Fuck whatever DC is doing with the al Ghul's characterizations and story lines, I've decided that from now on the al Ghul's are gonna be DC's version of the Addams Family instead.
Now I don't mean just give the various al Ghul's the exact personalities of the various Addams and call it a day. That's boring, that erases all the interesting parts of the al Ghuls, that's just using "find & replace" and not actually adding anything. I mean give them the vibes of the Addams Family.
Keep the al Ghul's as the al Ghul's with all their scheming and machinations and world domination attempts but give them all the unhinged energy, the casually insane view of the world, the deranged levels of love and devotion for family. Make them that group where objectively they are batshit insane but also you cannot argue with the fact that they are indisputably the most stable and functional family in the entire universe.
They're creepy, they're kooky, they're mysterious and spooky. Ra's many opulent homes and impenetrable fortresses are a museum and the al Ghul's really are a screa-um whenever people come to see-um (or when they lay waste upon their enemies in a surprise attack that has been planned for months and is just the first domino in a series that will ultimately lead to achieving a far greater goal).
They all love each other and want each other to be happy, they express this primarily with stabbing and murder attempts (its fine, death is a thing that happens to other people).
And forget the League of Assassins being a cult. Just make the whole vast globe spanning organization a collection of cousins/aunts/uncles/dear old friends ect. No one (not even the al Ghuls, if they cared to keep track of such things) is sure who is actually related to them and who just got absorbed into the ever expanding family tree based on their vibes being right.
(Is Sensei Ra's father you ask? Well he's certainly someone's father - probably.
Anyway have you heard about Cousin Cheshire? Despicable poisoner of a young woman, capable of the most horrific things imaginable - yes she is the sweetest dear. Like I was saying though, she just had a baby!
Everyone in the family is just so excited to throw a baby shower to celebrate! Ubu has really gone all out with the spike traps, he does so love getting to welcome a new addition to the family.
Talia of course has cultivated a brand new strain of the most toxic plants imaginable to make a brand new kind of necrotizing poison. You know, as a nice little romantic gift for Cousin Cheshire and that young man of hers. It really is so important to make sure you take time for you and your partner to go on dates and have a few pitched battles to the death on dark rooftops in the pounding rain when you have children.
Now there is some to-do about it all of course, you know how family get together can be. Everyone is arguing over who should get to give little Lian her first weapon and what it should be. Nyssa is pushing for grenades but Ra's is insisting on a sword - he's traditional like that you know - but Dusan has the vote so far on throwing knives. You know the kind that have the little divots along the edges of the blades them to make it easier to get the poison you dip them in to stick.)
I'm just saying that the al Ghuls should be a delightful cross between the Bond Villains they were originally conceived as and the lovingly unhinged Addams Family. It just feels correct in my heart.
(Again keep the interesting aspects of the characters and the nuances of who each of them are like their drive to save the world through destroying humanity and their strong environmentalist leanings and their constantly playing 5D chess and everything, but like, take away the racism and the cartoonishly evil for no reason bullshit and give them some fun feral energy to go along with it).
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Every time I go to hyrule castle I remember that video about the royal guard weapons and how they were shiekah tech created to mimic the master sword (and failed - they're powerful but brittle and no more effective against the calamity than anything else). And I just remember the little detail of the wings on the hilt. On the master sword, they face up when the blade points down. On the royal guard weapons, they face up when the blade points up.
And to me, that little detail is very indicative of what they thought about the hero and the cycle.
The wings face up when fi is at rest. Waiting. Sealing. Not lifted.
For them, their swords face up when they brandish them, when they raise them against their enemies, when they wave them around and cheer.
That's what they think the hero does. That's what they think they can replicate and take for themselves.
That's not what a hero does at all.
Sure, he spends a lot of time doing that, but it's a fraction of the whole. The hero does not do it for glory or pay or fame. He is kind. He helps everyone who asks. He gets things for little kids and listens to their stories and helps people find their pets and goes out of his way to leave the stranger a little happier them when they met. He spends hours crawling through mazes and enemies to find something he can use later.
He does not raise his sword in anger. The job is not done once the villain of the day is skewered on his sword. It needs to be sealed, the darkness pushed back until the next generations can take up the call. It's passing on the torch to yourself. The master sword must seal evil during those intervening centuries.
The heroes soul is one, by breath of the wild, long forged in faith and love and determination and the flames of war and loss. The curse of demise makes it so that only one strong enough to stand against it can push it back. The heroes soul is one that is pure. It's a long reset game, and everyone knows the way it plays out.
And under rhoam, hyrule believes it knows all there is to know about the hero and the cycle. It thinks that it can shove the pieces where it wants them, that with the aid of the ancient technology it can force the warnings of history to bend to it's desire. It thinks enough violence will solve the problem entirely. It makes the master sword mimics with the blades facing up.
And it gets it wrong.
The hero reduced to a silent weapon, a shadow of the royal family, the princess helpless and unable to act, unable to access her own power.
It tries to force the issue with manpower and restrictions and piling societal pressure on the children, and hyrule falls.
Immediately, zelda is able to unlock and channel the full extent of her power, she can make a plan and not have it dismissed, she sends link to safety and travels hyrule setting the parts of a constantly moving puzzle into place, she meets ancient spirits and talks with the master sword and seals ganon on her own for the century it takes for link to return.
When he does, rhoam does not order link to save the princess. He does not pile titles and restrictions and pressures on him. He asks him to save his daughter. The hero finally gets to act at his own pace, and he chooses kindness. He chooses to go out of his way to talk to people outside his station, to listen to kids stories and leave strangers a little happier than when they met. He gathers allies loyal out of trust and not forced respect for things he hasn't done yet.
By choosing kindness and not violence (though there is an incredible amount of both), link becomes able to defeat the calamity and save zelda and the kingdom. Zelda is able to guide him and trust him to come. By working together as respected equals, they save the world.
And afterwards, the master sword is returned to her pedestal, triumphant, blade down and wings raised high.
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Hello there! Love the actor au very much! How about Gil is watching Thena while she is doing a scene? Pretty sure he is mesmerized by her look, her presence and acting skills too!
Gil was staring. Everyone was.
Thena was in the middle of a few glamour shots, meant just to capture her natural beauty in their current work. It was a fantasy thing--she was a beautiful creature of nature, with massive wings they would CGI onto her in post.
A flower crown sat on her perfect sunshine hair, there were a few real little bunnies hopping around. A few green blobs were also scattered around in order to animate them into more fantastical creatures. It was quite different from the roles he had done with her before.
He was playing a royal guard, in charge of protecting the queen, who would turn out to be evil by the end of it. He hadn't had many scenes with Thena yet, but even just being on the same set with her put him more at ease.
"Sometimes," Thena murmured in the scene to her little bunny friends, as well as the young actor playing the fish out of water who had stumbled into her little forest. "People want for things they know they can't have."
"But why, your majesty?" the kid asked in - to his ear - a pretty mediocre accent. They couldn't find an actual English accent?
Thena sighed, stroking one of the bunnies that seemed to have really taken a liking to her. Gil had to keep his laughter in; furry animals weren't really Thena's thing. She was staying in the scene really well, but he was certain they would have to get them all off her once they cut before she freaked out.
"We are not so different from humans," she murmured, extending her vowels in a received pronunciation that she had mastered early on in her career. "They are capable of insatiable greed. But do we not also want for things just out of reach?"
Gil sighed.
"But, your majesty," the kid scooched a little closer on the fake forest floor they had constructed. "You are the most powerful fae around."
The kid's tiny hand floated up, stroking what would be a shimmering white feathered wing in the final film. For now, it was just the empty air between them.
Gil smiled; Thena moved her shoulders faintly, as one would when a part of their body was adjusting itself. It would look great when the wings were 'on her'.
Thena pursed her lips (a personal habit that made its way into her characters every once in a while). "Power does not equal strength, and strength does not guarantee things going the way you might like. There are things I want that my power will never help me attain."
She looked off into the distance, longing written all over her face. Although her eyes landed on Gil, in the distance, behind the blinding lights on the scene. Her lips twitched into a smile. "The heart wants what it wants, child. It longs for things it once had, no matter how you tell it not to."
"And...cut!"
Thena smiled as the kid was pulled away for a mandatory union break. She remained sitting, still encircled by free roaming little bunnies.
Gil chuckled, walking right up to the soundstage and being careful of any wandering cotton balls. The wranglers were already rushing out to collect up the vulnerable little creatures. Gil knelt down beside her and reached out a hand, "your Majesty?"
"Very funny," Thena chided him lightly as she took his hand. "My legs are asleep after all those takes."
Gil waited in that position until all the rabbits were collected up and clear from danger. Once the wranglers were all clear he moved back to his feet, pulling Thena up with him. She laughed as he swung her around in his arms. "You got it?"
"Ah!" she bit her lip as she tried to firm up her knees, "pins and needles!"
"Okay," he laughed, as if he needed that excuse to sweep her up in his arms and walk off with her bridal style. "Let's go."
"Gil!" Thena laughed as he made his way down the stairs and towards their chairs. They initially weren't anywhere near each other, but they had both moved them together subtly over the course of several days.
"Well, we can't have the fae queen wobbling around like a fawn," he teased, and received a poke in the cheek for it. She could have smacked him on the arm but he was in his 'armour' for his scene.
"You are supposed to be allied to a different queen," Thena pointed out as he deposited her right into her chair, flowing white dress and all.
Gil sat himself next to her, as he always did. "Well, she does turn out to be plotting, like, magical mass murder by the end of this. So maybe I should reconsider some shit in my guard life."
Thena just shook her head at him, pushing back the mane of hair she had, and which was made even longer by the extensions they had woven into it. "I won't miss this, I can say that much."
Gil helped her sort the mass of hair out of her way as she picked up her script and her bottle of water. "What did make you take this?"
"Hm?"
"Well," he shrugged, the replica armour he was wearing clanking faintly against itself as he did. "It's not really your usual thing. Especially the benevolent fairy queen part."
Thena raised a brow at him with a smirk, "are you saying being the beautiful queen of the enchanted forest doesn't suit me?"
"Come on," he gave her a nudge. Their laughter died down and he lowered his voice, "really, though."
Thena tucked some of her hair, and what was attached to it, behind her ear. Her smile became bashful as she looked down at her open scrip on her lap. "Well...I wanted something in between action films. And...when you told me you were signed on-"
Gil's eyes lit up visibly.
"Stop it," she murmured, sticking her finger in between the plates of plastic armour on his shoulder just to give him a good poke. "Why did you take this, then?"
Gil shrugged. "I mean, my part is relatively small. I was told my shoot time would be half of what it usually is. And I get to be a literal knight in shining armour!"
"Well, you do come over to my side by the end of it," Thena murmured, flipping through her pages. It was only briefly mentioned, and it would be ultimately up to the director and how things looked onscreen the day of the shoot, but it was implied that the queen's guard would defect by the end of things.
"See?" Gil wiggled his pinkie at her. "You're still my queen at the end of the day."
"The poor, lonely fae queen will finally have a soul to match hers?" Thena rested her chin in her palm, batting her lashes at him.
"Well, I'm sure she'll be in need of some," Gil mirrored her playful body language, leaning forward until they could practically touch noses, "protection."
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