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bellmo15-blog · 2 years ago

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I NEED To Talk About Robbie In Tears Of The Kingdom

*Spoilers for both Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild and Age of Calamity. *

So I’ve been playing Tears of the Kingdom for the past month because of course I would. It’s only my most anticipated game of 2023 and the sequel to one of my favourite Zelda games in the franchise after all. Well, most anticipated game of 2023 that doesn’t feature one of the best Spider-Man suits as a central mechanic at least! And you know, I’ve been having a dam good time with Tears of the Kingdom. Running around Hyrule, sending Koroks into space, helping my bro Sidon save Zora’s Domain from Sludge, helping my daughter Riju fend of some zombies, kicking the ass of a giant ice worm with my new son Tulin and helping Yunoboo and the Gorons get over there new addiction to crystal meth. Also building a new home outside Terry Town because I leave my old home in Hateno Village for a few years and suddenly the place is infested with Mushrooms! But umm, there’s one thing I haven’t been able to get over yet. One teeny tiny insignificant thing I NEED to talk to about someone. And that is well, umm… WHY THE FUCK IS MY MAN ROBBIE GETTING THE SHORT END OF THE STICK IN THIS GAME!?!?!

Okay so some of you might not know what the hell I’m talking about so let me give you some backstory. In Breath of the Wild released SIX YEARS AGO HOLY SHIT I FEEL OLD we meet two Shekia scientists who were both around 100 years prior to the games events before Calamity Gannon came and did to Hryule what Star Wars fans did to George Lucas’s sanity and absolutely decimate it! The first of these is Purah who in an attempt to turn herself into her much better Tears of the Kingdom six years early decided to experiment on herself with de-aging technology but ended up de-aging herself to much and turned herself into a loli and now she lives in the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab with her man slave Symin where she’s also able to reactivate the camera on your Shekia Slate because it was 2017 and everyone wanted to post there shitty selfies on the Hyrule Version of Instagram. Meanwhile Robbie doesn’t get off that lucky and is still an old man who looks like he’s going to keel over and die at any moment if you were to swing a Deku Leaf in front of him and I’m convinced he’s only managed to stay alive for all these years because of the power of determination after playing Undertale like once and seeing how effective it is. He also now spends his time hanging around the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab and hangs around a wired talking robot who spits out admittedly one of the best armour sets in the game and some ugly woman named Jerrin. The most significant thing Robbie does this whole game is ask you to strip naked.

Now let’s talk about Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity which is both a sequel to the original Hyrule Warriors where you slaughter the entire population of the United States masquerading as Zelda enemies and also a semi prequel to the events of Breath of the Wild 100 years ago when two of the best Zelda characters of Urbosa and Mipha were still alive. It’s also in this game we see Purah and Robbie and what they looked like before old age and lolification hit. Purah a very pretty woman who looks to be in her 20’s probably and Robbie? Holy shit! Robbie looks handsome! This ladies and gentlemen is Robbie at his peak. Handsome, active, has fun and the best part is that he and Purah are even playable in this game as DLC. Not as separate characters but rather as one character and they both work together. AND Robbie is carrying on him a pair of badass dual chainsaws to fight of Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas’s clone army. Ash Williams? Fuck him! THIS is Robbie (and Purah’s there two I guess.) Objectively speaking the best version of Robbie in this series is the one in the semi non cannon crossover with the franchise I’m pretty sure was originally made a social experiment to show why throwing more bodies at the problem is morally wrong and doesn’t work unless the person playing it really does think that Dynasty Warriors game are just mindless button mashers which THEY ARE NOT and if you need me to prove that further you un-cultured shits, go play Fire Emblem Warriors! That game alone proves my point that these games require more thought from the player than…

Now we move on to the latest game in the Legend of Zelda series, Tears of da Kingdom. In this game we see Purah again and that the de-aging has worn off and she is started to get older and in her current state, oh boy Purah in her current state! I mean, what can I say about Tears of the Kingdom Purah that hasn’t been said already!? She’s beautiful! She’s gorgeous! There is a dam good reason a good 90% of the Zelda community likely wants to fuck Purah and have her have there babies! Now what about Robbie? Surely after her own experience Purah is going to give her old pal Robbie that technology and de-age himself to get him close to his Age of Calamity de… NOPE! Robbie is STILL stuck as an old man who looks like he’s going to crumble and turn to dust. Considering his friendship with Hyrules Next Top Model you think he’s get a break and be blessed with the same immortal life Purah has. The worst part is that after a certain point he will leave Lookout Landing to go back to Purah’s old lab in Hateno. Alone. No one to keep him company like in Breath of the Wild. Nothing to do after you complete the Purah Pad upgrade side adventure. The poor guys probably going to spending the rest of his life as a hermit whose entertainment is laughing at grown men on Hryule Twitter cry about the most insignificant shit like the skin colour of a fictional character. UNLESS Purah still has that technology hidden someone in her old lab. Maybe… Maybe THAT’S the REAL reason Robbie is in her old lab! To use her de-aging technology on himself! He doesn’t care if the process takes 100 years, he will do it!... Right? Unless he’s gotten to the point where his memory will start to deteriorate. He will forget who Link is, who Purah is, who he is. He… he’s not there to save himself. He’s there to die. Forgetful and forgotten. *Sigh.* Poor Robbie. This game’s done the guy dirty. This game needed to give the fandom someone to simp over but in doing so, they neglected poor old Robbie. Nintendo clearly hates Robbie and only Team Ninja give a shit about him.

*Sigh.* I’m sorry, I’ve made myself sad. I think maybe I should just get back to building my new house. Make it my dream location to live in. Maybe I’ll even adopt Riju and Tulin as my own kids and have them see Sidon and Yunobo as there new uncles. Maybe even try to find a way to use Age of Calamities time travel shenanigans to bring a still alive Mipha to my time so that we can start a family… What’s that? You say Tullin already has a farther and mother who are still alive and healthy? *Dresses up in the Yiga Clan armour set.* Not for much longer! Glory to the Yiga Clan and Master Kohga bitches!

#Zelda #Tears of the Kingdom #Robbie

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galadhir · 7 months ago

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I will say that I think fandom perceptions of the "faithfulness" of adaptations such as these are strongly impacted by our own personal fannish priorities.

This is absolutely true, and I freely admit that. I'm very much an elf-focused reader, and my favourite elf is Celeborn - which is probably 95% of why I am disappointed in ROP.

I had some very specific expectations of a series that was set in a time when Celeborn and Galadriel were the rulers of Eriador during the forging of the rings. When Celebrimbor, under Annatar's persuasion, staged a coup against them, leading to Galadriel, and their daughter Celebrian, leaving to settle in Lorien while Celeborn remained behind in Eriador and was therefore on hand to get at least some of the people out when it all went pair shaped.

(There are so many interesting, canon adjacent, things that could be explored with this set up. Galadriel's friendship with the dwarves of Eriador, for example. And Nimrodel in Lothlorien, who was something of a Silvan rights activist. How did she take the arrival of Noldor-related, Sindarin speaking Galadriel in a kingdom which had previously been mainly Silvan?) Argh, I would have written this all so differently!

Which is entirely my fault for writing a bunch of stories about an elf that nobody else likes (and his family and his cultural context)! I do get that. This is what I get for caring about an aspect of the background lore that I don't think the ROP folks even have rights to, but which I find interesting because it's got my fave in.

OTOH, I 100% agree with you about many of the things that annoy you about the movies. The way the ancient friendship between the elves and the Numenorians is reduced to 'Men are weak!' is part of that tone deafness I meant.

And yes, Aragorn was done dirty - he wants to be king! Of course he does. He's been trained to be king all his life, he's got the right and the duty and the skills and he's been proving himself over and over for decades. Him becoming king is a project he's been working toward all his life.

I too was annoyed with the treatment of the Dunedain of Gondor. I actually prefer the Byzantine kind of inspired look they have in ROP. I did love Queen Miriel's outfits very much, and I would have liked to see a more Byzantine or Ancient Egyptian look to them in the movies. (I mean how fascinating and amazing would that have been? It could have been so good!)

At that point I was too annoyed with the Army of the Dead being manifested as cascades of bones and green glowing ghosts, however. The Paths of the Dead part of the book was one of my favourites, and I freely admit that the way the book did it, with nothing at all happening except for everyone getting very very very scared over a long period of time, was probably unfilmable. But still.

Oh and I was also busy being annoyed by the caricature they had made of Denethor! I can't say I ever really liked Denethor, but he was supposed to at least be impressive and powerful and intelligent and you're supposed to mourn his descent into madness, as an example of how a great man was corrupted by the power of Sauron and his own fear and despair.

(I was annoyed with what they'd done to Theoden too. PJ does not know the meaning of subtlety.)

So yeah, if only Celeborn had been in ROP in something close to his canon existence, I would feel better about the whole thing.

I sadly can't deny that ROP brought a whole load of racists out of the woodwork too. That was an eyeopener for me. I hadn't seen it before, because I was a clueless white person when I watched the movies. I hope I have learned a bit since then.

ROP definitely is an improvement on the movies in that respect. Although imo, ROP should have had more characters of colour than it does - more of the named canon characters for example, instead of relegating actors of colour to OCs.

Maybe all the Noldor elves, or all the Sindar could have been elves of colour. In canon, Celeborn/Galadriel is a dark elf/light elf marriage. It would have been great if they had cast it that way.

And also (still banging on about elves, sorry) Tolkien said that the only thing that wasn't gender neutral in elvish society was making lembas. So there should have been so many extra female elves in army and council scenes, both in the movies *and* in ROP. Just there in the background. That could have been done so easily, and it would have made such a difference.

Next time, I guess!

thatinsufferableb-st-rd said:

@anghraine so i have read the books multiple times and am an avid fan of the movies. I enjoy both for what they are. I think the main difference is that Peter Jackson was very open about what they chose to cut and why from anything I've ever seen. They even have Sam give a nod to the book readers by saying "by rights we shouldn't even be here". No I'm not happy about what they did with Faramir and Glorfindel got jipped, and I would have lover to have seen Elronds sons but at the end of the day there were acknowledgments of what and why. Rings of Power to me has always come off as hiding from any criticism by using the shield of "well if you don't like it it's because you don't like POCs in it". To which I genuinely could not give a fuck less, like there are so many branches of elves that went different ways so that could make sense within what Tolkein established. But don't hide behind that when your writing is just "Sauron is evil. We know. And we know she knows. But we have to make it seem like she's the only one who Has A Clue so we must all try to shoo her off to make a plotline"

@lesbiansforboromir has already correctly and politely pointed out that you are doing the very thing we were criticizing in that post—intruding on ROP fan discussion to unfavorably contrast the show to the Peter Jackson films, while also applying a degree of scrutiny to ROP that the Jackson films are rarely subject to in a remotely comparable way and could not bear. Frankly, @lesbiansforboromir is nicer and more restrained than I am about this, but you chose to tag me as well, so I'll also respond.

We (lesbiansforboromir and I) were talking about being excited about costuming in S2 of ROP and disliking the fandom meltdowns over ROP's costuming looking (somewhat) different from the films' aesthetic. Since it had already come up in their discussion, I added that I'm not convinced by the anti-ROP contingent framing their seething hatred of the costuming and design as just caring so much about fidelity to Tolkien's vision. I pointed out that Tolkien fandom broadly cares far more about their preferred, film-influenced aesthetics than Tolkien's actual descriptions and gave some specific examples of this.

There's been a lot of talk, for instance, about how the universally long, flowing hair for Elves preferred by the fandom and used in the films is actually totally canon according to Tolkien even if it's rarely mentioned in LOTR proper. This is inaccurate. Galadriel's brother Aegnor is typically depicted in the fandom/film-preferred style rather than per Tolkien's description of his hair as "strong and stiff, rising upon his head like flames" (indeed, in general neither Aegnor nor anyone else is ever depicted this way, and this description rarely shows up in the lists of "no it's about ethics in adaptation" Tolkien hair quotes).

Tolkien repeatedly describes Elvish, peredhel, and Dúnadan women as wearing their hair bound up in braided coiffures with jeweled hair pieces/nets rather than loose and flowing à la the films and the fandom. Nobody cares, any more than they care about Tolkien's description of Arwen's clothing as soft, grey, and noticeably devoid of ornamentation apart from a belt and netted cap (i.e. the opposite of her highly elaborate film costuming and typically loose, unbound, uncovered hair in the films and most illustrations).

Meanwhile, my fave Faramir's hair is nowhere near long enough in the films or most art to mingle with Éowyn's as Tolkien describes. It's usually also depicted as blond, reddish, or brown rather than black as in the book; in Tolkien's LOTR, all described Gondorians have dark or black hair, with the only difference in coloring being that some Gondorians are dark-skinned and some are pale. Again, almost nobody in the fandom cares about this when they're going on about costume design and casting to reflect Tolkien's vision, and male Gondorians are overwhelmingly depicted with short or shoulder-length hair in the films and in Tolkien illustrations.

Popular depictions of Gondor, including the Gondor of the films, very rarely reflect Tolkien's description of Gondor's aesthetic as similar to ancient Egypt, the Byzantine Empire, and the Roman Empire. Film Gondor has, at most, extremely vague allusions to Byzantine architecture amidst the general and deliberate westernization of Gondor's design—as just one example among many, Tolkien's explicitly Egyptian-based design for the royal crown of Gondor is converted to a generically western European-style crown in the films and overwhelmingly in the fandom.

I then pointed out that it's been very noticeable that ROP haters tend to have a powerful double standard wrt fidelity when it comes to the Jackson films. For over 20 years, most film fans have been constitutionally incapable of tolerating even slight criticism of the films without jumping in to defend their greatness and condescendingly explain the most basic elements of adaptation. (Yes, we know film is not the same as text, we know changes are part of adaptation, we all know that, we all know that a word-for-word adaptation would suck and never be made, this is not new information and does not make the PJ films' every choice a good one.) Yet most film LOTR fans who vocally despise ROP display none of the charity towards ROP that they demand for the films (demand even from someone like Christopher Tolkien, a dead man the entire fandom is deeply indebted to, whose dislike of the films still leads to regular attacks on his character from Jackson film stans).

This hypercritical yet hyperdefensive tendency in the fandom is neatly illustrated by the fact that you responded to a conversation about the double standards in evaluations of ROP's costuming vs the films' to go on about how ROP is objectively bad for reasons entirely unrelated to costuming, how you're totally not racist (something nobody was talking about), and to quote you directly, "Like the show was just Bad." Truly, an incisive critique. Meanwhile, your concessions with regard to the Jackson films are mainly about extremely minor and defensible omissions like removing Glorfindel and the sons of Elrond rather than the serious and fundamental problems that lesbiansforboromir and I have with them, or even the ways they do pretty much the exact same things you're lambasting ROP for.

I mean, if we're going to talk about action hero Elves in ROP vs the Jackson films, what about the action hero-ification of Legolas in the films? He was described by Tolkien himself as the Fellowship member who accomplished the least, so super badass battle-skateboarding Legolas hardly represents fidelity to Tolkien's vision. Why should that get a pass while film-stanning ROP haters seethe about ROP!Galadriel being too special, even though Tolkien described her as one of the most special Elves to ever live and specifically as remarkably athletic and insightful?

Meanwhile, film Gimli is reduced to comic relief, the only dwarves taken seriously are conventionally hot ones in The Hobbit films, and Frodo's expressions of strength and fortitude are consistently removed to glorify other characters. Film Gondorians were deliberately designed to seem like useless tin soldiers (which they are in the films, as well as whiter and blonder than Tolkien wrote them) rather than the physically imposing and highly effective fighting force of the book. ROP imagining Elvish rituals upon approaching Valinor that aren't based in Tolkien canon but don't directly conflict with it is absolutely trivial compared to the films' handling of Denethor and Faramir.

The point is not that you, personally, are not allowed to like the films or dislike ROP despite all this. Many people do love the films, including most of my followers. They do have their strengths, though they are extremely racist and few film fans will acknowledge this without soft-pedaling it in some way (esp, since you brought it up, given the context of the truly unhinged degree of racism that has accompanied much of the broader discourse around ROP).

The point is that film fans who hate ROP are constantly showing up in our conversations to be "well actually ROP is just objectively bad, unlike the films, because the show has failings that are also in the films but it's totally different there because of the contents of Peter Jackson's soul" or whatever. The point is the absolutely glaring and obnoxiously hypocritical double standard of defensiveness about the films and obsessive nitpicking of ROP that leads to ROP haters continually going on rants to ROP fans that are unwelcome, uninvited, and usually (as in this case) irrelevant to what was even being discussed.

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doorbloggr · 4 years ago

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Friday 18/6/21 - Media Recommendations #7

Today, since I've been on a Dinosaur kick as of late, I thought I'd get it out of the way and recommend my favourite Palaeontology Focused YouTubers. Featured:

Ben G Thomas

Henry the PaleoGuy

Moth Light Media

Trey the Explainer

E.D.G.E

Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong

Since I have a lot more to discuss than normal, each creator will only be getting a paragraph or so of discussion. But I promise you, each and every one of these Dino-Tubers are very entertaining and informative content creators.

Ben G Thomas

youtube

A Britain based group, Ben being one of 4 contributors. The Ben G Thomas channel frequently uploads short educational pieces about many topics in science. Every week they focus on a living Animal of the Week, and also sum up the science news of the week in 7 Days of Science. Dinosaur and other extinct animals are a frequent focus in their own videos, and as with all their videos, they are very well studied and refer to the literature for all their information. Ben G Thomas is a very well produced, fun and educational channel.

Henry the PaleoGuy

youtube

A New Zealand based YouTuber, Henry is an enthusiast in the weird and unknown side of the animal kingdom. Although much of his content is Palaeontology focused, every week, Henry discusses a New Zealand Bird of the Week. In between these, videos are often case studies of specific species, and many of these are extinct and extant species that most people would not know about. Henry's videos range mostly between 5 and 10 minutes, so they are very consumable at any opportunity, and I've found them quite bingeable as well. Henry the PaleoGuy videos are interesting, educational (this word will come up a lot this post), and insightful.

Moth Light Media

youtube

This channel, rather than have a focus on species profiles, is an educator on evolution in animals. Uploads are reliably at least monthly, and are very chunky in information. Moth Light discusses how different animal groups have changed and developed, and how we use both fossils and modern animals to understand evolutionarily relationships. Although, not necessarily vital to an edutuber, Moth Light Media videos are very chill and peaceful to listen to, thanks to the narrator's low, soft voice. If you're interested in the evolution side of palaeontology, definitely give Moth Light Media a watch.

Trey the Explainer

youtube

Trey was probably the DinoTuber that got me into DinoTubers. If you've ever watched one of his videos, you'd agree that he's a guy that just sounds passionately excited to talk about science. Trey's videos have an overall focus on educating on various scientific topics that people may have misconceptions on. Dinosaur reconstructions and ecology are one such topic, but he also covers cryptozoology, anthropology, and scientific inferences that could be made from the bible. Trey's uploads are less frequent, but his videos are also longer and jam-packed with educational information. I highly recommend subscribing to Trey the Explainer.

E.D.G.E

youtube

Extinct, Extant, Extraordinary, EDGE is a science channel that specialises in exciting animals. Although this channel often discusses extinct animals, EDGE also frequently focuses on living animals, and supernatural cryptids. EDGE videos are often in the format of a species or animal group case study, but unlike some of the earlier DinoTubers discussed here, they are frequently significantly longer than 10 minutes. While many of the DinoTubers I've discussed above are very calming narrators, EDGE has a very animated, almost movie-trailer-esque tone to his voice that make the videos very exciting to listen to. The language he uses is quite colloquial and normie friendly, while still being educational. A fun spin on the DinoTuber format.

Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong

youtube

This channel strikes a perfect balance of accessibility, showmanship, and advanced scientific knowledge. Stephen, the host, is a palaeontologist and animator, and uses his experience in both areas to teach the audience about the inaccuracies of dinosaur reconstructions. Fans of the channel send in toy dinosaurs, and Stephen uses these toys as a way to focus in on the most common mistakes toy makers, and media in general, make in reconstructing dinosaurs. Then as he explains what the dinosaur really looked like, and the biomechanical meaning of their true forms, he animates a coloured silhouette of the toy transforming into a more scientifically accurate form. Many of the channel's videos are upwards of 20 minutes long, but there is a lot to talk about in these discussions. Stephen is a cheery, very nerdy guy, and he really knows his stuff, often referring to several scientific papers related to dinosaur reconstructions during videos, links in the video's description.

Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong used to be part of a larger organisation called The Geek Group that has since dissolved, so a lot of their older videos have been archived outside of the current channel. I've found most of them archived on this playlist by the channel Chaotic Good:

Thanks for Reading

There are many more channels that cover palaeontology that I didn't get the chance to cover today, but I chose to focus on these six because in my opinion, the subscriber base for each are way too small for their quality, and I think more people should watch them.

Honourable mention to PBS Eons, a larger channel that frequently uploads shorter informative videos on ancient Earth.

Hope you enjoyed the read, and if you are interested, subscribe to each and every one of these wonderful DinoTubers.

#blogpost #blog #youtube recommendations #media recommendations #palaeontology #dinosaur youtube #ben g thomas #henry the paleoguy #moth light media #trey the explainer #e.d.g.e #your dinosaurs are wrong #pbs eons #Youtube

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avatarvyakara · 3 years ago

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Drops of Gold and Silver

A Tangled Fanfic

Prompts 241-255

“Animals and Companions”

241. Expressionism

“How do I look, my faithful companion? Is the face of Brock Thunderstrike enough to woo the fair Stalyan?”

The crab clicks from side to side.

Face-that-goes-with-a-shrug. Brock’s-flirty-face-with-a-tiny-moustache. Stalyan’s-face-with-an-ambiguous-expression. Hopeful-face.

Brock sighs.

“Well, you’re right, we can but hope for the best. ...my moustache isn’t that tiny, is it? It still looks good?”

Face-of-a-man-determined-to-bring-his-favourite-crab-some-table-scraps-regardless-of-how-the-evening-turns-out, says Hulk Lightningclaw pointedly.

242. Identical

It’s awkward. The last time they were in any close proximity to the other, they were trying to kill each other on the basis of a threat to the Dark Kingdom. The fact that this was about half an hour ago doesn’t make conversation less uncomfortable.

(At least it helps that they’re thinking the same thing.)

“So. Binturongs?” asks Adira, trying to break the ice.

“...yeah. They came up to visit the Tree,” Hector replies, still firmly tied up. “Some sort of quest, they said,” he adds, pointedly.

“Ah. And might I ask their names?” The binturongs are close by, a little weak, but not doing anything at the moment. (She likes to think it’s because they recognize her as a threat. It’s probably because Hector told them not to—yet. Maybe it’s both.)

“That one is Circe, and that one over there is Circe.”

“...you named them after each other?”

“Well whaddya know, you haven’t been completely corrupted by the Rocks after all,” Hector shoots back.

“You took the Spear of Demanitus out of the Great Tree and let yourself nearly be consumed by an ancient darkness. That was less than an hour ago. Realistically, you are not one to talk at the moment.”

“Hmph.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you can tell them apart.”

“If you can’t tell by now, Sister, you’ll never figure it out.”

But he called her Sister. That’s a more hopeful sign than she’s had all day.

243. Dissociate

Not-trusting Hubert, says Ruddiger, worriedly. False. Pretending-prey. Corrupt.

“Hey. Andrew actually talked to me when I was stuck in that cell. Told stories. Made sure the guards treated me okay. Made me feel like there was a reason to go on.”

Ruddiger’s quiet.

Hurt.

Varian takes a deep breath, in and out.

“You did too, bud. You did too. Just like you always do. I’m just saying, I know he committed treason and hurt people, but so did I. I mean, I hurt you, and you forgave me. I kidnapped the queen for stuff her daughter and husband did, and she forgave me. Maybe this is his redemption, like I’m trying to get mine. Maybe there’s some good in him.”

Good, maybe, the Raccoon persists, but not-all. Not-even-most, Hubert being-bad, using-good bad. Seeing mind, Varian, knowing issues. And why wanting meeting again? Alone? Not-trusting. Not-going-alone, Varian.

“Ruddiger, it’s okay. I’m not in the cell across from him anymore, and if the Captain brings me down from this room and locks the door I can go most places in this castle. I can leave Andrew whenever I want. Besides,” he adds sarcastically, “I’m a big kid now. I think I can handle one harmless man.”

Not-Eugene, Ruddiger replies, pointedly.

“You’re right,” snaps the alchemist. “He’s still here.”

244. Croak

“I’m calling him Hamuel,” says Edmund, proudly. “And he shall be my messenger and companion forevermore.”

Quirin looks down at the tiny chick. It turns a beady eye towards him, looking (like all baby ravens) mildly affronted by his existence and that of the universe in general, and makes a sound like a chipmunk coughing. (Blame Hector making him sit up with little Cressida at night for a month for that piece of information.)

“Um, Your Highness...please don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe let Her Highness name your children.”

Edmund looks mildly affronted. “Hamuel is a grand and noble name, I’ll have you know. Anyway, I did toy with ‘Inigo’ for a while, but he doesn’t look like an Inigo, does he?”

The baby raven cough-chirps again.

“See! He knows his name! He wishes to be known as Hamuel!” says the Prince, proudly.

Quirin could really use a drink about now.

245. Esteemed

A full workout, she and Owl working perfectly in sync, criminal (stand-in) properly dealt with—

“Woah!”

Yeah, that’s right.

“It’s Princess Rapunzel!”

...okay, maybe not.

I mean, she’s clearly happy to see the kids, and it’s good for someone physically denied human contact for most of their life, but...

Showing-up, cheering? asks Owl, nonplussed. Sneezing, medals?

Not helping, buddy.

246. Offering

“I just need you to stay right here, Vigor,” says Demanitus, quietly, from his deathbed. “It will all be over soon.”

Okay, says Vigor, gently patting his Boy’s withered, wrinkled hand. You not-worrying. You getting-better soon. I knowing it. Demanitus Demanitus.

He knows what his Boy is doing, and he doesn’t care one bit. Because Demanitus loves him, and “Demanitus” means Sacrifice, so “Vigor” can mean that too. And this way, they won’t ever be apart for the rest of Vigor’s life. He won’t have to watch his Boy die.

A single tear drips down the man’s cheek as he pushes the button.

247. Umsetztkaulderwelschlottenmitt

“Vun bite of zer tender fruit, unt you shall be able to understand the language of any unt every being on zer planet—but at a terrible, terrible cost! Vizin a period of five seconds, you must correctly say a vurd in zer new language zat someone addresses you in, or else you vill speak zer ozzer language instead of your own—fluently unt forever!”

Eugene pinches the bridge of his nose. “You know what? I’m not, I’m not even surprised at this point. How long does it take to wear off?”

Alfons looks thoughtful. “It’s a bit unclear...according to legend, zer tree’s grower, Borb, spent most of zer rest of her life screaming at seagulls. But zere may be a vay...”

Rapunzel neighs encouragingly. (Maximus has the decency to look embarrassed.)

248. Competition

“Snoozy! You came home!” cries Lance, overjoyed.

The sneezeweasel, happy to at last have found the nice food from back near the cliff-place, shoves him against a tree. Not to eat him, obviously, but to, you know, refrain from eating him, in a symbolic way.

And stops.

There’s a low growl in the air. Barely noticeable, but very much there.

Snoozy looks around at a tiny human with red hair and a dark jacket.

Mine, it says, with a Word that simultaneously awakens something close to genius-level intelligence in the sneezeweasel’s single-thread mind and causes enough utter terror overwhelming every synapse to make her wish it hadn’t.

Snoozy bolts.

249. Déjà-Vu

Cap knows Eugene and Owl don’t have to visit him, now that he’s no longer captain, and is grateful that someone still does.

What he doesn’t expect is for Eugene—and yes, it’s strange to think of the man that way, but he’s earned it—to plop down dramatically in the guest armchair and start massaging his temples.

Owl just looks smug.

“Cap, I’m going to ask you a very, very important question,” says his successor. “How did you put up with me?”

Flynn-Rider trouble? asks Owl, innocently.

“You are not helping.”

Cap, upon getting the full story, laughs harder than he has in months.

250. Inappropriate

It’s not often that Angry actually gets, well, really angry. Properly furious. Mostly it’s a kind of background anger at the world, chronic but low-level.

But where her family is involved...

Currently, through the combination of a well-placed kick and a punch and a clutched tunic, she’s managed to pull one of the village teens down to eye level.

“Make that joke about ‘walking the dog’ one more time. I dare you.”

251. News

Pascal squeals. Maximus faints.

“Is he...gonna be okay?”

He’ll be fine he’ll be fine can I listen? Pleeeease?

Rapunzel chuckles. “Up you come, pal.”

There’s a little Rapunzel in here! says the chameleon in awe, balanced on her stomach.

“Or a little Eugene. Or,” she smiles, “just a little bit of both.”

...regardless!

252. Stubborn

Not-going, says Fidella.

Needing a rider, little one, says Old Romulus. Being a guard? Many riders.

Not-Cassandra, not-rider, declares the young mare.

Old Romulus, in a fit of desperation, looks over to the girl in question. She can’t understand him very well, but she gets the message and goes to comfort her friend.

“Come on, girl, it won’t be that bad...”

Worrying too-weak. Back not-strong. Not-wanting hurt again.

“You won’t be. I promise,” soothes the girl. “And it won’t be for long. Just to get used to other riders. Romulus is right, guards need to all work together and be comfortable working together. And I trust this guy, he’s my friend. And hey, when you get in and I get in, we can keep riding together forever. Just us.”

...fine. Just one, though. And only because you trust him.

“You know, I can just come back later—”

“Get on the horse, Pete.”

253. Repetitive

WHAT ARE YOU DOING writes Olivia on a piece of paper, dragging her graphite nose across the page.

Hugo smiles. The new crystal array is working well, then—basic question-asking skills to complement the communication remix module. And all thanks to a network of glowing rocks about the same size as a fingertip, in a copper-and-invar body seven inches long. The only thing more amazing than his own genius is seeing it in action.

“It’s my alchemist’s code, Liv. Every alchemist knows to keep their notes a secret, so nobody can steal them.”

WHAT IS AN ALCHEMIST’S CODE writes the metal mouse.

“Sometimes it’s just switching up letters, sometimes people use a funny language or secret words. Me, I don’t even write in symbols. Just...well, these. And nobody's smart enough to crack the code but me.”

WHY ARE YOU DRAWING DOTS AND LINES

“That’s my alchemist’s code, Olivia, like I just said. I’m writing about you.”

WHAT ARE YOU WRITING ABOUT

Hugo sighs. “Mild issues with the curiosity array. I might need to reprogram you.”

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK IT ISN’T FUNCTIONING PERFECTLY

“...is it? You tell me.”

HOW SHOULD I KNOW IF YOU’RE THE ONE WHO ADDED IT

He chuckles. “You’re getting cheeky, you know.”

IS THAT A PROBLEM

It shouldn’t be possible for a jumble of gears and ratchets to look contrite and worried, but Olivia manages it all the same.

DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG

Hugo smiles again, and rubs the top of her head. “You're doing just fine, Liv. You're doing just fine.”

DO YOU KNOW THAT'S NOT A PROPER ANSWER

The alchemist rolls his eyes. "No, you didn't do anything wrong, Olivia."

THANK YOU

254. Thin

I had a peacock once, back in those earliest days. Oh, it was wonderful to have a companion who gave me the respect I deserved. But little Pygmalion died so soon afterwards, only forty years later. An accident, I am certain—and yet he seemed so…at peace, when he passed. As though it was a mercy.

I can't imagine how death could be peaceful, or life an agony. But then, I have the Sundrop. Pygmalion sustained himself somehow, and truly I'm not entirely certain how, but the clock wasn't turned back for him. If anything, from his last ramblings, the clock had simply slowed. Every second an hour, like a scrap of butter spread across a loaf of bread. My Pygmalion was strong and proud, but he just wasn't strong enough.

A pity, really. A true companion would have been nice, across these long, long years.

255. Instinct

I would just like to point out that I did not, in fact, have any particular choice in whom to or not to bite, given among other things the frantic nature of my escape and the unsteady hand which I was forced upon from the cramped and cruel shell within which your father imprisoned me—

Brock's staring.

Stalyan scoffs. "You have a crab."

"And you have…a spider?"

"She nearly killed my dad once, I squashed her flat, she survived, and, well, it's been kind of uphill from there."

Furthermore I would like to make quite clear that, regardless of previous affiliations with and natural tendencies employed by Stalyan's father, I have developed a sufficient understanding of the ethical considerations of my own nature and have no particular desire to inflict upon anyone for whom Stalyan bears considerable affection the disastrous consequences of my own unique abilities as a Kai spider, scientific classification viduata formidabilis, a member of the—

"Rapunzel, dear? Now is not the time."

"…why is your spider named Rapunzel?"

Aside from my considerable artistic talent, worthy adversaries deserve recognition, as I am certain you yourself are aware of, Brock, given what appears to be more than a passing similarity to Stalyan's previous romantic attachment, which appears to have been a personal choice from before meeting Stalyan and therefore a symbol of your own respect for the individual in question—

"Because she's about as capable of reading the room and keeping her mouth shut as the human Rapunzel. And is apparently as impossible to squish."

"Wait, wait…Rapunzel as in seventy-foot-long blond hair Rapunzel?"

"You've met her?"

Brock blushes. "She tied me up in it after her boyfriend knocked me out."

Stalyan smirks. "Yep. That sounds like her. And him, for that matter. So…" she leans closer. "You like being tied up?"

I should like to raise for your consideration at this time that as a method of flirting, Stalyan, this is a supremely uninspired tactic, and this is coming from a member of a species where we frequently consume the males alive during courtship—

"One more word and it's back under the swatter."

You cannot kill that which has mastered death, says Rapunzel, smugly.

"And here I thought Hulk was crazy…"

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hyrule-kingdom-updates · 4 years ago

Text

Astor nodded. He and paced the hall and muttered under his breath.

“I see...I never meddled in the realm of technology...but to think that Sheikah Technology could hold such a secret.” He tapped his chin, staring at the astrolabe on the other side of the dungeon bars. “I suppose it makes sense. The advanced accomplishments and feats that such technology is capable of...it’s only naturally that it is powered by unconventional means.”

Siv spun the Sheikah Core on his index finger like it was a ball. “Yeeeep. I’m guessing that’s what allowed the super old dudes to beat the Calamity all those years ago.” He shook his head. “So, yeah. Dick Lord Ganon is gonna use that to turn the Guardians and Divine Beasts against us. And even if the science peeps keep researching into them...well.” He looked up at Astor. “Obviously, they would never figure out this crucial little detail even after a hundred years of science-ing. So this is our little secret, capiche?”

Astor nodded again. If what Asivus was saying was true (And it was) then Hyrule were truly doomed. The Calamity would exploit this secret, and use it to flip the entire war on its head. This is what Ganon would use to turn the Divine Beasts against them.

If any of the researchers found out about this aspect of Ancient Technology, and adapted to it, then Ganon would lose his biggest advantage...and it might be possible to...

The seer quickly shook away the thought. No, even if they knew, the world would be helpless all the same when the Princess fails to awaken their powers. In fact, it would probably be more brutal if Ganon’s forces were reliant completely on the bludgeoning and stabbing that came with monsters. Machines would have avoidable patterns in a post-apocalyptic world, but monsters of malice would be exceptionally harder.

So yes...We keep this info from everyone. Especially Robbie and Purah and...

“How sure are you that no one else could figure this out?” Astor asked.

“Decently sure. I mean, it’d be pretty hard to guess such a crazy thing.” Asivus shrugged.

“Are you positive? Because I know my—” He stopped in his tracks, suddenly stumbling on his words. “I—in reference to random researchers—other non-specified—she’s not—Look. There are very talented and intelligent researchers across the kingdom, surely someone—”

“Did you say it yourself? Everyone’s way to arrogant around here!” Siv threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “No one’s gonna look for faults in their perfect little war machines! They shoot lasers, and don’t talk back. It’s a general’s wet dream. Even if someone figured out this secret, no one here would listen to them.” He waved his hand in a circle and gestured towards his half brother. “Case in point: You.”

Astor folded his arms and sighed. “Alright, fine. So that’s how the Calamity will turn the Guardians and Beasts against us. But what’s the actual execution of it all? The plan? What’s your play in this? How did the Guardians in the yard get corrupted?”

Siv was silent; thinking. He seemed to be endlessly swimming through thoughts and words and memories. The man fiddled with the discs surrounding the astrolabe, eyes drooping in misery. Interesting.

“I was supposed to make them. That’s what he wanted,” Asivus finally said. “Beast of water, lightning, air, and fire. Or, demons? Blights or something. Creatures that were to take on the Divine Beasts.They’re built slightly different than Guardians, so he needed a little something special to deal with ‘em.” He blew hair off his forehead with a huff. “It all sorta just came into my head in the minutes before I fucked up those Guardians, so the details come and go, but that’s the gist. I make the Blights, Ganon does his thing, then I wait at the Sanctum to achieve true happiness or whatever he was bullshitting.”

“But you failed.” Astor interjected. “You failed to make the blights, and thus today’s calamity failed. At least, in this timeline.” Siv opened his mouth to object, but he continued to think outloud. “The Guardians were a fluke, then. You were not capable of creating Blights, but wielded enough malice to corrupt a Guardian. Although that brings into question how you control malice to begin with...and why you were chosen specifically for the task...”

Asivus was silent again, spinning the astrolabe on the floor. Astor observed him for a moment.

“Is he speaking to you? At the moment?” The seer asked. “Every time you fall silent is when you start looking down at that device. That thing I can correctly assume is the instigator of all this, given that you look at it every time I ask about the recent Guardians you ruined.”

Asivus narrowed his eyes at him, annoyed at being so readable.

“Ganon isn’t in your head, as you said you were overcome with this information in the minutes you truly held that astrolabe and walked by the Guardians.” He thought back. “Earlier before the incident you said you had a dream, and then you found the astrolabe? You leave it on your desk as a paper weight, before developing the decent moral to drop off a potential lost item to the Sheikah. But then you were holding the astrolabe in proximity to the Guardians, and subsequently are suddenly given the revelation to the Calamity’s plan...”

He locked eyes with him. “Combine that with the truth about all Sheikah Technology itself...and the fact that your eyes only change when that core is in your possession...”

Astor walked closer and gripped one of the bars, calmly. “That astrolabe is the link between you and the Calamity. It speaking to you through it. It’s lending you the power to control malice. It’s a manifested vessel of Ganon’s ill intent for this world...perhaps made of whatever malice plagues yourself. Perhaps he chose you for the job because you’re brimming with his favourite substance.”

Assivus started at the seer, and blinked once. Astor took that as confirmation, but asked anyways: “Am I wrong?”

Siv bit his tongue for a moment, before sighing in defeat. “You’ve got Ligero’s mannerisms down to the T. The perceptiveness nearly makes me wish I had actually paid attention to his parenting attempts.”

Something twisted inside Astor at that comment, and his voice grew a dangerous edge. “I’m nothing like him.”

“It’s alright, don’t take it personally. I just have a love-hate relationship with smart people.”

“Tsk.” The prophet stared down the corridor in thought. “Don’t we all.”

“But you’re wrong about one thing.” Siv added, and he looked up at Astor with a new seriousness. “I didn’t ‘fail’ to make the blights.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I didn’t fail to make the blights, I didn’t want to.” Asivus raised his voice, and rolled the astrolabe to the other side of the cell. “You can’t fail something you never really attempted in the first place.” He winked. “I mean, that’s been my philosophy on life for the last 15 years, heh.”

Astor blinked in surprise. “But...why? The world is doomed, and you were handed a position of life and power on a silver tray. Chosen above anyone else. Why wouldn’t—?”

“I didn’t do it because I’m not like you, pissface!” Siv snapped. “I jump outta my socks to make a selfish decision. I don’t just run away from any inconvenience in my life.”

Astor nearly laughed. “Oh? And what exactly is it that you do, then? You’re really going to preach to me, Mr. Assivus Asunder?”

“YEAH! That name is exactly why I decided this!” He waved his arms in the air, and gestured to himself as he slumped against the wall. “Taking action and fighting for anything, regardless of what, sucks ass. Initiating change? Bad. Acting on what you care about? No likey.” Siv pounded his chest proudly. “The ideal ending for Asivus Ex-Hartell is to just chill out, and wait for the end. Drink in hand!”

He raised his empty flask, but nonetheless pretended to drink.

Astor frowned, but let the distant drip of leaking water echo in the corridor.

He watched Siv for a few more minutes, silently tapping his fingers on his elbow.

“You still care about your brother.”

It was a good think his flask was empty, as otherwise he would have spit out his drink. Siv angrily sputtered. “The fuck does that have to do with anything—?!”

“Why are you just relaxing in there after all this time? You think you deserve this? Don’t want to be a burden for others?” Astor looked him up and down.

“Listen, you little shit. I know at this point it shouldn’t be a surprise that my family is made up of asshole, but—”

“You know when I first saw you around the castle, I did recognize you. The eyes, you see. But of course, I didn’t see the need to trouble you with my story, but I did watch you.” The prophet sneered. “Dear Asivus Hartell, sneaking into town to share a peach cobbler with his niece. Assivus Asunder, teaching his nephew to shield surf, and trying to encourage him down a more righteous path than his own. The Royal Orator Siv, who thanks his little brother for taking care of him by spending four hours making perfect hand drawn rat doodle cards.” Astor leaned down with a smirk. “You’re not the only one who paid attention to the captain’s birthday presents.”

“Alright get to the point, fuckface.” He waved the prophet off. “What? I screw around with my dumb family. What’s it gotta do with anything?”

“It means that for all your talk of laying down and dying and giving up, your action seems to indicate that you don’t actually believe that.” He jabbed a finger at Siv through the bars. “Or at least you don’t fully. Maybe you don’t want to. So don’t go blathering about your sorry life, only to try and insult me in the next minute. This isn’t about your apathy. You’re just scrambling at this low bar Ganon gives you as you drool the rare opportunity to unequivocally be an undeniably good person. You just want to tell yourself you’re a hero.”

Quiet.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“OK.” Asivus curled his lip. “I didn’t want to join Ganon, because I’m still stupidly trying to not be an asshole. I’m too much of a wuss to commit to the dickhead role I was probably meant to fulfill. I’m pathetically trying to keep control over my image—is THAT what you want to hear, magic man? Congratu-fucking-lations. You turned the tables, you can see how pathetic I am and can feel better about yourself. How do ya feel?” The astrolabe had rolled by Asivus’ lap, and gold speckled in his eyes.

Astor sighed and answered honestly. “...Well. I’m envious, truth be told.” Siv blinked, but let him continue. “I haven’t bothered trying to be a hero my whole life, much less have such a driven (and these days useless) hunger to be ‘good.’” The seer shook his head, staring down the hall again. “I’m envious, but I do think you’re a fool. I’d take the opportunity to wield the future in a heartbeat, no matter the consequences.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Siv chuckled. “This malice stuff is fucked up.”

“Only because you don’t understand it.” Astor replied, offended. “I’ve studies it for years, and it’s often misunderstood. There’s a beauty and usefulness to it, even detached from the Calamity. You’re just not intelligent enough to get it, I understand. ‘Love-hate relationship,’ like you said.” He snorted.

“Are you sick?! This Ancient Core thing made me walk through so many shitty memories and thoughts...I wouldn’t walk through that again to end OR save the world.”

“Again. All due to your plight of ignorance. It’s not your fault.”

Asivus rolled his eyes. “You know what? Why don’t you explain it me then?! If you’re so excited about it? Talk aaall about how I’m not fit to properly wield this and how pathetic I am?”

Siv dangled the astrolabe in the air between his fingers.

“Go on! Explain how great this malice is, and maybe then if you’re so eager I’ll just leave the thing in your care!”

#???#Assivus Hartell #hku spoilers #Digging In and Sinking

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number-1-kuaidul-fanboy · 3 years ago

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The Yugioh Arcs Ranked

I’m going to rank all the main arcs of the original Yugioh anime with the exception of season zero and Capsule Monsters, because I haven’t seen those. This is just my own personal opinion, it’s not objective in any way. In fact, from looking at other people’s lists, I think I might piss a few people off with how I ranked these. Remember, this is just my opinion. Also, disclaimer, I did watch this show in dub. While from what I’ve seen of the sub is infinitely better, I did get into the show and I do still think it is a good show in dub. Still, some of the story details might be slightly different for that reason. (Going forward with the spin-offs, I am watching sub.)

7 Dungeon Dice Monsters

This arc served one purpose and one purpose alone: to introduce Duke Devlin/Ryuji Otogi and establish him as a friend of the main group before he comes back in Battle City to… do basically nothing? Personally, I barely saw the purpose in Tristan/Honda and Anzu/Tea so introducing yet another cheerleader for Yugi who doesn’t do much on his own confuses me. Ryuji admittedly has more character than Honda and Anzu and the stuff with the Dungeon Dice Monsters game itself is kind of cool but the other arcs had much more to them so this arc is at the bottom just by default.

6 Noah’s Saga (Or Virtual World)

Onto the first filler arc. There are three arcs of this show that don’t accomplish anything for the overall story and this is one of them. If you don’t know, these arcs aren’t even from the manga. In Japan, Yugioh was based on a then ongoing manga so the filler arcs were created to give the manga writer time to finish the manga so the anime could adapt it. So while I understand the reasoning behind this, I think placing Noah’s Saga in the middle of Battle City was a pretty bad idea in my opinion, as it's nothing but a distraction that destroys the flow of the story and goes on for way too long. It’s not bad though. The deck master gimmick is fun and adds an interesting twist to the duels. It was also interesting learning more about the Kaiba family and especially Seto’s backstory. Overall however, this arc drags in parts and while Noah is still a good villain objectively, he's a complete brat and I personally find that annoying. Still, it was nice seeing Mokuba turn Noah to the heroes’ side through sheer goodness alone.

5 Grand Tournament (Or KC Grand Prix)

Another filler arc. I’m putting this one over Noah’s arc because while that one had the better individual moments and did more for the characters, this arc didn’t overstay its welcome like that one did. It also genuinely shocked me by having Kaiba actually defeat the main villain rather than going the stereotypical way and having Yugi beat him. That’s worth a few points in my book. (It was also just a really good duel.) I also liked Joey’s/Jonouchi’s duel with Yugi’s grandfather, his former mentor. It was annoying how he didn’t recognize him but it was still a nice way to show how far Jonouchi has come since the start of the series. Overall, this arc is just fine. I’d probably skip it if I ever rewatched the series but it’s not without its merit.

4 Duelist Kingdom

Okay, this is the point where I’m probably gonna piss people off. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Duelist Kingdom. It’s a really good start to the show, gradually establishing the characters and the game of Duel Monsters in a really natural way. It also includes some of my favourite duels in the series: Kaiba and Yugi’s duel on the tower, and Kaiba and Yugi’s duels with Pegasus. Speaking of Pegasus, he’s a great villain. He is made out to be undefeatable and actually lives up to that reputation due to the powers of the Millenium Eye. Yugi and the Pharaoh have to repeatedly switch minds in order to beat him, which was really interesting to see. However… This is not the best arc of the show. A lot of the duels before the finals aren’t all that interesting and go on for way too long. They’re not bad duels per say, just uninteresting and padded. When I first started watching this show, I was mostly using it as background while I wrote. The filler duels just didn’t grab my attention and I have no interest in revisiting them. The parts that made me look up from my writing were anything with Kaiba (who I latched onto very early for personal, coping reasons), the times Bakura went into evil mode, and pretty much everything from Yugi and Kaiba’s duel on the tower and onward. I knew about Kaiba attempting suicide but what I didn’t know was that the Pharaoh nearly went through with killing him and had to be stopped by Yugi. That was the moment where I realized this show was more than just “a dumb kids’ show” and was willing to go dark places, despite how much the 4Kids dub wanted to hide that. It was the moment where I actually became interested in the show. So yes, this is a good arc, but later arcs in my opinion topped it.

3 Waking the Dragons

Yes, I put a filler arc over the classic season one. Honestly though, this season was so good I didn’t even know it was a filler arc until I did my research. Sure, it moved the focus away from the Millennium Items but the character development for Mai, Yugi, and the Pharaoh felt so genuine and was really interesting. This season basically forced me to see the differences between Yugi and the Pharaoh by separating them for quite a bit of the season, which was another thing that really surprised me. I was used to this show being darker at this point. However, I never expected them to actually kill the main character, even if it was obviously just temporary. That’s a pretty ballsy move. I grew to really like the Pharaoh and Yugi this season. And Mai’s fall to villainy and the exploration of her trauma from Battle City was very interesting and tragic. This show writes villains very well and this season is a great example of that. I really like stories where the villains’ motivation is to destroy the world due to their hatred of humanity/the world. Valon, Allister, and Raphael all have genuinely sad backstories that perfectly explain why they adopted this viewpoint. Dartz not so much. However, he is still a great villain. He has such a presence and the way he manipulated all these people and even twisted their minds with the Orichalcos was delightfully twisted. However, his ‘redemption’ at the end was really out of nowhere and unnecessary and Pegasus’s involvement in this season was… weird to say the least. Overall, however, I really like this arc. I understand the backlash, since this is a filler arc and a really long one at that, but I personally really enjoyed it.

2 Dawn of the Duel

Yeah, the final arc isn’t the best one. Time travel stories really don’t appeal to me personally. However, in situations where the thing in question was already bonkers as hell before introducing time travel I’m more willing to let it slide and get into the silliness of the time travel idea rather than picking it apart. A lot of its logic makes no sense if you think about it even a little but seeing the conclusion to all these long running arcs was really satisfying. Bakura is also a great villain. I was wondering what they were going to do with him all series so for him to finally have the spotlight as the main villain and to learn that he actually had a sympathetic backstory was really cool to see. This is the arc with the least actual dueling so I can see why people who watch this show for the duels would be disappointed. However, I watched the show for the lore and the characters, which were the focus of this arc and personally, I loved seeing the ancient real life version of Duel Monsters. The battles felt more intense due to them being real. Also, I will admit that the final scene where they all say goodbye to Atem got tears out of me, which I didn’t think this show would ever do.

1 Battle City (Both parts, splitting it was stupid)

Okay, this is the season that made me a fan. It’s the point where I started actively blogging about it and even analyzing it a bit. First of all, this arc had, in my opinion, the best villain in the series: Marik. His redemption arc was the only one in the show that was justified or made any goddamn sense for that matter (besides Kaiba but I don’t really count him as a villain). Marik’s backstory did a good job making him sympathetic without excusing his terrible actions. Even before his darker side took over, Marik was a really good villain, using his millennium item to mind control and kind of terrorize his minions all while hiding in the shadows so when the heroes actually see him, they don't even realize it's him. Granted the story didn't do much with that plot point but it was still cool. Also, I didn’t think this show would actually go as far as to have the villain mind control Yugi’s friends and even force Yugi to duel one of them to the death. That genuinely surprised me, as did the Yami Marik twist. This arc also added a lot to the lore, which was the aspect of Duelist Kingdom that I was most interested in and was barely touched on in that arc. In Battle City however, we got the Egpytian God Cards, two more Millenium Items, the history of the Tomb Keepers, all of which were really interesting. This arc also has a lot of the best duels in the series, which I can try and list:

-Kaiba vs Ishizu (I hate the way destiny is written in this series, but Kaiba changing his destiny was the most badass thing ever. Even I can’t deny that.)

-The best Yugi vs Kaiba battle (Tied with their Duelist Kingdom one honestly, those are both great but this one had two god cards clash. I can’t help but love it.)

-Jonouchi vs Marik (The sub gave me chills and even the dub made my heart skip a beat and think they were actually going to break anime rules and let Jonouchi win. Also, the dub gave us the amazing “according to my math, six is higher than two” line, which I unironically love.)

-Yugi vs Marik (I mean come on. It’s the final battle and seeing Marik regain control and overcome his dark side was great.)

Anyways, that was my personal ranking. I think I’m generally in agreement with the fandom consensus except I feel Duelist Kingdom is a little overrated and Waking the Dragons is underrated. I will do this with GX when I finish it though I admit I have been really on and off about watching that show due to real life reasons.

#yugioh #yugioh duel monsters #classic yugioh #yugioh classic #yugi mutou #pharaoh atem #seto kaiba #marik ishtar #I talk about them a lot lol #marik and kaiba are my favourite characters in the original show

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misiwrites · 4 years ago

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Beyblade Week Day 4

i'm sorry i'm out here still posting things so late but here's my fourth and final 4kingdoms-verse oneshot for @beybladeweek2021, mostly this is late because i was out of town last week but these prompts were also the hardest to make a oneshot about, somehow i managed to make a quirky little story about max anyway.

this takes place probably somewhere right before the beginning of the main fic, or close to it anyways. and i feel like this needs the small explanation that 4kingdoms max looks a bit different because the north has no sunlight (don’t ask me how that works. it’s fantasy)

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

Fears / Animals / Winter

“Aaugh!”

As patient as Max is, the strange sound of Giancarlo’s sudden scream followed by a soft, barely audible thump of something hitting the floor in the walk-in closet is enough to snap his attention from the game console in his hands. He casts a curious look across his bedroom to witness the striped leg of a plush toy sticking out through the narrow crack of the closet door.

Now he can already tell what has happened. Regardless, he drops the game on the couch and jumps to his feet to see what his knight has gotten himself into in the closet.

“You opened the forbidden door!” Max gloats at Giancarlo, now standing ankle-deep in a sea of plush toys. “I told you the games are in the second from left, not from right.”

“Is this why you call that door ‘forbidden’?” Giancarlo asks, one hand still on the handle of the closet door that the avalanche of toys descended on him from. “I expected something more... I don’t know... scandalous... or personal.”

“This is personal. They’re all mine.” Max crouches over to pick one of the plush toys up, the yellow mascot character of a popular Eastern children’s game franchise. “Oh man, these take me back. I haven’t really seen them since Mama ordered them to be put away. She said I was too old to keep them in my bed. But I refused to have them taken out, so I got this closet for them instead.”

“Aha. I don’t mean to judge your decisions, but I think there’s a few too many for a closet of this size.”

“Well, they fit in just fine before you opened the door like an idiot.”

Max lets his eyes scan the colourful blast on the floor, admiring the chaos of all the scattered shapes of different stuffed creatures, some more nostalgic than others but each and every one so familiar to him; some expensive and store-bought, some hand-made by his father or someone else, he hardly even remembers at this point; it’s been so long since he was gifted these toys, and at least a couple of years since Judy wanted them sealed away.

And then one of them catches his eye over the rest, one that makes his heart skip a beat of bittersweet joy and longing. He tramples and kicks his way past other toys to get to the middle.

It’s a plush dog, one whose tattered, worn-out shape isn’t particularly distinguishable as a dog. It has an elongated body and small stubs for legs, folded ears – well, one ear, as the other has come off and been lost to time – and a small, thin tail that’s also on its way to come off its stitches but is barely hanging on, miserably drooping down from the back of the caramel brown animal that’s so thoroughly covered in dirt and dust that it looks grey. The dog’s black button eyes are intact, at least, and it still has a red little tongue sticking out of its mouth.

Max is momentarily frozen in place staring at the dog. This toy brings back so many memories, some of which threaten to turn his stomach as the long-forgotten anxiety rushes back in one tidal wave, it climbs up the ladder of his spine like an unwelcome visitor from the past; but at the same time, he loves this little dog so very dearly, his childhood favourite.

“Look at these, Your Highness!” Giancarlo suddenly yells, snapping Max out of his thoughts. “Really fitting, aren’t they? Doesn’t it make you think of something?”

Max turns to see his knight holding three plush animals on his arms: a snake, a fox, and a miniature horse. Max does remember all of them, but none were his favourites. They must have been gifts from his earlier childhood, he has no memory of actually getting them or ever feeling particularly attached to them.

“Umm,” he says, “no, not really.”

“Don’t you remember? The fairytale? A guy talks to a fox, a serpent, and a horse...”

“No, can’t say that rings any bells.”

“Really?” An idiotic grin spreads on Giancarlo’s face, the same one he flashes every time he gets to feel smarter than his young king. “It’s a traditional Northern folktale! Each animal represents one fear that the dude has, and he has to face them one by one. Well, I don’t really remember the details, but it was something like that.” He lifts the tiny horse closer to his face, as if to study it more closely – or to face it, to stay true to his own words, Max assumes. “Was the third one really a horse? I think it was. I guess horses can be scary to some people. They’re big animals and all.”

Max rolls his eyes, truly wishing that Giancarlo would shut up for once and clean up the mess he’s caused in the walk-in closet – or just do anything else and leave Max be, to sort out the sudden, fairly uncomfortable onslaught of memories caused by the discovery of his old stuffed dog toy.

Instead, Giancarlo keeps talking, as he always does.

“If there was a story about my fears, it would probably be... hmm... never eating cannoli ever again... and never going on another date...”

“Some incredible fears you have,” Max comments. “Tells a lot about your psyche.”

“And what are you scared of, Your Highness? What would you face if you met this guy? Nei-i-i-igh.” Giancarlo waves the tiny horse at Max, truthfully not the embodiment of terror by any stretch.

“Me? Well, nothing, really.”

“Come on, now, no need to be shy. You can tell the good old Gianni.”

“I mean it – I have my magic, so there’s no reason for me to be scared of anything.” There’s nothing that Max can think of that he wouldn’t be able to shield himself from with his magic powers, especially his ability to turn invisible. If nothing can catch him or do as much as touch him, what reason would he have to be afraid? If anything, he loves the thrill of almost being caught but disappearing out of sight on the last second. Max prides himself in being bold and resourceful, the master of stealth, and the youngest Genbu-ou with the ability to summon the holy beast of Genbu in the known history of his kingdom.

As long as he has his magic and the golden locket of Genbu around his neck, he cannot think of anything that could cause him fear; and as the king, he can have all the materia he could ever want, so he never needs to worry about running out of cannoli pastries or whatever else.

“Okay then, tough guy,” Giancarlo snorts. “And what’s that you got there?”

Max’s gaze returns to the dog on his arms. It stares back at him with its pitiful button eyes, black and lifeless.

“This used to be my favourite,” he replies, finding the words coming out of his mouth with slight hesitation. “Papa made it for me...”

“Oh? Prince Tarou knows how to sew stuffed animals? Well, I guess that makes sense, since he’s such a talented craftsman – but still... It’s hard to imagine a burly man like him making something like... that thing.” Giancarlo forces down an obvious cackle, raising a hand to his mouth to hide his amusement. “I mean...”

Max knows what he means, the puppy with a hot dog-like physique is a pathetic sight, but he cannot help feeling just a little insulted by Giancarlo laughing at it. This puppy brought him so much comfort during a time of turmoil, and it was specifically made by his father for that very purpose. Tarou most likely stitched it together over a single night all those years ago.

“You mean what?” he challenges the royal knight, his tone arrogant.

“Uh... Well, you know... Oh, never mind.”

* * * * * *

When he was younger, Max had no objections over his sheltered life in the Snow Glory Palace, as it never even occurred to his child’s mind that it could be anything but; and the thought only came to him as he entered the rebellious years of puberty and by the questionable ideas that his whimsical knight planted in his head, the thought that it would be exciting to sneak out of the palace every once in a while and wander around the royal capital out of sight.

Max has always been adored by commoners, as the only son of their beloved (by now former) king, the strong yet beautiful and hauntingly intelligent Mizuhara Judy, the only female Genbu-ou of their lifetime; and as much as Max loves the attention and savours the constant awareness of his status of importance that doesn’t escape anybody in his kingdom, he’s equally entertained by the idea of walking among all these people on a lower social ladder without their knowledge, freely entering spaces where his appearance would normally cause a considerable brouhaha. The complete control over whether he’s perceived or not gives him a great amount of satisfaction.

And, most importantly, his ever-so-predominant mother has no idea about it happening right under her nose. As much as Max loves his parents, like any teenager, he has an innate need to break free and seek independence from them, do as he pleases without their scrutiny, without any adult paying attention to him...

at least sometimes.

How many times has he traversed the narrow streets of the ancient royal capital, heard the snow crunch under his shoes without anyone seeing it’s the young king leaving a trail of footprints on the ground covered in white? And when the snow is quietly falling from the sky, the shield of magic around him reflects his surroundings, camouflaging him from other people’s line of sight, he blends perfectly into the arbitrary dance of the snowflakes in the dark.

Then, sometimes, when he finds a suitable corner or shade or hideout for himself, he plans a delicious little display of seemingly appearing out of nowhere into the spotlight. And all the attention is once again drawn to him.

It’s borderline addicting, that calculated spectacle, the thrill of a surprise and act of rebellion that Max is perfectly aware he’s not allowed to do. That his ice queen of a mother would be absolutely furious if she knew.

Now he’s again walking down a cobblestone street, the stone fence of a cemetery on his right-hand side. There’s a layer of powdery snow on the stone, like the icing of a sugar cake.

A cake, oh, a cake sounds excellent to him; and he’s now across a bridge, and the familiar sight of a cosy little coffee shop greets him some feet away. It has a sign outside, a metallic one, shaped like a kettle that’s hanging above the entrance, the shop’s name written on it in cursive.

Max walks over to one of the shop windows and takes a peek inside, bathes in the golden light coming from the other side of the glass. As expected, nobody pays him any attention, none of the people sitting around the lovely little tables inside see him.

He’s ready to be seen, however, and decides to step inside, greeted by the ring of a bell attached to the coffee shop’s door.

“Good evening!” he says cheerfully upon his entrance, flashing a wide grin to everyone in the shop.

People turn to stare at him. Nobody is smiling back at him.

“Er, good evening,” replies the person working behind the counter. Their voice is polite but wary, they stare at Max like everyone else in the shop, with an expression of wide-eyed confusion.

This is not what Max expected. Where are all the delightful gasps, all the “Oh, Your Highness!” and “It’s the young king!” and “This is such an honour!” – all the surprised smiles and the rush to be the first to shake hands with him? He darts some quizzical glances around the shop, eyebrows raised, but his grin remains.

Maybe he’s come here a few too many times. He should have gone somewhere new instead, not the closest place he could think of.

A bristly feeling that he’s very much not used to suddenly spreads all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes: embarrassment. He’s embarrassed that his magic trick failed, the trick he was so confident in, so proud of.

He needs to get out of here.

And the next moment, he’s walking down a different street, this time in the heart of the city of Resting Palace. The lights here are so bright that they illuminate the black sky and give it a hue of light purple instead, almost a dirty tone, it looks dusty and devours the stars and even the Moon.

He’s walking past numerous people, but nobody turns to look at him. Nobody does as much as grant him a smile of acknowledgment, no faces light up with recognition when he passes by.

He stops to stand in the middle of the street. Someone immediately bumps into him from behind.

“Oh, sorry,” the stranger says and hurries away without looking at him. He doesn’t even have the time to say it was his fault for stopping so abruptly.

Max turns on his heels, lets his eyes wander aimlessly in the scenery. There’s a hotel to his left. There are people everywhere, but none of them are looking his way.

Now another person bumps into him. This is an older man, staggering on his feet and visibly losing his balance for a moment, and he turns to stare at Max with a sullen face.

“Hey, kiddo,” the man groans, “stop blocking the walkway, will ya?”

Max only stares back, not knowing what to say or think. Kiddo? What is this? Why is this person talking to him like this? He’s so dumbfounded by this behaviour that he simply hangs his mouth open without making a sound. Nobody in his entire life has acted this way towards him, and it’s making his blood run cold under his heavy cloak.

On a bewildered whim, he suddenly turns to whoever is passing by his left-hand side on that very moment. “Did you hear how that person talked to me just now?” he asks the passer-by. “How dare he?”

The person he’s talking to casts him a look of utter confusion. He can immediately tell this person doesn’t recognise him, either.

“No, I’m sorry,” the person mumbles hastily and hurries away. Max stares after their disappearing back.

What is happening? What is happening? How could this possibly be happening to him? Now panic is seeping into his heart, he arbitrarily grabs the sleeve of whoever happens to pass by him next.

“Excuse me,” he says breathlessly, “you know who I am, right? Right?”

Another astonished stare, but at least this passer-by is polite. “No, I’m afraid I don’t. Are you perhaps lost?”

“No!” Max’s words now escape as a desperate eruption of discomfort, “I’m the king! The Genbu-ou! Don’t you recognise your king?!”

The stranger’s expression changes slightly – to that of pity, to Max’s horror.

“I’m sorry, boy, I don’t have time to play around with you,” the person says, and the next moment he’s gone.

Max spins around, glancing wildly in every direction, looking for anybody who recognises him. This is the royal capital, isn’t it? It definitely is, he knows the exact street he’s on, but for some reason nobody knows him, he’s only a mile away from the Snow Glory Palace and nobody knows that he’s the king, how could such a bizarre thing ever happen?

“I look like the Genbu-ou, don’t I?” he asks yet another stranger, this time a younger person, a teenager just like him.

The person stops to stare at him, evaluates him with her eyes for a moment, as if she has to think about it first.

“I guess you do,” she finally says, “a little. But Genbu-ousama has spots of black in his hair and skin as clear as snow.”

What? What?

Max drops down to his knees into the snow and now he’s on the riverbank; he hauls his shaking self closer to the aquamarine glow of the water, and he crouches over to look down at his own reflection on the surface.

His hair is yellow like the Sun, bare, the splashes of black brush strokes gone. But his face – his face is covered in something – small dots everywhere, his skin is infested with them, they spread from the centre, the bridge of his nose, in every direction on his skin, he lifts his hands to his face and—

* * *

He opens his eyes. The ceiling of his bedroom is covered in cotton candy clouds of pink and purple, they rotate ever so slowly around the axel of the chandelier in the middle, with stars blinking in and out through the veil.

He rolls over in the four-poster bed that feels like an entire ocean to him. The pillow under his head is wet, it feels gross and he grabs it with two tiny hands, tosses it away as hard as he can and it lands on the edge of the bed. It knocks a couple of his plush toys to the floor.

He can hear voices from behind the bedroom door. It’s Mama and Papa, they are yelling at each other again.

Max rubs his tear-stained eyes and crawls out of bed, wrapping his enormous blanket around him like a cape, he drags it along across the carpet as he makes his way to the door. He stands on tiptoes and opens the door as softly as he can.

He makes his way to the hallway’s railing just in time to see his parents walk into his view downstairs. They’re not yelling anymore but still arguing, in quiet voices now, Max can tell they are spewing arrows of poison at each other even if he can’t make out the words.

He’s staring through the narrow hole in the railing as Papa spots him, it’s probably a subtle sniffle that gives him away up there.

Seconds later, Papa has climbed the stairs and has knelt down to talk to Max in a voice that’s meant to be soothing but is seeping with recently suffocated agitation, and it makes him uneasy.

“Are you having trouble sleeping again, buddy?”

“I don’t want Papa to go away,” Max says, wiping his nose on the sleeve of his orange sleeping gown.

Papa gives him a lopsided smile, pats the top of his head. “I’ll come visit you often, I promise. And – this is only temporary, okay? I will keep talking to Mama, and maybe I’ll be back home in a couple of moons. Papa will bring you lots of presents then, but for starters...”

Now something appears from behind Papa’s back, he’s holding a plush toy dog that has a silly face with a tongue drooping out, its body so long that it nearly matches Max’s height. Papa hands it over to him.

“I made this for you, to help you sleep better. I call it Sleepy, but you can call it whatever you want.”

Max stares down at the dog’s face. It has plain black buttons for eyes, and a third one for a nose.

He presses his own little nose against the button, immediately smearing the dog in the snot and tears of a six-year-old.

“Take me with you, Papa,” he says, the words muffled against the dog’s snout. “Don’t leave me alone.”

“You won’t be alone, Max, Mama will be here.”

“She’s always working, she never pays attention to me.”

“That’s not true...”

“I don’t want to be alone, Papa.”

* * *

He opens his eyes. The ceiling of his bedroom is velvet blue, with the silver sickle of a crescent Moon glowing faintly in the night’s silence.

His heart is beating in an anxious rhythm inside his chest. He quickly sits up in the bed, driven by the panic of the lingering terror of his nightmare that makes his fingertips tingle and his stomach turn, and he gasps for air.

It was just a dream. Just a dream.

The momentary urge to rush to his feet, to check that he actually is who he’s supposed to be in the mirror, recedes quickly upon the realisation that he’s in his own bed, in the royal palace, exactly where he should be. He’s covered in sweat, the blankets feel uncomfortably sticky against his skin, he tosses them aside.

Then he notices three shapes in the darkness, sitting at the end of his bed. A row of three plush animals is staring at him from a distance.

A fox, a serpent, and a horse.

#my writing #4kingdoms stuff #LetItRip2021 #iconic that i had to stop in the middle of posting this bc i saw a spider and was too fucking scared to sit down again

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alectology-archive · 5 years ago

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SJ/M’s plagiarism from fiction/media

I’m hoping to make a comprehensive list of all the sources SJ/M has outright ripped off from in the past. Feel free to comment down below or send an ask if you can think of anything.

SJ/M has very clearly ripped off of GRRM and JRR Tolkien’s works. Same goes for a lot of Anne Bishop’s works, too, and a lot of her favourite authors - so if anyone’s read books SJ/M has stated that she likes please let me know.

Note that this post will keep getting updated as I discover more evidences of plagiarism. Also note that there is every possibility that some resemblances are purely accidental and/or unintentional. So take it with a grain of salt.

(?) indicates a questionable addition to the post.

T/HRONE OF GLASS

- “The Queen Who Was Promised” comes from GRRM’s “The Prince who was Promised” prophecy in ASOIAF, who also goes by Azor Ahai, who wields Lightbringer, and is also known as the Son of Fire.

- “Aelin” is probably derived from “Aelin-uial” in the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. Additionally, it may have been derived from Aerin Dragon-Killer/Aerin Firehair from Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown, as SJ/M stated it was one of her favourite novels.

- “Fireheart” is the name of Corlath’s horse in The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, an author SJ/M admires.

- Empire of Storms, 2016, contains the infamous line ‘velvet-wrapped steel.’ And… so does Fifty Shades of Grey, in 2011: ‘Steel encased in velvet.’

- “Valg” comes from Terry Brooke’s The Sword of Shannara, another author SJ/M admires.

- “Hope. You cannot steal it, and you cannot break it." is awfully similar to the line from The Princess Bride about love "you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords". SJ/M has said that she loved the movie.

- The infamous “You could rattle the stars” is a ripoff of Treasure Planet’s “You’re gonna rattle the stars.”

- “To Whatever End” comes from The Two Towers where King Theoden says it just before the battle of Helm’s deep begins.

- “You bow to no one” is said by Aragorn at the end of the Return of the King after his coronation.

- Orynth has white walls and is surrounded by snow capped peaks. It has large white walls and bears an unusually striking resemblance to Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings.

- Aelin’s journey mirrors that of Aragorn. The lost heir to a powerful throne, spends years in the wilderness denying their claim, joins forces with the elf/faes to reclaim it and has an immortal elf/fae as consort.

- Nehemia names Aelin ‘Elentiya’, saying, “I give you this name to use with honour, to use when other names grow too heavy. I name you Elentiya, ‘Spirit That Could Not Be Broken’.” It sounds similar in tone and cadence to the way Galadriel describes the light of Earendil to Frodo. The name Elentiya even sounds Elvish, and sits discordant with the other naming conventions in Eyllwe.

- Manon gathers the witches to go to war by starting a series of beacons, lit all across Erilea, from snow-capped mountains to the woodlands - directly from the Return of the King when Pippin helps Gondor call for aid.

- The wall defences of Orynth are completely sound, except there’s one more way in, through a grate in the water canal - another striking resemblance to a place in Lord of the Rings known as Helm’s Deep. There is even a scene where someone asks if there’s a secret passage the women and children can escape through.

- In EoS and ToD, Chaol is referred to as “Hand of the King”. In GoT the “Hand of the King” is a title given to the King’s advisor.

- The speech that Haldir gave when he arrived in Helm’s Deep, uniting the elven and human forces, is paraphrased at least three times in this book. Most notably when Manon brings the Crochan witches to fight alongside the humans. She actually says “Long ago, Crochans and humans fought side by side…”

- Kingsflame blossoms bloom only when a kingdom is at peace and the rightful monarch is on the throne. Also a very similar plot point to the White Tree of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings.

- The dam breaking in Anielle and flooding is based on the Isengard dam breaking in The Two Towers.

- Chaol crosses the Narrow Sea to get to the southern continent. In GoT the Narrow Sea is the body of water between Westeros and Essos.

- The “Wyrdkeys” are the Silmarils. There are 3 Wyrdkeys and 3 Silmarils. They’re ancient and powerful stones forged by a being of great power (Feanor, who made the Silmarils, was the most powerful elf of all time). Everyone is fighting over them. And just like one Wyrdkey eventually ends up in the Terrasen Amulet, one of the Silmarils ends up in a necklace called the Nauglamir. They’re also all destroyed/lost at the end.

- Kingdom of Ash, page 543: “It was not arrows alone that had been fired, and now peppered the snow.But heads. Human heads, many still in their helmets.” In Return of the King, the orcs catapult severed heads (still in their helmets) over the walls of Minas Tirith.

- “What say you, Queen of Witches?”…….“I shall answer Terrasen’s call.” is a blatant rip-off of the scene where Aragorn approaches Theoden after the beacons are lit in the Return of the King.

- Rowan is referred to as, “My friend through many dangers.” which is exactly what Gandalf says about Shadowfax, his horse, in Lord of the Rings.

- The Land before Time, 1988: ‘Some things you see with your eyes. Other things you see with your heart.’

Crown of Midnight, SJM, 2011: ‘Some things you hear with your eyes. Other things you hear with your heart.’

- ‘Spirit that could not be broken’ is seen in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Throne of Glass (2011).

- It’s possible that SJ/M may have plagiarised Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study(?) (published 2005). Both books begin with the heroine being released from prison and being offered the choice to be freed by working for the very rulers who’d imprisoned them. Also, Valek - Yelena’s love interest - is the greatest and most feared assassin in the country and also acts as a mentor to Yelena much like Rowan does in Heir of Fire. However, I think this is a questionable addition despite similarities because SJ/M began writing Queen of Glass in 2003 and all the aforementioned aspects that are similar were already present in the version she published online.

- S/JM has saved a pin of Connor Kenway from the Assassin's Creed series (AC3) as Rowan and Lorcan on Pinterest. Towards the end of the series they started using hatchets as weapons, which is Connor's choice of weapon, outside of swords, and is used heavily in art which features him. Aelin's assassin suit from the earlier books also had a blade built into it, which was very similar to the hidden blade the assassins in Assassin's Creed use.

Further reading: Why not everyone liked Connor’s characteristic traits being ripped off: https://dragonidk.tumblr.com/post/614614548495859712/i-went-through-sjms-tog-pinterest-board-the-other

Further reading: An article comparing EoS’s ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: https://thebookfinch.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/review-empire-of-storms-by-sarah-j-maas-in-which-we-discuss-plagiarism/

A/COTAR

- “Prythian”, the A/COTAR world, is taken directly from Anne Bishop’s Daughter of the Blood.

- The Archeron sisters could be based off the painting “The Acheson Sisters” by John Singer Sargent which features three women.

- The Illyrians could have been based off of the Eyriens from Anne’s Bishop’s Black Jewels series. Both are warrior races with bat wings that use a war blade to fight with. They also both completely refuse their women any right to fight and consider losing their wings to be the absolute worst thing that could happen to them.

- Feyre tells Tamlin, “The sun was shining when I left you.” which is basically Paris saying, “The sun was shining when your wife left you.” in the movie Troy (2004)

- Rhys proclaims, “Light can be found even in the darkest of hells,” Which is really close to Dumbledore saying (in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

- Daenerys: “We’re going to leave the world better than we found it.”

ACOWAR: “Leave this world… a better place than how you found it.”

- “Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.” is a variation of “Pity the living and above all, those who live without love,” said by Dumbledore in the Deathly Hallows.

- A Dance of Dragons, George R.R. Martin, 2011: ‘He is fire made flesh, she thought, and so am I.’

ACOMAF, 2016: ‘Fire - he reminded her of fire made flesh.’

- SJ/M may have also plagiarised The Chronicles of Prydain for ACOTAR wherein Prythian is altered to Prydain and The Cauldron is derived from The Black Cauldron. This may be especially true considering the fact that SJ/M has expressed her love for the books and stated it on Twitter. She also went on to mention that she got the name for Prythian from those books. Similarities to the cauldron can also be seen in the fact that SJ/M’s Cauldron can transform humans into fae while Alexander's Black Cauldron is able to resurrect the dead.

!!!! Further Reading: Noticeable similarities between ACOTAR and The Chronicles of Prydain series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Prydain

- Possible plagiarism(?) of Titanic: Rose is Feyre, Cal is Tamlin, Jack is Rhys. The story is similar - the girl is involved with a guy who seems nice enough, but turns out to be abusive etc. There are similar incidents of the table being chucked across the room/and the study being destroyed. Then you also have the girl being told the other guy isn't nice and she should stay away from him, but then it ends up being the other way round. The guy bosses her about, making her decisions for her and ends up dying for her later on.

- Rhapsody by Laura Thalassa and A/COTAR have awfully similar tropes. Both involve faeries, in both the main female lead leaves her barbaric boyfriend to go with the dark, elegant Fae boyfriend who came to collect a debt.

Further reading: A conversation in comparing The Vampire Diaries(?) to ACOTAR: https://crescentcitysux.tumblr.com/post/618622356795064320/iolanthepeverells-pokeyfaes

Further reading: Similarities between Shatter Me and the ACOTAR trilogy: https://discountalien-pancake.tumblr.com/post/174823303683/dont-take-this-as-an-attack-im-just

C/RESCENT CITY

- Similarities between the plot of Darkfever by Karen Marie Morning (an author S/JM likes) and Crescent City’s plot: https://polysorscha.tumblr.com/post/183661492639/funny-thing-i-came-across-the-crescent-city

- The Princes of Hel might be from the Seven Princes of Hell demonology (some ancient writings trying to classify demons in christianity). [MINOR INFRACTION]

Sources:

- @sjm-exposed

- @soartfullydone

- @falstaffing for “My friend through many dangers.”

- https://readatmidnight.com/2018/10/27/book-rant-kingdom-of-ash/

- strangestoryteller.com

- https://camryndaytona.com/2019/08/sarah-j-maas-and-jrr-tolkien

- @rougeam for “fire made flesh”

- @sylphene for Aerin firehair

- @sylphene and @paperbacktrash for The Chronicles of Prydain.

- An anon for the Laura Thalassa comparison

- @hireath24 for the Crown of Midnight quote and “spirit that could not be broken.”

- @pokeyfaes and @iolanthepeverells for The Vampire Diaries comparison

- A reddit thread for the Titanic comparison

- An anon for the Eyrians

- An anon and @dragonidk for the Assassin’s Creed addition

- @longsightmyth for Fireheart

#anti sjm #anti tog #anti acotar #anti ccity

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starwarsnonsense · 5 years ago

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Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2020

Now I’ve got my embarrassingly late ‘Best of 2019′ list out of the way, I can finally proceed to the list that’s probably more exciting - my most anticipated films of 2020!

This list excludes films that have already been screened at festivals (otherwise, stuff like Saint Maud would be here). It’s also somewhat analogous to groping about for a light switch in the dark - these lists very rarely accurately predict my ultimate favourites for the year, so it’s more of a fun speculative exercise. Hopefully this puts some intriguing-looking films on your radar for the year ahead!

1. Dune (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

Plot: The story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people.

Why be excited? The reasons to be excited about Dune should be pretty self-evident - it’s directed by one of the greatest filmmakers working today (Villeneuve’s Incendies and Blade Runner 2049 are all-timers for me), and is based on one of the best science-fiction novels ever written. The cast - Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, and more - is absolutely stacked with talent. There’s every reason to believe that this will be something special, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Villeneuve is the man responsible for filling that Star Wars-shaped hole in the December release schedule.

2. Annette (dir. Leos Carax)

Plot: A stand-up comedian (Adam Driver), and his opera singer wife (Marion Cotillard), have a two-year-old daughter with a surprising gift.

Why be excited? You may not have heard of him, but Leos Carax is one of the most exciting directors working - he only makes around one film a decade, but the films he does make tend to be very special. I’ve only seen one film of his - Lovers on the Bridge - but that was filled with such ecstatic romance and wondrous visuals that it made me tremendously excited for Annette. Annette is a top-to-bottom musical with songs by American duo Sparks (if you know them for anything, it will be ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us’), and said songs will be delivered by Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. It goes without saying that both actors are extremely talented performers with great voices (see Driver in Marriage Story and Cotillard in Nine for evidence), and I’m looking forward to seeing how they demonstrate their talents here.

3. Last Night in Solo (dir. Edgar Wright)

Plot: A young girl (Thomasin McKenzie), passionate in fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer (Anya Taylor-Joy). But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences.

Why be excited? I’m not the biggest Edgar Wright fan, but I admire him greatly and the premise of Last Night in Soho is like cat-nip to me. Speaking to Empire, Wright explained the story as follows: “I’m taking a premise whereby you have a character who, in a sort of abstract way, gets to travel in time. And the reality of the decade is maybe not what she imagines. It has an element of ‘be careful what you wish for’.” I’m a sucker for a good, old-fashioned high concept, especially when said films play with genre and really challenge the viewer. The two female leads - Thomasin McKenzie (JoJo Rabbit, Leave No Trace) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Emma) - are among the very best young actors working today, and the supporting cast features absolute legends such as Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp. Whether it’s successful or not, this film feels like a genuinely original prospect and I’m eager to see how it turns out.

4. The Green Knight (dir. David Lowery)

Plot: A fantasy re-telling of the medieval tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Why be excited? There has been a sad lack of films based on mythology in recent years - or, to be more accurate, there has been a sad lack of films that attempt to honour what the myths were actually trying to convey. The stunning trailer for Green Knight promises a film that genuinely engages with its source material, and is just as interested in the psychological truths of the tale as the spectacle of its fantastical scenarios. Dev Patel is an extremely talented actor coming off another great movie in The Personal History of David Copperfield, and the supporting cast (Alicia Vikander!) appear to be fully committed to their parts. I’m excited to see a true myth on the big screen again, and David Lowery (A Ghost Story, The Old Man & The Gun) can be trusted to give an old tale a new sense of vitality.

5. The French Dispatch (dir. Wes Anderson)

Plot: The staff of a European publication decides to publish a memorial edition highlighting the three best stories from the last decade: an artist sentenced to life imprisonment, student riots, and a kidnapping resolved by a chef.

Why be excited? It’s a Wes Anderson movie! Of course I’m excited! In all seriousness, the trailer was all I needed to get hyped about this. It’s clearly Anderson’s quintessential style, but it also shows flashes of some very bold and striking compositions (yes, I’m thinking of Chalamet on the back of that motorcycle) that you wouldn’t necessarily think of in relation to him. I’m intrigued by the prospect of there being stories nested within a story, which feels like the perfect choice for the structure of a film about a newspaper. The cast features all of Anderson’s old favourites (Swinton! Murray! McDormand!), as well as some exciting new additions (Timothée Chalamet, Elisabeth Moss, Christoph Waltz, among others) that feel so well-suited to his style it’s surprising they haven’t worked together before. Bring on all those immaculately composed shots and exquisite colour palettes.

6. Tenet (dir. Christopher Nolan)

Plot: Unknown. The project is described as an action epic revolving around international espionage.

Why be excited? I hate to sound repetitive, but ... it’s a Christopher Nolan movie. That alone is enough to be hyped about this. Details of the plot are vague for now, but the teaser suggests the sort of intelligent, high-concept film-making we’ve come to expect from Nolan. John David Washington - who impressed in BlacKkKlansman - is a great choice for the lead, and I also love that Tenet will feature Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki (among my favourite actors) in prominent roles. There’s not much else to say given how little we know about this, but suffice to say I’ll be there on day one!

7. Wonder Woman 1984 (dir. Patty Jenkins)

Plot: Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) comes into conflict with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in the 1980s and finds a formidable foe by the name of the Cheetah (Kristen Wiig).

Why be excited? The original Wonder Woman was an absolute delight, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Patty Jenkins is back to continue Diana’s story. The decision to pick up with Diana in the 1980s is most intriguing (and paves the way for all kinds of exciting choices when it comes to the music and the fashions), especially since it looks like the film is actually going to explore the implications of being an immortal being in a mortal world.

8. Raya and the Last Dragon (dir. Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins)

Plot: A lone warrior from the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra teams up with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the Last Dragon and bring light and unity back to their world.

Why be excited? The animation scene in 2020 looks kind of ... blah at the moment, with the notable exception of Raya and the Last Dragon. The setting was described by the film’s producer as "a reimagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization that venerated the mythical dragons for their power and their wisdom”, and that alone is enough to fire up my imagination. Off the back of Moana and the Frozen films (which I all unabashedly love), I trust Disney Animation to instil this with plenty of colour and verve.

9. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (dir. Charlie Kaufman)

Plot: An unexpected detour turns a couple’s road trip into a terrifying journey through their fragile psyches.

Why be excited? Directed by Charlie Kaufman (writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), I’m Thinking of Ending Things is based on a prize-winning novel. However, despite the pedigree the main reason I’m looking forward to this is Jessie Buckley. Buckley gave a star-making performance in Beast a few years ago, and has since proven herself an actor of immense talent and skill (see Wild Rose for proof of what a powerhouse she is). I’m excited to see her career continue to go from strength to strength, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things seems poised to be a great showcase for her.

10. The Last Duel (dir. Ridley Scott)

Plot: King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) settle his dispute with his squire (Adam Driver) by challenging him to a duel.

Why be excited? Ridley Scott is a bit of a mixed bag for me, and has never come close to reaching the heights of Alien and Blade Runner with his recent work. Nonetheless, against my better judgement I can’t help but be excited by the prospect of a medieval epic with Scott at the helm. The acting talent attached to The Last Duel is top-notch, and I’m particularly fond of Jodie Comer (of Killing Eve fame) and Adam Driver (do you really need me to say more?). There’s a very real danger of the highly sensitive plot (the ‘dispute’ at the heart of the story concerns an accusation of rape, the truth of which is to be determined with a duel) being mishandled by Scott, but the involvement of screenwriter Nicole Holofcener gives me some hope. This could turn out to be a misfire, but my hope is that it will, at the very least, be interesting.

#dune #annette #last night in soho #green knight #the french dispatch #timothee chalamet #Adam driver #jessie buckley #the last duel #i'm thinking of ending things #raya and the last dragon #wonder woman 1984 #tenet #films #2020 in film #cinema

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verecunda · 4 years ago

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The ancient history tag

Tagged by @pythionice. Thankee, dear! :) This has been sitting half-done in my drafts for ages - sorry! x__x

1. The Stone Age: One of the first books you ever remember reading.

The first one that springs to mind is this huge book of nursery rhymes. I can’t remember the exact title or who collected them, but each one had really fantastic illustrations. Every page was so bright and colourful. And now I think about it, Bobby Shaftoe looked suspiciously Nelson-like. ;)

2. Ancient Greece: Your favourite myth inspired book.

Right now, I’m gonna have to say Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff. She does such a masterful job of paring away the later medieval trappings of the Arthur legend and setting him in the immediately post-Roman period. Despite going for a gritty, realistic take, without Merlin and the fantasy elements, she imbues the story with so much raw folkloric symbolism that it still feels like great myth all by itself. (Admittedly, a lot of this symbolism is drawn from older theories ie. Margaret Murray, which are largely discredited today, but in terms of the cosmology of the fictional universe, it’s so expertly woven in and coherent, and resonates so wonderfully through the story, that it works.)

3. Roman Empire: A book that features an impressive Empire or a Kingdom.

I'm not long after finishing Cinder by Marissa Meyer (a rec from my sister @fandom-butterfly). It’s a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella, set in the futuristic Eastern Commonwealth, a conglomerate of former Asian nations ruled by an emperor based at New Beijing. There’s also a kingdom on the moon, ruled by mysterious beings (evolved humans? I’m not quite sure yet) who have the power to manipulate human minds.

I enjoyed it a lot. The characters are cute, there’s some good banter, the anime influence is very present (the author’s notes at the end indicate that Meyer is/was in the Sailor Moon fandom, and it shows!), and the fairytale elements are woven in nicely to the sci-fi setting. There’s a good amount of intrigue too, which I imagine is only going to get thicker, since this book is the first in a series.

There’s also a major subplot about a deadly global pandemic, which... yeah.

4. The Middle Ages: A book that is an absolute bummer (positive or negative).

I had to wrack my brains a bit for an answer to this, because I don’t generally read books that look set to be a bummer. Tragic, yes. Devastating, absolutely, but I’m not a fan of books that just make you go :| What’s the point of that?

That said, coming back to Rosemary Sutcliff, I’m going to say The Shining Company. You know what the end is going to be, but even when it comes, I felt the book lacked Sutcliff’s usual poignancy - that theme of hope and healing despite great loss and pain, of the lantern being carried forward into the dark, that usually makes her books so emotional. I think, too, the fact that I never got hugely attached to any of the characters meant that the final twist wasn’t as devastating as it should have been. So it was pretty much just a bummer.

(As you can probably tell, this is my least favourite Sutcliff novel.)

5. Renaissance: A book that you have learned a lot from OR a book that made you think a lot.

This is a strangely hard one to answer! I read and mine through lots of history books for research purposes, so I’m always learning some new fact or anecdote or other. But books that have rocked me to the core and made me re-evaluate fundamental truths... um... nothing recent springs to mind. (Which probably tells you everything you need to know about the sort of literature I consume, but... ehhhh.)

So - a history book rec it is! The Victorian House, by Judith Flanders. It’s a lovely big doorstopper absolutely crammed full of fascinating stuff. She takes you round a typical Victorian terraced house room by room, and by doing so explores how Victorian daily life, upstairs and downstairs, was acted out in these rooms. It’s a brilliant book, eminently readable, full of fascinating information about how domestic life was theorised and compartmentalised in the Victorian mind. It’s great stuff.

6. The Enlightenment: A book about knowledge, science, discovery, or exploration.

Admittedly it’s been a while since I delved into this particular corner of the Age of Sail, but as I recall, Richard Hough’s biography of James Cook was really good for this, setting his life and voyages in the context of the scientific history - advances in geographical and astronomical knowledge, development of accurate measures of timekeeping, cartography, navigation, etc., etc. (which in turn spirals out into the history of trade- and empire-building, etc.) Just... yeah, there was a lot going on in that book.

7. The Industrial Revolution: A book featuring an invention or a concept that you would love to have in your own life.

Gosh, I don’t know! I hardly read any sci-fi, so I can’t think of any books featuring technology or anything that I really wish existed in my own life.

8. World War I. and II.: Your favourite historical fiction book featuring either of the world wars.

I love Carrie’s War - I reread it last year and it was just as great as I remembered! - but even though I don’t think it technically counts as historical fiction, the WW book that has had the most enduring effect on me is definitely All Quiet on the Western Front. There are so many scenes and passages that I remember so clearly (often more clearly than I’d like).

9. Present day: A book you think everybody should read in present day.

I really don’t know what this means. I don’t think there’s such a thing as one book that everybody should read. Apart from like, Shakespeare. Everyone should try Shakespeare at some point. On your own, out of school.

Not sure how many people I’m meant to tag, but here goes: @themalhambird, @drusilla-951, @vicivefallen, @bryndeavour, @ciceros-ghost, @seaglassandeelgrass.

#meme #books!

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mystofthestars · 5 years ago

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Thanks for the tag @blackandwhitemotley ! I’m not good at picking faves but let’s see what I can do.

Favourite RotE Book: The Liveship Traders trilogy and Fool’s Fate. (I am not good at picking just one fave okay)

Why: Liveships - the concept of the liveships itself is so original and cool. These books have: Amber, sea adventures, willful ships who love drama, pirates, sea serpents with cool lore, DRAGONS, Kennit, Amber, one of the characters with the coolest character development I’ve ever seen (Malta), amazing female characters, incredible characters in general, BINGTOWN which I love, mysterious magic and ancient ruins and tree cities, and of course Amber. ....aaaand I’m sorry to say that the 3rd person POV helps it here for me. I did my share of crying in Liveships but being out of Fitz’s mind helped the rhythm of the books and, in general, I was happier reading this and the Rainwilds series, without Fitz’s gloomy attitude to spoil all the fun. Sorry Fitz. Also did I mention Amb-

Fool’s Fate - so much for being glad of getting rid of Fitz’s gloomy attitude ahah - I’m probably a masochist and, although this book delivered some real pain, it was the good kind of pain. Plus, it was really Beloved-centered and Beloved is my absolute fave, so.

Top Three Favourite Characters: The Fool, Amber, Belov- Seriously speaking, though, Beloved is above being my favorite character. My feelings for them go beyond a top three faves list orz.

Still, it’s so hard to pick only 3 faves for 16 books?! So, to name a few: Patience, Kettricken, Verity, Malta, Paragon, Alise, Sedric, Rapskal, Nighteyes, Motley.

...I did not name Fitz because being so much inside his head makes perspective change. I think he’s an incredible character but I also think the relationship between him and the reader makes it hard to simply put him in a top 3 list or the like.

Top Three Least Favourite Characters: Starling, Starling I couldn’t stand. She was rude to the Fool so get out of here woman. Thymara and Tats weren’t my faves either.

Favourite Ship (of the floating kind): Paragon sure, but Tarman and Ophelia too.

Top Three Favourite Ships (of the people kind): Erek and Detozi because hands down, best romantic story out there. Molly and Burrich - I cried when they got together. They were happy together and we all know both of them deserved it and were perfect for each other. Fitz and Kettricken - now, let’s talk about real stuff here: those two could have had it all. Think about the Six Duchies (or seven) with them at their lead. Damn.

Again, Fitz and the Fool is just something else, I can’t really put it in a top 3 list. Their dynamics made me laugh, killed me with tenderness, made me so angry I could barely read the book any further, made me cry out of sadness and out of frustration. But it’s Fitz and the Fool. They are as one and their love is so multifaceted and complicated and yet simple that it’s almost pointless to describe it.

Would you rather be Witted or Skilled: knowing myself, I’d be witted, but hey being skilled would be amazing. The piss trick would save me from so many situations.

If you were Witted, what animal would you bond with?: I don’t know. I’m open to whoever wants to bond with me I guess.

Would you rather live in the Outislands, the Mountain Kingdom, the Six Duchies, Bingtown, the Rain Wilds, Kelsingra, Jamaillia, the Pirate Isles, or Fool’s Homeland?: I love Bingtown!!! It’s one of the coolest fantasy cities I’ve ever encountered.

How were you introduced to the books? Robin Hobb came to Italy at Lucca Comics&Games last fall and I signed in to go listen to a presentation she made. I had not read anything by her so I thought I should at least read Assassin’s Apprentice. However, I managed to read only the first chapters - the rhythm was slow and I was very busy at that moment, so I put it away for later. Later came in January and I told myself, I’m gonna finish this and then read something else. I was engrossed by the end of AA, and hopelessly lost to the series somewhere along Royal Assassin. I couldn’t out it down until the very end.

Share a quote you love: I loved all the quotes by Beloved, all of them. I’ve bookmarked them, too. Let’s go with “Tomorrow owes you the sum of your yesterdays. No more than that. And no less.”

(Special mention goes to the “you are confusing plumbing and love again”, all those conversations in Assassin’s Quest are just brilliant.)

I tag whoever wasn’t tagged yet and comes across this and wants to share some RotE love :D

#rote #realm of the elderlings #elderlings #meme

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iwritethat · 6 years ago

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Fantasy AU

Dick Grayson: Forbidden

A/N: The final one albeit late! My apologies but here you go.

Warnings: None???

>>>>——————————>

Being a noble maiden of the kingdom was strenuous, being the Princess of Ravaryn made it even more so. With aspects of being the 'perfect' daughter and influential figure added to your shoulders it was no wonder you had phases of rebellion.

If anything the King should be grateful you even showed up to the ball, the congregation of available Princesses and Duchesses also looking for a husband in their expensive flowing gowns and beautiful features maintained the fleeting attention of various suitable noblemen. The amount of suitors that had tried their luck was credit to your beauty enough, but you were not naive, it was the title they desired and they'd probably have the women they'd flirted with prior as mistresses during your union anyway. Alas, to appease the masses you played nice and observed almost all guests throw themselves at members of the Wayne family, Dick Grayson in particular. Admittedly you found him attractive, but he could have a flock of women with simply a smile - it's been that way since you were young. Although in your previous brief encounters, he was always so genuine - you recalled him informing the young ladies that he was from the circus, hoping that'd rid him of the crushing admiration they 'apparently' held for his handsome features and it worked, all lost interest except you who only grew more intrigued. That's why you associated so often despite your father forbidding such a union, his past and lack of true royal blood didn't change how you viewed him unlike other monarchs. Even as you matured, it was difficult to keep your distance from one another, carefully avoiding your families informants and suspicion of other Nobles when doing so. Though currently, you'd managed to sneak out of the ball undetected opting to change into clothing more fitting of your disapproving destination.

It wasn't uncommon for you to be seen wandering the streets and many of the townsfolk favoured you because of your friendly attitude toward all beings regardless of species or wealth. So when you burst into your local bar, a wave of cheers and greetings sounded from friends that were deemed unworthy to attend the Palace event.

"Hit me with my usual~" You sung once reaching the ancient oak bar, the Faun bartender pleased with your regular business automatically slid over your favourite alcoholic beverage and proudly leaned over the counter to talk to you like always.

"I saved some for you Princess, knew you'd be in tonight or at least I sure hoped so. And by the way, Happy Birthday!" At his last sentence, the whole pub sparked to life with 'Merlin' the mage illuminating the warmly lit area in an array of morphing sparks and colours that delighted the senses, the iconic noir grand piano of the Inn belted upbeat music accompanied by the rest of the jazzy band which set rhythm into people's feet with your friends and locals dancing together. Laughter surrounded you with occasionally out of tune vocals echoing over the music as everyone enjoyed the surprise party as well as some humorous shenanigans encouraged by the constant serving of alcoholic beverages.

"Hah - bet our celebration is a lot better than that fancy pants gig you came from huh your highness?" The young Blacksmith grinned, offering you a tastefully crafted dagger by his own hand as a gift.

"You- you all remembered? I thought-" You couldn't even expressed your gratitude properly but they understood.

"Of course we did, as mates of yours we weren't distracted with getting you a husband like those nobles are. Now c'mon, enjoy your birthday your Majesty!" The faun enticed, lightly herding you off of your barstool before a handsome villager pulled you into the fray, you danced with them, next being spun into a witch coven who wished you well, your feet were non stop, being met with the paces of werewolves to vampires to townsfolk each twirling, dancing and offering you their blessings and suddenly the music halted with your new partner.

You turned into him, the man who caught you by the waist thus silencing all surrounding you by appearance alone. By the rich texture of his clothing and the golden medals adorning his chest you knew he wasn't local.

"So you thought you could leave all by yourself? Not very smart of you my Queen." His voice was smooth, tone knowing that he had one over on you with a playful spunk to it.

The accurate nickname was the giveaway but you gazed into the sparking sapphires of Dick Grayson anyway, taking the time to remove your hands from his chest.

"Don't call me that yet - shouldn't you be looking for a wife or something?"

"Oi oi your Majesty! The mans' calling you his Queen, don't that mean you're his wife?!" Instantly, one of the ale mugs was shot across the Inn courtesy of your favourite Faun, hitting the Blacksmith square on the skull thus knocking him out cold much to your relief.

"Well... I knew you were strange (Y/n) but I didn't expect to see you in a place like this." Dick commented, overlooking the less than regal scenery.

"Oh really? What's wrong with it? Aside from drunkards jumping to conclusions obviously..." The last part was muttered in a sheepish manner but the defensiveness in your tone was admired by your friends.

"Nothing, it's awesome!" The pure happiness in his voice surprised you somewhat, as well as the rest of the guests but you could tell they’d already accepted him.

"...You're not like the others are you Dick Grayson?"

"It takes one to know one (Y/n) (L/n). Anyway I saw you disappear and I couldn't exactly let you leave without me so..." He trailed off, almost embarrassed as he spoke which indicated he was hiding something and with an expectant look he would tell you.

"..."

"Okay to be honest the Ball was super boring and I only attended to hang out with you but you disappeared, plus this party seemed pretty sweet."

"What I can I say? My friends know how to entertain." You laughed, guiding him to a quiet secluded corner booth where drinks were served as you sat down to catch your breath.

"I agree, but you're not going to find any approved suitors here."

"Ah yes, I'm missing out on the blissful marriage to some aristocrat I may not even like in hopes of making the rich richer. He'll probably only cheat on me anyway, and so I doubt I'm missing out on much.” You offhandedly shrugged, taking a sip of your beverage.

"Ah you might be right but we're not all bad, for the record if I were allowed to marry you, it wouldn't be for my Kingdom, nor for the Royal Courts. They would matter but those duties would fall second to you, you'd be my one and only - forget mistresses or whatever they'd expect me to indulge in." It was reassuring to know that you both agreed with one another, despite this opinion most likely being frowned upon by the King.

"It would be the same for me if I were to ever have the pleasure of marrying you, you'd be the one thing I'd truly love more than anything. You'd come first."

"Maybe that's the real reason we're forbidden to marry, because it would be for love and not power." The male spoke truthfully, sheepishly running a hand through his raven hair.

"Are you saying you love me?" Your voice held a degree of mischievous merit, amused at the position you found yourselves in.

"That depends, are you saying you'd want to marry me?" Dick matched your tone, equally pleased with your wit.

“YOUR MAJESTY!”

Instantly you were on your feet, conversation long forgotten and curious glare directed at the Royal Guards situated at the Bar entrance.

“You’re with - It matters not, your father has ordered your return but under these circumstances, we are to place you both under arrest.” At his statement, the bar fell into silence and you knew that your friends would be willing to fight the Guards for you with no hesitation - you lowly raised your hand, a respectful nod sent to the Faun who immediately understood, they were not to involve themselves in this, those were your orders.

“You can’t, I forbid it!”

“I regret to inform you that the Kings commands outrank yours. By far.”

Your expression hardened at their honest explanation despite a majority of the group watching over you since birth, Dick placed a careful palm on your waist leaning to whisper in your ear.

“I can take them, all you must do is ask.”

Instantly your gaze softened as it locked with his crystal ones, you knew he was perfectly capable but that would only make the situation worse.

“No, I won’t let you get in more trouble.”

“Step away from the Princess immediately!” The lead Guard demanded due to your close proximity, sword pointed in your general direction. You were aware how your father hated the bonds you shared with an ‘unworthy’ suitor but this was ridiculous.

However, Dick obeyed albeit reluctantly - on the other hand, you weren’t as disciplined when it came to your fathers orders. As a result you pulled him toward you, hands placed on his chest before gently reaching one to his neck to bring his lips to meet yours with more passion than there should have been. You pulled away, both of you exchanging meaningful looks before turning your attention back to your loyal guards.

“What if I want him as close as possible?” Your words held mischief, playing with idea of taunting your father through the guards who no doubt would diverse the event in full detail.

“Then we shall arrest you... My apologies your majesty.” And they did just that, separating the two of you with their weapons before escorting you out of the bar with little resistance as you laughed under the flurry of witty remarks courtesy of Dick Grayson.

“So my Queen, I’ll take our current situation as a yes to my previous question?” His time was charming yet held underlying sincerity.

“Yes! Of course it is, how could I say no to a man like you my love?” Yours more sarcastic but truthful none the less as the Guard urged you toward the carriage.

“Then I promise I’ll do it properly once we’re out of this mess (Y/n).”

“I look forward to it.” You gave him a wink as you we’re seated opposite one another in the carriage - no doubt on the way to face the wrath of your father.

Together.

#dc #dc imagine #dick grayson #nightwing #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson x reader #fantasy au #au #alternate universe

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loretranscripts · 5 years ago

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Lore Episode 129: Digging Deep (Transcript) - 11th November, 2019

tw: ghosts, human remains

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

The construction was called to a stop the moment they found the bones. The work crew was preparing a building site along one of London’s many ancients streets when they uncovered what appeared to be a body – or, at least, the remains of one. It was clearly old, given that nothing but bones could be seen beneath the dirt, so a team of archaeologists was brought in to preserve and study the remains. In the end, they determined that the bones belonged to a teenage girl who had lived in London over 1600 years ago – a Roman girl. It’s not the last time something like that has happened in this city. During some development work near Spitalfields Market in the 1990s, a work crew uncovered what turned out to be an entire Roman cemetery. Among the finds was a perfectly preserved lead coffin, its lid covered in beautiful artwork that had been hammered right into the surface, still visible, all these centuries later.

And that’s the way history tends to work – time will bury it under new and current events. But if we dig deep enough, and brush away the soil, we can come face to face with it all over again. The past never truly goes away, after all. It’s there, waiting to be discovered, so that we can study it and relearn the stories it contains. Oftentimes, though, the things that leave the deepest marks tend to be the most tragic and painful, events that rattled people to their core and left a shadow on the history of a place that no amount of sunlight could ever chase away, and the older the city, the more common those shadows tend to be. Which is why I want to take you on a tour of one of the oldest, because while the past is always nearby in our modern world, few places allow it to dwell so close to the present as the city of London. Its past is both a treasury of historic significance and crypt full of the darkest tragedies we could ever imagine. Because in a city filled with so much light, there’s bound to be some shadows. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

London is ancient, there’s really no other way to say it. Most Americans live in a community that’s less than 200 years old. If you’re in New England or one of the other places with roots in pre-colonial America, perhaps those locations go back a bit further, but London’s history makes all of those seem brand new by comparison. Archaeological work in London can place humans in the area as far back as 4500BC, but if we’re looking for a major settlement where it stands today, that didn’t happen until 47AD, when the Romans arrived and set up a community there that they called “Londinium”. Although from what we can tell, it didn’t last long, all thanks to a woman named Boudicca. As far as historians know, Boudicca was the wife of King Prasutagus, who ruled over an eastern British tribe known as the Iceni. When the Romans arrived in their territory in 43AD, they came to an arrangement with Prasutagus, allowing him to maintain control of his kingdom. When he died 17 years later, though, the Romans refused to acknowledge his widow as the new ruler, and instead invaded them to take the land for themselves. But they misjudged Boudica, assuming she was a quiet woman, incapable of ruling anything. Instead, she rallied a massive army of close to 100,000 warriors and then led them on a campaign against the Romans all over Britain. In 61AD, her army rolled over Londinium like a Sherman tank, burning the entire settlement to the ground. In fact, her campaign against them was so fierce and unstoppable that the Romans nearly left Britain altogether. But those who survived managed to rebuild, and within a handful of decades it had grown large enough to become capital of the entire province.

Over the years, the city continued to expand and mature, and even though the Romans left towards the beginning of the fifth century, the community there refused to die. By the 7th century, London had earned a reputation as a major trade centre, which brought in a steady flow of wealth and goods, and also turned the city into a political powerhouse. Of course, power and wealth has a way of making a community a target for others, and London was no exception. In 1066, William the Conqueror sailed across the English Channel and earned his nickname by taking control of the entire kingdom and making it his own – and, of course, special attention was paid to London. Within two decades, the population of the city had reached nearly 15,000, and by the 1300s that had multiplied to over 80,000.

But something unexpected was heading their way that would ravage that growing community, something mysterious and dangerous and seemingly unstoppable – the Black Death. What started as a plague in western Asia quickly spread to Europe, bringing death and destruction to every community it touched. By the time the Black Death had burned itself out, some historians estimate that upwards of two hundred million people were dead. The people of London lost at least 10,000 lives, most of whom were buried outside the city walls. It wouldn’t be the last time the city would face tragedy. In 1664, a fresh outbreak of the plague killed another 100,000 people, and then two years later, in September of 1666, a fire broke out in the house of a baker on Pudding Lane. It eventually spread west, destroying much of the city as it went, and while there were only six verified casualties, historians now think the fire burned hot enough to completely cremate those who were caught in it, making the true death toll anyone’s guess.

So much of London’s history was tragic and outside human control, but there have also been moments along the way that could only be blamed on the people who lived there. Jack the Ripper and the murders that took place in 1888 in the Whitechapel district of the city are always front and centre in most people’s minds. But there has been a lot more bloodshed than just those five innocent women. In fact, a lot of the city’s murder and violence could be found higher up the ladder, in the very chambers and homes of the people who held the power and wealth. It seemed that rather than being immune to the shadows that lingered in the city, even the powerful could fall under their spell. Because if there’s one thing the nobility of England’s past seem to attract more than anything else, it was pain and suffering and death.

We don’t need to look far to find bloody nobles. It sometimes feels as though all we have to do is open a history book and flip it to a random page. Life at the top was often a cutthroat game, both figuratively and literally, and anyone who found themselves in the orbit of a king or queen certainly understood that risk. A great example of how blood-thirsty the English kings could be was Henry VIII. Henry is known for a lot of things, not all of which are so great in retrospect. He expanded the power of the crown during his lifetime and based a lot of that on his belief in the divine right of kings, something that threatened the freedom of his people. He was greedy and vindictive and had an ego that was only surpassed in size by the codpiece on his armour. But if there is one thing that most people remember today about Henry VIII, it’s his many wives. Henry had six of them, half of whom were named Catherine, which must have made it a lot easier for him, I’m sure. Five of those six wives came and went within a single 10-year period in his life, but not all of those breakups were friendly. After having his first marriage annulled in 1533 and sparking the English Reformation and the country’s separation from the Catholic church, Henry married the sister of a former lover, a women named Anne Boleyn. Three years later, he had her executed for treason and adultery, but also possibly for failing to deliver a male heir.

The day after Anne’s beheading, Henry proposed to one of her ladies in waiting, Jane Seymour. They had apparently fallen in love months before, but Jane had managed to hold off Henry’s advances in the name of honour. Once the queen was dead, though, she was much more agreeable. They were married 10 days later. From everything I can tell, Henry believed that Jane Seymour was “the one” – he viewed her as his perfect queen, and when she gave birth to his first male heir a year later, he probably sighed with relief. The complications from the birth put her life at risk, and over the two weeks that followed she slowly declined. In October of 1537, Jane Seymour passed away. That had taken place at Hampton Court Palace, Henry’s favourite London residence. It was a mixture of a pleasure palace, a theatre and a royal home, so when Henry brought his next two wives through those doors over the next few years, they were probably bittersweet moments. A lot of joy would be possible there, but it would also sit in the shadows of a painful past. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard, made a fool of the king by conducting at least one less-than-secret affair. After learning about what she had done, Henry had Catherine arrested and thrown in a prison cell there, at the house. She was only 18 at the time, and I can’t imagine the fear and desperation she must have felt, being a prisoner of the most powerful man in the kingdom.

According to the stories, though, Catherine managed to slip away from her guards one day, while being walked through the palace. She bolted away and ran down one of the long galleries that led to the king’s chapel, where she knew Henry could be found. Her goal was probably to beg for forgiveness, to ask for mercy and to plead for her life. But the guards caught up to her before that could happen, and her screams of terror were the only thing to reach him. Catherine Howard was beheaded a short while later, and Henry moved onto a new wife, also named Catherine. But just because those former wives were gone, doesn’t mean they were forgotten. In fact, if the stories are true, they might have stuck around to serve as a cruel reminder. It’s said that even today, visitors to that long gallery in the palace have heard echoes of a woman screaming, a desperate, panicked cry that chills them to the bones. Others have heard the quick rhythm of footsteps, as if someone were running down the hallway. And in 1999, according to one source, two different tourists fainted in the gallery at different times on the very same day.

Elsewhere in Hampton Court Palace, other shadows have stuck around as well. In a room at the top of the staircase known as Silver Stick Stairs, multiple visitors have claimed to have seen the figure of a pale women. She stands silently, hovering slightly above the floor, with a mournful expression and vacant eyes. For those who have witnessed it, the spectre has been both calming and terrifying. Whether or not the visions are real, though, it’s fascinating to look at the true history of that room, because while it has been used for countless purposes over the last few centuries, one specific resident stands out above all the others. It was in this room, you see, that Henry VIII’s only male heir was born to his true love, Jane Seymour, and it was there, just two weeks later, that she passed away.

The old home, located on Berkeley Square, is a townhouse, just one of many in a long row of similar facades, but as far back as the mid-19th century, it was different enough to stand out from all the others. But before I continue with the legends, let me be clear that not a lot is known about the house’s origins, and a lot of stories have yet to be completely verified. Still, we know enough to make this a journey worth taking – so let’s get started. The majority of the tales begin with the man who owned the house back in the 1860s. Thomas Myers wasn’t the first to live there, but he was certainly the most infamous. It’s said that he had once been engaged to be married, but his fiancée eventually changed her mind and ended their relationship. Broken and distraught, he retreated into his house and was rarely ever seen again. Neighbours claim that the house would be dead during the day, only to come alive at night. It was as if Thomas had traded in the sunlight for the shadows, living the rest of his life during those moments when most of the world was asleep, and it might very well be whispers of the house all lit up at night that first gave birth to the rumour that it was haunted – but it could also have been what happened next.

Sometime around 1872, the house sold to a new family, and they moved in to clean up the home and make it their own. The couple had two daughters, both in their late teens, and there were precious few years left for the parents to enjoy life as a family in this new setting before they became empty-nesters. In the weeks that followed, though, the future crept in. The oldest of the two daughters became engaged to a young officer named Captain Kentfield, and conversation became filled with talk of wedding plans and guests lists. And at some point in their engagement, Captain Kentfield planned a visit, so the family set about preparing the attic bedroom for his arrival. According to the story, what happened next is still shrouded in mystery. The family maid was sent up to put the final touches on the fiancé’s room, and while she was up there, the family heard her scream. At once, everyone in the house rushed upstairs to see what had happened, only to find her lying on the floor, an expression of complete horror painted across her face. More mysterious yet was that she couldn’t seem to put a complete sentence together and was unable to answer any of the questions the family asked her. All the maid was able to do was mutter a low, cryptic refrain. “Don’t let it touch me. Don’t let it touch me”.

The maid was immediately taken to the hospital to recover, where I imagine someone observed her, and did their best to treat her rattled nerves, but other than that, there was little they could do. Sleep, they assumed, would be the best medicine. The following morning, though, she was found dead in her room. The fiancé arrived the next day, and after hearing the stories of the maid’s unexpected death, he decided to check the room out for himself. Maybe he was playing the brave soldier in front of his future in-laws in an effort to impress them, or perhaps his fiancée needed some reassurance and he wanted to calm her nerves. Whatever the reason, he climbed the stairs to the attic bedroom and declared that he would keep watch throughout the night. In the darkest hours of the morning, though, a gunshot pulled everyone from sleep, their hearts racing at the sound of it. Everyone climbed out of bed, threw on their night coats, and then rushed up to see what had happened. What they found, according to the legend, was the young captain, dead on the floor of his room, a victim of his own pistol.

In 1907, author Charles Harper wrote about the house in a book, and it was there that he declared it to be “the very picture of misery”. After the events that were said to have taken place there, it’s easy to wonder if the misery was in the structure or the lives who lived there. Either way, the stories we’ve heard so far shed a bright light on one more tale that Harper added to the legend. According to him, the next family to own the house moved in fully aware of the tragedies of the past. The owner was an older gentleman, who was said to be practical and not prone to stories of the supernatural. Still, he understood the power of suggestion a creepy old house with a dark past might have over him, so he set some rules for everyone to follow. After settling in with his family, he told them all that he would ring his bell to tell them if he ever truly needed help. If it was a moment of fright, he would only ring it once, which they were all instructed to ignore, but if matters were more pressing and he truly needed help, he would ring it twice, a signal that they were to immediately come to his room.

Everyone went to bed at the end of the evening, and while the night began peacefully, the quiet was broken around midnight by the loud chime of the old man’s bell, not once, but twice, which sent everyone rushing to see what might be the matter. What they found, though, weren’t answers. The old man was writhing in his bed, his face twisted by panic and fear. Just like the housemaid all those years before, he too couldn’t answer the questions that the others around him asked. He could only mutter and shake with horror at something no one else could see. After doing their best to help him, they calmed him enough to let him sleep, and everyone wandered back to their own rooms. They left his bell on the table beside his bed, hoping that he would remember how to use it if he needed them, but the remainder of the night was one, long stretch of unbroken silence. In the morning, they discovered why. After visiting the old man’s bedroom to check on him, one of his family members gently pushed the door open and peered inside. The shape in the bed was unmoving, and so they approached to wake him and see how he felt. But like those in the house before him, he too had passed away. A random coincidence of natural causes, or a demonstration of the power of fear?

There’s a lot about London that seems to echo the atmosphere of the house at 50 Berkeley Square. It’s a city painted in shadows, but it’s unclear if that darkness was always there, or if we imported it over the centuries. What’s clear is that almost from the start, tragedy and suffering has been a resident of this ancient city. Right back to the invasion of Boudica, nearly 2000 years ago, and up to its most modern challenges, the city of London has had to suffer through quite a bit, and that has a way of leaving a mark. Over the centuries, though, the city has always found ways to move on. New layers are added all the time, building the present on top of the past and slowly burying one dark moment beneath another – which is probably why London is one of those places where new construction always seems to bump into ancient things. If you dig deep enough, you’re guaranteed to find something. And look – London is a massive city, and while I did my best to cover some of its larger and more powerful stories, there are hundreds more that I had to leave untouched. Honestly, if you want to visit a haunted location in the city, just visit a local pub, like the Ten Bells, or the Flask, or the Spaniard Inn. If the stories are true, you’ll find a lot more than a pint of ale waiting for you inside.

But if there’s one mark on the pages of London’s history that is bigger than most, it’s hard to deny the power of the plague. If you remember, when the wave of disease washed over the city in 1665, it took two years to run its course, and in the process, it claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 people, and that was a lot of tragedy to deal with – on the personal and the public level. The biggest problem seemed to be what to do with all those corpses. We’ve all seen films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and can all remember lines like “bring out your dead”, and from what we can tell, that’s pretty close to how it actually would have been, a steady, daily flow of bodies out of the city, away from the places where people lived in the hope that it would stop the spread of the disease. And most of the bodies were carried outside the city limits. One such burial location was started by the Earl of Craven, who purchased a parcel of land west of the city for disposal of plague victims, and every night, for months on end, carts filled with rotting corpses were wheeled out onto his land and then dumped into the pits there. Over time, the place became known as the “Pest House Field,” and later it was named Gelding Close, but to be honest, few people actually went there. They were too afraid of what might happen if they got too close to the body of a plague victim or, heaven forbid, accidentally touch one. So, the burial plot, like so many others around the city, became a sort of no man’s land.

After years of waiting, the owners of the land eventually made the decision to use the property for development. London was growing, and there would always be a need for a new neighbourhood to settle in, so it was sold in pieces and developed into homes for the wealthy and elite to move away from the centre of the city. Gelding Close eventually became known as Golden Square, and today it’s a prominent feature in the SoHo area of London. But even though the name has changed and the landscape around it has been transformed, the past is still there, lingering in the shadows of modern life. In fact, more than a few visitors to the park and buildings that surround it have bumped into the past in a very real way. A few have seen the figures of people dressed in old-fashioned clothing slipping through the square at night, while most have caught the sound of wailing, as if someone were enduring horrible pain and suffering. But it’s not the specific things people have heard over the years that are the most terrifying aspect to these stories. No, it’s where they all claim the voices have come from. The sounds, they say, seem to emanate from right beneath their feet.

A city as old and historic as London is guaranteed to have a library of mysterious shadows and otherworldly experiences and I hope today’s tour has been a satisfying dip into that enormous pond, but I’m not done just yet. There’s one more legend from the city that I absolutely love, and if you stick around through the sponsor break, I plan to tell you all about it.

[Sponsor break from the Great Courses Plus, Squarespace and Fracture]

When you think of London, it’s easy to think of money. As far back as the Roman period of the city, there has been an overt focus on the financial industry. In about 240AD, for example, the Romans constructed a mithraeum, a temple devoted to the god Mithras. Some of the most common members of the cult of Mithras were merchants, traders, customs officials and politicians, all professions that revolved around the flow of money. But it didn’t end with the Romans. As the centuries ticked by, the people of London found new and better ways to manage money and build the economy. In the year 1100, King Henry I instituted a new system of currency that even the most illiterate and uneducated citizens of his kingdom could understand: the tally stick. It was essentially a polished wooden rod that had nicks carved into it to denote its value, and it was then split down the middle. The king kept one half, while the other was put into circulation in places like the city markets, and that’s where the system really shined. If anyone tried to change the value of the public half by adding another nick, they just needed to be compared to the other half kept safe by the crown.

But at the end of the 17th century, one of the biggest changes to the financial world of London was born: The Bank of England. It was created in 1694 to solve a tricky financial problem the government of England faced. They needed to build a massive navy to defend themselves but lacked the funds to do it. So, an elaborate system of lending and currency came to the rescue. A century later, The Bank of England was simply a way of life for the people of London. It had all the prestige and power that you might expect from a government-backed bank and had established a reputation for itself that has carried into the 21st century.

But I don’t want to give you a tour of the bank’s full history, I just want to tell you about one of their employees, a man named Philip Whitehead. Whitehead worked in the cashier’s office of The Bank of England in 1811. Everyone around him viewed him as a pillar of the establishment, a hard-working, respectable man who was charming and delightful with staff and customers alike. Except that’s not all he was. Philip was also a criminal. It turns out he had been forging bank documents for months, cheating the bank out of a slow trickle of money, and at some point in 1911, his misdeeds were discovered, and he was quickly arrested and sent off to prison. A few months later, in early 1812, Philip Whitehead hanged for his crimes, and the bank moved on.

Several weeks after Philip’s hanging, though, a woman came into the bank asking for him. She said her name was Sarah, but when she asked to speak with Philip Whitehead, she was simply told that he was out of the office on a business errand. The woman left disappointed but promised to be back at another time. The next time that she returned, he not only told them that her name was Sarah, but that she was Philip’s sister. She told them of how she had lost touch with her brother many months earlier, and that she had been desperate to find a way to reach him, and at some point, her story must have plucked at the heartstrings of just the right bank employee, because one of the men took her aside and told her the truth. Her brother was dead. It wouldn’t be Sarah’s last visit to the bank, though. The next time she returned, she was dressed all in black, with a black veil that covered her face.

She stepped into the lobby of the bank and asked to see her brother. Taking pity on the poor woman, and official at the bank pulled her aside, apologised for keeping his imprisonment and execution a secret, and offered a small settlement. It was a pay-off, of course, designed to keep her from disturbing the other customers, but I’m sure he sold it to her more as a salve for her aching heart. Either way, she accepted the money and then left. But she returned a few days later. Over and over again, Sarah Whitehead visited the bank, each time dressed in that black gown and veil. At first, her voice was nothing more than a whisper, but with each new visit her question became louder and more aggressive – “Where is my brother?” she continued to ask. Each of those visits ended with another small payment from the bank, but they weren’t a charity house, and eventually decided that enough was enough.

Pulling her aside one day, they handed her a massive settlement and told her never to return, and to her credit, Sarah Whitehead listened. She never again set foot inside the bank, although it’s said that she also never wore anything else but that black gown and dark veil. We don’t know how long Sarah lived after that – sometimes grief has a way of speeding up a person’s decline, while other times it seems to give them a reason to go on. But decades later, Sarah passed away, having spent the remainder of her life in a constant state of mourning for her dead brother. Legend says that the churchyard she chose for her burial was the one right next door to the bank. Maybe she wanted to keep an eye on them from the other world, or perhaps it just happened to be where she attended church. I like to think that it was the former, and that those that still worked at the bank and knew her story were aware of where she was buried. It’s very poetic, whether or not it was actually true.

But her story doesn’t end there, of course. In the years following Sarah Whitehead’s death, employees inside the bank began to report seeing strange things. Oftentimes it was nothing more than a movement, just out of their field of vision, caught in the corner of their eye but never there when they turned their head. Other times, it was the fleeting vision of something black and shadowy. Many who have worked in the bank claim that certain areas give them a feeling of hopelessness and despair, and on rare occasions some claim that a mysterious shape has even materialised right before their eyes. All of them have described it in the same way, too, giving the old stories new life as the decades have passed by. They say the shape is that of a woman. Each time she appears, her pale skin is framed by a dress as black as coal, the veil that had once covered her face pulled back to revealed twisted lips, red cheeks and eyes that seem to glow like fire. But it’s the words she speaks that frighten people the most. After locking eyes with them and washing them in a wave of terror, the women in black repeats the same words she had grown so accustomed to in life. “Where,” she asks them, “is my brother?”

[Closing Statements]

#lore podcast #aaron mahnke #podcast transcripts #london #50 berkeley square #henry viii #uk #hauntings #transcripts #129

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crazynekochan · 6 years ago

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Omegaverse Fantasy/Steampunk-ish AU: Kazuichi, Hajime, Mikan, Chiaki, Nekomaru, Imposter, Sonia, Fuyuhiko, Mahiru, and Teruteru are all working/travelling on a newly built flying passenger ship as part of the ship’s maiden voyage over a mostly uncharted continent to get to a major city on the other side because Sonia, Imposter, and Fuyuhiko are working as diplomats and Mahiru is a reporter recording everything for her readers (despite being the designer of the ship, Kazuichi is just /suffering/ here and spending most of the journey below deck, whimpering in misery whenever the ship hits turbulence).

While the ship is going through a patch of storm, it suddenly gets hit with a massive surge of lightning and crashes into the forest below, miraculously leaving all the crew unharmed (albeit scattered into groups of 1 or 2 around the landing site and all unconscious) and the ship fully functional with the exception of all the fuel (magical crystals that conducted electricity through them to operate the ship) being either spent or rendered non-functional.

They all wake up in a big old temple, all tied to each other in a circle, with Hajime, Kazuichi, and Fuyuhiko in the front, facing the back of the hall. At the front of the room, a group of young people in old-fashioned clothes are arguing with an elder in slightly more modern clothes in a language that no one understands, not even Sonia, but they can all tell that the argument is referring to them and the elder does not look very happy.

The group of young people are Nagito, Gundham, Ibuki, Hiyoko, Peko, Kyoko, and Akane, who were heading into the temple near the forest to do a “find your true love” ceremony when they heard a huge crash just a few minutes away from them. They all ran to check and found the ship crashed into a clearing with everyone on board unconscious and either still in the ship or scattered around. The group brought them to the temple to ask the elder, Jin, what they should do about them, since the last time newcomers came was when a young Jin and his baby daughter Kyoko ended up lost in the jungle on an expedition.

Everyone but Akane and Hiyoko has already fallen in love with one of the castaways (Ibuki fell in love with both Chiaki and Mikan) and they think that this is a sign that they should keep them as gifts from the gods. Jin is much more cautious since these people just crash landed and they could be confused and violent and he’s really grown to get attached to these kids (they’re all functional exiles from the main tribes either because of magical abilities (Gundham and Ibuki), odd appearances that suggest malicious witchcraft (Hiyoko and Peko), issues with their family debts (Akane and her many sibilings), perceived cursed nature (Nagito) or not being from any of the tribes in the area (the Kirigiris)) and doesn’t want them hurt.

Kyoko notices that the group is all awake and let’s the arguers know, which stops the argument for the time being. Jin tells the crash group everything that they need to know (the crash and discovery, why they’re all tied up, where they are (a forest near the coast of the uncharted continent), etc.). When Kazuichi asks about how their ship is, since they need to fix it to continue their journey or at least to get to civilization, Jin decides to have them all taken to the crash site, with the natives keeping an eye on them (everyone with a crush is mostly using it as an excuse to stay near their crushes) so Kazuichi could inspect it himself.

Kazuichi declares the ship pretty much functional but almost completely useless except for shelter and the remaining food and medicine because all of the fuel is just gone, which makes everyone who crashed upset.

Jin offers to let them all stay at their mini-village for the time being, since they can’t get back to their regular lives right away. After some deliberation, they all accept but not before removing all their stuff from the ship because Kazuichi’s not super sure that it won’t explode or start leaking noxious fumes from the destroyed fuel crystals.

The castaways end up spending about 13 months in the village, learning about everyone in the exiled youth village and their larger civilization (It started from a travelling group that split off from the standard civilization about 800 years before. Their culture has so much nuance and brilliant architecture and art, it’s amazing) and teaching the village about their civilization and technology in return, once Jin manages to teach them enough of the native language to not have to communicate solely through hand gestures and facial expressions.

Along the way, people end up falling in love and become mates, the first being Kazuichi and Gundham, once Kazuichi managed to find out that Gundham was trying to awkwardly court him (which he didn’t realize due to obliviousness and cutural differences), who had a lovely mating ceremony where everyone attended, Nekomaru and Fuyuhiko cried (Fuyu cried a little, Nekomaru cried a lot) during it, and Akane and her siblings had to be bribed in the reception feast by Teruteru to not interrupt the ceremony with commentary.

Meanwhile, everyone who knew the castaways is absolutely freaking the hell out (a princess and some of the most brilliant minds of a generation were all on that ship) and searching for them like mad, with Izuru leading the head search party, which included some of the friends and family if the castaways to at least get some closure if nothing else. Their efforts were mostly fruitless until they finally find the crashed ship with Kazuichi and Gundham inside because Kaz still wants to keep the best invention of his life in tip top shape. After some very enthusiastic reunions when Kazuichi and Gundham take the search party back to the village and most of the castaways meet their friends and families for the first time in months, Izuru investigates just how the ship crashed, since Kazuichi couldn’t find anything even after 13 months and those fuel crystals were supposed to outlast the ship itself. Izuru uses some of his magic to trace back whether the malfunction was magical in nature (Kazuichi can’t use magic, so he wouldn’t know if it had something to do with magic and Gundham doesn’t trust technology) and immediately gets hit with a force of malice and most importantly Despair and recognizes it as Junko Enoshima. Junko, a manipulative sorceress, wanted to drive the world into despair by killing off some of the greatest minds of the generation and maybe start a few wars while she’s at it by blaming rival countries for shooting down the crown princess and a few other diplomats from two wealthy kingdoms. But the spell didn’t wreck the ship or kill anyone, just wrecked their fuel and left them stranded.

After making a solemn vow to get rid of Junko when they get back to civilization for trying to kill his brother, Izuru gets a bunch of spare fuel crystals from the search party’s supply and helps Kazuichi reinstall them into the engine, bringing the ship back to fully operational, which is great because the search party has been in this jungle for around a year at this point and they are really getting homesick.

Everyone, including the villagers, who all decide to come along, all pack up their things and arrive to the ship’s original destination much to the surprise of everyone who thought they were dead and they pretty much became famous for discovering an entire civilization, with Mahiru’s pictures and Jin’s story giving an excellent look into the culture and lifestyles of the people living there. And yes, the villagers all experience life in the ‘modern’ day, with some definite and absolutely hilarious culture shocks that are mediated through having a bunch of friends who can navigate through it, even after being missing for over a year. And yes, Izuru did get rid of Junko.

(A/N: I should really be studying but forget it, I needed to write this before I forget about it. Please leave some feedback!)

(Mod: I hope your studying is going well ♥

Omegaverse, steampunk and fantasy in one, I have to be in heaven because these are my three top favourite AUs/tropes of all time ♥

I feel so sorry for Kazuichi. He build that airship and has to probably sometimes check if everything is working as intended but the poor guy would feel so sick on a constant basis and simply be in hell instead of enjoying the marvel of his groundbreaking invention

The terror everyone felt when the ship suddenly got struck by lightning and causing them to fall out of the sky and to crash into the middle of nowhere must have been pure horror for them all. When they then also wake up alive, but realise they are tied up in a temple and surrounded by some people in strange clothing things couldn’t get any worse. They survived a crash landing to presumably be tortured to death in some temple by some ancient tribe. Since no one can speak their language it’s also impossible to reason with them. But most of them couldn’t deny that they at least looked good, but doesn’t make the possibility of death much better. Luckily Jin can actually speak Japanese and so everything is quickly solved

The “modern” group probably had a lot of fun in the middle of a gigantic forest because of all the wildlife and dangerous nature around them ^^” All of them grew up in towns and cities and at the max only saw a small forest which is nothing against this. They probably had to have one of the natives always accompany them before any of them got lost or ends up seriously harming themselves. Also I could imagine that Kaz would for his life never understand how Gundham could look at a deadly animal that happens to cross their path and decide that this is his newest pet. Btw nothing better than Kaz being an oblivious idiot in love

Also I love the backstory that you came up with for the tribe members, giving everyone a different yet believable reason as for why they are in their current mismatched tribe

I can just imagine how Izuru is in the meanwhile taking every part of the continent apart together with the royal family and the other big name families, while their missing relatives are happily courting and mating some native tribe members in the middle of nowhere. Izuru would also stomp everyone who even dares to suggest that his twin is probably dead into the ground without mercy because there is no way that Hajime died. I could also imagine that his stoic face completely broke when he actually found Hajime safe and sound after searching for him for over a year. Like just imagine how sweet it would be that Izuru actually is brought to tears from relieve to finally seeing his twin again and just hugging him

At least until he notices that Hajime’s scent changed and that he has a mating mark on the back of his neck, because then he would glare at Nagito who’s scent matches the one sticking to his twins whole body. Luckily Hajime would quickly calm his twin that everything is consensual and that he and Nagito are willingly mated because they love each other)

#submission #danganronpa #soudam #komahina #prompt #tag to be added #friendlylifecherry

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