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morsking · 5 years ago

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And so we have concluded Lostbelt 2! Now that I’ve experienced it for myself, I have a much clearer picture about how I feel about this chapter. As I progressed one thing became very clear to me, and that was that Hazuki Minase likely did NOT have any influence with this chapter, and its weakest points can be attributed to its main writer, Hikaru Sakurai, once we more closely scrutinize her work.

For starters, I would like to apologize to the people who kept trying to tell me Minase had nothing to do with the writing of Losbelt 2. You were correct, I simply acted stubbornly because I was terrified that one of the writers I loathe the most had returned to haunt and corrupt the franchise I hold very dear to me. I insisted on blaming him for any flaws because he was an easy scapegoat and a bogeyman, and while we all agree he is a pervert and a hack who should be fired, it is simply not fair to point fingers at imaginary criminals. A person should always be held accountable only for the misdeeds they have actually committed. Indeed, we may now explore Lostbelt 2 and the integrity of its writing with a more objective perspective, or rather as objective as I can manage to be.

The overall theme of the Lostbelt is “acknowledging one’s emotions as a vehicle for personal growth”. The issue persistent in the setting of Lostbelt Scandinavia was that it was a place where only young humans were allowed to survive. These humans would be oblivious to what real growth and prosperity were really like. They were innocent, and emotionally and intellectually stunted groups of people who only knew to live for the truth of their eventual demise. They lived short, rushed lives where they would stay ignorant of basic human experiences, such as love, grudges, aging, vice, hate, competition, and companionship because they devoted themselves to living how Scathach-Skadi ordered them to. They were unable to think or decide what to do for themselves, and were thus incapable of not just taking the reins to decide their own evolution as we do in Proper Human History, but also of fathoming doing such a thing in the first place.

This is a mirror to Ophelia Phamrsolone. Ophelia was conditioned to only listen to others for purpose and direction. Ophelia doesn’t actually know how to listen to her own feelings or even what those feelings even are because she was never allowed to connect not just with herself but with anyone. Ophelia, like Surtr points out, is still very much a little girl terrified by everything around her because she has no balance, no capacity for finding her center as a healthy and normal human being would. Unbeknownst to herself, all her interactions with others are a plea for help. Her very first interaction with Mash in 2017 was asking her if she’d like to have lunch with her and Pepe because Ophelia is terrified by male strangers and wishes to connect with other women as well. Ophelia’s conversations with Kirschtaria are also her not knowing how to proceed with challenges and therefore appealing to authority both for comfort and advice. Finally, her monologues with the Alien Priestess are Ophelia venting about how she feels, as if she were unaware of what to really think of herself as her helplessness and indecision drown her in a lake of self-loathing.

These cries for help extend to the way she summons her Servants. Ophelia is noted to be incredibly proficient at evocation. Some might even call her a genius. In fact, she is such a genius she unknowingly managed to contract not just with one, nor two, but three different Servants all at once. The first Servant to answer her summon was Sigurd, the King of Warriors from Nordic mythology. The second Servant was Surtr the King of Giants and Scourge of Ragnarok (titled by yours truly), who hijacked the summoning and took over Sigurd. The third, and most pivotal, was Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor whose Spirit Origin was modified to embody the “ideal Good Fellow who could make dreams come true” rather than the actual historical Napoleon.

What these three Servants have in common is that Ophelia wished for all of them from the darkest depths of her heart. Ophelia desired capable Servants who could give her some form of direction and stability.

Sigurd, for example, is a hero renown for rescuing Brynhild and giving brand new meaning to her life by showering her with love and devotion. Love and devotion are things that Ophelia not just desires to be shown but actively struggles to adequately express to others because she has never known what it’s like to experience those things. To Ophelia, Sigurd represents “being given that which you have never known and finding fulfillment”.

Surtr, on the other hand, embodies a darker type of direction: the terror stagnation, conformity, monotony, inaction, and eternal suffering. Surtr exercises control over Ophelia by threatening to destroy the world if he is released, prompting Ophelia to flash to her childhood locked away by her abusive parents every dreaded Sunday. Surtr locks Ophelia into a state of helplessness and indecision where she has to carefully consider how she will proceed with dealing with Surtr. Ophelia has decided to lock herself in with him as a way to prevent him from breaking out of both Sigurd’s body and the physical prison inside the Lostbelt’s sun. This is a situation where Ophelia is in a constant state of stress and fear, since as a Crypter the last thing she could ever want to see is the destruction of yet another world by her hands. More personally, the death of the Lostbelt would also mean death for Ophelia, as she has failed her purpose once again and thus would have no worth as a person. However, what Ophelia cannot understand, because Surtr himself does not, is that Surtr’s destructive impulses are how he wants to show love and devotion towards her. Surtr has reasoned that since their worlds abandoned them after they failed to perform their ordained tasks, the only thing left is to annihilate them completely as retribution for their suffering. Surtr does not wish to hurt Ophelia, but because he is a being defined only by his overwhelming desire to burn everything, he cannot help her heal or grow in any way that matters. All he can offer is annihilation. To Ophelia, Surtr represents “self-destruction through a static state of being”.

Finally, there is Napoleon. Napoleon represents a pronounced antithesis to Ophelia’s entire personality. He is an upbeat, improvising, confident man who chooses to not stress over things because what he is seeing is only what lies ahead, not what lies in front of him.He also breaks her defenses by asking something so ridiculous and unexpected as her hand in marriage when they have only just met. Napoleon refuses to give in to any negative outcome regardless of how much the odds are stacked against him, as he demonstrated in Scathach-Skadi’s throne room where he refused to let Sigurd kill his Master despite being restrained by Skadi’s paralyzing rune. He demonstrates this once again when he blows his final shot at Surtr during the final battle, sacrificing his own life to give Chaldea the opportunity to regroup and bombard Surtr to bring him down. He is called the Man of Infinite Possibilities precisely because he faces the unknown head on and finds the best path to walk for his comrades to advance. He does not let fear take over his heart and judgement, he creates a rainbow as a bridge connecting the present to the bright, shining future. He is precisely the hero Ophelia needs, because he embodies “the bravery to grasp your own future and find your own direction”.

But analyzing these characters further is a post for another time. What I want to get into are the gripes I have with this Lostbelt.

Now, I could lead you on through a couple more paragraphs before I wham you with what this all means in a much higher metatextual level, but I don’t have the time nor the creativity to do that so I’m just gonna give it to you straight. This square between Ophelia, Sigurd, Surtr, and Napoleon is the storyline that matters most in Lostbelt 2. Scathach-Skadi matters little despite her own parallels with Ophelia and being the Lostbelt King, and the situation with the Lostbelt’s inhabitants matters even less. Why?

Because Lostbelt 2 is Sakurai coming full circle and writing an otome game like Fate/Prototype was meant to be before Fate/stay night became a thing.

SHOCKER!! SOUND EFFECTS OF SURPRISE!! DRAMATIC KAZOOS GALORE!!

Now, that’s exaggerating a little. Or maybe not that much, actually.

What Sakurai was doing was applying conventional otome game tropes into the setting not just what she’s familiar writing for, but because Lostbelt 2 is inherently an incredibly self-indulgent project.

There is a classic trademark otome fantasy at play here: the fantasy of multiple men being devoted to a female main character a player can relate to. There is no denying there is a certain appeal to the idea that there are several handsome men all willing to devore their entire lives to a person. Sigurd, Surtr, and Napoleon all embody certain otome game love interest archetypes. Sigurd is the cold, composed, intellectual man who is actually earnest, just, affectionate, and wise. Surtr is the dark-hearted troubled man with fiery disposition struggling with expressing love. Napoleon is the strong, confident, borderline pixie manic dream boy with almost zero brains but plenty of empathy and... *ahem*, physique to make up for his seeming lack of tact and intelligence (he’s a himbo is what I’m saying but that comes as no surprise). The problems arise with Napoleon himself, however. Napoleon hounds Ophelia with marriage proposals she refuses time and time and again. When he proposes to her in front of Chaldea for the first time, the narrative has Mash take Napoleon’s side and urges you to do the same because Sakurai believed the reader would’ve caught on to what’s actually going on between Ophelia and Napoleon.

The issue here is that Sakurai’s clues up to that point had been far too hidden for the player to make a proper connection, and it’s not until AFTER the proposal that the player discovers Napoleon is predisposed to fall in love with whoever summons him because that’s what Ophelia wanted out of an ideal Servant. Because of the poor execution in presenting all these factors that completely recontextualize the relationship between Napoleon and Ophelia, when Sakurai has Napoleon say “You did not reject me therefore you DID agree,” we jump to the conclusion that Napoleon is engaging in extremely reprehensible behavior and ideology reminiscent of dangerous and abusive men IRL rather than take it as harmless flirtation from a well-meaning oaf of a man as he tries to break the shell of his beloved. Sakurai invokes a very dangerous trope that does more to excuse misogynistic behavior when done incorrectly rather than successfully appear as a romantic gesture of attempting to liberate a loved one from the clutches of isolation and victimhood.

On a larger scale, the application of these tropes is where Lostbelt 2 starts to suffer, and that’s where Sakurai’s writing further begins to resemble Minase’s. Sakurai spent so much time building these interpersonal dynamics that she spent the least amount of effort actually building upon the situation of the Lostbelt and Scathach-Skadi’s character and motivations for keeping the Scandinavia the way it is.

Upon scrutiny, it’s not very difficult to pick apart the setting and make a mark out of the glaring logistical inconsistencies of maintaining a population of only 10,000 humans for a span of 3,000 years by having them reproduce at 15 years old at the latest to execute them at 25. Anyone with a passing understanding of biology would know that forcing children to carry babies to term can lead to terrible health and psychological complications that would certainly end up in a lot more miscarriages, stillbirths, and failed attempts at impregnation than actual successful births. The problem here then is rather evident. Sakurai wanted to use the fact that all these children are young, innocent, naive, gullible, and ignorant to draw a connection to Ophelia’s own psychological and emotional circumstance. However, she realized that because she was writing a setting that obligated her to work around a 3000-year gap between Ragnarok and the present day. She needed something that would compromise the need for a realistic system that would ensure the reproductive viability of a human population through such a long period of time and the thematic vehicle of childhood and repression of growth as a way to connect Ophelia to her environment. This compromise ended up working for the absolute worse because she chose the worst possible system she was aware was the worst possible system she could’ve come up with and therefore decided to forsake that part of the plot without going through the implications of it and leaving the specifics to the reader’s imagination so they could sort it out in her stead.

This unwillingness to properly explore the problematic implications of Scathach-Skadi’s system not only deprived the player of a possible engaging storyline where child endangerment, a common theme in the Nasuverse, is explored and criticized through a different angle, but also actively hurts Scathach-Skadi’s connection to the player because we never get the opportunity to debate with her about her ideology and the state of the Lostbelt. We never hold her accountable for enforcing such a brutally predatory and dehumanizing system that targets children, instead Sakurai opts to build her up as a flawed, self-absorbed mother figure desperately trying to combat the extinction of the remnant of her world who also never really learned how to deal with the revelation there is an entire life she did not get to have in this universe that we MUST sympathize because she occasionally sees through the characters and acts kind towards them until the time comes for us to fight her in earnest as a matter of principle completely divorced from the question of how she’s managed her Lostbelt. The fact Scathach-Skadi’s model of sustainability does not work is made obvious by the fact it takes place in a Lostbelt, what we are trying to get at here is that it does not work from a writing standpoint because of all the different holes you can poke on it before you’ve punched through the paper screen entirely and revealed the superfluousness of it all.

There is nothing inherently bad about self-indulgent storylines. If I’m being honest, if Sakurai wanted to use Ophelia and Musashi as self-inserts to fantasize about romancing the different kinds of characters she finds attractive, more power to her. But the problem surrounding Lostbelt 2, which is the same problem that plagued Septem and Fate/Extella, is a veritable lack of restraint from her part as a professional writer in charge of a multi-billion dollar mobile game. What the writing room over at Type-Moon has to realize is that they are no longer a small doujin writing circle that can get away with whatever they want because they operate under obscurity. They are visible to the entire world and will be held accountable and criticized as professionals by consumers and their peers in the industry. A little bit of self-fulfillment in a published work never hurt anyone, you can cater to yourself most of all with your professional work (I mean, just look at She-Ra), but you must be sure that in your pursuit of indulgence your work does not suffer for it and ends up alienating and disappointing your fanbase and giving them the wrong impression of what you stand for.

Anyway we’re popping the biggest bottles when GudaMoth becomes canon this December.

#fate series #fate grand order #fgo #fate/grand order #fate go #homecooked meta #WOW THIS WAS LONG #for some reason sakurai ends up bringing the best in me even at her worst #IF I MISSED SOME THINGS IT'S WHATEVER IT'S 4:20 AM

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itsybitsylemonsqueezy · 4 years ago

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Hi! I happened to stumble across your analyses on both Majima and Saejima and boy am I blown away by them! You captured their personalities so well it’s awespiring. Is there a chance you’ll write a post about Kiryu as well? It’s just that originally I’ve had a hard time liking him as a character because of the numerous mistakes he has made across the series (and the fact that others don’t really address them for some reason). Despite that I’m a huge fan of kazumaji and that’s why I feel conflicted sometimes. Anyway, I would really like to hear your thoughts about it!

Awww, you’re very kind ^^; Thanks for asking for more c: So, the reason why I haven’t yet made a post about Kiryu is NOT due to my lack of feelings about him, it’s quite the opposite. I have essays worth of feelings about Kiryu and just... have not found the time to really give those feelings credit ^^; But, since you ask and you’re having a hard time with his character, let me at least start.

As a preamble, let me first say that there’s a difference between a character making a mistake and the writing making a mistake. This is not to say Kiryu never makes mistakes, far from it. I have a lot of feelings about Kiryu’s mistakes, they’re one of the reasons I love him, but a lot of the more egregious fuck ups are the writers making weak or poorly thought out choices. For example, like you point out, Kiryu makes mistakes and no one ever calls him out for it... that’s a writing flaw, not a problem with Kiryu.

(Please note that to give my best reading of Kiryu, I’m going to reference as many games as I have seen, which is through game 6. If you do not wish to be spoiled through at least game 5 (I never reference game 6 if I can help it), do not read further.)

Continuing with that example... I cannot tell you how simultaneously OVERJOYED and FURIOUS I am about game 3 when Mine, MINE YOSHITAKA, a character who was introduced that game and then never appears again, is the only person who criticizes Kiryu’s decisions when he has DEMONSTRABLY made bad ones! Like, Mine’s criticisms are ENTIRELY valid, but because they come out of his mouth it’s hard to say if the audience is meant to sympathize or not. Especially since Mine is sort of the antagonist of that game and he’s not really pitched as a sympathetic character. You have to really be willing to be critical of Kiryu to hear what Mine’s saying there and agree with him. The way the scene is played, you’re sort of supposed to still identify with Kiryu and insist that he’s never done anything wrong ever, even though he’s put all of his friends in a vulnerable position and IS arguably to blame for the state Daigo’s in now, as Mine points out.

And the writing is on some level aware that it is Kiryu’s fault or they wouldn’t have brought it up. They wouldn’t have had Mine say that if they didn’t see that problem. But the problem is they’re afraid of letting Kiryu be flawed. They’re afraid that if Kiryu’s wrong, even once, he won’t be The Good Guy anymore and the audience won’t like him anymore. This is weak and cowardly writing. Characters aren’t compelling because they’re never wrong, characters are compelling from what they do when they’re wrong. Any character who’s never wrong is unrealistic and, ultimately, boring. We all fuck up, we’re all only human. You ultimately will not identify with an infallible god because they would make choices you wouldn’t. I’m sure we can all think of characters who were pitched to us as infallible that, sooner or later, we ended up hating because of this very trait. So trying to pitch Kiryu as infallible is a ginormous mistake. But an understandable one, especially in a franchise that depends on the likability of its main character. But this means that they don’t trust their own writing, they don’t trust Kiryu’s inherent appeal and they fuck up the story around refusing to take risks. It’s one of the most heartbreaking writing decisions for me that those words come out of Mine’s mouth and not one of Kiryu’s friends.

Because it’s Kiryu’s friends who deserve to get to say that. It’s Kiryu’s friends, the people who are directly affected by his actions and the people who CARE about Kiryu, who have the right to criticize him. Not some fucking young blood with a chip on his shoulder. Having Mine say it makes the criticism look biased an illegitimate when it isn’t. I understand the writing impulse to not let us criticize Kiryu, but think how much more compelling it would be to show that Kiryu’s relationships are strong enough to handle criticism. That the trust and love is there for a friend to come to Kiryu with this and to force Kiryu to confront himself and listen rather than ignore the problems and insist that he’s never done anything wrong. But to make that call, to let us doubt Kiryu, you, as the writer, have to trust your story, you have to trust your character, and, worst of all, you have to trust your audience. Many many writers of popular media do not trust their audiences. They don’t trust that if they let you doubt, you’ll come with them and see where the story leads. They’re afraid you’ll lose interest and turn away. Many writers feel that they cannot take the risk of trusting their writing for fear of losing their base and therefore their income.

And, again, part of the issue is the aims of the story. At the end of the day, RGG is here to produce a fighting video game, that’s it. Wrapping that up in a compelling story makes it more sellable, but their primary focus isn’t the story itself. It’s getting you to buy a fighting video game. If the mechanics aren’t up to par, if they fights aren’t cool and interesting, the rest doesn’t matter. RGG came up with a story to link the games together and invested in making an interesting protag, but it was to sell the games. If the point of this story was the story, I think we’d be seeing different writing decisions and maybe some of these flaws could have been avoided. And I don’t actually mean to point this out as a criticism and say why aren’t they creating art for art’s sake? I mean it really as a grain of salt that I personally use to try not to hold the writing here up to the standard that I would a novel or something. That may not be useful perspective for anyone else, but it’s a thing I like to keep in mind.

So, part of what we see in Kiryu is that the writing fucking sucks. And it’s fair not to want to redeem Kiryu’s character or dig deeper into him when the writing hasn’t provided you with much. So no one feel bad if you’re not persuaded by my assessment, I’m not here to shame or convince anyone, I’m just offering my two cents.

And now alllll of that said... Let’s talk about my boy, Kiryu Kazuma.

I said earlier that characters are compelling based on how they react to mistakes, how they deal with them. Let me tell you, Kiryu is aware that he’s made mistakes. And he has regrets.

What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he tries so fucking hard to do the right thing, all the fucking time. What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he wants so much to make people happy, to make people proud of him. He is scared all the time of doing wrong by people and making himself untrustworthy, making himself scary. He has lost so much, he has lost everything and he still gets up every goddamn day and tries.

Does he fuck up? YES. ABSOLUTELY. ALL THE FUCKING TIME. But he gets up. Every. Fucking. Day. And tries. And you can’t buy that. You can’t ask for that. That’s just who he is, a guy who tries.

I don’t... have time to explain the depths of my love for Kiryu, but let’s take my favorite Kiryu, what I think the best characterization of Kiryu is in the entire fucking series: game 5. Game 5 Kiryu is my favorite fucking Kiryu, including 1, including Zero, bar fucking none. I fucking love game 5 Kiryu.

And Game 5 begins with a colossal mistake.

Before the game starts, Kiryu is convinced, either earnestly or nefariously, to leave his little family and specifically abandon AHEM release his daughter Haruka to someone else. This is the stupidest fucking thing Kiryu’s done since giving up the chairmanship. But he does it because he is told that he is a greater threat to his family WITH them than abandoning them. I want you to think about that. Kiryu loves his family so much he would sooner leave them than do them harm. I need to remind you that Kiryu has already destroyed and rebuilt his own life once already. He has repeatedly given up everything for his dream of having a family and for all his beautiful kids more than once. And he just loves his little Okinawa home so much, he can’t stand the idea that he would bring it harm, so he fucks off. This is categorically the wrong decision and any other reasonable adult would know this. I’m sure you yourself understand intuitively why a parent, no matter how dubious, can’t just leave a brood of underage children to fend for themselves in the world.

But here’s the thing: Kiryu’s made a number of dumbass decisions that have led him to this point in his life. He doesn’t have any adult, peer friends to counsel him about this. He’s deliberately estranged himself from Majima, from Date, from all the people who could have helped him out here and told him not to. And deep down Kiryu’s always been worried that he was unworthy of this. He’s always been afraid that he didn’t really deserve to be happy, deserve his little family of innocents. And the plot SURE AS FUCK has confirmed that for him, repeatedly putting the kids in danger and reminding him that you can never actually leave the yakuza. Kiryu knows he’s fucked up. He knows adopting his family was a mistake, but it was too late, what was he gonna do now? But here comes this little insidious voice confirming his worst fears, telling him he needs to go, and Kiryu listens. He has no one else to listen to and he’s been so beaten down by the plot by this point, he’s lost so fucking much now, that he doesn’t have the strength to believe in himself anymore. So he goes. Believing that he is doing the right thing.

And then, as it always does, the plot comes for him, telling Kiryu he needs to come help, telling Kiryu only he can fix it. And Kiryu, for the first time in his life, puts his foot down. He’s so fucking tired, he won’t fucking do it, not one more time. Because every time he gets his ass up to help, what happens? Someone else dies. Someone else dies and it’s Kiryu’s fault all over again, and it’s Nishiki all over again, and Kiryu can barely fucking live with himself for all the guilt that he feels. He starts to help and he just loses. Every fucking time. So this time, no, this time he won’t do it. He can’t do it anymore. He just wants... everyone to be okay. And he’s so sure that everyone would be better off without him.

If that’s a huge screaming red flag for anyone else IT SHOULD BE. Kiryu is in a depression spiral. He’s suicidal. He’s cut himself off from all his meaningful relationships, he’s not participating in his favorite hobbies, he’s alone and isolated in a new city where he doesn’t know anyone. He’s Not Doing Good. Game 5 is about finally, FINALLY confronting Kiryu’s demons, all the pent up unresolved guilt and turmoil that we never fucking addressed for 5 games running. (And if you’re hearing Bitter Resentment in the way the games have handled Kiryu’s emotional reactions OH BOY YOU BETCHA but that’s for another post.)

So Kiryu finally says no. He won’t fucking do it. But the plot comes for the fucking carotid. It’s Majima. It’s Majima. The only person Kiryu really, truly trusts. The person Kiryu was relying on to still be there, to be strong, to do the things Kiryu couldn’t. It’s Majima this time. And Kiryu loses his goddamn mind. That was the one thing you had left to take from him, his belief in Majima, and you took it. Kiryu nearly has a psychotic break at the news and decides, fine. Fine. I’ll go fix this, and then I can die. Then it’s over. Because there ain’t nothing left for him now.

And he does. Kiryu gets his ass down there, he solves the fucking problem, and then he does his level best to die there. Because it’s what he feels he deserves. He’s let down everyone. All those losses, all those people... they’re his fault. If he was really the hero, he could have saved them. If he was really a good person, these tragedies wouldn’t keep happening. It must be his fault. Fuck, even Majima died, even Majima... and he wasn’t even there, he couldn’t even have helped him, he just... He abandoned him. And Kiryu feels intensely that guilt and grief for his mistakes and his missed opportunities. And all he can think to do with that feeling... is die. It’s what Nishiki did before him. It’s what Kazama did before that. That’s what you do when you’ve fucked up and you don’t know how to fix it. You die. Then no one has to deal with you anymore.

But Haruka. His daughter. The best thing he ever did. She’s up there on stage and she loves him. She still loves him and wants him to be her dad. She’s been with him the whole time, she knows all about it. And she’s not scared. And she doesn’t think he’s bad. Maybe... maybe he can stay alive then. Maybe it’s okay if Haruka is still his daughter. And against all belief, he finds his way back to Haruka. He stays alive for her. He won’t repeat the mistakes of the past. And maybe... he can learn to do something different this time.

Kiryu... makes mistakes all the time. But he knows. And he feels so guilty. The writing doesn’t always do a great job of showing it. We don’t process Nishiki the way we should. We kill Rikiya for no reason. We forget that game 3 should have been TRIGGERING AS SHIT. And we awkwardly no homo out of Kiryu’s most important relationship while still insisting that it is Kiryu’s most important relationship. The writing is spotty and flawed and sometimes you can barely piece together a coherent narrative out of it.

But at its white burning core is a guy who just keeps trying. Who gets up the next day and tries again. Because he’s lost so much. Because he loves so much. Because he believes there is value in being nice to people and being a good person. And I love that.

#Kiryu Kazuma #Yakuza #I have a lot of feelings about Kiryu Kazuma #have some #major spoilers for game 5 #floweysky

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asrasotherbottom · 5 years ago

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How do you think the main 6 would react to MC being secretly incredibly powerful, like could easily beat pretty much anyone in a magic dual or any kind of fight, (this could be because of a lot of training or it could mean that they were some sort of fay creature it's up to you) /sorry its so long/I like your writing, I think it's really good/

How do you think the counters would react to MC being a really powerful magic creature (fairy, demon etc) xx

I’m combining these two requests into one! also

Main 6 + Courtiers & Powerful Fae MC (this got super fucking long i hope you all enjoy it, Muriel, Portia,Lucio, Courtiers are under the cut)

Asra

He always knew something was special about them, their magic was so strong and just felt different than anything he’d ever felt before.

It was nearly intoxicating to have them use their magic on him, the feeling of it washing over him, it was so unique and so very Them.

After he brought them back, he was terrified how this would complicate things. They had the Fool’s body, could the fool’s body contain the power of a Fae?

Would their powers come back? Would they be too strong for the body? Would they have no magic at all?

Then he started to feel bad for them, once their magic started coming back, he knew that his magic was nothing compared to theirs and yet he had to teach them magic from scratch, he didn’t feel qualified.

But he was also worried about them hurting themself because they didn’t know how to control how powerful they were yet.

Overall? He’s beyond proud of them. Look at his Super Powerful Fae Spouse, thats His Spouse!!!

Nadia

She’s embarrassed to say that she’s heard of the Fae but doesn’t know a ton about them.

Though, she’d love for them to sit down and tell her all about the Fae and what its like to be one of them, over a cup of tea.

She first notices something about MC when she activates her mark and can see all the magic around them, and MC lights up in a way that she has never seen a person, magician or not, light up, ever before in her life.

Its dazzling and, dare she say, Enchanting.

Knowing MC is so, so incredibly Powerful is something that draws her to to them, power seeks out power, as it were. It doesn’t hurt that theyre gorgeous, Fae or not.

She loves seeing displays of MC’s power and magic, and she likes knowing that not many people know about it, its their little secret.

And the thought of a very powerful Fae creature being SO submissive to her in the bedroom is…enticing.

Julian

He is….taken aback? Overwhelmed? Scared? Confused? A little horny? All of the above? when MC first tells him.

He’s all for being intimidated by a powerful partner, but the Magic part has him a little wary, he barely understands human magicians, much less the concept of the Fae or Fae magic.

He doesn’t really know what to do the first time he feels their magic in the magical realms, he thought he was prepared but he wasn’t, at all.

He wonders why their magic couldn’t stop the plague, they’re so powerful, and they were working as his apprentice, he doesn’t know anything about magic but something feels very bad about knowing they had all that magical power and still weren’t able to stop it, they weren’t able to avoid dying of the plague either.

Post- upright end he ends up relishing the feeling of their power, especially when they’re using magic in the bedroom. ;) Post reversed ending he’s thankful that MC is such a powerful creature because they have to live in a world full of chaotic powerful magic.

MURIEL/PORTIA/LUCIO/COURTIERS UNDER THE CUT

Muriel

Muriel lives in the forest, he knows the Fae lore, and he is WARY of MC. He has half a mind to use a fake name until Asra walks in and says “Hi muriel” and blows it.

He keeps an eye on them at all times, just waiting for something about their True Nature to rear its ugly head, but when it….doesn’t….he’s mostly confused and straight up asks them about it.

Eventually he gets used to how powerful their magic is, it makes him feel a little better knowing that they’re capable of being at least as dangerous as him, but also choose not to. It gives him…a little hope for himself as a person and his future in not hurting people, even accidentally.

He’s still really taken aback (and impressed) the first time he sees their full display of power, he’d only heard in tales the power of the Fae…

Is wary of marrying them, he was careful to never drink anything they gave him, so why is he marrying them? He loves them? Oh…right, he does. He just needs to get over the “marrying a Fae creature” thing.

Portia

She LOVES SECRETS. MC telling her a secret? That they’re secretly a super powerful FAE CREATURE???? She wants to shout it from the rooftops she’s so excited but,~oops~ she wont. *zips mouth motion*

She’s read about Fae in a book in the palace, aren’t they supposed to be like, really tiny? And live in the woods and try to trick you into things? MC do you secretly live in a mushroom?

Portia is literally dying to find out how powerful MC is, its impressive enough that they’re a magician but his is on a whole new level of impressive to her. (Swoon) But also…she wants to see what MC can do!

She asks MC to make her a cup of tea and then downs the whole thing in one gulp and says “does this mean we’re married now?” and thats how she lets MC know that she wants to get married.

If MC ever lets her know its ok to tell people, she literally never stops bragging about her super powerful Fae spouse.

Lucio

Lucio is drawn to power and MC is no different. When they tell him, he responds. “I KNEW there was something special about you! I have a sense for these kinds of things, I attract powerful people, its part of my charm and one of my many talents.”

He still nearly pees his pants when he feels MC”s power for the first time, he’s used to dealing with powerful creatures but being able to feel their power so close to him, it’s like nothing he’s ever felt before.

“Youre a what now?” “Of course I’ve heard of the Fae, who do you take me for? I’m worldly.” He says, yknow, like a liar.

He is chomping at the bit to see MC take someone down though, him displaying his feats of strength slaying the wyrm was essentially his way of flirting (and definitely arousing and intended to be arousing for MC) so he’s ready for their show too.

Dramatically presents them with a dress made in the style of the Fae he saw in a book.

Valerius

Do they really expect him to know what that means? That they’re Fae?

(He’s genuinely interested when they explain it to him, he even stops sipping his wine and sits up in his chair to listen)

After a few minutes he takes a second and wonders if he should have been including the Fae in his diplomatic relations all these years and never has been. Ultimately he cares about Vesuvia above most other things (except for MC), so if they’re a powerful non-human magician, he wants to know how they can help Vesuvia and how Vesuvia can help them.

(He wont mind a demonstration of their *ahem* immense power, though, perhaps back in his chambers)

Vulgora

POWERFUL YOU SAY?

They challenge them to a duel, but its mostly a display of MC”s immense powerful energy.

They earn Vulgora’s respect p much immediately.

The ONLY way to make them swoon is to beat them in battle and MC does that so like, whens the wedding yknow.

Vulgora does NOTHING but brag about MC being powerful and capable of squashing any enemy with ease.

Vlastomil

He’s....attracted to power. He knows power, intimately.

‘SO DONT YOU DARE USE YOUR MAGIC AROUND MY PRECIOUS WORMS, MAGIC OUTSIDE THE HOUSE ONLY!!!”

He might get a little jealous and show them his wyrm form to flex on them a little, but their magic is as powerful as his wyrm form is monstrous so.

Is it getting hot in here or is it just him?

.....................Since MC is Fae, do the have any worm based power?

Valdemar

Oh, my my, they’ve never dissected any of the Fae before.

They’re sure this will be a very interesting and exciting experience, and they’re glad to have this opportunity.

They underestimate MC’s power, seriously. They think that MC can’t possibly be as powerful as they are.

But if MC shows them, gives them just a hint of how magically powerful they really are? Then Valdemar is all but ready to make them a colleague, if they’ll have it.

Volta

Oh!! She thinks thats very interesting, extremely interesting.

She does not know or care if you are supposed to take food and drink from any of the Fae but she wholeheartedly does and in fact requests food.

Volta doesn’t have a very good track record with very powerful beings so she’s a little wary about getting close to them.

But she’s easily won over if MC gives her lots of food, maybe even magic food like Mazelinka’s soup but more powerful that can keep her full!.

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bigskydreaming · 4 years ago

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thehollowprince said: I am looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds, because its a great premise, though I don’t know if I would have attempted to juggle all the chimeras the way you are. Although, speaking of chimeras, where’s Theo? I have a hunch he’s the one “helping” Hayden’s sister, and I’m curious as to what happened to the other chimera? The big one with the Garuda talons? Belasko?

Belasko is long dead and gone in this, he was a willing accomplice/minion of the Dread Doctors and official in-story fate for him is that he thus eventually died from incompatibility with his ‘donor’ material the way several of the other chimeras did in canon and Hayden was going to without Scott giving her the bite. The reason the chimeras are all werewolves here is because as Corey briefly alluded to while he and Lucas were investigating the creepy Fae Murder-House, they WERE chimeras created/experimented on by the DD just like in the show.

And when Scott and his core pack of Malia, Aiden and Ethan plus the surviving members of Satomi’s pack who escaped Kali with them like Brett, Carrie and Lori, like....when pre-story, they tracked down the Doctors’ most recent lair in the hopes of finding Theo, who Scott, Malia, Aiden and Ethan hoped was still alive even though they believed he died in their original escape from the Doctors, they found the other chimeras and took them with them instead. Eventually, of course, some of them like Hayden started dying because of their chimera natures, and since the Scott of this AU has different issues with the bite and his werewolf nature because of how things went down here versus how they happened in canon.....one of the ripple effects of that is here he’s less opposed to offering the bite when it seems needed, and so he offered and they all accepted rather than risk the poisoning fate that they had no way of knowing whether or not it might happen to them all at some point or not.

The not in-story explanation for the lack of Belasko is I simply said, with feeling, “Oh FUCK no, that is NOT remotely what a garuda is, Davis you freaking hack, Garuda isn’t even something you can freaking pluralize since he’s a being not a supernatural species, and I already oh fucked no this with Hayden and your nagual shit and oh fucked no this with your wendigo and skinwalker shit and I just effin’ refuse to oh fuck no this again so y’know what, Belasko’s dead, he died, oh no, much sadness, no more ‘garuda’ chimeras. And what the fuck was even up with his plot vehicle of a power anyway, like why the fuck did you even decide that ‘garuda’ was the best and only match for ‘a supernatural being that takes other peoples’ powers.’ Like, we get it, you made the chimeras to be the X-Men story nobody was ever going to pay you to write, but Belasko’s no fucking Rogue, and know what? Now you did it, I just decided in fact he’s just dead. You only have yourself to blame. Shouldn’t have made him suck, then maybe somebody would give a shit.”

Ahem. Anyway. Yeah that’s the backstory for the lack of Belasko. In shorter news, Donovan also died offscreen simply because I was fucking sick to death of everything said about him and that stupid shoe-horned ‘schism’ resulting from his canon death so I just made the executive decision to just nope him out of existence and just Not with him instead.

The only other remaining chimera was Noah, the berserker chimera played by Jordan Fisher who as you know, I very much like and felt was wasted by the show, so he’s still very much around and kicking, as was briefly mentioned when they were talking about Hayden’s sister.. He accepted the bite the same as the rest of the chimeras, but he still had a home and family he felt missed him and was worth going back to, so he went home with Scott and the rest of the pack’s blessing and well-wishes. That was very much laid in there as a Chekhov’s gun of a plot point to pay off later. (Hayden of course misses her sister a great deal, but she suffers from some insecurities and doubts pre-existing from her and Val’s parents’ deaths that made her feel that going home would just mean danger would follow her there, much like the reason Scott left and stayed away from Beacon Hills. Whereas Noah doesn’t have similar reasons or Peter-related issues for feeling this way and mostly was just sure if his mother could hear him expressing such a sentiment, she’d ground the shit out of him for even thinking that was an acceptable explanation for staying away. He was always meant to show up eventually though).

ACTUAL SPOILER-Y SPOLERS I guess, if anybody is concerned on that front at this point, lmfao:

And yup, Theo is absolutely the ‘anonymous source’ behind Hayden’s sister suddenly deciding out of the blue that there was some clue to be found in New York. He did survive and has been playing a longterm game of his own all along, because I stan a villainous Theo who isn’t an inherently just evil or irredeemable character, but one who has believed himself to be the only one looking out for his best interests and used to doing so for long enough that he has as of now convinced himself he can explain or justify most any actions he takes for this reason, at least enough to satisfy his own conscience. I just find Theo incredibly more compelling as the teenage version of canon Peter to act as a foil to Scott, as opposed to the teenage version of fanon Peter to act as a victim to Scott, y’know, the way most everybody decided to view him as.

The spoiler-y part is that like Aiden and Ethan briefly mentioned to each other when they first showed up in Beacon Hills, Theo was one of the original DD captives in this universe, along with Scott, Malia, Aiden and Ethan - a werewolf being experimented alongside the other four by the Doctors, for their ‘unique’ traits. (Malia and Theo’s full-shift abilities, Aiden and Ethan’s ‘twin connection’ and Scott’s seemingly greater-than-average resistance to magic like mountain ash circles, with this of course actual being an indicator of his future status as a True Alpha. The one and only difference I made to Theo’s backstory here is that he’s actually a werewolf and not a chimera here. He was changed by a rogue Alpha’s bite at one point, much like he’d claimed originally on the show). Anyway, at one point, the Doctors’ experiments finally triggered Scott’s ascension to True Alpha by essentially pushing at his protective instincts in regards to the others.

But while this was something the Doctors were aiming for, having their own uses for a potential True Alpha’s power/nature, there was an unexpected side-effect they hadn’t planned for, given that there wasn’t much data for them to go off of when it came to True Alphas because of how rare they are (at least by the time the Dread Doctors came along, though that wasn’t always the case, as Alberich expressed to Lucas and Corey).

What they didn’t account for stems back to that long as fuck meta I wrote ages ago about how I view ‘the shape you take reflects the person you are’ in canon, and True Alphas. Basically, my take has always been you either are a True Alpha or you’re not. There’s no ‘level-up’ process, no ACTUAL ‘ascension.’ To me, TA just means like.....a werewolf who is ALWAYS more of a leader than ever a follower, since even other Alphas like Derek, Peter, and the Alpha Pack have demonstrated that at least before they were each alphas, they were all more than capable of and willing to exist as betas to another alpha, even if that alpha was just their direct predecessor and a born relative. Scott’s unique-ness within the Teen Wolf universe ultimately comes down to one thing and one thing only for me.....no matter how his personal views and morality evolved and changed over time, the one thing that was a constant was that no matter what, he was never willing to follow anyone he didn’t believe had a ‘right’ to lead him or command him, and he wasn’t swayed by the usual arguments of why a werewolf like him, a seeming beta, SHOULD view someone like Peter or Derek having the ‘right’ to command his allegiance.

Because even though he wasn’t technically an Alpha until 3A......Scott by Derek’s own admission was never really a beta or an omega. To be a beta, he would have had to ACTUALLY accept Peter or Derek’s ability or right to command his allegiance, which he never actually did, and he was never really an omega either, because as Derek said in S2, he realized the reason he had so much trouble convincing Scott to join him was he was already the alpha of his own pack. Since, like Scott’s later pack always included non-werewolves, there was never actually any reason why Allison and Stiles COULDN’T have been considered his pack all along.

The only reason IMO that Scott wasn’t a True Alpha from day one, is because he came into the werewolf world not having a clue what the ‘rules’ were, and from day one, every single person to fill him in on what the rules were, did so according to their traditional/more common views of how ‘things worked.’ He didn’t immediately reveal himself as a TA because he didn’t realize such a thing even existed, or it was even possible to be one, and so for a time it kinda existed....in flux, as it were. He wasn’t truly a beta or omega because neither was in his nature - he was very much a social creature, a pack entity more suited to being surrounded by others than a loner, but he was also not remotely someone willing to set aside his own views, beliefs or goals in order to follow someone else’s, even if the price for that unwillingness was being essentially outcast as far as both ‘normal werewolf society’ and normal human society viewed things. He simply reflected the IMAGE of being a beta or an omega, gold eyes and all, because as far as he knew, as far as he’d internalized as of that point, that was who he was supposed to be or all he COULD possibly be.

What changed this for him wasn’t just being made aware that True Alphas were a thing, albeit rare, like in 3A when Deaton first mentioned it. Because after all, the only REASON Deaton brought it up, was because Scott and others were ALREADY confused by the occasional flickers of alpha red they witnessed his eyes showing, like in the fight with Ennis, and technically, going all the way back to Night School in S1, where his eyes flickered red when he defied Peter’s efforts to mentally exert dominance over him and make him kill the others. Basically, just like when he matched Ennis blow for blow, even if just briefly, even though as the bigger, stronger, and more experienced and ALPHA werewolf Ennis should have swatted him aside like a fly, not just knocked him back a few feet......the flickers of Alpha red showed up just when Scott seemingly defied the ‘rules’ of werewolf nature and refused to give way to an Alpha’s dominance the way that most other betas and omegas typically were seen or believed to.

IMO its as simple as ‘at these times and others, Scott SHOWED that he was simply NOT a beta, he refused to follow any convictions MORE than his own, and he was consistently SHOWN to never truly be an omega, because how can someone be packless when someone has people already willing to follow HIM’.....and thus, he was a True Alpha all along, simply because Alpha was the only word left to describe him, even if he never inherited the ‘power’ from another Alpha or ‘stole it’ by killing one. The only thing that ever actually changed for him, was that he existed as a werewolf long enough and in enough defiance of ‘the way things worked’ that he just stopped ACCEPTING that beta and omega were the only two options that existed to define him, and he just for the first time fully internalized his own belief that he didn’t NEED others to define him, that it was enough that he just exist as he already was. His own self-image, self-WORTH, was all that he needed.

And that’s why the pivotal moment in which he ‘ascended’ to True Alpha once and for all, was basically when he was once again saying ‘fuck you’ to the ‘rules’ when he broke through Jennifer’s mountain ash circle, something he shouldn’t have been capable of. He was able to do it, and manifest fully as the True Alpha he’d been all along, because in that moment, he deliberately and with INTENT, like with full conscious awareness of what he was doing, that he was fully attempting to accomplish what everyone else claimed was impossible, he basically said “the rules don’t matter to me, the fact that everyone believes I SHOULDN’T be able to do this doesn’t matter to me, the only thing that matters to me is I’m going to do it whether anyone else believes I can or not. Only I and I alone get to decide who I am and what I’m capable of.”

THAT in my opinion is what True Alpha always meant, and its why Scott was the only one we saw on the show....because his narrative, deliberately from day one, was ALWAYS one of self-determination above all else.

So basically, the same logic and reasoning all applies to LC and his ‘ascension’ to True Alpha there....it was the same thing. He was one all along, but only became one when his conscious AND subconscious reflection of ‘the way things worked’ gave way to his stronger self-determination and refuses to just ACCEPT the way things work. And because here the Dread Doctors, like most everyone else in universe, like except for those like say, Alberich, because they just innately didn’t understand the real nature of True Alphas and what made someone one and WHY they’d become so rare (essentially, it became like a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more rare True Alphas became, the less of them there were because the less new and young werewolves believed let alone ACCEPTED that there was an alternative to following those they didn’t believe in, if they simply....refuted it enough via their own self-image).....but because the Doctors didn’t fully GET that Scott wasn’t just a potential True Alpha, but was already kinda a....True Alpha in-cocoon so to speak....they didn’t fully realize all the potential repercussions of them trying to PUSH him into manifesting as one the way they were.

And so the thing where it was mentioned that the twins, Scott and Malia all kinda ‘share’ each other’s unique traits now, with all of them able to full-shift, all of them sharing a lesser degree of the same psychic connection the twins do, and Scott’s seeming greater-than-average resistance to magic....that happened all on its own, the second Scott ‘fully’ became a True Alpha, and its the part the DD didn’t prepare for and didn’t understand. Because by not getting that Scott had already been an Alpha the whole time, they didn’t realize that these shapeshifters they’d been keeping in close proximity to one another, in shared predicaments, and clearly developing bonds because of it....like, just as Scott was already an Alpha by then, they were ALREADY a pack by then. They just didn’t know it, because well, a pack needs an alpha and they didn’t realize they already had one. So basically, they already HAD a pack bond, and thus when that combined with the Dread Doctors’ actual experiment and the kinda.....magical reaffirmation of Scott’s own self-image and alphahood rippled back through the suddenly VERY REAL and very CLEARLY real pack bond all at once, like it’d simply magically sprung into existence instead of just showing what had already been there in a different shape or form.....this all added together to kinda create this supernatural compounding effect. And thus, pretty much by accident, the Dread Doctors managed to completely unintentionally create a REAL throwback to the werewolf packs of old, like Alberich and the other Fae had ORIGINALLY ‘designed’ them to be.

Because just like the power of a werewolf comes from essentially being the supernatural embodiment of their strength of self, of their inner power, who and what they really are....(and why the shape an Alpha takes in the show varies so tremendously based on how the various Alphas viewed THEMSELVES and their own power)....

So too, is the power of a werewolf PACK the supernatural embodiment of the idea of the pack in full....the idea that the whole is GREATER than just the sum of its parts. Which is why the more werewolves get added to a pack, the more EACH individual pack member’s strength, healing, etc, increased as a whole. And thus here, that was true, but in addition, these various unique shapeshifters also ended up sharing the same traits that made each of them ON THEIR OWN fairly distinct....which actually is the way it was always intended to be, and once had been true of ancient packs.

(As of now, only the core pack of Scott, Malia, Aiden and Ethan share in this ‘level’ of their pack bond, but as for why that is, the answer is actually in the above explantion, lol).

So yeah, Scott manifested as a True Alpha, instant pack bond whammo, and reacting pretty much on instinct to the surprise this created for the DD, they escaped, largely by instinctively pulling on EACH OTHER’S individual gifts...because while the way the DD held them captive took into account their respective gifts, like say, Malia’s ability to full-shift, it DIDN’T take into account the possibility of all of them suddenly being able to full-shift without warning.

And then Scott, Malia, Aiden and Ethan escaped and spent the next several months wandering, stuck in their full-shfit shapes because they didn’t entirely yet understand what had happened or how, and so with that and the trauma they’d endured, it took them awhile to like....remember how to shift BACK, essentially.

At the time, the four of them all believed Theo had died in their escape attempt. But after they eventually got free of Kali and Julia, and had added the surviving members of Satomi’s old pack, they decided to try and track down the Dread Doctors in the hope that Theo was still alive....because now, with a better understanding of what had happened and what they were capable of, they were convinced they could still feel Theo through their initial pack bond.

Instead they found the chimeras and no sign of Theo, and with the urgency of at least getting these latest prisoners of the DD safe and sound, they kinda accepted that maybe they were wrong and it was just wishful thinking that they’d been so sure they could still feel Theo.

Or at least, Scott and Aiden did. Ethan and Malia, not quite.

You remember when Josh, Tracy, Lucas and Corey met with Malia in the park at night while Lucas and Corey told them about meeting Alberich and everything he’d said and hinted at, and the ‘offer’ he’d asked them to take to Scott? And how Malia firmly shut that shit down and all but ordered all of them not to say a word, because as she said, Scott absolutely would take Alberich’s deal without a second thought, to keep the rest of them safe, no matter what it meant for him? When they asked if that meant not telling the twins either, and Malia said yes because Ethan would agree but Aiden never would, and Lucas asked if this meant she and Ethan HAD ever before kept something from Scott and Aiden specifically and she said yes but refused to elaborate further.....this is what that was referencing.

Because when they went back for Theo and found the chimeras instead, Ethan and Malia ended up on their own at one point, and this is when they discovered that Theo had been a plant all along. Yes he was a werewolf in this AU, but he’d still ended up working for the Dread Doctors in exchange for getting away from the Alpha who’d turned him. They’d put him in with the others under the guise of him just being another experiment, in order to utilize him as a kind of control variable to nudge the others in ways and at times they expected them to be resistant to just going along with the Doctors’ latest experiment.

At the time, they didn’t find any proof that Theo was still alive after all, just this, so Malia and Ethan did still very much believe that he was dead at this point, same as Scott and Aiden now.....and so they felt that there was no point in telling them this and disillusioning them with Theo’s betrayal/complicity the way they felt betrayed by this information, and that it would just make things worse. They honestly felt they were protecting them by doing this, or at least Scott as he was the one they were concerned would take it the worst given how much responsibility he feels for everything and everyone.....but they also agreed not to tell Aiden as they didn’t think he’d agree to keep it from Scott. As Aiden in this AU is extremely ride or die from Scott and hates subterfuge as a general rule (but also, because hiding the info about Theo and this deal about Alberich is absolutely doomed to bite them in the ass, and Scott needed to have at least ONE of the inner circle who wasn’t hiding anything from him, specifically BECAUSE they knew he wouldn’t agree to it, just like Josh is of course, Very Not Happy about being asked to hide this stuff about Alberich and his offer).

So yeah, Theo of course did survive the original escape attempt and escaped himself and decided to stay that way and that he’d had enough of the Doctors’ ‘help’/employment.....

But also in no small part because he’d ended up getting hit by/included in the pack bond the same as the others when it manifested, and considering he was as clueless why as any of them at first, he had no doubt that if he stayed in the Doctors’ reach, they’d be quite keen to use him for all their experiments into why and what it meant regardless of his ‘allegiances.’

Ever since then, he’s kinda been on his own doing his own thing, and he had no plans to go after the others or do anything more to them at first, as this Theo DOES still have a conscience and while he believes in looking out for number one, it DID still at times ping while lying to the others.....but that kinda changed once he worked out for himself a little bit of what it meant that he still could ‘feel’ the others, as well as being more resistant to magic now than he’d been previously. Because to ACTUALLY partake in the pack bond that’d been created, that meant that at least some of the bond he’d ‘faked’ creating with the others actually HAD been real. It wouldn’t have been enough for just THEM to believe it’d been real, and him to benefit from getting their portion of things as a result, like he’d originally tried to convince himself. Because see, once he did track down the others and observe them from afar, just to test his own theories, he found out that just like him....Scott and the twins now could full-shift into coyotes, like Malia. That, after all, was what they’d all gotten from her.

But, they - and Malia - ALSO could full-shift into wolves. Just like him.

And that, they could have ONLY gotten from HIM. The others didn’t get just a full-shift ability from Malia....they got the ability to shift fully into BOTH their wolf selves, and a coyote version of themselves, due to how closely related wolves and coyotes are, and thus they just sort of manifest slightly different selves via that shared family connection. It probably wouldn’t have worked the same way if Malia had been like a were-bear shifter or something, but another canine, yeah. They don’t use the other shape much at all, because for Scott, Ethan, Aiden and Theo, the wolf is what FEELS most like ‘them,’ whereas the coyote feels like a comfortable, well-fitting disguise they can slip into from time to time, while for Malia its the same in reverse, but its still something they each have.

And thus while the others could make the assumption, given that they thought Theo was dead or dead and a fake the whole time, that both full-shifts came from Malia’s ability just combined with the wolf nature of the other three.....for Theo, there was no denying that the reality was that the wolf full-shifts came from him. From him - unknowingly or not - ACTUALLY offering it up through the pack bond....something that only could have happened as something he GAVE, not that they just TOOK. Something, that was proof that somehow, without realizing it, the bonds he’d formed during that initial time had actually become a lot more real than he’d convinced even himself.

And Theo does NOT care for that realization.

Because see, if ANY of that was real, on his end, that gave those pings of his conscience from way back then renewed life and intensity, and frankly, he doesn’t care too much for his conscience. Its loud and annoying and inconvenient, and he’d quite like it to go suck a dick when he’s being comfortably amoral and doing whatever he damn well feels like doing for no other reason than because he feels like it. But now the thing’s always peskily droning away in the background reminding him its there, and Theo unfortunately tends to make some of his worst decisions when he’s testily trying to prove to his conscience that you’re not the boss of me and bitch, I do what I want.

Plus there’s the fact that on top of this, the very idea of MUTUAL pack bonds gives Theo very icky feelings of things like...obligation, and concern, and other four letter words that he very much just does not fuck with, thanks ever so much. With the cherry on top of his “I Did Not Ask For This, Please Take It Back To The Kitchen But No Not The Added Powers Too, Those Can Stay, I Like Those” Pie being that, well.....like I said, the reason none of them or the Dread Doctors realized ahead of time that they were already a pack, is because a pack needs an Alpha.

Which in time, makes Theo realize, that if on some level, he’s actually and still actually PACK, in his own subconscious as much as theirs.....then this by extension means....on some level, he views and accepts Scott as his alpha.

Theo: OH HELLLLLLLLLL NO.

Which, to my mind, is why Theo was always the perfect foil for Scott. Scott is a True Alpha who THINKS he’s okay with following but in actuality is never truly comfortable allowing another’s will to supersede his own, and would rather be on his own than with someone he’s uncomfortable following. Theo is a lone wolf who THINKS he’s okay being one and would never follow anyone but himself, but in actuality, he’s never truly been comfortable alone and he’s willing to allow others’ will to supersede his own if they offer comfort that outweighs his discomfort with the idea.

So Theo’s around making moves in the background because he has his own agenda for Fixing This and making things more in line with how he’d like them. There’s definitely an end game for that but I wouldn’t say its total redemption-oriented as he has absolutely Fucked Stuff Up before this point and will continue to do so, and with gusto, because he’s kinda his own worst enemy, but neither is it outright vilifaction and death and/or total ostracization/exile-esque. Its more...Theo is very much still in flux, somewhat like Scott was between being bitten and ‘becoming’ a True Alpha, and nothing that doesn’t go smoothly is totally without consequences. Its just.....Theo’s complicated, and he’s going to remain so, but what that means exactly tends to change over time. But like, Malia is also complicated, and so are Ethan and Aiden, and so is Scott, and they are all very different versions of complicated, so.......basically all I’m saying is I don’t think I could ever write a Theo that’s fully a ‘Good Guy’ but as much as I detest show Theo, like the twins, its because he could have been written a lot differently and been a lot more compelling for it, all without ever being a ‘Good Guy’ and so I’m not actually all that interested in writing him as an out and out no holds barred villain either.

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dr-stone-things · 5 years ago

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Kinro/Ginro Relationship HCS

YESSSS I LOVE THEM SOO MUCH ❤️❤️ ESPECIALLY GINRO HES BABEYYY (also my dumbass had some technical difficulty so thank God I took a screenshot of the request)

First of all, I’m just gonna say that s/o is the only person Kinro would break the rules for. That’s just how much he loves s/o. If anyone tries to bother s/o, he’ll appear out of nowhere to defend his s/o. If anyone tries to ask him about his overbearing concern, he’ll deny it and come up with some BS like “It’s the rules to defend someone in need.”

Even though Ginro says Kinro has a permanent menacing grump face, that’s so not sure when he’s alone with his s/o. Soft smiles for days, I tell ya. He likes it when his s/o gently lays their head on his shoulder or chest, it makes him blush and go uwu.

Around other people, he has walls up. Around his s/o, all those walls come down. He would never raise his voice as s/o, maybe only scold them slightly for doing some dumb and worrying him.

Before Kinro got glasses, when he had the blurry eye disease, s/o would 100% defend him if someone starting blaming him. S/o would be his eyes if he couldn’t see something properly. (Though he can see his s/o’s gorgeous smile from miles away.)

After Kinro got glasses he became even more of a hottie he was lowkey thankful because he hated to bother his s/o for anything. Now that he had better eyesight he could help his s/o with many more tasks now.

Ok but... he would definitely show off his brand new silver spear while demonstrating his badass moves. Doesn’t admit it but LIVES for s/o’s praise and claps.

Honestly likes it when his s/o teases him slightly. Like not mean teasing, but playfully. And lots of forehead and cheek kisses too.

He was genuinely surprised (and pleased) when s/o wanted to go out with him. He knows he was born with a resting bitch face menacing look. So its pretty surprising when members of the village see a cutie like s/o holding hands with Kinro.

AND HE LOVES WHEN S/O KISSES HIS SCAR. PLEASE DO THAT. S/O BRUSHING THEIR FINGERS OVER HIS SCAR THEN PRESSING A KISS TO IT IS WHAT HE LIVES FOR.

Ok so, we all know that Ginro, ahem, doesn’t really like fighting. That’s why he uses his special technique (Let Someone Else Handle it!!)

But if s/o is truly in trouble, he’ll let go of all his fears. Ginro may not look like it but I think he’s pretty strong if he actually tries. So when he unlocks his new technique, (Kick Someone’s Ass) and beats up the bad guy and saves s/o, everyone is pretty damn surprised!! They are even more surprised when they see Ginro is lowkey pissed that someone tried to hurt s/o. Yea, so s/o changed Ginro a lot.

Anyway, normally Ginro is a perv that can always be found glued to his s/o’s side. Now he dreads guard duty because he has to stay at the bridge for hours. May or may not sneak off to hang out with s/o when Kinro isn’t looking.

His heart with MELT if s/o stays with him during guard duty. They’ll just be chilling on the ground, Ginro’s head on s/o’s lap. Kinro scolds you for bothering Ginro and yells at him for slacking off and not following the rules. (But he lowkey is really happy that his lil bro found someone who loves him. )

All of Ishigami Village was big surprised when a perv like Ginro found a s/o like what??

GINRO LOVES WHEN S/O PLAYS WITH HIS HAIR. JUST DO IT. Ginro’s hair is the fluffiest thing ever. He loves, loves, lovessss burying his face into s/o’s chest and/or shoulder.

Loves PDA. Always holding your hand and showing you off. Brags you s/o nonstop. He thinks s/o is the most beautiful thing to ever exist and ain't afraid to tell everyone. YALL ARE ALWAYS CUDDLING. Ginro just kind of clings to s/o’s body so uh yea. When its time to sleep Ginro will not let go no matter what. He’s a cuddle monster bro.

Whenever Ginro is unmotivated to train, Kohaku just calls s/o and Ginro tries 100x harder to impress you with his skills. If you clap and praise him, he is on cloud 9 I tell ya.

Just love him, please. He needs it so bad.

#dr stone #dr stone x reader #dr stone headcanon #ginro x reader #kinro x reader #ginro headcanon #kinro headcanon

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agentbarton12 · 6 years ago

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Old People Teenager Watchers

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6

the advice - 3

Tony trusted Peter.

He doubted he’d say it to his face, but he hoped that Peter knew it anyway. He trusted that, when in a situation, Peter would make the right decision. Okay, more like hoped, but whatever.

The point is, when Peter came to him saying that he was ready to reveal Spider-Man to world, Tony thought he was being a complete idiot.

Why would he want to give up anonymity? What could possibly make him think this would be a good idea? Hormones, was the first answer that came to Tony's mind. Peter wanted to impress someone and he thought the best way to do that would be to reveal his identity. Then Tony got to thinking about all the people Peter could want to impress, but the only one he could think of was MJ (that’s right. She’s MJ now. Take that Steve) and that didn’t make sense — she already knew about his not-so-secret identity. Which meant that there had to be another girl.

Ugh.

Just the thought of Peter liking anyone except Michelle made Tony sick.

He tried very subtly to figure out why Peter wanted to do this (“Why, Peter? This could ruin your life. Don’t go public, Pete. Don’t do it. You’ll give me a heart attack. Ah, there it is. Do your super spider ears hear that? That’s sound of me dying. You really wanna kill me?”), but for some reason, it never worked.

He had been so lost and confused for a full hour, and that was the longest he had gone not understanding something, when MJ sent him a picture.

Emmjaaay

[image attached] chill out, dude. they were gonna figure it out anyway. besides, he feels like its “time” or whatever now

The picture was of Peter in his Spidey suit sitting on a roof without his mask on. It was a grainy picture, but if you knew who Peter was, you would be able to tell it was him. Honestly, of all the reasons to reveal your identity, it’s because someone took a photo of him. Not because it would benefit humanity or some noble thing Steve would talk about, but because of a picture.

Tony was tech genius, for crying out loud! He could make this picture disappear and Peter wouldn’t have to do something rash, like reveal himself.

TonyMan

How do you feel about this?

Emmjaaay

eh, im kinda, dare I say it, proud of him. that hurt so much to type.

TonyMan

Ha. But really, you think he’s ready? This is a big step up.

Emmjaaay

arent you, the same guy who tried offering him a spot on the avengers team when he was what, 12? he turned you down because he didn’t feel ready, now like three years later he does. just sit back and trust he’s making the right decision even if you feel he isnt. its the only reason I have put up with his self-sacrificing tendencies.

TonyMan

Do me a favour and activate the auto-correct on your phone.

TonyMan

Like, seriously. Please.

They held a press conference the next day. No, Tony was not announcing him as an Avenger, just the identity thing, which still wasn’t sitting well with him.

Really, he thought Peter was being irrational, and he even told him as much, which resulted in Peter saying that he wasn’t a kid anymore and was allowed to make his own decisions, no matter how rash Tony thought them to be.

As it turns out, it went pretty well. Peter even had an original speech planned that was so clearly written by MJ, Tony thought it was her up on the podium. He answered questions quickly and curtly, going into detail where necessary, and where not, giving vague answers. He was so clearly taught by Pepper, that Tony thought it was her up on the podium.

The press ate it up and even got Peter to demonstrate some of his powers. Of course, the kid decided that climbing the walls was a good idea and when he saw MJ somewhere at the back, even though she said she didn’t want to go, he lost his grip and fell on his face. MJ laughed the loudest.

So, maybe Tony should’ve trusted Peter’s decision, because it seemed to have worked out okay. The world knew he was Spider-Man, but didn’t know where he lived, which was great for May and his friends. The press knows his school and Tony knows that the first couple of weeks back are going to be hectic.

Tony apologised to Peter for not trusting him and promised to trust him so much, he might as well be his Magic 8 Ball. He explained that he was worried he was doing it because he felt forced, but Peter explained that he has been thinking about it for a while, and that picture just gave him the push he needed to go through with it.

Like Tony expected, Peter was swarmed at school, and as a result, Ned and MJ were too. MJ was undoubtedly the best at handling press, because she was never interesting enough for them to get any information. She hardly spoke when she saw any camera, always burying her face in a book, and making sure Peter and Ned don’t do anything dumb, like exist too much.

All in all, nothing bad had happened since then. Sure, a couple villains tried to use Peter’s open identity as a means to get to him. One guy thought that kidnapping Ned and MJ would be a good idea, but he didn’t count on them practically being the adopted children of the Avengers and was in for a surprise when not one, not two, but all the Avengers showed up to his basement hideout thing.

No one’s tried anything again.

Sadly, like Tony expected, there was — ahem — another girl. Name was Gwen Stacy or something dumb like that. Pepper says the only reason Tony doesn’t like the girl is because he wants Peter to end up with MJ.

And Tony isn’t denying it.

He’s discovered that Gwen and Peter aren’t dating, which means there is still a bit of wingman-ing that can be done. For Peter and MJ. Not Gwen. Gwen could go ahead and be hit by a bus for all Tony cared. In fact, he should make that make that happen…

The only thing that sucked more than Gwen and Peter getting chummy together, was that the only one who was determinedly unbothered by it, was the one it concerned the most.

MJ responded to their relationship (or lack thereof, if Tony had anything to do with it) with a slight furrow in eyebrows and the tilt of her head, as if figuring out if she was okay with this (she wasn’t) or if she had any say in it. But, when she saw Peter’s dumb grin, she gave them the slightest of smiles and told them not to be gross. Sometimes, Tony hated how diplomatic MJ could be.

At the end of the day, Tony had a semblance of hope that they could end up together. This hope dropped marginally when he walked into the kitchen and found MJ's face in his freezer.

“You got any ice cream?”

Tony nearly got a heart attack. “What? — How do you keep getting up here?”

“Like, I know you have ice cream, but you got any good ice cream?” she went on, ignoring his question.

Tony crossed his arms. “I have good ice cream. I don’t know if you noticed, but all that dairy goodness in there is ice cream Ben & Jerry's named after me. Stark's Raving Hazelnuts.”

MJ slowly shut the freezer door. “I just remembered I’m lactose intolerant.”

The billionaire rolled his eyes. “Ha-ha. It’s good, though.”

“I hear it’s chalky.”

“From where?”

“Around.”

When Tony realised that she wasn’t going to elaborate, he changed the subject. “What are you doing here? Thought you and the dudes got together every Wednesday to celebrate the fact Friday’s around the corner?”

MJ shrugged as she continued looking through his fridge and various cupboards. “Yeah, well I guess Idiot Number 1 realised that Peter Parker is just as popular as Spider-Man. He’s gone to a party with Ned.”

“A party? On a Wednesday?”

“Could be. Could be a fundraiser, could be a charity event, could even be a wedding — all I know is that Peter is a very high demand right now.” She had given up one finding anything and stood on one end of the counter and pulled out her phone.

“Why didn’t you join them?”

Another shrug. “I’d like to hang out with my friend when he’s my friend. I understand that in public, he’ll either be Spider-Man or Peter Parker: Teen Avenger — ”

“He’s not an Avenger.”

“ — But, I prefer Peter Parker: Dork Extraordinaire.”

Tony hummed in thought. “Have you told him this?”

“Partly.” She looked up from her phone. “I’m getting ice cream, you want anything?”

“Thought you were lactose intolerant?”

“Fine I’m bad-ice-cream-flavours intolerant,” she deadpanned. “Now, you want anything?”

“Cheeseburger and fries. Coke, too.”

MJ hummed. “Cool. Cash or card?”

“I knew it,” Tony sighed. “Cash.”

MJ visibly deflated. “Dammit. I was hoping to get your pin number.

“Not happening.”

She shrugged and pocketed her phone after she made the order. Tony followed her to couch were they sat staring at a blank T.V. screen. He watched as she pulled her feet underneath her and absentmindedly started tugging on her hair — even though it was in a bun. It seemed to be a habit.

“So,” Tony started, “when are you planning on telling Peter you like him?”

“Don’t know if I want to.” MJ sighed.

Tony was taken aback. Mostly, because he wasn’t expecting her to answer, but also because she wasn’t denying it. When Tony said as much, she rolled her eyes and said, “I know how to acknowledge things, Tony.”

He raised his arms in defense. “Never said you didn’t, just that I’m surprised you did.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not gonna make a difference, is it? He’s fawning over Gwen and vice versa — it’s kinda cute, honestly. Like, I catch him staring at her while she’s studying, or working on an equation and it’s like he’s just in that moment. Like it’s just Gwen working and nothing else.”

“Oh, so it’s exactly how he acts around you?”

Her nose scrunched up as she looked at him. “He does that?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. There’s a betting pool we have to see who’s gonna break first and ask the other out. I bet one of my suits that it’ll be you, so don’t disappoint me,” he said jokingly, trying to subtlety instill the prospect into her mind. It didn’t work because she just continued to stare at the screen.

FRIDAY then alerted him that their food had arrived, and Tony asked her to have it brought up. He got up from his spot and moved to the elevator to collect their order, when they dinged open and Scott walked out holding the bag of food.

“’Sup, Stark — ooh, is MJ here? Why’s MJ here? It’s Wednesday, right?” Tony held up a hand to silence him and opened his palm.

“Food first, questions later,” he said, motioning with his fingers to indicate that Scott should hand over the bag. Scott ignored him and walked away to sit next to MJ on the couch.

“Hey, Scott,” she greeted, with a two finger salute.

“Hey. Whatchu doin’ here?”

She shrugged before holding her hand out and Scott more than happily handed over her ice cream. He took out Tony's cheeseburger and bit into it. That was when Tony rushed to intervene with his teammates mouth and his food. Scott merely held the food at arms length away from the billionaire and told him to get his own food. Tony huffed in annoyance about how that was his own food. Scott ignored him and proceeded to take a huge gulp of the drink. MJ just watched in amusement, a smirk playing on her lips behind her ice cream spoon. “See, Tones. Why would I want to hang around a bunch of fame-hungry and genetically modified teenagers when I have front seat tickets to the lamest argument ever?” she asked while Tony and Scott where still bickering over the food.

Tony frowned. “Ned’s not fame-hungry or genetically modified.”

She replied shrugging, “Ned’s special.”

“That he is,” Scott agreed. “Where are they, anyway?” he asked referring to Peter and Ned, shoving a handful of fries in his mouth. Tony hit him upside his head so hard, he sputtered out half-chewed potatoes on the couch. He eyed Tony without a single regret. “I hope you know that you’ll have to clean that up. Because we both know who it’s gonna bother more,” he said in a challenging tone.

Tony stared at him defiantly and MJ mentally counted to fifteen before Tony snapped and went to the kitchen for napkins. Scott celebrated childishly when Tony moved to wipe away the food. He did not account for Tony dropping the napkin in his lap with a devilish grin.

“I hate you,” Scott said. He got up and threw it away. When he came back, he found Tony finishing off the burger while slurping down the Coke. He gave Scott a smirk and Scott responded by flipping him off.

“Totally better than some movie premiere,” MJ said grinning.

“Who’s at a movie premiere?” Scott asked sitting back down on the couch.

MJ responded, shrugging, “Peter and Ned. Maybe. I actually don’t remember what event it was.”

Scott hummed, continuing to stuff his face with chips. Tony looked at Scott evilly then grinned and said in a sing-song voice, “MJ misses Peter.” MJ rolled her eyes, while Scott looked like he wanted to smile, but was fighting against it.

“How do you know?” he asked eventually.

“She told me,” Tony answered in the same voice that got him in the head with a cushion. “She also told me that she likes him.

Scott couldn’t help it and smiled the biggest grin he could muster. He practically squealed with delight and clapped his hands excitedly, then suddenly, he stopped. “Wait. How come you told Tony and not me?”

“He asked first.”

“Fair.” After a moment of silence, Scott asked curiously, “When are you gonna tell him?”

“Why does everyone feel like I need to do something?” she mumbled. “And besides, he’s practically almost in love with Gwen, so I’m not going to bother myself.”

Scott sighed. “There is no way he can be ‘practically almost in love’ with anyone when you’re a person that exists. And, trust me, if there is one thing you can do with these things, it’s try. I mean, look at me,” he gestured to himself wildly. “Hope thought I was just an idiot who stole her father’s suit, but now — ” MJ snorted “ — What?” Scott asked frowning.

“Nothing. It’s just funny how you say thought like she used to think that and she doesn’t now.”

Scott scowled while Tony gave her a fist bump. “Anyway, point is: I thought I had literally no chance with her, but turns out she liked me too! Or learned to like me too. Or is learning to like me too...I need to make a call...” Scott stood up slowly and walked out of the room silently.

Tony looked around and breathed out. “Wow, MJ, you made him question his relationship.”

She shrugged. “Oops.”

A beat. “That was good advice though. You should try.”

She didn’t answer. After a moment she said, “Yeah, well maybe Gwen deserves a shot too.”

Sometimes, Tony hated how diplomatic MJ could be.

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owletstarlet · 6 years ago

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Owlet’s inevitable Natsume Yuujinchou movie spiel

Ok, so the Natsume movie. This is a collection of my impressions and things I found significant, but it is spoilery as hell so it's under a cut, so if you want the plot to be a surprise maybe don't read this. And this with the caveat that I understood the gist of the movie but my Japanese is still really, really awful, so anyone who sees the movie who can understand Japanese well (like the folks at @apta-scans) are more than welcome to correct me on any of the details.

So first off, the youkai (the main one, though there are actually three in the story). He's the spirit of an old tree, and he has the power to alter memories, and to impersonate humans and use memory manipulation to integrate himself pretty flawlessly into people's lives. And everything about him breaks my heart. There's an elderly woman in the story who'd met Reiko once when she was a teenager (who Natsume comes across because he saw her in another youkai's flashback while returning a name), and the youkai is pretending to be her adult son so that she won't be lonely. He'd been hiding away in the tree for years and years before that point, but the woman came first as a child to the small shrine beside the tree and kept coming back throughout her life, and the impression I got was that she' s unable to have children (I may be vastly wrong about that, again anyone feel free to correct me), but the bottom line is she's lonely, and he doesn't have anyone either, so he finally leaves the tree so he can give her a family. I won't say how it all pans out, but in typical Natsuyuu fashion I wanted to ugly-cry in the theater.

Second, the mini-Nyankos, if anyone wants to know how that went down, more or less what happens is that Sensei eats fruit produced by the youkai's tree (three gourd-looking things that have little cat-ears and are striped orange and gray, hrrrrm....), and then the next morning he becomes three of himself and none of them are able talk. And the Dogs' Circle is unsuccessful at both babysitting the minis and keeping them from running away and getting lost. It becomes clear that the minis have some of the effects of the tree in making people forget things/altering people's memories (Taki finds one of them, and ultimately winds up believing she's the granddaughter of the elderly woman, and forgets who Natsume and Tanuma even are). Also. I don't need to say this but they're so cute, holy shit.

Third, it was brief but I think that the most poignant moment in the whole movie for me is when, after it's clear that the minis are altering people's memories, Natsume wakes up from a nightmare that the Fujiwaras straight-up forgot who he was. He wakes up yelling, and he just. Scoops up the only mini-Sensei that hasn't run away by that point, wordlessly holds him close, and is just so visibly shaken. Just the prospect of it is so terrifying to him, because for him the Fujiwaras are the foundation of his entire current life and without them he's faced with the prospect of having nothing and nobody all over again. Very well-done and very *ouch*.

Fourth. Tanuma, my boy. When Natsume loses two of the three minis, and Taki's mysteriously vanished too, Tanuma asks him what's going on, he sits him down and explains everything, and accepts Tanuma's help. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, ahem. And we got, just. A whole bunch of screentime of the two of them working together to Solve Problems (and my shipping heart was thrilled). And I think it's telling in terms of Tanuma's character development, too, that when shit hits the fan and Natsume knows he's going to have to face down a Big Bad Youkai (different one, not the tree youkai), he tells Tanuma to leave and go meet up with Taki, and Tanuma immediately agrees and goes. Was it hard for him to do that if Natsume was going to be in danger? Probably. Has he learned after Omibashira that he needs to trust Natsume's judgment and recognize his own limitations? Yes, and I am very proud of him.

Fifth. Natori. He does have a legitimate plot-pertinent reason for being there (he and some other exorcists have heard of the aforementioned Big Bad Youkai and are in the town to try to stop it), and in the end Natsume does need his help to seal the youkai, but the other fifty percent of his being there is absolutely for fanservice purposes (complete with his skeevy soundtrack theme that I hate). And naturally, he shows up and tries to exorcise the tree youkai, who is not the youkai he's after, and Natsume steps in to stop him like Oh My God Why Are You Like This. However. The two reasons I was glad he was in the movie are: him laughing at one of the mini-Nyankos and then promtply (and satisfyingly) getting whomped in the face for it; and then all three of the shiki getting a chance to shine and demonstrate what sexy scary badasses they are while aiding the exorcism.

Sixth. I'm not completely clear on everything that happened here because the language barrier really got in the way here, but Natsume meets someone who at one point was a childhood friend (I think Yuki was his name?). And when Natsume goes to move towards him to say hello, the kid kind of freezes up then flinches away, and Natsume's pretty bothered by it. We get a flashback of the two of them in elementary school, and they were friends for a short time (I *think* he may have told him he could see youkai, this is what I'm not clear on, and I wanna say that Yuki wasn't bothered by it and thought it was a neat secret, but I didn't understand enough to confirm that). Anyways the two of them go off into the woods to a waterfall one day, and there's a youkai there that threatens them, and Yuki goes to throw a rock at the waterfall and Natsume tackles him to the ground to stop him. And it shows them walking back home, and they're both a little battered and dirty, and Yuki's walking way ahead of him obviously hurt/confused/mad and Natsume just looks miserable. Anyhow, the movie ends with the two of them meeting back up in the present, and reconciling (I'm not sure but I think Natsume tells him he was just lying about the youkai stuff and that he's sorry, I really need to watch the movie translated because I want to know exactly what was said). I think it's good that the movie depicted that Natsume did have people who wanted to be his friend, but that those people ultimately hurt him or didn't stay. But the reconciliation scene showed that the bad endings didn't have to stay bad (Shibata's character serves the same purpose, what a tool, I love him).

Anyways. My general takeaway from the movie is that all your memories are crucial to who you are as a person, the bad and the good, and for Natsume personally, the bad gave way to the good and was necessary to arrive there. That's all for now, I'm probably going to see it again with a friend next weekend so I'll add more to this if I see fit but mostly I can't wait for there to be a translation available. This movie was so amazing, and so very worth the wait.

#natsume yuujinchou #natsume yuujinchou movie #natsuyuu #natsume's book of friends #natsume takashi #tanuma kaname #nyanko sensei #taki tooru #natsume yuujinchou film #tanunatsu

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wearetakingthehobbitstogallifrey · 6 years ago

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BTS Members as the Sons of Feanor

OH MY GOSH WHAT THE HECK

so @thelonelybrilliance just showed up late to the Silmarillion and new to BTS and she decided to break my brain by tagging me and @abadpoetwithdreams asking us if we could match up the 7 members of BTS with the 7 sons of Feanor. May she never ask such a question again because I have spent about 6 hours total writing this rant essay that is somewhere of abouts 3500 words. I don’t have the self-control to stop myself from things like this, I love Tolkien and BTS too much

anyway here is a very long and rambling post that was partially composed in my head in the shower and is now just stream of consciousness

(Disclaimer: The members of BTS are beautiful souls and this post is in no way saying that they are as murderous as my problematic faves the sons of Feanor)

ok so the only thing I know for ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN is that Namjoon is Maedhros. if you know anything at all about BTS and the Feanorians, the reasons are obvious:

1. Namjoon is the tallest, and Maedhros is literally called Maedhros the Tall.

2. Maedhros has a lot of names but he was called Maitimo by his mom which means “beautiful” or “well-shaped one” and such an appellation is perfect for Namjoon (ok let’s be real the name could fit every single member of BTS but whatever)

3. (and most important!) never was there a more harried elf trying to keep his brothers in line and alive and not cut to pieces by some justifiably insulted cousin or Sindarin. Maedhros is the mom, the dad, the king, the leader, the eldest bro. “Guys, can we NOT be rude to the sons of Finarfin, can we NOT start a war among the Noldor when we still have Morgoth just across the way” I’m pretty sure he would also lose his passport multiple times if Middle-earth had such things, because his brothers are hard enough to keep track of. while Namjoon may not be the eldest in years, everything else matches up too perfectly. He is the leader of BTS, the spokesman, the one who encourages the other members to step up and speak, helps them with their English (even when he judges them for their dumb mistakes lol), is literally SO DONE with his bros all the time but loves them so freaking much. He is the planner, the peace-maker, yet also has fire in his veins and has seen a lot of darkness and suffering and survived to become even stronger. So too with Namjoon

(caveat: if BTS were Feanorians, and Namjoon captured by Morgoth himself, there is no freaking way they wouldn’t have done SOMETHING to rescue their fearless leader. Jin and Jungkook would storm Thangorodrim fists swinging, followed by Jimin and J-Hope, fierce like you’ve never seen them, and Taehyung would Luthien Tinuviel Morgoth centuries early, or Yoongi would simply glare at Morgoth till he shrank down into a puddle of trembling goo. Don’t laugh at me you know I’m right)

moving on

I have maybe two choices for Maglor? One is Jin, but that might partially be because everyone always talks about how Namjoon and Jin are the mom and dad or dad and mom of BTS. and Maglor is always paired in my head with Maedhros as the other parental figure of the Feanorian bros, though that might be because of how he and Maedhros look after Elrond and Elros. Of course, I love Jin’s singing and I will never ever ever be over “Epiphany”, so I am way cool with making Jin Maglor as far as the music thing goes

All this said, I am not sure if this is the best fit overall. Jin is the King of Chaos in BTS, and I wouldn’t name Maglor as such...also I think I might have another Feanorian for Jin, but I’ll get to that later (spoilers, it’s...Curufin??!) (oh no, I just realized I might have one other argument for Jin being Maglor: “I use other people to make myself happy. I make myself smile by making others smile.” Like, that could be a good quote for Maglor potentially, if you want to relate it to his music, or his care for Elrond and Elros……..but I’m still thinking Curufin for Jin. Stay tuned)

So anyway my other option for Maglor would be...oh heck no I have two other options. No wait THREE. What the HECK. ok let me figure this out. The options are J-Hope, Yoongi, and Jimin. I’m not even sure why yet so let’s find out. (sidenote: if Maedhros did not exist Namjoon the song-writer would be Maglor, as the greatest poet and bard)

1. J-Hope as Maglor: I don’t know, I had reasons but they are escaping me. Maglor is said to have had a gentler temperament than his brothers and I would say J-Hope has a very soft sunshine heart. I guess one thing is that Maglor was left to hold everybody together when Maedhros was captured by Morgoth, and if Namjoon was ever hung on a cliff for an indeterminate amount of time or whatever equals that in our world, J-Hope would step up. I keep seeing things about how he supports the other members when they are having tough times, giving them encouragement and food and love. He leads them in practicing dance choreography all the time, and if I remember I am pretty sure Namjoon actually stated that Hoseok would make a good group leader.

Also one time Namjoon was talking about Hobi (oh shoot, should J-Hope of the many names be Maedhros of the many names? Lol maybe in that one universe where Namjoon is Maglor, then Hobi could could be Maedhros) Namjoon says that J-Hope is like water (where did Maglor toss his Silmaril again hmm?) and puts people at ease. Well idk about other people but Maglor seems to have put Elrond and Elros at ease because even after that whole Kinslaying thing “love grew between them as little might be thought.” I too would probably come to love J-Hope no matter the past between us. He is just that sweet and soft-hearted

2. Yoongi as Maglor: ok honestly I really really actually want Yoongi for Caranthir, more on that later. However I also like Yoongi as Maglor because it is unexpected, yet certain things just feel right. I keep thinking about Yoongi’s “First Love” where he raps about how his PIANO was his first love (GOSH ISN’T THAT THE SWEETEST THING EVER) also in Lee Sora’s “Song Request” he raps this: “I’m happiness to someone and the soul to another / A lullaby to someone and at times a noise / I’ll be with you at your birth and your end / Remember we’re always together anywhere / I’ll always console your life / So just lean on me and rest sometimes” and LOOK I JUST DIED TYPING THIS but what I am getting at is music is burnt into Yoongi’s soul as I think it is Maglor’s, and Yoongi really is very soft and loving and also one time Namjoon said that Yoongi “makes me ponder about what kind of person I am” and Maglor several times is a voice of reason and very much tries to dissuade Maedhros from going after the Silmarils one last time. Idk it could work (but also...CARANTHIR) (BUT ALSO OMG YOONGI’S VOICE MURDERS ME WHEN HE RAPS AND HIS PASSION WOW AND NOW I AM PICTURING MODERN DAY MAGLOR RAPPING OBLIQUELY ABOUT HIS FAMILY AND PAST AND PAIN UGGGGGGGHHHH

3. Who was my other choice? Right, Jimin. Why did I say Jimin?? ? i don’t remember, dang it

Ok I think it is definitely time to do Caranthir.

As previously stated, I love Yoongi as Caranthir. I have my reasons personally I think they are very good reasons :D Ok Caranthir is WOW ok I am OFFENDED because I just went to double-check something on wikipedia and I typed Caranthir into the Google search engine and the first three results were all about this Caranthir dude from the Witcher, and while that game seems very interesting I am UPSET for Yoongi’s I mean Caranthir the Dark’s sake.

AHEM

Caranthir the Dark. What a name. I mean it might just be a reference to his father-name of Morifinwe and to his hair, but he is also described as being the harshest and quickest to anger. Yoongi, bless his soul and his actually very soft and squishy heart, is well known for: being unbothered by BTS general antics, for being the one to sit back and watch everyone else do dumb stuff (like when they were all dancing to MIC drop and he just walks away from them, or when they are all acting like kids jumping in the pool and he just watches with a smile on his face while drinking a glass of wine and look to me Caranthir is the one Feanorian who doesn’t pair up with anyone in particular, like we have Maedhros and Maglor, Celegorm and Curufin, Amrod and Amras, but Caranthir is the one who goes off and lives separate from them and

GOSH now I sound so dumb because I am NOT trying to say that Caranthir doesn’t love his bros or that Yoongi is a loner that is NOT what I am saying, agh I mean Caranthir is great (minus, you know, the kin-slayings the Feanorians sadly fall into) and even befriends Haleth’s people and protects them, t’s just this weird categorizing thing in my head, that Caranthir is the crusty brother, and while he loves his bros to DEATH and they him, the majority of his bros are sliiiiightly afraid of him, in a brotherly way, like how the members are with Yoongi! Like just recently oh what was it, they were on a BTS Run episode and someone had to splash or otherwise give Yoongi a penalty and right away everyone was like NAMJOON YOU DO IT. turning to the leader hyung because they don’t want Yoongi to be mad at them

Of course now I am remembering that one post of gifs demonstrating how Jungkook is the only one who can bother Yoongi without dying lol except NOW I am picturing Amrod the youngest Feanorian* being the only one who can bother Caranthir and then the ensuing PAIN because Amrod Umbarto (thanks for THAT name, Mom) perishes (in certain canon) in flames at the Burning of the Ships and wowwww no I do not need any of this pain

*SIDENOTE: AMROD IS THE YOUNGEST IN CERTAIN CANON WHICH CONFUSES THINGS A HECK OF A LOT SEE THE AMROD AND AMRAS SECTION BELOW

I’m pretty sure I have never rambled so much in my life and also pretty sure I have way too many parentheses and not all of them are closed oops

Anyway, imagine Caranthir as the brother you are afraid of but would die for and who would die for you if anyone looks at you wrong, the brother with the wry acerbic wit, but who LITERALLY LIGHTS UP THE UNIVERSE WITH HIS SMILE AND ALSO DOESN’T EXPRESS HIS LOVE ALOUD AS OFTEN AS SOME OF YOUR BROTHERS DO BUT

HE SECRETLY LOVES PHYSICAL CONTACT AT TIMES AND ALSO SECRETLY LOVES PIGGY-BACK RIDES EVEN THO HE PROFESSES TO HATE THEM AND GIVES OUT WISE LIFE ADVICE TO HIS BROS AND HIS PEOPLE AND IS SUCH A SOFTIE FOR HIS BROS AND OCCASIONALLY SENDS ONE OF HIS BABY BROS LONG LETTERS WITH A SIMPLE “I LOVE YOU” AT THE END THAT HAS CELEGORM OR AMROD CRYING FOR TEN MINUTES (HAHAHA GUESS WHO I THINK TAEHYUNG WOULD BE)

Also someone has to be the best cook of the Feanorians and it might as well be Caranthir

….apparently I’m not done with Caranthir, because “the Dark” also makes me think of a dark horse, or at least something happening that is unexpected, and that reminds me of that interview where dad/mom/interpreter Namjoon was like yeah none of the other members can speak English, and then Yoongi just out of NOWHERE speaks a line of great English and Namjoon was like ….guess I was wrong

OKAAAAY WHERE ARE WE

I do not have very clear thoughts about who the rest of the members are so let’s just go with my brain and hope it makes some good connections

Let’s do Celegorm since I just mentioned him

Celegorm could be either Taehyung or….Jin? :? Merrr idk. Let’s examine

I think the main reason why I jump at the option of Tae for Celegorm is because of Tae’s love for his dog Yeontan, or Tan, and of course Celegorm is the master of Huan, and they had a very special relationship for ages until Celegorm f---ed up. Seriously, you want to see something cute? Look up Tae’s Vlive that is entirely focused on his lil pupper (what am I saying look up ANYTHING about Tae and you will find something cute)

On the other hand Jin could be Celegorm because Celegorm is known as the Fair and if you don’t know by now that Jin is World Wide Handsome I don’t know how I can help you

OMG WAIT I JUST THOUGHT OF OTHER REASONS WHY JIN COULD BE CELEGORM! So Celegorm’s father-name is Turcafinwë, which basically means “strong in body” and Jin has got those broad shoulders (gosh they are so broad). Also, Celegorm’s mother-name is Tyelkormo, or “hasty riser,” referring to his quick temper and habit of leaping when angered. And this doesn’t perfectly relate but the amount of times I have seen Jin yelling or just being wild in general or even just pretending to be mad makes me think of this. Also there was one time idk what was even going on but Jin was struggling to pronounce Bangtansonyeon-dan (SAME) and saying it was too long and difficult and J-Hope was teasing him and Namjoon told him not to get mad since he had been calling himself a fairy and shouldn’t be mad as such, and Jin was like hey I can be a mad fairy if I want lol

See now I am just confused because now I am looking back at Jin as Maglor and I might like that better? WHY IS THIS SO HARD

Speaking of Jin, and Celegorm, why on EARTH was I thinking of Jin for Curufin? Ugggh see my problem is I ran out of time last night and so I am finishing the essay some 20 hours later and I kNOW that when I was saying Jin should be Curufin I had a better reason then their names rhyme. Heck, I could make that same argument for Jimin as Curufin.

Except I also have a second and better argument for Jimin as Curufin, at least under the circumstance where Taehyung is Celegorm. Look, all the BTS members are really close with each other, and you can literally argue all day about who is closer to who (a really pointless waste of time in my opinion I mean why argue when you can just melt over them all being sweet and funny and kind and teasing with each other) but anyway all that aside one thing I love in particular is how sweet Jimin and Taehyung often are with each other, holding hands and comforting each other and being on teams in competitions *starts laughing at the memory of them being complete disasters that one cooking show* and anyway Celegorm and Curufin seem pretty inseparable, running around causing all kinds of trouble (guys sTOP). Jimin and Taehyung have called themselves soulmates, so it makes sense to have them be part of a duo

Not that Taehyung would engage in a kidnapping stunt like Celegorm did, but the point is, Jimin, the precious bby, has Tae’s back

Jimin: “Taehyung is the happiest when he is with me” aww

This has nothing to do with the point of this post but I just need to stop here and say that Jimin is so freaking talented I was just looking up some gifsets of him and obviously his singing is angelic but also OMGGG his dancing!!!

Ok, jumping back slightly, I guess one way Jin could be Curufin is if Jungkook is Celegorm, because I could see those beautiful dorks running around causing all kinds of trouble, except I really have no reason to have Jungkook be Celegorm, especially since he is very much Amras in my head for reasons

OOOH NO I also thought of a way in which Jungkook could be--wait for it--cURUFIN. WHY AM I LIKE THIS

You see, Curufin was his dad’s favorite son and thus Feanor gave his favorite son the exact same father-name Feanor had, Curufinwë, and Curufin is the only son who chose to use his father-name over his mother-name if I recall, and anyway all meaning he probably loved his dad a lot and was proud of his name, and this makes me think of how Namjoon gave Jungkook the title of the Golden Maknae and of how freaking much Jungkook looks up to and respects Namjoon (look while Namjoon is a hyung, he is also a dad figure, so he may as well be Feanor and Maedhros both)

I guess if Jungkook were Curufin, Jin could go back to being Celegorm

Aaaaggggh you do not know how much hair I have pulled out this is taking a lot of brainwork

FINALLY AT THE LAST TWO

We now present my exceedingly confused ramblings regarding the twins Amrod and Amras. Before we begin, let me SHAKE MY FIST AT TOLKIEN FOR MAKING THIS ESSAY EVEN MORE CONFUSING TO WRITE

See, I had Jungkook all set up in my head as Amras, the youngest son according to the Silmarillion. Jungkook is the maknae, the baby, and all the members DOTE on him and he loves them and respects them and pesters them and it’s great, so yeah Jungkook has to be Amras the baby of the Feanorians. I would then put Taehyung as Amrod, the just barely older bby who the other members also adore and protect. Jungkook and Taehyung are SO FREAKING CUTE whenever they are doing stuff together, whether it is singing or hugging or holding each other on their backs while they singing. When they goof off together or pester each other, they are the most precious, must dorkiest dorks to ever be my faves. Hence why I pair them together in my head as Amrod and Amras, at least the times when I am not pairing Tae with Jimin or Jungkook with Jin. Amrad and Amras seem as inseparable as Celegorm and Curufin, and they go off and live in some beautiful wild part of the land and basically stick to hunting and staying out of everyone’s business until they get reminded they took a stupid oath

EXCEPT then Tolkien has one alternate writing where the youngest is actually AMROD and Amrod dies at the burning of the ships because Feanor doesn’t know how to count his kids I guess (Namjoon you lost something again) (sorry that is a terrible joke) (but is it made slightly better by the fact that while Namjoon is apparently Feanor he is much more Maedhros, who was against the burning of the ships and did not participate?) so like this is where I started to get my third headache (exacerbated by the fact that I haven’t eaten dinner yet and it is 9 pm what is wrong with me) because then I have to make Jungkook Amrod and Taehyung Amras. It’s such a trial having to write both their names next to both Feanorians

On the other hand, an interesting thing to think about is that in this alternate writing, Amras was so aggrieved by his brother’s death that he called out Feanor--Feanor!--for being so dumb as to A. call or let his wife call their youngest by the name of Umbarto (the Fated) and then to B. accidentally let him perish in a fire that FEANOR started because he had a grudge (and I think Tolkien wrote that that Amrod was possibly sleeping on the ships because he was upset with Feanor for the terrible deeds he was committing, so like, double way to go Feanor)

I am really tired and hungry my head hurts

What am I missing?

I like Taehyung and Jungkook best for Amrod and Amras a lot BUT if I were doing one of the other options above, I could see having the follow lineup:

Jin=Celegorm, Jungkook= Curufin, Jimin=Amrod, Taehyung=Amras

In this instance, I could see Jimin and Tae as either Amrod or Amras no matter which one is older. Taehyung could definitely be the bby and do his own thing but could also be the brother who mourns his brother and calls out Feanor. Actually though Jimin while being young and precious gives me more of an older brother vibe than Taehyung does, so I guess I would have Jimin be the elder of the twins. Yes, that makes more sense

UGH but wait if I put Jimin and Tae as Curufin and Celegorm, I could put Jungkook back as youngest bby Amrod or Amras, but would Jin fit into the older twin role? Maaaaybe, if you just think about Jungkook and Jin heading off by themselves and goofing off...I don’t like it as much though

Possibilities So Far

Maedhros: Namjoon, maybe J-Hope?

Maglor: Jin, J-Hope, Yoongi, maybe Namjoon

Caranthir: Yoongi

Celegorm: Taehyung, Jin

Curufin: Jimin, Jungkook

Amrod: Taehyung, Jungkook, Jimin

Amras: Jungkook, Taehyung, Jimin

……………………….

I have spent five minutes now trying to figure out possible final line-ups but it’s all a mess

I LITERALLY CAN’T THINK ANYMORE

I DECLARE THIS ESSAY/RANT HAS COME TO AN END

PLEASE CHELSEA SEND HELP!

WHAT AM I MISSING/HAVE WRONG? IS THERE A BETTER SPOT FOR J-HOPE? SHOULD SOMEONE ELSE BE CARANTHIR? COULD JIN BE A CARANTHIR IN SOME WAY?? (I THINK I COULD HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT BUT I AM TOO TIRED TO THINK THEM)

#the silmarillion #the sons of feanor #feanorians #tolkien #bts #do i tag all 7 sons of Feanor and all 7 members of bts? or would that be obnoxious and useless #yeah probably #emma what have you done to me #chelsea i cannot WAIT to hear your thoughts #*goes to make dinner*

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shadowofthemoth · 6 years ago

Note

Hello again~! Just out of curiosity, for the ship ask meme, can I say Khadgar and Alieri? ^^ (if not, fresme could be a second choice. ;) )

Hellooooo! Of course you can! ^^

Sorry it took so long, I didn’t mean it to, but I’ve been too buzy… Well, here goes!

Khadgar/Alieri:

1. Who hogs the duvet:

Khadgar. And he looks so adorable in his sleep when hedoes it that Alieri doesn’t have the heart to object… but she still needswarmth, right? And at some point she just ends up getting her own duvet whichshe keeps under the pillows or somewhere at hand and takes out when Khadgar hasalready cocooned himself into their main one.

2. Who texts/rings to check how their day is going:

Bothdo it very rarely. Khadgar, because he doesn’t want to overdo it and makeAlieri feel like he’s controlling her; Alieri, because she hasn’t yet gottenused to actually having the right to do it – and she probably never will.Besides, it’s freaking Khadgar, he is the Chuck Norris of the World of Warcraft,there’s literally nothing he cannot cope with.

3. Who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts:

Alieri.She is the creative one. Khadgar does his best, but he is more likely to choosesomething useful and practical as a gift. He has good taste though, and itcompensates for him being less inventive than his partner is.

4. Who gets up first in the morning:

Khadgarand his ancient habit to wake up at dawn. He is not an early bird though; it’sjust that he is used to waking up and getting ready to whatever it is that heneeds to get ready for at literally any given time. Years spent at war willteach anyone that. But years at war also mean sleep deprivation; so he can fallasleep in a matter of moments and stay asleep in any conditions, be it in abed, on horseback, ahem, at a boring meeting in Dalaran, ahem, or whenever elsehe has the opportunity to do so.

Alieriis a bit different in this regard: she can go very long without sleep (perks ofbeing a dragon), but when she has the chance to relax – don’t you try to gether out of bed before midday. Khadgar did once, he knows what I’m talkingabout. And he can prove that the wrath of a dragon woken at an ungodly hour ismore horrible than that of the Burning Legion (even in the hour is perfectlyacceptable to 99% of people around you).

5. Who suggests new things in bed:

Bothdo, but Alieri is sort of reserved and almost shy about this aspect of life,whereas Khadgar is much bolder. He understands and respects her timidity, butagain, years at war mean that you try to get everything you can from life whileyou still can – and that is a lesson he has learned well. So yep, he doesn’thesitate to experiment in bed (and out of it) because why the hell not enjoythemselves if they can?!

6. Who cries at movies:

Thereare no movies in Azeroth, and I haven’t thought about a modern AU for thiscouple, but… I guess these two don’t cry at movies, they are more likely toinsert sarcastic comments for the whole audience to hear. xD

7. Who gives unprompted massages:

Khadgar.He uses his hands well (and I’m talking not only about massage now, yeah) andenjoys caring for Alieri, and massage is a perfect way to help her relax and toshow her all his love and tenderness. Alieri herself doesn’t really like givingmassages, mainly because she fears to misjudge her strength and hurt Khadgar(do I need to remind you she is a dragon?)… and also because she isspectacularly bad at them. xD

8. Who fusses over the other when they’re sick:

Khadgaris the fussy one: let Alieri sneeze once, and he is already running around withhot herbal tea, warm duvets and an (adorably) panicked expression. On thecontrary, when he gets sick, Alieri is calm and collected all the time. No fusswhatsoever. If she panics, then it means Khadgar is as good as dead (and thatshe probably knows whom to ask for help anyway).

9. Who gets jealous easiest:

Alieri.Because come on, look at that hot man and tell me: how many people would liketo get him laid?.. Yep. Now add his position as Archmage and tell me: how manywomen would like to get themselves such a husband? Exactly. Khadgar isblissfully ignorant of all that (or at least pretends to be), but you see,Alieri has many reasons to get jealous quite often.

10. Who has the most embarrassing taste in music:

Uuuuhhhh…They both have some embarrassing secrets to tell in this regard, I think, butthis question requires more of a modern AU, so I’m not sure about the detailsyet.

11. Who collects something unusual:

Alieri.She is a dragon, after all, and hoarding stuff might be an innate need, so tosay. But she is also a mage, so this need is combined with her scientificinterests: she collects magical artifacts of all sorts and studies them.

12. Who takes the longest to get ready:

Theyboth don’t need much time to get ready, because when they have to get ready, itis usually for battle or journey, not a nice evening at a restaurant. But whenit IS a nice evening at a restaurant (more like a pub though), it is Alieri whofusses over her clothes and hairstyle a bit longer than time limits mightallow.

13. Who is the most tidy and organized:

Alieri.No ifs and buts, it is her. Even though Khadgar might disagree and grumblesomething under his breath. Something about long red hair on the floor, whichis definitely not his (at this point he may demonstratively ruffle his –short-cropped, silvery white – chevelure).

14. Who gets most excited about the holidays:

Khadgar:Holidays? What holidays? What does this word even mean? Have res and relax? Howdoes one do that?

AlsoKhadgar: *excitedly packs stuff and plans a trip to the City of Shattrath and avisit to Draenor*

Alieri:*rolls her eyes fondly and proceeds to help with the packing*

15. Who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Theytake turns. xD

16. Who gets most competitive when playing games and/orsports:

Oh,Alieri is very competitive. In a modern AU, I imagine, she’d be on some sportsteam. In the reality of WoW, this competitiveness is probably a good help inbattle. Khadgar is not competitive atall – he might have been at some point, but now he has long gotten over it.

17. Who starts the most arguments:

Theyrarely have arguments in the first place; but when they do, I guess it’s a50/50 situation.

18. Who suggests that they buy a pet:

“Let’sget a pet!”

“Youcan turn into a raven, and I am literally a dragon, Khadgar, do you really wantto add a proper animal to this madhouse?”

(later)

“Let’sget a pet!”

“Khadgar,this is a crocolisk.”

“Hey,don’t discriminate crocolisks!”

(later)

“Ican’t believe you have gone and bought another chimera home.”

“Alieri,please, we are in Warcraft, having a hundred pets and several dozen of mountsis a must here!”

“…I’llsee myself out.”

19. What couple traditions they have:

Do goodluck kisses before battle count as a couple tradition? Also, Khadgar makes it apoint to bring those blue Draenor flowers to Alieri every so often (which isnot too often because the world of Draenor is not always accessible).

20. What tv shows they watch together:

Noideeeeaaaa, but it would probably be some standup shows of such comedians asEddie Izard etc. Maybe BBC mini-series like Pride and Prejudice, too.

21. What other couple they hang out with:

Notsure about other couples per se, but when Kraid gets himself a girl, they’ll beinvited to a double date for sure! ^^ Also, their closest friends are Kalecgos(who is a dragon and a mage as well), a Draenei Death Knight Jenerlen (my OC)and a Night Elf Druid Ilmarikki (my OC as well). Jenerlen and Ilmarikki areboth female and I’m not into femslash, but I’ve been pondering on this shiplately.

22. How they spend time together as a couple:

Theytalk, they laugh, they make love, they try to get some rest from all the eventsand responsibilities the war throws at them. A predictable answer, yet I canthink of nothing else. They also work together a lot, so I guess it counts asspending time as a couple anyway.

23. Who made the first move:

Khadgar.

24. Who brings flowers home:

Himagain. Rarely, but he does his best. Alieri brings magical artifacts. xD

25. Who is the best cook:

Khadgaragain! Alieri just seems to be really unsuccessful in this area. Potions? Yes.Herbs, artifacts, ancient scrolls and volumes – can do! Cooking edible food?She’d rather die. Or alternatively die of eating the food she had cooked.

#ask meme #World of Warcraft #Khadgar #OC #fanfiction be like #Alieri is my WoW human mage character in the game in fact #but I love her so much that I created a whole AU with her #an AU I've never gotten around to writing and so it only exists in the form of random headcanons #oops sorry not sorry I'm lazy

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yutikyis · 7 years ago

Text

Honest Q&A: Round 4! 7x7 Table

It looks like there’s even more of you this time? Well, I suppose better than running off...

Well, right to business then. It looks like our readers picked something of an overarching topic today. Everyone seated where they want? Good. We’ll start, as usual, with you Miss Kyis.

Faith is a belief in the right things. Who or what would you say you have the most faith in?

Yuti: O-oh, s-so many more people. U-um. W-well... t-that’s difficult. M-my friends I think. L-Lloire and the O-Order and... a-all of those people who’ve b-been around me for a long time. T-they’re the ones I know I c-can depend on most of all.

Reri: Oh Hells, of course ya say that, Snowflake. Me? I got faith in myself. Ain’t nobody else ta have faith in. When the MGP is down an’ ya need to depend on someone, ain’t ever gonna be someone who is there all the time but yerself. Sayo: My family, of course, and the Kami. What else could be true? Rahya: Well, truth bein’ what it is an’ all that, I’m belevin’ in the wind. Aasifa bein’ tellin’ me about it an’ it seems like a mighty good thing. It ain’t always kind but it seems like it all works out inna end, yeah?

Eynwyda: Strength. Meichi’a: ... yes? Surely you have more to say? No? Well, okay then! As for myself I have faith in wine, women and song.There are many glorious things in the world but few as oft beautiful and delightful as those three things. Even should another Calamity come, we can at least thrive if those three survive. Rhoe: Knowledge. The Twelve’s blessings are great things but depending on them is a fool’s game. The only thing worth having faith in is what you can know.

Pride is an excessive belief in one’s own abilities. In what do you take the most pride? A particular skill? A remarkable achievement?

Yuti: ... M-my healing skills, I w-would suppose. N-no matter what else, I can say without qualm that I a-am a gifted healer. I-it’s the skill I’ve the m-most pride in.

Reri: You sayin’ I gotta pick just one? Hells, ya might as well ask me to pick a single grain o’ sand. If I gotta pick one, I’m gonna say my knifework. My archery’s a sight to behold, my axin’ is superb, but my knifework? Mm-hmm. Sayo: You are the soul of modesty, ma’am. I must admit this is a difficult question to answer. While I am very proud of my talents they are the result of my family’s work and dedication. It would be unseemly to pretend they come from me alone.

Rahya: Oh. Um. I’m figurin’ it’d be my cards? Probably them. Lotta folk seem to like ‘em some... so them.

Eynwyda: Strength

Meichi’a: ... Really? Twice in a row? Is that allowed? Yes? Well, I’m not the one asking the questions. I would say my voice is my greatest pride. My songs leave beauties weak in the knees and, of course, I’ve a talent with words to rival poets.

Rhoe: Well, nobody said your answers couldn’t be delusional. I would say my vermagic. It takes a goodly amount of effort to become proficient with sword and spell alike.

Hope is taking a positive future view, that good will prevail. What would you say that you hope for the most?

Yuti: T-to be honest, I h-hope for a future of peace. W-where we finally m-move beyond all these w-wars and c-conflicts and f-find a way to unite our a-abilities f-for the greater good of all.

Reri: *loud retching sounds* Look, ya can’t serious expect me to answer honestly after that bullshite, can you? ~I hope fer rainbows and puppies and fuckin’ unicorns to rain from the sky.~ If ya want an honest answer? A good challenge. That’s what.

Sayo: I hope that when my end comes I am satisfied with my life and have done my family proud.

Rahya: ... Ta be honest I’m hopin’ for the rainbows and puppies an’ unicorns, though if they’re doin’ that other thing I think they should be doin’ it in private an’ not while it’s rainin’

Eynwyda: Strength

Meichi’a: Really now! My good woman, are you a spoken or a mammet!? Surely you can... my but that is quite the glare you have. Ahem. Well, for myself? I look forward to seeing what lies over the next bend. Should it be a charming raven-haired lass with an ample bosom, well, all the better, no?

Rhoe: The same thing anyone else. That I’m alive, that I’m happy, that we’re not all serfs in some Garlean-run hole or void-touched corpses in some forgotten Hellsvoid.

Envy is wanting what others have, be it status, abilities, or possessions. Is there someone or something you are envious of? It doesn’t have to be a huge all-consuming envy, even something small.

Yuti: ... I-if I must be honest? T-those with children. T-there’s something... j-just wonderful about it. B-biological or a-adopted or j-just ones they take care of, l-like Frost and Tyr. I t-think y-you see the g-greatest of people w-when you see them with children. ... I-in most cases.

Reri: Ya know, Snowflake, ya can solve that problem in a real quick and fun way if ya get that stick out of yer arse. Don’t think i don’t know what ya mean by in most cases. Me? I ain’t envyin’ shite from anyone. I got anythin’ I want or I can get it.

Sayo: ... I envy those who have freedom from responsibility. There are days I long... no, nevermind.

Rahya: Um... well... I ain’t... I’mma guessin’ I envy them folk who ain’t frightened of nothin’? But I ain’t like sour at ‘em for it or nothin’. Just wishin’ I was more like ‘em... Eynwyda: Greater strength.

Meichi’a: Two words this time. Well, we seem to be improving, don’t we? Ah! That glare again. Maybe... would you care to switch places? No? Okay. Ahem. No, I am most certainly not trying to avoid the... fine! If you must know? Those who have found their soulmates and kept them close. It’s a rare gift and one which far too many take for granted.

Rhoe: People with someone reliable to turn to. You’d be surprised how rare it is.

Charity is concern for, and active helping of, others. Do you believe yourself to exhibit this virtue? Be it yours or another’s, what act or moment stands out for you as a charitable one?

Yuti: ... I l-like to think I am, t-though certainly I am n-not a paragon of it. M-most healers w-will spend their days helping others b-but to me the greatest p-paragons of virtue a-are those who do well f-for others without e-even thinking of it. T-Tyr comes to mind...

Reri: Yeah, I’ll bet she does. Charity’s a waste’a time. Ya help others if it is for a reason, like makin’ the tribe stronger. Charity for the sake of charity is just breedin’ weakness.

Sayo: Charity is a noble virtue. To help others is to demonstrate the strength of one’s own soul. Those who are less fortunate should be elevated and assisted. It is only honorable. Eldest always says that we are only as strong as our weakest member.

Rahya: Um... I ain’t sure I’m that chattyrble. I ain’t gotta lota stuff to give folk or anythin’... but folks are real nice ta me. I figure the most chattryble person I know is Aki bein’ as she’s always givin’ away money an’ throwin’ parties an’ stuff.

Eynwyda: I am not particularly charitable.

Meichi’a: By Halone’s fury, an actual answer! Ah! To do a good deed is a balm for the soul. Few things are as delightful as bringing a smile to the face of others. Of course if that smile happens to belong to a lovely lady, well, all the better, no? Nobody said charity can’t ever benefit the giver as well, yes? ... what IS with all these looks?

Rhoe: Charity is all well and good as long as it makes sense. Giving away your last gil to a pauper may make you feel good but it won’t actually help anything. Better to get the pauper a job. That’s the kind of charity I can get behind.

Gluttony is the desire to eat or consume more than you require. What is the one thing best guaranteed to show off your gluttonous side?

Yuti: F-fish, t-to be honest. I r-really can’t get enough of m-most seafood. I p-probably should be c-careful about that.

Reri: Booze. What? You want more than that. Booze. Alcohol. Spirits. The good shite. What more do ya want?

Sayo: ... It is improper for a flower to overindulge.

Rahya: Um... I ain’t never really had much ta overeat with... so maybe sweet stuffs? I’ll eat a lotta sweet stuffs if I can, even if it ain’t so good for me ta do so.

Eynwyda: Meat.

Meichi’a: I’ll let that one slide.... mostly because I fear this dear woman may belt me if I don’t. Ah, what doesn’t? A good meal, good drink, good music, good company... life is to be lived. As long as it brings joy I don’t feel one can over-indulge.

Rhoe: A good glass of wine usually.

Fortitude is never giving up. With as many strong willed people as there are here, I imagine this will prompt good responses. What is it you would never give up on? Is it a person, a goal?

Yuti: ... H-helping the people i care about. M-most of whom I think genuinely need it. E-especially those I k-know can do a-amazing things if only they h-have the support. I f-figure if I haven’t a-already given up on Lloire or L-Leera, I’m n-not doing it anytime soon.

Reri: I don’t give up on anythin’. If I can’t do it then I’m dead. If I’m not dead then I’m plannin’ how ta do it. If you give up then yer already done livin’. It’s just yer walkin’ around in your corpse for a bit after.

Sayo: I have come to Eorzea with a goal and I will not give it up easily. I intend to find my own achievements here.

Rahya: Um... I... I ain’t so sure I’m gonna answer this question so well? Bein’ as I give up on a lotta things. I’m tryin’ ta get better though... so I guess that’s it? I ain’t givin’ up on not givin’ up? I don’t know if that even makes no sense.

Eynwyda: Improvement.

Meichi’a: Living. I have a life to lead and I intend to lead it, no matter where the Weaver’s threads take me. Simple enough, no?

Rhoe: I agree with the prissy boy, actually. Living is a challenge in itself. I’ll stick with that.

Lust is a powerful craving for things such as sex and power. Do you feel that you give in to those temptations easily? What do you lust after the most?

Yuti: I... w-well... t-that is t-to say... I’m a... I mean... I... I d-don’t give into t-temptation easily I feel. I’ve... t-that is... c-can w-we leave it there? T-this is a humiliating question.

Reri: What the Snowflake is sayin’ is that yes, she wants ta screw. So does probably everyone in this room except maybe ol’ one-eye over there seeing as I’m not entirely sure she can dress herself in the morning from the way she talks. That’s my answer by the way. A good battle an’ a good lay. It’s not a temptation, it’s what I want an’ there’s nothin’ wrong with it.

Sayo: I... t-that is to say all people have temptations. Learning to control and master them is an important part of being a second daughter. Not merely temptations of the flesh but of the spirit as well. Any further answer would be improper.

Rahya: *mumbles uncomfortably* I dress myself awful good, even if I ain’t fashionable ‘bout it or nothin’ like that.. o-oh. Um. Right. Ya questionin’ me. Um. I’m figurin’ I ain’t doin’ that stuff much. I’m happy huggin’ folk an’ I ain’t wantin’ ta be powerful. I’m right happy wit’ everythin’ I got right now.

Eynwyda: I control myself.

Meichi’a: Ah, but I am afraid that the craven temptations of the flesh are oft too much for me to overcome. When the spirit is weak and the flesh is oh-so-willing, I feel I sometimes allow my, ah, baser impulses more free reign than I should. There was this once charming lass, so delightful and vivacious, but I swear she never told me she was enga-

Rhoe: Right, I don’t really want to hear about that. In my line of work you can’t really give into temptation easily. Too many baleful magics love to prey upon weakness. Anyone who gives into lust, physical or otherwise, probably is getting their soul eaten the first chance they get.

Justice is being fair and equitable with others. It is the guiding principle of certain Dark Knights. Do you believe in justice? Is such a thing possible in the world we live in?

Yuti: Y-yes. I believe in justice. I d-don’t think it’s synonymous w-with laws but I believe i-it exists. Everyone must f-find their own morality a-and their own guiding principles. W-we can make the world a fair place for a-all.

Reri: Ta steal an old phrase: There ain’t no justice, there’s just us. The world ain’t fair or equitable. It’ll eat ya up and spit ya out and not give a damn. Tryin’ ta hold ta some idea of justice is a nice way ta get yerself used. Ya hear that Snowflake?

Sayo: Rules and laws exist for a reason. The justice in those rules may not always be obvious but it exists. However justice must be tempered by restraint. Unlike some I do not believe justice goes hand-in-hand with violence, though sometimes it is unavoidable.

Rahya: Um... I don’t really know what ya mean by justice, but I’m figurin’ that being fair is just a good thing, right? So... I believe in bein’ fair. I like it when folks are fair ta one another. I ain’t seein’ why it wouldn’t be possible.

Eynwyda: Justice is born of strength to uphold your convictions. Nothing less.

Meichi’a: My, we’re up to two sentences now. I certainly believe in justice... though I fear it is not something I think the world gives us easily. The rich are rich, the poor are poor, and no amount of ‘justice’ will change that. One can strive to be as fair and equitable in their life as they like, but the world as a whole? No, my dear sir, it is not one that welcomes justice kindly.

Rhoe: Justice is in the eye of the beholder. You find what you think is just and you do it. Anything’s possible in this world. It just depends on if it’s probable to survive doing it.

Anger is the loss of rational self-control and the desire to harm others. Are you one to lose control to your anger? What was the worst case of letting it loose that comes to mind?

Yuti: ... Yes. I h-have a problem with my temper. W-when I see friends hurt o-or people I c-care about suffering... I... I’m n-not the best at keeping myself in check. T-Tyr has helped with that but... t-to be honest the worst anger isn’t h-hot. It’s cold. T-the worst thing I e-ever did in a r-rage wasn’t b-boiling anger. It w-was when I knew exactly w-what I did... a-and I h-hurt someone rather badly because of it.

Reri: Snowflake, I’m gonna drag that story outta you some day because I’m actually startin’ ta get curious. Probably gonna disappoint the Hells out of me when I found out ya slapped an idiot or somethin’. Oh, don’t give me that look. Yeah, I’ve gotten angry at folk. Killed some folk too. Can’t say I ever lost control though. I know what I’m doin’. My knife doesn’t find its mark by accident.

Sayo: Self-restraint is a virtue that I strive to uphold. I have felt anger but I have never allowed it to overwhelm me. Anything else would be... unseemly.

Rahya: Nope! Nononope! I ain’t gettin’ angry at nobody. I ain’t likin’ bein’ angry ta be honest. It ain’t feelin’ good. I’d rather give someone a hug an’ alla that. If someone does somethin’ i ain’t likin’ I just... I ain’t wantin’ ta be around them is all. Not hurt them none.

Eynwyda: I remain in control. If I do not, people die. It has happened before.

Meichi’a: ... M-maybe I should be a bit more cautious about my jibes. They are all meant in good fun, my dear woman! All in good fun! Ah... as for myself? No, I do not get angry easily. There’s little point in it, yes? I don’t favor harming others. I admit it puts me in a right temper if I see a maiden being harmed though. I’ve issued more than one duel challenge on behalf of their honor! ... few accept though.

Rhoe: I get angry from time to time but I don’t lose control. Well, not often. I’ve had some bad relationships. Once threw an ex out of the house in his smallclothes in the middle of winter. He deserved it though.

Prudence is care of and moderation with gil. This one is a bit simpler. Are you a gil-pincher or do you spend with abandon?

Yuti: I’m c-careful with money. N-not because I’m a s-spendthrift o-or anything b-but just because it’s p-prudent. I-it’s not wise to waste g-gil now t-that could be useful later. I s-splurge s-sometimes but... o-only rarely.

Reri: Gil ain’t worth a damn thing burnin’ a hole in your pocket. I spend if it I want ta and i earn it if I need it. Savin’ for later if you got somethin’ you want now doesn’t make sense. Ya could be dead in a day and then that ‘hard-saved’ gil is just goin’ ta buy whoever killed ya a good drink or a cheap lay.

Sayo: I am ever impressed by your ability to make every answer crude, Miss Kyis. I am very careful with my gil. One must be. To spend it wildly means to be without it should the need arise. Should I run a household someday I will also need to know how to best manage the finances. It is an expected skill for any daughter.

Rahya: Well, I ain’t ever had much gil, so it ain’t really a question I can answer. Um... I spend what I got but it’s mostly cuz I need stuff. Most gil I ever had was when Aasifa gave me the Starlight gift an’ I spent that on my an part mant right away I did. So I guess I’m spendin’? I ain’t abandonin’ it though, I’m always given it ta the folks I’m buyin’ from.

Eynwyda: I spend when I need to.

Meichi’a: Ah! What is money but the passport to experiences? Perhaps my life would be easier if I held onto my gil but easier isn’t the same as worth living, now is it? Better to spend gil on a night of good cheer and good company than to have it upon you unspent. After all the luster of coin can scarcely compare to that of a charming smile or a rousing song, yes?

Rhoe: I’ll take the happy medium, thanks. You don’t need to spend every gil you get and you don’t need to horde it like a dragon. It’s kind of a ridiculous question when you think about it. There’s an answer: don’t be an idiot.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain. Some might think this goes hand in hand with prudence but that is not the case. Even those who string their gil-pouches tightest can be known for their charity or simply do not fret over making more gil. Are you a take-take-take sort? Is the gathering of wealth important to you?

Yuti: No. Material g-gain isn’t important to me. T-the most valuable things I h-have are people, not things. I’d g-give every gil I had a-and more so i-if it would help my friends a-and those close to me. I-it’s nice to have things b-but I’m h-happy with what I do have.

Reri: For once I agree with the Snowflake. Treasure ain’t worth shite on its own. The act of aquirin’ it can be fun but that’s about it.

Sayo: My family has not become comfortable and wealthy through luck. One must work to acquire what one needs and then have enough extra for emergencies. I suppose you could call that greed? My sire is not fond of spending money he does not have to spend but Eldest gives freely within her limits. I can see the value in both sides.

Rahya: I’ve gotta slime an’ a flower an’ frankly I’m thinkin’ that’s already more luck then I can rightly ask for, so I ain’t askin’ for more.

Eynwyda: Wealth is a means, not a goal.

Meichi’a: I must echo what seems to be the common consensus. I’d be a liar if I said there wasn’t a satisfaction in the feeling of gil in hand, but it’s a momentary distraction at best. There are far more charming vices than greed after all. The greedy die alone. At least those who are lustful or foolish oft die with others. To die alone is the saddest thing of all.

Rhoe: I like getting paid. I’ll do work pro-bono if it’s interesting but it’s a lot more interesting when I know there’s a good meal and another month’s rent in it. You can call that greedy if you want. I think it’s common sense.

Temperance is moderation of needed things and abstinence from things which are not needed. In essence it is the opposite of gluttony. Is there anything that you find you abstain from that you wish you did not?

Yuti: I... d-don’t know to be honest. M-maybe... s-seeking comfort. I t-tend to k-keep things inside a-and not speak openly t-to most. T-though I have good reason for that.

Reri: *raises hand* Yep, good reason number one right here. Ya can be honest, Snowflake, ain’t nobody in this room who doesn’t think I’m a nasty bitch. An’ as for me? Nope. I want somethin’, I do it. What the Hells would I abstain from?

Sayo: ... many things. Restraint is also a virtue. It is not proper to allow your desires to run away with you. It is unseemly and immodest. There are things I wish I could do, but I have my duties.

Rahya: Um.. lotta things really. I ain’t... really so brave an’ I don’t do a lotta things even if I’m wantin’ ta. I’m tryin’ ta get braver though! I’m goin’ places an’ I used ta not do that so... that’s kinda my answer?

Eynwyda: Yes.

Meichi’a: ... Wait, it’s my turn? That was her answer? Can I just say yes too? Sigh. Yes, of course there are. Many things. I’ve been offered plenty of temptations, sinful and otherwise, and abstain for a variety of reasons. You would be shocked how many married women offer a place in their boudair, but that is simply not a risk worth taking. It’s not gentlemanly at all to intrude upon wedding vows.

Rhoe: I suppose. Everyone does. Sometimes I get jealous of people like the prissy boy or the nasty bitch. It’s got to be a relief to not give a damn and just do whatever you want. That doesn’t mean I’m going to do it though.

Sloth is laziness and the avoidance of work. Somehow I don’t see that being of much concern with this group, but what would you say is your laziest habit?

Yuti: ... t-to be honest I’m r-rather bad about organizing my room if I d-don’t have to. When I p-put a book down I tend to leave it lying wherever I put it. S-sometimes it can become a r-real mess if I’m in the middle of research.

Reri: She ain’t lyin’. You shoulda seen her room back home. She *slept* on books somehow. Me? I ain’t lazy. Lazy means yer dead. If I got a lazy habit, it’s stayin’ in one place for too long.

Sayo: It is improper to be lazy. To work your hardest is to show pride in what you’re doing. T-that is not to say I’ve never cut corners from time to time. I... have a rather shameful habit of sleeping in late when it is cold. D-don’t look at me like that please. Blankets can be very comfortable... Rahyda: Oh! Oh! Can I agree with that one? Because ever since I got me blankets I’ve been wantin’ ta sleep in a whole bunch! So that’s my answer! Sorry if’n I’m stealin’ ya answer, Miss Sayo, but I’m agreein’ with it. Eynwyda: Laziness is death.

Meichi’a: ... Well, aren’t you all a bunch of hard workers? Now I feel rather ungainly answering. Yes, I am lazy. Everyone is, i suspect, even these remarkable people. I ride when I can walk, I sleep in late, I leave dishes unwashed... sometimes you simply just don’t feel like doing something, isn’t that right?

Rhoe: I’m terrible about filing paperwork. It takes me ages to get everything properly organized.

Meichi’a: Really. Paperwork. Did you just choose that to make me look worse?

Rhoe: No, you do that fine on your own.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to give some insight into your inner thoughts for our readers. I know today’s questions were a little tougher than some of the ones before but I hope you don’t begrudge me asking you. Before you go, what do you all think of me?

Yuti: .. W-well, y-you seem very nice. I’m n-not sure why you g-gathered all of us h-here but you’re v-very patient. S-some odd questions though...

Reri: Eh. 6/10. Ya got a crappy mustache. Either grow it out or shave it off. What you weren’t askin’ about that? Well, it’s still a shite mustache.

Sayo: It is an honor to answer your questions. They give me much to think about.

Rahya: Ya a real nice fella, even if I ain’t understandin’ everything ya askin’ about. Eynwyda: ...

Meichi’a: Ah, my dear sir. It has been a thorough pleasure to answer your questions. Especially as you offered me a fair amount of gil to do so. Rhoe: You have some weird taste in interviewees.

tagged by: @peacekeeper-xiv

tagging: @anataerindottir @jonahsage @eyesseeingbeyondtheveil @fairasmorninglight anyone else who wants to.

#yuti kyis #reri kyis #rahya dovana #eynwyda bloestyrmwyn #meichi'a rouw #rhoe elakha

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holmesoverture · 7 years ago

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Eileen’s Official Nigel Bruce Defense Post

Weeks after first mentioning the possibility of writing this post in my Sink or Ship entry for the Rathbone/Bruce films, allow me to welcome you to my official and way the heck too long Nigel Bruce Defense Post.

I don’t think I need to convince anyone that the reputation of Bruce’s Watson has suffered in the years since he played Sherlock Holmes’ faithful Boswell. Virtually every time someone wants to praise a Watson, they feel the need to disparage Bruce to do it (“This Watson is great because he’s not a bumbler unlike some people I could mention, ahem, ahem”). James Mason only agreed to play Watson in Murder by Decree if they didn’t write him as an idiot. Edward Hardwicke was more polite about it, but he seems to have felt similarly about Bruce’s Watson’s capabilities. More recently, of course, Kate Beeton did her famous “Stupid Watson” comic, launching a nickname that seems to have caught on with some people around the interwebs.

And, in fairness, not all of the ire directed at Nigel Bruce is unwarranted. The Rathbone films do have a tendency to go way overboard with the comedy relief, and not even the fact that it was made for World War II audiences who were probably in desperate need of a laugh makes me feel better about it. This aspect of the movies hasn’t aged well. I admit that willingly.

But it’s important to note that the comedy relief really is just one aspect of Bruce’s Watson. For some reason, it’s the only aspect that people seem to remember when really he’s surprisingly multifaceted. To reduce Nigel Bruce’s interpretation of Watson to a demeaning nickname is unfair in the extreme, and since no one else seems to be willing to waste their time in refuting these gross overgeneralizations, I will heroically step in to fill this void that no one wanted filled.

And if you decide you still don’t like Bruce’s Watson after reading this post, that’s fine. My goal in writing this is not to push people into liking something that’s not to their tastes. All I want is to point out some inconsistencies in the Bumbling Oaf trope and maybe make you think about how you feel and why. (I also want to vent a little—it is the internet, after all.)

Open your minds and join me on this journey, mis amigos. It’s kind of long, but hopefully my witty insights and that one goofy picture of Batman I included will make it worth it.

Let’s start at the start: 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles. As I’m sure most of you are aware, this story hardly features Holmes at all. Watson is the one who heads out to Baskerville Hall alone to investigate, which requires him to be at least somewhat decent at investigative work, and he certainly is that. It’s only when Holmes shows up that he becomes the comedy relief. Later that year, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes again sends Watson to investigate alone, and while I wouldn’t say it goes well, it doesn’t go noticeably worse than in any other version. Plus, a couple of the major humorous moments feature Watson on the winning side of the joke for once.

That’s about all the time I’ll spend on Bruce’s first two outings as Dr. Watson, since they are noticeably different from the B movies which followed. (The most striking changes, for those who haven’t seen them, are that the stories now take place in the 1940s rather than the Victorian era and also they now have the budget of an office Christmas party.) It’s here that the quality of the movies starts to waver, and I believe they are what most people are referring to when they complain about Nigel Bruce. The comedy relief bits are really ramped up here, but just because Watson became more of a punching bag doesn’t mean he necessarily became less intelligent or less interesting.

Before we continue, there’s one point Hardwicke made in that interview I linked to above that I’d like to address. He basically said that Watson’s training as a doctor means that he couldn’t be stupid.

First of all, Ben Carson. Second, the entire point of this post is to demonstrate that Watson wasn’t as stupid as everyone thinks, and we’ll get to that in just a second. Third, these movies do remember that Watson is a doctor and give him a few opportunities to show off his medical chops. In Terror By Night, Watson’s the one who announces the victim died of heart failure. It’s also him who notices a small pinprick in the dead guy’s neck that suggests said heart failure was induced. Granted, he didn’t mention the mark right away because he dismissed it as insignificant, but given that Holmes also had a look at the body and didn’t notice the mark at all, I think Watson deserves some props here.

Now I’m not even going to try to defend the rest of Terror By Night because it’s pretty much the epitome of everything people dislike about Bruce’s Watson. But it does go to show that, even when the Baker Street Dozen was at its silliest, Watson still had his moments.

If we want a really solid example of Watson being competent, however, we must go elsewhere. Let’s start with The Secret Weapon. It starts out as one would expect, with Watson being charged with guarding a scientist recently escaped from mainland Europe, only to fall asleep and allow the guy to wander off (YOU HAD ONE JOB). But later on, the film adapts bits of The Dancing Men, and when Holmes and Watson first encounter the code, it’s Watson who explains its significance to the lady whose missing boyfriend wrote it. He even sits down to decode it, but it’s been slightly altered since their last encounter with it, so it comes out wrong.

Naturally it’s Watson who makes this error while Holmes discovers what the alteration was. So now Watson looks like a knucklehead even though, again, he apparently learned the Dancing Men code so well that he could use it at a moment’s notice despite not seeing it for years.

But wait, what’s this? There’s another coded message, this one even more fiendishly difficult than the first? What to do now? Holmes and Watson spend the next few hours poring over the code, trying every combination and trick they can think of in their attempts to decode the message. Oh wait, did I say Holmes and Watson? I meant Watson by himself while Holmes sulks and makes rude comments.

Not bad for a bumbling oaf.

In the end, it’s an off-hand remark from Watson that flicks on the lightbulb over Holmes’ head, enabling Holmes to swoop in and steal the limelight from poor Watson. Our detective makes his brilliant game-changing deduction thanks to his conductor of light, who’s been doing the thankless drudge work this whole time. (This kind of happens a lot, actually—twice in Dressed to Kill alone, a casual remark from Watson enables Holmes to save the day.)

The real problem here isn’t that Watson is stupid; it’s the way the scene is framed. The movie is so busy focusing on Holmes’ deductions and accomplishments that Watson’s contributions mostly go unacknowledged. It’s clear from the fact that Watson was deeply involved in the decoding process that he’s perfectly intelligent and that Holmes trusts him to help with even the more difficult aspects of crime-solving.

Something similar occurs in The Woman in Green, which features Moriarty hypnotizing people into committing suicide for reasons that escape me at the moment. (This isn’t the high point of the Rathbone/Bruce collaborations okay) Again we have a comedy relief bit, with Watson being hypnotized into taking his shoes off or some nonsense immediately after declaring that hypnotism is BS. It’s the kind of thing you’d see on a ‘60s sitcom.

The movie ends with Watson arriving almost too late to save Holmes from Moriarty because he got stopped by a police officer for speeding. Yes, haha, silly Watson, can’t do anything right and almost ruined everything. But let’s reframe this scene for a second. Think about it from Watson’s perspective. He’s given a task to do by Holmes, who is going to be in mortal danger the entire time. He’s terrified for his friend and knows that his life is in his hands. Of course he’s going to break every damn speed law in the country to try to protect him. Just imagine how he felt when he got pulled over, when he had to waste all that time trying to explain the situation to the officer, knowing that every second spent arguing could mean Holmes’ life.

If this were a scene in one of the newer, edgier Sherlock Holmes adaptations, we probably would get to see it from Watson’s perspective, and depending on the version, I’m betting Watson would have just floored it when the police sirens started going. And even if Watson did stop, he very well might have lost patience halfway through the proceedings and punched out the cop to get to Holmes.

And by “he,” I mean Panin specifically.

Obviously, Bruce’s version could not do that because of the pearl-clutching moral censors. Or rather, he couldn’t do that on-screen. It’s never stated how Watson’s interaction with the police ended. How do we know he didn’t punch the guy? Because if you think Nigel Bruce’s Watson wasn’t willing and able to kick some ass, allow me to direct your attention to The Spider Woman, in which Holmes fakes his death, then comes back disguised as a postman and makes disparaging remarks about that fakey detective Sherlock Holmes, because Holmes is a dick like that. Bruce, being one of the more patient Watsons, tolerates it for a while before knocking Mailman Holmes right into a chair.

Again, this scene is played for laughs, but from Watson’s perspective, it’s about as unfunny as you can get. The man was unable to stop the death of his closest and dearest friend. He’s just had a hard day of packing up Holmes’ things for a museum, then some asshole postman shows up and starts insulting his recently deceased best friend for no reason. It’s little surprise that he snapped. So yeah, Bruce’s Watson was 100% down with decking people when placed under sufficient emotional strain, which he may well have been in The Woman in Green.

I think I’ve gotten away from my point here, but it basically boils down to the fact that Watson was not an idiot at the end of The Woman in Green; the way the scene is framed just makes him look like one.

There are also times when Bruce’s Watson doesn’t seem to do much of anything, which may be misconstrued as stupidity. Let’s look at Dressed to Kill. Now towards the end, Watson does get A Scandal in Bohemia-ed pretty bad, but that comes right after Holmes walks right into the bad guy’s trap like a knucklehead, so they’re roughly even on that front. The only real difference is that Holmes solves his problem on his own, while Watson needs Holmes to figure out the solution to his dilemma for him.

But aside from that and a couple of minor silly incidents, all Watson really does is act as a sounding board for Holmes. Some people may interpret this as his being useless, but this is what Holmes used to want in a partner. Quoth Sherlock Holmes in The Blanched Soldier, “A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate.”

This line demonstrates two things: one, wow, Holmes, gush some more why don’t you. Two, however the characters have evolved in recent years, the original Holmes didn’t want someone like Liu, who ends up becoming proficient enough to start her own detective agency. He wanted someone more like Bruce, who didn’t have nearly the same capacity for deductive reasoning but who had the curiosity and inquisitiveness to make, according to Canon Holmes, “an ideal helpmate.”

There are plenty of the original stories in which Watson does little more than narrate—in The Beryl Coronet, for example, I’m pretty sure that the only thing Watson really does is point out their future client in the street. I think we’ve gotten so used to Watson being an action hero or a detective in his (or her) own right that we forget his original primary role was as the storyteller. (That is literally where the nickname Boswell comes from.) Being most definitively a sidekick doesn’t make Nigel Bruce useless or stupid; it means he’s fulfilling the role originally set out for his character.

The comedy relief business is, of course, largely an invention of the Rathbone/Bruce films. But honestly, I think the problem with Bruce’s Watson isn’t so much him as it is the filmmakers’ obsession with building up Holmes to be inhumanly perfect. The Spider Woman has a perfect example of this: there’s one scene that adapts that bit from The Devil’s Foot where Holmes and Watson are almost killed by poisonous gas and Watson has to save them both. Here, however, it’s Holmes who does the rescuing, because of course he does. Can’t have Watson grabbing any glory, now can we?

In fact, basically everyone who isn’t Holmes—and arguably Moriarty, though he sure did fall hard for the Brer Rabbit routine in The Secret Weapon, to say nothing of his ignoble demise in The Woman in Green—is depicted as a little lacking in the brain department. Lestrade and company are dim enough that Watson frequently calls them out for being boneheads. Holmes’ clients almost inevitably doubt Holmes’ abilities despite his great reputation, and Watson just loves rubbing their noses in how smart Holmes really is.

(That’s another thing people seem to dislike about Nigel Bruce for some reason. I’ve heard complaints about how he’s a suck-up who mindlessly admires Holmes despite how rude Holmes is to him. Again, this is an oversimplification. I already covered this in Sink or Ship, so I won’t belabor the point here, but I view Watson’s admiring comments less like sucking up and more like pride in his friend and his work. Not only that, Watson doesn’t always passively accept impoliteness. He flat out tells Holmes to stop being cranky in The Secret Weapon, and he gets quite huffy when he thinks Holmes is trying to make a fool of him in Terror by Night. Plus, Bruce is not even the only Watson to have stars in his eyes every time he looks at Holmes—Burke in particular puts up with quite a lot [see The Solitary Cyclist for a great example], and he starts looking murdery whenever someone fails to recognize his brilliant detective buddy.)

It’s fashionable nowadays to make Watson almost as smart as Holmes, which only amplifies the perceived stupidity of Nigel Bruce’s Watson. But in the original stories, Watson isn’t a deducing genius. That’s the whole point. He is basically the reader stand-in, the average Joe thrust into Holmes’ world and continually dazzled by it (and him). Now if you prefer the more current trends, that’s one thing. But to condemn Bruce for not magically predicting and following said trends is about as fair as criticizing Adam West’s Batman for not being serious enough, completely ignoring the fact that at the time Batman was less “I Am The Night” and more “Robin got temporary amnesia and super-strength from a bolt of lightning and now wants to fight Batman because a white guy pretending to be a native told him to.”

Would I lie to you about a thing like that?

And it’s not as though Bruce is the only Watson who bungles things. During Solomin’s tenure as the good doctor, he got whacked in the head when trying to sleuth on his own, got his dirty footprints all over Charles Augustus Milverton’s house (which Holmes then forced him to clean up), and completely and hilariously failed to disguise himself as a priest. That’s saying nothing of the first half of the pilot, where Watson assumes Holmes is a criminal mastermind and conducts his own wildly misguided, eminently goofy investigation that culminates in Holmes knocking him out during a boxing match. And yet no one ever accuses Solomin of being a bumbler (not that they should). I’m not sure why people are willing to excuse him and not Bruce. Is it because Solomin is young and cute?

Maybe it’s because his dumbassery led to the infamous Cuddling in the Carriage scene.

Or maybe everyone’s problem is not just Bruce himself, but the fact that his performance had such a major influence on Watsons everywhere for literal decades. In the 1950s Sherlock Holmes TV show, Marion-Crawford’s Watson clearly borrows a lot from Bruce in terms of turning the comedy relief aspect up to eleven. (I would argue Marion-Crawford is actually worse in this regard.) Dr. Dawson in The Great Mouse Detective physically resembles Bruce, as does Ric Spiegal in those Wishbone episodes, even though both of them were supposed to be adapting books and shouldn’t have had anything to do with the Rathbone/Bruce films. I guess some folks got resentful that Bruce Watson was overshadowing Canon Watson?

But it’s important to remember here that Nigel Bruce was one of the first film Watsons with any discernible personality traits. If you’ve seen any of the Sherlock Holmes silent films, you know what I mean. If not, you haven’t heard of any of their Watsons for good reason.

To start with, Watson doesn’t even appear in 1900’s Sherlock Holmes Baffled (which is only a minute long) or in 1912’s The Copper Beeches (which is so ridiculous that I may have to give it its own post). Then came Hubert Willis in the Eille Norwood series of early ‘20s shorts. They’re rather hyper-focused on the casework here, so no one gets any characterization (at least not in the two I’ve seen). And Roland Young in 1922’s Sherlock Holmes was onscreen for maybe 10 minutes and did almost nothing. I didn’t even remember he was in the dang movie until I recently rewatched it for Sink or Ship.

This is his only conversation with Holmes in like the whole movie. So much for being intimate companions.

And I’m sure there are other examples. So even if you don’t necessarily like what Bruce did (and/or was told to do) with the character, he some deserves respect for effort and originality. I also think it’s a little unfair that people keep dinging him for not being A+ perfect at doing something no one else (with the possible exception of Ian Fleming in the Wontner films) had ever tried before, i.e. making Screen Watson interesting. Dude didn’t become The Watson for no reason, after all.

To conclude this post, we can return to my Batman analogy. I feel like modern public attitude towards Nigel Bruce is comparable to how some people get all upset about Adam West because that’s not the real Batman! The real Batman is grim and gritty and for ADULTS, not some Batusi-dancing weirdo! No joke: the first time I went to a comic book shop, the guy who worked there said that Adam West—my first Batman, the guy who got me into superheroes and therefore the main reason I was in that shop in the first place—wasn’t a real Batman.

Needless to say, I have little use for snobbery in any fandom. So I am going to say now about Nigel Bruce what I should have said then about Adam West: if you don’t like the goofy version, don’t watch the goofy version. There are literally hundreds of versions of this character out there; not every single one is going to cater to your tastes, nor should they. This fact should not detract from your enjoyment of the versions you do like, and it doesn’t make the versions you dislike less legit. The old has at least as much basis in canon as the new, and even if it’s parts of canon you’d rather ignore, other people feel differently, so don’t be a jerkweed about it.

But before you make up your mind about Nigel Bruce, maybe take a sec and give him another chance. “Stupid Watson” is a reductive label that focuses only on the worst the Rathbone films had to offer and does not give due credit to a genuinely groundbreaking character with more depth than I’ve ever seen anyone acknowledge. Do some of the movies portray him better than others? Sure, but you can say that of every episodic Sherlock Holmes adaptation. For the most part, it’s not nearly as bad as people seem to think. And even when it is that bad, it’s still a combination of canon compliance and original character development that was entirely unique at the time and that deserves to be looked upon with, if nothing else, gratitude for paving the way for interesting Watsons everywhere.

#rathbone holmes #media analysis #omg it's finally done #i admit maybe nostalgia is coloring my thinking a little #but dangit i love nigel bruce i will defend him forever

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lunamanar · 7 years ago

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Hey, Luna, are you still doing the ask thing? If so, I was wondering if you had any headcanons regarding the Leonhart and Heartilly extended families? As in, do Squall, Linoa or Ellone have other still living relatives? People always talk about the parental issues in this game, but the rest of their families possibly being around never gets brought up.

I’m always “doing the ask thing,” haha~

(pardon me I’m gonna ramble real quick and then I’ll answer your actual questions)

I actually used to do this quite a lot before I got a new job and had to move my entire family of three people and eight(8, VIII) cats 500 miles northbound. Which was…incredibly stressful, and I just had no energy or brainspace left at the end of each day to communicate much, if at all, with large groups of people. So this stuff was right out. It pretty much tore me away from tumblr for a year and a half. I’ve been really bummed about that and kept trying to “get back into it,” but my several meager attempts at jumping back in got sidetracked by life responsibilities, and especially with tumblr’s new restrictions on external links not being searchable, the whole trawling for art thing I used to do just isn’t as feasible at this point in time because I have to edit each post very carefully so it will still show up in a search. That’s time-consuming. Maybe when I go back to 3rd shift in December (I hope) I’ll be able to art-hunt “full time,” again, but I just have a limited space in which to do that, now.

However, I can still do asks! And I really enjoy them, they’re fun and engaging and, hell I admit, I like it when people want to hear my opinion on things. But I was having a hard time, uh…asking for asks, haha. It felt too much like I was begging for attention. But then stuff happened and I had the worst pain spike I’ve had all year, and I kinda just broke down and said I needed a distraction. My chronic pain issues can be absolutely debilitating, and can lay me flat in bed for days (I had to take two days off work last week). But if I can manage to engross myself in something creative, it’s like a shot of cortisone. I think I get something of a rush, an adrenaline/endorphin kick out of it, and it does a lot to mitigate whatever the hell it is that causes my problem. I mean, that’s probably true of a lot of illnesses; you get attention and positive feedback and your brain rewards you with pleasant chemicals. But whatever, it worked and now I feel like I’m getting back in the game. I just have to keep the momentum up, now.

*cough* Ahem. So you asked me a thing. I will answer.

I do have headcanons about Squall’s extended family, specifically. I’ve not built out Rinoa’s yet…partially because it just never really comes up in the stories I’ve either plotted out or written. So I can’t answer that part of it–yet–but I can talk about Squall’s.

Working backwards: starting with Laguna’s side, Laguna is the oldest of two siblings, and not one, but both of them are kinda “black sheep” in the family. Partially it was their upbringing; Their mother, Elga Loire, was overworked and underappreciated, often working two jobs to keep food on the table (which she did very well). She didn’t have a lot of time to spend with her kids because of this, and the main reason for it was that their dad, Sevren Jr., was…kind of a loser? I mean, no, that’s not a good word, but a lot of people would call him that. He was an inventor. And always, always on the verge of the one that would make it big, this time. Automated chocobo saddles, “sliding” shoes to make walking more efficient, paramagic-powered chairs….yyyeah. You get why they were broke all the time. Sevren often traveled to demonstrate his newest creations, so he was absent a lot of the time, too. But when he came back, he would always bring the boys–Laguna and River (you must see where I’m going with this double-entendre)–some new toy or strange item from whatever country or town he’d visited.

This was fascinating to Laguna, in particular. Even as a kid, he dreamed of traveling the world. When he got older, joining the army seemed like the fastest way to do that, soooo….he roped his two best friends into joining with him. Heh.

Now, River…wasn’t into that stuff so much. He thought it was silly. He preferred to help Elga when she was at home, and even when she wasn’t, he ended up doing a lot of the house chores while his older brother went out and nearly died repeatedly trying to do dumb things. River was ‘fine’ just keeping to himself, reading and listening to music when he could get the radio to pick something up. As he grew up, he became a bit of a…punk? Like, he would be listening to Bad Religion in 1992. On the other hand, maybe Dream Theater when he was feeling happy. I imagine him looking a lot like Leon in KH2, but with hazel eyes (Sevren’s were brown) and no Griever all over his clothes. He cut his own hair so it always looked a bit jagged and unkempt, and he left it semi-long. Just generally prescient. He became pretty resentful of authority because he saw how it treated his mother and conspired to keep them all poor, and him too, when he got old enough to get a job (Laguna never had one until the army). It made him all the more determined to help his mother (and father, to an extent) weather the storm until the tides changed.

But then…well. They changed. But not for the better. Their dad died, and very suddenly, of an embolism. And, bitter as she was about having to support the family nearly single-handedly, Elga Loire loved Sevren quite a bit, and fell into some pretty deep broken heart syndrome. Inconsolable, she lost both her jobs. Laguna had already traipsed off to the army with his friends, and wouldn’t be aware of any of this for several weeks. River was left to care for their mother alone, and although they owned their small home, she had to sell it just to make ends meet. She moved in with a friend, and River…well, she sent him to the army, too. She insisted, thinking it was the best way to get both her sons out of this mess. Laguna already seemed to be doing well.

River did not do so well. He survived boot camp, but deserted his first year in service.

Laguna never heard from him, after that…and their mother passed away not too long afterward.

So…that’s Laguna’s end of it. As far as anyone knows, River is still out there. But Laguna hasn’t seen him in nearly 30 years. So, Squall has a missing uncle out there, somewhere, maybe.

Raine’s side…haha, geez, I might need to make a chart. In some ways, Raine is easier because she has no siblings and doesn’t know who her dad is. But I’ve traced her lineage back a bit further, and it gets…weird, in places. I might not be able to describe all of it, here.

Raine’s mother’s name is Gale. Gale is still alive, and Squall does meet her, once. It’s a solemn, one-time meeting, more an acknowledgement than a reunion. But it’s good. Gale is very practical. She never married, and never told Raine’s father she was pregnant (she didn’t like him for a permanent fixture). She was also a businesswoman. She owned and ran a hotel in middletown Dollet for many years. That’s where Raine got a lot of her experience before setting out on her own. Gale has sandy brown hair that she keeps short, and looks a bit like a taller Ellone in business casual, haha. But, but–those blue eyes. She has those. Her relation to Squall is evident.

It’s important to remember that although I enjoy both “he named himself” and “it’s Raine’s maiden name” theories, I’m pretty firmly in the camp of Raine’s last name being Leonhart. The story of Gale’s mother, Shiara (this is Arashi [storm] with the syllables reversed), depends on it, because she is the originator. I can’t detail the entire thing here–just too long–but the brief synopsis is that Shiara was a sorceress, in a time when sorceresses (”witches”) and “resistance” groups hell-bent on killing them all were in a state of cold war with one another. When Shiara became a sorceress, she panicked and ran away. She ended up being captured by one of these resistance factions, and had what I can only call a very complicated relationship with the faction’s leader, Dericho (this is the river Jericho with the first letter changed, making it phonetically very similar to Derecho, which is yet another type of storm).

Dericho’s faction was called, yes, the Pride, and they operated under a familiar leonine emblem. Of all his ancestors, Squall probably most closely resembles Dericho facially. Dericho is slightly shorter, his hair is a bit darker, and his eyes are a bit more on the grey side, but his posture, the way he carries himself, his facial expressions, his voice, even the sweep of his hair and the length he tends to keep it are all very familiar. A lot of those qualities were apparently recessive and just skipped a couple generations before thy found a match and popped up again.

How Shiara came to have Gale is a story I’d personally rather tell in prose, but I will say that it was Dericho who essentially named her, telling her in all his years of vetting people who want to be worthy of being called a Lion, Shiara was the only person he’d met with the heart of one. She carried that with her the rest of her life.

She is not, sadly, alive, having died at a ripe old age (and not terribly, since she was prepared with a willing successor nearby). She never actually told Gale about her powers, and to the very last, Gale never knew. The touch of sorcery ended there, seemingly. Dericho is also gone.

But I’m not done yet. One more generation, and this time, Hyne’s power is quite evident. Dericho’s mother, Hanwei, was a sorceress, his father was her knight, and they were quite open about it, feeling safe with it in their particular neck of the woods. Dericho was very familiar with the touch of his mother’s magic–she used it with him the way any mother would use a gentle hand, soothing scraped knees, gently grabbing his arm to pull him out of trouble–from fifteen feet away. His father, Mael[strom], was quite happy in his service to his wife and sorceress, and both Dericho’s parents loved him very much. When they embraced him, he could feel their connections tangling around him, and it was a very comfortable, safe way to be a child.

Of course, we can’t have that, can we?

When Dericho was about 5 or 6, they had been attending a fair that ran late into the night. Dericho started to nod off, so they went home early. It was a short distance, so they decided to walk instead of paying to ride a carriage to their home. Unfortunately, as you can probably guess, they were ambushed, by a particularly nasty faction called the Ridgebacks. Upon discovering Hanwei was a sorceress…well, let’s say the result was not pretty. At all. Dericho watched both his parents die, and his mother in particular, because she had no nearby successor. He was then “adopted” by the very faction who murdered his parents before his eyes.

Without going into specifics, they took this traumatized child, a blank slate, and turned him into one of them. But…not quite. By 17, Dericho didn’t know any other way of existing than as part of the factions, anymore, but he knew he still hated the Ridgebacks for what they had done. He murdered his “mentor” of a dozen or so years, killed several people, and took several more boys near his age on his way out of that particular clan. He started his own faction, with his own rules, and one was a “special” way of dispatching witches without having to burn them to dust. The Pride made their name on this and other standards which set their bar just a tad higher. They’d been in operation for almost ten years when Shiara showed up.

Then, as I said, things got complicated.

I should also note that Shiara and Dericho both lived in Centra. It was not long after Shiara flew free that the fateful Lunar Cry occurred, which deposited the Crystal Pillar and destroyed a third of the continent. Shiara barely escaped that disaster with her life…and her newborn daughter.

So….yeah, I think that’s about it, for now. If I ever get to working out my Rinoa’s tree, maybe I’ll put that up here as well, but for now, Squall’s all I’ve got, and his is hell in a handbasket.

I hope you enjoyed it, though!

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isilie-kins · 8 years ago

Text

We’re back everybody (and once again, I’m absurdly behind in my reviews)! After a brief and glorious respite from the heavy formation choreography and the blatant pushing of an Ace member – it’s all made a comeback in Brand New Morning, Momusu’s declaration of war on 2017.

Ok, well it’s actually not a war declaration. It’s an uplifting song about moving forward in confusing times and using all your power for good and so forth; it’s the usual morning fare with perhaps a whiff of politics (although to say this song is about Trump seems stupid to me). But this is a BRAND NEW morning (get it?) and we have two fabulous new members to shake things up.

I didn’t expect this kind of a pv though. I mean, it certainly suits the song, but this is taking the formation dance thing to an absurdly literal place.

The last couple of singles haven’t struck me as heavily formation the way Help Me or Brainstorming are, and there hasn’t been any Ace to push either. They gave Maria a chance to center in Sou Ja Nai and BOSS, Masaki-kins, Fuku-hime and Oda have all had their moments. Mostly, 2016 was a year of unity for Momusu; I was just getting used to the idea of ‘no ace’ and enjoying how much everybody has grown (except maybe Haga, who just is kinda there – adorable, but not really a big part of things yet).

But as soon as I saw this face:

I thought, “Yep. Yokoyama’s gonna be the promoted one, for sure.”

You know how I know? It’s not just because she’s younger and has the kind of generic idol face the Japanese public loves (settle down – I’m not saying she isn’t cute because she definitely is), it’s because I ALWAYS like the one they don’t promote as much better than the Ace.

And I LOVE Kaedi. I think she’s fierce and poised and has strong deep vocals that are really going to add a lot in the future. Besides, she’s demonstratively worked her ass off to be here. We already know she has drive and ambition and you can tell me that the fruits of her labour aren’t clear in her fabulous debut, but I won’t believe you. More than possibly any new member I’ve ever seen, she just blended into the group like she’d always been there. I still notice her, look for her, appreciate her, but she fits in so well that you can only tell she’s new when she’s answering questions; when performing she’s all in and on fire.

Yoko, on the other hand, got in after barely three months of work. Which is fine, I mean, good for her, but if we compare them to each other, I’m not seeing why Yoko deserves to be pushed more. Maybe because of her lack of experience/exposure, but I doubt it.

I also need to point out what many people have pointed out: that she has the same confidence and sly ambition as Riho and that she sings EXACTLY like Zukki. And her name is Reina.

I mean why don’t you just punch me in the FACE, Momusu!?

WOA! Ok, sorry! Also: perfect solo line is perfect. I love her voice. Duet with BOSS about who is more ikemen – now!

You know as much as I complain about one being promoted more than the other, I love the dynamic between these two. Kaedi worked hard for years to get a major debut and now that she has it, she still seems so floored with her victory that she’s perhaps a bit absentminded when she talks. However, her background with H!P Eggs (they will always be Eggs – don’t bother correcting me) has given her confidence and poise in both singing and dance. There’s a real ikemen feel to her even though she has an elegant stature. After working for years for this chance, I seriously doubt she’ll let Yoko just take over.

Yoko, as I’ve said, reminds me of debut-age Riho: she’s absolutely ambitious without alienating anyone (she has that cute, reassuring smile, after all), she has a background in dance, with singing being a bit more difficult for her, and she’s instantly getting a ton of close-ups and attention from the Japanese fans. Her smirk is the same debut face as Riho. When given the chance to talk, she’ll talk a ton. Have you seen her replies in the Pocket mornings?? Then there’s the crooked-baby-teeth-super smile…

As I mentioned before, they have such an odd senpai-kouhai paradox: Kaedi is the senpai but now they’re part of the same generation, so they’re equal. Kaedi has worked diligently while Yoko (I can’t call her Reina; it’s too traumatic) got into a group quickly on some mysterious charm. The other members cried in happiness that Kaedi had finally gotten in, while they are now constantly mentioning and promoting Yoko in their blogs…Our 13th gen seem to be on good terms, but they definitely get their digs in to each other.

It’s gonna be a fight indeed…in fact it looks like Kaedi kinda punched our little Yoko in the back of her head. Oooh that smarts.

After all, isn’t this pv all about aggression? It’s absolutely saturated in red. Red is an aggressive colour; it means passion and fire and no-time-to-mess around. Coupled with that militaristic marching, what else are we supposed to think about?

Also did anyone else notice this thing:

This red flash happens a few times and I really have no idea what it is. Some angry swiss cheese?

My first thought was, “blood cells”, which it isn’t. There is something biological about that image. Unless, it is angry cheese, in which case, colour my face… red.

*rimshot*

Fuku-hime mentioned the theme is “marching band” and since Momusu have had a few years to get used to formations, they seem to form their X, circle and triangle shapes effortlessly. The costumes are the right mix of cute and strong, although I was hoping for a revival of the Rival Survival concert gear. I suppose I’d have to wait for a concert for that one.

Since the theme is marching band, we gotta have some flag-bearer action! BOSS!

BOSS seems pretty excited in this one, although I honestly didn’t notice her much until her solo lines.

B: “I don’t care if you didn’t notice me – I’m INVINCIBLE.”

B: “RISE MY FANGIRLS AND SWEEP THIS STAGE CLEEEEAAAAAN-“

The terrifying power of our Ikemen: everyone is swooning and they don’t even know why! Look at her eyes people; she’s losing it!!

I love everything about this cap, especially Maria’s very matter-of-fact way of punching the camera. And what’s with that extra hand on Ayumin’s shoulder??

Seriously though, good luck competing with Kaedi for who’s the most boyish, Boss. She’s already protested that her and Kaedi look too much alike and their interests align and therefore clash too. If you notice in some of the performances, Kaedi started to part her hair on the other side…

Y: “Haaaaay, guuuuuuys. Dis about me?”

No, Yoko. No, no. I’ve talked about you already. Just cause there’s a million shots of you doesn’t mean you can just keep popping up like this.

Y: “Whatevs.”

Ahem.

Moving right along…

Today she isn’t Fuku-hime…she is RIIDA!

Honestly, Fuku-hime seems so leader-like in this pv, in a way I haven’t really seen before.

F: “Don’t you steal now. As your princess, I simply don’t approve.”

As far as her performance, it’s pretty much flawless as always. The only thing close to a complaint I have is how quietly she sings during lives. Some times she just doesn’t project enough. I mean, that could be the sound guys screwing up, but since it’s happened so often, I don’t think so. I hope she’ll really belt it out in concert, because you can’t just be ‘cute’ in this kind of song.

…Ok, fine, maybe you can.

F: “Hail to da riida, baby!”

Case and point about cuteness: Haga-chin, who is so adorable whenever she pops up that I don’t even mind how I keep forgetting she exists.

Look at that little face – how can you get mad at her??

Y: “Dat’s just like meeeeee!”

HEY! What did I say, Yoko?! Get outta here! And you STOP that winking!

Ikuta brandishing the MM flag like a weapon! That outta keep them haters away.

Does anybody actively hate Eri-pon? I’m planning a post about her so I won’t go into it too much, but I’ve noticed she’s gotten a lot more sullen in the past few years. She’s still trying really hard, she’s still smiling and being adorable and being the most photogenic of all the members (except maybe Oda, who is so freakin’ gorgeous this year that I can’t even sentence make!), but there always seems to be a frown in her eyes.

But let’s talk about her solo part please!

She gets the second bridge line and I don’t think she’s ever sounded better. It’s a bittersweet line and she delivers it with that unique, but rarely seen Eri-pon vulnerability; I even hear some of that vibratto she’s developed. It was just such a sweet delivery. I nearly teared up I was (am!) so happy for her. I feel happy when members we never hear from get solos, but I’m almost never emotional about it! Eri-pon just wants it so badly! >_<

I think a lot of the girls, despite speaking in rather high registers, don’t have the singing range for super high-pitched melodies. You could also argue they aren’t sure how to hit those notes without bellowing.

I have said it before and will continue to say it forever: singing is a skill and your voice is a muscle as well as an instrument. Using it properly, so that it won’t crap out in three years or get ruined forever, is critical for girls who sing constantly and sing LIVE. We laugh at singers who take ridiculous precautions before their concerts: drinking odd herbal concoctions or not speaking at all until the performance or making ridiculous noises repeatedly to “warm up”, but then these people sing and we shut the hell up because all those preparations WORKED.

This range is somewhere between low and high; it’s easy to sing, just girly enough.

I’ve seen Eri-pon perform this line on shows and she’s clearly not used to getting a center part, but I hope her shyness and insecurity won’t get the better of her. She’s probably the Musume I’m rooting for most, even if she isn’t my favourite.

Y: “Haaaaaay, I’m totally fiiiiiiine with center parts, ne?!”

Yoko, for fracks sake…

ERI-PON WILL ROUNDHOUSE YO’ FAYCE IF YOU DON’T QUIT IT!

Let me just mention here again how amazing Kaedi is during her solo moments.

*dies*

Close-up shots are usually a clear indicator of how much improvement is needed, or how much the girl’s confidence has developed. Kaedi is wonderful to watch. I didn’t get any of the derp I usually find in 12th gen, or the wide-open mouths I find with the 10th. Kaedi seems to already be able to feel the song and not fuss about whether or not she’s enunciating a lot.

Plus there’s the fact that she’s so gorgeous and elegant.

K: “Don’t forget the guns.”

Epic elegance.

I’m not actually sure if that is Kaedi or BOSS…

B: “I-I can’t remember either!”

B: “Who….who am I?”

Boss, settle down. This is Kaedi!

Y: “Hey…hey MOVE KAEDIIIIII-“

An example of both derp and the wide-open-mouth-syndrome. The struggle is real.

I had to include all three of the best shots of Maria, because if you can’t cap Masaki-kins, Maria is where you’re going to get all your unbashed joy. She doesn’t get to do much in this pv, but I always notice her and she always has at least one moment like this one.

…Then she’ll turn around and be gorgeous. She’s totally won me over folks, even with all the Loverinrinwhateveritis nonsense.

Y: “Haaaay, listen, I won’t evar do gags like that, ok? I am an ace.”

Well Kaedi will give us a random Aiiiii~n fail-face in the middle of pwning the choreography. I think you can afford to give us at least one fail-face.

If you’re gonna keep popping up, at least you can give us a renewed Reina-fail.

Y: *random goat noises*

…Okay.

Let’s move on to a completely different kind of awkward and talk about Ogata now.

Ogata has finally gained enough weight to be able to hoist the MM flag. Well..hold it anyway…well mimic holding it. They probably CG-ed in the actual flag…

O: “Look, I didn’t come here to grow an angry Riida out of my head and listen to insults, ok?”

It’s not an insult, really. I’ve just noticed how skeletal she looked in the past few years and now she looks a bit more healthy now. That isn’t really the point though. The point is that there is something about Ogata that means I keep noticing her. It’s probably because she’s just so damn odd.

There’s something odd about that whole 12th gen, isn’t there? Haga is like a stuffed-animal, but can be a bad-ass when she gets the idea; Maria is s giant-smilie-face come to life, but is incredibly versatile as a performer (even if her voice is still pretty rough); Nonaka is derpy even though she’s the most composed out of all of them; and then there is vacantly smiley Ogata who can’t sing and always seems awkward until you strap a pair of skates on her (seriously, look it up – she’s quite capable and looks very comfortable on the ice).

What is this expression? I DON’T KNOW!

Ok…we’ll leave on that note.

Perfect Oda is perfect. Wait…that IS Oda, right?

HAH! Found you!

O: “Woa, center again! No waaaaay!”

I confess 2016 was all about Oda for me. Once I discovered her strange tension with Ayumin and her ‘bullied’ character, I was intrigued. I’d been thoroughly blown away by her birthday solo performances, but I’d never quite seen her as an ace, or potential ace. She’s kept powering up, and I’ve kept wanting to learn more about her. Ultimately what I discovered is, I really like her.

I think she’s gorgeous and I love her voice. I feel like she didn’t really have a character before last year. She was just sorta there as a pleasant back-up. Then one line from Ayumin in a dvd magazine (“I don’t wanna be on camera with Oda.”) led me to discover that they bully her a bit. And rather than shrinking away, she loves it. She requests that they bully her more. It’s like finding her place has given her the confidence to really push herself in performances. Yasuda Kei was a bullied character and it turned her into probably the most infamous member of them all! Being bullied can be a gold mine!

Before the Sexy Cat business, I really couldn’t say she was a potential ace, but that single felt like a starting point. Even if Yokoyama is gonna be pushed, I doubt Oda will stay on the sidelines for too long.

I couldn’t honestly say she’s my favourite member though; I don’t really have a favourite, which is another strange and wonderful thing about this lineup. I feel like I’ve always had someone I’m watching or noticing more than others. Sure, Oda has my favourite voice, but I also love Fukuhime’s voice; I love BOSS’s ikemen stuff and the craziness of Masaki-kins; I’m rooting for Eri-pon and I adore Maria’s nonsense. I simply can’t decide.

There isn’t anyone to really dislike either. Call me boring, but I like that.

Y: “Oh, so dis means you like me? Oooooh…”

Sure, Yoko. Now please be quiet. *sigh*

Turning around is apparently Ayumin’s specialty. I don’t get it any more than you do…

Ayumin has changed so much. I still get that Daichi feeling from her, but now that I know she doesn’t get along with Oda (“they don’t ‘match’ well” – however you wanna say it), she seems a bit more cut-throat to me.

You can call it bias if you like, but I don’t think she’s really shown that side of her. All that aggression in her dancing is finally coming out in her personality. It’s like Riho’s exit finally freed her to aim for center. Or maybe I’m just more wary of her because this Oda thing doesn’t feel like it’s just for tv. Played up some times, sure, but it feels pretty real.

I certainly don’t dislike her and some tension in the group doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s not like Oda and her can’t do variety together, it’s just pretty tense when they do. I guess I didn’t think Ayumin was that kinda girl.

Hey, sometimes when you’re wrong, you’re pleasantly surprised.

If she’s pushing forward, I’m loving it. Her voice isn’t my favourite but I respect how much work she’s put into her singing. I love that they’re finally using her rap skills (not in this song, but in Jealousy, Jealousy – the Tsunku addition to this lovely single) and I hope that will become a permanent thing.

Be honest: H!P rap is usually a sad, albeit cute, failure, with lots of ‘uh’, ‘like dis’, and ‘you know?’s. Let’s not forget ‘yo, check it out, yo’.

*facepalm*

Speaking of facepalms, who are the derp-iest derps who ever derped?

Both: “It’s YOU!”

That’s correct!! Both: “Hooray!”

It made me laugh so much when I saw they’d paired up Mega-Derp Iikubo and Derp-chan Nonaka. The two Derps sound great together, blending surprisingly well. It’s fitting as they both seem to cycle from derp-to-cool over and over. Iikubo has fewer instances now, but she’s probably the originator of the derp-face. I was so happy they were together here.

It’s nice to see them get some play. Iikubo felt oddly absent last year, I think suffering from some health issues (please correct me if I’m wrong here) and when she was around she’d sorta fade into the background. There wasn’t even any of her “sweet, sweet honey time” in backstage moments.

Nonaka has been moving up steadily. I read a few rants about how her English-speaking was going to alienate Japanese fans. I don’t know if that’s true, but whether the fans are intimidated or not, she’s gotten a lot of opportunities with those language skills. Her singing has improved every year and her confidence never seems to waver. She always looks so comfortable, even when she says she’s nervous.

N: “Haaaaay, man, don’t like- don’t -no, I’m not that – no…”

I: “Oooh, I’m not derpy at ALL in this!”

True enough, Iikubo, but you’ll always be Mega-derp to me, no matter how many sweet-sweet-honey-times you have.

LOVE the dance-break! So much fist-throwin’ and stompin’ goin on!!

That’s really all I got here. Two new members kill it.

*squee*

So 2017 is starting to take shape as a year about unity. Everything about this slams strength-in-numbers into your face: the formations, the militaristic feel, the flag brandishing. After all, the idol-business is a war for fans and sales and how does Momusu compete?

By dancing and singing…

Together, in unity!

And of course, they want all the fans to move forward and do positive things with whatever strength they have. It’s a lovely message at any time, but I suppose if you’re taking it as a political statement, it’s particularly fitting right now.

This is ‘brand new morning’, pushing forward with their new members, their long history, and their strong unity holding it all together. You could argue the song is “too strong”, but after last years Mukidashi de Mukiatte I feel they are at a level to pull this off. The new members don’t slow it down one bit.

Y: “I’m da ace. Dats why.”

I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Yoko.

~Isilie

Brand New Ace Formation We're back everybody (and once again, I'm absurdly behind in my reviews)! After a brief and glorious respite from the heavy formation choreography and the blatant pushing of an Ace member - it's all made a comeback in Brand New Morning, Momusu's declaration of war on 2017.

#Fukumura Mizuki #H!P #Haga Akane #Iikubo Haruna #Ikuta Erina #Ishida Ayumi #Kaga Kaede #Kudou Haruka #Makino Maria #Morning Musume #Nonaka Miki #Oda Sakura #Ogata Haruna #PV #Sato Masaki #Sayashi Riho #Suzuki Kannon #Yokoyama Reina

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