#MAIN VERSE. | SUMMONED IN PARIS.

[revolutionary-thoy]

Ok I know I said I was done with the main cast in my last post and that Felix and Lila won't be significant to this AU, but i was stricken by really cool ideas for both of them, so they've been upgraded to main cast status. Here's Re-verse Felix, and I'll probably do Lila pretty soon.

In the Re-verse, Felix is the complete opposite of his canon self. He's a complete goody-two-shoes baby. He is the kid that would remind the teacher that they had homework. He, Adrien and Kagami are still sentimonsters, but when the Supreme gave Gabriel the peacock miraculous, he reserved the right to keep all of the rings that control the sentimonsters. Gabriel managed to switch Adrien's ring with a fake one when he betrayed the Supreme, but he's still in posession of Felix and Kagami's amoks. After the special happens and Adrien leaves the Supreme, he uses Felix's ring to basically summon him to Paris and make him Adrien's replacement, giving him the Dog miraculous. This results in Kagami and Luka having to train this absolute goober into a proper villain, but he keeps being really bad at it and accidentally being a good guy and all sorts of shenanigans ensue. The dynamic between Kagami, Luka and Felix as villains pretty much becomes that meme with the three dragons where one of them is silly. He is the Meowth equivalent of their Team Rocket.

Full Re-Verse cast below

[pythagoras180]

"Miraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir" Review

Spoiler warning for the special and all of season 5

The special begins with an alternative title sequence with Re-Verse!Gabriel instead of Marinette. Then there's a cold opening where Betterfly (Re-Verse Hawk Moth, who's a hero) and Re-Verse!Alya. Watch a news broadcast from the main universe talking about Ladybug and Cat Noir, before Betterfly uses a Kamiko (alternate Akuma name) to transform Re-Verse!Alya into Ubiquity, who can travel between universes. At this time, Shadybug and Claw Noir burst in and attack.

Meanwhile, in the main universe, Gabriel is in his lair right after being Cataclysmed, since this is right after "Destruction". He puts all his new Miraculouses on a table before trying to call Nathalie, but it goes to voicemail.

Wait a minute, doesn't this take place after the beginning of "Multiplication"? It does, because this special is the last thing that happens that night, it's dawn at the end of the special. So Nathalie should already be in the mansion, she arrived there in "Multiplication". Why doesn't he physically go talk to her? Gabriel then considers talking to Adrien, who is watching the news in his room. Wait, didn't Adrien fall asleep after calling Marinette? Did he fall asleep, then immediately wake up to take part in this special? None of this adds up.

Continuity errors: 2

Adrien still feels bad about Cataclysming Monarch, and he tells Plagg that he's afraid of his power. Gee, it would sure be awkward if Adrien intentionally tried to Cataclysm like 3 more people in season 5, none of which are as bad as Monarch, and then showed no remorse for it. That would make this scene look stupid, wouldn't it?

We have a scene between Marinette and Alya, where Marinette calls her "the best BFF ever".

Earlier this same day, Alya accused Marinette of lying about Adrien not wanting to go on the trip. Yeah, what a great friend.

There's then a scene establishing that Marinette's parents are downstairs.

Marinette expresses doubt that she can defeat Monarch, saying that she feels like she tried everything.

That's not true Marinette, you didn't take advantage of the Rabbit Miraculous's ability to spy on anyone, anywhere, at anytime to determine Monarch's identity.

Alya then is transformed into a duplicate of Ubiquity, and the two Ubiquities form a portal between universes. Betterfly jumps though the portal. He asks Marinette to lead him to Ladybug and Cat Noir, but she doesn't trust him, for obvious reasons. Shadybug and Claw Noir then force Ubiquity to reopened the portal. Alya warns Betterfly and Marinette that they're coming, and Betterfly doesn't simply recall the Kamiko to close the portal, and instead he chooses to run away with Marinette. What a great hero he is /s.

Shadybug and Claw Noir arrive in the main universe, and they tie up Alya, destroy Marinette's wall, and give chase. Only now does Betterfly recall the Kamiko. Oh, and the butterfly flies out of main universe Ayla's glasses, even though it was used on Re-Verse!Alya. That doesn't really make sense. Also, Alya immediately unties herself. Is Shadybug just terrible at tying people up?

Alya tells Sabine that the sound of the explosion was just a video game, and then she tries to call Marinette on her phone, but it's still broken from when Monarch smashed it in "Destruction". So instead she calls her using the computer.

Hey, that's actually a nice piece of continuity. Good job.

Shadybug and Claw Noir lose track of Betterfly, so Shadybug summons her Lucky Charm. She receives a pair of goggles that can identify butterfly pheromones, and uses them to track the Kamiko butterfly as it returns to Betterfly.

Oh, that's why they had the Kamiko randomly hop universes, to provide a way to track Betterfly. How convenient. Does the Butterfly Miraculous require white butterflies? Could Betterfly not have just used a random butterfly out in the wild?

Anyway, Betterfly and Marinette arrive at the Eiffel Tower, but Shadybug and Claw Noir arrive shortly after and start beating up Betterfly. Marinette watches the fight while on a call with Alya, and Tikki explains that they are Miraculous holders from a parallel universe, one of billions. Marinette asks Tikki why she never told her about this, and Tikki says she's lived billions of years in every universe, and there isn't enough time in Marinette's life to tell her even a fraction about it.

Um, Tikki, it doesn't take a lot of time to say "By the way Marinette, there is a multiverse. So don't be shocked if versions of you from another universe show up one day." This is a terrible excuse. Also, Tikki implies she is one entity across all universes, yet she doesn't seem to know anything about he Re-Verse.

During the fight, we get the first mention of "The Supreme", the evil overlord who controls all the Miraculouses in the Re-Verse.

Honestly, I think the fact that Shadybug and Claw Noir are just working for someone else instantly makes them much less interesting.

Marinette asks Tikki how Shadybug and Claw Noir can use their powers repeatedly, and Tikki explains that the one time use and time limit is to protect young holders from over-exerting themselves, but Shadybug and Claw Noir are ignoring this and hurting themselves in the process.

If the limitation on power use if the users physical body, then why did Ladybug and Cat Noir gain unlimited use in "Revolution", after allegedly maturing emotionally? Are they going to end up hurting themselves too? Maybe don't make up the rules as you go along guys.

And I'd like to point out that Shadybug can summon Lucky Charms without speaking or using her yoyo. How?

Marinette transforms into Ladybug and starts fighting the villains, and shortly afterward Cat Noir shows up too. He then immediately threatens to Cataclysm Claw Noir.

Gee Adrien, I can really see how bad you feel about the whole Monarch situation when you literally do the exact same thing mere hours later. What a good guy you are.

Claw Noir then forces Cat Noir to cataclysm his chest. And he just tanks this? How is that possible? At first I thought they would explain that his power is enhanced or something, but nope. Remember what happened to Cat Noir in "Miraculer"? Are we supposed to assume that that actually wasn't a big deal but Adrien is just a massive baby?

Ladybug summons her Lucky Charm, a traffic cone, which Claw Noir immediately grabs and destroys. Um, why did the Lucky Charm give her something that doesn't work? Shouldn't it have predicted that Claw Noir was going to grab it? You might be thinking "Well it would have worked if Ladybug reacted quicker." The power should have scanned her mind and determined that she wouldn't react fast enough, and adjust accordingly. Seriously, how does a Lucky Charm fail?

"Intuition", what a great and non-harmful episode /s.

Shadybug and Claw Noir get the upper hand, so Betterfly uses a Kamiko on Cat Noir. Betterfly and Cat Noir speak to each other telepathically at superspeed.

What is going on right now? The Butterfly Holder and akumatized person have always needed to move their mouths to communicate and talk at normal speed. Stop making up new rules.

Anyway, Cat Noir transform into Celesticat, which is just a reused Cat Blanc model with green eyes and wings. He then flies Ladybug and Betterfly away from danger.

Too bad Betterfly didn't just give him crazy superpowers strong enough to defeat Shadybug and Claw Noir, because otherwise this special would be over already. Yes, I know, Shadybug's Lucky Charm should still give them an out, but we literally saw a Lucky Charm fail 2 seconds ago. So thanks for making the power inconsistent. If Celesticat was even 1% as powerful as Cat Blanc, the battle would just be over.

Shadybug grabs Celesticat's tail and is dragged along, but Ladybug simply removes his belt to make her fall. Claw Noir lets her fall, and then tries to take her Miraculous. We find out that these two have repeatedly tried to steal each other's Miraculouses because they hate each other so much.

In Emilie's tomb, Gabriel already knows that his condition is terminal. How? He was wounded a few hours ago, the mark couldn't have spread yet. I guess the Kwamis may have told him, but we don't see that.

Gabriel senses the villains arguing, and sends a Megakuma after them. However, Claw Noir immediately destroys it, thinking it's a Kamiko.

Wait, why are they afraid of a Kamiko? Do they force people to be good? But they were experiencing negative emotions at the time, wouldn't the Kamiko make them more evil? Their reactions make no sense.

But there actually is some good continuity here. Claw Noir immediately destroys the butterfly, like Cat Noir did in "Cat Blanc". Meanwhile, Shadybug sees it but just stands there instead of purifying it, just like Ladybug did in "Cat Blanc". I just love consistency.

Shadybug and Claw Noir return to Marinette's room to look for clues. And Alya hides and spies on them.

In the sewers the three heroes talk as they recharge. Betterfly talks about his world, and says that all forms of mutual aid are a crime.

I'm sorry, what? There is no way such a civilization can sustain itself. This is so dumb and overly simplistic. Couldn't they have just said that the world is rampant with greed, corruption, and authoritarianism? That's at least realistic, the entire world being evil is not. But hey, maybe the people of this world don't think or feel the way we do? Nope, later in this special they are shown to be very similar emotionally speaking. The world Betterfly is describing can not exist.

Betterfly also explains that the Supreme controls all the Miraculouses, and only hands them out to his allies. Re-Verse!Gabriel stole two of them, apparently for selfish reasons.

So the Supreme decided to give out the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses to a couple of children so they can steal back the other Miraculouses, instead of just, you know, use the ultimate power to wish them back. "Oh, but what about equivalent exchange?" This is equivalent exchange. The Supreme gains two Miraculouses, Gabriel loses two Miraculouses. Equal equal. I guess the Supreme is just as dumb as everyone else. Gee, it's almost like establishing that you can choose the price of the wish and can decide who pays that price completely breaks the entire story. And I'm definitely going to make this same criticism of season 6 if Marinette doesn't immediately wish for the Butterfly Miraculous back.

Back in Marinette's room, Shadybug reads her diary and learns about how great Marinette's life is with all her friends, and that she is Ladybug.

In the sewers, Ladybug and Cat Noir deduce that the villains are alternate versions of their civilain selves.

Meanwhile, Shadybug learns from the diary about the ultimate power of the Miraculouses, and Marinette very conveniently decided to tape a copy of that Grimoire page into her diary, with exact instructions on how to use it. How nice of her /s.

By the way, establishing that the Grimoire has clear instruction on how to use the wish definitively destroys the plot of "Deflagration". Gabriel definitely knew how to use the wish then, he had absolutely no reason to attempt to unify.

Shadybug then handcuffs Claw Noir with a Lucky Charm and immediately takes his Miraculous. If it was that easy, how did she fail in the past?

Shadybug recognizes Claw Noir as famous model Adrien Agreste. She then puts on the Black Cat Miraculous and detransforms. Re-Verse!Adrien remains handcuffed, even though Lucky Charms are supposed to disappear as soon as the holder detransforms.

Continuity errors: 3

Re-Verse!Adrien recognizes her as a girl he saw in a bakery once, and immediately fell in love with.

You know, I think "Miraculous" has been pretty good at avoiding "love at first sight" until now. But Re-Verse!Adrien likes her even though he never talked to her or saw he do anything special to make him like her. They put no effort into this, huh?

Re-Verse!Marinette tries to summon Gimmi, intending to switch her life with main universe Marinette's. However, the Supreme put a safeguard in place to prevent a wish from being made. He also sealed the Kwamis mouths so they can't speak. I quite like this plot point.

Re-Verse!Marinette then gives Re-Verse!Adrien his Miraculous back. Wait, why would she do that? I thought she hated him? She tried to steal his Miraculous in the past just to get rid of him. And she doesn't know him as Re-Verse!Adrien, so that shouldn't change her opinion. Why does she suddenly trust him?

Also, Claw Noir's suit is still cracked after retransforming, even though their suits and weapons are supposed to be completely restored every time they transform.

Continuity errors: 4

Monarch then portals into the room, after apparently hearing everything. So shouldn't this clue him in that Marinette and Adrien are Ladybug and Cat Noir? Shouldn't he at least investigate them? Is he stupid? Yeah, I know the answer to that.

Shadybug and Claw Noir attack him, but he is immune to their powers thanks to the Ox Miraculous. But wait, shouldn't Shadybug's Lucky Charm sword still be able to defeat him somehow? You might be thinking "Well maybe there is a way, but Shadybug wasn't smart or creative enough to figure it out." Why would the power give her something she can't figure out? Shouldn't it have scanned her mind and given her something she can figure out?

"Intuition", what a great and non-harmful episode /s.

Monarch offers to help them steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses, so that they can make wishes that way. Shadybug and Claw Noir agree to this. That's it, they just agree. They have no hidden scheme, they don't plan to double cross him, they just go with his plan. What great villains these two are /s.

The three heroes see massive versions of Shadybug and Claw Noir rampaging through the city. Thinking they're akumatized, Betterfly attempts to recall the Akuma.

If that's possible, then why the hell did Lila send Timetagger to the past, where a different Butterfly holder was active? Even if Timetagger successfully stole the Miraculouses, Hawk Moth could have just recalled the Akuma and stolen them for himself. We haven't even seen Lila as the main villain yet, and they already damaged her. That's honestly kind of impressively bad writing.

Alya then gets Ladybug's attention by driving through the streets yelling for her. Couldn't that also have attracted Monarch's attention? Alya then shows Ladybug that she recorded Monarch telling Shadybug and Claw Noir his plan. Monarch created giant illusions of the villains in order to split up Ladybug and Cat Noir, so that the villains can fight them separately and Monarch can ambush them. And... Ladybug is stumped. She has no answer for this. I'm sorry, isn't she supposed to be smart? Did she really need a pep talk to solve this simple problem?

So, what is Ladybug's plan? Well, the Butterfly Miraculous has a limited range, so first they have to

Wait, wait, wait. It was shown in "Startrain" that there is a limited range for the Butterfly Miraculous, but this is contradicted in "Intuition". You might say that the Horse Miraculous is what allowed Monarch to overcome the range problem, but he has the Horse Miraculous right now. So there is no guarantee that he has limited range. Whatever, maybe Ladybug doesn't know that.

So the heroes and Alya fly far way from Paris, and then Betterfly transforms Alya into Ubiquity. Betterfly detransforms, and gives the Butterfly Miraculous to Ladybug, which she uses to become Ladyfly. She transforms Re-Verse Gabriel into Guardian Angel, who has the power to put protection spells on Ladybug and Cat Noir. He then puts the object that contains the Kamiko into the Re-Verse using Ubiquity's portal, preventing Monarch from recalling it.

Wait a minute, placing an akumatized object out of range of the holder doesn't remove their powers? So why didn't Monarch just teleport all akumatized objects outside the solar system? His minions would be invincible. Also, it's confirmed that Monarch has absolutely no control over Akumas if they're out of range. So couldn't the heroes have just used the Horse Miraculous to teleport an Akuma outside the solar system? Since he's limited to one at a time, he would be completely powerless afterward. Do you see how making up new rules makes previous stuff much stupider?

The heroes do split up and fight their counterparts, and Monarch plans to ambush them using the same invisibility strategy he used in "Illusion" and "Deflagration", even though in "Illusion" he acted like he just came up with it for the first time. But I don't really blame them for this. Also, in "Kwami Buster" the Miraculouses did not multiply along with Multimouse, they remained singular. Why is it different here? I guess maybe that's an adult power or something. Hey wait a minute, if the illusions are now taken down, why doesn't Monarch just stop using the Fox Miraculous and use the Snake instead? That would greatly increase his chances of winning. But he forgot about it I guess?

Anyway, Monarch tries to use Venom on both heroes, but they are protected by Guardian Angel's spells and the Monarch copies are immobilized by feathers. Monarch just recombines with them though, at a very great distance I might add. I thought the copies needed to gather in a group to combine, but I guess not.

Ladybug and Cat Noir continue to fight their counterparts, who decide to start ranting about their motivations. Re-Verse!Marinette was bullied by Re-Verse!Chloé (aka the Devil), and she didn't have any friends or loving parents to help her, so she accepted the Miraculous from the Supreme because she wanted to be able to protect herself. I guess that makes sense, but why was she genuinely trying to steal the Butterfly Miraculous? Wouldn't she want her assignment to last as long as possible so that she wouldn't lose her Miraculous? Also, in a world without mutual aid, wouldn't Marinette's situation be commonplace? It's almost like that world doesn't make sense or something.

Claw Noir's motivation is that he's sad that his mom died. Um, is that an explanation? Did the Supreme promise to bring her back or something? I guess that's possible, but it's never stated in the special. I don't understand why he became a supervillain. Also, this is literally the first time his mother has been brought up. That's not how you write a motivation. Cat Noir tells him that his mom is also dead, and he was also really sad about it, but his friends helped him through it. Um, what is Adrien talking about? He never seemed significantly effected by his mother's death. The audience can't just be made to assume that he was sad about it offscreen, that's not how writing works. Also, Claw Noir is angry at his father for not caring about his mom's death and moving on. Shouldn't he be angry at Cat Noir for the same reason, not moved by it? Also, Emilie died months before the start of the series, which is when Adrien started making friends. Adrien clearly wasn't very affected by her death at the time, so no, his friends did not help him through it.

Also, Re-Verse!Adrien explicitly had 2 good parents, yet he still didn't have friends. I take this as explicit confirmation that Adrien's lack of friends during childhood wasn't his parents' fault, as many claim it was.

Claw Noir says he wants to use the wish to bring his mother back, but Adrien explains that there is equivalent exchange in play. If he wished for that, someone else would lose their mom. I'm pretty sure that's not true, the rule is a life for a life, not a mom for a mom. Sacrifice a death row inmate with no family and you'll be fine.

Dear reader, I urge you to please take a seat, or get a grip on something sturdy. I am about to reveal something that annihilates Adrien's entire character. Something that permanently disqualifies him from being considered a hero. It's literally just one line of dialogue that I already mentioned, so you might have picked up on it. But I understand if you didn't, because the writers clearly didn't.

Adrien explains the equivalent exchange rule to Claw Noir. Adrien knows the rules of the wish. This special takes place the night of "Destruction". In "Passion", an episode that takes place weeks later, Cat Noir asked Ladybug if he could make a wish (he secretly wanted to cure Nathalie). Ladybug has to explain the equivalent exchange rule to him. But thanks to this special, we know that Adrien already knew the rules, so he must have just been hoping Ladybug didn't, and she would agree to let him make the wish. He was prepared to sacrifice somebody else's life in order to cure Nathalie. He would have done so if Ladybug said yes. Adrien is honestly as bad as Gabriel at this point. I would go as far as to say this is a character assassination, if I didn't already consider Adrien's character destroyed by the past 3 seasons. So surely Adrien doesn't have any fans anymore, right? I'm kidding, I'm sure he could commit cold-blooded murder and his fans would still defend him.

Continuity errors: 5

So Shadybug and Claw Noir win their fights, but Marinette and Adrien convince them with words that a better world is possible and they should stop being villains. This might have been powerful if it was earned. Shadybug uses her restoration power, which also heals the damage to her and Claw Noir's bodies? But they were acting like it was irreversible earlier, but Shadybug just had the power to fix it the whole time? Whatever, I guess they needed to stop being evil before they could be healed.

So everyone reunites. Re-Verse!Gabriel was also no longer transformed by the Kamiko? How? His object is in another universe, with no way to reach it. They couldn't have recalled it or broken the object without a portal, which they are only creating now. Speaking of, Betterfly transforms Alya back into Ubiquity, so she can bring the Re-Verse gang back home.

But wait! We can't end the special without shoehorning in some references! Monarch uses the Rooster Miraculous to give himself the power to travel to any universe he wants.

My patience with that Miraculous is really being tested. Also, Monarch used the quill to write the power he wants on his hand, even though that was never a thing before. Maybe it's just for dramatic effect.

Ubiquity senses what Monarch is doing, so Betterfly instead uses a new Kamiko to give Ladybug the power to travel between universes. Monarch travels to a universe where the heroes are Scarabella and Kitty Noire (her first chronological appearance) and tries to take their Miraculouses, but Ladybug intercepts him and kicks him back to his universe. It sure is lucky that Monarch was able to teleport directly behind the heroes. Unless you're telling me that Monarch has his own multiverse burrow, in which case I say giving him the power to also spy on anyone, anywhere completely breaks the story all over again. So Monarch keeps trying to get Miraculouses in other universes, but Ladybug intercepts him every time. Did he just forget that he has other Miraculouses to use? Use some extra powers to defeat Ladybug, genius. But whatever, the sole purpose of this is to show different universes. There's the PV's universe, the manga universe, and one where Adrien Mister Bug full time. I guess this is kind of fun, but they should have done it in a smarter way.

Monarch eventually gives up, and Ladybug returns to her universe claiming that he won't try again any time soon. Excuse me? All he has to do is wait for the Re-Verse gang to return home. Then try again. Even if Ladybug could somehow sense you hopping universes, there's nothing she could do to stop you. Why didn't Monarch try again some other time?

You know, this problem could have been so easily solved if Monarch wasn't stopped by main universe Ladybug, but instead alternate universe heroes dedicated to maintaining peace between universes. Then he know there's always a chance they could intercept him, so he won't try again. Or maybe just don't give the Rooster Miraculous this insanely OP ability. How does that sound?

So that's about it. The Re-Verse gang departs as Ladybug and Cat Noir promise to defeat Monarch (HA!). Marinette and Alya have a scene with weirdly romantic undertones where they decided to eat breakfast then take a nap because they've been awake all night, and the special ends.

Conclusion

So that certainly wasn't great. It's pretty weak as far as multiverse stories go. I don't feel like Marinette or Adrien really learned anything from their alternate selves. This could have been a great place for Adrien to reflect on his potential as a violent person, but that doesn't work when he becomes worse later in the season. And I feel that Adrien is an even worse person than Claw Noir. Honestly, I think this special is proof Adrien shouldn't be making his own decisions. Imagine if he did make his own decision in "Passion".

Saying that the entire Re-Verse is evil is just a laughable concept, they should have at least tried to make is sound realistic. And Shadybug and Claw Noir's backstories didn't really justify their behaviors.

Giving the Rooster Miraculous the ability to travel between universe is yet another plot breaking superpower. They just can't resist adding more of these in, can they? And they couldn't resist shoehorning in cameos after the story was already over.

In total, I counted 5 blatant continuity errors, and I was being very generous.

So it doesn't seem to me like the writing quality of "Miraculous" is improving at all. I don't know if it's just because I'm analyzing it more critically, but it feels like there has been significantly less effort put in to making this make any sense.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who read this whole thing. I would like to hear other opinions as well. Have a great day.

[zponds]

(Credit goes to JWBtheUncanny on Deviantart)

Ketchum Alliance Uniforms 1

After Viewing the Teaser Trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy, I've been thinking about The Pokémon World Coronation Series (ポケモンワールドチャンピオンシップス Pokémon World Championships) You know the anime-exclusive tournament. Ash is competing in, What if there was something about it that Non of us realise about. We know that It is a competition held to determine the strongest Trainer in the world. But we don't know who is hosting it and how it started, I would say Chairmen Rose or Charles Goodshow, But non of them are involved, And I doubt the Champions of Each Region came up with it, So I'm suspecting it's been Secretly set up for the Legendary and Mythical Pokemon Amusement, Or something else..... What if it's part of the Dissidia Contest of Champions, Made by Extremely Powerful beings (The Grand Master, The Collector and The Beyonders from the Marvel Universe) Setting up the Pokemon World Coronation to see which Strongest Trainer will be useful to go up against Other Champions within the Anime Multi-Verse, Who ever Wins gets the ultimate Prize, and the Losers become possessions of The Collector. So... with things becoming unpredictable, and Pretty Cure All Stars Gen 1 being captured by the Witch of Delays because of a Botched Rescue mission in the Grand Ocean, Yana Ketchum and Professor Cerise and Professor Ivy have Decided to one up the Ultra-Guardian concept for the Ultimate Wars, giving Ash and Goh's Dynamax Bands a Extreme Upgrade with Tech from not just from the Ministry of Science, But also the Aether Foundation, the Upgrades where inspired from Professor Bellis's Sync Pair Research, so Mega-Evolutions and Z-Moves can be performed, As well as summon up a very useful Built in Pokedex for Details, Tactical knowledge and Weakness location for any Combat scenario, The Bands can also form Official Ketchum Alliance Uniforms, not just for the Main members of the Ketchum Alliance, But Also for The Boys, The Truth Seekers and The Ultra-Guardians, (United they are the Ultimate Ketchum Alliance), Who Designed these Costumes, Non other then Hermione (Former Teacher of Paris from Diamond and Pearl Episode 86) She heard of the Heroic efforts Ash and his Friends did at Sukoyaka City and with Dawn and Cynthia having Special Contacts with Paris, Hermione agreed to come up with Costumes that will Represent the Ketchum Alliance in Future up-coming Battles using the Rarest and unique Materials, She's keeping a Trade secret. Here are Ash Ketchum (Leader) Goh (Ash's Apprentice) Chloe (Goh's Childhood friend), Conner "FireRed" Ketchum (The Clone of Red and Ash's Adopted brother) and Kris (Twin Cousin of Marina from the Jotho Region) While Ash and Goh are gonna have much importance, Chloe is gonna have some Active Roles in the Events of 2021 mainly tell them about Tropical-Rouge! PreCure, and the Reason Kris is there is because I may have started a Relationship Between Conner and Kris, You could say there Costumes are kinsa similar to Super-Sentai stuff like Kamen Rider, but without the helmets, and don't worry, These Costumes are not gonna over-shadow the Pokemon-PreCure aspects such as Ash being Cure Master, these will be for the More Advance Pokemon Battles.

[princess-of-the-corner]

About the Paris special, I have a couple questions. Leaving some space due spoilers.

We know main universe Gabriel screwed up parenting Adrien because he was so obsessed with Emilie he almost caused nuclear armageddon by accident, but how did the "good" Gabriel from the re-verse manage to be a worse parent without apparently being so obsessed? I mean, main timeline Adrien didn't willingly become the minion of a supervillain...

If the Miraculous are powered by Kwami that are the incarnation of a concept for any given universe, shouldn't the Miraculous stop working the moment they cross in another universe due the concept being incarnated somewhere else?

If you can put a block on the Miraculous to prevent summoning Gimmi, why didn't the Guardians of the main universe do just that?!

Okay answering in order:

1.) My best guess is that instead of becoming obsessed with continuing his evil plans and reviving Emilie, Gabriel became obsessed with his atonement and being Hesperia, once again ignoring Adrien. Then Adrien going evil could be blamed on The Supreme taking advantage of his situation, which didn't happen in the main universe because whoever The Supreme is in mainline canon isn't evil.

2.) Eh I can roll with this one for plot reasosns. Because if the Kwami didn't cross over we wouldn't have a special

3.) GOOD FUCKING QUESTION

[nitronapalm]

Verses

Main – Follows canon storyline of the manga. There are slight differences, however. (See headcanons.) Tag: ;v - canon

Mythical – Known as the Dragon Prince, Katsuki is a human raised by dragons and taught dragon magic, magic without incantations and a closely guarded secret of the dragons. His native language is Draconic, and while he is fluent in English, he tends to revert to Draconic when spewing foul language (which he often does.) Tag: ;v - mythical

DC – Katsuki is a fledgling hero (known here as Ground Zero) working under Nightwing as somewhere between a mentee and an intern after just having graduated UA High. But not everything is as it seems. Tag: ;v - explosive avenger

Adult – Several years into the future where Katsuki is a fully-fledged adult of drinking age and everything. Appearance is somewhat dependent on verse, but he has various piercings all over his body and an undercut in all of them. Tag: ;v - adult

Crossovers

Miraculous Ladybug – Katsuki was one of a group of students sent to Paris (after learning French, which he picked up pretty quickly) in order to investigate a villain by the name of Hawk Moth and to deal with him appropriately, though it also meant doing things very differently than he was used to doing. It also meant meeting up with the other heroes that already inhabited Paris…. Tag: ;v - miraculous explosions

Hazbin Hotel – This one ties in with the ML verse, due to who is involved with it, as sort of an alternate ending. Katsuki got fed up with his mother and not being able to get out from underneath that bitch, so he did the one thing he swore he’d never have to do – summon a demon. Hilariously, he ended up summoning, of all people, Lucifer Morningstar, and ended up entering in a soul contract with him in exchange for getting him and the ones he cared about out from under his mother. In the process, he was pulled to Hell, in the Pride Ring, and more or less given a new lease in life and a new appearance to go with it. Of course, this led to a lot more…. reunions being one of them. Tag: ;v - demonic explosions

[more-than-a-princess]

@cantillat​ asked:  ❛ can’t sleep? ❜ Shirou to Sonia @ any verse you are feeling

Various Questions sentence starters - Accepting!

The clock on her bedside table read 2:41 AM, but Sonia hadn't bothered to look. No, with the french doors to the master bedroom open to the patio and the white drapes carefully tucked aside, she could easily tell it was in the middle of the night. From the way the shore had calmed to gently lapping waves, the faint hum of nocturnal insects, and where the moon hung in the cloudless sky of the Maldives, its light glittering over the surface of the water. It was the time of night every respectable person at the resort should have been fast asleep, readying themselves for yet another day of relaxation on a tropical holiday.

And Sonia now desperately wished she could join them.

It wasn't her fault, per se: she had every reason to believe, when she'd asked Cecily to make plans for a holiday during recess of the Royal Council at the beginning of January, that she'd be plenty ready to relax. Even with proper help, a distraction, to keep her mind from doing what it always did: race. Race towards a finish line that kept moving further and further away.

While it was the Nevermind trait to have a boundless curiosity about life, an eagerness to learn, for the Princess of Novoselic it translated into being constantly occupied: with work, with a hobby, with trying to manage her family in both good and bad situations. It was as if Sonia had a fear of silence and nothingness: she needed to fill it with words, spoken or heard or read, but words nevertheless. It was why the prospect of a beauty treatment, unless she had a talkative technician, was nothing short of horror (and she usually loved a good horror: it filled her life with adrenaline and dark fables that she always wished were true). Being alone with her thoughts without rest was, perhaps, Sonia Nevermind's true horror story.

She thought of her calendar once she returned home. She thought of how Liam must be making a racket in Tokyo (he was, after all, the wild one in the family) and how Sam must be pouring over another art history tome before taking to the museums of Paris, hoping that the works of great artists would inspire him to set up another canvas in his pied-a-terre. She thought of her father's reluctance to present the latest research that she'd organized and funded regarding the conditions of skong farms and the projected decrease of their population due to the anachronistic ritual of consuming the rare and majestic bird as an eighteenth birthday rite-of-passage. She thought of how her mother had taken it upon herself to debauch the bachelor she'd been quietly meeting with, off and on, less than a week ago, throwing the entire sodding Maldives plan to hell.

In short, she thought of everything except what she needed to: nothing, coupled with a decent night's sleep. With a soft growl of frustration (a noise that a princess should never make, according to several nannies from her childhood), Sonia threw back the crisp bedcovers, barely slept in, and slid her feet into a pair of house slippers. Tying a dressing gown loosely at the waist over her silk camisole and shorts, she padded out towards the main living area of the villa, her long blonde braid swishing behind her. She needed to do something, anything, to occupy her thoughts from everything she'd left behind. A country, a family, feelings she hadn't known she had until, perhaps in a bit too much of a banal fashion, she had a half-naked man on her private beach who smiled at her with an uneasy sense of familiarity.

"Can't sleep?"

Sonia gasped, instinctively grabbing the lapels of her dressing gown to pull it more firmly around her. Speak of the devil...and Sonia often did, hoping it would prompt him to show up. It would certainly give her one lifetime achievement of properly summoning something. Still, even among old friends, she drew the line at looking disheveled: moonlight had a tendency of accenting the hollow of her collarbone, the delicate lace trim of her top, and far too much exposed thigh to be considered decent to receive anyone. Well, almost anyone.

"Shirou!" She half-breathed, half-hissed. It wasn't as if speaking at a normal level would upset someone in a private villa when she was the only occupant: it was out of routine: privacy was hard to come by at Boudry House, at Novoselic Castle, anywhere she normally lived. "I...yes, I can't. I should ask what you're doing here, but I did give you free rein of the villa when you needed it."

It was a distinct sense of deja vu, she thought, as she stood in the entranceway and took him in. She could keep turning over all of the changes in him in her mind as much as she liked, from the deep color of his skin to the pale silver of his hair, and how he now towered over her with both direct words and a devastating smile. But this, instead, was something familiar. Sonia had spent plenty a night at the Emiya house as a teenager studying abroad, and plenty of those nights had been spent staring at the ceiling, wide-eyed in a futon in one of the house's guest rooms, until she'd wandered to the living room or the porch and found the teenage head of the household. Shirou cleaned, he prepared early for the household meals or exercised in the back garden. He made her cups of green tea and let her ask endless questions, or put on the television, and in rare cases, listened. Just listened, as the assumed constant shine of her smile faded to contemplation. Concerns. All the sorts of things a seventeen-year-old girl was supposed to fret over and plenty she wasn't. Sonia hesitated to be that open and honest with just anyone: so much of her life depended on her ability to carry on and find a solution, a light, when times were most dark and dire. To the point that having such times of her own was considered impossible: nobody needed, or wanted, to hear them.

It was a bit embarrassing now, to look back on and realize just how open, if not melodramatic at times, she'd been on a night just like this one. Less tropical and with fewer beaches, but a similar moonlight. A similar time. A similar plan of addressing her inability to sleep.

"I'm going to put the kettle on," She told him. She thought of making headway towards the bar cart before he'd made himself known, but this was far more fitting. "Would you like something to drink? And perhaps share what brings you to the villa at nearly three in the morning?" Work, Sonia had supposed, had to have been what drew him there. Probably some contraband object that no one on staff could catch him with.

[crow-in-a-teapot]

tower of nero spoilers

i have just finished the tower of nero. and before i go searching for other people’s thoughts and art and more of the characters i love so much, i want to write down some of my own thoughts because i know as soon as i delve into that ‘ton spoilers’ hashtag there are going to be complaints and criticisms and so much that i don’t want to hear, or essays that’ll make me upset, or things that’ll change my perception on the book (because on this website people really love to hate the trials of apollo).

i want to start with: i loved it. it didn’t feel earth-shattering or huge and momentous like some of my favourite riordanverse books (house of hades, the blood of olympus, the last olympian and maybe some of the magnus chase books take those pedestals for me) but it was satisfying. and i think it was satisfying because it in no way felt like an ending. whether because eventually rick will write that will-and-nico-go-through-tartarus-and-save-bob novella, or because we (or at least i) will continue writing and imagining and creating for this world i don’t know. he didn’t wrap up the story in a perfect little bow like ‘nineteen years later’, he simply put it on pause. gave us a glimpse of where every character was at at the end.

the only thing that makes me so angry and upset is that i did manage to get some spoilers for moments that i know would have been so good to experience for the first time if i hadn’t been spoiled for them. the moment where rachel mentions penguins in a mansion near her house, nico getting mental health advice from mr d, the fact that will and nico were going to be in the book for so much of the story, but the big thing was literally spoiled for me two days ago, it was the reason i sat down to read it as fast as possible because i was terrified of getting more spoiled and not being able to experience the moments for myself, was that piper had a girlfriend. i know that reading that for the first time would have been so cool and surprising, and the fact that when it came up for a moment in the last couple pages all i felt was disappointment because it was spoiled for me and because it was now tinged with whatever that person was saying about her having a girlfriend.

but i still had some warm fuzzy moments, the two parts where apollo thinks he’s going to die but nico comes up behind him - so good. impeccable. 

Leader Guy spat. ‘Now, I kill you.’

He raised his sword... and froze. His face turned pale. His skin began to shrivel. His beard fell out whisker by whisker like dead pine needles. Finally, his skin crumbled away, along with his clothes and flesh, until Leader Guy was nothing but a bleached-white skeleton, holding a sword in his bony hands. 

Standing behind him, his hand on the skeleton’s shoulder, was Nico di Angelo.

and

Nero raised his hand, ready to give the kill command, when behind me a mighty BOOM! shook the chamber. Half our enemies were thrown off their feet. Cracks sprouted in the windowsand the marble columns. Ceiling tiles broke, raining dust like split bags of flour. 

I turned to see the impenetrable blast doors lying twisted and broken, a strangely emaciated red bull standing in the breach. Behind it stood Nico di Angelo.

gods. poetic brilliance. i can’t believe i’m still a nico di angelo stannie in the year 2021. in five years i have not changed (ever since the tv show announcement last summer i have managed to morph into myself from 2017)

from here i’m not sure where to go next i kind of want to go through everything, except it’ll be more difficult than my tyrant’s tomb reaction because i wasn’t reading on a kindle and thus can’t just do funny little reactions to screenshots of quotes, so i’ll just skim through the book page by page and see what i can comment on (i’m not planning on doing analysis today, no thank you, just enjoying the end of my childhood and trying to squeeze as much out of it as possible)

i have an emotional attachment to mr. snake from the very first chapter, and am very upset that he’ll never get off on his baltimore stop and get to see his wife, lu had no reason to shoot and kill him like that.

that brings me to lu, i liked her, it was interesting to see how rick kind of brought in not only the overarching theme of abuse, but also people who let the abuse happen, i have more i could say on this i’m too lazy to right now, and i promised no analysis - or the fact that Lu had conspired to make the show non-lethal to spare Meg’s feelings rather than - oh, I don’t know - refusing to do Nero’s dirty work in the first place and getting Meg out of that house of horrors. 

And are you any better? taunted a small voice in my brain. How many times have you stood up to Zeus?

Okay, small voice. Fair point. Tyrants are not easy to opppose or walk away from, especially when you depend on them for everything.

the parallels to meg and lester heading to percy’s apartment, and then to camp half blood to the hidden oracle was so cool to read, every callback to the hidden oracle just there to remind us readers exactly how far apollo has come and how he’s changed; the entire chapter with sally, paul and estelle just felt sickly sweet, it just didn’t seem real how wholesome and good that family is, like i get why apollo broke down and just sobbed in that shower.

also rick really saying acab again in toa, i thought he was done after that elf cop chapter in magnus chase (the magnus chase series is a masterpiece) but apparently not, with A ‘good cop’ is still a cop... still a part of the mind game.

the grey sisters, i forgot about them completely but this threw me back into was it the sea of monsters when annabeth summoned them? i’m not sure, it could have been the lightning thief either, they really remind me of the disney hercules movie. the whole ganymede paragraph was gold, i love gods being canonically confirmed lgbt in the riordanverse. i also love the whole eye-tossing part - 

‘He will crush our eye,’ Anger cried, ‘if we don’t recite our verses!’

‘I will not!’

‘We will all die!’ Wasp said. ‘He is crazy!’

‘I AM NOT!’

‘Fine, you win!’ Tempest howled.

also, the explanation for why dionysus chooses to look the way he does was perfect, because it was something i often wondered about and wasn’t expecting to get an explanation for, and i imagine the whole mythological dionysus to look like.. well like a more feminine apollo i guess, beautiful in a gender non-comforming way.

Other Olympians could never comprehend why Dionysus chose this form when he could look like anything he wanted. In ancient times, he’d been famous for his youthful beauty that defied gender.

... 

In retaliation, Dionysus had decided to look and act as ungodly as possible. He was like a child refusing to tuck in his shirt, comb his hair or brush his teeth, just to show his parents how little he cared.

every scene with nico at camp just BREAKS ME, i would throw in screenshots of every damn quote but unfortunately, as said above, cannot and would rather not type every one; we’ll start with, obviously apollo confirming to him that jason is dead. 

He didn’t look angry exactly. He looked as if he’d been hit in the gut not just once but so many times over the course of so many years that he was beginning to lose perspective on what it meant to be in pain. He swayed on his feet. He blinked. Then he flinched, jerking his hands away from Meg’s as if he’d just remembered his own touch was poison.

ugh then will talking about how nico’s doing, confirming that he’s suffering with ptsd, mr d giving him advice, helping him sort though what voices in his head are real and which ones aren’t, then the paragraph that just recounts every horrific thing poor nico has been through, how will has to reassure him that he’s okay and ‘with friends’ when he wakes up after shadow travel

will’s kindness to apollo, buying him clothes, and apollo finding seymour the leopard’s head in his bed, put there by mr d aaaa AAAA A A A A A THE ORDINARY, EVERYDAY CAMP HALF BLOOD THINGS..

i could go on for years and years about how much i appreciate rachel having a big role in this book, and the visit to her apartment, everything, her art, the fact that she got what she wanted, she’s going to PARIS to study ART, she isn’t forced to be someone she’s not by her dad, and gets to be a big part of a demigod mission and not stand on the sidelines for once.

i love that her landscapes are still visions, that she still paints the quests demigods go on - the burning maze, jason’s funeral pyre, caligula’s ships; and how nico ~appreciates art~

‘And, hey, di Angelo -’ she pushed him playfully away from the canvas he’d been ogling - ‘don’t brush against the art! I don’t care about the paintings, but if you get any colour on you, you’ll ruin that whole black-and-white aesthetic you’ve got going.’

i. love. rachel.

WILL GLOWS!! THE HEADCANONS FROM LIKE FIVE YEARS AGO THAT YOU’D SEE FLOATING AROUND ABOUT HIM MANIPULATING LIGHT!! CONFIRMED!! CANON!! AMAZING

I AM  OBSESSED WITH THE TROGS, I LOVE THEM, THEY ARE GREAT, not gonna lie, i was expecting something more dramatic and spooky with how worried will was and how dionysus was going.. visiting the cavern-runners isn’t��♫ good for your mental health  ♫ but the little hat frog gremlins were a good addition. i like them very much and their funky little soup shenanigans. quoting the ghost king himself: trogs good. nice hats. (IM SORRY I KEEP MENTIONING HIM BUT I JUST) also how apollo starts wishing for breadsticks a s ajoke and theY STRAIGHT UP HAVE BREADSTICKS? HUH? WHERE DID THEY GET THE BREADSTICKS FROM??

yeah, i’m also still very much upset by every mention of jason grace, it’s funny how ever since his death in the burning maze i have grown to love him more and more and that’s not fun for me, for that boy to become one of my main comfort character’s and have his death and sacrifice and nobility mentioned every few chapters. i’m pretty sure i cried when he appeared to talk in apollo’s dreams, and this time the tears weren’t from the effort of keeping my eyes open and working for hours straight reading this book (i remember staying up until 2am to finish the sequel to beautiful, broken things, it was very much worth it)

‘All right, Jason. We miss you, though.’

ALSO. THE FACT THAT THIS KID. THIS CHILD. HAD TO THINK ‘BUT IF A HERO ISN’T READY TO LOSE EVERYTHING FOR A GREATER CAUSE, IS THAT PERSON REALLY A HERO?’ A KID ISN’T SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT THAT AND BE READY TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD,, i,, ugh,, he’s supposed to be finishing school and designing temples not being the perfect hero and soldier,, spain without the s,,

as @couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name said: ‘thinking about how ghost! Jason didn’t seem to understand why Apollo was so upset about his death because he’s been raised to believe a hero’s sacrifice is noble and his life doesn’t matter in the grand scheme and also if he doesn’t understand why the person who watched him get horrifically killed is so torn up over his death he probably doesn’t even realize his other friends are grieving him..’

IM SO UPSET THE ARROW OF DODONA IS DEAD D: IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ALL THE FUNNIEST MOMENTS WERE BECAUSE OF THAT ARROW AND IT'S DEATH WAS SO SAD WTH LIKE WE FIND OUT HOW USELESS THE ARROW FELT AND HOW THE GROVE OF DODONA ALL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE CRAP AND WOULD FAIL APOLLO AND THEN ONCE WE FEEL BAD FOR IT, IT DIES??

the entire python battle was pretty grim, there is a part of me that's like because this is the last book series i would have loved say the magnus chase and kane chronicles gang in a giant battle with everyone like the battle of manhattan but even more dramatic, but even so, i did appreciate that python battle and the whole almost-falling-into-the-depths-of-tartarus thing.

him talking to artemis was cool, but JESUS: 'I turned and strode out of my room, trying to recall how the god Apollo walked.' like that HURTS. it was such a huge culture shock for apollo to go throught this huge character arc and be so human and understand the pain of others, to be around gods again who are so.. apathetic. also, zeus. 'Interesting how he put that: I had done him proud. I had been useful in making him look good. My heart did not melt. I did not feel that this was a warm-and-fuzzy reconciliation with my father. Let's be honest: some fathers don't deserve that. Some aren't capable of it.'

OKAY OKAY SO THE END?? CHIRON TALKING TO A CAT (BAST) AND A SEVERED HEAD (MIMIR) ABOUT SHARED PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PANTHEONS!! WILL AND NICO RECEIVING A PROPHECY FROM RACHEL TO GO TO TARTARUS AND SAVE BOB!! THE HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS, INCLUDING THALIA AND REYNA BEING BEST FRIENDS (qpr.. qpr..) HUNTING THE TEUMESSIAN FOX!! PERCY, ANNABETH AND GROVER, THE ORIGINAL TRIO, GOING ON A CHAOTIC ROAD TRIP TOGETHER!! - SO MANY STAND-ALONE SET -UPS PFSJSJSJ

okay quick word on the reunions at the end: funny little elephant visitation program with livia and hannibal. love that for them. calypso and leo's relationship seems rocky and complicated, but that's to be expected, i think even if they do get properly back together again it might not last long, because it does pretty much feel like a teenage relationship where the two aren't very compatible, but we'll see. hazel and frank are so funny with their gold plated necklaces. lavinia - tap-dance icon. almost cried at the mention of jason's temple-extension plan again. percy not being sure about what he wants to do in college is accurate and i like that that's left to be up-for-interpretation (rick does THE MOST for the fanfic writers pfsjsj). i am OBSESSED with aeithales, like i hate deserts so the burning maze setting is not my favourite but GOD that HOUSE, the vibes are off-the-charts. i'd love a house made of living trees that's also a greenhouse filled with dryads. meg gets a unicorn. that is so great.

i kind of wish the book hadn't ended with 'Call on me. I will be there for you.' because every time I imagine the friends theme song and i don't think that's the vibe he was going for, BUT i do love him talking to meg, that was genuinely emotional - 'You'll come back?' she asked. 'Always,' I promised. 'The sun always comes back.' ; i really wish it had ended with that, but i guess apollo does tend to break fourth walls and talk to the readers, like a lot of the protagonists of riordanverse books.

[rubisaurus98]

.......will u stab me if i say lugina

No, I am not going to stab you, but I did write a lot of raw opinions and not all of them are pleasant. Just a forewarning.

Why I like them: I dunno, I guess his sword’s got a nifty ability and he’s memeable with him being the most asshole character, yet being the victim of unfortunate funny inconveniences like the boulders and shit. I also like how we develop him, if that counts.

Why I don’t: I swear, I could write at minimum a 2-page paper as to why Lugina Beil’s raw canon character genuinely frustrates the hell out of me. A lot of it being more directed at how he’s written and the implications of the world he’s written into and how it reacts to him rather than about him, the fictional character, if that makes sense. A lot of missed potential if I were to compare him to other characters of other series who started out similar to him, but developed more noticeably for the better over the course of their own plots. Like, the development of a story-prominent heroic-aligned selfish asshole character into someone who isn’t afraid to show he cares about his comrades and will lay down his life for them, yet still retains a certain “edge” to him is such a tried-and-true method to me when it comes to development satisfaction in my experience, that to see it not happen to a certain effect/extent is whiplash. The best comparisons that I can think of at them moment are like, Gajeel Redfox and Laxus Dreyar from Fairy Tail and Jean Kirstein from AoT. I’m serious, like, read up on them, then compare them to Lugina. Gajeel’s even a father-to-be in Fairy Tail rn, and he’s both ecstatic and very protective of his partner. I know I keep comparing Lugina to other characters of other series with their own developments, but still, like, I could also name a bunch of conjectures as to why Lugina doesn’t seem to go down a similar path. In short, now that it seems his tale is finished without so much as a follow-up, I dislike how the writers wrote Lugina more than Lugina the character himself.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): Lugina and BF1 Summoner vs Gazarva at the end of BF1.

Favorite season/movie: I liked him best during Arcs 2 and 3. More Arc 3.

Favorite line: “ [Liomerg] wasn't just talking about physical strength, he meant mental strength as well... Basically the only thing holding [Karl] back is himself. For all that he tries to handle things himself without depending on others, he doesn't have the resolve to see it through on his own. You call that kindness? That's just weakness!”--Estria, area after Shusui is killed by Mora. An “asshole’s got a point” moment.

Favorite outfit: BF2 Armor and that picnic art where he’s hogging all the spaghetti and Seria’s kicking him in the head for it. You know the one.

OTP: Really, it’s only with OCs, or in My Verse, where I flesh things out considerably between him and Yurika. If Alim bothered to fill in more about his actual relationship with Yurika, I could’ve actually put them here. I also ship him with Unlearning Toxic Masculinity, Some Fucking Therapy, and Having Better Character Development Based Of Other Examples I Know From Heroic-Aligned Characters Who Started Out Similar To Him, but we can’t have nice things in this fandom. Maybe him and Bertz if Bertz weren’t closeted or whatever his deal with Lugina is.

Brotp: Deadass, I don’t know. Maybe Karl post-BF1?

Head Canon: I still think he whittles wood as a hobby and one of his best projects is a full-scale replica of Sky Harbinger. And that he wholeheartedly and openly enjoys sea shanties. Oh, and that he definitely still invited BF1 Summoner and Tilith to his wedding. Hell, he explicitly said they had to come because no fucking way those two are gonna miss out on this. Plus, Tilith wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if he didn’t.

Unpopular opinion: I’ve said some piece of this in the one I did for Sasha, but wait! There’s more! And this is more of a general statement, but I really do think that there’s a lot left out/missing/glossed over in terms of BF2′s writing that would make things a lot more well-rounded. Plus, I think I’ve also already said some things that belong here under “Why I Don’t”. Also, only reason why Alim had Lugina be the only main cast member to start a family other than to show that he’s “developed for the better over 20 years” is because they made Karl and Paris still horny for BF1 Summoner and Seria...Seria, idk about. Probably applying the “No Guy Wants an Amazon” trope with her.

A wish: That Alim didn’t bull-rush Brave Frontier 2 and actually took efficient time to develop the story more so it’d have a longer shelf life? Then we’d at least be able to hopefully see more of the cast as a whole, and hopefully actually develop instead of what was probably squishing everything down and throwing in everything no matter how developed it was? Because BF2 seems more like an Afterword that’s trying to be a proper sequel. I’d wish for more between the games development, too and that Alim isn’t done working with Lugina and the rest of them.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Some implication/confirmation/allusion that Lugina cradle-robbed Yurika; any indication that there’s something off about their relationship beyond what’s traditionally considered healthy/normal married couple behavior plus what we’ve been given.

5 words to best describe them: Wish he was written better.

My nickname for them: Rat Man/Bastard. Potato Bastard.

[idumean-archive]

CANON DIVERGENT MAIN VERSE.         loosely follows the canon backstory established for the SHOW, shadowhunters before diverging. full verse details & backstory under the cut.

*this section deals with Jonathan as I write him in his canon divergent main verse. here you'll find a blend of both book & show canon, as well as a heavy overlay of personal headcanon. most information can also be found in the breakdown of the sourcing for his different canons, but this section lays them out seamlessly to illustrate the muse as a whole.

like this post if you are interested in;

interacting in this verse

developing a ship in this verse

generally plotting within this verse

Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was born to Jocelyn Fairchild & Valentine Morgenstern on April 4th. He is the older brother of Clarissa Morgenstern Clary Fairchild, though he was unaware of his younger sister until he was an adult. During Jocelyn's pregnancy, Valentine gave Jocelyn doses of Lilith's blood as part of his experiments. This meant that when he was born, Jonathan had black eyes & was eerily quiet as a small child. This horrified Jocelyn, & became something she couldn't move beyond regarding his firstborn.

After the failed Uprising, Valentine, hurt by what he perceived as an ultimate betrayal by his wife & his parabatai (Luke Graymark), took Jonathan & fled. To cover his tracks, Valentine faked their deaths by burning down the Fairchild manor with Michael Wayland & his son in their stead, along with Jocelyn's parents, Granville and Adele. Afterwards, he would go to raise Jonathan in seculsion a remote cabin in Idris. It was during this time that Valentine gave him a chemistry set & taught him the basic laws of physics. He also received his first seraph blade at the age of eight.

When he was young, he once asked Valentine about his mother. To dissuade him from asking any further, Valentine told him that his mother left because he was a monster, and that she was never coming back. Valentine furthered his psychological abuse and manipulation by telling him that no one except him will ever love a monster like him, leading to Jonathan's further psychological problems, in an effort to make him into the "monster" he would become.

During this time, Valentine hit Jonathan, lashing him in the back with a demon metal-tipped whip to remind him of the "perils of obedience," then continued to train him into a soldier fit for his plans for the Clave & the Nephilim. Jonathan was taught the necessary traits he would require someday to fulfill, which he needed to learn without experience of contact with other people besides his own father. He was also taught the skills that he would need to help Valentine bring down their adversaries.

While Jonathan was raised by his father secretly & in seclusion - cut off almost entirely from the rest of humanity - he knew of Jace & that Valentine was raising/training for the same purposes. However, unlike Jace, Jonathan was well aware of his father's plans, given almost full disclosure, & even knew when the other boy finally failed Valentine enough to prompt him to send the boy away.

Eventually Jonathan became uncontrollable in Valentine's eyes. After keeping him shackled in the basement of the cabin out of fear he himself might become the next victim of his son's violent tendencies, Valentine eventually sent him to Edom. He was greeted by Lilith, in her human form, on his arrival. She introduced herself as his mother as she felt it was her blood that made him something special, thus overriding the maternal claim of his absent human mother. She would go on to burn his skin, layer by layer. Other demons would join in on this, making him something more akin to their world as his human face was considered too beautiful for their world. She would go on to reshape him in her own image of the perfect son.

The passage of time in Edom is 120x the passage of time in the human realm, causing Jonathan to age significantly between being banished & clawing his way out. His demonic blood guards him against showing the effects of this. While in Edom, he would learn to use his demonic blood & draw from its power. He spent his years in Hell clinging to memories & hopes of freedom. His incredible willpower was the only thing that helped him retain any shred of his deteriorating humanity, thus allowing him to escape by summoning the Greater Demon Azazel out of Duduael & bargaining with him.

After escaping Edom, Jonathan had hoped his humanity & remanants of his former life would flood back into him & he was bitterly disappointed when this didn't happen. Because of his time in Edom, the cold became wholly unbearable to him. To blend in, Jonathan took the appearance & name of Sebastian Verlac, an English Shadowhunter from the Paris Institute, & used it as a glamor. His endgame was to send his father, along with the Soul Sword, to Edom as revenge for the torture he endured.

To enact his goals, he orchestrated an attack on Isabelle Lightwood by Azazel so he could plausibly bill himself as a hero & someone she could trust. He hoped this would eventually lead to him the doorsteps of the Institute, & after some time, it did with unintended side effects. The more time he spent around the other Nephilim, his long-dormant emotions begun to surface. Being at the Institute also allowed him to meet the younger sister he never knew he had, as well as his own mother, as well, though he kept his identity secret from the two of them.

Further complications came to his plan as he began to bond with Clary, helping her overcome the block preventing her from using her runic abilities. Their proximity & his distance from Edom began to trigger further change. The emotions that had felt just out of reach began to fully surface, threatening his own mental stability until he was able to find ways to cope. While he was working through all of this, he managed to win over the trust of others at the Institute & was assigned to the team hunting Valentine. After an attack on Valentine prompted the Clave to arrange for Valentine to be portaled to Idris, Jonathan hijacked the portal & took the two of them away to the remote cabin he had been raised in.

While he had Valentine captive in the cabin, he recounted his time in Edom. Unexpectedly, Valentine took the blame for everything that happened to him & told Jonathan that he grew to regret sending him away. Jonathan refused to believe him & continued to prepare for the ritual that would send Valentine and the Mortal Sword to Edom. This plan came to a grinding halt when Valentine used the Sword to prove the veracity of his statements. Feeling the splinters of emotion clawing their way to the surface, Jonathan abandoned his plan to send him to Edom for the time being & instead returned the two of them to his apartment, currently located in New York.

During his time away, Clary & Jace were made aware that the real Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was alive & well by the angel Ithuriel, though they remained ignorant of his cover as Sebastian Verlac. Clary, Izzy, & Jace make it to the cabin only after Jonathan & Valentine have left, are able to find the journal outlining Valentine's experiments on his firstborn son as well as Jace. Unaware of Jonathan lurking under Sebastian's glamor, he helps them work towards finding the Mortal Mirror on their return to the Institute. Watching his father's methods & feeling conflicted as his returning emotions & new-found if unknowing connection to his sister, Jonathan begins to step back from is father once again.

Meanwhile, Clary & Jace have begun to suspect Sebastian could be Jonathan Morgenstern. A tense exchange with Valentine deals what would grow to become the fatal blow in the cleaving of their relationship, & Jonathan returns to the Institute. Looking through the memory box in Alec's office that had Jocelyn kept, he's caught by Max. When he hesitates just a moment too long, the boy escapes. Slipping from the Institute, he makes his way back to the apartment & makes what would become his most pivotal decision. Cutting Sebastian Verlac, who he'd kept comatose, loose, he allows the other to leave without further harm. He's still in the apartment when Jace, Izzy, & Clary arrive.

Allowing his sister to burn a truth rune into his skin, he tells them that he will officially surrender - to no less than the head of the Institute - once they've stopped Valentine. He's taken back to the Institute & locked into the cells while the others decide how to proceed. With alliances breaking down, & Valentine slipping through every precaution to leave his whereabouts unknown, there's little choice but for Jonathan to be allowed to help Jace & Clary in tracking his father through his blood & the combined strength of Jace & Clary's angelic abilities. Jonathan eventually reveals his father had once had a plan to use the Seelies to slip through the wards & head to Lake Lyn with the other two Mortal Instruments.

He remained confined to the cells under the Institute while Clary & Jace portaled to Lake Lyn to find Valentine. After the events at Lake Lyn, he was officially placed under what amounted to house arrest. He was stripped of all of his runes in the interim, & re-runed with only the barest protections as well as binding runes preventing him from leaving the confines of the Institute or touching adamas. His runes were later restored after an eleven hour interrogation by the Mortal Sword shed light on the horrors he had endured at the hands of Valentine, & the sincerity of his desire to become something better than what his father had tried to make him into.

He was allowed to return to the New York Institute with his freedom, where he still resides.

[depressed-andgay]

Frerard Masterlist pt. 1

Some of my favorite frerard fics :)

(more to come)

*=smut

Trinite* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/225520#main

Set in DD era, kind of a Fun Ghoul origin fic. Hot smut. Good characterization.

Man In The Mirror* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/9566282

In which G’s trans and Frank makes him feel masculine. Nice details on smut and I really like the way G’s portrayed in this one. Frank is a sweetheart :3

It’s Warmer When the Rum’s Gone* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/102056

Pirate AU!! Really!! Good!! Petekey , Ryden and Peterick, but mainly frerard/Rikey-centric. The concept of it all is awesome! Oh! And Frank’s a ninja!

I Love My Girl (But She Ain’t Worth the Price)* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/15256263/chapters/35387319?view_adult=true

DD era/ flashback to early van days. Concept with Gerard/Party Poison’s struggles in alcohol/drugs in the past and in the zones. (I wrote this lmao)

In the Music of Time* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/278023

!!!!!!!!!! I’m practically speechless on what to say about this fic, it’s fucking amazing. I believe it was one of the first frerard fics I ever read, as well. Essentially time travel meetup of Gerard’s from difficult points in his life. OH. and there’s kinda a Gerard(s) and frank orgy. You’re welcome.

Disney Verse* - https://archiveofourown.org/series/27361

2 fics, both awesome. As you can tell from the series title, it’s set in Disney. Another of the first fics I read from the mcr fandom. G’s so cute in these and Frank is a grumpy repairman and it’s so good oh my god dude I can’t even I love all of these fics so much god. I am weak for frank and frank is weak for Gerard.

Hold On Tight and Don’t Look Back* - https://zero-capital-z.livejournal.com/

Seven chapters, Danger Days era. Seems to be more KobraStar centric, but good PartyGhoul moments as well. The sex honestly makes me so wet, it’s so well written. Nice characterization and Gracie, as always, is adorable!

Midgets and Madmen Run This Scene* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/296550?view_adult=true

I’ve been wanting to read this for ages and finally got around to it! Tw for lots of (incredibly hot) sex and drugs. Prison AU, Gee’s fucking insane and Frank’s the object of his obsession.

Stars and Fire* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/701242

Early van days, exploration in kinky sex! (Breathplay and masochism mainly). Oh! And my favorite ending: Mikey being disgusted.

Summons* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/4823417#main

Short but sweet, MCR being the barbecue band during warped, dreaming about making it big:)

Paris! Verse* - https://archiveofourown.org/series/11226

Once again, this is one of the first frerard fics I’ve read and one of the best! Extremely well written, tons of sex(TONS of it) and the characterizations are excellent. It has a way of getting immersed in the pov of each of them (Gerard and frank, respectively) and have the other be something of an enigma. I don’t know if that made sense?? But that’s what I got from it. Definitely worth a read if you’ve got the time!

Illyria (King and Country)* - https://archiveofourown.org/series/11210

I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY OTHER THAN JUST FUCKING READ THIS NOW. DROP EVERYTHING. NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THIS ROYAL AU. I will spoil nothing because it’s so fucking beautiful.

I’m Not on Desolation Row* - https://archiveofourown.org/series/165551

Yummy. That’s all I have to say. Also, Frank is a relatable loser.

I Could Go Anywhere With You (And I’d Probably Be Happy) - https://archiveofourown.org/works/3728686

Ok ngl, I cry everytime I read this, the song itself (first day of my life by bright eyes) is beautiful (and it also makes me cry) and the relationship/dynamic in this one is precious.

Coffee in the Morning, Milk at Night* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878902/chapters/34454148

Sexy as hell, and kinda kinky too. Angst-a-plenty and beautiful descriptions, this fic is a picturesque example of why writing is a beauty to behold.

A Borrower of the Night* - https://archiveofourown.org/works/357827

For someone who’s grown up loving DC, this fic was legendary. Like Frank?? And Gerard?? Being Batman?? And Superman?? Who could ask for more??? It’s phenomenal, you won’t regret reading this.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

2018 Round-Up: My Favourite Movies of 2018

Disclaimer: 2018 has been another feast for movie goers all year round, so with the new year just around the corner I have decided to disclose my favourite movies of the year. Careful for spoilers for movies that have recently come out as a couple are on this list.

#10. Love, Simon

As I mentioned in my review, I enjoyed this movie. I still think it accurately captures a teenage coming out story, not THE teenage coming out story because everyone has their own story and the endings aren’t always good but this one definitely showed the good without over-fantasizing it.

I mean okay, I still think this movie doesn’t do enough to show the dangers of emailing virtual strangers outside of the fact that you get your private information shared but again that balances out with the fact it is only a school-centric forum so I give the movie a pass on that. Also I do feel bad for saying there are “better” ways to come out because as I did follow immediately up with saying, everyone has their own story.

But overall I do really think this is a great movie and an underrated one at that. The characters are all likeable and relatable, Nick Robinson surprisingly proves himself as a leading man and Keiynan Lonsdale gives his best performance.

#9. Venom

I always had in mind that Venom would make my favourites list. Not only is Tom Hardy finally getting the chance to shine in a superhero role, but I finally get to see one of my favourite anti-heroes brought to life in the right way on the silver screen. I loved this movie, I thought this was a great spin-off in the Spider-Verse and a great start to Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters.

I know for a fact this movie has problems, Riot as a villain isn’t the most compelling, the movie does play like it’s set within the 90s Spider-Man Animated Series and that Carnage tease was a let down in the casting department. However, this movie gives us Venom and allows him to be Venom. Yes the comedy is slightly damp at times but Tom Hardy sells himself as an action hero, comedy star and stunt performer. I do hope this movie gets a sequel because I really want to see more.

#8. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

I am in the minority of people that enjoy this movie, but am in the majority of people that feel the end reveal was completely nonsensical. However I am giving J.K. and the team a pass on this movie and that is why it takes the #10 slot.

It is a great movie visually, it has all the traditional sceneries and locales that you would expect from a Wizarding World movie, the world building of exploring not just the British but also the French Ministries of Magic was a fun addition, Grindelwald shrouding Paris as a way of summoning his followers was visually appealing and of course seeing Hogwarts again brings back all the nostalgic feels a Potter fan could ask for.

I will continue to defend Johnny Depp in the role of Grindelwald as I feel he is very well suited to the role and that he was one of the better things about this movie. Like I said in my reviews he kind of book-ended this movie with two great scenes first when he escaped captivity and then when he addressed his followers, both were well acted, well shot and largely counted of Depp’s performance which he mastered.

My biggest complaint with the movie is that I did expect more of a mythos built movie than the focus being on characters we already said goodbye to in the first one, but that’s not to say what I did get was bad it was just not how I would have taken the story going forward.

Eddie Redmeyne and the cast from the first movie are all still charming and have more character development to carry them through to the next movie, while Jude Law and Zoe Kravitz are both really great additions.

I will wait and see what the third installment in this franchise has in store before deciding my final opinion on the movies as a whole but I do think J.K. has some work to do to keep people on board.

#7. Christopher Robin

This was a complete nostalgia trip for me, I really had a good time watching this movie. Not only did it really hit at the emotional core of anyone who grew up with Winnie the Pooh but it was just so charming, so quaint and made me feel like a kid again.

Ewan McGregor as an adult Christopher Robin was very well cast, not only did he go through the arc that apparently every working adult goes through in losing his child-like wonder only to be reminded of it and realizing what is truly important in life, but Ewan is an actor who can do it with such charm that a tired old story like this seems fresh.

Also this story is made fresh by the fact that it does centre on the characters of  Winnie the Pooh. The visual effects used to bring these characters to life are so well done. I loved the behind the scenes knowledge of knowing that they created toy replicas of these characters and then digitally animated them throughout the movie. It just adds a sense of realism to the movie and makes it more enjoyable.

Mary Poppins Returns did a similar story arc with Michael as they did with Christopher but in my opinion this story is told a lot more organically. I’m happy with the movie and glad I now own it.

#6. Incredibles 2

14 years in the making and still worth the wait. I had a blast watching this movie. Not only was it a direct follow-up to the first one but I felt the story managed to progress our favourite characters in an organic way that still kept in theme with this being a superhero family franchise.

I thought the focus being on Elastigirl being the focal superhero as opposed to Mr. Incredible this time around was a fun change of pace and didn’t feel like a cry for feminism as other movies and TV shows do.

Meanwhile having Mr. Incredible being the stay-at-home dad learning to cope with his teenage daughter’s drama and super-baby discovering his powers was a lot of fun and led to some very comedic moments.

Also the hilarious moments in the first movie were still here in this one from Frozone and his wife to Edna Mode. The whole movie just felt that, even though it had been over a decade since the first movie, it just felt like coming home it was so inviting.

The main problem is the reveal of the villain because anyone with half a brain would be able to tell that while they tried the red herring of Win Deavor being the evil Screenslaver, the fact it was Evelyn Deavor wasn’t a shock. Evelyn Deavor...Evil Endeavor...it was obvious.

But overall a really enjoyable movie and hopefully we won’t have to wait another 14 years for the threequel.

#5. Avengers: Infinity War

The movie event of the year but that doesn’t mean it was the movie of the year. This was such a spectacle and celebration of 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I could not get enough of it.

Everything worked well in this movie, all the characters we’ve seen throughout the last ten years working together was such a treat and a promise that only Kevin Feige’s MCU could deliver on.

There are so many things right about this movie, I thought the plot for the movie really brought a genuine threat and splender to the MCU that managed to almost fix the MCU’s villain problem, Thanos was a genuine threat despite the fact that he had not been shown as formidable in any of the previous movies, then there’s the Black Order who present both a brilliant and fun henchmen group.

The heroes all coming together for the first time isn’t as big of a deal as made out because aside from the Guardians teaming up with Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, everyone else who teams up has teamed up before aside from a brief interaction between Shuri and Bruce Banner.

Regardless, this was such a fun movie, a slight complete deviation from the comics event as the key characters aren’t in play for the MCU just yet. However, this was very much the movie of the summer and definitely an event everyone was talking about. I loved it and roll on Avengers: Endgame.

#4. Bohemian Rhapsody

I love Queen, I love everything about the band and more to the point I love Freddie Mercury. I love everything that he stands for and everything that makes him an icon for the LGBT community. Throw in Rami Malik and you have everything I am looking for in a movie like this.

A Star Is Born did not make my list and in fact almost falls into my Least Favourite Movies list because I just didn’t really like it as a movie and the two movies are often compared. But while A Star Is Born had okay songs and an okay story, Bohemian Rhapsody had fantastic songs and a fantastic story because they all came from a raw and talented source.

I get there is some controversy with the movie as the remaining members of Queen tried to make it more of a Queen origin story than a Freddie Mercury biopic but the best thing about this movie is it is a perfect blend of both stories because you can’t have one without the other.

Also, the movie recreated Live Aid in such a mirrored way that it was almost like a straight-up recording with the actors in place of the actual people. This movie should definitely garner praise and accolades for that alone.

It’s just such a fantastic movie and provides such a potent love-note to all Freddie fans, I can’t say enough good things about it.

#3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Spider-Man movie ever! This is a statement I found myself saying throughout this movie and a couple of days after seeing it I still think it, this is the best Spider-Man movie ever created. I’m not including Venom in that because it’s from the same material but is more of a spin-off from the mainstream Spidey movies than what has come featuring the red and blue webslinger.

But yes, I had reservations about this movie. Not only do I not know Miles Morales that well but I genuinely thought they were going to go down the Spider-Man origin route again and to be honest I don’t think I can sit through another retelling of that. Now this movie has one trope that goes in line with the traditional Spider-Man story which doesn’t exactly damage the movie but doesn’t seem necessary for the movie.

Also this is an all-age animated movie, that is very hard to do without pandering more to one age demographic and traditionally if they go down the adult animation route it’s often offensive and vulgar whereas this had none of that. Instead it dealt with several mature themes, mixed with some brilliant action sequences and quite hardcore violence. I mean it, Kingpin goes all out here.

In terms of the overall movie, there is a disclaimer right at the start before the opening credits that is specific to this movie saying “Do not copyright”...In the first 4 minutes you understand why. This movie is choc-full of twists, spoilers and treats for any Spidey fan and I personally guarantee there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Furthermore, because it is an animated movie, the entire story plays out like a comic-book practically like a live motion comic partially because of the use of captions used just they are in comics. The movement of the characters and the artistic scenery adds to what makes this movie so unique and so special.

Voice talent wise, Chris Pine makes a surprising vocal appearance as the Peter Parker of Miles’ Earth who dies towards the start, but then you have Jake Johnson, Nicholas Cage, Liev Schreiber, Hailee Steinfeld and Mahershala Ali all providing great support to Shameik Moore who himself is brilliant.

All in all, as everyone has said, this is the best Spider-Man movie to be released, I am very much looking forward to seeing where this movie takes the universe in the future.

#2. Aquaman

This movie came so close to being my #1 because I genuinely believe it is the best movie of the year, however #1 is my favourite and that’s what this list is about.

If someone had told me Aquaman would be DC’s best movie since The Dark Knight I would have laughed in their face. I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this movie. Visually stunning, there is not a lot more I can say about how gorgeous this movie is that everyone else has not said.

Jason Momoa takes to this role like Gal Gadot takes to Wonder Woman and Hugh Jackman took to Wolverine. He has so much joy in this movie and you can tell he, Amber Heard and the other cast members love being part of this world.

I will reiterate what I said in my non-spoiler review, this movie essentially showed us the scenary of a live-action Little Mermaid complete with Ariel in Amber Heard’s Mera and yet we are still looking forward to Disney’s live-action version of the movie. I guarantee you there will be a lot of comparisons between these movies, even if Zendaya gets cast because she will be compared to both Mera and Aquaman as both the lead and lead female.

This movie does what Wonder Woman could not and that is nail the final act and the climactic battle sequence. Oh my god it was like watching Lord of the Rings underwater it was so magnificent.

What they set up for a hopeful sequel is very juicy, you have Nicole Kidman as Aquaman’s mother still alive, you have Aquaman and Mera finally together, you have Orm still alive so there’s potential for either redemption like Loki or a return to form in a future movie. Also Black Manta will hopefully become more formidable in a future movie considering he was essentially a side-villain in this movie.

I want a sequel, I want a sequel for Aquaman more than I want any other DC Movie coming out. I cannot wait.

#1. Black Panther

Without question this movie outshines most movies in any genre. I still think Aquaman is the best movie because it is solidly brilliant from beginning to end, but Black Panther is miraculous in terms of visuals, music and the representation of African culture.

It is in some ways an origin movie because it’s how T’Challa adapted to becoming king of Wakanda, however because we already met T’Challa during Civil War, much like Spider-Man it wasn’t a question of needing to know their origins it was more about exploring them as individuals and what makes them superheroes.

However, surprisingly, Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther was not the most compelling part of this movie. Don’t get me wrong he’s still a brilliant actor and an integral part of the movie, but the way Ryan Coogler accurately portrays African culture, from the tribal combat tradition of earning the mantle of king, to the styling of each tribe to make them distinct, even with what the inclusion of the superhero angle brings with Wakanda being a technologically advanced nation and the visuals that they bring.

Just like Aquaman, this movie had a great main villain but a somewhat weak side-villain. Both Orm and Killmonger were brilliant but Killmonger outshines Orm because what he stands for divided audiences and even created a social media storm with the hashtag #Killmongerwasright. Yes Ocean Master also had a sense of righteousness because of what he stood for with believing the surface world to be the sea inhabitants enemies which sparks an environmental debate but Killmonger struck a core with African history. His final line of “Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.” is still probably the best line in any superhero movie for the power of the message it gets across.

Also T’Challa has been often critiqued for being outshined by his female supporting characters Shuri, Okoye, Nakia and Ramonda. I personally agree with this critique but again it’s not to the detroment of T’Challa or the movie because if anything it makes the movie that much better for having strong female characters who aren’t just “the love interest” or “the family” because yes that is what they essentially are but they’re celebrated for that.

Also, Letitia Wright is the breakout star of this movie, I would say Danai Gurira but she has The Walking Dead under her belt. Shuri is not the stereotypical princess character as not only is she 18 and head of the science and technology division of Wakanda but she has the personality and drive to easily take over the Black Panther mantle as she did in the comics.

Overall, this is not quite a perfect movie but it is definitely one of the best movies of the year, century and MCU in total. Not only is it a cultural milestone in terms of movie representation but also it is a movie that has earned numerous award nods and deserves to win all of them.

So that’s my list of my favourite movies of 2018, as I said it was a truly brilliant year for movies and I cannot wait to see what the new year has in store for us. In the mean time you can check out more Movie Reviews and other posts.

Happy New Year to all!

[dlaneys]

a very wizard  musical task                                   ❝           don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,     mama      !

fingertips lightly tap on a freckled cheek,    a   bored    ravenclaw fixing yin - yang colored eyes on the opal of a nail varnish,    watching the small brush    painting    one of her nails itself      :    bless those long and messy practices at her common room,    after all those years,    now her favorite nail varnish is easily enchanted by the small witch    !     delaney lovelace seems comfortable sitting on her usual spot at the ravenclaw’s table,    the    usual   loud laughters and chats around her involuntarily reaching her ears      --      and no matter how   loud   they are or how good the gossip was,    a subtle piano was louder than those speeches     ---     the latin rhythm provoking a silent     “     hmmm,     ”      from delaney’s quiet visage,    a throat echoing with the vibrations of such a small thing. “     everybody’s got a spell,    ”      she sings,    eyes remaining on the work of her nail varnish,    in lieu of how   WEIRD   this was.      “    but some don’t know how to make ‘em work.     ”      irises finally look away from the small brush,    eyes falling on the blurry faces around her,    the so called wizards and witches who do nothing but   fool   around making her to giggle.     “    always using charms in vain,     just charming the things not worth having.     ”       a drum not only makes a small riff to come to a stop,    but it also changes the scenery of the great hall to delaney’s childhood bedroom,    the visage of a worried    adelaide lovelace    in front of her,    probably keeping herself busy by asking her to be careful,     after all,     she was still   afraid   of the wizarding world despite being part of it once upon a time,    especially for someone like delaney.    “    don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,    ”      the damsel stands up,    quickly taking hold of her mother’s hands.    “   don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,    mama     !    cause i’ll be standing on the side when you check it out      !    ”      and now she pulls a smiley,    but a stratled adelaide out of her bedroom while holding her hand,    her last spoken word coming out as a riff    --     a riff that took them both     (     and her father fabien     )      to different scenes      :     from them walking out of her bedroom,    to them in the living room.    from the living room,    to the streets of paris.     from paris,     to both of her parents waving    bye-bye    to their daughter as she steps inside of hogwarts express. the scenery switches back to hogwarts,    delaney’s heel clad mary jane’s    echoing    through an empty hall,    hips and a both arms moving to the beat of the music.     “    wizards say my life’s so dull,   ”     she comes to a small pause,    only to grimace to herself.     “     what makes them say that to a witch     ?    ”        she giggles,    steady footfalls turning into small bounces,    hips remaining on moving to the beat.      “     remind me not to feel too bad,     when i’m fooled by charming smiling faces.    ”       she smiles bright to a gryffindor of her year,     the blonde granting the ravenclaw with a fake smile     ---      one that delaney took as a   beautiful   smiling face even when she knew better. she is now met with the reflection of a    young,    first year   delaney,     so small and naive to the wizarding world without papa and mama’s presence,    wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her sweater.     delaney automatically coos a      “      but don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,    "     to her little self,    one who simply looked around when a singing voice reached her ears.     “    don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,    baby.    ”      delaney grins when the smaller visage of herself moved to stand up.      “     cause i’ll be standing on the side when you check it out.     ”     and there’s another riff coming from the small damsel,    followed by both drums and trumpets following her lovely tune,    skipping away from her own reflection since she knew the smaller delaney would find her way to be as positive as    this    delaney. “     everybody’s need a spell,     ”      she sings as footsteps walks her inside of the library,    heads remaining down despite her loud and saccharine timbre,    a     ‘    hey    !    ‘    being muttered from a slytherin boy as delaney summons the book he was reading,    taking hold of it as she looks through the pages in a    bored    way.     “     a spell to check out the new.    ”      she finds a seat on the first table she sees,   busy students curiously looking up at her as she crosses a leg over a knee.     “     we’re the ones that are graced with magic,     so why don’t we swap our world around      ?     ”       now that’s when students   finally   notice delaney’s behaviour,     but instead of grimaces to play upon individual’s features     (     like always     ),     faces beam with a certain spark,    mumbling low    ‘   that’s true     !    ‘     to each other.      delaney places the book by her a leg,    a high,    yet sweet to the ears tone leaving past her parted lips,     leaving not only everyone in silence,     but forcing the music behind her to come to a sudden stop      !       but she stops when a sudden     ‘     BE QUIET   !    ’     from irma pince herself reaches her ears,     earning a sudden pause from delaney and everyone inside of the library.     she blinks for a moment,     a crown tilted to the side as a smile   slowly   appears upon marble,    petite hands pushing her body down from her seat on the table.      “     don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,     ” when shoe clad feet touch the ground,    it automatically changes from the cold ground to the hardwood of an empty,   ravenclaw table at the great hall,    delaney’s footsteps sounding loud and clear as everyone around the table,    going from first years to seven years,    singing along to her sweet tune.     “     don’t you worry ‘bout a thing.     don’t you worry ‘bout a thing     !    ”      she gives a little twirl,    the black pleated skirt moving a little   wave   around her.       “     don’t you worry ‘bout a thing      !    ”    giving a little jump when she is met with the end of the long table,    she giggles out loud when she is caught by the arms of a housemate,    moving her legs a a little until a pair of arms safely places her down. not even giving a look to the crowd behind her,    footfalls take her to walk forward the hall,    tiny hands clapping in beat as numerous      “     pa-pa-p, pa-pa-pa-pa’s       !      ”     leaves past not only her own lips,     but everyone’s who were currently following her every step,     even her lovely cat dimple following behind.      where did he came from     ?    who the hell knows     ?!      every small verse is a change of scenery,     from   everyone   walking down the halls of hogwarts,     seeming to be having fun with each other,     to walking down hogsmeade,     loud and harmonious     pa-pa’s    making every blur faced look back at the crowd. with a stomp of her shoe,     delaney’s back at the great hall,    footsteps now on the ground as she harmonies a    “    don’t you worry,     ”      by herself,     footfalls allowing her to bounce her way to the exit of the main gathering area of the castle,     listening to   everyone     singing along to the chorus of the song she was still singing and having fun with.      “      don’t you worry ‘bout a thing,    mama     !     ”     the visage of her mother appears in a    bubbly    mind,    the memory of a worried,    but lovely mother bringing a grin upon marble,    a body turning to face everyone she was leaving behind,    the notes making her to bend a little.      “     cause i’ll be standing     ---     i’ll be standing by you.      ”      she is almost    HOPING     her mother could listen to her,     for that is something she is always repeating to mama,    especially when they are saying their goodbyes in front of the hogwarts express.      “    oh   --    ohhh    ...     ”       the following notes suddenly turns loud and harmonious      (    and kind of extra    ),    enough for fawn  -   eyes to squint while carrying out with the most graceful tune,    footsteps walking her backwards.   it seems like there was no one but delaney lovelace at the great hall,    the tune feeling   too   personal    for her to end until she sings the last      “     don’t you worry ‘bout a thing      !     ”        of the day,     carrying out the last spoken word as a frame moves to the rhythms of the trumpets,     soon enough making a small twirl to stomp a shoe clad foot on the ground,     said trumpets    magically   disappearing when she finally closed a pinkish mouth. delaney blinks for a moment as she stands on her spot near the entrance,     watching everyone doing     ...     nothing,     just doing themselves.      the fawn eyed looks down to what she is holding against her chest,     a dusty novel and nothing else,     a free hand holding the nail varnish while rocking    beautiful    opal nails.     she beams at the sight of the color,    a body automatically turning around while humming low     pa-pa-p, pa-pa-pa-pa’s      as she walks her way to the tower,      not even knowing where in the world she got that   particular   lullaby.

[sunplagues]

tag dump !

[mideastsoccer]

Saudi Arabia and Iran: When it comes to exiles, the pot calls the kettle black

By James M. Dorsey

If Saudi Arabia is under pressure to give chapter and verse on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul, Iran risks straining relations with Europe at a time that it needs European support the most by targeting ethnic rights activists.

Mr. Khashoggi’s murder has focused attention on Saudi harassment and intimidation of dissidents as part of the kingdom’s effort to silence critical voices. The Saudi campaign had little geopolitical significance until Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.

By contrast, Iran’s long history of targeting ethnic rights activists, including Iranians of Arab descent and Kurds, has long been rooted in the Islamic republic’s belief that they enjoy the support of the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel in a bid to destabilize the country.

If Saudi Arabia has suffered severe reputational damage with the killing of Mr. Khashoggi and could face sanctioning for the first time in its history, Iran, long struggling to polish its tarnished image, could face sanctioning by Europe at a moment that it needs the Europeans the most.

In the latest Iranian incident, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and intelligence chief Finn Borch Andersen are calling for European Union sanctions after they discovered a plot to kill Danish residents associated with the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), an Iranian Arab group.

The plot, together with at least two other incidents in Europe in the last year, complicates European efforts to salvage a 2015 international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program after the United States withdrew from the deal and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran despite Iran’s denials of involvement.

The alleged Danish plot came to a head when authorities in late September closed bridges into Copenhagen and suspended train operations in connection with the case. Mr. Andersen said that Norway had since extradited to Denmark a Norwegian national of Iranian descent who was seen taking pictures of a the Danish home of an ASMLA leader.

ASMLA strives for independence of Iran’s south-eastern oil-rich province of Khuzestan that is home to Iran’s ethnic Arab community and borders on Iraq at the head of the Gulf.

Two other groups, the Islamic State and the Ahvaz National Resistance, claimed responsibility in September for an attack on a Revolutionary Guards parade in the Khuzestan capital of Ahwaz in which 29 people were killed and 70 others wounded.

Iranian officials blamed the United States and its allies, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel for the attack.

Iran at the time summoned the ambassadors of the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain to protest the three countries’ hosting of Iranian ethnic rights militants.

The Danish plot followed the killing by unidentified gunmen in the Netherlands in November 2017 of Ahmad Mola Nissi, another ASMLA leader. Shot dead on a street in The Hague, Mr. Mola Nissi died the violent life he was alleged to have lived.

A 52-year-old refugee living in the Netherlands since 2005, was believed to have been responsible for attacks in Khuzestan in 2005, 2006 and 2013 on oil facilities, the office of the Khuzestan governor, other government offices, and banks.

Together with Habib Jaber al-Ahvazi also known as Abo Naheth, another ASMLA activist, Mr. Mola Nissi focussed in recent years on media activities and fund raising, at times creating footage of alleged attacks involving gas cylinder explosions to attract Saudi funding, according to Iranian activists.

Mr. Mola Nissi was killed as he was preparing to establish a television station backed by Saudi-trained personnel and funding that would target Khuzestan.

The Netherlands has emerged in recent years as a hub for Iranian activists alongside Britain.

A group of exile Iranian academics and political activists, led by The Hague-based social scientist Damon Golriz, announced in September the creation of a group that intends to campaign for a liberal democracy in Iran under the auspices of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran who lives in the United States.

Compounding the fallout of Iran’s targeting of activists, is last month’s expulsion by France of an Iranian diplomat accused of being part of a plot to bomb a rally in Paris organized by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a Saudi-backed Iranian exile group that calls for regime change in Tehran. The diplomat was among six people arrested for allegedly plotting the bombing.

The Mujahedeen enjoy the support of prominent Western politicians like US President Donald J. Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal. Mr. Giuliani addressed the targeted rally.

U.S. officials say Iran plotted to attack the group’s massive base in Albania in March.

Support for the Mujahedeen has figured prominently in broadcasts of UK-based television station Iran International that according to The Guardian is owned by a secretive offshore entity with close links to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Guardian reported that Saud al-Qahtani, Prince Mohammed’s menacing information czar who was one of several senior Saudi officials removed from office in the wake of the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, was among the station’s main funders.

“I can say that Iran International TV has turned into a platform … for ethnic partisanship and sectarianism,” The Guardian quoted a source as saying.

The Danish, French and Dutch incidents suggest that Iran takes serious indications that Saudi Arabia is considering attempting to destabilize the Islamic republic by stirring unrest among its ethnic minorities.

Mr. Bolton advocated a similar strategy before becoming Mr. Trump’s national security advisor.

Iran has been the target in the past year of various insurgent groups believed to have Saudi support, sparking repeated clashes with Iranian security forces and the interception of Kurdish, Baloch and other ethnic rebels.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Islamabad this week on an unscheduled visit to discuss the recent kidnapping of at least 12 Iranian border and Revolutionary Guards believed to have been abducted on the Iranian side of the Pakistani-Iranian border by Jaish al-Adl, a Pakistani group that often issues its statements in Arabic rather than Baloch, Urdu or Farsi.

As the United States prepared to next week impose a new round of sanctions against Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the Iranian attacks in Europe to weaken European rejection of the US move.

“For nearly 40 years, Europe has been the target of Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks. We call on our allies and partners to confront the full range of Iran’s threats to peace and security,” Mr. Pompeo tweeted.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title and a co-authored volume, Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa as well as Shifting Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa and just published China and the Middle East: Venturing into the Maelstrom

[readbookywooks]

As Master Wishes

THREE SECONDS before the arrival of J. B. Hobson's letter, I no more dreamed of chasing the unicorn than of trying for the Northwest Passage. Three seconds after reading this letter from the honorable Secretary of the Navy, I understood at last that my true vocation, my sole purpose in life, was to hunt down this disturbing monster and rid the world of it. Even so, I had just returned from an arduous journey, exhausted and badly needing a rest. I wanted nothing more than to see my country again, my friends, my modest quarters by the Botanical Gardens, my dearly beloved collections! But now nothing could hold me back. I forgot everything else, and without another thought of exhaustion, friends, or collections, I accepted the American government's offer. "Besides," I mused, "all roads lead home to Europe, and our unicorn may be gracious enough to take me toward the coast of France! That fine animal may even let itself be captured in European seas - as a personal favor to me - and I'll bring back to the Museum of Natural History at least half a meter of its ivory lance!" But in the meantime I would have to look for this narwhale in the northern Pacific Ocean; which meant returning to France by way of the Antipodes. "Conseil!" I called in an impatient voice. Conseil was my manservant. A devoted lad who went with me on all my journeys; a gallant Flemish boy whom I genuinely liked and who returned the compliment; a born stoic, punctilious on principle, habitually hardworking, rarely startled by life's surprises, very skillful with his hands, efficient in his every duty, and despite his having a name that means "counsel," never giving advice-not even the unsolicited kind! From rubbing shoulders with scientists in our little universe by the Botanical Gardens, the boy had come to know a thing or two. In Conseil I had a seasoned specialist in biological classification, an enthusiast who could run with acrobatic agility up and down the whole ladder of branches, groups, classes, subclasses, orders, families, genera, subgenera, species, and varieties. But there his science came to a halt. Classifying was everything to him, so he knew nothing else. Well versed in the theory of classification, he was poorly versed in its practical application, and I doubt that he could tell a sperm whale from a baleen whale! And yet, what a fine, gallant lad! For the past ten years, Conseil had gone with me wherever science beckoned. Not once did he comment on the length or the hardships of a journey. Never did he object to buckling up his suitcase for any country whatever, China or the Congo, no matter how far off it was. He went here, there, and everywhere in perfect contentment. Moreover, he enjoyed excellent health that defied all ailments, owned solid muscles, but hadn't a nerve in him, not a sign of nerves-the mental type, I mean. The lad was thirty years old, and his age to that of his employer was as fifteen is to twenty. Please forgive me for this underhanded way of admitting I had turned forty. But Conseil had one flaw. He was a fanatic on formality, and he only addressed me in the third person - to the point where it got tiresome. "Conseil!" I repeated, while feverishly beginning my preparations for departure. To be sure, I had confidence in this devoted lad. Ordinarily, I never asked whether or not it suited him to go with me on my journeys; but this time an expedition was at issue that could drag on indefinitely, a hazardous undertaking whose purpose was to hunt an animal that could sink a frigate as easily as a walnut shell! There was good reason to stop and think, even for the world's most emotionless man. What would Conseil say? "Conseil!" I called a third time. Conseil appeared. "Did master summon me?" he said, entering. "Yes, my boy. Get my things ready, get yours ready. We're departing in two hours." "As master wishes," Conseil replied serenely. "We haven't a moment to lose. Pack as much into my trunk as you can, my traveling kit, my suits, shirts, and socks, don't bother counting, just squeeze it all in - and hurry!" "What about master's collections?" Conseil ventured to observe. "We'll deal with them later." "What! The archaeotherium, hyracotherium, oreodonts, cheiropotamus, and master's other fossil skeletons?" "The hotel will keep them for us." "What about master's live babirusa?" "They'll feed it during our absence. Anyhow, we'll leave instructions to ship the whole menagerie to France." "Then we aren't returning to Paris?" Conseil asked. "Yes, we are . . . certainly . . . ," I replied evasively, "but after we make a detour." "Whatever detour master wishes." "Oh, it's nothing really! A route slightly less direct, that's all. We're leaving on the Abraham Lincoln." "As master thinks best," Conseil replied placidly. "You see, my friend, it's an issue of the monster, the notorious narwhale. We're going to rid the seas of it! The author of a two-volume work, in quarto, on The Mysteries of the Great Ocean Depths has no excuse for not setting sail with Commander Farragut. It's a glorious mission but also a dangerous one! We don't know where it will take us! These beasts can be quite unpredictable! But we're going just the same! We have a commander who's game for anything!" "What master does, I'll do," Conseil replied. "But think it over, because I don't want to hide anything from you. This is one of those voyages from which people don't always come back!" "As master wishes." A quarter of an hour later, our trunks were ready. Conseil did them in a flash, and I was sure the lad hadn't missed a thing, because he classified shirts and suits as expertly as birds and mammals. The hotel elevator dropped us off in the main vestibule on the mezzanine. I went down a short stair leading to the ground floor. I settled my bill at that huge counter that was always under siege by a considerable crowd. I left instructions for shipping my containers of stuffed animals and dried plants to Paris, France. I opened a line of credit sufficient to cover the babirusa and, Conseil at my heels, I jumped into a carriage. For a fare of twenty francs, the vehicle went down Broadway to Union Square, took Fourth Ave. to its junction with Bowery St., turned into Katrin St. and halted at Pier 34. There the Katrin ferry transferred men, horses, and carriage to Brooklyn, that great New York annex located on the left bank of the East River, and in a few minutes we arrived at the wharf next to which the Abraham Lincoln was vomiting torrents of black smoke from its two funnels. Our baggage was immediately carried to the deck of the frigate. I rushed aboard. I asked for Commander Farragut. One of the sailors led me to the afterdeck, where I stood in the presence of a smart-looking officer who extended his hand to me. "Professor Pierre Aronnax?" he said to me. "The same," I replied. "Commander Farragut?" "In person. Welcome aboard, professor. Your cabin is waiting for you." I bowed, and letting the commander attend to getting under way, I was taken to the cabin that had been set aside for me. The Abraham Lincoln had been perfectly chosen and fitted out for its new assignment. It was a high-speed frigate furnished with superheating equipment that allowed the tension of its steam to build to seven atmospheres. Under this pressure the Abraham Lincoln reached an average speed of 18.3 miles per hour, a considerable speed but still not enough to cope with our gigantic cetacean. The frigate's interior accommodations complemented its nautical virtues. I was well satisfied with my cabin, which was located in the stern and opened into the officers' mess. "We'll be quite comfortable here," I told Conseil. "With all due respect to master," Conseil replied, "as comfortable as a hermit crab inside the shell of a whelk." I left Conseil to the proper stowing of our luggage and climbed on deck to watch the preparations for getting under way. Just then Commander Farragut was giving orders to cast off the last moorings holding the Abraham Lincoln to its Brooklyn pier. And so if I'd been delayed by a quarter of an hour or even less, the frigate would have gone without me, and I would have missed out on this unearthly, extraordinary, and inconceivable expedition, whose true story might well meet with some skepticism. But Commander Farragut didn't want to waste a single day, or even a single hour, in making for those seas where the animal had just been sighted. He summoned his engineer. "Are we up to pressure?" he asked the man. "Aye, sir," the engineer replied. "Go ahead, then!" Commander Farragut called. At this order, which was relayed to the engine by means of a compressed-air device, the mechanics activated the start-up wheel. Steam rushed whistling into the gaping valves. Long horizontal pistons groaned and pushed the tie rods of the drive shaft. The blades of the propeller churned the waves with increasing speed, and the Abraham Lincoln moved out majestically amid a spectator-laden escort of some 100 ferries and tenders.* *Author's Note: Tenders are small steamboats that assist the big liners. The wharves of Brooklyn, and every part of New York bordering the East River, were crowded with curiosity seekers. Departing from 500,000 throats, three cheers burst forth in succession. Thousands of handkerchiefs were waving above these tightly packed masses, hailing the Abraham Lincoln until it reached the waters of the Hudson River, at the tip of the long peninsula that forms New York City. The frigate then went along the New Jersey coast - the wonderful right bank of this river, all loaded down with country homes-and passed by the forts to salutes from their biggest cannons. The Abraham Lincoln replied by three times lowering and hoisting the American flag, whose thirty-nine stars gleamed from the gaff of the mizzen sail; then, changing speed to take the buoy-marked channel that curved into the inner bay formed by the spit of Sandy Hook, it hugged this sand-covered strip of land where thousands of spectators acclaimed us one more time. The escort of boats and tenders still followed the frigate and only left us when we came abreast of the lightship, whose two signal lights mark the entrance of the narrows to Upper New York Bay. Three o'clock then sounded. The harbor pilot went down into his dinghy and rejoined a little schooner waiting for him to leeward. The furnaces were stoked; the propeller churned the waves more swiftly; the frigate skirted the flat, yellow coast of Long Island; and at eight o'clock in the evening, after the lights of Fire Island had vanished into the northwest, we ran at full steam onto the dark waters of the Atlantic.

[idumean-archive]

BLOODBORNE. I’ve finally typed up the entirety of Jonathan’s biography to be compliant with his blended canon/divergent main verse, de tenebris. you can find it here, on his biography tab on his blog, or under the cut. you can additionally find the outline of what I draw from which canon on his dashboard page.

Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was born to Jocelyn Fairchild & Valentine Morgenstern on April 4th. He is the older brother of Clarissa Morgenstern Clary Fairchild, though he was unaware of his younger sister until he was an adult. During Jocelyn's pregnancy, Valentine gave Jocelyn doses of Lilith's blood as part of his experiments. This meant that when he was born, Jonathan had black eyes & was eerily quiet as a small child. This horrified Jocelyn, & became something she couldn't move beyond regarding his firstborn.

After the failed Uprising, Valentine, hurt by what he perceived as an ultimate betrayal by his wife & his parabatai (Luke Graymark), took Jonathan & fled. To cover his tracks, Valentine faked their deaths by burning down the Fairchild manor with Michael Wayland & his son in their stead, along with Jocelyn's parents, Granville and Adele. Afterwards, he would go to raise Jonathan in seculsion a remote cabin in Idris. It was during this time that Valentine gave him a chemistry set & taught him the basic laws of physics. He also received his first seraph blade at the age of eight.

When he was young, he once asked Valentine about his mother. To dissuade him from asking any further, Valentine told him that his mother left because he was a monster, and that she was never coming back. Valentine furthered his psychological abuse and manipulation by telling him that no one except him will ever love a monster like him, leading to Jonathan's further psychological problems, in an effort to make him into the "monster" he would become.

During this time, Valentine hit Jonathan, lashing him in the back with a demon metal-tipped whip to remind him of the "perils of obedience," then continued to train him into a soldier fit for his plans for the Clave & the Nephilim. Jonathan was taught the necessary traits he would require someday to fulfill, which he needed to learn without experience of contact with other people besides his own father. He was also taught the skills that he would need to help Valentine bring down their adversaries.

While Jonathan was raised by his father secretly & in seclusion - cut off almost entirely from the rest of humanity - he knew of Jace & that Valentine was raising/training for the same purposes. However, unlike Jace, Jonathan was well aware of his father's plans, given almost full disclosure, & even knew when the other boy finally failed Valentine enough to prompt him to send the boy away.

Eventually Jonathan became uncontrollable in Valentine's eyes. After keeping him shackled in the basement of the cabin out of fear he himself might become the next victim of his son's violent tendencies, Valentine eventually sent him to Edom. He was greeted by Lilith, in her human form, on his arrival. She introduced herself as his mother as she felt it was her blood that made him something special, thus overriding the maternal claim of his absent human mother. She would go on to burn his skin, layer by layer. Other demons would join in on this, making him something more akin to their world as his human face was considered too beautiful for their world. She would go on to reshape him in her own image of the perfect son.

The passage of time in Edom is 120x the passage of time in the human realm, causing Jonathan to age significantly between being banished & clawing his way out. His demonic blood guards him against showing the effects of this. While in Edom, he would learn to use his demonic blood & draw from its power. He spent his years in Hell clinging to memories & hopes of freedom. His incredible willpower was the only thing that helped him retain any shred of his deteriorating humanity, thus allowing him to escape by summoning the Greater Demon Azazel out of Duduael & bargaining with him.

After escaping Edom, Jonathan had hoped his humanity & remanants of his former life would flood back into him & he was bitterly disappointed when this didn't happen. Because of his time in Edom, the cold became wholly unbearable to him. To blend in, Jonathan took the appearance & name of Sebastian Verlac, an English Shadowhunter from the Paris Institute, & used it as a glamor. His endgame was to send his father, along with the Soul Sword, to Edom as revenge for the torture he endured.

To enact his goals, he orchestrated an attack on Isabelle Lightwood by Azazel so he could plausibly bill himself as a hero & someone she could trust. He hoped this would eventually lead to him the doorsteps of the Institute, & after some time, it did with unintended side effects. The more time he spent around the other Nephilim, his long-dormant emotions begun to surface. Being at the Institute also allowed him to meet the younger sister he never knew he had, as well as his own mother, as well, though he kept his identity secret from the two of them.

Further complications came to his plan as he began to bond with Clary, helping her overcome the block preventing her from using her runic abilities. Their proximity & his distance from Edom began to trigger further change. The emotions that had felt just out of reach began to fully surface, threatening his own mental stability until he was able to find ways to cope. While he was working through all of this, he managed to win over the trust of others at the Institute & was assigned to the team hunting Valentine. After an attack on Valentine prompted the Clave to arrange for Valentine to be portaled to Idris, Jonathan hijacked the portal & took the two of them away to the remote cabin he had been raised in.

While he had Valentine captive in the cabin, he recounted his time in Edom. Unexpectedly, Valentine took the blame for everything that happened to him & told Jonathan that he grew to regret sending him away. Jonathan refused to believe him & continued to prepare for the ritual that would send Valentine and the Mortal Sword to Edom. This plan came to a grinding halt when Valentine used the Sword to prove the veracity of his statements. Feeling the splinters of emotion clawing their way to the surface, Jonathan abandoned his plan to send him to Edom for the time being & instead returned the two of them to his apartment, currently located in New York.

During his time away, Clary & Jace were made aware that the real Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern was alive & well by the angel Ithuriel, though they remained ignorant of his cover as Sebastian Verlac. Clary, Izzy, & Jace make it to the cabin only after Jonathan & Valentine have left, are able to find the journal outlining Valentine's experiments on his firstborn son as well as Jace. Unaware of Jonathan lurking under Sebastian's glamor, he helps them work towards finding the Mortal Mirror on their return to the Institute. Watching his father's methods & feeling conflicted as his returning emotions & new-found if unknowing connection to his sister, Jonathan begins to step back from is father once again.

Meanwhile, Clary & Jace have begun to suspect Sebastian could be Jonathan Morgenstern. A tense exchange with Valentine deals what would grow to become the fatal blow in the cleaving of their relationship, & Jonathan returns to the Institute. Looking through the memory box in Alec's office that had Jocelyn kept, he's caught by Max. When he hesitates just a moment too long, the boy escapes. Slipping from the Institute, he makes his way back to the apartment & makes what would become his most pivotal decision. Cutting Sebastian Verlac, who he'd kept comatose, loose, he allows the other to leave without further harm. He's still in the apartment when Jace, Izzy, & Clary arrive.

Allowing his sister to burn a truth rune into his skin, he tells them that he will officially surrender - to no less than the head of the Institute - once they've stopped Valentine. He's taken back to the Institute & locked into the cells while the others decide how to proceed. With alliances breaking down, & Valentine slipping through every precaution to leave his whereabouts unknown, there's little choice but for Jonathan to be allowed to help Jace & Clary in tracking his father through his blood & the combined strength of Jace & Clary's angelic abilities. Jonathan eventually reveals his father had once had a plan to use the Seelies to slip through the wards & head to Lake Lyn with the other two Mortal Instruments.

He remained confined to the cells under the Institute while Clary & Jace portaled to Lake Lyn to find Valentine. After the events at Lake Lyn, he was officially placed under what amounted to house arrest. He was stripped of all of his runes in the interim, & re-runed with only the barest protections as well as binding runes preventing him from leaving the confines of the Institute or touching adamas. His runes were later restored after an eleven hour interrogation by the Mortal Sword shed light on the horrors he had endured at the hands of Valentine, & the sincerity of his desire to become something better than what his father had tried to make him into.

He was allowed to return to the New York Institute with his freedom, where he still resides.