#OWAIN GOT IT ALL FROM HER!!!

[fore-seer]

SHE’S SOOOO SILLY I LOVE HER SO MUCH

[sieglinde-freud]

ohhh i j remember i pulled arcane ophelia when she dropped and just never fuckin used her… i ALMOST gave her tome to odin to fix him up, but…. hehewgahehe laurentttttt i have some shiny new toy for youuuuu come home baby girl come HOME!

[someobscurereference]

gotta ask, whats your favourite bizarre headcanon that has zero or maybe even negative canon backing/basis. mine is that ophelia is the result of a magic accident and only has odin's genetics

THIS IS THE FUNNIEST ASK IN THE WORLD AJDJSKSD LOVE THAT HC FOR YOU

I’m trying so hard to think of what would count as bizarre. I have so many AUs and so many of them are joke-y, lol.

OH WAIT I JUST REMEMBERED my hc that Owain once propositioned Gerome purely and only because he thinks Inigo would hate that they got action before he did and he was pissed at Inigo at the time.

[todayisafridaynight]

did you know Daigo is voice by Sonic’s voice actor 🤷‍♀️ I just thought that was a fun fact.

yeah it's p funny :) we can take it a step further and say majima's voiced by espio too

[queer-ragnelle]

I'm honestly kinda disgusted by the way a lot of authors just seeped their misogyny onto Guinevere to make her so horrible, lol. effectively destroyed a lot of people's view of her and she gets blamed for everything?? people keep shitting on her, saying Lancelot should be shipped with "someone better" and I'm just really annoyed because.. Guinevere is horribly characterized by these weirdos authors 💀. It does not take much to portray her as a complex character while also not making her shitty on purpose because you don't like her for her affair, lol.

I love her so much and it's disappointing how she's been treated :(( which is why I'll never be able to hate Guinevere or her ship with Lancelot

My friend it’s honestly so exhausting at this point. It’s not even limited to writing Guinevere herself as insufferable, but writing other characters behaving worse toward her than they ever were in medlit. Arthur hitting and degrading her when he cheats on her? (Warrior of the West by M. K. Hume) Lancelot using her for political gain and never loving her at all? (Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell) Owain blocking her passage as she flees danger? (Legend in Autumn by Persia Woolley) Agravaine threatening to rape her? (The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf) Gawain threatening to rape her? (Guinevere by Lavinia Collins) WHO are these characters bro you got me fucked up!!! The subtext here is that the authors hate Guinevere (read: women) so much they’re willing to warp everyone around her to treat her like garbage!!!

“Guinevere is bad because she has sex outside marriage.” Yeah so does Arthur. He fucked his own sister. In the dark. Leading her to believe he was her husband. So there’s Mordred, but there’s also Loholt and Arthur the Less etc. Arthur has many bastards from his extramarital affairs. (Vulgate and Post-Vulgate) Yet he isn’t canceled. Hm. Wonder what the difference could be? Let’s investigate. Seems authors treat Morgause and Morgan similarly to Guinevere. Gee, what is the common denominator here? Meanwhile in medlit, Morgause didn’t commit any crimes—she didn’t rape Arthur to have Mordred, she never neglected her children, she never cheated on Lot, and she didn’t prey on young men, she had ONE consistent lover who was younger than her AFTER her husband died. And she was murdered for it. (Post-Vulgate) Yet every other author writes her as a rapist (The Once and Future King by T. H. White), child grooming (The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart), pedophile (The Book of Gaheris by Kari Sperring), trying to put one of her sons on the throne (many examples). Now, Morgan is evil. But not for lewdness, for trying to murder people. In literally every source. Hello. It’s very simple. These authors are ridiculous. They care more about highlighting their opinion that fictional women having sex is BAD than writing a good story. When there are plenty of actually bad things happening in medlit they could condemn instead. You know, like the misogyny? Burning Guinevere at the stake??? You couldn’t make this up. It’s the utter disdain for the material for me. Assuming these dumbasses are even reading the material. Write something else where I can’t see it. (To be clear, I don’t even hate all the books I listed as examples, but they are unfortunately examples.)

Thankfully I haven’t encountered the blogger discourse regarding this. At least not lately. My advice to anyone who sees people shitting on something you like is to block them. Just do it. Fuck that noise. It’s not worth it.

Also I have to laugh at ship discourse about Guinevere/Lancelot. Of all pairs! It’s so unserious. They’re not some random comphet duo from the newest tumblr trending fandom. They’re mythological characters from a medieval literary tradition. Lancelot was created for her. In the 12th century. That was 900 years ago. It feels juvenile to reduce them to ship discourse. Especially because the story is fluid, it can be reshaped to fit the author’s narrative. So if Guinevere sucks, it’s because they made her that way. This is the epitome of making up a girl to be mad at.

“Oh but in Knight of the Cart—” Shh stop talking. If you’re pulling out KotC like some “gotcha” about Guinevere’s treatment of Lancelot, then you’re lost, buddy. You may be seeking entertainment in the wrong place! Guinevere and Lancelot aren’t real. Nobody was “abused” because they’re characters, narrative tools, to tell a story. Guinevere is flawed. Nobody ever said she wasn’t. If that’s too much complexity for you then I don’t know what else there is to say.

Honestly? Nobody is obligated to like Guinevere. I think it’s stupid to dislike her but the real take away is—if you dislike Guinevere so much, hate her even, why the are you writing so poorly about her? She’s as old a character as Arthur himself. Show some fucking respect or get out.

Anyway I’m going to end this with a recommendation! Today I started the third book of Sharan Newman’s Guinevere trilogy. The first two, Guinevere and The Chessboard Queen were utterly AWESOME!! Lots and lots of named women, like Guinevere’s mother Guenlain, Cador’s wife Sidna and daughter Lydia, Guinevere’s handmaiden Risa, and so on. The one downside is Morgause and Morgan are your typical modern retelling baddies, but overall it’s two thumbs up from me. Many points of view, but Guinevere is fascinating and complex and most importantly she is beloved!!!!!! Really hoping it stays enjoyable through to the end. Miss Newman is still in print, so I encourage everyone to seek these books out at your local library or from your favorite bookseller. Here’s a quote from book 2, The Chessboard Queen.

[gingersnaptaff]

(Okay, so I know I said I was gonna do marriage laws and queenship stuff in regards to welsh laws - and I will! - but here is a nice, quick round-up about BARDS

*SHREDS ON A HARP*

Okay, so this is inspired by @gawrkin 's recent posts on bards because the laws surrounding them are SUPER FUN. And Wales LOVES LOVES LOVES their bards. (Myself included.)

Right, so, without further ado, ONWARDS.

*shreds harp aggressively again*

So the 'spurious triads' the author is referring to are presumably to do with IOLO MORGANNWG *ominous thunderclap*.

I shan't go too much into him as suffice to say, we gotta keep this shit SHORT, but he was a massive forger from Glamorgan (that's what Morgannwg means. It's his bardic name. Iolo is Edward.) who made up a bunch of triads and Celtic / medieval manuscripts including some of the Welsh Triads. Also, he is the reason why the Eisteddfod has the Gorsedd of bards.

So a mixed bag, y'know.

ANYWAY. They're very high-rank on account of being the literally Yellow Pages of Celtic and medieval Welsh societies. If you had a question that needed answering you'd ask a bard. They were like Google. They would know a man's lineage (and Welsh lineages are confusing. There were men named Dafydd ap Dafydd ap Dafydd ap Dafydd. No, I'm not joking.) battles, monarchs, myths, songs, stories. Anything.

And they had to SING. And play an instrument. Namely either a harp or a crwth.

This baby is crwth! It's a little like a violin but much darker in tone. They were extinct for a while but they've undergone a revival and they are FUN!

Also, the court bard had to SING to the queen about Camlann 'in a low voice.' I've heard various reasons suggested as to why and one of them is to remind her that Gwenhwyfar's infidelity was the main reason for King Arthur's downfall, but I think it's probably because of The Slap. Idk though. I'm just guessing, buddies.

Still, it's cool that the queen got a special sing-song.

Also, the bard being 'invested with a chess board' suggests to me that the game of Gwyddbwyll that Arthur and Owain play in the Mabinogion signals that they're bards. Gwyddbwyll being the type of chess the bards would've been familiar with. Plus, we know Arthur is somewhat of an amateur bard (Culhwch and Olwen being the prime example where he sings his terrible englyn about Cai to his face. Arthur, ur a fuckin BASTARD.) so it's in keeping with his character.

Also, I think it's adorable that the harp 'always descended to the youngest son.'

If you want a story that deals with bards and their privileged position in Welsh society and also wants ur heart RIPPED OUT may I suggest 'The Assembly of the Severed Head' by Hugh Lupton. It deals with a bard in a monastery after he's almost perished in a raid and the monks writing out the Mabinogion so they can give it to Llywelyn Fawr. It deals with war, love, loss, and also stonking good historical context. Also lots of poetry!!!!

Final fact: bards in Wales weren't wiped out by Edward the First. That's a fuckin myth. Don't come round here with ur fuckin myths. Old Longshanks has done enough already. May he eat shit.

(Also, Taliesin gets all the good rep but what about my boy Aneirin?)

Okay, BYEEEEE!!!!

P.S.: have an Eisteddfod chair!

[she-of-seidhr]

I have so many thoughts about The Rings of Power S2 SDCC trailer and some of the news that came out from the SDCC panel, but I am so unwell after watching it that I don't remember it all. Here's what I recall though:

The trailer is absolutely the best we've had of all their releases going back to S1. The difference is night and day. I like that this trailer has clear direction of what the general plot is going to be instead of just a bunch of clips that makes no sense whatsoever.

The Rhunic masks looked a bit futuristic to me. It reminded me of some background race in an MCU film, can't remember if it was in Thor 3 or Ant-Man 3, but yeah it looked a bit out of place and silly.

I really am quite puzzled at their insistence in dressing Gil-galad in gold hues when we have Pharazon and/or Sauron, or even the dwarves for that. I am hoping they are saving the silver and blues for the later seasons if we're not getting it now. That would look so striking since they went with the dark hair. Remember Thranduil's silk orange robe from The Hobbit? Now make it deep blue. Ah, a girl can dream.

I know this is a trailer so there's misdirection, but I wonder if that scene where Galadriel asks Elrond to promise he will not stop who I am assuming is Sauron is an indication that she's going to put up her sword (at least in S3 onwards) to do other things, bringing her closer to the Galadriel in the books in terms of character and also what we know she was doing during the Second Age. That will give Elrond and (as it should be honestly) Gil-galad the space to be the actual main protagonists along with the other prominent Second Age characters.

I wanted more of Cirdan instead of just a hand, and I got a different shot of his hand, this time going underwater. Exciting.

Entwives!!! I'm glad to see them featured, but I'm also terribly afraid they're going to show us how they were wiped out lost.

The Siege of Eregion looks fuckin' amazing. The shot of Sauron walking away with an explosion on the background? Sign me the fuck up.

Gil-galad's banners flying amidst the elven charge scene. Fuck me sideways.

Charlie Vickers was the best actor for me in S1, I have no doubts he will serve in S2. Owain Arthur, Charles Edwards, and Peter Mullan too.

I love Gil-galad to death but to be perfectly honest I kinda don't like how Benjamin Walker portrays him. That said, it definitely is also because of how he's being written. I imagine Gil-galad to still have warmth despite the burden of his position that has a 100% mortality rate.

Pharazon better not be fuckin' stabbin' that eagle.

Daniel Weyman's line delivery sounds so Ian McKellen, but I am still hoping he is a Blue Wizard. Then again, maybe he is just taking inspiration from the most iconic wizard portrayal we've ever had (that's not up for debate).

I know I said Robert Aramayo as Elrond is ok, but for some fuckin' reason I'm convinced that those curls is going to make him better in all aspects.

I love Elrond's hesitation about the Elven Rings because it deepens the mystery of just how much of everything we know so far has been by Sauron's design.

Really curious to see what Sam Hazeldine will bring to the Adar because he's got BIG shoes to fill. Joseph Mawle was born for that role. The subtleties and the quiet menace he brought to the Adar was just incredible.

Look, I like Tom Bombadil alright? But am I ever really hyped to see an adaptation of him onscreen? Not really.

Barrow-wights. Why, but yeah cool whatever.

I like that every ring has a different design and we're going to see all of them in their full glory.

Celeborn will show up, as he should. When and where, no idea but at least there's confirmation.

Glorfindel can show up. If I talk about this any more than I already have (although it's to my family members who don't give a single fuck about any of this), I would really start losing my shit.

Lloyd Owens who plays Elendil made some eyebrow-raising remarks in the SDCC panel in regards to Elendil and Miriel's relationship, so it has me worried about them going for a romantic route between the two. Theirs could be a story of friendship, loyalty, and steadfastness in the midst of all the unrest and danger, and it honestly cheapens the last scene they shared in S1, so I really hope they don't try any funny business with them.

Somebody did ask the showrunners if there's going to be LGBTQ+ representation which one of them answered along the lines of maybe we've already seen one. Is it really necessary? Is it really proper representation? Does it serve the story? There's so many additions to this series already that it's going to be one more thing that takes away from the lore characters who really should be the focus.

I know I'm still missing some shit, but yeah this list is long enough. Lots of good, maybe a little bad, but overall I feel good about this new season and I can genuinely say I'm excited again even after the meh that's S1. August 29 can't come soon enough!

[ailendolin]

Live Reaction to TRoP 2x02

Spoilers for 2x02 under the cut

oh we're off to a good start with evil spreading through the lands of Middle-Earth straight to Khazad-Dûm

I'm still so in love with the mirrors. Using them to light up the realm always reminds me of The Mummy

my favourite power couple is back and I love them so much

Disa sensing the rockfall is so cool

fuck the light is gone. Moria is darkening. Fuck no

oh shit, is this the scene from the trailer where Celebrimbor gets impaled against a tree by roots?

damn he's becoming one of the tree memorials and the symbolism of that, I can't. This is not good

oh more handsome elves. Commander of the East and West my beloveds. And Commander of the South, you look fierce and I love you already

"Celebrimbor and the secrets of his craft are safe." The fuck they are, Gil-galad. Those words will come to bite you in the arse and Celebrimbor will suffer for it

also Galadriel being cryptic again and not speaking plainly, I swear she does not learn

where is Elrond for I much desire to see him

"... waters running dry." That's the rivers you just mentioned shielding Eregion, Gil-galad. Wake up and get Celebrimbor out of there for fuck's sake

also gentle reminder, Halbrand has also gained Celebrimbor's trust in case we've all forgotten that. He's even more susceptible because no one bothers to tell him anything and he has no idea what's going on. Let's stop worrying about Galadriel and start worrying about our favourite smith, okay?

lol the way Galadriel still calls him Halbrand and Gil-galad will have none of it. Glad he's got some common sense left

"Supposing I was not alone." Don't you dare drag Elrond into this, babygirl, don't you fucking dare

Celebrimbor denying Sauron entry - yesssss!

but it's not because of the message of warning, but because he promised Galadriel. This is not good. This is very not good

"Messengers from Lindon shall arrive with news any day." No they won't. Dammit

epic riding scene is epic

I see Ciaran Hinds has exchanged the terrors of the Arctic for the deserts of Rhun (seriously though, I have loved him since HBO's Rome and am always happy to see him - now I also need Tobias Menzies to be cast)

loving the moth magic

I'm taking it back. It's that crazy magic lady from s1 (though I do love that her cloak looks like moth wings from behind)

what was that growling noise?

no no no, we're not slaughtering any halflings here, I forbid it

"No one can give you a name." That's a very powerful message

I love the harfoots' ability to hide in a matter of second and I'm glad we're seeing more of it

oh no, I've just realised Moria darkening means the tree in Durin and Disa's home will probably be dying. Nooooo

yes, Disa, you tell them not to trash talk your husband and adopted son

NARVI

oh no the stone singing is no longer working wtf

this is what's going to make them susceptible to Sauron, right? Their desperation to save their realm. Fuck

Disa being the voice of reason. I love her. I met Sophia last year (and Owain as well) and she shines just as beautifully as her character does

oh I feel those blisters, Durin. I got one on my thumb on a dig in Poland once and made the mistake of washing my hands after it had opened. I think I jumped three feet into the air in pain (and then proceeded to shower with my hand held above my head for a week afterwards because fuck those things hurt)

"Climb off your high peak" - I love that! Very fitting for the dwarves

and yep, here's Galadriel dragging Elrond into her mess. I knew it

not Elrond thinking he's no better than a dog - worse yet because he has his own mind and doesn't follow orders blindly. My boy has been disappointed by everyone around him and is seeking solace in shipcraft and I am not okay

"And why would he think that?" Oooooh I love salty Elrond

"And now he's done the same to Gil-galad and every elf in Lindon." I feel like this is poignant and deliberate because Elrond is not an elf. He's a half-elf and this line clearly shows how apart he feels from his people

Elrond holding onto his beliefs even though everyone is against him - someone hug him, please

no Galadriel, don't you guilt-trip him into this. Thank Eru Elrond sees it for what it is.

oh Elrond is not okay. Look at the pain on his face when Galadriel has left. My heart

okay, I see where Cirdan is coming from but why can't even one person tell Elrond that he is right to worry? He does not just fear the power of the rings. He fears Sauron's influence on them, and on Galadriel who bears one of them. What the fuck is he supposed to do if Galadriel goes full on dark queen like Sauron wants her to? He does not have a ring to counter her power, and we have already seen that his words mean nothing to any of the ring bearers.

have I mentioned that I love Poppy? Because I do. She's the best and not happy at all about dragging her tall friend through the desert

oh shit that bell ringing is not good

yep that did not take long

lol not me waiting for Imhotep's face to appear in the sandstorm

that new staff did not last long, did it?

no no no, Nori and Poppy can't be blown away wtf

ooooooh Ithildin?

YES ITHILDIN! Are we going to see the creation of the Doors of Moria?

the way Celebrimbor can't stop thinking about Halbrand. Just like Galadriel. Ugh this is so painful to watch

and of course Sauron exploits every weakness of Celebrimbor's because he knows him and knows exactly what chains to yank

Charles Edwards the actor you are. Celebrimbor's emotional reaction is everything

lol Celebrimbor going straight to the (First Age) bottle to celebrate

there will be fics about this, won't there?

no, Celebrimbor, you are not his friend, do you hear me? You are not

aaaaah and here the idea of the Nine gets planted

oh fuck, the silence in the dark tower is scary

ANNATAR

I know everyone was making fun of him having the same face as Halbrand but given how he reveals himself to Celebrimbor it makes so much sense and i love it

"I am your partner." Annatar beginning to seduce his next future ex

but oh how it pains me to hear the "sharer of gift" line

oh Elrond's new tunic is gorgeous

Elrond leading the company? Fuck yes. And of course Galadriel is not happy about it because it always has to be her way or no way

no no no not the dwarves going to Eregion

but also yes because that means Elrond und Durin (and hopefully Disa as well) will reunite and I need that to happen

[eddyiewriting]

RO ask

RO reaction to receiving letter and poems of MC declaring their love for them every day, even when MC is away

Owain is the type of guy who puts all the letters in a single drawer and then randomly picks one of the letters at night, then he would lie down and read the poem multiple times because he got distracted. Then, he would sleep with the letter by his chest, dreaming about meeting MC again if they were away.

Cerys would probably find them lame in the beginning, but she wouldn't be able to hide her grin once she's reading the letters. Then she would keep them safely inside a box, and use them as inspiration to write even more beautiful poems to MC, probably engaging in an unofficial competition to see who loves the other the most.

Arthur can't read. But if he could, he would take one of the letters with them, keep it in his pocket, and read it every time he misses you. If MC is away, he would cry while reading the letters, wishing he could see MC again. In-game, he would have MC read the letters and poems for him, but he would secretly try and learn how to read and write, and then he'd try to write something for MC as well.

Teagan would be confused by your gesture. She won't understand why you need to write so many words to form a thought. If MC loves her, then they'll just need to tell her that. That doesn't mean she wouldn't read and re-read every sentence in the poems. It would be a nice change of pace from the long religious texts she's used to.

[sunshinemoonrx]

since you've taught me so much already. top 5 characters from historical literature (i love the guys i've heard about so far)

Helllll yeah. Okay so a lot of these are gonna be "all right here's a pretty famous guy but did you know he was originally different and weird!" Folklore time let's goooooo

Honourable mention: All of Medieval Welsh Lit

This is a catch-all I'm using to stop all 5 of these entries from being this because I gotta cover places like Turkey and Ireland. There's still a couple dw. But there's so many more like Rhiannon, world's most magical snarky part-time ponygirl; Macsen Wledic, who everyone wants to be their ancestor, or wait this is a reflection of the historical would-be Roman emperor Magnus Maximus; Mabon ap Modron, world's specialest boy who does fuck all Oh Wait this is an ancient deity who was syncretised with Apollo? Neat! Okay actual entries Go

5. Robin Hood

This is a prime case of "in the original version..." I'm actually a big fan of the earliest medieval Robin Hood ballads we have, they're very fun bouncy little adventures and the middle English is just comprehensible enough that I can alternate between reading the original text and the translation. Did you know that it took a couple centuries for Robin to be turned into an exiled lord (to make him more palatable to a noble audience when they started making plays about him, he originated in songs and performances at country fairs), and he was a commoner fucking with the king before then? And that despite how much a "modern twist" it seems, Marian (who might have started as an unrelated character with her own adventures) beating him in a fight actually pre-dates the nobleman thing!

4. Battal Gazi

The absolute lad. A pulp adventure style hero from medieval Turkish epics sourced from the Byzantine frontier. There's a real cowboy adventure vibe to these. And they got made into a series of campy adventure films in the 50s! And he defeated one HUNDRED Romans with EACH swing of his sword and EVERYONE clapped (for real I'm pretty sure he kills Charlemagne in one of these)

3. Taliesin

The secret main character of medieval Welsh literature and poetry! An actual historical poet of the 6th century who became so famous that later medieval writers would write legends about him having magic bardic powers, write poems in his voice...which makes it hard to figure out what he actually wrote! But what can be sorta confidently attributed to him mostly consists of praise poetry for the north-British king Urien Rheged, which is...maybe a little romantic? He always ends them with

"And until I fail in old age,

in the sore necessity of death,

May I not be smiling,

If I praise not Urien."

Which is nice. Urien is the sneaky other subject of this--he's also a really interesting guy halfway between history and legend, subject of a whole bunch more poetry and hegemon of his while region. His son, Owain, possibly fought in the famous battle of the Gododdin, was written as the leader of hundreds of giant magical ravens, and finally got absorbed into continental Arthurian legend as 'Yvain'

2. Cai the Fair

Speaking of Arthur! I'm a big fan of the original version based in Welsh folklore, a wandering warrior prior to his transformation into a chivalric king. Similarly, some of his knights started as companions of the original version, and my favourite is the counterpart of Sir Kay. In later and mainstream Arthuriana he's the jackass who exists to get clowned on to show how cool Lancelot or whoever is, but this is actually because he started off as Arthur's best guy, so in anime rival tradition, showing him up is an easy way to establish your cool new OC. The original Cai can grow giant, has both heat and cold powers, can survive underwater for weeks...he slays all kind of giants, fights a giant cat, and then he does one giant slaying in a slightly sneaky way and Arthur (who is sometimes called a "frivolous bard") sings a mean song about him and he swears never to help him again. Oops!

He's also a bit gay with it--he's often paired with Bedwyr (source of Sir Bedivere), they love questing together and swear by each other, Cai was heartbroken when he died...

1. Cú Chulainn

The BOY. My GUY

The central hero of most of the Ulster cycle, you may know him from Fate. But the Fate version is less weird and less anime than the medieval version!! This Cú is a weird little trans-coded twink with three-coloured hair, seven-coloured eyes, a bunch of named special moves and an epic duel to the death with his boyfriend.

He's such a fucked up little guy! He's the perfect product and also the perfect victim of the glory-obsessed warrior culture he exists in, he's driven to destroy himself and everyone around him by a constant terror of not being the best at all times, he's so...arrrrrgh. he's the guy!! He's an extremely bad person to be clear. I love him. Sometimes he gets so worked up into a warrior's frenzy he generates a flaming aura that can melt snow and has to be dunked in cold water to chill out! I have like three writing projects in the works that are basically "Cú Chulainn for lesbians". Highest honour I can bestow

[sieglinde-freud]

so the way endings in awakening work is a bit off if you have the gay mod because it reads single people normally, but married people have the man’s ending read, and then his wife just. attached. and so that alters which ending you see for both of them. unfortunately, that means if i have f/f pairs, which most of them were, i dont get to see any because none of them were read. and at least with the second gen, i did almost entirely f/f pairs, which dont show up, or m/m pairs, which had nothing written, so. everyone please give it up for gerome and cynthia, the only second gen ending i got to see!

😭😭 good for them!!! anyways unorganized final thoughts under cut so i dont have to make a whole other post for it

awakening lunatic sucks! but project thabes makes it suck a little less. in all honesty i had a lot of fun, awakenings a good game to revisit, and finding a way to make it challenging while being able to use my favorite units (awakening second gen) ever was awesome. normally having all 13 (or 14 in this case, with both morgans) would break the game, but lunatic kept the enemies strong, so it didnt matter what my units had. i actually got overwhelmed a lot 😭 HUGE difficulty jump between hard and lunatic all i’m saying. and then the games like “hey now u have lunatic+ if that interests you” NOOOOO THANKS.

anyways. here are my top three guys according to the medal thingies at the end

im so proud of them :3 of all the kids really but yeah these three were huge standouts. virion actually got a change in the mod where one of his subclasses was swapped for myrmidon, so yarne got to inherit astra which was actually insane? it procced ALL THE TIME so. that was crazy. chrom!inigo and fred!cynthia are always good thats not new but they were really clutch in the last few chapters. i had them both hopping around classes for most of the game bc thabes redoes skill progression so. IT TOOK CYNTHIA SO LONG TO LEARN LUNA. ITS FROM WYVERN LORD. GOD. she went through a LOT of classes yall dont even know. also honorable mention to marc and morgan, the best rallybots ever, and dancer lucina, who was outserving everyone she was in a scene with. my girl.

like ok serving cunt on the back of the god youre about to kill? get it girl!

anyways so for second gen pairs i did: lucina/f!morgan, owain/m!morgan, inigo/laurent, yarne/brady, severa/kjelle, nah/noire, and cynthia/gerome and you know what. i think i have a great taste. a lot of these were born from being unable to do other pairings but thats ok. i liked how it turned out. though i was gonna do nah/noire anyways because they were actually like. an insane duo. honestly im surprised noire didnt get a medal thing bc i feel like her nostanking with nah backing her up got me out of so much shit. maybe its because i didnt see her ending… oh. oh wait thats probably it. well. anyways.

i think awakening is not a properly balanced game, nor are the maps made for a difficulty like this. towards the end game especially, the maps are just. flat. most of them anyways, and they just become really repetitive and bland and boring. and despite this being the game with the tactician character of all the time, they dont really allow you flexible strategies, because if youre not pair up stat stacking, you will die! and that sucks. mid game is alright, but the last arc is really weak and kinda dampered my whole experience. im glad i did it, but i wouldnt actually reccomend it to anyone unless you like to play like that (which is totally fine! its just not my thing). definitely requires some solid planning as well. all in all, not the worst fire emblem ive played but… well. im not doing it again. ok anyways heres inigo mouthing off at grima

[randomkposts]

I remember the starfish

I love Fire Emblem Fates. My favorite is Awakening, but Fates has a special place in my heart for all of its flaws, and plotholes I love to poke at. No malice meant, if I didn't care, I'd probably just leave it alone. Instead it takes up so much brainspace.

So I think I might want to write something a bit more themed another time, but for now I want to write some scattered thoughts.

First, If I were going to change just one thing, I would give Azura ,Kaze as a retainer. And Shura.

Why? It bugs me that she didn't have any retainers, and Corrin has 3 household staff, their teacher, a childhood best friend, and a Ninja, most of whom are willing to follow them even if they defect. That's pretty excessive, that they just have a small- personally loyal fighting force. And Kaze's just hanging around, a trained retainer not assinged to anyone. And really Mikoto, Azura is your niece, you can give her one retainer at least.

Kaze defecting to Nohr to protect his charge makes arguably more sense then his reasons for defecting to Nohr on Corrins behalf.

Azura recruiting Shura as a retainer, fits with the older of the Nohrian sibilings having a criminal retainer. They also have a personal history between them that would be intresting to explore in a support. A support with Ryoma would also be intresting, as Shura states his family used to serve the royal family until his principality was taken over by Mokushu, so learning more about that would be neat.

Speaking of retainers, Despite three Nobrian Siblings havinging a criminal as a retainer, the person with the weirdest retainers is Hinoka, for having the least retainer-like retainers in the game. And Ryoma has 2 ninjas as retainers, which perhaps says some odd things about his diplomatic choices.

Hinoka does her own chores, protects her retainers, and seems to barely know anything about Azama beforehand. Until we learn from her support with Niles in Revelations that Hinoka hired Setsuna for her skill in archery, I was almost convinced she was hired to annoy Takumi.

And yet they are the last retainers sticking around the Hoshidan royals when they are recruited in Revelations.

Hillarious. Baffling. Lends a diffrent weight to Hinokas support with Saizo in this route, not that it wasn't already weird, but there was more cause for suspicion.

Speaking of supports, Sakura takes Corrin's amnesia as a sign that Silas is cursed. Meanwhile, in Birthright Takumi gets mindwhammied and dragon posessed, and Sakura does nothing to try to help. Which to be fair, nither instance lasted long. Who knows if she could have done anything effective, but in the Conquest one she doesn't seem to take note of his dirastically changed attitude as something to worry about, yet was far quicker to diagnose Silas as "something was off. Maybe its cause Silas a stranger, and she doesn't want to see anything wrong with her closest brother, but I wonder what got her attention in the first place to draw that conclusion.

I haven't played Engage, but even without that I am pretty sure Corrin is the most watched avatar we have ever played. Their big sister Camilia and her retainers makes it 3 in a lifetime, as said by Selena/Severa.

"Selena: Lady Camilla! Sorry we got ahead of you. But you should have heard the horrible things Lord/Lady Corrin said to us. Even though we used to watch over them, they don't remember us at all. Sure, we always stuck to the shadows and never introduced ourselves... but still! I could cry right now. Really! I really could!

Beruka: All that time hovering... caring... watching... it was all for naught. They has no heart.

Camilla: Now, now, you two. I'm sure they didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'm certain they would remember, given more time. You simply must forgive them."

No wonder Corrin is so chill with Ryoma's Ninjas and other people following them around.

A headcanon, Odin/Owain can use dragon Veins. Anankos can hide his brand, but he can't undo that he is decended from the Exalted line of Ylisse, a heritige who also formed a pact which presumably involved drinking dragons blood. (That does seem to be a series consistant for how one gets a stats edge, with consent of the dragon being pretty important in how well they control it. )

He uses it once by accident. Leo did see it, but never confronts him on it. Maybe they might be siblings, but if this is what kept him alive and he's happy with living his life, then Leo isn't going to be the one to tell anyone. One of them may as well be happy.

If I were going to change something about the Fates Kids, I would mess with Shiro. Ryoma never told him until recruitment that he was royalty. So what if Shiro, figuring Ryoma is impotant, but not connecting the dots (as in cannon) comes to the (incorrect) conclusion that he is the next Saizo. And so comes with the Ninja class, alomg with some family drama, lol.

I would also tone down Soleil's supports, and add some depths to the other kids, but ninja Shiro creating some family drama with the retainers is a concept that amuzes me

I'll end it here for now. Might write a second at some point.

[buffyfan145]

Got a lot of "Rings of Power" season 2 teasers/spoilers from the cast last night at their Emmys event!!! :D Some of these, like the article's title says we knew, but others we didn't. Putting it behind a cut but even more excited for this coming season. Also Bear McCreary performed some of the score at the event too and during one song Morfydd sat at the piano with him. :)

Morfydd confirmed she'll be wearing Nenya and learning more about her new powers. Also said she'll be trying to find more of the light in the darkness now.

Confirmed again about Círdan being in season 2.

More rings will be forged, likely for the dwarves first but possibly also for the men. This also goes with the spoilers we've gotten that they are doing a version of the Annatar storyline and that there's a 2nd version of Sauron. Don't know yet if Charlie is also playing this version but it's possible.

Owain talked more about what's next for Durin and his father and likely his dad being one of the dwarf ring bearers. Also confirmed he will have more scenes with Robert's Elrond.

Ismael teased a bit about Arondir's storyline and knowing Sauron is back and how this causes tension between his love story with Bronwyn and relationship with Theo and the differences between being an elf and them as men. Also teased Sauron being back affects all the couples which I thought was interesting he worded it that way.

Sophia teased more about Disa and that she will be having a big storyline too. Very curious to know what that is.

[gingersnaptaff]

Hello, it's me. I am back again to bore you all to utter DEATH.

Okay, so I was doing some reading in my lil book nook and I came across this poem:

(Sorry it's sideways. I hate it too.)

It's Ode Five by Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd (who is awesome in his own right. Might do a post about him if anybody would like it.) Anyways, there are two (2) things that jumped out straight off that I have highlighted:

1. The reference to Ogrfan Fawr who is Gwenhwyfar's dad. It's super interesting to me that it reads a bit like Hywel (or whoever is narrating the poem) uses Ogrfan to imply that he's being kept apart from his lover. (Presumably the fair - pls remember Gwen is another word for fair, or white, in Welsh - shy girl lady he mentions in the second line.)

Who's got fair in their name? Gwenhwyfar. "Okay, Sarah," I imagine you're saying. "Cool stuff. But what the fuck does this have to do with a twelfth-century poet dude and a fictional queen?"

Ah, okay. WELL. LEMME REFER U TO GARWY HIR:

He's the father of Indeg who is one of Arthur's mistresses, AND lover of Creirwy, daughter of Cerridwen. Now, I find the author's insinuation that the poem is specifically about Garwy Hir to be a bit of a stretch, because why tf is Ogrfan mentioned in the same breath as Garwy? They have little connection to each other in all honesty. (And I have never heard of Ogrfan, Garwy, being Cerridwen being connected.)

Well, there's a Very Prominent Lad who is connected to both of those ladies.

ARTHUR!!!!!

Husband to Gwenhwyfar, lover of Indeg. The dumbass boi himself. (Respectfully. He is just... look, a lot of Welsh sources are mixed about him. Gildas has Proper Beef with Arthur cuz he killed his brother. Also, this is the same man who called Maelgwn Gwynedd, 'a sodomitical grape.' So. He's not fuckin about.)

It sounds like - to me - this Ode could be perceived as a quest - much like his quest to Annwfn (Not outside of Hywel's subject matter. Man LOVED to intertwine war and love. Read his Gorhoffedd. You'll see what I mean.) - that's been forgotten about over the intervening centuries. One that Arthur went on to get Gwenhwyfar from her father's hall. Perhaps this is also - maybe - a far older version of the Gwenhwyfar/Guinevere and Melwas/Melegaunt myth, but idk. I cannot say for certain.

Now. You can think that this is all a bit tenuous. It very much is, I grant you. In 'The Arthur of the Welsh,' O.J. Padel suggests that Hywel is imagining himself as a suitor for Gwenhwyfar's hand (entirely fair. Right there with you, fella. I too would want to be a suitor for Gwenhwyfar.) But I think it makes a little more sense for the Ode to be Arthur.

Also, yes, I admit the reference to Gwenhwyfar is an indirect one, and I am running on 12 cups of coffee, and this didn't go anywhere, but still. It's FUN.

Now, go read about Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd, pls!!!!! His dad, Owain Gwynedd, gets compared to Cai, Cynyr, Gwalchmai, and Dillus in an elegy by Cynddelw, while his court at Gwynedd is seen to be like Arthur's at Celli Wig. (Cynddelw did a praise poem about Hywel too, which also contains lots of Arthurian references.)

[almoststedytimetravel]

what if the rest of the lucina gang got sent to hoshido/nohr

Oh, bby girl you can't enable me like this...

Okay so, for balancing reasons you'd have to split the kids 50/50 so we need both Morgan's and some starting classes would have to be changed.

Hoshido

F!Morgan - Deviner/Skyknight

M!Morgan - Samurai/Sorcerer

Cynthia - Skyknight/Cavalier

Noire - Archer/Deviner

Kjelle - Spear master/Knight

Brady - Monk/Trubadour

Yarne - Apothecary/Taguel

F!Morgan gets deviner and M!Morgan gets Samurai because in their offical art M!Morgan was holding a sword and F!Morgan is holding a tome. Kjelle get's spear master because she starts with spears. I don't know why I chose Apothecary for Yarne, it just felt right. F!Morgan having Skyknight as her Heart Seal class is based on her heroes class being dark flier. Noire having deviner is in reference to her mother's class, deviner and not sorcerer because she's stated to be unskilled at dark magic. Yarne gets his base Taguel class back by heart sealing into it.

Nohr

Laurent - Sorcerer/Apothecary

Lucina - Mercenary/Spear master

Gerome - Wyvern rider/Ninja

Nah - Wyvern rider/Manakete

Inigo - Mercenary/Ninja

Severa - Mercenary/Skyknight

Owain - Sorcerer/Samurai

Nah gets wyvern rider because she's a dragon and I think that woulds be funny. Also I think Laurent should be able to wear the slutty sorcerer fit, I think it would be funny. Mercenary is the only Nohrian class that starts with swords so that's what Lucina gets she ger spear master because lords get lances on promote in Awakening. I feel like Ninja fits Gerome personality wise.

I think only the original trio would be retainers to the royals everyone else would be doing something different. I think the Morgan's would be Azura's equivalent of Flora/Felicia. Twins who serve as Azura's maids/bodyguards which would also make them neutral units. Cynthia would be a Skyknight stationed at the capital. I can see her being an early recruit in Birthright, like she joins you when you first leave the capital. I think Noire and Kjelle would all also be early game recruits while Yarne and Brady would be mid game recruits.

I actually think Nah and Gerome would be Neutral units serving in Cheve. They get auto recruited in birthright/revelations but need to be recruited in conquest by having one of the Awakening kids talk to them. It would be on the same map where you get Charlotte and Benny. It would also give the Awakening units two neutral units per nation. Laurent would join you after one of Corrin's returns to Krakenburg, best time I think would be when they get sent to the rainbow sage. Lucina I can also see being recruited durring the seven fold sanctuary map, perhaps having been sent a head by Xander.

This would also give five more child units for the male characters.

M!Morgan's child would have to have their own version of "Time to tip the scales!" and "Time to even the odds!" I think their gimmick would be remembering what happened in Heir's of Fate and have the starting class of ninja.

Yarne I can see having a child unit that's the complete oppisite of him, bold and reckless who gives him no end of heart attacks. staring class of Oni Savage

Laurent's child unit would be a detective, trying to solve mysteries like Miriel but rather then being a scientist they do dective work. The best starting class for that would be outlaw with Ninja for a heart seal class.

Brady's child unit would be a 'Sukeban' a sterotypical japanese female deliquent. But one who's quite skilled at the more 'high class' activities. Basically Brady but with the Japanese aesthetic and cultural influences because she'd be a Hoshiden unit

Gerome, child unit who has a wyvern named Maria. I think they would have conflict with Gerome baced on being in the deep realm. "I'd rather see you less often as you grew up rather than be stories for you to hear." vs. "I would have been satisfied with stories of you if it meant not being alone." A follow on from "I didn't want heroes I wanted my parents."

I also think they would have a mechanic where if you fight one of the Awakening kids with another they won't defeat each other but will leave each other at 1hp/they will miss any attack that would defeat them.

Oh and Noire would defiantly be able to S support Hayato and have unique dialogue with Rahjat

[captainschmoe]

I love the little headcanons you made up about the Awakening Men’s children! I actually thought about the potential chemistry they would have with the siblings from my awakening game and mothers (complied with most of the ships I got attached to, with Chrobin obviously but now for the others)

- Frederick/Sumia: Cynthia would probably influenced quite a bit by her brother’s antics while her brother likely grew rebellious due to Frederick unintentionally being softer on Cynthia than him. Sumia would probably be trying to bond with her son but being clumsy too, though their son is likely a mama’s boy and gets along with her better than his father

- Ricken/Nowi: Nah definitely feels small in this sibling relationship, especially if she’s the older child. She would probably try to act more mature to make up for this. Nowi likely teases her son who might be self conscious about how big he is compared to the rest of his family

- Stahl/Miriel: the potion interest would definitely make her and Laurent research buddies. Laurent’s sister likely also feels more insecure due to her brother being as smart as he is and she would try to study hard to catch up to him, only for him to reassure her that she doesn’t need to measure up to him in any way. Miriel might be caught up in her research but also reassure her daughter than it’s okay to be average

- Kellam/Cordelia: sibling rivalry at its finest. Severa is a daddy’s girl and so is her sister. They would compete over his attention nonstop. Cordelia has to play the bad cop and discipline her daughters, though she respects her second daughter’s stealth skills

- Henry/Tharja: Naga help his poor son he’s the only normal member of his family. Probably constantly trying to remove Noire’s amulet and telling her she doesn’t need it. Likely a Guinea pig to Tharja but she would care for him in her own Tharja way

- Libra/Sully: like mother like daughter, Sully would bond with her over being boyish. Probably is workout buddies with her sister Kjelle.

- Lon’qu/Olivia: Olivia would be happy to have a daughter and teach her dance, though she would feel similarly insecure about their daughter’s skill with a blade, as she similarly doesn’t feel she measures up. Inigo’s sister would be very much done with his flirting antics and often break them up. Inigo might similarly have insecurity about his sister’s blade skills especially if his father brings it up.

- Gaius ended up alone because of how the pairings fell together but we can imagine him with Anna or Say’ri

- Virion/Cherche: Cherche would definitely support her son’s poetic passion and adores reading them to Minerva. Gerome would act aloof but be fiercely protective of his brother.

- Donnel/Lissa: Owain’s sister would probably be constantly confused by his dramatics but might fall influence to them. Lissa would be a supportive mother in her daughter’s studies and help teach, even if there are some challenges.

- Vaike/Maribelle: Brady and his brother would be birds of a feather. Sensitive souls but Brady still puts a brave face because his brother is even softer than him. Maribelle would probably run the poor boy ragged with all the propriety training.

- Gregor/Panne: Yarne likely hides behind his sister because she has more courage than him but similarly worries for her safety because they’re the last taguels! Panne would likely help teach her about what the warren was like and let her get in touch with her taguel roots

Oh damn, this is quite the epic essay. Thank you, your thoughts are very well-thought and made me happy <3

I don’t have extra added notes on everyone, but here’s a few:

- You nailed it with Frederick’s son being a mama’s boy. He’s very doting on and protective over his mother, especially since he feels guilty that he couldn’t keep her safe in the future, even though he was still just a young boy when she died.

- Now I wondering how huge Ricken’s son would be as a mankete or taguel lol. Would his beefiness as a human translate over?

- Yeah, that dynamic between Severa and her sister sounds about right. You know that if Kellam instead fathered Owain, Cynthia, or Morgan, even more nonsense will 1000% ensue. (Yes I know Sumia can’t marry Kellam but early 10’s IntSys was wrong)

- Henry’s son ABSOLUTELY has to ask his mother at least once what it is she saw in Henry. Even Tharja. Because while they may both be Plegian dark mages, they are VERY DIFFERENT Plegian dark mages.

- Oh no. You’re right about Lon’qu comparing his son to his daughter. God damn Inigo can’t catch a break.

- Poor Gaius lol. I did figure out early on that you wouldn’t be able to have all the children at once unless you either made the Robinsexual characters not be Robinsexual anymore, or chose f!Robin and then marry Chrom/Maiden. (Incidentally, I’ve been thinking of giving them an extra child, too.) Though I am VERY curious how a petty thief would manage to hook up with a devout capitalist lmao.

- Vaike’s son is absolutely softer than Brady. My idea is actually that he suffered a back injury at some point that makes physical fighting even more difficult for him than it does for Brady, so the latter does look after his brother a lot.

- Oh, Yarne is completely freaked out by his sister’s compulsive need to stir up trouble and mischief lol.