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codenamesazanka · 27 days

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rant. this was a vent in response to the final chapter, but the anime reaching the heteromorph riot arc got me all whiny again. embarrassingly personal.

On "Peaceful Resolutions" + general heteromorph riot arc stuff

When I was in elementary school - I forget what age - there was a snow day. Children love snow days. Me, my younger sibling, and my grandmother went outside to play. We wanted to use the neighborhood hill to sled. Unfortunately, it was already being used by some older kids. Middle schoolers only a few years older than me?

They didn't want to share the hill. So they pushed and shoved us. They threw snowballs at us. When I cried for them to stop, they laughed. When my grandmother, who didn't know English, who spoke only Chinese, yelled at them to stop, they laughed, and mocked her. "Ching chong ching chong." After that, no matter what me or my sibling said in English, they pretended not to understand and just kept chanting slurs. There is nothing more frustrating than screaming out your pain that you know people can hear and understand, and having it fall on deaf ears; more than that, your pain is enjoyment for them.

Was this discriminatory incident resolved peacefully? Well, me, my sibling, and my grandmother cut our snow day short and went home. Our retreat was 'peaceful', but I guess the incident wasn't exactly resolved.

Would attacking them back helped? No, of course not. (And not that we could. We were two elementary kids and an elderly woman. Understand that bullies nearly always purposefully target those weaker than them, ones who can't fight back without negative consequences.) Indeed, things would've just escalated. But we didn't want to retaliate. We didn't want revenge. We just wanted them to stop.

Did we do anything about it? No, it was just some kids being mean. A very minor thing (even as the incident, only one among others, continues to destroy our perception that this neighborhood was ever safe for us, truly our home. But my town had an active neo-nazi gang that liked to vandalize houses and slip posters into newspapers, so it was never going to be safe.) We didn't know our neighbors well because of language barriers, because we stood out as a Chinese family in a largely white neighborhood and people didn't talk to us much either. We wouldn't know how to alert the parents of these kids. And we thought, even if we did complain - a non-violent method of action - they might just find us annoying. They might hate us more. What if the language barrier leads to more confusion and conflict? We didn't want to risk it. We kept our heads down and let the incident go. My family became more reluctant to go out, to let me and my sibling outside to play. We maintained the peace.

Understand that it doesn't really matter what an discriminated minority does to resist discrimination - the perpetrator can find any act of resistance inappropriate. That is their prerogative by being in the position of power.

Shoji saved a girl, gave the community peace by preventing them from having to grieve her death. His village then bashed his face with a hoe for daring to resist and break the norms of the village, for daring to touch the girl to save her life.

A third party, of course, can come and resolve the incident by de-escalating everything. But for my incident, it was not me that this third party needed to stop. We did not engage in violence. It was the older kids. And had I retaliated - idk how, as a child; tackle them? - to protect my grandmother, my younger sibling - that would be self defense, likely because I wanted the bullying to stop and had to resort to violence when nothing else worked; because I feared the violence they were about to do to us more than my fear and reluctance to engage in violence in the first place. Maybe self-defense is too strong a word here for schoolyard bullying, but the principle is the same.

(It wasn't just schoolyard bullying, obviously. There were other incidents, from when I was younger, when I'm much older. This incident is one that I feel is less revealing/personal/vulnerable to tell.)

There was no peace in that incident that wasn't broken by the perpetrator to begin with. Not that the peace was peaceful for us in the first place. Bringing about true peace is solely on stopping the perpetrator, and ultimately on dealing with the root cause.

“Discriminatory incident” is so vague. An incident can be anything. “Peaceful Resolution” implies responsibility on all parties. What we're told isn't 'Shoji stops the bigots nonviolently'. (Also: The bigots are afforded this. Villains must be put down with violence, but not the people throwing rocks and spraying pesticides on children. I'm of course of the opinion that violence shouldn't be used to stop bigots or Villains except as a last resort, but the manga has demonstrated that no Hero ever stopped a bigot using the same methods they use on Villains. Why is that?) It isn't 'Shoji saves victims of hate crimes'. Judging by Shoji's own statements and how the heteromorph arc plays out, a peaceful resolution is stopping both the heteromorph victim (who may or may not be lashing out - in response to the hate crime) and perpetrator - If anything, more stopping the heteromorphs.

I’m going to suggest that rarely, heteromorphs ever actually retaliate with violence. True, the heteromorphs we see (Shoji, ordinary lady, Koda's mom) aren't part of the rioters but are we to believe all these rioters are people who react with violence every time, and it's their first solution? When they stopped the damn riot themselves because they didn't want to hurt the healthcare workers? (and even the riot wasn’t purposeless, indiscriminate violence - they were solely there to retrieve Kurogiri). Pig Nose guy says he's been beaten up for no reason, so he's already at the receiving end of violence that justifies self-defense, but we can assume he didn't actually lash out any of those times because he's the one who stops everyone, feeling so bad about just the idea of hurting someone.

I can’t say that’s 100% canon that none of the heteromorphs ever lashed out (and of course ‘statistically’ some of them must have), but overall, for most of them, it’s a legitimate assumption to be made. The heteromorphs from the Jeda or 6/6 incidents were fully massacred. Shoji and Spinner were children - Shoji was on the ground, getting bashed in the face with a farming hoe wielded by an adult. Spinner got sprayed with pesticides for walking outside and became a hikikomori, saying that he accepted being a ‘lizard freak’, he was ready to give up. (And he only took action when the extraordinary moment of Stain getting on TV made him realized he hated this suffocating world where Heroes failed him, never protected him.) Ordinary Lady never lashed back out at her attackers. Koda’s mom had to be protected by Koda’s dad.

Even the PLF agitator - his wound is a long deep scar on his head - a head injury that would’ve thoroughly incapacitated him, if not kill him. It is likely not the wound of someone hitting back with self-defense as if the PLF agitator was the one attacking someone and they were fighting back for their life.

These are the ‘Discriminatory Incidents’. What does a peaceful resolution look like, here?

The heteromorphs at the hospital aren’t there to get revenge. They’re there because they’ve been pushed into a corner and probably have become afraid for their lives, their future. During a national crisis where Heroes order civilians to go into hero-guarded shelters, these shelters had the audacity to refuse heteromorphs, leaving them out on the streets, vulnerable to the dangers of jailbreakers and lack of resources.

The peace was broken first by discrimination. The heteromorphs probably took Spinner’s call to action as a life preserver. Heroes had refused to protect them during the collapse of the state; and so they likely found truth in Spinner’s word that if Heroes win the day, nothing will change. They weren’t there to hurt anyone at the hospital - they were there to take back Kurogiri.

But Shoji framed the whole thing as revenge, as being avengers. He accused the heteromorphs of being violent and non-peaceful, without ever naming the first act of violence on the part of the non-heteromorphs. He didn’t want to risk the heteromorphs’ hard-won reputation and status (“You’ll set us back 30 years.* They’ll target your children.”) He wanted the heteromorphs to do what my family did - kept our heads down and let the incident go. Maintained the peace.

Shoji said that those who hurt the heteromorphs weren’t justified, but he then says “there has to be a better way”. We never find out what this was, beyond the vague ‘Shine bright’.

(I shined bright, too. I was a straight-A student. I did extracurriculars - piano, viola, art, softball. As did my sibling. My family were hard-working citizens. My mom worked two jobs. I hate telling these details, because they don't matter. My worth as someone who doesn’t deserve to face discrimination does not and should not depend on my grades or trained skills, how pleasant or cool I seem to someone. None of that matters to the people who wanted to hurt us because they simply saw being visibly Asian American as the offense.)

We don’t find out how Shoji’s better way works in the final chapter either. Just that he resolved the incidents ‘peacefully’. Because he wanted to solve discrimination peacefully. As do everyone, oppressors and the oppressed. But ‘peace’ often means something different to oppressors, and something different to the oppressed.

(Did Shoji resolve the heteromorph riot peacefully? Not really. He shouted a lot to the crowd, but he also fought Spinner (ah, you might say - well, Spinner was using violence! Shoji has to react to that with punching as well! Yeah. That's what I mean.) Koda had birds shoved someone off a building.)

Shoji’s better ways - I will assume it’s stopping the blood cleansings. That is a noble goal. It is a necessary and vital goal. And so, how? How does he cover the large areas of rural land, so that he’s there to stop these hate crimes? How does he know when something will happen? Is it a campaign and community-level action? Uraraka’s tackling of Quirk Counseling is a ‘project’, widespread and implemented on a macro level. Shoji’s efforts are on what’s implied to be individual incidents. But putting that aside for now, I will assume “resolving” is talking down the perpetrator. I will assume it’s protecting the victim while negotiating with the person holding the weapon.

Peaceful implies that he does so without violence (as he should! As a Hero Law Enforcement of the State!); but a blanket label of ‘peaceful’ also implies stopping the other party (the victim) asking them to stand down as well.

I just think - during my Discriminatory Incidents, how can anyone have me stand down, have stopped me, when I haven't done anything in the first place? And if I did have to be stopped from engaging in self-defense, that's not a resolution. That's a save. That's someone saving me from the violence, saving me from having to resort to violence.

Heroes save people. There's no question of 'peacefully' when they fight villains to save people. There’s no framing of ‘peacefully’ when they do so. But it seems heteromorphs are not allowed the same language of ‘peacefully’ and 'save'.

tl;dr. idk. the heteromorph mini-arc’s writing and message is awful.

*re: “set us back 30 years.” I know we don’t know exactly what happened 30 years ago, but we can guess - and so I don’t think guessing one of the named massacres is too wild. From my own experiences, the murder of Vincent Chin was about 40 years ago. I grew up with Vincent Chin as a horror story.

Being told that, due to whatever actions I was doing, would set back all that progress Asian Americans made since then is just cruel and wrong and illogical in all ways. Vincent Chin didn’t deserve to be murdered whatever he did 40 years ago, and he deserved to have his murderers be brought to real justice. The sheer injustice of that case is objective. There is no way someone can tell me that I’m setting time back to when the murder of Vincent Chin happened, that I would be causing injustice like that again, I’m responsible for any more murders that happen, and have that be in any way true.

Related— On Bnha's apparent ideal of "a hero is someone who is willing to suffer in silence" and "we'll get it right next generation!"

From Asian American Dreams, by Helen Zia:

The reaction within the Detroit area’s small, scattered Asian American population was immediate and visceral. Suddenly people who had endured a lifetime of degrading treatment were wondering if their capacity to suffer in silence might no longer be a virtue, when even in death, after such a brutal, uncontested killing, they could be so disrespected.

[...]

Vincent was part of an entire generation for whom the immigrant parents had suffered and sacrificed. Other Asian Americans also found a strong connection to the lives of Vincent, Lily, and David Chin. Theirs was the classic immigrant story of survival: work hard and sacrifice for the family, keep a low profile, don’t complain, and, perhaps in the next generation, attain the American dream. For Asian Americans, along with the dream came the hope of one day gaining acceptance in America. The injustice surrounding Vincent’s slaying shattered the dream.

#nalslastworkingbraincell #i hate using personal anecdotes to argue a point #but can't help it this time

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sambuckylibrary · 5 months

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All TFATWS Anniversary Event 2024 Fills

Thank you to all who participated in this event! here are all the fills you created!

Week 5: No Powers AU by @funsized-loser | SamBucky Fic Rec List | Rated: N/A-E | 13 Fics + 7 Fic Writers Generally Recced |

[podfic] I Could Never Hold Your Heart In My Hand (my darling you already do) by @funsized-loser with original fic by @abarbaricyalp | Rated: T | Length: 1.5-2 Hrs | Snow White Fusion, Fantasy AU, Curse Breaking | AO3 |

Week 5: Ghost/Zombie AU by @funsized-loser | SamBucky Fic Rec List | Rated: T-E | 7 Fics + 1 Fanart |

Week 6: Didn't Know They Were Dating/Friends With Benefits | SamBucky Fic Rec List | Rated: G-E | 10 Fics + 1 Podfic |

Untitled by @onesmolangel | Art | Hurt/Comfort, TFATWS Episode 6 "One World, One People", Hug |

You’re Just Gonna Set Me Up Like That, Huh? by @funsized-loser | Rated: T | WC: 986 | “You’re Just Gonnaa Set Me Up Like That, Huh?”, TW: Blood/Injury, Cute |

Untitled by @abarbaricyalp | Rated: N/A | WC: 511 | “Let Me Just Walk You Through a Hypothetical”, Fluff, Established Relationship |

“Fixing the Boat” by @thatmexisaurusrex | Art | Meanwhile… On the Boat, Gif, Domestic Fluff |

“Sam Finds the Note” and “Bucky Has Regrets” by @thatmexisaurusrex | Art | Divorce Arc, Angst, Thunderbolts Era |

Untitled by @abarbaricyalp | Rated: N/A | WC: 2.9K | “You’re Just Gonna Set Me Up Like That, Huh?”, POV Annalise (Darlene’s Friend), Tooth-Rotting Fluff |

Soul Stone Fic Recs by @funsized-loser | Rated: T-M | SamBucky Fic Reclist | Five Fics |

Victory Party by @funsized-loser | Rated: T | WC: 1.3K | Victory Party, Bittersweet, Let Sam Grieve His Lost Friend |

Never Hit Send, Never Called Again by @abarbaricyalp | Rated: N/A | WC: 3.2K | 6 Months of Ghosting, Post-Endgame, Texting |

Sam Gets Ghosted for Six Months / Bucky Loses His Nerve for Six Months by @thatmexisaurusrex | SamBucky Fanart | 6 Months of Ghosting, Bittersweet, Gifs |

“I don’t think he’s the kind you save.” by @thatmexisaurusrex | art | SamBucky Edit, “I don’t think he’s the kind you save”, enemies to lovers.

Sam Searches for Bucky by @funsized-loser | Rated: M | WC: 1.1K | Sleeping Together, Sam Searches For Bucky, Fluff But a Little Bittersweet |

The Kind You Save by @abarbaricyalp | Rated: N/A | WC: 1.2K | “I don’t think he’s the kind you save”, this one’s angsty y'all, “You’re the one who gets saved.” hits you like a ton of bricks |

Post-WS/Sam-Finds-Bucky fics by @abarbaricyalp | SamBucky Fic Reclist | Rated: G-E | Seven Fics |

#tfatwsanniversary2024 #sambucky #sam wilson #bucky barnes #sambucky fanfiction #sambucky edit #sambucky art #sambucky fic rec list #sambucky podfic #mod: thatmexisaurusrex

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anotherspopsaltblog · 16 days

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How the she ra reboot adapted the characters from the original. spoiler alert they didn't

How ND adapted she-ra for the reboot is very interesting to me, because in many ways he didn't. He just created new characters and used their names or made very strange changes.

From what I’ve read from ND’s tweets, interviews and the show bible. It’s seams like Nate took the basic bare bones description of the character and ran with that leaving out the character story and personality. Or they took a character ability and made up stuff about that. Or they just used the name.

Probably the worst case of this is Glimmer. Who in the original show had an amazing story. She a princess who kingdom was overtaken and her father was imprisoned my the horde and mother (Angella) was taken captive by the harpies because of the harpie’s queen personal grudge against Angella. Despite this she goes and starts a rebellion and is able to rally a lot of people behind her. She is a capable leader a position she gives to adora once her mother is found . Despite all this she is still a teenager and acts like it. she can be self centred, boycrazy and childish.

How much of that was carried over to the new show?

None of it.

Because glimmer from the 2018 show is not based on 80s glimmer she is based on Stevenson’s DnD character. I'm not joking.

Here is the name of the article if you don’t believe me.

“Netflix's She-Ra creator adapted a Dungeons & Dragons character for the show”

Go look it up

Yeah so Stevenson saw that glimmer had teleportation powers and thought about his own character with similar powers and placed their own character in Glimmer's place.

So yeah glimmer is just Stevenson's DnD character using Glimmer's name.

I'm not mad, that's hilarious.

The only thing carried over from the original show is glimmer desired to fight the horde head on with out a plan. But Glimmer main character arc is based around his dnd character.

In the original show glimmer frustration with attacking the horde was a conflic between her and Adora. In the original adora give glimmer the task of creating a light show to distract the horde while the rest of them attack. Glimmer doesn't want to do this because she wants to fight.

This is from the episode Glimmer come home which seems to be where some of glimmers charatirasion comes from aside from Nate’s DnD character.

But the difference between this episode and the reboot is that glimmer in the original is in the wrong and apologises. In the new show she is treated as if she is right.

In the reboot the conflict is between her and her mum. And her mom is characterised as a coward and glimmer is in the right with no nuance.

Adora

Adora is a completely different character in the original. Her role in the group was as the mum friend. a role that was given to bow, for some reason. In terms of personality the best way to describe what happened to Adora’s personality is to compare her to disney princesses. Original Adora is like Snow White or Cinderella and reboot Adora is the modernised adorkable character. Like Rapunzel and asha. And like asha, her being adorkable doesn't work because she was raise in what we are told was a cruel militaristic environment. Why is she adorkable.

bow

As I mentioned, Bow was turned into the mum friend so he basically became the responsible one and his entire personality was based on that. He doesn't reassemble Bow from the original. The only thing that they carried over was that he likes to built tech. I think they did this because Adora is no longer the mum friend so someone needs to fill that role. But no they didn’t. Not every group needs a mum friend.

Seahawk

Seahawk is the second worst character when it comes to how they change him.

Like glimmer Seahawk had an amazing story. And all of it got scrapped. Based on how Nate characterised Seahawk in the show bible. It seems the only thing Nate took away from Seahawk was that he was Adora’s love interest. So he was made to make fun of male love interests in movies, shows and books.

Here is his description.

That's what they tried to do in the show but instead of doing something clever they just made Seahawk a LOL so random character who is an idiot. I guess to make fun of male love interest. But they didn’t make him a stereotype of the wish fulfilment love interest you find in movies and books aimed at woman (Which 1980s Seahawk was based on) and poke fun at those tropes.

Instead their aim was to make him a pathetic man who we are meant to laugh at. But in execution he just does random stuff which we are meant to laugh at because it’s random.

Even then he’s really not pathetic, he's just strange and annoying.

The best way to describe the new characters is wasted potential. Because to be honest what the new character the crew came up with aren’t that good compared to the original.

#spop critical #spop salt #spop criticism #spop discourse #my post

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angeart · 3 months

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hhau mimic arc rambles - part IV: the inbetween (hot spring bath)

(~5,5 k words) // other parts & au masterpost here

-- a piece of warmth in a cold wasteland (a piece of hope in a nightmare) --

It takes some time, to slowly patch up the wounds on their souls and bury the incessant fears. Scar and Grian have each other, and they aren’t letting go. Not this time. Not again. Never. (Unless we get our hands on this au which, oh, we have. Funny thing—)

It’s now the midst of winter, and they huddle from shelter to shelter, clothes wet from snow, progress slow as they have to constantly try and cover their marks. The food is scarce, and they’re using every trick Juni taught them in late autumn to stay safe and not starve. (The thought feels bittersweet, but they don’t linger on it.)

And one day, the sun disappears. [This will be the eclipse bonus ramble, dw about it rn <3]

In the aftermath, they’re both feeling destabilised and unsafe. Grian in particular grows to feel like even more of a liability, becoming quiet and withdrawn. Terrified Scar’d leave him, despite feeling like maybe it'd be for the best if he did. (Best for Scar, that is.)

Scar does his best to divert Grian’s attention from bleak thoughts. He talks about hope, and possibilities, and—most importantly—future. He remembers that one time [in a bonus fic we never finished kjxnb bUT ONE DAY] when Grian mentioned wanting a treehouse. Wanting a permanent place. Somewhere to stretch his wings. Somewhere to be.

He tells him, softly, that come spring, once the trees are less barren, they can try building one. They will do it! Scar will build as many as it takes. Each better than the last!

And one day, they’ll get far enough. And they’ll build one that’ll last. And they’ll be able to stretch their wings, free.

Grian isn’t sure how much he believes that. But he wants to. He wants to.

They wander through the lands, seemingly directionless. The winter is harsh. The violet is bright against the whiteness of the snow and the dark brown of the bare trees. Still, with stolen cloaks, they do their best with the circumstances, never feeling warm or relaxed.

That is, until they stumble upon something rare.

They find a cave that is warm and, curious and seeking shelter, they go in.

Inside, they find a large cavern with the ceiling caved in, sunlight pooling from the hole down onto a steaming surface of… a hot spring.

Scar gets immensely excited and, without hesitating, dives right in. The warmth is blissful, melting away all the aches and coaxing frost out of his bones. It’s the best thing he’s felt in a long time.

“I’m never getting out of here. You’re gonna have to drag me out. I am willingly turning myself into a raisin.”

Grian, unlike Scar, hesitates. His wings are still dirtied and full of debris, never preened, never touched. Kept dishevelled and dull to try to hide their desirable sheen. Flaring up with discomfort and aches, muscles tense and never stretched, in an attempt to turn them into something that’d be less of a beacon.

Getting them wet would mean washing off months of that effort. (Months of held-in suffering.)

And Grian wants to sink under the water and feel its warmth, relax into it just like Scar does, but he can’t. He can’t get through that mental block. So he just crouches on the side, sad and torn and wistful.

Scar tries to coax him in by assuring Grian they have enough time to dry them (he doesn’t use the word wings). But drying them isn’t the problem. The problem is making them bright again.

Scar doesn’t quite understand what is holding Grian back, but he tries to offer him ways to sidestep it without tacking a name to it. He holds out his hands and opts for goofiness, asking if Grian is shy, promising he’ll close his eyes, as if it was a simple act of undressing that was the problem. He’s trying to offer a simpler anxiety to latch onto, one more easily dealt with.

And despite the anxiety, Grian laughs a little at his antics. It’s barely a laugh, strained around the edges, but the fondness rings so clear through it.

But Scar’s suggestion doesn’t solve Grian’s problem, and Grian is wholly unwilling to name it and put attention to it—to the hopeless way he feels about the weight settled on his back.

Scar is stubborn and determined, trying to read Grian without pushing too much. He wades to a more shallow part of the pool and softly—and still so very lightheartedly—points out that Grian could take a dip there, feel the warmth, “And only half of you gets turned to raisins.” Endlessly aware of what they’re not saying, words tucked between the lines: Your wings don’t have to get wet.

Grian eyes the side Scar pointed out with enough suspicion, as if he expected the ground there to be playing a trick on him, in fact not solid at all. Slowly, he uncurls and shuffles over to peer at it, taut yet curious, unsure yet hopeful.

It’s timid, at first. The undressing, the reach for water. But as soon as his skin meets the warmth, yearning shoots through him and he can’t stop himself.

The water splashes in his rush to get in, something that delights Scar immeasurably.

And it’s quickly clear the water is only going to incite him to give in further, setting alight a craving for more. To keep sinking, to submerge all of his body, to melt against its warmth and let it make him stop aching.

Unable to resist but still unwilling to get his wings wet, he ends up opting to slump himself over Scar’s shoulders, letting most of him dip into the enciting warmth of the water.

The effect is instant: the warm water eases the hidden pains and tension right off, making Grian huff in relief as his hold on Scar turns lax, trusting Scar to keep him safe. It’s only Grian’s back that keeps some semblance of tension, wings held up above the water line even as the rest of him helplessly melts into it.

And Scar has to ask. Inevitably, the issue cannot be skirted around anymore. “Why don’t you want them wet…?”

Grian’s breath hitches, and just like that, all the tension and anxiety is back. Just like that, he’s pushing away, back upright into the shallow water, and then further, splashing as he goes, until he’s perched at the edge of the pool, safely out of its depths.

Arms wrapped around himself and shivering, Grian tries to breathe through the reminder of everything that’s wrong, everything that he doesn’t want fixed—can’t have fixed—attention pinned to his feathers that he reslots against his spine, dry and as small as possible.

But there's no sidestepping this anymore.

It’s only when he admits, words miserable and broken, muffled into his palms and edging a sob, that washing the wings would turn them into more of a beacon, that Scar truly starts to understand this.

It was always only implied and never spoken—the topic of feathers always carefully avoided to sidestep the panic lurking just beneath those words—now broken and brought up to the surface for the first time since Grian's freak out on that very first day so long ago.

It slots together in Scar’s mind now: It’s not just trauma and fear keeping Grian from allowing anyone (including himself) to touch his wings; it’s his unwillingness to brighten what he believes is to be a spotlight that’s made a home on his back. It explains weeks and weeks of unpreened, tucked back wings hidden uncomfortably under the cloak Scar gave him the day they found each other. What Scar thought was a deep-rooted anxiety born from the time they spent apart actually goes much, much deeper. The fear is a constant in Grian’s mind.

Scar pauses, taking the new pieces to the puzzle he’s been offered and pressing them into place, considering the proper approach. “Grian,” he tries again, voice soft. “One little soak isn’t going to make a difference.” (He wishes it would. He wishes Grian would wash them out properly, let them shine like they did before. He’d fight off the whole server if he had to in order to see that once more.)

Something desperate in Grian is latching onto Scar’s words. He’s begging himself to listen, to give in, to let go, to succumb. He sniffles, dropping his hands a little bit, looking over at Scar, silent plea written into his eyes. Please. Please please please.

He wants Scar to win him over. To convince him. To yank this tight knot of anxiety and let him breathe.

With a sigh, Scar continues. “We don’t have to wash them, just…” He hates going along with any part of this, but he’s not about to change Grian’s mind so easily. He has to bargain. “... One hour. One hour where you don’t worry so dang much. Just relax, forget everything else. Let me—” He doubts his word choice for a moment, but commits to it, considering them appropriate. “Let me watch your back.”

There’s a pause. And then, from his curled-up position, Grian asks: “One hour?” It’s small, a word just shy of crumbling to dust. He wants this. He needs this. He needs Scar to sway him here. But he can’t just give in. So he asks for more. He asks Scar to promise that this won’t cause anything bad.

"Nothing bad," Scar assures immediately, even if he doesn't truly have the power to promise that. He'll make it true. He's determined to. "I'll make sure of it. And you just relax."

The words bounce around in Grian’s head.

Nothing bad. I’ll make sure of it.

He sniffles, wrangling the ever-present constraints of anxiety, and then, ever so slowly, he uncurls. His hands drop from his face and his glistening eyes find Scar’s, locking onto them as if Scar was his life raft. “Okay.”

He isn’t sure he knows how to relax, not where his wings are concerned, but he’s been tense and scared for so long, he’s so tired, so greedy for the idea of it. And if Scar can somehow will it into existence, Grian will do his best to give himself over to him.

It’s slow. Every move hesitant and unsure, every Scar’s word soft and reassuring. He tells Grian it’s just the two of them here. He leads him, step by timid step.

Grian ends up draped over him again, arms wrapped around Scar's shoulders, trying to stifle his fears into his hold of him as they tentatively make progress into the warmth that begs Grian to surrender completely.

Grian’s coherency is slipping from his grasp as the warm water and the security of Scar’s presence take over. He hasn’t allowed himself to relax in so impossibly long, only ever forced by the circumstances. (Feeling faint, being wounded, dizziness pulling him to his knees—) This is different. This is so very different, and he finds himself simultaneously nuzzling against Scar and entirely letting go, his grip growing weak as Scar holds him with his back above water.

Grian’s wings falter and droop the littlest bit. He barely notices it. They’re hovering so, so very close above the waterline.

He hums, and they dip further, and—

He twitches, startled at the sensation of water against his feathers. Running on nothing but well-trained instinct, his wings flap, frantically splashing water.

Scar pulls Grian a little closer, keeping his hands firm and tight so he doesn’t drop him altogether. “Hey, hey, hey it’s okay. I’ve still got you.” He slides one leg out a little wider to maintain balance, continuing to mumble soft shushes. “The water won’t hurt ya, G.”

Grian pulls himself tight against Scar, his wing movements calming somewhat at Scar’s reassurance. They’re left treacherously hovering over the water again, unsure, as Grian buries his face in Scar’s neck, eyes tightly shut. He’s tense again, back at square one, and even the warmth of the water isn’t working enough to lull him out of it.

But Scar says the water won’t hurt him.

He knows that, right? He’s— The water won’t hurt him, it’s just the consequences he’s meant to be afraid of. But Scar already promised those will be okay.

Grian knows Scar doesn’t have the power to promise that.

Still, he tries to wrangle both the rational and irrational parts of his fear.

He breathes heavily, pressed close to Scar, and he whimpers a quiet, very unbrave sounding word: “Down?”

“Yeah?” Scar asks, a little unsure. “Do you— want me to let you down?” He doesn’t move his hands yet.

Feeling the steadiness of Scar's hands, Grian is sure that there won't be anything unexpected; not unless he agrees, nods, gives consent. But his head is so messy, not knowing how to communicate, and he's not sure he won't misstep.

"The wings?" Grian asks, and it's not much more coherent than the original question.

“The—“ Scar tuts his tongue, remembering to take the time to think. He glances over at Grian’s wings, something he very purposely tries not to do typically, but with Grian’s head tucked against his collarbone, he looks them over, curious. “Yeah, yes— you can let them down, G.” A small reassuring press of his fingertips. “Really.”

Grian takes a breath at the encouragement; it's damp and hot, water and scar's skin heating him up, both working on stealing all the tension out of him.

Gingerly and with a tinge of fearfullness, grian relents.

He lets his wings drop.

Tentatively, the feathers meet water. Calmer, this time. Expecting it.

Grian’s hold on Scar doesn't exactly tense up, but his fingers curl, feebly looking for a tidbit of purchase, something to hold onto as his wings spread and sprawl, rippling the water, floating atop it, and— And it's so warm and it feels so good to stretch them, to let them be without force and without pressure and—

There's a half-sob, something small and all too relaxed and relieved, as looseness floods through Grian. His fingers uncurl and he sags further against Scar, whimpering quietly without any real distress.

Scar can’t help the bright, genuine grin that spreads across his face at this success, even despite the small sobbing sounds—because he knows, he knows it’s from overwhelming relief. He had half a mind to cry when he first stepped foot in the water, so he can only imagine how Grian feels right now. “Shhh, good, good,” Scar coos, pressing a soft kiss into Grian’s hair. “Still got you.”

Grian makes a jumble of incoherent sounds at Scar's praise, melting further into the warmth. His eyes are closed and his muscles loosen bit by bit, aches stolen from them. He's not working to support any of his weight anymore, surrendering it all to Scar and to the water. He doesn't even register his wings fully; they float, and it makes them feel numb and nonexistent in the best of ways.

Loose feathers and dirt drift across the surface, the spot near Grian growing murkier.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Scar whispers, not wanting to disturb Grian’s moment of bliss here. He eyes the spot where the water darkens from the dirt and debris coming free from Grian’s wings, trying not to let it affect his mood, tug at his heart.

He wishes he could rake his fingers through the feathers and dislodge all the uncomfortable things that poke and prod at Grian on a daily basis. We wants to hold him closer and take care of him, wash all the troubles away, but—

Baby steps, he reminds himself.

Grian's mind is hazy, all of him melting into the warmth bit by bit. (He doesn't remember the last time he was warm.) He feels engulfed and cradled, held and supported, and it makes him want to drift off. He's melting further into it, eyes closed and mind pleasantly dazed. He thinks he might just stay here forever. (The insides of his wings are warm warm warm; the water gently bobs them, the muscles loosening after months of being stiff and taut.)

It reminds Grian of what it feels like to be comfortable. (He isn't sure he can quite grasp it; the feeling seems too big for his comprehension.) He lets out a long, reverberating hum, almost purr-like, sinking further into the water. His eyes are still closed. He's secure in the knowledge that Scar's still here, he's got him. everything is okay.

Everything is more than okay.

"'m gonna live like a raisin," he says as a vague threat, or a promise, or— or something. Something mildly delirious. He's never getting out of this lake. It's too nice. He's going to stay here and submerge himself in bliss and escapism.

“Yes!” Scar croaks out amidst some airy laughter. “Join me in the raisin life, Grian!”

Scar's laughter echoes around Grian, setting bright, joyful sparks behind grian's ribcage. He could listen to that sound forever.

While keeping his arms in place, supporting Grian so that he doesn’t sink entirely, Scar ducks his face back underwater and blows some bubbles, loving the feeling of having semi-clean skin for the first time in far too long.

Grian hears the bubbles. Curiosity gets him to crack one eye open, only to see it's just Scar being silly. Unbridled, a laughter spills from him and— He's laughed before, sure. Here and there, they’ve had their moments. But never before has his laughter felt so light in this world. Unburdened.

Scar’s ears flick attentively and he pokes his head back out to share a grin— practically beaming at Grian due to the delightful sound. It’s a genuine Grian giggle and Scar is loving it. It rings like victory, dancing across the air. Scar feels like he’s won a tiny battle. (And it’s a much-needed win at that.)

“Seriously,” Scar says, smile still pressing at the edges of his cheeks. “Dunk your head in— it feels amazing.”

The idea doesn't seem as daunting as before. Encouraged by Scar's delighted grin, Grian can't help but wish to oblige.

His wings flutter a little, and then he's tilting himself, taking a breath. No more warning is given before he fully submerges his head.

The water rushes around him, muffling the world instantly. It's warm all around him.

Just like Scar before, Grian also brings his arms to rub at his hair, reveling in the feeling until he needs to come up for air. He pushes his now-wet hair out of his face and blinks, before he settles with twinkling eyes set on scar, a wild grin on his lips. "I did it!" And he finds that he wants to do it again.

“Isn’t our hair disgusting?” Scar says, laughing and smiling like that’s somehow a good thing.

"It’s sooo gross," Grian agrees with a laugh. He drifts closer, reaching out to run his fingers into Scar's wet hair and rub at his scalp, wanting him to feel nice.

Scar makes an approving, happy hum and leans into the touch. “And you’d touch the gross hair? Wow, you must like me or something. How embarrassing,” Scar croons, grinning with all his teeth as he pesters Grian.

A growling noise rolls out of grian, but it sounds wrong, soft and unthreatening. He grins right back, and he moves closer, gaze flicking to Scar's lips. "Yeah. I guess I do like you. Or something." And then he presses on Scar, pouncing to use his own weight to push Scar under water. "But you should really wash them some more," he notes playfully with a laugh.

Scar barks out a half-yelp half-laugh as he’s submerged, bubbles rising to the surface until the noise escapes the watery prison when he comes back up. ”Wow,” Scar grumbles, absolutely no bite to his bark. “And here I was being so nice.”

Completely unphased by Scar's grumble, Grian cackles. And then he leans forward, hands settling on the sides of Scar's jaw as both of them drip water.

Grian's eyes close and he kisses Scar.

“Oh,” Scar’s mouth barely forms the words before he’s pressing closer, greedily kissing back. There’s a bit of whiplash from going from being dunked under to being kissed, but it’s a pleasant sort of ride, the kind of dizzying back and forth he would have always expected from Grian. Part of the reason he was always so drawn in.

Bouncing lightly in the water, Grian breaks the kiss only to press a laugh against the corner of Scar's mouth. He's holding onto him, fingers finding their way back into Scar's wet hair. His feathers trail ripples behind him. "Do you want to help me wash my hair?" he ends up asking, sounding so very hopeful and impulsive, eyes alight as he peers up to meet Scar's gaze.

“Yes!” Scar exclaims, instant. Because he really does want to.

Grian's expression brightens and softens simultaneously at Scar's quick agreement. Eager excitement settles abuzz under his skin, oddly fitting alongside the newfound looseness of his muscles.

Scar removes one of his supporting hands first, testing if Grian isn’t still melting into the water too much to handle it without them.

Grian shifts to readjust, to carry his own weight and stay floating. He gives Scar a small nod. "Floating raisin-in-training," he reassures, wildness tipping into an almost timid grin.

Scar snickers, highly amused by the continued bit. "I'm very impressed with the raisin's progress," he teases as he removes his other hand, allowing Grian to wade freely. "I wish we had soap. I still don't understand how to make soap." It's a mournful statement, but Scar manages to keep his tone light, as if it's a joke and not a genuine problem. He opens both palms and wiggles his fingers in a goofy invitation, letting Grian lead the way on how he wants to do this.

Grian doesn't, in fact, know how to do this. He just knows he wants Scar's fingers rub at his scalp and brush through his hair and he wants it all to be nice and good. (He wonders if his hair will be fluffy when it dries. Fluffy hair and somewhat clean skin. A luxury.) (He wonders how will Scar look at him, then.) "Should I... turn my back to you?" he wonders.

But turning his back carries many things with it. (Namely his wings.)

Scar’s eyes flick to the sprawled out feathers—a lightning-fast glance, trying not to be noticed—before he hums in thought. He doesn’t want Grian to have to reel his wings back in. He likes that Grian is finally relaxing them like this, having them splayed out without care.

So instead, he tries to say that this is good. That he likes facing Grian and looking at him. He steals a kiss, quick and gentle, drawing Grian’s attention away from any implications turning around might have.

Grian lets Scar's affection easily distract him; for once, he's not hyper-aware and hyper-vigilant about his wings, and so the warning thought dissipates before it even has a chance to form properly, everything in him instead paying attention to Scar's adoration and the promise of getting his hair washed. He giggles quietly into the kiss at Scar's exclamations. "Alright. All yours."

Scar’s heart swells at all yours, the words satisfying something small yet primal deep inside his chest.

But as it turns out, Grian floating in the water on his belly really isn’t a position suitable for hair washing. They fumble, Scar trying to throw out some pointless, dead-end suggestions, staying lighthearted even as it’s becoming clear that there’s no way around this.

Grian hums, glancing at his wings—the top feathers are still dry, as his wings float the inner-side down. The seeping warmth from the water keeps them relaxed and feeling good, and Grian doesn't even realise he's considering them without the usually instant flare up of anxiety.

"Let me try something," he murmurs, an edge of experimental pensiveness to his tone. He pushes himself away from Scar, using him solely for momentum, so he wouldn't have to wade to get more space. He spins, water rippling, feathers gliding across it.

He doesn't make enough space. His primaries almost brush against Scar.

Scar flinches back to avoid the wings, shocked by the casual nature in which Grian is currently treating them. He’s relieved, certainly, but slightly nervous as well. “You better not be trying to escape, you have a good fifty-some minutes of relaxation left, mister.”

Grian glances over his shoulder, chuckling at him, but doesn't deign to answer. He's climbing to the shallower part again; his wings are heavy, dragging him down as he fights them and flaps them around, sending droplets through the air. He curls them, bringing them forward, and with a squinted focus, slowly lowers them back down.

The water turns murky again in an instant, as the backs of grian's wings hit water. He almost slips off the perch of the platform as a wave of weakness rushes through him at how good the warm water feels on those spots. His eyes flutter shut without him intending for it, and a groan leaves his throat.

And then he's slipping off the edge back into the depths, this time purposefully. his wings are spread around him, messy and wet and wide, and—

He semi-floats on his back, his hair now dipped in water. It feels so insanely relaxing—a word he was forgetting even exists; he lets out a dazed hum, eyes still closed, temporarily forgetting his mission is to get back to scar.

Scar chuckles quietly to himself, trying to shield the sound with the back of his hand. He’s able to ignore the distress the muddied water caused him last time, too enthralled by the wide span of Grian’s wings, which he hasn’t seen in so long.

Even dirtied and drenched in water, they’re beautiful.

“Should I leave you alone with the water for a bit—?” Scar teases after another moment of admiring Grian. “Would hate to interrupt.”

Despite saying that, his hands itch to touch. They twitch and he hides them underwater, remaining patient.

"Mmmm." Grian lets the water gently push him around, and he keeps his eyes closed for a while, staying silent after Scar's question. But then he remembers: he's going to get his hair washed. Scar's fingers are going to press and rub against his scalp and—

"Please do interrupt," he begs, dark eyes dazedly finding Scar.

“If you insist,” Scar says like he’s not equally as antsy. He approaches with caution, careful to wade between any scattered feathers, then wiggles his fingers on either side of Grian’s head. “Any requests? Gentle? Deep tissue massage? Kisses or no kisses?” He hovers over Grian’s head as he asks, grinning.

Grian peers up at Scar, upside-down, and even though he appreciates Scar’s silliness and him offering choices, decision-making feels a bit overwhelming right now.

And yet as soon as he catches sight of Scar, he can’t help but tilt his head more, desiring more closeness. His hair submerges, obliging towards the task at hand, but there’s far more than that in the simple gesture: Grian’s throat is bare (so is the rest of him, to be fair) (exposed wings included), and there’s something eager about the way his lips fall slightly apart. “Kisses. Definitely kisses.”

Without hesitation, Scar leans down, smiling. “Oh excellent, that was my recommendation anyway!” He plants a kiss on Grian’s forehead to start, just a taste of what he’s offering, then threads his fingers into Grian’s flowing hair underwater, keeping his touch tentative for the time being.

Grian hums, both at the kiss and at the touch, a sound that reverbs in his throat. His wings spread a little more. He’s feeling pleasant and pleased, edging that state of melting into everything.

Scar starts by running his fingers through Grian’s hair, mapping out the territory and smoothing out his locks to make it easier for the proper cleaning.

Helpless to stop it, Grian finds his eyes falling shut again. Everything's so pleasant and lulling, he can almost imagine falling asleep here. (He's certainly tired enough for it, the dark bruising under his eyes speaking volumes about that.) He wants Scar to keep touching him, to keep brushing his fingers through his hair, to— to be here, in this, with him.

“Good?” Scar checks even though he knows the answer, his fingers still gentle; he wants to hear Grian say it, confirm that this is happening, that this moment is real amidst this server of hostility and cruelty.

“Good,” Grian purrs mindlessly.

Scar slowly adds more pressure, lightly scratching at Grian's scalp for maximum effect, trying to provide as much relief as he can.

Grian lets out little noises—sleep-laced, groggy little things—as he melts against every Scar's touch. He wants to tell him how really, really good it feels, but he can't find coherent enough words, nor make his vocal cords work. He just floats, in more ways than one. "'m sleep," he murmurs, as a warning.

He wants to look up at Scar, but his eyelids are heavy, his body gently bobbing in water that keeps him warm and relaxed. Scar continues effortlessly lacing his fingers through curls and working small bundles of hair through his fingertips to loosen any pesky dirt that's made home there, finding almost as much pleasure in this little routine as Grian does.

"Gosh, making it my job to keep you from drowning?" Scar scolds lightheartedly with absolutely no disdain. Truthfully, the wings might be working as enough of a feather floatie for Grian anyway, but Scar doesn't mind making up for where they slack.

"Mmmmhm," Grian confirms. His muscles are so lax. He forgot this was even possible. He hasn't felt pleasantly sleepy in so long—so many horrible dreams and endless fears and never-ending tension. This hot spring is tempting him to succumb to everything it offers, and Scar's hands are breaking the last of his resistance. "Won't let me..." he trails off, meaning to say won't let me drown. The sentense stays broken, sinking out of Grian's reach. "Trust," he murmurs, barely audible, word slurred with sleep.

Scar's about to ask who won't let him sleep, but understands that's not what's being said after he continues listening. He smiles. "Of course not," he confirms, lightly scratching behind Grian's earwings, a spot he himself took great relief from.

The scratch behind Grian's earwings sends something in him skittering and haywire in the best of ways. He chirps through the haze of sleep, unable to catch himself. His earwings flutter against the water, sending a small spray of droplets around them, but they settle back down quickly enough, limp like the rest of him. A drawn-out coo is coaxed from Grian's throat as he blindly tilts his head further into it, chasing the pleasant touch.

There's no tension to Grian’s expression, no fear marring the space between his brows.

It feels like a dream, if this world ever knew such a thing as good dreams.

Scar chews at his lip, swallowing down all the comments we wants to make about how adorable Grian is all relaxed and bird-brained. He's not so sure Grian is sleepy enough to resist groaning and quipping back at that, so he resists, wanting him to continue drifting.

He directs his fingertips over Grian's temple and to the top of his forehead, grazing his nails over the skin as gently as he can and massaging into the base of his hair. And he lingers. Keeps rubbing circles and tracing across Grian's hairline, taking his fine time as if he intended to clean each individual strand.

The way Scar is touching him would make Grian go positively insane if it wouldn't turn him into an incoherent puddle first. He hums, quiet, the sound barely there, edging dreamy delirium under Scar's attentive guidance.

He really does feel himself drifting, sleep latching on and consciousness waning. The combination of stacked-up tiredness and the wholly complete relaxation are taking him over and, before he even fully realises what's happening, he's completely limp, breath evening out.

He dips a little in the water, but stays mostly afloat anyway. Scar preemptively lifts one knee to catch Grian if his body starts to dip too far underwater, but he seems steady enough for the time being.

Content with his successful attempt to get Grian to relax, Scar goes for softer motions, just enough to keep the flow of pleasant sensations going without doing anything that could wake his sleeping bird.

After a minute or so, Scar sneaks a proper glance at Grian’s splayed out wings, how they fill the water around them with dirt and smaller pieces of debris. He has to resist plucking a twig from a close-by cluster of feathers, praying the water will do it for him. He settles for what he can do for now, not willing to abuse the trust Grian is offering him here by pushing his luck.

He hums a soothing, soft melody as he works, filling the space as he gets Grian’s hair clean, hoping to keep the avian’s sleep relaxed and nice. Without nightmares, for once. Warm and safe and spoiled.

Such strange concept for this world.

And yet even those things can exist here.

Scar watches his sleeping bird and he thinks that maybe there’s hope for them still after all.

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darksaiyangoku · 7 months

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RWBY Winter Tales

Witch of the Shadows

Blake walked along the path with her familiar, a shadow cat named Fergus. In the City of Vale, there were rumours of a Demon Knight that would appear during the blizzard and slay any unsuspecting travellers. She couldn't stand monsters like that and she agreed to hunt it down in exchange for a weekend at the Library of Forbidden Tomes. There was a treasure kept inside that was far more valubale than any gold in Remnant. Blake shivered violently as she stumbled in the snow.

Fergus; Are you sure you can handle yourself in this weather, my lady?

Blake: O-Of c-c-course. I-I-I'm perfectly f-f-fine.

For several more minutes, the two of them kept trudging along and all the while, the snow became thicker. Blake started to feel her feet soak with each step and it was making her uncomfortable. Unfortunately, she didn't know any fire spells to warm herself up. Fergus shook his head, disappointed in his mistress' lack of forsight.

Fergus: Tsk tsk tsk.

Blake: S-Shut up. A-Anyway, are we in the r-right area yet?

Fergus: We need to go further left. According the citizens of Vale, the Demon Knight's stronghold should be right over here. *runs*

Blake: What the- Fergus, get back here!

Blake tried to run after her familiar, but the deep snow was restricting her movement. She was struggling to keep up and the snowfall was becoming heavy, obscuring her vision. Suddenly, she tripped over what felt like a loose branch and ended up falling down a steep hill.

Blake: Agh!! Ow! *rubbing her head* Damn it! *turns around* Huh?

Blake was flabbergasted. In front of her was a small, decrepit stone house and on the windows were torn flags of a forked Imp. This couldn't possibly be the home of a demon, could it? Blake tried her best to stand up and, grabbing her wand, carefully walked inside.

It wasn't what she had expected at all. The inside of the house looked like a common living room. There was a table, a few broken chairs and a bookshelf. Sitting on a dusty bench was a young man stroking away at Fergus, who trilled delightfully. He had blonde hair, deep sapphire eyes and wore torn white tunic. His most distinguished feature, however, were his horns. He was a demon. Blake shook her head. She couldn't just attack him. Fergus didn't appear to be in any danger and he didn't look like he was a knight either.

Blake: Um, hello?

Demon boy: Huh? Oh. Hello there, witch. I didn't hear you come in. Why is it that you've come here?

Blake: Um... well, I... *lowers wand* I was sent to investigate the reports of a Demon Knight who was attacking unsuspecting travellers. I-I hate to ask, but do you know anything about it?

Demon boy: *shakes head* No, I don't. I was exiled from the Demon Knights 3 months ago.

Blake: Oh... I'm sorry.

Demon boy: It's okay. To be honest, they were a bunch of dicks anyway. By the way, is this your cait familiar?

Blake: Yeah, his name's Fergus. *snaps fingers* Return to me.

Fergus disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

Blake: Anyway, I know you're not a member of the Demon Knights anymore. But did you at least hear anything about the attacks?

Demon boy; Hmmm, if it was attacks on humans, I think I might know one in particular. His name is Cardin and he's... well, infamous is putting it lightly.

Blake: Why exactly is he infamous?

Demon boy: Put it this way, even among demons, he's quite brutal. No one escapes an encounter with him intact. He truly is a monster.

Blake: I see. *grips wand* I hate to ask, but would you help me in finding him?

Demon boy: Well, my combat skills are a little rusty. *stands up* But if you need my help, then I will gladly lend you my services.

Blake: Thank you, Mr...?

Jaune: Jaune Arc. *smiles*

Blake didn't know why, but seeing him smile made her heart flutter a little.

Jaune: Now then, *stands up* why don't you sit down and I'll get some dinner ready.

Blake: O-Oh no no no no, I couldn't possibly-

Jaune: Don't be silly, you just came in from the cold. A hot meal will do you some good. The kitchen's not perfect, but I can whip up something real nice. Do you like tuna?

Blake: YES! I mean- uh, tuna is good.

Jaune: Two tuna steaks with asparagus and mashed potatoes coming right up. *goes into the kitchen*

Blake's stomach grumbled as she heard the sound of pots, pans and the sizzling of the fish. Drool dripped from her mouth as the buttery scent touched her nose. She smiled excitedly. Maybe she had finally found the one.

#rwby #rwby winter tales #rwby au #witches #magic #blake belladonna #jaune arc #cardin winchester #knightshade #rwby knightshade #knightshade rwby #blake x jaune #jaune x blake #jaune arc x blake belladonna #blake belladonna x jaune arc #demons dragons and magic

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arwenkenobi48 · 8 months

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Been thinking about how I would rewrite Wish and here’s my thoughts so far:

King Magnifico is not a villain, period. Instead I decided to make him more akin to Merlin from The Sword In The Stone. He’s just a quirky old man with protective grandpa vibes.

Asha is already Magnifico’s apprentice at the start of the film and he fills in the role of a father figure in her life. They still disagree about the wish-granting ethics, but it’s way more amiable. Also Asha’s basically like “I’m not a little girl anymore” and Magnifico’s like “you’ll understand when you’re older”, etc. I can kinda see them having a similar vibe to how Twisted portrays Jasmine and Jafar tbh.

I decided to make the queen the main villain instead and very similar to the queen from Snow White. She manages to keep this facade of being a kind and generous ruler, but as Asha grows older, the queen finds it harder and harder to contain her jealously. She’s also subtly manipulative towards Magnifico as well.

I loved the concept of Star being a shapeshifter from the original draft of the project, so I decided to keep that element intact and make him Asha’s love interest. He’s somewhat like a gender switched Ariel, curious and excited to explore the human world and wanting to be a part of it.

I decided to change the context of the dark magic book corrupting Magnifico. As the queen becomes more and more unhinged, she starts trying to coerce her husband into doing her dirty work, but he staunchly refuses, so she uses the book to change him from a benevolent wizard to an archetypal evil sorcerer. She also does this to spite Asha because she knows how close their bond is.

In the end, it’s the queen who ends up trapped forever in the mirror and Magnifico is saved from her dark influence.

Asha’s character arc and Magnifico’s character arc are very similar as they both learn to admit when they’re wrong. Asha accepts that she still has a lot to learn and Magnifico learns to trust his apprentice with more responsibilities as she grows up.

Star’s one wish was to be human. He knows that that means giving up his immortality, but he’s ok with that because he would rather spend a finite life with Asha than be alone and live forever. His wish is granted and we get a closing narration from Magnifico (who also does an opening narration at the start) saying “…and we all lived happily ever after.” before closing the book that opened the movie.

I’m pretty sure there’s going to be other bits and parts but these are the ideas I have so far. Lmk what you all think! 👍

#wish rewrite #wish 2023 #king magnifico #wish star #wish asha #Disney rewrite #creative ideas #Disney wish

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tessarionbestgirl · 2 months

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I think is becoming even more apparent that tb is the boring team because even some normies on yt are commenting about it. Whatever why do you think this happens? Why they failed so hard to stablish tb as compelling characters as tg?

My friends that are Team Black also have told me the same thing. So yeah I share the feeling. Look I don't think people massively would turn to be tg or anything like that specially the normies, specially it still early in the show.

Whatever I think there is 2 major factors that play on this. First the actors. Tg have stronger actors as group than TB, and I say as someone that have nothing against Phobe, Harry or Bethany. But the actors on Tg are just in another level. Rhys and Tom are ridiculously charismatic that got even TB feeling sympathy or entertained by them. Even arguably the weakest actor on tg that is Fabien have been able to pull gold out of his character.

Team Black always have been carried by Matt, Emma and Steve. And doesn't help, the second factor that plays into this and is how the writers approach the teams.

Team Green despite Alicent being the core center of it, the writers approach them as not extension of Alicent but as individuals with their own personalities and motives. Their narrative core is much tighter because everyone has a play on to it, and this bring a level of tension that makes the audience engaged. Even Heleana, because of her nature as character you get interested when she show up on screen.

Meanwhile TB this season is approach as extension of Rhaenyra, and only is here to serve her as narrative tool, I don't even count Daemon become at this point he is so isolated that is easier to say he is his own team.

See for exemple Jace, why we didn't get a arc of him with Cregan despite the way they would profit with the popularity of the Starks? Because it doesn't serve Rhaenyra as character. Jace isn't a bad character but he would be mile away more interesting if we see his bromance with Cregan build up and his forbidden romance with Sarah Snow that could even bring a internal prospection in relation to one's own bastardy, than just see he going get allies in the twins for Rhaenyra. Even his romance with Baela, major of his interaction with her is about Rhaenyra in some form, and there is nothing romantically about it.

Rhenys, Baela and the white worm are just props for Rhaenyra with "strong woman" label put on to them. Rhaena arc have massively change for we know why. I am not even touching on this subject because I will pretend is not real when it happens.

Colarys may do something but will be like in the 2 left episodes of season if so and tb only will turn agaist him in similar fashion some people on tg does instead of enjoy the drama lol.

So is like, they wrote themselves in this corner this season with TB and I don't think they themselves realize that because they spend WAY much more time with TB than TG characters and they still failed to make them work as character. They are just there and they are boring because they add nothing to the storytelling besides moving the plot.

#house of the dragon #hotd #team green #aegon ii targaryen #aemond targaryen #helaena targaryen #anti team black #ser criston cole #fabien frankel #tom glynn carney #alicent hightower #hotd critical #hotd criticism #Anon ask #anti ryan condal #anti sara hess

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sleepyfan-blog · 2 months

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Malachai In the Snow

Author’s Note: This is the fourth part of a mini-arc in which Cedric will be (trying) to patch up injured Primaris Black Templars as they appear on Ancient and Holy Terra! For other adventures click here. First. Previous. Next. Thank you to @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan for allowing me to borrow Hura and Zariel! And thank you to @c-u-c-koo-4-40k for allowing me to borrow Pyrus!

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets @kit-williams @bleedingichorhearts @i-am-a-dragon34

Warnings: blood, injuries, character death, ask me to tag something if I’ve missed it/it bothers you

Summary: Jophiel comes to Cedric, with a prophecy of a dying brother on his lips.

“Cedric… Cedric I need you to wake up!” Jophiel called out as he shook his Brother-Cousin awake.

The young Black Templar grumbled a little wordlessly as he yawned and stared blearily at Jophiel “What is it? It’s really late…” He checked the clock, which read just past one in the morning. The Blood Angel was sniffling a little and shaking. Cedric frowned and pulled him in, hugging him tightly “Did you have a nightmare?”

“I… Sort of. Not really, because it’s a vision! One of the clearest I’ve had in a while.” Jophiel answered, shaking his head a little before burying his face in one of Cedric’s shoulders. He allowed himself a moment to compose himself, feeling safe in the Apothecary’s embrace.

“... Do you want to talk to me about it? Or should I get one of the older librarians, to help you try and figure out what the vision meant? From what you’ve told me, not all of the visions you have are straight forward, nor easily understood.” Cedric asked, reaching up and starting to run a hand through Jophi’s long blonde hair.

“That wasn’t the case for this one. I’m… I’m pretty sure I know what this one means.” Jophiel murmured, leaning more into Cedric. “Another Primaris Black Templar is going to be coming to Holy Terra soon. Snow was falling on his body, and his blood was staining the white. He was all alone as he died, beside a lake that had a view of a mountain, and there were trees everywhere.”

There were thousands of lakes across Holy Terra at this point in time, many of them having forests and mountains nearby, with snowfall being possible. “I… I see. Do you have any idea where on Ancient Terra he might show up? Or when specifically?”

“Remember that lake we found last week, while we were hiking through the woods? I… I’m pretty sure it’s that one, and I did check before waking you up. It gets cold enough in the winters here to snow on the valley floor.” Jophiel answered, voice shaking a little “But I know that I should probably report this vision to the older Librarians. They’ll be able to help me figure out better when and where this incoming brother is likely to land… And they have the pull to ensure that he’ll be found before he dies.”

Cedric’s first reaction is to try and convince Jophiel to stay quiet. That between the six of them they should be able to find whoever was near the edge of life and death before he died… But Terra was a large planet, and if their silence on this matter killed this Brother… His death would be on Cedric’s hands. “... If there are older librarians who you feel that you can trust with this vision… I trust you to spread this warning to those who need to know.”

Jophiel nods, frowning a little “I… There are a couple. And since, in my vision, he’s not got his full armor, it’s not like I need to tell them that this nearly-dead Brother is a Primaris Marine, necessarily. I.. I should be able to keep that part to myself. I think.”

Cedric nodded, leaning into Jophiel a little more “Alright. Do you feel the vision is urgent enough to wake them now?”

“Unless a freak snowstorm rolls in tomorrow, I don’t think so. It’s still early autumn, after all…” Jophiel murmured, yawning a little “It’s too far to get to my room… M’sleeeepy Ced!”

Cedric smiled a little, chuckling a little “Do you want to finish sleeping with me, then?” He knew how much visions took it out of Jophiel, especially on Ancient Terra, where the Warp was much more difficult to reach and use.

“Yes please…” Jophiel yawned, closing his eyes and promptly falling asleep.

Cedric smiled again, making sure that both of them could sleep relatively comfortably before falling himself to sleep as well.

Weeks later found Cedric as part of a patrol of Imperial Fists and Salamanders, as the group made their way to the lake mentioned in Jophiel’s vision. The weather forecast was predicting heavy snowfall, and it was apparently very cold to those who were warm-adapted. Cedric found the cooler temperatures invigorating and refreshing. There was a light breeze that rustled the ever-green pine and fir trees that they were walking between, and the late afternoon sun was being swallowed by dark clouds that promised heavy precipitation.

Pyrus was walking alongside next to Cedric, as his warband was visiting the base and nudged him a little “So, any ideas as to which time period this injured Brother might be coming from? Or chapter and/or legion?”

Cedric could answer those questions, from what Jophiel had told him. But should he? Jophiel had been as vague on the specifics of the marine in question apart from the dire state of his injuries and how under-equipped he was for the cold and snowy weather. “Jophie said that the armor he had left was a dark color, nearly black, where it wasn’t bloody or covered in snow.”

Pyrus hummed, nodding thoughtfully “Ah… That doesn’t narrow it down. Lots of chapters have darkly colored armor. Hopefully he reacts well to us, if he’s awake enough to realize we’re there. If he’s a Black Legionnaire we’re gonna have to use the tranq gun on him so he won’t try to murder us while mostly dead. Stubborn bastards.”

Snow began to fall from the sky, the whispery quality of the snowflakes falling on the ground and the tree branches were distracting. Watching the ground quickly become covered in snow where the trees did not provide shelter, or where the wind blew the frozen water. Cedric silently wished he could enjoy watching the snowfall, but he had a Brother to try and save. He hummed noncommittally. Part of him really did want to tell Pyrus what he knew of the injured Primaris marine who they were hopefully going to find in time, but doing so would reveal that Jophiel had deliberately withheld information and Cedric wasn’t about to throw him under the bus. Especially when he was the one to ask Jophiel to withhold that information. “Hopefully they will react well, or at least neutrally to our presence.”

“... Are you alright, Cedric? You seem a bit… Distracted?” Pyrus asked, squinting at him, concerned.

The young apothecary successfully suppressed his desire to fidget with his hands - which was a dead-giveaway for the uncertainty and worry running through his body and making his hearts race “I’m concerned for whoever we may find today. We marines are pretty tough, it takes a lot to-”

The direction of the winds shifted as Cedric was speaking, cutting him off as it brought with it the sharp, metallic scent of fresh blood.

All six of the marines on patrol stopped in their tracks, including Cedric himself, turning towards the source of the smell.

Cedric was the first to start moving, running as fast as the dense underbrush and trees would allow him, dodging around large patches of underbrush and jumping over and across the occasional fallen log or half-rotted tree stump.

It took both an eternity and no time at all for Cedric to find the badly injured Primaris marine. The other was leaning against the base of a tree, gold-flecked blue eyes focused on the partially frozen lake. He looked in Cedric’s direction as the apothecary reached over.

He smiled a little and rasped out “Good… Evening? Cedric. Is this the peaceful embrace of the Emperor? It’s… Beautiful.” Malachai asked, before turning partially and coughing, splattering the snow with his blood, vivid and dark against the white substance, even as the heat of his blood began to melt it. “Wish I hurt less, though.”

“Malachai, you aren’t dead, not yet. Where we are is a… Complicated situation. But stay still, I have a first aid kit, which will help me stabilize you. Then, with help, I can get you to a place where you can be properly treated.” Cedric answered, dropping down onto his knees next to his badly beaten brother, opening the kit and starting to clean and bandage his wounds.

Malachai chuckled and then coughed violently, his whole body spasming a little before he reached up with broken fingers to try and push Cedric away with what little remained of his strength “You shouldn’t. The fucker beat me with the intention of making me one of his grisly reminders for the rest of us.”

“He has no power here. Not really.” Cedric half-lied. While it was true that Petras wasn’t in control of Ancient Terra, he held a distressing amount of sway amongst certain Crusades of Black Templars, and he really didn’t want to find out what his reaction would be, should he discover that several of the marines he’d killed were on Ancient Terra, alive and aware of the depths of the chaplain’s cruelty.

“... Don’t. Don’t lie to me, Cedric.” Malachai gently scolded him, reaching up and squeezing one of Cedric’s shoulders, leaving bloody fingerprints on his jacket. “More astartes are coming. I don’t want you to be punished for trying to help me.”

“Those are a patrolf of Salamanders and Imperial Fists. They won’t punish me for trying to help you. The entire reason why I’m in this forest is to find and try and save you, Malachai. Stop resisting and let me help you!” Cedric hissed, hating the way that his eyes stung badly enough to blur his vision as tears streamed down his face. He continued to do his best to patch up the stubborn bastard wheezing at him “Things are different here. I haven’t been ordered to watch you die this time. So I’m not going to, if I can at all help it.”

Pyrus came barrelling into the clearing, followed closely by the rest of the mixed squad of Imperial Fists and Salamanders, their armor patterns showing that they were from multiple different time periods of the Imperium. The Salamander knelt down on the other side of Malachai and asked “What should I do to help?”

“Keep him still for me, please? He’s resisting treatment because of when he was brought to Holy Terra from.” Cedric instructed Pyrus.

“We… We’re on Terra? How is that… How is that possible?” Malachai wheezed, a stunned expression on his face.

“Short answer? Warp shenanigans. If you want the long answer, such as we’ve figured out, you’ve got to live to learn it.” Pyrus answered with an attempt at a reassuring smile on his face. “Are you a Black Templar, like Cedric?”

“Yes, I am.” Malachai rasped out. He nodded a little, before a whimper of pain left him. “I can’t. Feel my legs. The worst injury I got was on my back.” He paused for several seconds, closing his eyes and taking in several steadying breaths before continuing “Just above where the armor I was allowed to keep… I heard the snap of bone and a lot of pain before… Before everything went dark and I woke up here. I’ve tried moving my legs and… Couldn’t manage it.”

“... Fuck that’s right. I remember now. He’d snapped your spinal cord in three places. I’m… I’m surprised that you’re breathing as well as you are, given the locations of the breaks.” Cedric murmured before he could stop himself “We’re going to need to immobilize his neck and spine as much as we can, to avoid further damage. Would two of you please set up the stretcher, while everyone else helps me move Malachai? Once the stretcher is ready will need to be careful to move him at the same time, so I will provide a count down from three to one. When I say now after, we move him at the same time. Any questions?”

“Me, I have one. Why are you bothering? The bastard has decided that my mouthy bastard ways mean that I have to die. Why refuse him? I hurt sooo much where I’m not numb.” Malachai huffed, squinting up at Cedric.

“Mal, I mean this with all the love and care in my hearts, shut up. You’re being rescued and treated whether you like it or not. The one who did this to you has no power in the base we’re bringing to you, and it’s my job to keep you alive and as intact as I can.” Cedric growled at the other, eyes flashing in irritation and worry.

Malachai laughed until he started coughing, his body spasming with each cough. “Yeah, yeah. I know. M’ sorry, though. I don’t think I can… Hold on much longer. S’ cold and breathing hurts.”

“Why does it look like someone kicked his ribs with armored boots until they broke?” Pyrus asked, a frown on his face. “Among other things?”

“Because he was kicked by someone’s ceramite-clad boots until his bones broke. Now is really not the time for these sorts of questions Pyrus. Help me put this splint around his chest so that when we move him it doesn’t fuck up his back or lungs with the wandering bone shards more than they already have.” Cedric answered, having done his best to shut down his emotions and clinically look at the situation. “Ignis, Ralos, Sven, Pyrus I need you to lift his torso up several inches so I can get this splint under him on the count of three. Is everyone in position?”

“Ready.” Called out Ralos, the Imperial Fist sounded calm through his vox communicator.

“Ready.” Calls out Sven and Ignis, though both seemed concerned.

“Alright, alright. I’m in position, and ready for the count off.” Pyrus grumbled, moving so that he was in a useful spot.

“Three, two, one, up!” Cedric called out. The four marines were able to easily lift the injured Primaris at the same time and the apothecary applied the splint as quickly as he could.

Olik and Char were ready with the stretcher, so Cedric directed the four marines who were holding onto Malachai to pivot slightly as the stretcher was maneuvered so it was directly underneath the badly injured Primaris Marine and he was lowered back onto the stretcher.

Cedric aided in carrying Malachai to the nearby field surgery tent that had been set up, as the Librarians had divined that Malachi would die, if he were to be taken all the way back to the nearest hospital, even in one of the emergency flying vehicles. Cedric very much wanted to be part of the team who worked on trying to put Malachai back together but his hands were shaking too much from the adrenaline and guilt running through him.

It had not taken long for them to get to the field surgery tent. Cedric helped heave Malachai onto the surgical table.

The other Primaris marine shifted uncomfortably as several Imperial Fist Apothecaries approached him. “Cedric… What’s going on?”

“These Apothecaries are going to put you back together. I’m-” Cedric started before being cut off by Apothecary Melinth.

“You are going to be waiting outside of the tent, Cedric. You are too close to this patient to be working on them during such a delicate and risky procedures. Besides, I can see the way that your hands are shaking. Do you wish to risk his life?” The Imperial Fist asked bluntly.

Cedric swallowed hard and flinched back, eyes downward cast “No sir, I don’t.”

“Good lad. Leave the immediate area, while we sterilize the field and get to work. You’ve done well. We’ll do what we can for him.” Melinth ordered.

Malachai made a pained sound, one hand reaching out for Cedric “Wait… Please sir…”

Cedric hesitated before grabbing Malachai’s hand, gently squeezing it with both of his “Do what they tell you, alright? I’ll be right outside, waiting for you, once you’re out of surgery.”

“... You better be.” Malachai grumbled, managing to send a half-smile up at his brother.

“I will.” Cedric promised before letting go of Malachai’s hand, gently setting it back on the table and leaving the tent, his whole body shaking at the intensity of emotions running through him. He sat down heavily on a fallen log less than twenty-feet from the entrance of the surgical tent, listening to the shallow breathing and uneven stutter of Malachai’s hearts beating.

“Hey… Cedric… I couldn’t help but notice that you knew exactly how your fellow Black Templar had gotten injured. While I was running over, I caught something about a punishment… Do you… Do you want to talk to me about it?” Pyrus asked as he sat down next to Cedric, having appeared out of nowhere.

Cedric lost concentration on listening to Malachai’s. “... I’d really rather not.” The temptation to curl into a ball of self-loathing and recrimination was strong, but he was already being eyeballed by several firstborn marines as it was.

Pyrus, instead of taking the unsubtle hint to leave the topic alone, scooted closer to Cedric. The Salamander was pressed against Cedric’s side. “Was he on a penitent crusade, which is why he didn’t have his full armor?”

“... No, he hadn’t been sent on a penitent crusade. That would imply a measure of honor that he wasn’t afforded by the one who… Who did that to him. I really don’t want to talk about this right now. The last time I saw Malachai like that, he died in M42. I… I’m hoping that with more skilled apothecaries, his fate will be changed.” Cedric murmured, his shoulders hunching a little as he buried his face in his hands.

“... Aren’t Black Templars who taken on an Apprentice, like, super protective of them? And swear righteous vengeance against who or whatever killed their apprentice?” Pyrus asked, wrapping an arm around his friend’s shoulders.

“That is how it’s supposed to work. It doesn’t always.” Cedric admitted quietly. It felt almost as if he was betraying his chapter by admitting that much… But his hearts hurt and part of him was very tired of keeping the secrets that he was. Maybe… Maybe he should ask Arnault and Roland to have a quiet but serious conversation about certain matters. Maybe it would help?

Pyrus started to speak, but several crucial, subtle sounds that Cedric’d been straining to hear, even over the sounds of his conversation with the Salamander scout had stopped. The world narrowed unpleasantly and something was shaking him.

Wait.

Someone.

“Cedric. Cedric! Easy. I promise I won’t ask any more questions. You back with me, buddy?” Pyrus asked, a frown of concern on his face, his bright orange-red eyes seemingly peering directly into Cedric’s soul.

“I can’t. I can’t hear Malachai breathing. Or his hearts. They’ve. They’ve stopped. I can’t hear them anymore. I… I need to… I need to help them get him back.” Cedric heard himself say, as the many intense emotions screaming through his hearts nearly overwhelmed his mind. He was trying to stand, but something was keeping him sitting down.

Pyrus was still holding onto him. “Cedric, you need to calm down. I get that that’s probably one of the three things you want to hear least right now, but running into that surgical tent covered in forest germs and dirt isn’t going to do your Brother any good whatsoever, and you bursting in on them suddenly might startle one of the other apothecaries into making an unfortunate mistake.”

Cedric could feel the growl in his chest, and the desire to fight and claw his way over to his Brother as his body coiled and tensed… But his good sense kicked in, and the young Black Templar sighed unhappily and went limp in the other’s firm grip. “You’re right. Much as I hate to admit it. You’re right. I-”

Any other words or thoughts he’d been trying to say or think died abruptly as Apothecary Melinth walked out of the tent and headed towards him, a grim expression on his face.

“Apothecary Taniel, I am here to inform you that your chapter brother, Malachai has died. His injuries were too extensive for us to treat. Do you feel up to assisting us in harvesting the organs that can be utilized as well as his gene-seed, if it is still viable? You are allowed to refuse, if you feel you are not up to the task. Losing a Brother you’re close to is difficult.” Melinth informed him, no emotion showing on his face or in his voice. The other’s icy blue eyes staring down at him dispassionately.

Several ugly and likely untrue accusations lingered on the tip of Cedric’s tongue as he stared up at the firstborn Marine. Cedric had no proof that Melinth and the others didn’t try their utmost in order to try and save his life. The fact that he had died meant that they had access to more Primaris organs and geneseed to study and use as they saw fit. How… Convenient for them, to be able to have a second dead primaris marine to study to their hearts’ content. But he wasn’t going to say any of that, as it was an awful thing to accuse someone of baselessly. “MY hands are still shaky. However, once you’ve removed everything you think is of use and value out of him, please stitch up my dead brother and allow me to take the remains to Ramiel, so he can get his final rites.” He really hoped that his voice was as bereft of emotion as he had been aiming for, rather than the seething fury and implication he could hear within his own voice.

Melinth stared down at him for several seconds before answering with a flat and emotionless “That will be done, Apothecary Taniel.” And then the other left, turning on his heel.

Cedric was briefly tempted to lash out at the older Apothecary. To hurt him in a fraction of the ways that he and his Brothers had been hurt by at best uncaring and apathetic firstborn brothers. But the urge for violence passed when Melinth was out of his sightline.

“Hey… Cedric…Why don’t we go for a walk? It’s still snowing, and the forest is really beautiful right now. And some movement might help with sorting your emotions, yeah?” Pyrus gently prodded.

He shook his head “I want to be here when they are done usi-... Done with Malachai’s body, so I need to be here.”

“... Alright. Do you mind if I wait with you?” Pyrus asked, still holding onto Cedric.

Cedric was grateful for the half-restraint, half-hug. It was helping ground him “If you wish to stay with me, I have no complaints. I do like you, Pyrus… And the snow is lovely.” He watched the snowfall with Pyrus as he waited the seeming eternity it took for them to be done harvesting from his dead brother.

They were even kind enough to have sent a message to Ramiel, ten minutes before they were done, so that the young Chaplain in training could prepare everything and gather the others before Cedric arrived on base with the body.

#oc: malachai #oc: cedric #oc: pyrus #oc: Melinth #warhammer 40k #space marine husbandry sentience #my writing #space marine husbandry #black templar #imperial fist #salamander #oc: jophiel #blood angel

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imagitory · 5 months

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Hey all! So recently Wish was added to Disney+, and I thought it might be a good opportunity for me to watch it again for the first time since I saw it in theaters. I asked you all what I should write about after watching it, and in the end, the top answers were an analysis of the criticism surrounding Wish and something focusing more on the positive aspects of the movie, rather than just the usual mindless bashing.

So that's what I intend to write! A look back at some of the common criticisms I've heard about the film, and how much weight they actually have.

Now, before we begin, I should put in a disclaimer -- I don't particularly like Wish as a film. I think it had ridiculous amounts of potential that were likely hampered by corporate decisions, but I personally find it to be one of Disney's weaker animated films. That being said, as promised, I will make any critiques I do include as balanced as I can, and I will try to include praise where I can too.

So let's start!

"Asha is a badly written character because she has no character arc."

This is a critique I actually found on a list also discussing valid criticism of Wish, and I knew I had to include it, because even BEFORE I rewatched the movie, I thought it was a bit unfair. Because here's the thing: there are plenty of good films, Disney or otherwise, where the main character doesn't have/need a character arc. All of Walt's original three princesses, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, don't have character arcs. Ariel doesn't have an arc either -- instead her father Triton is the one who goes through a change of heart. Neither does Pongo, or Basil of Baker Street, or Robin Hood. Indiana Jones doesn't go through any real character development in Raiders of the Lost Ark, yet he was interesting enough to inspire a whole movie series! with mixed results. The important part is that even if a main character doesn't develop personality-wise, we should still be able to root for them and want them to achieve their goal. We don't want Cinderella to be abused by her stepfamily -- we want her to find someone who loves her and will take care of her the way she takes care of others. Although it can be more interesting to give your characters an arc while they pursue their goals, it isn't necessary to tell a good story or write a compelling character. Sometimes a story can be more focused on how their life circumstances or environment changes around them.

Another criticism this leads into is the idea that Asha is just another "quirky female lead" a la Rapunzel, except without any background that justifies it. And well...plenty of people griped that Anna was too much like Rapunzel, when Frozen came out. I saw people compare Moana to both Rapunzel and Mulan, when her film came out. Mirabel was also compared to past Disney heroines like Anna and Rapunzel. Even before Wish came out, people tried to argue that Asha looked just like Isabela Madrigal, which was just ridiculous. There's plenty of bad-faith criticism out there that'll shallowly associate one character or story element with one trope exclusively without looking at any nuance or detail. And I think most people would agree that truthfully, none of these female characters are the least bit "the same," no matter how much someone might try to all boil them down to "the quirky Disney female lead." And, like the others, Asha has traits that set her apart. The big one for me is her bent toward social justice, which is something we haven't really seen in a Disney leading lady since Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even so, I admit that Asha's quirkiness isn't as justified by her backstory as the trait is by Rapunzel's isolation or Mirabel's "outcast" status in her family, and that does make it so that her characterization has less depth than those of some of her counterparts'. Does that make Asha a bad character? Of course not. If you like Asha as written, that's totally fine. Underdeveloped doesn't have to mean unlikable.

"There are too many characters in this movie!"

Even I've been a bit guilty of thinking this. I still feel as though the film would've saved a lot of space if some aspects of Asha's friend group had been redistributed to other characters. Like okay, you want to reference the Seven Dwarfs in Asha's inner circle, but give them all distinctive personalities? Have her mother fill the Bashful role, and cut Bazeema. Have her grandpa be Happy, and cut Hal. Have Valentino be your Grumpy role, and cut Gabo. Have Star play your Dopey, and cut Dario. Suddenly you only have three characters -- Simon, Safi, and Dahlia -- to introduce in that kitchen scene instead of seven, and you've also now given Asha's mum, grandpa, and sidekicks more personality as well!

That being said, the amount of characters truly isn't the problem. The real problem is time. Because let's be honest, we can ALL think of media with a large cast of characters we've become strongly emotionally invested in. The Lord of the Rings -- The Avengers -- Hazbin Hotel...but the difference is how much time the audience is given to get to know all of these characters. Even Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which has a cast of eleven, ends up leaving the Prince and the Huntsman rather underdeveloped compared to the Dwarfs. We don't ever learn the Evil Queen's whole deal or even her name, and she gets a lot of focus! With Wish only being ten minutes longer than Snow White with a cast of fourteen, it's little wonder the filmmakers struggled to have all fourteen of them leave a strong, unique impact. Even when I first watched the film, I didn't feel anything negative toward Asha's friend group -- if anything, I was happy to see a Disney animated female lead with a friend group of her peers, since the closest we'd gotten to that previously was Hiro in Big Hero 6 and Mei in Pixar's Turning Red. All of Asha's friends had the potential to be very interesting people, and that's why it's sad that we didn't get to see more of them and have the chance to become invested in them as individuals.

"Magnifico was actually right the whole time! Asha is the REAL villain of the story."

I see this one a lot, both from people who disliked the movie and fans who stan Magnifico, and as much as I won't give anyone a hard time for liking Magnifico, I think this view isn't really fair to either character or to the story the filmmakers pretty clearly wanted to tell. And sadly, as much as I want to be positive, I think this interpretation comes about partly because of inconsistent writing on the filmmakers' parts.

In Welcome to Rosas, there is this utopic vision presented of the island -- one that only reinforces the story told to us at the beginning by Asha, of how this man who loves wishes learned powerful magic so he could found this idyllic island kingdom with his wife where he could make wishes come true. Unfortunately, for some viewers, I think that propaganda works a little too well -- making us see Rosas as a place that truly is that happy and content and peaceful. And yeah, that does make it so that when Asha sings about how she wants "more than this," that could make her come across as rather selfish and entitled. But I think there are a few things that are good to remember --

Welcome to Rosas is framed as an advertisement of sorts -- like one of those commercials you see promoting Disneyland and how magical it is, without ever bringing up how much money it costs or how many lines you'll have to stand in. Asha's guiding some new people around with the goal of convincing them to stay and give their wishes to Magnifico, so of course it's going to sanitize the kingdom and make it seem like a place you'd want to stay in. There's blatant hyperbole thrown in there for dramatic effect, like the idea that you could go to outer space. Asha even sings that you're "unlikely to be unhappy": not that you'll be happy living on this island, just not unhappy. And yes, there is a difference between contentment and true, fulfilling happiness.

Simon's friends flat-out call him boring, after he turned eighteen and gave up his wish. This foreshadows what we learn about the wishes later, which is that they're a core part of a person that they're left a shadow of themselves without. At the wish ceremony later on, we can see this in the animation of the two "new citizens" giving their wishes to Magnifico. When they think of their wishes, they're full to the brim with joy, but when they've given them up, they're left looking confused and almost bereft, and even as everyone else cheers, they look unconvinced by the crowd's cult-like "forget without regret" chant. According to Wish's own canon, you're cutting out the "heart" of who you are, when you give up your wish.

Considering Amaya says that Asha will need to keep the tea hot, listen whenever and for however long Magnifico wants to talk, and never question anything, Magnifico didn't want an apprentice -- that would insinuate he'd actually be teaching them magic. If anything, it sounds more like he wanted a personal servant to cater to his whims. And when that person interviewing before Asha disappoints him, he's left running down the hall crying hysterically. This develops Magnifico as the film's future antagonist. Already long before he uses the evil magic book, we see that he wants a subordinate to do whatever he wants without question or complaint, seemingly for nothing in return except his own approval and, I would presume, some sort of paycheck. (I mean, I'm not saying Asha was right to expect favors from Magnifico so soon, or that that kind of quid-pro-quo stuff isn't corrupt as heck, but considering she and Magnifico did seem to connect over how important the wishes were, and considering Sabino's 100 years old, can you blame Asha for opening up about her hope that Magnifico would consider granting her grandfather's wish? She never framed it as a quid-pro-quo, and this probably would be the best chance she'd have to appeal to the King directly.)

Asha is seventeen! Of course her world view is going to be smaller and more idealistic than Magnifico's, and of course her family is going to be the center of her world. At the same time, even if Asha is young, it doesn't mean her perspective isn't worthy of compassion and respect. Sometimes the young do have a more meaningful view of a situation than their elders -- just look at David Hogg, or Malala Yousafzai, or Greta Thunberg...hell, even Anne Frank! However upset Magnifico was about Asha disagreeing with and contradicting him, it does not justify how pettily he decided to shut her down. He was an adult, and a ruler besides: it behooved him to act like one.

The filmmakers clearly envisioned Magnifico as the villain. Even if you want to ignore the promos where they compared Magnifico to the likes of classic Disney villains, Magnifico is portrayed as an arrogant, vain, vindictive control freak. He thinks only he knows what's best for everyone else, has decreed that only he has the authority to cast magic or grant wishes, and knows how beautiful people's wishes are, but prefers to hoard them away like trinkets, long before realizing that crushing them gives him power. (Not to mention he looked at Asha's hand-drawn animation and actually said, "Do we call that a talent?" I mean -- excuse you!) I've even heard some people theorize that Magnifico was based off Disney's "collect-'em-all" CEO himself, Bob Iger, and not in a flattering way. His main argument scene with Asha has been compared to how creatives have felt about their corporate bosses abruptly shutting down and locking away their incomplete films rather than let them be finished or released. Admittedly Wish also goes out of its way to try to make Magnifico sympathetic by giving him the slightest of tragic backstories, having him actually trust Asha enough to show her the wishes after only just meeting her, and (later on) not giving into the temptation of the random evil magic book because Amaya asks him not to, and that definitely muddies the waters. I still have to stand by the fact, though, that one's motivation doesn't excuse their bad behavior, however much one can explain the other. Magnifico having a sad backstory or trauma doesn't mean he's justified in treating people poorly, collecting wishes for his own enjoyment instead of truly loving them and the people they're attached to by sharing them with others, or not wanting people to ever question him or his authority. Magnifico's "nicer" moments don't mitigate these things either. Nor does his role as king. Even if yes, the story could've done well to add more nuance to the idea of wishes and make clear that not all of them are good -- and yes, the story could've either made Magnifico's villainy a bit more straightforward or followed through with the idea of Magnifico being a misguided anti-villain...in this film, we only see good wishes represented in Rosas. Magnifico even calls the wishes "the very best part [of a person]" -- and so one can only presume that all of the wishes Magnifico's collected are that way. Asha even suggests (before Magnifico interrupts her) that if a wish is dangerous, they could probably address that, while still giving back the wishes Magnifico won't grant. And the wish that Magnifico explicitly calls too "dangerous" to grant is Sabino wanting to inspire future generations, presumably through music. Paranoia on Magnifico's part? Perhaps, but also unjustified, in the context of the film. When Star comes down, every last person in Rosas -- including Magnifico's wife and queen, Amaya, who presumably must know something of his trauma and understand wanting to protect their people -- feels nothing but warmth, hope, and joy: all except for Magnifico, who immediately reacts in fear just seeing the wishes moving outside of his control. This insinuates that Magnifico's perception is the odd one out -- he's the only one who's afraid and not inspired, because that alternative magic threatens his absolute rule and control. Just like he's threatened by his people asking too many questions about the wishes he's taken. Just like he's threatened by the idea that Sabino could inspire the next generation in a way he doesn't approve of. And in the end, if that random evil book did corrupt Magnifico, it only magnified what was already there inside of him -- a greedy, obsessive need to hoard things away all for himself and to control others.

Again, for those people who see Magnifico more sympathetically than the filmmakers intended, I can understand why. Wish has two very conflicting ideas of who Magnifico is supposed to be, likely because it was compiled from dramatically different script drafts. But I feel demonizing Asha or ignoring the film's overall message about the value of people being free to chase their dreams to try to prop Magnifico up is misguided.

"Wish is bad because it's 'woke.'"

I almost wonder if I even need to say anything. This sentiment is so disingenuous, it seems like I should really be able to let it speak for itself. Ironically enough, though, I would actually argue that one of Wish's biggest shortcomings is that it isn't as revolutionary as it clearly wants to be.

For one, the culture of Rosas -- inspired largely by Spain and the Mediterranean -- is really never explored. We get no real influence of either of those cultures on the soundtrack aside from a few mandolins and a flourish of castanets now and again, unlike how Encanto embraces Colombia or how The Princess and the Frog celebrates New Orleans with their music. There's a lot of diversity in Wish's cast with a biracial lead and her colorful friend group (including Dahlia, who has a crutch!), but that would be a lot more meaningful if that diverse cast of characters had had fully fleshed-out personalities and relationships that made us emotionally invested in them, such as how Turning Red handled Mei and her friend group. We have aspects of social justice in Wish's storyline, sure -- but as much as you can draw parallels to Wish's story and the writers' strike that had been going on earlier that year and I think those parallels are striking, a film that clearly dealt with so much corporate oversight and meddling almost couldn't commit to making their villain a True Evil sort, and in the end, Rosas doesn't even do away with the absolute monarchy at the end of their supposed "revolution": it just shifts leadership from its King to its Queen. (And yes, I acknowledge saying "no more royalty" is a message that Disney, of all companies, would be hesitant to put out there, but you can't deny, it would've been both ballsy and different.)

Does this mean Bob Iger was right, that Wish is proof its creative types are focusing too much on message and not on entertainment? No. I'd say the bigger problems with the film were more likely caused by corporate interference -- you know, like hiring some popular pop composers to write songs that can be repackaged into other projects easily rather than primarily tell the story and develop the characters. Or deciding that our main female lead has to be able to do everything on her own without "too much help" from her main co-star (LOL, pun) because "feminism." Or defanging the villain with similarities to the company's CEO so he won't scare the kiddos. Or even animating the film at the exact same time as you're writing it like you previously did with Frozen II, to save time and take advantage of the 100th anniversary timing.

Even so, I sadly can't help but feel that Wish is "woke" largely in a performative sense. It features people who look different from each other and it talks about revolution and positive change, but it really doesn't go far enough to depict diversity in a way that people can get really excited about it or inspire deep thought and even maybe positive change in its audience. That's not focusing too much on message and not on entertainment -- if anything, it's more indicative of not giving the relevant and timely themes and the diverse culture enough focus.

"The meta Disney references are awful."

This one I think really is much more subject to personal taste. I've heard quite a few fans say how fun it is to find all the Easter eggs for other Disney projects or even to theorize how Wish could be connected to those movies in some kind of Disney Cinematic Universe. Personally I'm not in this camp, but that doesn't mean that I hate all the references included. The film opening with the exact same kind of text from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs actually made me smile. The Sleeping Beauty-esque drawing style in the storybook was pretty. Even the Seven Friends as an idea I thought was cute, when I first saw the concept art for them.

By and large, the references I tend to see more favorably are the ones only hard-core Disney/animation fans would pick up on. This might make me sound snooty, but I still personally enjoy references like Star's design being based on one of the star cherubs from a discarded Snow White sequence far more than I do the more blatant ones like Magnifico crushing a dream about a "perfect nanny" or the boy dressed like Rosasbound!Peter Pan. I guess for me, the first kind of references feel more like homages, rather than things that are deliberately supposed to make you think of other Disney movies you could be watching instead of this one. For other people, though, thinking of different Disney films while watching Wish is fun, and it reminds them of how much they enjoy those other movies too. It's good, clean, nostalgic entertainment. And well, Disney has put plenty of Easter eggs in its work before, though usually a bit more sparingly.

So yeah, I think ragging on the flood of Disney Easter Eggs in Wish is a bit unfair. As much as most of them aren't for me and I would've been happier with a lot less of them, I know there are other people who find joy in them, and I'm happy they do. The animators working on this film undoubtedly had a lot of fun including those references too, and I don't blame them! It's fun to create art celebrating what you love with like-minded people.

"Wish's songs are all terribly written."

Now up to a certain point, I could just say exactly what I said against the last criticism -- that this really comes down to personal opinion. Unlike meta Easter eggs, however, music is an art form, and there is real craftsmanship to it -- hell, people study music theory for a reason. And as several Youtubers have discussed before, there are real structural problems to how a lot of these songs are written. In some cases, it's an issue of cadence, where the way the words are sung don't sound like how they'd be naturally spoken aloud. In Knowing What I Know Now, for instance, sometimes the singers use the wrong emphasis on certain words, just based on where they land in the song, such as when Asha sings about Magnifico showing his "TRUE col-ORS in SHADES of GREEN," even if people don't naturally emphasize the second syllable in the word "colors." In other cases, it's over-stuffing a line with words so that the melody line isn't as memorable, such as in This Wish where the amount of syllables per line are all over the place and sentences get cut in weird places --

Isn't truth supposed to set you free? (9) Well, why do I feel so weighed down by it? (10) If I could show them everything I've seen, (10) Open their eyes to all the lies, then (9) Would they change their minds like I did? (8) But when I speak, they tell me, "Sit down!" (9) But how can I when I've already started runnin'? (8) Oh, this is where we've been, (6) But it's not where we belong, (7) And I may be young, but I know I'm not wrong... (11)

There are also cases where the songs barely use any actual rhymes in favor of half-rhymes or worse twist themselves into pretzels just to make an actual rhyme, such as in I'm a Star, with lines such as "When it comes to the universe we're all shareholders // Get that through your system! (Solar!)" and "Ooh, I'm a star! // Watch out, world, here I are!" (Excuse me while I cringe.) And then of course, most infamously, there are the redundant and otherwise weird lyric choices, most commonly cited in Magnifico's And This is The Thanks I Get?!, such as "I got these genes from outer space!" and "I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent!"

By and large, people have not responded as well to Wish's soundtrack as they have for many other Disney musicals. It could also be argued that the songs don't tell the film's story as well as they could've. The most egregious example of this is At All Costs, which is supposed to be our villain and hero singing about the beauty of the wishes the first has collected, but was literally written as a love song first, just because Julia Michaels wanted to write a song that could be played at people's weddings even if the movie in question didn't feature any romance. Even This Wish was written well before the script was finished, and this is when we can tell from all the concept art released by Disney that this movie had been dramatically rewritten at multiple stages of development.

And yet even with this, I still see people making animatics for At All Costs featuring their own characters or Asha and the discarded Starboy concept. (And yes, we'll come back to that.) I still see fan-made music videos featuring This Wish. Hell, even I have some of Wish's songs on my IPhone, and I listen to them actively! Knowing What I Know Now, as much as I see what's technically wrong with it, is still a bop for me. However much I had to take a full-on sanity break after listening to I'm a Star a second time, I do enjoy This Wish and At All Costs, just on their own. I don't think This Wish (reprise) is a bad musical or thematic climax, especially if one considers Magnifico's fear that Sabino's wish was to inspire the next generation through music, and it ends up being a song -- sung by his loving granddaughter -- that ultimately defeats our antagonist. I don't think any of Wish's songs really help tell the story as well as other Disney songs do for their films, but I still think there's room for personal taste here. Music -- like all art -- still has an element of subjectivity. It isn't a science -- yes, there is talent and skill involved that can only be mastered with practice and hard work, but there's still a bit of magic that comes with the finished result, and as much as it might not be popular with the masses, that doesn't necessarily make something worthless, or that public consensus can't change. Tchaikovsky famously hated the work he did for The Nutcracker, as did the critics of his day, only for it to go on to become a staple of holiday entertainment and ballet productions overall. Plenty of cult classic films like Labyrinth and Heathers didn't make a lot of money or get lots of praise when they first came out, but soon enough they found their audience.

"The animation is lazy!"

There's actually a much better video discussing this, made by a real professional animator, and I think I'll just let him handle this.

youtube

One thing I want to touch on, though, is Jennifer Lee's commentary about why Wish ultimately wasn't done in 2D animation --

"What happens in hand-drawn is that you have the incredible hand of the artist, but also limitations in what you could do on screen. What happened in CG is you'd have incredible, boundless opportunities, visually, that elevated it — even to the point for some — into realism, which is not what we wanted to do. The more important thing to us was to have a way to find technology that can do everything. Connect to the true vision of the artist, but bring in technology that could finally take away limitations."

-- and yeah, I'm not going to lie, this sentiment leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. The idea that hand-drawn animation somehow limits what art you can create is mind-boggling for anyone working in animation to think, but especially for someone working in Disney animation. I can't help but feel like Uncle Walt would've been ticked if he'd heard anyone suggest this. Anyone who loves animation I think would be annoyed by it, and I'd say people like Hayao Miyazaki continue to prove that Lee's thought process isn't true, considering that his hand-drawn film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature the same year that Lee's Wish was passed over by the Academy altogether. To be fair, though, this is more a reflection on certain Disney leaders' dismissive attitude toward the medium that built their company as well as the vast majority of the films they're supposedly celebrating, rather than any condemnation of the hard-working animators who worked on Wish. And yes, although no one can argue that Wish ultimately doesn't look as good as its animated peers like Sony's Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse (which was made with half the budget Wish was), that's more the fault of a flawed vision on the part of the filmmakers than anything. It's certainly not indicative of a lack of talent, resources, or caring from the animators themselves.

"Wish would've been so much better if it had featured a love story between Starboy and Asha!"

Okay, let me pop this bubble right now --

None of Disney's official releases have ever indicated Star was going to be Asha's love interest.

The concept art featuring Asha and human!Star? Yeah, that exists, but there's nothing strictly romantic in any of those concepts, like them kissing or even hugging. At All Costs originally supposedly being a love song for Asha and Star? As touched on above, nope, it was even more of a cynical corporate decision than that -- the songwriters just wanted to write a love song that they could repackage and use elsewhere, even if there was no love story to go with it. The thing about Asha and Star supposedly being soulmates? That's derived from a comment in the artbook from Wish co-writer Allison Moore, talking about Asha and Star in their current forms, and so therefore the sentiment was intended platonically --

"Now Star and Asha have an emotional journey. They are soulmates."

And well, just based on a good chunk of the Disney animated films that had come out prior to Wish featuring male and female leads -- Zootopia, Moana, Big Hero 6, Wreck-It-Ralph -- there was really nothing definitive to suggest that our two central characters were going to be romantically linked. And even if Star and Asha were going to be love interests, that still would've been no guarantee of a better movie -- you'd still need compelling, well-developed characters, if you want to likewise have a compelling, well-developed relationship between them. And as I've argued in the past, a movie doesn't need romance to be good. If someone could feel sincere platonic love between Star and Asha as their actual movie selves, then any romance between them wouldn't be needed. I truly believe the only reason that so many people have gotten so hung up on the idea of a Star/Asha romance is because that original platonic "soulmates" idea Allison Moore and others envisioned just didn't ring true for them. They saw more love and interesting chemistry between the original concept art versions of Star and Asha than they did between any of the characters in the finished film...and so they've built upon those flickers of love with their own imagination and then built that mental image up into something that I don't think the filmmakers probably ever intended.

I must be honest, it was kind of a slog, watching Wish for a second time. I stopped multiple times to take notes, unable to just sit back and let the movie wash over me. Even so, I truly appreciate how much time you must've spent to skim through this way-too-long analysis, as well as the votes you all cast in that one poll of mine! I love analyzing Disney, and as much as I don't love Wish, I do think it provided great fodder for new fan creations and has amazing potential as an educational tool about both good storytelling and film-making. And if there are more criticisms of Wish you'd like me to discuss, please feel free to reblog this post with them! Thank you for your support!

To close us out...if you love Wish, then keep on loving it! Don't let anyone -- including me -- tell you otherwise. I don't think a film that was truly the worst thing ever would've attracted as much attention or overanalyzing as Wish has received. And for those of you who are still dissatisfied with Wish, here's a list of films I compiled that you can watch and enjoy instead!

For Starboy/Asha stans...Stardust!

For both Starboy and Chris Pine stans...Rise of the Guardians!

For those of you who love the idea of storytelling magic...Whisper of the Heart!

For those of you hungry for a diversely cast, "woke" fairy tale...Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997)!

For people looking for a colorful, family-friendly musical...Wonka!

For avant-garde animation fans...Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio!

For modern CG animation fans...Puss in Boots: The Last Wish!

And finally, probably most obviously -- for those Disney fans looking for a loving tribute to 100 years of Disney Animation with a bunch of Easter Eggs and good humor...Once Upon a Studio!

Much love to you all! 💛

#disney wish #wish (2023)#wish critical #disney #opinion #analysis #oh boy here i go

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blackcat419 · 3 months

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Hotd S2 E1 A Son for a Son review

It's here. Two years weight and I'm more disappointed than a vegan at Outback Stake House. Lets get into this then.

Predictions for Season 2 and if they came true

My predictions for the reactions towards Blood and Cheese were pretty damn on. People justify Jaehaery's death, missing the irony of an eye for an eye, a son for a son, when Aemond didn't get Luke's eye and Jaehaerys isn't Aemonds son, Alicent being blamed for it.

Blood and Cheese was an accident, meant to go in for Aemond, stumbled upon Helaena, and just got told who the son is, at least they didn't accidentally trip and stab Jaehaerys.

White walkers are alluded to even though we now know they're so easy to take care of, just need one episode and POOF!

No Dyana mention so we'll see if she shows up.

Where we left each character and where they are now

For TB its very consistent. Rhaenyra is mourning Luke, Daemon is pushing for war, Rhaenys is pushing for no war, and Corlys is pushing to be relevant.

For TG its all over the place. Our consistent characters include Otto pushing for war and control, Alicent pushing for control but less war, and Larys pushing to hold the most secrets any person can. Our characters that have changed are Aegon now wanting to be king and trying to prepare Jaehaerys, Aemond deciding he totally did mean to kill Luke, Alicent changing from rule follower to now rule breaker, and Cole deciding he does like sex actually.

Aegon and Aemond's transitions make sense, they were set up in last season and it works for them. Alicent and Cristin are in a full-blown sexual relationship that's been going on long enough for them to feel comfortable doing it in mid-day. That was not set up. We miss an entire character arc for both where they 1. decide they don't want to follow the rules society tells them to and 2. decide they want to bone. This was not set up in season 1, it comes out of nowhere, there is no explanation for why these two are boning now, how they justify it to themselves, if they justify it to themselves, nothing. So instead of an interesting character arc where we see change, we just get the end with no idea how they go here. Thanks, I hate it.

Conflicts

Again, for TB the conflict is consistent from season 1 and makes sense. Rhaenyra is being pulled by her duty to the realm for peace but by her grief for war. Daemon is pushing for war, Rhaenys is pushing to not start the fight, and Corlys is there too.

But for TG it's all over the place. We still have the dumb conflict between Alicent and Otto over how much war we'll have. Not between peace and war but just, should we have more or less? it's not even really about involving the dragons as that's Aegon and Aemond's position. Overall, Alicent and Otto's conflict is poorly thought out and their positions hold so little difference that it borders on meaningless.

The conflict between the two groups is who will strike the first blow. We already have one kid dead and a blockade but we are still waiting for someone to act. wow, so intense much drama.

Adaptation from the Book

The main parts of the book being adapted are Jace's visits to the Vale, the sisterlands, White Harbor, and his stay in the north. Rhaenyrs finds out about Luke's death, and blood and Cheese.

The only part done well is Rhaenyra's grief over Luke's death. It is so powerful and Rhaenys saying that she can't properly grieve until she knows Luke is dead is very powerful. Jace has an amazing trying to talk while he cries scene, the funeral pyre is so emotional, and very well done in showing how much losing Luke affects these characters.

I am very disappointed that Jace's whole storyline going north is turned into exposition about Stark customs and the wall being so sexy and cool. No Jace and Cregan being friends, no Jace trying to convert Cregan, not even Jace hooking up with Cregan or Sara Snow. just nothing.

Blood and Cheese has to be the worst thing I've seen in a while. We have Daemon telling them to kill Aemond but it is ~ ambiguous ~ whether he said to kill Jaehaerys. We have Rhaenyra saying she wants Aemond dead but it is ~ ambiguous ~ if she knows Daemon is doing this. Blood and Cheese literally walk past Aegon in the throne room? No secret passageways into the queen's chambers, no plan, no nothing! they just happen to find Helaena. We also lose the character development of Helaena where in the books she offers up herself to be killed and only after Blood and Cheese say they'll rape Jaehaera and kill all of them, does she give in and choose Maelor to die. We don't get their cruelty of telling Maelor his mom wants him dead and then killing Jaehaerys. No, Helaena just offers up her necklace, they take it, then AFTER she knows they're going to kill her son (one of them says they need a head and a son for a son), she just walks out and runs into Alicent riding Cristin? Why? Where is the tension of Helaena being forced to choose a child to die only for that child to know their mom chose them, the drama of Helaena offering up herself to try and save her kids, the horror at what these monsters are willing to do for coin? Nothing. It was emotionless, I only felt shock at how poorly it was done.

Overall Enjoyment

I did not enjoy myself. This was not fun or interesting to watch. The showrunners are scribbling over a beautiful sketch with crayons.

What I hope for the next episode

NO MORE ACCIDENTS! I swear this show is the house of accidental war crimes.

I want to see Nettles, Daeron, and Maelor.

I want actual character development instead of character teleportation.

I predict that Alicent's character will continue to be massacred and put in scenes where Ryan Condal can see Olivia Cooke naked.

#hotd #house of the dragon #House of the Dragon Season 2 #Hotd episode 1 #a son for a son #hotd review #hotd season 2 #D&D did a better job telling B&C with less time

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ultraericthered · 25 days

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The Dark, Twisted Tragedy Of Queen Nehelenia

While I really like Queen Nehelenia as the Evil Queen/Maleficent hybrid incarnation of nightmares and darkness from Takeuchi's work, I still gotta give credit to the 90's Toei SuperS anime incarnation of the queen, who was every bit as malevolent and frightening but, with the alterations made to her, is also layered and so damn fascinating on top of that, and I find the tragedy of her character arc to be so heartrending, so disturbing, so haunting, that I had to post about it. Disclaimer: this is purely about Queen Nehelenia from the Dream Arc covered in Sailor Moon SuperS, not the one from the Nightmare Arc of Sailor Moon Stars, which does not exist for me

The backstory for Queen Nehelenia in this series is that she comes from "the other side of the Moon", really a small asteroid that orbited Earth's moon. She was so renowned and adored for her ravishing beauty by all the other inhabitants of this dominion that she was made the ruler of the colony kingdom formerd there, a kingdom with a bright, colorful party/carnival theme to it. The young queen was praised 24/7 for how beautiful she was and routinely spoiled by her rettainers with parties and gift giving in her honor. As you'd expect, this made her very vain, sheltered and flighty, but she was far from a bad person. She actually seems quite sweet, generous and demure, more of a Snow White than a Queen Grimhilde. However, one of the gifts she was given was a very particular...shall we say magic mirror.

And since the mirror was believed to be magic, she does the whole "mirror mirror" thing and wishes to see her future, wishes to know that she is still beautiful and loved by all for many years to come. But instead, a haggard, wrinkled, hideously worn face emerges from the darkness behind the looking glass. In retrospect, we can classify this as the original Zirconia, the first distorted reflection of Nehelenia.

Not only is Nehelenia's reflection aged and hideous, but she begins to see the room around her changing to how it would look years in the future, decaying and full of cobwebs threaded across everything. Upon realizing that the ugly old hag in the mirror is her reflection and is representative of her in the far future, Nehelenia freaks out and has a nervous breakdown as she then starts hearing the voice of the hag in the mirror speaking to her: "Always remember not to forget, a child's dream is a dream that they should never get." Over and over.

Now what I find so sad about this is that what I believe is really going on here is that the mirror, though cursed and twisted by evil power, is displaying to the young queen the worst possible version of her future; a future where her dream, to stay beautiful and loved by all forever, fails to come true. It's not a future that's absolutely set in stone, but it's a possible future should Nehelenia set her life down a certain course. The words she hears, the "Always remember not to forget..." rhyme, are telling her that if she, growing up from childhood into adulthood, does not grow up her dream along with herself, instead clinging to the exact same dream she had as a child, then that very dream will be unattainable. Which makes sense seeing as you cannot fight or stop aging, it happens to everyone. Perhaps if Nehelenia found a new, more feasible dream to work towards, it would make her happy and she'd not age as poorly as what the reflection showed her. But instead, Nehelenia just stood in front of the mirror for longer periods, watching her reflection go from young to old to back young again to back old again to young again, and it entranced her, misleading her mind and corrupting her heart, the darkness of the mirror and her own heart's darkness becoming one.

From Queen Nehelenia's spirit bonding with the mirror, Zirconias are created. Yes, Zirconias. Malformations of Nehelenia's soul made to ressemble her worst nightmare, distorted to look even freakier than the initital old crone reflection did. The Zirconia that ran the Dead Moon Circus for her is merely one that she was able to let loose from her later mirror prison and was given sentience of her own. In the finale we even see a new Zirconia be spawned from right out of her!

YIKES.

So Nehelenia allowed her kingdom to decay into the exact sort of cobweb covered ruin that she saw that day, all while using the magic she acquired from the mirror to rip the dream mirrors from all of her subjects and servants, consuming their dreams for herself, which makes their souls spontaneously waste away and their forms change into sideshow freaks - "the living corpses of her people" as Nehelenia refers to them. The asteroid was no longer a dark moon - it was now a Dead Moon. And that is how the Dead Moon Circus came to be.

But there were only so many dreams to feed off of, and they alone would not sustain Nehelenia's dream for eternity. This got her to turn her attention back to the place she'd always envied, the White Moon Kingdom of Silver Millennium. That kingdom's queen, Serenity, was actually physically ageless thanks to the power of her Silver Crystal, and her kingdom had always been more prosperous than the Dead Moon's shabbier tent-filled colony. Queen Nehelenia began coveting Queen Serenity's position, kingdom, and crystal. If she could usurp her as Queen of the Moon, she could become a goddess-like ruler who could scour the galaxy for more beautiful dreams and with her power dominate the entire universe so that all its inhabitants would be made to worship her and adore her for her everlasting beauty. So she traveled to the realm of Elysian (shown to be a physical planet in the anime, so we know Nehelenia has the ability to voyage to other worlds at this time) in hopes she could obtain the Silver Crystal's counterpart, the Golden Crystal, held by Elysian's guardian Helios, which would grant her the power to overtake Serenity. Helios allowed her within its reach, but the crystal sensed her dark intentions and repelled her with golden flames, rejecting her as its master. Cast out for the darkness of her heart, a furious Queen Nehelenia embraced this identity as a "queen of darkness" and attempted to invade the White Moon with her own dark powers. It did not go so well for her. She was sealed away into her own magic mirror and cast off into a dreamscape when the New Moon (a lunar eclipse) came around.

We know the rest. As the dreamscape is tied to Elysian, Nehelenia was able to conquer Elysian and corrupt it into a state of decay and misery plagued by nightmares. Helios' spirit left his body and fled to Earth in the form of a pegasus. And during a solar eclipse, the Dead Moon was able to travel to Earth and set up their circus there to do their wicked queen's bidding. From here Queen Nehelenia is played up as a straightforward sinister villain until Helios is back in his original body in Episode 37. Helios simply gives the queen a fierce, judgmental yet pitying look just like he gave her on the day she failed to take the Golden Crystal and Nehelenia has a panic attack over it, and during this we see wrinkles beginning to form under her eyes. This gives extra incentive for Nehelenia to seemingly kill Helios as she rips the Golden Crystal from off his head, and enjoys doing so.

Then there's the "Zirconia as Nehelenia's reflection" reveal. Zirconia and Nehelenia were two sides of the same coin; Zirconia saw her beautiful queen as her fondest dream, while Nehelenia looked at her servant as her worst nightmare, her appearance and voice always disgusting Nehelenia, so she takes great pleasure in doing away with the crone. One hand of Nehelenia comes out from the mirror, and Zirconia's hand starts to glow. Nehelenia's full body comes out, Zirconia's body starts glowing. As Nehelenia fully emerges, Zirconia vanishes. The dark queen is finally free, with Golden Crystal in hand.

During this time, the sky over Tokyo has been darkened by the New Moon, more Dead Moon Circus tents have invaded, citizens who had their dreams stolen have turned into zombie husks, and there are cobwebs. covering. the whole place! Once again bears a striking resemblance to the young Nehelenia's mirror-induced nightmare...

Sure enough, as Nehelenia is blasted with the radiant power of the Golden Crystal, it wears away at her until the physical image of her dream fades and she's exposed for what she truly always was by this point in time - the hideous old hag she saw in the mirror all those years ago. Her pink-toned skin had already gone pale, but now it looks a pale shade of purple. Yes, she looks exactly like Zirconia!

What Nehelenia fails to realize is that she made herself this way. In clinging so desparately to her own would-be eternal dream from her youth, a dream that bases her entire self worth and right to exist on keeping her youth and beauty, in order to prevent the future she saw in the mirror from coming to pass to the point where she'd steal away the dreams of others and leave terrible nightmares in her wake, Nehelenia self-fulfilled the mirror's prophecy. She created the dark environment she'd been surrounded by during her breakdown. She became the wretched old monster that had disgusted and disturbed her so badly. And because of this, she gave up looking for any sort of happiness that did not concern her looks and her childish dream. She isolated herself, wallowed in lonelinesss and succumbed to bitter malice, hatred, and insanity. Queen Nehelenia believes the very idea of losing what she'd cherished the most grants her liscence to embrace nihilism, to lash out in wrath towards others and care for no one but herself and her own dream that she wished so badly could be everlasting. She feared the flow of time and the changes of life, so she preferred to retreat from any reality where she is not a youthful, beautiful, majestic and powerful goddess among all women. She is the living embodiment of childish self-absorption and nihilism, stuck on her own vanity and willfully stagnating in internal growth.

But as Usagi told directly to the face of this cautionary tale, "I'm not like you." Usagi sees her own cherished thing, her "dream" in the form of her future daughter, ripped away from her right before her eyes when Nehelenia throws the child off the levitating, crumbling palace. But rather than give into despair, loneliness, envy and hateful rage like Nehelenia hopes she will, Usagi takes a dive right after Chibi Usa, still willing to fight for the best possible future she knows is possible (Crystal Tokyo) rather than be overcome by dread of the worst possible future to the point of losing herself along with her care for others. Nehelenia is unable to do this. She is internally broken well past the point where she is capable of doing this. So while Sailor Moon dives towards a scary reality with an uncertain future, Queen Nehelenia retreats from it, willingly sealing herself back into her mirror as it's lifted up towards the New Moon. She is condemned to a lonesome eternity in complete darkness, stuck in a limited, stagnant space within the mirror with nothing and no one around her but her own self and her dream. But hey, she has her dream. She's got her youthful good looks, her precious beauty. She's all alone with just her dream of everlasting beauty, and that's just what she wants, right? She's happy this way! Happy ending....right??? And so vanishes the queen into the blackness of the New Moon, never to be seen again.

Always remember not to forget, not to let dream become delusion instead. Because otherwise, you end up like Queen Nehelenia.

Bonus: Queen Nehelenia's chilling theme music.

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#Sailor Moon #Super S #anime #Queen Nehelenia #Zirconia #Dead Moon Circus #tragedy #nostalgia #analysis #Nightmare Fuel

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starshinedragon · 9 months

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SSO: WINTERDALE Fan written main storyline

The Map of Winterdale:

The Life Warden Trees of Winterdale:

Story design:

-> This is the updated version of an old post, taking into account the new main story quests and describing the quests in much more detail. -> It takes place after aging Concorde up and escaping Devil's Gap, after all of the main story quests up to 2023 December. -> Part of SSO Rewritten (my writing project of the whole story of SSO until defeating Garnok). You can find the story related posts with the tag "sso rewritten" -> Phases 1-2-3 is the main story so far, here I wrote phases 4-5-6 which are the main story quests connected to Winterdale.

-> The area of Winterdale was established in the Star Stable Winter Riders game and I added elements from SSO (kallters, rangers, druids) to fill in the empty places. The focus characters of the Winterdale main storyline are going to be Katja (as the main opponent), Linda (as she is her rival), Mr Sands (redemption arc) and the kallters. The setup for them is already in the game with the extremely effective hook when the MC spots them in Dino Valley leaving. The thematic guide for the Winterdale story is the rumor of the Ice Witch, already suspected to be Katja. The final confrontation of this phase is tied to Garnok and Pandoria.

So saddle up and get ready for the adventure!

PHASE 4 – Entering and exploring Winterdale

PART 1: Icestorm

Unlocking Winterdale:

-> MC is called to Valedale. At the runestones before the portal spiral leading to the Secret Stone circle, we meet with Avalon, Evergray and the druids who arrived from Winterdale. The leader of the Winterdale druids is Cairn Stevenson (middle aged, but younger than Evergray, white beard, blue and brown robes) and his horse is a white Percheron wearing new brown and light blue druid tack, called Ossian. They came to ask for help, since the storm in Winterdale has gotten worse. Last night a huge blizzard hit the valley and they think it is magical and suspect the hand of the Ice Witch might be in it. They are unable to dispel it and ask for the help of the Soul Riders.

-> We ride with them through Dino valley and they give us some exposition about Winterdale. They say Pine Hill ruled over most of the valley historically. They tell us about the cold micro climate, when the kallters migrated from Dino Valley to Winterdale, and that the current persisting winter storm started many years ago. The storm is sometimes weaker, sometimes stronger, but always present. It cut them off from the other parts of Jorvik as the Frostfire pass leading to Ashland and the Seaview pass leading to Marchenghast froze over and the blizzard halted the works on Northlink tunnel. The Lord of Pine Hill mansion, who has the strongest voice in how Winterdale runs itself does not seem to care anymore. Avalon asks them how did they leave and intend to go back to Winterdale then if there is no way open.

-> MC, the Soul Riders, Avalon, Evergray and Cairn arrive at the Icengate where Nanook and Sedna (kallters) wait for us on horseback. They perform a ritual and open the magical lock on the passage. The team is escorted through the tunnel of ice and rock, made of a similar design as Stonecutter’s vault. Halfway through it Magnus Steinar’s ghost appears as he guards this tunnel. Sedna tells him everyone here is a friend and they are to have safe passage through the Icengate whenever they please. The team exits the tunnel high in the mountains and looks over the snow covered Winterdale valley ravaged by the blizzard.

Fighting the Storm:

-> The team descends on the steep Meander trail (from the Winter Rider game) and arrives in Meander Stables, where the druids set up camp. You are greeted by Eric Lowe, the owner or Meander stables. There you are introduced to the other druid characters of Winterdale by Cairn. They tell you of the situation: the magical storm started some days ago and won’t stop. Katja’s frost powers wreaks havoc, flash freezes sweep across the valley every other minute and the winds, snow and raining icicles destroy houses, stables and threaten to freeze everyone to death. The team is asked to help the valley. MC agrees to help, while the druids try to figure out a solution to stop the storm.

-> MC is sent on four different missions in four consecutive days with the Soul Riders to introduce you to the layout of Winterdale. For each mission, you go to a location in Winterdale to help the people fight the storm by dispelling frost, gathering firewood, saving the animals, etc. To get anywhere, you have to ride through the storm. Each time a flash freeze is coming you have to take cover. Icicles rain on the way indicated by the circles appearing in front of your horse that you have to dodge. You and your Soul Rider partner get there, help out and return to Meander. First, you go with Lisa to Cape Point village, next with Anne to Icewind Station, then with Linda to Pine Hill village and finally with Alex to Anvil Woods Druid Village and back to Meander.

Dispelling the Storm:

-> In the meantime, Evergray and the druids tried everything and figured out that they can’t dispel the storm alone and need help from Fripp. MC is sent to ride back to Valedale through the Meander trail, Icengate passage and Dino valley (there is not an available trailer in Meander yet- not until you open Northlink). You ride to the spiral portal in Valedale and fail to open the way.

-> Katja appears on horseback, cornering MC, tells you that they have blocked your access to the Secret Stone Circle. MC vows to stop her terror of Winterdale, but she just laughs and tells you not if I stop you first – forever! She sends fer frigid powers after you. You race back to Meander the way you came, dodging icicles and also Ice Spectres, that are like shadow seekers, but made of mist and frost and are controlled by Katja. You get back to Meander and tell the druids that Katja blocked you from opening the portal. Evergray is unusually cheerful about this and when they ask him why is this a good thing, he tell you that he figured it out. Katja blocked you from going to the Secret Stone Circle, because the solution lies there. By uniting the power of MC, the Soul Riders, druids and kallters and Fripp, you will be able to stop the storm. Avalon, the forever optimist points out the only problem is getting there.

-> You can actually get to the Secret Stone Circle on foot, however, there is one problem besides the storm, and that is the cursed Nightmare Forest. You have avoided it so far, taking the paths next to the Meander river, but now you have to go through it. As only the Soul Horses are strong enough to go through the storm and the dark forest, Alex, Anne, Lisa and Linda are riding double with Cairn, Avalon, Sedna and Uyarak (the other magic user of the kallters beside Sedna) and MC takes Evergray. You ride through the storm, hiding from the flash freezes and ride into the dark forest. The Nightmare Woods in covered in snow and ice, shadow seekers patrol and dark blue and purple wisp-like spirits drift amidst the gloomy trees. The team takes the path through the abandoned Crescent Lake Ranger Station up to the Aurora pass and then the western road leading up to Starshine Mountain. You ride up the steep mountain path (design based on the Starshine Legacy games) and get to the broken bridge.

-> Katja appears behind you sending an army of Ice Spectres. You run through the narrow path and jump the broken bridge. She stops before the jump and her horse rears, not being able to come closer to the Secret Stone Circle. Fripp awaits you in the circle and tells you don’t worry, no servant of darkness can come into the circle again, because he woke up the guardian tree of the Circle: Astral Crown. You see the formerly leafless big tree towering over the circle now covered in azure and lilac leaves, that shine like stars. The riders dismount and form a magic circle, everyone positioning themselves in front of each runestone. They perform a ritual and dispel Katja’s Icestorm from Winterdale.

PART 2: Exploring the valley

The Roads to Winterdale: Marchenghast and Northlink

-> Now that the storm is gone, MC can properly explore the valley. The Secret Stone Circle’s portal to Valedale is open again. A cutscene takes you back to Meander so you don’t have to ride through Dino valley again. Eric, the owner of Meander stables thanks you for saving the stables and the village and promises to put in a good word for you for each place in Winterdale. The Meander Championship is unlocked, it runs through the Coldstone forest and Frostbitten fields.

-> After the full introduction to the Meander area, it is time to open Winterdale properly for people and the horse trailers. Eric sends you to Cape Point to meet a ranger friend of his (Aiobhinn, the leader of the Winterdale rangers) who will lead you through the Seaside pass up to the Marchenghast Castle. Eric apparently knows everyone in Winterdale.

-> At the Marchenghast Castle they open the gate for you. There are very few people and servants there and MC meets the lord of the castle. He was told that you stopped the storm and asks how. As you can’t say magic, can choose from different stupid options to try to explain scientifically how you stopped a whole blizzard. Whatever you choose, Lord Marchenghast laughs and says he know about magic in Jorvik, don’t worry he just thought you would be better at lying. He opens the gates and grants you safe passage through the castle and estate and sends you on your way. The rocks have been removed from the road in Goldenhills and cars can now access it, opening the trailer options in Winterdale.

-> MC rides to the Baroness and tells her that the storm is over and the work on the Northlink tunnel can continue. You are sent to tell this to the workers. While the main story calls you back to Meander, the tunnel dailies are now unlocked, requiring you to help in the work for seven days to build the tunnel.

Rangers and Pine Hill:

-> Eric tells you Aiobhinn liked you and is willing to properly show you Winterdale, now that the storm is gone. You are led though Coldstone forest with the blue crystals and trail riding pathways and arrive in Explorer’s Rest Ranger Station. You are going with Aiobhinn as she checks on all of her rangers throughout the valley. You help the rangers clear the paths covered by the snowstorm, unlock races. They show you the path leading to Frostfire pass, but it is not accessible, until it melts.

-> Next, you ride north, and he shows you Pine Hill village and tells the gossip about the lord of the mansion, Mr Sands. You meet the people of the village and stables, unlocking many side quests. The ranger shows you the Rimefang woods, but you only ride on the path next to Meander river, because the forest is infested with wolves. Frosted mammoth pine trees, fallen trunks, misty woods. If you go too close to a wolf, it will start to chase you and you need to gallop to lose it. If it catches you, you are teleported out of the woods with the message: “Your horse got you out, but be careful, next time you might not be this lucky!” She tells you there is a hidden kallter village in the middle, but you can’t reach it, unless they invite you.

-> You ride to Icewind station. You meet Henry Stevenson(the old guy from the Winter Riders game), second in command to Aiobhinn and brother of Cairn who is the leader of the rangers at Icewind station. He reports to Aiobhinn and tells you the rumors about the Nightmare Woods and that there are two abandoned stations there. They plan to man them again one day, but not until the woods are haunted. You unlock side quests and races in the Icewind Woods.

Druids and Cape Point:

-> Aiobhinn remains in Icewind and Henry offers to guide you through Anvil Woods to meet the druids and his brother. You ride to Anvil Woods and are introduced to their Life Warden Tree, Wise Leaf. They built their village around it. The tree is a gigantic oak who talks in verses, metaphors and talks like an old wizard and is generally whimsical and wholesome. In the side quests, you help the druids fight against Dark Core, as the corporation wants to cut down the forest. The Anvil Bay Championship is unlocked (joint project of the druids and rangers, organized by Henry and Cairn, running through Anvil and Icewind).

-> The druids tell you of their brothers and sisters in the other druid village of Winterdale: Jorwatch. You go there and meet them, unlock quests. They tell you that they guard the path leading to Jorcrater, since noone is allowed to enter as it is too dangerous. Finally, MC is asked to meet Fripp and Cairn in the Secret Stone Circle and you are rewarded with 100 Star Coins (just like at the end of each phase).

PHASE 5- The Kallters and Mr Sands

PART 1: The Redemption of Mr Sands

Secrets of Pine Hill Mansion:

-> Meeting at the Secret Stone Circle. The dark side have been awfully quiet lately and the Soul Riders suspect they are up to something. With Pine Hill Mansion so close, Linda proposes a plan for she and MC to sneak into Pine Hill Mansion (like she did in Starshine Legacy 2) and gather information. MC meets Linda in Pine Hill Village and they wait for nightfall.

-> The hole in the wall Lisa made back in SSL 2 is still there, hidden by a bush, but Linda knows where to find it. It is dark now and you have to find your way through the maze. You do, but there are some guards and dogs outside the house, you have to sneak past them. This time, unlike in the game, you get in through the greenhouse after finding an open glass panel. Linda tells you of the adventure they had here back in high school with Lisa, when she got stuck up in a scaffolding. Luckily, the house itself is empty so you are free to wander.

-> In the main hall, Linda shows you the pictures of the Soul Riders she saw last time here. However, there are four new pictures on the walls, paintings of the Dark Riders (Sabine, Katja and Jessica) similar in style, wearing similar ceremonial dresses. The fourth picture is still covered with a tarp, high on the wall, so you can’t see. MC and Linda get into the library and start looking for clues. Linda finds Sands’ journal. They find out about Rosalind, who was burned at the stake hundreds of years ago for being a suspected witch. She was in fact, a druid and Sands hates the druids because they didn’t save her. He himself turned to dark magics trying to bring her back, but only managed to reach Garnok, who offered him immortality and Rosalind back if he helps the forces of darkness achieve victory.

-> Mr Sands appears and captures them, trapping them in two magic circles. Linda and MC focus their powers (playing a slider-click mini game), but cannot bring his spell. Linda asks him about Rosalind and tells him she understands why he did it, but this is not the way. She manages to upset Mr Sands enough to break his concentration and MC breaks the magic circles. Linda makes a moonlight flash and they run away, escape through the main entrance. Meteor and MC’s horse wait for them there and they escape Pine Hill Mansion.

Saving Justin (again):

-> Katja makes a plan to lure the Soul Riders into a trap. Just like she kidnapped James in Starshine Legacy 4, she now plans to kidnap Justin. Justin has discovered his druid powers since meeting the Singing Yew in South Hoof and has been training. Justin was to meet MC for training in Silverglade, but he doesn’t arrive. After waiting a bit, you get up to investigate. MC finds signs of struggle and uses moon vision to see what happened. You see Katja surprising Justin and even though he tries to fight back, Katja charms and mind controls him, like she did to James. You call the Soul Riders to tell them Justin was kidnapped, but they say Katja already called and gave them an ultimatum: she wants MC to come to Dark Core Platform and bring their Soul Horse.

-> It is an obvious trap, but you have to go. No sneaking this time: you are to meet the goons at the DC ferry in Moorland. MC and their horse are brought to the platform and led in front of the portal, where Katja, Jess, Sabine and Mr Sands wait for you. Katja is keeping Justin in a magic circle at the edge of the platform where he last fell and Mr Sands is not happy about this situation at all.

-> Katja says get on with it, sacrifice MC’s horse to bring Garnok into this world. MC uses her powers to make a shield around them. Katja says fine, then I will push Justin off the platform and time you can’t save him. MC asks Sands if he is going to let this happen? What would Rosalind think of him now? She would surely not want a kid to die so she can live again? Mr Sands hesitates, doesn’t know if he is willing to sacrifice Justin for a promise of Rosalind. MC says Garnok is a force of destruction, not life and he is lying to Sands and cannot bring back Rosa, but Justin lives and he is his family. Katja is waiting for permission from Sands and she is getting more impatient by the minute. She yells at Sands to give the order and he can’t.

-> Katja pushes Justin off the platform and MC can’t do anything from the shield. The Dark Riders laugh, but Justin levitates back up. He says he has been practicing and just like his mother, Catherine, he is also very talented. He didn’t like almost dying the last time and prepared for this case. Katja is furious, and raises her hand at him, saying, cute, but cheap tricks won’t save you from the true power of darkness. She shoots dark energy at him, but a shield appears around Justin, cast by Mr Sands and it reflects the power back to hit Katja. The explosion also dazes Sabine and Jess.

-> Sands shouts at MC to flee and take Justin while they are dazed. Justin jumps on your horse and you also want to take Sands. Before he can react, a blast of dark energy hits him from behind, cast as a joint spell of Jess and Sabine. Jessica says I have always wanted to do that. You have to flee and leave Sands there.

-> You escape the platform and leave with the little boat to Goldenhills. You ride to Jasper’s farm with Justin and meet the Soul Riders there. Jasper is scolding you for getting Justin into trouble, doesn’t like this druid business that took his Catherine from him. You tell the others what happened. Linda speaks up, says I am fine with being the one to say it, but we need to save Mr Sands now. Justin agrees.

Saving Mr Sands:

-> Meeting at the Valedale spiral, going to the Secret Stone Circle, Justin is also there. Reporting what happened to the druids. All druids from Harvestlands and Winterdale met to debate whether to save Mr Sands. The conclusion is that we need allies and intel so we are going to rescue him from Dark Core. The others say we cannot be even sure that he is alive, so Linda and MC conjure up a moon vision to look for him. It shows that he lives, but barely, kept captive in some unknown Dark Core facility. You have to find out where.

-> Spying on DC with Derek. As a government agent, he knows where and how to get the information to find Sands. MC, Justin and Derek go to every possible Dark Core location and follow a trail. Finally we end up at the station above Valedale and manage to find a photo validating that Sands have arrived to the location of his imprisonment. It is not written where as DC is very secretive about him.

-> We meet up at the Valedale spiral and show the picture to the others saying that is all we have found, ready to give up. Lisa looks at the picture and recognizes the place: it is the DC Barricade, where she freed Starshine from is SSL 1. It is located just north from Anvil Woods, but the road is closed so we need a boat again.

-> Going to Cape Point to find someone willing to ferry us there. The Soul Riders and MC all plan to go and we manage to convince Justin to stay in Cape West as it is too dangerous for him to come. With the guidance of Lisa, we sneak into the DC Barricade at night. Linda conjures a vision and now that we are closer, is able to find Sands. He is held in the main building where Starshine was also held. MC, Lisa and Linda are going on foot, trying to find Sands, while Alex and Anne take the horses to a point where we can get on to escape.

-> We go through the Barricade and see many weird Dark Core projects, shipments of drakonium, artifacts, pandorian creatures in cages and imprisoned in a runic circle there is a massive, formless shadow monster. We can only see its glowing six eyes and huge clawed hand. We manage to sneak into the main building and find Sands in the same cage where Starshine was imprisoned. He spots them, but someone is coming. MC, Lisa and Linda hide and see Katja is there to taunt Sands.

-> She laughs. Oh look, how the mighty fall. Held captive in the very cage where you imprisoned the first soul horse. Another failed quest of yours. You could not get anything done even back then. Maybe I am going to be the new general of Garnok now. Sands tells her no, she isn’t going to be as she is nothing compared to Elise. You are weak, Ice Witch. You compensate well with your smarts, but you always were and will always be weak. And you know Garnok only values raw power. You are nothing to him.

-> He knows this will make her lose her cool. Linda realizes this is an opening and attacks Katja. They duel and Katja is too angry to concentrate. MC and Lisa get the cage open and get Sands. Katja wants to shoot him with dark power again, but Sands throws it back at her, weakening her a great deal. Katja uses an illusion spell, but Linda had enough of her magic. She counterspells, makes Katja lost in her own illusion labyrinth. The team runs and gets on the horses. Alex has stolen the remote opening the gates as Lisa instructed and we escape. We get to the shore and the ferry takes us back to Cape Point. Justin meets him and Sands says sorry for everything.

-> Mr Sands reconciles with Justin and the Baroness and moves back to Pine Hill Mansion. The Pine Hill Championship is unlocked. He becomes our ally, gives the Soul Riders important information about Dark Core and the Dark Riders. He promises to help us against Garnok.

-> MC has a vision: Darko has been stuck in the realm between worlds ever since Elisabeth’s sacrifice. Now Garnok needs a new general, so he rescues Darko. MC tells this to the others and Sands warns them that Darko is unpredictable, dangerous, very power-hungry and not to be underestimated.

PART 2: Cleansing Starshade Woods

Gathering intel:

-> The Nightmare Woods are still inaccessible, infested with darkness and shadow seekers. Team meets up in Meander, Linda’s idea is to check on Mr Sands and ask him for help in cleansing the Starshade Woods. MC and the Soul Riders ride up to Pine Hill Mansion and knock. A very grumpy Mr Sands opens the door and tries to send you away. You convince him to let you in, but he continues to be extremely grumpy. He leads you to the library.

-> You ask him what he knows about the Nightmare Woods. He tells you it is was the dark side’s plan to stop you from accessing the Secret Stone Circle, Darko, Jess, Katja and Sabine all kept throwing their worst dark magics to corrupt the forest. Over the years, the Starshade woods got so dark, the druids had to leave, the rangers had to leave and now noone dares to go into the haunted forest. Sands doesn’t remember all the monsters and magic that was thrown in there, so the Soul Riders keep investigating and find lists of them.

-> Sands also tells you, that the forest has a dark secret, but even he doesn’t know what it is. You have to find out if you want to cleanse the forest. Going around Winterdale, asking to people about the Nightmare Woods. Long investigation, eventually you go to Lord Marchenghast, but he only gives you cryptic answers. You investigate the Baroness’ and Fort Maria’s library too to find out more about Lord Marchenghast.

-> You find out what happened in the Starshade Woods hundreds of years ago: that was where the witches (druids) were burned. You and Linda go to Marchenghast Castle to confront the lord about it, but you cannot find him. You go into the castle and get lost in it, realizing it is cursed. You keep wandering and see the pieces of history as it was basically a tragic misunderstanding and the then young and gullible Lord Marchenghast was pressured into ordering the burning of witches. He and the castle was then cursed by one of the dying druids to suffer misfortune until he admits the truth. You and Linda finally find him in the „throne room” of the castle. Linda realizes using her powers, that the visions were not the complete truth, the castle shows you the lies of Marchenghast. You get him to admit he is not blameless in the tragedy and it is his fault as well. When the truth comes out the curse of misfortune is lifted. Marchenghast gives you a diary of the events.

-> The main story continues as you prepare for the Battle for Starshade Woods, but the Matchenghast Castle side quests are now opened. Lord Marchenghast wants to open the castle as a museum for the public and host an equestrian championship. MC is tasked to try to convince people that the curse is gone. You get merchants and horse people to come and organize the first Marchenghast championship. As the name roughly means „dark fairy tale” new magic horse breeds will be available to buy here after you do the introductory fairy tale quest line for them.

Preparation:

-> MC and the Soul Riders make a plan for the Battle for Starshade Woods. Now you know the druid ghosts, that originally haunted the place and the dark creatures the forces of evil put there. You have to find ways to neutralize each. Linda briefs you on the plan: come back every day to decrease the darkness of the woods to a manageable level until we can finally go in to cleanse the forest. You get a progression bar and have to complete daily quests for some weeks like with the Rune Runner grind.

-> You get multiple, various dailies every day. One quest is always soul riding, where you are sent into the edge of the forest to close a portal, vanquish a dark creature, etc. The other two are coop quests with one of the Soul Riders. With Lisa, you sneak in, avoiding the hostile creatures and heal and cleanse plants and animals from the darkness. With Alex, it is basically a sniper mission, you ride to a high point and shoot Shadow Seekers with lightning. With Anne, you use your light powers to dispel the dark wisps, collect their light and use it to cleanse a patch of forest from the darkness. With Linda, you ride to certain points in the forest and dispel Katja’s illusions by playing various mini games.

-> Every time you reach a milestone in the progression bar, you get a quest about the druid ghosts that died or were burned in the forest. The druids were five in total: Nimue, Moria, Lucius, Einar and Rosalind. You have to help the ghosts find peace. First, you find them in the forest, then you solve their murder (for example one was frozen to death by Katja), you make their last wish happen (e.g. take their bones out of the forest and to the place where they want to rest eternally) or bring their descendants to meet them (convincing people to come meet a ghost in the haunted forest is tricky). Lucius was Marchenghast’s friend and now wants revenge on him. MC convinces him to just talk and maybe tell him to go to hell, but Lucius ends up forgiving him and from now on lives in the castle.

-> Rosalind is the last one, who wants to meet Sands when you tell her he is alive to make sure he is okay. You bring Mr Sands to the Nightmare Woods and Rosalind says goodbye and tells you all that now she can rest in peace. The progress bar is completed and the Battle for Starshade Woods can begin.

Battle for Starshade Woods:

-> Druids, Soul Riders and MC gathering in Meander again. As the darkness decreased in the woods, Sabine and Jessica appeared attempting to restore it. You cannot let them undo your work, so it is now or never. The plan is to sweep through the forest, dispelling the final remnants of darkness and cleanse the Starshade Woods for good. The battle takes three days.

-> On the first day, you go into the part east of Crescent Lake station and disperse the remaining Shadow Seekers and dark wisps with the soul riders. The druids march behind you, cleansing the trees and animals. You get to Crescent Lake station, but Jessica is waiting for you there, defending it. Boss fight: she stands in the middle with a magic shield around her, powered by Shadow Seekers she summoned. You have to charge your lightning powers with the „catch a runner” soul riding mechanic and shoot the shadow seekers. After that you can hit her shield and defeat her. If the timer runs out she releases a dark explosion that knocks you out and you have to start again. When you defeat her, she retreats into the dark woods. You have taken the eastern part of the woods back.

-> The next day, you meet up in Cape Point village and do the same dance. You cleanse the part of the forest west of Storm Hill with the druids coming behind you. Sabine is waiting for you at the top of Storm Hill, promising she won’t go easy on you like Jess and makes a circle of fire around her and MC. Her bossfight works similarly to the Mr Anvir fight in Pandoria, except she is the monster chasing you. You have to dodge waves of fire, falling firebolts, gather sparks of power the Soul Riders summon to charge your attack and then run into her. She flees and you have Storm Hill Station.

-> The third day, you help Lisa and Anne first in pushing the front in Crescent Lake, then you fight with Linda and Alex in Storm Hill. In the middle you find Darko who is ready to unleash a massive dark creature he borrowed from Garnok. The thing is standing behind him in a cloud of darkness and you can only see its glowing evil eyes. Darko says if the forest can’t be theirs then it will be noone’s and the creature will have it. Mr Sands appears and taunts Darko. He says maybe you got what you wanted but it is not as easy being Garnok’s general as he thinks. Mr Sands counterspells Darko and the creature attacks its master. Darko teleports them both away in a panic and we win. Linda asks Sands if Darko is dead, but Sands says probably not, he has proven quite difficult to get rid of. -> The Nightmare Woods are cleansed and it returns to its original state: the Starshade Woods. It looks similar to the Hollow Woods, but with blue wisps flying around and also has a mother runestone and quests. Now we can get to the Secret Stone Circle on foot and the Winterdale rangers send people to the Crescent lake and Storm Hill Stations. The Starshade Championship is unlocked.

PART 3: The Kallters

The Blizzard:

-> Katja appears once again and unleashes a blizzard, but only on the Rimefang Woods. MC and the druids want to help, but noone can reach the kallter village unless they are invited. MC goes into the blizzard into Rimefang Woods anyways, trying to dodge the wolves. They start chasing MC and you run, but end up cornered in a gorge. A kallter girl Erika and her wolf Idun appear and save you. She leads MC to their village.

-> You meet the kallters: the council of leaders are Takuraq, Sedna, the high priestess and Uyarak, the spiritual leader (kind of a druid) whom you already met in a previous quest. Erika is the daughter of Takuraq. You have already met Nanook, who is a horse breeder. Malina and Anniq are the twins of Sedna, girl with golden hair, boy with silver and they do a little moon and sun circle magic. Kauyar is the main wolf trainer and Nasami is his wife.

-> MC is led into the communal hall and the council of elders accept your help against the wolves and Katja, but you have to gather reputation before progressing with the main story. Erika introduces you to the kallter village. It is in the middle of the Rimefang woods, next to a small lake. You have fishing dailies here. All of the kallters have their own tame wolves that keep the wild ones away from the village.

Gaining their trust:

-> In order to be able to properly help them and move around in the forest, you need a wolf. MC is sent to speak with Kauyar, who helps you bond with a wolf. They will run next to you in the Rimefang Woods and keep the wild wolves away so now MC can go wherever in the Rimefang Woods. You name it like you name a new horse you buy.

-> MC gathers firewood in the forest, helps repair the village walls, lights fires that the storm estinguished. In the forest, you have to hide from the flash freezes and dodge icicles, like in the first storm when you entered Winterdale. You have chores in Nanook’s stables for the fjords. You are introduced to Silver Runebark, the kallters’ Life Warden tree, that keeps Katja’s storm from destroying the village. When running around in the Rimefang Woods, you can sometimes see a wolf bigger and meaner than the others watching you. The kallters tell you it is called Amarok, but are strangely secretive and refuse to tell you more.

Fall of the Ice Witch:

-> Once you gathered enough reputation, the main storyline continues. The wolf pack of Amarok attacks and MC helps Nanook protect the kallters’ fjord horses. Katja is there, helping the wolves wreak havoc and using her ice powers. She says she has finally come to have revenge. MC helps stop her from freezing the village, but Nanook is cornered by the wolves. He turns into a bear and fights Amarok. The wolves are driven back and Katja flees.

-> Sedna and Nanook tell MC, that Katja is half kallter and hates them, wants to destroy the village. Nanook and his brother were cursed by Katja into a form of a bear and a wolf. MC agrees to help break the curse. The brothers have to trust each other again to break it (Amarok thinks Nanook betrayed him). Sedna and the twins help MC.

-> You have to find clues on how to break the curse. With Erika, you sneak into the den of the wolf pack using your magic. You find the writings of Amarok that he wrote before going crazy and permanently becoming a wolf. It tells you the full story of how Katja became like this. For looking different, having strong powers and being only half kallter the villagers treated her like an outsider and blamed her for every bad thing happening. She eventually got recruited by Garnok and destroyed the kallters’ previous village in Dino valley, making them leave for Winterdale to find a Life Warden Tree, that can protect them from the monster they created.

-> You confront Sedna and Nanook with this and they admit it is the truth. Nanook also chose the village over Amarok at one point and he is bitter. Amarok in turn used his wolf form to hurt Nanook’s horses and the cycle goes on. Erika says this is stupid we cannot be like this or the village is done for. Katja appears in front of the gates. She says now you see MC, I have a good reason for doing this. Help me get justice. MC says no and Katja unleashes the strom, blasting open the gates and the wolves pour in. Nanook changes into a polar bear and fights Amarok again, wins. Katja wants him to give in to hatred and strike Amarok down. This way he would complete the curse and stay as a bear forever because of his hatred. MC shouts to him not to and Nanook realizes. He changes back into a human and holds out a hand, saying i forgive you brother and hope you can forgive me as well. Amarok has managed to change back to human as well and takes his hand. The curse is broken. Katja shrieks impossible, but she cannot do anything. MC and Sedna unite their power and dispel the storm and Katja flees. Amarok returns to the village and the wolves of the Rimefang woods are no longer hostile.

-> Unlocking the Kallter Championship. You are rewarded with 100 Star Coins as it is the end of a big main story phase. The Wintersoul grind: the second "free" horse, like the Rune Runner. Now that you have completed the kallter questlines, you can start the soul riding-like grind and reputation collection with Uyarak. The Wintersoul is a special silvery-gray kallter fjord horse with ice blue kallter markings and it wanders in the Rimefang Woods. It was created when the a remnants of katja’s evil storm was trapped in a horse that ran away from Nanook’s stable. It has part of Katja’s power, freezing parts of the forest around it, needs to be tamed and who better to take care of it than MC.

PHASE 6 – Apocalypse

PART 1: Ashland and Sabine

Frostfire:

-> The dark side is properly angry now, that you have defeated every one of them again. They gather more dark power and openly attack Winterdale, sending Sabine to wreak havoc with her fire powers. Sabine always wanted to prove herself as best- now she wants to prove herself to Garnok, drunk with power.

-> The siege lasts a week, Sabine attacks different magical parts of the valley each day, until she depletes the powers she got. Every day MC gets called to a location and has to stop her. She brags about showing you all, that she is better, stronger, than Katja, who failed, just like Sands. Once the week is over she leaves and noone like the calm before the storm. The Soul Riders decide you have to figure out where she went, but before you could get on with it the earth shakes and there is a plume of smoke rising from Ashland.

Ashland:

-> This is bad. You have to get there to stop whatever Sabine is doing before she makes the volcano erupt and destroys half of Jorvik. First, you five are taking Avalon, Evergray and a Winterdale druid and ride to Explorer’s Rest and a ranger escorts you to Frostfire pass, but it is still frozen over. The druid says there is another way into Ashland. You ride to Dino Valley, but of course the path is still frozen.

-> The druid directs us to go talk to the Life Warden Tree of Dino Valley in the summit. Glacier Heart is peacefully slumbering still and we debate how to wake her. Before the team decides on anything, the ground shakes again and she wakes. At first she gets angry at you, but you manage to explain to her, that this is not your doing and you want to go to Ashland to stop it, but the path is frozen. Glacier Heart sighs: Do I really have to talk to her? Can’t you people just melt the ice of the road? The druid tells her respectfully that we are in a hurry, trying to stop the volcano from erupting and covering half of Jorvik in ash. That does it, because Glacier absolutely does not want warmth in her valley.

-> You can hear the telepathic communication between the trees. Glacier Heart calls out to her sister, Fire Glory in Ashland. She is very chatty and very ADHD and very excited about everything. It takes some tries for Glacier to explain to her that people want to go to Ashland, but the road is frozen. Fire Glory is very excited that she will get visitors and says hold on one second. She uses her fire powers to melt the ice on the road and the path to Ashland is finally open.

-> The team rides to Ashland and arrives in Ashfall village. There is a small community living there, some families and druids. The people grow extraordinary fruits and plants in the volcanic soil and the druids are stationed there to watch the volcano. Ever since the first quake, ash is falling from the sky like snow and the ground shakes here even more often. You ask about Sabine, but they didn’t see anything as they had to hide. You leave your druids in the village and go to ask Fire Glory about her.

Firefall:

-> Meeting Fire Glory, who is on one of the surrounding peaks, overlooking a valley. She likes the warmth in here, can’t image living in a cold place like like Dino and won’t shut up about how much she finds the fires beautiful. Linda politely shuts her up saying surely she would not want the valley to burn tho. She says no and we ask her is she saw Sabine. She did see her.

-> First, Sabine went to the caldera, and tried to control the fires to empower herself, but could not. Glory then saw her running around in the valley looking for something. We ask if she knows what, and the tree tells us about the Firestones. Hundreds of years ago, then the mysterious meteor shower rained pandoric stones, many landed in Ashland. Along the years they collected the fire energy of Ashland, and their pink glow turning to orange, they have become Firestones. Sabine is probably looking for these.

-> The Soul Riders and MC run around Ashland to collect the stones before Sabine does. Two progression bars show your and Sabine’s stones collected. When you found all you can, you return to Ashfall village as the druids found some more firestone locations. You go out, get them and now you have more stones, than Sabine.

-> When you return to the village however, you find the Soul Riders locked in anti-magic nullification circles. They tell you Sabine came and she was stronger than the four of them and she kidnapped Avalon. Alex tells MC that you are the only one still strong enough to defeat her, that’s why she attacked them separately. Sabine called you all to the volcano to surrender or she throws Avalon into the volcano.

-> You five ride up to the caldera. Sabine is at the edge, holding Avalon with magic over the lava. She’d drawn five more anti-magic circles and orders you to stand in it and surrender. Your lives for Avalon’s. The Soul Riders and MC all do, their powers are useless now.

-> MC has a plan to play on Sabine’s weakness. You kneel before her and admit defeat, saying she was right, she achieved what Sands could not, succeeded where Katja failed and Dark Rider Malumi is really the strongest opponent. The Soul Riders look at you like you’ve lost your mind and their reaction sells it to Sabine, who lowers her guard. Then you push Sabine and blast her with lightning and reach out for Avalon, barely catching him. Sabine falls into the lava and as her concentration is broken so are her magic circles and the Soul Riders help you pull Avalon up. Alex says nobody tell Fire Glory, but I fripping hate this place.

-> You collect Sabine’s firestones and go back to the village. As you have no use for them, you take them all to Fire Glory. She is very happy and melts the ice blocking Frostfire pass, opening the final blocked path to Winterdale. You ride back there.

PART 2: The Fall of Pandoria

Spying:

-> With Sabine gone, Katja weakened and Darko hurt by his darkness creature the Keepers of Aideen decide it is the perfect time to strike. Council meeting in the Secret Stone Circle, making a plan for how to defeat Garnok. Fripp tells us that he found the weakest point of Garnok’s prison: the Pools of Pandemonium in Devil’s Gap. He tells us that as of right now, he is imprisoned between the dimensions, that’s how he is able to access both Earth and Pandoria and that is how he was able to get Darko out of there. We debate different plans, but no decision yet.

-> The Soul Riders gather in Fripp’s rooms below and say that Linda and MC should scout DC using visions. You sit down to meditate and a series of cutscenes take place. First you see Darko standing in front of the portal, talking to a shadowy figure in it. They talk about Garnok’s return approaching, but the plans have been set back, since Sabine fell. The dark figure says my return also nears, you just have to buy some time. Darko asks what strategy you suggest and the dark figure says: They are so trusting in each other, it is disgusting. Time for some doubt. Conquer and divide, sow discord, make them make a mistake.

-> Darko’s evil plan, what we don’t see, is to make the Soul Riders send Garnok to Pandoria, where he will gather even more energy, will be stronger than ever and will be able to finally anchor himself to Earth. Darko knows MC is spying in a vision and he stages a scene. MC and Linda see him and Jess talk about how they must stop the Soul Riders from banishing Garnok to Pandoria.

-> We tell what we have seen to Fripp, not knowing this is a trap. Fripp thinks it makes sense. We have to sacrifice one world to save the other. We tell this to the druids and they agree to the plan, believing Garnok will be powerless and unable to reach Earth anymore if we manage to banish him to Pandoria. However this decision really divides the good guys, as a lot of druids believe Pandoria is not evil, there are creatures living there and the Keepers swore to protect all life. Evergray doesn’t like it either: How would you feel if someone decided Earth has to go, just so your world can live?

-> Ydris appears: How indeed. I believe one would feel quite resentful towards said people and would swore never no help them with anything ever again. Some druids ask him how did he get in here, but he just point at the runestones. I am pandorian you imbeciles. Typical humans. You surround yourselves with the magic of my world, take what you want and let the rest rot. Don’t count on my help when Garnok comes to destroy you all. Zee rears and they vanish.

-> The druids still go ahead with the plan. MC and the Soul Riders are piecing together the ritual that they will use to imprison Garnok in Pandoria. You go to the libraries of Silverglade, Fort Maria and Pine Hill with Linda to study magic circles. You gather magical herbs with Lisa, practice portals with Anne and go to Pandoria with Alex to gather crystals.

-> Now you only need to go to Devil’s Gap and convince Sive to let you do this. Linda stresses the whole way how will you convince Sive to give up the ancestral home of the vala (even if they drew power from Garnok’s prison), but when you get there she’s nowhere to be found. The Chaos Vortex is worse, than ever, a storm is raging above the gorge and lightning strikes. MC goes well that was easy, but Linda says easy never meant anything good for the Soul Riders. You go back to Fripp to report that you are good to go. Your final quest is going with Anne to close all of the portals to Pandoria.

Devil’s Gap:

-> Arriving at Devil’s Gap: the team still debates wheater they should do this, but settle for yes, they won’t have another chance like this. Using the many narrow, winding stone pathways of the valley you draw the lines of the magic circle. At certain points you carve pandorian runes into the rock walls as makeshift runestones. You make the whole valley into a big magic circle to open the gate of the prison for a moment, then banish him to Pandoria. The success of your mission relies on the fact that he is technically still sleeping.

-> Once the magic circle is done, however, Garnok stirs. MC has to ride with each Soul Rider to four different points of the valley and help them activate a rune, before riding to the middle. While riding through the pathways Garnok’s tentacles appear (like in SSL 4 and when you escaped Pandoria after finding Anne). You activate the four runes and manage to ride to the middle to complete the ritual. Garnok roars, a portal opens and the dark presence leaves the Pools of Pandemonium and is sent to Pandoria.

-> The good guys think they have won, but trouble hits immediately. Darko appears on one of the rocks above you, laughing at how you fell right into his trap. He meddles with the spell. Linda and MC have a vision of Garnok turning Pandoria dark blue and purple, breaking the islands and laughing, deep as an earthquake rumbles through the doomed world.

-> You have to act immediately. MC and Anne open a portal to Pandoria and the Soul Riders go there to stop him from destroying all of Pandoria. Once he’s done, he will also come for Earth, your only luck is that he is too busy breaking Pandoria. Linda directs you to make a binding rune, similar to what you did in Devil’s Gap. Riding around, dodging his powers. You manage to contain Garnok in Pandoria, but the realm now answers to Garnok and tries to kill you. Escape from Pandoria, the portal is collapsing. Some sun circle druids sacrifice themselves, staying behind to stabilize the portal, while we escape.

PART 3: The Hope of Pandoria

War effort:

-> Pandoria is off-limits now. All the portals are closed and the locations are guarded by druids to alert us if anything tries to come through. Garnok is empowered by Pandoria and even through he cannot come to Earth, his evil magic can reach it. Garnok-effect appearing everywhere in Jorvik, the sieges led by Katja, Jess, or Darko. MC has to fight it with soul riding quests.

-> Chaos in Ashland, a fiery entity terrorizes the valley. The Soul Riders are sent there to investigate. Sabine returns as a flying fire-ghost entity(the ghost model is like in the picture in SSL 3's Pandoria) and she is really pissed at you. She joins the sieges.

-> This cannot go on, we need a plan. MC suggests to use Jessica. We need information, have to find out how to defeat this kind of void power and how to seal Garnok back to sleep. Jess has a rivalry with Katja and still wants to outdo her to show Garnok she is the stronger one. We organize an ambush: Anne is the bait. When she attacks her, all of us appear and say we just want to talk. We manage to strike a deal with her- in exchange for information, she will have a victory over us that Katja did not. Some druids and Anne are against this plan, but they have to make a sacrifice to have a chance.

-> Jess tells the info we need right away. Anne is suspicious, says she must be lying, why not wait until we fulfilled our promise? Jess says because she can count on the good guys being disgustingly honorable and if she told something useful, they will surely make good on their promise. Jess reveals that Pandoria can be saved if we bring Garnok back to Earth to his prison. The prison ship also used the dimension between world to keep him imprisoned. If we manage to do this, his generals will lose a good deal of power also. Linda still uses moon power to see the truth and announces that she’s not lying.

-> Agreeing on the plan: the Soul Riders are to attack the DC Barricade, pretending that we are trying to free the creatures and get the artifacts. Now we cause all kinds of havoc in DC territory. Katja and Jess arrive to protect it. MC and the Soul Riders have set a trap for Katja and we imprison her in a circle. As Darko arrives Jessica attacks us and we pretend to fall back to put on a show for him. Jess got a good point from Darko for defending the barricade, while Katja failed again.

-> We tell the information we got from Jess to Fripp and he agrees to the plan. We need to try and save Pandoria even if it means endangering Earth, as we cannot let another world be destroyed by Garnok. We just need to convince the druids of it when we get the chance.

Shadowfrost

-> Evergray calls us to meet in Valedale. Why hasn’t Sabine come back to her human form? Evergray suggests the Dark Riders can be defeated by the combination of their own power and their opposite Soul Rider’s. For Sabine it was fire and lightning. Jess must be defeated by darkness (in Pi’s swamp) and Anne, Katja by ice (in Dino vale) and Linda. We plan to make these happen. We split up: MC helps Anne and Lisa defeat Jess first, while Alex and Linda prepare to defeat Katja. If we manage they too will turn into elemental ghosts (shadow and frost), like Sabine. They will still be able to fight us, but without human consciousness, just as primordial powers. Until they get their bodies back, this will leave Darko alone in fighting us.

-> Anne and Lisa lure Jessica into Pi’s Cauldron Swamp, playing on her pride. Anne can go all in, make it seem like she gave in to hatred, then when Jess is sure she will win, Anne reveals Jess has walked into a trap pursuing Anne. She stepped in the darkness seal made by Pi, which draws power from Jess’s magic. Lisa, Anne, and MC focus their powers on Jess, she disappears, a dark ghost flies away from the swamp. This was the easy part.

-> MC, Alex and Linda go to Dino Valley, but Katja knows already what happened to Jess, she is angrier than ever. Finding her at the Ice Witch portal, she attacks us. 1st race through Dino: to lure her to the frozen lake, where we can fight her. 1st phase: Soul-riding-like bossfight in the frozen lake, Katja has a frost shield. Dodging icicles, Linda helps see where K’s magic will hit, so MC can dodge it, Alex shoots her shield with lightning. MC has to keep them ice-free, free them if they are iceblocked. Without Linda, MC can’t see where the ice will hit and without Alex it is only her shooting the shield. After removing half of her shield here, Katja starts breaking the ice on the lake.

-> 2nd race: to the higher valley, through the pine forest. The 2nd phase of the fight takes place amidst the ice columns, same fight, lightning strike her, remove her shield. She is defeated, but with the last of her power, summons illusions of many characters, hides herself as one of them. Linda and MC is find the one and point at it for Alex to blast it with lightning. When Alex turns, the illusion wears the body of James. Katja begs Alex as James not to hurt him, but Alex collects the storm from above the valley and lightning strikes her. A frosty ghost flies away. Cutscene: Darko roars and curses before the portal of DC platform as the three elemental ghosts hover before him silently.

Saving Pandoria

-> Soulriding stuff all over Jorvik, fighting the three Dark Rider entities. The Keepers try to agree on the plan. The options: A, Fully sever G’s connection to Earth and get rid of hom for now (he still may find a way back later) and let Pandoria die, or B, Save Pandoria by bringing Garnok’s full consciousness back to his Earth prison, just like Jess said. The alliance finally decides to try to heal Pandoria, sever Garnok’s link to it and defeat the monster on Jorvik for good.

-> MC and the Soul Riders are going to the Garnok-ruled Pandoria: instead of pink, it is dark blue now. We are trying to stay hidden and set up a base camp. Anne really hates being here, we have to talk her into not breaking We have to avoid Shadow Seekers and corrupted creatures. We manage to heal a small bit of Pandoria.

-> Darko notices this and comes to confront us. He siphons power from corrupted Pandoria and gives the Dark Riders their human bodies back. They are so empowered, they are just toying with us. We take part in the three bossfights for each of them, losing in each. Our Soul Rider partner magics us to safety every time, but ultimately, it seems like we have lost. Our Aideen magics start to weaken as Garnok gets stronger. His giant silhouette appears on the horizon in the distance in an epic shot.

-> MC still wants to try and fight Darko, but he blocks all your pathetic attempts at magic. The Soul Riders are on the ground, giving up. Even Lisa says all hope is lost. Then, Ydris appears with the Hope of Pandoria to save the day. For him it transforms from a fridge into a pink and golden blazing Sun and flies up to the sky its searing rays of light burning away garnok’s darkness. The low roar or a kraken reverberates from the distance.

-> Ydris combines his power with the Soul Riders’ and MC's, but Anne is still on the ground. He shouts at Anne: Stand up Sun of Pandoria and help us send him back to his prison! Concorde walks to her and holding onto Concorde, Anne is pulled to her feet. She guides the spell, and we banish Garnok from Pandoria completely, back on his prison ship on Earth, fully anchoring him to Jorvik. Darko and the Dark Riders are also sent back to Earth.

-> Linda walks up to Ydris to thank him, but he says he is still angry at them for doing this to Pandoria. He only helped the world, but still won’t ever help us again. Pandoria is accessible again, but parts are still corrupted and in ruins. Garnok is banished from Devil’s Gap and the Chaos Vortex disappears.

-> Victory, end of main storyline in Winterdale. You get a reward of the final 100 Star Coins upon returning to the Secret Stone Circle and the druids talk about possibly soon heading north to meet their brothers and sisters in Spring Valley.

TO BE CONTINUED!

THE OTHER PARTS:

SSO Rewritten 2nd Part: Springvalley https://www.tumblr.com/starshinedragon/716459529087401984/sso-rewritten-springvalley?source=share

SSO Rewritten 3rd Part: Summerplains https://www.tumblr.com/starshinedragon/726343248992419840/sso-rewritten-full-story-series-summerplains?source=share

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