#also i thought the whole point of a monarch was that they're so based and traditional

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

[masschase]

Losing my mind over my SR3.5 concept again. Like it was a lighthearted thing I was thinking out in the summer but now it's spring and I am thinking about it like... seriously.

I think I need to make the areas smaller but I like the idea of a city heavily based on DC and the surrounding areas, rather than just using DC itself. Partly because I want to use that Y-shape of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers to split the city up. For a name I'm thinking maybe Samdon.

The grey areas are a mix of press-dominant, Saints-controlled and completely locked out depending where you are in the game. The other colours are controlled by each gang until the Saints take them.

Yellow is looking to be called The Marquis. No-one's quite sure if that's the plural or singular to get a few "The Los Carnales" esque jokes in. The name comes from the fact a Marquis test is a drug test, and the Marquis(es?) are in a very long feud with the Reagents. Also "marquis" as in noble because the Marquis control a lot of the covert crime going on in Samdon. They keep control with excessive wealth, mostly.

The Reagents are the cyan gang, and as mentioned, and probably obvious by the name, are the least subtly named. Their focus is drugs, poisons, chemical weapons, and they mostly operate from meth labs. There is a slight stealth pun- cyanide! But there's also an implication of a similarity to regents, as in second in line AND regent as in governing bodies because there's very much a sense that if the Marquis are the monarchs, the Reagents are more of a symbol of democracy. They're the largest gang and the poorest, they act as the proletariat to the Marquis as bourgeoisie. They're probably the most sympathetic gang and they mostly originate from the equivalent of DC's Ward 8. Like the MCR Killjoys they are encouraged to "die with their masks on".

Torque and Anteros's cowboy/biker gang (original concept credit to @whoredmode) have a name! And it's not the Barebacks after all(but I still think that's hilarious and Casey will spend the whole game calling them the Barebacks, the Brokebacks, etc)! Their name is The Vicinals! Given the whole "The Cooler" thing and the chemical theme for the other two gangs, as well as the gang riding motorbikes, I looked into motorcycle coolants. No straightforward "OK that could be a gang" names there, but ethylene glycol/antifreeze is a common component, and that is a vicinal diol. Vicinal in its straightforward translation meaning neighbouring or adjacent, and the gang are from Stilwater! Literally the Saints neighbours that have just travelled different routes! They've not been in Samdon that long and this is part of why they occupy the area based more on Arlington than Washington. They're also already disrupting the order of things before The Saints get there, whereas the Saints... almost need to take things down in a less disruptive way? I think Casey has a fair degree of jealousy towards Torque in that regard. They're really interesting foils to the Saints.

The Press are still the Saints biggest adversary of course. I can't remember how much I got into this last night but they're represented by monochrome, or perhaps more accurately, the black/grey against the Saints goal of The White House. This reflects their physical appearance; paparazzi in suits with black cameras flashing white, newspapers etc. but also the way they're judging the Saints as black, white or grey.

Obviously I have... more, so much more but I think that summarises my thoughts for now except that IF they were going to use the President plot point in SRIV? It should have been this. This is kind of like my rewrite, I just happen to have managed to slot it into existing canon since we have that little gap between disabling the nuke and official election.

So with that in mind, IF this was to close the series out... well it's super cheesy, but at least it's cheesy in a way that rounds everything out...

Whichever ending you get, the Boss will end up back in Stilwater at the end; on a visit or disgraced back home. Some kid asks them how they made it all the way from Stilwater to be President OR how they managed to fall so far. Whatever happened, their answer is always "Wrong place, wrong time.".

[lemonhemlock]

To add to the children's discourse lol.

I've seen people say that the twins are Aemond's but Maelor is Aegon's and that is why she would choose to get killed because Helaena hates Aegon that much. and I hate that, it doesn't matter who the father is, the kids are Helaena's and she will always try to protect them.

I personally would prefer the kids to be Aegon's (not because I'm a helaegon first, then a helaemond lol) because I think the children being his adds a depth that he's seriously lacking in the show. going insane for the kids he ignored most of their lives, it will be really good to watch and explore. I also don't think Aemond needs to be the father for the "son for a son" to make sense, because in my interpretation, the person wanting to become the monarch (Rhaenyra) lost a son, so the King has to lose one as well. In this angle, it doesn't actually matter who killed Luke, Aegon would have to lose a son anyway.

I also think that Aemond has too much spotlight to steal Aegon's arc as well...because if Aegon knows the kids are his, why would he go on full revenge and hate if he never cared for Helaena anyway? They also didn't show Aegon and Aemond having a good relationship for Aegon to care that much about Aemond's kids.

If he doesn't know, his whole arc will be hollow, because he's the dumb one that thinks the kids are his but surprise...your sister-wife and your brother actually went behind your back and had kids and had this whole full-on romance behind your back.

Don't get me wrong, the kids could be Aemond's especially with them being so young in the show (why, just why?) but that doesn't mean that I have to like it. lol

Rant over lol, would love to hear your thoughts. :)

Hello there! So, I would start by saying that no one is denying helaemond isn't a show-introduced thing. There are no hints at that in the book - again, this doesn't preclude or deny or contradict its existence EITHER, just that we have no reason to believe off the text that the children aren't Aegon's. Ergo, Blood & Cheese was most likely specifically designed with that in mind.

So, from that vantage point, I really don't think paternity has any play in this Sophie's choice, especially since it's Helaena making that specific choice and the children are all hers anyway. There's also a desperate (and understandable) logic that informs her motivation - Maelor is deemed young enough to not understand what is happening to him and that could serve as a small mercy in this context, basically the best out of a horrible situation. That's a lot more reasonable for a mother rather than prioritizing her children based on sperm donor.

As an aside, making helaegon a failed marriage and giving Aegon his downright sociopathic hobbies serves to hinder the plot, rather than further it - this has nothing to do with helaemond, it's just the writers not thinking their decisions through. Like, as things stand, I'm supposed to believe that 1. Aegon doesn't care for Helaena anyway 2. he thinks it's funny watching his own bastard children fight to the death in the rat pits, all the while they plan on selling me the fact that 3. Aegon is somehow gonna be devastated when his legitimate son is killed, a son he never interacted with and never showed any feeling towards, because he is too self-absorbed in his own pursuit of pleasure.

Why does that make more sense? It's all a mess anyway, no matter which way you cut it. Obviously, Aegon cared for his children and family in the books, so they're gonna have do some damage control here, otherwise Blood & Cheese is going to logically have absolutely no effect on him, which defeats the point of this entire exercise (also an observation for those against humanizing Aegon).

The children being his and him caring about them is indeed a very easy and immediate way to humanize his character AND not diminish the horrifying aspect of Blood & Cheese. But so is them not being his? Him being able to care for them as if they were of his own body is also a pretty touching element, if you think about it. Show!version will have to be retconned anyway, whichever option you pick.

B&C was specifically designed by Daemon because it fundamentally stabs at the core of the greens - all siblings are affected by the harm visited on these children. Helaena goes mad with grief, Aegon enacts his bloodthirsty revenge on the city's rat catchers, Aemond starts spiraling - even Daeron sacks an entire city in a rage when Maelor is killed. It's not so outrageous or far-fetched for me to believe that these children could have been very loved no matter who fathered them, by their mother, father and both uncles, in whichever permutations.

I also don't think Aemond needs to be the father for the "son for a son" to make sense, because in my interpretation, the person wanting to become the monarch (Rhaenyra) lost a son, so the King has to lose one as well. In this angle, it doesn't actually matter who killed Luke, Aegon would have to lose a son anyway.

That's certainly Daemon's reasoning, but it doesn't mean that he is being even steven about this. Retributive justice in no way involves taking the life of another innocent person who had absolutely nothing to do with the crime in the first place. Even if Aemond had legitimate sons of his own within a lawful marriage, killing his son for Luke would not amount to retributive justice. Daemon utilises false equivalences here and I need people to stop drinking his kool aid. It is not Rhaenyra and Aemond who are peers here, it is Aemond and Luke.

Aegon had nothing to do with this crime, he did not order it or target Luke specifically and involving him in it simply inflicts harm upon innocent parties; targeting Jaehaerys is also disproportionate to the offense committed - as another user mentioned recently on one of my posts, Jaehaerys is a little boy playing with toys, while Luke is actively contributing to his mother's war effort. These two are not peers or counterparts either.

The harming of innocents and proportionality to the crime are two principles of retributive justice that Daemon actively breaks in the pursuit of his sadistic revenge.

If there is ever any doubt, one can always pick up a copy of the Old Testament.

Exodus 21:12-14. He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

Lo and behold, the punishment for murder is the death of the murderer. Nothing whatsoever about killing the murderer's nephew or the murderer's son.

[cloudninetonine]

I'm gonna send this in before I go to bed tonight, but back to my old FFXIV Player shenanigans. This is gonna be a bit of long one.

After finishing the main story of Shadowbringers, it is now plausible that the mc could have become the monarch of the fae kingdom of Il Mheg. This of course is after taking the throne from the last king who had been corrupted beyond saving and using this magic clothing set to become the new king. The only reason mc doesn't canonically is cuz they still have the post story and a whole other expansion to do so becoming the fairy king wouldn't be too wise at the time. So instead of mc becoming the king, the throne was taken by our pixie friend by the name of Feo Ul who's aggressively Scottish and it's great.

But imagine a scenario in which they did choose to take on the mantle of the King of Il Mheg. This Player would become a fairy, since that's kind of how that works. Yet they still retain their desrie to travel the world and experience its many wonders, their human trait that never faded. It is a bit inconvenient to travel in their large fairy form so with the help of magic they simply take the form a normal human, or a human with pointed ears since they're in Hyrule. I'd also like to imagine that their clothing set is also still incorporated into their human form outfit as well since stylistic choices and it's kind of the symbol of their status.

Now, to the LU thought.

Hyrule and Time knew that Player wasn't human not too long after they met. They also knew that they were steeped in some sort of fairy like energy. It didn't take long for then to deduce that Player most likely had fae blood in them, which would explainba lot really. Rulie is happy to have another fae friend to interact with and Time us just a tad bit more relaxed in their presence then usual.

I'm not sure how exactly the Chain finds out that Player is a king, only the reactions.

Wild and Warriors are having internal panic attacks because excuse them, they've been horsing around and acting like a couple of morons in armor with a king. A king of fairies, no less? Just send them to god now please.

Hyrule is almost in the same boat, but more in the sense of how young people respect their elders. In his mind, Player is basically the equivalent of a Great Fairy, and he was raised by fairies, so it's kinda like interacting with a well respected individual or something. I'm not sure how to phrase it.

Time and Twilight appear to be indifferent, though Twilight displays genuine surprise and a bit of embarrassment (totally not because he husky screamed at Player a few times for scritches, no, not at all). They acknowledge their status, but they also know that Player wouldn't want to be treated differently based on it so not much changes.

Sky and Four are calm yet curious about the whole thing. Sky grew up in a time where the previous monarchy had long since fallen and he was a long ways way from truly establishing a new one, so he doesn't entirely get it in his head that Player is kind of pretty very important. In his mind, it's just his friend who he's very fond of. Four understands it more than Sky does, but because of his relationship with Dot (the bestest of besties), he also doesn't really acknowledge the title beyond Player having it.

Legend isn't really sure how to feel. He's got a very specific opinion on the monarchy but he also greatly respects his Zelda and the things that she does. He's at a crossroads, so he'll come of as stiff and standoffish (more so then usual) before eventually bouncing back to the way he used to be after getting it in his head that Player is still just Player.

Wind is asking many questions. He's curious! He has no concept of the signficance of the monarchy and he's too excited to even process that what he's doing would be considered disrespectful. He just thinks it's cool that Player rules a kingdom!

It's all very neat.

- Chill (gonna my anon name a few more times until it's solidified with my new blog)

Also here's a picture of what Feo Ul looked like after they took the throne. So it's safe to assume that Player would bear a similar appearance. They've also been referred to as Titania, which I assume is just the name that they'll receive after becoming king so Player might be referred to as such when they're in Il Mheg.

Pretty fairy!

I don't know much about FFXIV (Tho XV and VII are two different stories) so apologies for not knowing that but this is a cool idea!

Honestly I feel like they'd be a bit calmer to this kind of thing? Magic and fairies is their norm, finding out Player is some sort of fairy monarch from another world is a normal Tuesday for them. Will there be mixed reactions, sure, but in the end it's something they can all deal with!