#and Maiden Guards

[strqyr]

can you imagine they're having official, super important, no one else allowed meetings that include oscar (ozpin), theodore, three maidens. . .

and qrow.

[ilynpilled]

love the twins needing each other in order to be capable of loving the self. love the both of them constructing a distorted mirror that allows for a fantasy to persist through a delusional relationship. cersei has power and jaime has purpose. then i love jaime hating cersei and hating the self in tandem. love desperate self-love turning into bitter self-hate

[frootlooppoptarts]

[praetorianxxiv]

To celebrate finishing another paint job, I thought I'd had a pint 🍺

This is The Trooper, Eddie from Zombicide and Iron Maiden + their beer.

I think I'll be using this little Chap in my Praetorian Guard army as a company standard bearer.

[anosrepasi]

Chapter 5: Provençal/Read from the beginning

Chapters: 5/6 Fandom: The Old Guard

It is a long time, 400 years beneath the water.

–

A coda fic for Lingua Franca.

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

Okay this might be a concept already touched on because idk what happens in the old guard graphic novels, but remember how the immortals begin dream of the new immortal once the immortality kicks in? What if that happens when/if Andy’s immortality kicks back in? Depending on when it is, all 5 of the other immortals might dream of Andy, if she’s separated from Nile, Joe, and Nicky at that point in time. And Andy could potentially dream of Quỳnh having escaped the Iron Maiden before they’re reunited! Andy may be thousands of years old, but regaining immortality means she’s technically a “new immortal”. I would accept any dumb jokes cracked about how she’s actually the baby of the family now bc I think she would get super grumpy about it and that would be adorable and hilarious. Also, I think that Andy dreaming of Booker again could help bring him back into the fold if that’s the aim because man is SUFFERING when Quỳnh rolls up to where he’s staying at the end of the movie.

[unofficialadamtaurus]

Have you seen this fight animation? It's amazing youtu. be(/)0IR3toI25po(?)si(=)qh1RP5u8SXj-TeIF

THIS FUCKING SLAPS

[carpe-mamilia]

You know what show I really hope the ghosts put on while they were all together? HMS Pinafore. Everyone from Fanny onwards most likely knew it reasonably well already, either by cultural osmosis or from being a theatre gay, and for the rest it's probably the easiest operetta to pick up that's ever existed.

I imagine it would have gone down something like this:

Josephine Corcoran- Kitty

Ralph Rackstraw - Thomas

Absolute no-brainers for the lead soprano and tenor. Ralph scores extra points for being one of the most dramatic and flouncy tenors Gilbert ever wrote. At one point he has a speech that's so flowery it's genuinely incomprehensible. Unfortunately his big aria is terribly dull (still in-character tbh) but both of Josephine's are brilliant. Especially "The hours creep on apace", where, having secretly accepted Ralph's proposal, she does waver a bit since, after all, he is a bit of a pleb.

Captain Corcoran - The Captain

Keeps the Pinafore ship-shape and Bristol-fashion. Would have a lovely father-daughter relationship with Josephine. Gets to be in lots of bangin' numbers, especially "I am the Captain of the Pinafore".

Captain: I do my best to satisfy you all -

Crew: And with you we're quite content!

Captain: You're exceedingly polite and I think it's only right to return the compliment.

Sir Joseph Porter - Julian

Marvellously smug and superior patter baritone who got to his lofty position via flattery and luck rather than merit. No direction needed.

Little Buttercup - Fanny

I think she would struggle playing someone who's meant to be lowly, but on the other hand she'd probably really get into every other aspect of the character, especially when she gets to drop mysterious hints all the way through, and dramatically reveal the twist at the end. (She also really reminds me of the mature student who played Little Buttercup for my university's Light Opera Society once, who was very definitely another repressed middle-aged horndog. Get it, girl.)

Cousin Hebe - Mary

Not much of a part, but I suspect getting Mary to concentrate on something like this for any length of time without going off on a tangent would be... tricky. Would be enthusiastic about helping Josephine and might have to be held back from headbutting Captain Corcoran when he tries to stop the elopement.

Dick Deadeye - Robin

Hunched, triangular bass Dick Deadeye growls his way through the opera causing chaos just... 'cos. Is far more perceptive than the Captain and has to really spell out that Josephine and Ralph are planning on running away together.

Bosun's Mate - Humphrey's head

Carpenter's mate and director - Pat

This probably required slightly delicate handling, since Pat is the better singer (and He is an Englishman is harder than it looks), but a) keeping rehearsals from descending into anarchy probably took all his energy and b) Humphrey might have been slightly grumpy being relegated to a really tiny role again. At least they both get to be in A British Tar is a Soaring Soul.

Chorus of sisters, cousins, and aunts - Humphrey's body

Carries the whole show on his back.

[youssefguedira]

iron maiden joe prequel snippet for you all happy sunday (this takes place the morning immediately after nicky, andy and quynh find yusuf in the main fic)

At six twenty-five am – according to his watch, which runs two minutes slow, so it's probably more like six twenty-seven – Nicky gives up on the idea of trying to get more sleep. Yusuf has not stirred all night; or if he has, Nicky has not heard it. He's briefly worried about going too far, even though he knows, logically, there is no need for him to keep watch like this. But the kitchen is close enough to Yusuf's bedroom that Nicky will be able to hear it if he cries out, and if he is to get through today, he'll need something to eat, and probably coffee too. So it is with that in mind that he gets up and goes into the kitchen.

Nobody else is awake yet, and it is late enough in the year that the sun isn't quite up either, but the sky is beginning to grow light in anticipation of it. This safehouse is far enough from any other major settlement that the only sound outside is the wind, which hasn't let up all night, and the birds. Nicky turns the lights on and gets to work.

At seven thirty, Nile joins him in the kitchen. She doesn't ask how long he's been awake, and he doesn't volunteer the information. He offers her a cup of coffee, and she takes it, settling herself at the kitchen table.

At eight twenty-two, according to the clock above the kitchen counter, which is seemingly more reliable than Nicky's old watch, there are the first sounds of movement from Yusuf's bedroom. If Nile notices the way Nicky immediately looks up towards the sound, she doesn't say a word about it, nor does she give him the knowing look Andy or Quynh would have. There has been no sign of the two of them, yet.

To keep himself from straining to hear every single tiny sound coming from behind Yusuf's door, Nicky sets about making breakfast. There's not much in this safehouse – they'd come here in a rush after Copley had called – so he just makes oatmeal, adding sugar to Nile's and nothing to his own. Nile, normally, would make fun of him for this, but today she says nothing.

He reaches for the honey and cinnamon, setting it down on the counter next to the third bowl, but then pauses. He thinks that Yusuf has, or at least used to have, a sweet tooth to rival Andy's. He thinks that this is the way he would have made it a long time ago, when they had the luxury of being able to get the ingredients they needed. He thinks that he would not have thought twice before.

He does not remember any of this for certain. This is precious information that he has kept guarded in his memory for centuries, and yet at some point in the last four hundred and eighty two years, he has let it fade, and now he does not remember. He'd sworn to himself not to forget these things, small as they may be, out of desperate hope, and now he does not remember. It is such a tiny thing to forget. It feels like a monumental loss.

And who is he now to assume that things have not changed, when he knows that the man he'd found in that alleyway is not the same as the one they'd taken from him? How can anything be the same as it was, after so long? Nicky loves him still, so much he aches with it, but what if they are both too different, now? What if there is nothing left to repair?

He does not realise, until he goes to pass Nile her bowl, that his hands are trembling.

"Nicky," she says, but whatever would have followed is interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

Yusuf stands just in the doorway of the kitchen, not quite in, not quite out. This safehouse is not all that large; the distance between them is barely two meters, if that. It feels insurmountable.

"Are you-" Nicky begins and then reconsiders, clears his throat. "Will you eat something?" He'd barely eaten a thing at dinner last night, and Nicky is worried for him, though perhaps he'd just been too tired.

Yusuf doesn't say a word, just lingers there, lips slightly parted as if he'd wanted to say something but couldn't find the words. It does something funny to Nicky's brain, seeing him there in a hoodie and sweatpants that are just a little loose in the shoulders and thighs, a far cry from the clothes Nicky had last seen him in. His hair is shorter, too, though the cut isn't exactly neat. Nicky had done his best, but he'd gotten the sense Yusuf wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Finally, after an eternity, Yusuf nods, shuffling forwards to sit at the table. His shoulders are hunched underneath the grey fabric of the hoodie. He looks – Nicky doesn't know. He looks tired.

Nicky offers him the bowl, and the honey and cinnamon with it, just in case. Yusuf doesn't look at him, or at Nile, while he eats, and that doesn't hurt. It doesn't.

It's slow, but at least he's eating something, even if he takes small bites and only finishes half the bowl. Nicky will take it.

Only when Yusuf finishes does he look at Nicky. "Thank you," he says quietly, still speaking the Arabic of his childhood, the version he'd taught Nicky painfully slowly, a hand offered in peace across the barrier between them, over the course of countless nights in the desert. This, at least, Nicky has not forgotten, making sure he spoke it at least with Andromache and Quynh, and with himself, too.

"Of course," Nicky responds, offering him a soft smile that he hopes looks more convincing than it feels. Yusuf doesn't quite smile back, but his eyes soften, and – it is small, perhaps.

It is enough to give Nicky hope, nonetheless.

[artmill-danaan]

Doodletober D2 - spider

[theoldgvard]

imagine explaining to someone that one of the most common aus for your favourite movie is different members of the group drowning repeatedly for five hundred years

[spikedru]

how do you feel about the transfem drusilla hc? (obv it wouldn't rlly work in canon but)

i hadnt considered it before ! i dont really have any strong feelings on it as its not a hc that ive thought about. tbh i do sometimes think about dru and spike being nb4nb and bi4bi but idk ! its fun to play around with these vampires genders

[praetorianxxiv]

Some of the stuff done in 2023 🎉

I thought I'd already posted this 😅

[onewomancitadel]

On the topic related to the silver eyes, if you think the main four are going to get the Maiden powers and you only understand it as a superficial powerup you have missed alllllllllll of the themes. This isn't merely divergent interpretation; it is literally just not getting it.

It's what sets R/WBY apart from other shows; they're clearly doing something special and meaningful here where the magical power has lost its metaphorical meaning in the world (Ruby's silver eyes aren't laserbeams!) explicitly recognised by the characters (see previous SEW post). So if you want R/WBY to be paint by number tropes, then sure, the main team should get the powers on the basis of superficial power-ups by rights. I think a lot of people do genuinely want that and get mad when it isn't that.

Same thing as Jaune not being Ozma's new vessel (dumb). It's just not how it works. None of these powers are the Best Boy or Girl In Show award which is why people still get weird about Pyrrha being the supposedly rightful Fall Maiden lol completely missing the point of her tragedy.

This isn't even just a Reddit or Discord fandom problem, since the Summer Maiden (and Fall Maiden...) hot potato speculation is grounded in which character gets the most good girl points for being the Maiden and is therefore narratively validated. It should be a burdensome responsibility that actually challenges the character in question. Particularly if it's tied to their redemption arc and the way the powers can be redeemed and she herself. Notably - as I have lamented - Cinder's death is taken as a foregone conclusion in order to validate a different character (since Cinder is both unsuitable as a Maiden and unlikable and most importantly unforgivable).

Add in the fact we have been explicitly told (and I'm repeating this point just for the sake of collated evidence) that the powers intensify with age, and we are not seeing team R/WBY getting the powers at the end of the show to have a super duper magical powerup scene. It is related to experience and actually learning and understanding the powers (largely reflected in psychological experience inasmuch as combat experience). I think it is inevitable that the endgame Maidens - and their joining the main cast as heroines - is effectively 'the' narrative height of the powers. Who team R/WBY are as themselves is enough.

The point of that SEW post is that this idea - that it's mere powerup - is an audience belief reflected in-world, in a 'realistic fairytales' way. But what it truthfully calls for is a return to understanding the actual essential magic. Not as mere technical tools, or as demonstrations of physical might, but the responsibility and capacity for good (or evil) that those entail in that world, and how it expresses the psychological struggle of the Maidens, in even representing the potential for their own redemptions. They could continue to hoard the power in their own ways or they could step up to the plate as guardians: this is why Penny and Winter's character arcs are so significant and the future potential of Raven and Cinder is as well.

[wyvernwriterarchive]

Mari, Lady of the Village

Mari was born in a small town in the southern parts of Vanar. She was a bright and intelligent child who liked to read and study. She was born as a boy, but through the years, she slowly began to realize that she didn't really like being a boy.

Her family wasn't exactly understanding of this. Once they heard, they're attitude towards her switched from kind and caring, to cold and sometimes downright cruel.

Mari had enough of this when she was about 18 running away from home, wanting to be free from the wrath of her family. While running, she found a strange talisman of some kind. It looked like something she had read about. A type of artifact that could potentially make your biggest dream come true.

She wished to be her true self. And because of this, she turned into the girl she is now.

Still she continued to run, eventually finding her way to a village known as Mayville. Mari was cared for there and eventually she saw them as her family.

Including another new girl named June, who Mari immediately befriended. The two even served in the village's guard together. June is the first person who she told about her past, and she is thankful to have such a trusted friend.

One day, members of the Silver Lances, a famous mercenary company, came to the village's defense. Inspired, Mari thought about joining them in order to be brave like them. June and Mari both decided to resign temporarily and join the Silver Lances, promising to return with stories of their travels. She specifically wants to grow strong enough to be able to tell everyone about her past.

[australet789]

Came across your Lion King comic randomly in the TLK tag and it has been a treat! Fantastic art & story so far 😍 i've actually never seen TLG (but still emotionally invested in your comic!) haha, but i def want to start watching now!

Thank you so much!!!

The show is...ok. It's fun and it has its up and down. Hasn't it be aimed at very little kids, the show would have had a lot of potential, specially for the darker stuff. But the lore is pretty cool! And the backgrounds are super beautiful!

So yeah, i would say give it a chance if you like The Lion King stuff