#YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW INSANE I'M ABOUT HECTOR

[bandagegirl]

Some ideas for past Red Crown vessels. Considering the Lamb gets to meet TOWW only in death and gains the Red Crown on their first death, does that mean every previous Red Crown Vessel died to receive the crown? Imagine how many times TOWW gave someone his crown with the promise to bring them back to life, give them another chance as long as they follow his word and free him.

Just imagine how many times TOWW has given someone another chance at life. Given them the chance to mend relationships, to kill out of revenge, out of hatred, to see someone dear one more time, to get back whats theirs, all as long as they form a cult in TOWW's name and free him. Imagine how many times TOWW ripped away everything they worked hard for, everything they cared for, because they keep failing and disappointing him over and over again.

[mannatea]

now that i'm back from vacation i'm literally soooo ripe for running my mouth again

looove that post about the fic-to-original pipeline tendencies that i don't need to repeat here because we know what fandom and what ship and every trope most of the popular serial-numbers-filed-off novels sprang from. i didn't wanna add my big fat two cents to that post because i'm truly a nobody but it won't stop me from screeching into the void on my own tumblr post lmao.

it's no secret that most of these stories worked as "file the serial numbers off" novels because the original fanfic work was wildly out of character (He Would Not Fucking Say That to the nth degree), an AU completely disconnected to the characters (There's Really Nothing Left of Your Blorbos*), and the author's greatest weakness is actually writing consistent or even interesting characterization.

*for example: the canon features a character who comes from extreme hardship and poverty but then the AU fic-turned-novel pops up and that character is living better than my DINK ass in a wildly more expensive area with zero explanation. that's not even close to the same character! and that's not even going into how their voice doesn't even sound close.

(call me bitter if you want since all my original publications are in various states of disarray, but it's actually a lot more complicated than iwishthatwereme.jpg, primarily because I do not wish that were me.)

ANYWAY, what i wanted to say, besides just agreeing with literally every word of that post, is that there's something interesting to think about with regards to the in between stories where the (probably an) AU fic is so well-done and well-characterized in a way that feels accurate to the canon and/or to the new situation the characters are in that you literally can't just file the serial numbers off and publish it.

this is hard to explain in a way that makes sense because most of these are big AUs and on paper should be fully publishable by filing off the serial numbers. however, they were written with the canon in mind—and are entrenched in it to the degree that filing off the serial numbers just doesn't feel like enough of a departure from the canon for the author to feel comfortable doing the bare minimum to make it "publishable."

and like, maybe technically you can still file off the serial numbers, because who is going to recognize your srpg blorbos in a sweeping drama taking place during the french revolution lol, but as a Writer Who Gives a Shit, the connections to the original work are SO SO HARD TO IGNORE and for the story to be fairly reinvented as original fiction, those connections have to be reexamined and, at times, reframed. or, you know, deleted entirely (and then you have a domino effect to contend with).

sure, no random person is going to connect the long modern au i wrote with kender in 2013 to fire emblem 7's pegasus sisters, let alone see hector, eliwood, ninian, and So Many More in the story...but i know that most of the dynamics were based on fe7 blorbos. i know where the $20,000.00 check concept came from—not to mention all that juicy power dynamic drama. and i don't think i'd be super comfortable just changing the names in that story and then publishing it with a cursory edit.

i'm not saying that specific work can't be turned into original fiction (it definitely could be done), but because it exists in that in between space of being based more securely off of canonical elements/characterization/ideas, it's not as easy or simple as just changing the goddamn names.

the work involved in making an in between fanfic publishable original fiction is INSANE most of the time, especially if you want to (in good faith) be able to direct fandom followers that way. like anyone who knows me and knows i've written hundreds of fe7 fics would clock that modern AU instantly if i only changed the names. sure, the story's still pretty original (it features a lot of elements not seen in the games at all) but if you know me and then see me writing a story that revolves around three sisters you'd be like Things That Make You Go Hmm.

for the record, i don't think this is a bad thing in the sense that I fully believe it's fine to be inspired by other works even heavily (The Lion King/Hamlet, for example, or Demon Copperhead/David Copperfield), but i think intent matters here! only changing the names when the original was so earnestly a fanfiction feels lazy.

fwiw, i'd argue most people who are even remotely normal about fanfic and original fiction, or at least consider themselves Serious Writers Who Care About Their Image/Integrity recognize the massive effort involved to rewrite an entire AU fanfic as serviceable original fiction.

it's a ton of work and, i'd argue, rarely worth it**.

**ymmv on this though

again, i could fine tune that fe7 modern au into an original story SO easily by changing the names and doing line edits, but i think the story and the characters deserve more effort from me than that because if i'm going to invest myself in turning fanfic into original work, i refuse to take shortcuts.

and it's SOOOOOO wild to me that so many people just literally do not care and do the bare minimum...but wilder still that they make good money doing it. (which, to be fair, i don't blame them for doing. it's obviously working for the people who never had a fanfic phase and have money to spend.) however, in this instance...i don't believe in "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

to be clear, do whatever you want! i just can't fathom putting in less than the bare minimum effort for published fiction but i'm curious about how other people feel about this. the publishing industry is so fucked up and shitty right now with the state of self pub and authors having to do all their marketing even in a lot of traditional publishing situations, so maybe i'm an idiot over here sitting on a goldmine since i have the ability to churn out nonsense stupid AUs constantly and could very easily have original fiction pieces due to that if i cared less about the quality of my work (and cared less about separating it from the source material).

like, is it me? am i maybe the dumbass?

[neonmetro]

You made a mistake posting the Achaeans designs /vpos

YOU GUYS ALREADY KNOW I LOVE ACHILLES ( and patroclus, but this isn't about him ). HIS DESIGN IS SO COOL WHAT THE SIGMA...... I LIVE FOR THE GREEN SO MUCHHHH. THE COAT THAT SOMEWHAT GIVES MARCHING BAND VIBES, THE SPINE LOOKING DESIGN ON THE BACK, AND THE JEWELRY THAT GIVES MAJOR PEACOCK VIBESSSS......I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

Chat......can we congratulate my boy Diomedes for that glow up.....bro is GORGEOUS. THE RED COAT WITH THE FUR, I MIGHT AS WELL JUST PASS AWAY/silly AND THE HAIRRRRRR I LIVE FOR HIS HAIR ITS REALLY JUST SO AWESOME DUDE

And as much as I love all of them, I would like to give a special shout out to uly and Nestor.....Uly because, well, it's uly and Nestor because HOLY SHITTT THAT DESIGN MIGHT JUST BE PEAK........

I would love to write about all of them, but i don't want to make this ask super long, or else it'll just be my yapping. But in turn, give me all you got of these guys 🔥🔥🗣🗣

The Achaeans are just the butch lesbian assembly tbh...../j

-paris anon

HELP WHEN I FIRST READ THIS I THOUGHT I MADE A ACTUAL MISTAKE WHILE POSTING/DESIGNING THE ACHAEANS 😭😭😭😭

anyhoo sorry for the late response i haven't been able to sit down and ramble in a bit.... hope this is still worth the wait :')

ACHILLES HAD THE MOSTTTT AMOUNT OF THOUGHT INTO HIS REDESIGN (as in literal time. i still thought about the achaeans but achilles i had a literal mood board up dedicated to just Him)

his colors + jewelry were so fun to come up with. he only deserves the best color palette... pretty pretty princess of pthia

i saw this outfit/dress on lolitawardrobe and it screamed achilles to me 😭😭😭 i really wanted to incorporate the skeleton and marine animal together as a way to signify what's to come and his mother's origins (OH. AND HIS ANIMAL IS HECTOR'S DOLPHIN. HOPE THIS HELPS.)

THANK YOU SO MUCH. HE TRULY DID GLOW UP I HAVE NO IDEA HOW BUT I WOKE UP ONE DAY AND BLASTED HIM WITH THE YASSIFICATION JUICE. i really wanted to focus on the red eyes i put in his og design for better color balance...

also his fuck ass bangs 😭 i still like the full head kind of bangs but I'll prob keep it for just when he's going batshit insane

he did already have his braid but since i was already doing the bigger profiles for more details i wanted to emphasize it more...

RAGHDHDGEJWKE THANK YOU SO MUCH....

NESTOR HAS NO RIGHT TO BE THAT PRETTY. AND YET HE IS. #GIRLBOSS?

definitely upgraded that hairstyle + how i stylized his facial hair like girl... og nestor was kinda . let's say lacking .

nestor was kind of. color hell for me i'm ngl? for some reason i couldn't make up my damn mind on which colors go where? plus his grey hair... was kinda fucking me up... please old man... stop making me cry... (looking back my vocalization wasn't so bad it was mostly in my head but STILL)

for uly i really wanted him to have a diff silhouette but still vaguely look like outis lcb... i chose the trench coat bc omg kinda like penelope and also its just like pathos to mathos frfr but he would never really wear smth like that and it ended up way too similar to menelaus. then i thought FUCK OUTIS LCB SINNER CROPPED JACKET. WE WIN

though the 2nd image is kinda just a vague pass of the silhouette, i just needed him to be a lil more diff...

GRBRHRNRNVHN THANK YOU SO MUCH THOUGH!!! my beautiful butch assembly... its just business..........

[th3p0rtalmaker]

Who would you cast as a live-action Brotherhood trio?

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I HAVE INDEED THOUGHT ABOUT THIS!!! (Thank you for asking!)

Okay, first of all: Hector

I think my first choice to cast for live-action Hector would be his voice actor, Kim Coates.

Kim has a reputation for portraying characters that are super intimidating, legitimately insane, and chock full of conviction - most notably Tig Trager from Sons of Anarchy. I've watched a couple interviews/promos that Kim has done for other projects, and he's also an animal lover (a dog-lover at the very least). He prefers playing villains/antagonists who don't see themselves as the "bad guy" because they genuinely believe in whatever their personal cause is. (Huge Hector vibes already, lol.)

And visually I think he could TOTALLY pull it off - just give him longer hair and edit his eye color to match Hector's. And he'd look PERFECT in the fur mantle, tunic, leggings, boots, and gloves! (Forgive me for doing such a crappy job of visualizing this XD)

I think the only problem with casting Kim Coates as live-action Hector is that it would be a VERY physically demanding role. I haven't seen a ton of Kim's filmography, so I'm not sure how well he could pull off the gymnastic moves Hector is know for - let alone tightrope-walking between a sprinting rhino and a speeding caravan. He'd probably need a stunt double to handle the more physically intense side of the role.

Second up: Adira

As much as I would *love* to have Kelly Hu portray live-action Adira, her physical profile doesn't match up enough. While Adira's voice and physical profile are both pretty iconic parts of her character, I feel like it would be better to err on the physical side.

I did a little digging, and I think the person most physically attuned to portray live-Action Adira would be Chunri Kim, who's know as "The Female Korean Hulk."

I'm not kidding, LOOK AT THIS WOMAN'S PHYSIQUE:

I have no idea what her acting skills are like, but she's got the body to bring Adira to life. Just imagine her in Adira's outfit from the show, with the facepaint and a white wig!!! 🤩🤩🤩

And finally: Quirin

Honestly I haven't given Quirin's live-action version any thought until now. 😅 And I have to admit my first thought for casting live-action Quirin is Gerard Butler. Because I saw the trailer for the live-action HTTYD movie for the first time to today, and Gerard will be playing live-action Stoick. (Varian and Hiccup are pretty similar so...🤣🤣🤣)

And as a bonus: Edmund!

Ideally I would cast his voice actor, Bruce Campbell, to play live-action Edmund. He embodies both the silliness and earnestness of Edmund's character even in live action roles (see his performance below from The Librarians: And Santa's Midnight Run, where Bruce plays the rogue Santa Claus that can't keep his plethora of iterations in check during a top-secret, magical mission)

If Bruce Campbell wasn't interested/available, I would *seriously* consider casting Colin Metzger as live-Action Edmund (aka @voicemonsteredits on TikTok/Instagram):

[humornaut]

Sunny and Daisies

Hey everyone! I think this post will be a bit shorter, but recently, I've been thinking about some of the flowers that appear in Omori that we are never really given an explicit meaning for, and I wanted to talk about something that has come up. Omori spoilers ahead!

So! Obviously, based on the title, you know that the thing I want to talk about here is the use of the daisy in-game. We see it a couple of times in Sunny's dreams, and it's clear that they are associated with Basil. One appears in the Rain Area of Black Space, next to Stranger, where he talks about how Sunny was always someone that he could depend on.

And then, when you get to Neighbor's Bedroom in the Omori route, you will have a daisy, rather than a sunflower, in the lineup of all the friend's flowers.

Finally, Home for Flowers (Daisy) is the version of Basil's theme that plays just prior to the truth segment.

So, where does this association come from?

The first thing to note is that when Basil talks about sunflowers, he never says that he is a sunflower, only that he wants to be like a sunflower. The second thing to note is that in the game itself, there is no indication in the real world at any point that Basil ever assigned the daisy to himself. Some people say that the flower he wears in his hair is a pink daisy, but Basil's flower clip does not match up with how daisies are depicted in-game or in art, mostly due to the number of petals.

There isn't really any evidence for this one way or the other, but I personally believe that this is an association that Sunny himself made at some point, and that Basil doesn't even know about it. Like sunflowers, daisies can represent loyalty, and they have other meanings as well, such as innocence or purity.

However, the most relevant meaning, in my opinion, is its Victorian meaning representing the "ability to keep a secret".

Now, there is one big reason that Sunny would associate Basil with keeping a secret in the modern day, and I assume that that isn't something that I have to mention here. However, Sunny already notes Basil as someone that enjoys keeping secrets. Take a look at Memory Lane:

In the Treehouse Memory, Basil revels in his winning hand, and teases the others with his secret.

In the Beach Memory, we are given an example of Basil taking a picture of Aubrey without her knowledge, which is something that he prefers overall, as mentioned a couple times in the game.

In the Picnic Memory, we see Basil planning to hide a flaw with one of his photos (Hector's poop in the background) so that he can still include it in the photo album.

In the Rainy Day Memory, he of course promises to keep Sunny's crush on Aubrey a secret.

In the Birthday Memory, he teases the others by refusing to tell them what his wish is for.

And finally, in the Christmas Memory, we find out that Sunny's violin was actually Basil's idea in the first place, and that he successfully kept this a secret from Sunny even as the entire group was working the entire Summer to save up for it.

I'm not sure that Basil would ever assign a flower to himself based on his love of secrets, but Sunny's repeated memories of it make it likely that he would assign it to him, especially since Basil seemingly refused to assign a flower to himself.

This has all been pretty straightforward, but I want to hop into some possible connections that I've never seen discussed. Bear with me, because this link is going to sound tenuous at first.

First, take a look at the way the daisy in the Rain Area is referred to:

If we hop into the sorting minigame in the Omori route, one of the things we find this:

I promise this isn't as insane as it sounds I hope

So, most of the things that we go through in the sorting minigame have a direct link in Headspace. The similar wording is interesting, but my attention would not have been drawn to it if there weren't something more.

Let's rewind way back to the beginning of the game, during the prologue.

One of the first quests that the player is able to access (and I believe the only quest that the player can start while Basil is still in the party during the prologue) is entitled "Daisy's Dilemma". It can be and usually is completed during the prologue. Daisy is looking for some help in finding a gift that she can gift to her crush. When you get to Otherworld, you will find the "Flower Puzzle", which you can then give to her to pass on to Neb, her crush.

Ignoring the obvious implications of having such a quest so early on in the game with what we will later learn about daisies, I want to take a look at the puzzle itself.

The description of the puzzle in your inventory calls it "A perfect combination of flower and puzzle". The word "perfect" is of note here, with the very specific use of it throughout the game, especially as it pertains to Basil. But more than that: take a look at the icon for it:

The puzzle piece on the right, to me, pretty clearly shows a daisy, which leaves us with little triangle of evidence including a flower puzzle depicting a daisy given to a crush in Headspace by someone that loves flowers named Daisy, a single daisy depicted next to Stranger in Black Space (along with other evidence in the game linking Basil to Daisies), and a single puzzle piece that can be found among Sunny's belongings during the Omori route.

I realize that this may be a stretch to some, but I absolutely see this triangle of daisies and puzzles to be intentional.

So, is there anything else going on here that we should take note of?

Well, Daisy doesn't appear to have a direct analogue in the real world. You might be able to say she represents Bebe, who is said to have bad taste in men, and we see develop a crush on the Maverick throughout the real world sections of the game. I do find this a little unlikely, as Bebe seems unaware who the Maverick is at all, and doesn't seem to have any connection to Angel, who is represented by Neb.

Now Neb is very interesting. He clearly is representative of Angel, but it's kind of hard to tell due to their differences in personalities. To my knowledge, Angel is never really associated with puzzles in the real world, though he is pretty immature overall, and spends time at Hobbeez and enjoys games. The fact that his name is "Neb" is something that I find interesting, though, as this makes him the only one on the playground, based on a real person from Sunny's life, who's name seems irrelevant to his namesake.

I've wondered for awhile what the reason for this was. Recently, I discovered that one of the definitions for neb refers to a snout or nose. As luck would have it, there is another playground kid that is named Nose!

So Nose is one of only three of the playground kids that do not appear to be based off of a real person, including her best friend Bun, and the aforementioned Daisy. Like some of the others, she is based off of one of Sunny's plushies, though her and Bun do not appear to also be influenced by the younger tutoring kids in the same way Brows, Bangs, and Happy are. If you take a look at the photo album, you will find Nose in one of the pictures, being cuddled by both Aubrey and Basil.

And let's also take a look at some of the few lines of dialogue for Nose and Bun:

The term "best friend" has some pretty specific usage throughout the game. While Sunny himself appears to apply the term generally to his friend group, the real Basil is only ever shown to use it when referring to Sunny. Not to mention, the way that Bun is talking here is very reminiscent of the first few pictures of the photo album, in which Basil refers to Sunny as his best friend, as well as shy.

After playing hide and seek, Bun and Nose will play patty cake together.

The reason this is so interesting is due to the implications later on that Sunny himself was involved in the making of Basil's birthday cake, or at least learned the recipe for it at some point.

And there are some surface level similarities between Sunny and Angel that could've resulted in Angel being the one to play this role in Headspace. Both are the youngest in their respective friend groups, and Angel is seemingly raised by an overbearing older sister, with his parents nowhere in sight. He even has a "Foe Factx!" journal in his room that you can find, similar to the one that Sunny has in his dreams.

None of these characters really have a whole lot to say other than what we've gone over, but I also want to bring up the item that you get for completing this quest.

She gives you a Daisy charm, which allows the wearer to start the battle happy. I'm not sure it means much, but the two other charms that make the wearer happy are the Heart String and the Wedding Ring, which both use some fairly romantic imagery, and are easily missed by most players. The Heart String is available in the room in Humphrey in which you are chased by the cat monster thing. This is also the same room where you can get the blender item for Hero (relevant due to the smoothies being organized by Basil's tastes). This probably isn't an intentional connection, but it is also soon after the Branch Coral, which includes the line about Basil and Sunny being "tied by a string of fate". The Wedding Ring is of course given to the player by Spaceboy at the end of the Omori route.

Now, you might find a lot of this to be a little bit out there, especially with the connection to the puzzle piece that Sunny has in his belongings. However, I hope that this has at least shown that there is likely a connection between this first side quest that you can take and Basil.

Finally, while real world Basil is never depicted with daisies in-game, he is shown with one in some post-release official art.

The birthday pictures, and especially this last one for Basil's birthday, are notable for including pink daisies rather than white ones. Relying too much on flower meanings is kind of rough because most flowers have a lot of different possible meanings, and I don't like using art from outside of the game, since it really shouldn't be taken as canon, but I have seen that pink daisies can be given to someone to confess your feelings, and I believe that this birthday picture was the 143rd post to the Omori Instagram page, though don't quote me on that.

[oscconfessions]

I don’t like any inanimate insanity ships ☠️. My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104. This is my confession. If you're watching this tape, I'm probably dead, murdered by my brother-in-law Hank Schrader. Hank has been building a meth empire for over a year now and using me as his chemist. Shortly after my 50th birthday, Hank came to me with a rather, shocking proposition. He asked that I use my chemistry knowledge to cook methamphetamine, which he would then sell using his connections in the drug world. Connections that he made through his career with the DEA. I was... astounded, I... I always thought that Hank was a very moral man and I was... thrown, confused, but I was also particularly vulnerable at the time, something he knew and took advantage of. I was reeling from a cancer diagnosis that was poised to bankrupt my family. Hank took me on a ride along, and showed me just how much money even a small meth operation could make. And I was weak. I didn't want my family to go into financial ruin so I agreed. Every day, I think back at that moment with regret. I quickly realized that I was in way over my head, and Hank had a partner, a man named Gustavo Fring, a businessman. Hank essentially sold me into servitude to this man, and when I tried to quit, Fring threatened my family. I didn't know where to turn. Eventually, Hank and Fring had a falling out. From what I can gather, Hank was always pushing for a greater share of the business, to which Fring flatly refused to give him, and things escalated. Fring was able to arrange, uh I guess I guess you call it a "hit" on my brother-in-law, and failed, but Hank was seriously injured, and I wound up paying his medical bills which amounted to a little over $177,000. Upon recovery, Hank was bent on revenge, working with a man named Hector Salamanca, he plotted to kill Fring, and did so. In fact, the bomb that he used was built by me, and he gave me no option in it. I have often contemplated suicide, but I'm a coward. I wanted to go to the police, but I was frightened. Hank had risen in the ranks to become the head of the Albuquerque DEA, and about that time, to keep me in line, he took my children from me. For 3 months he kept them. My wife, who up until that point, had no idea of my criminal activities, was horrified to learn what I had done, why Hank had taken our children. We were scared. I was in Hell, I hated myself for what I had brought upon my family. Recently, I tried once again to quit, to end this nightmare, and in response, he gave me this. I can't take this anymore. I live in fear every day that Hank will kill me, or worse, hurt my family. I... All I could think to do was to make this video in hope that the world will finally see this man, for what he really is.

.

[beevean]

"Do you honestly believe you could be absolved of your sins after what you did in enabling Dracula's genocide or the destruction of Styria? Do you think that protecting that woman makes up for the one you failed? So much blood in your hands, and yet still you believe yourself to be worthy of redemption?"

A crucial line of dialogue from Zead to Hector, which encapsulates his whole arc in my opinion. One of the themes I want to explore for The Curse of Darkness was Hector having to face the consequences of his own actions throughout Seasons 2 to 4. I can't really be expected to make Hector grow as a character without acknowledging the crap he's done as an unwitting pawn to a greater scheme. If Hector wants to be redeemed of his past mistakes, he has to fight for it.

At this point in time, he had made his biggest enemies with the survivors of Styria and Wallachia, and Grant, people whose lives he inadvertently ruined by siding with the wrong side. The Netflix show, as you've noted, has done poorly in terms of personal arcs and internal conflicts for certain characters. Here I want to piss on that creative decision by focusing the story of Sarabande of Healing solely on the MAIN characters and their own personal conflicts (that includes Julia, Rosalie, and later Grant).

I am very normal over how Hector in S4, after two seasons worth of hearing that Dracula was an idiot and his plan would have killed everyone including him, after becoming a slave indirectly because of his callousness towards humanity and caring only about his own safety, casually plans to resurrect Dracula, fully cementing how all the torture he went through didn't mean jack and shit for his growth and it was mere torture porn :) and also how the show's issue with Dracula was not that he was unfathomably evil, but that he didn't think things through. Characters are judged only by how smart or stupid they are. Who cares if Hector lacked any sort of empathy towards his fellow humans? The problem was that he was too naive and therefore deserved to be humiliated! Who cares if Dracula's plan was an extreme cruel overreaction that would have caused pain and suffering to millions of innocents? The only issue was that it was an insane plan from a broken old man, and Carmilla was right in taking the reins!

god the conflict between Hector and Lenore in S3 should have been that he has seen with his own eyes the devastation he has brought on Wallachia and now he's too horrified to work for any other vampire, no matter the plan, because vampires are not the kind creatures he deluded themselves that they were, and Lenore has to crank up the emotional manipulation to make his logical stubborness fold, instead of just saying "eh Dracula was an insane dumbass, we'll give you what you want". it was right there. i weep 😭

I am also very normal about how Isaac forgives Hector for the sin of being a retard (no I'm not apologizing, you know the show itched to call Hector a slur) because "you had no agency" and it totally doesn't make blood squirt from my eye :) or how Hector's "redemption" boils down to him trying to resurrect Dracula and also unfurling the red carpet for Isaac so that he can have the epic fight against the woman who ruined Hector's life, while he stays behind to coddle the other woman who ruined his life. jesus christ i lied about being normal i hate this writing so fucking much how is this professional writing from the best videogame adaptation of all time

Okay. I'm calm now. Hector redeeming himself is, naturally, my favorite part of his arc in the prequels, and in fact I wish they went more into detail about all the atrocities he committed in Dracula's name - PtR also implies that Hector had no idea about the horrors outside of the castle, until Isaac brought the severed hands of the people he killed, but personally I believe part of Hector believed Dracula was right in wanting revenge up until a certain point. This concept of "can you atone yourself when you have blood on your hands?" was something I was very careful to tackle in the fourth chapter of Grip, but of course, I could rely on the fact that that Hector put work into becoming a better person, by actually helping people and slowly integrating into humanity. By the time that in my fic he tearfully admits that he sees himself as an abomination and he shouldn't forgive himself, Rosaly has plenty of ammo to prove him that he is a good person, because he put the effort into being one. You can't bring the dead back, but you can nurture the living.

With N!Hector here is a bit different, because as I just said, in the show he never understands that what he did was morally wrong, because the show posits his naiveté as his biggest flaw he suffered from. N!Hector was painted as someone who didn't even understand Dracula's plan in the first place, because he was lied to and because he was too sheltered to fully grasp the implications of his "compromise" of culling just part of humanity. (N!Isaac understood and actively attempted to carry Dracula's plan after his death, but one enlightenment later and it's all gucci, naturally - now he'll just kill the people who deserve it :) ) So yeah, N!Hector would have to accept that his real failing was not being, you know, a victim of abuse who hid himself from society and therefore instinctively trusted vampires as creatures who would accept his cursed nature, but lacking in compassion towards his own species and seeing them as nothing more than animals who can be culled without repercussion.

He can change. He can atone. He can start from somewhere, that somewhere being Rosaly. But it's not going to be easy.

Also unrelated but I am very happy to hear that Styria fell. Isaac would make for a shitty king, dethroning four queens who were doing a great job keeping it stable before he, the ex-slave who only knows about murdering people and certainly nothing about ruling them, came along <3

[gae-bug]

A slight hyper fixation is forming on the movie coco so here are some things I jotted down while rewatching it last night.

-We first see Dante next to a shop that sells a bunch of alebrijes

-miguel commenting on how cool de la curz’s guitar is And how his fav song is remember me little does he know that that's hectors guitar and the song he wrote for coco, also he knew they were connected in some way

-they keep up with the dimple only on one side thingy

-the talent of this kid for being able to make a functioning guitar from scraps lying around is fucking amazing, even if his shine for de la curz is a stong fire hazzard-

-learnt by just watching and hearing without actually being taught!!!?!?!?! Bro is insanely good

-"I'm gonna play even if it kills me!" The universe took that a Lil to literally lol

-oh Dante, he shall always be my favorite animal character in a movie

-the collective gasp

-at least Miguel's dad showed some sing of 'okay this is a little to far’ when she went to smash the gitaur

-the way he folds the picture the opposite way, so instead of Hector being the one left out its Imelda

-just casually stealing from the dead, smart move tho with the fire work.

-I like that the petals start to flicker

-how did people realize it was missing so fast bro

-"oh hey Miguel.….😨😨😨😨”

-the city in the land of the dead is so pretty but would also be terrifying as someone who is afraid of heights.

-Hector has no eyebrows, he does got some sick move tho

-I love that everybody's afraid of imelda lol

-imaging still having to work a service job in the after life-

-again Dante is my favorite

-Hector has a broken rib

-I also love Hector's confusion, he's like tf u mean that asshole has KIDSS!!!?!?!!?!??!

-Hector’s guitar has a golden tooth just like him!

-Dante being the best count like 15 lol

-would all these dancer s also get in legal trouble for faking unibrows or do they get a pass bc it was a celebrities idea?

-coresction, Hector had SEVERAL broken ribs.

-"what do you know" alot buddy, A LOT.

-bro took his femur, and DIDNT RETURN IT-

-okay, ik I said Hector had no eyebrows and that is true but basically nobody else really does either but it's more noticeable to me on Hector because of him taking off the fake eyebrows.

-the fucking detail on Miguels face, you can see his skin through the face paint as if it was real.

-the foreshadowing from looking at the shot glasses, one dunk, one still full.

-the nuns are also playing remember me before they even said that everybody is playing it

-one of his arm and one of his leg bones are also being held together by what I think is gauze? Idk it's blue it might be ribbon.

-I love hectors excitement when migeul stars playing poco loca, especially considering that it was most likely a song HE wrote about Imelda

-he called Miguel's musical fantasy stupid bc his got him killed.

-skeleton horses have been spotted, plus 10 points(I say as if I'm keeping a point counter lmao)

-him laughing and genuinely having fun with people who actually enjoyed his music

-he looks better as a skeleton low key- (de la cruz)

- yk there's a thing called stairs Miguel…

-the shock on del la curz’s face bc he knows he DID NOT have children, but he sees this as an opportunity to get more famous so he runs with it

- notice how he doesn't mention him leaving his family bc he didn't leave a family

-can't believe this dude has pools in the shape of the gitaur that he murdered his best friend for.

-he murdered his best friend, stole his guitar, stole his songs AND profited off his death by putting in a move and making himself seem like the victim in that situation.

-all Hector cares about is seeing his daughter one last time

-takes his guitar before Hector even hits the ground.

-when Imelda says I give you my blessing the petal lights up but when de la curz says it the petals stays normal

-as soon as de la curz is meant to be seen as the bad guy you see him in green and purple lighting, colors Disney like to use for villains.

-even though he is fading hectors first priority was comforting miguel

-THE DETAIL ON EVEN THE TINIEST OF THINGS BRO

-seeing Hector with skin is weird to me for some reason, maybe it's just because I'm so used to seeing him without it.

-Dante very well has over a hundred points for being the best at this point

-hector holding his hat like a sad wet cat.

-Imelda has earings but no ears-

-"she’s talking about me! I'm the love of your life!?" One of my favorite moments lol

-bro was stupid enough to keep the photo in his pocket.

-"I don't know what I said" "that's what I heard 🤭😏"

-'that's interesting yk why,’ 'why?' 'Because- *runs away*' seriously tho the run he does lmao

-this entire family got moves bro, and are also very good at avoiding the cops.

-I hate this fucking asshole

-YES! PUT HIM ON BLAST!!!!!!

-dont you fucking call him 'old freond' you fucking bitch

-yes boo him off the stage! Throw your tomatoes!!!!

-bell: 2 Ernesto: 0

-you can start to see Miguel's skull through his skin

-her earrings are just pierced through her cheekbones-

-he follows the petals home

-"not all of us" STOPPPPP.

-I'm glad they didn't try to make it seem like he was singing perfectly and instead had it so you can hear the tears in his voice

-it's dirty gauze and duct tape that's holding his bones together btw

- it's been a year and bro has not gotten better clothes.

Edit: ok hector actually did get some slightly better clothes I think but like they are very similar to his old clothes and seem a lot worse compared to the rest of his family’s

[supernova3space]

WIP Wednesday: Nova rambles about the WIPs Pt 1

Alright! I shall finally explain my WIPs one by one. Going by the order I made in the WIP tag game, I'll do the first 6 for now.

1. Edge of Fear 2: So the first fic, Edge of Fear was basically a not-so-creative TSoA rewrite of the episode Sonnies' Edge from Love, Death + Robots. As much as I love the first fic, I wanted to be a bit creative so the second fic is a prologue. What happened to Achilles and Patroclus, what did Hector do, how did Achilles finally take his revenge, those are the topics that will be addressed here. This one in particular is pretty emotionally and mentally taxing for me (going into that headspace had me freaking out a lot) but I like it (even if I do take very long breaks from it for my sanity). The trigger warnings are going to be insane with this one

2. Poetry shtick: I just jot down random story ideas here but this doc does actually have a bunch of unfinished and incomplete poems, stanzas that are just existing in the void like islands, waiting for accompaniment.

3. Lifeguard AU: saw a post by Iiktend about a lifeguard AU and was like, hell yeah, sure why not. Achilles is such a SIMP in this one and Patroclus? Well, there's a reason Achilles is simping over him. (Lord knows whether I'll ever finish this lmao I don't know shit about lifeguards)

4. Potrait of Love: Horror! I love writing horror. I used to write horror stories when I was a kid. Satyajit Ray was and still is a huge idol for me. The way he makes even the most mundane things become a cause of nightmares in such an understated and simple tone, gods there is no one like him. This fic, while it is Patrochilles, also has Odysseus playing the main character. Modern AU, Odysseus buys a painting and his life slowly goes to shit. Sadly (not sadly), for Patrochilles to be endgame, Odysseus must SUFFER lol

5. Forest of Lotuses: My personal favourite. I LOVE this one. This has a lot of inspiration from folklore and mythology. Here's how it works. Childhood friends to lovers, all in secret. And btw they can't touch each other. If they do so, they die. Gosh, I love it 😍

6. With the Wind In Your Hair: This one is fun to write because guess what? I'm not going to use a single line of dialogue in this. Trying to challenge myself lol. It's all setting, action and ✨ feels ✨. Basically a retelling of the story of Patroclus and Achilles in small snippets of their life and days. Lots of inspiration from Tumblr lmao (honestly you people are so creative I can't). Happy ending cause I'm a nice person hehe

I'll post the next six probably next week? They are far more interesting than these.

[streets-in-paradise]

Hey, I found your tumblr and I'm loving what you do here, mostly troy. I don't know if you're getting requests, but if you are, you can make one for Achilles based on that scene where he's told he can go and win glory in battle and have his name spoken for centuries or he can stay and be loved, have children, wife? I would love to see Achilles receive more love, with a wife and children. Feel free to make any changes you want, thank you very much in advance.

OMG YES, ANON,YES 💕💕💕

As you see I got a bit too excited because i love this idea. I also would love to see Achilles getting more love.

Btw, let me stop the start of my writing idea rambling to thank you for your kind words before excitement will take over me lol. Welcome to my blog, i'm so happy you are loving the troy content 😊

I will also add the reminder that troy requests are permanently open. Nobody else that I know about writes for all characters of the film like i do, so i keep troy requests always open.

Now, back to the topic of your request, it got me all excited because this dichotomy Achilles as a character is inserted in makes things feel so tragic but i sometimes think… Imagine if it wouldn't have to be that way? In the context of fanfic, of course.

For example in the context of this request imagine Achilles and the reader are already together when the trojan war happens and after he gets that prophecy from his mother, tecnically ruining their expectatives of marriage, he is all sad because winning eternal glory is his dream but he doesn't want to leave her. However, she is like " Fine, i don't mind. Follow your dreams and I will follow you, I will marry you anyways"

The societal rules of bronze age Greece makes that sound absolutely insane, which is such a lovely proof of devoted love!

Imagine Achilles trying to make the reader see all the cons of that plan, while she comes up with tons of pros to a point where he can't believe just how much loved he is 💕

I'm literally imagining them like:

Reader: You can have both, we just have to be creative.

Achilles: You can't go to Troy with me and watch me die.

Reader: Nestor says Troy is built to stand a ten years siege, is enough time for us to have a life together before destiny will reclaim you.

Achilles: Would you want us to have a family in a camp on the trojan beach?

Reader: I am not naive, Achilles! I know what happens on the militar camps. Do you think the war captives don't get pregnant?

Achilles: I don't want you to have the life of war captive.

Reader: It's better than watching you sail knowing you will never come back.

Achilles: What would be of you when i'm gone?

Reader: Our children will inherit your part of the sacking. We will survive.

Achilles: They can't grow in the middle of a warzone.

Reader: I have heard Hector has a baby boy. If his child can, so do ours.

Achilles: What will you do while I will be fighting?

Reader: Look after Patroclus. I know he is going but you don't feel ready to let him fight. In the meantime, there are tons of things a woman can do outside of the battleground. Cooks, clearners, healers … They will need asistance.

Achilles: So am i going to be the only man in the greek army having his wife arround?

Reader * all happily*: ' your wife', love how that sounds.

Achilles * remembering he had found someone as stubborn as he is*: UNBELIEVABLE!!

Seriously, this idea always wanders my mind. I'm already daydreaming the plot for this request, i love it.

[johaerys-writes]

Not counting Patrochilles:

1) Who are your favorite characters from Greek mythology (in general)? 2) Who are your favorite Homer characters specifically?

Omg what a great question. So I have many many favourites when it comes to Greek myths, it's hard to choose. I basically grew up reading simplified versions of these myths, specifically these children's books by Sofia Zarampouka (a greek author and painter, I'm sure any Greeks following me will recognise these lol):

Just look at all those gorgeous covers. I had the whole series at some point and I have no idea where it is now, but I used to read these over and over when I was younger.

I absolutely loved reading about the labours of Heracles, those were really fun even though I didn't love Heracles himself as a character. I also really liked Theseus' story (Ariadne and her yarn! The maze! The Minotaur! Poor Aegeus dying at the end aksjs so sad) even though, again, I never much liked Theseus as a character haha. Atalanta was one of my favourites and her myth is very cool, and I also liked Perseus' story a lot. Antigone is a huge favourite, as well as Iphigeneia. I find their stories very compelling and very tragic and I think about them a lot!!!!

Another one that I absolutely love is Medea and her story with Jason and the Argonauts. The Argonauts on their own have a very interesting myth (heroes that sail to a strange land with strange customs in search of the mythical golden fleece) but the appearance of Medea and her later story with Jason is what makes it a fascinating story for me. She is the embodiment of what most Greeks at the time would find at once incredibly alluring and incredibly threatening: she is foreign (the Other), beautiful, powerful, she has hidden knowledge and magic, she defies her own father and kills her brother to help Jason escape. And when Jason, dickhead that he is, abandons her to marry someone else, she commits the ultimate taboo of killing her own children. She is such a polarising and blood-chilling character and I really love seeing how much she has inspired artists through the centuries.

As for Homeric characters, I do love Hector a lot, and the moments when he appears in the Iliad are among my favourites, alongside all the Patrochilles moments. I find Nestor very entertaining and he's always a delight when he appears, and I also enjoy Diomedes' and Odysseus' bro chemistry a lot lol. Clytemnestra is also one of my favourite characters in Greek myth in general. Technically it's Euripides' version of her that I love, based on his Iphigeneia at Aulis play, she doesn't appear in the Homeric works but she is mentioned so it counts lol. I also really love Briseis-- even though she talks very little in the Iliad, I still love her characterisation and the overall role and significance she has in the story. Another one I really love is Priam, I cannot read the passages where he appears in the Iliad without tearing up, he's just such a kind and noble person and his interactions with other characters in the epic give so much depth and nuance to Trojan society and culture and the tragedy that befell them.

Most of my fave Homeric characters are from the Iliad, but I should give special mention to some Odyssey characters I really love. I always found Circe very intriguing and the descriptions of her island and her magic etc are SO interesting and I wish we had been given more!! (Honestly even though I adore the Iliad I always found the Odyssey much more fun to read lol). Telemachus and Peisistratus are also special blorbos (and here I should give a shoutout to the amazing @figsandphiltatos for writing the fic that made me insane for them alsjs 😭🙏)

Gosh this is already so long and I feel like I could talk about this forever ahaha. I probably left a lot of characters and myths out but didn't want to ramble too much. Thank you once again for this question!

[asteria7fics]

i would love to hear a full breakdown of the correlation to the original text!! (*＾ワ＾*）

-still stalking man ˙˚ଘo(∗  ❛ั ᵕ ❛ั )੭່˙

Now THIS is what I'm talkin' about!!

I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS AHAHA °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

MAJOR spoilers for TSOB under the cut, so if you haven't read it yet, read it here first and come back!

So I think it's kinda obvious who of the kids correlates with which Trojan War character, but I'll list the important ones here:

Cartman: Agamemnon

Kenny: Menelaus

Kyle: Achilles

Stan: Patroclus

Wendy: Hector

Heidi: Paris

Butters: Helen

Craig: Odysseus

Bebe: Priam

Ike: Neoptolemus (adding him was such a goofy move lmao)

All other correlations I made were pretty arbitrary and I didn't really follow them outside of using them when deciding who would be in the horse at the end.

But I know what you're really here for. Here's a breakdown of the events of the war, and how I South Park-ified them!

Paris steals Helen - Obviously, this was Heidi going to Kenny's house and stealing Butters.

Odysseus tries to avoid being drafted - In the original text, Odysseus acts insane and nearly murders his infant son in an effort to 'commit to the bit'. I struggled with this chapter the most and rewrote it a couple of times to make Craig nearly killing Stripe almost make sense, though idk how successful I was truthfully. Easily the weakest part of the story.

Achilles tries to avoid being recruited - Again in the original text, Achilles hides out by disguising himself and living among women away from his home. Having the enemy be the girls made this challenging, so I settled on having Stan and Kyle dress as girls together to try and get Wendy out of the war.

Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia, his first born daughter - RIP Mr. Kitty (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Greeks camp on beach & capture many small settlements around Troy - Had the boys camp across the street from Bebe's and raid the surrounding houses to bleed them of supplies.

Agamemnon takes Chryseis - I knew early on I wasn't going to have the boys take women as prisoners like they did in the source text, so I settled on having them take the next most valuable thing; video games. This is Cartman taking the first Switch he gets!

Chryseis’ father prays to Apollo; plague hits camp until she’s returned - The inspiration of The Crappening. I made the decision to not have the Gods be a real factor in the war, so the girls had to take things into their own hands with this one. It was convenient too, considering how dirty Cartman did poor Jenny in Bass to Mouth. Made for great motivation for the girls to give them those laxative-laced cookies, though!

Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles - Cartman taking the Switch from Kyle. That bastard! -`д´-

Achilles refuses to fight - Kyle's subsequent hissy fit. He's so Achilles coded it's wild.

Menelaus battles Paris solo - Kenny and Heidi's fight! Didn't have to do much with this one, honestly.

Patroclus wears Achilles’ armor and is killed by Hector - You guys know what happens. Stan dresses in Kyle's armor and gets his leg broken by Wendy. By this point I was able to follow the source material pretty closely.

Achilles kills Hector to avenge Patroclus - Kyle gives Wendy the big chop (ง •̀_•́)ง

Achilles is killed by Paris (bow lead by Apollo) - Heidi takes Kyle out with a lucky shot to the nuts. I never really explored if she was assisted by anyone on this, but I like to think she believed the Gods were on her side, guiding that condom!

The Trojan Horse - I mean, kinda explains itself doesn't it? Though I have to say, using the condom boxes to construct the horse may have been my single greatest idea in the whole fic.

The Greek’s emerge from the horse and torch Troy - There was really no way the story could end without the boys committing arson, was there? I mean, what was Cartman supposed to do? We all know how the story's supposed to end!

This was so fun to FINALLY share with you all! I worked through a lot of these ideas with my irl friends, and the laughter I got out of them really kept me invested in finishing this story. I hope I was able to make some of you chuckle, too!

Thank you so so much for this ask!! ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡

[detective-dipstick]

Murder on the Orient Express (1974) vs. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Never read the book so I'm considering plot-related things that probably happened in the book as the creations of the movies and it will count towards their rewards and penalties.

Things I liked from both:

-the handkerchief! big fan. the mystery of the handkerchief was better than the mystery of who murdered that guy.

-I like the locations in both. I like the scenery. I think they played with the being stuck on a train thing in their own ways and it worked out.

-There was a third thing I can't remember.

Things I despised from both:

-the ending. the dumbest ending in mystery history. mstry hstry. miss tree his tree.

-sorry i got distracted. literally it was so anticlimactic and SOOOO dumb. I had a friend who really liked the ending but he had horrible opinions about everything so fork spotted in the kitchen i guess. anyway drives me insane to this day.

Things I liked better in 74:

-The train. Looks like a real train. We get to look at it for a long time. A movie made for train-lovers, which is the main draw of Orient Express as a concept anyway.

-Generally better looking cinematography. I like.

-Hector. Freaking. McQueen.

-First of all, Anthony Perkins? Damn. Second, Anthony Perkins as McQueen? GAYYYYY (flirtatious). Noticed him the moment he appeared on screen. Totally in love with everything he did. No notes except a tiny one with my number on it. Anyway

-Ms. Hubbard. Genuinely annoying af as God intended. and she didn't have a random wig reveal (although that was funnnny. again that Branagh melodrama that's so ridiculous sometimes but admirably bold every time). anyway idk i like her. I don't like her but I do. the girlboss effect in action.

-The Armstrong case summarized in the BEGINNING thank you for making sense. Was so jarring in the 2017 version that they just randomly mention it later in the movie. No prior allusion to it or anything. Those first few scenes in the 74 version were unsettling to me in a good way.

-They look so relieved and happy when Poirot and Bianchi vote to pin the murder on the imaginary guy. It's just a cute little moment idk. Some of them hug each other. McQueen smiles and stands up and sits down for some reason.

Things I liked better in Branagh's:

-Branagh as Poirot. I feel like I'll be unjustifiably assassinated for this but I like him a lot. In this movie specifically, he's great. I dislike Orient Express compared to his three Poirot movies in almost every other respect but he was very refreshing here.

-From what I've seen of Branagh as a director, he excels at melodrama, and it shows here.

-Loveee how during the breakdown Poirot had no fucking idea who did it. When he said "it is time to solve this case" he meant it so literally. He meant "well we're on a deadline so I'm just gonna start talking and hope it all works out." Relatable af that's me writing my essays and shit. Also very funny.

-So there’s a scene, right? There’s a scene with Hildegarde (great name btw) and Poirot where he questions her in German so the princess can’t understand it and then she mentions seeing “the other conductor” in the sleeping car and he’s so shocked he switches to English and he’s like “WHAT other conductor???” and that was so cool you had to be there it was cool. Too bad it didn’t mean anything but it was sick.

-I like Bouc slightly better than Bianchi. Now, Bianchi has the better name. Fun to say. He was very silly and cool. But I can’t pretend I don’t love Bouc. C’mon.

-The count and countess. WOW. They were charming in 74 but in this one they are HOT. Holy shit. Even better somehow that we don’t meet them right away. They’re talked about in the beginning but we only see them when Poirot goes to their cabin to question them for reasons I can’t remember (I recall he originally wasn’t going to. They were in a different car or diplomatic immunity or something idk I was born yesterday). Anyway him just showing up at the elusive count and countess’s later in the movie and turns out the whole time they were just in there doing hot people shit. They were in two scenes but really carried the film with their sexual energy. 

General thoughts:

For the record, I wouldn’t recommend either of these movies. If this post inspired u to watch them for some reason, don’t you dare think of me. Goodnight.

[cell-axe]

Ramblings for Qiumibu #3

Link to part 2

Link to Part 4

I think I should talk about the ideas behind my characters' creation before I ramble off about their things in their respective place.

So we'll talk about this guy who was brought up multiple times in the previous post! Prince Tore! Heir to the kingdom of Ailude, north of Qiumibu!

The names for the Heirs and Heiresses of Qiumibu have a theme to them. For some reason, back when I created Prince Naso, his name was an anagram of Jason. I used to find that name pretty cool, but these days, I no longer find it a cool name. And that was a time before the other Heir and Heiresses were created.

But when I created these guys, I thought "these guys need a theme." And the theme I chose was "characters from the Trojan War", because what the heck was I thinking back then. Jason was in there. In Tore's case, I picked Hector, because I got that name from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. I didn't even realise both names were present in the Trojan War, so I decided "alright all names from the Trojan War turned into anagrams let's do this".

As mentioned in the above, Tore is an anagram of Hector. Now, I didn't just throw the 'h' and 'c' out of the window. They are still present, just that they're in his full name rather than the simplified name. I'm not going to write it out in this post. I'll just leave this here for people to read if they want to.

Now, his character concept. He's based on the Azure Dragon of the Four Symbols of China, but rather than to make him blue, I decided to make him orange instead, because orange isn't a common colour for dragon characters that I've seen. And when they are, they control fire. In Prince Tore's case, he's all about the wind, hence the swiggly clouds in the drawing. But hey, the colour blue is present on his clothes! That's good, right? Right?

Another part of his concept was that he's a pole dancer. You read that right, he pole dances. I don't know how that came to be. Why did I think that a pole dancing prince was a good idea? Beats me. I just thought that it's a cool combination of idea, so I went deeper and wrote that his kingdom prioritises performance arts in particular. Which means that he's not the only pole dancing person of royalty around, because his bodyguard/wife does it too.

Goodness me, the shadows on this photo are awful. Anyways, she's important because she's Prince Tore's bodyguard. Her name's Opal because I forgot that I had a Trojan War theme to follow.

As you may have noticed in both characters, they have weapons with long shafts. Somehow, I the genius thought that "long shafts = they can spin around their own weapons as they fight!" But it's not like they'll do it every time that they fight. Prince Tore and Opal still swing their axe and staff about as normal.

On the note of Prince Tore's axe, it's strange how I never gave any of my characters an axe until he came around. I'd always told myself that I'd give one, since, you know, my online handle tends to be "AXE-cell", so I must have a character with an axe somewhere, right?

Wrong. Only Prince Tore has it, and he isn't even a main character. Just some important figure in Qiumibu who may or may not interact with Roslan and Secare.

But his relationship with Prince Naso of Eulia? I'll let the image below do the talking. (Drawing done by the amazing P0P_Ryddick on Twitter!)

He dislikes him greatly, but can tolerate his presence when there's an important matter to be dealt with. I explained most of this already in Post #2 of my rambles for Qiumibu.

Wish I knew what else to say for this insane series. I guess I'll just stop here for this post before I move onto the Heiresses of Qiumibu.

[deathbyobiwan]

five fandoms, five ships / which do you like best

thanks for the tag @cottonraincoat! took me way too long to get around to these so i'm just combining the two in one post lmao.

when i watched the agent carter show i absolutely fell in love with it. it's been a few years so my memory could be foggy but i adored the depiction of her character and her friendship with jarvis is one of my favourite representations of male/female friendships.

sam obisanya is just. such a kind and good person i can't help but adore him, and his relationship with his father makes my heart warm. seriously go watch ted lasso i beg.

and i mean i am slightly ooc-ing hector bc he is. an ancient greek man. but his depiction in the iliad wrecks me. i went into reading the iliad expecting to dislike him but oh my god he is the epic's true hero.

and okay now for the ships... i cannot lie i haven't been super into shipping for most of my life so i'm not sure i can make it up to five, but i will try...

obi-wan kenobi/anakin skywalker (star wars) wow how surprising. i think i got into reading this around 2021 but didn't start writing it until 2023. they are truly insane about each other and i am insane about them, simple.

valjean/javert (les mis) i did not get this until this january when i saw les mis again in london and the tension between them was indescribable. javert kind of gives owk-era vader in that he has a job he's supposed to do but his obsession with this one guy (that he can still technically argue is duty-related) is getting in the way of everything.

roy kent/keeley jones/jamie tartt (ted lasso) ted lasso is my favourite tv show of all time and i wish these guys had worked out as a throuple. s3 was disappointing overall but jamie's arc over the whole show really won me over on him.

queen charlotte/king george iii (bridgerton/queen charlotte) queen charlotte is hands down my favourite season of bridgerton and the relationship between charlotte and george is really part of that. i weep every time i see or am too heavily reminded of the scene with them under the bed.

erm erm erm cinderella/prince charming (cinderella iii: a twist in time) i will always be a cinderella iii stan and their relationship in this is so sweet and joyful. i really would recommend the film for an easy watch (zero knowledge of cinderella ii required) it is super cute.

this has taken me so long to do i have no idea who has and hasn't done it i'm sorry :,( but please if you haven't done either yet and would like to go ahead!

[furryprovocateur]

hey! first time i've hit an experience goal for a non-0 chapter since FFO! even more impressive is that it's the first 2000+ experience requirement i've met in the run! not to suck my dick, but i'm genuinely surprised i was able to get that done. anyways personal goal for this write-up is to get it done without needing a pastebin.

before anything else, quick point of order i wanna mention because i forgot to with the last write-up: last chapter, i used the hammerne with serra to renew the rapier, wolf beil, and a physic staff that was at 3 uses. it was the most economical uses of hammerne and i don't think there'd be anything else worth renewing besides maybe either warp or one of the legendary weapons in the final chapter (assuming i used one). but ultimately, i figured this was the most convenient opportunity and used it for them.

night of farewells is definitely a step back in difficulty, but it still has a lot to do and a lot of threats to manage. i mean. hell. look at this reference image i used for it (credit to melth on lparchive.org)

i could go over every single detail of that image, but the most important things are the following:

sonia with bolting has around 30 might and even though she doesn't move, with how condensed the level is, it makes her a force to be reckoned with.

the two steals are extremely annoying to deal with (even if you rush in with someone like florina to kill the sleep user early, you still have the berserk guy + potentially sonia to worry about. and the blue gem hero isn't exactly super threatening, but his position means you likely have to deal with him first before the bishops, giving them more time to fuck with you.).

that luna/sleep druid in the bottom right is an assfucker because he has insane range and never misses with sleep (or, at least, never missed any time i saw him use it).

lastly, archer island in the northwest is deceptively more dangerous than it already looks because the sniper there does serious damage (around 30 might), it's within range of sonia's bolting (again, around 30 might), and the wyvern knights + lord are nothing to sneeze at (the WL in particular, despite having the worst weapon, can hit the hardest, having potentially up to 35 might.).

in terms of strategy, this level is a lot more intimidating to route out than it is to actually play. on HHM, the bridges actually don't play that large of a factor in things. they change in 5 turn intervals and very few of them will actually disappear on you, so it's more about knowing what routes become available and when they do.

with all that in mind, i fielded the following people:

hector (mandatory)

heath and florina (genuinely my most useful units, far and away. i'm still consistently baffled at all the HHM tier lists i saw that put heath in mid. heath is arguably my BEST unit and literally solves run-ending problems that spring up.)

lyn and eliwood (shock and awe, i'm using the two lords i ditched asap! well, to be fair, they are good growth units for the experience rank, which, as mentioned, has become top priority for me. i also actually think i might promote them. i'm not married to that idea, especially considering that they're just not that exceptional in combat, but, if you missed the autism moment from last week, i calculated the remaining funds in the game and i can probably edge out promoting both of them + one more unit. speaking of that promotion. . .)

fiora (yes, i actually decided to promote her. it's not even because of sunk cost fallacy, but more for strategy i'll detail in a bit. she's not exactly a wrecking ball, but she's still in the upper crust of units to use for this chapter.)

farina (she's a good growth unit, and astute readers will notice that i have fielded literally all the fliers i have. fliers are my main linchpin of strategy in this chapter, as they invalidate a lot of the movement issues. heath + florina can do most of the heavy lifting while fiora can pitch-in and farina can get potshots for experience.)

jaffar and nino (mandatory units, but it's also a good excuse to try and build up nino for experience. she's frail, but if you give her some shields and let her pick off kills, she grows levels rapidly. jaffar himself is actually extremely helpful this chapter because assassins can still use lockpicks, and he's a lot bulkier than you'd expect an assassin to be. he's very useful for blocking roads and if dodgetanking fails, he still has the base stats to survive a hit or two. hell, in my run, he actually tanked the silver lance generals and even dodged a bolting from sonia. dude's good utility. though assassins can't steal, so that means we need to field. . .)

matthew (i absolutely need to steal that blue gem and angelic robe, and matthew is the best guy for the job. he's got slightly better stats than legault but a lower level, which is the ideal combo. he can also double as a growth unit after getting both steals, which really helps after you factor in the quick experience growth of thieves.)

bartre (remember how we need to hit level 5 promoted with bartre to get karla? i do. it helps that he's great for dealing with the western side's reinforcements being that they're exclusively lance-using fliers. i actually used him + jaffar to shield nino a bit for the WK reinforcements so she could get some potshots in and get experience when they attacked jaffar. meanwhile, bartre got so much combat attention that he ended up getting a fairly respectable amount of experience for himself as well.)

priscilla (this should be unsurprising. anyone who says serra is better is super wrong imo. though i love serra, the higher movement is just too helpful to pass up any time i have to pick between them. i would've liked to field both, but this was my last slot and it was either her, serra, or ninian (who's almost maxed out on experience). i made the right choice imo.

so, most of the chapter revolved around getting major threats dealt with via either heath or florina, and doing various shenanigans to get my growth units experience. there's not as many promoted units as you'd expect, and the only ones that spawn in as reinforcements are falconights in the northwest, which bartre eats w/red pepper seasoning. once i killed the sleep/berserk staff bishops, that was like half the battle done right there. the luna/sleep druid isn't really worth killing until turn 10, when a bridge that connects him to your main units spawns and he aggros.

if anything, having such a generous turn count (28) meant that i could take my time and breathe. it's still bizarre that HNM has arguably the hardest version of this chapter because of that obscenely tight turn count. if i had less turns, i'd have probably rushed florina to archer island and gotten her killed instead of taking it slow and burning out the ballistas and bolting + staggering pulling the WKs and WL. much like battle before dawn, if you can survive the first 6 or so chapters without any large mistakes, you likely can survive the rest of the chapter just fine.

anyways, florina killed sonia after some back-and-forth, and i seized on turn 25. i probably could've cut some corners and done it faster, but, again, i prioritized safety because i had the wiggle room already + i still finished with a profit. 15 extra turns sounds real good to me right now, and i imagine i should be able to swing the berserker relatively quickly. sands of time + battle preparations i'll lose a turn on both, but i should be able to save a shitload of time with warpskipping, worst case scenario.

rn my biggest worry is. . . i have like no weapons! or at least i desperately could use some more. hopefully i can buy a decent amount in cog of destiny. speaking of which, i'm still debating who to deploy. maybe erk/lucius/canas + farina/fiora/florina + priscilla/serra and that's it? i think cog has 9 deployment slots. let me check right now. . . yeah, hector + 9. cool. still need to think about it. cog is a weird ass chapter in HHM. i've been looking forward to it all playthrough. hopefully lloyd goes gentle on me (read: florina).