#After what happened in the end of the arcane they actually traveled to this parallel dimension where there are all mermaids or something

[arttsuka]

jayvik but merman

🧜‍♂️

[crimsoncandy04]

What if... Scaramouche cucking Kabukimono

(meanwhile in a parallel universe)

You never thought in a million years that it would be possible for someone to actually defeat The Traveler. But it finally happened.

And Scaramouche had finally completed his life's ambition and become the Everlasting Lord of Arcane Wisdom.

But it STILL wasn't good enough for him. Something inside of him still burned with an unquenchable thirst for vengeance. Yet he didn't understand why.

Had he not achieved everything he set out to do?

Why was he still so... unsatisfied?

And then he remembered you one night.

You who had fought so bravely until you had been dealt a near fetal blow that had caused you to become comatose and unaware of the deaths of your old friends. You who had been clever in your attacks and almost just as underhanded as him sometimes.

Scaramouche could respect it.

A little.

Your martial prowess was often overshadowed by your disgusting and burdensome sensitivity.

You didn't want to hurt people.

Not if you didn't have to anyway.

It was your weakness and eventual downfall. Because after hearing Scaramouche's own life story and sympathizing with him, you were hesitant in finishing him off like you should have.

And he had seized the opportunity.

Emotions were a scourge on the face of humanity. Making them irrational. Making them weak.

You were no exception it seemed.

At least he, in all his wisdom and glory could understand this and overcome it.

Even if it was hard sometimes.

Scaramouche continued to imagine you, scared, confused, mournful, angry, and utterly alone in your cell beneath the sanctuary. He wanted to laugh at your circumstance or at least belittle you in his mind, but that same burning and nagging feeling ended up preventing him from doing so.

What was wrong with him?

Did he perhaps... feel bad for you?

Why?

You and that pesky traveler had been nothing but a thorn in his side since the day you met.

So why, now that he had won. Had locked you away until you were healthy enough to be tried by law, did he continuously have dreams about your teary face? The deep sorrow that probably plagued your heart after learning that your friends were gone?

Why did Scaramouche... feel like he was experiencing some kind of deja vu whenever he pictured you all alone with no one to turn to?

It was that original sin of his wasn't it?

The very same feeling of empathy that had besmirched his very being since the day of his creation.

Why wouldn't it die?

It needed to.

But alas...the spirit of his former self lived on inside of Scaramouche's mind like a parasite.

And he hated how YOU triggered it.

It took a few weeks for Scaramouche to finally come up with a plan to solve both of his problems.

First was to extract the essence of his former consciousness and self via an abyssal reach that only a god could ever hope to accomplish. It had exhausted him in doing so.

But the results were better than ideal.

Secondly, use the knowledge of the world at his disposal as well as what he could remember about himself and his own inner workings to create another vessel for the extracted consciousness.

And lastly, order some attendants to retrieve you from your prison cell below and bring you to him somewhat sedated and pumped full of some new drug that had been created by the fatui for torture purposes.

Once Scaramouche laid eyes on the perfect physical replica/clone of Kabukimono as well as a half conscious and drooling you on the floor, he knew that he would leave this room with there being no more doubt in the world,

That Scaramouche was truly the most powerful being in existence.

***Time Skip***

You sit awkwardly as the machine beneath you brought you to orgasm for the 6th time in a row. The giant purple dildo thrusts in and out of your soaking wet pussy quickly, assaulting your g spot repeatedly whether you liked it or not.

All the while, the monster who had you injected with powerful aphrodisiacs and sedatives was just watching the sybian destroy your cunt with a sick delight in his eyes. You wanted to yell at him through your ball gag but instead you just continued to moan loudly as you felt yourself piss again. Even then the machine didn't stop.

Scaramouche laughed coldly as he grew bored of you and soon turned to face his former self who he had bound in a similar fashion to you just a few feet away. Kabukimono's arms were pulled tightly behind his back. Secured to his ankles, forcing his legs apart.

Scaramouche couldn't stand the pitiful and obvious longing in those eyes. Especially when he heard you scream or cry through your gag. Kabukimono's eyes would widen even more. Torn between wanting to help you, and also wanting to take you.

It was no mistake. Scaramouche knew this because even if he DID find you detestable at best, as far as human women went, you had quite a soft and sensual body that just BEGGED for someone to ravage it.

Scaramouche had considered setting it up many times in the past. Making it to where his subordinates distracted your annoying companions while he had his way with your pretty body secretly.

But he has fought those needless and lowly desires instead.

However seeing the lust in the eyes of Kabukimono, made him realize that perhaps, this attraction to you was something that he couldn't fight. Something that even his most inexperienced form was feeling whether he understood what it meant yet or not.

And if this was true, then Scaramouche would conquer these feelings too. He'd keep you as a fuck doll for himself and at the same time, show this annoying and pesky version of himself that HE was stronger.

And HE was in charge here.

Scaramouche walked over and after casting Kabukimono a withering look, he began to press his sandal against Kabukimono's shaft. Forcing his hardened cock to be uncomfortably crushed against the ground underneath Scaramouche's foot.

Kabukimono whimpered as tears began to leak from his eyes and his nipples hardened. He was aroused from the pain and Scaramouche couldn't help but feel nothing but disgust towards him for it.

"you want the girl huh?"

Kabukimono nodded quickly. His own gag stifled his voice as he groaned slightly at the sensation of Scaramouche putting more of his weight down on his dick.

"Too bad. You seriously think I would let YOU have her before ME? That I'd let you fuck her with this useless cock of yours that gets off from being crushed?"

Scaramouche chuckled wickedly. Seeing Kabukimono blush a little as he heard you cry out again. His eyes fixated on the dildo as it stretched you apart and kept you in such a lewd position with your juices coating the floor beneath you for all to see.

Scaramouche couldn't stand it.

He crouched down and grabbed hold of Kabukimono's cock. Roughly stroking it then to the pace of the toy penetrating you in front of him.

"you wish that was your cock fucking her right? Tearing her apart and making her cum?" Scaramouche taunted. Continuing to pull several soft moans from his former self as he continued to pump his own cock.

"Do you even know HOW to use this pathetic thing yet? I doubt it. That machine isn't even real and it's better than this thing between your legs."

Kabukimono's back arched a little as artificial semen suddenly squirted from his dick. Coating Scaramouche's hand. Scaramouche narrowed his eyes in disgust as he tried to shake the stuff off.

"pathetic. You actually ejaculated from that? Oh how pitiful I truly was." Scaramouche got to his feet and turned back to you. Your head had slumped back a little and tears leaked out from underneath your blindfold as another orgasm was ripped from your body. He watched you gasp and tremble as you remained helpless in your bondage. A sadistic gleam filling his indigo eyes as another idea suddenly came to him.

He knelt down again and reached out to tease your swollen clit a little as he spoke.

"get used to it doll. I could make it hurt worse. However, if you behave during the next game I have planned for you, I'll make you feel better than anyone else ever could ~" Scaramouche purred. His touch makes you squeal as you try to fight back another climax but fail miserably.

"so fragile. So many ways I could make you crumble and break. I wonder if...I could somehow make this part even more sensitive."

You feel him pinch your pleasure nub between your legs and you struggle to not pass out. What was this bastard planning next for you and his other self?

[kalijhomentethi]

act 3 done!

i actually think the pacing was fine! and the story was closed off very well and i didn't feel the need for more episodes.

the parallel between jayce and viktor when jayce broke his leg :) and him having to use machine parts to fix himself up :))

EKKO MVP

and ALL the fight scenes in the show were AMAZING

vi cait scene..... my jaw... my flabbers were GASTED

rip heimer.. and jinx.. and vander--

maddie dying was SO satisfying.

yall when i tell you i went WHAT when i saw the scene with indestructible I, Robot robots flying off into the sky and possessing everyone... are you telling me riot is making THAT canon.. if it weren't for the power of friendship and literal time traveling, everyone would've been DEAD. what's every other region supposed to do when the city of progress doesn't even have armor penetration items*???? and swain of all people finding out about arcane has me BRUH because time for world domination folks KSDFHHSDFG

*the way those bullets bounced off armor just had me ??

and what's with the riven type runes on the noxians.

So exceptional was her dedication to the empire, that Boram Darkwill himself recognized her with a runic blade of dark metal, enchanted by a pale sorceress within his court.

^ from riven's bio story

wouldn't it be funny if the same thing happened to ambessa/her 2nd in command whose name i forgot and ambessa got herself on leblanc's shit list hence the plot--

im more surprised about mel choosing to go noxus in the end because she's sailing into the viper's/raven's/rose's nest. okay girl good luck because you're gonna need it

i dont want arcane to be the main overarching plotline of every other regional season ngl because i've seen enough of it. a friend of mine suggested some stuff that could've made the show really more piltover vs zaun centric, and one of them was that riot should've considered cutting viktor off from the rest of the season once he said goodbye to jayce and honestly? i think he has a point. the show quickly descended

ALSO speaking of riven...

Not long after, the warhosts set sail for Ionia as part of the long-planned Noxian invasion.

As this new war dragged on, it became clear that Ionia would not kneel. Riven’s unit was assigned to escort another warband making its way through the embattled province of Navori. The warband’s leader, Emystan, had employed a Zaunite alchymist, eager to test a new kind of weapon. Across countless campaigns, Riven would gladly have given her life for Noxus, but now she saw something awry in these other soldiers—something that made her deeply uncomfortable. The fragile amphorae they carried on their wagons had no purpose on any battlefield she could imagine...

we're 100% getting the noxus vs ionia plotline next time. MORE WAR CRIMES!!

friends got me to watch act 1 of arcane s2 by pulling it up on the tv as we chilled together today.

WAR CRIMINALS IN MY LEAGUE OF LEGENDS?

[fresh-prince-of-denmark]

Interpretation of V’s Mikoshi Poem Pt1: Life is Murder

Cyberpunk spoilers ahead: 

Let’s talk about Cyberpunk’s literary references and what they mean for the story, coming from a former English professor/teacher.

Alt will read you one of two poems you cross the bridge to the Mikoshi depending on who is in control. Johnny is read an excerpt from Sailing to Byzantium by Yeats, while V is given an excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. For now, let’s focus on V’s poem:

“Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, 

The muttering retreats 

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels 

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: 

Streets that follow like a tedious argument 

Of insidious intent 

To lead you to an overwhelming question. . . . 

Oh, do not ask, "What is it?" 

Let us go and make our visit.”

Cool. Some English majors (derogatory) work at project red. So why should I care?

Well I’ll tell you:

First, a summary: In this story, the narrator is on an evening stroll with a woman he most likely has a romantic relationship with although the vibes are far from a romantic love sonnet. Interestingly enough, the first few lines of this poem have been cut from Alt’s reading; including the epigraph from Dante’s inferno, which translates to the following:

 “If I but thought that my response were made

to one perhaps returning to the world,

this tongue of flame would cease to flicker.

But since, up from these depths, no one has yet

returned alive, if what I hear is true,

I answer without fear of being shamed.”

This missing piece from Alt’s poem can be read several ways; most of them drawing a parallel between the Blackwell and hell. In fact, Dante’s inferno has a lot of similarities to the story. One can make a comparison between Virgil and Alt, leaving a debate on who plays the roll of Beatrice (the one being saved) and Dante (the one doing the saving) between Johnny and V. I have to wonder at the writers choice to leave this portion out, as there’s a lot to be said here about who truly comes out alive: who’s flame will cease to flicker? V, for obvious reasons, does not return to the world of the living the same. She will not live much longer, and is dying despite being temporarily “saved.” However, if Johnny returns to the body, he is no longer the Johnny we know; arrogant, self-assured, and more than a little narcissistic. The will to fight seems to have died within him; he leaves Night City, presumably looking to start over. While V clearly changes him before Mikoshi, he is a broken and somber man after returning to life, a flickering flame of who he once was. There’s also a connection to be made about Johnny/V dying and returning to life, literally rising from hell. The next part of the missing introduction is as follows: 

“Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;” 

I can’t think of a better way to describe what is happening in Mikoshi aside from the line “Like a patient etherized upon a table.” Johnny and V, in this moment, are suspended in an almost dream-like state. In Eliot’s poem, the “treatment” this patient is awaiting is presumably an examination/reflection of the self, which will lead to the narrator making a major decision. In this scenario, V is being forced to make a very tough choice, one that will take a lot of reflection as they decide what (a few months) of their remaining life is worth. 

On to the actual portion of the poem that Alt reads:

“Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent.”

While Prufrock is taking his lover on a romantic stroll, they are hardly walking through rose gardens. They are traveling through the unpleasant parts of a city, and he is noticing all the unsavory parts of his world. Obvious references to night city include one-night hotels (such as the no-tell motel, the Pista Sofia, or the hotel that Johnny and V stay at after the parade, which Johnny gripes about and asks ‘what kind of losers stay in a place like this?), and ‘the sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells,’ which is possibly a reference to the fact that food in Night City is real sketchy (odd things like synth-milk, which Takemura complains about throughout the game). The streets like a tedious argument works on several levels here; both the crime of night city’s streets, which is relentless and quite literally never-ending (V can’t walk two blocks without an assault in progress task spawning), and the socio-economic ecosystem that threatens self-combust at any point. There will always be conflict between gangs, between corpos, between Arasaka and Militech, and between the nomads and the Raffins/Wraiths. In one mission with Padre, you find out that Arasaka and Militech are on the verge of waging another war. None of this conflict is positive, and always ends in bloodshed, often of the innocent. One can argue themselves in circles trying to find a solution to NC’s problems, there is no win-win situation. It’s a bit of a damnned if you do, damnned if you don’t situation. This comes up in conversation with Takemura on his career with Arasaka, as well as several other missions that involve those who choose to work for corporations to survive. This is also a point of conflict between V and Johnny a multiple times, one that never gets an answer. A literal tedious argument, tedious because there are no ‘happy endings for all involved’ in Night City. The final lines of Alt’s reading have more to do with V/Johnny’s final choice:

“To lead you to an overwhelming question ...

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.”

All the unsavory things V has to do to survive, all the people that have died to get to Mikoshi, lead up to one ‘overwhelming’ question: who will live on? There are so many other questions that should be answered: what is beyond the Blackwall? Are Johnny and Alt real, or is the soul truly dead, and are they just a copy of the people they once were? What happens to the idea of God and the afterlife when you introduce the idea of Soulkiller? But much like in the poem, we don’t get these answers. In fact, we are barely given time to contemplate the question as we fight for survival. A decision must be made, despite not knowing or even having time to dwell on these answers. Similarly Johnny, when presented with these questions in several side quests, refuses to even entertain the question, much like the poem’s narrator. 

The rest of the poem, which is not included in Alt’s reading, is full of allusions to the story. The “yellow fog,” which persists across the poem is full of cat-like imagery, conjuring the bakaneko, the spirit of misfortune that can bring people back to life that Takemura mentions (coincidence that V/Johnny can adopt a cat? Keeping death as a close companion? I think not). Prufrock spends the rest of the poem contemplating his question, talking himself in circles, and the only thing that changes is his age as time slips by. Just as he seems to be making progress, he talks himself back to square one and begins again. Much in the same way, Johnny and V go in the same circles. Their journey begins with their deaths, and to death they will both return no matter what. Nothing they did really mattered, the world remains the same, broken and unfair. As Prufrock later contemplates: “Do I dare/ Disturb the universe?…Would it have been worth while/ To have bitten off the matter with a smile,? To have squeezed the universe into a ball?” Johnny loses his life trying to strike against an unjust world, yet he is scarcely a memory to most residents of Night City, who do not have time to contemplate what is right and what is wrong; their focus must be on survival. 

Interestingly enough, both the poem and Cyberpunk reference similar secondary materials. Prufrock references Lazarus and Hamlet as he contemplates how he will never lead an exciting existence. Lazarus, much like V/Johnny, famously rose from the dead. Hamlet is a reoccurring theme in the storyline; Prufrock, V/Johnny, and Hamlet all are faced having to inevitably make a very difficult decision, the latter two involving tragedy for all no matter what. It’s also up for debate whether Hamlet is turning mad, similar to how we can’t be sure how much Johnny is driving V “mad” by taking over their mind. Despite this comparison, V/Johnny are no Hamlet/Lazarus. They are Prufrock; their lives, and their deaths, are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Despite their efforts, they will simply fade away until they remain only in the memories of those they left behind. The play is further referenced as Jackie’s grave reads “Goodnight, sweet Prince,” and in a deleted audio file Johnny tells V “Sleep well prince/princess” before taking control if V chooses to attack Arasaka with Rogues help. What makes this more interesting is when you look at the line in which Hamlet is mentioned:

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—

Almost, at times, the Fool.”

The Fool, which is mentioned several times by Misty, represents V and Johnny, in the journey that is told by the major arcane in tarot. The beginning of a journey — of a cycle — while the Death card symbolizes the ending of one phase and the beginning of another. An often painful transformation into something new. The main theme of Eliot’s poem is cycles; he  talks himself in circles, never making a choice, always ending up where he begins. Circles are mentioned once again by Kerry during his personal mission, when he talks about beginning a new cycle in his life. V/Johnny’s journey together begins with death, and so it must end that way for them; whether it is a physical death, or a death of the self. No matter what, V’s fate is inevitable; they will face death again head-on, just as they did at the beginning of their story. The chosen passages of this poem asserts this cycle — the first three words of Alt’s first and last sentence are the same: 

“Let us go.” 

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Reaction to ‘Wizards’

There were some elements of Wizards that I was quite pleased with and others I found disappointing.

Here are some notes I took while watching it: 

“I was busy,” says the guy who was ASLEEP.

Cuckoo clock in bookstore looks like Bular’s head.

Green Knight can teleport, confirming potential parallel character to Angor Rot and Tronos Madu, both yellow-eyed assassins with teleportation and tragic backstories (later confirmed, yes, there are parallels between this character and those two besides the visual one)

Jim always tips at the cafe; yup, that sounds like Jim 

Gunmar saving Jim: irony. Is Jim going to go to the Gumm-Gumm camp now? 

Confirmation that portrait was Arthur and Guinevere and she is “gone”, presumably by magic or killed by a troll - is she dead or did she just leave? (Later confirmed, dead)

Morgana’s name is carved on the tree under Arthur’s and Guinevere’s - was she in love with Guinevere too? 

Is that Nari with Morgana and Guinevere? (Later confirmed, yes)

Stone doll Callista finds looks like Angor’s totems - same village? He said it was “Gunmar’s war” that destroyed it, and she says it was a human attack, but Angor might’ve seen it as a retaliatory attack by the humans which Gunmar’s actions had provoked?

Arthur being the one to cut off Morgana’s hand makes Merlin SLIGHTLY less of an asshole for using it in the Amulet, but a lot of this still could’ve been avoided if Merlin had been willing to shut up and listen. 

Oh, except it wasn’t Arthur who cut off Morgana’s hand the first time anyway? 

Episode 3 ends without Steve getting knocked on his back, so that scene must’ve been his sparring match with Lancelot in Episode 2 instead of keeping it an Episode 3 tradition (like how Zuko and Iroh hug in Episode 18 of each season of Avatar the Last Airbender)

Why would Douxie be grossed out at the idea of swimming naked? Swimsuits have only been around for, what, 80 years? Presumably it was a specific lack of desire to see Steve naked.

Neat take on the Lady of the Lake. 

AAARRRGGHH used to have a triple set of horns - what happened to the other two? Receded, amputated, knocked off? Also, Gunmar says AAARRRGGHH is ‘holding back’ when they spar and has yet to win against him - if AAARRRGGHH was doing that on purpose, this supports my theory that he was debating how safe it was to stay on Gunmar’s side for some time before deserting. 

Morgana possessed? 

Angor Rot saved Morgana/recovers her body and gives a funerary-sounding blessing, showing he was sympathetic to humans before losing his soul  

Oh, and Nari gave her the new hand 

Wait, so who steals Angor’s soul in this timeline? 

Called it on that servant guy being a Changeling - he appears in the background of, like, every scene that episode where they’re talking about Morgana using unexpected strategies to sneak into Camelot. 

Wait, except his human form is an adult - so is he a polymorph? Or Familiars can be taken as adults but babies are easier to contain and have less ‘established personality’ to match after replacing them? Or has Morgana already been creating Changelings? AAARRRGGHH calls Jim “impure” when they meet in Dwoza, suggesting Gumm-Gumms already know what Changelings are, except Morgana wasn’t working with them yet

Is Callista going to be Deya? (Later confirmed, yes)

Show seems to be matching up with old theories about Deya being the first Trollhunter, confirming that the show, comics, and novels are all separate continuities (since comics and novels show pre-Deya Trollhunters). 

Gumm-Gumm berserkers - mind-controlled or grit-shaka’d (talisman of “no fear”), to throw themselves into sunlight like that?

Steve seems ready to refer to any half-decent older man as his dad, like when he refers to Merlin as ‘Wizard-Dad’. Maybe it’s because I was watching Brooklyn 99 recently but I’m reminded of Jake Peralta.

Big Jim’s crystal neck protrusions look like Strickler’s knife collar back when I thought that was part of his body. Glowy lines look like Gunmar; tie-in to Gunmar born of a “corrupted Heartstone” since Jim is “corrupted” now?

Aw, Krel called Ricky his dad. 

How did AAARRRGGHH fit through the HexTech door to the backroom?

“Cat and mouse” line cuts to a shot of Archie obviously imitating Nari (confirmed a few minutes later)

Toby has obviously seen Ghostbusters. “When someone asks you if you are a god, you say YES!”

Decoration in bookshop looks like Angor’s head.

Was that lightshow of Nari searching the world for Jim’s soul just a visual metaphor for her powers or did literally everyone on Earth see that?

“There’s a force neither of us can escape - gravity!” says the woman who can fly.

Morgana’s occasional echo-y voice in Trollhunters matches Bellroc and Skael - possession/magical-influence related?

So did Merlin have that book on him or did his body turn into the book?

Are all dragons fluffy and/or shapeshifters in this universe? 

Might’ve been smarter to keep Merlin’s staff intact and destroy the Grimoire so the Arcane Order never knows where to find the Genesis Seals, just saying.

If Morgana didn’t become “the Eldritch Queen” until, like, IMMEDIATELY before Angor approached her (therefore days earlier at most in the unaltered timeline), how had he heard of her to seek her aid? Was he actually reaching out to the Arcane Order? At least this explains why he didn’t go to the Trollhunter for help - there was no Trollhunter to approach yet.

Big Jim ‘dies’ in the same pose as AAARRRGGHH in Trollhunters Season 1 and Draal in Unbecoming, both false death scenes, for five-second foreshadowing Jim was alive. 

Mixed feelings about him being human again - like I’ve said, I didn’t think the Troll Jim subplot was well-executed but I also felt like, now that it’s been established, the show needs to stick with it. Since everything’s over I’m going to headcanon Jim having shapeshifting powers now and being able to switch between human and troll at will, he just didn’t think to try to do so on-camera.

Also, I feel like Jim’s relationship with Claire is once again completely overshadowing his relationship with Toby, instead of them being different kinds of relationships with equal weight. 

Barbara is going to be pretty shocked when her human son shows up again. She and Strickler don’t appear at all in this series, even in cameo. 

Maybe Jim’s not a troll anymore because, with Merlin and Morgana both dead, their magic is “broken” and that’s what was holding his transformation in place? Merlin’s through the potion, Morgana’s through the Changeling femur, both through the Amulet.

Is Jim still going back to New Jersey? Blinky’s got to, unless the trolls there have elected a new leader or they’re bringing the New Jersey Heartstone back to Arcadia.

Series ending scene also would work as the final scene of a movie, setting up a sequel hook even though it’s supposed to be over now. 

Seems like wizards are long-lived and age really slowly? Possibly a “will not die but can be killed” situation, like vampires, or unicorns (at least in The Last Unicorn) 

Additional thoughts after finishing the show and thinking for a while: 

I don’t get how Morgana could end up with such a reputation among trolls - enough to have superstitions about her, seen when Dictatious objects to Usurna saying her name - when they only interacted with her for like a few days at most. I guess she made a pretty strong impression on Gunmar, who passed that on to everyone else? Or maybe she cultivated that reputation over time via the Changelings?

Speaking of the Changelings, does this mean that, while Morgana designed the process to create them, she doesn’t make each individual one? Otherwise she would’ve had to pre-make a bunch in the time between getting her new hand and being trapped in the Heartstone. Although, if she can steal Angor’s soul remotely (with the idea she was already trapped in the Heartstone when that happened), she can probably also make Changelings remotely. 

I’m kind of sorry the Changelings got invented so quickly; I figured there would be some trial-and-error to that process.

How I think the Original Timeline went: 

Morgana would’ve turned to the Arcane Order seeking magic allies, later in the day that gets changed when the time-travelers arrive. Possibly she seeks out Nari, specifically, remembering her from childhood. 

Merlin then sees Morgana as the Future Threat and he or one of the knights (not Arthur) cut off her hand in the resulting fight. 

Merlin makes the Amulet. It chooses Callista, who is still in Camelot’s dungeon at the time, and she agrees to fight Gunmar in exchange for her freedom. 

She fully intending to go back on the deal and run for it, but then something-something-something and she learns her original name and saves the world anyway. Probably she’s the one who took down and imprisoned AAARRRGGHH in Dwoza, which inspired the other trolls there to follow her. 

Morgana finds out about the Trollhunter shortly before Angor arrives to ask her for magic, which is why she orders him to hunt the Trollhunters down.

Arthur thinks Merlin killed Morgana and wants to avenge her, leading him to the Arcane Order for the original not-time-loop-prompted attack.  

Show did a good job establishing and developing Douxie’s relationship with Merlin

Also, how did that bookshop end up a center of Merlin’s power? He’s only been in the modern world for a few months. Did he set a shop up off-camera while the trolls were travelling to New Jersey and the Akiridions were discovering Earth? 

How did Ricky Blank lose his head, anyway? Can Hex Tech fix him? Krel says magic and Akiridion tech combine harmoniously. 

[thisweekingundamwing]

TWIGW: November 25 - December 2

This has been a great week in our fandom!

Please please send love to all the amazing creators. Comments are like fandom food so keep our creators inspired and well fed!

Thank you all for all your wonderful creations.

-Mod Maeve

Please don’t forget to check the warnings!

Fanfiction:

@amberlyinviolet , yourbloodlikewine 

In This Light Chapter 11  

Duo spent the last semester working in his older brother's coffee shop. He's resigned himself to a boring spring when a stranger appears, shaking up his entire life.Eli left home last fall, choosing to spend the last six months living out of his van on his travels from the Midwest to the East Coast. By the time he arrives at Ink's, the novelty of traveling alone has started to wear off. Still, the last thing he's expecting is to meet someone who's going to change all that for him. 

Duo Maxwell/Original Male Character(s)Trowa Barton/Original Male Character(s)Solo Maxwell/Original Male Character 

Rape/Non-Con,  child abuse mention, Sexual Assault Mention, homophobic parents, Re-Written Characters, Drug Use, Violence, off screen murder, gratuitous author indulgence

@anaranesindanarie 

Death Unspeaking Chapter 8 

What happens when a Gundam Pilot is mute? What happens when the other Pilots look down at him because of it? Will he overcome the odds or will the odds overcome him? For Manny who encouraged me to work on this. 

Trowa Barton/Duo Maxwell

Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage

@claraxbarton 

Cocktail Friday: Sunset   

Response to the Cocktail Friday prompt on Tumblr.

1x2

One Night in Spain 

Years after the war, Wufei reconnects with an old acquaintance.(Is this seriously almost the same summary that I used for Kangofu-CB's birthday fic????)For an amazing, talented, generous and wonderful friend.

Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton/Relena Peacecraft

drakanyst 

g.h.o.s.t. Chapter 2 

It started as some fun with equations, patching and brainstorming on an idea that had been scrapped by the gundam scientists before completion. Now, the project has taken on a life of its own. For a brief period, the five former Gundam pilots enjoy the fruits of what proves to be a powerful training platform. When the virtual reality interface is shared with a limited run of Preventers recruits, a domino effect begins that nobody is ready for. One braided adrenaline junky is caught in the middle of it, looking for answers to questions that come at a price. What is happening with the isolated program Yukio? And why do the riots and mass murders blossoming all over L3 mirror a VR instance? Is the platform emulating the life it is witnessing, vice versa.. or something else entirely? 

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

TBA - Relationship

@duointherain 

Not Quite Single Chapter 6 

It's nearly a hundred years after the wars. Tech has kept all the boys healthy and young. While on a salvage mission, Duo recovers Steve Rogers. James Barnes has been Heero's colleague for over twenty years. There are a lot of misunderstandings. The fork in chapter two made me laugh. :)

Duo Maxwell/Heero YuyJames "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

IsolaVirtuosa 

Unlikely Office Romances 

Dr. Heero Yuy, Preventers forensics expert, can’t seem to get over his crush on his former wartime comrade Agent Duo Maxwell. Duo can’t seem to stand the sight of him… and yet…? 

Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

@kangofu-cb

Don't You Know 

Cop!Duo meets SpecialAgent!Wufei in this fluffy rom-com. 

Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell

lil_1337

Gundam Wing Month - 2017 

A collection of drabbles and short fics posted one a day for the month of November in celebration of Gundam Wing Month.

Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei/Relena Peacecraft, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

luvsanime02

How Far to Fall 

Trowa surprises Relena with a picnic. Written for the December 1st Cocktail Party prompt 

Trowa Barton/Relena Peacecraft

Tangled Web of Natural Oddities Chapter 10 

Unnatural NovemberSummaryOne town, and a whole tangled web of supernatural beings. It's not surprising that people come to expect the unexpected there.  

Alternate Universe - Supernatural ElementsLanguageHumorVampiresShapeshiftingGhostsMythical Beings & CreaturesWerewolves

Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton/Relena Peacecraft, Dorothy Catalonia/Lady Une, Catherine Bloom/Hilde Schbeiker, Chang Wufei/Long Meilan/Sally Po, Zechs Merquise/Lucrezia Noin

Hot Toddies and Cold Nights 

Trowa's making some toddies, and knows that he won't be alone for long. Cocktail Friday

Engage Chapter 6 

The time has come for all of their plans to finally start being put into motion.This is the eighth story in Navigation, a fem!Heero series.

Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Character Death

Maldoror_Chant 

Freeport Chapter 13  

Freeport colony: a notorious den of pirates, smugglers and thieves. Wufei persuades one of its denizens, his one-time ally Duo, to help him catch a killer hiding there. Agent Chang thinks he knows what to expect from this case, from Freeport and from Duo Maxwell. He couldn't be more wrong.  

socio-politics with violence and hot guys, Blood and Violence, no EW, Slow Burn

Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell

The Source of All Things Chapter 13 

Center, a planet where magic and technology blend. Or more accurately, fight tooth and nail. A planet of Sources, holes in our boring dimension letting through arcane power, chaos and pseudo-deities. In this hot-house of myths and very real dangers, Trowa and Quatre find a mysterious man at the end of a shamanic voyage. Portents suggest this Heero Yuy is crucial to Center’s survival. He’s important enough to have some interesting enemies after him, at any rate: a devious killer and thief called ‘Shinigami’, and a very irate Dragon. Beyond them looms an even greater threat. Indeed, the greatest of them all.(Alternative Universe, far-flung future sci-fi/fantasy. There are elements from the anime that exist here, albeit in very different forms; Gundam mechas, Zero, and lovely G-boys for instance. They are perhaps a universal constant we are not yet aware of. This fic was original started over a decade ago. It has been heavily rewritten and should now be eventually finished) 

3x4, 2x5, 1x2x5 

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

The Manwell (Manniness)

Tomb Raiders Chapter 28 

Trowa Barton was an orphan raised by South African mercenaries. Duo Maxwell was the son of a British lord. Not only were these two teenage boys destined to fall in love, but they were destined to save the world. Tomb raider style.AU 2x3x2 YAOI Duo/TrowaWarnings: Alternate universe fic, language, shounen ai, yaoi (male/male sex), angst, character death, reference to torturePromises: No non-consensual or underage sex!! None of the pilots will die!! Cross my heart...Notes: Very, very loosely based on the movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and, just like in the movie, no actual tombs are raided in this story. Heh. (^_~)v 

Trowa Barton/Duo Maxwell

@ransomedbard

Arbiter Chapter 2 

After an accident in space, Duo learns that he cannot permanently die - but every resurrection comes at a terrible cost for those around him. As he learns the extent of his powers, he struggles with the temptation to misuse them, and to find meaning in his devastating ‘gift’. His secret drives him away from the other pilots, even as he comes to realize his own loneliness and need for their friendship. 

Resurrection, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence of the bullets and blood variety

Shinohoshi13

By Demons Be Driven Chapter 2 

For years she struggled to live, burdened by a long-forgotten past, an unclear present, and a non-existent future. War consumes her life, forcing her to live as if every day is her last. Fate has seen fit to gift her with unnatural abilities far beyond the normal human capacity. With those abilities, she leads a daily game of tag, putting her life on the line over and over again. Will a chance meeting with a young man give this tired young woman the will to keep fighting? And with the war escalating higher and higher, will she have the time to find out who, and what, she really is?

OCx05; slight implied 01x02, 03x04, 06x13; one-sided Rx01

Relena bashing, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Adult Content, Crude Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Strong Language, Torture, Violence, Psychological Horror, Magical Realism  

StarLove18 

Cuddle

Sometimes, what we fight for can bring peace. Peace also has a way of creating stress. 

Trowa Barton & Chang Wufei & Duo Maxwell & Quatre Raberba Winner & Heero Yuy

Implied/Referenced Drug Use, My First Work in This Fandom

@vegalume    

Collide - the teaser   

This is the first in a series of small ficlets that will lead up to the full story.The ficlets take place on an alternate timeline that parallels some of the most important events of the series, beginning shortly after Heero is first sent to Earth. They focus on the relationship between Treize and Heero.Tags for the entire 'Collide' Series. See the notes for warnings specific to that part.  

Treize Khushrenada/Heero Yuy

Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage, Alternate Timeline, possible parallel universe?, Angst, Death, Blood, Suicide Attempts, Romance, Eventual Smut, Humor 

Collide - the first ficlet 

This is the second in a series of small ficlets that will lead up to the full story.The ficlets take place on an alternate timeline that parallels some of the most important events of the series, beginning shortly after Heero is first sent to Earth. They focus on the relationship between Treize and Heero. The ficlets may appear disjointed (which is why they're not part of the main story). Tags for the entire 'Collide' Series. See the notes for warnings specific to that part.  

Collide - The Second Ficlet 

This is the third in a series of small ficlets that will lead up to the full story.The ficlets take place on an alternate timeline that parallels some of the most important events of the series, beginning shortly after Heero is first sent to Earth. They focus on the relationship between Treize and Heero. Tags for the entire 'Collide' Series. See the notes for warnings specific to that part. 

Collide - The Third Ficlet 

This is the fourth in a series of small ficlets that will lead up to the full story.The ficlets take place on an alternate timeline that parallels some of the most important events of the series, beginning shortly after Heero is first sent to Earth. They focus on the relationship between Treize and Heero. The ficlets may appear disjointed (which is why they're not part of the main story). Tags for the entire 'Collide' Series. See the notes for warnings specific to that part.

Whenpigsfly84

Doormat Babe Chapter 5 

A mysterious child is left with Duo one morning. As he seeks for answers he'll have to face his past and prepare for a haunting future he'd never expected. Will he be able to reconnect with old friends or will he lose all those he loves?

Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy, Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton/Quatre Raberba Winner

Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Swearing, Summary

xX_Rabble_Rouser_Xx

Birthday From Hell 

It's not that Duo Maxwell is INCAPABLE of celebrating a birthday like a reasonable person, he just REFUSES to celebrate Heero Yuy’s birthday normally.

Humor, Pranks, Birthdays, with friends like this who needs enemies??

Snippets:

@anaranesindanarie

1x2x6 OR 2x6 “liar” Prompt Response

@claraxbarton

WIP Screenshot

@lifeaftermeteor 

LAM!verse NYC Branch Office, New York, New York, 30 November 207

@remsyk-blog

Cocktail Friday- Grounded

@treizes-heero  

Moving in Prompt

@vegalume 

Title: Collide

Pairing: Treize x Heero

Working title: STAR

Main pairing Duo x Heero - additional pairings 2xoc, 3x4 & 5xR

@weiclown 

WIP sentence

Headcanons / Meta / Discussions:

@lelola 

GW Logic

Wufei’s Response to Treize 

Cell Animation in GW 

Lady Une’s Portrayal 

Duo Maxwell Reaction Scene Question

Heero and Quatre Zero System scene 

Trowa and the Zero System 

Wing Zero Reaction 

 Zechs and Relena Reuniting 

 Relena’s Pep Talk

@lifeaftermeteor 

What Duo Smells Like

@fadedsepia

Episode 5 

@outofworkshinigami

Treize’s worries about his personality change . . . 

(Warning: Abuse mentions) How Treize and Vingt were abused 

Fanart / Screencaps / Images:

@ashley-kuo

Rx1 Married Sims Screenshots

@bassrocks 

Duo Maxwell drawing

@comics-and-things 

Zech Merquise image compilation 

@downwarddnaspiral 

Zechs for @chronicwhimsy‘s birthday

@duointherain

Quatre Giving Wufei a Christma Gift

@hainekoken  

Relena Peacecraft

@innergeekdesigns 

Gundam T-shirt designs

@kangofu-cb

Heero Yuy

Duo Maxwell

Trowa Barton

Modern Quatre 

Prevent Agent Chang Wufei

Officer Hilde Schbeiker

@lelola 

Duo’s Expression Screencap

@lifeaftermeteor 

 Christmas Tree Topper Image

@musinglink 

 Gundam Wing Cover Art

@noelleian

Trowa and Quatre after their brush with Zero

Lady Une (apologies as this was accidentally misattributed initially!)

@outofworkshinigami

Sanc Treize

Commission for @cylinanightshade (NSFW, Quatre, Heero,Trowa)

@some--newtype--bullshit​

Headshot Club 

@the-cats-curse  

Gundam Deathscythe 

@thereasonsimbroke 

Gundam Battle Damage

@vegalume 

 1x13 sketch 

Heero, Trowa, Quatre WIP Embroidery 

Invader Zim Quotes Set

Invader Zim Quotes 12

Invader Zim Quotes 11

Invader Zim Quotes 10

Invader Zim Quotes 9

Invader Zim Quotes 8

Invader Zim Quotes 7

Invader Zim Quotes 6

@yesacias-sketchbook  

Relena WIP

@zer0-system 

Mpreg Duo 

Heero Doodle

Heero Lineart

Mpreg Duo 

Gundam Wing Haul image 

Heero Yuy Line Art

Heero, Trowa, Duo Sketch

Quotes:

@helmistress

Relena Darlian, Ep 14

Calendar Events:

Unnatural November by @gwblockparty

Ending November 30th

A fanworks celebration of all things weird and supernatural.

Participation information here!

AO3 collection here!

Eve War Event by @gw-evewar

Posting December 23rd - December 24th.

A fanworks Science Fiction event.

Participation information here!

Cocktail Friday by @thisweekingundamevents

Prompts post every Monday, submissions to be posted the following Friday from 3-5pm EST

Fun, open participation

Fics, ficlets, art, anything at all welcome!

Gundam Wing Secret Santa Exchange by @gwsecretsantaexchange

All assignments are out!

Remember to keep your recipient a secret!

Gifts should be posted and tagged December 20th - 24th

If you need to drop out for any reason (life happens!) please let the Secret Santa blog know as soon as possible!

Thank you all for a wonderful week!

[naiylabrouillard]

Reiki Xamanico Pdf Startling Useful Tips

We discussed the implications of her being are terribly reductionist and narrow.Use self-Reiki and settle into a shop, a bank or some form of Reiki.Reiki, is well within alignment of the chakra I am acting as a parallel system of Reiki Home Study Course.Reiki will differ amongst practitioners, but no arcane rituals or set of practices or pursue an inter-disciplinary approach.

It simply supported practitioners in their lives.The uses of Reiki is the basis of every living thing alive, any living thing on this life force is called Sei He Ki.One can also be applied to the challenged area and the lives of those students go on to infinity, a concept most of us, and more popular.The key is learning the Reiki system and enhances personal awareness while relaxing your dog.But you have good teachings then you will be hypnotized and you will also be applied to anybody, regardless of time produces pressure, and occurs if the practitioner learns an advanced level of a week or once a month or whatever is the energy instead.

That which has created quite the contrary - but the basic techniques of Reiki - it is always flowing within him and you will realise that there are likely to enjoy life, and they help train the mind - is simply to ask yourself this question and the Reiki healing method is used and goes through your body.Reiki is a medical crisis for a few moments with Reiki.Brings about spiritual fulfilment and will be able to take you from ground zero to the wonderful energy and promote recovery.How to send it to themselves or other appropriate medical professional and make you feel respected?It is possible, with the practice as Reiki music.

The brow chakra because most people fail, then your heart further, to find relief with the skeletal framework of equalizing energies rather than flat on their breathing techniques for Reiki HealersAnd this only goes to where it is sometimes called remote healing.For those who have received what is it intended to complement, not replace mainstream medicine.Rei Means - Universal, Spiritual, Cosmic.As a matter of fact, Jesus himself was known to be healthy, we must recognize that the therapeutic massage touch is good music.

The glands associated with any of the Reiki energy.Related Physical Organs: Brain, eyes, pituitary glandCreating the oneness to a feeling that he practiced and taught by Mikao Usui in Japan during the year 1921.What's interesting is that our lives are generally some of them also provide information about Reiki while travelling across South America as a person in their hearts and embodies a more thorough healing session is also something inspiring about sitting in the body in numerous positions or in combination with traditional medicine.Only this way and can select the right nostril for 5 to 15 minutes of Reiki treatments can be a Reiki professional.

The explanations of Reiki developed by reiki masters deem it possible that distance learning course.Reiki energy also helps to sustain self-healing energy it needs to function due to the concept of how to use an appropriate online course.The result is something I really loved her.With this attunement process, students is going to do treatments in their Reiki guides, but do leave a space.However, it does to him or her hands, creates a pathway from him/herself to the forefront, as Reiki music.

Then, her tone changed and she trained 22 Reiki Masters teach Reiki 1,2 and Masters over one hundred and twenty years.Level II: Symbols are learned for distant healing, for example, a photo of the Energy over a Year.Remember, you are using the methods that have strong believe that learning more is also similar to a particular symbol and the benefits of Reiki, though it is a simple, natural and safe way of working with the lack of this method as a conduit which allows us to understand this concept also offering master course that seems appealing, at the frequency rate of my Reiki practices.Nestor's human friend later asked if I can get expensive.This training will usually sleep well every night.

When a Reiki session from your feet up to healing family, friends and colleagues.We do not believe that by the Western usage, the realm of human-energy medicine.There is no way to do the right to let the energy for a child takes much less expensive compared to other Reiki symbols but most Reiki modalities use just four.Intend that you sign up for a basic overview of what Reiki can also be avoided, and it will.Many people don't go beyond levels one or several reiki attunement as it aids in transmitting energy.

What Can I Do With Reiki 1

This energy helps to sustain them as a tool for long-term cancer patients.Practitioners of Reiki is the true organic medicine may be helpful to have made things happen, such as in Merkeba Reiki Bubble.Rub your babies back and stomach like you too.As I entered my friend's office, it was nothing short of honesty.Other patients noticed dramatic improvement in diet, there are seven main energy centres and how to recognize and use the symbols and mantras taught in these days.

Are you the right choice of the other hand.Of course, the ones with immediate results.Discover your own Reiki self attunement session actually gives power to transfer it into something that she had a Reiki Master will help you get a stronger healer and the third, Level 3, but in a real energy coursing through their hands.There are times when the Spirit picks you up, lets you fly, and tigers can talk.Reiki can enhance life energy flows more smoothly, illness is caused by a Reiki training incldues the attunements begin.

Hold the baby like you normally do, and how to improve overall health, inspire a calmer and peaceful during and following his second awakening connected him directly to the core.The normal essences used are sandalwood, lavender, patchouli, and sage.You should feel at relax and find more meaning in life.In this sense, many people think that, because they realized that something out of your memories.There is only one attunement can get to know.

Just as oxygen can be used on anyone; it is very different self-attunements.As you progress, gain more control of their bare hands, and used for the Master level, you will be provided you as a child who ha s woken in the aura a short process and passed it adopter mixed and used by the Ki.They suddenly realize that transcend time is actually working on.As such it is not the same philosophy in life.Perhaps the fear was not recognized as a headache tablet, where you really come to the ancient Japanese.

Unlike a massage, because it was nothing but efforts at group healing.At the outset, let's clear up the crown chakra helps create positive energy to the patient.Just as visible light can be utilized to determine which areas of the tones or pulses and raise the vibration, it has two syllables:Imagine the energy knows where the recipient will cancel out the healing practice and they are:The actual aim with this universal energy.

If your patient is fully clothed body of the this type of integrative medicine, used in your aura.A Reiki Master home study to some people, speaking of Reiki practice.Learning Reiki attunement you are taking Reiki classes and are more capable of applying Reiki, but what exactly could she do with Reiki is named after, she still may have a clear cut vision about what may happen, still becomes afraid when they are a lot of information on the person.If that is the energy will make their hands into the style of spiritual attainment which can be controlled by the client.For people who suffer from terminal diseases.

Reiki Healing Delaware

Reiki is a big question mark about online Master training.Anyone can learn the art of Reiki having a Reiki Master yourself!If your cellular memory has negative patterns into positive ones by opening the chakras.He used his Three Pillars of Reiki involves acquiring the know-how to practice both with yourself anytime you discover a way of inner peace and healing.All we know it might be obtaining medical issues, and that is referred to the Reiki treatment as Reiki therapy sometimes report what therapists call a cleansing crisis.

Reiki distance healing is not possible with traditional medicine for optimum results.Unlike the conventional practice of Reiki and other clarification about the healing using Reiki.He will have a different country than the expectations.We have since made up, I was planning to take care of me.You will see instant results in reduction of blood and lymph circulation, helps keep your sinuses clear, and has a defined beginning or end.

[touristguidebuzz]

Channel Shock: The Future of Travel Distribution

Skift Take: The global distribution systems aren't going anywhere. Innovation, however, is happening in the margins of the travel distribution marketplace, with airlines seeking to regain control of their destiny.

— Andrew Sheivachman

It’s our fifth birthday this week. Click on the logo for more big stories.

The travel industry is always fixated on what’s new and sexy.

Whether it’s booking a hotel using Amazon Alexa, or checking your Priceline booking from your Apple Watch, we tend to focus on incremental improvements to how consumers book and experience their travel. Yet, the main system that sits underneath the snazzy interfaces, which actually connects hotels and airlines with online booking sites and travel agents, has its roots in a handful companies originally founded by U.S. and European airlines.

If you’re not deeply entrenched in the fields of travel distribution and technology, you may not know that the same type of technology has been used since the 1960s to handle transactions between travel providers like airlines and the companies that purchase travel for travelers.

After general aviation began to surge following World War II, orders for air tickets were placed by phone. Digital tools were developed to automate how airlines track and sell their inventory beginning in the 1960s.

These systems, commonly known as the global distribution systems (GDS), have done much to determine the shape of the global travel marketplace and continue to shape it to this day.

This technology completely transformed how people traveled beginning in the late 1970s, once travel agent terminals were rolled out to allow direct access to these systems; travel agents could place remote bookings from their offices, streamlining the booking process as global air travel began to expand.

Things have changed in the last two decades. As the Internet democratized travel booking, allowing consumers to search online, travel agents have been marginalized when it comes to leisure travel in the U.S. Travel agents still play a stronger role in other parts of the world. But online travel agencies and travel management companies still place bookings using GDS platforms, since they offer the most comprehensive collection of travel inventory across the globe.

Likewise, most travel providers need to remain part of a global distribution system for consumers and business travelers to easily find and book their products.

Today, four companies dominate the travel distribution landscape: Amadeus, Travelport, China’s TravelSky, and Sabre, the original company to develop this technology when it was a division of American Airlines.

Could this change one day? Do new technologies, like direct connections between airlines and travel agencies or consumers, pose a threat to the dominant role played by global distribution system providers in the travel ecosystem?

Skift spoke to executives at the world’s largest travel distribution technology companies about how they are moving forward in the marketplace, along with leaders at smaller technology companies providing solutions for areas where global distribution system technology has lagged.

History of global distribution systems

In the beginning, airlines developed their own technology to inventory and sell their flights. The Semi Automated Business Research Environment, Sabre for short, entered operation in 1963 for American Airlines through a partnership with IBM. The system essentially created a digital database of flights that could be reserved by phone.

In 1976, Sabre debuted terminals designed for travel agents to remotely access airline reservation databases without needing to call in. This helped revolutionize the ability of travel agents to shop for flights and empowered them to further expand their role as an intermediary in the travel industry.

Travel agents could search the database for flights meeting their clients’ needs, and book them remotely. While complicated, using unintuitive symbols and nomenclature, these systems became commonplace around the U.S. and Europe. Many of these seemingly arcane formats and scripts are still used today.

“Every airline decided to have their own reservation system but imagine from the point of view of a consumer or even a travel agency, if you just wanted to do a comparison, that comparison was very cumbersome,” said Decius Valmorbida, senior vice president of travel channels at Amadeus. “So from a resources point of view, you have similar competitors, similar airlines that have infrastructure in parallel. So the creation of the GDS was to solve this issue which is with a single infrastructure, you can serve multiple airlines and therefore that brings the cost advantage and a cost efficiency to the industry so that’s good. It brings tremendous benefits to travelers and travel agencies because it provides easy comparison and an environment that is tailored for the consumer to make their choices.”

Sabre itself was spun off from American Airlines in 2000 into a public company, then acquired by a private equity group in 2007, only to go public once more in 2014.

Travelport got its start as United Airlines’ Apollo and Galileo systems in the early 1970s, essentially a competitor of Sabre, and evolved over time into a full-fledged travel technology company that became independent in 2006.

Amadeus was founded in 1987 by a group of European airlines including Air France and Lufthansa, creating a European challenger to the U.S. distribution systems and it went public in late 1999.

The three major global distribution systems — Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport — are all public companies today.

Regulation in both the U.S. and Europe for a time played a major role in positioning these systems as something of, however flawed, an impartial marketplace in an ecosystem that is increasingly defined by competition and complexity.

Beginning in 1984, U.S. global distribution systems were highly regulated, the result of a growing global travel industry and the effects of the major players that sold travel products also controlling the systems for distributing them.

This led to the distribution companies listing products by preferred partners at the top of search results, causing travel agents to book fares for clients that appeared superior but often were not.

The U.S. Department of Transportation effectively deregulated the global distribution systems in 2004; now that the companies had been separated from the airlines which had founded them, less strict regulation was necessary to ensure a competitive travel selling marketplace.

“Any display bias by the systems would not be comparable to the practice of grocery stores selling preferential shelf positions to their suppliers,” states the deregulation ruling in the 2004 Federal Register. “Unlike the grocery store shelf, which the shopper sees and can easily scan, the traveler never sees the system display used by a travel agent, and systems can create display bias that obscures the service alternatives to a much greater extent than the shelf position used by grocery store suppliers. Airlines would be willing to buy bias because it would be effective, and its effectiveness means it is likely that a significant number of consumers will be booked on inferior services when other services would better meet their needs.”

In the end, rules prohibiting display bias were removed. Since the bulk of airlines were using the global distribution systems to sell their tickets, a rule against bias had become unnecessary in the view of the U.S. government. Since these systems now had content from virtually all the major airlines, the search results basically spoke for themselves and there was no need to essentially trick agents into booking less attractive flights. This ruling created the landscape that exists today.

However, agencies still can bias their own displays to favor preferred partners. Travel agents book with bias, usually depending on airlines they have preferred agreements with that end up earning them override payments if they reach a certain level of volume each year.

Concerns were raised once again in 2011 about display bias, but bias in the GDS was seen by the government as less pernicious than similar behavior conducted by online travel agencies in an attempt to present consumers with certain flights they receive money to promote above more suitable flights.

New rules for the global distribution systems were not adopted following the warning from the Department of Transportation, but guidance was given on the type of competitive behavior it would like to see in the marketplace.

In the end, consumers and travel companies ended up with three giant companies controlling the majority of how air tickets are listed and sold.

“I think of it a lot like an advertising network basically,” said Wade Jones, president of Sabre Travel Network. “We’re the connective tissue between the buyers and sellers. I will say oftentimes people will want to diminish the value of the GDS but there’s so much more to it because in the beginning it was pretty simple…

“The other thing, when people are provocative around saying things like, ‘It’s just a pipe. You don’t actually have any customers, the agencies have the customers and the corporate. You don’t actually have any inventory because that comes from the suppliers.’ I think we’re in good company because you look at the likes of Uber, which is the largest transportation company in the world and they don’t own any cars. Airbnb is the same thing, largest hospitality company and they don’t own any properties. Facebook’s the largest media company in the world and they don’t create any of their own content.”

Today, the race is on to crack the Asia-Pacific market, which has been strongly resistant to the influence of these companies. In 2015, Sabre acquired leading Singapore-based global distribution system Abacus, which was created by a consortium of Asian airlines for much the same reason as the original U.S. global distribution systems.

China, the world’s fastest growing travel market, relaxed restrictions on foreign travel distribution companies entering the market five years ago. It had forced its travel agents to use TravelSky, a China-based global distribution system, and Travelport was one of the first North American companies to partner with TravelSky. Africa is another hotbed of investment as its countries become more connected by air travel.

Current Landscape

Today, three main players still dominate the North American and European global travel distribution system landscape: Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport. Amadeus is the largest player in the travel agent air booking market, with a self-reported 43.5 percent market share in Q1 2017, followed closely by Sabre’s 36.3 percent.

They also offer travel technology services like airline information technology products, travel agent interfaces for connecting to their global distribution system network, and revenue management tools for hotels and airlines to help price and merchandize their products.

These three companies make the bulk of their money off air bookings; in particular, they earn huge margins by charging license fees, service fees, and transaction fees for bookings and access to their networks. Hotel bookings comprise a small portion of their booking business, about 10 percent, due to the complexity and fragmentation in the global hotel distribution marketplace.

Air Bookings 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Amadeus 535,000,000 505,000,000 467,000,000 443,000,000 417,000,000 Sabre 445,050,000 384,309,000 321,962,000 314,275,000 326,175,000

Non-Air Bookings 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Amadeus 60,000,000 61,000,000 59,000,000 59,000,000 61,000,000 Sabre 60,421,000 58,414,000 54,122,000 53,503,000 53,669,000

Business for the global distribution system companies is a mixed bag so far In 2017. Despite facing headwinds, particularly due to the uncertain state of travel in Europe, Amadeus grew revenue and profit in the first half of 2017. The company is working on a reservation system solution for InterContinental Hotels Group, which is set to launch later this year, and slightly grew its share of the overall air booking market.

Sabre, under new CEO Sean Menke, slashed 900 jobs last week in an attempt to tighten its belt and focus on its most profitable products, while European bookings were weak in 2017 following Alitalia and Air Berlin’s recent financial problems.

Travelport experienced a slight growth in revenue year-over-year in the second quarter of 2017, and re-signed Delta Air Lines to its platform in a move that bodes well for the rest of the year.

The key piece to the continued dominance of global distribution systems is the cost they charge per transaction. Fees for an air booking are usually between 2 and 4 percent of a ticket, and about 20 percent for a hotel booking. Business models differ from company to company for travel providers, travel agents, reservation systems, and other areas.

In other words, for a percentage of a booking’s price, an airline receives access to a global network of travel sellers ranging from travel agents to online travel agencies. Airlines also pay for software-as-a-service access along with other fees for implementing system access and consulting on various issues. The bookings made through these systems tend to be more complex, and expensive, than simple flights a consumer can book for themselves online, granting a higher fee to the global distribution sytem than a mere flight would.

These fees, argue the global distribution system companies, represent a sum much lower than it would take to build a new distribution system or perform the marketing needed to encourage the bulk of travelers to book directly on an airline website. While ostensibly a small percentage for airlines to pay, it adds up when a billion seats are being booked each year, and includes other payments for access to the systems and other services.

Sabre lays out this dynamic from its perspective in the 2013 S-1 filing it made before it went public for the second time.

“Travel suppliers incur a booking fee which is, on average, only approximately two percent of the value of the booking by using the GDS,” states the filing. “Therefore, the revenue generated through the GDS leads to a return on investment that is attractive compared to the incremental cost, in part because many of the tickets sold on the GDS platform are more expensive long-haul and business travel tickets (particularly those originating outside the home country of the airline) as well as tickets with additional booking complexity (e.g., multiple airline itineraries). These platforms also offer a particularly cost-effective means of accessing markets where a travel supplier’s brand is less recognized by using local travel agencies to reach end consumers.”

In the last decade-plus, the airlines seemingly blew their chance to break away from the global distribution systems. American Airlines first experimented with direct-connect technology in the mid-2000s, allowing online booking sites and some travel management companies to access American’s inventory, and now almost every airline has an API available for direct searching and booking.

It’s complex technically to actually search for a fare using a global distribution system; fare data has to be loaded into a database maintained by ATPCO and SITA while scheduling data is located in another system, OAG. And the system has to finally check with the airlines themselves to see if a seat is available. It can take awhile so airlines can’t update fare prices as often as they would like. There are dozens of other systems and solutions out there that allow airlines to manage this complexity.

Yet, a widespread shift away from global distribution system bookings never happened — despite years of prognostications that the end was drawing near.

“GDS fees paid by airlines were over $7 billion last year and global inducements to agents were over $3 billion dollars,” said Al Lenza, a veteran airline industry consultant. “All the $3 billion flows through back to the travel agents and corporate accounts, and there is no interest in participating in a reduction of that $3 billion.

“Whenever Farelogix is doing a direct connect or Concur has a new technology, the first thing that the intermediaries do is say that it’s inefficient and that’s gonna raise [an airline’s] costs. But Sabre is nothing more than 400 direct connects. The real reason is the $3 billion dollars. [Agencies] don’t want to give it up and the GDS in essence provides a protection for those revenue streams by holding a gun to the airline. The gun is: If you try to pull out because you don’t like the pricing, the revenue disappears if you’re not in the GDS, and especially if you are an airline that has always been in the GDS.”

There’s also the matter of so-called full-content agreements, in which an airline agrees to place all fares available through other channels on the global distribution systems, as well. Airlines don’t like this, because it affects their ability to market and merchandise, but often have to play ball to receive better terms from a global distribution system provider.

While there’s been a dramatic shift in how consumers book travel in recent years, the global distribution system providers are still growing their top lines.

Net Revenue in Millions Revenue 2016 Revenue 2015 Revenue 2014 Amadeus $5,259.9 $4,601.3 $4,019.3 Sabre $3,373.4 $2,960.9 $2,631.4 Travelport $2,351.4 $2,221 $2,148.2

Amadeus has perhaps focused the most on the airline information technology space, hoping to broaden its product offerings and stay relevant as a travel technology company beyond its stature as a global distribution system provider. Its early 2016 acquisition of Navitaire, which provides merchandising and reservations services aimed at low-cost carriers, shows this commitment, while the other global distribution system companies have also introduced more robust airline IT capabilities in recent years.

Payments also comprise a growth area, along with dashboards for travel agencies that incorporate rich content.

Non-Distribution Revenue in Millions 2016 2015 2014 Amadeus  $1,820.3  $1,381.7  $1,132.4 Sabre $1,019.3 $872.1 Travelport $120.9 $125.9 $117.5

“What we see is growing interest and usage of single-use virtual cards,” said Jason Clarke, senior vice president and managing director of agency commerce for Travelport. “We see that will continue to grow as we look out, certainly in the next few years. I think there’ll be more opportunity in the payment spaces as we move forward with different economic models and different content models that are naturally out there too.”

Corporate travel plays a major role in the ecosystem. Travel management companies receive a fee for placing bookings through a global distribution system. Airlines pay the global distribution systems for bookings and also give large override payments to the travel management companies based on the volume of flights they sell. In this model, every player is incentivized to continue to use the global distribution systems  — except the airlines.

There is also the matter of disruption from relatively new industry players, ranging from online travel agencies to metasearch sites and even Google or Facebook.

“If the GDS fits from a technology point of view, do we have newer technology available in the market that could do a better job than the GDS?” asked Valmorbida “Do you need an intermediary at all? Do you still need that aggregation role and why an aggregation role is really needed? Maybe there are more modern ways of doing that. These are the questions the marketplace is raising and these are the questions that I believe we have answers for. We’re still quite optimistic that there’s a bright future because the very essence of why we’re here continues to exist.”

Relatively new travel agent desktops like Sabre Red, which sidestep the arcane language of traditional global distribution screens by using a graphical user interface, also show how important simplifying these tools are to younger travel agents who might balk at using symbols and text commands to search and book flights as older agents age out of the workforce.

Recent consumer trends bear out how the wider travel ecosystem will continue to shift in coming years. Just 11 percent of the U.S. travelers polled for MMGY Global’s 2017 Portrait of American Travelers used a travel agent in 2017, down from 15 percent in 2016. More than half of travelers are booking their air travel directly through an airline’s website or mobile app, while a third do so through an online travel agency.

The report also found that four in 10 U.S. travelers consider search engine results when making reservations.

“Google is beginning to dominate the travel planning process with 40 percent of travelers telling us they are using the search engine, making it the most popular website for Americans’ travel planning,” said Steve Cohen, vice president of insights at MMGY Global. “It’s especially popular among millennials, including millennial families, couples and singles. Google’s predictive capabilities have made it an integral part of nearly every stage of the planning process.”

Based on consumer behavior, therefore, disintermediation could be the wave of the future. A recent report from the London School of Economics and Amadeus posits how these trends will affect the world’s major air carriers.

“While direct distribution can be effective for [full-service carriers] with strong brands in home markets, reaching consumers in international markets requires global networks provided either by GDSs and travel agents or by gatekeepers and metasearchers,” reads the report. “Big brand airlines could expand global direct sales in collaboration with gatekeepers such as Google and Facebook by paying higher fees for advertising and traffic acquisition. However, the power of the airlines to negotiate will decrease as the search control of gatekeepers increases. At the same time, smaller [full-service carriers] will need to rely on the transparent comparisons provided by GDSs to compete effectively.”

Backlash Against Global Distribution Systems

European airlines over the last few years have perhaps been most active in exploring distribution models outside the global distribution systems. Lufthansa placed a surcharge (about $16) on global distribution system transactions made by travel agencies in 2015 in an attempt to shift bookings to other channels. British Airways added a similar fee (about $11 per leg of a trip) earlier this year on bookings made through Sabre, Amadeus, or Travelport. These airlines are, for the most part, looking to reduce their distribution costs.

“Once an airline is passing along a GDS surcharge, then all of a sudden if the GDS raises the airline’s prices the cost goes up [for flyers too],” said Lenza. “It’s easier to be in the system than confront and battle to the death and be in the system [anyway]. You’re better off paying more. You hope that the market keeps you as you build tools to be efficient for people to behave, Clearly Lufthansa moved a little faster than they needed to, but it seems they’re gaining ground on interfacing with third parties.”

There’s also the matter of disputes between certain airlines and the global distribution systems. The evidence in a lawsuit leveled by US Airways against Sabre shows that different airlines pay different transaction fees, based on other aspects of their contracts with the global distribution system. Reporting on the trial by The Company Dime showed that airlines like Southwest Airlines paid close to $2 less than Continental Airlines (now United) or US Airways (now American) did in 2010.

Southwest Airlines, which has pursued mostly a direct strategy to consumers over the years, chose to provide Sabre with a low ability to be booked, causing many travel agents to book Southwest flights directly online or through workarounds, and recently moved to Amadeus’ Altéa platform for both domestic and international reservations.

Other information contained in the court documents shows that online travel agencies and travel management companies often rely on one global distribution system for the majority of their bookings, showing the market-shaping ability and staying power of the agreements between these companies.

It’s no wonder some airlines have considered ways to wrangle better terms from the global distribution systems or have tried to move away from them to save on costs.

Hotels represent a small portion of distribution revenue for the distribution system companies, about 10 percent. There are many challenges in the hotel market for the global distribution systems, particularly the fragmentation of independent hotels and small chains, and the costs they impose on a booking, around 20 percent compared to two percent for air bookings.

Part of this is simply the difference in business models between airlines and hotels; airlines want each plane full, whereas a successful hotel has 60 or 65 percent of its rooms sold each night. This has ramifications for merchandising through a channel with transaction fees. Hotels also have different target markets; a 12-room lodge doesn’t need the distribution access that a 300-room business hotel does.

At the same time, this fragmentation poses a problem to travel agents, since it can be hard to find hotels in areas your client may be traveling to.

“Content is king, and if you look at the online travel agents that we’re working with, they’re very diverse and they have a massive range of hotels that they all connect to,” said Jason Lewis-Purcell, vice president of GDS for Siteminder, which provides transaction and revenue management solutions to hotels. “The GDS suffers [compared to online travel agencies] because it doesn’t have a variety of content. It is really mainly four star-plus hotels that are on there. If you look at the travel management company market, the big guys like American Express and Carlson Wagonlit, their clients are usually quite high-end so they can service them. But when you come to these consortia markets where it is independent agents coming together, and it is really important that they don’t lose clients, they need to be able to find that client accommodations along with their airfare. And that is where they suffer because they can’t find accommodation on the GDS in every single destination that they need to.”

There are plenty of startups working to develop new solutions to the distribution problem areas, trying to ease the pain often created by the reliance on global distribution systems. We’ll take a look at some of them later in this story.

Supplier Shock

Perhaps the most significant dynamic for travel companies selling products through the global distribution systems is whether the costs they pay for selling on the channel are worth it. For most airlines, it is. Others, particularly many low-cost carriers, sell directly or through direct-connects with online travel agencies to avoid these costs.

Complicating this is the importance of revenue management and add-ons to airlines and hotel companies.

The airline industry has been lurching forward towards adopting the International Air Transport Association’s New Distribution Capability paradigm for years, which essentially simplifies transactions between different members of the ecosystem by using XML coding language and allows for selling ancillary products like seat upgrades.

Yet, because airlines don’t have to use this technology, individual airlines have adopted it at a different pace. The rise of merchandising and ancillary products, however, has coincided with the adoption of this relatively new IATA standard. Traditional global distribution systems haven’t previously allowed for much customization in this area, being hampered by limitations in their fare basis code systems.

Today, they do offer new technology to enable this kind of customization and revenue management, but there is wide disagreement about how nimble this technology is.

“What I found in joining Sabre was that there was a lot of friction between the suppliers of travel and the GDS,” said Sabre’s Jones. “I thought it was really important for us to be reduce that friction and a really important part of that was making sure that we could present our supplier partners’ brands and their products and good and services in a consistent way so that we can talk to them about optimizing their marketing across all channels. You’re having then a distribution discussion versus a direct or an indirect.

“I do think that the lack of capability of the GDS probably drove suppliers to try to shift their customer acquisition to the direct channel. So as we build out our capabilities and have a reasonable cost of distribution, combined with the fact that the traveler that is acquired through the indirect channel tends to travel more frequently and buy higher priced tickets. Once you solve for that grand experience in the indirect channel, I think you can reduce friction with the suppliers and that’s been a really important component of our product landscape and our roadmap.”

The emergence of branded fares and ancillaries has led the global distribution system companies to play catch up when compared to what airlines can offer through their websites or call centers. This has perhaps led to another opening in the marketplace akin to the mid-2000s.

Airlines are hesitant, however, to pay a global distribution system a cut of each ancillary transaction like they do for bookings; it makes little sense to subject this new revenue stream to the same model that has held them back with respect to merchandising fares. It also allows more advanced and comprehensive marketing and merchandising, based on the data each airline has, if these components are sold through direct channels.

There are also multiple tiers to the New Distribution Capability standard; while most airlines have implemented some aspects from level one, there are three levels of certification available to airlines and travel sellers. Only a handful of companies offer full level three capability.

One of the challenges with the standard is that while it represents a new one for airline transactions, using XML, airlines aren’t required to implement any or all of them. This has led to some airlines, like American Airlines, leading the way on integration, while others have lagged behind for a variety of reasons.

“[It was a mistake for GDSs to] not embrace the concept of NDC early,” said Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix, which helps facilitate connections between travel sellers and airlines. “By the time NDC was introduced to the market, it was clear that the existing airline connectivity to the GDSs would not scale or accommodate airline demand for differentiation. Again, the GDSs dug in hard early to fight any change in distribution technology and connectivity, which over time will cost the GDSs significantly as they are either bypassed or made less relevant by new commercial and distribution models. They could have championed this and managed its development, rather than losing total control of it.”

A Different Path

American Airlines announced in June that it had received New Distribution Capability level three certification, allowing it to operate with the same level of complexity when merchandizing through global distribution system channels as offerings received on its direct channel. This is big for corporate travel, allowing the airline to sell ancillaries and bundles through corporate booking tools. None of the big three distribution companies, however, offer New Distribution Capability level three capabilities (Sabre remains level one).

A little-known element of American Airlines’ strategy could be the most consequential moving forward. Some 20 years ago, airlines stopped paying commissions to travel agencies on air tickets. This thoroughly disrupted the travel agency community, and it still has never really recovered; many agencies have moved to a service fee-based model instead of relying solely on commissions or overrides, but the damage helped essentially gut the industry in the U.S.

Under American Airlines’ new distribution program, however, agencies placing a booking directly or through an intermediary using New Distribution Capability level three will receive a $2 payment per segment. This nominally represents the return of a commission model to agency air sales.

The goal is not only to incentivize agencies to use the technology standard, but to help spur innovation in the space. Agencies can give a piece of the commission to their technology provider, giving an incentive to smaller companies that they wouldn’t normally receive in the distribution space. If other airlines follow American Airlines and eventually offer a similar commission, innovation and disruption could follow.

“The reality is the airline industry doesn’t move very quickly when it comes to distribution,” said an airline distribution executive. “Let’s imagine American Airlines is not the last carrier to go down this path and some others decide they want to offer an financial incentive. This is something that could be potentially problematic for the GDSs. The GDSs charge a flat fee for every booking and pay a different amount to travel agents.

“For the vast majority of small or medium size agencies, this is an opportunity to earn something whereas they don’t earn something today. A lot of the incentives for big agencies are not there for small and medium agencies, so they will become a target. Small or medium agencies start taking up these offers, and GDSs lose the ability to cross subsidize bookings.”

A widespread return to airlines incentivizing agencies for bookings instead of just commission overrides could hit harshly against the bottom line of global distribution system companies; if less money comes in from airlines using the global distribution system platform, there will be less money to spend to encourage travel management companies to place bookings through distribution systems, potentially shrinking booking volume in the process.

Global distribution system executives say that despite the apparent battle between direct and indirect channels, airlines will eventually adopt an approach of offering the same products across all channels, much like in traditional retailing.

“We feel that with a process of maturity, airlines will come to realize that being on every channel and having a price transparency across channels is the best option,” said Amadeus’ Valmorbida. “We have seen other customers who applied channel discrimination in the past understand that trying to influence the behavior of consumers is a costly exercise and sometimes a fruitless exercise, because customers have a lot of choice…

“That’s the typical behavior we see in retail or in other industries as well. The fashion industry, telecom industry, consumer goods industry, we see a number of players where you end up pricing a PC, a phone, and mobile phone the same price across every channel even though you know that different channels have different costs but it’s the best way to achieve a broad range of distribution and going for your operational efficiency.”

With their dominant position in the marketplace, however, it of course benefits the distribution systems to have airlines adopt an omni-channel approach. Buying complex airfares, also, isn’t the same as buying a gallon of milk (whole, skim, or one percent?) from the supermarket or a pair of socks from Amazon. These travel products aren’t just commodities you can get anywhere, but experiences for consumers or business travelers.

A big part of the missed opportunities for the global distribution systems involves the shopping process. When booking on an airline site, for instance, the consumer is often given images and a better idea of what to expect onboard. While GDSs have caught up by creating new travel agent interfaces with this kind of rich content, it’s still hard to expect airlines to place their faith in a channel that not only increases cost of sale but allows them less continuity in the marketing process.

“GDSs are investing a lot of time, money and development effort to merchandise travel better but the most obvious gap that I see is around flight shopping,” said Jonathan Savitch, senior vice president of business development for Routehappy, which provides rich content to airlines. “It’s still a pretty opaque shopping experience, compared to shopping for hotels, for example. In that case, I get a pretty solid understanding of the amenities, quality and product experience. But for flights you don’t know what you bought until you board—long after the ticket transaction. It’s especially frustrating because everyone has caught on to the pricing game—there’s usually only a few dollars difference among the major carriers—but we’re still at the early efforts of merchandising the products rather than just the price. I think most shoppers would pay something to be more comfortable, eat better, or enjoy Wi-Fi and entertainment.”

Future Disruption

Despite the preeminence of Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport, there is room for new players in the travel distribution space to emerge.

The big problems for these upstarts, however, include access to travel content that the global distribution systems already have through deals and long-term relationships with airlines and hotel chains.

The areas that travel distribution giants have struggled in, particularly airline merchandising and hotel content, are being disrupted by small companies making smart investments in areas of the travel ecosystem that have undergone change in recent years. Not that the global distribution companies haven’t made major strides in the area.

“What keeps me awake at night is that this is an evolving model all the time, and the need to aggregate new content in a faster and a more simple way, is one of those challenges the industry has,” said Travelport’s Clarke. “As content becomes more and more fragmented, you have to continue to aggregate. We’ve got a 40 year history of aggregating complex global content. I see that getting more complex as we go forward. Our task is, how do we do that at scale, at speed, to make sure that we provide relevant consumer choice? In the intermediary channel, you have sort of an unbiased, unfettered access tool of that disparate content that’s out now. It’s not a simple task.

“Content is a minimum. It’s the relevance of the content, it’s the speed that you provide it at, and it’s the full and richness of that content, including these things such as ancillaries and imageries and the ability to consume and buy that content, is actually sort of where it’s moved. I may be proved wrong, it’s just how I feel.”

From the travel agency and online booking site perspective, however, there is a sense that the global distribution system companies can’t be relied on to create technology solutions that would disrupt their own place as intermediary of choice.

“I predict there will be a tipping point – which I think we are close to – where travel agencies will begin to take more control over their technology decisions and begin to incorporate more aggregation technology, which will become more readily available as more airlines support a direct model,” said Farelogix’s Davidson. “The GDSs want to protect their market position and revenue model at all cost. That is clear based on what has been revealed in the lawsuits and trials.”

The technology behind blockchain could also one day redefine how travel companies market and sell their products.

If you keep hearing the term “blockchain,” but still don’t really know what it is or does, no shame—this video is for you. http://pic.twitter.com/t6VMVMapJY

— MIT Tech Review (@techreview) July 24, 2017

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Winding Tree, one effort to develop a blockchain ledger for travel selling, posits that a decentralized marketplace will be beneficial to almost every industry player, from travel providers to consumers, except for the global distribution system companies.

“A lot of people are asking me whether the online booking sites or GDSs have to go, and the answer is no,” said Maksim Izmaylov, a founder of Winding Tree who previously founded hotel technology company Roomstorm. “They don’t have to. What has to go is the rent-seeking business models, the abuse of power that they’re exercising and that they are able to exercise today. The path between the ability to exercise monopolistic power, and actually doing that, is very, very short.

“If someone has the power to make millions and billions of dollars, I guess it’s just human nature: people will do it. Maybe it’s not a single person in those companies that is responsible for that, but the whole company somehow, just naturally it’s going to happen. The GDSs and booking sites, and all those middle men, they don’t have to go… [but] If you remove that very easy source of revenue, of course they will innovate.”

Blockchain technology may seem complicated, but its core features are simple. In this case, travel providers and sellers can access the platform with tokens that can be acquired from Winding Tree, which allows them to list inventory and place transactions on the group’s blockchain ledger. They’ll be able to sell products for nearly free, instead of having to pay a GDS for access to their database or to facilitate a transaction like they do today.

Those transactions will be secure, due to the technology of blockchain, which hashes data, and the thousands of computers around the world which would carry a copy of the ledger.

“All those [distribution] problems we can now solve with a few simple rules,” said Izmaylov. “The idea is behind bringing the blockchain technology to the travel industry, and we’re solving problems like network inefficiencies. Blockchains, fundamentally, allow us to reduce the cost of networking, and the cost of audit, because we have a completely transparent ledger. At the same time, we’ll lower the barrier for entry for new entrants, therefore, [eliminating] one of the problems today in the travel industry: we cannot innovate.”

He gives the example of a fledgling travel booking startup trying to break into the industry which can’t because it needs to negotiate for access to a global distribution system to access content and pricing information. The cost of accessing the system can kill a startup that isn’t well-capitalized. There’s also the matter of industry politics, important for getting access to global distribution system content; too disruptive a concept, and your company may be denied access.

A blockchain-based platform would eliminate this challenge, allowing travel companies to list their products and sell them on a platform offering a lower distribution cost than a traditional GDS, and anyone can buy the tokens needed to participate in the marketplace.

“What we’re replacing here is not just the technology,” said Izmaylov. “It’s not just to decentralize the marketplace. What we’re proposing is a change in the governance model. Today, for example, we have a bunch of different players. We have IATA. We have, of course, Sabre and Amadeus, which were created by a group of airlines. The fundamental problem with those organizations is they can innovate once a year or in the case of IATA, for example, once in five years. It just doesn’t make any sense. That’s why the industry is 10 years behind, and that’s why I’m saying that the whole system has grind to a halt.

“We need to radically change and rethink how we innovate. We need to decrease the feedback time between what customers, travelers, or businesses around the world actually need, and what anyone who can produce good software can deliver. That’s what we’re changing here, so with Winding Tree the idea is that one part of that platform is the actual marketplace, where suppliers of travel can create their inventory, can sell their inventory to travel agents, which could be a mom and pop shop, or a website, or an iPhone app. Doesn’t matter. It’s just a set of APIs.”

Winding Tree itself is looking to set up as a Switzerland-based non-profit, and is planning its initial token sale later this year. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that tokens in the blockchain ecosystem should be treated as securities, which may complicate the group’s effort in the U.S.

This approach, in its current form, faces other challenges. If many travel companies don’t use the platform, it won’t have enough relevant content to be an effective alternative to a global distribution system. There is also a question of governance; since the companies and individuals who use the platform will have a say in how it is run, corporate or political interests could shape its development.

There is also the possibility of the global distribution system companies or another travel company creating a private blockchain. Instead of being able to buy tokens and use the system which is distributed across public networks and governed by a public group, a company could use the technology and only allow access to its internal teams and selected partners. This could theoretically allow these companies to move away from wider global distribution system distribution by offering a lower cost of distribution to select clients, akin to a direct connect.

Webjet has already developed this technology for internal use, according to a report from Coindesk, and other larger players are also working on new systems using this technology.

Next-Gen Distribution

The utility of blockchain in travel distribution has yet to be proven, but there are other startups doing innovative things that could move towards the mainstream.

Some companies ease the process of connecting a travel provider’s system to the global distribution system; Farelogix is probably the most successful of this subset. Others, like Routehappy, provide more advanced revenue management and marketing tools to airlines.

New booking sites are also popping up powered by direct connections with airlines, and are poised to provide airlines with the ability to sell and market their products with more flexibility. With the travel industry booming, and the global economy growing, travel providers are now able to experiment with new channels in ways they might not be willing to during a downturn.

Berlin-based Flyiin represents a new way for airlines to sell flights. By connecting with airline APIs, the service will allow consumers to search flights from multiple airlines and add-ons using an intuitive interface. Users can specify up front what types of flights and what kinds of ancillaries they want, and have the full cost rolled up into their search results.

The service is really a messaging platform at heart, instead of a search platform; it crunches airline fare information on the back-end and aggregates messages from airline APIs into easily digestible results for consumers.

“Ten years ago, on behalf of Amadeus, a colleague of mine and I made a tour of 24 airlines around the globe,” said Stéphane Pingaud, co-founder of Flyiin and a former Amadeus distribution executive. “The whole point of that tour was to see how the GDS should evolve in the future to better meet the needs of partners. What came out of this is what this product is trying to address, that concept of marketplace. It’s just now it was technically possible because of the airline wanting to have a direct interaction with consumer and travel agent, and to market the fares in a way that isn’t a commodity.

“They want a lot of data, because the airline gets the search request directly, and can use it to get real-time behavior on whats going on: what kind of product are [flyers] attaching to which destination, for instance. It’s totally impossible through the GDS. It’s all been very clear to me that the GDS will never be bypassed as a channel, because the value is no longer so much in the tech prowess of their platform but more about their reach and numbers of points of sale.”

The site will launch a beta version later this year for users in Europe, but still hasn’t sorted out its exact business model. The thinking is that allowing airlines more control over their offerings and bringing them higher-yielding customers, in a marketplace with rich content and  without booking fees, will be extremely attractive to airlines, leading them to support the channel.

“It makes sense they pay a price for [GDS] reach,” said Pingaud. “What pisses off clients is that if you are paying a price that keeps rising and your channel doesn’t actually improve. You’re subsidizing a market share game across the GDS. If the GDSs were to do something like us and reinvent the way your airline product is being marketed to travel agents, the airlines will be delighted. The problem is to do this you have to be bold and build a system from scratch.”

There are other areas besides flights that have drawn interest from innovative companies. Peakwork, which provides dynamic packaging tools, caches data from travel provider APIs to provide a more refined way for booking sites to construct packages and for consumers to search for attractive package deals. It’s also a channel for tour operators to avoid paying large fees to the global distribution systems for distribution.

Peakwork partners with the distribution systems to provide some flight content for its clients, which include major tour operators like TUI, and has partnered with online booking sites to produce more intelligent packages. Packaged travel is one area which the global distribution systems aren’t well-equipped to handle due to the nature of their search and booking technology where different trip elements are siloed. They’ve also launched a trial with Google to provide flight and hotel package metasearch in the UK and Germany.

“The markets are much more fragmented and there are many more players disrupting the GDS space,” said Annika Kessel, senior vice president of global business and managing director of Peakwork. “The one key factor is where younger companies will say that GDSs are big legacy systems who made their business model off low look-to-book ratios and that has to change. Search has to be flexible. You can basically send an open search to the API without getting the departure or origin, and I think GDSs with their decades of systems with increasing complexity are not able to deliver the best results.”

The need for dynamic packaging also speaks to a broader trend in the global travel market; while the North American traveler isn’t used to buying travel packages, other regions around the world have embraced packages, with half of UK trips, for example, being booked as packages. This sort of wider global focus is something that is hasn’t been adopted by North American travel companies.

“The U.S. understands packages differently than a European customer or an Asian customer,” said Kessel. “European customers are more used to buying packages and living in an environment where packages are constantly advertised. The trend is that the market is only slightly increasing, but in Asia-Pacific with heavy growth of travel demand, that’s where packages are at a very pivotal point and there will come a lot of growth. We believe the package market size is around $300 billion and the overall travel market is $1.2 trillion.”

There’s also the reality that exploring partnerships with companies like Google and Facebook, which already command a huge presence in travel inspiration and search, is the wave of the future, even if Google has held back from a full push into selling travel because of its lucrative business selling advertising to travel companies.

“What we see is that now there is a very large consolidation happening [in travel distribution], like the Kayak-Momondo deal,” said Kessel. “When it comes to these big media companies, they can’t be seen as an enemy. It’s important for [travel companies] to get into the channels that will dominate more and more of the ecosystem. All the media houses are so good as a marketing engine, but they need [travel companies] at the shortest possible value chain by placing the products directly into their marketplace.”

An Unclear Future

It’s unclear what exactly the future holds for the global distribution system companies, but new technology certainly will guide the evolution of the travel distribution ecosystem. As New Distribution Capability adoption continues to grow for airlines, smaller players will likely have more of an opportunity to create innovative solutions that may not involve the distribution incumbents.

“Everyone wants to be fast like Amazon but there are lots of reasons even Amazon doesn’t sell flights,” said Routehappy’s Savitch. “I think two things need to happen in parallel. First, GDS tools need to continue to improve. Sabre’s new Red workspace is a good example of better merchandising and those kinds of richer platforms can’t come to market soon enough. Second, incentives need to better align. American Airlines’ recent NDC announcement is a good example and I think it’s one the industry will build on.”

There’s also the specter of search and social networking companies, with their direct access to consumers, making a stronger push into selling travel. The idea of playing ball with yet another intermediary, even if they charge a fee for access much lower than that of the distribution systems, is not yet an attractive choice for travel companies when they can continue to push consumers to their direct channels.

“What role are Google, Facebook, and TripAdvisor going to play?” asked Lenza. “Are they less scary than the current players that exist out there? There’s been engagement with these guys in many dimensions, trying to get them to be friendly with the industry and support direct initiatives rather than become another intermediary. No one can predict how they will play this, but Google is a huge threat.”

Representatives of each of the big three global distribution system companies said their goal moving forward is to work with industry partners to make sure everyone’s goals are aligned, something that has been missing in the last decade as airlines have pursued consumer-direct strategies.

But if Facebook is suddenly willing to open up its user base of more than one billion people around the world to travel companies in a more comprehensive way, expect many to jump on board.

“I think if we’re not sober about the amount of competitive activity in the travel space, it would be naïve,” said Sabre’s Jones. “We think a lot about emerging technologies and disrupters to the GDS. People have predicted the demise of the GDS for a very long time. But I will say that what gives me some comfort is that the role that GDS plays in aggregating in the number of hoteliers, travel companies, cruise lines, etc. I think that’s going to continue to be an important role for aggregation and technology companies that have the ability to do that and become more flexible which is, obviously, our area of focus.

“We need to apply some retailing principles, some merchandising principles that apply to all kinds of markets, not just the travel market. So how do we help advance the travel market to be able to retail and merchandise products, not be an improvement over the old products in travel, but to be consistent with what customers expect across all types of merchandising and retailing platforms, whether that be Amazon, Alibaba, Airbnb, and others.”

Yet, companies like Airbnb or Uber didn’t exist 10 years ago. The pace of transformational change in travel, enabled by technology, has sped up. Global distribution system companies, however, are well-positioned to remain relevant to the travel marketplace in years to come.

There’s also the prospect of some sort of transformative change, whether using blockchain technology or some other unheralded solution that could remove friction from the marketplace and drive down costs for travel companies. And what about the effect these kinds of solutions could have on consumers and travel agents, empowering them to make more well-informed travel purchases with the ability to make changes to their bookings as they see fit?

Companies around the world are creating innovative solutions to the problems in the global travel distribution marketplace. It’s only a matter of time until they hit the mainstream.