook your head, feeling tears warm your cheeks.

Seulgi bent down and gently patted them away, careful not to ruin your make up as she smiled at you, “you can do this. I will be right by your side.”

“I want to marry for love,” you broke down into sobs, your knees buckling to the floor. Seulgi bent down and let you crawl into her arms, your face pressed into her shoulder as you hiccuped, “I want to marry you.”

Seulgi ran her hand up and down your back as she tried to calm you down. When you were finally sitting before her, pressing your fingertips under your eyes, Seulgi finally talked, “I wish we could live in a different world, a different time where we could be together, but can you imagine the outrage right now if you don’t do this wedding? All that is at stake.”

You took a deep breath before looking her in the eye, “ can you do me one last favor?”

“Anything for you, my love.”

“Let’s run away. Just for today. Have one last escapade before I am tied down to this Kingdom and treaty forever.”

Seulgi hesitated, “you do know what will happen if you don’t walk through those doors.”

“I’ll handle it tomorrow. Please, I just. I need you. One last time.”

“This isn’t going to be the last time, is it?”

You shook your head, “not unless you want it to be.”

“… I don’t.”

“Good, let’s go to our usual place. Please.”

Seulgi nodded, helping you up and leading you away from the doors.

Wendy:

As it grew closer to you saying, “I do,” Seungwan couldn’t take it any longer. She slipped out of her seat, apologizing to the people around her before trying to make a swift get away. Of course, you had already been watching her from the corner of your eye, so when you started to see her walk over to the door way, you could feel your heart drop. The man next to you cleared his throat, pulling your attention back, “do you take-”

You cut him off, shaking your head.

The entire crowd stands up as you pull out of your betrothed hands and hurry down the hall. “Seungwan,” you almost screamed, causing her to stop and turn towards you. Her eyes were wide as you threw your arms around her. “I choose you,” you whisper in her ear as you spin the two of you.

“What,” Seungwan stuttered, “ but what about-”

“My title is not worth losing you.”

“Y/N, but you-”

You stop her with a kiss before pulling on her arm and away from the audience of people, “we have to get out of here. Remember when you joked about running away?”

“Y/N, it was just an insane thought, a joke.”

“Please, Seungwan, I want to be with you and marry fo love not treaties.”

Seungwan wanted to protest, but when shouts started up, she was quick to pull you away.

The two of you kept running and running until you found yourself in the middle of a field, unsure of where to go. Seungwan sat you down, “we should rest her for a while. Since it seems like we are going through with this, where would you like to run away to? It can’t be anywhere in the country, since you will more than likely to be noticed.”

“You really mean it?”

Wendy let out a breath before smiling and kissing you lightly on the cheek, “yes, I want to be with you as well.”

Joy:

“Sooyoung, wait up,” you called as you hurried after her. She turned around, confused on why you were leaving your dressing room with your gown half undone and barefoot, “Sooyoung, please, get me out of here.”

“What? Y/n, are you okay?”

“Sooyoung, I can’t do it. I want to be with you.”

“Y/N, we’ve talked about this.”

“I know, but I changed my mind. I don’t want to lose you.”

“you could never lose me.”

“Then why were you leaving?”

“You having to marry someone who isn’t me isn’t something I want to see.”

You stood there quiet, looking Sooyoung in the eyes as tears filled yours. You look out the window near by and towards the doors you were supposed to be walking through in just moments before turning your eyes back to her, “take me with you.”

“Y/N, you can’t just run away and get out of this marriage. We were never meant to be. You are next in line for the throne, you have to do your duty.”

You shook your head, “no, no I don’t. Someone else can take the throne, please Sooyoung, I can’t do this without you.”

“What happened to the Y/N before the betrothed who was sworn to her kingdom? Who said she will do anything to protect her people?”

Falling silent, you eyes fall to where your hands had subconsciously taken hers.

“Y/N, you have to do this. I’ll be back one day, alright?”

You watched her pull her hands away before she pressed a kiss to your temple. She smiled at you, “I love you, now go back into that dressing room and make yourself the beautiful and strong queen that I know you are.”

“Can you promise me one thing,” your voice sounded small.

“Sure.”

“Come back to me, no matter where you end up on your trip, please find your way back to me. If I have any say, this marriage wont last long and I’ll search endlessly to be with you, so promise you will be there waiting for me when I do.”

Sooyoung with tears filling her eyes, nodded before letting you pull her into a kiss that held more sorrow than anything.

“Now go. If you don’t, I-I don’t know how much strength I’ll have to go through with this.”

She slowly walked away and once she was around the corner, she slid down to the ground crying before pulling herself together and hurrying out of the palace and towards her ship that was awaiting her.

Yeri:

You two were in the dressing room, Yerim was playing with your hair as you watched her in the mirror. It was quiet, a somber mood spread between you two, but she took a deep breath and let your hair fall from her fingertips, “you should smile.”

“I can’t,” you said as you stood up and walked over to the window, watching the last few guests mingle before heading inside.

Yerim made her way over to you, wrapping her arms around your waist and resting her chin on your shoulder, “you look beautiful. That’s a good reason to smile. You are the prettiest bride I have ever seen.”

You let your shoulders fall as you turned to her, “too bad I’m not your bride.”

“Y/N…”

“Forget it,” you said as you held your hands up before making you way over to the mirror again. While fixing a bit of your make up, your lips twitched into a smirk, “I have a plan.”

Yerim hummed from where she sat.

“I’ll cancel the wedding.”

Yeri let out a laugh until she saw your eyes from the reflection in the mirror, “baby- I mean Y/N.”

“Please don’t stop calling me baby,” you turn back towards Yerim. As you begin to pace within the room, Yerim’s eyes follow you like a tennis match, “I can’t choose anyone who isn’t you. I only want you.”

“Baby, you’ll only start a war,” Yeri started, but you cut her off.

“Then so be it,” you said, ignoring Yerim as she tried to stop you. Your feet pulled you to the doors, throwing them open and startling the people nearby before making your way over to the alter. You stood before the entire crowd, your chin high as you called out in a projected, calm voice, “the wedding has been cancelled.” Commotion spread throughout the room, but you raised your hands and caused them to quiet down just as Yerim hurried through the door. She stopped halfway down the hall, her eyes wide. You let your hands fall before continuing, “there has to be a better way to make an alliance that doesn’t have to be in a loveless marriage.”

Your eyes fell onto Yerim as you slowly made your way to her. She shook her head, but you continued on your way, entangling your hand in hers. Her hair curtains her face as she leaned towards you, whispering, “Y/N, don’t do this.”

You press your lips onto hers before answering back, “I have to.” The crowd seemed to lean forward, waiting for you to finish your statement. You tighten your grip on Yerim’s hand before facing them once again, “as next in line for the throne, I ask all of you to trust me.”

Backlash had started to spread throughout the crowd and Yerim quickly pulled you out of the room and towards the dressing room once again, locking you two in there. Through the door, you could hear the guards voices as they tried to settle and clean the mess you made, but you couldn’t stop smiling. Yerim almost felt like she was losing her mind, “what was that? Y/N, did you expect anything else than that happening?”

“I mean, kinda? I hoped they would have a bit more trust in their own ruler.”

“You are absolutely insane,” Yerim stated, but took you into her arms, “but I love you because you are.” Before you could say anything else, Yerim kissed you hard and fast. Pulling away once more, she asked, “how do you want to go about cleaning this mess?”

“I think first I want to marry you.”

Yerim could feel her cheek flame, but she laughed, “I think first, we need to find something else to seal the treaty that isn’t you marrying someone else.”

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