#(( YEAH MIRANDA'S.... A SAD FISHIE.

[royalreef]

@infernalpursuit​ inquired:  was your muse ever forced to do something they didn’t want to? why? did they like it, or do they regret?

(( What else are the expectations of the Throne, if not a list of things Miranda must do and be regardless of her own desires? Why else would they keep such a tight leash on their heir, other than to control her growth? To keep her pruned into the shape that is most useful to them? 

A princess that can freely become anything is too dangerous to keep around, with too much power in all the right places to undo what those currently in power ( and even further back, by sheer process of extrapolation ) have been working on and aiming towards. But a kingdom doesn’t run entirely on the back of one person, nor does its future when that person is gone, so allocation of positions of significant power is a necessity. Yet you must keep those closest to you happy enough to not grow displeased and attempt to topple you, as well as keeping them isolated enough to themselves that they will never bond together to try a similar attempt.

For Miranda, and for her sisters, and her mother, and her family before her, and their family before them, and so on and so forth - that is easiest to attain by simply refusing to let them be anything other than what the Throne wants them to be. You tie their personal happiness and all ideas of success to the maintenance of the crown, and you leave them associating questions and doubts to punishment and terror and failure. Force them to think of the kingdom as they would themselves, and any attack against the kingdom is personally injuring them and their own ego and happiness and security, and they’ll grow into adults who will do exactly what you need them to do. Which is to value the ways that be over anything else, even to their own detriment.

Even if something goes wrong and they fail - well, they’re already cut off from anyone other than you. There won’t be a support group for them to run to, and you can control them utterly.

In a way, Miranda’s entire life is a story of being forced to do things she didn’t want to. Even to the point of making it so she thinks she wants to do these things, regardless of what she actually feels on the subject - which is why, so often, Miranda will feel one thing, but say or do the exact opposite. 

People aren’t born violent, even merfolk. It has to be brought out of them. Give them a culture that rewards them behaving in that way, the choice between hurting or being hurt themselves, and a sense of identity that’s innately tied to trying to fulfill inherently unreasonable standards with the only other choice being seemingly total destruction of everything they’ve known and are - and only then will they become violent.

It’s part of why talking about what Miranda genuinely wants or what would be best for her is... Difficult. Because where she is right now is still only barely taking her first baby steps away from the Merkingdom and the gilded cage she had been kept in for all of her life. She’s having her doubts about things, but that’s just cracks of minor identity crisises leading up to when she can finally, actually question literally everything she’s been allowed to know about the world or herself up until that moment and start making more decisions based upon both who she wants to be and what she wants to do. 

Because Miranda, as she is currently, will sit in place and swear up and down that the kingdom’s wants and needs perfectly align with her own and how DARE you even possibly suggest otherwise. She would say to your face that she loves the Merkingdom and loves being Crown Princess, no matter how difficult, and that she wants to be Queen when the King dies and won’t hear anything to the contrary. Despite the fact that, in her heart, she doesn’t actually feel that way. She hardly feels the Merkingdom is special beyond what merfolk already are and would exist without the kingdom anyways, nor does she feel any particular love towards it beyond the fact that her entire identity has been connected to it.

But Miranda wholeheartedly believes in her own lies, no matter how obvious they might be as lies to everyone, including herself. It would just cost too much for her to even think that much. So she keeps doing what she’s been forced to do and has been forced to do her entire life, and she won’t even say to herself that she regrets any of it. If she did, then all this suffering would be for nothing. All that she is and was and will ever be is suddenly lost, and she’s alone in a world that is relentlessly cruel for her for no reason that she can understand anymore.

There’s a reason that I say, in any good timeline with Miranda, there will come a crisis point where everything just shatters at once, and she’ll need to be around her friends and Bellanda to get her through it. She’s been deeply traumatized, and healing hurts like a bitch.

[angeliichunni]

Mercy route headcannons about Ethan and the lords because y’know what nobody can stop me

Twitch livestreamer

Ethan and her relate to each other a lot. She admires and respects his need to find and save his daughter

Is rightfully confused when she slices his hand off and watches it straight up grow back, like his severed hand dissolves into mold and then slowly creates a new hand, and she’s just sitting there like ‘👁👄👁’

“You didn’t really think I’d let you get away did youuuu why is your hand growing back”

She at first thinks he’s mocking her when he refuses to kill her, thinking that he’s toying with her. In reality he just doesn’t want anybody to die, he just wants to find his daughter and get out. He has too much blood on his hands and he hates it

She’s shocked and confused at the care he shows her and the other lords, although she doesn’t show it at all. This random man-thing that came into her castle, who’s hand she sliced clean off and threatened to murder, is showing her more care then Mother Miranda ever did

She sees him do her daughters makeup somehow and then totally does not hope that he will ask her if he can do hers.

He does, and Alcina makes it very clear that she does not care but she will allow it

He ends up sitting in her hand and having her lift him up because she refused to sit down. He says she looks very pretty, and Alcina just stands there like ‘is this what a Mother’s love is supposed to feel like? Cause if so Miranda’s doing a shit job-‘

Donna and bjd(s)

I feel like Ethan would brush and braid her hair

Like low key after a while of getting to know her she would take off her veil and Ethan would be like ‘You look lovely oh my god come here and give me a hug you sweet doll child’

But yeah I just like the thought of Ethan brushing her hair.

Donna hasn’t had to actually brush her hair in a while, and Ethan knows because of Mia, so I feel like it would be really sweet

He probably also hums while he’s doing it, maybe a lullaby.

Feels bad that she sent out a mold baby hallucination to traumatize him D:

He treats Angie like a human being and that makes Donna very happy

Doesn’t let her have doll knifes anymore tho, that makes Angie sad. Doesn’t complain though she’d feel bad

Figures out Ethan isn’t entirely human when she sends the hallucination baby after him and he just dissolves into mold on the spot in fear.

They have tea parties together! I just want them to have tea parties together!

It’s hammer time

I like to think Ethan would accept the deal Heisenberg proposed, but only after beating his ass.

“Fine then, I’ll work with you, under one condition. Rose will not be used as a weapon”

“Wait wait you’re not gonna kill me?”

“N-No?”

“Why?”

Karl really said *confusion intensifies*

They end up getting separated when Miranda rips out Ethan’s heart, and Karl leaves thinking he’s dead

Man is the only one besides Miranda who doesn’t know Ethan’s actually a mold monstrosity. He was left out of the big secret until later.

Alcina, Donna, Angie and Salvatore: We know something he doesn’t know~

I really like the idea of Karl being like ‘yea shit guys the man is dead’ and the rest of the lords bursting into laughter as he looks around confused.

Is very upset when he realizes he was left out of the mold man secret

“You were going to use my baby as a weapon??”

“Your point???”

He is also big sad when he realizes Ethan killed a lycan. Ethan admits not remembering any of this. It is all together very concerning

He very much enjoys the fact that he’s not the only freak who looks human around

Fishy Fishy Man

He’s embarrassed at the fact that his life has to be spared. He thinks everybody is going to laugh at him for being unable to kill the father of Miranda’s special child

He’s also shocked at the fact that Ethan cared about him enough to spare him in the first place. He stops being upset that he couldn’t kill him and starts being happy that Ethan cared about him enough to not kill him in return

All together very big sad cause he feels like he disappointed Miranda

Ethan feels bad so he’s just like ‘hey I’m a mold monstrosity too ! :D’

Salvatore feels better after that so win win let him have a hug. To him, Ethan is like living proof that he can be normal again from before the cadou.

Attaches onto Ethan and his care and love like the plague.

He’s so happy at the fact that Ethan cared enough not only to show him mercy but also to stick around with him by the reservoir even after his specific level is done. It is very sweet, I beg of you give him a hug. He may throw up on you though

Best Dad himself

He relates a lot to the lords, even if he doesn’t want to. He knows that he’s a lot like them, a B.O.W. The only reason he isn’t in a lab right now, or being used as a weapon is because he and Mia were able to hide it from the BSAA

Because of that they’re a lot closer in this au, he’s mold after all he can practically feel them. He relates to them and a part of him finds it heavily hypocritical to hurt this family when he just wants to help his own

So even when they reach out to attack him he tries his best to get out of the situation without fighting

He’s not completely a pacifist though, he will fight and hurt and kill if his life is put in danger, he knows that their are some instances where he will have to fight and he will have to kill. He still regrets not being able to help the Bakers, when in the end they were just like him really

“We can’t fight Mother Miranda. Shes far too powerful.”

“But, but we have to. She hurt people, and she’ll continue to hurt people”

“That’s why we can’t fight her, Ethan”

“No...that’s why I have to fight her, why I have to kill her”

Makes his disapproval of what the lords did to the villagers very clear, and that just because he didn’t end them doesn’t mean they’re off to hook.

[today-only-happens-once]

Im new to Hamilton and have an idea on the plot but don't fully understand it. Could you help out?

*tries not to immediately start babbling about how much I adore and will defend this show omg* first, understand my sweet anon that I have absolutely zero chill about Hamilton. So you have come to the right place but also be ready for way more information than you probably cared to know. 

Hamilton is a rap/hip-hop opera written by Lin-Manuel Miranda based on the life and death of United States Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton. It features a predominantly minority cast (which is its greatest point of controversy). If you’ve listened to the soundtrack, you have heard all but one scene of the show. It is based on Ron Chernow’s biography, which Miranda read while on vacation. It is hard to briefly summarize the plot, but I’ll do my best. (I kept it as brief but thorough as i could and it was long as heck so I put it under a cut, friend)

The opening number gives us a crash course on Hamilton’s background as an immigrant from the Caribbean. In the beginning of the show, he meets Aaron Burr, Lafayette, John Laurens, and Hercules Mulligan. All of them end up joining the military shortly before the American Revolution breaks out. Once it does, Aaron Burr attempts to win the good graces of Washington only for Washington to request Hamilton to be his right hand man. Hamilton agrees. 

While fighting the war, he meets Angelica and her sister Eliza at a ball. Angelica has a crush on Hamilton but realizes that Eliza likes him too, and on top of that, Angelica is expected to “marry up” since she is the oldest sister. Hamilton is of poor means, so for all kinds of strategic and sad reasons, Angelica decides to take a backseat and lets Hamilton and Eliza meet and fall in love. Eliza and Hamilton get married.

Back at the war, things are falling apart but Hamilton is doing his best to help Washington pull through. But Hamilton is a hothead and impulsive and when a disgraced soldier starts ranting publicly about Washington and blaming him, Hamilton challenges him to a duel (or rather, has his friend Laurens challenge him to a duel). The solider gets shot in the duel and Washington finds out and sends Hamilton home as punishment. This is how Hamilton finds out that Eliza is pregnant. 

BACK AT THE WAR (there’s a lot of back and forth in the first act), Lafayette tells Washington that he has a plan but like, Washington really needs Hamilton yo. So Washington sends a letter and Hamilton goes back to the war-front but now is like “cant be so impulsive i gotta kid on the way”. ANYWAY he helps Lafayette and Washington win the battle of Yorktown which wins the war.

Now, as a side-note, Aaron Burr had fallen in love with the wife of a British soldier. She had his daughter, named Theodosia after her mother, but I think either died or stayed with the British dude so we never get to meet her but we do know Burr has a daughter now.

Also, Washington becomes president.

The show then speeds through a bunch of years following the war effort in one song (”Non-Stop”) in which we learn that Hamilton and Burr both worked as lawyers. During these years also was, of course, the formative years of our government in which the Constitution was getting drafted.  Hamilton works on the Federalist papers to help the Constitution get accepted. Burr refuses to help him with it, but it gets passed anyway and Hamilton is generally showing Burr up left and right. Thus ends Act 1. 

If act 1 is about the war, act 2 is about the politics. Thomas Jefferson shows up from when he’d been in France during the war and is asked to be Secretary of State while Hamilton is asked to be in charge of the Treasury. They show two political debates throughout act 2 that shows how they butt heads: the first being about whether the federal government should “assume states’ debts and establish a national bank” (Hamilton is in favor, Jefferson is against) and the second being about whether or not the US is obligated to assist France with their revolution (Jefferson says yes, Hamilton says no). Hamilton is trying to establish a banking system for the government and do his job but politics are politics and they’re complicated.

Meanwhile, Eliza wants Hamilton to take a break and spend some time with his family but Hamilton is all like “i got sh*t I gotta do” and refuses to take time off. This leads to Eliza going to visit her family for a few weeks upstate but Hamilton stays behind and ends up having an affair with Maria Reynolds. Maria’s husband finds out and basically blackmails Hamilton into giving him money to keep quiet about the ongoing affair. 

Also, Washington decides to not run for President anymore and John Adams takes over.

As political tensions run even more high, Burr, Jefferson, and Madison (who supports Jefferson) figures out that something fishy is going on with Hamilton regarding money. They assume he’s basically taking money from the government and pocketing it for his own benefit. When they confront him about it and accuse him of treason, Hamilton is like “AW NAW IM JUST HAVING AN AFFAIR HERE’S THE EVIDENCE” and they’re like “yikes but a’ight you’re not treasonous i guess and nah we wont tell anyone”. 

Hamilton is afraid they won’t be true to their word, though, and writes the Reynolds Pamphlet basically saying “hey world i had an affair which is bad but i promise i didn’t commit treason”. Eliza finds out and is devastated and angry. 

Now, remember how I mentioned that Hamilton had a baby? Yeah, turns out it was a son. And that son hears someone talking trash about his dad and is like “imma fight you” and challenges the guy to a duel. Hamilton doesn’t want his son to get hurt and tells him to shoot his gun in the air instead of at the other person, and how the other person should do the same if they’re “truly a man of honor”. Duels are mostly about having the guts to show up anyway. 

But WOOPS because the other guy doesn’t shoot in the air, he shoots Hamilton’s son, and the son dies. 

Devastated and grief-stricken, Hamilton and Eliza move upstate and Hamilton… well, just listen to “It’s Quiet Uptown”. I can’t do it justice here (not that I’m doing any of the rest of this show justice with this summary but yanno)

Now the next Presidential election is up and people are actually campaigning now because Burr is tired of not getting what he wants so he decides to go out and get it. So it’s Jefferson vs Burr and the public keeps harassing Hamilton for his opinion. Hamilton backs Jefferson because even though Hamilton has never agreed with him, he appreciates that he’s at least honest and forthright with his opinion whereas Burr never wants to commit to anything. 

Jefferson wins the election.

This pisses Burr off and he challenges Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton agrees. 

He aims his pistol at the sky, just like he told his son.

Burr shoots him, and he dies.

Eliza is the one left behind to tell his story and continue his legacy. 

This ends our show. If you ever want to know more about characters or the controversies of it (I do have strong opinions on those whoops) or just about anything else regarding the show? I am always completely down to talk about it. I’ve written papers on it for college, I got to see it in Chicago a few months ago, I’ve basically memorized the album… I’m a huge Hamilfan. So don’t be afraid to hmu.

[randomnameless]

Chapter 8 - opening narration!

It’s finally time to finish Blume and co and oh, surprise, an evil nation with dragon knights appears to be the next opponent! Who would have guessed? Someone should stop hiring biased people to write those stories.

On the bright side - no desert tiles anymore! yay! 

the goodies and the baddies, right?

the good guys (tm)

the bad guys (tm)

bad guys indeed, they have dracoknights!

bad guys with a motive? If only they could wait a decade so the skies would change and they’d be blessed with good recolts - wait wrong game

all hail Quan! OTOH even the narration isn’t that black and white, people from the south wanted to claim the “life giving” land as their own because their own mountainous land sucks, and Quan&co only give them lances to deal with, no agricultural trade or something? Fishy - but the fish will be revealed in FE5.

Quan’s last miscalculation. Thracia would have won food or lands?

but Blume barged in, said “goodbye” and Mjolnir’d the random Travant put in place.

how is that “so called” and how is that “another servant of the Empire” as if annexing was such a bad thing in the first gen we conquered Verdane and no one was giving a fig about it! OTOH at least Northern Thracia was united under a real/true leader, not like the “unofficial but Finn/Dorias say it’s the absolute truth” Leonster domination!

happy birthday?

uh.. thirst for power and glory ? Naga Finn, I know winners write the history and all, but that wouldn’t be the adjectives i use to qualify Travant. Down with the narrator bias already!

Yep, in FE5 Travant shakes in his boots in fury but he knows they can’t do a thing, and teaches his son that no, they can’t just storm against the Empire even if Tahra is attacked by Loptyr goons. OTOH it is a strange peace indeed, Hannibal and Reidric have some beef at the border but even Reidric isn’t stupid enough to sent his men in Thracia’s territory, the reason why Leif takes shelter there (even if he hates the idea).

well, it is true that Travant officially makes a move now, but in FE5 we see that Thracia tries to participate through Aerone’s stuff and the Tahra issue. Actually I wonder how Blume took the “thracia takes over Tahra” problem. Let’s say that the situation was pretty complicated before Seliph started to move, but it became a lot more complicated afterwards.

Indeed, in FE5 they seem to act behind his back (or just pull a huge bet with Tahra i suppose) but with Blume defeated now there is no reason to fear him anymore. Hell, the Gelp Ritter is already in shambles!

Yay! Thanks to Seliph, because Leif’s - i mean Miranda’s - idiocy nearly made them lose both!

oh look, a baron who was defeated licks his wounds somewhere trying to regroup his men to take his capital back. Where are we, in chapter 2?

hey hey hey - what about Reidric? Ishtar is chillaxing in Chronos playing the flower pot for her boyfriend, a random is in charge of Manster!

Well if they had Reidric they could fend off against those invaders because he has his magical sword but he was erased from the story.

Manster is fortifying its defences, is it time to attack yet? No let’s wait for Seliph and co to destroy them, then we will attack! Clever, right?

“ssh Maykov, don’t share in the plans yet with everyone. Who knows who might be listening.”

Make Thracia great again?

pff - yeah and the Verdanites weren’t barbarians.

poor seliph he just wanted to help his loser cousin and he ends up in this viper’s nest.

“What on Tordo is Princess Julia doing with them?! She took a good chunk of my HPs!”

“We tried to fight, but then we were wondering if we should really harm Princess Julia and she didn’t let us think this through she Resire bombed our faces.”

Muhammad isn’t a mage, so Julia won’t be able to tank him. Besides, with Ovo’s fabulous hairstyle, the rebes will be so distrubed that they will lose focus.

“and we hope that we won’t die this time”

OH NO STOP TRUSTING YOU FREEGE PEOPLE! “it’s alright Travant isn’t from Velthomer, he won’t betray us!”

Go tell him, Banba! Besides, Blume, if you call him a snake, it’s kind of normal he won’t be super happy to help you. Have you ever heard about treating your allies with consideration?

uh... well Travant brings WTA against us, but we have two HW users Blume, and you use magic so... you’re dead.

She said it! So of course they won’t fail, right?

you mean “reidric” right? funny how, if Finn’s really the guy writing this, reidric got erased from the story. maybe it wasn’t heroic enough for leif to fight a goon like him

FE5!Ced sounded more confident because he had Forseti, even if he wasn’t that sure of himself. Since FE4!Ced can be Arden’s son, I understand the difference.

uh... is that supposed to be a motivational speech?

Claude!Ced might have foreseen it.

“help me you evil snakes”

everyone knows Siggy’s kid is Seliph?

Daw, Seliph isn’t that young! OTOH, you were the one to hunt Quan’s useless leftover who is a thorn in your side by mere virtue of existing. Clean your own doorstep before throwing dirt on Blume!

ohoh, the master plan he shared with his random earlier! I guessed it right, wow. It was just, so original!

scary thing, if Dorias and his pals plans worked and Blume was murdered, it would have meant more trouble for them since Travant would have knocked at their door earlier!

it’s called being pragmatic. I read it in a famous series but a man who bends the knee might stand up again while a man who’s dead won’t. or something like that.

daw, lets us all remember how Calf was defeated, thanks to a worm you trusted to do the dirty work. But when the worm turns on you you call him a craven? Boo.

FE4!Aerone is more perceptive than FE5!Aerone. And, oh, look, true motivations for Travant! Garon could have said something like that if he wasn’t busy giving evil speeches or making sure no one noticed he was made of goo, but no.

T-T this is sad but shows what kind of background those people come from. And of course who will be the asshat to dismiss this and say that travant had no justification for this war outside of his borders or something? Our favorite resurrected bard!

Yep, I wanted to make a post earlier highlighting the fact that for professional armies/countries with knights and all, a lot of people in FE4 (usually evil guys) hire mercenaries.

MAKE THRACIA GREAT AGAIN - i mean great because it has never been great before

and this is where the next chapter will be so decisive. So far I’m having a lot of mixed feelings about FE4, but Travant’s demise is one of its high points.

he wonders what’s for dinner?

Cavalry! Or Leif’s unknown buddies who joined us earlier?

A sound advice.

a plea from your son dude. And, uh, in the FE5 version, Leif abandons Lenster to Seliph’s capable hands to rescue his mom in Manster - and smashes Reinhardt on the way - but this story isn’t the one we’re playing, so we don’t care!

Make the first move Seliph! Go! (but uh, isn’t Ishtar there? shall we run to our deaths?)