#albions a bad place for her; it makes her a worse person because she plays into so many of her worst aspects

[thisisntreaver]

Thinking about how Whisper is so determined to prove herself to her brother and one up you she is literally willing to ruin her reputation. You're her biggest rival literally because one time you beat her while sparring in front of her brother. Thunder is the most important person in her life, and she just wants his approval which he continously refuses to give her. It doesn't matter how bad it makes her look. Like if you choose to protect the greatwood orchard, she'll go against it just because she sees you took it. She literally says that.

Whisper leaving Albion, away from Thunder who barely acknowledges her after she begins training. Away from you who is not only her friend, but her main rival, and biggest reminder of her mistakes, is really the best decision she could have made. And its really the only one we see her mke for herself.

[annoyed-galaxy]

Random Headcanons

that no one asked for featuring Logan and my HOBW who I’m thinking about calling Spellblade as her Hero name. Still haven’t come up with an actual name for her.

Logan can’t swim. Not well at least. Spellblade has tried teaching him several times as she loves to swim, but he’s always reluctant. His fear of swimming got worse after the incident in Aurora. He hates traveling over the ocean, but at the same time, looks forward to the adventure on the other side.

Logan and Spellblade can communicate easily without speaking. They can talk with just looks. This has happened on several occasions in the throne room where they have a whole conversation without saying a thing. 

Spellblade notices that Logan doesn’t like writing/signing official documents because his handwriting is a little sloppy. He smudges ink most of the time because he’s left-handed (this is true since his sword sheath is on his right side and he uses his left hand to unsheathe it when you confront him in the Battle for Albion). Most of the time, if he has to write or sign official document, Spellblade will help him with most of it. She doesn’t judge him at all for being left-handed (since back in old days here on Earth, being left-handed was a bad thing and I kind of like to think of Fable being that way. One of those little insecurities that Logan has).

Once a year, on the anniversary of the Crawler’s defeat, Spellblade will go to Walter’s statue and kneel before it for hours on end. Sometimes Logan will join her in silent comfort. He wasn’t as close to Walter as she was, but he comforts her because he knows how much she missed Walter.

(Edit) Adding this one because I had a sneaking suspicion but: Logan can sing. And he can sing very well. And Spellblade can play the lute very well. So they make music together. And the reason I say Logan can sing is because, Michael Fassbender (Logan's VA) can fucking sing. Don't believe me? Just take a look here. And as for Spellblade, you do have the option to master the lute job. So I like to think these siblings crack some nice tunes when they're together.

These are just a few headcanons that I have in stone right now. Some that I am working with involves Reaver as their secret dad (thanks mainly to @the-sparrow-sings for that idea). I’m toying with that idea because I found out that if you play the princess, your father is mentioned a lot. But if you play the prince, it is your mother that is mentioned. I am playing Fable 2 right now as a female so that would be my HOBW’s mother so I’m trying to rearrange Spellblade’s story to fit with the one I’m forging for my Sparrow. @the-sparrow-sings seriously got me hooked on this Father!Reaver thing and it’s helping with how I want to build both my Sparrow and HOBW. I just need to finish Fable 2 to actually get some solid ideas.

Oh and here is one more headcanon:

As part of her “Reformation Act”, Spellblade dragged Logan around with her to every court meeting or place where she had to make a royal decision. It was to show him how she fixed his mistakes and to prove that you could help people and save them at the same time. It also served as an embarrassing punishment especially in the first case when deciding what to do about child labor. When approached with the idea, Spellblade asks “Whose idea was this?!” Reaver of course, takes the credit. That’s when Spellblade turns to her brother and says “You agreed to this?!” Of course, Logan looks ashamed, but is surprised when he is walloped on the back side of his head.

Going along with the Father!Reaver idea, Reaver will see this and smile inwardly at the silly bond between his secret kids.

I’m going to need to actually meet Reaver in Fable 2 to discover more of his personality. Because when I first played Fable 3, I never really liked him. But seeing that a lot of people here on Tumblr actually do like him and have made several different ideas about him etc, I am starting to grow fond towards the bastard. The more I play the game, and the more I look at Fable on Tumblr, the more ideas I get and the more I want to start writing. I love my idiotic siblings and just want to gush about them and make a bunch of stories. Fable is bringing my writing and thinking back to life. And finding new people who share the same interests is heartwarming as well.

[invisibletoallbutfaeries]

Accidentally answered questions for a different muse with Kyra answers. Since I wrote them out I shall post them here anyway.

H: Heat 1. do they rather a hot or cold room?

Warm, but just warm enough that she can wear whatever she wants yet cold enough that she can also comfortably wrap herself in a blanket at any moment. 72-73 is her ideal temperature, any more and she cant use the blanket comfortably and any less and she’ll freeze. Or just be dramatic about it.

2. do they prefer summer or winter?

She technically prefers Winter, but that’s just because summer reminds her too much of home. She will still whine about the cold in winter while bundled under a hat, two scarves, and both a sweater and jacket.

3. do they like the snow?

Yes and no. She loves the look and idea of snow, but she is not a fan of how it can sometimes seep through her boots or how she can get smacked in the face with a ball of pure cold when her friends decide to throw snowballs at her.

4. do they have a favorite summer activity?

Taking the kids through the safest parts of the forest to teach them about some of the creatures and about the plants that exist on Gaia so they can be more informed if they go in and let fear take them over less.

5. do they have a favorite winter activity?

Baking. She likes how it warms the house and how she gets warm sugary treats to eat with her tea and coffee after.

I: In-the-closet 1. what is their sexuality?

Bi-Romantic Demi-Sexual.

2. have they ever questioned their sexuality?

She questions if she’s just straight up asexual, though she also hasn’t had a romantic partner yet so she isn’t so sure. (she’s had 1 crush but it ended quick).

3. have they ever questioned their gender?

She hasn’t.

4. would/was their family be okay with them being LGBT?

Yes, though sometimes her mother or uncle Ikol will tease her about her lack of sex drive/sexual and romantic interests. The closest they can get to playfully teasing her about crushes is if she notices peoples eye color and they feel they’re missing out on teasing the eldest Chiappetta child. They’d have a field day if she ever does get a romantic and/or sexual partner, break out the baby books even. 

Her grandmother is the only one worried about Kyra, thinking she’s more sexually deviant than she is because she’s friends with Ikol (who her grandma knows is Loki and hates) and refuses to acknowledge that he can’t influence her sexuality like that. Ikol is the one to usually make her stop though, usually by sarcastically pointing out how he can’t make a non-overtly-sexual person suddenly be hyper-sexual just by standing next to them.

5. how long would/did it take for them to come out?

Kyra doesn’t hide it and is fine with answering if asked. She’s not really in the closet about her finding men and women equally aesthetically attractive nor about not having a preference despite her lack of sexual interest. She also doesn’t outright tell anyone though, but that’s more so because she figures if someone’s interested or curious they’ll ask but otherwise it’s not a need-to-know thing.

T: Truth 1. are they honest?

Generally yes, though she does often withhold information if she feels it will not help matters. For example she’s content letting Walter think she was traveling on a boat and crashed into Albion rather than admitting she’s from the future and messed up with a teleportation device. Telling him that his original assumption was wrong would probably just cause confusion so she’s decided to just play along.

2. can they tell if someone is lying?

It depends. She wasn’t raised to lie, but a chaos god did help raise her. She can tell obvious ticks in lying and does know how to notice if someone’s story isn’t adding up, as well as to follow up on information to make sure she got it all and not a damning sounding section of it. If someone is good at what they’re doing though they could fool her.

3. is it obvious when they’re lying?

When she straight up lies: yes. She’s not good at completely lying.

She’s not obvious when telling half truths though. This is mostly because she’s not really lying, she’s just keeping some information in the dark. Its a skill she learned from living with Ikol/Loki.

4. have they lied about anything they regret lying about?

Not entering the forest when she first arrived on Gaia. It was dangerous, stupid, and she kept doing it but didn’t want to admit it. In the long run it helped solve a plague-crisis that was occurring and she found out the cure, but she also still has nightmares and was in a dangerous position to be manipulated by fae or worse. 

5. have they told truths that have been spread against their will?

She told her mom about a girl with pretty brown eyes she’d met (her first and only crush so far). Her whole family knew in a week and her dad started getting protective, her grandma side-eyeing her, and Ikol and Sigyn were way too excited for anything to be good. Pretty soon all their regular customers knew as well and were cheering Kyra on every time they saw her. It wasn’t a horrible thing, but was awkward when the other girl said something bad about Kyra’s love of Botany. It ruined the crush and Kyra had to almost announce to her family that she wasn’t seeing her anymore/the crush had ended there. Then of course correct customers that she and the girl weren’t dating anymore and never made it to girlfriend statues anyway.

Kyra was 12. So was the other girl, who never learned about Kyra’s mother telling everyone else and their mother about Kyra’s crush. Kyra has long since gotten over it, but Ikol will still send the other girl side-eyes if she comes into the store.

S: Streets 1. are they street-smart?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no. She’s fae smart and can navigate the fae courts well, is well red in myths and folklore, plus she’s good at selling stuff, but she has almost no street smarts. If someone tried to kidnap her she would have no idea how to react, let alone how to get out of it. She’d probably try the money clip thing (have money in a money clip specifically to distract a criminal by throwing it one way and running the other) but it would have monopoly money in it cause Kyra doesn’t want to lose her money either.

2. would they give money to someone on the streets?

If she has money on her, yes. Otherwise she’d suffice with offering them something essential (i.e. cases of water for clean water, an oxygen mask if theirs is cracked, etc.). This is largely because she doesn’t need money on Gaia but on Earth she has monthly income from NASA due to going on the expedition to Gaia in the first place. This left her with a lot of money and a place where she can help when she sees it’s needed.

3. have they ever gotten in a fight on the streets?

No. She’s gotten upset, but on Earth Christo was usually there to intimidate people to back down and leave her alone. Her friend isn’t violent but he does understand he is tall and muscular (from moving heavy science equipment, not the gym) so he looks intimidating. Closest she got to throwing hands was someone insulting Christo, who calmed her down after grabbing her shoulders and redirecting his angry little friend away from the target she was stomping towards.

4. has anything happened to them on the streets?

Not really, though this is very likely because she usually had Christo, Sweets (big black scary looking dog), or Ikol (7 foot tall and muscular) with her and they probably looked like off-duty bodyguards. 

5. are they cautious when out?

If on Earth or in the forest yes, though on the streets of Gaia not so much. The only precaution she takes there is not to say her full first name when introducing herself, but she also warns new people to use nicknames due to fae activity. The fae have stolen her baskets and stuff she’d traded for while she was out before.

[lucienfairfucked]

(I gave myself the name of one of my OCs for this meme. If you want to send me a character to do I’d still appreciate it.)

01. Full name:

Severine Stark. Neither of these names was given to her at birth; the trader that raised her called her “Abilene”. Severine was the name she took as an acolyte in the Chapel of Skorm, and when standardised currency made a system of aristocracy possible in Albion, she eventually rose to its ranks and took the surname Stark as a mark of status.

02. Best friend:

The closest equivalent would probably be Ernest Faraday, one of the first members of the Alban Inventors’ Guild, a patronage she started. Ernest has always had one of those cute crushes on her, where he doesn’t expect anything out of it but he just likes spending time with her and occasionally bringing her huge bouquets of flowers or making her things in his workshop. The crush evolves into a lasting sweet fondness and mutual trust and appreciation that’s really just unique to them, like a lot of people don’t understand it but it works for them.

03. Sexuality:

I guess “pansexual” would be the word we’d use. She’s rarely turned anyone down because if they manage to approach her on that level in the first place, they usually know their worth (and that’s hot). But she’s a sworn bachelorette and has never gone in for monogamy -- honestly, she’s just never found anyone she actively wanted to commit to in that way.

04. Favorite color:

She’s really into black and gold, red and gold, almost anything and gold, honestly. Her colours need to be rich and deep, and she’ll import dyes and fabrics from the farthest reaches of Erda if she has to.

05. Relationship status:

Terminally single. I’m not going to say that Severine is always happy with this situation, because of course she isn’t always happy with it. But the aristocracy in Albion is a bit of a toxic mess (that’s how folk like Reaver end up with so much power) and the class divide in Albion is rather wide, so she doesn’t have a lot of close extended contact with people that aren’t in her patronage or other aristocrats. She thinks if she lived elsewhere, in Aurora or Samarkand maybe, she’d have a better time (which also goes back to her belief that she isn’t genetically Alban, although she’s never known her birth parents; she doesn’t feel connected to Albion but she feels more kinship in other lands). She also thinks that if she wasn’t a lich, a lot of things about relationships would be easier. It’s hard to be functionally immortal and have mortal-style relationships. Very hard. And it’s not like there are a lot of viable immortals just hanging around.

She does have flings and courtships and FWBs and all that, but no committed relationships.

06. Ideal mate:

She’d want someone like her. Someone who is passionate about arts and science, who likes the finer things but won’t lord them over others, who treats all people with respect and compassion, who is fussy about their hygiene and environment. She likes the well-read and thoughtful (one of her favourite things to do with Ernest is debate philosophy and theory), the well-travelled, people whose opinions and thoughts aren’t entirely formed by the small patch of land that they’ve never left. She needs someone who’ll let her cry on them but also stand her up afterward and say “all right, now it’s time to go to work” and not let her just lie in bed all day moping. Also, whoever it is would have to have a very well developed sense of courtship and romance because she’s definitely that kinda woman.

And of course, whoever it is would have to be okay with the fact that she’s a lich.

07. Turn-ons:

Like I mentioned -- really romantic gestures, declarations of passion, unabashed interest. Show her how much you value and desire her and she’s all yours. Dancing, she loves dancing. A good dancer will always catch her eye. A regal bearing-- and this one’s hard to describe, because people will assume it means “acting like a haughty princeling” or something and... no. That’s actually a turn-off. It’s just... a quiet confidence, a sense of self-worth, an easiness about a person that means they’re not trying too hard, that they know they don’t have to try to impress anyone. A magnetism that’s refined and a little sweet.

Also, she likes getting her back blown out by someone who’s all of the above in the streets but a freak-nasty top in the sheets. Just sayin’.

08. Favorite food:

One of the reasons she knew she had to start making money was because the best food she’d had was when she was working for Reaver, and she’d nick food from the catering at his soirées. Reaver is like the king of “I love Exotic(tm) things” so of course he’d have Samarkin dishes and shit brought in, to show how Worldly(tm) he was, and Severine would just die of bliss eating her stolen meals in her quarters. There was nothing native to Albion that could compare.

Well, now she’s had ample opportunity to refine her tastes, and I can tell you that what she enjoys most is the method of eating that’s common in port cities in Samarkand and the city of Aurora, where it’s basically a collection of hors d’oeuvres that are snacked on at leisure and often revisited throughout the day, augmented with small dense dishes cooked in the morning and early afternoon to keep energy up. It’s hard to do it with Alban food because Alban custom is to make heavy, dense meals eaten morning, sometimes noon, and evening; but she does her best incorporating imported food with local food to form her own hybrid. I didn’t even get into ingredients or specific dishes she likes or anything but honestly this answer is long enough.

09. Crushes:

This varies a lot. She develops and drops crushes the way people change their clothes, it seems.

10. Favorite music:

She loves stringed instruments but finds a lot of lute music in Albion to be too simplistic for her enjoyment. She likes what Aurorans do with lutes, using ones of different sizes in tandem to make a layered harmonic sound. But to be fair to Albion -- because in talking about Severine I feel like I’ve had to be very unfair to Albion -- there are some local lutists she enjoys and sponsors, and who play at her parties.

11. Biggest fear:

That someone will find the mandrake root that her soul is bound to and destroy it. It’s obviously a highly unlikely occurrence, but it’s her fear of its possibility that has made her so vigilant about making sure it stays hidden -- so the fear prevents itself from being fulfilled. There are worse ways to have a fear, I guess.

12. Biggest fantasy:

She meets the paramour of her dreams from question #6, they go on holiday to the Southern Islands or somewhere, she gets pampered the entire time and doesn’t have to lift a finger to do anything except ~get busy~. They come back to Millfields and said paramour immediately sets to work helping her with her work, taking on tasks she didn’t ask them to do but greatly appreciates, and generally proving their dependability and worth to her.

13. Bad habits:

She can be a bit of a lush, although never during working hours, to be fair. She is nitpicky about her appearance. She falls asleep reading or working and forgets to blow out lamps and wakes up in weird and painful positions. She curses a blue streak more than is ladylike.

14. Biggest regret:

Ever letting Reaver take advantage of her. 

15. Best kept secrets:

No one knows that she used to be a Skorm acolyte, let alone one of the inner circle (not a First Shadow, but close). Even the people who know how long she’s been alive would still lose their shit over her having been a part of that particular cult.

16. Last thought:

Her last thought, in life? Man, I have no idea.

17. Worst romantic experience:

One word, honestly: Reaver. I mean, that wasn’t even a “romantic” experience, per se, since he’s about as romantic as a wet noodle, but still.

18. Biggest insecurity:

Sometimes she realises exactly how much power she’s amassed for herself, and she thinks it’s too fragile to depend on, or that she missed something vital and her house of cards will collapse, or that someone cunning will come along and rip the rug out from under her. Power makes people paranoid, money makes people paranoid, and having a lot of both is a recipe for neurosis. She’s levelheaded and pragmatic by nature, so she doesn’t fall into the trap of overthinking very often, but when she does it’s pretty deep.

19. Weapon of choice:

Shrewdness, social manipulation, knowledge, and money.

20. Role Model:

Albion is sorely lacking for role models; even its Heroes are often disappointing. Severine is a role model, to be honest, because she blazed a trail where no one else had bothered.

[odilekuronuma]

Is Caska really a bad heroine?

With Caska possibly getting healed soon, it’s time to dive in her character, and figure out whether she’s a good  heroine or not.

First I will state that this is my analysis, and not two people would come to the same result, and  it depends greatly on what people consider a good heroine.

For me a strong heroine has nothing to do with fighting prowess, what I look at the most is strength of character. Also in terms of writing she needs to be portrayed as equal to her male counterparts, or that at least she has her own motivations.

So let’s see if she checks these criteria.

Caska is introduced as pretty much a Griffith fangirl. And she’s very much in love with him. She’s also very jealous of Guts because of how Griffith cares about the latter, out of all the members of the BoTH.

But that is not the real issue with such a portrayal, the issue is that pretty much all her actions at that point are dictated by her love for Griffith. For example she warms Guts in his bed because Griffith asked her to.Even though she’d rather not to.

So her only concern was to do Griffith’s biding, to please him and like pretty much all the members of the Band, she has surrendered her dreams and hopes to Griffith, but I’ll come back to this latter.

When it comes to her being portrayed as equal to the other two male leads...well she isn’t.

 Caska’s big enemy (period) is Adon, who is nothing more than the comic relief character. While Guts and Griffith got to face Zodd of all people (but still got wrecked), she’s relegated to deal with the comic relief....And that’s her only real fight!

She isn’t  equal to them because she’s portrayed as weak first physically, and then emotionally. Again she’s relegated to deal with Adon, who is portrayed as rather weak to begin with (he got beaten by Guts in two seconds). She’s also shown to be weakened because of her period, and while that may really be the case, it seems like Miura is treating her character differently because she’s a woman.

She’s weak emotionally because she is literally broken by the Eclipse, when Guts who also survived it wasn’t. Now her trauma is definitely worse, she got raped by the man who was supposed to be her saviour, but Guts also got raped, as a child no less. And he didn’t lose his mind over it, he just didn’t like people to touch him. 

Her rape didn’t make her stronger in anyway, she is broken through and through, and with the countless instances where she was about to get raped, by Wyald even, it just adds to the whole idea that she’s an easy target, because she’s a woman.And Miura himself keeps hitting her over and over, even when she’s down.

I guess this can be rationalized by the fact that during the Middle Ages, which corresponds in part to the era where Berserk is supposed to take place, women would often get raped, and it’s not just Caska, but many women suffered the same fate in the manga, at the hands of humans, apostles, and other magical creatures such as trolls.

But still it comes off as really sexist, especially when we consider that Caska is the closest to being the heroine of the manga, and she’s doing far worse than her male counterparts, again because she’s a woman.She’s also supposed to be a warrior...

Caska’s rape served primarily as a plot tool, that would later bring Guts and co to go to Elfhelm, nothing more. Because she went insane, we didn’t see her react to her rape, and it didn’t serve to build her character, in a positive way at least.

And as I pointed out in my previous Berserk post, I’m ok with Miura mutilating or hurting his characters as long it serves to build their character more, and if we’re going to consider her losing her sanity as character development, then it’s definitely not something positive. It’s literally dumbing down her character, and making her lose any relevance other than being the main character’s love interest. As opposed to having her own motivations and pursue them.

So Miura treats her as this weak fragile thing that cannot handle a strong opponent, or a trauma.

She isn’t their equal either in terms of her importance to the story, and her motivations are simply not there. She simply has no motivation of her own, like every other member of the Band she gave up her dreams for Griffith. Guts on the other hand is shown leaving so he can find his own way in life, so she doesn’t have that strong resolution to pursue her own personal dream.

Guts is Griffith’s equal, he even has followers of his own. Caska simply never had any motivations of her own, and just like Judeau and the rest she surrendered herself completely to Griffith.

So based on these I’m inclined to say that Caska is indeed a bad heroine.She’s portrayed as someone very fragile, despite having a tough/badass exterior. And that to me is the worst kind of heroine.

Miura’s track record of  female characters isn’t great, but it is interesting to compare Caska to some of the other female characters in the manga. I won’t bother with Charlotte because she’s  an easy target, Caska is definitely better. But there are a couple of characters that are interesting:

Farnese: this one is pretty interesting, and imo if a comparison should be made between Caska and another female character, it should be her. Because of all the similarities between those two, and not just because they are both in love with Guts. While Caska is portrayed as a strong fighter, Farnese is just a spoiled rich kid mascarading as a knight. She starts off as really weak, in the sense that she’s just a fanatic pyromaniac with an S&M fetish. She’s pretty fucked up, and yet she almost immediately sees the merits of Guts, who is her saviour in his own right. While it took years for Caska to see Guts’ merits, but let’s not be too salty about that hehe. Once she realizes that she’s been praying to a false god, we see her get some tremendous character development, not only she joins Guts’ party, and takes care of Caska, but she also trains to become a witch. So she’s definitely portrayed in a positive light, although I do miss fucked up Farnese.

Schierke: yet another female character who has a very positive role in the story(and who also has a thing for Guts). Schierke is the magical helper, she helped Guts get out of his Berserker state, she keeps him in check so he won’t be swallowed by the Beast of Darkness. She is also the keeper of knowledge and she plays a vital role in the group. Caska is considered to be the healer, because she healed Guts of his trauma, while Schierke is simply the one keeping Guts from succombing to the Beast of Darkness inside the Berserker armor, so the comparison stands. She’s also a healer in a sense. She’s also rather mature for her age, to me she often feels like a grown up basically.She’s definitely portrayed in a positive light.

Luca: She’s the one who took Caska in in Albion, and made her stay with her group of prostitutes. To me it is very interesting to draw such a comparison because Luca is a non fighter, she’s just a prostitute who gets caught up in events that are bigger than her. And yet in my book she’s the strongest female character in Berserk. Her strength of character showed when she corrects Nina, who is about to give up on life. She also doesn’t lose her cool when they face otherworldly creatures. She’s reliable in every way and she even brought her group to Falconia, where later she helped Rickert and Erica escape. To me this is what every female character ought to be, even if she’s not a fighter. And she could have gone through her share of pain of suffering too, being a prostitute is rather tough. 

So as you can see, it seems like the female characters that were introduced in later parts have been portrayed in a positive light , and some like Farnese got a tremendous amount of character development, considering where they started.

Caska went through the opposite basically. But is it really too late to fix that? 

While I definitely see Miura using Caska again as a plot tool basically, if she’s healed there’s a chance she will finally get a real motivation of her own, and that is to be reunited with her son, and what that entails. And while I’m not too happy about Miura using her like that, she will at least be seen doing her own thing, as opposed to following Griffith, or Guts for that matter.

I certainly hope that is what he has in store for her.