#(then again I don't have full knowledge of the series so this might be explained)

[handsomethrowrug]

OOC:

You know, it's funny to think about the main movie with the later addition of the Guard lore.

Originally, Scar had no purpose and desired what he couldn't have. He was the unneeded second son who didn't have a proper role in the grand scheme of things. He was, to an extent, a deadbeat because he didn't have much of a choice. He could have left and travelled, but then he would have had nothing at all. He was hoping something would happen to his brother, and then Scar became an uncle.

But with the Guard being taken into account, he had a unique role and (presumably) some sort of respect. And then he throws it away because he gets greedy. Not only that, he has to do this in such a way that no one catches on to his crimes because he still needs to be tolerated to some extent by his family. So he loses his special magic ability, the lions who (maybe) liked him, and has to lose all his reputation as a leader of the Guard, but not too much because he can't be kicked out of the Pride. Also he can't be found out for murder.

I find it funny trying to find the backflips to make the two pieces fit together, since Scar betraying his brother is supposed to come completely out of left field from the POV of the pride. It would logically make more sense to have it that Scar was banished and he instead tries to find a way to get the mark of the evil lions of the past to reclaim his Roar and take on M.ufasa.

... but then that would erase the initial movie so.... not a good move xD

[curio-queries]

ARE YOU SURE?!

Episode 3 production Notes

I genuinely wasn't expecting to have much to say on this when I started it but there are definitely some things to chat about with this episode. Get comfy, it's another long post!

Here's a link to my post on eps 1 & 2.

(I guess this is a series now)

The Tone

I was curious about how a few things would be handled with the remainder of the show, and some of the answers are starting to unfold. We definitely have to see how the upcoming episodes play out but there's at least something to evaluate.

My main takeaway from episode 3 is that the tone is so very different from the previous ones. In my last post, I spent quite a bit explaining why AYS was a successful mix of Bon Voyage and In The Soop. That's definitely not the case here. This episode is a mix of Bon Voyage and Run BTS tonally. This episode is more what I was expecting they'd try to do with the edit to highlight the chaos and shenanigans that were a main ingredient in the content of BTS as a full team, especially to cover for the reduced member count from the full group.

Some of the main items that make this episode seem more energetic than the previous ones are:

The timeline. Episode 3 covers far less time than 1 or 2 did. It makes it seem like there's just too much going on to fit in the same parameters, which again makes the tone seem overall more rushed and hectic.

The music: far higher bpms consistently on all of the backing tracks.

The choppy edits. When we recognize that there was something missing in the middle of an interaction, our brains are still processing what we might have missed and orienting to what we're seeing next. With all of that going on, it easy to feel 'left behind' in even the most casual of scenes.

The intended audience. I just had one moment here that bumped me. At some point one of the members clearly says 'Fighting' but the translation wasn't just that word. It was a whole sentence about wishing for encouragement or something. These episodes have been very clearly laid out for an audience that is not only familiar with BTS but enough so that we know who each of these members are and why they might be doing these kinds of activities. If you had none of this basic knowledge, I genuinely don't think this show is even watchable...so why would people with that level of understanding need an alternate translation to 'Fighting'? Idk, maybe I'm being overly sensitive but like I said, it bumped me enough to question who their target audience was. Something I didn't even question with the prev eps.

Edited to add: an example of the tone influenced by the edit. Can't believe I forgot this one. It stood out to me in my first watchthrough. Thankfully our beautiful giffers captured the story beats for us all.

The Edit

Like I said at the beginning, this episode was far less a blend of ITS and BV and more a mashup of BV with Run BTS. The only thing in this episode that reminds me of ITS is the extremely choppy edit, which i think most would agree was not one of the highlights of those shows.

There are so many unresolved story beats in this episode of AYS! If you're not used to noticing something like this, here's an example:

In the car after their meal, vmin discuss that it'd be nice to pull over for some pics.

At the coffee drive through, Jimin makes a point to coordinate a stopover with JK so he can have his drink.

...and then we arrive at the house with no resolution. Did they stop? Did JK get his drink? We don't know, the only evidence we have is Tae carrying his partially consumed drink. So IF they stopped, Tae either didn't drink his or it was a very brief stop to not finish.

Here's another one:

When arriving at the house, the guys are all commenting bout how nice the place is.

Jimin exclaims about the pool.

...we don't get an establishing shot of the pool. On a rewatch of the episode, once you already know where it is, you're able to notice it for the slightest of moments but that's it. No hint of how big the pool is or even where in relation to the members it's located. It's just a tiny thing, not even important to the storyline but it leaves the audience without a reference to what the members are talking about.

There are dozens more of examples I could list but I think you get the idea. Again, not a big deal on small productions but you KNOW there was plenty of b-roll footage of the place. We see some of it. These are mostly just tiny observations that, if isolated wouldn't mean anything, but repeatedly set the tone for how the audience will be experiencing the rest of the episode.

The Guest

Another choppy edit is how they handled the introduction of Tae and the narrative that explains his presence here when he wasn't in the previous episodes. They either didn't get any good footage explaining it or they decided to purposefully try to cut it 'dynamically' for a reveal... in my opinion, this was not successfully done and just leaves the viewer feeling like we just need to accept the confusion and enjoy the endearing moments....which is exactly one of the main things I comment on in my Run BTS series. The BTS production team is astoundingly terrible at entertaining exposition. Long time armys are just used to it by now and I really don't see them changing anytime soon. They know ppl will watch the content for the moments we get to spend with the members, whether there's a proper narrative or not, so why bother?

Anyway, it's clear to see why those who have a bias against Tae have been using this as ammunition in their fanwars. It's just an awkward narrative that was poorly presented. (Personally, I'd rather everyone just focus on celebrating the members moments with each other rather than warping them to win imaginary points in a pointless battle but alas, I'm just an aging fan in a space that rewards useless vitriol).

Jimin's sickness...again

Poor guy just can't catch a break! At least that was the point they were trying to make editing it this way. Honestly, Jimin has so far been not as impacted as he was the previous episodes. Likely due to this upset being far more mild than the last one. However, there's so much more tension with it cut the way it was in episode3. It's not just that we're aware of it upfront unlike we were in episode 1. It's only highlighted in moments where Jimin is NOT participating in whatever the others are: not eating, not swimming, not climbing. In episode 1, most of the scenes that included any mention of Jimin feeling unwell also included some hint of JK wanting to take care of him or inquiring after his health. Episode 3 includes no such scenes. The overall impact is a much lighter view of how the members spent an exciting day rather than a genuine look into how they're interacting with each other as humans.

One last note: The Sound

There are definitely some horrific sound moments this episode! So much so that I noticed some on my first watchthrough! Again, there are allowances to be made, this is not a show being shot on a sound stage in controlled conditions but some moments were just plain misses in the edit.

For example, when vmin is listening to music in the car, the balancing of SEVEN from vmin's audio is horrific. The way to do this properly is manage the audio levels of their voices alone and overlay with the music track. This will help mask any audio that leaked into their mics. Something that can be easily done with rights to the music...which they have. And oh look at that, they do it correctly for J-Hope's Arson! It honestly is just coming across as a missed correction on the edit but I'd expect more from a BTS show that's licensed to Disney.

That's it for now. Overall, I'm disappointed in the edit of this episode but moreso because of how pleasantly surprised i was by the previous episodes. This one was very much kn par with other BTS content. Im also looking forward to the remaining episodes as I estimate we'll see a little more liveliness from our latenight-loving Jimin now that he's had his nap! 😆

Edited to add:

Are You Sure?! MasterList

[lutawolf]

The Sign Commentary Review Ep 5

I'm going to link to my episode 3 commentary because I gave a lot of Thailand mythology information. While I will be watching the show for the first time now and giving you my commentary. I've been Ask a question that gave me heads up that a lot of mythology will show up in this episode. So let's go!

We start the series off with this guy who has a Naga back tat. Then we see the front with him dripping water down himself. I got to hand it to Saint, he really knows how to visually stimulate. Is he the killer?

Are we really gonna ignore that Tharn sees visions? 2. Phaya has gotten his period. I mean, I get it. Nobody wants the love of their life thinking they're crazy, but this has the hallmark of hormonal rage versus righteous anger. Maybe the lack of sleep is starting to get to him. 3. Where do we stand with the physical assault? Do we label this domestic or everyone else feeling that maybe something is off here? Like when a werewolf gets all testosterone before their first change. I mean, you can literally see the freak-out in his face after he realized he has hit Tharn. Which honestly makes me feel better.

Oh, so we now understand why Tharn saw the female and how she relates. And Yai proves once again just how special he is. He really put on that clown mask. That's just wrong.

There are two! Honestly, didn't see that coming. Ahh, well now it's more understandable why they were getting their ass kicked. It's Wit.

I mean, I'm having a hard time caring that he might be killed. Just go ahead and let him go. Tharn sees him getting hit by a truck. I'm so okay with that.

I mean, I get the logic of no vigilante justice. But... People who sexually assault rarely deal with serious consequences. Only about 6% of Sexual Offenders ever serve a day in jail. If an assault is reported (this is rare due to fear factors), there is a 50% chance of an arrest. If an arrest is made, there is an 80% chance of prosecution. If there is a prosecution, there is only a 58% chance of conviction. If convicted, there is only a 16% chance that they will go to prison.

Well, that was therapeutic. The parental guidance warning made me chuckle.

They found him! Now I'm nervous! Ahhh, don't save him Tharn, go save Phaya. Don't judge me, people. I'm a little blood thirty when it comes to this.

A Naga. Not good. He is using his power for the fight, and it looks like it's overpowering Tharn's. Surprisingly, Phaya is keeping pace though, despite the break out of power. Well, until he gets a rope wrapped around him, that is. I was in full support of you dude until you started hurting Phaya and Tharn. Now ya gotta go.

Shit! A lot happened fast!

Tharn steps in front of Phaya and gets stabbed. You can tell from home dudes face that he had never meant to actually hurt Tharn. Which means he knows he is a fellow Naga. Then why is he okay with hurting Phaya? Then we see combined powers. Both Phaya's and Tharn, with Tharn's being green, which is Naga colors. Golden red is a distinct color clue.

Garuda: Is a mythical bird-man creature that is the half sibling to the nage, but they are sworn enemies. The feud started when both he Garuda's mother and Nagas' mother married the same husband. The husband gave each wife one wish. The Nagas' mother asked for a thousand children, while Garuda's mother wished for two children superior to the Naga. The feud grew until Garuda's mother lost a bet ad became the servant of the Nagas' mother. Eventually she was freed, but her children swore vengeance.

The Garuda represents royalty, strength, and divine knowledge. With its fierce loyalty and warrior nature, the Garuda serves a protective function. It adorns shields, swords, and armor as a guardian symbol. The Garuda’s golden wings are believed to shine light on the darkness of evil and ignorance.

Soooo, right now I'm thinking our Phaya is a Garuda. It also explains why in their past life he rejected Tharn for being a Naga. There are some stories of Naga and Garuda that aren't enemy, though. These few stories are about devote Buddhist Nagas and as protectors of the faith, Garudas are unable to kill these particular Nagas.

Poor Phaya is flipping out while Tharn is very calm. You can literally watch Phaya's brain go into a "does not compute point." All because Tharn is glad his is safe and gently wipes his face. It's a stark contrast to the violence that Phaya has been giving him. This whole thing cools him down in the same way that a bucket of cold water would. Despite others showing up, they cling to each other.

Tharn is now cleaned up and very calm. Meanwhile, his other half is losing his shit. Dragging him away to try and get some answers. Finally, some much-needed communication and touchy-feely. I love the way Tharn looks at Phaya when he asks him not to leave him.

Look, he is all soft and gooey like a chocolate chip cookie. He might be talking about work, but his body language is saying something else. This boy is clearly touched, starved. Ahhh, I'm getting all the feels with this scene.

The nurses pausing and kind of turning back to them and then them breaking apart. Hahahaha!

This cute little micro smile. It means everything to have cleared things up with Phaya.

Guys... Someone on this show is an actual survivor. Cause this shit is too accurate. Yeah, they could have talked to a survivor but add it with other things, it's there. This is someone's therapeutic art. The writer? The scriptwriter? I haven't read the book, so I don't know.

Ohhhh, we're digging into his parent's case now.

Phaya staying the night with Tharn again. Slumber party! Yes, you absolutely should play a game of Doctor. Silly boy, he is cute though.

Oh! Another dream. Damn it! I want the real deal but... I mean, at least they are feeding us something. At least the dreams tell us that these boys clearly want each other. Oh, a daydream. Damn boy. Keep it together 🤣🤣🤣 He's trying so hard. I'm dead. I love these two. He is planning ahead, telling Yai to bring him lots of clothes. He'll probably have to crash there more in the future.

But nope, it's the stupid doctor. Who is clearly some kind of naga since Phaya's touch bothers him. He gives a strong kickback. So as I mentioned earlier, Garuda can't harm followers of Buddhism, but they can and will harm those that worship the serpent.

Nobody is buying your shit Phaya, but I'm with you on saying what ever you got to. This dude is creepy. He feels like he owns Tharn and I wanna know why. And we're playing doctor again! Which ends in cuddle time. OMG, I love Phaya so much. That is the fastest count to three that I've ever heard. Love it! Touch starved, Tharn is very handsy when he is sleeping. Phaya does not appear to mind.

Too cute!!!

Apparently, all that love goes out the window when he wakes up. 🤣🤣🤣

Ummm, home dude might be your adoptive dad, but he isn't a cop. Stop talking shop!

The precepts are rules or guidelines to develop mind and character to make progress on the path to enlightenment… The first precept consists of a prohibition of killing, both humans and all animals. The second precept prohibits theft and related activities such as fraud and forgery. The third precept refers to sexual misconduct, and has been defined with terms such as sexual responsibility and long-term commitment. The fourth precept involves falsehood spoken or committed to by action, as well as malicious speech, harsh speech and gossip. The fifth precept prohibits intoxication through alcohol, drugs, or other means.

Damn, Phaya over here tattling. Oh, no! Grandma is sick! Ha, he was tricked.

He is a cop. Of course, it's dangerous. This is why I'm oh so excited that two of my kids want to go into law enforcement. (said in complete sarcasm.) We do a tight focus of the eagle, he has wings on his back. I'm really thinking I'm right here. Damn, he is obsessed.

There is past life Tharn. Water and sky, the places where their other half reside. And there he is. Ahh, I get more and more excited with each one. I can't wait. 💜💜💜

[ougougougoug]

😅👉🏽

this is a haiku that uses just two symbols.

so, let me explain:

(while editing this post i found out that a few emojis i use are not supported on certain browsers. clearly im being silenced.

if you paste them in discord, then they should display, otherwise, suffer?)

haikus are simple, but have a rigid structure, which is why they’re fun. just five syllables, then seven, then five again, arranged in three lines.

what I think is fun is what I like to call a ‘minimal haiku,' which is where you try to use as few symbols as possible to write all three lines of a haiku. so, for example, we start with numbers.

7 is so cool everybody likes 7 7 is funky

in this haiku here, although '7' is only one symbol, it counts as two syllables, because that's how it's pronounced. so, obviously, we can just kind of run with that, right?

so here is the smallest haiku i think you can make using numbers in this way.

here is the haiku:

77 707 77

"seventy seven seven hundred and seven seventy seven"

this haiku uses (fittingly) seven symbols, but it kind of sucks. we're playing fast and loose with what we're calling a haiku, but it would still be nice if the minimal haikus we wrote kind of, at least, sort of made sense, i think.

so here's the smallest haiku i have written so far using only numbers and letters.

alright, here is the haiku:

33 x 3 funny 700x 69 ha ha

"thirty three times three funny seven hundred times sixty nine ha ha"

its not exactly high art, but it's technically comprehensible as a series of words that express a full thought, and that's good enough.

obviously, you can go further than this, and the next logical step is ascii. I don't think there's any ascii symbols that can be pronounced as seven syllables, but there are a few that can do five.

so here's the smallest haiku i could make using just ascii symbols:

) :) !

"close parentheses colon, close parentheses exclamation mark"

wow! just four symbols, which tell the relatable story of a guy who wakes up and sees that he's slept through his alarm. (it conveys this thought pictorially, but it does convey a thought.)

of course, we can go further.

our next stop is emojis.

now, one thing that's problematic about these is that not everyone might agree on how they should be pronounced, but i say we just play with this, and use whatever makes our haikus work, because, well, it's more fun that way.

so, here's a fun haiku:

🌑 🌓 🌕

"new moon emoji first quarter moon emoji full moon emoji"

wow! just three symbols.

here's a haiku about a working class trans girl:

🧑‍🏭 👩‍🏭 ⚧️

"factory worker woman factory worker transgender symbol"

so, we've managed to make some haikus with just three symbols. but i think we can go smaller.

ive been limiting myself to writing haikus with three visible lines when written down, but you can't do that with just two symbols. so we're just gonna forget about that from this point on.

(as a quick little aside, i said before that, using just numbers,

77 707 77

was the best i could do, but if you ignore how it is written down,

77777

"seventy seven thousand seven hundred and seventy seven"

is a haiku in just one number. anyways, back to emojis)

😵‍💫 🤢

this is a haiku. let me explain to you why.

most emojis are single unicode characters. but some of them are secretly just combinations of two other emojis with a symbol called a 'zero width joiner' between them, which means, although they're displayed as just one symbol, you can break them up into three. here's the wiki page for 'face with spiral eyes', which lists the three unicode symbols that make up the emoji. with that knowledge, you can pronounce this fun haiku as:

"face with crossed out eyes zero width joiner, dizzy nauseated face"

which is a haiku about a person who's sick and might just frow up.

one common type of emoji sequence is for modifying the skin tone of certain emojis. for these, we won't think about what the zero width joiner is doing (in fact, i think some, but not all, of these don't even have one? it's unclear to me, but all the more reason to ignore them.) what we'll do instead is just use the 'CLDR Short Name', which you can find listed here and here on unicode.org. These are about as official as you can get with emoji names, and will cover the emojis i'll be using for the last haikus.

so let's look back at the haiku at the top of this post, shown again:

😅👉🏽

"grinning face with sweat backhand index pointing right medium skin tone"

this takes advantage of the skin colour of the pointing emoji.

so that's another haiku that uses just two symbols, which depicts an anxious person doing finger guns (perhaps they're anxious because they spilled some yellow paint on their face. who knows. like any great artist, my works are up to interpretation.) so this leaves us all asking...

is it possible?

we've done two symbol haikus, but what about...

one?

any emoji which shows a person can be modified both by skin colour and by gender. if there is more than one person in an emoji, then each person can be given their own modifiers.

This means it's just a matter of going through the list of emojis and hoping that you can find one that works.

and, well that's just what i did:

👨🏾‍❤️‍👨🏽

couple with heart: man, man, medium-dark skin tone, medium skin tone

this is the smallest haiku possible to write. it's just a single symbol.

and it's two gay men. a wonderful queer couple. and i think that's great.

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Why Characters Matter- Witcher S3 (Vol. 1)

Full spoilers for our four lead character arcs in S3 of The Witcher are below. I am going fully off of memory. I swear, I only have good things to say. (Especially my favorite idiot, he made me cry)

To me, character drives the heart of shows and I finally feel like Witcher has gained some of its heart back.

My biggest problem with Witcher Seasons 1-2 is that I felt like we had no reason to believe our core 4. They had almost no reason to hang out.

Why should I care about Geralt and Jaskier's friendship? Geralt fucking hates him! Jaskier has spent most of his life hated, disliked, or ignored. Hell, in season 2 Jaskier had better chemistry with Yen than Geralt did.

Why should I care about Yennifer/Geralt? I know it's going to happen, and honestly, they spend all of their on-screen time fucking! They never hang out as friends, or people trying to get to get to know each other?

This show took my every criticism and said 'Okay, bet'. It made me fall in love with these characters again. This is a really solid season of television with heart, better cinematography and writing.

NOW: For background. I've seen all of the show and played a bit of the game. I also went through a 'lore of Witcher' phase on YouTube analyzing the books. Add onto all that a full 2 years of my life reading fanfic (Geralt/Jaskier, Jaskier/Yen, Geralt/Yen, or all of them in a poly relationship). I am no expert in the series, but where the show failed me, I went to other forms of the story.

So when I say I care about these characters, I am not talking out of my ass. I am going to go character by character and explain why this season helped me care again.

Ciri: Season 2 she was just kind of there? Yeah, she was learning, but she was a plot device. Yen wanted her, the Witchers wanted her, etc. In Season 3 I finally see a girl desperate for connection and safety. She asks all three adults what she should be in life for advice because shes scared. ('I see a powerful ruler regardless of what you do', 'in the future, if you are queen you're life will be shit'. and 'I like who you are now, focus on that and what makes you happy')

She is also SO SMART. I love she tries to impress Geralt with her monster knowledge. That she is really giving it her all with Yen and magic. But she knows that she just can't fit in with the Sorceress, and feels that she's wasting her gifts with Geralt. I know how her story ends and it hurts me to know that her optimism might just get crushed. SHE'S A CHILD!!!!

Yennifer: I AM SO SORRY I DOUBTED YOU! She is the boss ass bitch, I love her, and I fully forgive her for her self-sabotaging in Season 2. She genuinely wants to try to repair shit with Geralt. GENUINELY APOLOGIZING. Starting slow, showing Geralt that she's not just trying to be friendly for a cheap fuck. They spend time together. She is at war trying to balance her circles of influence AND take care of a kid. When she talks to her old friends, I SEE that being vague and secretive is hurting her. BUT SHE HAS TO for her family.

This is the first time I looked at Yen and thought 'She loves him'. All the 'magic kiss slowmo' bullshit didn't work for me. But when she wrote out 'your friend Yennifer' I BELIEVED HER. She's also so funny? Her struggle wearing masks is so relatable, and her teaching Ciri is heartbreaking.

GERALT: I LOVE THIS FUCKING HIMBO. He's trying to balance opening up, running away from authorities, and being a decent role model for his kid.

HE APOLOGIZED! MULTIPLE TIMES! For all his shitty actions! He does it so casually and earnestly! To Jaskier, Yen and Ciri. I don't know where this development happened, but GOD, I love it. He opens up!!!! He smiles, he get's soft, and he gets scary when he needs to!

He went from 'uncaring baddass' to 'oh god, he's a socially awkward nerd'. I finally see a Geralt I recognize. He's smart, and skilled but still struggles with socializing and doing what is right.

EPISODE 5 OH MY GOD. I am so happy they split this series up so we can stew in the cliffhanger!!!

I was on the edge of my seat. Geralt and Yen trust each other so implicitly they're able to make plans on the fly!

Jaskier: He's my favorite. Always has been. (I can write a paper on him this season I swear)

I went into this season expecting him to be in maybe a few scenes, but NO. My man was relevant to the plot.

1.) PLEASE GO TO THE OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK AND LISTEN TO THE JASKIER ORCHESTRAL STUFF. It's so fucking fun! All plucky, and it sounds like you're going on an adventure and falling in love. 'Lessons in Smiling', 'He's a Spoon'.

2.) I FUCKING LOVED WHAT THEY DID WITH VALDO MARX. I was in no way spoiled, I didn't even know he'd show up. So I literally had to pause I squealed so loud. I wanted Jaskier to be treated well, and I wanted CANON Valdo Marx! I GOT BOTH! Also, All is Not As It Seems is a banger, but maybe overplayed. As Valdo deserves! You get the sense that Valdo is chasing trends and Jaskier fucking despises this man.

3.) THE ROMANTIC ARC. Now. I was spoiled that he'd get a love interest that was 'evil'. I fully expected a 'Douchebag convinces innocent protag they love them, only to double cross them'. This is how it starts. Jaskier catches on really quickly that he's probably going to get double-crossed.

Jaskier knows this is going to be a whole ordeal, so he tries to be as careful as possible. Seeming interested while keeping a distance. We can see Jaskier holding himself behind a mask, keeping the fun energy but watching Radovid in most scenes.

BUT. Jaskier is a romantic.

He knows this prince is bad news, he knows that. But something is keeping him stuck there. He sees his prince as someone to be suspicious of. A man who is willing to fake being drunk to hit on him. A prince who tries to be coy, and get Jaskier alone to talk. Who is usually there when Jaskier talks to his spy contacts. But...Well, we the audience has never seen how Jaskier acts around someone who genuinely likes him and who isn't afraid to show it.

Jaskier will follow a man who hates him for a good chunk of his life, writing songs about nature, love and heartbreak.

But in all this time he NEVER had someone to seriously listen to him. To see through his music, and lyrics, and look at the person he was.

So when this blonde prince sneaks away from an important party and admits that he's scared. And sings Jaskier one of his songs? Not a story written about adventure, or inuendo, or Geralt. No!

A song about how soft and kind love was because it let you be yourself with someone. How a person craves intimacy, even how music is written with untold words of love and kindness. How Jaskier finally feels complete in life! How Jaskier craves to be with someone, to be seen, even if it ends in heartbreak.

This prince finally SEES him...so.

Jaskier falls in love with Radovid of Redania.

Even if it's just for a night, even if it's just a crush. Jaskier can't help himself. He's the one to close the gap. To initiate the kiss. It's so GOOD.

Now. This is a man with bad intentions who is going to hurt Jaskier. I suspect that Jaskier fucking Radovid gave the 'enemy' enough time to kidnap Ciri. So.

Jaskier has always craved being seen by anyone who would listen. To be liked. To be loved. Here, on this one night, that craving was fully taken advantage of, (maybe)with a goal to hurt a person Jaskier cares about(Ciri, by leaving her alone). Even if it turns out that Radovid isn't involved, that he didn't mean for this, it would break Jaskier. Jaskier would close himself up, much like S1 Geralt, his heart wouldn't be safe with anyone. He will smile again. Dance and sing for adoring fans. But he'll never let someone dangerous in again.

I have always shipped Geralt/Jaskier, I really love reading it. I love angst/unrequited love. Hell, give it a week, and I'll read S3 fic. But this season I saw a Jaskier that didn't need Geralt anymore. Who had moved onto someone who at least seemed interested. Jaskier was simply a happy man doing what he loved. He was a weird Uncle teaching Ciri how to be human. I ADORE the scene where Geralt and Yen are talking and Ciri and Jaskier are secretly watching them. I finally feel like Jaskier is an accepted member of this family.

4.) Just seeing someone finally be comfortable in their own skin was so nice in this show. He's a funny, awkward, and sometimes charming guy. He's anxious ass all he'll, and scared and trying to rationalize the shit that's happened to him. He runs around doing stupid shit because he cares about his friends. He's not attached to Geralt's hip, and the audience gets a sense Jaskier has a life! I fucking love this man, and how he tries to seem brave around literal superhumans.

This season treated Jaskier, like how fandom on AO3 treated Jaskier, with respect, joy, and a plan to break his heart!

[gear-project]

Annon-Guy: In regards to Crow, if he tries to kidnap Dizzy again now that she's queen, it's likely that it will end terribly for him since he would also need to deal with her family (Ky, Sol, Sin and even Jack-O', Ramlethal and Elphelt).

Would he even try to kidnap Dizzy or do you think he's given up? Especially since he's focused on Robo-Ky (the one with Venom).

P.S. Why is he obsessed with Dizzy and Robo-Ky?

He's not obsessed with Robo-Ky so much as he made the Prototype and mass production series OF Robo-Ky (which was later apparently discontinued according to Venom).

As for his obsession with Dizzy, supposedly it stems from the fact he was the one "supposedly" responsible for creating the seal that Sealed away Justice during the Crusades in 2175, and because Dizzy is a "reproduction" of Justice as a kind of genetic copy of her.

Though, rumors abound that have yet to be confirmed concerning Crow Kuruwaba, some of which suggest he has connections with Happy Chaos and the Universal Will.

There's also rumors that Dizzy was created as a "clone" of Justice BY Crow himself... though that can't exactly be fully confirmed either.

As of GGXX, Dizzy requested that Ky try and find any clues about her "true family" as much as he could, but there was no full indication of what the results of that search were...

For now at least, Sol is something of a "surrogate father" to Dizzy, if not fully a genetic one. And she still considers Justice to be her "mother" for all intents and purposes (even if Jack-O' and the original Valentine are closer to "sisters" to Dizzy by relation, by extension Ramlethal and Elphelt would be "cousins" to Sin since they're an extended generation beyond the first Valentine).

The Sanctus Populi's Senato a.k.a. Conclave's own Axus once tried to use Dizzy as a bargaining chip to control Ky politically behind the scenes, but the end result forced Ky to assassinate Axus to protect his family.

As for what happened to Crow... most likely Millia either ousted him when she became the leader of P.W.A.B. in the reformation, or he somehow escaped and is on the lam. This was during the shakeup that disbanded the Assassins Syndicate as well.

In Xrd's events, Robo Ky made no mention of Crow, though I doubt he has any interest in getting involved with Crow, since he hates the man for manipulating him and his comrades, among other reasons.

So Crow is probably either a loose end that hasn't been dealt with, or the P.W.A.B. put a bounty on his head for War Crimes (if they haven't dealt with him already).

Anji Mito claims that he knows him from "somewhere" though he hasn't confirmed anything, and Baiken once stated Crow was a "traitor" to her people (and Slayer says he was once a doctor, similar to Faust, though not much else is known beyond that.)

Last but not least, Crow has some kind of rivalry with Johnny that was never fully explained, only that Johnny's master and teacher kicked Crow out of their Dojo and he ended up in Dimensional Prison for a time.

Crow DID say that so long as Ky hangs out with Gears that they WOULD meet again one day... but somehow I doubt anyone would let someone like Crow anywhere near the Royal Family, as pure security detail. Not even Goldlewis would let somebody like him set foot on Illyrian Soil, let alone American Soil.

I don't think Asuka R. Kreutz would allow someone with Gear knowledge like Crow roam around for very long either.

Anyways, that's all we know for now... he could appear in the future though, so you never know these things. He might even have connections with Unika for all we know!

[ghost-in-cyberspace]

Percy Jackson and The Olympian's Season 1 vs The Lightning Thief.

Hi everyone,

I'm back again and planning on doing regular blog posts.

Now, since I've read a lot of Rick Riodran's books, I've decided to start my regular blog posting spree again, by doing a comparison to the TV series vs the books, whilst hoping that the books are better than the tripe that they called movies. And the Olympians and Nine Muses must have heard my prayers.

Now beware spoilers and a very long blog posts. In fact I might be finding out if Tumblr has a character limit.

Now I'm not going to go into too big a deal over character looks. This is more about comparing story events and characterization etc.

Series wide there's 3 things.

Percy's knowledge of myths: Now this one isn't too surprising nor is it unwelcome. In the books, Percy wasn't too knowledgeable about the Greek Myths he's end up fighting. Most of the time it's Annabeth or Grover etc, who explains things to him. The most he knew was about Perseus (his name sake).

Grover's abilities to smell monsters, and empathy: This one made less sense to me to cut out. Satyrs are sent out to gather demigods, cos like monsters they can smell them. And Grover seems to be the best out of all the Satyrs at doing just that. Some spoilers for Book 3, but he finds a couple more powerful demigods there. But Satyrs can also smell monsters in the books, unless they're underground (Underground air smells like Monsters). Satyrs are also capable of detecting emotions. In fact their psychic empathy talents play a big role in Book 2 Sea of Monsters.

Demigods understanding Ancient Greek: Again another alteration that doesn't make too much sense to me. But Greek Demigods have dyslexia because their brains are hard wired to understand Ancient Greek, but in the TV series that hasn't been mentioned yet. (Fun fact but the reason Rick Riodran wrote them like that was because his son was diagnosed with the double whammy of ADHD and dyslexia as well. Knowing his son would have a difficult time learning to read, Mr Riodran read to him Classical Myths to help him learn. When he ran out of stories, his son encouraged him to make up his own, and Mr Riodran gave them those 2 learning differences so they'd be like his son).

Now I don't seem to have hit a limit yet, so lets continue on to the episodes:

Episode 1: I Accidently Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teacher

Chapters adapted:

I accidently Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teacher Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks of Death. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Trousers My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting.

BTW guys I'm British. If I typed Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants trust me, that would raise my eyebrows.

So the first episode is based on the first 4 chapters. Which more or less introduces Percy, and therefore you to the whacky magical world he's part of.

Now the sequence of events for both are:

Percy ends up vaporising his teacher, Mrs Dodds, aka the Fury (Or Kindly One) Alecto. He gets kicked out of his latest school, Yancy Academy. He goes back home. Goes to the beach cabin, in Montauk Long Island, NY with his Mum. Where during a storm, Grover shows up in full Satyr form and then the Minotaur shows up and chases the three of them, first in the car, then on foot when a lightning bolt blasts the car causing them to crash. Sally Jackson sacrifices herself trying to distract the Minotaur. And Percy kills it with it's own horn.

Some of the differences are:

Percy playing with Mythomagic cards. Okay I added this for laughs as in the books, Percy never played it. That was the obsession of Nico Di Angelo whose introduced in Book 3: The Titan's Curse. Though I do like that during that scene they kept the fact that Percy hates bullies with how he tried to go after some that messed with Grover. (Percy always was unpopular in schools as he befriends the outcasts).

Percy's other expulsions and odd things in childhood, which I assumed they left out for pacing, but Percy has been kicked out of every school he's ever been in. Yancy was his 6th school in as many years. Usually he got kicked out after something strange happens during a school trip, hence his nerves for the Yancy trip to the museum. Highlights from the books include: Some how blowing up his school bus with a civil war cannon, hitting the wrong lever on a catwalk, so his class got dunked into the shark tank during a visit to an aquarium. Strangling a snake in his cot at nursery, and a cyclops stalking him on a playground.

Also Percy got to keep his sword, Anaklusmos (Ancient Greek for Riptide) a lot sooner, and also isn't named in the TV series. In the TV series he was given the pen after his pencil breaks in the museum. Another side note, I love how they showed his dyslexia there, and he kept it since. But in the books, he was thrown the sword during Mrs Dodd's attack, and Chiron reclaimed it afterwards. He wouldn't give the sword properly and permanently until Percy goes on his quest.

Mrs Dodds attack is a bit different in the show as well, as she just straight up pounces Percy as soon as he accidently uses his hydrokinetic powers to pull a bully, Nancy Bobfit into the nearby fountain after taunting him telepathically (something that monsters seem able to do here). But in the books, after she witnessed it, she lures him into the museum first. Also there's no telepathy, but she just demands that Percy returns what he stolen. Percy, who of course nicked nothing and knows nothings, is confused and then terrified when Mrs Dodds' attacked, and then Chiron throws him the sword.

Also the attack happened during the spring time in the books. And was actually the start of a difficult time for Percy in school, as Chiron had tried to fool him with the Mist, like the other mortals, but Percy had started to awaken to his heritage, and could remember it. He might have accepted the fact he was hallucinating except for the fact that Grover is a terrible liar, and would flinch whenever Mrs Dodds is brought up. So Percy started picking fights and acting out in class in the books, out of the stress and fear of that incident until the headmaster expelled him near the end of term. In the tv series, it was just for shoving Nancy into the fountain, which Grover stitched him up for, so he'd get sent to Camp Half-Blood before the attacks get worse.

So the three old ladies knitting the socks of death straight up don't show up here. They show up in a later episode. But here, that's one of the reasons that Percy ditched Grover in the books. As the two of them, on the bus ride back to Manhatten, spot the Three Fates themselves. Percy, of course, doesn't know what that means, but Grover does and freaks out when Percy witnesses the Fates or Moirai (specifically Atropos) cut the thread of life. The reason for Grover freaking out is because what Percy just witnessed was an omen of death. But Grover's freaking out meant that Percy ditched him at the bus station to go home alone. Which led to the following events.

So coming home, not much difference there, except Smelly Gabe is definitely unemployed and earns through online gambling, instead of being a manager of an electronics store and not going to work. Also Sally Jackson is more explicit in standing up to him. In the books although she's still stubborn (she does keep her maiden name in both) but she charms and persuades Smelly Gabe.

Not much changes about the Minotaur attack. The storm in the books arrives in the night as a freak hurricane, which was mentioned a few times as a series of odd weather phenomena that mortals noticed but was due to the fighting between Zeus and Poseidon. And Sally wasn't planning on sending Percy to Camp Half-Blood just yet, she was considering whether or not to try another boarding school as sending Percy to camp might mean she'll never see him again. In the TV series, she obviously was and Grover's arrival was a surprise to her as he came EARLY. But other than that the chase sequence plays out the same until the crash, as Grover was knocked out in the books. So he got to witness the fight, first between Sally and the Minotaur, and then Percy killing it. But in the books, Percy didn't have a weapon. The storm had boosted his strength so he could break the horn straight off, and use it to stab the monster. In the TV series he uses the sword first, then the horn. Finally in the aftermath in the books, Percy dragged the unconscious Grover to the Big House in camp. In the TV series, the campers came out to find him and Grover collapsed on the ground.

I hope you all enjoyed this Blog Post. I'll cover the other episodes soon.

[nerves-nebula]

OMG OKAY SO (you implied you're okay with me telling you my studying-people findings so hopefully I interpreted that right alerkmg)

SOMETHING SUPER INTERESTING is that one of my friends, she was chill enough to let me make a series of questions and ask her every year (grades 4-6 because I then changed schools, then again in grade 10 and 11).

Something really neat about her, I'll call her M, is that her manner of thinking actually changed as she got older! When I first asked her that question (after clarifying what I meant lol) she told me that her way of thinking was most similar to a library, where she had all this information/knowledge she could access when she wanted (or needed some help getting to, like explaining what you want to a librarian. help would be guided questions, reminders, stuff like that).

Over the years her way of thinking actually got more auditory-based, where the bookshelves became recordings of information that she could still access similar-ish to a library, but harder to find more than one subject at a time because the recordings would overlap.

More recently M's thought process is almost completely auditory based, where it's like a series of radios that will play different recordings/snippets of information. Some of them are static-y, some of them are music, some of them are trains of thought (like an inner monologue). She says that she can "tune into" what she wants by sorta playing with the dials of the radios (she says there can be 1 or up to 3 or 4 at once, usually 2-ish). But the signal isn't always clear, so it's less of "accessing whatever information whenever" and moreso "getting her thought process to actually latch onto the information she wants" if that makes sense.

I have a few other people I was fortunate enough to be able to ask over the years when I was younger, but they either didn't give as much information or I wasn't able to ask them anything past grade 7 after I moved schools, so my notes on them are less precise. A trend I did notice is that people, at least from my (very small) study group are more likely to have their method of thinking change when they're around grade 6 (most likely grade 7 and 8 too count. I wasn't able to find when this new method of thinking "settles" into place, but I assume the shift happens up into early or mid high school).

Adults I've asked over the years (mostly my parents, and some other adults if I was able to explain my question properly, but I only got to ask them once) tended to give more straight forwards questions, but also needed more clarification because of what seemed to be the assumption that however they thought was the same way other people thought (my guess here is that when you're younger creativity is expected/pushed more, so there's less of an idea that "I am like everyone else" when it comes to internal stuff, because people are sharing their creative ideas more, which subconsciously shows how different people think/come to different conclusions).

I COULD GO ON OMG this is one of THE most interesting things to me, but alas I don't want to send you a full on essay (I will though. Not a threat but might be if you don't like reading). I ALSO ran a bunch of tests and studies on myself, and fortunately (most) psychological tests you can run on yourself isn't full on harmful, buttt a few can mess with your head.

I so very much agree I would love it if I could study more people like oooo you want me to study your mind and how you think so bad /lh <- stimming stimming stimming so happy someone showed interest in this I LOVE this topic and have a lot more I could talk about

i FINALLY sat down to read this like the morning newspaper (been busy and an ask this long feels daunting hah, but i just put it through text to speech no worries).

I am NOT disappointed. thsi is so fascinating because I've never thought of thinking as such a literal metaphor as a library or a radio station. it's not like that AT ALL to me, the most "physical" space i compare it to is when I'm arguing back and forth with myself and have like, weird avatars for each voice. most of the time its just an inner monologue and the way I remember stuff is kind of just up in the air, since I can't really control WHAT I remember (thought that might be the ADHD in me idk)

that's wild, thanks for sharing!

[cookinguptales]

I nominate Colin Robinson for the send me a character thing

favorite thing about them Honestly, Colin has had a lot of the funniest lines in the entire series. I think my favorite thing about him is the way he can take me by surprise and make me choke with laughter. And when it comes to Baby Colin, I think my favorite part of him is the deep empathy he has for his father -- Laszlo mostly, but even Guillermo to some degree. I love the very real emotional connection he created with them, especially Laszlo, and the way he was always happy to meet his dad in the middle. Even if that was in a dumpster covered in rats. And... if we're being real, I think we see that empathy peek out every so often with adult Colin, too. It's rare and he often covers it up, but... He went to so much trouble to explain the universe to Nandor. He looked genuinely disturbed when he thought Nandor killed Guillermo in s2. He looked like he was actually concerned about Laszlo's health in the s4 finale. He can be surprisingly kind sometimes, and it's a very odd thing.

least favorite thing about them The poop jokes. :(

favorite line I literally cross-stitched "young, dumb, and full of cum" and put it up in my office.

brOTP It's hard because Colin's idea of a close relationship is so different than others. But I have to say that I'm desperate to see how his relationship with Laszlo (and Guillermo and Sean) progresses in s5.

OTP You know what, he was actually kind of sweet with the horrible bird creature.

nOTP I don't ship him with anyone, but I especially dislike him with Laszlo and Guillermo. NO, they're his dads. Sort of.

random headcanon Colin Robinson has switched to trolling Broadway fandom since growing up again, and he's not sure why. All he knows is that he has encyclopedic knowledge of Stephen Sondheim's work, he gets genuine joy out of being involved in the community, and it is deeply easy to get people worked up just by typing Lea Michele's name. Y'all, he is feasting.

unpopular opinion I mentioned it before, but I don't think all the scatological references in s3 were funny at all. I get that it might have been a sign of his deteriorating body, but like... the only person whose energy he was sucking up was mine. lmao

song i associate with them I feel like he's gotten a lot of mileage out of this one.

favorite picture of them

*gross sobbing*

[legendheroes]

Welcome, this blog is full on delusional and crossover art/stuff between the Digimon TV series protags. Ah, and stuff from that peculiar XW AU setting i didn't shut up about on my artblog last year LOL.

Expect chaos and shitposts here. Also some canon divergence because some series i didn't rewatch for a long long time ago.

There's only love and unhinged energy here. Daisuke might be present in most of those because yeah, i love this kiddo a lot.

I won't tolerate any series/game/manga hate in this space. If you don't like any of them, please unfollow/block me instead.

Askblog → @tomorrows2top Artblog → @digitalgate02

Call me Ni (she/they), btw. Please be over 18+ to follow this blog, since some stuff might be not recommended for minors (mostly language, i don't draw/write NFSW/smut stuff). And don't steal or edit my stuff please! If you don't agree with my headcanons or ideas please politely block or mute this account 💦 I accept fact checking/corrections, but as long they're done in a non-passive-aggressive or non-mockery sense. And yeah, my English my not be perfect as well (and i can only read kanji and so little stuff in Japanese, having to double check stuff with friends with better skills than mine orz)

Blog status: lurking

↓ Some important things to be said regarding asks are below the cut ↓

I won't write/draw AUs or Stories/Fanfictions, OCs or even headcanons/theories from other people. Even the old ones i've collaborated with i prefer to not touch them again (because, i lost contact with people and also lost all the posts/details of them )

Please avoid sending me many of "what do you think of [X]" questions because sometimes those kiiiinda make me get no idea what to answer, or perhaps i've been answered/posted something related to it before. Even so, if you would like to send one of those, first check if i hadn't answered it or something similar to it first!

At this moment, this blog is me being delusional about the AU thingy on the pinned post. Most of those posts might be about them.

My memory is foggy about certain series, so if i end up misremembering something... Yeah, please contact me asap.

I know i've said this on countless accounts but, I have little to zero knowledge of the American dub, so my portrayal/answers/headcanons/etc are all based on the original Japanese version and sometimes stuff borrowed from the BRPT dub (which is mostly the same as the original JP for most of the series -- except Fusion). So please, don't assume that I had watched the US dub or that I am American.

My stance on the digimon (monsters) are that there's more than one of each species within the multiverse. So, Daisuke's V-mon/Magnamon, OG & Reboot Taichis' Agumon/Omegamon and Takato's Guilmon/Dukemon are not related to the Royal Knights.

I will follow all canon material if possible when working with canon versions of the characters, BUT only what i can work with. If something gets in conflict with the main TV series (Adv99-02-Tamers-Frontier-Savers-XW-Appmon-Adv2020-GG) i will reject the contradictions and use only the stuff not affected or influenced by it. Basically playing with the idea the events we know in certain media are played differently in-universe, adopted from Pixiv Dictionary. Explained better by Shiha in this post here.

I don't like passive-aggressiveness. If you have something to correct in my posts, please do it politely.

Usual common etiquette -- No hatred towards people's religions, sexual/romantic orientation, gender (or lack of), PoC, ethnicities, etc. I won't hesitate to block if needed.

Do not edit my art or repost it. If you wanna use it as an icon/sidebar, ask first. And no, you cannot use my art on A/I & N/F/T for ANYTHING. If you do that, I will block you immediately.

If you like, ship them in the age of the AU setting, please don't ship the adults with the minors. I beg you to not tag me in anything suggestive about 20yo!Daisuke/Tagiru. Please. (however i do accept any adult Daisuke/Takato and adult Takuya/Daisuke SFW content.)

[erstwhilesparrow]

*waves enthusiastically* HI!! :D May I have 2, 4, 10, 13 for the fannish asks?

[waves back with equal enthusiasm] HI!

2. What’s a classic work of literature that you’d consider yourself a fan of?

Hm.... Does The Haunting of Hill House count as a classic work of literature? I suspect no. The Bell Jar?? The Left Hand of Darkness?? Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?? I've read Pride and Prejudice, which I suspect is the closest to what is meant by 'classic' here, and I admire Austen's writing but it's not really the first thing I think of when asked what I'm a fan of. Sorry, this answer's kind of boring, turns out I'm not much of a classics person!

4. Do you have a crack ship? Explain them to me.

I... don't think so? I have trouble framing character relationships as shipping even to myself? Just in general? Like. It just doesn't occur to me that I might want to do that. And I don't think it's as if I don't ship people, more that someone says the word shipping to me and my mind goes totally blank. So. You can imagine how it's even worse when I try to think of a crack ship I might have. Wow, two in a row for Answers That Aren't That Fun -- let's see if we can make it three >:]

10. Recc me a new piece of media you think I’d enjoy!

Ooh... Nimona! By ND Stevenson. I just glanced to the side at my bookshelf and saw this and went, "Ah, yes, found family, magic powers, sweet and silly and sad. Perfect." It's a graphic novel about a shape-shifting girl (Nimona) who wriggles her way into the life of a villain by the name of Ballister Blackheart. The two of them team up to cause some trouble with a group called the Institute, Ballister might have a bit of A Thing going on with the hero of the Institute, and Nimona makes me real fucking sad every time I read it.

Aw, dang, this answer was fun, I broke my streak!

13. Praise an obscure favourite character.

Oh boy oh god oh okay!! I'm giving you this answer with the full knowledge that it'll change again within a month or two, probably. Pixlriffs! From the Minecraft series Empires SMP (Season 2)! I mean, I assume I'll like him in season 1 as well, but I haven't watched that yet. He's just... so enchanting to me as a character concept. And specifically as a Minecraft character concept?

Right, okay, so. He's an archaeologist. He pulls entire cities out of the past. He lives alone in a warren of ancient catacombs. He can see, as holograms, the places that overgrown ruins used to be. In a series that is so much about not being able to escape the past, he's, like, a walking thematic capstone, and that's just so. I am a moth to a flame about that. But also. He's so fucking funny as a character and everything I aspire to be. He's the definition of "friendly and competent guy that everyone takes for granted as The Normal One but then it turns out that no, he's as batshit weird as the rest of them"!! He's really nice! Utterly unflappable! One time he ripped up a guy's carpet because his favourite shiny rock got stolen!

But the actual thing I haven't been able to stop thinking about is. Pixlriffs The Actual Guy Who Makes The Videos (as opposed to Pixlriffs The Character) is making a point this season of not really doing a character arc or a central plot for his character? On a Doylist level, this is so The Actual Guy can stick to what he's more comfortable with: being in the background doing work to support other people's stories -- The Actual Guy himself describes it as kind of being like a DM. But on a Watsonian level? All of this is so. He builds ruins and structures and dots them across the landscape for the other players to find. He guides them to plot hooks interesting sites and suggests they talk to each other when there's thematic parallels in their stories they have problems in common. I keep thinking about the line from the End Poem: and the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code / and the universe said I love you because you are love. And. The idea of a person who is here specifically to act as a mouthpiece for the history of the world, to speak on a past that -- on the level of the game -- doesn't exist. The idea of Pix being in some ways very much his own person but in others acting out the will or narrative of a place overflowing with those things and unable to express them. Like the universe itself saw these people telling stories and building homes and living lives with so much care and love and went, Yes, let me help. Yes, I love you, here is another story, tell it with me. Yes, let me play the game with you.

History chooses the victors… The past is not gone, it is not even past… You are the universe talking to itself... He!!!

It's so funny how obvious it is when I care about a thing. Hi, Reyni! Hope you've had fun with this, and that you've made it to the end here unscathed. :]

[mediaevalmusereads]

A Kingdom to Claim. By Sian Ann Bessey. Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2024.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Genre: historical fiction

Series: N/A

Summary: Aisley’s young life was changed forever when her father accompanied King Alfred into battle and lost his life in a deadly skirmish with the Vikings. Now, almost seven years later, the Vikings are once again rallying on Wessex’s borders, and Aisley fears that her older brother may have treacherous plans to betray the king by aligning himself with the invading Norsemen. But when Aisley encounters a handsome nobleman in the market, she feels the first stirrings of hope. Though they met only once when Aisley was little more than a child, she recognizes him immediately as one of King Alfred’s most trusted men.

It has been years since Brecc has seen Aisley, but when he spots her in the marketplace, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to the copper-haired young lady with a gift for healing. Before his fledgling feelings for her can develop into something more, however, a Viking attack tears them apart. King Alfred is forced into hiding, and in a matter of days, the Saxon nation is brought to its knees. Unwilling to forsake their people, the king and his men embark on secret raids of Viking encampments. But when Aisley joins the fight, Brecc must reconcile his steadfast loyalty to King Alfred with his growing love for the king’s newest warrior.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: blood, violence

OVERVIEW: One of my good friends asked me to read this, so here we are. This book is set in 9th century England, which is exactly in my realm of expertise. Overall, I struggle to rate this book because I think it does a good job avoiding the worst tropes associated with historical fiction (especially fiction set in the European middle ages/viking era), but as a story, it didn't quite capture my attention. So my 2.5 rating has nothing to do with the history being inaccurate; rather, I think the craft of storytelling was not to my tastes and even lacked in some areas.

WRITING: Bessey's prose has some qualities that I think might appeal to some readers: it's fairly straight-forward and quick, so it does feel almost like the prose one would expect in a romance.

However, there were a lot of things that I didn't particularly enjoy. For one, characters speak in a manner that feels overly formal and wooden. I understand the desire to recreate "historically accurate" speech patterns, and I also understand the desire to show the difference in class by having the upper class sound more formal than the lower class. But personally, I'm not a stickler for this kind of accuracy and I find that wooden dialogue detracts from the story more than it enhances "realism."

For two, this book is, is my opinion, overwritten. Bessey focuses on details that don't really matter and explains everything down to why a basket in the kitchen is empty or why X character might not notice Y. These details, in my opinion, preclude the author from showing (rather than telling) and leaves little room for the reader to bring their own perspectives to the story. I think Bessey needed to hold back and think more about what was most important - even though research is admirable, the story should take precedent.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows two people: Aisley (a noble woman and healer) and Brecc (an ealdorman and thane of King Alfred the Great). The characters find themselves swept up in both an attraction that evolves into romance and in the conflict between Wessex and Viking invaders in the 9th century, and they must use their skills to ensure Alfred unites the kingdom and drives the threat from their homes.

I very much respected that Bessey created a world that didn't repeat some of the worst tropes of historical fiction. I was relieved that no one was shouting "witchcraft!" at Aisley for her knowledge of medicinal herbs (because seriously: medieval people - even Christians - used herbs!) and I appreciated that Christianity was neither ignored nor demonized. Bessey also did away with toxic masculinity and the constant threat of rape, so though there is always the risk of violence from the vikings, this book doesn't revel in the "grittiness" and violence against women that I absolutely hate in most media set during this time period.

All that being said, it was difficult to feel much enthusiasm for this story because it seemed like more focus was on the world and the history than on individual character motivations. Both Aisley and Brecc act out of loyalty to the king, which is all well and good, but they didn't seem to have personal arcs. Sure, things happen to them, but I didn't get a feeling for what either character wanted or what they were striving for.

On top of that, this book didn't seem to know what genre it wanted to be. The focus on the politics and history made me think it was historical fiction with a romantic subplot, but the marketing also had me thinking it might be historical romance. By the end, I didn't think. Aisley and Brecc's relationship was central enough to justify this book being romance, so readers shouldn't go in with those expectations.

Lastly, I couldn't help but feel like there was a giant missed opportunity. Aisley is a healer and her story takes place during King Alfred's reign. In real-life, Alfred famously suffered from chronic gastrointestinal issues (perhaps Crohn's Disease), but none of that makes it into the book. I normally wouldn't fault an author for picking amd choosing what to include/exclude, but since one character is a healer, it seems like there was such lost potential - having Aisley be some kind of help to Alfred would have given her and Brecc more opportunities to interact and thus strengthen their romantic plot.

CHARACTERS: While I do appreciate the way the medieval world is portrayed in this book, the individual characters were just not very interesting to me. It seemed like the characters were just there to describe the goings-on of Alfred and what it might have been like to live in the 9th century, which is fine, but not exactly a story.

Aisley, our heroine, is admirable for her compassion and knowledge of medicinal herbs. But her abilities and compassion has little bearing on the plot. She doesn't use her abilities to, say, make herself valuable to either the king or to the vikings, and her compassion, while nice, doesn't really signify because there isn't a time when she uses it to, say, spare someone who doesn't deserve it. On top of that, Bessey writes Aisley as having tears in her eyes a lot - I couldn't tell if Aisley was an easy crier or if the descriptions were merely repetitive. Still, there were some good things: Aisley does have agency and acts to protect people rather than feign helplessness. She also has a strong sense of loyalty and isn't afraid to challenge her family. I just wish more of these things were used to give her a unique character arc.

Brecc, our hero, is fairly bland in that he's a devoted follower of Alfred and acts honorably 100% of the time. Though I appreciate that Bessey didn't give him traits that I loathe in historical men, Brecc also didn't feel like he had much going on. His desire to protect Aisley and his duty to the king were not really in conflict enough to be a serious concern, and even his loyalty isn't personal enough - it's just a given. His romance with Aisley also feels very safe and uncomplicated, which is fine if you like fluffier romances but not so great for a novel-length story.

Side characters were fine. I liked Brecc's friendship with Rheged (another thane) because it felt more personal and the two were prone to teasing one another. Their rapport felt natural compared to most other interactions in the book. Aisley's family was ok; they're not super well-developed and their obvious annoyance with Aisley was kind of irritating, but the fact that they were disappointed with Alfred was a good way of instilling conflict. Alfred himself was also kind of bland; he acts the perfect king, which is fine but not necessarily interesting. Bessey hints at some inner conflict with him, but not much is done in the plot itself to truly explore questions of duty and loyalty.

TL;DR: While I greatly appreciated that the medieval world was written without some of the worst tropes and the author seemed to have a genuine love for history, there just wasn't enough to make the characters themselves interesting.

[abybweisse]

The universal donor

In a word, yes.

I've discussed this before on my blog because it's always struck me how strongly each lord of the stars sticks to their own blood type.

It could be that they -- and presumably Undertaker -- don't understand (yet) how blood types really work. They only seem to understand when it doesn't work, like how Vega (O) can't get blood from anyone else but Vega.

Brought back my old chart to show the blood types in the series in relation to the ABO blood group in real life. Keep in mind there are other blood groups, even among humans, but this is the most common. Also keep in mind that Yana-san seems to have ignored the Rh factor for simplicity's sake.

Vega is the universal donor for whole blood, and it's a common blood type, but now even Lord Vega is dealing with shortages. That's only due to the facilities being shut down, though, not a lack of people with that blood type. Theoretically, Undertaker could set up facilities that just collect blood from Vegas, who make up about 40% of the population in England, and use those collections for all four of his most advanced bizarre dolls. Wouldn't even have to label the bottles anymore. Just screen before collecting to make sure it's Vega.

Could set that shit up in the state of Nevada, keep a whole boom town full of these people, ship their blood to England... and call the place Las Vegas. 😂

Anyway, either the lords and Undertaker don't know this, or they know but stick to their guns that their type is the only type they should get. Considering how rare Sirius/AB is, you'd think they'd just start giving Lord Ciel anything; AB is the universal acceptor for whole blood, after all (ignoring Rh factor). So, either Lord Ciel adamantly refuses any blood type but his own, or he doesn't know he can accept everyone's blood.

But at least one person in the Blue Cult knows... though he might not know he knows. In Bath -- and I've blogged about this a few times before -- Blavat tells the "Sirius" renal patient that he's never received Sirius blood, only left-overs from the other blood types. Canopus also wouldn't have left-overs, really, so Blavat was giving him Vega (O) and/or Polaris (A). Either Blavat knows for a fact that Sirius can accept other blood types, or he doesn't know for sure but doesn't care and did it anyway and it worked, so he kept doing it. He didn't care whether those renal patients lived much longer, as long as they made money donations until they died. Blavat gave them the "wrong" blood and saw they lived. Perhaps he even thinks the blood typing is nonsense, but he doesn't care. He's there to serve Lord Sirius/Lord Ciel, he got some recognition for the songs and choreography he did for the S4, and then he's fine with being hauled away by the Yard... when he's not considered useful for anything else. Kind of sad, really.

I theorize that Undertaker kept (and keeps) the Viscount of Druitt alive for his medical knowledge. If so -- maybe Druitt knows but has such a weird sense of aesthetics that he's never told Undertaker or the dolls about his findings. It's possible he told Blavat to use the left-overs for the renal patients. However, it's also possible that Blavat simply stumbled upon this truth.

When our earl and Sebastian provide Sieglinde with samples of the different blood types... and I guess tell her how Blavat added each of them to something in a teacup... she figures it out really fast. The types, anyway. It's her explanation that gave me the illustrations for that handy-dandy chart. We don't see it, but I imagine that she continues to study blood typing and transfusions.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll happily say it again. I'm hoping that, whenever Undertaker tries to explain the whole blood type thing to our earl and Sebastian, he gets out-nerded by someone else present -- like Sieglinde, Druitt, or even Blavat (if he gets out of prison) -- informing him that he didn't really understand the nuances of using blood for transfusions. For whole blood (not plasma):

Vega can give blood to anyone but can only receive Vega.

Polaris can give to Polaris and Sirius but can only receive Polaris and Vega.

Canopus can give to Canopus and Sirius but can only receive Canopus and Vega.

Sirius can only give blood to Sirius but can accept blood from anyone.

Feel free to search my blog for "blood types" "blood type", "blood typing", etc. for more on this topic.

If someone had O- blood, would they be a universal donor for all the dolls?

[justatalkingface]

Hey! I've been reblogging some of your stuff and throwing my two cents in what I think. So I come here with a simple question...

What're your thoughts on Shota Aizawa?

Because for me, he's no different than the teachers in Aldera when it comes to handling Izuku. He's also a flatout hypocrite by getting onto All Might for favoring Izuku when he does the same with Hitoshi.

And I'm not even mentioning how he uses his trauma to justify his bs teaching ways

...Hahahahaha! So, you have no way of knowing this, but I've basically been preparing for this moment, to make this rant, for the longest time. More than probably any other character in this series, I've thought about Aizawa, tried to put into words what bugged me about him, scoured the internet for opinions to broaden my understanding, to find the right words. Quite a few posts have been yours, actually.

The short answer is that, simply, I hate him. Once I got past his Kakashi Aura from my first impression, I didn't like him, but fandom hype for Dadzawa, as well as the fact that usually comes with horrifying levels of bashing for people like All Might (ironically, perhaps the most unsung hero in the setting, seeing how few people seem to like his character) curdled it deep into loathing. Still, I'm going to be try to be objective as I talk.

The long answer is more complicated, and very, very long, but still overwhelmingly negative. For me, part of it is that Aizawa is easily the winner of the title of being The Favored Mouthpiece. This is a mixed blessing for him, to say the least; on the positive side, this fact has done a lot for his positive reception and total screen time, the the narrative bends over backwards to agree with what he says, time and time again. On the negative... for all that I'm aware that he's just lines on paper, on deeply visceral level I have sympathetic disgust for all the times he's been used like a puppet to parrot one agenda or another, and it muddles the water on who his character actually is. Honestly, it's been going on for so long, and it's still going on, I wonder if I should just... accept these random outbursts as part of his actual characterization.

At a fundamental level, I've had this question burning inside of me for a long time now: does this man even want to be a teacher? No, this is a serious question: he is effectively working two jobs, and managing it terribly (unlike every other UA teacher, who are all heroes for no apparent reason, and especially Present Mic who somehow has three jobs and still is full of energy. Does that man ever sleep?). He seems to hate the daylight. He seems to hate being clean. He seems to hate children. He hates, if not teaching, then teaching people that don't vibe on his level. He hates being on a schedule. He hates following authority. Really the only part of being teacher he does probably like is the actual paycheck.

So, again, why is he a teacher? I know he likes taking someone under his wing, but that use of a singular pronoun was very specific: he wants one person, one that fills whatever bizarre and unknown criteria, to teach (I'm still not sure what made him look at about five minutes of Shinso and say, 'This, this is the child I shall give all my skills, all my knowledge, and even my physics defying combat weapon.' Like, do they have to be his mini-me? Bear the soul of Grumpy Cat? I really don't know), an apprentice, not students plural. From what I gleaned from the Vigilante manga (which I should probably reread at some point), it's that desire, but misunderstood, combined with nostalgia, loneliness (his friends were already at UA) and peer pressure, that motivated him to start teaching at UA.

I don't really need to say it, but those are terrible reasons to become a teacher, and probably help explain why he's so bad at it.

Before I get into that, I want to address one thing: I've seen, online, that Aizawa's role as homeroom teacher is something completely different in Japan than it is for anywhere English speaking. So these various comments and what not say is, in Japan, these home room teachers aren't actually supposed to teach. They're supposed to be... something like councilors, I believe: they stay with the children and help guide them, and so on, and that's why he's a better teacher than we think he is. I've never actually seen anyone counter that argument, just agree, and I've had this response waiting for a long time now: when do you see Aizawa do that?

I know the Final Exam arc is supposed to show us that, yes, Aizawa is perceptive and does notice things about his students, and does care, but that's shit. His inner monologue tells us about Momo and her lack of self confidence. The implication of that, that he's only dealing with this now, means he's been sitting on this for... how long? However long he noticed that, I guess? So, from a time period ranging between the first day of class, and just before they prepared for the test, Aizawa noticed Momo had confidence issues and apparently did nothing until that test, probably because he wanted to be 'efficient' and deal with two things at once. Why do extra work and deal with a student's issues, when you can do it while they struggle to pass their final exams? Wow. A+ job there, teach.

On Shoto... just... just no. Come back to me, someone, anyone, when Aizawa even acknowledges that that mess is made out of red flags: the fact he doesn't use half of his goddamn Quirk until Izuku beats some self reflection into him. The fact he unsubtly hates his father. The fact he doesn't seem to know how to be a normal person. The burn scar on his face when he's heat resistant. Anything. Anything. I don't expect him to look at the kid and magically realized he's abused, but there's enough there that if he's a good teacher, or councilor, or whatever, he should probably be low key probing for information on his situation, see if there's something wrong in the most general of senses, because there's clearly something wrong there.

Literally anything about Izuku or Bakugou, though I'm putting a pin on discussing that mess until later.

See, the problem with saying that Aizawa is supposed to be the class's... councilor or something, instead of a teacher, brings up the fact that he's a shit councilor. Even if it's true (I'm not Japanese, I have no idea), this doesn't make his character better, this just brings up different problems instead.

Alright, so now that that's out of the way... now I need to point out that Aizawa is a Kakashi clone, and that's a good deal of the reason he's so popular; he rode off Naruto nostalgia. Let's list off how many traits he blatantly got from him. It's more than you think!

Aizawa is like Kakashi in that: he's a teacher that doesn't want to teach, his students include the Great Hope of the setting and his 'rival', he's traumatized from a friend dying when he was young, he deals with his heavy PTSD with unhealthy coping mechanisms, he has an eye based power that turns his eyes red, he loses an eye, he takes on an apprentice that reminds him of himself and gives him his signature technique/equipment, his dead best friend is alive, his dead best friend is the enemy, his dead best friend has been heavily experimented on, his dead best friend has warping powers, his friend group consists of people more cheerful than him who respect his skills, his best friend is overwhelmingly cheery in a way that balances with his low key behavior.

...When you list it out like this, it starts to get a little nuts, doesn't it? I wonder, sometimes, how much actual thought went into the character Eraserhead, and how much was Hori just... copying the copy ninja.

Here's the problem with that though, beyond the laziness of it all: Kakashi is a ninja. He is a mercenary, a child soldier, has killed more people than we have names for in all of MHA. He lives in a military village, under a military dictatorship, and is expected to kill. The teaching system he's part of is largely involuntary, though he avoids in in part because he's so good that everyone looks the other way when he ducks out of it. These students are also ten. There is just... just so much there, so much that is utterly alien to how MHA works, that putting a copy in is... flawed, to say the least.

That's why the Bell Test Quirk Apprehension Test is so bad: Hori put that in, as a blatant echo of Kakashi testing Team Seven, without thinking once of the differences in the setting.

He's in a school, and his job is being a teacher. His literal, actual ass job is to teach students (or 'help guide them', either way). This is something he chose to do, of his own volition. Kakashi trying to ditch his potential students is him trying to avoid an unwanted burden and him avoiding poking at this massive issues with teammates and responsible and everyone he knows and loves dying around him. And when he's forced to take some on? He tries his best to teach them, and he does: think about the first Battle of the End. The way Naruto and Sasuke fought each other. Think about how Naruto used to fight. Where did he learn to throw a punch like that? Kakashi. He may show up late, but the man did his work off screen.

Aizawa trying not to teach his students is literally a man too fucking lazy to do his own job. We all know Hori retconned it with 'he just wanted them to get a taste of death' via expulsion (which, apparently in Japanese culture is something that would set them back in their prospects for life) but it's so nonsensical that it's hard to take it seriously that he just... does this. Was planning to do this the first day, because they were excited about being heros, like that deserved a taste of death (They aren't in the military, you ass, they're in high school). Is allowed to do this. That he did this to an entire class for some reason but not Bakugou, when Bakugou exists.

Which means it's time to wade into the mess that is Aizawa and Izuku and Bakugou. Let's start with Bakugou, first, since I already started.

Blatantly, obviously, Bakugou has plot armor in how people react to him, or don't, as the case may be, and one of the worst victims of it is Eraserhead. The fact that Mr. 'Taste of death' and 'Expels entire classes' doesn't at least punt Bakugou into detention, or more likely a 'taste of death' to threaten the other students (because that's how you teach your class of high schoolers! By fear!), after he actively attacks Izuku, is just... mind boggling. The way he constantly refuses to acknowledge which of them is the aggressor, which of them is the first to throw a punch, which one is constantly threatening the other....

The obvious conclusion here is that Aizawa likes Bakugou, for whatever reason, but... I don't think it's true. The thing is if he liked Bakugou, you'd think he'd... spend time with him. Try and train him. Something. But no, by and by large he acts like Bakugou doesn't exist, right until Hori needs someone to compliment him for the readers, or someone to defend him after he does something bad, yet again, and then all of a sudden he's singing his praises. This is where the downsides of being The Favored Mouthpiece comes in: every time he's complimented Bakugou, every time he's said that this mess of a child is going to be a great hero, every time he cries desperately that he, 'Still needs to be Number One!' or whatever the hell that bullshit was? That was Hori. That was always Hori. Aizawa basically isn't allowed to exist near Bakugou without Hori running interference for him.

Izuku, on the other hand, is half the opposite, half Aizawa's own biases coming in. Part of it is Hori needs Izuku to feel stressed to pump up the tension, make cliffhangers, and get Jump selling; Izuku can't have a normal school life, he needs a heart pounding one. In most shonen school settings, this is easy to accomplish because they're generally hell holes that put their students in life and death situations on the regular, and live in hierarchies based off power levels. UA, though? It's a normal, or at least "normal" school, if exceptional, in the "real" world, plus some super powers. There are standards, is the thing; they can't and won't send their students off to maybe die because of they're a secret society or whatever. They have accountability (to some extent) to the general public, in other words.

So where does Izuku's cliffhanger filled school life come from? Well, Tomura and the Tomura-ettes, for one, but for all the other times... Hori turned to his teacher.

Let me say this again, because I want to emphasis this: part of the reason Aizawa exists as he does, is so that Izuku can feel threatened at school by his teacher. Why? Because Izuku's suffering sells.

Meanwhile, though Izuku does get pulled into Bakugou's plot armor sometimes, and suffers for it (more), but as a person and a character, I think Aizawa unironically disliked Izuku from the start. He grows out of it, to some extent, but....

Let's backtrack a second, back to the Quirk Test. Izuku, at this point, is ripped. Even without his Quirk, he was throwing around fridges and working all day and night to prep for UA. He was at the peak of realistic human fitness, instead of whatever increasing soft cap we have for heroes is.

Toru is invisible. Sure, she's in shape, since she passed the exam, but Izuku clearly focused on his body in a way most of the other students aren't, and she has no Quirk that'd help her pass the test (a test that, as many have pointed out, Aizawa would have failed). She's a nice girl, sure, but there's no way she could have out performed Izuku in raw physical ability, even before the ball throw which was one of the best of that category, and far beyond whatever she could have done.

Yet Izuku was the one at the bottom, not Toru. Why? Well, you could blame Hori, and that's technically true, but the thing is, unlike Bakugou, Aizawa acts like he doesn't like Izuku. He blames him for everything, he refuses to do anything as he breaks his bones constantly, he calls him Problem Child, and anyone who thinks that's affectionate, and that Izuku should as such, and that it's a cute little nickname needs to consider that through the lenses of Izuku's low self esteem, much less from a teacher who constantly threatens his students.

Aizawa sabotaged Izuku's scores. He did it because, you're right: he's just like the teachers at Aldera, if more restrained, and for different reasons. Not because Izuku is Quirkless (though he would if Izuku was, because the man honestly is Quirkist), but because he has the wrong Quirk. Because Izuku had the audacity to come to a school to learn about how to use his Quirk, instead of practicing it illegally, or inside his own house where, at that power level, one wrong move could accidently his house. Because he apparently didn't read the files that said Izuku got it a month ago, or didn't care. Or maybe it's just he looked at Izuku, and realized that having him learn to control that was just... too much work?

At the end of the day, which reason he did it doesn't even matter. What matters is he did. The same way he plays constant mind games with his students for shits and giggles, in ways that should undermine their faith in him, the same way he paired a bully with his victim so they could 'work it out', the same way he puts minimal effort into so much of the work he does, and it's why I loathe him as a teacher.

Aizawa is a good hero, but the moment Nezu let him into a school was a mistake.

[threeclockkeeperlovereal]

There isn't an explanation of how Akane turned into a half-supernatural, right? Like, how the hell can Kako and Mirai make a human being – such as Akane, who doesn't have special nor an exorcist blood in him – into a half-supernatural and just turn them back? I mean, we could assume that those two can do some unexplained magic and shit or whatever and poof – Aoi Akane is human again!

But then I remembered Mitsuba and realized that there is a high chance that Akane ate some parts of his supernatural-predecessor without his consent nor knowledge.

Alright, this sounds insane and I'm going insane so please hear me out.

In Mitsuba's reintroduction to the series, we all remembered how Tsukasa forced him to eat the now deceased No. 3 to steal the seat and become a full supernatural – which, in Tsukasa's own twisted method, grants Mitsuba's wish (or not because I don't remember that much ngl). Meanwhile, in the part where the "time to rescue aoi and (punch) hanako squad" was about to enter the Far Shore, Teru made them eat the fingers of a supernatural (theorizing that it might belong to Hakubo) so that the gang won't die due to their statuses as temporary half-supernaturals once they enter the other side.

Based on these two situations, it must mean that it's gonna be like this:

Eat the heart of a supernatural = turns them into a full supernatural; this leads to them stealing said supernatural's powers

Eat the fingers or some flesh of a supernatural = turns them into a half-supernatural; gets the nerfed version of said supernatural's powers for a certain duration

This leads to me thinking that Akane became a half-supernatural because he ate some parts of the original present, which could explain how his abilities are limited compared to his fellow clock keepers – which could also mean that what the fuck, Kako and Mirai made him eat some parts of the original present's body.

Then there is also the question of what would happen to Akane – if he survives, that is – once his duration has ended? Near the end of his contract, would he often collapse from the sheer exhaustion because his supernatural side is disappearing and killing him in a slow manner? Would he even survive during or after the process of turning back into a human being? What parts of Aoi Akane would disappear?

God, I need Akane and the Clock Keepers to come back😭😭

uyhyugygyu oml Anon ty for the ask♡

and yes we desperately need these mfs in the manga again 😭🙏

and sorry this blog hasn't been as active I'd like to post more but I'm not really sure what I want to post and don't have any idea at the moment, I don't have asks or theories I'm working on...I'm not really sure what I'd like to do and sometimes I just don't make the time to figure that out or I forget so I'm sorry I haven't posted much and only came to offer random ass posts... I'm working on it okay—

moving on..

I guess I initially thought of it as a signed pen and quil contract, not that he actually signed paper but yk what I mean? just not really of he ate some of no 1.... that is so interesting!!

because Nene has a bond, or a tie to Hanako through a cursed mermaid scale, and as much as Akane said him and Nene are similar they are contracted differently, but she still ate supernatural!! that scale was from the Mermaid, so she technically swallowed supernatural, making her cursed, and she can grow mermaid scales and turn into a fish! like Akane turn into his clock keeper form. and she's destined to be the next Mermaid, because she ate supernatural....

and our gang ate it at dinner the other night and in Teru's words "not fully mortal"

but temporarily, it says you'd become one in the legend but that's clearly not how it goes in nowadays at least(it may depend on the supernatural they ate)

so to be a temporary supernatural

you have to eat a supernatural part....so in turn, despite the "curses" and the "temporary supernatural" thing being different, they're achieved the same way.

so the question now is, is Akane temporarily cursed or become a temporary supernatural that can still blend in with the living and is still not FULLY dead, hence to being half(although technically he is a living more then a supernatural so like three quarters living)

but he IS limited unlike Mitsuba, who ate the heart of No.3, so the flesh or a part of a supernatural (like the scale) is our most likely option, but whether it's a curse or not is different....I suppose the navigation gang ate a part of a supernatural, and that counts as a curse, but it was used differently then how the "curse" would usually be utilized.

so what did Akane eat....? lmao

anyways whether he'd wither and collapse after it wears off is another thing...

Teru states here that if he winds up lucky it'll just carve at his lifespan. which is obvious because of his injury, but it's also been a clear fact that in tbhk the supernatural is a HUGE part to play in changing lifespans, like Amane and Tsukasa did.

so at what point can a supernatural phenomena cut off the rest of a lifespan? and would he slowly decay from BEING one?

well that's a hard question, and how many times and instances has he hacked at his lifespan because of what Kako and Mirai's ushered him into? personally I think that Akane has always had a short lifespan, although it is unclear if whether his lifespan has been changed but seems like Teru knows about lifespans like he knew about Nene's so I'm not as sure about the details. but him being a half supernatural and that slowly killing him is another statement!! because Teru wouldn't be as aware about that and Akane is a half supernatural, we have no idea if Teru can tell his lifespan as well and a half supernatural, is a VERY rare occurrence, it seems it's relished into legends at this point. so really, Teru would have no idea if Akane was slowly dying. although we don't know how exercists and supernaturals tell lifespans (although Hanako is self explanatory) and Kou could not despite being an exercist, so it's pretty unclear. which means Akane could slowly be dying and that would be the most perfect angst~😈

UHM and it seems that (this is my personal theory/thought/headcannon or whatever you wanna call it) being injured in his supernatural form, gravely I mean, messes with his lifespan, from what Teru said, that's what I'm going off of, and pure tbhk world lore. but with the injury on the Sumire/grim reaper arc and the too the far shore/Navigation arc (the arc names aren't SUPER clear....) that Akane has been having death threats on his lifespan, and currently, we have no idea what condition he's in, but considering Hakubo cut the tips of his fingers off so quickly just to get his watch shows how he doesn't mind tearing off pieces, he is an oni after all...and he tore through Teru, and probably shatter a few ribs for Kou or something. so for all we know it's probably worse then in the obon... so he's suffered these injuries in his supernatural form, but what is it doing to human Aoi Akane? what about his life? well ....the cards aren't all saying good my fren

and this would add to me saying how the clock keeper duo planned for him to be a permanent contractor! because why get a temporary one? because then the problem of needing a present and a third clock keeper, will just come back and you're bound to either need help because the seven mysteries are falling apart or need a third to complete the rumor otherwise...well

they'll disappear

and when Hanako says most, he means those who don't have clear rumors. those who are just rumored to be a dead person or an unifoliated rumor, something more vague, or perdue's it to have to be discovered first, not their position. so what would this say if someone found the clock tower with only two? what if Nene came to rip the Yorishiro off or a student came? the student may get their life taken(but be real they don't have much time left anyways) if the clock keepers don't allow them but, with the addition of Akane, who is very justice prone but also strick, and Mirai already enjoying chaos as fun but at the same time doing her job, and Kako who may let people do as they wish under certain circumstances but also doesn't say much and there is not much hope in going against him, what a pair! honestly I'm not sure what you'd have to do to be granted permission but idk

I'm not sure if the transformation back to human would hurt because it didn't hurt vise versa, but I suppose how long he's been a half supernatural and what he's endured, and he may be becoming more supernatural by the second. and we technically don't know how "supernatural" our navigation gang is, because Teru wasn't even very specific on what they'd temporarily be, seeing as it's just a legend (that's true but probably not many people tried)

anyways I think this is a fabulous idea and definitely something I'll be keeping in mind and mentioning after this

tysm for the ask Anon!! I'm sorry this answer came late :( but this stumped me and I wasn't really sure what I wanted to say, but today I just felt the ramble within me! anyways this was a really good idea and would def listen too you shitball more ideas my way.

conclusion: Akane needs life support and insurance to try and sue the seven mysteries.

[ramzawrites]

I've always liked the idea of eastern dragons, long bodied and often aquatic in nature. And ever since the movie Raya and the Last Dragon came out, I've only grown more enamored with them.

Then came the idea of the Sleepy Bois with a water dragon hybrid reader. I don't know, I just thought it'd be fun to see Phil freak out about a mystical dragon hybrid, Techno chilling out with another hybrid friend, and Tommy challenging this water dragon warrior to a fight. It could just be me, but I thought it would make a fun request.

And for fun, this water dragon hybrid wields a trident for a weapon, cuz you know, ocean n stuff.

A Dragon Friend - Reader and SBI

GN

Pairings: None

Characters included: Philza, Wilbur Soot, Technoblade, Tommyinnit

Warnings: none

Series: a request :)

Summary: Wilbur brings home a new friend so his family can meet them. To Phil’s shock it is a Dragon Hybrid, just one of the rarest kind of people out there that tend to stay away from society. No big deal really. Then again of course Wilbur managed to befriend them.

Words count:

Authors Note: I am not too knowledgeable on easter Dragons so I generalized it more into the Dragons I know of, I hope this is fine :0

Wilbur threw open the gate that led into the front yard of his home.

Philza was currently kneeling in the dirt as he took care of the growing vegetables and other plants. It was his little hobby to take care of these plants, though he isn’t the only one who took care of them. Technoblade, the oldest child of his, begun taking interest in this little hobby of his as well. Though right now Philza was working alone. His clothes covered in dirt but still wearing gloves that protected his hands from it.

As he looked up, curious why suddenly the gate crashed shut, he could see an incredibly happy looking Wilbur standing in front of another teen.

He had to do a double take as he realizes who was standing next to him. Blue scales were growing along their jawline, sneaking at times into the face and going down their throat and arms. Ending at their fingertips. Philza also managed to spot unmistakably gills at the side of their throat, now closed shut due to them being in the air.

Though the thing that was probably the biggest give away to their nature was the long, elegant tail behind their legs. Swishing around nervously in the air. It was mesmerizing to see the scales moving around and glinting in the sun.

On their back was a shining and sharp looking Trident. The bright and colorful shine alone gave him idea enough of how incredibly well enchanted the weapon must be.

Philza threw his gloves off and walked closer to Wilbur, his face contorted into a mix of shock and worry while Wilbur looked like he just had the best day in a long while. For some reason he couldn’t help but suspect that Wilbur must have done something.

“Hey, dad! I wanna show you my new friend!”

“Friend? What do you mean friend?”

He needed to know more. During his travels he has only met a few Dragon Hybrids since they liked to keep to themselves. It was rare to meet one and he was pretty sure it was near to impossible to get them to leave their clan to follow someone else around like this. Knowing Wilbur something must have happened, then again, he was quite charismatic and has surprised Philza before with his people skills.

Wilbur nodded enthusiastically “Yes! This is Y/N and they are my cool friend! We met a few weeks ago.”

Well, that explained why he suddenly visited the ocean so often.

Y/N took a step forward and gave Phil a quick nod as a greeting “Hello, I hope this isn’t a bad time. Wilbur just told me so much about his family that I couldn’t help but be curious. He just wanted to help me satisfy my own curiosity towards people on the outside.”

And here was the explanation why they just followed Wilbur like this. They were curios and not afraid enough to follow up on it.

“Ah, okay. It’s, uh, fine. My name is Philza. Nice to meet you Y/N.”

It was obvious that Phil was still trying to wrap his head around this situation. It just kind of felt unreal and yet it just made sense. This family and the world were already so Ender damned weird, this might as well happen.

Wilbur didn’t seem to be bothered by his father’s clear confusion “Where are Techno and Tommy, by the way? Are they home?”

Phil slowly nodded “Yeah. Both should be in the house.”

“Thanks, Dad. Let’s go Y/N! You have to meet my brothers as well!”

He then grabbed Y/N’s hand and pulled them along towards the old but sturdy wooden door that led into their home.

Before Wilbur could open it though Phil yelled out one more thing towards Y/N “If any of my sons are too much or just generally annoying don’t hesitate to get me, I also give you full permission to just tell them off.”

Y/N couldn’t give him an answer though since Wilbur just opened up the door and dragged them in but at this point they were used to Wilbur and taking the charge like this at times so all they did was follow along.

“Your father seems nice, even if a bit sur-“ but Y/N couldn’t finish the sentence. Wilbur pressed his finger against his lips, giving them the sign to be quiet. They were confused but begun following Wilbur as he slowly opened up a door to what Y/N assumed to be the living room.

In the middle of a couch, with his back turned towards the door, sat another teenager with pink hair and pink ears poking out of it.

They might have never met him, but Y/N could immediately tell that this must be Technoblade. The older one between the twins. Even if only by two minutes according to Wil.

Now, Y/N was very interested in meeting Technoblade as well since he too was a Hybrid and they had only been in contact with fellow Dragon Hybrids.

Though right now, Y/N was just watching.

Watching Wilbur who was sneaking up on his brother. His hands out, obviously he planned on somehow scaring him by suddenly touching his shoulder. And just as he got close enough to slam his hands down, Techno loudly shut his book.

The next thing Y/N heard was a bang and saw that Wilbur sank down to the ground, holding his nose and crying out in pain. Techno’s hand with the book in the air.

He slammed the book into Wilbur’s face.

Y/N let out a chuckle but more out of surprise than anything. They knew from Wilbur that Techno was an incredible fighter and had amazing reflexes but somehow they didn’t expect this.

“What the hell, Y/N. Here I am on the ground dying and all you do is laugh?”

They just rolled their eyes and helped Wilbur back up. His nose was a bit red but nothing more, he probably reacted more out of shock than anything.

Technoblade stood up with a sigh and turned around “You really think I couldn’t hear you? I knew as soon as I heard your sneaking steps what you were planning, nerd.”

With Techno now turned around Y/N couldn’t help but be amazed by his Hybrid features. Two huge tusk decorated his face, bristle like fur growing along his arms and now they could see that the ears were definitely that of a pig.

As Y/N stared at him and Wilbur was still cursing his brother out, Techno noticed how Y/N’s gaze was transfixed on him in awe.

He raised one of his eyebrows “Uh, hi?”

Y/N’s eyes widened “Oh! Sorry! My name is Y/N! Wilbur was so nice to show me around since I usually stay with my own clan.”

His own gaze fell then onto his brother who just nodded to show that this was indeed the truth “Mhm, yeah. Pretty much, also, I was so quiet! How did you hear me?”

As an answer Techno just pointed at one of his animal ears “I have better hearing, remember?”

Wilbur scoffed “Yeah, yeah. You are so much better than us. Better hearing, better nose and even better eyes, but we non-Hybrids are pretty cool too.” He then looked at Y/N expectantly as if to wait for them to support his statement.

But Y/N just squinted their eyes and took a good second to stare Wilbur down “Are you- You know who you are talking to, right? I can breathe under water, my eyes are better as well and I have a Ender damned tail.”

“Okay, maybe I talked to the wrong person.” He admitted.

Techno chuckled and moved next to Y/N and held his hand up, palm towards them. It took them a small moment to understand but their own palm soon clapped together with Techno’s.

“Hybrid Buddies?” he asked.

“Hybrid Buddies.” Y/N confirmed.

They might only really know Techno now for about a minute, but they could tell he mostly did this to infuriate Wilbur even more.

Wilbur just sighed and cupped his hands around his mouth “Tommy? Get to the living room for a sec!”

“Oh, are you getting backup?” Techno mused.

At this point Wilbur just looked unamused, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he waited for the youngest brother to react.

The sudden sound of rumbling and loud steps from above seemed to be this answer.

“What do you want Wil! I was working on something! Wait, who is that?” Tommy begun yelling out as soon as he arrived at the stairs only to stop once he walked into the room properly to see Y/N who greeted him with a little wave.

“This is Y/N. I met them a while ago and wanted to show them where we live.” Wilbur put his arm around his younger brother as he begun explaining.

Tommy seemed to be incredibly confused but nonetheless intrigued. His eyes darting from Y/N to Wilbur and only for a split second jumping to Techno “Okay? Hello, Y/N. I’m Tommy.” He then squirmed away from beneath Wilbur’s arm, taking a closer look at them “Woah! What are you? You look awesome! Is that a trident? I thought they were super rare! It’s also enchanted! I mean… you seem to be alright, I guess.”

Y/N laughed, more at the reactions of both Wilbur and Techno who seemed to grow incredibly tired as Tommy went along with his usual spiel “Oh! I’m a Water Dragon Hybrid! Also, yeah, I got that trident from my parents as a way to protect myself. We primarily live in or close of water, so, tridents are incredibly useful to us. Also, they mean a lot to us as well.”

They then got the trident off their back to let Tommy have a better look at it. He looked awestruck. Not only at the revelation that Y/N was a Dragon Hybrid but that weapon seemed to really have enamored him somehow.

A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes as he looked back up “This is cool but nothing against me and my sword.”

Technoblade seemed to be bewildered at that “You just have an iron sword what are you talking about?”

But Wilbur put his hand on Techno’s shoulder “No, no. Let him. Let’s just watch.” It was clearly Wilbur’s chaos was getting the better of him and Techno was too tired to deal with that.

“Your sword? Are you sure? Even if you have an enchanted iron sword, I’m pretty sure it would be nothing against a trident, especially since I am very well trained with this weapon.” Y/N seemed almost smug.

Tommy puffed up his chest and placed his hands at his sides “But my father is the one and only Philza and he taught me everything! There is no way you even stand a chance against me! Fight me and I’ll prove it to you!”

Y/N rolled their shoulders “Okay, little one, let’s get outside and fight! I’ll show you.”

“Little one? Little one?!” Tommy repeated flabbergasted. How dare they call him little.

The sound of the closing front door rung out through the house which was soon followed by an annoyed groan “I swear by Ender. I leave you alone for a few minutes and I already hear Tommy screaming about wanting to fight our guest. Amazing first impression for Y/N.”

He appeared at the door, gloves still on this time. His expression pulled down into a strict frown as he looked around at the scene in front of him.

Both Tommy and Y/N were standing in the middle of the room, turned towards each other due to their bickering while Techno and Wilbur stood to the side. Techno had a skeptical look about him while Wilbur couldn’t help but smirk at the argument of the two.

He purposefully didn’t say it, but Y/N was being trained as a full-fledged warrior of their clan. It was their job to keep off mobs and unwanted guests away from their family. Tommy would have no chance against them, but he couldn’t help but still wanting to see it. Besides Y/N wouldn’t seriously hurt him.

Honestly if anything Wilbur really wanted to see Techno and Y/N fight. In Wilbur’s eyes Techno was definitely the best fighter he knew but Y/N was a close second and while he couldn’t understand it, he also knew that those two would probably bond over fighting each other.

Tommy pointed at Y/N “Well, they started it! Just strutting in here with a weapon! I have to protect our home!”

Philza shook his head, already done with his mischief “Is that right?” He directed that question towards the other teens.

Wilbur just continued smiling while Y/N and Techno just shook their heads.

“Alright. Tommy, stop lying and no fighting. How about you guys just help me make food, at least then I know what you guys are up to.”

This seemed to pull Wilbur back out of his chaotic loving thoughts “Oh! That reminds me! Can we make cookies? Y/N never had any.”

Even Techno, who acted calm and collected, looked shocked towards Y/N. They lived for this long with never eating any cookies? Now that just seemed wrong.

“Sure. Let’s make some cookies then. Is that alright Y/N?”

Y/N’s eyes widened “Oh? Uh, yes! I would love to! It seems to be a big thing that I never had any so I really want to try them!”

Excited Tommy threw his arms in the air “Cookies!”

Laughing at his little brothers’ antics, Wilbur joined in and cheered as well “Cookies!” He then followed said brother and his father out the living room and into the kitchen. Leaving Y/N and Techno behind.

While Y/N was excited as well they were still a bit overwhelmed with this sudden reaction right after being threatened by Tommy. Techno seemed to notice this and put one of his hands on their shoulder “Don’t worry too much about what Tommy said. He was seriously impressed by you, but he unfortunately has an incredibly huge ego with nothing to back it, hence the insults and threats. So don’t worry too much about it. Wilbur seems to really enjoy your company and I too think you are… interesting company. Yes, let’s say that. If you are really such a great fighter, we definitely have to spar at some point though. I rarely get the chance to test my skills against other people besides my family and mobs.”

“I would love that.”

“Nice. Let’s join the others. Seriously, you have never eaten any cookies? How is that possible?”