#Supposedly removing some stuff that hinted at romance

[drunk-on-starlight]

Honestly Rey and Finn were never going to get together because jedi don't marry.

[aroacemisha]

Thought I'd make a post explaining why I don't believe Huntl0w is canon, or was even supposed to be, and the "shippy" stuff in the show was just allowed as a treat for crew members who shipped it.

The post is a little long, so it's going under read more.

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In the storyboards, the "Huntl0w moments" were more explicitly "shippy" than in the final show. In the final version, they tend to be toned down or even removed completely, even as late as TtT.

Take a look at these comparisons:

storyboard: Hunter changes his expression and pose, drawing attention to the blush, has stronger implications of attraction

final version: no change in pose, only slight change in expression, the blush is subtle, almost unnoticeable

storyboard: a full-face blush on Hunter (similar to how Amity sometimes blushed at Luz), Willow is looking at him while he nervously looks away, the frame is also a closeup focused on them, with Gus being in the periphery

final version: lighter blush on Hunter, who also looks flustered by the embrace in general rather than Willow specifically, all three are equally focused on in the framing

This shot was completely cut, Hunter neither blushes nor puts his hand on Willow's shoulder, and he doesn't even look at her

This particular one could have possibly been a jokey thing not meant to end up in the final version, but it was included as the final shot with the storyboards that did make it to the final version, so I'm including it here:

I'm not gonna put this last one in, since Hayley doesn't want her art reposted, but I would encourage you to look at her storyboard of the Hunter haircut scene vs. the final version. You'll notice that the final version is less "shippy" and completely removes any implied reciprocation from Willow.

And here's a couple interesting captions from Hayley's Tumblr posts:

(Seeing how I've shown that the toning down continued afterwards, even up to TtT, it seems less like "not yet", and more like "it's not supposed to happen at all")

I find it noteworthy that she referred to her "shippy stuff" with Huntl0w as "highly interpretable" even as late as TtT. (And also that she acknowledged it is interpretable, unlike a good chunk of the fandom)

If the ship was truly intended to be confirmed canon, why were the "Huntl0w" scenes still being toned down and made more ambiguous and interpretable even as late as TtT, the episode right before the supposed "confirmation"? This makes me think Huntl0w isn't meant to be canon, but the crew were allowed to have a treat for all their hard work and insert some fan service.

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The other reason why I think it's small hints allowed as a treat for the shippers on the crew, rather than an intended storyline, is because all of the "Huntl0w" in the show is very surface-level. It's either not meant to be a romantic arc at all, or it's an extremely poorly written one. There is no written storyline between them, just blushes superficially added on top.

They barely interact on screen between ASiaS (the episode where they just met for the first time) and FtF (the episode where they supposedly "got together", or at least were "confirmed as mutually in love"), and the entire "buildup" to the "romance" is a handful of small, quick blushes from Hunter. I didn't even notice the blushes/realize they were inserted as a "shippy" thing until King's Tide, and I'm not the only one, I've seen other people say they didn't notice either, some didn't even notice the one in KT.

And Willow didn't show any interest/hints of a crush at all before FtF. No blushes, no unusual behavior around Hunter, nothing.

The only arguments claiming she did show hints of a crush are varying degrees of stretches, or even outright insults to her character if you think about it. Because, for example, they imply that she would be fine with seriously injuring a friend, or letting a friend fall to their death, if they weren't secretly her crush.

You may say, "but they stayed at the Noceda house for a couple months, they probably got closer/Willow developed a crush then!", and to that I will point out that there's no change between how Willow and Hunter interacted at the end of season 2 and how they interacted in TtT, so it seems that there wasn't much off-screen development either.

(Also! If all of the important relationship development for two major characters happens off-screen, they should not end up in a romantic relationship together, that is bad writing)

Additionally, neither were shown or implied to be trying to spend more time with specifically each other, they're mainly shown interacting in a group setting with all of the Hexsquad, and the one time it's just the two of them is incidental, Willow just happens to pass by the bathroom while Hunter is cutting his hair and happens to notice it.

Even in FtF, the episode that went harder/was more in-your-face with the "Huntl0w" moments, it remains pretty surface-level. All you'd have to do to completely cut it is remove the blushes. The story/plot or the way they talk to/interact with each other wouldn't have to change at all. There's no written romance, just superficially added blushes.

(And while Willow does finally blush in this episode, it's only after Hunter gets powers and saves her life, which makes it come off as either her feeling like she "has to" reciprocate now, or her only finding him attractive now that he has powers. I'm sure neither is intentional, but just because it's unintentional doesn't shield it from criticism)

And now, let's do a comparison to Lumity and Raeda, in both development and confirmation.

Luz and Amity's relationship was developed on screen for about 10 episodes or so from the start of their friendship to them eventually becoming a couple. They ask each other out on screen, and after that point, they are referred to as girlfriends and kiss on screen several times. They're as explicit as you can get.

Raine and Eda are implied to be exes in Raine's introduction episode, and it's confirmed later, so they have an established romantic history, and after several episodes with on-screen development of their relationship, in the finale, Eda kisses Raine several times after getting them out of Belos's corruption.

As mentioned before, Hunter and Willow barely interact on-screen between ASiaS and FtF, so there's no development to speak of. And in the supposed "confirmation" scene for Huntl0w... All Willow says is that Hunter is important to her too, as a response to the earlier scene where he said "You guys mean the world to me", referring to both her and Gus, and she holds pinkies with him.

Saying someone is important to you is pretty unspecific, and it's especially so here, since she says it in reply to him saying both she AND Gus were important to him (as if to imply they're important to each other in the same way), and hand holding isn't inherently romantic. I don't know where this idea came from, and it really needs to stop.

[Side note: I've also noticed that people who insist that Willow holding hands with Hunter can only be read as romantic don't have the same energy for when Willow holds hands with Amity. It seems that either a) certain people just take whatever position suits their current argument, and take mutually exclusive positions at different times, or b) they are just being heteronormative, or c) possibly both]

As for the epilogue, they do interact again, but there's no blushing, or kisses, or anything like that. They're just hanging out. Again, hand holding is not romantic.

The one "shippy" thing in the epilogue is a single picture hidden away in a dark corner, like an easter egg, and the blush is also once again one-sided from Hunter. Willow looks like she's teasing him.

You may say "but the ending where they're all saying goodbye!!".

And to that I will point out that while it starts with just Hunter and Willow holding each other, Willow also pulls Gus in. This is an Emerald Trio hug, not a Huntl0w hug.

Additional note: the TOH Wiki acknowledges that while the ship was hinted at, it was never confirmed. And those are people who still list Hunter and Willow as each other's love interests, despite the admitted lack of confirmation. Take it from them.

[Edit: I've been informed that apparently users of the Wiki acknowledge that the ship isn't canon, and someone has actually tried to remove the "love interest" bit from the character pages, since it isn't confirmed, but it was reverted, and when they asked about it, they were told that since it was hinted at in the show, it can stay. The insistence on still listing them as love interests, despite it only being speculation/headcanon, is more of a higher staff problem than a userbase at large problem]

As a final note, Dana has done plenty of Lumity and Raeda art, but I'm still yet to see a Huntl0w drawing from her, even though she has posted drawings that feature both of them. I've only seen Huntl0w art from other crew members, but not Dana herself, and I feel like that's worth mentioning.

(She has also explicitly encouraged "death of the author", which, for those unaware or misinformed, means ignoring what the author says outside of the work, and interpreting and analyzing said work based only on what is in the work itself)

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TL;DR: The "Huntl0w" stuff in the show is toned down compared to the storyboards, it never got confirmed, unlike Lumity and Raeda, and is likely in the show mainly as a treat for the hard work of the crew members who ship it. What we have in the show gave just enough fan service to shippers, while keeping it ambiguous enough that you don't have to read it as romantic.

[dangermousie]

Heelo mousie! Love your blog! Do you mind recommending some of your favourite Chinese BL novels or shows?

I've seen the untamed and read it. I'm currently reading heaven's official blessing and I saw the donghua. Anything other than these two?

Awww, thank you!

Novels: I am gonna be lazy and literally copy/paste the entire danmei section of my top 10 web novels post (except MXTX’s stuff since you are already reading it.) Let me know if you need help finding any of these.

Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor   antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both  as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men   always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be  friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest  parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is  also finding the middle path between their two very different  philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or  dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and  setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period  setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with  character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our   protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant,   sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s  servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as  we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and  occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named   Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers  and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both  out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely  likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two  take up farming, get involved in  the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

The Wife is First - OK, this one did not make my top 10 web novels but it’s a sweet, fun gay cottagecore fest. Our ML, a royal prince, and his spouse, a smart if delicate aristocrat, keep house, eat noodles, play with their pet tiger, make out and spoil each other rotten, while occasionally fighting battles and outwitting their court enemies. It’s so very mellow. That couple redefines low drama - they are both nice and functional and use their brains. It’s as if a nice jock and a nice nerd got together and then proceeded to be wholesome all over the place.

I mean, the set up could be dramatic - our ML the prince, lost his fight for the throne and is about to be killed. The only person who stayed loyal to him is his arranged husband the aristocrat guy who ML never treated nicely since he resented marrying him (marrying a man in that world is done to remove someone from the ability to inherit the throne.) And yet the husband stood by him not out of love but beliefs in loyalty blah blah. Anyway, he transmigrates back into the past right after their wedding night and is all “I got a second chance OMG! I don’t want the throne what is even the point? I want to live a good long life and treat the only person who stood by me really well!” And he proceeds to do so to the shock of the aristocrat who had a very unpleasant wedding night and generally can tell the man he just married would rather eat nails than be married to him. But soon enough (no seriously, it’s not many chapters at all) he believes the prince is sincere blah blah and then  they get together and they pretty much become cottagecore goals.

In terms of dramas, I only do period dramas (or novels) so I am not the person to be able to recommend any modern BLs. There is a flood of upcoming (hopefully) period BL dramas but it’s relatively thin on the ground now. The two I will recommend is Word of Honor (which is AMAZING) and Winter Begonia (which I just started watching but which owns me already.) I have a tag for both - the one for the former is huge and I cannot recommend either strongly enough. I’ve heard good things about The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not big on mysteries so haven’t watched it for myself.

In terms of the upcoming BLs, the ones I am most looking forward to are Immortality and Winner Is King, but The Society of the Four Leaves also looks promising.

[kariachi]

Okay, I feel like harping on Charmcaster’s post-Aggregor Arc storyline again because damnit was it done bad.

Like, damn.

Like, first up, in case you’re new and haven’t been following me at any point in the last six, seven, too fucking many years- Couples Retreat is the worst episode of the franchise. Yes moreso than Most Dangerous Gameshow, which at least left some characters some dignity. Couples Retreat turns Charmcaster into a kidnapping statutory rapist (fun fact, if you find somebody unconscious outside your gate, bring them inside your home, and they can’t leave without your sayso? that’s kidnapping. and if you’re in your 20s and fuck a teenager? that’s rape. good job writers), Kevin into a untrusting moron, harpoons Gwen and Mike’s characters, the only fucker to get out clean was Ben and you could remove him and nobody would notice.

And it didn’t have to be like that! I’ve talked about it before, they could’ve had a dual Mike & Charm episode with a similar plot without any of that shit!

We start with the team heading for Gwen’s rather than Kevin’s because her wards and alarms are going off and that is a concern (immediately removing the ‘Kevin decided he could protect Gwen’s shit better than she could, despite it only having been gone after once and by someone who targeted him to do it’ and ‘gwen’s got so many wards and charms and things up nobody could’ve stolen her spellbook except apparently for the guy who stole it the first time, and she didn’t even fucking notice’ bullshit). We have it turn out that Mike’s to blame, has been planning this for months, and for the next bit things go as they did in canon with the fighting and the spelling and so on, expect here we don’t get people knocked unconscious. Charm opens the gate to Legerdomain and Mike shocks everybody by by putting on his most charming act and asking for an apprenticeship.

The Tennysons are concerned, Kevin is somewhere between concerned and ‘I may never have to deal with him again yay’, and Charm is is kinda lonely back in Legerdomain, could use company a bit closer to her level, and so despite all protests she brings Mike in and shuts the door again.

Episode consists of flashing between Charmcaster teaching Mike magic stuff (with no fucking romance because she’s in her twenties and he’s a teenager) and the Tennyson team trying to get into Legerdomain to ‘save’ her. Eventually Mike’s hubris comes back to bite him again and he tricks Charm into getting locked outside her own damn kingdom, at which point Charmcaster busts out the ‘motherfucker I am queen and wearer of the Alpha Rune’ heads right back inside, kicks Mike’s butt herself because she has more experience and power, throws him out, fucks off with the gate, end episode with Kevin laughing at Mike over the whole mess, we’re fucking good.

“But Achi, what about the shit in OV that builds off that?” That shit don’t happen. I mean Mike trying to get back into Legerdomain happens (and would actually make sense as compared to the original wherein he’d already tried to fucking flee Legerdomain when he supposedly was in full control of things, why would he suddenly be trying to go back, and here we’d know exactly where he got the ability to summon and control Charm’s rock monsters, we’d have seen her teach him to) but not the ‘Charmcaster has gone mad’ bullshit, which was only there to give an excuse for why she was redeemable despite having committed genocide which she only did because the writers wanted Dark and Dramatic and Edgy because UA had the depth of a fucking tea saucer.

Seriously “Charmcaster isn’t actually to blame for that shit because the Alpha Rune- which until know has never even been hinted to be in any way dangerous besides being a source of great power- causes it’s bearers to go violently mad, the genocidal dictator who had it before her said so” what the fuck sort’ve agency-destroying, revisionist, bullshit-

And that’s not even getting into the fact that we never do learn how the fuck she supposedly got the damn thing back to have it and be so affected by the time of genocide.

And again, we don’t need to have the genocide!

Picture, episode, starts as it did, until the team get into Legerdomain. Things are actually fine, nothing seems wrong, they’re escorted to the palace and Charm is happy to see them. Clearly very stressed going from nothing to ‘ruler of a dimension’ but seems fine. Then things slowly take a turn as more references to Daigon crop up, and she’s trying to get Gwen well seperated from the boys, and things get tenser until it comes out that she has A Plan.

She misses her father deeply, feels the loss of him like a knife to the gut, and ruling alone is wearing on her so, she doesn’t know what’s she’s doing and it gnaws at her. But Daigon, Daigon’ll bring her father back. All he needs is a sacrifice, enough power to resurrect the dead with extra as payment. And she’s was trying to figure out how she’ll pay that cost when who should present herself right at her front door but the greatest source of power she knows outside the Alpha Rune itself?

From there you could go one of two ways-

She kills the team, and things go like they did in canon. Her father is disappointed in her. His life isn’t worth the lives of others, no matter how much he means to her. This isn’t a healthy viewpoint, and this isn’t a healthy thing for a ruler to be doing. Still, he gives her some advice on being a better ruler and a better person, because he loves her and wants the best for her, before giving her a final kiss on the head and refusing their side of the deal, resurrecting the team. Charmcaster breaks down, and they leave her to the care of her subjects, hoping that she can move on and become the wonderful woman her father sees in her

She doesn’t kill the team. Like with Aggregor, Kevin steps up to take the ‘voice of reason’ reins against an antagonist. He knows what it’s like to lose your father, even without the fake memories of Devin Kwarrel’s death twists in his gut too, and he uses that common thread to talk her down. Her father was a good man, Kwarrel was a good man, he can only assume they would respond to being resurrected via the sacrifice of a sapient the same way- “I raised you better than this”. She fights against it the whole time, but eventually breaks and agrees with him that her father would’ve never wanted such a thing. Again Charmcaster breaks down, but because the team haven’t just been murdered they’re in more of a place to offer support (could even have a nice little gag where she starts crying and Kevin immediately goes from this calm voice of reason to panickedly looking to Gwen because his emotional skill has hit a wall). The team eventually has to leave again, but they leave with their good terms with Charmcaster pretty solid and her in a place from which she can begin to heal alongside her people

Either of those would’ve been awesome! But no, we gotta have fucking genocide.

What do they do for her arc in OV then, if it’s not ‘Charmcatser’s gone mad and we have to deal with that’? I don’t know. Maybe there’s some problem in Legerdomain that she can’t handle on her own, and we get a whole arc spent with the team in the other dimension, seeing Charmcaster’s continuing improvement (seeing improvement over the course of the arc) while learning more about Legerdomain, how it functions, and the people that live there. Could even have a scene where she apologizes for the whole mindcontrol thing she did with Kevin, straight up stating that seeing the lasting effects Adwaitta’s shit had on her people made her realize just how fucked up that was.

It could’ve been done! But no! That would require some fucking sense and decency!

Characters on this show fucking deserved better...

Also if Hex ‘I am very clearly abusive towards my niece’ Dipshit is getting a redemption he needs an actual fucking arc, it needs to involve Charm as more than a fucking antagonist, and because I don’t give enough of a shit about OG!Hex to bother, fuck it, he was eaten by a gazebo offscreen.

[polarisavi]

when eliott stirs awake, eyes opening to a dark and quiet room, he is alone. it takes a few moments for his thoughts to articulate that odd twinge near his collarbone, for coherency to be dragged out of a tangle of feelings. it’s strange to be waking up alone in the middle of the night, because he no longer lives alone. this apartment, this bed, he shares with lucas. who isn’t there. and something about that twinge tells him it isn’t because he’s getting water, or in the bathroom.

eliott stretches out a hand. the other side of the bed isn’t warm anymore, is bordering on actual cold. which - eliott bites in the inside of his cheek and stares up at the small network of cracks on the ceiling. it’s warm, will be boiling up to summer soon, and the lone sheet they’re using as a blanket twists uncomfortably around his calves, catches almost spitefully on his feet when he tries to kick his legs free.

he strains his ears but the apartment is silent. no clinking dishes, or spraying water, or low hum of a tv. lucas - lucas can be loud, attention grabbing and shameless and boisterous. loud with his joy as well as his anger, but he is very good at being quiet when he needs to be, when he wants to be, when some thought snags on the edges of his thoughts and makes his energy run low. they have that in common. somewhat, at least. and maybe he wants to be alone right now but, well, eliott exhales, sits up, slides out of bed.

he finds a hoodie on the ground, a deep green one that supposedly belongs to lucas but that eliott has always suspected is one he stole from yann however long ago. it’s oversized on lucas, sleeves falling past his hands to make paws, but almost cozy on eliott, and he shrugs it on before making his way out of their room.

none of the lights are on. lucas isn’t in the bathroom, living room, kitchen, or that odd half sized room branching off of the kitchen that is too small to do anything useful with and so contains a single set of shelves they’ve shoved every miscellaneous object they brought with them onto. he eyes the front door. it’s not technically impossible that lucas left in the early hours of the morning to stroll around paris, but the last time he did that he shoved eliott out of sleep to bring along with him. he turns around, intending to grab his phone from the nightstand, when he notices the window leading to their tiny balcony open wide.

which makes more sense.

instead of walking over, though, he goes back into the kitchen and flicks the kettle on, its gurgling almost rude in the quiet spill of night. shuffles through their cupboards, newly decided and their contents not yet habit, until he finds a cheerful pink and green box of the tea lucas likes, some chai blend the lallemant’s must be fond of because a box was in his mother’s kitchen the last time they visited. he scoops out two mugs and stares blankly, biting the inside of his cheek, until the water boils. lucas doesn’t sleep well, hasn’t for as long as eliott has known him, but there’s usually a build up, or a reason why sleep skips over him. a soft layer of guilt starts prickling at his skin, but he closes his eyes and tries to force it away, force it to stop, to rescind, to grow back to nothing. talk to lucas first, guilt for potentially missing something later, if necessary. talk to lucas first.

getting himself and two mugs of boiling water through the window and onto the balcony with no spillage or first degree burns is trickier than expected, but lucas there, of course, in boxers and his romance hoodie, knees raised and hair flopping over his eyes and hands restlessly running over and over and over his shin bones.

eliott pauses. pauses to feel unsure, concerned, confused, and moves again when lucas turns his head, eyes dark shadows and cheekbones sharp with only the streetlights to illuminate him.

“hey,” eliott says and hands over one of the mugs. lucas folds it between two hands and cradles it to his chest but doesn’t otherwise move or talk.

“do you want me to go?” he asks carefully, but lucas shakes his head.

“sit down with me?” he asks, and eliott gratefully folds himself down beside him, knees curled to his chest, mug placed somewhere on his right, gaze on the side of lucas’ head.

“do you want to talk about it?”

“soon, maybe.”

“okay.”

“okay,” lucas returns, shooting him a soft look before staring out at their neighbourhood again. apartment blocks, mostly, and trees, and splashes of colour where people still have their lights on. lucas shuffles, moves closer, tucks himself under eliott’s arm, their sides pressed up together and breathing a little out of sync, both of them still save for taking sips of tea.

eliott drags his hands though lucas’ hair, moves his fringe out of his eyes, plays with the ends and lucas sinks deeper against his side, melting into the spaces between them. eliott presses a kiss to his temple, his forehead, the curve of his cheek, and when he leans back lucas’ eyes are closed.

his mug is empty by the time he starts talking.

“do you think we inherit things from our parents that we can’t do anything about? that we can never fully change or escape from? like underlying persistent remnants of them, forever, sitting in our dna.”

eliott breaths deep and uses the hand still on lucas to massage small circles into his scalp. “did something happen with your dad?”

“please just answer my question.”

“okay. i - i don’t really know. maybe, but there’s lots of stuff we get from absolutely nowhere. i don’t think the things we inherent are more...powerful or more dominant than the rest. not necessarily.”

“not necessarily,” lucas repeats quietly, looking down at his hands, the small collection of plants they’re trying to nurture, at the window across from them gleefully decorated with neon orange curtains. not at eliott, though. he curls over, rests his forehead on lucas’ head. lucas shudders, a little. “he’s not a good person. but he was. at some point he was good enough for my mum to date and fall in love with and marry him. and it wasn’t a lie, not all of it.”

“is that what you’re afraid of?” eliott asks, not giving up his grip.

“i think i’m scared that whatever...caused him to become that lives in me too, and that i’ll turn into someone awful without realising it, and that i’ll hurt you. hurt you badly, and on purpose.”

eliott swallows heavily, tongue weighed down with uncertainty. if there’s an easy way to navigate this conversation he doesn’t know about it. he bites his lip, chooses a direction, hopes for the best.

“will you hit me if i say you should take it minute by minute?” he asks and manages to inject an edge of teasing to tilt of his voice, ribs tight with the knowledge that he might’ve fucked up. the seconds between his question and lucas’ response are weighed down, stretching a small moment out to an eternity.

lucas huffs out a breath, a something, not really laughter or anger. “i’m serious, eliott.”

“so am i,” he says. lucas doesn’t respond, his face set like something sculptured out of marble, so eliott keeps talking. “i don’t - neither of us know what this is going to look like in twenty years. and you’re not the only one here that could break us. as we know.”

“you could never hurt me, eliott. not like that.” lucas’ response is quick, automatic. eliott leans over to catch his eyes, flicks up an eyebrow.

“i was thinking the same about you.” lucas bites his lip. eliott continues. “if you can say that so easily even when i have hurt you, please believe me when i say that - neither of us know who we’re going to turn into but whatever remnants of your father’s personality that you may have gotten, it doesn’t matter, not -” he stops, tries again. “it’s not going to wholly determine anything.”

he cradles lucas’ face, makes sure he doesn’t look down, look away. it’s hard to read his face in the low light. there’s a not inconsiderable chance he just fucked that up, that he’s made lucas feel worse.

lucas sighs deeply and gently removes eliott’s hands so he can tilt his head back towards the sky, skull resting on the wall.

“maybe,” he breaths out after a few minutes

“maybe?”

“maybe you’re right, i don’t know. i shouldn’t - you’re not my therapist, i didn’t mean to put that on your shoulders, make you give me an answer on the spot.”

“it’s okay,” he says and watches lucas’ shoulders drop, his eyes fall close, neck still arched up.

“do you want to go back to bed?” he asks after a few minutes, and isn’t surprised when lucas shakes his head, rocking the back of his skull against the wall.

“can we stay out here?”

“of course, whatever you need.”

lucas nods, face still a bit unhappy, but calm. at some point he tugs eliott closer, rearranges them until lucas is sitting between his legs, eliott’s arms around his waist. they stay like that until the sun starts to come up, hints of a blushing sky between buildings and lucas dozing in his arms, cheek pressed up against his chest.

[ammeh7]

7KPP Week 2019 - Day 5

A Day of Friendships || A Romance for the Ages

By “a romance for the ages” I of course refer to the game’s One True Pairing of Narrator/Jasper.

This fic probably needed to be at least twice as long as I actually had time to make it, and it’s glaringly obvious that I wrote most of Week 5 Day 4 before a lot of the rest of it, but I figured I’d post the thing anyway and maybe go back and fix it up at some point in the future.

Summary: The narrator wants to vicariously kiss Jasper, but MC has a thing for morally dubious princesses.

Warning: Contains huge spoilers for weeks 4 and 5 of the extended demo

The narrator is some sort of Historian-affiliated spirit thing here, but the specifics are left deliberately ambiguous.

Lady Rosaline was made up for the story, since my Gisette-mancer is immoral and I wanted an ethical one for this fic. She could be any 75-manip-compatible background.

This contains several snippets copied directly from the game; I don’t take credit for those!

You can hear me.

Granted, only when you’re half-asleep, but that’s better than I can do with anyone else.

I can hear you, too—or rather, hear you thinking to yourself—which makes discerning your motivations so much easier.

And you’re special. It’s practically a giant sign over your head, screaming “Stuff! Happen over here!”

Most importantly, Jasper’s your butler.

I’ve decided. You’re the one I’m recording this Summit.

--

Week 1, Day 0

As you drift off to sleep, you contemplate how unbelievably attractive everyone you met at the Welcome Feast was.

It’s a good problem to have, right? And you certainly charmed everyone you met. But as long as we’re discussing unbelievably attractive people: have you seen your butler?

Yes? Okay, good.

--

Week 1, Day 4

“I hope all our encounters can continue being so mutually pleasing, Lady Rosaline.”

A spike of want runs through you. You can’t wait for the next time the two of you meet.

Really? Character assassination does it for you?

--

Week 1, Day 6

More than hijinks, sparring, nature walks, or intellectual debates?

--

Week 1, Day 7

“I think there’s someone who might become special.”

Oh? Really? I hope for your sake they are thinking the same.

It’s Princess Gisette, isn’t it. You have terrible taste. Didn’t you see your gorgeous butler? Or the warrior princess who’s completely besotted with you? The dashing pirate? The thoughtful Revairan lord? Your adorable blushing maid? Did I mention your gorgeous butler? Or pretty much any person besides the one who faked you out with a supposedly private invitation and then tried to manipulate you into slandering an innocent woman?

It could be worse, I suppose. You could have an eye for her brother.

--

Week 2, Day 5

“I think I would regret it if you were to become a ghost in truth.”

She gives you a soulful look, her blue-violet eyes pulling you in, despite not being the true, gorgeous purple you’ve seen on some of the Isle natives. Such as Jasper.

“Not nearly so much as I would!” You smile at her, not even contemplating how much more purple her eyes could be.

Sigh.

--

Week 3, Day 2

Jasper has indisputably won the gift-giving competition, but you’re really fixated on that perfume.

She didn’t even pick it out for you! She picked it out for herself! It was probably just a spare bottle she brought in her luggage!

Yes, it’s expensive, but…

Augh.

--

Week 3, Day 3

Exhausted from herding quarrelsome children at dinner, you drift off to sleep.

There are no assassins around. Nothing noteworthy is going to happen with you for the next seven hours, at least.

Yay!

Across the castle, Jasper is finishing a journal entry, recording dutifully. He’s taken off his jacket and is sitting in his vest, looking enticingly exposed despite not showing an inch more skin than normal. There’s a hint of tiredness around his eyes, but his face is still almost inhumanly perfect.

With a neat flourish, he ends his entry. He pulls off his writing gloves to reveal his long, slender fingers before sprinkling the page with sand to dry it and shaking it off.

He closes the journal, then stands, sticking a finger in his cravat loosen it.

Oh my.

I probably shouldn’t be here. (I might have had to extrapolate the rules of my existence myself, but I’m pretty confident I’m supposed to be watching the actors. And probably not spying on people undressing.)

He removes his cravat and unbuttons his waistcoat, hanging them up neatly. He starts to unbutton his shirt, revealing his pale collarbone, and…I’m being creepy. Sigh.

(See, if you were here, this would be history and not voyeurism!)

I return. You sleep for the next eight hours, rolling over a few times. At one point you scratch your nose.

Absolutely scintillating.

--

Week 3, Day 5

Jasper has been investigating the plot against you, like the darling he is.

You remember an incident you observed last week, with that same type of easily missed servant and Princess Gisette.

…Yes, if that was the story it makes sense. Especially knowing Gisette and her family’s reputation.

“Lady Rosaline, what is it?”

“Nothing, Jasper. It’s nothing. Thank you for your help, and your investigation. I appreciate it.”

You don’t really, though. You can’t truly appreciate what this means for him, how he struggled with this. What devotion.

Somehow, the discovery that Gisette was behind your accident last week doesn’t seem to be putting you off. In fact, I think it’s piqued your interest.

You make no sense.

--

Week 3, Day 7

“I hope you will keep something similar in mind, Princess.”

You continue onto the Matchmaker with a dreamy internal smile, not at all bothered by the fact that she just sent your poor butler on a run-around errand because she decided to procrastinate until the last minute with her love confessions.

Granted, he…apparently procrastinates even more, but despite having just received a regular barrage of clandestine proposals, you fail to recognize his advice for the heartfelt confession that it is.

If you’d just reject it, I could live with that, but how oblivious can you be?

You proceed to lie shamelessly about plans for a political marriage to the Matchmaker. She’s totally onto you, I hope you realize.

--

Week 3, Day 7

Gisette gives you a studying look from across the room. It’s a lot like the look she gave you right after she tried to murder you. Last week.

Are you really sure about this?

You manage to meet her gaze and then give her a significant smile and nod of your own.

Apparently.

--

Week 4, Day 3

You bask in Princess Gisette’s lap, drinking in her condolences about the terrible burden on you this week.

If you would pause a moment to consider the irony, you might remember that you’ve deduced this burden is all her fault in the first place, and also how tragic you found the death of that fellow she murdered, but you apparently haven’t reached that level of self-awareness.

You at least remember that she also tried to murder you, but you’ve apparently decided to let that slide.

Not for the first time, I question your self-preservation instinct.

--

Week 5, Day 2

Jasper wipes your fingers carefully, attempting to gently remove the ink.

When he is satisfied it is clean he stares at your hand for a moment, as if lost in thought. It is only a lapse of a moment though, before he returns to himself and releases your hand from his grip with a start.

“Forgive me, Lady Rosaline.”

“Jasper—”

“I should go. I have other duties to attend to.”

Despite your surprised protests, he hurries off, leaving you alone with your newly finished letter.

“—you really need to get more sleep,” you finish, to the empty air. You read once more over your letter to home, plans already forming in the back of your mind for your return.

Sleep? How could you not see the pining there? The repressed longing? How could you not melt into goo over the yearning devotion in his eyes?

How could you not want to stay?

Your maids help you undress for bed, and you doze off happily, oblivious to the fact that you’re totally doing Katyia’s Legacy wrong.

--

Week 5, Day 4

Jasper sets down your breakfast tray, both he and the breakfast as mouth-watering as always. “Let’s go over your schedule for the day, Lady Rosaline.”

You groan inwardly at the businesslike tone in his voice. Today’s going to be a busy one.

“There’s a rehearsal scheduled this afternoon, for the three hours before dinner. You’ll obviously be expected to attend that. Given that you have a leading role, you may also want to reserve some additional time to go over your lines.”

You perk up at that, looking forward to the opportunity to see Gisette. Perhaps you could even arrange some time alone together under the pretense of practicing your Serah-Vienna scenes.

“You’ve received a last-minute invitation to a tea arranged by one of the delegates from Wellin, Lady Petunia.”

You shake your head. You’ve met Lady Petunia, she’s a dreadful bore. More importantly, she’s not nearly fashionable enough for Gisette to attend her teas.

“You’ve also received an invitation to a group luncheon from Lady Aria of Revaire, as a thank you for the tea you hosted last week. Given your role in the theatrical this week, I believe you can decline without causing offense, should you wish to. Lastly, with the upcoming ball, I believe it would be wise for you to work on your dancing. I would be happy to assist you in that area.”

Lady Aria rarely says anything of substance, but on the other hand, she spends a great deal of time with Princess Gisette.

Do you really want to choose an hour of empty-headed prattle where you may or may not be able to watch Gisette from across the table over dancing with Jasper?

“I’d rather not risk offending Lady Aria. She was a great help to my investigations last week.”

(Yes. Yes, apparently you do.)

“Very well. You should still have some free time after dinner and before the luncheon, which you could spend on dancing, private rehearsal, or something else.”

“I should take some time after the rehearsal to go over the scenes I had trouble with. Perhaps Lord Clarmont or Princess Gisette might even be available this evening to go over some of our scenes.”

Jasper’s eyes widen in alarm, though it does little to disrupt the sheer perfection of his features. “My lady, meeting privately with a man you have not been matched with to rehearse romance scenes would…invite comment.”

You knew that. Etiquette might not be one of your strong suits, but you’re not that oblivious.

“I thought we might be able to find someone to chaperone, but…you’re right, it will be best if I only ask Princess Gisette. I have just as many scenes with her anyway.”

You shrug, as if it doesn’t matter to you one way or the other, pleased to have an excuse for some time alone with Gisette.

“That still leaves this morning. I’m afraid I won’t be available to help you practice your dancing in the hours between now and your luncheon.”

“Perhaps another time. I can practice by myself in the ballroom for today.”

--

You spend some time dancing around in the ballroom. There’s something about this room, because by spending time in it you can feel your natural charisma increasing.

(Perhaps if you practiced with your butler, instead of trying to look alluring for yourself in the mirror, you’d actually manage to improve your grace and not just your personal magnetism.)

--

Gisette is not at the luncheon, which turns out to be a dreadful waste of a couple hours. (Just think, you could have been dancing with Jasper.) By the time the designated hour for the rehearsal rolls around, you are practically tripping over your skirts in your haste to escape.

--

“But Vienna,” you sigh, “how could I possibly trust in his intentions after my most faithful maid saw Lady Matterly leaving his chambers?”

“Sweet girl,” Gisette rests her hand on your back, a waft of sweet perfume teasing your senses. “I know you trust your maid dearly, but you must admit she is…prone to misjudgments. Confront Sir Horus, find his version of the story. He is not a man who would be able to lie under pressure. Not like Prince Armand.”

You turn to face Gisette, clasping her elegant hand between your own. “Oh, but Prince Armand cares for you dearly! I’ve seen the look in his eyes when he watches you across the room. He may be a man who talks all around what he means—not unlike yourself, dear cousin—but I am convinced his affection for you is true.”

“Lady Rosaline!” Lady Avalie is suddenly standing next to the pair of you. “You’re turning your back to the audience.”

Right. You release Gisette’s hand, masking your reluctance to do so. “I don’t think it works for Serah to deliver that line with her back to Vienna. Princess, perhaps if you came around?”

You try a few things, but don’t quite get it right by the time Prince Zarad and Lord Clarmont have finished and it’s time to switch scenes.

“Princess, would you have some time to spare this evening to see if we can get that scene figured out?” You smile apologetically, as if you’re sorry for the bother.

She gives you a coolly assessing look, but you can detect a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “I had some time planned to review my lines. I suppose we could use it to work on our joint scenes, Lady Rosaline.”

--

After dinner, Gisette knocks on your door, script in hand. “I hope now is a good time to work on our scenes, Lady Rosaline,” she says sweetly, just loud enough to be overheard.

You happily invite her in.

“I admit, Rosaline, I initially found the idea of this theatrical quite a bother, but I’m coming to appreciate its hidden charms,” she says, smiling languidly at you.

You look around for a suitable chair, and land on the one you were sat in yesterday when Jasper so lovingly wiped the ink off your fingers. Without sparing that tender moment a passing thought, you sit and run through your positioning a few times until you have it figured out.

“I confess,” Gisette smiles, “I’m not entirely confident in the scene before the ball, either.”

--

“Oh, Vienna!” you cry, taking Gisette’s hands in both of your own. “I fear I shall never find love!” You clasp your joined hands dramatically to your bosom.

“A lady should hope never to…” Gisette cuts off in the middle of her character’s quip, shaking her head with a smile teasing at her lips. “Really, my dear? I suspect the audience might notice if you have me grope you onstage.”

You grin unabashedly, releasing her hands. “My apologies. I was caught up in the drama of the moment.”

Okay, you’re kind of cute together. When she’s not planning your death.

--

“You did not see the so-called ‘love poem’ he sent me, Serah. It contained the most lurid descriptions of my—”

At this point, Serah’s maid is supposed to burst into the room and interrupt, but it’s just the two of you.

She’s standing where Jasper normally does when he’s going over your schedule in the morning. Your eyes meet, tension simmering between you.

You raise an eyebrow, smirking. “Have you ever gotten a particularly terrible poem from a suitor, Gisette? I received one at seventeen that compared my teeth to his mother’s china.”

She tilts her head in thought, her pale hair catching the candlelight without the ethereal pearly shimmer that Jasper’s hair gets in the same light.

“Nothing so terrible as what was recited at that charming little evening you hosted, but there have been a few gems.” She smirks, takes one of your hands in hers and looks deeply into your eyes. “O lovely moon, I beseech you to shine on me eternally, eclipse me in your violet pits…"

You giggle.

“He was so proud of his work that he recited it in person. On one knee. And his father was too important an ally to offend, so I had to smile through all twenty verses.” She wrinkles her nose. “It was all I could do not to gag. But enough of such odious recollections, my dear. I have a rare moment alone with you.” She strokes her fingers over your wrist, not releasing your hand.

“And what would you like to do with it?” you purr.

“Oh,” she smiles slowly, like a cat basking in the sun, “I have a few ideas.”

She steps closer. Her long, cool fingers stroke along your jaw, and she cups the side of your face, her soft lips closing over yours. She kisses you passionately, releasing your hand to bring her other hand to your waist.

You wrap your arms around her, drawing her as tight as you can without mussing her exquisite coiffure. Your mouths melt into each other, her body feeling almost fragile under your hands.

(I wanted to vicariously kiss Jasper, but… this is nice.)

You finally, reluctantly, release each other, and you blush as you realize that you weren’t entirely successful in your quest to avoid disheveling her hair. You were not emotionally prepared for her to pull your lower lip between her teeth like that.

“Let me…” you grab a hairbrush from your dresser.

She raises an eyebrow, looking herself over in the mirror and giving you a fondly exasperated look before taking a seat on your dressing stool. “I shouldn’t give you a hard time. You’re more of a sight than I am.”

You peer over her shoulder into the mirror to find your hair falling out of its twist, bodice off-kilter, cheeks flushed, and lips red and slightly swollen.

“Whoops.” You adjust your bodice and hastily tuck the wayward strands of hair into place. The rest you’ll just have to wait out. “How do I look, cousin?” you tease, sliding a hand into her pale blonde tresses and catching a lock to smooth with the brush.

“Like perfection itself, my dear.” She doesn’t finish the line, tilting her head back languidly and luxuriating under your touch. Hints of the fragrant oils she uses waft up to you as you stroke the brush through her hair.

Once you’ve brushed every lock into place and then some, and can’t really justify drawing it out any further, you twist the strands she had pinned behind her head back into place and replace her hair clip.

She stands, smiling regretfully. “Our time together is always far too short. Until next time, Rosaline.”

With a parting kiss, she picks up her script and departs, leaving you with the trace of her perfume and lips that still feel warm.

--

Week 7, Day 8

As your ship becomes a speck on the horizon, it feels strange to be idle again. It’s been a long time.

Jasper stands at a window in one of the towers, watching you go, a hint of resigned melancholy in his eyes.

I couldn’t do anything for him. Again.

I know he can’t feel me, not like you could, but I concentrate on all my good feelings, all my esteem, all the love I was hoping you’d be the one to give him for me.

It’s so quick, I might’ve imagined it, but for a moment, a hint of a smile flickers across his face.

I don’t know if anyone like you is going to come around again, but…I can always hope, right?

Jasper turns away from the window, heads back down to help with getting the castle out of the state of disarray that sixty entitled visitors always manage to get it into.

And I?

I wait.

My apologies for how glaringly this fic needed to be twice as long and several times more edited. 

I might go back and flesh it out more once I can write about weeks 6/7!

[aion-rsa]

Why Star Trek: Discovery Needed to Write Out Its Klingons

https://ift.tt/3rEA2Tp

The third season of Star Trek: Discovery was many things, including a trip into an uncharted future that released the series from concerns about pesky things like existing franchise canon and a soft reboot that allowed a show that had often struggled to determine its identity to find its voice at last. It was also the first Discovery season that didn’t feature one particular Star Trek staple: The Klingon race. Are those things connected to one another? Signs definitely point to yes.

To be fair, few fans were probably that surprised by this particular narrative. The Klingons are essentially Discovery’s white whale, the one part of the show’s universe that it can never quite get right and whose appeal it can never capture, no matter how it tries or what twists it pulls. Virtually every subplot involving Klingon characters has been nothing short of a disaster, whether we’re either talking about the galaxy’s dullest war story or that time Michael Burnham ended up falling in love with a Klingon sleeper agent essentially wearing a human suit. (Season 1 was a journey, folks.) By the time Season 3 started, many viewers were probably more than happy to bid these characters farewell.

The show’s first season focused heavily on the fallout from the Battle at the Binary Stars, the opening salvo in the supposedly epic Federation-Klingon War that turned out to involve a lot more longwinded talking than exciting space battles. Discovery Season 1 went all-in on showing us the intricacies of Klingon politics, complete with multiple, extended scenes spoken only in Klingon (with subtitles) that derailed the momentum of any episode they happened to be in. There were weird tribal prophecies and a potentially intriguing conflict between various Klingon houses that unfortunately never really went anywhere.

Season 2 of Discovery, perhaps realizing that most viewers weren’t particularly interested in watching the Klingon version of C-SPAN, turned its focus to the arrival of Captain Christopher Pike and the mystery surrounding Spock and the Red Angel. Klingons, as such, weren’t a particularly large part of the story anymore, outside of Mary Chieffo’s High Chancellor L’Rell. And though her arc, which centered on her fight to claim her own power in a society that doesn’t particularly value its female members, was interesting on paper, it eventually got derailed by a truly ridiculous subplot involving her having a baby with the aforementioned Klingon sleeper agent. (There’s a whole bunch of other stuff about consent, sexual assault, and which “mind” was in control of Ash Tyler’s body that, really, we’re all better off forgetting ever happened. Big yikes.)

So, in many ways, it’s perfectly understandable that, when the series was offered a fresh start in the form of a third season set nearly over nine hundred years in the future, Discovery jumped at the opportunity to shed the alien race that gave the show so many problems in its first two outings. Granted, the series wasn’t particularly graceful about its decision to essentially delete the Klingons from its narrative, spending most of its third season dropping in nostalgic Easter eggs for fans even as it moved its own story forward. It’s just the Klingons weren’t one of them.

Season 3 saw Burnham and friends revisit several planets familiar to Star Trek fans like Trill and Ni’Var, the world that was formerly known as Vulcan. Its world feels more expansive than ever before, with new characters of varied races throughout. Ryn the Andorian – a member of an iconic Star Trek alien race that had previously appeared in just a single episode of Discovery – suddenly played a pivotal role in Season 3’s story. Even Linus the Saurian had more to do.

Yet, we never see a single Klingon. Not even in a random crowd shot. Not once. In fact, the only time Klingons are even mentioned is in the Terran Mirror Universe two-parter, which technically takes place in the past. We have no idea what happened to the Klingon Empire in the wake of The Burn, or what their society is like now. That’s some pretty hardcore ghosting, particularly when it would have been so easy to just drop a few vague hints about things like their Federation status, the ways that a largely warrior race adapted to a world with (a whole lot) less dilithium in it, or how they feel about the infamous Michael Burnham’s return from the proverbial grave. Yet, Discovery deliberately bypasses all those stories without looking back. And, in the end, it’s difficult to argue with that choice.

Read more

TV

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Doesn’t Need Captain Kirk

By Lacy Baugher

TV

Star Trek: Discovery: How Book and Burnham Have Quietly Become TV’s Healthiest Romance

By Lacy Baugher

Season 3 is the series’ strongest and most complete outing yet, a return to the first principles of Star Trek with a generally brighter and more hopeful feel, despite the occasionally dystopian vibe of the 32nd century. (The big takeaway from the season finale is a lesson in empathy, after all.) The third season was focused not just on solving the mystery of The Burn and rebuilding the Federation, but on reasserting the idea that such a thing as a good or helpful institution was still possible. Klingons were never likely to have much of a place in that kind of story, so basically ignoring their existence was a win-win for everyone.

And at this point, so many viewers probably had Klingon-related Discovery PTSD, that the clearest, easiest path was to simply remove the piece of the show that had caused it the most problems in the past. Which is fine, there are plenty of other stories to tell in this universe, and maybe the series will figure out a way to reintroduce the Klingons in a way that doesn’t derail all the other good work the show has done since the last time we saw them. (Sure, I’m not hopeful, but this is Star Trek. Anything is possible.)

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Perhaps the Klingons as characters will find a more forgiving home on Strange New Worlds, set at the interesting narrative juncture in which both the Klingon Empire and Federation will have to try and iron out something that looks like peace. But maybe it’s time for the world of Discovery to do a little more seeking out of new life for its future stories, and not try to return to a narrative well that’s never really worked for the show.

The post Why Star Trek: Discovery Needed to Write Out Its Klingons appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/39ywITN

[eliz1369]

SQUIRREL!!!

Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought of this...

Sorry where was I? Oh right. Saint Germain’s route was... interesting to say the least... 

(spoilers below the cut)

I mean, I should have known something was up after the walk that lasted for ever... and who has two mansions that are exactly the same? Did he pay to have his entire art collection duplicated too? Because that would be some serious dedication. (But I bet the Otomate budget office was happy :P What do you mean we have to pay someone to draw an entirely new setting?!? Nah, don’t worry it’s the same mansion. Oh... okay? O.o)

Yeah... that should have been my first warning. But how can you not trust that face?

I’m sorry, what? Did you just say kidnapped? And you lied about Twilight? Okay this is getting a little creepy...

On a side note: Does anyone ever explain how Finis keeps coming back? Because if they don’t I’m just going to assume he’s going all Grand Admiral Thrawn and has a stash of clones hidden under the cathedral. 

*thought screeches to a halt*

Did he seriously just drug her!?! Oh, and now he’s dragging Ring Around The Roses into this... as if it wasn’t creepy enough. (Though that’s a fantastic bit of foreshadowing!) Scratch that, it just got worse. Why does he have a KNIFE?!? Why does he want to kill her?!?! What kind of route is this?!? And for goodness sake keep your creepy eyes closed! They’re making this so much worse! (probably didn’t help that I was playing this at midnight in the dark...)

Much like I had some problems with Van, the start to this route was not a good one for me... for uh... obvious reasons. For goodness sake, either do it or don’t, but don’t sit there half strangling her!

Oh yes, because not having tea anymore would simply be awful. I think there’s a bigger problem you should be worried about here. 

Yes! Run away, Simb- er Cardia. Run. Run away and never return!  

Oh and of course, lets bring her food. Sure she’s not suffering from hunger, but hanging a metaphorical ax over her neck probably isn’t all that pleasant either. 

You know, I think that’s a record for a confession... 

And this route has completely lost me. On the bright side, at least I now have proof I’m not inherently attracted to characters who say they’re going to kill me... ~.~’ Yay?

In all seriousness, the beginning of this route was a big reason it’s sitting at the bottom of my list. Don’t get me wrong. I did like it and it is a well done route in most respects. There just wasn’t enough that followed this for me to overcome the turn off of this first part. The moment in Van’s that I didn’t like was at least in the last third so there was some more development in the relationship and it has nothing on Saint trying to murder her. This whole relationship felt rather fast in terms of level of devotion. Yes, in light of the theme of Cardia learning to want to live, her priorities here make sense, but I didn’t know that, so I was left wondering what kind of conversation and type of tea would make that experience worth her life! 

Anyway moving on...

I can’t tell you how happy I was to see my two favorite bespectacled heroes show up after escaping from one kidnapper-almost-murder and running into the Ominously Mute Knight of How-Does-That-Thing-Fit-Through-Doorways (not quite as scary when you picture it having to turn sideways to get in and out of places :P I mean are those shoulder things really necessary?)

On a happier note, Impey had some golden moments in this route that made me laugh out loud. XP

He took the words right out of my mouth (though I think the budget may have had something to do with this too :P) That’s some awfully convenient rain.

It seemed to me that they were really pushing the Lupin x Cardia angle in this route. Other than Impey’s dramatic confessions of love no matter what, Van’s and Fran’s seemed to stay pretty focused on them. In this one, I really felt that if Cardia had walked away from Saint Germain, Lupin could have easily stepped in. 

I’d already had my suspicions that Saint had been around for quite a bit longer than he appeared, but I was thrilled at how they worked the legends of Camelot as well as the Black Plague into this route. It was an excellent choice of backstory for him and I really enjoyed Guinevere as a character. 

I was less thrilled with Omnibus and the rest of the story. Just like with Finis suffering from his Princess Bunhead hairdo, I just can’t get over the fact that when I hear/read Omnibus I think of this:

So instead of an all knowing old woman in a wheelchair I’m picturing a big fat talking book... It made her a whole lot harder to take seriously when she wasn’t on the screen. It’s like having a villain named Keith ~.~ “OOOO Watch out for Keith!” (if you understand that reference, I love you :P) I have some other thoughts on her, but I’ll come back to those later. 

*sigh* The romance between Cardia and Saint Germain. There were some really tender moments, but even with the “I don’t want to do it” angle going, I had a really hard time getting behind Cardia’s feelings after that first chapter. 

Take this one. This was clearly meant to be an emotional part, but I think I got all the wrong emotions. Literally all I could think was “OH MY GOD YOUR FACE IS MELTING!!!” I don’t care how “warm” it is or that you’ll heal right away, it still feels like slimy melting flesh! Yuck! Oh, and there’s also the fact that he must have changed gloves, because those things weren’t melting when he covered her mouth before tying her to the bedpost. (or any time after!) and why wouldn’t he poison-proof all of his stuff?

The ones that followed were far better, (and got the correct emotional responses from me) but nothing wowed me enough to overcome the initial turnoff of the beginning. 

Though this one was agonizing to listen to

and that last one was especially cute :)

Finally, everyone’s reactions to the news that they were leaving was absolutely perfect! My bespectacled heroes were at it again, and Impey... I think we need to work on your priorities :P

Most of my issues with the plot of this route (exempting that first chapter) stemmed from Eve The Great And Powerful. I was really hopeful for her as an antagonist when she first showed up:

I mean, talk about brutal, but this didn’t last more than two seconds before the contradictions started showing up... 

Look, I get that she might be trying to manipulate Cardia into doing what she wants, but she can’t be an emotionless doll and be in love at the same time. A cannot be A and not A at the same time and in the same relationship. This was in the same bloody conversation. Mere seconds apart. Any normal person (not tied to a plot) would have looked at her like she was nuts. (Even someone as naive as Cardia. Lack of knowledge does not equal stupidity and she’s clearly intelligent.)

Insane Antagonists: 2 Supposedly Sane Antagonists: 2 (Looks like Lupin’s will be the deciding vote)

Then there’s the whole goal of Apostles of Idea... (Supporter of an idea/belief. Wow haven’t seen a name that original since The Force) People have free choice, but apparently since their choices suck and aren’t in line with God’s ideas, it’s her and the apostle’s job to remove anyone making bad choices. In essence removing the option of free will for the sake of saving humanity. But in this same conversation, she says its up to Cardia’s free will to decide to show up at the bridge. So she doesn’t give choices to individuals and humanity en-mass, but gives the “fake doll” the freedom to choose? Make up your mind already and be consistent!!! 

The religion aspect bothered me a bit as well, but not in the way you might think. I am a Christian and far from a casual believer, but I wasn’t insulted by this or vetoing it on principle. Given that this is Victorian England, it’s highly implied that the “god” referred to here is the God of the Bible, and that’s not even counting the-actual-still-living-Eve, the fruit she mentions, and the concept of original sin. (which is more closely tied to Christianity than it is to Judaism) This story clearly falls within the realm of fantasy/steampunk, so I was willing to (and did) extend it quite a bit of lenience for it to play fast and loose, but there was a plot hole that was just too big for me to overlook. 

They started off on a good track. I was even mildly impressed as most stories tend to go for the Kumbaya everyone goes to heaven in the end model, but this one went right for the original sin angle. (I really should have seen that Eve reveal coming... I mean she has an APPLE pendent...)

But then they went and shredded my suspension of disbelief beyond repair because Jesus just kinda makes the whole thing pointless. 

Nothing in this world so far had even hinted that he was missing, but apparently his section of history never happened and if that’s the case, what on earth is the Church even doing there in the first place?!? Without Jesus, you simply don’t have Christianity existing in any form because it’s based around the idea that he was the salvation given by God. (Yes modern/enlightenment views have changed to lean far more toward the “good man and teacher” view, but up until then it was based firmly on the living sacrifice of God to save his people from their sin) 

The key word being “save”. If Jesus exists within this story’s version of God’s framework, what the heck is Eve doing? She doesn’t need to guide all of humanity and it’s not some “thing” or event that will happen in the future. If she’s eaten the fruit and been alive since the beginning, she should know that this already happened and her “burden” isn’t a real burden at all. If he doesn’t exist, then yes, her story makes more sense, but who is that church in Van’s route for then? Because there would have been no Saint John the Apostle, let alone St. John’s Cathedral. (Frankly we’d have John the Fisherman-No-One-Remembers)

Look, I’m sure this didn’t bother a lot of people, but for me, this aspect made no sense at all. They could have made it some nameless religious group and because of the fantasy aspect, I would have believed the whole multiple lives thing and their goal of preserving humanity and keeping them on the correct path. I’d even have believed that artificial life was a dangerous product of man’s ego. But by dragging historical events and biblical references into it, they tore a hole so big that I was unable to do anything to patch it. (for the record I’m not debating whether you believe he actually existed. The fact is we have a religion in the Victorian era based on the belief that he did and they clearly built buildings to commemorate him and his followers) 

So in summary...

I guess I get the appeal of this route. It certainly had the heart wrenching self-sacrifice angle going for it, and a lot of these moments were really well done. I just can’t get over A) the violence and sheer creepiness factor of that first chapter (as well as the strong possessiveness that winds through the entire route) and B) Omnibus and the Apostles of Idea. 

Well, Impey is next on the list before I tackle Lupin. I’m already dying a little inside just thinking of sitting through Nemo’s voice, />.<\ but it wouldn’t be fair of me to keep it turned off. 

[tumblunni]

MAN NOW I’M RANDOMLY GETTING THE GHOSH FEELS AGAIN

damnit i just think of an oc who vaguely resembles him and now I’m back in the quicksand?? seriously i literally HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN ABLE TO PLAY THE GAME all i’ve done is see a bunch of lets plays that’re always filled with ~lol gross he looks gay here~ type jokes and gahhh...

And seriously i still don’t know if any of those Kinda Gay Moments were intentional or not, cos the playstation version is really badly translated sometimes. maybe I’m just projecting :P

and seriously he’s SUCH A WASTED CONCEPT! He does nothing! he only exists to be a vague obstacle in other people’s plots to cause stuff to happen. His rivalry with the player is never really explained and never gets a conclusion either way! I was really thinking ‘holy shit this guy looks like a romance route’ but nope instead like three other people get to have the tsundere type smoochies and he just gets a fuckin fully drawn swimsuit scene that appears for five seconds and seemingly serves no purpose. Seriously fuckin walks into your swimming pool in tiny speedo and says ‘ohohoho you should be grateful i am here’ but NOPE NOT A ROMANCE OPTION, NEVER

A HETEROSEXUAL MAN WHO TOTALLY HATES YOU

Seriously, you get SO MUCH consistant hints that he DOESNT hate you, though! its like The Lore is hinting he’s a more complex guy who’s gonna get some kind of payoff to this but NOPE even if you don’t believe that the fact he follows you around everywhere and constantly tries to impress you and his sister says he never shuts up about you and asks ‘seriously, what is your relationship with my brother?’ is actually supposed to be Potentially A Gay Character Whose Route Was Removed, then seriously it still comes off as like.. dude does not hate you He feels like a very performative parody of the weirdness of these rival characters. Why can’t i get my settling our differences route? Why cant i get a conclusion of him actully doing ANYTHING in the plot?

and seriously even if he was supposed to be 100% hateable and just exist to get his ass kicked, he DOESNT EVEN DO THAT! there’s no resolution to the rivalry, there’s no way to actually prove him wrong! i was pretty much only invested in doing [blablabla insert gameplay thing here] because the game always had ghosh come in and be all ‘ha ha u cant do it’. And then even when you max out the whole town, clear the tower, defeat the big bad and are dating all the girls simultaneously, he still doesnt even mildly change his dialogue. You can convince the whole town you’re awesome except him! And you dont even get any kind of knock on effect of that! He’s so defined by being The Better One, yet he doesnt even get to react in shock when you succeed at the stuff he was also aiming for?? And his personality doesnt get even slightly humbled by that? And he just continues doing the same generic rival dialogue even though the tower has already been finished and he’s already lost?? HIS PLOT IS LIKE THEY GAVE UP HALFWAY IN

and DEAR GOD I am just so re-obsessed with this damn game now that I know there was a gameboy port/adaptation/spinoff that ACTUALLY DID GIVE GHOSH A GODDAMN PLOT there’s no dating routes and no town customization and it’s generally universally worse gameplay, but apparantly the few characters who didn’t get removed in this version all got LOTS MORE DEVELOPMENT WOW and fffffff this game is so obscure and i cant even find much info on this even more obscure version!! all i know is that there’s this mythical Ghosh ending, and they renamed the monsters better translated names, and there’s some new characters added that have Backstory Importance so apparantly the whole plot got a real good sparkling lick of paint, not just mr rival dude

and like.. okay... I don’t actually know if this is true or not since I’ve never played the gameboy version and nobody has done a goddamn half decent lets play anywhere as far as I know but tvtropes says ghosh’s expanded role includes ‘his father was also killed by the final boss’, which seems like a bit of a lame way to give him a sympathetic backstory. literally just he had the same sympathetic backstory as you. And seriously who WAS his father? your father was the bad guy’s former friend he betrayed, who made this big sacrifice to stop his evil plan. How could they manage to slot in a second dad into that plot, even? so like, even if this fact being true would COMPLETELY DISPROVE my dumb fan theory, HERE IS MY DUMB FAN THEORY:

What if Ghosh’s father WAS the big bad?

Seriously, its always struck me as odd that him and his sister have no family resembelance, and the only character in the cast she looks like is inexplicably the bad guy. Seriously its quite uncanny! Ok kinda spoils to talk about it, but here’s Ghosh’s sister (not the spoils bit) and here’s the mystery bad guy. And in the brief time you get to see him pre-superform, you can see his outfit looks super similar to Ghosh + sis! I don’t know if its just a coicnidence, or maybe Selfi wasn’t intended to be Ghosh’s sister in pre-production, or something? But I do have this wild theory that this dude was supposed to be their dad and it just got cut out. A lot about the endgame is quite rushed in the playstation version!

So like.. here’s my theory/way to make Ghosh actually relevant/way to make the big bad come less out of nowhere at the very end of the plot, and have to exposition his entire backstory at you in his one and only cutscene. Cos seriously if he was your dad’s best friend who supposedly vanished alongside him, why does NOBODY EVER MENTION HIM? nobody in the town seems to have known he existed! What! My thought is that it coulda been way better integrated if you just hear all these lil stories throughout the worldbuilding about how Ghosh’s dad was totally a great hero too, and stuff. And it’d maybe give Ghosh a bit more motivation to have started his rivalry with you in the first place, if he’s had to deal with being constantly compared to you in a lesser sense. Cos that’s the thing about ‘my father died too’ as a plot point that really should have been expanded upon! The player’s dad is specifically The Most Famous Legendary Monster Tamer, who almost succeeded at beating the tower. Ghosh’s family is rich, yeah, but you’re The Famous Kid. Even if you start off as a total newbie to monster taming and it feels like everyone in town hates you cos theyre saying you wont be as good as your dad, all Ghosh can see is ‘they wont stop talking about your dad’. And sure, maybe he’s just a normal jerkass jealous guy, but maybe its a bit more sympathetic cos its ‘my dad died too, and nobody even remembers him, because he was a ‘failure’’. That would make a lot of sense to define his entire personality into what it is nowadays! And of course he would feel all tsundere as fuck about seeing you as a friend, its like his entire reason for being your rival is just because of something you didnt even do, something HE didnt even do, something two dads did a decade ago and he’s got only second hand info on. And he’s trying to retroactively justify it by finding evidence you’re totally as weak and terrible as you NEED to be, in order to fit this narrative. But also ‘hey I’m defining my life by defeating you and restoring my father’s honor’ can kinda turn into ‘hey i’m defining my life by following you around everywhere and impressing you and asking if you want to hold my hand a little’. (Seriously if the game wasnt intentionally writing him as a love interest, they made one hell of a coincidence! And then like 45 other coincidences every ten minutes in every dialogue!) And then your friendship route with him could just be him loosening up once he gets to know you and realizes all his preconceptions were complete nonsense. And like.. ‘hey ghosh i still like you even if you’re not the most famous and most rich guy ever’. It could be quite easy to make his character more well-rounded just by saying he’s so boastful to compensate for some self esteem issues? Seriously MAN I know none of this is canon but it just frustrates me that it would slot so well into canon!! so much potential!! you dont even have to change a thing!!

AND THEN the reveal of the bad guy could actually mean a bit more! I mean, its still a ‘whoa’ and quite sad just because you’ve spent the whole game hearing how your dad was such a cool guy (theory: his full name is literally Cool Guy) and then you get confirmation that he is indeed dead after all this time of trying to find him. And that he got betrayed by his best friend and all. But.. we dont know anything about the best friend!! he was never mentioned before! He only makes a big impression cos he’s very scary in the ten minutes of screentime he gets the only personality he has is just generic mwahaha villainy and like.. a vague implication that his motive was jealousy or something? thats what got me started on wondering if him and Ghosh are related, cos it would be a really interesting story parallel if the rivalry was destined to repeat itself with their kids. And like.. in the original dads it was a guy pretending to be a friend when he really only saw your dad as a rival, and now its his son trying so hard to be a rival when really he's in denial about being your friend. And it could be SO COOL to explore Ghosh’s reaction to this revelation! The betrayal would feel so much more personal cos we’re not just hearing about this guy betraying someone else a decade ago, we’re seeing him betray a main character right now. And like.. in the original we just hear ‘yeah, your father Guy thought he was good when he was really bad’, we the player are never fooled into thinking this guy isn’t bad, cos the first time we even SEE him is when he does [spoily thing] and [spoily character] is [spoilstuff] and then wham final boss, the end. I guess they kinda substituted it with that other twist? Betrayed by a different character even if this backstory betrayal is super obvious non-twisty. And like.. it could be an excuse to give big bad dude a bigger plot role, too! like, we could hear abot him second hand from Ghosh, we could maybe see some other flashbacks of his journey with your dad prior to the betrayal. Maybe he could even appear in person before the big reveal scene on the top floor? You could find him inside the tower and he could be like a mysterious mentor dude who seems good before the big reveal. And the dad thing could be a great misdirect! The player could think ‘oh, the reveal is gonna be that he’s secretly ghosh’s dad’ and not expect that ALSO he was a bad guy all along! Oh and MAN what if he does the whole ‘come join me, we can rule together’ thing with Ghosh??? Loyalty to your pedigree bloodline that you were once so proud of, or to the protagonist you’ve always pretended you had no loyalty to, but secretly admired as a friend...? And srsly the similarities in their characters are such a good thing for a conflict like that, even if they WERENT supposed to be related! It could be a piercing question to Ghosh, how far are you willing to go in order to prove your the best? Would you kill for it? I mean man Ghosh has more deep plot metaphor connections than the protagonist could ever dream of! A confrontation between these two would have been so damn cool!!

Oh and MAN what if it isnt just one short scene of ‘yeah no fuck u dad i’m saving Koh’, what if he gets a full arc of maybe temporarily switching sides for a while?? That could be SUCH a good twist on the formulaic nature of Ghosh’s role in the plot! So much would change if he was suddenly absent from his comic relief appearances in every scene of everyone else’s plot forever. And it’d be so depressing to see the second floor of the tower finally be empty again for the first time since the tutorial level! (In the game itself, one of his only real roles he fills is being an optional boss fight every time you pass this early room, and giving you a variety of helpful items if you win. he’s kind of an honorable rival beneath all that trash talk!) And like.. man.. imagine how on earth you’d explain this to his sister! it could even be a chance for a big ‘the hero’s fall’ type part of the story? after all this time of winning over the loyalty of the townsfolk, you could suddenly be back to unpopularity cos nobody believes you about Ghosh. he was the town hero! he would never have done that! And even if you chose to lie about it to uphold his positive image with the town (+5 Ghosh romance points?), you’d still get a negative reaction cos you cant explain why he went into the tower with you and never came back. You get treated as if you committed the sin that the bad guy did all those years ago! And maybe this could be another way for the romanced characters to have a minor effect on the plot? like, only if you finished their route do they believe you, and become the few people who keep supporting you from this point on. (Mom would be the only one otherwise, cos she really needs to get a chance to shine. It sucks that her role is so minor after the prologue!)

And then maybe ultimately you find out Ghosh’s betrayal was a lie and he just tried to trick his dad into thinking he was on his side so he could help you take him down in a big ol spectacular battle scene! Woo! Like, instead of [spoily spoils] being brainwashed by big bad and not being able to resist him in order to not kill you, but somehow being able to resist him in order to summon a lgendary sword you can use to win in a glorified cutscene, because the whole fight meant nothing and blablabla. (That sucked! At least the LP I saw last had the player try a bunch of cheats and kick the dude’s goddamn ass with overpowered monsters in an awesome montage just to prove that this was indeed unwinnable.) Nah, it’d just make more sense if your dad’s legendary sword was sitting there the whole time from when it first happened, and like... it just becomes unsealed when the villain starts his spell using your blood and etc. ‘Whoops I accidentally armed you with the key to my own demise’, karmic takedown! And maybe Ghosh plays a role by tossing you the sword, or holding the guy back while you get it, or something? And [spoily character] could still have a redemption cos maybe they could do a ‘kill me to kill him’ moment. Can’t break free of his control, can’t not attack you on his command, but since they’re now linked together in a terrifying final boss body horror mashup, they could sacrifice themself to be a weak point to him. It would make more internal sense than ‘i cant disobey him until the most plot important moment for no reason’. Also it would clear the air a bit about whether that character is meant to be like.,. actually choosing to betray you, or being brainwashed? Either way I’d still love them tho, its still a good plot to think of someone who was used as a literal weapon for so long that they lost hope in ever escaping and just agreed to do spoily things and trick you into thinking they were an ally, just because it meant they could get a chance to pretend to be a normal person for a few months. I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS FOR YOU, SPOILY CHARACTER! OR there’s also the consideration that this endgame plot was so vague and badly translated that the first time I saw it I thought that it meant [spoily character] was actually like an artificial creation from big bad splitting himself into two. Which would have been a real good plot too, if someone literally born from the bad guy’s blood could still choose to be good and turn against him!

And also I dunno, maybe we could have a bit more explanation on why on earth big bad can even do this brainwashy fusion thing in the first place. Honestly, just saying ‘he’s Ghosh’s dad’ would kinda explain that? Cos Ghosh’s lil sis is the only mage in the town and its implied to be rare or something that humans can have magic without the assistance of monsters. So like... just say that her dad’s particular magical talent was this thing of stealing other people’s powers. ...tho again it makes it weird that her and Ghosh dont have any resembelance and he’s just a sword guy?? Hmm ADDITIONAL THEORY: ghosh isn’t actually a blood relative, he was big bad’s adopted son. that could give him even more reason to blindly believe his dad was good even though he doesnt know anything about him. And even more reason to be excessive about reminding people he’s Totally The Heir To The Richy Richerton Family, Here Look At My Cash. And like.. defining himself by proving his own worth as the town’s one true hero.  Mannnn goddammit why am I stuck having so many feelz about a minor as fuck character in a game nobody’s even played...

Oh and I did not know that Ghosh is an indian name meaning ‘quiet’, thank you google! Its a bit confusing tho cos some sites say its pronounced ‘goash’ like I assumed, but some say ‘gosh’? Then again, there are names that’re just pronounced differently. *shrug* I wonder if they intentionally picked that name as an ironic one for him? or, well, the game has a lot of random english names for ‘exotic factor’ so they might have picked it randomly too. Seriously, there’s literally a girl named Selfie. TFW your english is so bad you accidentally predict slang from years in the future...