#I WILL KILL ALL LIFE ON THE OFF CHANCE A DEAD SOCIETY RETURNS

[le-fruit-de-la-passion]

Does a bad ending ruin a good story? A comprehensive guide to my feelings on the Arcane finale

*Spoilers for Arcane season 2*

So. You just finished the show, and you're staring at the screen in bewilderment. Perhaps you’re even with some friends, shouting words of confusion to the rolling credits. Try as you might, you can barely hear them, because a single thought echoes in your mind and pushes away any other:

“What the fuck just happened?”

If this happened to you, then boy oh boy, we're on the same boat. If it didn't, well, I'm glad for you friend! We might not have been looking for the same things from this story. But this is my post, meaning I will give my opinions (which are objectively correct because this is my blog and I'm the mayor here) on everything that Arcane broke and failed to deliver in its last 2 episodes.

Let's start with characters, and why none of it mattered.

Jinx symbolized the fear we all have of not belonging somewhere, of not having anything to call home or anyone to call a family. Her anger stemmed from wanting to carve a place in a society and a world that had so harshly rejected her (i.e., Vi leaving her). Her existence was a huge middle finger to all that refused to let her live, a fight to build herself something wholeheartedly hers (hence her being an inventor). It was proof that despite the world telling her she was better off dead, she would never stop fighting to prove it wrong.

… and she died.

She died, and that means all the suffering she went through to exist simply amounted to nothing. She left nothing behind either, no trace of a legacy, something that would have left her mark on that world. Isha, the child she raised as a daughter, died. Silco, who she taught love and care to, died. Vander, who she brought back from years of trauma and torture, died. Jinx fought so hard to live, and in the end, it was as if she hadn't lived at all.

Viktor is most certainly the character that made me the angriest, because of how attached I am to the person he is in season 1 (and even the first two acts of season 2 to an extent). Everything that made him so beautifully complex… gone, in about 10 minutes. There was NO reason to make him the surprise ultimate villain. Viktor had always, always been a pacificist. That's why he was so adamant Hextech not be used as a weapon. That's why every time there were chances to test hextech to hurt, he tried to learn how it could heal. Yes, his fusion with the hexcore had changed him; but NOT into a man who didn't care for human life. He wanted to help all the hurt done to his people. People like him, living day to day in the undercity, but who had never gotten a chance to crawl out of their hell. His community was about HEALING, not controlling. The very IDEA that he would accept killing innocents and ally with Noxus, the warmongers, is so ridiculous I could genuinely laugh if it didn't make me so angry. The show needed an easy, black-and-white showdown to conclude a story that would have needed so much more time to tell. And they chose Viktor. Because it was the easy way out. It was the perfect foil to the return of the Golden Boy. And that PISSES me off.

There is this really shitty concept in popular media that the handicapped/chronically ill character is always in the pursuit of being “cured” and that they need outside help to realize “that their imperfections make them perfect”. Fuck. You. As someone with chronic illness and who just finished beating blood cancer, fuck you. That realization, that you're you with every part of your being, even the ‘bad’ ones, cannot come from outside. It's YOU who needs to learn it. It's you who needs to discover how your body and your mind are so much stronger than you previously thought them to be. Not your lover, your family, your friends, or God forbid your able-bodied lab partner. You. Others may tell you as many times as they want your illness doesn't define you; it won't matter until you, yourself, have understood why and have accepted it. Having someone swoop in and “fix” Viktor with a “you don't have to change uwu” is just….. so reductive I can barely find the words for it. That was VIKTOR’S path to find, and not Jayce’s role to find it for him.

Also… Viktor wasn't trying to ‘fix’ his leg; he was trying to find a cure to a deadly illness ravaging his body and no doubt the bodies of many in Zaun. The HELL is the message here??? That he should have just rolled with it because the deadly illness was part of him??? Again, as a cancer survivor. Fuck right off.

Of course, I can't just ignore the hideous get-up they put him in at the end. The man who laughed at Jayce's narcissism….you want me to believe… he would put on that fucking edge lord costume and not DIE of embarrassment??? The design makes no sense from a narrative standpoint either: if his cane has become the sceptre, why is he still keeping it? He doesn't need it anymore to walk, and it's a reminder of his weaknesses as a human that he apparently hated so much. Why the hell does he keep it then? And the hexclaw. Where did that bad boy come out from?? Did you all see a secret extra bonus scene where he steals it from the lab, because I sure didn't. It doesn't add anything to his sets of powers either it’s… it's a fucking laser gun. WHY. And oh sweet god that mask… there would have been so many ways of designing a mask more meaningful than the one from LoL. This one is just. A piece of metal he spawned in embryo. Get it? Because he's made of metal now and also hiding his face means no more humanity? Get it?? Of fucking course you do, because this was the easiest and worst possible way they could have integrated the mask.

Viktor and Jayce had a fantastic dynamic in that Viktor had started out as the loner, the underdog scientist from the slums; while Jayce was the leader figure, living in comfort that made him attachingly naive, his face plastered on posters stroking his ego. The shift is delightfully slow, as Viktor gains in confidence and determination to see his invention through no matter what, while Jayce is confronted with harsher and harsher truths about the world he so blissfully ignored. By Act 2, they have fully switched roles: Viktor is now the leader figure, a symbol of the future for the people, while Jayce is desperately alone, both physically in the hexcore anomaly, and mentally in being the only one who has seen the devastating future. Excellent stuff. What would be a great way to push these parallels further and to show the complexity of these characters, and perhaps how they can balance each other out? Well, Fortiche sure didn't know, now Viktor is the bad bad guy and Jayce is mister hero. Zaun bad, Piltover good. All nuance, gone. Proving that indeed, the man from poverty and inequality turns out evil, while the one from comfort and wealth turns out to be the hero of the story. The whole “giving a warm speech to the bad villain about how you care for them, somehow immediately changing their ways, and dying together to save the world” can work well in shounen anime where friendship is magic, or in the Ben 10 live-action movie (yes, that's the plot, I thought that wasn't deep when I was like 7 years old so imagine now), but not in a show like Arcane. Not with the ethical and moral nuances they have accustomed us to.

And now, let's explore...

Plotholes and incomplete storylines galore.

Ekko’s tree and the contamination of Zaun from Piltover? Fuck that. The huge showdown between the two opposite yet sister cities, like Jinx and Vi, that has been built up for two seasons? Fuck that. And for what?

For the Noxus sequel teaser.

Mel’s plotline about finding her mage origins had NOTHING to do with the main plot. Absolutely nothing. It added 0 twists or intrigues to the story, and served no purpose except making her a deus ex machina for a broken ending. All it was there for was to lay the base for a following show on Noxus and the Black Rose. Time that could have been spent either giving Mel a proper arc related to the plot, or giving all the other rushed character arcs more development.

Finally, and I deeply regret having to say this, but… the end of Vi and Cait's relationship was majorly disappointing to me. As an LGBTQ+ person myself, who feels attraction to women, it was a delight to have such a realistically portrayed w/w relationship on screen. Popular media tends to portray m/m relationships as these doomed, sinful feelings between two repressed guys, while w/w relationships are shown to just be all sunshine and rainbows and teddy bears, because two women together are a cute little accessory to have on screen. It’s non-threatening. But not Cait and Vi; their bond was raw, and rocky, with violent lows and passionate highs in a world that seemed to want to keep them apart. Their separation and the introduction of Maddie showed the reality of a w/w relationship, where fights and cheating ARE things that happen, because they're two adult women with different beliefs, objectives, an trauma. Putting them back together, as if nothing had happened, without giving us anything about how their relationship would have evolved from the breakup? I'd never thought I'd say this, but it's too easy. How about Caitlyn's literal descent into fascism??? We’ll just ignore that? Vi will just ignore that?

As with everything else, this last part of Arcane destroys all the complex emotions that exist between these characters, the resentment, the anger, the frustration, built upon years of different social conditioning… gone. Because they had 2 episodes left to wrap it up, and there was no way to make a coherent and natural transition to them getting back together with that kind of time. And can I just say. The decision to have Vi, symbol of Zaun, go down on Caitlyn, symbol of Piltover and enforcers, in a prison cell that has held innocent Zaunites and represents their complete lack of freedom as individuals by a cop state that oppresses them….. yeah, bad. So bad.

And… the multiverse. Yup, they went the multiverse route. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing: the concept of multiverses itself is interesting in a vacuum, and quite a few properties have managed to make it work coherently. But it has been terribly overused and bastardized in serialized content in the last few years, for the simple reason that it's extremely practical. Why make a new, original series when you already have worlds and characters that are developed, and come with built-in fans? It's a money-saving hack! Why dedicate yourself to an ending that is meaningful in its finality and wraps the story properly when you can just say “It's just one ending in the multiverse!”. It takes away any accountability to the fans, and leaves the door open to a potential other version of the story! The perfect combo!

…except in practice, it comes off as lazy in a medium where that trope is overly saturated (don't start me on Marvel), and like a cowardly way of escaping from the responsibility of really taking the time to craft a good, solid ending to end your story.

So, with all that said: does it ruin Arcane for me? No, absolutely not, and I don’t think it should be for you either. The intricate artistry and raw talent that went into making the first season (and I would say a majority of the two first acts of season 2) is undeniable, and will stay undeniable. Nothing can touch that story. It will forever be one of my favourite pieces of animated media, which is saying a lot because I'm currently getting my master's degree on that topic.

However, it does give Arcane, as a whole rather than two separate seasons/entities, a very bittersweet feeling that is hard to forget. Thinking of what could have been, just if a little more time had been given to the minds behind the masterpiece you so loved… it's its own form of heartbreak. Academics have even compared it to experiencing a form of death of a loved one, before they ever got to reach their fullest potential and live the life they deserved. It may sound dramatic, but the feelings you feel in this moment, watching the horrible end of a fiction you have so much love for, are real. No one can take those away from you. You're allowed to grieve the loss of something that meant a lot to you.

Tldr; No, Arcane is not a bad series because of its rushed and incomprehensible ending. As they say, it's all about the journey, not the destination, even if that's one of the parts we tend to remember the most. And I don't know about you, but this was one of the best journeys I've ever been on.

[anonimusunnoaniswriting]

Falling in love always meant falling out of it...

...but with Nanami Kento you never had the chance.

Hard and impassive as ever, Nanami said nothing. Age, it seemed, had made him even less of a talker than before. It has been several years since you had seen the man last. You still saw him as hed been. 17 and full of promise.

When disaster struck, no one saw it coming. You were both devastated by loss. Haibara’s untimely death, Geto senpai’s defection, the events hit you hard. Him, more than anything. It was then that you had both decided to abandon the Jujutsu world after graduating, opting instead to take part in regular society. Society where the people in charge weren't comfortably killing children daily. Where you would have a chance to live past 30.

So you wrapped up your life of curses and coffins and went to work. Day in and day out. The cold grey office space. Killing you in a different way. But the corporate world suited Nanami. Dressed immaculately with his hair now cut short and styled in a way that made him look so much more mature, you admitted to yourself, he was attractive.

Having left at the same time you found comfort in each other. The jobs you did took up the majority of your days but the evenings were spent first, just hanging out, and then, as the days turned to weeks turned to months, it was just easier to stop pretending there wasn't something there. His quiet storm complimented your gentle calm. It worked.

You started dating. Dinners, movies, sometimes even amusement parks. But mostly, home with each other. Reveling in the presence of the other.

The first time he kissed you, it had been so cliche. He'd taken you to dinner and bought you flowers – lilies. Then dropped you off at your apartment.

“May I kiss you?” He'd asked.

And though he spoke it clearly, the subtle rasp in his throat and the slight tensing of his shoulders told you all you needed to know. You’d nodded and he'd bent down to kiss you, softly pecking at your lips.

The first time he made love to you it was just as sweet. He had asked you for permission, which when given, he had taken full advantage of. He treated you like a queen. His queen. Kneeling between your thighs, worshiping at the altar of your lust. His velvet tongue unceasing…

Every moment with him had felt like bliss. Wrapped in each other's company it was easier to keep the horrors of your pasts at bay. But it wasn't meant to last…

There were dreams, no, not dreams. Nightmares. Guilt ate away at the man shaking him awake in the dead of the night. His friends, his peers, you, dead. Lost to the curses that still roamed unchecked. Powerful creatures, dark and evil, ripping, tearing, obliterating. The feeling became too much to bear.

Nanami knew he had to go back. He didn't want to ask you to join him. You would be safer away. He would do anything to keep you safe…

So he left you. He packed up his things and returned to the world you had sworn you wouldn't touch again.

Heart shattered, and not willing fully to follow him, you accepted an attractive position that had been offered to you in Germany. The benefits were amazing. You jumped at the chance. There was a hope that once you were there, you would forget him. But part of you knew you were fooling yourself. Nanami was not a man one could get over…

So here you stood. 20 years later. In front of him – a cold stony facade.

“I missed you.” You whispered.

He did not respond.

“I never should have left! I should have come back with you! I should have–”

The tears fell down your cheeks onto the ground below.

“I still love you, Nanami Kento…” you composed yourself and pulled out a handkerchief from your handbag to dab at the tears.

“I still love you Nanami Kento.”

Strong warm hands grasped your shoulders holding you up. In the corner of your eye you saw his pink hair flashing reddish in the sun. Almost like fire. Itadori Yuuji, the man who finally connected you with your lost love.

“I'm sorry I'm late. Parking was tough. Here,” he handed you a large bouquet of white lilies. “You should give them to him. He’d like that.”

You kneeled down and laid the flowers on the cold marble gravestone.

“Yes, yes he would…”

🩷and reblogs are appreciated. Comments too.

[keepmeinmind-01]

thinking about theseus and leta.

1) how he was the first person she told the full story about corvus. this is a headcanon - I’ll explain.

going by the deleted ballroom scene with thesleta, we know that by 1927, society at large is rife with rumours that leta’s brother is alive. my theory is that the death of her brother is public knowledge given the status of their family, but Leta’s role in it isn’t. when she sees the bedsheet falling as the dancer spins, Theseus is the only one who looked concerned/worried. in COG, she asks Theseus “how many times” they’ll have to talk about Corvus and Theseus promises “the records will prove” that Corvus really is dead.

I think that Leta therefore told Theseus about Corvus before the reveal in the mausoleum. I think that she and Leta saw the darkness in one another (his as a veteran and with his other struggles he usually hides, hers as a self-professed murderer) and as mature adults discussed and shared them with one another.

Newt also knows by the end of the film, but I think his first knowledge is more generally that her brother has returned as by the prophecy (and also presumably that he died in the first place) as per the rumours going around (and judging by what he tells Albus) and his expression in the mausoleum confession scene is of quiet revelation and acceptance.

I think how quickly he tells her “it wasn’t your fault” might show that he had his suspicions and is now joining the final dots, but I think Theseus and Leta possibly talked about it in more depth. partly because when Newt and Leta were friends, I think leta really treasured someone “good” being “good” to her, and I think at that age she would have been afraid to make the confession, while given Theseus has been through a war and also killed people, she might have been more comfortable sharing it with him. not because she loves one more than the other but just the timing and life stages they’re in.

(also, if newt had known the full story, wouldn’t it have changed the investigation and everything with Kama? as leta sharing her story to that group of people is what leads to the revelation Corvus isn’t credence. so newt couldn’t have known everything if they needed that confession to join the dots — but Theseus wasn’t involved in that subplot of the movie, hence if he’d known the full story, newt, Tina, and Kama would still have needed leta to tell them specifically).

2) how he was the only person who tried to fight the flames to get to her. everyone made an effort to defend themselves but I think Theseus was the only one who tried to go further into the flames or cut across them rather than only dodging them. to the extent that newt, who previously was frozen in shock when Theseus was trying to duel the flames (not saying newt didn’t love her, just their different personalities) had to pull him back to save his life. and I love the parallel of Theseus then pulling newt into the alcove as they escape and saving his life in return. like he promised leta he’d be careful and he’s literally ready to die for her.

3) how he screamed in the graveyard as they sealed in grindelwald's spell. we saw him as so composed, turner describes Theseus as “stoic”, but he cracks here to put everything he has into the spell because he’s so angry and distressed and heartbroken about losing Leta. like, he doesn’t even have a body to see. no closure at all.

4) and then, in SOD, the only memory we see hinting at Theseus’s grief, how even five years later he still remembers the faces of everyone at that rally when he sees them again in berlin. how he asks newt to confirm but is already getting ready to follow them because he knows. how he heads off without changing paths even as the election news is enough to give newt pause because Theseus is just too focused on Vinda as having been right there at the rally. how he tries to take on multiple of them and keeps his voice calm because this is his chance to get justice for leta.

leta and theseus I love you leta and theseus

[aurumacadicus]

It's that time of month again, friends! And for June, we're doing something special: Queer-themed books, both a fiction and non-fiction selection! We'll be reading both over the course of five weeks. Tumblr will vote, and the book club will then vote among the top three in Discord. If you'd like to join the book club, send me a message and I'll send you a link to the discord! Keep an eye out for the other poll, and check out the books' summaries under the cut!

My Deary Henry – A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron

London, 1885. Gabriel Utterson, a 17-year-old law clerk, has returned to London for the first time since his life—and that of his dearest friend, Henry Jekyll—was derailed by a scandal that led to his and Henry’s expulsion from the London Medical School. Whispers about the true nature of Gabriel and Henry’s relationship have followed the boys for two years, and now Gabriel has a chance to start again.

But Gabriel doesn’t want to move on, not without Henry. His friend has become distant and cold since the disastrous events of the prior spring, and now his letters have stopped altogether. Desperate to discover what’s become of him, Gabriel takes to watching the Jekyll house.

In doing so, Gabriel meets Hyde, a strangely familiar young man with white hair and a magnetic charisma. He claims to be friends with Henry, and Gabriel can’t help but begin to grow jealous at their apparent closeness, especially as Henry continues to act like Gabriel means nothing to him.

But the secret behind Henry’s apathy is only the first part of a deeper mystery that has begun to coalesce. Monsters of all kinds prowl within the London fog—and not all of them are out for blood…

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without the cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

Compulsory + All Systems Red by Martha Wells

���As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid – a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao

Sophie Chi is in her first year of college (though her parents wish she’d attend a “real” university rather than a liberal arts school) and has long accepted her aroace (aromantic and asexual) identity. She knows she’ll never fall in love, but she enjoys running an Instagram account that offers relationship advice to students at her school. No one except her roommate can know that she’s behind the incredibly popular “Dear Wendy” account.

When Joanna “Jo” Ephron (also a first-year aroace college student) created their “Sincerely Wanda” account, it wasn’t at all meant to take off or be taken seriously—not like Wendy’s. But now they might have a rivalry of sorts with Wendy’s account? Oops. As if Jo’s not busy enough having existential crises over gender identity, whether she’ll ever truly be loved, and the possibility of her few friends finding The One then forgetting her!

While tensions are rising online, Sophie and Jo grow closer in real life, especially once they realize their shared aroace identity and start a campus organization for other a-spec students. Will their friendship survive if they learn just who’s behind the Wendy and Wanda accounts?

Exploring a-spec identities, college life, and more, while perfect for fans of Alice Oseman’s Loveless, this is ultimately a love story about two people who are not—and will not—be in love!

A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske

Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.

Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.

Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.

Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann

Lucky Hart has a special affinity for the supernatural but almost no one takes parapsychology seriously. She's estranged from her family, lost her friends, and has been rejected from graduate school. Twice. But her big break finally arrives when she gets insider info about a troubled production company. Every actor on their new show mysteriously quits after spending three nights inside Hennessee House, an old Victorian with a notorious reputation.

After scheming her way onto the show to investigate, Lucky meets Maverick Phillips and chemistry instantly crackles between them. He tempts her in ways no one ever has, challenging and supporting her, and making her finally feel seen. Their connection is so palpable everyone notices it—including Hennessee House.

Now Lucky and Maverick’s relationship has a challenger: the lonely, sentient house desperate for her undivided attention. As love begins to clash with career, Lucky refuses to choose one over the other because everyone deserves a happily ever after, even houses with haunted hearts. But when all her plans begin backfiring one-by-one, she realizes that if she wants to have it all? She’ll have to risk everything.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.

Instead of leading him directly to the afterlife, the reaper takes him to a small village. On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop, run by a man named Hugo. Hugo is the tea shop's owner to locals and the ferryman to souls who need to cross over.

But Wallace isn’t ready to abandon the life he barely lived. With Hugo’s help he finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life.

When the Manager, a curious and powerful being, arrives at the tea shop and gives Wallace one week to cross over, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

[richincolor]

Spring Break Reading

I have one more day of teaching before Spring Break begins. I'm exhausted and can't wait to spend some time curled up with a cup of tea and a book. My TBR is waiting and I'm super excited to dive into these three fantasies.

Broken Web by Lori M. Lee is a sequel to Forest of Souls which I loved. The third book in the Shamanborn series comes out next month so I need to read this one to be ready. 

Pub summary: The Soulless has woken from his centuries-long imprisonment. Now, he lurks in the Dead Wood recovering his strength, while Sirscha and her allies journey east to the shaman empire of Nuvalyn. Everyone believes she is a soulguide—a savior—but Sirscha knows the truth. She’s a monster, a soulrender like the Soulless, and if anyone discovers the truth, she’ll be executed.

But there’s nothing Sirscha won’t risk to stop the shaman responsible for the rot that’s killing her best friend. While the Soulless is formidable, like all shamans, his magic must be channeled through a familiar. If Sirscha can discover what—or who—that is, she might be able to cut him off from his power.

With Queen Meilyr bent on destroying the magical kingdoms, Sirscha finds herself caught between a war brewing in the east and the Soulless waiting in the west. She should be trying to unite what peoples she can to face their common enemies, but instead, her hunt for clues about the Soulless leads to a grim discovery, forcing Sirscha to question who her enemies really are.

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier will be coming out on April 9th and I will be reviewing it soon. Isn't the cover a beauty?

Pub summary: Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong. Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time - hope. But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal is one I've been waiting for and I have given up on the hold shelf at the library. My local indie bookstore has it so I'm stopping by tomorrow to pick it up. I'm always happy to see books that involve tea as is evidenced by an earlier blog post here. 

Pub summary: Why save the world when you can have tea? On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone. Calling on some of the city's most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.  From the New York Times—bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame comes the first book in a hotly anticipated fantasy duology teeming with romance and revenge, led by an orphan girl willing to do whatever it takes to save her self-made kingdom. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.

[freedvmrouge]

SPOILERS | guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 

i just watched it yesterday and finally have my laptop open to talk about it!

first and foremost, WHY CAN’T SOMEONE JUST FUCKING KILL THE RED SKULL THIS MF IS A GODDAMN PARASITE ACROSS THE FUCKING UNIVERSE WTF

it wasn’t even surprising, man. this is fucking par for the goddamn course for that nazi asshole. of fucking course he’d find a way to travel the universe and continue his horrendous experiments and crimes against every being in existence. absolutely no one aligned with batman’s no-kill rule can ever convince me that this monster is deserving of a second chance. steve fucking rogers—the guy who said with his whole chest that he didn’t want to kill anyone, he just didn’t like bullies no matter where they come from—was fully prepared to murder johann ‘red skull’ shmidt but the tesseract transported him across the universe instead. this asshole already had a second chance. so please. please tell me the red skull finally fucking died in that explosion. i need it for closure and peace of mind.

if someone tells me the high evolutionary ain’t actually the red skull, imma look hella stupid, but alas, that is the hand i’ve been dealt.

that being said, i think this ‘plot twist’ was actually super well-done. i read somewhere years ago that good plot twists are where the information is already given to the viewer and the end result actually makes sense. it didn’t just come out of absolutely nowhere. it’s smart and clever and fun. it rewards the viewer rather than insult them coughloveandthundercough

right, so. i will admit that with the mcu’s most recent films, i was not coming into this film with high expectations. when my brother asked me to go, i really hesitated. i’m not so completely wow-ed by this film, but i am appreciative of what it is. i am also very appreciative of the fact that this stands on its own and isn’t a trailer for the next thing coughquantumaniacough and sure, you need to remember that this gamora is not the old gamora bc that one’s dead and gone, but the film addresses that really well, i think.

peter was the most outwardly grieving character in this film. gamora isn’t dead, per se, but their relationship and memories of the last few years are dead. now peter has to accept and live with and move on with the fact that there’s going to be a gamora still out there who has nothing to do with him. this was wonderfully done. and i was so happy when they parted the way they did and gamora returned to her home. the home she made for herself and the home that welcomed her back with open arms. 

addition to the above about this alt-gamora— just loving how nebula’s still in contact gamora. i think in a different, very roundabout way, nebula finally got the sister she wanted. plus she has her own family with the guardians and now all the kids/society with drax. plus her extremely abusive father is dead and gone. sounds like wins to me. okitsmorecomplicatedthanthatiknowbutlisten the important part is that nebula has moved on. she’s happy with how her life is going. she’s got things to look forward to. she’s doing great.

i think they did a great job with rocket. the story revolved around him and his history, so you might say he was the main main character and sure. he wasn’t a dynamic character bc there wasn’t exactly much of his present tense time being part of the journey of the film to grow as a character. but he did get closure for himself. he wasn’t able to save his friends, lylla, floor, and teeths, but he managed to save a whole bunch of others like him. he even confronted his abuser (which, you are never obligated to do so, just fyi) and lived. and he will keep on living to his fullest with his new and old friends/family. i’m so happy for rocket.

last notes: i’m really happy with how everyone parted. i was fully expecting core members to die off and that’s it for their actors’ tenures in the mcu, at least with this character. it seems like marvel writers finally listened lol even if we never see drax/nebula again, we know they’re off helping build a society. or peter decided to stay with his grandfather and just live on earth. or gamora’s off with the ravagers. it makes sense for their characters and their individual journies. it’s great. it’s fantastic. (though i actually wish peter died bc wtf he was without oxygen and was ready to fucking explode or smth but suddenly adam bringing him back to knowwhere is enough to revive him. ok.)

[maddgical-boy]

☁️🌈☁️ — QUEERER THINGS STILL

based off of an original story i conceptualized in 2020, and returned to in 2022. still having trouble writing the actual story, though. fun fact, this is currently my only original paracosm!

BELOW THE CUT: -> the world -> the paras (you can also see more art and such of them on toyhouse)

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ THE WORLD

this universe holds four realms: earth, thefalym, nesitralia, and immeamund.

EARTH hosts your everyday humans, as well as humans with magical powers! these superpowered people are embedded in earth's history. people on earth have created rules and regulations to help people who are adjusting to their new powers, as well as new laws when they are used for evil.

THEFALYM is the realm of the fairies! these fairies are the only beings that have the power to realm-travel, which is self-explanatory. this is a matriarchal society, as the fairies worship a goddess named whalfaiya, who is said to have created both humans and fairies. she cast the humans out because they displeased her, and the fairies have held a grudge against humans ever since. this religion is called faiyism.

NESITRALIA is the realm of "the cores," aka the centric beings of the universe. these primordial beings embody what is at the core of life: - the void mother (darkness) - children of light (light) - plitonye, rumoncia, and fialeil aka the lovers (platonic, romantic, and familial love) - king demiltury (time) - hibocaus, nyochthex, and amidacala aka the meorysts (memory) - the elemental (the elements) this realm is said to be extremely dangerous to travel to, because in order to even have a chance at meeting these beings you must defeat powerful monsters that shapeshift to represent your inner demons and hardships.

IMMEAMUND is the realm of the dead. it is ruled by the eye, a being shaped like an eye and formed by writhing hands of many different colors. it judges your life and determines whether you led a good life (in which case you dissolve and your life energy goes somewhere else in the universe) or a bad life (where you are alone in the void and every movement causes you immense pain). in order to judge you, the eye must know how you died, as that is its gateway into your memories. if you can't remember or have unresolved business, the eye will give you special powers in order to help you on your newfound quest.

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ THE PARAS

i couldn't find a picrew that could make all five of them (they're deceptively difficult to make wtf) , so i have different ones for everybody. i think it looks cute, they're like a mish mash of lil cartoons :>

☠️ . ☠️ (edited skin, gloves, hair clips / edited skin)

ENYA LIAO | 15 | they/them | agender aromantic bisexual

enya is the main character/parame, and has the power to kill a living being with a single touch (skin contact).

they live with their neglectful parents in the neighborhood of merryday, and claim to have a ghost that follows them around. they figure that this is a product of having these powers-- if you have powers of death, why wouldn't you be able to see ghosts?

they can only remember their life after the point when they began seeing this ghost (a few months before the story begins), which bothers them and ends up driving the story.

🧚‍♀️ . 🧚‍♀️

THIERRY ASTERIA | 17 | he/him | cisgender gay

thierry has typical fairy powers, namely travel magic, various spells, and battle magic. he specifically likes to summon daggers and guns.

he is from thefalym, but lives in the human world after being disowned for leaving faiyism. because his parents are high-ranking members of fairy society, he left the realm entirely so as not to be reminded of them. later on in the story, he becomes rory's boyfriend in a rivals-to-lovers-esque dynamic.

😈 . 😈 (edited hair)

NOELLE MIYAKE | 17 | she/her | transgender heterosexual

noelle is one of the miyake twins, she insists she's the older one but who knows if that's true? she has the powers to manipulate darkness, as well as turn into the darkness herself.

when she came out as trans, she was rejected by her parents, so she and her brother were taken in by their aunt. the three of them moved to merryday at the beginning of the story and become enya's neighbors! like her aunt, she practices shinto.

💥 . 💥 (edited skin, clothes)

RORY MIYAKE | 17 | he/him | cisgender bisexual

rory is the other half of the miyake twins! he has the power to control sound waves, as well as emit sonic blasts using his voice. (think marvel's songbird or dc's black canary)

he is mostly the voice of reason to noelle's energy, and was "the good child" in his parents' eyes. he left home with noelle after she was kicked out because he wanted to stay with her, and developed a deep insecurity of ever becoming like his parents due to their favoritism of him. he is thierry's boyfriend and is the main one to teach him about earth society.

👁️ . 👁️

MONA / JOANIE LIAO | 19 | she/her | nonbinary lesbian

mona is the name taken on by joanie liao after her death, due to her not remembering her real name. her powers, gifted to her by the eye, is a third eye on her forehead that she can open at will. it gives her the ability to see someone's true intentions.

joanie is enya's adopted older sibling, adopted when she was 12 and they were 8. they were killed accidentally by enya before the story begins, and neither of them remember the event until the meorysts uncover their memories. she is enya's aforementioned "ghost," which is actually just flashes of memory that enya has of her.

[yeonchi]

SPPDM 20th Commentary Part H: Peace At Last

(Art by my_ka_ella, tapita_de_pan, Ashp3nes, arasessarego, donitellav, Carnal Oficial, mura.in.artistland, Necrolyzer92)

We have finally reached the end, everyone. After years of school, fighting and questions left unanswered, the Salacians finally receive the closure they were missing to achieve their happy ever after, whether it's the princes and princesses, or the kings and queens.

This part serves as the epilogue to the story, showing important events in the decade following the war to wrap things up. I hope you enjoy my take on the future of Salacia.

Check out the story here:

Now that the story has been fully published, this is your last chance to join the Discord servers before the invite links are revoked at the end of the year. If you want to meet the renaissance fanbase on Discord servers that are pretty much dead in the water and only revived for the purpose of promoting this event fanfic or the Into the Liamverse series, then please feel free to join.

Please note that the renaissance fandom is predominately made up of Sea Princesses fans from Latin America, hence there are separate channels for Spanish and English languages.

Server de Princesas del Mar

Salacia en Discord!

Chapter 36 covers the immediate aftermath of the war, including Parker and Trebon's trial at the ICC and the armistice negotiations. Parker and Trebon declare a ceasefire between Dryland and Salacia, with future plans to negotiate an armistice and a peace treaty, before they are taken to Yokohama.

During this time, there are protests happening all across Dryland and Salacia - there's people on both extremes going "Why didn't you kill the other side" or "You were supposed to be our saviour" because the two sides decided to call a ceasefire, but in this situation I think a lot of people were glad to hear that the war was over and that the two sides can coexist in peace. Grudges between the two sides would continue to exist, but most people on either side would realise that the people on the other side are just like them and that they can bring value to their societies. Parker and Trebon encounter one such protest upon arriving in Yokohama, but they try not to pay any attention to them.

After they were placed into the holding cells at UNIT HQ, Parker and Trebon were allowed to greet their visitors; for Parker, it was his brother while for Trebon, it was his closest family and friends. Later that night, Parker is called up again as Tubarina wanted to talk with him. Since their fight at the beach in Chapter 2, Tubarina became intrigued by Parker and wanted to find out more about him, hence why she asked Mr Chain about him in Chapter 4. Parker questions Tubarina's motives, but Tubarina insists that she will be there for him as he returns to his cell. Parker tells Trebon about this encounter, which gives him the idea to matchmake Parker with Tubarina in a political marriage.

The next day, Parker and Trebon are flown to the Netherlands, where they are held at the ICC detention centre in The Hague pending trial. At the same time, Angelina and the others are brought before a court in Santos. They are convicted on all counts of their crimes and in an unexpected and coordinated move, they are all given suspended life sentences (except for Marli and Socita who were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment suspended) for 10 years as long as they undertake international community service with the intention of “fostering and propagating peace between Dryland and Salacia”. They would be imprisoned for two to ten times their remaining sentence if they deserted their posts.

While the trials were happening, the Divine Princesses and the rest of Parker's generals negotiated an armistice. We then see some characters receive closure on their lingering threads before Parker and the Shark King are brought back to Santos. Parker and Angelina see off their fellow generals as they prepare to head back to Melbongkong. Tubarina decides to follow Parker and she has a heartfelt farewell with her family and friends.

The next chapter, Chapter 37, focuses on the first year after the conclusion of the war, with the Dryland-Salacia Peace Conference being held to negotiate peace treaties between two worlds. Given how wars have a winner and a loser, Miss Marla suggested that the war be declared a draw, meaning that neither side won or lost the war, plus both worlds had to pay reparations to each other.

The treaties were signed and soon enough, a year had passed since the signing of the armistice. That day would be declared Surf and Turf Peace Day, a day akin to Anzac Day or Remembrance Day in Australia and New Zealand. In the morning, there's a remembrance ceremony at the Bubbles Lighthouse, then there's a parade in the afternoon, and then in the evening, there's a dinner gala concert, featuring different kinds of songs including those that were used in our animated adaptations, referenced in the story, used by Liamasterink in his music videos or just some meaningful songs I picked. I know it's weird to have dirty songs and twerking at a dinner gala where there are children probably present, but I just want to get this story over with at this point.

Chapter 38 takes place a few years after the war as the princes and princesses of Salacia marry their love interests. Because of all the marriages being announced at the same time, it was decided to hold a mass royal wedding in the style of a debutante/deb ball, or as schools have taken to calling it in recent years, a presentation ball.

Deb balls are events where girls from noble families who have reached maturity are "presented" to society and displayed to bachelors and their families. This continues to be a tradition in Australia, with presentation balls usually being organised by high schools, church groups or service clubs (Lions/Rotary) for students in Year 11. They perform a number of dances and sometimes they get the parents/the audience in on one as well.

I didn't participate in the deb and my high school crush didn't participate either, but a couple of her friends did and she and her other friends were invited to be in the audience. Normally, couples are discouraged to "do the deb" with each other, but I can think of at least one couple who ended up going out after meeting at deb… and then breaking up a few years later. You wouldn't believe how much I wanted to kill-

So anyway, because the wedding and deb ball are merged into one event, a bunch of traditions from both have been discarded. Only 16 couples are shown here because, as I said in the commentary for Part G, I wanted to leave the floor open for other ships people may have.

Most of the ships are inspired from the animated series or taken from Liamasterink, but I had to make quite a few changes because I am not a fan of incest ships. This is why Tubarina and Marcello marry Parker and Elektra while Hugo and Tata's love interests are left ambiguous. Marcia/Marcela is only referenced in passing because it's ambiguous as to whether she's getting married or she's just in the audience with her family. Liam paired her up with the Chief Diviner's daughter Liziana in a lesbian ship, but there wasn't much reason to show it because Liziana isn't a focus character here. I paired Marli with Liam Pitara because of how Liamasterink raved about her when he started posting Sea Princesses content, then I paired Socita with Mauricio/MJZD because they were left over.

Honestly, the Shark King saying to Parker in Chapter 36 that Tubarina doesn't have a love interest because no boy in Salacia was ever good enough for her is a direct reflection of my thoughts, because when you set aside her cousin Marcello, I don't see anyone else who could be a match for her. Maurico (the Sea Urchin Prince) is an option but he's already with Vivi, and Seretao is another option but his original character in my personal project (Zhuge Shu) is already married to someone else, plus they haven't interacted much in the first place.

So then, we've got 16 couples getting married with Fabio Yabusaki and Miss Marla taking turns officiating each one. It's a schizophrenically jumpy scene and I'm here for the craziness. I don't need to tell you that Liamasterink inspired this scene as well. Following this we have the presentation dances, along with the special performances of 新宝島, Over Quartzer and Journey Through the Decade. I've attached IconX's math operations dance set to 新宝島 below, as that is what the boys were dancing while the girls did a cheerleading routine.

While they were still in the grooms' room, Liam and Mauricio were talking about what they would get from the kebab station, and they mentioned that they would get chicken snack packs. The snack packs they are talking about are known in Australia as halal snack packs or HSPs, though there may also be different names depending on the state. HSPs consist of a kebab meat over a tub of chips topped with three sauces, usually BBQ, garlic and chili.

HSPs were popularised during the federal election day of 2016 when right-wing anti-Islam politician Pauline Hanson refused a request from Labor senator Sam Dastyari for one, saying that she wasn't "interested in halal". Mind you, this was a time before the worst people I knew made good points. Hanson and her party, One Nation, claims that buying halal certified products "financially supports the Islamisation of Australia" when it is not the case.

Before we continue, I want to point out that there are song lyrics quoted during the dinner gala concert and the wedding reception/debutante presentation dances in Chapters 37 and 38, along with Chapter 2 of Combo Rangers: Operation Wagan. FanFiction.net's rules state that copying song lyrics is "technically" not allowed, so to avoid copyright issues and vexatious vigilantes (on a site that has very little official moderation than it appears), I've removed the lyrics from those chapters on the site. They will remain on the PDF and eBook versions of those stories and if any other issues arise following this, they will be looked into accordingly.

And so we come to the time skip epilogue, something that I've had in mind for some time now. The princes and princesses have gotten married, they've now become the kings and queens of their respective kingdoms and they've also started their own families in a three-year baby boom just like how it was when they were born. It's been at least another decade since the end of the war and at least two decades (in my case, nearly three) since the royals went to their first day of school.

Where does that leave us in terms of timelining? In the Part D commentary, I said that this story takes place in 2018 and by my theory the original series is set in 2004, therefore the princes and princesses were born 1996-1998, which would make them 20-22 years old in 2018. The trial and peace negotiations take place in the year following the end of the war, so 2019. I set the weddings to take place in 2022 (just after the coronavirus pandemic) so the royals would be 24-26, but if you like, it can really be any year up to, say 2030. The baby boom takes place from 2024-2026, 20 years after the original series, making them 26-28. Now do you see why I set the series in 2018 when they were younger?

The epilogue is meant to take place the same number of years after the war as the number of years after the start of the original series, which in my case would be 2032. The next generation of princes and princesses are 6-8 years old, just as their parents were back in 2004, hence they would be 34-36 years old. Given how 28 years have passed, you can argue that it might as well be three decades.

If you subscribe to the theory that the series takes place in 2008, then the princes and princesses would be born in 2000-2002. Adjust the ages by four years and reduce the timeskip to 10 years so that the post-timeskip scene takes place in 2028 when they are 26-28 years old. Anyway, back to my theory as we finish off the story.

Now that the princes and princesses have become kings and queens and had children of their own who are about to begin school, Chapter 39 take us into a day in the life of the major royal families during the holiday period before the school year starts. Polvina's sexual inhibitions were unleashed after marrying Daniel and she became a bad and sexy princess - or rather, queen who is intimate with her husband; Ester and Duante led the Iemanja Alliance, an alliance of guardians including the Octonauts and Bubble Guppies; while Tubarina and Parker were staying at the Shark Palace for a holiday so they could help their children be accustomed to staying in the Shark Palace before they began school (like how Marcello stayed at the Shark Palace . They are seen together with Marcello, Elektra, Veto and Soraia as they attend a private dawn service at the Salacian War Memorial.

The intimate interactions between Polvina and Daniel here are written in a way that they can be excised or cut to make it more friendly to younger viewers, even though I did say from the very start that this event fanfic is directed at adults and it shows the characters as adults. Remember this point if you're going to criticise me for hornyposting.

After breakfast, the Octopus, Starfish and Shark royal families meet up and do some mainies, meeting other royal families while they do so. They have lunch together before they head off to do their separate activites; the dads and sons head to an indoor play centre; Elektra, Soraia and their mothers meet up with their families and friends at the mall; while Polvina, Ester and Tubarina take their daughters to the thermal spring pond from the end of Part E, where they talk about breasts, boobs, tits, whatever you want to call them. A man writing a sex ed scene between women and their daughters. What other ridiculous bullshit will liberals accuse conservatives of next? The chapter then closes off with a brief description of a dinner scene with the grandparents, the former kings and queens who have retired to the Farlands.

Finally, Chapter 40 brings us to the children's first day of school. With Mr Gippson having retired and Mr Bernardo being semi-retired yet still available as a casual relief/substitute teacher, three new teachers join Miss Marla in teaching the next generation of kings and queens; Seretao, the former Shark King Trebon and the former Octopus Queen Vinila, who decided to return to teaching after many years.

The day begins with a school admission ceremony attended by the whole school along with the parents and grandparents of the new students as well. The new students introduce themselves before Miss Marla puts on a short movie about the history of Salacia and tells the new students about the New Laws of Salacia:

Respect all people and beings on planet Earth.

Practice good, goodwill and generosity.

Take care of your homes or kingdoms.

Take care of others’ homes or kingdoms.

Respect all realms, kingdoms, countries, lands and seas as one.

The story ends with Polvina, Ester, Tubarina, Daniel, Duante and Parker talking about eternities after Miss Marla tells the students that their twelve years of school would feel like an eternity for them, because with everything that's happened over their entire lives, let alone two or three decades, it might as well have been two or three eternities. The friends (except Parker) all have a laugh at the very end, a staple of the animated series that has even happened a few times in this story.

And with some final words, the story comes to an end. Salacia and Dryland together again, land, sea and planet Earth forever. Though our worlds may be different, we, after all, are one.

Chapters 39 and 40 contain callbacks to the short story Mothers and Daughters, the first few chapters of the main series book The World of Salacia, and the first animated series episode Lost, just to loop back to where it all began. And as I said, not everyone is seen here because I want to keep interpretations as open as I can, hence the only Drylanders we see in the epilogue are Daniel, Parker, Liam and Mauricio.

There may have been other callbacks that I've missed because they're small, in which case I apologise for not listing them in my commentaries. This story is a pretty long one and I've been working on this between other projects, not to mention that I'm still reviewing and making changes even after the chapters have been published. If you've watched the animated series and read the books, then hopefully you'll have caught the references without me needing to point it out to you.

With the end of Part H, it's finally Peace at Last as the Sea Princesses 20th anniversary event fanfic, The Conquerors of the Lost and Found, comes to a close. There will be a final epilogue commentary post just to wrap things up (particularly because the commentary for this part and the last part are long enough as they are), so stay tuned for that.

After three months, the saga has finally come to a close. I hope you enjoyed the Sea Princesses 20th anniversary event fanfic and tie-ins just as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you all for your readership and support.

PDF and eBook versions of the stories are available on Google Drive.

(Art by marcelo_artz, Reino Dourado, LuaLuinho, lux_ludum_, deiskzi, ilustra.anarrodrigues, kracu.m, Nathaiisy)

[fallingskiesandrisingseas]

Been thinking about the set up of the Quarter Quell in Catching Fire, and something bothered me.

We have been told multiple times that the system to reap tributes isn't fair.

In the Career districts, the tributes are handpicked, chosen by their mentor based on skill and likability. They also tend to choose older tributes, as they have a higher chance of winning.

In the non-Career districts, Tesserae make sure that it is the poorest members of society that end up being reaped the most. More tickets in the bowl in order to gain a year's supply grain and oil is an offer that children like Katniss and Gale simply cannot refuse. And other systems are downright noted to be suspicious, like 11. The district is far too large for the tributes to be reaped from a bowl. Something more sinister might be going on.

These two systems are not iron-clad, however. In District 4, presumably a Career District, Finnick is chosen at the age of 14, which would imply that his teachers wanted to get rid of him or genuinly believed he would be able to win at 14. And in District 12, Prim is reaped, despite her name only being in the bowl once.

Then the Third Quarter Quell rolls around, and suddenly there are many victors reaped that don't agree with the methods of the Capitol, who are angry, who become or are already part of the revolution.

Beetee, Wiress, Finnick, Mags, Peeta, Chaff, Seeder, Gloss, Cashmere, Katniss, the Morphlings, Johanna, Blight, Celia, Woof; all part of the revolution.

Now, we are told that the Careers win it almost every year. We are told that they have the deepest pool of victors.

So why do they send in four people that absolutely do not want to be there?

Finnick, Mags, Gloss an d Cashmere all express discomfort at the idea of being in another games. They all express anger. And Annie was so traumatized by it that she doesn't want to go back ever.

But without Mags volunteering, it'd be Annie and Finnick, Gloss and Cashmere. Two pairs of people who do not under any circumstances want to kill each other.

There must be others, right? From how much prestige the Games have in the Career districts, certainly there are people dreaming of the chance to win it twice?

Or they all find out how life really is after all the trauma they went through and decide not to volunteer. The brainwashing comes off ( like veterans returning from war ).

Still, it is strange that those four get picked in that setup.

And Peeta and Katniss obviously are a part of the rebellion.

But Chaff and Seeder are a part of it too. Strong people from the largest district. As are Beetee and Wiress, perhaps the smartest tributes. Real assets for a revolution. We might need to kill them off....

What I am saying is that, if Snow can help it, he is sending in the people he wants dead the most. We know the Third Quarter Quell is a ploy to hopefully kill Peeta or Haymitch and Katniss, but it might also prove very useful to take out the tributes that are thinking about revolutionizing against the Capitol.

Killers.

Geniuses.

Men and women with a personal grudge against Snow and the willingness and ability to do damage, to make that grudge mean something.

I'm saying the Third Quarter Quell is a way to kill of clever people capable of violence who are revered in their communities, seen as beacons of hope, as leaders. That it is rigged to take out those most likely to revolt against the regime. That it leaves those who are no threat alone to take down those who are.

The Third Quarter Quell is meant to cull the heard. To make sure the revolution dies, to take out the officers, the front men. And the fact that it kills some people uninvolved? ( District 5, District 10, District 8? ). Too bad.

Funnily enough, despite nearly everyone listed dying, Snow accomplishes the opposite. Total war against the districts. He doesn't slow down the revolution: he speeds it up.

But we need to give him credit for having the skill to strike first. To sense the revolution. To try and nip it in the bud.

Shame he was focussed on Katniss and didn't see Coin. His rage killed him, in the end. His hatred, his obsession with Katniss. His blindness to the growing power of District 13.

Of course, it can also be that the Victors from other districts just happen to be those that are still alive.

There are only 74 Hunger Games, with 75 victors. Assuming the first 25 are dead minus Mags and Woof, there are only 50 Games for 20 spots.

But still...

Snow is cunning, and the fact that so many young and dangerous people end up in the Games ( generally tributes are below 40 ) speaks to his desire to get rid of those that do not serve him. This is also evidenced by the fact that Enobaria survives, and is treated well.

Kill disgruntled Careers and other dangerous elements. Kill either Haymitch or Peeta and Katniss. Let Brutus / Enobaria win the Games.

Rig the system. Protect the Capitol. Remain in power.

[euterpessi]

Romance Manhwa/Manga Recommendations:

Historical Manhwa/Manga:

Death Is The Only Ending For The Villainess

I’ve reincarnated as the reverse harem game’s villainess, the one and only adopted daughter of the ducal Eckart family.

But the difficulty just has to be the worst!

Everything I do will only lead me to death.

I must be paired with one of the main male characters from the heroine’s harem before the ‘real daughter’ of the duke family appears!

Two older brothers who always pick a fight with me on every little thing.

The insane crown prince whose route will always lead to my death.

‘I only see the heroine and no one else’s wizard, and also her loyal slave knight, too!

‘First, let’s take some of them which I see no hope in, out of the list!’

“I didn’t know my place up until now. From now on, I’ll live as quiet as a mouse so you wouldn’t care the slightest bit!

But why do their interests in me keep on rising every time I draw the line?!

The Villainess is a Marionette

Cayena, the Imperial Princess, was known as the most beautiful woman in the Empire. She was a woman who knew nothing but evil and luxury.

However, she was destined for ruin: she would be used as a chess piece by her younger brother to secure his throne and killed by her crazy husband.

“I’ll make you the Emperor.”

“… Sister, are you referring to me?”

“In exchange, give me freedom.”

She had to change things before she became that Cayena.

The Reason Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke’S Mansion

Poisoned to death by her own betrothed?! Eunha didn’t wake up in a novel’s story just to get killed off again as an unfortunate extra! To change her story she needs a cover… 6 months pretending to be the fake fiancée of the novel’s male protagonist, Duke Noah Wynknight. But will this cold-hearted, angel-faced demon of a man really help her avoid another ill-fated ending?!

Your Throne / I Want to Be You, Just For A Day

The story follows main characters Medea Solon and Psyche Callista, who become archenemies after competing for the position of crown princess of the Vasilios Empire. On the day of the Yearly Prayer, Medea and Psyche accidentally switch bodies.

The Remarried Empress

Navier was the perfect empress, however, the Emperor wanted a wife, not a colleague. And so, the Emperor abandoned Empress Navier and placed an enslaved girl beside him. That was fine until Navier heard the Emperor promise the slave the Empress’ position. After many ups and downs, Navier decided she would accept being the Queen of the neighbouring country and remarry.

Kill The Villainess

Eris Mizerian was the villainess of a novel. The only daughter of a marquis, she got executed after scheming against the pure and lovely protagonist, Helena. My only goal, after possessing her, is simply to leave this world and go home. I am prepared to face even death, but the laws of this world keep stopping me.

A changed Eris begins to draw the attention of three men who once loathed her; the Crown Prince, the High Priest, and the Knight.

"It doesn't matter. I will never be able to love this world."

Even if the only way out is death,

even if the only way out is make a deal with a witch...

I will absolutely leave this world!

This is the story of the villainess who defies fate, Eris, and her escape from this world!

The Way To Protect The Female Lead's Older Brother

I accidentally took possession of someone in a 19+ reverse harem novel.

The problem is that I became Roxana Agriche, the older sister of the sub-villain. My damn father kidnapped the heroine’s brother. Now, is the only thing left to meet a terrible end from the vengeance of the heroine?

But what if I can avoid that horrible development?

“I’m also interested in this toy.”

“I’ll protect you until you can get out of here safely.”

The heroine’s brother, Cassis Pedalian, will definitely be able to pay me back later.

Shadow Queen

“Can you be my daughter for me?”

By his offer, Elena became Duke of Franceschi’s fake daughter.

She became the queen and gave birth to Crown Prince’s son.

Then suddenly, Princess Veronica who was assumed dead came back.

She was only just a toy.

But eventually, Elena gets her son taken and is murdered.

However, she went back to the past.

“I’ll destroy all of you.”

I’ll never live as a toy again.

Elena decides to seeks revenge.

Under the Oak Tree

The daughter of a duke, the stuttering Maximilian, married a knight of lowly status at her father’s coercion.

After their first night, her husband departed for an expedition without another word.

He comes back three years later, this time as a famous knight in the whole continent.

How would Maximilian face him on his return?

"The more I think of you, the more lonely and lonely I become. I don't know why I can't quit even though it's so painful."

I'm Stanning The Prince

Angela’s fanfic became such a sensation that it even reached the Imperial Family, leading her to get arrested on charges of treason. Nevertheless, her fanfic improved the First Prince’s image, and his sister, the Princess, decides to take political advantage of this and keep Angela by their side. 

The heroine who can now fangirl to her heart’s content, and the Prince who doesn’t know how to act around her. As they bicker back and forth, they start growing closer…

Miss Not-So Sidekick

Hyejung loved to read to escape her daily stress. But that’s before she woke up inside the bizarre world of her favorite novel! Instead of the main heroine who courts three eligible men, she is now Latte Ectrie – a minor villain that everyone hates?! One way or another, it’s a chance to live out her most beloved storyline, with popcorn in hand to watch all the drama! Taking charge of the narrative takes on a whole new meaning!

Even Though I’M The Villainess, I’ll Become The Heroine!

I wasn’t able to overcome the harassment and took my life, but I was reincarnated with the perpetrator? The perpetrator is the heroine, Florre, and I am the villainess, Dahlia, who’s going to die horribly.

“They said you are a villain with neither blood nor tears, but unlike the rumors, you often shed tears.”

“Your Highness must believe all the nonsense the idiots are talking about, huh?”

Grand Duke of Cervian, the half brother of the Male lead and who will be punished for treason afterwards. He approached me. I can’t lose the man who will be my greatest ally.

“Your Highness, would you marry me?”

“Now…… what did you say?”

“And take revenge together.”

A similar situation, a fixed ending. The heroine is not the only one who knows the ending of the novel. I took a long and arduous path of revenge.

Who Made Me A Princess

The beautiful Athanasia was killed at the hands of her own biological father, Claude de Alger Obelia, the cold-blooded emperor! It’s just a silly bedtime story… until one woman wakes up to suddenly find she’s become that unfortunate princess! She needs a plan to survive her doomed fate, and time is running out. Will she go with Plan A, live as quietly as possible without being noticed by the infamous emperor? Plan B, collect enough money to escape the palace? Or will she be stuck with Plan C, sweet-talking her way into her father’s good graces?!

The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass

With the marriage of her prostitute mother to the Count, Aria’s status in society skyrocketed immediately. After leading a life of luxury, Aria unfairly meets death because of her sister Mielle’s schemes. And right before she dies, she sees an hourglass fall as if it were a fantasy. And just like that, she was miraculously brought back to the past.

“I want to become a very elegant person, just like my sister, Mielle.”

In order to face the villainess, she must become an even more wicked villainess. This was the new path Aria chose to take revenge on Mielle who murdered both her and her mother.

The Evil Lady's Hero

Junipe Magnolia, a villainess friend of the heroine in this novel called Rael Cania.

The Junipe inside the novel has always loved the male lead, Iseed. To the point where she harassed Rael out of jealousy because she's loved by Iseed.

And thus, Junipe is destinied to die in the hands of the male lead of this novel.

But one day.

"Why did I become Junipe?!"

But let's think about it, it's still one year away from the time Junipe is going to get killed by Iseed. So, I have to meet Iseed and Rael first, I'll be able to find a way out of my death if I do so.

Yeah, let's meet them first!

But, this man is just so tender-hearted and kind. Would Junipe be able to escape from this man?!

I Tamed a Tyrant and Ran Away

God gave me a chance to relive my life. Before the rebirth, I had been used for the past 400 years as the empire's sword. And so, I swore to destroy the empire. I found the young prince of the country and became his teacher. I taught him how to become a tyrant and asked for the country.

"I will do the lady's will."

He conquered the whole empire for me, and I ran away.

"I came to take you, Charlize Ronan." Dylan became a perfect tyrant and searched the entire empire for me.

"You tamed me, so why did you run away?"

Untouchable Lady

“Please, Hilise. Please die in place of Gabrielle.” My always dignified brother begged me for the first time. He wants me to die for our stepsister, whom we don't even share a drop of blood with. “For the first and last time, I ask you this.” I've always been miserable, and there is no exception this time. The seventh time that I was betrayed and killed, I was completely free of lingering feelings. “I'm glad that you're a scumbag until the end.” I won't be swayed by love anymore. It's my turn to abandon them first.

I’ll Live On As A Villainess

I reincarnated as the villainess in a book!

The one who dared to commit attempted murder on the heroine is the owner of this body?

Let's just live in a quiet place where we have fun and eat! That's what I thought for a while.

It was so, so, so cold here in the north, where I was kicked out as a punishment.

Before I froze to death, I called the Great Demon of Fire and set fire to the fireplace but...

Why isn't he going back? If you've done the job, shouldn't you go back?!

I was flustered to find out that I had signed a life contract with a demon just to start a fire but to think that I'd be responsible for relieving his desires!

The bickering romance between a big puppy demon and a small villainess lady!

It Looks Like I’Ve Fallen Into The World Of A Reverse Harem Game

When I opened my eyes, I was in a different world. I had become the game’s villainous princess who was feared by all. Not to mention… Completely naked men I didn’t even know were approaching me left and right! “Are you cold? Shall I warm you up with a hug?” “Oh? Have you not had enough yet?” Seriously, what’s up with this situation? And just how the hell am I going to get out of this freaking game?!

Father, I Don't Want to Get Married!

I’m Jubelian? The daughter of the duke and the villainess of this novel?

I managed to avoid my death with some previous knowledge about my life, as this was my second time at it. Now, I should be able to live a peaceful life!

“I’m not going to marry a man unless he has everything. I want the most wealthy, famous, and competent man there is.”

I dreamt of a glamorous life as the daughter of the duke, but my father tells me the Crown Prince who is known to be a lunatic is to be my husband! As an extraordinary measure, I couldn’t help but start a contract relationship. That is, with a handsome side character that looks better than the main one.

“Why are you trying to avoid being engaged to the prince?”

“He’s scary. I heard that he even kills his own entourage if he doesn’t like them.”

A few days later, the prince sent a terrible letter to me.

“I will not kill you.”

Oh no, did I set up another death trap for myself?

Like A Wind On A Dry Branch

"Hi, You."

Count Casarius fell victim to a plague and died suddenly, leaving behind a will stating that Rietta, his beautiful young widow of the manor, whom he tried to use as a concubine, be buried alive alongside him. Just before Rietta is buried, Archduke Axias, rumored to be a cruel tyrant, arrives at the funeral to collect the enormous debt Count Casarius still owes him.

“Everyone here seems to feel sorry for her, and I still have a debt to collect from Casarius… If I take her instead of debt, I think all of you here should be happy," he smiled.

"Hello, Temptress."

Everything was a Mistake

Roa Valrose reincarnated as villainess in the book. In order to avoid the fate of being burned at the stake, she approaches the hero, Nocton Edgar.

It hurts every time she gets closer to him. Nevertheless, for her survival, she does everything he wants her to do.

“Come again, Valrose.”

The mysterious Nocton unexpectedly sought her out every day.

Then one day, her friend for 10 years says something unknown to her.

“Actually, I have a dream. The Duke of Edgar is a terrible villain!”

He is not the hero, but the villain?

As soon as she realized that she had misinterpreted the role, she decided to get away from Nocton.

“Let’s not meet anymore.”

But the villain’s reaction was strange.

“Don’t go. You’ve always been special to me.”

She was suspicious of his sudden change of attitude.

Will she able to get rid of Nocton safely?

I Became the Tyrant's Secretary

I became the secretary of a tyrant in place of my clumsy brother to survive.

But I have so much potential for it. I’m so darn good at my job. Because I served the tyrant so well, ‘Everyone has a happy ending’.

Well then, shall I quit being a secretary and live a leisurely life now?

“Rosaline, tell me what you want.” He asked as he stepped down from his chair.

“I want to quit.”

His eyebrows twitched slightly.

“Do you want to die?”

Your highness, you never hold on to people who want to leave, so why’re you being like this to me?

Seduce the Villainess Father

After being in a bus crash, I woke up to the world of my favourite web novel.

Not only that, It was before the protagonists were born, to their parents’ world!

To stop the incoming multiple bad events.

I tried to prevent the kidnapping of the sister who is pregnant with the female lead!

But I got kidnapped instead?!

It's depressing to be kidnapped, but my body couldn't handle the mana and became a sunfish-like state

But... if I am next to the emperor who kidnapped me, my body becomes normal!

Right! The way to save that man from marrying a witch and getting killed by his son, and for someone who is vulnerable to mana such as myself to live, is for us to get married!

The Villains Savior

Set on a path to tragedy and misfortune from a young age, Aseph Randell is doomed to die a villain. That is, until the mysterious Elzay Tiathe appears in his life with a promise: "I can save you." After having vivid visions of him for so long, can Elzay untangle the twisted fate tied to Aseph... or will they both be dragged down together?

Contemporary Manhwa/Manga:

Night Crying Crow

This woman; who is she?

If something was action, it'd be action. If something was romance, it’d be romance. The A-list actor Cheon Woo Kang, who's great at every (genre), had his heart stolen away by an unknown woman who’d broken into his house!

“We'll meet again.~"

Woo Kang contracted an over imaginative illness as he drew the woman, whose name he didn't even know. In front of Woo Kang, she reappeared as the police officer Park Tae... Could the shadow of the crisis that appeared in front of them be a coincidence?

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Yoshino Somei would have been a normal high-schooler if not for the fact that she is the granddaughter of the leader of the Osaka-based Somei Group, the Kansai region's largest yakuza organization. One day, Yoshino hurries home after hearing of the news about the unification of Kansai and Kanto's biggest syndicates, the Somei and the Miyama groups. This, according to the article, will result in a marriage of the leaders' grandchildren—one of whom is Yoshino herself! Despite her best efforts to annul the arrangement, Yoshino has to go to Tokyo to visit her fiancé, Kirishima Miyama, who is unexpectedly nice and charming.

During their first meeting, Yoshino is swept up in various events and becomes unable to refuse moving to Tokyo, which is why, half a year later, she now lives with the Miyama group. At school, she soon realizes that Kirishima is very popular, so her relationship with him garners the hate of his fangirls and subsequently results in bullying. To make matters worse, Kirishima could not be further away from her prince charming since he, after all, was born to be a yakuza member.

Raise wa Tanin ga Ii follows Yoshino and her new life in Tokyo that is filled with nothing but troubles connected to the underworld. However, though she wishes to be as far from it as possible, this isn't Yoshino's first time dealing with the world of the Yakuza...

Positively Yours

To Hee-won’s dismay, the BFF she crushed on and her other BFF are now dating! Seriously bummed, Hee-won decides to go wild just one time, and find solace with a handsome stranger. A very satisfying one night affair has now turned into more — she’s pregnant! Fate brings them together again, and now the regimented Doo-joon is determined to do the right thing and marry her. But they’re basically strangers! Except... their bodies have been very intimately acquainted. What’s this mother-to-be to do?

True Beauty

After binge-watching beauty videos online, a shy comic book fan masters the art of makeup and sees her social standing skyrocket as she becomes her school’s prettiest pretty girl overnight. But will her elite status be short-lived? How long can she keep her real self a secret? And what about that cute boy who knows her secret?

Cheese In the Trap

Hong Sul is a ordinary college student. Yoo Jung is the school's most popular upperclass man. He's good looking, rich, smart, and even nice. However, Hong Sul thinks there's more to Yoo Jung than what meets the eye…

SPY x FAMILY

The master spy codenamed has spent his days on undercover missions, all for the dream of a better world. But one day, he receives a particularly difficult new order from command. For his mission, he must form a temporary family and start a new life?! A Spy/Action/Comedy about a one-of-a-kind family!

Doppio Senso (18+)

“What are you thinking about?”

“I’m thinking about a guy.”

KyungHyun stopped in the middle of a deep kiss and sighed. His lips began to form a smile, but his fierce glare said otherwise. Possessiveness and jealousy spread across his sculpted face.

“Will you tell me his name?”

His easygoing and languid voice reached her ears.

“Why?”

“So that I can shoot him down.”

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

How do you think the Cullen's would have turned out if they lived their natural human lives and not forever frozen at an age / the state they were in? For example I think Carlisle would always be kind and tame but perhaps not as idealistic. Rose might grow bitter of the world since even if Royce didn't assault her I can't imagine he would be the loving husband she wanted. Edward, who watched his parents die and was dying himself, might not be as moody and miserable. Who knows about Jasper and Alice and Esme. Emmett would probably stay the same. Bella, if she never met the supernatural, probably would just be a quiet old soul but otherwise not mal adjusted. I can't even guess about Renesmee haha since she has no personality next to being ~inhumanly special.

I mean, sadly, we know the answer: they wouldn't be around very long and would have died miserably. There's no such thing as a natural human life, well, I suppose you can die of old age, but the fate of the Cullens didn't have that in store.

But let's get into it just the same.

Alice

Had James not come across Alice, she likely still would have been turned at some point by her maker, who seems to have been very fond of her. It was just a matter of time. The difference being that, instead of being a newborn completely on her own, her maker would have been there. This is an Alice very unlikely to see Jasper or the Cullens in her future, though who knows, Carlisle and her maker might very well cross paths someday due to the similarity of their work.

But I doubt Alice would ever end up on the diet.

For Alice to remain human, she can never have been sent to that asylum. In which case we have two options a) she's not sent to an asylum b) she's sent to a different asylum.

In the first case, Alice is more than likely murdered by her father. This is what got her sent off in the first place: she was running around town claiming that her father had murdered her mother and now planned to murder her. To shut the hysterical woman up, her father sent her to an insane asylum. Which effectively got her out of his life just as he wished.

If that didn't occur to him, then yes, Alice likely falls gravely ill or has some unfortunate accident that she cannot prevent.

Otherwise, Alice is sent to some other insane asylum, likely still loses all her memories due to electroshock therapy, and probably dies very young due to poor health conditions. The life she does live is utterly miserable.

Bella

Bella dies in a parking lot, she's hit by a truck out of control. Otherwise, Bella dies in Port Angeles, she's raped and her body abandoned in a dumpster. Otherwise, Bella is eaten by a vampire.

And if Bella miraculously survives all of that, I imagine her struggle with depression continues throughout high school and into college. In college, she may meet someone who catches her interest, in which case she becomes completely codependent on them for a sense of validation (as she did Edward and Jacob in canon).

The relationship is a toxic mess, ends in a very messy breakup, and Bella goes through her New Moon phase a bit later. She might finally get therapy and survive this very dangerous phase in her life, at which point, she finally starts the slow recovery from depression.

I imagine Bella will be struggling with depression though for all of her life and, if left untreated, it might very well kill her.

Carlisle

Had Carlisle not been turned this means the vampire likely drained him. Carlisle dies at the head of the mob, this sentences the other Cullens to death as well as now no one will turn them.

Let's say Carlisle wasn't as fast that day. He had a leg cramp, or something. Not being well in front of the others, he's not hit by the vampire first. This increases his chances of death, as the vampire seems to have killed the rest he took a bite of, but he could survive.

Carlisle lives with the haunting guilt that the one time he tracks down a true demon he brought death to his parish. Several died due to his actions, the demon got away, and now there's no sign of it. Carlisle completely and utterly failed.

This is probably the final straw for Carlisle. Demons exist, but they are beyond his capacity to hunt, this is a job for God and not mere mortal men. He stops the demon hunts, stops the witch hunts, and focuses himself strictly on helping the community and preaching.

He lives knowing his father would have continued to be sorely disappointed in everything he does.

Carlisle likely marries within a few years, now that his father is dead and he's the established head of the parish. He may or may not like his wife all that much, but he has a responsibility, and having a wife and children is one of those. I imagine that they either are somewhat fond of each other or quietly tolerate one another.

If Carlisle has a son, the son is trained as a priest, sent to seminary as he was, and set to inherit the parish. If he has only daughters, then it will be her husband who will inherit the parish.

When Carlisle dies he is likely remembered very fondly by the parish for the good he did for the community. No one talks about the demon hunting disaster. He's buried next to his father.

Edward

Edward dies of the Spanish Influenza in 1918.

Had he never caught it, and thus never come across Carlisle, I imagine he lives a somewhat ordinary life. He goes to university somewhere very well established, perhaps even one of the Ivy League schools, I can see him training to become a lawyer. He either joins his father's law firm or, if his father's not a lawyer, some law firm in Chicago where he does quite well for himself.

He probably courts then marries some affluent, well to do, woman who hits all the checkmarks he expects from society. They probably get on quite well.

The market then crashes in 1929, when Edward's only 29 years old, and Edward gets to live through the depression. Edward may be lucky enough to retain his wealthy, however, he very well could not have been. Edward is now unemployed, destitute, and miserable just like the rest of the country.

I imagine this is very hard on him, he becomes very bitter and resentful, and as he desperately tires to find work it just gets worse. Edward becomes mired in cynicism.

Then the war hits, Edward is now 41, and he's too old to enlist in the army. He feels a sense of nostalgic bitterness that, once again, he can't go fight the good fight and has to cheer from the sidelines. Nonetheless, the economy starts to recover thanks to the war, Edward recovers with it and things get better.

Edward lives his ordinary human life and, perhaps, lives to sometime in the 1990's.

Emmett

Emmett is eaten by bears.

Had he not happened to be in the mountains that day then, likely, some other unfortunate accident would have befallen him. He's a mountain man, that's a dangerous life.

He gets eaten by bears, eaten by mountain lions, injured somehow and then dies, hit by a tree that he cut down, there are so many possibilities.

If he does live to an older age then he becomes the gruff mountain man stereotype that we all know. I imagine he remains a very friendly, cheerful, man, probably marries some local girl and has a very large family.

Esme

Esme kills herself. With the death of her child, that was the path she chose, and had she not been turned she would have been successful.

However, had her child lived, I imagine her life would have continued on the path it was on. She would have been a single mother, working as a teacher, and raising her child.

They would have been poor, but Esme seemed determined to make this work, and was doing an excellent job at it.

Perhaps, in time, she would meet the right man and remarry. However, I think that would take a lot of time as the whole issue was that she was hung up on the ideal of Dr. Carlisle Cullen who she met when she was sixteen and never saw again.

Regardless, she's far more of a real person grounded in reality than Esme the vampire ever was.

Jasper

Had Jasper not come across Maria, he likely would have died in the war. Many, many, people died in the civil war, and Jasper would be far from alone in that.

If not, he would have returned to the ravaged south, and likely found himself facing unemployment and very difficult times for wherever he came from.

Jasper would likely pull through, we know he has lived through hell in canon and pulled through there, though changed for life by the horrors of the civil war that will now never quite leave him.

Renesmee

Renesmee is never born. Her father is a demon a hundred years older than her mother. There is no chance that Bella becomes pregnant with Edward's human child, let alone his vampire child.

If Bella does become pregnant with a vampire child, she's likely been raped by Joham. Bella dies in confusion and agony, Renesmee is born into this world utterly alone, is picked up by Serena, and becomes yet another sister of Nahuel's.

Renesmee lives the miserable life that all of Nahuel's siblings do.

Rosalie

Rosalie is gang raped to death by Royce and his friends and dies in agony in an alley. Had she not come across Royce that night then likely, after they marry, he at some point rapes her to death and murders her.

The likelihood of Rosalie, with her parent's ambitions and her looks, of not marrying Royce is very small.

Even then, Royce is in town in general, that means all she needed was one bad night. Which, in canon, she had.

However, let's say she lives and Royce wasn't interested in her hand, she marries option number two. As you note, her marriage still likely isn't fulfilling. Rosalie is there to be beautiful and poised, to have tea with the ladies in society, and watch as a governess raises her children.

This is the world she lives in, and she accepts that, but over time she becomes increasingly bitter and resentful of this thing we call life.

TL;DR Remember, there's no escape from the pit of despair we call Twilight

[hamliet]

Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls and It Dies...

Or, why I am pretty optimistic about the fates of Jean, Connie, Gabi, and all titanized people this chapter, which is also an excuse for me to talk about SnK’s allusions to Russian literature. 

There are strikingly parallel ideas The Brothers Karamazov and Attack on Titan, as well as parallel plot points and imagery to the point where if it isn’t deliberate, it’s uncanny. (NB: before people yell at me about comparing a Japanese and Russian work, Isayama has used Russian names since the start of SnK--Shiganshina is a Russian name.) In particular, there are narrative allusions to a portion of the novel known as “The Grand Inquisitor,” which is a short story within a novel. The central thesis of “The Grand Inquisitor” is as follows: 

nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. 

This parable is told within the story by Ivan Karamazov, a character whose intellectuality is his gift and his curse. He tells his brother Alyosha that the motivation for creating this parable is precisely the evils done to children (oh look, a major SnK theme) and specifically cites an example which was unfortunately taken from real life in Russia and which Isayama has an uncanny parallel:

I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for. All the religions of the world are built on this longing, and I am a believer. But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That's a question I can't answer... If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? ... if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers' crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn't grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old...

... How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? ... What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? ... I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don't want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price. ... too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it... It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.”

The actual parable of “The Grand Inquisitor” is Ivan’s answer to Alyosha’s question about Ivan’s lines above. Ivan tells a story about how freedom is actually what dooms humanity: it is the curse. (Alyosha does not believe this.) Jesus comes back to earth and is promptly arrested, because his existence and return threaten the wellbeing of society. To be happy, one cannot be free, but one or two strong people in society should be free and bear the burden for everyone else (you can see the parallels to King Fritz/the Reisses). 

Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering... all his life he loved humanity, and suddenly his eyes were opened, and he saw that it is no great moral blessedness to attain perfection and freedom, if at the same time one gains the conviction that millions of God's creatures have been created as a mockery, that they will never be capable of using their freedom...

This is SnK’s thesis: to be free, there will be suffering. It is part of human nature, and yet to not have it is to be lost. But SnK, despite its explorations of human darkness and monstrosity, has a higher view of humanity than does Ivan. SnK’s view is more alongside Alyosha’s, who says what is honestly the truth about not just the Reisses, but Eren now:

"Who are these keepers of the mystery who have taken some curse upon themselves for the happiness of mankind? .... It's simple lust of power, of filthy earthly gain, of domination—something like a universal serfdom with them as masters—that's all they stand for.”

Mikasa is akin to the Christ figure in the story, akin to Alyosha: Christ is constantly asked to speak, asked to act, and he does not until the very last moment, when he kisses the Grand Inquisitor on the lips. After the story is over, Alyosha then does likewise to Ivan. 

Not to mention when Alyosha worries about Ivan’s mental state, he then answers with this:

“Listen, Alyosha,” Ivan began in a resolute voice, “if I am really able to care for the sticky little leaves I shall only love them, remembering you. It's enough for me that you are somewhere here, and I shan't lose my desire for life yet.”

A simple leaf can save a life. A leaf can save the world. A leaf, grown from a tree that started as a seed falling to the ground, dead, only to grow life from that death. Alyosha himself notes SnK’s central thesis of chapter 137 in the (very long) novel’s final pages:

...some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.

There’s a lot more to this, but this is the epigraph to The Brothers Karamazov, the central thesis of the entire novel:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." -John 12:24

Suffering can grow great fruit in an individual life, and by giving something up, by even death, something beautiful can come. Through cruelty, you can find life. 

This is not just a long-running theme in SnK, but a pattern in its plot. Often those who surrender then receive exactly what they had surrendered (but admittedly, not always, like Erwin). 

Mikasa accepted Eren’s loss, and got him back.

Mikasa let Armin go, and got him back.

Falco gave up hope of survival, and got another chance: 

Hange was going to die alone, feeling guilty for having failed her comrades, but saw everyone again, and they told her well done: 

Historia gave up being free, but now we know she will be.

Levi gave up on his revenge, and then got it. Annie thought she would never see her dad again, but she did. For Mikasa, accepting that she has to kill the boy she loves coincides not just with her acceptance of her love, but with the acceptance and knowledge that he loves her:

It always comes with sacrifice, increasingly hard sacrifice, but usually the seeds that are dropped grow and bloom. 

This chapter, everyone surrendered their hearts. They let their dreams fall to the ground, and I honestly think the story will allow it to plant life. Yes, the world as a whole is saved and that is enough to make thematic sense, but it works even better if the very people who were titanized this chapter also bloom again. They chose to trust Mikasa, Levi, Falco, and Pieck to finish the task.

The characters giving up their lives only to get them back make sense, and give Mikasa’s sacrifice of Eren. For Mikasa, Eren was her world, and she gave it up when she had lost everyone else. She had nothing left, and she still did it. I would hope she’d be narratively rewarded beyond just the world being saved, because Mikasa has always been motivated by her personal relationships.

Moving on from Mikasa: Connie’s mom has been kept alive and the concept of turning mindless titans back to humans was already brought up specifically in relation to her:

Connie giving up on his mother a dozenish chapters ago only to get her back now--not through sacrificing a child, but through saving the entire world--would fit the themes and patterns of SnK.

Thirdly, Gabi should not die. She’s Eren with positive development, and cannot meet the same end. Even people who are skeptical of every titan being saved seem to agree that she’ll be fine. It’s possible she’s the only one saved, but imo, not likely. 

See, the only shifter characters who are going to have the option of self-sacrifice are Falco and maaaaaybe Armin. The others look like they’re about to die right here and now, never mind choosing someone to save: the mindless titans are ripping at their napes. Armin also looks to be in bad shape. 

Yet Armin cannot narratively commit suicide; two chapters ago he was still screaming at himself for being useless and thinking he would be better off dead. He’s already tried the heroic sacrifice, too, so why would it work this time around? It does not work for his arc. Falco dying for Gabi was the plan without any freedom from the titan curse; it’s more powerful if ending the curse changes things, rather than forcing him to make the same choice that Reiner has always been trying to make: a heroic suicide. It could happen; it’s just not as narratively strong.

As for whether the worldbuilding rules, we know that mindless titans are not truly dead nor entirely mindless; they just don’t have freedom. Ymir’s case of getting herself back after decades shows that they aren’t quite dead or absorbed. They still have consciousness that can be awoken; Ymir described it as being in a long “nightmare.” Dina still went looking for Grisha. Connie’s mom remembered and recognized Connie, telling him “welcome home.” There is plenty of evidence that there are parts of these people that are still in there even if they are forced to become monsters (oh hey, it’s an Eren parallel; he was conscious of it and had choices while mindless titans do not, but the parallel remains).

[painless-innit-colourful]

'Blind Trust'

AU where Tommy loses his memory temporarily on being resurrected, and when he leaves the prison, he has no idea who he is or who he can trust. Tubbo's nowhere to be found (not that he even knows him). Jack wants him dead. Ranboo's the only one he feels safe with. TW for vague references to the abuse of the exile/prison arc, and a bit of blood.

Something happened to him, he’s pretty sure.

He remembers pain. He remembers fear. He remembers a feeling beyond both of those things, a ripping sensation, a great agony, a fearsome sense of loss. He seems to remember a feeling like being ripped apart, and then reassembled, only like it happened a hundred times, fracturing him to pieces, nothing but apathy for any parts of him lost along the way. He thinks he knows what it’s like to be caught in a seemingly endless cycle of neither existing or not. The ache in his bones, the pounding in his skull, the itchy tremor beneath his skin - he imagines this is what death feels like. He imagines that he’s known death, tasted it, danced in its cold hold, and somehow, evaded it, somehow let go.

But that would be crazy.

Only there’s one more major issue.

Whatever happened, he can’t remember.

Panic rises; he pushes against it, disliking the familiar sensation of drowning. He takes stock of what he does know. The green man he was trapped with, he’s not nice. The green man that let him out… He’s not nice either. Without even knowing why, he’d stood, shaking violently next to his rescuer, and whispered “You left me. You left me in there with him.” He can’t even remember if that’s true.

There are items in his pockets, things in the tatty backpack on his back. He has food. He has blocks. There are no books, no labels in the clothes, no receipts or cards or papers. Nothing that tells him anything about who he was. Is. The items are too heavy, too many random things, what’s he gonna do with all this random paraphernalia? Too much, too little. Nothing that he feels any immediate attraction or attachment to. Nothing that gives him a clue as to who he is. If he’s anyone at all.

There’s a trident, mixed in with the assortment of random blocks. He puts the bag back on his shoulders and holds it with one hand, weighing it against nothing but the pain in his heart. It evokes a lonely feeling. It smells like salty water. It tastes like tears.

He soars through the air, and if he closes his eyes, he’s somewhere else, flying over a calm sapphire ocean. The water is still, the air is heavy, the stars are so near. He’s one of them, part of the sky, just another light for the uncaring mortals below, going about their business as if nothing has changed, as if he wasn’t once part of their society and now he’s nothing but dust, no tears shed, no love lost, as if he never mattered, as if he won’t be missed-

The ground reaches up to meet him, and he crashes into its embrace, and something inside him is terribly, terribly broken. He can’t have been like this before, whoever he was. There’s blood, bloody fingers touching a scrape the length of his back, and it seems to multiply, running down his forearms, over his eyes, pooling beneath him as if to pronounce him dead then and there. He scrambles away, and it reaches for him, tendrils like vines trying to claim him, undo him already. He’s been reborn, delivered from whoever this body belonged to before to this new life, but whatever has given him the chance is already taking back their gift. He rifles through the backpack looking for something to wrap around his wound, something to hide the bloodstains, something to make it go away, please make it go away-

He comes up with a high vis jacket - bloody hell, was he a lollipop man? - and it’s barely anything but it certainly distracts from the crimson, so it’ll do. His trousers are stained an unnecessary shade of red, and he’s panting with an unnecessary terror. He isn’t under attack. He isn’t being attacked. He isn’t going to be killed.

With an uneasiness that feels unearned, he walks along the wooden path ahead of him, away from the imposing black building that threatens to suffocate him with helplessness everytime he looks at it. There’s a petite, yellow building decorated with purple flowers, round like globes and sweetly-fragranced. He reaches out to touch one, to hold it in his hand, and it seems to disintegrate between his fingers, a tiny explosion of colour that withers into nothing like a candle being extinguished. He steps away quickly before it starts turning red too.

Speaking of red, he backs directly into the perimeter fence of a ruby-red monolith, striped and vaguely-rectangular in shape. He’s about to turn and retreat from that too (before he breaks anything else), when he spots a man, standing stoically by the door, wearing a high vis jacket. Before he knows it, the boy is pushing through the fence and approaching with a vain curiosity. ‘You’re dressed like me!’ He wants to call out, because this man is the first that doesn’t immediately strike him with the urge to run for his life.

Confusingly, the man doesn’t react immediately to his approach, gaze directed ahead with a thousand yard stare. He is surprised, naturally, when the man’s head turns sharply and looks him in the eyes. “WELCOME BACK TO THE BIG INNIT HOTEL TOMMYINNIT!! IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN…”

“AAH-!” He shrieks, flailing violently backwards and falling on his ass. His breath comes out in short pants.

“YOU SURE WERE GONE A WHILE TOMMYINNIT… WE MISSED YOU…”

Was that his name? What is this crazy guy talking about? The words were summoning scraps of memories that reached out to each other, trying to build bridges and webs between each other, colouring the gaps between themselves with bright blues and warm greens and soothing beiges; yet the webs collapsed as soon as they formed, like they were made by the world’s most ineffective spider. At least he knows he had once belonged here now…

“What are you making a fuss abou-” From the building emerges a nearly bald man wearing hi-tech glasses, and the boy is hit with two knee-jerk reactions. The first one, a sense of camaraderie, the urge to smile and joke and tease. And the second is the blaring of his danger sense like a nuclear siren, screaming at him to run, get away, get away quick and hide.

“What the f-” The man roughly taps the blue side of his glasses, leering at the boy. “...No- What the fuck.”

“I don’t know anything!” The boy throws his hands up, instinctual surrender. “I don’t have anything!”

“What are you-”

“Why are you saying that?” He squeaks, fear clogging his throat.

The man swipes his hands through the air, cutting the boy off. “No, shut- Bigger elephant in the room, why are you alive?”

He freezes, his body dumping all the adrenaline he thought a boy his size could hold into his bloodstream, his limbs tensing to sprint away. Any second now the weapons would come out, the red would return, he can’t do this, he can’t do this, he can’t do this-

“You’re dead- You’re dead! You died!” The man’s voice is rising until he's almost shouting, yet the frightened boy stops backing away, because something doesn’t make sense, this doesn’t seem like a threat- No, this is- this-

“I grieved for you.” Their eyes meet, and despite the statement, the glare from behind the red and blue lenses is cold and unforgiving, and it sends a shiver through him. “You’re not back.”

“I- I don’t know what you mean…” He raises his hands defensively, but instead of swinging, the man just laughs with a sound like rolling thunder.

“Oh don’t play dumb with me Tommy. No one comes back-” He catches himself. “I mean, most people don’t come back.”

“I- I don’t understand…” He mutters. “I… died?”

The man crosses his arms, scoffing with immense disapproval and scorn. “You wanna speak up? Or d’you want to keep playing stupid? Because I’m not an idiot Tommy. Do you take me for a fool?”

“I don’t know what’s going on!” His hoarse whisper comes out as a shout, and his hands fly to his hair, gripping the strands like they're a rope someone would use to rescue him. “I can’t remember what’s happened, and you keep saying I’ve- died- and nothing makes sense and I don’t even know who you are…” His voice cracks and breaks as he struggles to get the words out, process their meaning, determine their level of truth. Then it shatters, dropping to barely above a whisper again as his knees shake with the effort of keeping him on his feet. He chances a glance at the man’s expression, apprehensively waiting for his judgement, and is met with a glare to rival Medusa’s.

“You don’t know who I am.” His tone is level, and yet, threat runs through it like a river, threatening to catch him in the rapids, pull him under and fill his lungs full of lies, or his own blood, or worse. The man reaches up to push his glasses back up his nose, and the boy flinches back onto the main path. “You are so… selfish.” He opens his mouth to counter, but no sound comes out. “You’re selfish! Shit like this… This is why you deserved this. This is why you should’ve stayed dead.”

Why does that hurt so much? He wants to reach through the fog in his mind, knock down the walls and see this man as he should’ve. Their history- It's all in there somewhere! Somewhere, locked away, inaccessible, painfully so. He hugs his arms to his chest, they are already bloody, he realises, the bandages to protect his bleeding heart.

“I mourned you! I grieved for you, and now I remember why I wanted you dead.”

That's it, he’s gone, he's scrambling along the path, he’s clumsily vaulting the gate, grazing his knees, tears staining his cheeks, hands gripping his sides, nails breaking skin, heart and feet thudding the rhythm to a song he barely remembers, ‘Stay alive, stay alive-’

Terrified and confused and so, so weary, he runs until he can no longer see the black building, or the yellow one with the flowers, or the red one that feels so familiar in a hopeless way. He follows the hills and dips of the wooden path, feet falling into familiar grooves as he winds along the peaks and troughs, past peculiar buildings and strange establishments. Eyes watch him as he goes, their murmured exchanges commenting on his appearance or his desperation or no doubt what he’s done, what he can’t remember, how bad he’s been. He’s a freak, he thinks he hears someone say. There’s more red: twirling vines undulating down towers or wrapping tendrils around infrastructure. It reaches for him; it beckons to him with a hissing voice. He dashes harder: he wants away. From everything, and everyone.

He runs until his lungs hurt, until his legs are screaming at him to stop, and he all but collapses outside a brick house. He’s on his hands and knees, although he doesn’t remember falling, and he touches his head to the floor like he’s praying, and that’s when he hears the solitary voice:

“Tommy?”

Oh shit a brick.

“Please- I’ll go, please just- Let me go-” The words barely make it past his raw throat. His eyes meet that of the enderboy’s ahead of him, and he feels frozen to the spot, and it sends another shot of panic through him. He doesn’t know how much more he can take. “Please- Just let me go.”

The boy with his half-and-half complexion and fascinating eyes approaches, palms facing Tommy - for that’s got to be his name by now - like he’s closing in on a skittish cat. “You’re- Oh… You’re-” He’s slack-jawed, and then he suddenly snaps out of whatever awed trance he’s slipping into, and comes even closer. “Tommy? Are you alright? It’s only me, it’s-” He seems to cringe slightly, for some reason. “-It’s Ranboo.”

“Ranboo.” His mouth forms the word, tastes it. It tastes… sweet. Not sweet like honey but like… a cake. Time slows, the world stops spinning like a top, and the ground settles beneath Tommy. There are no warning sirens harmonising with this boy. His heart rate slows gradually as the much taller boy crouches by his side. “You’re- You’re here…”

“Ranboo,” He says quietly. “Why is everyone looking at me like I just came back from the dead?” The question echoes in the immediate quiet, and he fears the answer to an irrational degree. “Um…” Promising start. “Obviously you know what happened, I mean- Or what everyone thinks.” He amends on catching sight of Tommy’s changing face, as his heart sinks further towards his stomach.

“Ranboo.” He takes a shaky breath. “I can’t remember anything before- before- before the big black building and some green fucker- I don’t know what happened, I don’t know why people hate me, I don’t know what’s going on-!”

“Whoa, okay.” One of Ranboo’s hands, the black one, lands on his side, the touch sending an involuntary shiver through him. “Do you… Do you remember me?”

The question is innocent enough, but all the muscles in Tommy’s body tense again, preparing themselves for the next mad dash downtown. There seems to be a terminal ahead, he could change direction and lose him-

“N- No.”

“Right, okay,” The older boy chuckles to himself. “That explains a lot actually.” Tommy’s danger sense flickers. “What- What do you mean?”

Ranboo’s smile is not cruel, nor does it inspire machiavelli; it’s kindly and soothing. “You and I… We have an on-off friendship. I don’t think you’ve properly decided whether you like me or not.”

“Why don’t I like you?”

He shrugs, looking bemused. “Would you believe me if I said I have memory problems too?”

And Tommy actually chuckles at that. “Maybe.” He swipes at some of the tears drying tracks into his face. Ranboo watches the motion intently. “...Are you okay?”

“I-” He pauses, a thousand answers taking their turn on the end of his tongue, before what comes out is: “No. I don’t remember anything, I barely know my own name, I- people hate me and I don’t know why, and- Everything hurts. Listen to me, Ranboo, I have these terrible- like, flashes of something, where everything hurts and it feels like I’m being ripped apart but the whole world is dark and cold and- and-”

The whole world is not dark and cold, though the outside of Ranboo’s jacket is. It must look a peculiar sight, he supposes, one teenager holding another, both sitting down on a public highway, but it’s happening.

It’s happening, he realises. It’s real. Someone’s holding him.

...Okay.

“You’re alright.” Ranboo murmurs, and Tommy leans into the hug, bringing his arms up to place weakly around Ranboo’s middle. “You’re okay, you’re alright.” The words surround them in the quiet, sentinels standing guard against the rest of the world.

“I’m not.” He replies involuntarily.

“Okay.” Ranboo concedes. “But you will be.”

A long moment passes, and then Tommy speaks again, for a reason he can’t grasp. “Ranboo, I- don’t seem like a very good person. This guy - I think I used to know him - he called me selfish, told me he wished I’d stayed dead. I don’t think people… like me very much.” But to that, Ranboo only shrugs.

“I wouldn’t believe that.”

“Why not?”

“You’re a bit rough around the edges, but you’re alright really.”

“I’m alright?”

“You’re human. As messy and mortal as us all.”

It’s as if in that moment, the floodgates open. Tommy suddenly remembers himself. He knows the pattern of the flag of L’Manberg, he knows Tubbo’s preferred way of having his coffee (no milk, two sugars), he knows Wilbur’s favourite songs and which ones Techno will throw a sword at you for singing. He knows - partially - why Jack hates him, and incidentally, who Jack is. He knows that he died, and how, and what and who he saw beyond, and why he was stuck there in the first place. And he knows all the details of his complicated relationship with the boy whose arms he’s currently occupying.

And he pushes it all away. He snuggles closer to Ranboo, closes his eyes, and leaves it for later, logical operation be damned.

Turns out a blind instinct can be right.

[allalrightagain]

ONE GIANT FOLDER COMING YOUR WAY

Ooh a giant one you say?? Ok, here’s my DADA prof conspiracy theory:

(under a cut because I wrote you an essay. oops.)

SO! One of the biggest mysteries of the whole series is what on earth Dumbledore was thinking when he hired Gilderoy Lockhart of all people to teach 11-18 year olds defensive magic, especially the year after he confirms that Voldemort is definitely still around and kicking and trying desperately to come back to power/get to Harry. Obviously the last prof died etc etc and the “willing and able” population is extremely slim pickings after 30-40 years of needing a new person every year, so there might not be anyone who would actually say yes that Dumbledore was willing to take.

(This is true even when you consider the professors who do accept for the next few years— Moody and Slughorn come out of retirement to take it, Umbridge and the Carrows hardly make Dumbledore’s “Not a Chance in Hell” list, and Lupin, well... would he take the job? If Sirius had not broken out of Azkaban? Would Dumbledore have even offered it? More on this later!)

But there’s a war brewing, even if Dumbledore’s the only one who knows it, and he doesn’t do anything without thinking it through his General brain (though the same can’t always be said for his Politician or Professor brains).

So what on earth does Dumbledore gain by hiring Lockhart?

Well, he fills the spot, that’s for sure. Best case scenario, he skates by for a whole year, nobody dies, the kids maybe learn a little, and next year we do it all over again.

Except— Harry.

Dumbledore has already proven himself by this point to be relatively focused on Harry in particular and preparing him for the future, both skills/knowledge-wise and “virtue”-wise (ie having him live with muggles, not know about his fame etc). It seems strange to intentionally choose not to provide the best possible education (specifically in Defense Against the Dark Arts) to the kid you absolutely need to survive until he's old enough to die at the hands of the right person (or, since CoS takes place before Dumbledore encounters a horcrux, until Harry is old enough to kill Voldemort for good).

Once you start reading Dumbledore’s hiring choices specifically through the lens of teaching Harry in particular, they start to make a lot more sense.

(a quick note is needed here to mention that the books focus on Harry as the main character etc etc it’s a children’s book but the worldbuilding should still be able to stand on it’s own. Whatever. We’re taking a Watsonian explanation because it’s more fun.)

In order:

Quirrell is a test, and a trap— Dumbledore has set the stage: a bright young man just returned from the place Voldemort was cited having been in at least 2x; a magical object that grants immortality; and a virtually untested, unknown 11yo Harry. This is Dumbledore getting the lay of the land and verifying that Voldemort is in fact alive and that Harry can handle the path set for him. If Quirrell doesn’t end up possessed or otherwise working for Voldemort, then Dumbledore has found another ally against him

Lockhart on the other hand is a lesson, specifically in what not to do/be— Harry grows up as far away from fame as physically possible, and Dumbledore expresses concern that the fame within the wizarding world could get to his head on several occasions. So Dumbledore sees Harry at 11: modest, but with a habit of rule breaking, a Quidditch star, the potential for becoming comfortable with his role within this new society. And Dumbledore shows him the worst possible version of where he could end up if he lets it go to his head. Nothing screams “don’t rely on your fame” like Gilderoy Lockhart. (in as much of Dumbledore’s defense as I’m comfortable providing, this was literally the only year where he didn’t know in advance of the school year what exactly would make it a difficult/dangerous one, so he probably felt he could get away with someone who didn’t need to be able to defend the students. They were supposed to be safe.)

Lupin is bait, and education (!!)— There’s history there, and Dumbledore knows it. Remus draws in Sirius, so Dumbledore knows where he should be headed, and he should protect Harry if it came down to it (and if he doesn’t, then Remus ends up dead or in Azkaban and Dumbledore has shaken out another possible traitor). Remus is also there to teach Harry— about defending himself, which has become increasingly necessary— and to hold the same role he did in school: to keep Harry in check. A teacher who is specifically and singularly interested in Harry first and foremost is a teacher who might actually be able to keep a determined child of James (and Lily) from throwing himself in harms way, especially if information about Sirius gets out.

Moody (or well, Dumbledore’s hope for Moody) is protection and to train soldiers for a war— Again, Dumbledore knows what’s coming this year. Or at least like, 50%. He knows Karkaroff will be there, he knows Pettigrew ran off to Voldemort, and he knows these kids are nowhere prepared to fight in a war. If nothing else, hopefully Moody will scare someone straight.

Umbridge is obviously against Dumbledore’s will, but she does teach them all about politics (in the worst possible way)

Snape sets the stage— It’s part of Dumbledore’s final moves on the chessboard. It teaches Harry actual, useful magic (and is almost as good as Dumbledore teaching Harry what he needs to know directly). It’s NEWT level magic, specifically geared towards fighting a war that Harry, Dumbledore AND Snape (plus… literally everyone else) knows is happening. It sets Snape up to leave re: the curse, however he needs to in the moment where things start falling apart.

Bonus: Slughorn, gets the memory and scares Harry away from using his connections— Dumbledore knows he’s going to die. He knows this war won’t be finished by the time he does. He knows it’s going to rely on Harry finishing the horcrux hunt and doing it with enough of a martyr complex to walk to his death at the end. But he’s also set Harry up with a support system within the Order out of necessity and desperation less than a year ago. So what can Dumbledore do to ensure Harry doesn’t go to any/all of the adults in his life on the occasion of Dumbledore’s death, present them with the horcrux hunt and ask for help? He gives Harry Slughorn, who is the epitome of a Slytherin who knows how to use their resources, and he does so blatantly and without a shred of shame. Harry is supposed to look at him, assembling the Slug Club, bragging about tickets he’s gotten and correspondence he keeps, and think “I do not want to be like him.” Slughorn is supposed to isolate Harry from anyone who would tell him not to walk to his death, and, just like Lockhart makes Harry even more uncomfortable about his fame, it works because it perpetuates the abuse Harry has endured.

TL;DR: Dumbledore chooses DADA profs to teach Harry something specific, in the case of Lockhart (and Slughorn), it’s specifically a moral lesson on who not to be and what not to do

Send me a 📂 and I'll give you a useless/random headcanon

[some-dr-writings]

Kokichi, Ryoma, Kaito, and Kiibo get Reader’s motive video, revealing no one in the outside world cares about them

Kokichi Oma:

·       Well this was certainly an interesting turn of events, he received two motive videos, and it seems no one else received multiple. But who’s in the world did he receive and more importantly, which should he watch first?

·       …

·       He slid the first pad under his pillow after seeing it.

·       Now what about this other one? Who’s loved one or ones would he see, a person who would be twisted into making a person to want to kill.

·       No one. He just saw a lone picture of Monokuma, apologizing that even after searching and searching there was not a soul to be in the outside world who cared for you.

·       Huh…

·       Kokichi watched the video once more absent mindedly.

·       Even if there was no one in the outside world, that didn’t mean there was no one, after all, he cared, and surely your new friends here did too.

·       Wait, No, no he didn’t! He didn’t care at all! He had to keep repeating that lie to himself so he wouldn’t do anything rash. He needs to be the antagonist, it’s the only way to protect the others without Monokuma getting in the way. It seems his plan to get everyone to watch all the motive videos was all the more important now. In Kokichi’s it stated D.I.C.E. was in danger, people he knew, but if the video said you had no one, surely you… you’d already know you had no one, right? Perhaps there was more of a story behind your becoming the Super High School Level Survivalist than what you had lead others to believe. You lived in the wild because there was no one in human society for you to return to… Was that it?

·       The others were kind folks, surely upon seeing this, they’d all clamor around you, saying they cared about you, Kokichi could even remind them of that promise they made with Kaede, make them think he was antagonizing you in the process, so they’d be extra protective of you, and hopefully making you feel cared for with them all the while saying you WERE friends. You’d have a reason to survive for others and not only yourself. As much as Kokich wished he could be a part of that reason, he could not. But… perhaps he could be a part of the reason you keep surviving for others and not only because it’s all you know how to do after you have escaped… All the more reason to get the others to cooperate discreetly and end this killing as soon as possible.

   Ryoma Hoshi:

·       Ryoma found you to be a rather interesting individual the moment you had met, the Super High School Level Survivalist. You were not fearful of death, yet still did all you could to avoid it. You’d say just waiting to die is an insult to life itself. Once Ryoma had asked you if you had no reason to live. “Why do I need a reason? Isn’t being born enough of a reason? If you’re dead you can’t find this so called ‘reason’ so… you just have to keep living till you find one I guess. Most all creatures do ANYTHING to live, the only exception to that are humans, we humans are arrogant enough to think we’re above life, so we take advantage of our apathy and die for the sake of being too scared to face ourselves, our inner voices and pains. Humans who have the gaul to just give up and die are the worst scum of the world. Their life would have been better off given to a virus, at least that would appreciate the gift and do whatever it could to keep it.” Living for the sake of life and nothing more… an interesting concept Ryoma could simply not wrap his mind around. “Heh, I suppose I still got a ways to go.”

·       Then seeing your motive video… Ryoma knew if he had received a video like this… he’d maybe… Ryoma thought you were much stronger than him, to want to and be able to keep going for your own sake, not needing to cling to anyone or anything else. Still though, he was glad he had gotten this instead of you. Even if you truly fine completely on your own… surely this would still hurt. After all, “Survival is not just about the individual. Sometimes survival means to sacrifice your own life so others may live. This killing game is testing that. The majority surviving is one of the main goals of life, so life can keep creating itself in an endless cycle for the sake of itself and nothing more.” Survival is not just about living, it’s protecting so many, so knowing no one cared, no one to protect…

·       What was Ryoma thinking? Everyone here is those who you were trying to protect, even if you had someone on the outside world you cared for, you’d likely say something like ‘if they are hurt or dead they are already hurt or dead the only thing that would change is my knowledge of it.’ Your first priority right now is saving as many as you could from this killing game.

·       The next time Ryoma saw you he told you, you were an admirable individual, and that Ryoma wanted to protect as many people as he could, like you, no matter what it took, that would be survival according to you, right?

   Kaito Momota:

·       Kaito didn’t bother looking at the video he had gotten at first, just heading straight for the dining hall for breakfast. There he had learned it was a motive to kill! He was not going to play along in this killing game! That’s just stupid! As they say great minds think alike for you didn’t watch the video you got either. “Seeing the motive would only be useful if A. we all watched each other’s videos so we could all keep each other calm and all mourn our loved ones together, or B. since they all seem to be mixed up, learn more about the others around us so we may help them through this. You can learn a lot about a person through their loved ones.” Now… that was in interesting thought to Kaito. Maybe by watching all your videos together it’d build comradery between you all and strengthen your resolve to defeat Monokuma and his cubs. Or if not, he could get to know one individual so he could help them through this madness better. Teamwork and communication were the most important things needed to get out of here. That was what he thought about as he sat on his bed, holding the pad in his lap.

·       Then Kaito abruptly stood up, tossing the pad aside, thinking this was stupid and to just leave the thing be. Though in the process, the video began to play and before he could stop it, he had learned of it’s owner and how supposedly, no one on the outside cared about you… Whatever, that wouldn’t be the case for long. You’d all be on the outside soon enough so soon you would have people out there who cared about you!

·       After that Kaito changed a little. He became more attentive and spent more time with you. He’d occasionally join you in your training or just chat with you about whatever on your breaks. He soon started insisting on joining you during your meal breaks, rather enjoying seeing you gush over Kirumi’s cooking, explaining how it was so much better tasting than what you had often scavenged for yourself. You even ended up starting to teach Kaito some survival techniques, this was rather fun since Kaito was already somewhat educated on the subject, being introduced to it through astronaut training, he was able to easily understand some of your more complicated techniques.

·       You were not sure why Kaito had started this, but when he invited you to join him, Shuichi, and Maki for more training in the evenings… it warmed your heart. If only one good thing came of this mess, you at least got the chance to connect with others again. This… was rather rarer and special for you.

   Kiibo:

·       The motive video. Kiibo was rather hesitant to look at it, but in the end, he decided to watch it. Knowledge is power, so knowing what was on it would surely be better than not, right? Perhaps this could help him in some way to escape or help the others. All he knew for sure was that he would never know unless he tried. And so he watched.

·       What he saw… it broke his metaphorical heart. You had no one. You were just completely alone… That was a sentiment Kiibo was rather familiar with, though there was a difference. Kiibo, even if he felt lonely so much of the time especially so here, like the others reject him and don’t see him as a person, he at least had Dr. Idabashi and memories of him to hold close, but you… He wondered if you ever felt lonely out in the wild or if it was the only place where you could feel at home because there was no one in society for you.

·       “Hey, Y/N, want to do something together?” That was a phrase you had become so familiar with. At first Kiibo would approach you once in a while which quickly turned to him seemingly spending all his free time with you and no one else. Since he was a robot and training held no purpose for him Kiibo kept count for you. Soon though you felt guilty for him just counting all day so you offered to do other things. “After all, you never know what knowledge will come in handy. Who knows, maybe knowing how to do underwater basket weaving could save our lives one day!” “… Y/N, I can see no scenario where that could ever be a possibility.” “Oh, Kiibo, my friend, you’re too closed minded. Skills can be applied to many situations, knowing how to underwater basket weave can have applications in other places, like knowing how to hold one’s breath for a long time, how to see or at least get a feel for the area around you while underwater, or the obvious, just weaving baskets.” Though your example was silly Kiibo found your argument logical and went along with it.

·       Sometimes you’d go read in the library, sometimes you’d cook together, others you’d search through the storage room and see whatever for the sake of seeing if Monokuma had hidden anything dangerous there, other times… you just go for a walk around the grounds, talk like you were some place else, perhaps a school and you were just two teens at break time, pretend you were in a better world and forget about your reality for a moment. Those were both your and Kiibo’s favorite moments. There was no fear, there was no suspicion, there was no just trying to survive, you could just live peacefully. Kiibo hoped he could have years worth of moments like this with you, were this ‘game’ was but a long-forgotten memory.

[palidoozy-art]

The more I think about your recent post about the changes you made to Strahd, the more I wonder about those changes you made to the others mentioned (Rahadin, Van Richten, Ireena, etc). I'd absolutely love to hear what adjustments you made as you already shared some stellar ideas already. Like the Tome? -Chef kiss- Amazing.

Oh mannn I do love talking about my campaign. I changed a lot with them. Again, weirdly enough, I think Strahd wound up being the most like his original incarnation. I could talk forever about the changes I made so I'll try to be brief haha. IT STILL WON'T BE BRIEF.

Obvious CoS spoilers below

IREENA - I thought it was weird that the picture they gave her makes her look like such a badass, and then the module just kind of writes her as a damsel in distress to either get kidnapped or pulled into water or dumped somewhere. To me, she's like, the second most important character in CoS -- and the book literally gives you less direction to roleplay her than her brother. Furthermore, reading her ending actually legit made me mad.

So I said fuck all that. Ireena in my game was a 19-year old girl who grew and developed over the course of the campaign. Several of my players actually said they thought of her as "the main character," just because she experienced a lot of character growth and development, going from a sheltered meek teenager to someone who can fight and assert herself. The biggest change I made to her though was that I very specifically did not just want her to be "Tatyana with memory loss." Ireena is a unique individual who happens to be partially made out of Tatyana's soul. While she shares many similarities with Tatyana, they're separate people, and part of what Ireena has to grapple with is how to live up to that. She's in the post-campaign because of that distinction -- while Sergei offered her to join him, she declined, because she wants to experience life past her twenties. I didn't get to play it out because we were kind of rushing towards the end, but I honestly envisioned a scene where she talks to the portrait of Tatyana, apologizing to her because she knows she's being selfish remaining alive.

This also brings up a unique problem in the post campaign. If Ireena dies, she ceases to exist and may not be able to be resurrected. When her soul leaves her body, it's Tatyana's again. Ireena very much wants to live. Tatyana doesn't. A resurrection has to be made with the consent of the soul, and if Tatyana declines, Ireena's just... gone. Forever.

Related: because I wasn't sure what my players would ask, and Rahadin would absolutely know this information -- there have been 18 incarnations of Tatyana, including the original. I actually have a timeline of when they were all born and how they died. The curse manifests in that they always die or are killed before their 25th birthday. If Strahd attempts to marry them, they lose their minds and throw themselves off of the same balcony the original Tatyana jumped off of during the ceremony. Strahd can never have Tatyana. Vampyr will ensure of that.

But yeah, essentially: Ireena gained actual class levels; she wasn't just Tatyana with memory loss; she traveled with the party for 90% of the campaign and wasn't just a macguffin to be kidnapped/take to places; and I removed any of the "Sergei takes her into water/the sky and you never see her again" endings because I absolutely hated those.

VAN RICHTEN - Van Richten I tweaked a lot from his original incarnation. First, I started him off as Lawful Neutral. No, game, I know you tell me he's Lawful Good, but I'm gonna have to disagree with you that "training a racist tiger to genocide an ethnic camp" falls under the spectrum of Lawful Good. Second, I changed him from cleric to artificer (alchemist). I somehow just got the impression the dude was a godless man, and so he felt more fitting to be a man of science rather than a man of the church. Third, since I wasn't sure the other dread domains were ever going to be brought into 5e I moved him out of Darkon and into another world from the outside.

His backstory was also tied more into Strahd and the campaign in general, as well as the Dark Powers. About 30 years ago, he went into the mists with his own adventuring party (that included Escher) to try to rescue his kidnapped son, Erasmus. He found his son half-turned and begging him for death. Killing him, Van Richten hunted down the Vistani woman (Ezmerelda's mother) who sold the man, and in a rage strangled her to death. This gave him a curse. Ezmerelda witnessed it happen.

He went on a warpath against vampire spawn and vistani alike, until Strahd proposed a deal to Escher. Escher lured the group to a familiar dinner date with Strahd... only for Strahd to murder all of them, including Van Richten. Van Richten was approached by a dark power -- Vaund the Evasive, and given the option to return to life in exchange for the promise that Van Richten would eventually return to Amber Temple and free him. He took it, waking up outside of Barovia. From there he became famed vampire-hunter-book-author, until in his early 50's he decided it was time to seek vengeance and fulfill his promise. He brought in his hat of disguise, came up with an alibi, and headed into Barovia as Rictavio the Great.

He was absolutely played as a much more morally grey character at the start (the party's first encounter with him rather than Rictavio was him literally torturing a dude). He softened over the course of the campaign as he grew attached to the party, until finally reaching a point in the post-campaign where he's considered Lawful Good

Also: Ezmerelda was treated more or less as his adoptive daughter. She absolutely argued against this every single time, but he even slipped up and referred to her as his daughter on a few tense occasions.

RAHADIN - Rahadin I adjusted a lot, too. A LOOOOOOT. Strahd being comically evil makes sense -- the dude is a darklord, that kind of comes with the territory. With Rahadin, I wanted him to have more motivations to his actions, because the base game actually suggests that the dude is actually capable of caring. In the base game, you can find him at Amber Temple, trying to "petition the dark god into releasing his master from his torment." He screams in grief if he finds Strahd dead. Furthermore it felt like the game glosses over the fact that the dude was adopted as Barov's son. It doesn't bother addressing how Rahadin felt about Sergei, who would in theory be his other brother. I thought a number of things suggested in his backstory were interesting, but not expanded upon in the base game. So I took it upon myself to do so.

I changed how dusk elf society was built, which affected the three major dusk elf characters. It worked off of a pretty brutal caste system, with three kings at the top overseeing all of it. Rahadin was born in a lower caste, but actually brought into the warrior caste after a member of royalty was intrigued by his stature. Rahadin worked as a general, but grew frustrated by the inefficiencies of the caste system and its inequality. He started attempting to use his influence to petition other members of nobility into changing or loosening the strict system.

Patrina caught wind of this, and viewing it as a threat to her lifestyle + viewing it as an easy way to gain brownie points with those above her... tattled on him to the three kings, spinning what he was doing as treason. Rahadin was arrested and subsequently tortured. They attempted to execute him on a breaking wheel, breaking his bones against the spokes and leaving him in the town square as an example. He wound up escaping, crawling his way out of town until he was subsequently rescued by a group of human monks. The event pretty much broke him, morally. He went to Barov soon after and sold his people out, taking a personal hand in helping annihilate the dusk elves and conquering their land. Barov was so impressed by the man's loyalty that he adopted him as his son.

Part of this was done to make a connection as to why the hell Rahadin just absolutely fuckin' hates Patrina so much (since that definitely got played up during the campaign). When thinking of Rahadin's motivations, I tried to come at it from the angle that this man was evil... but legitimately cared deeply about Strahd, Sergei, and Tatyana. He was devestated from the events of the wedding, but saw Strahd's return as a second chance. As the lone surviving witness from the wedding, he desperately wanted to help the three of them. But his own blind loyalty to Strahd and his broken moral compass prevented him from doing so.

One of my favorite little additions was a sidequest I offered to the players (they wanted to redeem Rahadin). They were requested by him to retrieve (well, "not destroy or sell") one of his most precious belongings in his office. When they get there... it turns out it's a birthday card and a worn-out old amulet from Sergei and Tatyana that he's kept after all these years. They got Ireena to read the letter to him, to help him keep going after Strahd's death.

anyway i could ramble on about changes forever but i don't want this post to get too long haha. i have. many feelings. over this campaign. maybe at some point I'll do a separate post with some of the others.

i also kinda wanna do a comic of an event from Rahadin's backstory for my players but we'll see, I might deem it "too stupid."