#Tad(The Protagonist)

[citizen-saint]

watched hellboy 2day (barely, it was mostly in the background while i made cupcakes (i overfilled them but the batter was amazing, thanks for asking)) and the best part was watching the normal guy get beat up when they were captured

[youcantdateosmosisjones]

oh my god

all my moldable, stoic, easily projectable video game protagonists are literally just the same guy

[tammyhybrid21]

Respect, Recognition and Contribution

SO HI.

It has been... a hot while since I posted in general let alone any of my long ramble analyses... but Yeah. So I saw Tadeo Jones 3 in the cinema. Two times actually, would have gone more but well health and time and just-- it didn’t happen. And I have quite some thoughts about it, but most of these will be under a cut just for those who’re still somewhat attempting to avoid spoilers.

Although before all that, I can at least do a “bonus round”-- I feel kind of sorry for Sara. Because wow, she is honestly the main if only person in the main cast who is secure in her place and position in the world... and also the only character who feels completely Neurotypical... Which is a whole other breakdown I’ll save for later... if I remember.

Respect

Soooo, first up. I’ll say this. The whole movie has a kind of, “Could have avoided this plot” feeling to it. I mean, there’s a number of aspects to this but the main thing is the Trio.

These three dweebs. They’re not so normal either, but-- They’re pretty effectively what set the plot off. Also they’re disrespectful as anything, the game has a take on them as well. But I’m not really sure how much of that can be actually applied to the movie. But these three, they’re what sets the whole plot in motion with two overall decisions. There’s the most obvious one at the start of the movie, throwing Tadeo off the team and then further not giving him even a passing mention.

It wouldn’t have been perfect. They do have points that are 100% valid about Tad and his issues. But they definitely could have avoided some of the plot’s pitfalls just by a mention and been less horrible. On that matter, the way they mock Victoria is the second “could have avoided this plot” moment. Because here’s the key about the tablet, and even some hints throughout the whole movie. Repeated a few times is how the tablet wants to be found. Notably mentioning alongside that it will use whatever it can to achieve that...

Victoria’s had a piece of the tablet the WHOLE movie. And the tablet in the climax is mentioned to specifically show you what you want. It takes advantage of those who’re vulnerable. Now our friend Victoria went through two phases of seeking acknowledgement and recognition. While her stated goal doesn’t change I would like to claim that wasn’t the only part-- but this is more about the second part. Because those three, Ryu, Bryan and Ann mocked her, opening her up to be even more vulnerable to the tablet’s influence.

Which is more about respect, not just recognition.

These three disrespect people. Even Sara on some level how they grumble and demand that she follow along. MOSTLY Ryu. And the game even expands that by claiming that they cheated their way into their accomplishments. I don’t know how much I put stock into that, but it’s something to note down anyway, and might explain why they act like that, but at the same time they take things seriously despite that. It’s just the treatment of those around them that they view as lesser that’s an issue.

Contrast with Sara who even if she’s not 100% back to been entirely happy with Victoria she’s involving her in what’s effectively Victoria’s expedition. Sara still stands up and defends her, even if it’s not perfect and lined with doubts. She’s at least hearing Victoria out and there’s input both ways... which leads me to my second thoughts. BEFORE this whole expedition and the trio been... the trio. Victoria felt early on less like she actually wanted to prove the existence of the tablet as much as she wanted to work with and be friends with Sara again.

--And of course, moving on, there’s direct parallels/contrast with Tad’s own reaction. I don’t really want to be mean to him, but-- Tad’s first impression ALSO isn’t the greatest when it came to Victoria. It’s not completely terrible, but Victoria even noted it in how she told him not to worry, she already knows she has a poor reputation. But beyond that there’s how Victoria tells him to tell Sara, not to go off and do-- what he done.

Which wasn’t entirely Tad’s fault, that whole situation was a mess of lack of clear communication on a few sides. But the respect part comes in more when you think about it. All Tad had to really do was wait the night. More or less, it wouldn’t have been perfect considering the sarcophagus unveiling itself, but he could have had a proper chance to talk about the issue with Sara, although yeah. He’s very validly frustrated, because the trio made him so... but that doesn’t excuse any of what follows because that’s all from him basically transferring down that disrespect.

Recognition

Soooo let’s go back a bit. While I didn’t mention him in the Respect section, Hermes definitely was biting because the Pharoah didn’t give him any respect as the tablet’s creator. More explicitly though the legend says he was tired from the lack of acknowledging his merits. Which is more a recognition thing. Hermes made the tablet, he was the reason that everything was so good, he wanted to be acknowledged and that’s incredibly valid.

We all want to be recognized for our contributions, whether this is something great or something that’s just small. Hell even our pets enjoy been recognized, dogs, cats, birds and yes even rats.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s not especially rats, but that’s an aside. Recognition comes in so, so many different forms. From just the recognition between friends, to been famous or infamous. In the end, Hermes did get his recognition, for better or worse, I don’t know if he would have been happy with it. But he’s there to help set up and echo the theme that carries for the rest of the movie.

But specifically here, I want to contrast him and his story with the other Egyptian character we got this movie.

Ra-amon-ah, Ramona. She’s very clear with her stated wish and goal. She wants to be made famous, acknowledged for her three day long rule. Which I am torn personally between losing it laughing at the length of time, and wincing because yeah. Yeah, that. At the same time, she’s not putting in her own effort to do so. Which is both fair and not, she’s not the most socially adept person at the point we meet her in the movie and also in the game... Which btw, love her whole section in the game so, so much. But that’s its own thing.

Ramona is interesting. She has her stated goal, but more notably, she has the opportunity to get it. While the distraction that whole experience was meant to be failed because of course... It’s still a really interesting insight to everyone involved. First off, Mummy actually, her whole speech from her introduction and all-- he even mimicked how she corrected them, although not perfectly. Which I have way, way too many thoughts to easily translate them down. But the big thing is, even after that she had the opportunity to stay-- she even was going to stay and go to the Cairo Museum...

Meanwhile the game, which we can halfway take as the missing scenes and side for Ramona’s adventure...

Also just, I love the whole arc of this section, but it really can only be taken with a grain of salt because there’s a good portion of events that are skipped over to go from the Boat Chase to this. But in the game she no longer wants to go be famous and known. Which does happen by the end of the movie as well, but I think it’s telling of when/how that happened. In that neither piece of media really explains it, but we do get her saying she wants to explore and see the world by the end of the movie which-- huh...

Seems familiar.

But also this all seems to have been triggered, or meant to be triggered by the more personal acknowledgement. The idea that Tadeo, Mummy and Sara all knew and saw her. Even Victoria on some level by the end, who needs to be world famous when you have close friends who see you?

As an aside, loneliness acknowledged.

Contribution

So, first off, this movie is not a masterpiece regarding this. It’s not a masterpiece regarding any of these themes that carry through. But this is the missing piece of the puzzle and what serves to tie everything together.

Hermes, Victoria, Tadeo.

All three of them had some major contribution that people either stole the spotlight from them on, refused to acknowledge/dismissed or just wasn’t understood at the time. I won’t go through them all because I’ve already said quite a bit about it all. But even off that there’s some other sides I’ve been somewhat skipping/glossing over.

So, Sara huh? Okay, this is more small, but there’s something a bit... funky about how Sara calls Victoria weird at the start of the movie. Mostly because we’ve had-- two previous movies, where she basically saw confirmation on the supernatural before this. Sara also personally knows Mummy. But I guess that doesn’t matter quite as much in the grand scheme, but it definitely needs to be stated because it does contribute to the issues. Maybe much more subtly but Sara isn’t completely clean, at the same time, she was the first to offer an attempt to bridge.

On all ends. But even with more action in the movie she was playing backup/home base support ultimately.

On the other side, I want to talk about Pickles and Ramirez. Mostly because that dynamic was... 100% not what I thought it would be, but at the same time everything I thought it would be. Don’t ask please, I probably won’t make sense. But even there, the issue of contribution comes up, mostly with Pickles contributing basically nothing but taking all the credit he could and man, it was satisfying he basically got sent home to lick his wounds and presumably mope. While Ramirez actually contributed to the plot by listening at the key time... also the one time the trio were actually useful in this movie and not actively making things worse with disrespect.

--

But none of that really ultimately matters. Because while on that side the spotlight was shared. Sara with Victoria, both of them actually getting to talk, first with Sara listening in the car(btw, major ND vibes from Victoria with how she kind of just expected their friendship to fall back into place like it was never broken)-- and then further at the Louve itself. Following to their own side uncovering the key’s keyhole--

While the police officers both got the opportunity to shine, Ramirez been the absolute best on screen as the straight man to Pickles absolutely insane assumptions and leaps of logic...

There’s the issues on Tad’s side of the “party”.

And this is where the theme runs into a case of pulling up short.

Closing the Loop

So, the theme is etched into every piece of this movie. It’s so much tighter than both the first movie and leagues above the second that juggled too much and dropped at least half of what it held. So what’s the issue?

We can see all the parallels as they relate to Tad easily. He wants to be taken seriously and acknowledged just like Victoria. He wants the respect and fame he feels owed that the trio have kept from him in this movie-- and he just wants to know he’s done a good job. He wants to be in the limelight like Ramona does when we first meet her.

At the same time, he fails to see that he’s doing the same with Mummy. Here’s the thing, the plot also wouldn’t have happened if not for Mummy been there. While Tad did open the sarcophagus the biggest breakdown of communication was with Mummy there, also why didn’t he get to use his “dead tongues” joke and knowledge like from movie 2? But here’s the thing-- when Mummy unlocks the padlocks in that scene he specifically says he gets it.

Which can be interpreted in a few ways, either it means the credits from Movie 2 happened in some form, or you know-- Tad leaving him in the apartment for 2 months alone really felt like chains holding him there. Also Mummy repeats a couple times he just wants to have adventures with Tad. Their relationship as its set up in the movie is supposed to mirror Victoria and Sara’s...

So why doesn’t this feel like it hits quite the same beats?

So, here’s the thing, this moment is supposed to be the turning point for Tad’s own priorities starting to shift. This moment here, where he swaps from been primarily self-interested to at least partially including Mummy... And I know it’s supposed to be the turning point, because after this is the big fallout and there’s even more focus on the way he feels like he’s failed and just put everyone in danger BUT-- IT doesn’t land. Doesn’t work for one main reason.

The character focus in this movie on Tad’s side is just... too much on Tad. I can see what they’re going for, I can see and reach out, touch and hear this theme so strongly. But-- it doesn’t quite stick the landing for a lack of expansion. Victoria got the chance to long to reconnect with Sara, to have moments to shine independent and make decisions that showed she was just as capable if specialising in a completely different area.

Tad and Mummy though... Those moments were either skipped over, or given to Tadeo outside when Mummy got to put his acting and theatre nerd on display. Which I love, but even I can acknowledge it’s not really enough, especially when he’s still not given all that much time to shine when paired with Sara and Tad uncovering the true map to the tablet... But I can see where it was meant to reflect. And yes, Tad really owes a proper apology.

“I don’t want to be a BURDEN on ANYONE!”

As an ND person myself ouuuuuch. That hits so hard, but at the same time, not hard enough just because of the surroundings. It’s not lingered on, it’s a scene that is important and yet, not enough. And maybe that’s just me, maybe it’s because I’m a writer myself and I make stories, maybe it’s because I’m Autistic and I love Mummy because I see my autism in him-- But, this doesn’t linger because all around it, before and after, Mummy’s role in the movie has been a lot less than I hoped.

Hecc even the Ammut curse wasn’t as in depth as I hoped, but that was more my mistake hoping that some of the judgement stuff would show up ahahah. But here’s the thing. Before this, there’s a scene that on rewatching more it’s like; Why did they need to show this when it’s something we could infer just as easily-- and we could have had a much more interesting scene if they gave us a discussion and interaction between Mummy and Ramona? The other mirroring characters. Explicitly mirroring characters. Who didn’t get much interaction together in the end at all...

The scene I mean, Tad finding the key. Literally that could have been replaced with Mummy and Ramona talking, the whole Mummy “honor system” of staying where they were told as well. Locked away and secret... and even between that. Between these moments, when Mummy became their flying Taxi, it would change nothing, everything if he got to suggest it as a plan before Tad lost it on him, the dialogue Tad says wouldn’t even necessarily have to change so much...

The meaning, the emotions would still be there, whether prompted to it or not. But it would give everyone involved some much needed agency. And thus tie more heavily into the theming of the movie as a whole. Because while I see it, it’s still pulled short. It’s not incomplete, it’s just not as much as it should be...

On the other hand kudos for this whole sequence and the following. Because when those screenshots initially leaked I thought that it would be your traditional ideal daydream and much earlier. But then it showed up and man... yeah, they really did have the attempt there. But it still has missing pieces.

Whether those pieces are Mummy been allowed more agency later on in the movie, having a quiet moment outside of just following Tad around or you know, Tad giving a proper apology. It’s complicated.

The Tablet

Here’s an interesting digressing sidenote. But the tablet itself and the way it’s handled in the movie seems to heavily imply that it has its own sentience and its own ideas on what the world should be. It is stated throughout that it wants to be found, it lures people in with their dreams and their “heart’s desire” only failing with Tad because his priorities had shifted just ever so slightly-- and it’s also always there.

If you’re paying attention at times Tadeo’s eyes get slightly greener tinged when events are playing out. And Victoria’s are even more obvious about it. As well, Mummy whenever he transforms, he’ll usually have his eyes turned green under the tablet’s power until it fails and he returns to normal.

It’s even noted in the backstory flashback by them making Hermes’ eyes that bright neon glow green.

Makes you wonder really.

[baeshijima]

thoughts on being engaged to duke!sunday, the head of the oak family, an incredibly influential figurehead within society, the close subordinate of emperor gopher wood who brought him and his sister in and raised him like his own, and the villain who faces a tragic ending in a novel you recently finished — the very same one you just so happen to find yourself transmigrated into. he is as cunning as he is blinded, a trait which brought ruin to many in the empire, and one which ultimately brought ruin to himself at the hands of the protagonists.

as luck would have it, you became a barely mentioned side character from a marquis family, whose role was to be the villain's wife stuck in a one-sided love who, too, would get caught up in the tragedy alongside him. however, now that it's you who is stuck in this position, you're determined to try any means necessary to deter him from going down that path, all in an effort to escape your predestined doomed fate!

of course, you didn't expect it to be easy. the day of your arrival in this world was already the night before your wedding, so you had little time to prepare yourself for the nonchalance of your supposed family, how they viewed you as but a means — a tool — to boost their influence and prosperity, the dismissive mannerisms of the household servants, and the absolute beauty of a man you will be married to.

(seriously. the novel descriptions did not do him justice. he was like... like... like he was handcrafted by god himself! and not to mention his sister, robin, was the very epitome of an angel! perhaps you're destined to perish by the god-tier visuals instead...)

to say the least, the wedding ceremony went by quickly. safe to say you didn't spend the night; he was cordial and gentlemanly upon letting you know that he won't do anything until you're ready, that you can take this relationship slow, but somehow you ended up feeling a tad insulted. like, who leaves their newly wedded alone in a big cold bed as they walk out on their own? a sick bastard that's who!

well, whatever. it's not like you need nor want to consummate with him! besides, you have bigger things to worry about — things such as your impending death. and, of course, the only way to stop sunday that you can imagine working is by chipping away at his resolve bit by bit, and opening his eyes to reality.

he is a tragic character, one who cares more about the well-being of penacony and its people than anyone else, but was manipulated into getting his hands dirty in the emperor's stead. you knew this. you sobbed over his story, cursed out the protagonists, and even fought internet randos on novel forums about sunday's motivation and how,

no, he is not just a stupid villain. he is a complex character with flaws and humanity and was cruelly taken advantage of by someone he considered family. he was deceived through the suffering the emperor wanted him to see to make him easily manipulated, creating a rift between him and robin to have that prominent separation. you know what? maybe you're just a !%#@ who can't even #@?"% read properly!

and yet you still find yourself at a loss when faced with the walls he has in place. your initial efforts went as well as it possibly could have; you trying to earnestly help him, while he "kindly" dismisses your offers! well, "kindly" being more condescending since you could read between the lines of his mannerisms and amiable demeanour, but that's fine! you expected this! that just means you have to double down on your sincerity, get through to his heart (somehow), and help him realise humanity isn't as weak as he's led to believe!

you have three years until the novel's plot officially starts, and another year after that until your demise. that's plenty of time to get him to warm up to you!

it was easier said than done, but after your valiant effort and abundance of time put into this relationship, which admittedly you could do with some of that lost time back, you could give yourself a pat on the back with the progress you made! while you definitely could have done without a lot of the headaches, it's safe to say sunday has significantly warmed up to you in comparison to your wedding day. he now willingly eats all his meals with you with some real conversation, takes garden strolls with you in the early evenings, invites you out for dinner at a restaurant at least four times a week, hell he's even joked and laughed with you more frequently! but most importantly, he has begun asking for your opinion before finalising any decisions he is required to make. and he actually listens and considers your side! now, that certainly is the best outcome you could hope for after all this time, and it most definitely will help in your endeavour to save you both from the protagonists!

however, you've noticed he's been more... affectionate? well, at the very least he now willingly holds your hand when in private (not just in moments when you're in the public eye and he has to make sure the family's reputation is spotless), sometimes he will hug you out of the blue ("i just need to... recharge. you have a way of calming me down. i hope you don't mind." ...how could you say no to his supreme god-tier face card? that's just a losing battle you won't even bother fighting against.), oftentimes he opts to just gaze wordlessly at you (robin had mentioned over one of your tea times how it almost appears as though there is no one but you in the world when sunday gazes at you with, in her words, "the eyes of a man so deeply in love!" ...whatever that's supposed to mean...), but a more recent development has been his sudden interest in kissing you; well, more specifically giving you a kiss to the back of your hand or on your forehead — certainly not anywhere near the lips! (besides, he's probably just gotten comfortable with you, enough where he can freely act without judgement. nothing more, nothing less.)

well, either way, development is development! soon enough, the time for the main plot to start has arrived. it of course follows what you remember, from the organised balls to the protagonists meeting to the political aspects of it all. the only difference is sunday's less active involvement in all the schemes and the emperor's ploy. rather, he seems more focused on you and the future of your marriage and even displayed a sudden interest in your practically non-existent relationship with one of the foreign diplomats, aventurine— wait...

"[name]," he calls your name out so sweetly you nearly disregarded it as someone else he was talking to. well, perhaps you would have done had he not suddenly appeared before you, a tight-lipped smile tugging the corners of his lips as he steadily approaches you.

oh. he doesn't seem very happy, if his tense figure is anything to go by. you wonder if one of the nobles grated his nerves a little too much this time?

sunday comes to a halt a step away from you. "i don't like that... gambler being so close to you. it... it brings me a rather unpleasant feeling." there's a slight, trembling pause. not a moment later does he close the gap between you, one knee on the ground as he matches your seated height on the fountain rim, your hands gently enclosed in both of his.

you idly wonder if this is what robin meant by the so-called "eyes of a man so deeply in love" she constantly gushed about, for the way in which he gazes up at you is enough to render you breathless.

"tell me, [name]," he begins once more. there is an underlying desperation woven within his tone, one which has your head spinning and heart thumping wildly as his trembling gaze holds you in place. "tell me, what am i to do with this fervent love and overwhelming adoration i hold for you?"

oh.

...oh.

perhaps your impending doom should be the least of your concerns when you now find yourself in the arms of a clingy husband...

(though, it's safe to say you did, in fact, manage to prevent him from succumbing to his tragic fate! you just gained a loving, yet slight slightly emotionally challenged husband along the way.

well, you can help him work through it; you have the rest of your lives now to figure it out, after all.)

[theladysunami]

I listen to a lot of audiobook murder mysteries, which has me thinking:

Shen Yuan transmigrating into a murder mystery… as the killer!

There are a couple of ways the story could go.

First Option: Shen Yuan lets his System know, in no uncertain terms, he will not be murdering anyone.

Its response: [Alternate Plotline Initiated. New Assignment: Designated Red Herring].

Poor Shen Qingqiu finds himself stuck in a whole murder mystery series, and any time anyone is murdered, he somehow ends up being the number one suspect!

The victim? Probably picked a fight with Shen Qingqiu at some point. (Shen Qingqiu tries to avoid such arguments, but it never seems to work!)

The murder weapon? Yeah, Shen Qingqiu is almost guaranteed to have touched it. (Shen Qingqiu is severely tempted to start wearing gloves 24/7.)

The body? Either Shen Qingqiu finds it himself at some inopportune time, and/or it was stashed somewhere “only” he is supposed to have access to. (At some point it's just: Shen Qingqiu opens a door… sees a body… closes the door. “Time to call the cops, yet again.”)

Shen Qingqiu ends up a tad paranoid about the whole thing, setting up cameras outside his house, in his office, in his car, etc. just to (hopefully) stop people from planting evidence any of those places.

If anyone asks about the truly absurd number of (eventually dropped) murder allegations, Shen Qingqiu insists he's cursed. Even with genre blinders on (making the number of convoluted murders in the area seem normal somehow), it's hard for anyone to argue the point.

For Shen Qingqiu's day job (when he's not busy being charged with murder) he works as a professor at a university with a highly regarded Criminology & Criminal Justice program. I'm thinking the original goods was a literature professor, with a strong distaste for cops, who was known for grading anyone in the criminal justice program exceedingly harshly. Naturally one of his students is the protagonist, Luo Binghe.

After his transmigration, professor Shen Qingqiu suddenly becomes a very kind and doting professor with a real passion for literature. This leaves Luo Binghe quickly smitten and makes him a very motivated amateur detective, since he's determined to prove his beloved's innocence as quickly as possible and as often as needed!

Second Option: Shen Yuan takes over after the original goods already committed the murder.

He wakes up with a splitting headache (the victim attempted to defend themselves presumably), looks at his bloody hands… looks at the victim… looks at the weapon… looks at his bloody hands again. “Damn it, Airplane.”

He decides he doesn't want to try and hide a body actually, just to be caught by the protagonist later and charged with a whole slew of things in addition to murder, so he calls the cops himself. He might as well take advantage of the fact he has a concussion and literally doesn't remember a thing. Maybe he can get the charges reduced somewhat and get a lighter sentence.

Of course the first cop that arrives at the scene is Yue Qingyuan, who as the #1 Xiao-Jiu stan gives Shen Qingqiu way too much benefit of the doubt. The most obvious evidence also keeps being erased or damaged by weird as hell coincidences.

Shen Qingqiu knows he certainly isn't responsible for damaging evidence and wonders if the System is working overtime behind the scenes to ensure there actually is a mystery for Luo Binghe to solve. (After all, it wouldn't be much of a story if Shen Qingqiu was already charged and sentenced before Luo Binghe had a chance to even do anything.)

To his complete bewilderment, after a few days leave to recover from the concussion, Shen Qingqiu is actually allowed to return to his university teaching job. He decides to make the best of it, since who knows how long he'll be a free man.

As in the first scenario, a few months later and Luo Binghe is absolutely smitten, not to mention all the other students and faculty that have come to adore him.

As Shen Qingqiu has successfully endeared himself to pretty much anyone and everyone local that could actually charge him or provide eyewitness testimony, not to mention all the shady shit about murder victim Qiu Jianluo the ongoing investigation keeps digging up, the plot stalls for a bit until the state police (aka Huan Hua Palace) are finally called in by Qiu Haitang.

Unfortunately for the ‘HHP’ folks, the protagonist himself is on Shen Qingqiu's side, and Luo Binghe is perfectly happy to muddy the waters by conveniently “losing” evidence, sending them after every single red herring he comes across, and “accidentally” digging up dirt on all the shady dealings going on in their department.

The System keeps trying to motivate Shen Qingqiu to hide evidence, lie, or do literally anything suspicious to progress the plot further, but all its punishment protocols involve sabotaging Shen Qingqiu's coverup attempts (of which he has none) or revealing information to the protagonist (who is complicit by this point) so it's fresh out of luck.

Eventually the System gives up and Shen Qingqiu is congratulated for “getting away with murder!” despite the fact he didn't actually do anything.

“Seriously? Does it even count as getting away with murder when the original goods was the actual murderer? I didn't kill anyone!”

[...]

[lacesoflove]

hi! ive never requested before so sorry if this is worded weird but was wondering if you could write something where hamzah make the reader squ!rt for the first tike and he assures her its nothing to be ashamed of

soaked for you (request) | hamzah x fem!reader

rating | smut (fem recieving)

warning | afab!reader, proofread

w/c: 1.5k

author's note | this was a god request! i love requests or prompts that allow me to incorporate plot with porn. this might be the hottest thing i've written dare i say? the ending lowkey sucks tho but wtv

THE LATE NIGHT, TORONTO RAIN WAS BRUTAL WITH IT’S RELENTLESSNESS. 

You didn’t mind, not entirely, anyways, you liked the petrichor scent rain always brought in and the rumbling sound of thunder. The one thing you didn’t appreciate was the humidity. Thanks to the sheer fucking humidity, you had now found yourself wearing shorts,  no underwear, and one of your boyfriend’s many stupid slogan shirts he had “jokingly” ordered from Temu (he claimed to have ordered them as jokes but considering the volume of how many he owned, you weren’t sure now).  This one happened to read: best farter, I mean father, ever. It was comfy and didn’t make you feel hot, at least. Although, even with your minimal amount of layers and the fan blowing cold wind into your room, it wasn’t enough to rid of your uncomfortable state of being a tad too warm and, as if to make matters worse, you had found yourself occupied with an erotica novel that was causing you to burn with desire.  You had picked the obviously low quality book from Ben McNally as a joke with some friends, it was something to laugh at, truthfully, given the book’s bizarre plot being centred around a woman and her computer that turns into a sentient male being. Shamefully, you found yourself squirming at the surprisingly detailed sex descriptions and it didn’t help that everytime you looked above your book  you saw your boyfriend, Hamzah. The humidity had gotten to him too, it seems. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and chose to just wear baggy grey sweatpants that hung low on his hips, allowing the waistband of his Calvin Klein boxers to peek through. You felt easy. All it took was a shittily written sex novel from the discount bin and watching your boyfriend do something as mundane as organising the clothes on his side of your closet for you to feel yourself bloom with wetness. The need for him and his touch was making you antsy - jittery even. You chose to ignore the feeling. 

After all, you and him had sex in the morning and the night before. You didn’t want to come off as needy so you resumed reading your book that you were convinced was partly written by Chat GPT, and sometime between the protagonist somehow getting pregnant by her sentient robot boyfriend and her nearly dying in some contrived plot point, your boyfriend had settled in the spot next to you. You closed your book and set it to the side, mentally bookmarking where you left off before turning your attention to him. “Hey.” You smiled at him, trying to ignore how shifty your legs had become against your own will. You hated how physically obvious it was that you needed him sometimes. Again, it made you feel easy or like a whore. Which didn’t really make sense because you only really slept with him - but your mind was a contradictory, and sometimes, cruel place. “Hey,” he smiled back, albeit a bit tiredly.  “You good?” “I’m good.” You replied back, looking down at him. Fuck he looked good. He’d look better on top of me, you thought. You tried to cast that thought and others, similar, away.  “Just tired from YouTube and shit,” he paused a bit as he rubbed his eyes. “I lost a brand deal because, according to them, we’re not ‘brand friendly’ enough,” Hamzah remarked, enunciating the words ‘brand friendly.’ “Like fuck, and they’re the ones that reached out to us for a collaboration.” You nodded, barely taking what he was saying in, as your eyes lingered around his V-line. “Damn that sucks.” You mumbled. You were distracted and Hamzah wasn’t an idiot. He took you in, properly, and the pieces of the puzzle fell together when his eyes landed on your shorts. They were of a thin material and white, so it was quite easy seeing the wet patch. “What’s this?” He asked innocently enough. “What’s what-” your question was quickly answered as his fingers traced the outline of the desire that had bloomed in your pants. “Uh, I just spilled water on myself.”

“Mmm.” Was all Hamzah let out, his finger lazily going from the crotch of your shorts to your plush thigh, grazing gentle circles against your perfumed skin. He knew you were lying - but if you were lying, it must’ve meant you didn’t want him to take it as a sign for doing something. He was happy with just touching you just like this. You felt your body wet with his touch. Fuck I need him, you thought, as you watched him continue to trace little outlines of abstract shapes against your body, his eyes boring into your body as if it was on display at the Lourve. 

“Hamzah.” You spoke, finally managing to swallow the lump in your throat. You never knew why you were so nervous to ask him to touch you or have sex with you, you always wanted it, and you were sure he did too.

“Hmm?” He hummed, his eyes lifting to meet your gaze. 

“I - I’d like to-” you were struggling to find words. Not that he needed any anyway. Your soaked shorts, the nervous lust that was blooming in your eyes and just your general energy was a dead giveaway that you were looking for something more. Something he was proud only he could give you.

He began to move, settling his head to rest on your upper thigh. “What would you like, baby?” He asked you, his fingers toying with the drawstrings of your shorts. “You.” You replied, breathily. With that, he had slid your shorts off your legs and discarded them sloppily somewhere in the chaos of your untidied room. He planted a kiss against your vulva, before lifting his eyes to meet your eyes - a silent ask of approval to go further. You nodded and he latched his mouth against your pussy. Always managing to do so with a hungrier desperation than the last time he ate you out.  You felt your pussy throb as he licked long, hot stripes against it and felt tears prick at the corners of your eyes as his nose made repeated contact with your oh-so sensitive bud. 

You felt euphoric.

He lifted his middle and forefinger to your mouth, grazing them lightly against your lip - gesturing for you to open your mouth. You obliged. You took the taste of his fingers in and rolled it against your tongue before letting them out of your mouth. His fingers, now lubricated, entered your folds and into you. You shot your head back as the pleasure overwhelmed you. You glanced down to look at the view below you and all you could think was, God. 

The way his eyes were gleaming with dedication, the way his mouth was covered in your slick want as he licked - or rather, devoured - every drop of your desire and the way his fingers grazed the insides of your walls. Fuck it was too much and it made you feel so full - until you suddenly weren’t and you felt a release of sorts. You were overwhelmed with pleasure, sure - but you had felt more overstimulated sexually before, that there was no way you had orgasmed. Until it hit you and you felt an overwhelming wash of shame. You had squirted. At least you think you did, you had never had that happen before.

That was the only logical, and also most embarrassing, reason as to why you felt a release of liquid that you were, at least, certain wasn’t pee. Almost instinctively, you closed your legs and refused to look down at your boyfriend. For Hamzah, he was taken a little bit by surprise by your sudden demeanour change and became worried that he done something wrong. “Baby is everything okay?” He pressed. 

“Uh, yeah. I’m just sorry about that.”

He was still confused. “About what?”

 You stayed quiet for a bit before answering, “Whatever that was. That was probably gross as fuck for you.” Several realisations hit him at once.

He realised that you were referring to yourself squirting. You were embarrassed by it and were probably going to push him away because of aforementioned embarrassment. He took his fingers into his own mouth, cleaning your slick off of them and pressed his mouth against the back of his hand, wiping and promptly got up. “Baby it’s normal.” “I know it’s normal.” You groaned out. “It’s still embarrassing.” “There’s nothing embarrassing about you having a good time.” He assured you, reaching for your hand, lacing your fingers with his.

“I know but it still just is.” 

“Well I want you to know I personally enjoyed it.” He said, with a gentle smile and shrug. “I like knowing you’re enjoying yourself, and me.” You couldn’t help squirm under his reassuring gaze.  “So are you done feeling embarrassed by something that you shouldn’t be feeling embarrassed about.” You took his words in, And honestly? You did feel less embarrassed. “Yeah I do.” He feverishly began to plant kisses against your neck. “You know I love you right?” He asked you. “I do.” “And I don’t want you feeling embarrassed for dumb shit okay?” You nodded. “So can we go again?” He asked you. “And can I make you squirt again because, personally I found it hot as fuck.” With that you chuckled. “Yeah sure.”

 And with that he took you back in.

taglist: @adiormoi @cheesecakeluver @sillyfungirl10112 @xoxoange1l @riddlerloveb0t (lmk if you want to be added)

[writingquestionsanswered]

how do i make my writing more ‘mature’? i always feel like no matter how sophisticated i write and no matter every which way i change it up it always has a sense of being childish or juvenile.

Making Writing Sound More Mature

1 - Better Plot and Story Structure - One of the telltale signs of juvenile writing is a story that meanders, has no obvious plot or structure, has no conflict or has a protagonist with no goal. So, make sure you have a well fleshed out plot, with a conflict, protagonist goal, and which hits the beats specific to your story's genre.

2 - Three-Dimensional Characters - If you're writing plot-driven fiction, make sure your main characters have a fleshed out personality, stakes, motivation, goal, and compelling relationships with other characters. If you're writing fully or partially character-driven fiction, do all of the above, but also make sure your main characters have a relevant internal conflict and a thoughtful character arc.

3 - Well-Developed Setting and World - One common hallmark of juvenile writing is a lack of "sense of place" and under-developed world building. So, make sure you put a lot of thought into where your story takes place... not just the immediate setting of each scene, but the overall world of the story, or at least the parts of it that are relevant.

4 - Incorporate Literary Devices - Juvenile writing tends to be lacking in the use of metaphor, simile, symbolism, irony, themes, and motifs. So, make sure to include those, but also take the time to make them relevant to your story.

5 - Include a Broad Range of Vocabulary - One common element of juvenile writing is a reliance on limited, simple vocabulary. Don't be afraid to use a thesaurus to find more interesting word choices--just be absolutely certain to crosscheck your choices with a dictionary to make sure they are the right choice. Online thesauruses in particular are bad about offering up bad suggestions. Also, make sure to learn and use special vocabulary that is relevant to your story, genre, or setting. For example, if your character is a retired police detective trying to solve a murder on his stalled cruise to Alaska, you need to make sure you know the proper investigative terminology, because he will definitely use it. And, by that same token, you'd want to make sure you know cruise ship lingo as well. And, part of this, too, is getting better at description and the inclusion of emotional and sensory detail.

6 - Use Varied Sentence Structure - This is a big one... juvenile writing tends to use repetitive sentence structure, such as simple sentences (she stood up, she went to the window, she waved at the man), lack of subordinate clauses (Tad Smith, who was a seasoned and retired investigator, had looked forward to this cruise his whole life...), repetitive starts (every sentence begins with a pronoun, for example), uniform length (all short sentences, for example.) So, make sure your sentences are varied. If you read them out loud, you don't want it to sound rhythmic, but more like a complex melody.

7 - Show, Don't Tell... Most of the Time - Telling definitely has its place, but most of the time you want to show rather than tell, meaning that instead of stating things simply and directly (the sun was shining) you want to paint a clear but indirect image (dappled sunlight shone through the trees.)

8 - Avoid Cliche Phrases - Human language is littered with everyday phrases like "to each their own" or "better late than never." Generally-speaking, you want to avoid these phrases in your story, especially in exposition. If you include them anywhere, they're best spoken as dialogue by a character who it makes sense would say something like that. Likewise, be careful of cliche genre or character-type phrases. For example, villains who say things like "we're not so different, you and I..." or "I finally have you right where I want you!" These overused phrases tend to make stories sound juvenile and unpolished.

9 - Avoid Cliche Tropes - Another type of cliche to avoid if you want more mature-sounding writing is cliches of various tropes. Tropes on their own are a good thing, but when tropes are used the same way over and over again in a genre or type of story, they become predictable. For example, the super gorgeous protagonist who everyone is in love with, but they view themselves as plain and not special. Or the broken/hopeless/addict mentor character. It's not that you can't use any cliche tropes at all, just make sure your story isn't riddled with them, and do what you can to put your own spin on the ones you do use.

10 - Read, Read, Read - And I can't stress this enough... the absolute best way to improve your writing style and take your writing from juvenile to polished is to make sure you're reading a lot of fiction, in a lot of genres, by a lot of authors. Audio books, short stories, and poetry count, too. The more you read, the more you begin to: understand plot and story structure, recognize well-developed characters, easily envision complex settings and worlds, learn vocabulary and literary devices, become attuned to varied sentence structure, and learn to recognize cliche phrases and tropes.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[jackson-imbecille]

Almost every time I see someone talk about The Black Cauldron they’re talking about it being a bad and horrible movie and all that, but almost every time I show it to someone they like it a lot and understand why I like it. Hmmmmm, strange.

“Taran is such an unlikable protagonist” yeah, he’s a little shit. He’s a dumb fucking kid and it’s great. He has no idea what he’s doing, he’s a tad full of himself, he’s easily offended, and he’s hilarious to watch. He’s great.

Look at his dumb fucking face, I want to make fun of him so bad.

[ozzgin]

Hello Ozz!! My friend recently told me about a game trilogy called Yakuza! I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but it made me think of yandere!yakuza. How would they feel about the game? Would they think its accurate, or would they disagree with it?

Much love,

—Anon💕

I have indeed! There's this Yakuza-related ask here, as well as a Yakuza mention here. I started with LAD last year and wanted to switch to the proper order, but it's a tad annoying with the extremely long cutscenes and inability to save anytime. Which is why I'm kind of dragging my feet, haha.

I think the boys would very much enjoy the game idea. Hell, Daitou is very similar to the protagonist if you exclude the murderous tendencies. As to whether they'd play it...

"You got to be kidding me", Kazuya would say, looking at you incredulously. "Am I not already working as a full-time yakuza? Why would I want to spend even my free time collecting debt and chasing thugs? Come on, (Y/N), be serious. I'd rather just hang out with you."

Daitou would probably give it a try and end up being amused by the unrelated minigames.

"Am I misunderstanding something, (Y/N)?" he'll ask, a little miffed. "Is this how you hit your enemy?"

"Yes?"

"It's just a punch. Is this all I have?"

"What...What else would there be?" you probe, mildly afraid.

"I don't know, knifing their throat? Shooting them? Crushing their-"

"It's not that kind of game", you conclude, patting your boyfriend on the shoulder.

[notbecauseofvictories]

hm. as a woman who recently (ish.) left her twenties behind, I fear that American Psycho's late-twenties protagonist, who has money and a job from his father, plus a beauty routine that I thought wasn't invented until the 2010s; who ladles irony over every sentence, imagines floridly insulting every person who doesn't give him what he wants, but only flies off the handle in situations where the carefully calculated risk is low.....may be just a tad on the nose.

[drakorn]

Rewriting Veilguard Part 3 - The Grey Wardens

Rewriting Veilguard Part 2 - The Shadow Dragons

Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.

Writing an Origin Story Mission for the Grey Wardens

So before we start, I would like to notify you of three minor changes I made to my previous blog entry regarding the Shadow Dragons:

Varric no longer tells us about Solas straight away. I believe that’s a bomb that would be more effective when dropped later, otherwise poor Rook might just be a tad overwhelmed.

Neve stays in Minrathous rather than accompanying Rook and Varric. Yeah, as much as I like the idea of your chosen faction determining your first companion, I don’t think it’s really doable given the circumstances a few other companions find themselves in at the start of the game.

The Dreadwolf title card does not appear just yet. I found a better spot to use it later.

Now that we have dealt with the Shadow Dragon origin story, let us move on to the Grey Wardens. And here, we are going to have some fun because boy do I have ideas for this one.

The Grey Wardens were kinda the faction I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to playing at first and there’s a reason for that. You see, we already played a Grey Warden in DAO, and I actually like each game’s protagonist being someone very different. However, when I think about it now, there is some narrative logic to it. If DAV truly is the last Dragon Age game (which is very up in the air right now), it makes total sense to have this choice to bookend the story. You started as a Grey Warden, and now you’ll finish as one. Plus, with the Blight giving us its last hoorah in this one, it only makes sense to put the Wardens in a more prominent position once again.

So, without further ado, let us jump into the Grey Warden origin story!

Creating Rook

We start a new game, Varric gives his opening narration about the overall state of Northern Thedas, and this time, we click on the Grey Warden origin. The little blurb reads as follows:

“You are a Grey Warden. An ancient military order sworn to battle the ever-present threat of the Darkspawn, the Wardens undergo secret, unbreakable rites that grant them supernatural powers against the Taint. As the last surviving member of the Dornen outlaws, you joined the order after a passing Senior Warden invoked the Right of Conscription at your execution and gave you the chance to fight another day. But what you will do with it, that is up to you.”

Right there, we have a great canvas to paint with when it comes to sheer roleplay. We are a former criminal, the last survivor of a group known as the Dornen. Our group wasn’t, like, evil, but we were enough of a presence in the area in and around Hossberg to cause some proper trouble. The Anderfels is a dangerous land, the most dangerous one in Thedas. People don’t live, they survive. This means that many turn to unlawful ways to make ends meet. But being a former outlaw beautifully lines up with the theme of second chances the Order gives to so many people.

In DAV, our Warden’s name is Thorne. “Dornen” is the German words for “Thorns”. The Anderfels’ linguistic and etymological side is mostly based on German (“Anderfels” meaning “Other Rock” or “Weisshaupt” meaning “White Head”). So wouldn’t it be a fun idea if “Thorne” isn’t really the Warden’s last name but just the name they ended up going with? They arguably never knew their family name and the Dornen were as close to one as they could have gotten.

Unlike Mercar, your racial choice won’t really have that much of an impact here as the Wardens accept everyone into their ranks, as long as they can fight. However, if you choose to be a Qunari, it will add a few unique dialogue lines about how few Qunari there are in the order. You are probably one of the only ones.

For this hypothetical playthrough, we shall pick a dwarf warrior, and I’m giving him a big ginger beard. Just going full Lord of the Rings here.

Alright, so we just generated our Thorne, and now we get to hear Varric’s continued narration. We get a series of those beautiful tarot-styled illustrations with Varric’s voice telling us what’s been happening with the Wardens for the last decade. The Wardens in the North specifically have been all gradually returning to Weisshaupt Fortress, by order of the First Warden. They have become much more reclusive and secretive than they already were and are sharing practically nothing with the outside world. Something’s definitely going on. And Varric thinks it might be part of something larger.

Weisshaupt Fortress

And now, for the first time ever, we get to see Weisshaupt Fortress in all its glory, a gigantic fortress carved into the very mountains, the great headquarters of the Grey Wardens that withstood for over a thousand years.

I really like the way Weisshaupt is portrayed in DAV, my only gripe is that we never get to actually properly explore it. I was…surprised by that, actually. So what better way to explore Weisshaupt than have it be part of the Grey Warden origin?

This is place filled with such incredibly rich history. Just imagine, this place has existed since the First Blight, an event older than Andraste. This is an absolute field day for lore enthusiasts such as myself.

As soon as Weisshaupt appears, we get a grand reprise of Inon Zur’s DAO main theme, establishing it as the Warden leitmotif. Now that we are able to properly play as a Grey Warden again, we are just eased back into that feeling. We might not be playing the Hero of Ferelden anymore, but we can definitely bring back the nostalgia. Music is such an important part of storytelling, it’s insane how much a well-chosen theme can do.

Meeting High Constable Janos

Thorne arrives at Weisshaupt after a recent patrol through the mountains and we are greeted by High Constable Janos, the second-in-command to the First Warden. For some reason that rank never comes up in DAV, so we’re just going to include that here.

Here we’re going to establish that Janos was the Warden-Commander who invoked the Right of Conscription during our execution all the way back in Hossberg a few years ago. But why would the Right of Conscription even work in a time without the Blight? Well, this is a fair question for any other nation than the Anderfels. But the Anderfels is constantly threatened by darkspawn incursions, making it the only nation where the Right of Conscription still holds weight without a Blight. Given how the First Warden is often seen as an advisor to the King/Queen, one can also say that the Wardens’ whole “no politics” spiel doesn’t really apply in the Anderfels, either.

Janos informs us of an upcoming mission, assigned by the First Warden himself. Thorne is to meet him, Janos, and a few others in the war room later that day. It is something quite urgent.

NOTE: Throughout the prologue, Rook is still referred to as Thorne, given that “Rook” as a nickname does not exist yet.

Exploring Weisshaupt

Before we head off to the war room, we get a chance to properly explore Weisshaupt for the first time. And there are some interesting things to be done here:

Thorne can walk in on a recruit training session hosted by Davrin. Yep, if we’re a Grey Warden, we get to meet Davrin a little earlier than every other origin. We won’t know anything about his secret griffon mission yet, so for now we just meet him as a trainer. We learn that Davrin and Thorne joined the Wardens at roughly the same time and initially disliked each other due to their different pasts. But over the years, they grew to a mutual understanding since that’s just what being part of the order does to you. In this encounter, we get to train the recruits with Davrin for a short while, even do a sparring session between the two of us.

We come across a few recruits who are yet to undergo the Joining. From here, we learn that there hasn’t really been a great influx of Wardens recently as people just don’t see the necessity. And while the Right of Conscription applies in the Anderfels outside a Blight, it does so only when the alternative is a crime verdict. The recruits know about the Joining already, so we can either reassure or prepare them for the possibility of dying.

We learn from the general chatter as we traverse Weisshaupt that many of the older Wardens are getting ready for their Calling. Since there’s such an unusually high number this time, they are organising something akin to a massive group exodus into the Deep Roads. From the same chatter, we also learn that there has been a staggeringly smaller amount of recruits every year. Some of the older Wardens are worried.

We can enter the library and meet Valya from the Last Flight novel. Instead of just leaving the Wardens for an unspecified reason like in DAV, here she stayed, survived her Joining, and has since been promoted to Chamberlain of the Grey, the order’s chief archivist after her predecessor embarked on his Calling. Her role in rediscovering the griffons had a huge part to play here, but we don’t know that yet. She has also entered a relationship with Caronel who has been promoted to Warden-Commander of the Anderfels. From Valya, who is also in charge with gathering reports from Wardens all around the world, we learn how the Wardens in the South are doing, and it’s quite something. Nathaniel Howe is now the Warden-Commander of Ferelden and operates from Vigil’s Keep. Yes, all Wardens have been ordered to return to Weisshaupt, but Ferelden is an exception to this summon as the First Warden deems Amaranthine  being an actual Arling and two Grey Wardens ruling the country as too valuable of an asset to just drop. The same can’t be said for Orlais, though, as we learn that the Orlesian Wardens, currently led by Stroud and Thom Rainier, have fortified the Warden stronghold outside Montsimmard and are currently acting as peacekeepers. In addition, Bethany is currently overseeing the still-standing Griffon Wing Keep. The First Warden looks at them with disdain for refusing to obey his orders, but he also can’t, in good conscience, declare war upon them as every Warden is valuable.

NOTE: Here we see some of our World State shine through. In this playthrough, Hawke was left behind in the Fade, allowing Stroud to be a force for good among the Wardens. Blackwall took back his original name of Thom Rainier and became a proper Grey Warden. Since Hawke took Bethany and Anders to the Deep Roads in DA2, Bethany was made a Grey Warden. Nathaniel Howe was recruited and both Vigil’s Keep and Amaranthine were defended properly, allowing the Wardens to once again maintain a strong presence in Ferelden. As mentioned in the previous post, Alistair and Cousland currently rule Ferelden. And, as we're about to see, Avernus has been left alive and allowed to ethically continue his research.

While still in the library, we get to read a few letters sent to Valya. One of them is from Cousland, dating back a few years now, stating that she is close to making progress on how to stop the Calling but that this is the last letter she’ll be able to send as she’s embarking to places where communication just isn’t possible. Another is from Stroud, stating his regret for how things turned out. Here we get some hints as to what happened when he came to Weisshaupt during DAI. Apparently him and the First Warden clashed on ideals, the First Warden insisting on staying distant and secretive and Stroud being in favour of change. The third letter is from Ramesh, the Warden from Tevinter Nights who discovered one of Ghilan’nains labs and is now searching for the other eleven. The fourth and final letter is a report from Avernus and concerns the progress of his superior Joining ritual. All of these are just codex entries as I doubt we'd get to see this publicly.

Meeting the First Warden

After exploring Weisshaupt, we enter the war room, where Jowin Glastrum, the First Warden himself, awaits us. Joining us in the meeting are High Constable Janos and Warden-Commander Caronel.

Now, let me make something very clear about the First Warden. I like that he’s old-fashioned and traditionalist in DAV, I think it was very in-character of him to act distant and dismissive towards people outside the order. However, he is also a Grey Warden first and foremost at heart, he has Thedas’ best interest in mind. He isn’t here just because of status and standing, no, he clawed his way up the ranks through valiant deeds. We know that many Wardens in the Anderfels come from noble lines and still have ties to those. While the First Warden is of a noble house, he doesn’t use that as something to flaunt over the Wardens. His idea of having ties to noble families is a strictly pragmatic one: the more ties, the more aid, the more recruits. While he might not get along with outsiders, he absolutely respects the Wardens under his command and, while not always agreeable, would never meaninglessly sacrifice them. He’s harsh, strict, often an asshole, but still a Warden at heart.

The First Warden briefs us on a mission: A strange crack into the Deep Roads has opened near the village of Lavendel and a darkspawn horde is gathering for a full assault. Wardens Evka and Antoine are already on-site, preparing the defences.

The First Warden orders us to take charge of the village’s defences alongside Caronel. Under no circumstances are we to abandon post. High Constable Janos will arrive with reinforcements to secure our victory. The idea is to lure the bulk of the horde out of the Deep Roads so that we can slay most of them.

We can inquire why Thorne was chosen for this, since our presence alongside the First Warden, the High Constable, and the Warden-Commander is pretty insignificant, to which the First Warden answers that we are very much due to becoming Senior Wardens ourselves, it’s just this one last assignment left until our promotion.

After the briefing, we leave the war room and encounter Davrin again, with whom you can share in your either excitement or humbleness. In any case, Davrin congratulates us on the soon-to-be promotion, claiming how deserving of it we are and how he would have never thought so upon our first meeting all those years ago.

If we wonder why Davrin wasn’t chosen to head to Lavendel, he’ll tease that he has something else going on, equally important, but won’t tell us what it is just yet as it’s top secret (wink wink caw caw).

Reaching Lavendel

We depart Weisshaupt and leave for Lavendel, a small but significant village not far away from Hossberg. We take a few newly joined Wardens with us, a group consisting of the recruits we met earlier at Weisshaupt.

Upon entering Lavendel, we are approached by Evka and Antoine, who have been busy preparing the defences. From the ensuing conversation we gather that Thorne is very well-acquainted with them, similar to Davrin, having shared in many patrols across the Anderfels with them.

While Caronel takes charge of the mission, he trusts your judgment on matters as it is your time to prove yourself further in the eyes of Weisshaupt. High Constable Janos leaves you be now and heads off to prepare the reinforcements on the other side of the hills.

In the distance, a faint dark red cloud indicates the approaching darkspawn.

Preparing for Battle

Before the darkspawn assault begins, we have the chance to explore Lavendel a little and engage in its defences. During this short segment, we have a few encounters to experience:

Naturally, we can talk to Evka and Antoine and reflect on some of our past adventures together.

We can speak to the new Wardens we’re supposed to co-lead with Caronel, either inspiring them or telling them to be realistic and not too hasty. It’s obvious many of them joined because of the heroic notion surrounding being a member of the order.

We can encounter Mila and her father, Lavendel’s blacksmith. Yeah, I haven’t made them occupants of Weisshaupt just yet, you’ll see why in a bit.

We can inspect the defences, which boil down to barricades, a few ballistae, and, of course, the Warden stronghold just outside the village. If we explore enough, we see a very large and lose rock on a jagged edge right next to Lavendel. Maybe this will be useful later? Since we took the extra time to look around, we can now have that in the back of our head. We can also spot a crack in the stronghold’s basement and encourage quick repairments to be made.

We can speak to Caronel and share in thoughts about the coming fight. All of us Wardens can sense the approaching darkspawn. Caronel isn’t too worried as it’s just a minor skirmish, albeit with a larger-than-usual horde. And why worry? We’ve got Janos swooping in with reinforcements, anyway. We can talk about Caronel’s promotion to Warden-Commander, which was very recent. It is surprising how one so young climbed the ladder so fast, to which Caronel responds that it’s really not so uncommon anymore, given how Ferelden’s Warden-Commander got the title only a year after joining. Well, granted, she took down the Archdemon and somehow lived to tell the tale, but the point stands.

Before we commence the battle, there is one big choice to be made about our position and that of the villagers. While Evka and Antoine suggest to pull all Wardens and villagers into the stronghold and brave the storm there, Caronel would rather only keep the villagers in there while us Wardens head out into the open and prevent the darkspawn from getting to them in the first place. We don’t really have enough Wardens to divide, so we must make that choice now.

Send both the Wardens and the villagers into the stronghold and fight on close and narrow ground. The villagers are at risk from getting into the heat of battle, but the Wardens will be close by to defend them.

Send the villagers into the stronghold and let the Wardens fight in the village itself. While the villagers will be more vulnerable in terms of sheer distance away from the Wardens, the darkspawn is less likely to even get near them.

For the sake of this playthrough, we choose to evacuate the village, and ourselves, into the stronghold. We feel confident but would rather keep our charges close to us. Being a former outlaw in the Anderfels has taught us how one should never leave their goal out of sight. Our aim is to defend, not to gloriously destroy. This shows us that Thorne is willing to cast the pride of glory aside and choose an arguably safer path.

An Old Friend

Our decision made, we deliver a short speech to the villagers, instructing them to head into the Warden stronghold. We shall follow suite immediately and position ourselves on the walls and in the courtyard. Since we’re familiar with the darkspawn’s habit of digging tunnels, we’ll make sure the basement is accounted for as well.

Once the villagers and Wardens head to the keep, we are approached by a most familiar face: Varric Tethras. This is certainly a surprise. While we’ve never met him in person, we’ve certainly heard and read about him. Varric says he was passing through on an errand of his own and figured he might as well aid Lavendel’s defences with Bianca. While we can question the sincerity of this statement, we can use any help we get.

Varric comments how many Wardens would seek out the more daring and glorious path and is pleased to see that we’re not one of them.

The Battle of Lavendel

Right so we’re all hunched up in the fortress, and the atmosphere is intense. Now, all of us sense the evil just outside our doorstep. The dark red cloud is directly above us. Everyone looks to Thorne and Caronel for leadership while Evka and Antoine keep morale up. Varric, while being easy-going, is very much battle-ready now.

The darkspawn slowly creep through the village like a dark carpet of disease and corruption. We hear the deafening screeches of shrieks in the distance and see various hurlocks and genlocks make their way between the buildings. At this point, a thought comes to us, one we share with Caronel. Holy shit, that’s a lot of darkspawn. And no sign of Janos yet. Where is he? Where are the other Wardens? Surely this can’t be less than the bulk of the horde yet. This is almost like a new Blight.

A horrifying thought grips us and we quickly sense into the Taint for any signs of an Archdemon’s song. To our relief, we hear nothing. The relief is short-lived, however, as the darkspawn reach the stronghold and send in a wave of shrieks to scale the walls.

We engage in a properly gritty fight against the darkspawn and can make use of several ballistae on the battlements. But we quickly realise that this place is just not at all well-prepared. Evka and Antoine’s pre-defences, alongside our inspection, are all that’s keeping this place from being overrun. Why is this in such a shoddy condition?

We then hear fighting from the basement. Ah, so the darkspawn did attempt to dig through. Good that we halted their progress by mending that crack, giving us time to respond.

We head into the basement and confront some hurlocks and genlocks. After the skirmish, we sent several grenades into the tunnel below, causing it to collapse without damaging our infrastructure too much.

Returning to the courtyard, we see something strange. A few of the shrieks have reached a group of villagers, but instead of slaying them, they’re trying to abduct them alive. While this wouldn’t be strange if all villagers were female, given that darkspawn need broodmothers to multiply, they are taking the men, too. What…?

We make short work of the darkspawn, and at this point, some of our newly joined Wardens have fallen, but only the Wardens. Now would be a really good time for Janos to show up.

At this moment, we hear loud dum, dum, dum. Huge footsteps approach. We look at each other and have all the same reaction: Ah shit.

The gates to the courtyard break down and a huge ogre walks in. Oh boy, here we go. Now would be a really good time for Janos to show up!

We take down the ogre with great difficulty and see that another large influx of darkspawn follows. After dealing with those, the fighting ceases for a moment.

We head to the battlements and see another group on the outskirts of the village. Then we remember the huge loose rock. Oh yeah, baby.

We quickly load up a ballista and aim across the village, towards the jagged cliff. It takes three shots for the edge to become lose enough, but it works. The huge rock collapses upon the newly approaching darkspawn horde, squashing them all beneath, but taking some of Lavendel’s houses with it.

The relief is short-lived, however, as we can still sense the Taint in our heads. Further away, past the outskirts of the village, we can already see a new horde of darkspawn amassing. And still no sign of Janos.

We gather a quick emergency meeting between the Wardens, and some start speculating that…Janos might not be showing up. Evka and Antoine are of the same belief, while Caronel holds on to the hope that reinforcements are on their way. Why wouldn’t they be? Wardens stick together.

But what about us? What do we believe? Janos personally recruited us all those years ago, he personally saw to our training. Why would he…but where is he then? Why isn’t he coming? Maybe he was held up? But by what? Was there another darkspawn horde on the other side of the hills? But why can’t we sense them? In fact…why can’t we sense any other Wardens in the immediate vicinity aside from us?

Wherever Janos might be, we have to hold out on our own. But if the darkspawn keep coming, we won’t hold out at all eventually. And if the Wardens die, the villagers will be…what exactly? Killed? Or taken? No villager has died so far. Why is that? What’s going on here?

Eventually, Thorne concludes that if we are to survive, we must seal that damn entrance ourselves.

But how will we go about this? Do we take all Wardens with us, or just a few?

Take all Wardens to the Deep Roads entrance. The villagers are exposed but the darkspawn may be largely drawn to us given that they haven’t even as much as injured anyone else yet.

Take Evka and Antoine and leave Caronel and the other Wardens with the villagers.

No matter what we choose, we are going against the First Warden’s orders to not leave Lavendel under any circumstances until reinforcements arrive. And at this point, if we are to survive, we have no other choice. We tell Caronel and the other Wardens to secure the villagers’ retreat from Lavendel, while Thorne, Evka and Antoine head off to seal the entrance to the Deep Roads. Caronel is hesitant at first but comes to agree with you. In Death, sacrifice, true, but the sacrifice has to mean something. Varric offers to accompany us but since he’s no Warden, we refuse. He’s more useful with protecting the villagers without risking getting instantly blighted.

Approaching the Crack

With Evka and Antoine at our side, along with several grenades from the stronghold, we head across the dark hills. A few darkspawn break off from the main horde and try to stop us, but we make short work of them.

After a few short skirmishes, we reach the entrance to the Deep Roads, a very steep crack located between two rocky hills. It is guarded by two ogres. The rest of the horde have already departed for Lavendel. It’s now or never. We might be fewer but two ogres…we can take them. Maybe.

We throw ourselves into a fight with the two giants and slay them after exchanging some fierce blows.

Now that we have a short breathing moment, we must quickly go about sealing that entrance. However, looking at it reveals that we can only collapse it by doing so from below. No use doing it from up here. But this action would cause the Warden who does it to be trapped.

We look at Evka and Antoine and order them to give us the grenades. They initially refuse but we remind them that as Warden Thorne, we have been given charge of this mission. It’s either us or no-one. We take the grenades and bid farewell to our favourite Warden couple, ordering them to return to the others. We then recite the oath of the Grey Wardens between us. “In Peace, Vigilance,” says Antoine. “In War, Victory,” says Evka. “In Death, Sacrifice,” says Thorne.

The Deep Roads

We descent into the cavern and find ourselves immediately struck by an overwhelming sense of the Taint. There are more darkspawn here, and they are coming.

We quickly go about preparing the grenades, when we are suddenly stricken by a strange sense. It is similar to the Taint, but also different, almost…purer. Suddenly, we become incredibly aware of the cavern around us. We can sense each layer, each type, each consistency. We can sense hidden passages, the tunnels the Darkspawn are digging right now. And we feel…whole, strangely so. And this is only something we experience if we picked a dwarven Thorne, for we are experiencing Stone Sense.

At this moment, a figure approaches us from the dark, followed by darkspawn. We look up and see a tall, cloaked being, wearing dark armour that we can’t recognise. We can definitely sense the Blight in it, but it’s…weirdly different in a way we can’t describe. The figure has veins of lyrium writhing all around its form, red lyrium.

It speaks to us, but we can only hear its voice in our head. It asks us to stop, to let be done what must be done. When we ask who and what this thing is, it simply refers to itself as “The Emissary”. While the Emissary won’t tell us exactly why it wants the villagers, it hints at a great and regrettable mistake that has to be rectified before it’s all too late.

Being the Warden we are, we attempt to still go through with our grenade plan, but the Emissary casts a spell of pure, raw magic on us, causing us to be knocked against a wall. But we refuse to go down fighting and challenge the Emissary to a one on one.

Similar with Laskaris in the Shadow Dragon origin, the Emissary is a fight we aren’t meant to win. But if we lower its HP to 0, the cutscene will be a little different.

In our seemingly dying breath, we hurl the grenades against the weakest parts of the crack, which we can clearly determine due to our Stone Sense. The Emissary howls in fury as the rocks descend upon us, sealing the Deep Roads off of Lavendel for good. All turns black around us.

Saved

But strangely enough, this isn’t the end. We wake up back in Lavendel and see Varric. He says he followed us in secret as he had a feeling we might be needing assistance. When Evka and Antoine showed up without us, he increased his pace and the three made it just in time. Varric climbed down and found us in the rubble, saving us from certain death.

Evka and Antoine join us and profusely apologise for leaving our side, despite us ordering them to do so. Well, it seems the Wardens in general have a feeling for disobedience as of lately.

When we inquire about Lavendel, we are told that everyone is save and none have been taken. This is because of the time we took to explore the place before the battle. By sealing the basement and collapsing the great rock, the darkspawns’ numbers were too few for what came next.

But…what came next? We find out the moment we walk outside.

A whole entourage of Wardens hurry about Lavendel. The reinforcements arrived after all. Or so we think.

High Constable Janos and the First Warden approach us. When we remark on the lateness of the reinforcements, the First Warden orders us imprisoned. What? Why? For disobedience, of course. We see that Janos is uncomfortably silent during this exchange.

But we saved Lavendel. We repelled the darkspawn horde and sealed the entrance to the Deep Roads. What could he possibly be so mad about? It can’t just be about disobedience, right?

Well…as we slowly, horrifyingly learn from the conversation, Lavendel wasn’t meant to survive. All who were there, Wardens and villagers alike, were supposed to fall to the darkspawn.

Here we get the context: the Calling has been manifesting in more and more older Wardens. At the same time, Weisshaupt is receiving fewer and fewer recruits. This combination will eventually have the effect of the order facing extinction. And outside the Anderfels, the Right of Conscription means less than nothing now. The world has grown complacent in a world without the Blight, even though the recent one has only been twenty years ago. And the Anderfels doesn’t have a large enough population to feed the ranks on its own.

By using this abnormally large darkspawn horde, letting it consume villagers and Wardens alike, the First Warden hoped to convince the nobility to encourage greater recruitment again. It can’t be a coincidence that the Calling has been manifesting increasingly more frequent now.

But Thorne has been a thorn in this plan’s side and ensured that the First Warden’s plan backfired spectacularly.

Shocked, we turn to Janos and ask him if he was aware of this. Yes, he was. In Death, Sacrifice. In War, Victory. And the war isn’t over as long as Razikale and Lusacan still slumber beneath the surface.

Caronel has been stripped off his rank as Warden-Commander of the Anderfels and Evka and Antoine will be assigned to very far-away duties for the foreseeable future. Thorne, however, as the instigator of this chaos, is to be tried for disobedience and treason.

This is where we can lash out, accusing the First Warden of having lost his way. We can also add that Lavendel’s villagers wouldn’t have died anyway as the Emissary wanted to collect them. When we tell the Wardens of what we saw beneath the surface, the First Warden, as we would assume, does not believe us, assuming we’re using this as a convenient excuse to paint ourselves in a more heroic image. Janos, however, knows us, so he isn’t so sure.

At this point, Varric chimes in and argues against trial and imprisonment, stating it as just a waste of effort. Instead, he offers to take Thorne away for a matter of great importance. The First Warden objects, stating that Weisshaupt’s affairs are to remain its own. Janos, however, in a change of tone, takes Varric’s side. Whatever Thorne’s reasonings are, one can’t deny that we are a true Warden. NO matter the disobedience, we fought against the Blight and won. There will be other opportunities to gather more recruits, but we do not deserve a trial for doing what we joined the order for.

The First Warden eventually relents. Remember, he is still a Grey Warden, with Thedas’ best interest at heart. Him doing this whole Lavendel thing was him acting out of desperation to keep the order alive in the long run. The morality is incredibly questionable, he’s definitely an asshole, but he is not heartless. Rather than putting us in chains, the First Warden suspends us from all Weisshaupt duties and instead tasks us with travelling the lands, searching for new recruits until further notice. Dismissed.

Leaving Lavendel

When the First Warden leaves, Janos makes an attempt at conversing with us, apologising for sending us into death. We can be either understanding, or angry, or just hurt. Despite our rough exterior, we are hurt because Janos was the one who saved us from another execution in the first place. Janos definitely feels bad about it, but orders were orders. Yeah…orders were orders, we respond.

Varric approaches us and confesses that he’s not here by accident. He’s looking for someone among the Wardens to accompany him on a very special mission of the utmost importance. He heard from some of his contacts that Lavendel would have fitting candidates. And he is certain he just found the one. What exactly are we doing, now that we’re stuck with him? Varric promises to reveal everything in good time. Now, he would very much like to get out of this place. We can either go immediately or have some final conversations. Being the completionists we are, we of course choose the latter.

We can talk to Evka and Antoine and just be glad that we’re all still alive, despite being given rather shitty jobs now. Well, that’s a no on the promotion for now, right? But we’re confident we’ll see each other sooner rather than later.

Caronel honestly doesn’t even care about his demotion. He’s just glad he survived and is now able to return to Valya. But if he were still Warden-Commander, he would make us Senior Warden in a heartbeat. Sometimes, one simply has to defy orders.

We can talk to Mila, who excitedly announces that her father has taken Janos’ offer to be Weisshaupt’s new blacksmith, given that the fortress desperately needs one again.

The Wardens who were under our command during the battle look up to us in awe and call us a hero and inspiration, no matter what the First Warden says. They actually pretty much despise him now as he was so willing to just let them die.

Once all of this is done, we head to Varric and and half-enthusiastically announce our readiness to depart. Varric smiles and welcomes us to the team. What team? Oh, we’ll see. But he recommends us going by another name for the foreseeable future as the First Warden might just be petty enough to make our life more difficult by telling foreign Wardens or members of the nobility about our streak of disobedience and conspiracy theories. Well, that’s easy enough, we say, back in the Dornen, the others used to call us “Rook” for that one time we headed straight in and brought down a very well-connected Hossberg nobleman. “The strongest piece on the chessboard,” Varric chuckles. “I like it.”

Now going by Rook once again, we head off with Varric. As Lavendel is nearly out of sight, we turn around and look at the gathered Wardens one last time. This…is not how we pictured leaving the order one day. But no, we haven’t left it. We’re just…taking a vacation. With a heavy heart, we turn back to Varric and follow him into the unknown.

And that’s it for this one! Now we have our Grey Warden Rook origin story. It’s a lot, I know, but the Wardens have a lot of material to work with. And the whole plot surrounding the Emissary will make sense later, I promise.

Next time we shall be heading off into Arlathan Forest to draft a potential Veil Jumper origin story! Stay tuned!

Rewriting Veilguard Part 4 - The Veil Jumpers

[epicspheal]

Bring the Storm! A Raihan Analysis

It’s 2019. Gamefreak and TPCi are expecting that their Pants with Directions Galar champion would be the favorite of the fans. And while Leon is certainly a favorite of Galar (even if a tad controversial)…a certain 8th gym leader became a runaway favorite.

Raihan!

Let’s talk about his name first! In Japanese, his name is Kibana which has “kiba” in it which means fang. Which checks out considering he is a dragon type specialist. However his Japanese name also references “kibanafuji” which is the common laburnum. In fact many of his name translations also reference the laburnum. So what is the laburnum? The common laburnum (also known as the golden chain) is a tree in the pea and legume family. The laburnum tree produces legumes that are toxic to some species like humans, goats and horses, but deer and hare can earth them just fine. This duality has given the laburnum magical properties in folklore. The symbolism is most closely related to “beauty” and being “forsaken” This dual nature that we see in Raihan’s main namesake flower I think really represents Raihan in relation to the Galar League and the fan culture surrounding it. He’s a very handsome man and very talented and many admire that of him. Yet we know his fans can be cruel to him online when he loses showing the toxic side of celebrity status. Also he himself has been frustrated with his losses in the past and perhaps parts of him worries about being forsaken by the league and the one he considers his greatest rival.

His English name Raihan comes from Arabic and means Basil. Basil comes from the Greek word basilikon phuton which means “kingly herb”. Very appropriate for someone whose gym is in an ancient castle and is strong enough to be a champion in another region, thus the king of the competitive battle circuit (not to mention his German/Spanish/French/Portuguese name is Roy which is literally “king”). In addition, the basil plant has a lot of symbolism regarding spiritual worship as it was used to help safeguard passage and warding off evil. Again given that Raihan’s gym is located in a castle, a symbol of protection across cultures this definitely shows that Raihan is meant to be seen as a protector

Now let’s take a look at his team. Raihan is unique in that his team switches up throughout the playthrough, something that’s typically only found in rival characters (yes gym leaders and elite four do add members for rematches but Raihan’s team goes through some more significant shake ups). However, since Raihan is the one true rival to Leon (before the player exists) and Leon is in many ways a stand-in for a protagonist it does make sense that his team switches up.

His first team is probably the team he is most famous for. A sandstorm weather team that has given birth to a number of his signature quotes. Despite being a dragon type leader, we see that Raihan does not restrict himself to just dragon type Pokemon. This isn’t exactly odd as Clair in gen 2 has non-dragon types (but draconic Pokemon) due to the limited number of dragon type Pokemon available (which of course is rectified in rematches in HGSS). However, Raihan is working with Galar dex, which though infamously limited, has a large selection of dragon types available. This once again reinforces the idea of him being a Rival to Leon’s Protagonist role as his team composition mimics Blue’s Viridian Gym Team in having a varied selection (with the key differences being Blue does not claim a type speciality, while Raihan is seen as a dragon type specialist).

We can see from his gym-team that it has a knack for dealing chip damage. Be it from the Sandstorm (which he can set up with Flygon or Sandaconda) and also Stealth Rock and Sand Tomb on his Gigalith. If he can get burn damage from Fire Fang on Sandaconda this also contributes to chip damage. His widespread use of chip damage shows Raihan as a person who doesn’t just like to rely on one path to victory and respects that the little things matter. 

He also enjoys using attacks that can paralyze (Thunder Fang, Glare), Burn (Fire Fang), Flinch (Crunch, Iron Head), further solidifying the fact that he employs multiple strategies in order to cinch victory. This also provides very needed type coverage allowing him to counter most strategies against him.

And of course we can’t forget the fact that his team is very doubles oriented, a rather unique style among gym leaders showing his willingness to stand out

Now let’s take a look at his team for the championship tournaments. Most notable he switches from his gym specialty of double battles to the single battle format for the tourneys. With this it changes the team composition a bit to include more weather options (sun and rain) which further exemplify his ability to have variety and be unpredictable.  He still maintains his ability to do chip damage and having a wide movepool for coverage but it's clear here his main goal is to throw the opponent off with using multiple weather formats.

Now let’s take a look at his league cards

"Raihan is commonly regarded as the most skilled Gym Leader in the Galar region. He has striven for victory in every environment, and as a result, he has adopted a battle style where he utilizes weather effects to their fullest. It is rumored that he could easily become another region's Champion should he choose to move, but it seems that to Raihan, defeating Leon is much more important. His uploaded selfies are quite popular. Occasionally he'll post a photo that only shows a sandstorm." - Normal League Card 

We can see with his normal league card the reason why his team line up is so varied with what it can do. He truly wants to be able to have a win condition no matter what. This shows him to be a very thoughtful and intelligent gym leader that has earned his spot as the strongest gym leader of Galar. Furthermore we get confirmation that he is champion level strength, which is a feat that only has been done with three other gym leaders in the past (Blue, Wallace and Iris). That being said you can tell he cares more about just the rank of champion since his goal is Leon. It would be expected that many people of his caliber who were stuck at the rank of eighth gym leader would move to an easier circuit to gain the title. But for him it matters not just that he becomes champion, but who he beats as champion. It shows Raihan to be very principled and not just seeking glory. 

"Raihan started taking selfies so as to never forget the pain of his defeats, but more recently he has been taking photos showing off his training routine, his fashion choices, and the like, causing some fans to leave harsh comments whenever he loses to Leon. It's true that Raihan is on a ten-nil losing streak against Leon, but no other Pokémon Trainer has managed to KO as many of Leon's Pokémon as Raihan has. Raihan no doubt looks forward to taking a selfie after finally defeating Leon." - Rare League Card

I wanted to talk about the selfies Raihan takes here. A lot of people in the fandom have reduced Raihan to just being a selfie hog which isn’t the case. Yes as we’ll see in future quotes he is just a tad vain (and this isn’t inherently bad because it’s not a flaw so big that it becomes a fatal flaw and in the end it makes him more human and thus more endearing), but in reality the selfies are meant to document his life and growth as a trainer. He started taking them so he could remember the moments where he lost, to remember the sting of failure and embarrassment so he can strive to do better. Rather than wallow in his losses and give up he chooses to use the negative feelings spawned in the moment as fuel forward. That’s extremely commendable. However we also see how the selfies ended up turning into a side hobby he can do outside of being on the gym circuit. This of course gives us insight on the rather cruel nature of the Galarian fan circuit because of the harsh comments he gets when he loses. 

Alright let's take a look at some of his quotes!

"Exhibition or not, Leon, your pristine record is about to end—when I beat you here today!" - SwSh intro scene

Here we get our first glimpse of Raihan (and for many the start of their crushes on him). This is straightforward pre-game banter but it sets up the competition we see between him and Leon.

"Oh! If it isn't the Trainer endorsed by the Champion! Let's see... What was your name again? Ah, right! <player>!" - first encounter with Raihan

Here is our first chance as the player to meet Raihan and we get to see a third role Raihan plays…being the keeper of the Hammerlock Vault. In classic Pokemon “Rival can’t shut up about their rival” fashion his way of greeting the player is in relation to the fact that they are endorsed by Leon. In game he’s actually scrolling his phone to get your name which plays into the fact that he is a content creator therefore has to keep up with the buzz online

"Gaining a better understanding of Pokémon by studying history certainly isn't a bad idea." - at the Hammerlocke Vault

Even though we don’t get to see him involved much with the uncovering of Galar’s lore we can see he does indeed appreciate history. Even one of his TCG cards shows him with his Flygon pouring over plenty of books showing that he’s very well read and educated. He’s not just a meathead battler as some like to claim.

"The tapestries in the vault depict the heroes of the Galar region's past. I suppose if we've got any modern hero, it'd have to be our Champion, Leon." - Hammerlocke Vault

Raihan, stop bringing up Leon every 5 seconds challenge- impossible. Jokes aside, it’s really nice to see that even though Raihan really wants to bring Leon down, there’s still a level of mutual respect between them both (as also seen in Leon’s words). Raihan acknowledges a heroic quality to Leon.

"The Gym Challenge is meant to be, well... challenging, wouldn't you say? Naturally there aren't too many Gym Challengers who can make it this far. And that's why I provide a format where you can really show off the brilliant combinations you and your Pokémon should be capable of!"

I really like how Raihan wants to challenge those who manage to make it to him not by gym mazes but by being versatile enough to battle in multiple formats. I feel like realistically a good future champion should be competent in both double and single battles and it’s nice to see that acknowledgement here by Raihan who makes sure those who beat him can battle in a double format well.

“Come on, Sebastian! You'll be first! Time to face the second Trainer! Come on, Camilla! You've made it to the third and last Trainer! Your moment to shine, Aria! - During his gym challengeThis is a little bit that I just always love seeing whenever I do my playthroughs of Sword and Shield. It’s really nice that Raihan seems to be a bit closer to his gym trainers than most other leaders in the series as he calls them by name and gives them encouragement right before battle. He really puts the “leader” in the phrase gym leader as he’s not just lording over the gym as the strongest trainer, but that he cares about the personal growth of those who serve under him. As we’ve seen in later installments of the franchise, being an ideal champion is more than just being skilled at battle, but being a role model to others and setting a positive example of leadership. This to me above all shows Raihan’s potential as a future champion. He embodies the skill and ideals a champion is supposed to live up to

"And you aim to defeat Leon... Do you have any idea just how high a hurdle that is? As his greatest rival, I guess that I—Raihan—will have to show you! Gym Leader Raihan doesn't simply control the weather. He also seeks two-on-two battles! You must be prepared for any situation against a foe like him!" -pre gym battle quote

Bringing up Leon unprompted count: 3 Once again we really see how despite his desire for victory, he still holds Leon in high regard. But also circling back to his team composition and normal league card we once again see confirmation of his tactical mindset by not only being a double battler but using weather tactics as well.

After the player used Hail "Ho? Not bad—changing the weather to Hail like that!"

After the player uses Sunny Day: "Pulling out a Sunny Day! Hah! That's not a bad countermeasure!" - during battle if weather changesAnd here we get to see he holds respect for the player too when he compliments them using the weather to their own advantage. He really holds a chivalrous mindset which makes me question how in the world people got “feral” out of him. 

"I might have lost, but I still look good. Maybe I should snap a quick selfie...In the aftermath of the furious battle... I feel as pure and refreshed as when the sky clears after a storm. What can I possibly say? Calling myself Leon's rival? Seems I'd grown quite conceited for someone who can't even claim the title of Champion! Overconfident in both myself and my team!" - post loss

One thing I really appreciate about Raihan, is how human he feels with his flaws. He’s a little vain and at times a little conceited. But he acknowledges those flaws within him. It honestly makes him more endearing and real.

"There you are, Leon's little brother! Don't worry—I'll give you a battle that'll make you want to quit the Gym Challenge altogether!" - when Hop comes to challenge

As mentioned above when he meets the player, we see him once again relate the challengers, this time Hop, to Leon. I’ve been saying this since writing up Blue for gen 1, Pokemon is actually a masterclass in environmental storytelling. This quote really actually highlights Hop’s story in that he’s often not seen as his own person, but an accessory to Leon, something that changes over the story as he grows. And that even Raihan unintentionally plays into this by calling him “Leon’s little brother”

"I'm going to win my way through every round, then I'll be the one taking on Leon! If I don't, then I'll have failed to repay Duraludon and the rest of my team for all their hard work!" - in the locker room before the Champion’s CupJust like he holds Leon, his challengers, and his gym trainers in high regard, Raihan also has a lot of respect for his team of Pokemon that work so hard to bring him victory. It shows how good natured Raihan is.

"You're really something else, kid. You've made it all the way here! I guess that's why the Champion himself endorsed you, yeah? Leon's my rival—and he chose you. So I've got to first prove I'm better than you if I'm to beat him! I've reworked my whole team, and now we're all geared up for one-on-one battles!" - pre-match quoteHere we see a slightly more subdued version of Raihan compared to his gym pre-match quote. You can see he acknowledges the strength of the player. But also you can get a hint of self-doubt in this dialogue as perhaps he’s questioning his ability to call himself Leon’s rival (something he already did when the player beats him in Hammerlocke). He’s wondering how he can truly call himself a rival when he hasn’t claimed victory. Yet we know from previous dialogue with Leon that the champion does hold the dragon type gym leader in high regard and considers him a rival despite a 10-0 record. 

"My lovely Pokémon and I have become much stronger than we were before... But you just blew right past us! Beyond anything I'd imagined! I'm still pretty young myself, but it just goes to show that there's always someone younger coming up, reaching further than you ever dreamed... And you've got your whole future ahead of you! Keep up the momentum! Prove that Leon's not unbeatable!"

As much as people like to claim SwSh “doesn’t have a story” we can see one of the clear motifs in this line of dialogue about passing the torch to younger generations. We see Raihan can acknowledge that while he’s still young and has room to grow, those younger than him are still brimming with potential.

"The key thing is that no one's been harmed. We Gym Leaders worked together with the city's Pokémon, and we've got everyone evacuated." - Hammerlocke gym during the Darkest Day part 2

A long-standing criticism of the Pokemon games is “why aren’t the gym leaders helping out?” Well we can see here he and the rest of the Galar gym leader’s to help evacuate the citizens.

"Especially you, Piers! The way you battled me in the Champion Cup... You really had my Dynamax Pokémon up against the wall! [...] And Piers! You and I have got to battle again. This time, no Dynamaxing for either of us!" - post-game arc 

I really like this moment too. Even though we know Piers lost to Raihan in the champion cup, we can see that he still gave Raihan a run for his money and that Raihan acknowledges this. The writers could’ve easily had Raihan only focus rivalries on trainers who could beat him, but the fact that he now extends his rivalry to Piers shows just how much respect and humility he has as a person. Him finding other rivals besides Leon and the player is a really nice touch. Not to mention his willingness to battle Piers without Dynamaxing reinforces the fact that he wants to be able to achieve victory in many conditions.

"When it comes to putting dragon Pokémon to good use, I'm not picky about their types. There're Pokémon perfect for the job all over the place. Probably even in the tall grass over there."

I really liked this quote as it gives a bit of an explanation as to why you see a rather diverse set of Pokemon on his team. His priority is about making the best use of his dragon types and non-dragon types that can support them are good teammates

"We're the strongest team around!" - To Raihan with Blue on Team-up I had to put this on here because as many have mentioned there are a lot of parallels between the Red-Blue rivalry and the Leon-Raihan rivalry. So seeing that Raihan has special dialogue with Blue outside of the usual suspects (Piers, Leon, Lance) was nice to see an official acknowledgement of the parallels between the two characters. 

"I let my guard down 'cause she's just a kid... This isn't looking good! [...]Ah, you probably did. Sorry we didn't pick up on it, Poppy!"

I really enjoyed Poppy's debut and Raihan’s involvement. Sure he lost to show off how strong Poppy is, but you can see that it was mainly due to him not taking Poppy as seriously due to having preconceived notions of who she was supposed to be. It’s really refreshing to see such a powerful trainer like Raihan have moments of letting his guard down and underestimating his opponents

"If I can learn to make proper use of Duraludon's abilities on uneven terrain while a sea breeze is blowing, I'll be unstoppable! You've got to help your partner overcome its weaknesses while working on its strengths. That'll give you more options in battle, you know? [...]To tell you the truth, I once lost a battle to an opponent who had a terrain advantage[…]That was a really painful defeat. But I don't want to make the environment an excuse for any battle I lose."

And here we get some insight into Raihan’s mindset. He wants more options to cover weaknesses while also enhancing strengths. Which as we saw in the team analysis, his teams have a lot of options to deal with various opponents

"After all, Flygon was the reason I adopted a battle style where we utilize weather effects to their fullest! [...]I was looking for a way to win in any environment and was thinking of utilizing these weather effects, right?"And more insight here, with us now knowing it was Flygon where he started his use of weather moves on his team.

"At the time, I was only thinking about becoming the Champion. Nessa and Sonia were also competing with us, and they also only thought of becoming Champion. But Leon was different. He had a clear vision of what he wanted to do after winning. That's why he could beat the previous Champion. Well, now I have a vision of the future–and the others do, too."

I really appreciate the quote here from Raihan’s lodge story as we get some more insight about the gym challenge he went on with Nessa, Sonia and Leon. Leon was the only one of the four that had a clear thought about the “what comes next” after being champion whereas everyone else stopped just at becoming champion. Raihan realized that in order to be a champion he needed to think beyond just winning the title but how he wanted to keep growing after. This gives callbacks to how Alder confronts Cheren in Black and White, and how Blue lost his title so quickly. There’s more to being champion than just winning the title itself. I really appreciated this self reflection and from Raihan showing how introspective he is.

All in all Raihan is just truly a fun character and it’s easy to see how he ended up being the runaway favorite of the Galarian Cast. I’d love to see more of him in Pokemon Masters EX (Sygna Suit Raihan when?) where we can see even more interactions with him among trainers from all regions.

[genshin-impact-unofficial]

Naughty Little Secret Pt.2

Reactions of Genshin men finding your spicy literature.

Ft. Childe, Albedo, and Alhaitham  (Aka blue eyed boy edition)

(PART 1) Ft. Diluc, Cyno, and Thoma  (PART 3) Ft. Scaramouche, Itto, and Xiao

Tags: PG-13, Sexual Themes, GN!Reader, Technically SFW, Crushes, TW!Blood (Albedo) but it’s very mild, LOTS OF TEASING Notes: I swear my first time writing a character always turns out so long. I so appreciate everyone cheering me on tho! Feel free to send suggestions to my inbox! 💘(Repost!)

Childe

Spicy romance novels were your guilty pleasure. After a rough week at work, you deserved to sit back at Yanshang Teahouse and let the flow of words on the pages guide your imagination. You held your newest purchase in your hand and pondered if the cover art was a coincidence. Perhaps deep down, you subconsciously picked the book with a pretty ginger boy on the cover.

Tartagalia hadn’t visited Liyue in a while... and maybe there was a part of you that missed the tall handsome Snezhnayan boy just a tiny bit. You were a tad totally heartbroken when your friend departed from the harbor. He would come by your work quite often just to chat and whenever he had time to kill. Eventually, his company and charming words just became a part of your routine. It was impossible not to be dazzled by the boy’s abundant attention. But as time passed and you felt confident that you were completely over your little crush. You shook your head of those thoughts, it wasn’t important why you chose the book you did. You were here to enjoy yourself and you were hell bound to do just that.

The orange haired protagonist finds himself swept up in trouble much bigger than himself. To protect what’s dearest to him, he becomes a spy to an organization he holds no loyalty to. While behind enemy lines, he meets a girl who sees right through the mask he puts on. She not only figures out he’s a spy, but also sees his bleeding heart that has the ability to turn for the better. Your heart ached for the boy. The way he was stuck between his duties and who he loved made you feel endless sympathy for the protag. He had to betray one in the end to accomplish the other. 

His mission was going to be completed in the morning. After that, he would never see the girl again. The handsome ginger spilled his feeling, laying himself out bare to the girl he loved. She knows, she always did, and she wanted to show him now on their last night. Emotions flood forward as their bodies tangle with one another. He wants her to feel his earnest passion.  He wants to bring her joy, to bring her the happiness she deserved, to bring her pleasure...  A low familiar whistle pulled your mind from the scene. No way...

“Huh, so this is what you do while I’m away...” A cheeky voice teased. You whipped your head to look at the widest shit eating grin that you’ve ever seen since.... well since he left.  

“Tartagalia? What- When did you?” You were reeling and sputtered in surprise and embarrassment. You attempted redirect his attention and tuck the novel behind you as a last ditch effort to save your pride. But alas, Ajax was not known to be a merciful guy.  

“Ah ah ah Y/N, I hadn’t got a good look at that last page. I just have to know about those ‘rippling abs’ mentioned.” Childe playfully reached behind you and snagged the book from your grip. You tried to swipe it back but his reflexes were too fast. “You don’t mind sharing right?”

“I’m serious give it back Childe!”  You threatened, but it only spurred him further. He had a whole head up on you, and was talking full advantage of it. Childe held the book open above you and dramatically cleared his throat before reciting naughty lines from the passages. Your felt your face burn red in both embarrassment and now absolute fury. 

This kid was so dead!

Albedo

There was urgency in your steps while you trekked through the snowy path. You visited Dragonspine enough times to know the beaten trail even when covered in fresh snow, but it was still your least favorite part of coming to the lab. If you had to list your favorite part, well...... your friend Albedo wasn’t exactly terrible to look at. You were glad to see him again so soon. Typically, you purposely spaced out your visits up the mountain, but when you received a letter asking for your assistance in a research matter you really couldn’t say no. 

As junior librarian of the knights, you were tasked with dropping off books and other study material to Albedo’s lab. It’s a grueling task but the two of you got along very well so you were always happy to do it. That being said, you weren’t exactly a person of science and opted reading into history and arts most times. Through years of knowing Albedo, you had to set a clear cut boundary on being a test rat for the alchemist. So far he has respected your wishes, so you didn’t assume it was why he’d call you out here. The curiosity was almost as bad as the blistering cold hitting your nose. As soon as the light illuminating from the lab was in view, you rushed forward desperate for warmth. 

“Y/N, I’ve been awaiting you.” Albedo greeted you kindly. 

“Hey Albe-” The words died in your throat when you caught sight of your friend. The blond’s hair was free from its usual up-do, messy locks framed the boys handsome features and flowed over his shoulders. Albedo’s neat attire was now lax, his knightly accessories nowhere to be seen. What could be seen was the expanse of the alchemist’s collarbone since two additional buttons were undone on his dress shirt. Somehow even while fully clothed, it felt indecent to witness him like this. “Is... everything alright Albedo?” You asked, averting your eyes to keep from ogling your friend. 

“Of course.” Albedo answered easily, his voice was low and sultry. “Please take a seat Y/N. I have something urgent that needs your eyes.” He directed you, cocking his head towards the small table. Your brain was short circuiting and all you could think to do was obediently sit. You had never seen the serious and calculated man like this but you weren’t exactly complaining either. Albedo served you a cup of hot tea and opted to lean against the table instead of sitting. 

“So... um what did you need me to look at.” You asked awkwardly, unsure what to do with yourself. 

“Well obviously I want you to look at me Y/N” A light smirk formed across Albedo’s lips and he smoothly leaned over your chair. Your eyes followed every single movement while your face quickly began to heat up. Where was all of this coming from? Should you be concerned? 

“W- what do you mean by that?” You blurted out, mind racing a mile a minute.

“I want you to-” Everything came to a screeching halt when your chair, that Albedo had been leaning on, began to tilt backwards. Both you and blond were sent crashing to the ground, ruining any kind of mood that was building. Your head ached from where you bumped it but Albedo intentionally took the brunt of it, completely face-planting into the hard floor. 

“Albedo are you alright??” You hovered over him. The boy simply turned to you and blinked. His stoic expression was more akin to what you typically were used to. 

“I apologize Y/N. It seems I didn’t fully grasp the concepts in the experiment before executing it. Are you hurt?” He stood up and carefully helped you to your feet. He examined you for any signs of injury, regardless of his obviously bleeding nose. 

“Im good, the chair broke most of my fall. You on the other hand...” You grabbed a handkerchief and try to assist him. “Wait... experiment? Is that what this is all about?” You accused, slightly irked. 

“Yes, I saw a fascinating book among the study material you left behind recently. I assumed that it was a new subject you had recommended for me.” Albedo stated simply. “Its contents was um... quite intimate at times, but I thought it was a interesting perspective on forming human connections.” You felt froze, but this time not from the blistering cold. 

“Did the book have um.... did it have a pair of cuffs on the front?” You asked, praying to the archons that you were mistaken.

“Yes, I studied it extensively.” Albedo replied without a hint of shame on his features.  You replayed his interactions and what had just transpired in your head and looked back over to your friend.

“Okay two things. One, don’t you dare breathe a word to anyone about that book or else I’ll be very upset with you. And two, that was fucking hilarious.” You bursted out in laughter at the absurdity of the whole happenstance. Albedo gazed back at you confused, but your amusement was undeniably infectious. He smiled fondly back at you. Although the experiment couldn’t be labeled a success, the outcome was still one he found pleasing.  

Alhaitham

It was grueling working in the Akademiya recently. The overthrow of power left everyone with plenty to do. You would go mad from attending meeting after meeting if you didn’t have some sort of stress outlet. Writing was a way you liked to ease your mind, like an escape of sorts. You loved writing loose plots for light novels and dreamed to one day send an entry to the “Wow This Novel is Amazing!” contest in Inazuma. You were far from a finished manuscript, but it’s days like these that gave you inspiration. After working through piles of paperwork, you earned yourself a moment of indulgence. Especially when stress was eating you alive, your scenes tended to take a turn for the... suggestive. 

The scene opened to the main character pondering why their mentor kept themselves at arms length. She respected him immensely and strives to uphold his reputation by improving her skill. He was young and handsome, skilled far beyond his years. They held a close bond, closer than either of them have ever experienced. Now it was unclear why he was giving her such a cold shoulder. She confronts her mentor about the reasons behind his actions. He expresses his pride in her, how she has come far in the their time together. But for her to achieve new highs, she must leave him behind. His feelings for her would only be a hindrance now. 

She felt the tension between them for some time now. It was lingered in soft bushes between fingers, meaningful glances over meals, and caring gestures done without thinking. She’s fallen for the beautiful man, to a point that it wasn’t logical. No words need to be exchanged, only body heat. Arms hold onto the other in yearning desperation. Lips hungrily meet, as if they’ll never to be sated. Her want clouds all her senses and she could feel his willingness to give her everything, all of him. Hot needy breaths trail down her body, discarding any clothes that stood barrier, until he finally put his mouth directly on- 

“Busy Y/N?” The amused man asked from the doorway. You jump in response, quickly pushing aside the parchment that you were writing on. 

“Alhaitham! What are you doing here?” You pipe up, surprised to see your friend for more than one reason. Alhaitham had been promoted to acting grand sage while the rest was still settling, he had to be incredibly busy. 

“I see you’re not very excited to see me,” Alhaitham teased, strolling casually into your office anyway. “Even after I went through the trouble of coming to grab the data reports myself and pay you a visit.” He tsked. 

“You came to see me? Ah, so you need a favor.” You playfully jabbed back, easily finding comfort in the other’s company. It really had been quite a while. If it weren’t for the man’s inflated ego, you might have told him that you’ve missed him. 

“You wound me. It’s not an oddity for colleagues reconnect reminisce while also carrying out an errand for the acting great sage.” Alhaitham replied smoothly, not bothering to go through the motions and pretend to act hurt.

“Yikes, already pulling the ‘acting great sage’ card.” You chuckle. Alhaitham and you have worked closely together for years, so you didn’t mind going out of your way to do him a favor. But maybe one day he would learn that all he had to do was ask nicely. 

“It would be foolish to not use the assets as they are presented to me.” The former scribe shrugged. He opened his mouth as if to continue the witty banter, but a beep from on his person alerted him of something. “I’ll have to brief you later. I’ll just take the data reports and be on my way.”

“Right, here it goes.” You handed him the prepared stack of papers on your desk and just like that Alhaitham was gone, off to his next endeavor. Wow he really is swamped now a days. You thought, ready to get back into your writing. Ideas kept flowing through you as you looked for the parchment you just had.... Wait it was just right here. Oh no.

-

“ALHAITHAM! I NEED THE DATA REPOR-” You barged into acting grand sage’s office, which was no easy feat. You were stopped again and again by all the matra crawling about. Your mouth ran dry when spotted the parchment in the smirking man’s hands. You wished the floor would just open up and swallow you whole so that you wouldn’t have to look at that cocky handsome face. 

“The data report? Certainly, it’s right over there on the desk.” Alhaitham stated, not bothering to take his eyes off your handwriting. “I’m still going over some of it now and I have to say, it’s quite in depth.” He went on.

“You are such a jerk! Give it!” You resorted to trying to snatch it, but the former scribe easily turned away without sparing you even a single glance. You knew what he wanted and damn did it feel like making a deal with the devil. “I’ll owe you a favor, no questions asked. Just hand it over and keep your mouth shut.” 

“Two favors.” He bargained without batting an eye.

“You’re pushing it-”

“One is for my silence and the other for the safe return of your... passion project.” Alhaitham interjected, finally tearing his eyes from your writing to shoot you a glance above the paper. You willed a stern expression onto your face, even while a furious blush bloomed cross your cheeks. A curt nod sealed the agreement and the man casually returned the parchment to you as promised. You snatched the paper from him and averted your gaze.

“Y/N you have quite the knack for imagery.” Alhaitham added slyly. You expected he would tease you a little longer, so you braced yourself for the worst. What you did’t expect was the tall man to lean over you with his hand braced on the desk. Your eyes shot up to his in surprise. “If you’re ever in need for another peer review, I’d be happy to offer my services.” He winked. 

<A/N: These men need to be stopped>

[blues824]

Hello 👋!

Could I request Sebek, Deuce, Silver, Jamil, Vil and Leona with an s/o that likes to call themselves the boys' knight?

Gender-neutral reader. You place a bandaid on their knee like you would a child.

Deuce Spade

He was a bit scraped up from a fight he was not able to escape

So you patched him up, as you normally do

Once you did, you placed a kiss on the last bandaid you placed, which was his knee

This man was already flustered, but you jumped up and said the thing that nearly killed him

“I’m almost like your knight in shining armor, Deuce!”

That’s your new contact name in his phone

Leona Kingscholar

Let’s be honest, he was being a tad dramatic to get your attention

He said that he rolled off his bed when he was sleeping and scraped his knee

So, you being you, placed a bandaid on his knee and a kiss

Leona had a smirk the entire time, unbelieving of how easy it was just to get all of your attention on him

“Just call me your knight, the way I be saving your ass”

Way to ruin the mood

Jamil Viper

He wasn’t paying attention while multitasking and he hit his knee pretty hard against a table leg, earning himself a bruise

You were insistent on placing a bandaid on his knee even though he tried to refuse

And also insisted on kissing him to make him ‘feel better’

He didn’t really like that you were fussing over him, but he did kind of like the attention

“I will always be here to be your knight in shining armor, Jamil!”

You were just so cute

Vil Schoenheit

Instead of hurting his knee, he hurt his finger after accidentally pricking his finger with a needle

You and your parent senses could tell that Vil needed a bandaid

And he didn’t mind the kiss to his finger either

“I’m your knight in shining armor!”

From then on, he calls you ‘his knight’ instead of ‘potato’

It makes him feel like the main protagonist instead of the antagonist, which is a plus

Silver

He got a bit scraped up during a training session with Sebek

So why wouldn’t he call you to patch him up? It gives him more time with his s/o

Anyways, once you were done, you placed a kiss on his knee

This made Silver a bit flustered and a tad more awake, as he was not expecting it at all, but he didn’t mind it at all

“I’m like your knight in shining armor!”

And is he to play the fair maiden? Take his handkerchief as a sign of his love.

Sebek Zigvolt

He was a bit embarrassed to admit that he was defeated by Silver in their sparring match

And he didn’t even call you to patch him up, so he suspected that Lilia did it

You insisted on putting a bandaid with a cutesy design just to piss him off

Anyways, when you placed the kiss on his knee, his face flushed redder than a ruby, about to tell you off for the display of affection

“I’m your knight in shining armor, Sebek!”

If it weren’t for the way you said it with such a bright smile, he would be scolding you about how you didn’t put in the work to hold such a title

[ishimondoevents]

Here are the prompts. Thank you to everyone who contributed ideas to this! The list will be written down below the cut with some ideas for those who want a little elaboration, a little help brainstorming, or simply understand how loosely prompts can be interperted!

Please make sure to check out the RULES AND F.A.Q. so we can have a smooth week.

July 14th: Family / Dates

July 15th: Promise / Sickness

July 16th: Roleswap / Seasons

July 17th: Competition / Future

July 18th: Talentswap / Gifts

July 19th: Confessions / Soulmates

July 20th: Free Day*

* For the Free Day, you are free to use a prompt that you hadn't used on one of the previous days if you would prefer a specific prompt to follow.

Remember— these are just ideas to help with brainstorming, you are not limited to interpreting the prompts in just these ways. 

Family: You could choose to interpret this as being in relation family members (canon or head cannoned) for a scenario like meeting the in-laws; or them building one of their own (with pets, fan kids, v3 kid AUs, etc). Another angle could be a reflection on their own childhoods, with a focus on their family life/dynamics to tie it back to the prompt.

Dates: Quite a few options to go with, off the top of my head: first dates, blind dates, double/group date, fake dating, or even a study date lol. This could also be interpreted in the sense of important dates like birthdays, anniversary, etc.

Promise: This one might be a tad bit easier on the writers since all you'd need to really do to meet the prompt is throw in one 'promise between men', but you can definetly get creative with it. You could go a more canon route of 'I'll build your house bro' or 'We'll get out of the killing game alive' to anything else you could think of, big or small— perhaps even broken promises (as serious or silly as you'd like, e.g. 'you promised you'd stop speeding')

Sickness: Just a few ideas besides a literal cold— lovesickness (figurative or more literal like a hanahaki AU), a despair disease scenario, or a mental health day.

Roleswap: Anything that generally swaps the canon role would apply here. So Protagonist AUs, Mastermind AU, Survivor/Future Foundation AUs would all be applicable here. Remnants of Despair AUs may also apply, see the elaboration given in the Talentswap section.

Seasons: Take this as liberally as you'd like. Focus on one season or all; focus on seasonal activities like going to the beach, a seasonal school vacation; or a seasonal holiday/festival, just to offer a few different ways you could try and meet this prompt. 

Competition: With how competitive these two are, hopefully this won't end being too restrictive. Be this between the two of them, one rooting for the other for sports/other extracurricular activities, or a double date scenario with someone as competitively spirited. You could also stick to more canon moments for reference like the Sauna Scene or the race between Mondo and Daiya.

Future: You could do something with Futuristic themes like cyborgs/androids/etc. Or more broadly approach the prompt with discussions of the future (v3 talentplan style), or in settings where they're older (be that 30 or 80, however you wish to interpert it). 

Talentswaps: The difference from the roleswap Is that the former implies the talent isn't changed, just the role within the story. A talentswap may change several factors, but most notably the talent. So whether you're swapping just the talents between the THH cast or swapping game premises as well (e.g. v3 au with SHSL Inventor Oowada), all of that would be better suited here. Remnants of Despair AUs could go here if it's a talent swap that includes SDR2's general premise, but if the talents were to remain the same AND the concept to be (for example) that Junko chose Class 78 over 77 to brainwash, then that could fall under a Roleswap instead.

Gifts: This should hopefully be easier to achieve as a prompt, but this could be around any kind of celebration involving gifting (birthdays, holidays, etc.), or just a general occasion of wanting to get a gift. Maybe focusing on having difficulty with finding a present, etc.

Confessions: This could be anything from a love confession, or a completely innocuous thing like— oops, I’m the asshole that has been in your parking spot bc I’m dyslexic and thought it was mine meet cute(?). Perhaps it could be one of them receiving a love confession and the reaction around it.

Soulmates: Since I know there are quite a few ideas people have come up with over the years for soulmate AUs, I think this one should also not be too difficult (hopefully).

Here are four lists I got just from googling, should you need a few ideas about what you might do: 

https://www.tumblr.com/r-evolve-art/144380748003/

https://www.tumblr.com/ausforsoulmates/190255248494/

https://www.tumblr.com/thegeminisage/94680598838/

https://www.tumblr.com/creativepromptsforwriting/647547186533531648/

You could also go more straightforward with red string of fate concepts for soulmates as well, or just the idea of soulmates, not necessarily a soulmate AU if none speak to you!

[bibibbon]

MHA chapter 429

One more chapter to go. MHA is literally ending next week and it still all feels a bit rushed.

"if I hadn't been stabbed maybe I could of saved himiko" I get that ochako is overwhelmed and feels an immense amount of guilt and regret for not being able to save toga but girl SHE STABBED YOU!! you legit done nothing wrong!!!

I get that ochako and izuku were gonna have a talk but it felt so forced/underwhelming. I don't know the whole "ochako has always prioritised others over herself" is a bit inaccurate because she learnt to do that and help others it wasn't something natural for her. She legit wanted to become a hero for financial reasons (you can argue that she did it for her parents but she still did it also for herself). However I did enjoy the callbacks to izuku's tad bit of intropsection like holding peoples hands to make others feel better but dam it's so miniscule. Also I was hoping that we might be able to address Izuku's feelings in this chapter but I guess not (sigh Izuku you got so watered down to a criminal level that is)

Class A arrives is cool but due to the lack of scenes with them together the whole found family fiasco fulls apart

Eri singing and dancing is absolutely adorable

Monoma getting statue (the guy got robbed in the war arc so hori probably gave us this)

Still not sure how the hero system has changed. All they did was expand the bill charts aka the rankings system and all is still there but now they're putting in civilians and other people overall I still think it's the same and would probably be easy for history to repeat itself

The old lady reaching out to the mysterious character was actually good however the whole thing does begin to fall apart when you remember that societies hero system hasn't changed and that people legit can't use their quirks to help others cos that would be vigilantism. Also this is the same old lady that saw both chizome's protests (stain) and saw Tenko suffering (shigaraki) so I guess this random women is getting more development than the protagonists somehow!!!!!!

Very much hated how OFA has become something like "it's everyones power/heroism" because ultimately it lacks the build up and the development. Admittedly it also lacks Izuku (the influence and the key member most of all) and I get hori tried to make Izuku that by continually bringing up what Izuku showed them that day which was just regular hero work and nothing out of that so I don't know what he showed.